Working hard

Hey everyone!

This past week has been pretty interesting.  We had divisions with the zone leaders this week and it was different because I was out of my area for 2 days.  I was worrying about our investigators and wondering how they were doing.  I was trying my best to help Elder Florentino (my Zone Leader) but it was hard to focus on his area when I had my own teaching group back in Camargo Novo to worry about. 

(View of the new area)

I got a great email from my Mission President this past P-day (the 22nd) and it was wonderful to feel the spirit of that great man.  I know he is following the spirit of our Heavenly Father and leading our mission in success.

(Working through his socks rather quickly with all the walking)

So President emailed me and I was told that we need to raise the level of missionary work in this area.  The challenge went out to the full time missionaries, the ward missionaries, and the members in general (specifically in this area because the past results have not demonstrated the success that the rest of the mission is experiencing).  That is why I was transferred here and he expects me to help the area to have more success. I received the email from O Presidente and it struck my heart to the very core.  I have prayed, fasted and studied as the email outlined as well as work with the members, missionaries and less active members.  We have really been working hard and it feels great at the end of the day when you are so tired and yet very excited about the folks that you are teaching.

(A cheeseburger from McDonald's...he was pretty excited about this)

And the Lord works in mysterious ways.  We receive references through emails from the Mission office from time to time and we got one from "Rita".  We went to check it out and see what level of interest she really had.  We went to her home and it turns out to be two sisters that are interested in learning more, Rita and Heloiza.  A mother and her daughter.  The mom, Rita, is a little eccentric, but they are great and I love them.  We taught them the Restoration and during the First Vision they said that they had felt something that they had never felt before and we asked them to describe it to us and they said that they couldn't because it was so good!  We explained that the feeling they were having was the spirit of our Heavenly Father through the Holy Ghost testifying of the truthfulness of the things we were teaching them.  How awesome is that!  The way that she found the Church is a miracle in itself!  She was talking to a member through Facebook or something, and he told her about the Church and told her to check out Mormon.org.  She did and submitted her info online.  We received the reference from the Mission office and now they are marked for baptism this next Sunday!  How fantastic is that! 

(Elder McKeon with his companion Elder Haskell)

We also had Nelson in Church. He is the son of a member here and we have been passing by him for awhile.  He has never been able to go to Church because something always comes up at the last minute.  This past week, while he was getting ready for Church, a friend of his offered him to go out and do some activity (I don't know what) and he turned it down because he said, "I need to go to Church, these guys have been telling me to go and I need to go".  He told me that and I about started to cry.  I gave him a big hug and he said that he had a great time there with his mother and he is also set up for next week for his baptism as well!

Then the best of all.  We were in the Quorúm dos Elderes and we see this super tall man walk in and introduce himself as Zilto.  We talk to him after the aula and his FAMILY was there too!  A family of 4 that had been invited to come to Church by their neighbor and they actually came!  They said they loved it too!  We were going to pass by there on Sunday but they went to his Aunt's home.  So we are going to pass by there tomorrow and answer all of the questions that they had about church!

This was a great Sunday that we had!  I am thankful for all of the prayers and blessings that I receive from you, the ward, my friends and our Mission President and from the members in the temples all over the world.  My Mission President made promises in his email to me and they are coming to fruition!  I am so grateful to be here in Brazil and I love the gospel!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Transferred!

Hello all!

Well, it happened! I have been transferred! I was in my first area for 5 months and I loved it! 

(Elder McKeon with his new companion, Elder Haskell)

I am now in an area called Camargo Novo, in our zone of São Miguel Paulista! I am here with my new companion, Elder Haskell from WYOMING!  So we're just the a couple of cowboys here in São Paulo Leste! Its great! We both just love it here!

(Elder McKeon's bed room and his companion Elder Haskell)

He is a great missionary and has been out in the field for 1 year and 6 months and we are going to have such a great time and we are going to work hard to help all that we can!  The ward here is awesome! They are so willing to help by giving us references and I am so grateful for that!  They will be such a significant tool to the success in this area.  The house is nice and clean, not as clean as mom does it when she cleans it, but its clean!  There were a lot of spiders....so I had to change that..... 

(Elder McKeon's new apartment)

But yes, I am in a new area and I think I am going to gain some weight here!  In my last area it was all hills in Guarulhos, but here its much flatter and my area is not as big as Continental was.  I know I am going to love it here so much!   

Yes, this work is amazing and I can't believe that I have already been out almost 8 months!  It has gone by all too fast.  I am in love with this place, the people, my companion and the work that we are doing down here. I have never been so happy. I am so tired, but I am so happy with this place. 

I love you all and pray for you all the time!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Conference Weekend

Hey everyone!

