Week 48 - Hurricane Harvey

Hey Everyone! So ya, Elder McKeon here! 

Hurricane Harvey survivor! Well currently hurricane Harvey endurer cuz its still going on hahaha! This week has been one for the books in my life, hahah! Harvey hit as a category 4 hurricane just south of our mission. The rain is so intense. The word is stronger than I have ever seen. It rains sideways! hahaha! 

We have, as an entire mission, been stuck in our apartments for the last 4 days! Some missionaries have been moved to other apartment and others to member's homes. Elder Cass and I have been able to stay in our apartment. Our complex has really good run off, so we are not flooded, just every street around us. You all can only imagine how bored we have been just sitting there doing nothing hahaha! I have almost finished reading the New Testament. We have been on conference calls with our mission president every day and he has been giving us updates on the Storm and what's to come in the next coming days! He also has been letting us know that we need to be ready to help rebuild Houston! So I guess you can say I am way ready for that! Sorry for the short email! Gotta be quick! 

I love you all! 

Elder McKeon 

PS don't worry I am okay no flooding immediately around me so I am okay! Others all around the area are not okay, so please send your prayers their way! 

PSS Our mission President is being evacuated from his home as I write this. Frustrating to just sit here and do nothing! I'm sure there will be a lot for us to do whiniest over. I think my mission has just changed to a service mission. 

Stuck in the apartment complex office 

See, no flooding on our complex

The sky lit up by Lightning

Elder McKeon - Hurricane Ready

Our fridge full of water

Planner covers

Week 47

Hi people! Another great week here in sunny side! 

This week has had some crazy ups and downs. We dropped all of our investigators this last week because they weren't progressing. Sad we had to do that, but 'Faith to drop - Faith to find!' 
We have 2 investigators right now who are on date to be baptized.  One being Arturo and the other is our new investigator Ariel! He is the man! He just wants to change and better his life and he knows that he can do that with the gospel. He is just eating up all of the messages we share with him. 
Arturo is still progressing very well! Working towards September 2nd to be baptized! The work has been very good! 

We had interviews with President this last week too and, as always, those were awesome! Pres is the man!  Transfers are coming up! We will see what is happening with me; if I'm gonna stay in beautiful Sunny Side or if I'll be leaving! 

Man, I love this gospel and I love being able to share it everyday with new people! If you haven't read the Book of Mormon, READ IT!! That book is the truth! If you don't have a copy, there are a lot of friendly missionaries out there that would love to share a copy with you! 

I love you all! 

Elder McKeon 

The Italian job - missionary version 

just goofy pics in the car haha

Beautiful Sunny Side

Week 46

Hi everyone! 

Another super week here in the great area of Sunny side! 

Nothing to crazy this week except for this insane service we did on Thursday! From the text we were thinking it was gonna be some food/kitchen thing but, man, were we wrong!!! It was some party for the Honorary Mayor of Sunny Side! Let's just say the pictures will explain what we got ourselves into. PINK! It was insane! I got hit by an older black lady with her cane and she goes "Oh sugar I'm sorry I didn't mean to hit YOU" and in my head I'm like, who were you trying to hit then? hahaha 

Oh, but on Saturday we went to do our usual service but what we did was way more fun than what we normally do. This one worker was cutting up pieces of trees that had fallen and we got to pick them up and stack into this huge pile! haha So simple, but so fun! 

Also had a wonderful Zone Conference this last week. It was on the Holy Ghost and, as always, President knocked it out of the park! So taking notes from Zone Conference, Elder Cass and I had a long day of finding. So we decided to make a list of formers in our area and we said a prayer about where to go. We both had a feeling to go to 2 different people. We went to my person first and they opened the door and it wasn't the people that lived there...But they became very good potentials! Then we went to the next doors that were closest to us and nobody was answering - nobody! So we were like let's go to your person! We went to him and he answered and he became one of our new investigators for the week! His name is Ariel and he is super excited to start learning! So of all the doors we knocked that night sadly nobody opened except for the 2 people that we felt we should go and see. That was a great experience! 

Other than that the week was pretty normal! Arturo is doing really good! We taught him the Word of Wisdom and gave him the pamphlet. Before we were going come see him, he read the pamphlet and was like, well I gotta give up energy drinks, and he gave them up before we even taught the lesson! So he is doing great and is still on date for baptism September 2nd!

