GENERAL CONF.

Greetings from Beastly Britain! Thank you for the E-mails and the love, It is
always nice to read your E-mails and to learn about all the amazing happenings
going on back home!

Trent destroyed the St. George Marathon! He finished with a time of 3:27 which
is way impressive! And defiantly destroyed the fatties! The cousins are all
enjoying each others company and Angela’s mom is heading out on a mission to
Salt Lake (which is way awesome!) Jackson is now a mountain biking champion and
most important of all I now know who Miley Cyrus is (AKA: Hannah Montana). All
in all it seemed like quite an amazing week. In answer to some questions… When
I tell the British that I am from Las Vegas the first thing that they always say
is ‘why did you leave that place to come to this dump?’ in which case I always
respond ‘because the church is true’… Yes, I am a bit worried that when I have
to face the summer heat of Vegas I may very well shrivel up and die because I
defiantly have lost a lot of heat tolerance from being over here.

This past week has been quite a difficult one due to the fact that my companion
Elder Larson got the Swine flu as well as 3 other missionaries in our zone so I
had to coordinate a lot of exchanges and I’m not feeling to well my self (it’s
not the swine flu I just have a bad cough and my voice is going away so I sound
a bit like a chain smoker) so it has been pretty exhausting. Despite all the
hardships, this week was still full of miracles and conference was ridiculously
uplifting! The talks that were given at conference were so good and in
obedience to the talk given by President Uchdorft and Elder Bednar on Saturday,
first session, I would like all of you to know that I love you tons and that as
much fun as I am having over here in England I still think about you often and
treasure the memories of the fun times we have had together! Now, all the gushy
stuff aside lets talk about the best thing about conference! At the close of
the Saturday, second session, conference (which is played here on Sunday at 1
PM) Me and Elder Larson were rallying the missionaries together to go out and do
a bit of finding before the next session when all of a sudden I heard this voice
behind me saying ELDER MCKENNA! I turned around to see an investigator that I
had taught in Middleton about 7 months ago! She came running over and per
missionary standards I wasn’t able to give her a hug (all though I probably
wouldn’t have be able to give her a hug anyways because she was about 8 months
pregnant and looked like she was going to pop) but I gave her a huge handshake!
I asked what in the world she was doing here? And she informed me that she was
visiting her husband’s parents, she then went on to tell me about how she was
married to her partner, was baptized, and is now a faithful member in the
Middleton ward! YEAH!!!!!!!!! I remember when I left the two of them in
Middleton when I was transferred to South Ribble and I was worried that they
might not make the steps necessary to get baptized but here they are faithful
members with a child on the way! MY HEART WAS FULL OF GRATITUDE TO MY GOD! How
amazing it is to know that we can have an impact for good on the lives of
others! Another amazing thing that happened during conference was that Rachel
Johnston (whom Elder Larson and I were able to teach because of that giant Saint
Bernard and her cat named Herminie (I can’t remember if I ever told you that
story…)) came which was a huge step for her! Rachel has had the hardest life
ever! She is way set in the world, has loads of tattoos, likes to party, and
yet on Saturday night she came to see the Apostles and Prophet speak and better
yet she was wearing a skirt! She had told Elder Larson and I that she would
rather die by drowning and burning then wear a skirt, and yet here she was
wearing a skirt! And when we asked why she just responded because that’s what
God would want her to do! HOW AMAZING IS THAT! ONLY THE SPIRIT COULD HAVE GOT
HER TO DO THAT :)!

I can’t even begin to describe the joy that comes from being in the Lord’s work!
And the happiness that comes from seeing people change their lives for the
better! This is the true church of God! There is defiantly no doubt about
that! And this work is the work of the Lord! The Gospel is true! And it
really is the way to pure peace and eternal joy!

All of my love
Elder McKenna

P.S. The pictures are of Elder Larson’s ripped pants and Cat (the investigator
who got baptized)