P DAY!

Greetings, hello, and salutations!
Once again I have to pause for a moment and allow my gratitude to flow via E-mail to you all for your prayers, love, support, and letters. You really do make my P-day’s a very exciting day to look forward to! And on the topic of P-Days it is important to note that my P-Day will no longer be on Wednesday! The mission is changing its P-day from Wednesday to Monday so the weekly E-mail will now be on Monday! Please plan accordingly :). And thank you Chynna for sending me that awesome picture of Emma whom we are not replacing Jack with but supporting him with just like I try to tell everyone the Book of Mormon does not replace the Bible but supports. :) Any who, Emma looks like a ridiculously cute dog, and is most certainly a keeper but not a replacer.

Like always things seem to be well good back home as the Disneyland trip comes to an end and Mike emerges as the champ of not only Buzz Lightyear (achieving an impressive score of 517,000) but also Toy Story Midway Madness (achieving a score of 225,000). It is but a shame that his reign will only last so long as Elder McKenna has been called to do the Lord’s work in England and only so long for upon the return of Elder McKenna we all know that the ‘impressive’ score will be DESTROYED by an unmercifully high score attained by the ‘Ace shooter’ AKA: Elder McKenna. Any who, I can’t believe that there are so many new things at Disneyland and that the Small World ride has changed! But I’m happy that everyone who went had a blast and that mom was completely soaked on Splash Mountain (thank you Timette for the awesome pictures :). As for regular life… Aidan has moved on to the ‘big kid bed’, Meghan is now playing in high school football, Ellyse is in a heated campaign with a ridiculously good looking guy for activity chairperson, Jeff is going to Boston to finish editing that Anti-English book, Jackson will be playing a really difficult football team in the coming days which he will dominate (GO SPARTANS), Jenni is full of envy for Dad’s new car :), and most important of all dad has learned how to make little smiley faces in his E-mail’s which he has made very apparent in his last E-mail which contained at last count seven.

Now onto Mission life! This Wednesday is transfer day but Elder Diatel and I will be staying together here in South Ribble (yippee)! It really is exciting to see what is happening here and to see the Lord’s hand at work as he has his servants tend this part of his vineyard. For example just this past Sunday Elder Diatel and I had the opportunity to return to a man’s house whom we had met 7 days previous while tracking.. He apologized that he didn’t have enough time at the moment but asked if we could come back next Sunday around the same time (19:30). We did so, half expecting him to not be in, when to our surprise he was, he let us in, we had an amazing lesson on the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. There have been many of these sorts of experiences this past week and especially this past transfer (6 weeks) but something that I want to share with you all know is something that I felt this very morning when studying the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. There are many things that are discussed in this section but something that struck me, which I have mentioned in past E-mail’s and which I have pondered on before, is how wonderful the Celestial Kingdom must be… In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 9 is contained one of my favourite scriptures, ‘But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’ How true it is. As I serve my God here in South Ribble I have felt his love, His Spirit, and His strength, just as I am sure that you all feel these wonderful gifts every day! But as I imagine the wonderful joy, peace, and sublime serenity that is waiting for those who love God and show this love by keeping his commandments my heart is filled with gratitude and yet my soul is pained for I realize more and more every day that there are far too many of our brothers and sisters who know not these things for they know not were to find them. I love you all so much! I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ, I know that God lives, I know that the teachings of the Book of Mormon are true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet today, that because of God’s plan and Christ’s sacrifice we can and will (if we do what is necessary) be together forever as brother and sister father and mother son and daughter! These things are true and let us all follow the example of Paul in his epistle to the Romans, ‘for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation!’ let us be stalwart and steadfast in our testimonies of Christ our Saviour is my humble prayer.

Elder McKenna

P.S. Dad thank you so much for your letter and your account of how you gained your testimony, it was a wonderful thing to read!