August 26, 2012Dear Family and Friends,
We hope you all have had a great week!  Thank you  so much for the emails—we love hearing from home!  We hope all of our kids and their families are doing well.  I know school is starting this week for Travis and Michelle’s family in Wyoming—which means the sports marathons begin again for them!  What great young men they have!   Mike and Kirsten’s Charlie is starting the 1st grade.  Seems impossible.  And the last time we talked to Jared and Brittany’s Ethan, he was talking up a storm…..so cute.  They only have a few months left before they have their second boy!    Steven and Rachel have moved back in our home in Pocatello with Scott and Seren.  Scott is teaching seminary again this year, and Seren has a job with her speech pathology.  Steven is going to school in Twin Falls, getting his masters in Social Work, and Rachel just graduated with her nursing degree and I believe will be furthering her schooling as well there in Pocatello.     How we miss  all of you!!! 

It has been a busy week  again here in the mission.  We just got back from speaking at a fireside for the Murfreesboro YSA.  Some of you may know Elder and Sister Rhoades from Chubbuck, who are spearheading the Singles Program there.  There were only about 5 YSA members when they started out with the program and tonight there were over 30 at the fireside!  They are doing a tremendous job and making things happen overnight!  It is an exciting process to witness!

This morning we spoke in sacrament meeting and did a presentation in their combined RS/Priesthood in Hartford, KY.  We had to leave by 7:00 am this morning to get there, but it was such a beautiful drive!   It was fun to take all 5 girls with us for musical numbers.  They sang in sacrament meeting and again in the combined meeting.   When President was speaking, he mentioned that he was from Inkom, Idaho.  Afterwards a man named Blane Pieper  came up and said that his niece  married a man from Inkom, Idaho.  I knew we would HAVE to know who it was.  He said his niece, Jill  married Matt Palmer  and they are now living in Wisconsin.  I, excitedly told him that we were related to Matt and that I even remember when they got married and going to their wedding reception there in Inkom!  I told them about Carolyn and Clair Davis and how they had come to stay with us in the mission home on their way home from their mission.  Then as we got talking further, he said that his father had been a stake president in Rigby, Idaho.  My parents lived in Rigby for several years but it was before I was born, so I didn’t figure I would  know of any connection.  But then when he told me his father’s name was  Henry Pieper, I vaguely remember my Mom and Dad talking about a President Pieper.  Then I told him my dad’s name was Lyle Petersen.  His face lit up and he said, “I knew Lyle Petersen”.  The interesting thing was, that my dad and another  Lyle Petersen lived on the same street.  It was the other Lyle Petersen that he knew and he knew their children really well. Small world!  His son had served in the Pocatello Idaho mission (they said he had served in Chubbuck)  and was the AP for President Colton and the previous mission president as well.  What a small world!!!

We had a “Train theTrainers”  meeting on Wednesday, where we brought in all of the missionaries who are new to the mission in the past 3 months and their trainers and have a full day training.   It was a large group—almost 60 missionaries.   (It feels like WAY more than that when you prepare food for that many!)  As a whole group, we talked about the difference between DOCTRINE, PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATION. How the Doctrine answers the “why”, the principles answer the “what” and the application answers the “how” of the gospel.  We refer often to Pres. Packer’s quote on pg. 19 of PMG, “True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior.  The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior”.    I talked to them about 1st impressions and learning how to visit with people!”  I told them that they had a disadvantage in that their generation learned to visit with people through the use of their thumbs instead of their mouths, and that it is SO important to learn to talk to people. 
After that, we divided the group up with the trainers in one room and the new missionaries in another.  They listed on the board  the things they love about their trainers / trainees   and critique that would help their companions be better.  Then we bring them back together and talk about the issues.  It is really helpful, because no one really knows who brought up what, but it is a safe enough place that things can be talked about.  We also did some other experiential activities with them that , hopefully, bonded the group.  It was a great day.

