Love God and Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

Dear Familia,


Well folks, this will most likely be my last letter home seeing as next Monday I'll be visiting the different areas where I've served, and I don't know if I'll have time to write. Like Jacob says in the Book of Mormon, my life in the mission has passed by as if it were a dream.



And seeing as these are my last missionary councils… I have saved my most profound and life changing advice for the end....Love God above everything else, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's it. That is the most important thing we can do here in this life. If you live that way you're happy. If you prioritize your life in that order you enjoy every crazy up or down life throws at you.



That's what I've learned here in the mission. That's what I've been able to do, and see, and testify of these past 18 months.



I have LOVED, LOVED, LOVED my mission! I know God lives. I know He called me to serve in Chile. There have been so many chosen people I have met here that have changed my life FOREVER! I know Christ is my Savior and the only way I can return to live with God and with my family. I know God loves us so much that He has called prophets to guide us in the crazy world we live in today, and that Joseph Smith is the prophet of the restoration and translated the Book of Mormon. I LOVE the Book of Mormon!  I LOVE the message it contains! I know it is true!  READ IT! STUDY IT! PRAY ABOUT IT!



I will see you all soon, and love you all so much!



XOXO-Hna. McKenna



Fun Facts:

We dyed my companions hair for New Years!



One of the little girls in church asked us if the class her sister goes to is called "Young Womens" does that mean the class we go to is called "Old Womens"......haha watch it kid, I'm only 21!!



Here in the north of Chile, to celebrate the New Year they burn scarecrows in the streets!!! It's truly terrifying!!!!! I'll show you the videos next week!



Photos:



Sorry about the picture drought. Here are a couple updates from these past couple of weeks.



-Delivering Christmas goodies :) We made brownies for all the members in the branch...ya it was a LOT of brownies! Ha and every house we went to also gave us food in return. I'm pretty sure I had pan de pascua coming out of my ears, I ate so much! (pan de pascua is a fruit cake they always eat during Christmas....no it is not good)



-The family that we ate Christmas dinner with.



-Enjoying the Christmas package :) Thanks again, Mom! We loved it!



-This is Javiera, the sweet recent convert I told you about last week.



I don't know if the office told you but there was a bit of an accident this week. They're going to do all of the procedures necessary this week and I'll have surgery when I get back to the US.



Something was bound to happen the last week!  ....April Fools! All is well! All is Well! :)

Jesus Just Sit Still

Dear Familia,

Wow, it has been one crazy week, but how fun it was to talk with you all again :) Nothing much has changed since Christmas, but while we were talking we never really mentioned the people here in beautiful Ovalle. Matilde's (Catalina's mom) didn't get baptized this week because she doesn't have enough attendances in the church....oh Matilde!!!!! But she's great and is like my second mom here in Ovalle. She keeps telling us that the devil is dancing in her head and other "Mema type sayings" :) (LOVE YOU MEMA) But the sad part is that because she didn't come to church yesterday she won't have enough attendances to be baptized before I leave.....ya it's a pretty sad blow, but what can you do. The good news is that she keeps reading the Book of Mormon and I know that she's going to get baptized soon, she just has to get her cute little self to church and build up her confidence that she's ready to get baptized!



Also, this week in church we sat with Javiera and Jesus. I don't know if I've told you about them, but they're like the Herdmans from "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" …they're NUTS! Javiera (10 years old) is a recent convert from last December and Jesus is here little brother (7 years old), and its una lucura! They always sit with the missionaries because none of the members are willing to sit with them, they scream and punch each other during the sacrament, and the only time Jesus is seated in his seat is when they pass the sacrament so that he can get the bread and water. Javiera behaves really well when she's by herself, but with Jesus, there's no end to the fighting. Anywho, I was about ready to banish Jesus from the church after spending my entire sacrament meeting pulling him out from under the benches in front of us, without any members helping, when one of the other missionaries in the ward said "What would Jesus Christ do? Wasn't he the one who said let the little children come unto me." I wanted to give that missionary the stink eye and say, "Where were you when Jesus (the little kid) was running around like a crazed monkey and I had to be the one to try to calm him down!" But I didn't...I bit my tongue and nodded in agreement. And even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear in the moment, I know it's what I needed to hear. Jesus Christ would love him, he would try to help him, and so should I. Please pray for me that I can have enough patience and love to help Javiera and Jesus, because they really and truly need more love and I really need more patience.



