HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!

Hello from burning hot Britain!
Thank you for the E-mails and let me just say that Wales is HOT! Honestly the
weather in this country is the WORST it is either sun scorching hot or it is
pouring down rain and the humidity is so bad that you never are not sweating,
even in the buildings because no one has air conditioning here! But the worst
part is that I’m not looking forward to the wind blasting cold of winter either
which is closely approaching again! In all honesty I love the people, the
culture, the buildings, the language, everything EXCEPT FOR THE WEATHER!
AAAAAAAA! Well, anyhow, now that I got that off my chest lets talk about what’s
happening back in beautiful, sunny, warm, air conditioned US of A.

The Zurflueh clan has returned from an amazing journey through the
‘homeland’ were they navigated the small European streets with nothing more then
a horse drawn buggy the wagon was nicknamed the ‘Tinker Wagon’ and the horse was
called Charlie (Did you happen to stop by the cave of magical wonder while you
were journeying around) and basically they lived like proper gypsies! The
little Houston McKenna’s wore out Ma and Pa in an amazing few days of nothing
but fun and adventures! Including 3 movies, 2 museums, and a trip to Monkey
Business… needless to say the trip was a success. Chelsey has a new car (I
don’t know when she got it BECAUSE NO ONE LETS ME KNOW THESE THINGS) and enjoyed
her Birthday celebrations! Chynna has basically mastered the Book of Mormon
while doing the commitment left by her Young Woman’s leader to read the book in
its entirety requiring 3 chapters a day to finish in about 3 months. Irelynn
has somehow found a journal that I kept when I was younger (about 10 years ago)
and has made some interesting comments about the front cover being covered in
little flowers… All I’m going to say is that it takes a real man to have a
flower covered journal! But Irelynn makes up for her ‘flower journal comments’
because she has found a missionary who is shorter then me :). In answer to some
questions that were given… No they don’t have any celebrations for Independence
Day over here except for the clubs and pubs which seem to think that it is a
great reason to gather together and get drunk and throw things at American
missionaries :(… Yes! I’m totally serious about getting a life size cut out of
me and placing it in the main pictures so that I can be present at my cousin’s
and my best friend’s wedding! The best way to do it is to get a big cut out of
someone in a tux (like a famous person) and then get a blown up picture of my
face and place it on the cut out’s face and wa-la Elder McKenna was present for
the sealing and marriage of Connor and Ashley! You should really think about it
:).

Things over here on this side of the World are going extremely well. The
Lord continues to perform his miracles and there is one amazing thing that I
would like to share with you that I gave a hint to in my past E-Mail. Last
Monday (June 29th) Elder Eichelberger and I were knocking some doors in a little
street that we had only noticed about 2 days previous… There were only about 10
or 15 houses and we had worked quite extensively in all the areas surrounding it
but for some strange reason had never seen these houses before… The first house
we knocked on wasn’t in, the second wasn’t interested, and so it continued until
about house 9 or 10 when a little dog would not stop barking at us from the side
garden, we knocked and a woman came out the side door… at first she wasn’t
interested, she wanted nothing to do with us and talking to her wasn’t working
to well because her little dog was barking so loud that she could barley hear us
anyway! In desperation we spoke over the barking and asked if she would just
hear us for 30 seconds at the front door without the dog, she brought the dog
in, closed the side door, and then for about 30 seconds there was nothing.
Thinking that she had no intention of coming to the front door we began to walk
away when we heard the door open up and a voice saying, ‘alright who are you’…
we began talking to her about what we represented and the things that we were
sharing and learned that she had been thorough some terrible times… her daughter
had been brutally murdered many years ago, and her husband had recently passed
away… we bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation and begged her to let us see
her the next day so we could bring another man with us, she finally agreed and
the appointment was set. The next day we came by, she let us in, we taught her
the Plan of Salvation, and despite all of her hard feelings towards God and the
negative feelings that she had in the beginning of the lesson the Lord still
poured out his Spirit upon us… The Lesson was amazing and as we bore testimony
that we knew this plan was real her heart was touched, we left her the plan of
salvation leaflet to read and pray about, and set up an appointment for when we
could share the Book of Mormon with her… She agreed to20everything and has since
read the leaflet about 5 times and is so happy with what she has read. Truly
the Plan of Salvation is the Lord’s plan and truly this is his work, How
wonderful it is to know that this life actually has a purpose and even though
death is a necessary part of life it is most certainly not the end, only a step
in the plan of our Heavenly Father!

All of my Love,
Elder McKenna

P.S. Mimi’s gift is going to be a wee bit late… :(