One Final Baptism

Hi everyone,

Well this was a good productive week!

First off, I had my last leadership council on Friday. That was tough because all of my friends were there and they were all saying, "Man, it's your last one!" It was just a constant reminder that it's ending. Despite that, it was a great meeting and we talked a lot about how we could make the mission better and how we can be more obedient to the new rules. The missionaries that are going home then had the opportunity to share their testimony. I wish I could say I made it through without crying, but I let a tear out. Elder Olson and Elder Passos also bore their testimonies. It was really difficult to talk about the mission, because I don't want it to end yet.

We made our way back to our area for the Gincana. A Gincana is like a competition where you had to do certain things throughout a month and then we had a huge activity where you brought people like: a teacher who isn't a member of the church, or bring a friend, or a non-member, and they had to be dressed up in clothing of a different country to bring people to get to know the church! We had games, like torta na cara, scripture chase, mini soccer, egg race, a sack race, and it was a ton of fun! Everybody made it fun and it was a great activity that allowed a lot of people to get to know the members and the church.

On Saturday we worked all day long and were running from one appointment to the next. We were pretty far away from one of our appointments and we were walking on the road and I thought I saw a member's car parked out in front of an apartment building. I slowed down and saw through the window the member! He saw us of course (white guys in white shirts and ties stand out) and told us to come in. We went in and got some water and made a contact with the guys he was talking to! He then took us to our next appointment which saved us so much time. It was great because that member is the dad of a Rapaz who is leaving on his mission here this week! The dad asked us to give a lesson at his son's farewell party that was happening that night. We prepared a cool lesson, and we were so grateful. When we walked in, there were so many people in there (some of whom were not members) and we were able to make contacts all night long. We were then able to share our message and, which will hopefully resonate with the non-members that were there.

On Sunday we were supposed to have Marco Aurelio and his older brother, Vitor, come to church. We went by their house before Sacrament and they told us they would be there. As church was starting, we looked around and couldn't find them anywhere. I figured that the bus was slow and it takes a long time to get to the building, so we waited so more. Time passed by, and still Marco and Vitor had not come. I started to lose faith as I called them several times. Half way into our class, I felt like I needed to go outside and see if they had come. I was so worried, because if Marco did not come to church this Sunday, he would not be able to be baptized next week before I left. I walked out of the classroom and decided to offer a little prayer and ask my Heavenly Father for a little help and see what else I could do.  I finished my prayer and turned to walk back into the church when across the building I could see Marco and Vitor walking in the other side. I was so excited to see them, and it was an answer to my prayer. Turns out, the bus had taken forever to come, so they were just running a little late. Marco is planning on getting baptized next week, right before I leave, and I could not be more excited.

It was testimony meeting and Matheus, my first baptism here in Taubaté, got up and shared one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. I can't even explain the joy and happiness it brings to your heart to watch someone come into the Church and testify of its truthfulness. It was such a blessing to here and the spirit was incredible.

Well, my time is up here at the LAN house, but I will write to you guys next week. That will be my last email to you guys as a full time missionary. I am going to work so hard this last week and do all that I can to help the kingdom grow!

I love you all so much and hope you guys are doing great!

Love,

Elder McKeon

The Holy Ghost Guides Us

Hey everybody,

We had such a great week here! 

I am emailing a day late because we had a special zone meeting this wee. We went to a place called Campos do Jordão, which is about an hour away from Taubaté. It's a tiny town that looks like a mini Europe. Interestingly enough, we had our meeting on the top of a member's barn...it reminded me of Loa! It was very cold there, but it was nice to get a break from the heat. We then got to tour the town a little bit with our district. It was a great P-day, and we had a good time learning from Irma Therezina. She has a super sweet spirit and has become a wonderful member of the church. 

We also had a meeting with President this week Guaretinguetá. We had a personal meeting as well. This man has helped me grow so much as a missionary and I owe him so much for the lessons he has taught me. Because of him, I have stayed motivated to share this Gospel. 

