So, what's been happening? P-day is monday but it was a holiday so we didn't think the library would be open, but it was! So look for the emails on monday, except for today!
WHEW!! Well, here I am, in a city called Baytown, (not sure where it's at)! First of all I'm exhausted!!!! Every single night I just die! I have to say my prayers, and read my scriptures standing up because I'll fall asleep if I don't and I can't let that happen! It's great here! Of course if you asked me yesterday I'd say I was having the worst time of my life! It's been hard, I'm not gonna lie! Missionary work is NOTHING like I expected it to be like! I've been here for 6 days and we still haven't taught a lesson to an investigator which is SUPER frustrating! I get really comfortable when I teach and it's really the only time I feel like I'm working hard and feeling the spirit guide myself! We flew in to the airport and before we even landed on the ground I could feel the humidity! Right now though the weather is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It's only been hot once or twice! For the most part it's amazing! Right now when it's not hot I love the humidity! My companion and I (more on him later) were riding around at night, going to remind someone of an appointment we had and the humidity was so so high that we could see the water in the air! It looked like fog or mist out of a garden house but it was everywhere. When we got back to the room there was water on the bike, everywhere. One thing I love here is when I'm riding around and I can feel the little droplets of water on my face. I can't see them, but the humidity is so thick and high here that I can feel little tiny microscopic rain drops hit my face every now and then and it makes me so happy! We got of the plane, met our mission president and his wife! Wonderful nice people! We went to this Barbecue Restaurant which was a fantastic way of easing into Texas! The weather was amazing and the food was better! We then went to the mission home, took those pictures you saw and talked A LOT about what would be happening for the next two years! I met my companion and then we went to our apartment, got the two FANTASTICLY AMAZING packages i received, (Thank you SOO much) and went to bed. I loved both packages! I knew what was in the first one but I needed everything that was there. The second one was so great! Thanks mom, Kristen, Jared, Kaylee and Ashlyn! I loved loved loved the pics and the sign + letter from Kaylee (SO CUTE!) and everything else! It was so good to see you and see everyone'shandwritting! Also, I haven't had the opportunity to write since the MTC, but thank you for the rolls in the package! I was once again THRILLED to have it! I got some other amazing packages and don't worry to all! I will write you back! I was told we were allowed naps on P-Day, so I decided to best prepare me for this week I should take a nap instead of writing letters! I took a 2 hour nap and wrote one letter! (who's it too? Guess!)
Okay, so the first day! We had some appointments, that fell through, so we went tracting! Apparently, and I thank my Heavenly Father for this, I'm just good at tracting and contacting people! The very first door I knocked on was a woman named Susanne! She's Methodist and her and I just talked for 10ish minutes about what we believe, or what she believes and what I know to be true, and she said we could come back Yesterday and 7:30. Friday, we went back to remind her of her appointment, and we met up with her brother Jack! Super cool guy! He lived in Utah for a while and knows SO MUCH about the gospel! He pulled up and yelled "YEAH LDS!" He really just knows the factual stuff, and not the spiritual stuff! He knows a weird amount about our temple ceremonies which was weird! But we dropped by last night and he was super awesome and asked us to please come back! I figure that with people like that, who have taken all the lessons and don't put in the effort, it just takes the right missionary, so hopefully I can get his rear in gear! Super cool guy but very opinionated! We're on the verge of bible bashing each time but somehow leave and cheerful as can be each time! Just a cool guy!
My companion's name is Elder Hunt, funny right?! Not the same guy, but the same name! He's a red head and is just a bit older than me! He's been out serving for 8 months I think! He works hard and we're still both learning from each other which is good! He doesn't mind me suggesting ideas and stuff! Even though we're both really friendly and great, it still takes just a time until we'll be close! It was the same at the MTC! ;( I can't tell you how much I miss the elders I was rooming with! One of them called me to ask me something and I almost cried, not really! But I miss all of the missionaries in my district so so much! :(
I challenge you at home to do more member missionary work! Out here it's super frustrating to see members who can make such a difference in others lives by inviting them to do stuff and take lessons from missionaries with them but wont! It kills me cause that's such an affective way of doing it!
