The Greatest...

Wow the past 2 weeks have been a rollercoaster and a half to say the least! I got booted out of my area... sadly had to leave but I'm now serving in San Luis! I will talk more about it further in the email but I'm doing great! I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying life as it is!:)

The people we were teaching in Aguas were amazing, we had 10 people on date, and my boy Arturo is getting baptzied next week! The other elders told me he said he misses Elder McKenna!! That made me happy because he's seriously such a great guy! We were teaching a family, the father is getting baptized next week as well and then is going to baptize the fam two weeks later! Before I left he had me sign my name in his Book of Mormon it was lit! That area is one of, if not the most fruitful areas in the mission. So many people are prepared to hear the gospel over there. I hope I get to go back to that area one day! 

That leads me to my next point... My new area. Let's just say I went from one of the best areas to literally the worst area in the mission. President called us and told me where I was going and the look on my comps faces said it all, right now I'm laughing but in the moment I was terrified hahaha. I took a 3 hour bus ride out to my area. After that, got to the apartment and it was disgusting. At this point I was just done, the missionaries here before had ruined the trust with the members, were teaching like no one, and hadn't cleaned the house. So I spent the first night cleaning dishes for an hour and a half while they all watched me hahha. The next day we decided to go street contacting. You wouldn't believe it but everyone we talked to was so hardened in their hearts and didn't want to talk to us at all. We ended up not having water in our house for 3 days and we stank really bad hahahah. It was definitley a rough first couple of days. I sound like a debby downer hahah but trust me things get better!!  A couple days went by and still no luck with the people or members. We had Zone Conference and one of the Assistants shared an expierence that they had a while back and it was literally exactly the same situation. He shared a scripture that I haven't given enough respect so I'm going to share it with y'all! 

It's 2 Nephi 27:23

"For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

I took this to heart. This is by far the hardest I've prayed in my mission.  I know with all my heart that God is a God of miracles. Without a doubt. As the AP said in Zone Conference that God is "The Greatest".  We have seen miracles after miracles after miracles in this area in literally a week. We went from not having one lesson the first 4 days I was there to finding amazing people to teach, we now have 8-10 people who are progressing rapidly, we are slowly getting more confidence in the members and they are starting to work with us, people in the streets are actually talking with us, we have been getting a lot of peoples numbers and addresses and the work is progressing!!! Saturday was insane. We had 2 of the best lessons I've ever been apart of. The spirit was so strong. We were teaching someone named Daniela, we taught her the plan of the Salvation. It was bomb, she said that all of her questions were answered and she has no doubts about what we shared! We had a lesson with someone named Jose Juan, he told us he was baptized in a different church, and loves the bible. We taught him about the priesthood and the Book of Mormon. He ate that right up hahaha. We invited him to church and he told us he wants to come but someone was coming to clean his house. We told him with much boldness that Church is much more important and that he will make time to come... He said ok and ended up coming to church as well as 4 other of our friends!!

All I have to say is God really is "the greatest". He is a God of miracles. He is the God of love. We just need to be looking for those miracles and we will see them in our efforts! I've learned this life is gonna be tough always and we really can't do anything without His help and to always remember Him in the good times and the bad ones! I know He is in the details of the details of our lives, remember to always trust in Him and His timing!

I hope you all have a great week! -love, Elder McKenna

El Amor Puro de Cristo...

Long time no see!!! I hope you all are doing great! These past 2 weeks have been crazy busy but aquí estamos! I left Texas and apparently they just can't get enough of me. There's a storm there called "tropical storm Nicholas" rn hahaha. But on the real it was extremely sad saying bye to everyone but I know I'll see them all again! 

This week in México has been crazy crazy fun. I'm with two goats for comps. Dude's are both grinders and we have a lot of fun doing it! Just to show you how awesome they are, we were walking home late last night. We were walking in a dark alley. Not gonna lie I was kinda freaked out hahaha. Then all of the sudden both of them just took off running so obviously I started to run as well. The thoughts in my head were definitely that a dog was chasing us but they stopped running and just started laughing. Moral of the story is my comps are a bunch of hooligans hahaha. My favorite part so far has definitely been the food, the people, and the weather! I also don't have to deal with humidity anymore, only dogs! The people here are literally so prepared to hear the gospel and are so sweet, we have around 15 lessons a day. We are teaching a bunch of people we just put on date, we have 7 getting baptized here in the next couple weeks and I have been so surprised how prepared and ready they are. It actually amazes me so much to the point where I don't believe how prepared they are. We are teaching some guy named Arturo, they found him a couple days before I got there and extended a date for baptism. We have met with him every day since I've gotten here, he keeps commitments and just soaks everything up. His OG date was for Oct 11 but we just moved it up because of how fast he's progressing, it is now sep 25! We are teaching a lot of amazing people and some sweet families. It's definitely been a grind out here but it's lit! We do a lot of street contacting and I guess because I'm white everyone wants to talk to us hahaha. The people are brutal with the jokes tho no one holds back here, I've been getting absolutely roasted but I love it.

We've definitely seen a lot of miracles this past week! I'm gonna share one with you guys that I think really changed my perspective about people. We had a baptism this last Saturday, it was awesome! The ward mission leader was there and he's probably 21 years old. He gave us a ride home, and on the way back home we got some yummy ice cream! When we were driving back we saw a young boy probably 10 inside a dumpster digging inside the trash. We proceeded to drive past then about 10 seconds later he slammed on the brakes and turned around, got out of the car and made sure the kid was ok and gave him his ice cream. This was a great example to me of the pure love of Christ and acting on spiritual promptings when we get them! It reminded me that we always need to be grateful for what we have and not take the things we have for granted! I also seriously love being a missionary, can't say it enough! I have loved every second of it! Love you guys, hope you have a great week!!