Week 15: Christmas Time is Here by Elder Lopiano Isn't

Hello and good morning everyone! I hope you have been having a fantastic week and time in life in general. Let's get down to it because things happened this week.

I am staying in Holsworthy for another six weeks! That means I get to be here for Christmas! I'm really excited. I absolutely love the people here and am blessed I get spend more time with them. Sadly, Elder Lopiano was moved to another part of the mission. It was great to serve with him and I love him a lot. I was sad to see him go, but I know he'll do great things where he's headed. I have a new companion here though! His name is Elder Moorcroft and he's from Australia. He's a pretty interesting guy. He's been on his mission for 18 months, so he's got some experience under his belt. It should be a good time working with him. 

Another crazy thing happened. So all the missionaries around the world are grouped into sets of missionaries called districts. These districts usually comprise about 4 to 10 missionaries and meet together once a week to help each other out. Over that district is someone called a district leader. That person's job is to help out all the missionaries in the district in any way they can, mostly through teaching, serving, and being their friend. The crazy thing is that I was assigned to to be the district leader! So wish me luck, because I've got a lot to learn, but I'm excited I get the chance to serve my fellow missionaries. 

We had some sad goodbyes this week as Elder Lopiano has been here for 7.5 months. He's become a mainstay in this area and the people here love him. He's a good example of what a missionary should be. So our weekend and the past two days were full of goodbyes because we found out Saturday that he was leaving. We also just spent time talking to people and trying to serve people at every corner, especially with light the world going on (check out mormon.org for 25 cool service things to do in December). WE FINALLY HAD SOMEONE LET US HELP THEM! All the time, we ask people if they'd like any help. People never let us help them. Ever. It's the weirdest thing. Anyways, we both felt we should ask this one lady if she wanted help with her groceries and she said yes! We got to talking and she was super nice, and while she isn't interested in the gospel, we still were able to help and serve her which is one of my favorite things!

British food of the week: mince pies - haven't had a proper one yet but apparently it's like a small fruit pie loaded with spices. They used to have meat in them as well, hence the mince

British word of the week: proper - it means genuine or a good example of; "that was a proper cottage pie" or "you've got a proper Cornish accent"

Companion comic: we drove by Stonehenge on the Way to pick up my new companion and drop off Elder Lopiano. I got a pretty good picture, and now I don't even  have to pay the 14 quid to go and see it (if I ever served near there, it's about 3 hours from where we live)

Scripture of the week: Ether 12:4, 27 The Lord will strengthen us if we put our faith in Him. I love love love these scriptures, please check them out.

I love you all so much and hope that you continue to feel God's love for you in your lives. Thank you for the letters and the emails they mean the world to me. I love you all. May you truly find joy this season, regardless of your faith. Until next time,
Elder McKinley 

Fun aside: there is a member here who has the oldest active aol account in the UK. He's a cool guy. 

Five guys, Stonehenge, goodbye pic, and yurts 

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