Five Days To Go

Dear Familia,

Breckon joined us here in the Garden of Eden! I was so stoked to see him, but what I was even more excited about was my package!!!! It contained a couple letters/pictures, a watch, and about 6 pairs of socks, and I´ve never been more excited to receive a package before in my life! My companion thought it was quite comical! But THANK YOU so much! I loved reading the letters and seeing all the pictures of everyone. The watch is fantastic because every time I wear it (every day) it reminds me of my sweet mother (it´s her old watch). And the socks are such a blessing...I needed those bad boys!!! Ya it´s crazy how much pleasure you get from simple things when you´re on a mission. 

Everyone in my district thinks my little brothers are such studs! Keep up the good work Jack and Carr! And congrats Jack on doing so good on your Spanish test! I can´t wait to chat up a storm with you in the beautiful Spanish language when I get home. 

I love my family so stinking much and am soooo grateful for the support and love that you show! You guys are what keep me going out here. I try not to allow myself to think about going back to you guys, because as great as that would be it would be so selfish of me to have an extra 18 months with my family, but deny the people of Chile the gospel that would allow them to be with their family for eternity! 

They´re shipping me out to the field this week and as it gets closer and closer I start to become more and more nervous. A scripture that´s really been helping me is Mormon 9:27-28. It reminds me to keep going, to keep pushing. There are to many souls on the line to allow doubting thoughts to overcome me. Christ is by my side and with Him I can do all things. I know God will answer my humble prayers. 

I´m so stinking excited for Megan and Amy! They are going to do absolutely fabulous! I have no doubt! 

Fun Facts:

1. I can´t tell if the food is getting better, or if I´m just getting used to it

2. I LEAVE FOR THE FIELD IN 5 DAYS! "I´m not called to serve in a place, I´m called to serve in Christ´s place"

3. Today I get to be the Host for the new missionaries coming in! Wahooo! 

4. Go look at the pic of me and Jack from last summer holding the fish! HE´S GROWN SO MUCH!  My pictures of him are already dated and I´ve only been gone a month! 

Love,

Hermana McKenna

Comments on photos we sent her:

WAHOOOO! The pool is looking fabulous! I can´t wait to see the finished product! Thank you so much, Mom, for sending so many photos and keeping me involved with everything that´s going on back at the home front. I love it! I love hearing all your funny stories about the boys. Ha and I´m glad to hear that Megan Ritchie is still the same old ray of sunshine! Canada will be happy to have her! Don´t worry about Jack...he´ll figure it out. I pray for him every night in my broken Spanish. I pray for all of you. 

I´m getting all your photos! What are you doing with the hose in the pool?

Dear Papa,

Thank you so much, Dad,for everything you have done for me while I´ve been out here, but mostly for preparing me to come out here. I don´t think you even realized you were doing it, but your influence has not only affected my mission but my entire district. I talk about you a lot during class, and have used your method of marking for my English and Spanish Book of Mormon. It has really started to affect the missionaries in my district and 2 of them have decided to start marking their scriptures the same way (red-Christ, blue-Missionary/Gathering of Israel, black-sin, and green-other). They also love your analogy of the broken heart / broken horse, and all your info on Alexis Sanchez. We´ll be ready to convert all the soccer playing Chileans...so basically all of Chile ;) However, the thing I´m most grateful for is how much you taught me to rely on my Savior, Jesus Christ. He has been my anchor through all of this and I´m so grateful for the relationship I have with him! 

Thank you so much Dad! I sure do love you! 

XOXO- Hermana McKenna

P.S.

I read your personalized Book of Mormon every night right alongside my Spanish Book of Mormon.  It´s such a treasure.

Meghan’s photo comments:

1.         Good old Santa Clara 14th Ward taking the CCM by storm! 

2.         Our cute little Latina friends

3.         Elder Olds!!!

4.         All the Hermanas in our zone that are leaving...sad day

5.         Hma. Day and I rocking the CCM in our little Mexican blouses! We´re pretty much natives :)

6.         A nice little reminder of back home!

7.         Ha some good old "Engrish" on our travel packets.

8.         My travel plans for my sweet mother! Be expecting a call from around 8-12 9.           Mexico City time

The Plague Has Hit

Hola Mis Amigos!

These photos were taken the night before Hermana Day fell victim! This is a photo of the only healthy people in our District. All the boys were wearing masks because they just finished taking food to all the sick Elders in their casa. 

We were the few, the proud, the healthy. 

**Hot dang I have some handsome brothers! I don´t know if the schools are going to be able to handle them!

This week has been pretty crazy to say the least! As I´m sure you´ve gathered from the Subject Title the CCM was hit by the Plague...and I mean hit by the plague! On Sunday half of my Zone was gone due to the fact that they were all dying in their beds...it was bad. Nobody was safe! Ha you would have thought I suffered from a serous case of OCD with how much I was washing my hands! But hey I made it through without falling victim to it´s clutches! Yea for water and soap!  My sweet companion wasn´t as lucky...but she´s recovered now and all is well here in the promised land! (It´s seriously so beautiful here, and I love all the people. I can´t believe I´ll be leaving in 2 weeks!)

