"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