We Are All 'Swans'

Dear Familia,

This week it was really fun to see how much the Chileans are getting into Halloween. According to what the members have told me, these past couple of years they have really started celebrating Halloween here in Chile. It was fun to see all the little kids running around with their costumes, it brought back a lot of fun memories of good ol' Santa Clara and all the craziness that goes on over there this time of year. This past week while everyone was preparing for Halloween and planning the costume they were going to use and who they were going to pretend to be, Hna. Lopez and I shared a lot about the importance of our true identity. There's a great Mormon Message called "Our True Identity" that is based off a talk by President Uchtdorf. In the Mormon Message it starts off telling the story of the ugly duckling and how it felt unaccepted, big, ugly, unwanted, and of little importance. It shares how the other ducks teased and made fun of him because he was different. He leaves the others and lives by himself, only to discover one day while looking in the water, he sees his true reflection. He discovers that he's not an ugly duck, he's not even a duck, but rather a beautiful and majestic swan.

Like the swan, most of us have felt at one time or another that we don't quite fit in. Much of the confusion we experience in this life comes from simply not understanding who we are. It's so sad to see, but here in the mission I've seen so many people go about their lives thinking they are of little worth when, in reality, they are beautiful and eternal creature of infinite value with potential beyond imagination!

Part of our purpose here on earth is to discover who we really are. Growing up in the church I have been blessed with the answers of why I'm here on earth, where I came from, and where I'm going after this earthly life. As members of the church we have the answers not because of someone's educated guess or because we found a scientific explanation. We have the answers because heavenly messengers and personal revelation have revealed these mysteries to man. This knowledge that we are children of God changes us. It changes how we act, how we make decisions, it changes everything. There will always be voices telling us that we are foolish to believe that we are swans. But we know better, we've seen our reflection in the water and have felt the love of our Father in Heaven testifying we are his children. We are not ordinary beings...we are glorious and eternal.

Never forget that even though we might dress up as someone different for Halloween, or the world might try telling us we're unimportant, and just an ugly duckling, we should never forget our true identity, that we are children of the most powerful and glorious being in the universe!

 I love you all and I love sharing this message with my lovely Chilean brothers and sisters.



XOXO-Hna. McKenna 



P.S

Look up the Momon Message, It's SOO good :)

hahahahahaha OH MY!!!! Did Megan and Ashley dress up as Bolivians!? HA that is to funny!

WAHOOOOO I HAD NO IDEA KYLIE WAS CALLED TO SERVE IN CHILE!  Ah she is one lucky duck!