July 1, 2017
June 23, 2017: I just have to make a video right now because
we are super, super excited. In our
mission we have a goal of 50 baptisms in a month. I know Jocelyn is probably going to laugh at
our goal of 50 baptisms in a month because in her mission they baptize way more
then that, but we’re in the South and it’s not really hard to baptize here, but
it’s harder. But! So, ever since President Louza got here we’ve
never gotten 50 baptisms. We’ve gotten
like 45, 46, 45. But with President Parella
it would always be like a lot of baptisms, then the next month it would be like
15 or 20. Then the next month it would
be a lot, then the next month a little.
What President Louza started doing is he started making goals and
working with everyone to have a consistency, so we can baptize the same number
every month, instead of a lot, a little, a lot, a little. So, it started out at the beginning of the
year and January was a terrible month.
We had 27 baptisms. February we
had 42. And February is when I got
here. And we changed a lot of the stuff
about how we follow up on the missionaries and how we follow up on the dates
that they mark, and how they follow up on the investigators. And then in Feb is was 42, March was 45,
April was 46, May was 45, which we failed down one since we were trying to keep
going up. In June our goal was 50! We set it up with all of the zone leaders,
that we were going to hit 50 baptisms.
And it was all-good. And we had
17 baptisms marked for this week. Which
is incredible, that is a lot of baptisms for the mission. And what happened was that a lot of them
failed. Like a problem here, and a
problem there. But people marked up more
of them. And they asked their
investigators, “Hey, want to be baptized this Saturday?” “Yes, lets do it.” And so it was just like miracle after miracle
after miracle. Then what happens is
today we ended up with 18 dates for this week.
And we already had 18. And we
needed 14 at the minimum to hit 50. Then
the zone leaders call and said “Two dates fell here. We’re not going to be able
to baptize them here.” UG! So we started calling everybody. My phone was erasing all the other calls
because I was calling so much today.
Like it doesn’t even register all of the calls that I did today because
we were calling and they were calling us.
And then, what happened was more dates fell, and we were going to end
with 48 which is not our goal. So, what
we did is we started calling everybody and we were like, “Hey, you guys need to
go out there and mark more dates. You
guys need to go out and mark more dates.
Just go, have faith, say a prayer, start a fast, and just go for
it.” And we were like, “What are we
going to do today, because it was our p-day”, and it’s over at 6:00 and we
start working. And we were like “Lets go
to Diran’s” It’s an old guy that we’ve been teaching for awhile, but we really
didn’t have anything to do, and he is here close to our house. And we went there and he started talking
about how he feels super good and how he was having some problems with his
family and he remembered what we had said about prayer, and about how God helps us, and he said a
prayer and sat down with his family and everything resolved. And he felt super good. And he went to church last week, and we
didn’t even know because he went to the same chapel but he didn’t participate
in our ward. He participated in the
other ward, because he didn’t really know.
So, he’s already been to church two times. So we said, “Hey, do you feel good?” and he was like, “Yeah”. And we said, “Do you want to be baptized
tomorrow?” It was actually my companion
that said it, that had the inspiration, I was thinking about it, but he’s a lot
faster then I am at this. And so he
challenged him and said, “We are going to have a baptism tomorrow at 6:00 and
we want to invite you to be baptized tomorrow at 6:00. And he said, “yep. I’ll do that.” And we were like YEAHHHHH!!!! So, he is going to be baptized tomorrow at
6:00. And the mission was 1 day short of
hitting our goal. And all the zone
leaders, and all the district leaders, and all the missionaries are like little
bees, everyone is calling everybody.
Then came 2 more dates in Santo Angelo, where I was serving. And they said that wen we called and were talking
about the dates the two of them were like, “Hey man, who do we have that could
be baptized.” And the two of them, they
were in the middle of the street, and they knelt down and said a prayer, and
said, “Dad, show us who can be baptized tomorrow.” And the same name came to both their
heads. And they tried calling her,
because she already had a date marked for the 8th of July, a mom and
her daughter. And they tried calling
them, and tried calling them, and nothing.