Yesterday there were 9 baptisms in the mission. We had the opportunity to go to Shelbyville,  about 1 ½ hours to the south of us to a baptism of a family. The Elders asked if our  girls would sing the musical number, so it was a great opportunity to attend!    A couple and their teenage daughter were baptized.  What a choice experience that was!!!  The 16 year old daughter had been invited to church by her friends.  She said that “she just really liked how she felt and how she was treated while she was there”.  That was all it took.  As she continued coming to church, the missionaries began teaching her and then the mom and dad listened in to the lessons.  They loved what they heard  and were “hungry “ for the gospel from the beginning.  We had some incredible elders who taught them and made it all so special for them!  That is what it is all about!  It was just awesome!  We got a report that they got confirmed today and he received the priesthood.  Pres. Crawford, the McMinnville Stake President spoke and said, “Do you realize that there are probably 1.000 people getting baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today, and you make up 3 of that number?”  They just glowed!!!!!
We are preparing for zone conferences starting next week.  We are still basking on the words of Elder Kopischke who was here a few weeks ago.  It was such a remarkable training he gave.  I think he touched many of our missionaries by his message.

Kylie will be here for only another week, then it will be back to BYU-Idaho.  We have so enjoyed having her here.  They have done a lot of singing while she has been here and we have loved every minute of it.  Angie is still doing her online school.  She works everyday nannying a little girl after school into the evening.  She goes out with the missionaries every chance she gets.  Aubrey is into her sophomore year this year and I think school is going much smoother this year for her and for all of them. She loves to go out with the missionaries as well.  Kiara is really growing up.  What’s worse is that she has started mentioning boys much more than she ever has before and worrying about what she looks like!   She went to her first football game the other night---I’m pretty sure to watch a boy!  And Destini is really loving school this year.  This is her last year at Scales so they are the top-dogs at school!!!  

Here are ourTNM  Missionary Miracles:1)  This past week has been great.  Yesterday when we set dates with that family I was so excited and filled with gratitude.  My heart has become alot bigger and there is alot more room for gratitude and I am definitely feeling it.  But we were teaching them the cups lesson and the spirit was super strong.  We committed them to be baptized and the kids jumped up and said "YES! I want to get baptized!"  it was impossible for their mom to resist saying yes to after her kids were so enthused about it.  Saturday we went to the temple with the Adams family who was recently baptized and they had a great experience.  They were so fascinated with the process of someone who had passed away receiving the saving ordinances.  I am grateful to have been able to experience that with them.  I got to do some confirmations and it was the first time I had done that and that was a super cool experience too.  Things are going great here and the work is moving forward.

 2 Elder Kopischke's visit was amazing wasn't it?  Just what I needed.  We were so happy Tuesday night, after being extremely discouraged that our progressing investigators wouldn't commit to baptism, we were able to meet with 2 of them in 1 day and we set a date with  both of them!  The most amazing experience happened with one of them as we were sitting and talking with her about the Word of Wisdom, and we asked her if she knew the vision that Joseph Smith had was true (she had been taught a year before and struggled with Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon) and she sat there and smiled and said "Yes, I finally got my answer that it's true."  It was the greatest feeling my companion and I.
He is a wonderful companion and I am enjoying serving with him a ton!  We are definitely working hard and really seeing the fruits of our labors FINALLY!  It's been great. 

Have a great week y’all and remember the great blessings that come from living the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We testify of the truthfulness of the message that the missionaries take into the lives of the people here in Tennessee.  It is true!!!  Jesus IS the Christ and He lives!!!  How grateful we are for a living prophet who guides and directs us daily!  How grateful we are for the Book of Mormon—truly my favorite book of all times!!!   Pray about someone whose lives would be enriched if you were to give them a copy---and then do it!!!   We love you all!

Sincerely,
President & Sister McKee,  Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma, Bill & RaNae……
Kylie, Angie, Aubrey, Kiara and Destini

August 19, 2012Hello to our dear Family and Friends,
It has been a great week here in Tennessee!  The kids all completed their very first week of school this week (which includes all of the back to school orientation nights, etc.   AND……and it was our official first week of early morning seminary again for the year.  I don’t think any of us (certainly not ME!)  have missed getting up at 5:00 am, but it is a good thing and we are grateful to have a seminary program here that is only about 3 miles away from our home. 