A bit real quick about the area! It's not beautiful, but it's not ugly either! The weather right now is amazing! Just like utah, there are churches on every corner, but they're not LDS churches! Imagine right now driving down main street in kaysville! You look to your right and you see the big building called Davis High! Here in Baytown I do that as well, but the huge building to my right is now Davis, It's The First Baptist Church, or The Church of Christ 2, or The Bible Baptists! THESE BUILDINGS ARE HUGE! EVEN bigger than Davis High! No joke! What they say is, "The bigger the church the better the minister!" During tracting, I'll be talking a lot and so many people say, "Ya'll know it's not really about the religion I got to, it's more about the relationship with God that's important!" That makes it super hard to tell them about our church! Lot's of people also open the door and after a minute say "Oh I Baptist" or "Oh I'm Catholic!" Which basically means NO! GO AWAY! But i've just learned to say "HEY I'm Christian as well! What do you believe?!" It just gets them talking and keeps the door open! Fun!!!! I must soon go!
Dad: I can't wait to get your letter! Thanks for talking at the airport! Just hearing from you in any form gives me so much comfort!
Kristen & Jared: Thanks so much for the email! I loved the pics and the visualizations I was making in my mind with Kaylee! It's so weird you're 2 hours away! Stay amazing and work hard as the WMLs! I love our Ward Mission Leader! REALLY work at your Member Missionary Stuff! The missionaries will grow to love you for it!
Brad: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! SO MANY QUESTION! That letter I sent you was when I was having a really hard time! I'm doing much better and am loving life! Don't worry about me! Question: Can you ask Nate the best way to find good investigators here in Baytown? And what you think? Also! How can I grow to love my comp. like a brother? And have fun? It's not like I'm hating him at all! I just need some help! I'm sure you know what i'm talking about!
Angie & Austin: Please keep the letters coming! ANGIE! I have a miracle I wanted to share with everyone about what you sent me that I'll try to fit in at the end! Sorry if I can't write back much cause I'm busy but I WILL make some time!
Justin: I love you dude! Keep fighting in high school! It's hard but it's worth it! Guess what? Guess who lived in my apartment complex here in Baytown? None other than Michael Reed! Yup! The BYU player a couple years ago! He lives a couple minutes away from me! Cool huh?
Kimberly: Thanks for the email and the updates on Heartland you goose bumb! :) I love you! I'd love to hear from you more! I know it's hard cause I can't write back as much! Love you!
Really Quick: Send everything to me, all letters to the mission office address you have and sent the packages to! They'll forward it to me!
Miracle of the Week: In the MTC I was wondering how I can strengthen my testimony of the atonement and Jesus Christ! I kept thinking about that quote : "You cannot convert people beyond your own conversion!" So the deeper my testimony, the more I could convert! I was really really praying and studying, when I got a letter from my dear sister Angie with her Livrette inside! (A spiritual mini notebook) I opened the front page and the first thing I read, the first entry said something like this. Angie you may remember. "Lately I've been wondering how I can apply christ's atonement further in my life and grow to love what he did for me more. After reading PMG pg 52 I learned that I'll grow to understand the depth of the Atonement more as I bring others to understand it!" Something like that! COOL HUH?! WAY WAY COOL!!! Miracle of the Week, or month! I must now go! I love you all so so much and thanks for being patient with me! I've received a lot of mail that will take me a while to write back, but funny enough, beside the packages from mom and the Cooks, I haven't received a single letter from anybody yet, while being here in Baytown! Hmmm.... :D Love you all! Thanks for your influence on me and all you do! Love you
Elder McKeen
PS (Alec you better appreciate this! I am sorry! I am endeavoring to send the journal to you stat! It's hard here! They're ALWAYS watching!)
Sorry momma! I love you more than anything in this world! I love the family and I know that what's i'm doing is hard but it's worth it! I've had some killer hard crying worthy moments out here, but also just an invite to come back and teach because I was able to teach clear enough for the spirit to testify of what I was speaking (spirit is KEY) was a fantastic feeling! Love you all!
