Baptism This Week!

This is the first time on my mission that I have met an investigator, taught all the lessons to them, and been there for their baptism!

Stephanie is the bomb. She is so happy and so ready for baptism. She's made positive changes in her life that have been so good for her! She's started glowing!

Glow. The spiritual light which emits from one's countenance when one accepts and implements the gospel into one's life.

This glow is especially prominent after one is baptized and has received the Holy Ghost. I am so excited for her to have that!

This glow is also especially prominent in one who has already had the gospel in their lives but continues to live it. Have you ever noticed someone in church or just one of your friends or coworkers who just... you can't describe it but they just... glow? They look so happy and it's almost like they shine. You can see it in anyone who truly follows Jesus Christ's example.

Will you do one thing for me this week? Say hi to someone you wouldn't normally say hi to, and try to be their friend and get to know them. If it doesn't work, that's okay. But try it. Pretty please?

Love y'all!

Also happy Valentine's Day!

Sister McKay

1. Sister Pitchford and I being us.

2. Stephanie and Nathan (her fiance) being weird with Sister Pitchford and trying to get me to make that face. It really just made me laugh.

3. We got our new GMM shirts! Cuuuute! I love the white. The other ones were black.

Don't Drink from the Sewer

Saying Amen

As missionaries, our number is available online, and sometimes people still text us that don't meet with us anymore. We also currently have "dumb" phones, which means we have to clear out old texts every now and then and therefore don't have any old texts from people saved anywhere as reference. This results in the occasional random text from some unnamed person whose name is not saved in our phone. Sometimes they're absolutely hilarious. Here's our most recent addition (spelling and punctuation preserved).

"Meanwhill back at home does it mean im week if i had turn the other Check Sister? Im not good at saying Amen"

0.0 Umm... No idea. Does it mean one is weak if they turn the other cheek? And what does "amen" have to do with that? Am I good at saying amen?! *crisis ensues*

Yeah, we've been laughing like all week. It's awesome.

Sewers and What Not to Do

Elder Costa of the presidency of the Seventy came to our mission on Saturday. It was a bit of a surprise and we had to drive to Macon, but it was SO worth it! He talked about missionary work and being bold and courageous. He also talked about relying on the Spirit in everything we do. One example is as follows.

Elder Costa had a friend who told him he was struggling with his testimony. He asked if he could meet him in his office to talk. Elder Costa said yes.

When this friend came to his office, he brought a foot-tall stack of papers all about Joseph Smith and why he wasn't a prophet, which he had found on various websites. Elder Costa listened to him for 3 hours and 15 minutes straight.

When he was done, Elder Costa said, "Okay, stop right there. You have just spent 3 hours and 15 minutes telling me about this material. I'm going to respond to you in less than 3 minutes."

He proceeds to bear an extremely simple testimony, and then says this: "Please read the Joseph Smith History published by the Church and ask God if it's true. I prefer to drink out of the living water of the teachings of God's prophets and apostles. Don't drink from the sewer."

Take Elder Costa's advice. Read from the source of truth. If you lived in Joseph Smith's time and wanted to know about Joseph Smith, would you ask someone who lived near him to tell you all about him? Or would you ask Joseph himself? Likewise, in our day we should go to the source. Read from his personal history and look to the sources of truth on the Church website, not all over the internet. I promise you'll be blessed with your own personal testimony if you take the time to read, understand, and pray. And if you have a testimony, but it's struggling, do the same! It will be strengthened.

Don't drink from the sewer.

Sister McKay

Object lessons with families in the ward!

People!

People, people, people.

People are a blessing.

People live on earth.

People are on earth for a reason.

People came to earth because God created people.

People are God's children.

People are my brothers and sisters.

Peoples is peoples... (Yep, that's for the Muppet fans.)

Y'all. We have an investigator who wants to be baptized.

She's on date for February 24th.

She is a person.

She is a blessing.

She is God's daughter.

She is my sister.

Man, I'm excited for her!

..............

Be you. Be true. Live the gospel. Pray.

Love y'all!

Sister McKay

8 Biscuits

Biscuits

A member family here in the Statesboro ward likes to have to missionaries over for lunch every Sunday or so. We're served buttermilk biscuits with white sausage gravy, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. They have many stories of missionaries who have eaten 4 or 5 biscuits and fallen asleep on their couch. Food coma, they call it.

The missionary who holds the record for number of biscuits eaten in one sitting (without breaks) was a 6-foot-something elder who, at the time, weighed... a lot. He held the record at 7 biscuits.

Well, the record was held by him. That is...

Until I broke it.

And had 8.

And then one of the members, Tommy, who is divorced, said, "Why can't you be 20 years older?"

The funny part is that I didn't actually hear him say it at first. I said, "Wait, what?" (Obviously, I was entering the "food coma" stage of this endeavor.) Everyone at the table made a face and reaction that read, "I can't believe you just said that," and his daughter's face turned bright red. As soon as Tommy realized what he'd said and that I didn't catch it, he said, "UMM, NEVERMIND." I looked around, confused, and asked again what he had said, to which the whole table responded, "Nope, you don't need to know! Moving on!" I didn't find out what he said until that night, when my wonderful companion informed me.

I may have freaked out a little bit. All in jest.

............

A 40-year-old man flirted with me.

............

What is life??

The Work

Stephanie. And Punkin. Oh, and Gavin and Ashley.

Let's just say the Lord is blessing us. A lot.