About a week ago, I got an email from my 1st cousin, Barre & Karen Burgon’s  (who live in Ogden , Utah) daughter, Stacey & her husband , Blake Nemelke who have moved here to Nashville while he attends school at Vanderbilt.  They have a newborn baby and  wrote  to let us know they were here now living in Nashville.  I was SO excited to hear from them and was hoping to be able to meet them but figured it would probably be months before we actually met up with each other.  They live in the Bellevue ward which attends our building but meets earlier than we do. But, today at church they were there and we got a chance to meet them.  What a sharp couple and a darling baby!!!  I told them I may have to come over to visit to get my “baby fix”.  It is fun to think we live in such a small world—especially within the church. 

Because we didn’t have any official trainings or transfers this week, we were able to go out and spend a little  one-on-one time with the missionaries in some companionship studies and then to some district meetings.  That’s always a treat to be able to meet with them on a little more personal basis and to see how well they truly understand the concepts of missionary work.

We had an unusually great experience this week, as we had the privilege of having Elder Kopischke from the 1st Quorum of the Seventy here to speak to our missionaries.  We picked him up at the airport on Thursday night and got a chance to visit with him that evening a bit before we started into our mission tour the next day.  Elder Kopischke is from Germany and has recently been called to be an assistant to Elder Gonzales who is the General Authority over 19 missions here in the south. He has been called from the Area Presidency in Europe to come to serve in America. He called us from Germany and said that he looked at the 19 missions that he would be serving over and the spirit told him to come and visit our mission on the way to his area meeting in Memphis.  It was such a great experience to learn from him.

We met with all 175 of our missionaries in two different groups.  He asked if the girls would sing at both of the meetings so Aubrey was delighted to  miss a day of school for the occasion! ;)  Kiara and Destini didn’t dare miss a day of school yet.  He started each meeting by asking all of us  to take a couple of minutes and write down a couple of questions we have, that might be weighing on our mind, to which we would like to receive an answer.  He told us that what we were doing was writing the agenda for the meeting.  He then very powerfully promised us that if we “listened” during the meeting, that those questions would be answered—NOT BY HIM—but by the Spirit.  He told us not to take minutes of the meeting, but to take “Spiritual Minutes” of what the Spirit was teaching us. We then proceeded with the meeting, I spoke briefly, then President did a great training, and the remainder of the time (this was a 3 hour meeting) was taken by Elder Kopischke.  He was wonderful!.  He did this in both sessions, but both meetings were totally different.  In the first meeting he ended up answering some of the questions that missionaries had for him which was VERY enlightening.  In the second session, he did some role plays with the missionaries in teaching them different ways to approach people about the gospel.   And at the end of both meetings, he asked for a raise of hands as to who had gotten their questions answered during the meeting and  80-90% raised their hands.  He told us to use this concept while inviting friends to church---to invite them to write down any questions they might have and then to promise them that they would be answered as they come to church.  It was powerful.

He tells the story about how his parents who  were LDS were living in East Germany decided that they would risk their lives or risk imprisonment rather than raise their family without the gospel. They boarded a train with no paperwork. His mother was 7 months pregnant with him. When crossing the border the border patrol (Communist) stopped the train and started pulling people out who did not have papers. They could hear people screaming in the car ahead and the car behind. When the officer came to their car he was suddenly distracted and the train moved across the border taking them to freedom. He has served as Branch President, District President, Area Presidency and now in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy. His life has been full of opportunity and miracles. He is truly a man of faith. (wm)

Elder Kopischke has 7 children and he and his family  just moved to Salt Lake from Germany.  He has one son in the MTC right now who is going to Greece.  I thought OUR  move was difficult with children, but he has a set of 17 year old  twins that are somewhat challenged and trying to adjust not only to learning English, but fitting into the Utah school system. They reside in Farmington.  He told us of some challenges they have had.  He was so down to earth! We gave him the choice to go to a restaurant after we went home or to just stay here at home and fry some hamburgers.  He wanted to just stay home with the family and relax.  He was so much fun as he teased and interacted with the girls.  He taught them to say “ ich dab leib schleib ” which means “I have love for you”  and they have been saying that ever since. Unfortunately he had to be to the airport by 6:30 am on Saturday morning, so we weren’t able to spend very much time with him, but he will be at our Mission President’s Seminar in October so we are looking forward to that!

