4/4/16

Hello Family & Friends,It was a good week here in the Heartland of America. There is a lot ofgood things happening here. We have been teaching Caleb the stuff youteach new members and about like temples and stuff that you don't goall that deep into before baptism. He is absorbing and loving it all,he is definitely a solid convert.We are still teaching Amanda and Felicia. They are progressing reallywell! Felicia came to General Conference which was pretty tight. Theonly thing is they both need to get married before they can getbaptized but it'll happen. We are finding a lot of other people toteach as well! The Sister's we share the ward with here in Emporia aregoing to have a baptism this Saturday. That'll be super cool!I loved General Conference! It was way revelatory! Great talks onbeing cleansed from sin, forgiving others, watching out for Satan'stactics, temples, and this being Christ's true and living Church uponthe earth. I know those men are true prophets and apostles as Christ'sChurch has always been "built upon the foundation of the apostles andprophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone"(Ephesians 2:20).I know Christ Lives and that this is his work. I have seen his hand inthis work. Love you all, and hope you have a great week!-Elder McGee

3/28/16

Hey Loved Ones,This was one of the best weeks of my mission. So many miracles.Where do I begin. So, I got to go on exchanges with my MTC companion,Elder French, this week. That was probably the best exchange ever. Weworked super well together. This is the first time we've served aroundeach other since the MTC.As well, we got a ton of new investigators this week. Most of whichare college girls. They are super solid though. We tried asking themif they would rather be taught by the Sister Missionaries and theysaid no so I didn't argue. HahaTwo of those college girls, Amanda and Felicia, came to churchyesterday which was awesome!They are super prepared and will definitely be baptized in April.Speaking of baptism......CALEB WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY! It was a tonof work, but at the same time it was like all God.It was so great, we have come to just love that dude and we are sohappy and so his he that he made a covenant this weekend to followChrist throughout his life. It was about 3 weeks ago we met him and itis amazing how in that time he has come to know this is the trueChurch of Jesus Christ. I know it is too, and I hope we all recognizewhat a beautiful thing that is. I hope you all have a marvelous week!:)-Elder McGee

Our Homie, Caleb, was baptized on Saturday!

Me and Elder French on Exchanges

3/21/2016

Hola Amigos!Another glorious week in Emporia! I love it here so much! We did a tonof finding new investigators this week. We found a ton of cool people.Most if not all of our teaching pool is college students or collegeage people. Not necessarily on purpose they are typically just themost receptive people.But anyways our investigator Caleb who we met like 2 1/2 weeks agocame to church for his second time yesterday. He stayed for all threehours too. He is also living the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity sowe are going to do everything we can to help him get baptized thisSaturday.Elder Tolley is doing really well in training as well. He'sprogressing super fast!I'm loving doing the Lords work! It brings so much happiness. In John13 it has the account of Christ washing his apostles feet. After doingthis he says, "For I have given you an example, that ye should do as Ihave done to you". Then he goes on to say, "If ye know these things,happy are ye if ye do them". I testify that living AND sharing thegospel brings happiness. Love you all and hope you have a great week!-Elder McGee

3/14/2016

Hey amigos!Elder Tolley and I had a good week! We definitely worked hard. Thisweek there was a lot of meetings though. There was a district meeting,a zone conference, and a zone training all this week and on differentdays. It was crazy. So much driving!We still saw tons of miracles this week though. We are still teachingCaleb and he's progressing well. Unfortunately he'll be out of townfor a little bit of this week because of Spring Break though. Westarted teaching the boyfriend of the daughter of a really cool andactive family in the ward. As well as that, we met a neat lady namedLucitia, whom was a former investigator who we put on date for April2nd to be baptized. And yeah, good things are happening. :)I have thought a ton about faith this week. Faith in the Son of God isremarkable. It motivates us to act. As well as that, when we exercisegreat faith it makes things happen that would not have otherwisehappened if we didn't exercise faith in the Lord. In Jacob 4 it saysif we "search the prophets" (study the scriptures) then "our faithbecometh unshaken, insomuch that we truly can command in the name ofJesus and the very trees obey us, or the mountains, or the waves ofthe sea". Personally, I don't care to move mountains. I desire to movesomething much more important, that is, people closer to God. All ofus our capable of unshakable faith in Jesus Christ through prayer,scripture study, making and keeping covenants, and obeying thecommandments. I love the Lord and his work! I hope everyone has agreat week! :)-Elder McGee

