Dear Familia,
This week I've really learned a lot about how important change is in our lives. How much I've changed these past months, how much more I need to change, how I have the opportunity to help people change, how our fear of change often t impedes our progress.
We've been working a lot with María Virginia and Victor Hugo and have really been trying to help them change. María Virginia is a reference from some ward members and is passing through some really hard times with her family. Her daughter is 17 years old and has down syndrome, and this past month the doctors told María and her husband that due to the heart condition of her daughter, it's most likely that in the next year or so her heart will fail her. It's been a really hard time for María and she loves listening to our message, but she says that she's not ready to change here religion...she's Catholic, just like 99.9% of Chileans, and she's really been struggling with the change needed to go from being a non-practicing Catholic to being a loyal member of the Church of Jesus Christ. Victor Hugo is also Catholic, but is very faithful in his religion. He's around 70-75 years old and has been a professor of religion (Catholic religion that is) for the past 20 year. About 2 years ago his wife had a stroke and has been in the hospital ever since. Victor visits her every day and bore the sweetest testimony of how powerful prayer is and how he asks everyone to pray for his sweet wife, and thanks to those prayers, she's recovering...slowly but surely she's recovering. He asked us to prayer for his sweet wife and we offered a prayer with him in the street outside his house. We then explained how we can offer him even more, we explained the restoration and left him with a part in the BofM to read. We invited him to come to church with us, and on Sunday morning when we passed by his house, he was outside waiting for us!!! He had to leave after Sacrament Meeting because he wanted to go to the Catholic misa at 12 (hey, we'll take what we can get), but he said he wanted to talk more with us about what we believe. We're really excited to share more of our message with him and are praying that his heart is ready to except our message and he's willing to make the necessary changes in his life to be truly converted to the Lord.
There's a quote by C.S. Lewis that I LOVE that talks about how important change is. Here C.S. Lewis is paraphrasing what the Lord says to us: " Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work. I want you. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man, but to kill it. No half-measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and another there, rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart." I LOVE that! As a missionary I'm called to be a representative of Jesus Christ, and to do that I have to change 100%. My personality will still be my personality, ha it's what makes me, me! But my will has to become the will of my Heavenly Father. My desires have to become His desires. Before the mission I didn't understand how important that change really was. And it's not just a change for missionaries. It's a change for every member of the church. We don't just take his name upon us when we're missionaries, but rather when we're baptized, and every sacrament meeting after. I love this gospel! I love the chance I have to change! I love the help and opportunities God gives me to change! And I love the change I get to see in the lives of the people who decide to give their will over to their Heavenly Father and make this change!
Love you all!
Hermana McKenna
1. The YM and YW in our stake were part of a play based off the life of Joseph Smith. We got permision to go because Diego had a lead role. Diego is the young man in the front with the white shirt. The young woman sitting next to him is the member that introduced him to the church.
2. Hna. Day and I with Leontina and her daughter Matildad. Leontina is less active and we've been working with her and her husband, who's not a member, to help them be an eternal family!
3. The package that Timette sent!
4. DIEGO'S BAPTISIM!
5. All the non-members Diego invited to his baptism! He's going to be a rock solid missionary!
7. When the high heels the member lent me broke...let’s face it, I may be a shoe killer, but the earth has yet to invent a pair of high heels that can withstand the mission.
8. When we helped Bishop Jimenez! He's amazing! For a long time he had some pretty high up callings in the church and got to work with Elder Holland and Elder Perry here in Chile. He's also been in meetings with Pres. Monson...needless to say, he's really helped the ward here in Olmue.
9. A NDH (Family Home Evening) we had with Gloria, Sirleny, and Sirleny's sons (Nelson and Maxi) in the house of la Familia Figaroa. The Familia Figaroa is AMAZING and I can't wait for you to meet them. They recently moved from Santiago and are a HUGE help in La Obra Misional!
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