Last Council and Testimony Meeting

All the missionaries going home had a last meal with President and Sister Louza and then a final testimony meeting.  

Jake and Elder Periera Santos

 Giving his Testimony.

 Final testimony and scriptures

 Going home group

Sis. Louza,  Sister, Sister Sinclair, Sister, Sister,   Sister Christensen, President Louza, Jake,
Elder Pompeu

 Sad to say good-bye.  Jake loves The Louza's.

LAST P-DAY!

Tuesday, July 11, 2017:  So, today is Tuesday.  Yesterday on Monday, Elder Jesus Santos got here and he is my replacement.  He’s going to be the new assistant.  He is the one that I trained in Cruz Alta.  So, yesterday during the afternoon me and another Elder that is on the staff, we went to where Pricilla studies.  She is studying to be a dentist.  We went to help out with a project. She had to make a video to show that she knows how to clean teeth, and teaching me how to brush my teeth.  We went and after she did the whole teeth-brushing thing it was all-good and then they started giving us the stuff that makes your mouth all numb.  They gave it to me in three places.  And it really, really hurt.  I don’t think she knew how to do it.  She would like come with the needle and go, put it in, then take it back out, then go and take it back out.  And it was hurting like crazy.  And then my whole mouth was all-numb.  And then they grabbed the thing that stretches your mouth out, like the thing they use when they are putting braces on, and it makes your mouth really big.  And then they gave us bubbles and said, “Alright, now you guys have a contest and see who can blow the most bubbles.”  So, I don’t know if she sent you that video, but it was super funny.  Everyone was laughing super, super hard. 

 

 

 

 

 

            Well, I’m pretty much useless now in the office.  This week is going to pass by super fast.  So, my companion is here, and then we have Elder Jesus Santos.  And I’m cleaning out all my stuff, and putting it in the suitcases, because I’m going home.  It’s a weird feeling.  Love you guys!

Friday, July 14, 2017: Alright, I'm not really too sure where I'm going to go with this, but I just wanted to take advantage of the fact that I'm in the office all day today making another video for the mission and type a few things.

I'm currently 2 years and 6 days into my mission, and I have 4 days remaining.           Yesterday I had my last interview with President, and my temple recommend interview with him as well. It’s a terrible feeling to know that it’s all over. There’s a hole in my stomach. I'm ready to go home and see my family and friends again, and eat some taco bell and wear shorts, but I’m nervous to be home. Everything will be new. Everything will be different. Ill feel weird staying up past 11:00, or listening to music or watching TV. Joci will go to hold my hand or hug me and I’ll probably pull away at first. President gave me a ton of advice and tips, all of which I wrote down. We had a long discussion. He’s a great guy and i look up to him a lot.

            My mission taught me a lot of things. I learned to love people, and always give them a chance. I learned to appreciate the scriptures and the gospel. I learned the importance of church and temple attendance. I learned how to cook (only a little though) and clean a house and iron everything (I melted a sock in the first months of my mission trying to iron it…). I learned how to get along with everyone, how to be patient, how to be obedient, kind, loving, open and giving. I learned that I really am a son of a living God, who loves me and is aware of me and my progress. I learned that I have a Savior, who died for me, who loves me, and who wants me to come home. I learned that Satan is real, and that he wants us to fail. He works hard towards his aims, and if we let him, he will destroy our lives. I learned how to recognize the spirit in my life, and how to separate the bad. I learned how to prioritize. I learned Portuguese. I understand Spanish. I learned how to lead big groups of people. I learned how to set and attain goals. I learned how to talk with people. I learned how a family should be organized, created and loved. I learned to appreciate what I have. I learned how to take cold showers and handle angry dogs and angry people and how to act when assaulted. I saw many, many miracles, in my own life and the lives of others.

I came to love my Savior with all my heart, and I developed a huge desire to please him.

            I came to love my family more, and I saw just how blessed I am with everything the Lord has given my in my little happy valley Salem Utah.

            I'm happier, calmer, more trusting, patient, trusting, faithful, kind, obedient, and hopeful. I have a lot of faith in my future and I'm excited for what it holds. I feel like I’m a new person, and not the same person that left 2 years ago.

I know that God has accepted my mission. I know that He is happy with my work and that my time has come to return home. He is happy with my growth and progression these 2 short years, and now it’s time for the next stage, where I will grow and progress in other ways that aren’t possible in the mission field. His hand has been guiding me during all this time, and everything worked out exactly as it should have. Looking back, I can see exactly why I needed to be a visa waiter in Provo, and then come at the time I did to Provo. I can understand every problematic companion I had, and the hard areas I passed through. I tried my best to never complain, because I knew that God was in it.

            I'm excited and nervous all at the same time. I’m happy and sad all at the same time. At one moment I'm in the house yelling and dancing, and other times just sitting thinking. But I'm ready. It’s been a long time away from home.

Saturday, July 15, 2017:  So, this is my last p-day.  I’m here with Elder Periera Santos and Elder Jesus Santos, and we’re going to go cut my hair because it’s super big.  And we are going to go buy some stuff, and we are going to go to McDonalds because I haven’t been to McDonalds in Brazil.  That’s about it.  Elder Jesus Santos wants to say something: “ I love this mission.  I love my beloved companion Elder McKee.  He is my best.  I hope he give your iPod to me.   I love it and it’s incredible.”  Elder Periera Santos: “I love you.  I love Elder McKee.  My English is very good.  Today is a beautiful day.  Today we go to get biggie mac and toys.  Bye.”  My companions speak very good English.  Today’s going to be a good day.