An amazing thing happened this week. During TRC (where we actually teach REAL people..not teachers) Hermana Day and I were told to prepare a talk on prayer for a TRC volunteer (usually members in the area). We walked into the lesson thinking we were going to give a talk to some local member only to find out that the sweet lady we were teaching wasn´t a member, had no family members that belonged to the church, and was only there to get service hours for her work! WHAT!? That´s not what I signed up for! Hermana Day and I asked here about her beliefs in God and if she had ever prayed before. She said she prayed in church but never by herself. We read a scripture to her from the Book of Mormon about the importance of pray.....long story short she didn´t know really anything about the Book of Mormon and we ended up having her read the first, and the last 2 paragraphs in the Book of Mormon Intro. I shared Joseph´s experience of the 1st vision and bore my testimony on the power/importance of prayer.  After I shared the experience of the 1st vision I was crying and she was crying! It was crazy! We asked her to pray to know if it was true. My companion and I taught her how to pray by addressing our Heavenly Father and closing in the name of Jesus Christ. She said a really humble closing prayer and then gave us a hug before we left! We left the pamphlet of the Restoration with her and asked her to read it in order to find out more. 

I learned 2 very important things from that TRC experience: 

1. The gift of tongues is real and was a huge blessing during that lesson

2. No matter how pour my Spanish might be my Heavenly Father can still use me as an instrument to help bring his children closer to him, and testify of truth.

FUN FACTS:

1. I now know what it´s like to live during a zombie apocalypse, due to the plague this past week. The fear of infection was a real thing! 

2. There´s this random gong/cannon noise that goes off randomly throughout the day and my district always jokes it´s like the Hunger Games and the gong is signaling when a missionary leaves. 

3. I now know how to shower in under 5 minutes because our casa has no hot water! The water struggle of casa 18 continues 

4. Hermana Day and I were made Sister Trainer Leaders of our zone! I´m really humbled and overwhelmed, but I love the hermanas in my zone so that´ll make serving them easy.

Yummy Yummy bannas on the way home from the temple.

A couple of the girls in my zone all wearing the shirts we bought at the temple! They´re such cuties! 

 

I´ve been collecting all the hair in our casa to make some wigs...at this rate I´ll have enough hair for a full wig by next week. Tell dad to let me know if he want´s any

I love you all so much!   

XOXO-Hermana McKenna

A Solid Week!

Hola!!!

Shout out to Mema! I received my first letter in the mail sense I´ve been here and it was from her!!! I like the letters on computer, but the ones that come in envelopes are my favorite! (really, they´re like gold around here!)

Also I´d like to give a shout out to my main man Braden for his lovely flowers! 

This week has been solid. I´m learning a ton of new vocab by carrying around little note cards everywhere I go! However, I really need to practice what tense I´m speaking in...I tend to struggle in that area. However, I am here to learn how to teach the gospel to the people in Chile, not learn how to speak Spanish. There´s a huge difference between the two and it´s the Spirit. My comp and I are chugging along...sometimes it seems like we go nowhere, but with faith, prayer, and patience I know we will progress in the direction the Lord needs us to go. Even if we accidentally say fish (pescados) instead of sins (pecados) during our lesson with our CCM investigator. Ha nobody is perfect! 

Fun Facts:

 1. I ran into Elder Tyker Olds in the cafeteria!! He´s serving in Mexico City and because his comp is sick they had to come to the hospital in the CCM. It was such a fun surprise to see him standing on the other side of the questionable meat and cheese!

2. There are this little yellow flowers that grow by the basketball courts. I love them so much because they remind me of the sunflowers that grow by the side of I-15. Little tender mercies! 

 3. They had peaches for dinner!!!!!! So pumped! loved every bite. But do to the fact that there´s opposition in all things there was mold on my bread....what do ya do? Not eat it, that´s what!

4. It´s poured buckets this past week, and 2 of the Elders in my district have been nice enough to lend me their umbrella when I went to go teach the CCM investigator. However, I have broken both the umbrellas  they lent me. It was an accident, I promise! But do to the fact that I dated a super handy man before I came out here (aka Braden) I was able to fix both of them! Hollar at your Hermana! 

I love you all! Thanks so much for the love and support!

 XOXO - Hermana Meghan Mckenna


PS I almost forgot! We went to the temple as a district today! We couldn't do a session cause it was under construction, but it was still way neat to go to the visit center and walk around the grounds. We looked like a bunch of Asian Tourists! I loved it!