"See that you serve Him with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength."

Dear Friends and family,

“A marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men. Oh ye that embark in the service of God , see that you serve Him with all of your heart, might mind and strength”. D &C 4

The Lord knew what would happen in this dispensation as the gospel was restored to this earth. He talked to us in the 180’s about how a marvelous work would come forth but little did we know what He has in mind and little do we know what will happen in the future. It is so imperative that we listen to a modern day prophet and be guided by his counsel. When I served as a missionary ( several years ago) there were around 25,000 missionaries and the church had around 3 million members. Today that marvelous work is taking place and there are more than 80,000 missionaries and over 15 million members of the church. The Lord is witnessing to many of the truthfulness of this work. What a blessing to be part of this wonderful teaching moment and to work together to give our ALL as we prepare for His return.

Our daughter Kylie spoke in sacrament meeting today in preparation for her departure to join this 80,000 rank as she prepares to go to the San Diego ( Mormon Battalion ) Mission. She will leave on November 6^th. We thank so many of you who came today and so many who support us spiritually, in words, deeds, finances and other personal support. What a gift each of you have been to us . We thank the Lord every day for relationships that we have with you. We were so blessed to see so many of our missionaries today and to feel of your love and commitment to this gospel. We were also blessed to have you come to our home and visit and eat dinner with us. Our home is your home and we hope that you always feel at home there. Kylie, Angie and Aubrey sang today in sacrament meeting and certainly brought the spirit into that meeting. We love our family and love serving with them.

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Angie flew in from Hawaii to open her missionary call and attend sacrament meeting as she tells Kylie goodbye before flying back to Hawaii for school. Angie will be going to Ecquador Guayaquil  mission in February. It will be such a blessing to have them both be out serving at the same time. They are becoming a part of that “marvelous work” in these latter days.

There is simply nothing on the earth today like the missionary  program in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. While serving in Tennessee , there were several leaders from many faiths that requested to duplicate this missionary program. One in particular asked me, “ I think I have this program down now, but how do you motivate your young people to actually leave for two years?” My answer was simple, “They are called by a living prophet and would do anything to support him and the Lord and that’s really hard to duplicate.” He smiled and said, “You have a good point there.”

This missionary program in a miracle on the earth today and it is rare to find anyone who has served a full time mission , that regrets any time that they spent there.. The missionaries all pay their own way, work at a vigorous schedule with little or no free time, and study and learn constantly, testify of Christ all day long with many rejections and still come out smiling. It is by far the “hardest thing that you will ever love”. Most walk away with a stronger commitment to serve and wonderful memories of those special experiences with a testimony that blesses not only their lives but future generations. Our missionary experience in Tennessee certainly was one of our greatest and humbling experiences. I’ll never forget Sister McKee saying to me a few weeks before we left, “ Bill, Do you really think we can do this?”. My response was, “ Of course we cant but He can and He will use common ordinary people like us to assist Him in accomplishing His purpose. We sure love all of you.

Sister McKee continues to progress but now without complications. We discovered this week that two of her stents are not working and are not repairable. She will be going through further testing this week to find out if she could be a candidate for open heart surgery which will include bypass surgery. There is a  possibility that her heart would not be functioning enough to do this  but we will not know for a few weeks. We are going to hold a family and friend prayer this Thursday at 11:00am to pray for healing for her. We so appreciate all of your prayers and faith in the past and would invite you to join in with us if the spirit directs. We sure love and appreciate all of you.

William and RaNae McKee