3/7/2016

Hello Family and Friends!Me and my new companion worked super hard this week. His name is ElderTolley and he is from Illinois. He's a good guy and I'm excited to behis trainer. One thing cool I love about new missionaries is how muchfaith they have. At least with my experience they don't expectrejection they expect the opposite.My favorite miracle of the week was meeting a guy named Caleb.One day we were where our investigators lives but they weren'thome so we decided to knock on a random door that we felt prompted toknock on. The first door we knocked on was a student named Caleb atthe University here. We talked to him on his doorstep and then he letus in his home and we powerfully taught message of the restoration.That happened on Saturday, we also invited them out to church the nextday. We got his number so that we could call him in the morning andremind him about church. When we call the next morning there was noanswer. We wanted to be able to say that we did everything we possiblycould to help him get to church so we went by before church andknocked on his door but no answer. So we went to church and rightbefore the opening prayer he walked in the chapel. What a miracle!This is truly the Lord's work, we had little to do with that. I justhope I can be a well tuned instrument in the Lord's hands. Withcomplete faith all things are possible and there is no need to fearman. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? theLord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?". (Psalms27:1)Love you all and hope you have a great week! :)-Elder McGee

Me & My Mission Sons

 

2/29/2016

Hola!So, this was the last week of the transfer and a lot of good thingshappened! The people here are so prepared to receive the restoredgospel. Emporia is a great place. We are still working with andteaching David and he's still working towards baptism. He's doinggood.But we got some kinda bummer news last night. Me and Elder Lemon getalong super well and are making a lot of good things happen here andhe is getting transferred on Wednesday. And get this, I am gettinganother brand new missionary and I'll be training again. I was alittle upset to be honest when I first got a call last night from theAssistants because I've already done it a few times and I thought Iwas done. But I've prayed quite a bit about it trying to align my willwith God's will and I finally came to good terms with the fact thatI'm going to be training again. But this time as a District Leader, aswell in a big district. I'm often baffled at how much trust the Lordhas for 19-20 year boys and girls. Especially for me. This is NO DOUBThis work! HahaWhen Peter and Andrew were called by the Savior to be Apostles, theSavior said, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." The Lordturned some fisherman into remarkable Men of God who helped changemany hearts and converted many to the gospel. The Lord can turn all ofus into people we never dreamed we could become as we accept hisinvitation to Follow Him. It's a molding process though that is toughand hard. But worth it. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love, Elder McGee

2/22/16

Hello! This was an interesting week. My companion got really sick
Monday night and it lasted until about Thursday morning. Then Thursday
night one of our investigators had a baptismal interview with my Zone Leader. Didn't
pass it. I was baffled to say the least, I've never had anyone not
pass a baptismal interview before. The Zone Leader said the investigator didn't have
a strong enough testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet.
Anyways, hopefully we can just continue to build faith and still
help the investigator be baptized. Because the investigator was slightly rubbed the wrong way after that experience.
BUT, there was still a lot of good things that happened this week! :) haha
We found a lot of cool new people, and have been progressing the
people we already have. I also went to a really inspiring and
revelatory meeting this week called District Leader Accountabilities.
It's a meeting with President Bell where we pretty much just receive
instruction to be better leaders and just people in general. It was
way good!
But I was reading in the New Testament earlier this week and came
across a verse I really like. It states, "But be ye doers of the word,
and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves." (James 1:22).
Essentially we need to APPLY the Word of God when we hear it or it
does us no good.
So many times we go to church, or a fireside, or a mission and we
learn how to "fly" and then we "walk" home. Let us all apply the
amazing gospel truths we learn so we can continually progress towards
being more like our Savior. I know that Christ lives. I know that we
and others can be cleansed and healed from the effects of our wrong
choices. And I know that joy and a good attitude towards different
things that happen throughout our lives are a choice of our own.
I hope everyone has a great week! :)
-Elder McGee