Stephanie. She is an amazing young lady whose boyfriend is a member in Statesboro. She goes to Georgia Southern and loves meeting with us. She keeps her commitments and loves to learn. She's not ready to talk about baptism yet, so pray that she'll get there!

Punkin (yes, P-U-N-K-I-N) is a friend of a member, Heather, who referred her to us. We Christmas caroled to her on Christmas Eve and have been slowly warming up with her. She has been "leaning away" from her church for a while and is thinking about another church. Hopefully we can help her see the light of the gospel!

Gavin and Ashley are super friendly. They're the gators that Sister Pitchford found with Sister Boyer on exchanges two weeks ago. I was finally able to meet Gavin last night (Ashley was busy) and they still want us to come back! Sometimes people say to come back and then are iffy about it. But no. He thinks we're awesome and he wants us to come over when Ashley's home. Ashley likes us and what we do too, so lots of prayers are headed their direction!

I loooooooove the gospel. Y'all have no idea! It has changed my life, and I hope it will change all of yours. The only way to let it change you is to act in faith. That means you need to trust in God and DO something to follow Him.

Act. Change. Believe.

Sister McKay

Our Game

Play Back

We haven't had many investigators in Statesboro recently -- in fact, we've had none at all for the whole time I've been here, until this past week. Yay!

Exchanges. n. The day where we switch around for 24 hours with our Sister Training Leaders (STLs) to get experience with different missionaries, which happens once about every 6 weeks.

On exchanges this time, I went to Pooler, GA, with my amazing STL, Sister Smith. Sister Pitchford and our other STL, Sister Boyer, worked in Statesboro and found two new gators! We're so excited!

Real Time

I am making progress as a person. I'm learning and growing and seeing God's hand in my life on a daily basis. Last week, during personal study, I read Henry B. Eyring's talk, Fear Not to Do Good, from the October 2017 General Conference.

My favorite part of the talk: "Our hearts ... remain changed only as long as we continue to follow the prophet’s counsel. If we stop trying after one burst of effort, the change will fade."

I hope that the change I'm experiencing lasts. I will do everything I can to keep it from fading!

Game Play

I hope you will likewise make a diligent effort to "change" or "repent" every day and to keep that change from fading. Repentance, in its truest and most joyful and beautiful form, is only true repentance if it lasts.

Read the Book of Mormon.

Love,

Me

Myself

Sister McKay

Aaaaand Statesboro

Pronunciation: states-burrow.

A.k.a.: The Boro.

Residents' Common Occupations: Professor/employee or student at GSU (a.k.a. Georgia Southern) or Ogeechee Tech College.

In other words, this is a college town. In fact, yesterday we drove down a street entirely devoted to sorority houses. It was... interesting...

Updates

I'm finally feeling adjusted to my new area. My companion is amazing.

And it snowed this week.

In Georgia.

Like what.

Yes, the south shuts down when it snows. We got 1.75" of snow and all schools and businesses closed. (1.75 inches, people!) Water was gone at the grocery store, along with bread and canned foods. Power outages happened. And we weren't allowed to leave our apartment for 24 hours. We ended up staying in for 2 days because the roads were still icy and I was not exactly intent on driving around ice + crazy-drivers-that-ain't-used-to-snow.

So we built snowmen.

And took pictures.

And I loved it.

We did go a little stir crazy after being in for 48 hours. And the next couple days were rough because the roads froze over again once it got dark, so we went in again. It's not even that cold! It didn't get below 20 degrees on any of these nights! But being in a skirt, plus the humid cold, plus the snow... it was a bit of a damper on the work, let's just say that. But I got to know Sister Pitchford better! And we had fun.

Since I didn't really explain my choice of scripture last time, here's the backstory.

Atheism

While out tracting, we met a man who was previously a member of the church. He let us in and explained to us that he had served a mission in Argentina and had become fascinated with people and what makes them do what they do. He also had lots of time to ponder. These two things which resulted from his mission, he said, led him to his career as a professor in psychology, which, ironically, led him to his atheist belief.

He explained his logic behind his lack of belief in God. I'm not gonna lie, he sounded very convincing.

But here's what happened.

I, like this professor, have much time to think and to ponder.

So I did.

Just like Joseph Smith. (Read Joseph Smith--History.)

You know what happened?

I came to this conclusion: There is no way God doesn't exist!

Imagine gathering a whole bunch of papers, ink, typed documents, etc. and tossing them high into the air. They land perfectly on the ground in the form of an encyclopedia.

The chances of that happening are essentially nothing. (In fact, I'm not a math genius, but I'm pretty sure the chances of that happening are literally nothing.)

So I prayed. And I read the scriptures. The section I was reading that day just happened to include Mosiah 4:9.

"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."

I memorized it during my studies that day.

Y'all, I know without a doubt that God is our Father. He loves me, He loves y'all, and He loves every single person who has ever lived or will live.

Pray.

Love,

Me

(Sister McKay)

No Time

Note from mom/Sarah: I got to chat with Amory on Tuesday but I've been sick and haven't posted this short note of hers until today. It was wonderful to see her over Skype on Christmas! We got to talk for a long while. We chatted about life, the kids showed her their presents, and we asked her how she has changed. She gave some very insightful answers and I really enjoyed seeing how much she has matured personally and spiritually. Picture below of our best Christmas gift!


From Amory:


Sorry, y'all!

Love you!! Happy New Year!

No, I was not awake at midnight.

Read Mosiah 4:9. It helped me a lot this week.

Sister McKay