Well, Nichole and I have been slacking...

Here are Elder McKenna's emails from this week

To Mom and Dad:
Well this week wasn't the best week i have ever had, but i can't complain too much. my companion is wanting to go home. He has talked to President Araujo, his brother, and tuesday he called the Zone leaders and they called President and President Araujo just told them I won't send him home. but i think it will all be ok. we had a split with our zone leaders and it has helped me and i think it is helpeing him. we are having the division until thursday morning. he has a fiancé. she is 34 he is 19 and she is divorced and has two daughters and she is sick. i think it is cancer. he says it is not because of her that he wants to go home, but just because he is selfish. he is embarassed to be a missionary, ect. the list goes on and on. the first time he said he wanted to go home was last wednesday and i was taken aback. but it is part of the mission, and part of life. but he will not go home early, especially when he is with me.

but other that that everything is going relatively well.

i would like to ask for a couple things. hankercheifs (to swipe the sweat from my brow, it is getting really hot) preferably white and black and black and white, and a brown one as well.the old fashioned ones nothing fancy. deodorant. several. just send 5 or 7. i don't need sunscreen i have quite a bit. a ctr ring size 11 for Elder Buzzatto not to expensive. he wants to pay for it. i don't need much i am a simple man living a simple life. maybe some TANGY mike and ikes, but you don't need to send much. i want this to be my last package. just to get the ensign of conference. save the money for my dog that you guys (or at least Sherrie (mom) promised me after the mission) maybe you guys want to start looking for one now. i have a couple sugestions (neopolitan mastiff, great dane, rottweiler, or old english bulldog, husky/akita) i prefer the ones at the front but it is negotiable. or maybe i would settle for a monkey, but i still don't know what i have to do to get permission to bring one back with me.

will Rusty be sending his papers in here soon?

do you guys need anything?

but thank you for everything. love you all.

To Jessica:
well basically everything worked out with my companion. he still wanted or wants to go home. right now we are having a division with our zone leaders. but everything will work out. i believe that all of this is a trial of my faith. because i set goals to augment my faith. we lways have trials of our faith, this is life for ya. congrats on the b+.

not much is happening here. just saving souls. we are trying to help this area. it is really weak. there are about 15 members that are going to church that live here. they almost closed the branch a little while ago. but the stake president has a lot of faith for castro and i do to.

i sent you a letter the other day. last thursday. love you, have a good week.

7-8-2009: New area!

Well i have just arrived in my new are. i am no longer in curitiba. i am close to pontagrosa in a place called castro. i am enjoying so far. it should be a great place. i am excited to start working here. my companion is Elder Fonseca. if you can't tell by the name he is brazilian. he does not speak english either. but he is a good missionary. he is starting his fourth transfer right now.

other than that not much has changed. transfers are the worstand best part of the mission. it is not very fun packing your bags and getting on a bus.

my old companion Elder Hafen found a book his mom sent with him and it had a bunch of recipes. one of which was cinamon rolls. they were really good, but the frosting wasnt very good recipe i think. but i should have fun with that, because our branch here only has about fifty members.

hope everone is doing well. love you all.

May 13, 2009

not much has happened since we last talked. so it will be short. missionaries don't have birthdays. we just come back two years older. it is like we are in a coma for two years. but in tatuquara when it was someones birthday they would throw eggs at the back of their heads. mostly just girls though.

but while i was talking to you guys my companion took a picture.

And this is what google translator says his email says... please enjoy!

good afternoon. Many discussions by the packages. I love the things you send. I think I will win the pounds that I lost. We start another transfer. I am still with elder Spencer. He is very nice. We are good friends. The mission going quickly. But I like that. It would be more difficult, if slowly. We already did in bake cookies. They were very nice. Brigade revenues. And one of the other fighting for me. We dyed a room for a few recent converts. It was well diverged. Paint it yellow. Then I lost ten pounds but I'm fat. We play basketball. But we run pretty fast. We run there. But that is part of the mission. I will make my muscles again after the mission. I hope my Spedo will not be of much more. But if he is you can buy one for me. Now this is not much hurry. I love you and I miss you too. But do not worry, it is not so difficult, it is normal. I can wait the rest of my mission. How things are with everyone there. The Larson's will change, and my grandparents, what they will do. Living in the cabin. But p-day is over. Bye Y'all

April 14, 2009

Here is Andrew's email to Mom and Dad:

