EMMA!

WELL DONE! It seems that my last rebuke with an outpouring of love was successful, for the E-mails have flowed like water from the skies of England :). And I have to say that I am so grateful for your support even when you don’t write an email I know that you still love and care about me and it gives me strength every time I look at my ring (which has the McKenna Crest) to know that I belong to the best family ever!
I can’t believe that mom has another dog! ‘Emma’ seems to have stolen the hearts of everyone with her cute puppy dog traits, looks, and nature! But lest we forget that there is another dog in the family I would like to just bring to remembrance the quality of the well loved dog named Jack. He can’t stop in the middle of the stairs he has to either go all the way up or all the way down, he can’t swim, he runs into things, he can’t play fetch to well because he losses the ball, and most important of all he’s afraid of the dark. So as we all express love for this new addition let’s not forget that Jack is still around… :) Anyway, everyone has told me how amazing this little ‘Emma’ is but I have yet to see a picture :(. Well, moving beyond the replacement of Jack, things seem to be going just fine as everyone prepares to make another trip to Disneyland! And Angela has a blast hanging out on the island of Roatan with the Hess’s! Madisyn continues to ride the ‘big bike’ while Aidan is rockin’ the ‘wicked pink big wheel’ which just shows how manly he really is. Trent runs a marathon while Ellyse prepares to take that ACT. Jeff continues to write his novel that is ‘Anti-English’ :), while mom and dad celebrate their 43 years of being married! Overall the Lord just continues to bless us! And in answer to the question asked… no, England doesn’t have any good beaches except for maybe a few in Devon but even they aren’t good, and the English people never holiday in their own country they always jump to places like France, Italy, Greece, etc. (which I can’t really blame them because it just rains here all of the time).
Now, onto the mission. This week has been one filled with funny moments and spiritual highlights, so I have decided that I would share two moments with you all, the first being one of the funniest things that has happened on my mission and the second one of the most spiritual. Now onto the funny! We went split tracking the other day with two young men from the ward that are getting ready to go out on their missions. The guy that I was with was really nice but he was sort of nervous and as we approached about our 20th door I told him that he had start this door, he refused, but just as the door was opening I left him there by himself so that I could talk to this guy who was walking along the road. There he stood all by himself as the door opened and a woman holding a child was inside, she looked at him and asked what he wanted and the young man (who was all by himself) just blurted out the phrase ‘were in the area today giving you a message’ and then just froze like a popsicle. About 30 seconds later this woman asked him what the message was about, he then just said ‘your family’! By this time the woman was well freaked out and I came back just in time to see her with the weirdest face shut the door. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST THING EVER! Now onto something spiritual… We have an investigator by the name of Nibbs who has been smoking cigarettes since he was eight years old, and this last lesson we came, started with a prayer and began to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ which has the first principal of ‘faith in Jesus Christ’. As we discussed this principal and shared a scripture on faith with Nibbs he’s eyes moistened up and he told us that when he came to church last Sunday he felt incredibly bad as he left the building between meetings to have a smoke, not by anything we said or did, but that he just felt really bad on the inside. He then told us that as he puts faith in Jesus Christ he will be done with this habit that the spirit obviously doesn’t approve of. It was so amazing to see the Spirit work upon this man! Here is a man that we haven’t even taught the Word of Wisdom to and who has smoked for over 40 years, giving it up right there on the spot because of an undeniable feeling that as he described to us was something that is well known to all who have experienced it. How wonderful the Spirit is! How merciful is our Lord who has sent us this influence that fills our hearts with peace and gives us renewed strength to do what is right! I really do know that this is the truth for I feel it in my very soul, and these things cause my very heart to burn with in me! It is a feeling that no earthly thing can duplicate it is a precious gift from God!
Elder McKenna

BAPTISIM!

HELLO! Every Wednesday I feel that I can’t have as wonderful a time reading your e-mails and hearing about your lives as I had last Wednesday and yet again I am humbled and filled with gratitude to hear how amazing you all are and doing! Thank you for the love sent via E-mail :).

Things back home, like always, seem to be filled with excitement, adventure, mystery, and the thrills that come from living a McKenna lifestyle! As Madisyn begins to settle down from her Christmas Vacation (which finished at the end of January!) and THREE trips to Disneyland, Timette continues to press forward wasting no time to spread the joy of the gospel and the power of temples as she invited her friend to go through the Draper temple which just opened up! And as for the St. George McKenna’s football is still on the brain as Jeff prepares for the PRESIDENT’S DAY TOURNAMENT where he will be coaching not one but two football teams to victory leading Jackson (AKA Renaldo Jr.) and Meghan (AKA [place really good football players name here] Jr. :) ) to destroy the competition! And the coolest thing of all is that David Martin is going to Chile for his mission! You have to send him my regards! In answer to some questions I received… Yes, England does celebrate Valentines Day and it’s exactly the same lovey dovey stuff over here as it is in the Good ol’ USA… I haven’t really been fed by members at all until I got here, I have been fed more times by members in the past 3 weeks then I have my entire mission! Overall the Lord continues to shower his blessings upon us and my heart continues to brim with gratitude in response.

