HAPPY THANKSGIVING

HELLO! Well, today is an exceptionally cold day and this morning was worse
because we didn’t have ANY HOT WATER, and our shower broke, so I had the
blessing of an adrenaline pumped morning in a freezing cold bathtub :). But
your E-mails always seem to make everything better and I am grateful for your
love and support, as always.

Things back home seem to be falling into full swing for the holiday season
coming up. Between getting everything ready for a 22 person meal at
Thanksgiving and running around from store to store for some Christmas shopping
everyone back home seems to be quite busy. Madisyn is just ridiculously good at
gymnastics she can now do a round off and four back handsprings, Utah has been
hit with two snow storms and snow is still on the ground, and apparently Glee
and Modern family is a really good show. I can’t believe that the new temple
president for Las Vegas is Doctor Ballard! I met him loads of times over here
and you’ll have to ask him if he remembers my companion Elder Atkin because
about a year ago he got these horrible hives and everyone was worried that he
might die and I’m sure that his condition cause Doctor Ballard quite a bit of
stress :). Football continues to be dominated by the McKenna clan and I have to
say that I received a letter from Ellyse about two days ago which had a picture
of her at homecoming and at the time I received it me and Elder Atkin were
staying with some missionaries and all of them wanted to get your address so
that they could send you a letter, but I let them know that you were far out of
their league so you wont have to worry about any random missionary post :). In
answer to some questions… NEW MOON is ridiculously big over here! All I see on
buses and on bus stops are posters for that movie and all any girl ever talks
about is that movie and all I ever here about from the members is about that
movie! Needless to say the British people are big fans of the Twilight series…
Yep, I know were the Isle of Mann is (to be honest I was close to serving there,
It’s a long story and there’s just no way I can write it down so I’ll have to
just tell you some time :), but it’s way funny) and The Isle of Mann is were
everyone in the mission wants to serve (its across from Liverpool). Overall
life is great, as it always is in the Service of God :).

It seems that every time I approach this part of the E-mail I am stuck thinking
about what it is I want to write, and this week is no different. There is just
way too much I want to tell you! But I just don’t have enough time :(. Any
who, I decided that this week I would bring you up to speed on the progress of
four of my favourite investigators: Phil & Rachel and Louise & Jane. Rachel is
doing amazing! She got a hold of the Joseph Smith Manual and now all she does
is use her study journal and go through each chapter of the manual looking up
the cross references, answering the questions in the back, and writing down her
impressions (she’s better then most members). They both feel that they need to
be living the Law of Chastity and so Phil has moved in with his parents so that
Rachel can be living by herself and they’re going to be keeping it that way
until they get married (were almost positive that Phil wants to propose on
Christmas and get married in January). Rachel is dated for the fifth of
December and is super excited! Phil is still trying to give up the fags and is
therefore struggling a bit with the Word of Wisdom but he is still way
supportive of Rachel and is still reading, praying, and coming to church. The
two of them are amazing and I just want them to be happy! Louise and Jane are
doing extremely well! Louise just recently got a new job which makes it a bit
harder to see them but we still see them at least once a week and we found out
last Wednesday why Louise is so worried about baptism… for the longest time we
were trying to figure out why she didn’t want to get baptized; she had felt the
Spirit, knew the Book of Mormon was true, and that Joseph Smith was a prophet
but she always got really weird when we talked about baptism. It ends up that
she had a near death experience where she almost drowned when she was a little
girl and now she can’t so much as take a bath because she is so deathly afraid
of water! This whole time I thought it was some deep doctrinal thing but it was
just being afraid of water! Well, I know that over time she’ll get over it and
she as well as Jane will get baptized!

You know, when I was back home I don’t think I ever truly understood the concept
of ‘a heart being full of gratitude’ but as I see the blessings of the Lord in
the Chorley area and as I continue to reflect on my mission experience my heart
is ‘full to the brim’ of gratitude for my Father in Heaven and for his great
plan for all of us! I am so grateful for a family who have taught me in my
youth these things and I know that these things are true. The Spiritual
experiences I have had over these past two years have taken root in my heart! I
have seen the fulfilment of Alma 32, I have planted the seed and it has grown
and it has bore fruit! I love the Lord, my Savoir and redeemer and pray
everyday for your happiness and protection.

With a heart full of love,
Elder McKenna

P.S. you'll have to tell me all about Thanksgiving next week!