And they thought, well that’s not going to work, so they went walking,
without really thinking about what they were doing, and then it was like, “HEY!
This is her house. What!” And they tried knocking on the door, but it
was an apartment building, so they tried pushing the door knob, and nobody was
answering and so they sat there for a little bit, and then a woman came and it
was their investigator. And they walked
in and started teaching her and then she said, “Elders I’ve been thinking I
don’t think I should be baptized in July.
(Because she had a date for July 8).
I think I should be baptized in August.”
And they were like no. And they
said, “You know what Irma, you shouldn’t be baptized in July. You should be baptized tomorrow.” And the woman sat there thinking, then said,
“I’m going to be baptized tomorrow! Me
and my daughter are going to be baptized tomorrow.” So, two more dates! And we are super, super happy because now we
are going to hit 51! It’s super
cool! Super, Super cool! I learned a lot about faith, covenants with
the Lord, if we do our part, he fulfills his part. Cause we had established this goal in a
mission council, with everybody. We had
prayed about it. We set this goal. We are going to do all that we can and we
want to at least 50 baptisms and now we are going to have 51. AWWWW!!
I’m super happy right now! Super
happy!
June
24, 2017. New Video, next day: So
I’m going to tell you guys about my day today.
We were supposed to have a baptism today, Diran’s baptism. And what happened was the bishop doesn’t want
to baptize him because it wasn’t announced before hand. And the bishop just went all grumpy on
everyone. And our ward mission leader
doesn’t want to do the baptism now because he wants to respect the bishops
authority, which I guess is right. But
president tried talking to the bishop, and the bishop was…I’m not going to say
anything. Long story short, our baptism
was moved to Saturday, July 1. Which in
the end came out better, but we got pretty bummed. I just stayed calm, because I’m a calm
guy. But my companion got pretty
upset. But it’s because like all the
baptisms that we have the bishop comes with some stupid story about why the
person shouldn’t be baptized. And it’s
our condemnation. He actually told us at
a few of our baptisms that we are going to have to answer for the baptisms at
the last day, on the judgment day. And
we’ll be responsible for it. And I was
like, all right, I’ll be responsible for a baptism. That’s a pretty good thing
to be responsible for. Yeah, that was our
day. But, we are happy. I’m happy.
I’m excited. And I’m going to
sleep well tonight.
July 1, 2017: I
AM DEAD!!! But I’m super happy. My week was great. I love the divisions because
I meet and teach a TON of people. It’s a chance to work with someone new and I
always learn a lot. I’m super tired right now. So, I went to Cruz Alta,
then Ijui, then Sao Luiz Gonzaga, and Santiago.
Two times I slept on the floor. One
of the times was on tile with just a blanket for a mattress. I spent an
hour and a half digging a hole to put their water tank. I’ll send a picture of that. But it was pretty cool. I got this big old blister on my hand that
ripped off. A lot of time in the
bus. A lot of stuff didn’t really happen
this week. It was so good to actually do some real work for once instead of
walking and talking. But that day we walked 15 kilometers.
I counted the blocks
afterwards on the map.
In a week
I do 2 years in a mission Today I bought
a new suit for my return home. I left for my mission with one suit, and then on
the mission I gained another 2 as gifts from people. Now I’m going to donate
the 3 I have to the mission, and I bought one for me. I am taking it to
the tailor today because it’s pretty big on me.
This week
was actually really good. I like
divisions because I travel a lot and I get to see a lot of different places and
a lot of old areas like Cruz Alta and Sao Luiz Gonzaga. And see a bunch of old friends. But things are going super well. I’m super happy. It’s the 1st of July. My last month in the mission. I’m not trunky, but I’m happy.
I hope you guys are happy and healthy. I
love you guys!!
Elder McKee
Jake, Elder Pereira Santos, Elder Antonio, Elder Prata, Elder Bezerra, Elder Munns, Sister and President Louza.
Jake, Elder Pereira Santos, Elder Antonio, Elder Prata, Elder Bezerra, Elder Munns, Sister and President Louza.
Elder Pereira Santos
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