Miracles

Miracle. An event that cannot be explained except by some unseen yet powerful force (a.k.a. God).

Elise Williamson* showed up at church two weeks ago when Sister Lanigan and I were sick. Since we weren't there, we didn't get to meet her, and she wasn't there the next week. But this past Sunday, she was! We met with her after church, and she is so prepared! God has answered her prayers about the Book of Mormon, which she's already been reading, and she is already excited to be baptized! She said her friend from Germany, who's a member of the church, was talking to her about the Book of Mormon because she was looking for a church. He told her to pray about it and to call the missionaries. She never did call us. She came to church instead.

And that, my friends, is how you do member missionary work. I am so grateful for the members who befriended our investigator and shared their testimony with her. It has already changed her life.

Friends and family, you never know how much the gospel will bless your life until you try it. Sister Williamson tried it, and she's so incredibly happy already.

The gospel is life.

Make it yours.

Sister McKay

*Names have been changed

1. Upside down stop sign. Umm... go?

2. For the morning of Thanksgiving, Sister Lanigan and I went to the local park and drew up a thankful list with chalk. We were hoping people would add to the list, and they did! This entry took the cake. Our hearts melted.

3. One of the member families' little kids grabbed Elder Snow's bag and decided he was a missionary. I decided it was too cute not to take a picture. (By the way, whenever we play a game with teams, Elder Snow and I are on the same team and we call it the Prophet Team. It's awesome.)

This Week, on The District

The District. A show made to instruct missionaries on the subject of how to accomplish their purpose, which is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel. In our mission, it is also a requirement to watch it daily. Admittedly, it gets old, since there are only so many episodes, and I've been watching them for about 10 months now.

Well, 9 months and 3 weeks, as of today. Close enough.

We've been working our tails off! I've never tracted so much my whole mission! I've also never had so few investigators to teach.

But Here's the Good News

We got two new investigators yesterday! It was such an amazing lesson! Their names are Janice and Derek. Derek was asking all the right questions. He's excited about coming to church. Janice loves the fact that we have a modern-day prophet because of God's love for his children and desire to guide them today. And they believe Joseph Smith was a prophet! I am SO excited for them. He even asked us to set up an appointment! We're praying for them. Really hard.

We found them while we were looking for a less active member who had moved. We were about to knock on the door when these two cute little cats showed up. We stopped to pet them long enough for the lady who lived there to walk out to talk to us: Janice. We asked for the less active member who we thought lived there, but she said she didn't know who that was. She had moved in 5 or 6 months earlier.

We said, "Okay, well, can we give you a card? This is a picture of the Book of Mormon, a book that helps us come closer to Christ." 

We explained a little about it. We left.

As we drove away, Sister Lanigan said, "You know, the whole time we were talking to her, I kept feeling like we should give her a Book of Mormon!"

*gasp* "Me too!!"

We turned around and knocked on her door this time, but she didn't answer. We left a Book of Mormon on her doorstep with a sticky note that said, "Hi, Janice! We don't know why we didn't just give you a Book of Mormon!" and a couple other things I don't remember well.

The next week, we knocked on her door and she said her husband had been reading it and they wanted us to come back. We set up an appointment, and had to reschedule a couple times, but eventually we got to teach them! And it was awesome!

So pray for them. I want them to have the gospel so bad!

Love y'all! Don't forget your awesomeness.

Sister McKay

1: The missionaries from Nashville and Moultrie (our district) came together in Tifton for P-day last week. This is our fleet.

2: And someone is going (or has gone) to BYU! This was taken in the Chick-fil-a parking lot. I wonder if I have a stalker... 0.0

How to Be Awesome

Be Southern!

Just kidding.

(Although that would be a smart option. ;))

Here's how, ready?

If you want to be the coolest person ever, pray sincerely.

I'm not kidding.

The best missionaries I know are the ones that, when I hear them pray, do so sincerely, with conviction, and with the knowledge that they are talking to God. They do so with pure love for Him.

