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

Last General Conference

March 21, 2013

Hey everybody,

We have found a great new family to teach!

We were given this list of members that are less active and we have been going around to see if they still live in our area. We were looking for this one family with 7 members, and we were really excited because we wanted to bring this family back to church. The Area 70, Elder Costa, made a promise to us that, "Every person that you bring back to the Church, you will convert another." So, we really wanted to help this family! We get to the house and we ask if the family is there. Unfortunately, they had moved away a couple of months ago, but we made a contact with this other family. We went back to visit them (there are 4 people in their family) and we taught them about the Restoration and challenged them to read the Book of Mormon. They came to Church with us that week and then watched a baptism we had in the ward as well. The next day, we went to teach them and they had already read the Book of Mormon and have accepted our Baptismal challenge. They will be getting baptized in two weeks...it was a true miracle!

We also had the baptism of Gabriel and Geovanna, but we were still working on their dad Jose. We asked Jose if he wanted to go to church with us this Sunday, but he said he couldn't because he was running in a race that everyone here competes in. When we got to the church, we see Jose pull up in his car. We were so surprised to see him! He told us that he had "slept in" so he decided to come to church to see his sons be confirmed. He came to Elder's Quorum with us and the lesson was on the importance of making righteous changes in our lives. Jose was paying attention and then he eventually raised his hand. He explained to us that moving here from São Paulo to Taubaté was hard at the beginning, but it turned out to be worth it because his family had found the true Gospel. We were so excited to hear him say this! He is joining us for General Conference next weekend, and I am continuing to pray for him that he may know of the Gospel's truth.

Well, we are working hard and I am so tired, which i guess is a good sign. I am so happy to be here doing the Lord´s work for my brothers and sisters here in Brasil!

I love you all and hope you have a great week and I will talk to you next week!

Love,

Elder McKeon

April 7, 2013

Hey Everybody!

We have been working like crazy! We have been so excited to for General Conference and it was so weird that this was my LAST General Conference on my mission. It made me really sad though because it hit me how close I am to finishing my mission...

We had the Conselho de Líderança this past Friday and it was really good! We had a meeting with Presidente and the other Zone Leaders, I learned so much and we are going to teach what we learned to our zone tomorrow in the zone meeting.

We then had General Conference! On Saturday night, we had a meeting with the Guaretinguetá Stake President, so we missed the first and second sessions of conference on Saturday because of the long bus rides we had to take to get to the meeting. Fortunately it was a great meeting where we dicussed how to unite the Stake and do the Lord's work. This Stake is awesome because they are excited to work with the missionaries. We came back home after the meeting and went to Taubaté to teach José and his family. Then we went to the Priesthood session which is from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. here, so we got home pretty late. We learned so much! Then on Sunday, we woke up and had to run to our appointments before heading to the church to watch conference with our investigators, which was such a blessing. They were so excited to hear and learn from a Prophet of God! Then we got to talk to them between the sessions and teach them about the things that they had learned. We then watched the second session and it was so great! 

I am so lucky and blessed to be a servant of the Lord and to have this small time to be his full-time servant! I love it so much! I am going to make every minute count! 

I love you all and have a great week!

Love,

Elder McKeon

Warm Water and Baptisms!

Hey everybody,

Well, I am loving this area so much! We had two baptisms this week! We baptized the children of Irmã Roberta. It was probably the most perfect baptism I have had on my mission. EVERYONE came for the baptism, we even had people outside of the church looking through the windows to watch it. We had the primary sing, "Nephi's Courage," for Gabriel and the Moças sang a hymn that I didn't know for Geovanna. It was great! Their mom was crying along with a ton of members. Everyone was bearing their testimony and it was fantastic. The Spirit was so strong and I am so thankful it was because Roberta´s husband, José, isn't a member of the Church. I know that he felt something at the baptism, even though he didn't say anything, but I know the Spirit touched his heart in seeing all of these people support his family. In other news, it was my FIRST baptism on my mission where the water was WARM haha. They have a hard time getting warm water here, so it was cool to finally have warm water for a baptism.

The weather is a little strange right now. Summer technically ended last week, but it is still hot until about 5:30 and then it pours rain every evening.

I also love this area because the members here are really excited about missionary work. Instead of us having to ask them to help with family nights and lessons with investigators, they are asking us to assist them in their missionary experiences. It's so great to be a part of this marvelous work.

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! Tchau!

Love,

Elder McKeon