Elder McKeen for real this time!
LOVE!
WHEW!! Well, here I am, in a city called Baytown, (not sure where it's at)! First of all I'm exhausted!!!! Every single night I just die! I have to say my prayers, and read my scriptures standing up because I'll fall asleep if I don't and I can't let that happen! It's great here! Of course if you asked me yesterday I'd say I was having the worst time of my life! It's been hard, I'm not gonna lie! Missionary work is NOTHING like I expected it to be like! I've been here for 6 days and we still haven't taught a lesson to an investigator which is SUPER frustrating! I get really comfortable when I teach and it's really the only time I feel like I'm working hard and feeling the spirit guide myself! We flew in to the airport and before we even landed on the ground I could feel the humidity! Right now though the weather is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! It's only been hot once or twice! For the most part it's amazing! Right now when it's not hot I love the humidity! My companion and I (more on him later) were riding around at night, going to remind someone of an appointment we had and the humidity was so so high that we could see the water in the air! It looked like fog or mist out of a garden house but it was everywhere. When we got back to the room there was water on the bike, everywhere. One thing I love here is when I'm riding around and I can feel the little droplets of water on my face. I can't see them, but the humidity is so thick and high here that I can feel little tiny microscopic rain drops hit my face every now and then and it makes me so happy! We got of the plane, met our mission president and his wife! Wonderful nice people! We went to this Barbecue Restaurant which was a fantastic way of easing into Texas! The weather was amazing and the food was better! We then went to the mission home, took those pictures you saw and talked A LOT about what would be happening for the next two years! I met my companion and then we went to our apartment, got the two FANTASTICLY AMAZING packages i received, (Thank you SOO much) and went to bed. I loved both packages! I knew what was in the first one but I needed everything that was there. The second one was so great! Thanks mom, Kristen, Jared, Kaylee and Ashlyn! I loved loved loved the pics and the sign + letter from Kaylee (SO CUTE!) and everything else! It was so good to see you and see everyone'shandwritting! Also, I haven't had the opportunity to write since the MTC, but thank you for the rolls in the package! I was once again THRILLED to have it! I got some other amazing packages and don't worry to all! I will write you back! I was told we were allowed naps on P-Day, so I decided to best prepare me for this week I should take a nap instead of writing letters! I took a 2 hour nap and wrote one letter! (who's it too? Guess!)
Okay, so the first day! We had some appointments, that fell through, so we went tracting! Apparently, and I thank my Heavenly Father for this, I'm just good at tracting and contacting people! The very first door I knocked on was a woman named Susanne! She's Methodist and her and I just talked for 10ish minutes about what we believe, or what she believes and what I know to be true, and she said we could come back Yesterday and 7:30. Friday, we went back to remind her of her appointment, and we met up with her brother Jack! Super cool guy! He lived in Utah for a while and knows SO MUCH about the gospel! He pulled up and yelled "YEAH LDS!" He really just knows the factual stuff, and not the spiritual stuff! He knows a weird amount about our temple ceremonies which was weird! But we dropped by last night and he was super awesome and asked us to please come back! I figure that with people like that, who have taken all the lessons and don't put in the effort, it just takes the right missionary, so hopefully I can get his rear in gear! Super cool guy but very opinionated! We're on the verge of bible bashing each time but somehow leave and cheerful as can be each time! Just a cool guy!
My companion's name is Elder Hunt, funny right?! Not the same guy, but the same name! He's a red head and is just a bit older than me! He's been out serving for 8 months I think! He works hard and we're still both learning from each other which is good! He doesn't mind me suggesting ideas and stuff! Even though we're both really friendly and great, it still takes just a time until we'll be close! It was the same at the MTC! ;( I can't tell you how much I miss the elders I was rooming with! One of them called me to ask me something and I almost cried, not really! But I miss all of the missionaries in my district so so much! :(
I challenge you at home to do more member missionary work! Out here it's super frustrating to see members who can make such a difference in others lives by inviting them to do stuff and take lessons from missionaries with them but wont! It kills me cause that's such an affective way of doing it!
