Friday, July 27, 2012

7/26/2012


To family,

 No I haven't received the martinelles yet bummer =( Thanks so much for all the letters Jenn!! I hope I can get your letter for the prank on Elder Knox before I leave!! I am sending a package home with pictures so you guys can all look at that. Dad my watch broke so I had to buy a new one and I have to pay 71 dollars for my shot today!! =( Mom great job hiking!!

Ryan! Dude one of the kids in my zone is just like SpongeBob!!!! He is going to be the best missionary ever!! He has this great spirit about him and he sounds just like SpongeBob and acts just like him! I’ll be sending a pic home of the two of us! He already left to the field.  He went to New York Spanish speaking mish!! He is so funny! There is this kid in our zone who is an amazing beat boxer. He can hum a song and beat box and talk all at the same time.  Elder Nelson (SpongeBob) was like here I’ll rap and he started doing opera!!! He wants to be a music teacher but he actually was way good at opera.

So this week has been so spiritual. I love it!!!! Sundays are the best.  Every Sunday we all prepare a talk to give in sacrament meeting in Spanish! Only two people are chosen to give the talk. Then we go have a temple walk. Which I don’t think I am aloud to tell what time my temple walk is because then people would come to see us.   It really distracts from the spirit and what we are trying to do for the next two years. Today is my pday.  I just got back from a temple session.  I did my first sealing session.  It was incredible!!!! =) Sorry my English is bad from all this Spanish speaking (un chieste).   My English was always bad.

Today I volunteered my companion and I to teach next Sunday in our priesthood session.  It’s on hope charity and love!! Which I think is so amazing. So in my gospel journal I decided to choose an attribute of Christ each week and work hard the whole week to become more like Christ in that attribute! This week I chose hope.  My favorite scripture is Moroni: 7: 40-48. I believe it is 48 that is my favorite but it might be 41 because it talks about why we need to have hope.  Any ways I advise you all to read it.  I love it!!!

So last night I had a way cool experience.   I was praying for like a good 20 min and was trying to be very sincere, fervent and calling out to our Father in Heaven.   I don’t really remember what I was saying but I was filled with the spirit so strongly.  I couldn’t really even think.  I know this experience sounds weird but it was so incredible!!! =) Plus it’s hard to pray in Spanish for 1 min when you know so little.  Yes we are to pray in Spanish and no Jenn I am not gringo in my Spanish if you wanted to know. Okay maybe a little, but they help you with it. What makes me feel better is that there is another guy here that is tone deaf and the language he has to speak has 13 different tones. So at least I was blessed with only being a gringo Spanish speaker.

So I am sending some packages out from the Provo mtc with pictures if they will let me develop them. As of this upcoming Monday I’ll be in Guatemala so don’t send things to this mtc after this upcoming Monday.

I just want you all to know I love it here!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here.  I really do just love it here.  We have a devotional every Sunday and this last one was on Pioneers of course. They were talking about the faith of the Pioneers and how they came unto Christ.  I always thought the Pioneers were so incredible to have so much faith to just leave everything behind for our Lord and Savior!!! When we were in the devotional it made me think of why can't I have that? Why can’t I be a Pioneer today!! It made me think of D&C 4:4 and to come unto Christ and to bring everyone to our Savior. To be strong like the Pioneers who devoted themselves to him. If I devote myself to Christ and be strong like the Pioneers I can be the very best instrument the Lord needs me to be!!! I am honored to be a missionary and an instrument to the lord and I don’t want to leave this place!! I know I haven’t brought any investigators closer to our Heavenly Father yet or baptized any one yet, but here at the CCM (MTC) I have watched videos on it. So I am already kind of a pro at it. Joke but really watching those videos on district 2 and how they changed people’s lives and brought them to their Heavenly Father is incredible!! I can’t wait to be out in the field.  Those videos give me a spiritual high.  I just want out of the CCM to be out there!!

I can’t wait to be at the Guatemala CCM.  I think we get to go tracting and get to go into the city, the real world!! I mean yeah I won’t understand one person and they probably won’t understand me but I can’t wait to teach people what I know to be true and to build that relationship with their God!! They don’t have to understand me, they just have to understand the spirit; it does practically all the teaching!! But yes Spanish does help, trust me!! I said I was embarrassed in one of my classes and apparently that sounds close to the Spanish word to be pregnant.  So I said I am pregnant.

