March 10, 2014
Hey everyone!
We had transfers this past Tuesday and I stayed here in Taubaté, but Elder Zancheta was transferred to São José dos Campos. It was sad, but my new companion, Elder Passos, is a very good missionary. We are from the same group, which means we were in the CTM together and we have been friends ever since. He is from Caera, which is in northern Brasil. He has a different accent and he also speaks a little bit of english. We help each other out, I teach him some words in english and helps me with my Portuguese.
(Elder McKeon and his new companies Elder Passos)
Our zone had 3 areas open up because of how many missionaries we received. Our zone now has 26 missionaries! It is the 2nd largest zone in the mission! The work is progressing and you can see it in how many MORE missionaries are needed to do the work! It's so exciting!
We also had a mission conference this week. This time the conference was with Elder Costa, the Area Presidente of Brasil. Since we are the furthest zone, we had to wake up at 3:30 a.m. to get there. Even though we had to travel a great distance, we were the first zone there. Elder Costa had already arrived and we were excited to get started. We had a study session and I learned a lot. After that, Elder Costa had the district and zone leaders meet and we discussed how to become better leaders. He then talked about why we were chosen as leaders in the first place. Elder Costa shared that President Ferrin and Heavenly Father trust us to help our zones and districts become better. I learned so many amazing things and I am looking forward to applying them in my work. Elder Costa then had another meeting with us after lunch, so we were both physically and spiritually fed haha.
Our house nearly flooded, again, because of all the rain. We had to have someone come put in a pipe so the water will go down the drain instead of pile up in our house. Now if we could just get the holes in the ceiling fixed...
On Sunday, an inactive member named Roberta, came back to Church after having not come for a very long time. She asked us last week to invite her family as well, so we did. Surprisingly, they all came to Church and agreed to read the Book of Mormon! After Church, we stopped by Roberta's family's home again to teach. They have all accepted our invitation to be baptized and will do so on March 23rd! Both of the children and the mother are developing strong testimonies, so now we just need to work on the Dad. I am hoping he will feel the spirit so strongly that he will also want to join. It is an incredible feeling to help a family come closer to Christ, even if I did play a small role in their eternal development.
The time is going by even faster and I only have 4 transfers left. It is pretty sad how fast the time is going, but I am going to continue to take advantage of every minute and work hard! I hope you have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Elder McKeon
March 17, 2014
Hello all, it was a great week!
On the first Friday of every month, we meet with our mission president and all of the other zone leaders in the mission. Once again, since we are so far away, we had to leave on Thursday nigh to make it to São Paulo. A huge storm hit while we trying to get to our meeting and we even saw lighting strike the freeway as we were on our way. The streets were completely flooded!
Other than that, t was a great meeting with the President and the other zone leaders. We learned how to better motivate our zones to achieve their potential. When we made it back to our area, we had the baptism of Matheus and Alanice. Other missionaries were teaching them, but they ended up being from our area so we got to baptize them. It is incredible to see miracles occur in the lives of those who are baptized. Matheus and Alanice are amazing and they were so excited to join the Church.
We also had family night with Roberta, her husband Jose, and their two children: Geovanna and Gabriel who are going to be baptized next week. I used that puzzle that you gave me of the Plan of Salvation and the Spirit was so strong. I love being a missionary. Words cannot express the joy that comes with teaching these people and bringing them to Christ.
I hope you guys had a great week and I will talk to you next week! I love you all so much!
Love,
Elder McKeon
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