BAPTISIM

Well, this has probably been the best E-mail update that I have ever been
privileged to have! Thank you so much for the amazing E-mails and for the
outstanding pictures!

Memorial Day weekend sounded amazing! With mom bogey boarding (and enjoying
it so much!), Trent losing horribly in Cash and Guns (just like in chess),
Timette having one of the best vacations ever with a few stops before the beach
house, and the original McKenna’s (mom, dad, and Chelsey) coming up with the
best skit ever (which by the way, mom sent the skit and, no wonder they won it
was ridiculously hilarious)! The St. George McKenna’s are settling in nicely
for a fabulously fun filled summer with Jeff going to EFY again this year with
Ellyse having to utmost honour, privilege, and benefit, to go to the same EFY as
her Father (which we all know is what she wanted) while poor Meghan is forced to
go to the EFY a little earlier and wont have the beautiful blessing of being
with her Father but will just have to hang out with all of her friends (I hope
that you can survive the heart ach Meghan). Dad’s Seminary teaching is coming
to a close for the year with high schooler’s having an extensive knowledge of
the New Testament, because of him :). I can’t believe that Cameron and David
are heading out on their missions! If you have the chance please send them my
love and if at all possible could you get me Cameron’s address. In answer to a
question that was given… No! Of course we weren’t able to watch the Barcelona
vs. Man U game, but I obviously heard what happened and how Man U scored like
the fastest goal ever and Barcelona still beat them, but a Man U loss isn’t that
big of a deal in Wales, in fact it was more of a celebration that they did lose
because basically everyone other then the people who live in Manchester hate Man
U :(. Overall you all seem so happy and the Memorial Day (cough) ‘campout’
(cough) sounded amazing!

First off I think we all know what I am going to be talking about toady,
namely Zoe’s baptism and second off I am so sorry that I didn’t bring my camera
converter thingy for the computer and so I will have to give you pictures of the
event next week :(. It would seem that I am cursed for baptisms; I thought that
this time would be different but alas it was not. Now,
I don’t want everyone flashing back to my horrible fiasco with Christian the BFTB (Big Friendly Teddy Bear) and how horrible that was because it wasn’t THAT bad but it was still pretty intense. Elder Eichelberger and I arrived at the chapel 2 and ½ hours
early in hopes that all would go right and no problems would arise… the baptism
program was brilliant (the relief society did it and it basically looked like a
wedding invite), everyone who was part of the program had been called and
confirmed that they were going to be able to come, the chapel was nice and
clean, the rooms were all at perfect temperature, the sound system was up and
running, Zoe, her family, and some friends were all on schedule, basically we
were ‘green light’… and then it happened… THE HOT WATER IN THE BUILDING SHUT
DOWN! There was absolutely no hot water anywhere! The kitchen didn’t have any,
the bathroom sinks didn’t have any, and of course the baptismal font didn’t have
any! We had no idea what was wrong and no one who would have any idea what was
wrong was available at the time (because there was a wedding in the afternoon
the same day) so in desperation Elder Eichelberger and I went to the kitchen
turned the stove onto full blast, got as many pots and pans as the stove could
handle, filled the pots and pans with cold water, and began the slow process of =0D
heating the water up to boiling, running it to the font, and throwing it into
the freezing water which was currently filling said font! It was terrible! We
did it for about 2 hours with not much of a change in the water and then our
time was up! People were beginning to arrive and in order to keep the reverence
that should be present at a baptism we had to stop the running of boiling water
to the font. We informed Zoe and Bishop Chapman (the person who was going to
baptize her) the situation and both of them were still determined so the baptism
went on… The talks, music, video, and every other aspect of the baptism was
wonderful, it was just the baptism itself… As Zoe Clarke (who is about my
height, skinny, and very susceptible to temperatures) and Bishop Chapman got
into the icy depths it was obvious that they were cold… Bishop said the words
and Zoe was dunked back into the freezing abyss and to my utmost horror (I was
one of the witnesses) her knees popped up! Bishop looked to me for confirmation
and I had to shake my head ‘no’, Zoe needed to go down another time! Zoe looked
to Bishop with her face in pure terror that she had to do it one more time, but
it was done, this time properly and Zoe was baptized! Even though every time
Zoe looks back on the actual baptism itself she will have thoughts of death,
darkness, and absence of warmth; I will never forget how exquisitely happy she
looked when she had dried off and joined us in the sacrament meeting room.
Truly she had made a covenant with her Father in Heaven by the appropriate means
and the Spirit confirmed that in all of our hearts. The church is true!
Baptism is something that is required! And Zoe Clarke is now through the gate
and on her way to Eternal Life! WHAT GREATER CALLING CAN I POSSIBLE HAVE then
to bring such wonderful people to this point!

With my heart brimming with gratitude and love,
Elder McKenna


P.S. Thank you Timette for sharing that spiritual moment you had in Relief
Society with me, it sounded like an amazing experience.