YES! Usually I get to this part of the E-mail and there are just too many amazing things that I want to write about! Like today I could write about how we met a young lad on Monday, talked a bit with him about the gospel, walked with him to his house, taught the Restoration, and committed him to be baptised which he accepted! I could write about when Martin Pass (our biblical scholar) had a concern that I had never even thought of before that was answered perfectly by a scripture used in the Book of Mormon and that the Spirit slammed him to the ground (well not literally but if our discussion was a wrestling match he would have been pinned :) and left him with nothing to say! I could write about the long hours of trackting, in the cold and snow to finally see fruit when a man by the name of Neil was taught the restoration. But today I want to share with you the baptism of Robert Halliver and his letter which I received this past Thursday… Robert Halliver is an investigator that I was teaching in Middleton who had accepted an invitation, whom I never got to see baptised because I was transferred the day after I had extended the commitment! But no matter, for not even being at the baptism would be as wonderful as was this letter! As I read about the challenges that he was facing and the hardships that he had experienced since he had agreed to be baptised my heart was troubled but as I continued to read I came upon something that produced a ‘sacred moment’ (as I like to call them). He wrote, “I was lying in bed thinking about weather or not I should get baptised because there was just so much opposition when I remembered the things that you and Elder Taylor taught me to do, so I rolled out of bed knelt down and prayed… and now I know 100% that I should be baptised.” On February 7, 2009 Robert Halliver (who has a tattoo on his back that says ‘Even God can’t judge me’) was baptised a member of the true church of Jesus Christ. I could write 3 pages more on the trials he has had to face, on the changes he had to make to live the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity, on how he came to know that Christ does live and that Joseph Smith is his prophet, but I don’t want you to focus on that. What I want you to know is that Robert Halliver has felt the Spirit, he has felt that unquenchable love that burns with in your very heart, and now as I bear my testimony to you in this E-mail and to those whom I meet on the street, I can say with conviction and surety that I know Jesus Christ lives, that this is his church, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord, that the Book of Mormon is true, and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet… and know that Robert Halliver carries this same testimony! ‘How great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my father’

How I love the Lord…
Elder McKenna

P.S. the picture is me and Rob :)

HI YA

HELLO and greetings from your sibling/son/English guy who is NOW 20! :O

To start off this E-mail I have to ask, what happened to my last E-mail! I sent an email last Wednesday which was full of awesomeness and no one received it! I have sent the E-Mail that I sent last week as well as this one… the last weeks E-mail is entitled Gruesse :). Any who, it seems like things are wonderful back home! Chynna apparently has an I-phone (which reminded me about when I had to stand in line for about 3 hours, was late to work, and had to talk to Hippie Amie because Chelsey wanted one right when they came out >:( but hey, I’m not bitter) and is going to a football tournament in Arizona where she intends to destroy the other girls! While Irelynn is being crowned student of the month as well as cheer a cheer cheerleading in PALM SPRINGS where she intends to destroy the other girls! Max is making arrangements to run a Marathon by the end of the year, which I think if he does run a marathon he should wait for me to come home so that I can cheer him through the finish line! Plus the Zurflueh’s are making there way to IRELAND for their Spaghetti thingy! And to top it off, it would seem that Charlie is still receiving oodles of love! The St. George McKenna’s rejoice in the new ski lift at Brian Head while Ellyse (having to decide which boy she would allow to ask her to prom) has finally decided to allow a young suitor to take her to the junior prom. And in answer to some questions that were asked… no, no one even knows what the Super Bowl is over here in England… yes, England is so green which is not enough compensation for how much it rains… My favourite food in England is called a ‘donor kebab’ which isn’t English at all, but is soooooo GOOD :). Well, it seems that the Lord continues to pour his blessing out upon us!

Well, like always, here I am writing the second part of my E-mail, thinking about what I am going to write to give you just a glimpse of the adventure that is my life in England, and I have decided that today I will share with you two things… the first will be funny the second spiritual. First, just yesterday, me and my companion were teaching a man by the name of Martin Pass (a bit of background on Martin: He is Church of England, one of the nicest people that I have ever met, rides on a motorbike, has an awesome beard, and knows more about the Bible in his little pinkie then I do in my entire body :)… so you can assume that when we teach him many silent prayers are said) in a members home by the name of Mike. We have been trying to keep all of our lessons on basic doctrines and principle of the church despite Martin’s attempt to dive into deep doctrine (i.e. is David in the Celestial Kingdom). So yesterday we were teaching about the priesthood; its role and how it is passed down. The lesson starts off all right; we share some scriptures like Hebrews 5:4 and then talked about how Aaron received the Priesthood, we then went to Jesus Christ anointing his Apostles, how Matthias was called, and how Paul, even though he saw and heard Jesus Christ, still needed to be anointed for the ministry. Overall it was an excellent lesson and Martin’s only response was that he had to think about it… but then our fellow shipper (who is a really good guy) started to talk about random things and started to drift the lesson towards deep doctrine, as me and my companion fought to bring the lesson back we had to watch as it drifted from the priesthood to men becoming Gods! And the worst part of the night was when Mike (our fellow shipper) couldn’t remember what the lineage of Shem was and turns to us and asks us, ‘Elders, what’s the lineage of Shem’… WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THAT! My face turned bright red as a flustered through my brain not having any idea who Shem was let along his lineage! Well, needless to say the lesson could have gone a ‘bit’ better (And for the record I now know the Lineage of Shem) :). Even though sometimes even missionaries get confounded there is nothing more powerful then the Spirit that comes from pure testimony. Just yesterday I had such an opportunity, as Elder Diatel and I were talking to people on the street I met a man who had just recently lost his father and brother in quick succession, who was bitter, and had lost all faith that there is a God… I proceeded to explain the Plan of Salvation, and how we can be with those again who have passed on… he started to tell me that it wasn’t possible for me to know such things and that it was just in my ‘imagination’! I stopped him and began to bear my testimony. I told him that I did know, weather he wanted to believe me or not, that his brother and father still existed, that they were waiting on the other side, that God does live, that Jesus Christ is his son, and that because of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice he could not only live with his father and brother again but that he could find a peace in this life that only Christ can bring. As I finished my testimony the Spirit came down like electricity from above. He physically moved back as if hit by the Spirit and said with moist eyes you really do know, don’t you. My precious family, this is the truth.

The weak servant of an empowering God,
Elder McKenna