XOXO-Hna. McKenna



Fun Facts:

My companion really wants to learn English, so to help her practice, I say everything in Spanish first and then I repeat everything in English. Ha, and when I forget to translate she says, "Dora por favor." Ha, ya I feel a ton like Dora, but it's fun and we get a kick out of it :)



Every time Hna. Cordova says something in English or makes brownies she always says, "Gringa in the house!"

My Sister is a Mom

Dear Familia,

My sister is a mom, my brother-in-law is a dad, my mom and dad are grandparents, my grandparents are great-grandparents, my brothers are uncles, I'm an aunt, and little Indy is starting his journey here on earth...learning and discovering what life is like with a body! GOD'S PLAN FOR US IS AMAZING! The photos of little Indy are so precious, and I'm sure he's even more darling in person! Ah how exciting it all is!!! What's even more wonderful and amazing is that this week we are celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior, the person who makes it all possible that we can come down to earth, receive a physical body, grow and mature, overcome our trials, repent and be made clean, save us from our sorrows and our sins, be resurrected and receive a perfect body, be ready for the final judgment day, and receive a place next to our Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom with our eternal family! HOW AMAZING IS HIS PLAN! It really just fills me up to the point where I want to burst out in song!....ok ok, let’s not get too carried away, I think my singing would offend the spirit, but it does fill me up to the point where I want to go out and share this amazing news with all the people here in Chile.



I'm so grateful for this amazing opportunity to share this AMAZING message during this special time of the year, and I'm so grateful for my parents, my family, my companions, my investigators, my sectors, my mission president, and the Holy Ghost, that have helped me learn and strengthened my testimony of these amazing truths!



Please give a GIANT hug/squeeze to little Indy in my honor and let him know I'm thinking and praying for him! If he could send me more tips and insights on what the pre-earth life is like, and the nature of our loving Heavenly Father it would be greatly appreciated! He, more than anyone knows what it's like up there :)



I love you all and am so excited to see you on Christmas! I don't have the username of the computer where I'm going to Skype home, but I wrote down the family username so we'll just add you right before we Skype home. We'll be Skyping home at 4:00 Chilean (city: Ovalle) time.



See you soon!

XOXOX- Hna. McKenna



Fun Fact:

Some little punks threw a half squeezed lemon peel at us while we were walking in the street and I looked at my companion laughing and said, "Cuando la vida le da limones, haga limonada!" Ha! we got a good laugh out of it!



The gift I'm going to give Jesus this year is my confidence.

"FEAR is the absence of FAITH"

Dear Familia,

Another amazing week has come and gone in the beautiful land of Chile. Catalina received the Holy Ghost this past Sunday and her mom, Matilde, came to church to witness the beautiful ordinance. Her mom is amazing and has a baptismal date for 27 de Diciembre!!!!! We're so stoked for her, but she's pretty worried about the whole thing. She's so good that she's worried she's not ready/worthy to be baptized yet and that she needs more time, and needs to prepare herself more (even though she's one of the most prepared people I have known here in the misión). We talked a lot about how important it is to put our confidence in the Lord and His atonement and how he will prepare us to make this promise with our Heavenly Father.

During my personal studies I dedicated a part of my time to learning more about how important it is to trust in the Lord and put our confidence in the plans He has for our lives. This past week I have really been struggling with putting my confidence in the unknown....ha in life after the misión. A couple of the sisters from my MTC group went home this week in order to start their studies in January and with them going home it really hit home that in a couple more weeks I'll be doing the same thing.  I felt/feel so unprepared. I started to worry about school and what I'm going to study, where I'm going to live, where I'm going to work, what life is going to be like in the U.S, obviously I thought about dating and finding my future companion (ha after 1 and a half years of focusing on eternal marriage and the plan of salvation it's bound to happen), and needless to say I started to panic & fear for the future...but while I was studying for Matilde a thought popped into my head, "fear is the absence of faith" and I laughed to myself thinking, "Oh Hna. McKenna, are you really that hard headed, has the mission taught you nothing? Where is your confidence in the Lord? Don't you believe He has something planned for you and is ready and willing to guide you? Calm down, trust in Him, and when the time comes be willing to take those steps of faith and let Him lead you along."

After that little conversation with myself...o mejor dicho, con el Espíritu Santo, I started to calm down a bit. And in my study for Matilde I found some of my own answers. Isn't it AMAZING how much helping other people with their problems help us solve our own?! I LOVE the mission so much and am so grateful for this time God has given me to refine me and steady my steps on the pathway back home.



