The 2 Hour Project

How is everyone doing on this beautifully gorgeous day of ours? I hope you are all fantastic and thriving! I know I am! Im loving it here in Togo I'm going to see if I can stay for 3 years (for my mothers sake...this is a joke...maybe)

This week we met some fun people, let me tell ya about some! 😁

-a man CONVINCED we were Jehovah Witnesses...we told him we were not about 10 times

- a dude that had the cutest puppy that would lay up against to my legs and try to eat my pants, nice to see a dog act like an American dog and not scared to get hit

- a family outside their house, dad was cleaning the moto and started speaking English to us, and kept complimenting our French and saying "after the mission, you will get a nice Togo wife" to us...

- and finally yoovoo...he was in fact not a yoovoo, if your just joining these emails, yoovoo is an Evé word for "white" we get called yoovoo alot. Anyways we want into this parcel and there was a dude there cooking and an albino dude, we went up and started talking, introduced ourselves, the guy cooking gave us his name (forgot it) and then the albino says "je m'appelle yoovoo🙂” (My name is white) that's all I gotta say about that...

"The two hour project"

I should have known...it never takes 2 hours…I was so foolish!

This member, super nice lady btw, asked us to help her move and only take 2 hours, we said of course! So, the next day we went down to her house on our good old trusty bikes (it was an awful ride...broke my shoes) and we get there, the plan was we were gonna load the car and be on our way to her beautiful new house following on our bikes incase stuff fell...we got there, like nothing was packed, no car in sight and power was out...no fans...no lights...1 half way opened window...not good. So, we started packing stuff and helping, this lady is VIDEOING us!! Talking in Evé in the video laughing and saying "yoovoo" then pointing to the stuff we just packed...home girl huh?? Another guy came to help...they are speaking Evé laughing and saying yoovoo tapping the things we packed and all that...i know they were talking crap! Ooooo if I could speak Evé...or French... Anyways, about 3 hours into this 2 hour project, she comes and says "the car is coming at 5 am tomorrow. Can you be here?" And we go "no we can't, but we can help you unpack at your new house at 3 pm." She said alright and me and Miller rode off into the distance on our bikes. Next day comes around we go help her unpack, she didnt really talk she would point to one of us, then a bag, then to the general direction she wanted said bag...then get mad when we got it wrong...little frustrating but it was a bunch of stuff to unpack so it was good we went! All in all the "2 hour project" spanned over 2 days and took 5-6 hours. It’s never just "2 hours” I should have known, I’ll never be so foolish again!

Anyways, something HUGE that happened this week was Rogers baptism! Pretty sick! Gonna be honest, I didn't do anything for this baptism, he was already on date when I got here. I just taught him a few small things. Still pretty lit! Super happy for him! It was a great service, a few of our friends who have been putting off baptism saw and were asking questions about it so we may have a few baptisms in the furture 😎 Sangura ward is about to explode!

Spiritual thought this week comes from Jacob in the Book of Mormon! Super cool book by the way everyone! If ya don't know what it is, hit me up, i can explain it...only in French though...

I may have already done something like this but I like it so ya gonna hear it again, most of ya don't even read them anyways!

Jacob 5!

It talks about about the olive trees and how there is tame and wild olive trees and the master and the servent are taking care of them and all that (go read it, explains it better!) Now we know the master thats God, the servant I see that as us missionaries (surprise everyone is a missionary even if ya not set apart) and God is giving us commitment to serve others and "tend the trees" of the world and try to help others come unto Christ, pretty lit huh! I want to focus on one thing though, the master of the vineyard didn't tell the servant to do something then go sit in his nice air conditioned house and drink a coke! He went and worked with the servant, a lot of times people ask "how do you see Gods hand in your life?" But He isn't sitting on a beach with sunglasses on drinking an ice cold drink, stretching his hand to us here as we serve Him. He is right beside us, working with us, we may not be able to see Him there but He's there touching the hearts of the people we teach. I can see His spirit there touching these peoples souls as we teach, not just His hand. All of God is with us as we tend to these "olive trees”. I think it’s important to know that as we strive to follow God and keep His commandments and help others come unto Him. He's there working with us, and He is so happy that we have the desire to serve Him, whether in Togo, Germany, Ecuador, Arizona, Nebraska, or literally anywhere in the world (shout out to the people serving there btw) and the coolest thing is, you don't have to be a set apart missionary to serve God, you can serve him in so many ways! By teaching, bearing testimony, or helping people throughout your day! God is right there beside you as you serve, and He is so so happy to be with you and that person! Go out and serve y'all, go help someone with literally anything!

Sorry that was long, but I love Jacob 5, the BOM video for it is also pretty cool!

Anyways love you all so much! Go serve people! It will bring joy into your life!

Be safe and buckel up!

Love,

Elder McKee

Sneaky Lesson Photo