"My brain is just....full of Spanish and Jesus"

-

 ¡Hola Familia y Amigos!


Not a bad way to live if you ask me! 

News update: I've decided I want to move to Spain after the mission! Hit me up if you want to go with me!

This week FLEW! Literally went by so fast because we were BUSY! Our calendar was packed this whole week with services, English classes, meetings, and lessons. 6:30am to 10:30pm. I loved it. It feels so good to be busy. 

This last week we had Zone Conference and it was great. I felt so spiritually overwhelmed afterwards. All I wanted to do was take a nap when we got back to our apartment. Something I absolutely loved was said by some elders who gave a training. They talked about obstacles and how obstacles have always existed in the work of the Lord, like Moses and the Red Sea. Literally can't even imagine being one of the Israelites in that moment. Talk about feeling defeated. But, it's the obstacles that help us exercise our faith. An obstacle is probably an indication you're on the right track, otherwise the adversary wouldn't care to interfere. So for all those missionaries (or anyone else) feeling defeated (@hermanamckin 3 weeks ago) COVID IS NOT AN EXCUSE! God NEEDS us to adapt and learn and progress! Literally the Plan of Salvation. The Gathering of Israel, on both sides of the veil, is THE most important work taking place on the face of the Earth. So gear up. 

Hermana Skinner and I both felt really prompted to start using Facebook this week. Lots of missionaries use Facebook to teach but I swore I would never use it when I arrived here. Lol. God will have a humble people (-Ezra Taft Benson). Anyways, needed some humbling and now Hermana Skinner and I are using Facebook! We joined a few "Latinos In Utah" Facebook groups and started posting about offering free English classes. We received over 200 comments!!! I guess the Lord needs us gathering Israel through FB right now?

So here's something kind of funny: Hermana Skinner and I started teaching English to this guy named Alejandro. He is hilarious and SO beyond nice. Towards the end of our English lesson, he told us he has been meeting with some elders. We were so excited and when we asked him how things were going he told us he was getting baptized the next day! Long story short: he invited us to his baptism! It was the SWEETEST thing and the Spirit was SO strong. I was grateful Hermana Skinner got to be there. She got to be a witness and was sort of freaking out because she didn't know the baptismal prayer in Spanish haha. I told her to just make sure Alejandro goes all the way under and she'd be fine. The elders asked me if I would be willing to play the piano for the opening and closing song but the "piano" was some sort of fancy electric one and whoever had played it before I got there had left it on "blaring organ" mode. It took me a second to figure out how to get it back to piano mode, which was sort of awkward, but we got it. Probably didn't do "I Am A Child of God" or "Teach Me to Walk in The Light" justice but at least it wasn't coming from a screaming organ. 

This ADORABLE hermana in our ward came and dropped off some masks at our apartment yesterday! Mine has my name and the Book of Mormon embroidered on it. It's the stinking cutest thing ever and I love it. The members are so nice here and I think we have finally established good relationships with almost all of them! Today while we were doing our grocery shopping, we passed someone who looked super familiar. It's hard to tell who is who when a mask covers half of their face but a couple minutes later we got a phone call from cute 17 year old Daniel who asked us if we were shopping at Walmart haha. We talked for a quick sec after checking out and I realized as great as FB is, I thrive on social interaction haha. 

Hermana Skinner is still the best ever. We laugh way too hard and I would be fine if President left us together for the next 7 months of my mission. One lady we were teaching started teaching us about "manifestation" and told me if my desires align with the Universe's, then all I have to do is write down what I want 3 times in the morning, 6 times in the afternoon, and 9 times at night. Not sure if I quite believe that but if it'll keep Hermana Skinner and I together, it might be worth a shot hahaha. 

Love you all! ¡Gracias por el apoyo! Hmu for English AND/OR Spanish classes ;) or lessons! I want to share my testimony with you!

Love love loveeeee,
Hermana McKinlay


1. Saturday and Sunday don't exist anymore
2. Masks!
3. ¡BAUTISMO! Felicidades Alejandro!
4. Conferencia de Zona
5. You knew it was coming...
6. One of my FAVORITE NT stories. Hands DOWN Holland did it justice. 
7. Family Search wouldn't let me. Rude.


























 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Hellos and Goodbyes and Thank Yous and See You Soons

-
Image
Hi! Thank you for supporting me these last 18 months and for allowing me to experience the most life changing adventure. My mission has been the hardest but most happiest time of my life. I am sooooo grateful for the support and encouragement I received from you both. Here and in Argentina.  WE DID IT! Hermana McKinlay
Read more

3 STARS

-
Image
¡Hola Amigos y Familia! If you know you know. This week went by reallllllyyyyy slow not going to lie. Patience is a virtue....I lack. I'm working on it.  Last week after p-day I had "divisiones" with a Hermana Cappa! There are two Hermana Cappas and they're over the whole Santiago Centro Zone. Hermana V. and I said goodbye for 24 hours to go on splits with the Hermana Cappas. Tender mercy, I was assigned to a gringa! She's actually going home this week so that kind of stunk (#trunky) BUT she was able to answer a lot (and I had a LOT) of questions. We went and did something called a "Tormenta Blanca" which basically means a group of elders and hermanas go to an area and help out the elders or hermanas assigned to that area. We went to an area in my zone called "Frias" which was a 3 hour bus ride away. SO, we woke up at 3:30am to catch the bus and started working right after we stepped off. Hermana Hemingway and I found a LOT of peopl...
Read more

"Why Are They All White?"

-
Image
¡Hola Familia y Amigos! So we had a cita with Exequiel this week to teach him more about prophets, temples, etc. All that good stuff. I pulled out a picture of all the general authorities and Exequiel sat there for a sec before saying, "Why are they all white?" It was pretty funny not going to lie. There's a solid amount of general authorities from South America but they all look white so we tried to explain that.  This week was kind of an odd week. Everyday was super overcast and rainy and Hermana Horton and I just kinda felt weird. At least 3 times once a day we'd look at each other and say something like, "Why is today so weird?" I think we were letting the weather get to us because we actually had a VERY productive week. The Sister Training Leaders came over yesterday to verify our weekly planning and they said they've never seen a companionship work so effectively. They said they could tell we have a love for the people and each other which ...
Read more