Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Wow, I really can’t believe that tomorrow will be 2009 and that I will be celebrating it in England! I’m sure that everyone has some amazing plans to bring in the New Year… The St. George McKennas will probably be celebrating by playing a bit on their Wii which was brought by Santa and the parentals will be celebrating the New Year with Fergie tearing up the dance floor as she sings her greatest hits. As for my self I will be bringing in the New Year with the Jackson family (a family in the Middleton ward) and will be watching Prince Caspian for the second time as well as the Work and the Glory! And tomorrow were going to go to the Coopers house (another member family in the ward) and are going to watch the first National Treasure and after that in the evening we are going to met up with the other missionaries in the district and play a game of monopoly to end our are few days of having these rules right! Before I continue on I need to relate a story… Yesterday
was the coldest day of my life it was about -3 degrees with a nasty fog that went through your skin and settled on your bones! Elder Taylor and I had one of those wonderful days when every single appointment you set falls through and you are stuck walking around talking to people you meet on the street who tell you that it is too cold, give you the sticks, and walk away… under such trying circumstances we returned to our flat around 9:10 when we got a text from the guy who lives below us (his
name is Dario and he is a less active in the ward) saying that he had a package that was meant for me! So of course we rush down get the package and as I read who it was from the icy fog that had frozen my heart melted as I realized that the package was from none other then SQ and that it was for Christmas!!! The package is amazing! It has this cool thermal silk stuff that I think looks like Mythral and when I put it on this morning I felt like I was Frodo getting ready to go into battle :), the Olive jumper makes adds a bit of fashion and suave to my proselyting, and as for the CD’s Bruce R. and Holland are my favourite apostles of all time and I can’t wait to listen to there talks! Overall the SQ package was the ultimate finish to an ultimate Christmas! Thank you all so much for making my Christmas in England warm!

Now something that I have to share with you is the story of our new investigator Tina. Tina is a very kind woman in her 40’s with two daughters, she has no belief in Jesus Christ, never read the Bible, and as for God she is sort of in between on weather a supreme creator actually exists. This was the sort of situation me, Elder Taylor, and our fellowshiper John Harvey were in as we began to teach her the Restoration. As we discussed the concept of a loving Heavenly Father her first concern was one that everyone seems to have, ‘if God loves us then why do bad things happen to us’ we resolved the concern, she understood, accepted and we moved forward. The next concept was the idea of prophets, now Tina had no knowledge on what a prophet was, so when we began to describe to her what a prophet’s purpose is we had to take our time and of course the question was asked, ‘well, how do you know that those men in the Bible were prophets and actually held the priesthood of God’ we bore our testimony on how we have pondered these things have asked God and have felt the truthfulness within our hearts, our very beings. She then asked a question that is not frequently asked… she asked why she never has felt that way. We explained that the feeling comes from God and that it is referred to as the Spirit and that we feel it when we discuss sacred things and truths from God. She understood, accepted, and we moved forward. The next thing we talked about was Jesus Christ and the establishment of his church… I tell you right now that the Spirit of God was in that room, as Elder Taylor, John Harvey, and myself bore witness of the miracles of the Savior and of his atoning sacrifice I could literally see the scales of darkness falling from her eyes as the light of the Gospel penetrated the walls that had been built up around her heart over the years. As we finished with this principle I asked her how she felt right now, she responded that she felt ‘different’ and ‘at peace’ I testified to her that those feelings are from God, she looked down at the ground and then lifted her eyes until they met mine and with tears beginning to weld up in both are eyes she answered ‘I know’.

This Gospel is true, and I love every minute I am a missionary for it
Elder McKenna

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

I love you all so much! Thank you all for the wonderful gifts and letters, I can really feel the love and it warms my heart even in the depths of winter! All right, time for a thank you list… Mom and Dad thank you for the shoes (I really needed them) and for all the packages they are all sitting under our make shift Christmas tree… St. George clan thank you for the letters and the goodies, the letters filled my spirit and the goodies filled my belly :)… Zurflueh clan thank you for the HUGE package, I was able to get it this Tuesday, I got all the goodies and that little tree is really cool… £$”%$£^ clan thank you for the love and the letters and the package… Huston clan thank you for not being mad that I didn’t get you anything but I will get you guys some stuff, so don’t sell it on E-Bay! And thank you for the letters, pictures, prayers, and love… Chelsey thank you for the letter and those jokes are probably the nerdiest things that I have ever read, but they made me giggle. Overall, thank you all for making winter wonderful.

