Elder McKinley's Stint Across the Pond

Good morning, salutations and howdy to all of you, my lovely family and friends! I hope you are having the best of days and have had the best week! Let's get down to it, shall we? First: Zone Conference was this week! It was really uplifting and inspiring and as always, even though I've only been twice, way to much information to take in at once. I'm still processing it all but it was great! Got to see some MTC friends so that was great! One thing I really liked from it all was that it's important for us to be our genuine selves as we go out and share the gospel. God called me to serve, not some robot. Which is good, because I think a robot would rust in all this rain we've been getting :-) jokes aside, I am glad that I am who I am and that I have the privilege of meeting so many new and interesting people every day.  We also had one of the Assistants to our Mission President (basically he is just another missionary but spends a lot more time in the office ...

Good morning loved ones!! I love each and every one of you so much and hope you have had the best week whether you were working, parenting, schooling, or doing nothing at all. You all rock! Getting into missionary life this week, it was pretty good! Elder Lopiano and I are still hard at work and while we aren't seeing massive visible results, we know that the work we are doing is laying a groundwork for the future as well. remembrance  You've already seen the reason for the first part of my subject line but I'll get on to the second. The branch President (congregation leader) in Holsworthy has a really interesting and amazing family. First interesting thing: they own and operate an archery range. Super cool right? Second, they are really into anime. The whole family likes it, but his wife, Sister Smith, absolutely loves anime. It's pretty much her whole life. Anyways, I haven't seen many animes but I have seen a couple. A few weeks ago, having dinner at ...

Good morning friends, family, neighbors, and loose acquaintances! I love you all and hope you have had an amazing week. As you can tell, the week didn't have too many exciting, out of the ordinary things happen so I could not come up with a good email title. Moving on... We had Stake Conference this weekend! Its basically just a big gathwring of a bunch of local congregations and It last a whole weekend and is so enriching and uplifting. It was really wonderful. Our mission President spoke about seeking light and how Christ brings that light to all who seek Him. I know that to be true from personal experience. I also know that any of you seeking a brighter life can find it in and through Jesus Christ. Another speaker spoke of remebering to be inclusive of all in the church, and she particularly focused on including women. She quoted both Maya Angelou and Michelle Obama and I loved it. A dear friend posed the question to me last week regarding the expectations of women in t...

Good morning friends, family, and whomever has the pleasure (or chore) of reading this email. It's been a semi uneventful week here in Holsworthy, but let's get started with some fun facts. First, a member here, Nigel Manners, was in the original "meet the mormons" film. It's called "a plan for a prophet",  was made in 1965, and is on YouTube. It's fantastically retro and an interesting watch. Second, our area that my companion and I cover is about 3,000 square miles. So yeah, it's big! Needless to say, we put a lot of miles on our car :-) speaking of cars, this is the third one, I DROVE THIS WEEK AND WE DIDN'T DIE. That's one of the miracles. Other than being terribly stressful, it went pretty well! I'm just getting used to it all. With time I'll be a pro. It doesn't help that most of the roads are only big enough for one car...and they are two way roads...and the speed limit is 60. But it's fine, I'm fine, everythi...

Hello and good morning everyone! This week has been interesting and I'll get right to it! So we got transfer calls this weekend...and I'm staying in Holsworthy! I'll be here for at least 6 more weeks. Our mission President doesn't really like to move missionaries a lot so I'll probably be here for another 5 months. Missionaries in this mission typically spend about 6 months in an area. I'm actually excited to be here for a little while longer. I love the members and it's fun getting to meet so many different people everyday.  Now you might be asking, "wait I thought he said he was moving". Well we are. Not places but flats. We found a flat closer to where we have church (about 30 minutes closer) and after much negotiating between the mission office and the estate agent, we should be moving in a few weeks! Exciting! I should be on HGTV with all the experience I have now.  I went on exchange again this week. This time, the leader missionary ...