We also go to visit José Valters' house and share a message with them. He and his wife are an older couple in the ward and they are awesome. They continue to progress. We also started a new program in our ward where we have members give out Books of Mormon to their friends and loved ones. After they give one out, they share their testimony about the experience the following Sunday. Jose gave a Book of Mormon to a friend and then shared his testimony and said that he knows the Book of Mormon is true. It is so awesome to see someone grow spiritually like that and see how I have been an instrument in the Lord's hands to help him in this area of his life.

Well this week flew by and I know this one will fly by too. I am working so hard and trying to talk to everyone I can while I am still here. I am not giving up!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder McKeon

July 21, 2014

Well another week in the books!

This was a good week! The Zone baptized 5 people and we should have another 7 or 8 baptisms next week. The Zone is doing great!

This week we were on our way to a lunch appointment when we got a little lost. We got off the bus on the wrong stop so we had to make our way around Taubaté until we found the right street. I felt like we should walk around this one area when this woman (Edna) stopped and started to stare at us funny. I felt like we should talk to her, but before we could say anything she came to use and asked us where the LDS church was. We were so surprised because we know the members in the area and we had not met her. She then explained that she had been in Taubaté for a while, but her and her family was inactive. She is divorced with six kids, all of whom are baptized except for the youngest.

We scheduled a time to come and share a message with her family. There is a member in the ward who lives just down the street from her who also joined. We decided to talk about the Holy Ghost and how we need to listen to those promptings and we related back to when we were lost after getting off the bus, but we were led to her. We invited Edna and her children back to church and they decided to come. The spirit was so incredibly strong as Edna decided that her family needed to come back to Church. Her and her youngest son, Marco Areilio, came to church and afterwards he said he wanted to continue to come. We will be teaching him later this week and I hope to see him baptized before I leave!

We visted José Valters again this week and shared a message with his family. He has prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. It is amazing to watch his wife take care of him and see how much they love each other. I can tell they are quite lonely because when they opened the door for us, Zezinha (the wife) just started crying and begged us to stay. We are going to continue to visit them. I love how serving others makes me feel.

Well, it seems that every time I write the time just passes by faster and faster. It's a good thing, and also the worst thing in the world because I just love this work and life so much. I love you guys more than anything, but I am going to have the hardest time leaving all of this behind.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Love you!

Elder McKeon 

Elder McKeon Turns 21!

Here are the last three emails from Elder McKeon. He will be finishing his mission and returning home in one month (August 14th). His homecoming talk will be held on August 17th. I will update with more details as we get a little bit closer to him returning home.

Hey everybody,

We had two baptisms in our ward this week, which was very exciting. The ward secretary was going through all of the records of our ward and saw that two people that were "members" hadn't been baptized. This means that there was no record of the baptism and there were no witnesses to protest otherwise. It was as if they were never baptized. We were able to do the ordinance again, which was different for me. Normally we have to work very hard for baptisms, and these two fell in our laps. The baptism went great, the water was FREEZING though. The thing that heats up the water was broken, and it's winter here, so the water was extra cold. Both Barbera and Bryan are great members and they had such a good experience. We were more than happy to help them with this ordinance.

We had a meeting this week. When we were on our way to it, President Ferrin gave me a call and says, "Well Elder, are you on your way here?" I told him we were on our way and he asks,"Well, elder can you give a talk tomorrow? You will be the speaker." I told him I would and I asked him what he wanted me to speak about. He asked me to speak about the importance of prayer. It was sort of an ironic topic, because I started to pray immediately to know what to talk about. I ended up sharing my experience about how prayer brought me closer to our Father in Heaven when I messed up my knee and thought I was going to have to be sent home for surgery. I spoke about how I pleaded with Heavenly Father to let me stay here in Brasil so I could complete my mission. Fortunately, He allowed me to heal enough to stay here and I learned just how important communicating with Heavenly Father is. 