On Saturday, I took the girls back over to Centerville to record some more songs with Jim Troutner. He has been so good with the girls, I just know that before we are done, we are going to get him to come to church or listen to the missionaries.    It has been so great having Kylie here and we are hoping that they can do a few more recording sessions before she goes back to Idaho. She has been such a great help and support to me, as are ALL of the girls.  I couldn’t do what I do without them!!!!  

President made a trip over to Murfreesboro where he had to speak at a baptism yesterday afternoon and then again at one later in the day in Smyrna.   We have had quite a few dates called in again for this month and September. We are always looking for way to teach our missionaries to be a little more bold, yet sensitive in inviting people to hear the gospel. 
We had a lesson on Wednesday evening  with a young man in the mission home with the missionaries in our area. We had another family  over for dinner tonight where the father is not a member.  Angie actually did the entire dinner by herself!!!    This man is a full-on Church of Christ man and comes from generations of Mormon haters.  We were excited that he would even come over—knowing who we are and what we represent.  We had a delightful discussion—as we asked him much about his faith, and came to a conclusion that there were actually many similarities in our religions.  We ended up with the girls’ singing and it brought the Spirit SO beautifully into the room.  Before long, we were all singing hymns around the piano and it was evident that they felt comfortable because they stayed around for a few more hours just talking! 

President spent the day in Paris TN on Wednesday working with Alvin Travis  our minister that is committed to baptism. His live wife just found out that her divorce is not final from a previous spouse and will not be able to meet before a judge until Sept 19th. He is so determined to get baptized but does not have another home for her to live in so we are working on several projects there. He went out with us to teach other investigators and they love him. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. He knows that it is true but now has no job since he was asked to leave his congregation. Satan is fighting him every step of the way but I know that he will make it as he commits to this new life change. We take so much for granted as members of the church. Those who are newly baptized go through so many sacrifices with family and friends and even work at times. We also have a Presbyterian minister coming up from Columbia next week to the Mission Home for dinner and FHE. HE is reading the Book of Mormon and loves it. If we can just get people to read and pray about the Book of Mormon they receive strong testimonies about this wonderful witness of Jesus Christ. They have been programmed for so many years that this Book is evil that most will not even read this record of Jesus Christ. Those who read and pray are so touched by the spirit because the people here are such spiritual people.

We are still teaching a group of Swahili up in Bowling Green. Two of the fathers have been baptized and 11 others are preparing to be baptized. They love the Book of Mormon . They are such a spiritual group of people. I handed a Book of Mormon to a woman on Saturday and said “if you will just read these 34 pages of what Christ said to the people he visited in America and pray about it you will know that it is true. I then wrote my number down and said, “Just be sure and invite me to your baptism after you do this.” She looked at me and smiled and said,”Ok I will do that.” The Sisters will be teaching her this week. Two of our missionaries were on the front page of the newspaper with the nicest article this week in Winchester, TN.(wm)

Some Missionary Miracles:1)  One of the young women in the ward has been bringing her 15 year old friend Layla, to church with her for then past month or so. Layla has absolutely loved it, including young womens' activities and so on. Her love for the newly found church sparked an interest in her mother Jamie! Well this past Wednesday, Jamie agreed to meet with us at the church during mutual activities. That night we taught her and Layla about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The spirit was present and then we posed the question, "Will you follow the example of your Savior Jesus Christ, by being baptized on the 25th of August?" Layla smiled and nodded her head in aggreance. Then Jamie said softly, "Yes. Yes I will." Layla jumped with glee and hopped into the arms of her mother. They hugged each other, smiled and laughed, and shed many tears.