"boa tarde. Muito brigado pelos pacotes. eu gosto muito das coisas que vocês mandarem. eu acho que eu vou ganhar os quilos que eu já perdi. Nós começamos mais uma transferência. Ainda eu estou com Élder Spencer. Ele é muito legal. A gente é bom amigos. A missão esta indo rapidamente. Mas eu gosto isso. Seria mais difícil, se fosse devagar. A gente já fez no bake cookies. Eles foram muito gostoso. Brigado pelas receitas. E da um brigado pra os outros de mim. A gente tintou uma sala por alguns conversos recentes. Foi bem divergido. Tintamos ela amarelo. Então eu perdi dez quilos mas ainda eu estou gordo. Nós jogamos basquete. Mas a gente descansou bem rápido. Nós corremos lá. Mas isso faz parte da missão. Eu vou ganhar meus músculos de novo depois da missão. Espero que meu spedo não vai ser grande de mais. Mas se ele é vocês podem comprar mais um pra mim. Agora isso não tem muito pressa. Eu amo vocês e tenho saudades de vocês também. Mas não se preocupe, não é tão difícil, é normal. Eu posso esperar o resto de minha missão. Como coisas estão com todo mundo lá. Os Larson's vão mudar, e meus avos, o que eles vão fazer. Morar na cabin. Mas p-day já acabou. Tchau y'all"

*****Anyone want to translate this for us?!?!??!********


This is Andrew's email to Jessica: (Who do you think he loves more? haha jk!)

"congratilations on the new car. i hope you like it. you should send me a picture. is it a 2003 or 2005. you and the fam told different stories.
i just finished one more transfer. yes! i am still in campo comprido and i still have the same companion. my companion and i have had the luck of meeting people who are very ignorant and unbashful. we have bible bashed a little. i don't really call it bible bashing. it is answering questions/ stupid and unitelligent comments with scriptures and terstimony. this lady prayed for us on the street and she said and i quote "...abri o intendimento destes demonios do inferno..." end quote. if you didn't understand thats ok. basically she said. "..open the understanding of these demons from hell..." and then this pastor said that we have demons and that every house he has been to to cast out evil spirits had the book of mormon and they had burned it.(he started making up a lot of stuff, and he didn't really read the bible he likes books on exorcisms and stuff. he was really wierd.) we showed no mercy. because he didn't repent. or change at all. but that is why we are here. to give people the opportunity to accept our message and to testify and stand as a witnesses against them. and there is this lady who is reading a book written by some guy who was a witch a vampire and all this other stuff, as well as mormon. it had a lot of really wierd and false stuff. i don't know why people don't just come up with their own questions. it would make the work a lot easier.
but President Aráujo gave us a talk by Elder Holland that he gave to the missionaries in the mtc in provo in 2000 i think that is really good.
The Atonement and the Missionary
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?
You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation never was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.
Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.
For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.
If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.
The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I testify that the living God is our Eternal Father and that Jesus Christ is His living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree, 17 was the chief Apostle then and is the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testify that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He does, so will we.
On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did—the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, the tree of life.
I declare Him to be the Savior of the world, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, the Bright and Morning Star. I know that our garments can be washed white only in the blood of that Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. I know that we are lifted up unto life because He was lifted up unto death, that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and with His stripes we are healed. I bear witness that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief because upon Him were laid the transgressions of us all.
I bear witness that He came from God as a God to bind up the brokenhearted, to dry the tears from every eye, to proclaim liberty to the captive and open the prison doors to them that are bound. I promise that because of your faithful response to the call to spread the gospel, He will bind up your broken hearts, dry your tears, and set you and your families free. That is my missionary promise to you and your missionary message to the world.
yeah Elder Holland is really good. i love all of his talks. there is more to it if you would like to look it up.
but i have had a lot of good experiences as well. the mission there is more to the mission than bible bashing. i will tell more positive stories in the next one.
but have a good time at work and in your new car."

April 8, 2009

"yes we got to watch all of the conferences. it was really good. the priesthood session didn't start until nine o clock. so we stayed up a little later that night. but of course had to get up at the same time. but i really enjoyed it. it was eight american missionaries and then some brazilians who speak english. i can't wait for the ensign.

i am doing pretty good here. the other day we had lunch at one of the members houses, and she just wipped out a bottle of hidden vally ranch dressing. i only wanted to eat the salad that meal.(but i didn't, i thought that might be rude) i really enjoyed it.

we saw some kids playing basketball the other day and we went and marced to play with them today. it should be fun. i am very excited. it should also be a very good proselyting activity. i hope all goes well. i am guessing that we will win(almost positive). but who knows. maybe we will throw it just to make sure they come back. or maybe we will make it close.

Get better soon Pai. have a happy easter"

4/1/2009

"well it wasn't very hard to find out which one was the lie. i know you guys to well and have had a lot of experience with them. just something i thought of the other day. did you guys go back to petersons to see if that tie that you put back and then someone stole was there.

this week we had a baptism. the lady we baptized is really special. we also had her daughter marced to be baptized as well, but ten minutes before sacrament meeting was over, she ran away and said she would not be getting baptized. it was really sad. we worked a lot with her and she was the one who brought up baptism, but she chickened out. she has some really wierd philosophies as well. but its all good.

not much has changed here, we are just waiting on winter to arrive, but unfortunately it is stalling. it has been really hot here. but i am surviving, for the time being... conference should be really good. i have the feeling that something crazy will go down. but we will see.

how are things in the united states. i hear gas is 95 cents a gallon or something like that. the uniteds states "crisis" is a popular topic here although i don't really listen because i don't think they are extremely accurate.

but have a good week. love and miss ya'll"