These are the missionaries I look up to and want to be around. They're the ones I want to make friends with and the ones I want to emulate.

And they are the coolest people EVER! And they're happy. Which makes them that much more fun to be around.

So. That's my challenge.

And don't think I'm not taking this challenge with you!

Love y'all!!

Be awesome (in a gospel way)!

And as the southerners say, be safe out there!

Sister McKay

Picture taken on November 9, 2017. It was hot that day. The weather here goes through its ups and downs in the winter. It should be noted that this picture is of the car thermometer, which isn't very accurate. But you can tell it's really hot when the car thermometer goes over 90. And this morning, 5 days later, it was 51 degrees when we got in the car.

Shhh...Amory doesn't know I posted this!

Christmas is coming! I asked Amory what she wanted for Christmas. Her list is simple and if you'd like to send her something, even a funny comic strip in the mail or some stamps, she would absolutely LOVE IT.

Here is what she wrote:

Copies of the Book of Mormon with a testimony written in the front of each one

Stamps

Letters! - stories, jokes, how's life, WHATEVER

Drawings from the little kids

Videos

Pictures

Different music maybe? - we can now listen to EFY, MoTab, hymns, and contemporary Christian (doesn't matter who it's by)

Recipes maybe

Fun stationery is always good but I'm not about to throw a fit if that's too much. I have paper. ;)

Maybe like fuzzy socks

Or a cute DownEast shirt (size L)

Please don't send candy or treats unless it's Emily's fudge. ;) Or rice krispie treats. Or maybe hot chocolate packets... But seriously, the members always have us covered.

Love you!!

Sister McKay

Blog post: t-5 Minutes and Counting

Like, literally, this library computer is timing me.

That's how long I have left.

So, cool quote of the week.

Brother Mitchem, a member of the ward, got up on Sunday and bore a powerful testimony about the Plan of Salvation and how we can be with our families forever.

Quote, "We can't earn heaven, but we can most definitely learn it."

Even with Christ's infinite Atonement, we can never truly be perfect enough to make it to heaven and live with God in His ultimate glory. But we can try. And learn. And come closer to Him every day. We can strive to learn of Christ and emulate His life.

I love y'all. So does God. He is our supreme Maker. Isn't that incredible? Doesn't it make you want to follow Him and do as He asks? He loves you so! much!

Until next week,

Sister McKay

Blog post: Zone Conference, Among Other Things

Elder Klebingat of the first quorum of the seventy came to our zone conference on Friday. He spoke to us for 6 hours about missionary work and how we can be better missionaries and people in general. Two of my favorite quotes from zone conference are as follows.

Sister Grayson, the mission president's wife, talked about how we can encourage investigators to come to church. She said, "Church isn't about having fun or being entertained. Church is about reconnecting with God."

Elder Klebingat said this about what we can say to people who ask us about missionary work, and I agree with it wholeheartedly:

"I didn't come here to lie."

I came on a mission because I know this gospel is true. Do me a favor and read this talk by President Callister.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2017/10/gods-compelling-witness-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

There is no way this gospel isn't true. Elder Klebingat also had us read these scriptures from the Pearl of Great Price about God.

In this verse, Enoch is speaking. "30 And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; ..."

Then in this verse, God speaks to Enoch. "36 Wherefore, I can stretch forth mine hands and hold all the creations which I have made; and mine eye can pierce them also ..."

All those creations, and He can hold them is His hands!! For those who don't know, one of the missionary rules, which has been discussed and prayed about by our leaders who are called of God, is that we have to get up at 6:30 every morning. Elder Klebingat said, after sharing these scriptures with us, "That's the God you pray to every night. Why wouldn't you want to get out of bed at 6:30?"

Listen, y'all. I know life is hard. But God can literally hold the world and worlds in His hands, yet He knows you personally. Pray to Him.

I know this gospel is true with all my heart. I didn't come here to lie.

Pray daily.

Love,

Sister McKay

1. Dad. You should live here.

2. Shout-out to my lil bro!

3. Not-too-uncommon thing to see around here.