Oh, also we got a new car! A 2015 Chevy Cruze! Way better than our 2013 Toyota Corolla! So we retired Chantel, the Toyota and brought Crystal Corona or CeeCee for short, to the mean streets of Sunny Side! - week not really since we can't park her here! 

Love you all! 

Elder McKeon 

Zone Conference - I'm the cute one top right! 

Temple Day last week

The wonderful family that we redid their house! 

Repping  In n Out Cali even out here in Texas! 

When you have the best sister and she sends you some new shoes!

typical missionary desk = million sets of scriptures

The service we were at! It was called "A Cinderella affair"

Week 45

My people! It's your boy Elder McKeon back with a weekly update! 

I've lost track of how many weeks I'm at like 45 or something who knows! Times flying when your killing it! :-)

So this week, man, was Amazing! It was a service filled work week! This wasn't just little service. We remodeled a house and then helped a family move into the house. 

The family we helped are investigators of the other Elders in our district. They had been kicked out of their house and they had a week to be out. They found some piece of junk house and so that's where we came in! We went and just went to work. We cleaned out all the junk in the house!  We cut out moldy walls, dry walled and then we re-painted all of the rooms. Man, was that thing a mess. One room had 5 dogs living in it so we cleaned that all up, ripped up some tile and basically redid the entire house! I felt like my mother's son on that day because I was just doing what my mom did all the time back home! 

On Saturday, we moved them out of there old house, moved their daughter out of her house and moved them all to their new house. We unloaded 2 UHaul trucks and a normal pick up truck. Man did they have some heavy things! ahhhh! They were so happy to have us there. The dad kept calling all of us "mijo" which means my son or my boy! Afterwards, we all sat down like a big family and had dinner and he said "You all are my boys now! We are family if you need anything you know who to call." So man was that amazing!

Friday when we weren't helping them, we had another service moment at a home for cancer patients. I got to carry a lady into her car and it was the saddest thing. I could tell how much pain she was in. Once I was able to get her in the car, she got so happy talking with me. We just sat there at her car talking. She sat there holding my hand the whole time saying "I'm gonna remember you." That just made me feel so good! 

This week was one of those weeks that made me happy to be a missionary and see how just a little bit of service can help change someones outlook. Mine included!

Best week of my mission so far!!! 

I love you all!

Elder McKeon

PS Good luck to my cousin Jimmy!! He goes on his mission this week! See you in 2!

Remodel experts! 

Super sweaty!

This is for you mom!!

Week 44

My people!!! 

Another great week here in the Sunny Side area! This week has been an amazing week in the mission!! 

 Tuesday we had exchanges with the Zone leaders. I was with Elder Akin and he is the man! That day we just were lead by the spirit and everywhere we went was where we were suppose to be. 

Then Thursday we went to the temple and as always, It Was Amazing. 

Then for this week, Elder Cass and my motto has been "leave it all on the field"!!! 

So Friday we were gonna take the bus. When we get to the bus, there is already a bike on the bike rack. We can't take the bus and so we say "well, let's leave it all on the field" and so we bike the 4 miles into the area. YES!!! We have a lesson with a less active and then with our Investigator Arturo. We biked the 4 miles back to the car. We biked like 11 miles that day! 

Friday we met this guy who was like, "Elders, when can you come to my house and teach my family? I am just so confused with religion. I was baptized Catholic but I think it was bad.  It was when I was a baby and I didn't get to choose." We shared the Joseph Smith story with him and now we have a lesson with him tonight with his wife and 3 kids.

Awesome story was Wednesday night... we got done with our English class and the young men were playing basketball. They go 'Hey Elders come play with us." We jumped in (in our shirts and ties) and just absolutely smoked them all! Elder Cass and I were on fire and Bishop was on our team and he was feeling it that night. It was so much fun! 

So it was just an amazing week here in Sunny Side! 

Every day we're spreading that Sunny Side pride and the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Love you all!

Elder McKeon 

temple trip - beautiful day

when you're in the nursery waiting for english class to start, you play with toys

the difference between shined proselyting shoes and regular proselyting shoes -hahaha