Scripture to medetizar this week:

“Look unto me in every thought, doubt not, fear not.”

-DyC 3:36



I love you all!



XOXO-Hna. McKenna





PS…Papito - What year did you serve in Concepción and who was your misión president? Hay una hermana en la rama que quizás sirvió el mismo tiempo?



Tu hijita,

Hna. Mckenna

Where No Missionary Has Gone Before... Kind-of

Dear Familia,

WOWZA! This week has been nothing but AMAZING! I'll have you know they shipped me out of Olmué and I will be ending the mission in the blessed land of Ovalle, it's about an hour away from Coquimbo (my second sector) and about 6 hours from Viña. I was released as Hna. Lider and am now TRAINING AND OPENING A NEW SECTOR! This is exactly how I started the mission and I am so grateful that I will be able to finish in the same fashion but now as the oldie seasoned missionary. My little newbie is CHILEAN and from CONCEPCIÓN!!! (I'm writing all in caps to show I am very excited :)) She is 24, has been a member for a year and a half, and is the only member in her family....ya, you could pretty much say she is AMAZING!!! Ha! I think she is training me more than I am her!

This week we have seen a ton of miracles and I truly feel SO blessed! The sector that we are opening was the sector of two other sister missionaries. One went home because she ended her mission, and the other was called to the Viña del Mar zone, but they left Hna. Cordova (my companion) and me with a golden investigator ready for baptism! Her name is Catalina and she was baptized yesterday! :) She is such a cutie! She is 14 years old and has family that lives in Arica that are members. She got to know the church through them and when she came back home she searched out the church and started attending!!! The missionaries jumped right on that and yesterday Hna. Cordova and I got to be part of her amazing baptism! We have now started working with her family and it looks like we might just have a Christmas miracle and celebrate a white Christmas here in Ovalle! Please keep Catalina and her family in your prayers!

Something I have learned here in the mission is how aware our Heavenly Father is of his children. I'm pretty sure I prayed for a good month and a half so that I'd be able to entrainar (train) my last transfer. It has truly been such a blessing to be serving here in Chile and feel SO strongly that I am a daughter of God. That He knows who I am. That He is aware of my needs.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week :)



XOXO-Hna. McKenna



Fun Facts:

-Our first day in our new house the bathroom faucet exploded and we had a nice fountain coming out of the shower!! Ha, lets just say we got to know the ward members in the ward real fast! Especially the Young Men’s President and his wife (they were over at the house all afternoon trying to get things all fixed)



-Everyone here says I talk like a Russian and that I don't have a gringa accent. They call me la rusia :)



-There is a recent convert here that reminds me a ton of the Herdmans from "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever." Her name is Javiera (10 years old) and she always comes to church with her younger siblings. The are pretty crazy kids, and during the baptismal service they hung out in the kitchen eating and getting into mischief...I had to just laugh and think of what the Christmas pagent would be like with them involved, I know they come from a rough background and that coming to church is a good relief for them, even if it keeps all the ward members on their toes!





Photos:



Zone Activity in Olmué!



Hna. Cordova and me on the never-ending bus ride to Ovalle!





Zone Activity in Ovalle, where we went to a little branch in Punitaqui that had their weekly meeting in a little house with a 15 person average attendance. We went out with the members to visit less actives and contact in order to find more members.

 



Making homemade noodles for Sunday lunch :) Here in Chile lunch is the big meal.




Bautismo de Catalina! :)

Inviting a Child of God to Be Baptized

Dear Familia,

What an amazing week you guys had! It was so fun to hear how amazing the weekend was and all the blessings our family has received! Serving here in Chile I really and truly am SO humbled to see how much the Lord has blessed my life and how much he has blessed the lives of each one of you. The very fact that you have family that cares about you is a major blessing in and of itself, and the fact that you live in the United States is an AMAZING blessing God has given you! I loved hearing that Thanksgiving was a ROARING success :) and that the surprise 50th anniversary was a night to remember! What a great time to spend together as a family and get everyone together for the big farewell talk! Thanks for the shout out Nana :) and I'll make sure to be on the lookout for Hna. Olsen.

Now on to the investigators, remember María Jose, the investigator we were going to put a baptismal date with...well folks, she now has a baptismal date to be "reborn" the very day I was literally born, Dec. 12 :) How fun is that?!  María Jose is such a sweet and pure spirit, and started to cry when we invited her to be baptized. I think that is one of the things that I love most about being a missionary, inviting a child of God to follow our Savior, Jesus Christ, and be baptized. It's the most rewarding thing I've done in my life up to this point, and will forever cherish those special moments when they say yes.