Jamie later informed us that she and her daughter were living with Jamie's boyfriend named Derrick Newstead. She told us, "Well he's not particularly interested in what you guys teach. He's a former member of the Jehovas' Witness. But he is supportive of whatever we choose to do. On Friday night, Derrick agreed to allow us into their home to have the next lesson. To our amazement and excitement, Derrick is the man! He's very nice, treats us like a couple of Bros, and has a burning testimony of his Savior. We felt that it would be appropriate to teach the Gospel of Christ with them that night. We taught about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Derrick surprisingly was very interested and there seemed to be a light in his eyes as we discussed these eternal truths. A prompting came to both myself and Elder King. It was clear and concise, "Commit him to be baptized." So we rolled with it! We asked Derrik if he had taken upon himself a baptism that was like unto Christ's. He told us pf how he left the Jehovah's Witness and was baptized in the Baptist church about 6 years ago. He explained without hesitation, "I know I need to be baptized again. The last time I did it, it just didn't feel right. I didn't do it for the right reasons. I want it to be a more fulfilling and special experience."

Elder King and I looked at each other and we had the "green light" to go. We committed him, "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" With confidence he said, "Yes."

Immediately Jamie and Layla looked surprised and shocked. Jamie turned to Derrik and asked with a shaken voice, "Really?" He then assured her and said with a smile, "Yes. This feels right."

The Spirit was so strong, that everyone in the room burst into tears, including the missionaries. At this moment the Spirit bore a special witness to me personally that this Gospel is a joyous one. That it truly blesses families and brings us all closer together as brothers and sisters of a loving Heavenly Father. We have a little over 2 weeks to get Jamie and Derrik married, but I know that they will do everything it takes to seal the deal and enter the waters of baptism. This church is true, and when people feel that, they are willing to do anything it takes to unite themselves with it.


2-  We  have been very blessed by the Lord this past week. Many things have come together that made last week great. Our baptismal date, Thomas, is progressing faster than I have ever seen before on my mission. He is literally a lesson ahead of us every time we visit him and he is on Mormon.org every single day to read scriptures and articles. His thirst for the Gospel grows every day and he will be ready for baptism this Saturday. We did the Stop Smoking Workshop with him and he has flawlessly followed it and now seems to be completely done with smoking!

We have such STRONG testimonies of this restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  May we just share that with each of you as we close this email.  Jesus Christ lives today.  We know that!  He is our Savior, our Redeemer and our advocate with the Father.  He is there for each one of us. HE KNOWS US  and He loves us.  We know he has sent down prophets to earth, not just in days of old, but today as a way of being able to communicate those things that are important.  It was so thrilling to be able to watch just the last few minutes of President Monson’s birthday party the other night.  What a great man, who LIVES what he believes!!!  The Book of Mormon is such a great book---I can’t imagine not reading out of it every single day of my life!!! 
We love you all and thank each of you again for your great love and support to each of us.  We love hearing those great notes from home---even if we don’t get you answered!!!  We read them and they warm our hearts!!!  We miss our wonderful family--especially those (almost 11)  grandsons of ours!!!  We are so proud of them in all that they do!!!  .  How we love and admire all that you are doing!!!!!  Please know of our deep love and concern for each of you . 
All our love,
President & Sister McKee,  Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma, Bill & RaNae………….
Kylie, Angie, Aubrey, Kiara and Destini

13. Aug. 2012 Weekly email--

August 13, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Happy August 13th everyone!  We hope you are all healthy, well, and finding much in life to be happy about!  It has been a great week here in the mission.  We have had good weather, even a little rain, warm, but not too extremely hot temperatures, and overall it has been great!  The bright hot pink and red Crepe Myrtle Trees are in full bloom now and it is a gorgeous time of year here in Brentwood.

We started the week out with transfers!!  Just that word alone makes me tired!!!  We received 8 new missionaries, 3 new elders and 5 sisters.  We usually only get a few sisters with a lot more elders.  We normally put the sisters upstairs in our guest room with the elders downstairs in the missionary rooms, but because we had so many sisters, they got the beds downstairs and the elders had to sleep on the floor in the front room. 

