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