The weeks are going by so fast and all I want them to do is slow down.

Love,

Elder McKeon

July 7, 2014

Hi everybody!

Well it's weird to think I just had my last birthday on the mission. I had several of missionaries ask me what I was going to do for my birthday and I just told them I would be doing missionary work. Then they would ask me what I was going to do besides missionary work and I replied with, "More work!"

We worked hard on my birthday and we had a good day. We then went to Irmão José Valter's place and I gave a message on how we need to be an example of the Church at all times using 1 Timothy 4:12, and then she had made me a cake. It was very nice of her, and I didn't ask for it, but I guess when you are doing what you are supposed to, the blessings follow! 

We also have a baptism set for this Sunday! The zone is doing well and we are working hard. This next Sunday we should have 6 baptisms in the Zone. Things are going great and I love being a missionary so much. I am going to make every minute count.

Love, 

Elder McKeon

July 1, 2014

Hello friends and family!

I was not able to write yesterday because I was in São Paulo all day due to transfers. This is the last transfer of my mission. It hit me pretty hard. It is sad to think that my mission is coming to an end and I only have a little bit of time left to help all of the people I can.

Our mission president let us watch the Brasil game and boy was it intense. I don't know about Colombia...if we play like we did I think we will lose. I keep getting asked about the U.S. team and I feel bad saying I don't know anything about their team. Our President let's us watch the Brasil game, so that's the only thing I have really been able to follow when it comes to the World Cup. I guess it is ok though because I have adopted the Brazilian people as my own, so I want their team to do well. 

This week we did a little service project. I guess it wasn't so little though...we ended up building an entire roof. For the past 5 months, Charles (we are teaching his family) and his girlfriend/wife Juliane have come to church without fail. Unfortunately, they are very poor and cannot afford to get married (it is very expensive and difficult to do down here). They are saving up to get married, so hopefully after that, they will be able to get baptized. 

Anyways, Charles fell 30 feet while working and broke his back, neck, and right arm. He didn't die, which was a miracle, but he has to be in bed for 6 months without moving. We started teaching Charles and his family after the accident, and ever since the first lesson, Charles has welcomed us into his home.

On Thursday, he called and asked if we would be able to do some service. We of course told him we would be glad to help and he told us he needed some help with his roof (his hand is still messed up and he is still recovering from the accident). I thought we would be patching up some holes, but Charles needed us to do a little more than that. He had us rip of the roof completely and throw it away. It turns out the roof was totally messed up. All the ceiling in their house was made of was Styrofoam and bedsheets. We ended up ripping that all out too. We put in 16 new wooden beams and 26 roof plates. It took my companion and I the entire day and part of Friday. It worked out well though because we got to spend a lot of time speaking with Charles about the Gospel and he is so excited to get married and join the Church.

On Saturday night we had a Festa Junina! Its like a ho-down here, all redneck and country like. We had a TON of non-members there and they were all super interested in the Church and what we did as missionaries. We talked the whole night and it was such a great opportunity to talk to the members and their friends that they brought and trust us to teach. 

Elder Hardy has promised to work hard with me until the end!

Love,

Elder McKeon 

Speaking In Stake Conference

Elder McKeon has received his flight plans. He will be returning home on August 14 at 11:30 a.m. in Sacramento, California. We are very excited to have him coming home, however he is enjoying the work and is not as excited to come home as we are to have him back. Here are his last couple emails:

June 16, 2014:

Hey! 

The World Cup started this week, so things down here in Brasil are getting pretty crazy. President Ferrin had all of the missionaries go to a member's home during the Brasil game because we could get hurt if we stayed out in the street and tried teach. We even have to have member's take us home afterwards, because after the Brasil game, they were lighting fireworks all over the road and cars were driving around at a million miles an hour. It has been quite the experience! Brasil won 3-1, so everyone down here is pretty happy.

After Brasil made a goal, it seemed as if the world may blow up. You could hear people screaming and that's when the fireworks began. 