It is always amazing to me how young these new missionaries seem.  They all arrive after leaving the MTC at about 3:00 am that morning, so we know they are not only dead tired, but starving as well. And they all seem to have that “deer in the headlights” look as they wonder what is going to be happening to them!  They are so easy to love though.  We tell them we first start loving them the minute we get their pictures from the website in Salt Lake….and  it’s true.  We do. 

  We picked them up from the airport, took them to the mission office to meet our “office angels” and brought them home and fed them right away before we did any training. Our two new assistants, Elder Payne, from Centerville UT, who has been  an assistant a whole transfer (6 weeks) , and Elder Adams from Sacramento CA who just barely came in as an AP  one day ago were awesome as they organized the whole week and made sure everything ran smoothly..  Elder Hill, a great missionary who has been  an AP since May, was sent out to be a trainer for his last two transfers here in the mission.  Time goes by so very quickly in the mission. 

It was, again, a very emotional week, as we sent home 11 of some of our most outstanding missionaries.  It us SO hard to see them leave!  Every transfer it seems like it just gets a little bit harder---maybe because we have known and worked with them a little bit longer.  Five of our missionaries had their parents come out to pick them up, with some with siblings as well.  We ended up having 40 that evening for dinner and also for the testimony meeting afterwards.  We may have to change what we have been doing as we don’t have near enough room to do that at the mission home.  And, we found out that the lady who usually does my transfer dinner for me , lost her 96 year old mother on Monday, so fortunately her sweet daughter came through and prepared it with only a day’s notice. 

It was a fun and  very short night as the girls instigated some games and we all sang Broadway songs around the piano until the early hours of the morning.  We had to leave to be out to the airport by 6:00 am so it was, indeed a very short night.  (It was more like a nap!) 

There are so many changes that happen during transfers.  The whole system has to be updated by President McKee, changing companions, addresses, phones, etc. as he enters all of that into the computer so that not  only this mission has the information, but Salt Lake as well.  That takes quite a while and has to be done immediately after we get back from the airport. 

President also had to take a trip to Paducah on Thursday.  Because school started on Friday, he took Kiara, Angie, and Destini with him, while I  took the other girls shopping for school clothes and supplies on Thursday. 

Friday marked the 1st day of school for our girls.  It just seems strange to have them get on the school bus while it is still the middle of summer.  Angie is still doing her school on line, while Aubrey started her sophomore year at Brentwood High, Kiara is in the 8th grade at Brentwood Middle School and Destini is in the 5th grade at Scales Elementary.  So …..we start our first day of seminary at 6:00 tomorrow morning!   Hmmmmm……….Yes we love it!!  We still love having Kylie here!

We were very excited to find out that Jan and Cliff Rhoades from Pocatello,  now Elder and Sister Rhoades would be here on Friday afternoon.  We arranged to take them out to dinner and do an orientation with them that evening and then they came over to the mission home to spend the night.  We were grateful they made it when they did, because we had a Couples Conference scheduled for Saturday.  They are an amazing couple and will be working in Murfreesboro organizing the YSA program over there.  They already have a ton of ideas and are excited to get to work.  We couldn’t be MORE thrilled to have them here!  What a blessing they will be!!!  

Our Senior Couples Conference, at the oldest chapel in Tenn.

So bright and early on Saturday morning, we filled the big mission van along with three other cars with 12 of our senior couples and drove 2 ½ hours away to Altamont to have a conference at Northcutts Cove, the oldest LDS Chapel in the South, built in 1909.  We invited President Crawford, Stake President of the McMinnville Stake to come and talk to all of us about the history of the church.  It was such a spiritual experience.  We also drove about 5 miles from that church to the 2nd oldest LDS church which was built in 1944.  It is an old rock structure which was used until 1981 where a large new church was build.  We had a luncheon at the new church and then had a nice meeting that afternoon with all of the couples.  Kylie, Angie, and Aubrey came along to the conference and sang for them that afternoon.  It was a WONDERFUL day.  We have some outstanding senior couples out here in this mission.  Unfortunately we have many who will be leaving in a few months….so,  any of you seniors out there who wants to come to the greatest mission in the world , get your papers filled out  NOW!!!!    We need you!!!