Jake’s email to mom:

            This week was 100% in the office. I died a little, but it was fine. A lot of nothing to do, just answering some questions from the new AP’s. I also made another video for President to use in his trainings this transfer. It’s a bunch of members from all over the mission talking about how they found the church. It came out all right. I did it all yesterday. 

            I’m excited to have some one on one time with Andy as well! And where dad isn’t home, I’ll be able to use his truck right? isso ai! 

            I’m excited to come home. It passed by really, really fast. I remember when I got set apart, and as we were leaving Cody Pritchett was walking in, and he said, "Take advantage of your time in the mission, because it passes fast." and he was right. AHHHHHHH!!!!! 

            My goodbye dinner is on Monday, but I already know everything that happens because I’ve done the last 4. But it’s all-good. 

            I love you mom! See you on Wednesday!

Love, Elder McKee

Mom sent down mustaches in a package and the Elders sent some great pictures! :)

Elder Olegaoeo, Elder Jesus Santos, Elder Nascemento, Elder Cardozo, Elder Pereira Santos, Elder Martins and Jake

 
Elder Nascimento

 

 

 

 

 

2 YEARS IN THE MISSION!

July 8, 2017

July 1, 2017:  So, today was the baptism of Diran.  And it was super cool because it was in two wards, because this morning he moved to the other ward boundaries.  But he is going to come to the same chapel, so it was pretty cool.  And it was a really, really good reunion. 

 

 

            Also, I bought a new suit.  I tried to take a suit, it was grey-silverish suit, that I got from Elder Santos, that he left.  He got it from another guy.  But it was too big for me and there was no way to get it taken in because it was so big.  So, I went and bought a new suit to come home in.  I’m going to donate my other 3 suits to the mission.  I already gave one to Elder Periera Santos, and give the other two to the office.  And the lady tried to give me a $300 reais shirt to buy as well, but I think she was thinking I was just full of the money.  She came to me and said, “Do you need a white shirt as well?”  And I said, “Yeah, I’ll get a white shirt.”  And she brought me a normal white shirt, and I was like Whoa!  I’m not going to pay $100 for a white shirt.  So, I let the shirt pass.  

            So, we went to Giovanni’s house.  He is the guy who was baptized a week before my birthday.  So, he just like disappeared off the map.  And we were trying to call him.  And his mom was there.  She’s an old lady.  His dad is 93 years old. But we went there and we knocked, and today they came out.  They said, “we need to talk to you guys, come in.”  And we thought, oh no, what happened.  And they started talking.  And I guess Giovanni, a long time ago, he was really involved with drugs.  And what happened was that about 9 years ago when he was involved with drugs he tried to assault somebody.  He didn’t kill anybody or anything, but I think it was pretty bad.  The person was pressing charges and everything, and now, 9 years later, 6 years free of drugs, 6 years without having any incidences at all, now finally, the justice system has caught up with him.  They got the proof and the evidences, and whatever they need, I don’t really know.  And he was arrested. 

            My comp is practicing English with me:  Comp Talking:  “Today my mother said that I am very beautiful.  Elder McKee has English very crap.  My English is very good.  I am American.  He’s Brazilian.  He not speak English.  I am a negro.  He is blanco.”  That is about all the English that my companion knows. 

            So, yeah, he was arrested.  And he is going to get out, probably like October.  His parents hired a private Lawyer to try to get him out sooner because he’s changed a lot.  We’re going to see what happens.  While we were there, his mom was crying.  We said a prayer with them and everything.  And his mom is an old lady as well, but she is super cool.   So, I asked for a piece of paper and a pen and I wrote him a note because she goes there every week to visit him.  So, I wrote a note to give to him because I’m not going to be here when he gets out.  I’m never going to see him again.  That’s pretty sad, actually.  OH, that’s really sad. 

            That was our day today.

July 8, 2017:  Today, I am doing 2 years in the mission. TWO YEARS!!!!!! I’m freaking out. 

My mission is over. I’ve got 10 days left, and ill spend them all almost in the office. The new AP has already been called, and he´ll get here on Monday. But I still can’t say because nobody else knows. This next week we are in the office doing the transfer. 

My 4th of July I was in a division. In the house was another American, who while I was grabbing all the mission numbers he was frying Texas burgers, in Captain America shorts and a bald eagle American flag shirt, singing the National Anthem. It was a very beautiful sight. So, I didn’t eat anything from my box because I wasn’t at home all week.  I also don’t have any pictures or videos because I didn’t take my camera and it wasn’t charged.  I’ll try to take some this week.

But, I’m happy!! You can also respond and talk to me now, because it won’t make much of a difference. 

Thank you for everything.  Love you all,

Elder McKee

Andressa Silva and Toti Quinhones Moura met Jake in his very first area, when he was in Santa Maria.  They got married on July 8, and wanted him to come to the signing of the papers.. She is so good about sending mom pictures.

 

 

 

 
Elder Prata

I'm not trunky!

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 8^th 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 1^st 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.

 

 Elder Pereira Santos