We had a great conference this week with the Area President, Elder Costa. Because of the World Cup, it has made travel quite difficult. We have had to take several bus rides and walk quite a ways to get to it, but once we were there, it was awesome. I have had a couple of other meetings with Elder Costa, and every single time I learn so much. He teaches how to be effective leaders and better missionaries. He is all about helping us improve.

In other news, José Valter received the Priesthood on Sunday! It was a great day! Following the ordination, we went and taught a senior couple and they really enjoyed our lesson. They already have a second lesson scheduled, so we will be going back on Thursday. I was skeptical at first, because I felt like they didn't want to hear what we had to say. I mean, who really wants to what two kids have to say? I misjudged them though, and they were extremely humble and grateful to have us.

Following that lesson, we were able to go and visit a man in our ward who is very sick. He has prostate cancer, which has spread to his bones. He and his wife are also elderly, and are quite lonely. Every single time we visit them, they cry when we leave because they love having us in their home. They have such a sweet spirit in their home. Visiting humble people like this are just one of the things I love about being a missionary.

We also had the opportunity to have a devotional at Jose's house. But this week it was incredibly touching because they did the lesson, song, and prayer all by themselves. They are such a strong family and I have loved watching them grow. They are looking to get sealed in the temple a year from now.

Love,

Elder McKeon

June 9, 2014:

Hey guys!

Well it was a very busy week. We had the opportunity to teach so many different people. I also was assigned to give a talk in our Stake Conference as well. The Priesthood session was really good, our stake president gave a powerful message. Then during the regular session of stake conference, the building filled up completely. There were seriously so many people there. I was very nervous, because I was the only non-Brazilian speaking. My talk was on the importance of every member being a missionary regardless of your calling. I also talked about the importance of working together as missionaries and members. I hope it went well.

On Sunday, we had another session of conference which was broadcast to all of the buildings. Elder Scott and Elder Ballard spoke. Elder Scott spoke about the importance of prayer and how it is essential to us in our everyday battles. Elder Ballard spoke about the use of technology and how we can use it to spread the Gospel, while also avoiding temptation online. It was amazing to hear Apostles of the Lord speak directly to us here in Brasil.

Following conference, we were walking to an appointment when I had a feeling we needed to visit an elder couple. We stopped by and the husband has serious health problems. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer and it is now spreading. We left a message with them as we were leaving, and the wife started to cry. I sure love being a missionary. 

I am praying for you always.

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Jose's Baptism

Hey everyone!

Well, we had José's baptism this week! It was so great! It was cold outside and the water in the baptismal font was freezing, but it was still one of the greatest baptisms I have ever had on my mission. There were a ton of people from other wards who came to watch the baptism, so there was a huge turn out and it was amazing! I had the honor of baptizing him. I love this man so much. He is such a good guy and will be such a strong member of the Church. I would send pictures, but I forgot my camera at home...sorry!

Also, I have some other exciting news...I'm staying in my area! This morning, President Ferrin called and asked Elder Passos to be the next Assistant to the President. I'm really excited for him and I know he is going to do a great job! It was also really, really good news for me because it means that I get to stay here for at least one more transfer! I love the people here so much and I'm so excited to continue to serve them. 

We had to get Elder Passos to the city this morning, so we had to get up really early to make it down there. That meant we spent our entire P-day traveling to and from our area which is why my email is a little bit short.

I'm sorry, but my itinerary didn't come this week either. I spoke with the secretary and she told me that they had not even purchased my plane ticket yet. Hopefully we will have those arrangements made by the beginning of June. 

Well I love you guys and hope you are all doing well. I pray for you always. I love you!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Temple Trip

We were able to speak to Derek for the last time via Skype last weekend (which is why there was no email). He is doing great and has grown so much over the last 21 months. 

Hey guys! 

How are you all doing? I am doing great here.