I really am glad to be going to Guatemala. I think it will help me learn Spanish faster because I have to be able to understand what is going on there!!

I want you all to know I love you!! I pray for all of you and you all mean a lot to me!!

Elder Daniel McKenna

Thursday, July 26, 2012

7/19/2012

Hey! The CCM (MTC in spanish) is great. The past 7 days have been amazing. My whole life has just flipped around for the better.  I know I am not the best I can be at all because I still have two years left to grow even bigger. I don't know why people don't like the CCM, it's so spiritual and it is just so fun!! My companion is Elder Hansen your not going to believe this but he is just like my brother Jacob except he is 10 times slower and talks 10 times less. Most relaxed kid I know. The other day he was telling a story about animals and this was his story. "My mom took in a stray cat once." That's all he said to me like that whole day and when I asked him to finish his story he was like "thats all I had to say." He is way cool though. My other roommates are Elder Foster, y Elder Lythgoe!! He is my favorite.  We do splits all the time together.  He is super funny and chill!! He was a temple worker in the san diego temple.  How sick is that?
My district is way sweet.  Everyone is way chill!!! Elder Passamore is from Cali and he is the biggest Cali bro surfer. He has been in the Volcom house and everything! Big surfer!! He is so funny and knows the gospel well!! Then there is Elder Rindlessbacher (love that name) he is my favorite. He has such a strong testimony. He came here two years ago and had to return home early. He came back again a couple weeks ago and on the first week he broke his leg. So he had to be here another 3 weeks, but then he got another missionary call from President Monson saying that he is now in a spanish speaking mission. He just got moved to this district and is in here for another like 7 weeks!! He is a little older, but I really admire him because you can just tell he wants to be here and he really has the strongest testimony ever. You just know he loves the gospel and loves it here.
So spanish blows! I have taught 4 lessons to my investigator Ana in spanish. First lesson sucked. I didn't understand a word she said and I didnt understand a word I said!!! Second lesson went a little better. I asked her to be baptised, wish I did it on my first lesson, but got rejected.  To be honest even though she's a real member pertending to be an investagator of the church I was sad to hear her say no. Then 3rd lesson we taught her how to pray because she would just randomly stand up walk into the corner of the room and start praying.  Honestly weirdest, funniest, thing I have ever seen. The first time I prayed to start the lesson she just stood up and did that. When I finished my prayer she just kept going for like 20 min. I didn't even know what to do because I was happy she was praying. She would pray to the trinity though, which a lot of catholics do. We fixed all that. She prays good now, like normal. Our 4th lesson we gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she would pray about it to see if she should, but she commited to at least reading 1 verse =) It doesn't sound like a lot but it really is a lot coming from her!!!  It's a little frustrating when teaching because I'll feel the spirit to say something and my companion will just say no in the middle of saying something, because he is scared that we wont know how to answer her question in spanish or something. It totally takes the spirit away. It's really frustrating!!
If there is one thing I have learned here it's - we are not here for us!! We are here for our investigators. Everything we do is for them and their needs!! I mean yeah we may not be able to communicate that well, but we need to know her or his needs to help them get a better relationship with their Father in Heaven!! It is frustrating some times not being able to understand them 100 percent, but thats why all my efforts go to the investigator.  Personal study I study doctorine and scriptures that will help Ana get closer to Heavenly Father. When I'm doing language study I study the vocabulary I will be using in my next lesson to help her. That's why I am here. I'm not here to just increase the members of this church. I am here so that we can bring people closer to their Father in Heaven so they can live with him again!!
The other day we were practicing and I was teaching my companion, pretending to be an investigator (germon). I was bearing my testimony on why we should be baptized and how much our Heavenly Father loves us! As I was doing this the spirit just hit me and I thought of my family and friends and how much I love them. I want them to be able to live with our Father in Heaven too!
Elder Daniel McKenna

Friday, July 6, 2012

Farewell!

It is almost here. I leave for my mission on Wednesday! If you would like to stay updated with what is going on, this blog will be the best way. My mailing information will be updated here, weekly emails will be posted and occasional pictures will be up. My Farewell talk is this Sunday, July 8th, at 9:00 A.M. My church if on the corner of 350 W. 700 N. in American Fork. All are welcome!