We are excited to know that Elder Kopischke of the 1st Quorum of the Seventy will be here this Thursday to speak to the entire mission on Friday.  Great experiences! 

Pres. and Sis. McKee, Kylie, Angie, and Aubrey at the second

 oldest chapel in Tenn.

MIRACLES:

1)  WE HAD THE MOST WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE LAST THURSDAY!!!! We needed some groceries from the store, so we went to Wal-Mart, but as we pulled in, my companion stopped the car and asked if I felt we should be there at that time and if we should go to the library instead. I said that we could go to the library and come back later. We drove over to the library, to find that it was jam packed, so we made a reservation and just headed back over to Wal-Mart. As we went in, we stopped in the fruit/vegetable section. This wonderful woman that was in a scooter cart paused as she got near us, and said, "Can I just tell you that you two are a couple of the most beautiful girls I have ever seen? You two have the brightest lights in your eyes! I have never seen light like that!" She glanced at our name tags and the first thing she noticed was JESUS CHRIST. She then said,"Oh that explains it, you have Jesus Christ. What church do you all belong to?" We told her, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She replied, "That must be the place to be, because the light in your eyes is just unreal!" We asked her what church she attended, and she said, "I have been going to the... uh..the uh....you know it's the...oh wow, I can't even remember it, haha must not have been that important! I can't get over the light that you two have, it shows, you're just glowing! If I could only have that light!" We told her that she could indeed have it! She said, "Oh good, because I want it!" We asked if she liked to read, and she said yes, so we gave her a copy of The Book of Mormon, and she committed to read it with incredible enthusiasm! We asked her if she would come to church and she said that she would, if she felt she was in good condition. We got her information and put our number inside The Book of Mormon, she responded with, "Thank you so much, this means so much to me." After this encounter, we proceeded to go get our groceries, both of us were completely stunned. Nothing like that had ever happened to either one of us before. We didn't realize that our light was so physically visible! On Saturday morning, she called to tell us that she wouldn't be able to come to church due to not feeling well. My companion was the one speaking to her over the phone and asked her if she had been reading The Book of Mormon, she said that she had AND that she knew it was true! My companion then asked her if she would prepare to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God, she sweetly replied that she wanted to learn more first. This wonderful woman is well on her way to obtaining the light that she saw ever so present in our eyes in a few seconds in the grocery st

2) Things are going great here in Shelbyville. We definitely witnessed a miracle this week as we had 16 nonmembers at church yesterday! It was amazing! This week we witnessed a miracle as we were able to help Sherri return home to her mother, Sue, we had dropped them the previous week because Sue started being very contentious and trying to bah with us, However we kept them in our prayer and prayed for the Lord to soften her heart. The Lord answered our prayers in giving us the opportunity to help the reunite and they ended up coming to church yesterday. What a blessing it was to be able to sit with them during sacrament. I love the work and am having a blast. I love you.

As you can tell, this work we are engaged in is a wonderful work.  We have never been busier,  nor happier.  We come every day to appreciate the gospel of Jesus Christ and especially the Book of Mormon for we know they are true and are the tools that will bring happiness to this world.  We have seen lives change right before our eyes.   As we hear of the miracles .EVERY DAY from the missionaries , we can truly testify of the way the Spirit works in guiding us and helping us become more of what our Heavenly Father wants each of us to become!  

We are grateful for good family and friends back at home who support and love us.  Thank you for your emails and kind words of support.  We love you!!!   Have a great week and share the Book of Mormon with someone you have never thought of giving it to before! 

All our love,

President & Sister  McKee, Dad & Mom, Grandpa & Grandma, Bill and RaNae……

Kylie, Angie, Aubrey, Kiara and Destini