We got to go to the Templo de Campinas on Tuesday of last week, which was so awesome. We had to leave here at like 3:30 in the morning because our session was at 10 and it takes 3 hours to get there without traffic. It was my first time going back to the Temple since the beginning of my mission! I had forgotten how beautiful it was. It's on a mountain side that looks over the entire city and EVERYONE there knows that it is our temple and it is such a beautiful place to be and to experience. 

(Elder McKeon with Elder Pasos in front of the temple)

After our session we ate in the cafeteria where I was able to talk to an American temple worker. He was an older guy and I looked at his name tag and it said John H. Hawkins. He asked me where I was from and I said California. He then asked me what specific part of the state I am from, and I told him I was born in LA but live near Sacramento. We kept talking and turns out that he knows Grandpa Buck really well. It is crazy to think that this man and Grandpa Buck were really good friends, but here we are meeting in Campinas, Brasil of all places. That is the beauty of the Church though...it makes for such a small world!

The day after our temple trip, I was able to go on splits with Elder Hanni in Cruzeiro because they needed some help in that area. In those 2 days we taught 11 lessons! We were also able to find new people to teach, and we learned quite a bit from the people we were able to serve. On our second morning, I felt like we needed to do our studying outside on this hill by the house. We went out to study, and we came across a man rebuilding this bridge. We helped him work on it, and we were able to make a new contact with him. Turns out that studying on that hill was inspired.

We have a mission conference with Elder Russell M. Nelson (a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles) this Wednesday. I am so excited! It will be in São Paulo, so it will be great to get back to the city.

Well I hope you all have a great week and remember that I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Obedience

Hey guys!

This was a pretty good week! 

We had a baptism in our area! Her name is Sheila and she was a contact that Elder Passos made when he first got here. We didn't have time to visit her during our first transfer, so we never got around to talk to her again. Then when this transfer came around we started to teach her and she really started to progress. She took a little while to be baptized because she had to work a lot on Sundays, but she talked to her boss and was able to get Sundays off so she could go to Church. We taught her a few lessons and her family is supportive. We had the baptism before church yesterday and it was great. José was there with his family and so was Charles. It was so great that they could be there and feel the Spirit to maybe help them with their own Spiritual progression.

(Sheila's Baptism)

This week I did a division in Pindamonhangaba. Yes, that is a real place and that is the name. I was there because the District Leader told me that some of the Elders in his house were not being very obedient and not waking up on time and not studying. So the next day I observed how they acted the first day, and it was not good. I got to their area at 9:30 in the morning and they were just rolling out of bed. They didn't study, and they left the house super late. So that night I got kind of mad at them, because we need to be obedient in order to do this work and receive the blessings from our Heavenly Father. That night I promised them that if they woke up on time, studied, personally and with your companion, that they would feel the Spirit more and miracles would happen. We then all go to bed, wake up the next morning and I still had to help a little bit (and I mean walking into their room clapping pots and pans together to make them get out of bed...) They studied personally and as a companionship. After that, I went back to Taubaté and work in my area. When I call the District Leaders that night to see how their day went, I get a great story from Pindamonhangaba. Those elders that woke up on time and studied received a reference. The missionaries ran into someone that had a list of 15 ready to be taught! They are scheduling individual lessons with all of those people right now. It was just a great testimony builder that obedience brings blessings.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Elder McKeon

Easter

We have two new emails posted from Elder McKeon. We can't wait to talk to him on Mother's Day!

April 21, 2014

Hey everybody!

This week was filled with up's and down's. 

For the past few weeks I have had a problem with my feet. Every time that I took my socks off at night, a layer of skin would come off with my socks. I thought it was just athletes foot, so I would wash my feet 3 times a day and use a cream. They kept getting worse, so Sister Ferrin told me I had to go to the doctor. She was actually a little upset that I had not taken care of it earlier. We went to a skin doctor and he told me that I got some sort of virus in my shoe (my brand new shoes). The doctor told me I had to boil all of my socks and throw away my shoes. I now have to wear these ugly leather sandals. People stare at me as I walk around, dressed in a white shirt and tie, with ugly leather sandals. Hopefully my feet will get better soon.