This week the church put a new video on their web page called, "A Savior is Born." And at the end of the video it says, "More than 2000 years ago God sent Jesus Christ, our Savior. Discover why." Wow! It gives me chills just writing it!!!! This video is SO GOOD! I invite you all to watch it and afterwards spend this Christmas season learning and searching and discovering and feeling the love God has for us and why he sent us a Savior. You can find the video at LDS.org.



Have a fantastic week and know I'm praying and thinking about you all!



Con amor,

Hna. Mckenna



Fun Facts:



Hna. Lopez made some horrible garlic concoction to drink in order to clean her stomach (yearly Paraguay tradition) and the whole house smelled like garlic for days, and my companion also....it was not fun.



We are visiting a family that has a 6 year old little girl, and the other day when she answered the door she went running to find her mom and yelled, "Mom, the twins have arrived!" haha it was the cutest thing!



Photos:



The activity last week



District photo



Priest Quorum President (This man and his family have changed my life FOREVER. I'm so excited for you to meet him and his wife.)



Thanksgiving Dinner :) it turned out pretty dang good if I do say so myself!



Helping Hna. Cecilia put up her Christmas decorations

"Conozca a los Mormones"

Dear Familia,

Well folks, the miracles just keep on rolling in! This week we had a mission activity in the ward that Hna. Lopez and I planned called, "Conozca a los Mormones." (Meet the Mormons) We put flyers in every bus stop, in every little street store, and we had a giant poster made to put in front of the chapel. We really went the full ten yards, and the most amazing part is that the bishop and the ward leaders were right behind us supporting us all the way! On Friday we had the activity and over 70 people came, which is a huge success coming from a ward that has an average attendance rate of 74 :) A lot of members invited their friends and family members that aren't active and a good number of investigators that went to the activity showed up in church on Sunday.  Yes, we are two very happy little missionaries. Also, the mayor of Olmué came to the activity, which was HUGE for all the members! The mission work is really getting this ward moving! :)

Esteban came to church on Sunday, which was an amazing answer to prayers. We have a lesson with him in a couple hours, so we'll see how things go! María José (20 years old) is an investigator that came to the activity and then showed up to church the following day and stayed after to see a baptism the elders had. She's fantastic, and on Tuesday we're planning on putting a baptismal date with her.  After coming to the activity, her mom is also willing to listen to our message. God is working miracles in Olmué!

It's been great to see the progress of this ward and to feel so much love for all the people here, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be in Olmué for my last transfer. This morning one of the investigators we've been teaching (Warner… 35 years old from Germany) declared, "En mi búsqueda por Dio me enamoré contigo." (In my search for God, I have fallen in love with you)  Every time something like that happens we have to inform the leaders, and because he has attended church for about a month now, and has plans to be baptized, the elders are going to start teaching him and most likely they are going to ship me out in the next cambio...which is December 2. I'm really hoping that I can open a new area and train a newbie. That is how I started my mission, opening an area and being trained by an ex-sister trainer leader. I'm willing go wherever the Lord sends me, but a couple extra prayers on my behalf wouldn't hurt :)

We all know that this week is Thanksgiving (yes I will be eating my Thanksgiving dinner from a box...which I am EXTREMELY grateful for), so I can't sign off without a message about giving thanks. Ammon taught in the Book of Mormon, "Let us give thanks to God, for He doth work righteousness forever." Isn't that such a wonderful reminder? In the talk by Elder Russell M. Nelson, "Thanks Be to God" He states "Our degree of gratitude is a measure of our love for Him." We need to be always giving thanks to our Lord and Savior, showing our love for Him and all He does for us.

I love you all and am SO grateful for everything you do and for the blessings you are in my life!



XOXO-Hna. McKenna



Fun Facts:



I GOT THE PACKAGES!!!! wahoooooo!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH! I got Mema's package, The Wankier’s package, and the Thanksgiving and Christmas packages from Mom :)

I found two long black hairs in my lunch on Tuesday, Yummy yummy! (daily missionary life)

In the bathroom of Luis and Laura they have shower curtains that have the song "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine"... It made me happy :)


In the neighborhood where we live half of the houses are members and the other half are JWs (Jehovah’s Witnesses).  These past couple of weeks we've been having turf wars …Mormon missionary style ;)

The blankets we use in the mission are similar to the prison blankets in the movie "Get Smart" …and I think I found a human tooth in one of them...