Well this week was great!  We have been working hard and we got to go to Conference. It was even showed in our Capela (chapel), instead of having to go to the Stake Center, so it was super convenient for us and our investigators.

We got to watch ALL the sessions of Conference including Priesthood. It was all in Português, so I could understand most of it, but I couldn't take a whole bunch of notes because I had to concentrate really hard to pick it all up.

I noticed that there were a ton of talks on missionary work, and they were all so great. I really enjoyed Russell M. Nelson's talk about "Catching the Wave" of missionary work, and not just missionaries, parents, siblings, friends, need to help prepare the future missionaries to "Catch the Wave". I love how all the people in my life have prepared me to be a worthy full-time missionary. We need to be ready and able to answer the questions that we will be asked by people in our lives and if we are not able to answer those questions, "Ask the missionaries, they can help you!" Please ask the missionaries to help, that's all we want to do is to help in anyway we can.

I also had a question. There was a talk in Conference from Sister Rosemary M. Wixom about an airman who was shot down in North Vietnam in the 1960's. He was captured for 2 years, and finally his captors let him write home, but limited him to only 25 words. I was wondering, I'm gone for 2 years, I would like to know what the family would write in those 25 words. I will write mine as well and I'll send them in a letter. Will you guys do this for me?

Well, this is an end of another transfer here in Brasil! I have been in my first area for 5 months. I don't know if I will be transferred or not, but it's probable that I will be transferred. We'll see! It doesn't matter to me if I stay or if I get transferred. I could leave, but it would be sad to leave my friends here. 

I will let you guys know if I'm transferred as soon as a I can.

I miss and love you all and I keep you in my prayers all the time! 

I forgot my camera at home, so I couldn't send any picutres, so I'll send them next week ok? Sorry!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Easter in Brazil

Hey everyone! 

I hope you all had a great Easter, I know I did!

This past week has been pretty good. At Church this past Sunday we confirmed those people we baptized last week: Luiz and Katia, Natanael, and Mayara. It was such a great day at Church, especially since it was Easter!  Marcelo confirmed his brother-in-law Natanael and we did the rest. It was such a spiritual meeting and we had the Stake President there and he told us that we were doing a great job and that we need to keep it up. 

We need to find more people to teach though because we baptized everyone in our teaching group. Now we have been asking for references and making contacts like crazy.

This time of year is so special to remember that our Savior was resurrected and we can too. Everyone will be resurrected and our bodies and Spirits will come together and never separate again, except this time our bodies will be glorified and perfected. I know this to be true. I teach this concept all the time and my testimony has grown immensley and I am so glad that He made that unbearable sacrifice for us. He didn't just suffer for our sins, but he passed through EVERYTHING that we will pass through in this life. The sorrow, the pain, the sins are a big part too, but whenever we are going through a difficult time and we think, "Why me? Why am I alone?" you can't say that, that is a lie, because our Lord went through it as well and He is right next to us holding us up and supporting us. 

I am so glad to have this opportunity to teach these wonderful people of Brasil and I love them so much. With Conference coming up I can't wait to hear the words of our Living Prophet and the Apostles. It is such a blessing to have that kind of guidance in our lives and we need, not should, listen to them and what they have to teach us.

I love you all and miss you so much! I keep you all in my prayers and fasts! (and I do that a lot!)

Love,

Elder McKeon

Busy, busy week!

Hey everybody,

As you can tell from the pictures I sent home we had a really busy week these past weeks.

Elder McKeon with Luciana, who was baptized on March 17th

Luiz and Katia

This past Sunday we had 4 BAPTISMS AND 2 CONFIRMATIONS! We baptized Natanael (Marcelo's brother-in-law) Luiz and Katia (my second family here in brazil) and Mayara (a family friend of Luiz and Katia).

Luiz and Katia's wedding

We confirmed Felipe (the son of Luiz and Katia) and Luciana. Everybody loves them so much and they are going to be so awesome in the Church. 

Bowling on P-day

Natanael, Luiz, Katia, and Mayara's Baptism

We baptized all the family of Luiz and Katia that we could. They have a 5-year-old son named Luiz Henrique and he wants to be baptized, but his dad said, "No! You have to wait to do it right! You have 3 more years son!!!" They are such an awesome family and I love them so much. They will be confirmed next week along with the others.

Marcelo is the brother in law of Natanael so he came for the baptism with the whole family

Elder McKeon with Mayara at her Baptism

But I have been such a slacker. My baby sister, Rylee, had her birthday on the 1st of this month and I still have not given her a shout out yet, so I apologize for the tardiness Rylee, but these past few weeks have been nuts!

Mission Conference with Guarulhos zone

So this is about my little baby sister... 

Where do we start with Rylee?? 

