Week 17: Piano Men, Parcel Pickup, and Christmas Cake

Good morning, salutations and Merry Christmas! This is my last email before that special day, so I wanted to start off by saying Merry Christmas to you all! Before I get into the week, I wanted to take some time for some shout outs. 

First, to the Vaughn family, thanks for the Christmas banner! I love that picture of of you all and I thought the delivery was so clever! Way to use Facebook. 

Second, to everyone sending me Christmas cards, thank you! I love them and you're so kind. 

Third, to all of you for your continual support and love for me. You are the greatest Christmas gifts :-)

So getting into this week, it was really great! We made some cookies and took them to people we're teaching, people we are trying to teach, and people we aren't teaching. It was really fun and a nice change of pace. You can see our artsy pic attached. We only burned a few of them so I called it a win. 

Elder Moorcroft waa feeling rubbish so we went to the medical center (that I didn't even know existed) and now he's feeling a lot better! We got in for an appointment same day which was a little miracle because it was Friday and if we didn't we'd have to wait two more weeks. The small miracles are sometimes the greatest of all. 

We also helped put wheels on a piano that we use for church services. It was weird to see a piano on its side but it was fun to do. I feel a special connection with this piano because I originally helped move it from someone's house in the middle of nowhere (see email from a few weeks ago) to the place where we have church. Now I helped put wheels on it. Now it's going to be used for the Carol Service we are going to have this Sunday for Christmas eve. I feel like a proud piano parent. Also, Carol services are pretty common here. They pretty much are a whole church service devoted to singing Christmas carols. I'm super pumped. It's going to be a wonderful, spirit filled Christmas eve Sunday and we've given out invitations to hundreds of people so we're hoping we can fill the place. We'll see! Regardless, it will be a wonderful way to celebrate the Savior. We're also having mince pies and hot chocolate after (which I had a mince pie and have found homemade ones far outweigh store bought), which is a plus. 

British word of the week: parcel - you don't send packages or get packages you send and receive parcels. 

British food of the week: Christmas Cake - I'm told it's like American fruit cake but I've never had American fruit cake so I don't have anything to compare it to. It's definitely interesting. It's pretty much like a cake made of spices, dried cherries, raisins, dates, and other fruits. It's one of those you have to try it for yourself kind of things. 

Companion comic: so, while we were out on Monday, the post woman came by to drop off a parcel. She put a little note through our door saying that it was too big and that we had to come down to the delivery office in town to pick it up. We decided that it wasn't too far of a walk, so we decided for our exercise yesterday that we would run down to the delivery office, pick it up, and run back. Yes, I voluntarily went for a run, yes I was the one who suggested the run, yes I kind of enjoyed the run. But it was funny to see people's faces as we ran by with an Amazon parcel at 7:30 in the morning. We just ran with it (ba dim tis).

I wanted to end this email with a story. Our mission President is a great man and he told us of how the message we share is like giving someone the best gift we possibly can. It's like we went to the store, spent a good amount of money on it and wrapped it up all nice and fancy for them. We really want them to have it because we know it will make them happy. Yes we have made sacrifices to give it to them, but it's because we love them. Ultimately, our gift is merely just sharing the knowledge we have of a greater gift: the gospel of Jesus Christ. We decided to take his advice to help people see what we share as a gift by literally wrapping up some of our cookies, some mince pies, and a book of Mormon and giving the gift to a friend we having been trying to meet with. We also wrote him a letter explaining the metaphor of it all. He really appreciated it and said that if the Book of Mormon had made such an impact in our lives, then it was probably worth reading. It made my heart so happy that our gift was received as we hoped. Because in reality, we are not the givers of the gift, but rather partners of the gift. We know how great this gift is and want to share it with everyone. Christ is the giver. He is the gift. I love Him and while I miss my family and friends this holiday season, I feel privileged and blessed to spend it in the service of Him who has given me everything. May your Christmas be filled with laughter, joy, peace, and love. 

Merry Christmas,

Elder McKinley 

Our cookies, piano men, sunsets, and a typical English village 

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