Now, I can’t believe that it snowed in Las Vegas! So much so that they actually had to close down school! That had to be the coolest thing ever for the Las Vegas munchkins! And I also can’t believe that Chelsey had her flight cancelled, flew to Dallas, and they lost Katie dog along the way! But just like any good mom Chelsey persevered and Katie dog was located :). And as for animals it would seem that Jack is enjoying his holiday season and that Jenni is beginning to develop a love for the great Charlie the Chinchilla (which I knew would happen eventually because you can’t not love Charlie :))! And as for the Huston McKenna’s it would seem that the filming spirit stays strong as the relief society is thinking about what kind of movie they can do! (yes, everyone is making movies!). Overall, everyone just seems very busy with the holidays (just like everyone I stop on the street :( ) and excited for Santa Clause to pay everyone a visit!

As for Christmas over here on this side of the pond I will be spending it with, crazy members, fun missionaries, and lots of holiday food :). The best thing this Christmas will be opening all of your presents, but the next best thing will be watching the CHRONICLES OF NARNIA, BOTH OF THEM! The mission president is allowing us to watch The Lion the Witch and Wardrobe, Prince Caspian, National Treasure one and two, Miracle of 31st street, polar express, and all 3 of the work and the glory! It is going to be the coolest Christmas EVER! I haven’t even seen Prince Caspian (since it came out while I was on a mission)! I am so excited I can’t even stand it the one thing that I miss the third most (family and friends being the first two) is MOVIES and now I get to watch some! IT IS AWSOME! But that is my Christmas and New Years goal… to watch all of those movies on the days that the mission president is going to
allow it (which is Dec. 24, 25, 26 (which is Boxing Day in England), 31, and Jan. 1)!!!!!!!!! IT IS SO ACE! So basically all of my plans for the Holidays is to make sure that I see every single one of those movies! and you know what, even though I get to have all of these wonderful things I have to admit that there is nothing better then serving Jesus Chirst and our Father in Heaven! They do live and love us and this is why we celebrate this time of year... we celebrate Chirst's birth because of his life and what a life he lived! Well, I love You all and I hope you have a merry little Christmas!

P.S. The Christmas call will be at 3 o’clock in England so I think that is like 7 or 8 in Utah, so I’ll call Timette’s number! I look forward to speaking to you all!

YOU GUYS ROCK

My loving family,

You’ve done so well… letters in the post, E-mails filling my inbox, and Christmas gifts galore! Thank you so much for all that you have done and I can now forgive you for completely forgetting me two weeks ago :).

There is just so much to write about back home… mom and dad had a wonderful time in Hawaii and mom is now going to be a temple worker! The Zurfluehs had an amazing experience in Disneyland, Timette is planning the best Christmas party in the history of her ward, Jeff and family are playing lots of football and having fun, Tatum, Afton, and Cate are still going to grow up cure cancer (along with Chelsey) and then rule the world with there brain power, and Chelsey is making her way home with Katie dog to celebrate the holidays! Overall things seem to be going very well and the holidays sound like their going to be loads of fun!

I have to apologize for not writing an E-mail last week (it wasn’t because I wanted to get back at all of you for forgetting about me)… last week was transfers and I now have a new son, but because I had to go all the way down to a place called Wythenshawe to meet my new bouncing baby boy (who is about 6’2 and weighs roughly about 225 Lb. the guy is a giant but at least he is a BFG :) and I didn’t get back in time for E-mails last Wednesday so I wasn’t able to write anything. But it was nice that you were all worried about me :). These past two weeks have been truly filled with the Spirit and I have had the opportunity to be a part of some amazing miracles but unfortunately I don’t have much time today because I have to take care of some District stuff so I thought I would just share a funny story that happened to Elder Taylor on his second day out in the field… We went to go teach this girl named Cat who is the girlfriend of one of the members in the ward by the name of Josh. So we go over to Josh’s flat to teach the restoration and this being Elder Taylor’s first time he really didn’t do much teaching but instead just listened, except at the end when I turned the lesson over to him so20that he could share the experience of Joseph Smith and he got so nervous that he accidentally kicked his glass of water all over Cat’s shoes (it was so funny I had to try so hard not to laugh)! I wish I could write more but there is no time! Love you all