She is a firecracker to say the least, but I love her to no end! I can remember our adventures on the way to seminary and then racing back to get to school on time. The whole time she's screaming at me to "SLOW DOWN! YOURE GOING TO GET US KILLED!!" I know she did it just cause she loves me, but it was just too fun to mess with her and it's fun to drive fast of course. She is such a good example to me in every aspect.

She is so determined in everything she does whether it is soccer, cross country, or school. She will do it no matter what. She drove me nuts when she first started to date. I'm that typical protective older brother and no other guy is going to go on a date with my little sister, but of course, she is as stubborn as me and goes right on all these kinds of dates. Every single one of those guys is the luckiest guy in the world at that moment when they are together with my little sister. Sometimes she drove me crazy, but I love her so much and know that she is a beautiful young lady who is intelligent, kind, a great runner and soccer player, and can kick my butt in a race. She is such a great person in my life and I try to obtain the qualities that she has and apply them in my life. 

I miss you and love you so much Ry! You're my little pistol and I love you so much. Just try not to go on too many dates while im gone ok?

I miss and love you all so much!

Love, 

Elder McKeon

Felipe's baptism

Got new shoes!

Elder McKeon with Natanael Conosco

Two Week Update

I forgot to update the blog last week, so here is Elder McKeon's email from March 11, 2013:

Hey guys!!!

I am doing great! How is everyone back in cold Granite Bay?

I am doing great in HOT Brasil!

This past week was very good. We had a ton of people in Church this past week which is always good as a missionary. The only bad thing that happened was that our baptism fell through. Her name is Jení and she is 8 months pregnant and she didn't go to church because she was sick, so that is always a bummer.  That just means that we are going to have one more baptism next week I guess.

We are probably going to have at least 3 baptisms next Sunday! How great is that? We are going to have at least another 3 the week after! 

We have been teaching this lady, Luciana. We were walking down a road late at night on our way to our last appointment. I saw this lady (Luciana) and I knew we had to talk to her. We stopped by and she said that she had seen the other missionaries before, but never talked to them. We gave her a Plano de Salvação pamphlet and asked her to read it and we'll be back to talk about it. That was on a Thursday, we saw her next on Saturday and she had read the whole pamphlet and wanted more! We then gave her a Book of Mormon and marked a place for her to read and told her she could come to church with us. She couldn't go because she had to go and pick up her granddaughter, but she has read that whole part and has started to read the book from the start. She is going to be baptized this next Sunday the 17th. We are so stoked for her! She is so perfect and ready to receive the blessings of this Gospel.

We then have Nataniel. If you guys remember Marcelo, it's his brother-in-law. He lives with his mom who is already a member. We stopped by and gave him a message and he went to Church and wants to be baptized.  He justs needs to stop smoking and he really wants to stop.

Camilla, that mom who came to church last week all by herself doesn't live in our area, so that was a bummer but we gave her info to the missionaries who are in her area and they are teaching her. She is living with her boyfriend because she can't support herself and her son AND a house all alone. She needs to be separated from him before she can be baptized. She said she was going to look for a place to live in our area, so that's exciting and we're keeping our eyes peeled for a cheap place for her to live so she can be baptized.

The work is totally progressing down here in Brazil and I love it here so so so much. I am doing great here in São Paulo!! 

I love you guys so much! 

Keep being great!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Here is the email from today (March 18th)!

Hey guys!

We had a really good week this past week!

This past Sunday we had 3 baptisms, 2 investigator baptisms and 1 ward baptism, so basically had a pool party if you catch my drift.

Remember that family that we need to get married before they can be baptized? We baptized their middle son the end of last month and we always saw his older brother (Felipe) there, but he never sat in on the lessons. This past week, the 10th, he went to church and had a great experience and he wanted to learn more! So we taught him and he had a lot of doubts and we just told him, "You dont have trust our words, we're just 19-year-old kids in a different country, but you can ask your Heavenly Father if these things are true and you know you can trust him." We left him with a part of the Book of Mormon to read and the next time we came back he said that he had received the answer and that he couldn't deny that the things we taught were true and BOOM BAPTISM! He had already read 6 chapters in the Gospel Principles book and has been reading steadily in the Book of Mormon. He was baptized and will be confirmed this next Sunday the 24th (the same day that his parents will be baptized). This family is great and I love them so much.

We also baptized Luciana. She has been reading the Livrinhos that we leave with people after a lesson and reading in the Book of Mormon and she is going to help the Sociedade de Socorro so much and she will be a such a great addition to the ward here in Continental. We helped her to quit smoking and now she says that she doesn't even want to smoke and can't believe that she had been smoking for so long.