I also had the chance to talk in sacrament meeting yesterday. I knew that it was Easter weekend, but they wanted me to talk about missionary work. I told the story of the good Samaritan and how we all need to be like him and find the people that are wounded spiritually (aka less active members and people who haven't heard of the Gospel). I thought it was an ok talk, but then a lot of the members and the stake president came up to me afterward thanking me for my talk. I hope it was fitting for the day, but it seemed to have an impact. Hopefully the ward members will continue to help us in our missionary efforts.

I still don't understand what is happening in our zone. This week, no one in our zone was baptized. We had 3 people commit to baptism, but they all fell through because of Word of Wisdom problems or work. My companion and I are working really hard to figure out what is going on. Please pray for all of the missionaries in our zone to have success this week. We are going to have a fast tomorrow, and I am asking if you would please join us to help our zone improve. We are really needing your help.

I know you are praying for me, as I am for all of you. But please just add the rest of our missionaries in your prayers.

Love,

Elder McKeon

(Priesthood BBQ)

April 28, 2014

Hey everybody!!!

This week was better. We are still not where we should be, but its getting better! In my zone we baptized 3 people. It should have been 6, but they didn't pass the Baptismal Interviews, so that made me really sad. Fortunately, they are preparing for next week to be baptized! 

(Elder McKeon with Elder Rees on his last day on the mission.)

Something really cool happened this week. We always teach José and his family on Saturday nights because that's when all of them are home and we teach the whole family. Well, we went over on Saturday night and we were going to teach José the Word of Wisdom...again. We always try to have the Spirit with us even in these "not-so-spiritual-lessons," but it's not so easy when you are talking to people about alcohol, drugs and smoking. But, José is a great man and he doesn't do any of that stuff. However, there is one thing he does have a problem with, like ALL Brasilians, and that is coffee! Everybody here drinks it. We tried to explain why we don't drink it and the blessings that come from living the Word of Wisdom. When we got to the part to invite him to live this commandment and stop drinking coffee, he responded with,"Yeah, it was about time for me to stop anyway!" Obviously it will be difficult, but this is an improvement! As we finished the lesson, we asked him to pray and he did such an awesome job. You would think he was already a member of the Church. Afterwards, we asked him about his thoughts on baptism and he smiled and told us that he is very close to that committing. We are hoping that by the end of the month he will be baptized and join his family. It is incredible to see someone develop their own testimony. It is one of the reasons I love being a missionary.

(P-Day activity)

My feet are getting better everyday, but the doctor still said that I have to walk for another 2 weeks with my leather sandals. Everybody makes fun of me and calls me "Apostle McKeon" because they look like super old sandals from the time Christ was here.

Well I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Hard Week

Hey everybody!

This week was pretty hard.

To start, it was so hot this week. I don't know why since we should be enjoying the winter season down here, but it seems like it's just getting hotter and hotter. I have my scriptures in my backpack and every time we stop and teach somebody, I pull out my scriptures and they are all wet from my sweat...

This week was kind of hard because the zone had 5 baptisms scheduled that we felt were FIRM! They were going to happen no matter what, and we felt like nothing could stop these people from getting baptized. Then when I called all of the areas to get the numbers for the week, only 1 person was baptized. My companion and I were a little discouraged, especially since we had to cut a family from our list of investigators because they weren't progressing. It was just a bad thing on top of another bad thing. During church I was praying hard to know what I need to do as a leader to help my zone have success. I haven't received an answer, but I am praying, studying, and fasting to find out what more I can do.

We also have transfers tomorrow, which is really sad because I feel like I will be transferred but I want to finish my mission here in Taubaté. We will receive a phone call tonight to find out what is going to happen and then we leave tomorrow morning for São Paulo.

I love you all and hope that you are doing great. I pray for you always. I love you and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder McKeon