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