You guys know Marcelo and his sogra (mom-in-law) lives in our Ward and she has a son named Nataniel who is not a member of the Church. We have been teaching him for the past couple of weeks and he has been progressing so much. He used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day and now he smokes maybe 2 cigarettes a day. We were teaching him last night and the only thing that we haven't taught him is Tithing, but we didn't know what we were going to teach at all (I know bad planning, but it just didn't feel right to teach Tithing at that time). So we go in there and I'm thinking, "What're we going to teach?" Then he started talking about how he's going through a really hard time with money and with cigarettes, so I thought, "We just need to talk to him." We talked and we read Ether 12:27 about turning your weaknesses into strengths referring to the cigarettes and he loved that idea, but he was still super down about not having a job, living at his moms house, just not doing anything and nothing going right. Then we read Mosiah 23:21-23 about how the Lord tries His chosen people to see if they will be patient in their suffering and cry unto Him with their Faith. And we asked him "Are you praying and reading in the scriptures everyday?" He just put his head down and said no, but then we talked about how he can ask Heavenly Father for the help that he needs to stop smoking and for things to start lining up in his life. And I sat there thinking "How are we going to help him stop this habit?"  We gave him a blessing, we fasted with him, we've set goals and it has helped but not really broken that habit.  Then i thought "Break... BREAK! You can break a cigarette!" Then we said, "Alright, now we have a rule about smoking Tael (Nataniel). Everytime you feel like you want to smoke, you take the cigarette in your hands, break the cigarette into 2 pieces and throw it away, and after wash your hands." He just looked at us and thought that it was a great idea. We wrote a note on the pack of cigarettes to remind him and he broke a cigarette in front of us right then and there to show that he really wanted to stop. It was such a great lesson and he will be baptized this next Sunday.

I miss and love you guys so much and i pray for you always!

Love,


Elder McKeon

A Wonderful Testimony Meeting

Hey guys,

Well this week was an interesting one. We confirmed Matheus a member of the Church on Sunday and it was so great. His family was there and they had such a great experience.

It was also fast sunday and I felt the need to get up and tell Matheus in front of the congregation how proud of him I was and how much I loved that family. And yes, I cried. Even in Português I can cry while bearing my testimony, but I looked up and the whole family was crying and bunch of the other members of the congregation were crying too.  It was a great testimony meeting. The dad, Luiz, after told me that he hadnt cried in 15 years, until that day in Church.

We also had a couple of investigators. We were scared at first because it looked like it was just going to be Matheus and his family. But then this family that we are teaching, Sydney and Yara, showed up a little late but they came. Sydney is a good guy, but he cant stop drinking alcohol and Yara smokes, but really wants to stop. But when I bore my testimony it made them both cry and they said that they were crying all day after that, so it really is the Spirit that touches the hearts of our investigators. I am so grateful for that power that it has.

We then had this random lady who showed up, on her own, with her son and she said to me, "I want to learn more about the Gospel." I just wanted to throw my arms around her and scream! As a missionary, these types of people are the absolute best. Her name is Camilla and she is a great lady and mom, we have an appointment set up with her tomorrow night with a member so we can get her a friend in the church. She is awesome.

And today (monday, P-day) we took Matheus's parents to a Cartorio, to renew their certidão de nascimento. His mom needed a new one in order for them to be married. To get married down here, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops. They were married in the Catholic church, but not the cartorio, so it was never recognized by the country, so they need to be re-married in the cartorio (an office here that is like the dmv.... disorganized and slow) and so we have to do that in order for them to be baptized. The scary part was that Katia (Catchya) didn't want to get married to Luiz.... so i had to play matchmaker and make them realize how much that they really do love each other. They have been "married" for 24 years and we got Luiz to stop smoking and drinking alcohol and coffee. Through a fast with his family. It was great. And we pulled an ultimatum question, "Katia, why did you want Luiz to stop smoking and stuff if you guys were going to get seperated anyways? Why do you care?" She just sat there and thought and played with her hands.... We just sat there and let the Spirit work on them... At the end of the night we got the best feeling ever. They're going to be married and then be baptized and then confirmed and then be the best family in this ward ever. Oh im so excited for them!! Luiz told us that him and Katia used to fight all the time over the littlest things, he used to smoke, drink, and drink coffee (she drank coffee too) and the kids were crazy, but now that they have been going to church and taking the lessons, they say, that they dont fight anymore, the kids are way more cool and chill, and they have quit ALL of their vices and they say they feel something different while were there. 

Being here is really hard, I am not going to lie. Sometimes you're so tired and you just want to go home and forget that day, but then you look back and you see the impact that you are having on the amazing people that are our brothers and sisters and we HAVE to help them come closer to Christ. Mosiah 28:3 that is a great scripture with a ton of power.

Love,

Elder McKeon