A bit real quick about the area! It's not beautiful, but it's not ugly either! The weather right now is amazing! Just like utah, there are churches on every corner, but they're not LDS churches! Imagine right now driving down main street in kaysville! You look to your right and you see the big building called Davis High! Here in Baytown I do that as well, but the huge building to my right is now Davis, It's The First Baptist Church, or The Church of Christ 2, or The Bible Baptists! THESE BUILDINGS ARE HUGE! EVEN bigger than Davis High! No joke! What they say is, "The bigger the church the better the minister!" During tracting, I'll be talking a lot and so many people say, "Ya'll know it's not really about the religion I got to, it's more about the relationship with God that's important!" That makes it super hard to tell them about our church! Lot's of people also open the door and after a minute say "Oh I Baptist" or "Oh I'm Catholic!" Which basically means NO! GO AWAY! But i've just learned to say "HEY I'm Christian as well! What do you believe?!" It just gets them talking and keeps the door open! Fun!!!! I must soon go!
Dad: I can't wait to get your letter! Thanks for talking at the airport! Just hearing from you in any form gives me so much comfort!
Kristen & Jared: Thanks so much for the email! I loved the pics and the visualizations I was making in my mind with Kaylee! It's so weird you're 2 hours away! Stay amazing and work hard as the WMLs! I love our Ward Mission Leader! REALLY work at your Member Missionary Stuff! The missionaries will grow to love you for it!
Brad: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! SO MANY QUESTION! That letter I sent you was when I was having a really hard time! I'm doing much better and am loving life! Don't worry about me! Question: Can you ask Nate the best way to find good investigators here in Baytown? And what you think? Also! How can I grow to love my comp. like a brother? And have fun? It's not like I'm hating him at all! I just need some help! I'm sure you know what i'm talking about!
Angie & Austin: Please keep the letters coming! ANGIE! I have a miracle I wanted to share with everyone about what you sent me that I'll try to fit in at the end! Sorry if I can't write back much cause I'm busy but I WILL make some time!
Justin: I love you dude! Keep fighting in high school! It's hard but it's worth it! Guess what? Guess who lived in my apartment complex here in Baytown? None other than Michael Reed! Yup! The BYU player a couple years ago! He lives a couple minutes away from me! Cool huh?
Kimberly: Thanks for the email and the updates on Heartland you goose bumb! :) I love you! I'd love to hear from you more! I know it's hard cause I can't write back as much! Love you!
Really Quick: Send everything to me, all letters to the mission office address you have and sent the packages to! They'll forward it to me!
Miracle of the Week: In the MTC I was wondering how I can strengthen my testimony of the atonement and Jesus Christ! I kept thinking about that quote : "You cannot convert people beyond your own conversion!" So the deeper my testimony, the more I could convert! I was really really praying and studying, when I got a letter from my dear sister Angie with her Livrette inside! (A spiritual mini notebook) I opened the front page and the first thing I read, the first entry said something like this. Angie you may remember. "Lately I've been wondering how I can apply christ's atonement further in my life and grow to love what he did for me more. After reading PMG pg 52 I learned that I'll grow to understand the depth of the Atonement more as I bring others to understand it!" Something like that! COOL HUH?! WAY WAY COOL!!! Miracle of the Week, or month! I must now go! I love you all so so much and thanks for being patient with me! I've received a lot of mail that will take me a while to write back, but funny enough, beside the packages from mom and the Cooks, I haven't received a single letter from anybody yet, while being here in Baytown! Hmmm.... :D Love you all! Thanks for your influence on me and all you do! Love you
Elder McKeen
PS (Alec you better appreciate this! I am sorry! I am endeavoring to send the journal to you stat! It's hard here! They're ALWAYS watching!)
Sorry momma! I love you more than anything in this world! I love the family and I know that what's i'm doing is hard but it's worth it! I've had some killer hard crying worthy moments out here, but also just an invite to come back and teach because I was able to teach clear enough for the spirit to testify of what I was speaking (spirit is KEY) was a fantastic feeling! Love you all!
Elder McKeen for real this time!
LOVE!
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