Elder McKinley's Stint Across the Pond

Hello everybody! Welcome to another weekly update from yours truly, Elder McKinley. I don't have a massive amount of time today because we are pickleballin it up in Exeter today.  This week has been really good. We had some fun meetings in Exeter and Plymouth (they are really cool cities, give them a google). It's always good to see other missionaries.  We had the opportunity to teach one of best 9 year old superstars ever, Mae, twice this week. She is loving church and she came with her mom and her little sister this week as well! The biggest miracle of the week was when someone we've been working with for about 3 months now called us and asked us for a ride to church! Usually we are the ones who call her and offer her a ride! She's a nice lady and she has wanted to come to church for a while but so many things have gotten in the way of this over the past 3 months. Not only did she come, but she brought her daughter and two grandchildren! They are all eager to...

Okay so I honestly don't even know where to begin for this week but I'm gonna just write and see what happens. Good morning friends, family, beloved individuals, and welcome to the weekly braindump that is my email. (I've been hard-core cleaning today for the past 4 hours and I'm a little scattwrbrained  ) This week was full of miracles. We were able to go walk around Exeter with the sister missionaries there and we split up and they went one direction and we went the other, both trying to find people who were interested in hearing what we had to say. We walked away and talked to everyone we could (and there was a lot of people) and after a freak hail/rainstorm, a few nice conversations and one atheist who still hasn't made up his mind but didn't want to meet up, we didn't find anybody. Which is alright! We carry on :-) but after meeting up with the sisters, we found out they found three! How cool is that? Miracles.  The next big miracle was Tess an...

Good morning everyone! I hope you are all doing well. I'm emailing you from good ole Holsworthy once more, which means I'll be here for another 6 weeks at least. I'm excited. I think it's going to be a fun and miracle filled 6 weeks. I'll be here with Elder Moorcroft and were going to be working hard to help move the work of the Lord along here in north Devon.  Getting into the week, it was a little crazy but it was good! We had zone conference on Thursday where we talked about the year ahead and what we needed to be doing as missionaries to make the most of it and be giving all our time, might, mind, heart and strength to the Lord. I'm excited for this year. I think it's going to be life changing. Being there with so many other missionaries got me really excited for the time ahead. I'm looking forward to working hard, having fun, and seeing the hand of the Lord in each and every day.  After the conference, I went on exchange with Elder Still. W...

Good morning everyone! It's been an interesting week for sure, so I'm just going to get down to it. I don't know where to start because of all the things that happened so bear with me. We had a cool experience where we actually got to give someone a Book of Mormon in a foreign language! It was a polish Book of Mormon and when we came back later in the week, he wasn't interested anymore, but that's okay! We told him to keep the book. Maybe someday he'll change his mind. I'm grateful I felt I should take the Polish Book of Mormon though. We weren't going to, but then I felt I should take it. The holy spirit works in simple and effective ways.  WE FINALLY GOT TO TEACH MARTIN! Elder Lopiano and I met Martin about 45 days ago and has been so busy ever since. We really felt he would be interested though so we kept trying to meet him. Friday  we finally were able t...

Good morning and happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a great holiday season and are now ready to start this new year right. I definitely have seen so much growth and experience this past year and know that as I work hard, I can make this year a great one for the books. My goals include being less irritable and getting more into exercising. This is where you say that goals are supposed to be realistic and not impossible. Well I'm going to try anyways. Getting into the week, it was a crazy one. I don't have a massive amount of time today, but I'll share some interesting things. First, we had a nice walk through the forest with our neighbors, some who go to our church and some who don't, and it was a nice change of pace for a bit. England is a beautiful place.  We had a really cool experience where we were able to meet someone who has been a member of the church for 40 odd years but hasn't been in about 20. He said that he had a bad experience and blamed ...