Elder McKenna

P.S. Trent I'm your secret santa and I didn't get you anything I STINK I'm so sorry I'll try to get something in the post soon!

ALOHA

Aloha!
Things seem to be going great over on the other side of the pond as mom and dad head off on an adventure in Hawaii for moms big 30 :)… well… I’m not going to lie I didn’t get one E-mail today except two very short ones from mom and dad so this part is going to be short since I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING THAT IS GOING ON! I DON’T KNOW HOW IT IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE POND! YOU MIGHT HAVE ALL DIED IN A FREAK ACCIDENT FOR ALL I KNOW! I hope you have all learned your lesson from this and next Wednesday you will send your brother some love in E-mail form :(.

I guess it’s good that you didn’t E-mail me because there really has been quite a lot that has happened this week. First things first, It is FREEZING over here in England, they have gotten more snow in Manchester then they have in the past 45 years, the snow has reached about 3 inches and at night it freezes over with temperatures like -4 Celsius! I AM SO COLD! But, I am now a licensed driver in the UK! I finally passed my practical driving test and they are sending me my UK licence! HOW COOL IS THAT :). And there can only be one thing cooler then passing a UK practical driving test and that is the baptism of Christian Leikinge (AKA Miguel) who was baptised November 29 and confirmed a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints on November 30 2008! The baptism was a wonderful experience but I have to say that there were a few things that I wish didn’t happen… The first being that the baptismal font’s water was scalding hot! When Christian and I went to get in, we couldn’t, it was just too hot! And so we had to wait while they took huge pots of freezing cold water and threw
the water into the font to cool it down! It was basically the most embarrassing thing ever! And then when I thought things couldn’t get any more embarrassing… when I baptised Christian I told him that he was going to have to basically baptise himself (Christian weighs 210 lbs. and is about 6’1) because he was just to big, so I told him that when he went down he needed to keep his knees locked and basically just fall back in the water and then bring himself back out of the water and I would just steady him as he did so. So that was the plan, but when I finished what I needed to say Christian went down easy enough, but when he got under the water he basically just pushed off and let his legs go limp! There was no way that I could lift a 210 Lb. giant out of the water or even stop him from flying into the side of the font… when he came out of the water he was rubbing his head and I asked him if he was alright, he told me that he was and then he said, “Elder McKenna, it is done, thank you so much” and he gave me a huge 210 Lb., 6’1, bear hug. All though the baptism was probably the worst baptism that I have ever seen and or heard of, the spirit that was felt when he
was finally baptized was so strong that all thoughts of how horrible it was faded away… Baptism truly is a requirement of the Lord, as Christ himself said, “Unless a man be born of water and of the Spirit he can not enter into the Kingdom of God”. I know that the Lord was happy with Christian’s decision, and I am so grateful for the blessed opportunity it has been to be a part of Christian’s life. Jesus Christ does live, and he does love us, I know that he did appear to Joseph Smith with God the father, that he called Joseph Smith to restore his true church in all of its fullness, I know that the priesthood is the authority to perform sacred ordinances such as baptisms and I know that it has been restored to the church and is now with in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! I love you all so much and I hope that you are all still alive :).

Love,
Elder McKenna

P.S. I sent Audrey’s birthday package about 3 weeks ago, could you give me notice when it arrives so that I know that it made the journey safely :).

P.P.S. This Christmas it would be ace if you could send me a pair of shoes from Rock Port, if you got the same pair I have now it would be amazing! I’m wearing the Rockport waterproof shoes, in a size 8 ½ M with those cool shoe sole things on the bottom. :)