Words for Nanny´s Funeral - 04/26/2012

My Dearest Family,

   

     I know that right now things are a little rough, actually more like really rough, because we have lost someone who is so dear to all of us and has made a permanent mark that will be in the hearts of everyone for time and all eternity. I was hoping that I wouldn´t have to write these words and that I would have a chance to speak them, but that is not how the Lord would want it, and I believe He knows that my real talent lies within writing more than it is speaking. So as of right now I´m praying fervently that I will have the Spirit of Revelation with me right now to say the few words that the Lord would have me say to you all to give you comfort, that all will be alright. So here we begin.

   

    When I hear the name Mary McKay or better yet for me Nanny, there are many words that describe this amazing, wonderful, woman who has touched the hearts of so many people. The one word that stands out stronger than any other word that can describe Nanny is a simple four letter word spelt L.O.V.E. Her love and charity that she had, and will have throughout the eternities, for others is the most amazing example to me of what the Savior showed us when he was her on the earth. Her love was so immense for everyone, and I never heard her say a bad word about a single person, and if she ever did it was followed directly by some kind of good compliment that she saw in them.

   

   I will warn you all now I will be using quite a few quotes, solo because it is one of the strongest ways I can express my feelings, but Nanny loved quotes anyways, and this is for her, but there is one quote that says, "When you touch one life you touch a thousand," and this was so true with Nanny. I don´t believe there was a single place that exists in Utah County where we could go and not be stopped by someone who knew who Mary McKay was! :) Her example was that strong, she fulfills the meaning of these quotes that say, "The way I live is my clearest testimony, it reflects what I truly believe." and "It is important to have a good example to follow, and example who is full of charity, love, and kindness."

 

   Charles Kingsley once said - "Thank God every morning when you  get up that you have something to do which must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content and a hundred other virtues which the idle will never know." This explains Nanny to a perfect "T" No matter what she was asked to do whether she liked it or not, if someone needed her to do something she was always there and did all she could without a single complaint.

 

   Growing up I have so many wonderful memories with Nanny, memories that will never fade, memories such as, going to Wendy´s or Taco Amigo to get a Bandito, or watching Mother Goose, Sound of Music, or many other movies that she has. I remember also coloring in the many coloring books that she had and she would sit there and teach us how to "color in the lines." Always, Always Nanny would be singing some kind of song with us like "Cream of wheat is so good to eat and we eat it every day, la la la la la la la la la, it makes us shout hooray!" Haha she could never remember the middle part of the song, but it never mattered. Other songs like "Won´t you be my sweet heart, I´m in love with you.." She would always sing or have primary songs playing for us, some of my greatest memories with this was driving to her house in the red Lincoln and singing at the top of our lungs popcorn popping on the apricot tree, My Heavenly Father loves me, and many, many other primary songs, and others. And speaking of an apricot tree, if there was anyone who visited her house you would know right away that Mary McKay had one of the greatest green thumbs in this world, and you could tell that by the amazing, garden that she took care of so dearly, with her famous tomatoes, or apricots, zucchini and many other plants, she would take good care of them until they were ripe and ready to pick, then she would bottle them or give them to other people. My favorite of all the things that she had was her bottled peaches, and we would eat those with Grandma Sycamore bread! YUM!!! :) That was one of my favorite things to eat at her house.

 

   We all know that Nanny´s middle name is Louise, but even though it is not on her birth certificate she always had another middle name and that is BYU FOOTBALL. Nanny hardly missed a game of BYU football and I´m sure she was their greatest fan! I remember watching the games all the time with her while I was little and would copy her by yelling get´m, get´m, get´m! :) One experience in particular I remember was I was out for a walk near her house with Cambry on my shoulders, when all of a sudden I heard a scream from her house, I´m sure you can all imagine how fast I took Cambry off my shoulders and went running like a bullet being shot from a gun to the house, when I got to the house, I ran in completely out of breath, saw Nanny and asked her if she was alright; she then commenced to tell me in a very ecstatic voice that "BYU JUST MADE A TOUCHDOWN!!" :)

 

  One of the memories I will always cherish is the many phone calls that we shared, I would always call her when I was little but it was when I started my Senior year of high school and on, that I called her many times a week, if not at least one time each day of the week. I know that she cherished this, and each time I called her she always had some kind of advice for me. She was someone I could talk to about anything and everything in my life, and as I said she always had advice, the greatest of all the advice that she ever gave me was, "No experience is a total loss if you learn from it!" That is one phrase that has helped me through all situations, because she taught me to be positive and strong and to look for the good in everything. "We can choose to be sad, but it is so much easier to be happy, and takes less muscles to do it," is one other thing she would always say. She never faulted on giving me some kind of advice even while I have been on my mission, she has shown me the greatest love, and has always been one of my number 1 fans and cheering me on to accomplish my dreams and when I was down she was always there to pick me up. In the first letter that she sent me while on my mission while in the MTC, she wrote, "Always know my love and prayers are with you. Know that I miss you, but I would not want you to be anywhere else but where you are at. Keep up the good work, the challenges we face make us learn to be strong, one step in front of the other, and remember, No experience is a total loss if you learn from it. Many, many thing in your life you are preparing for by what you are doing now.¨ Right now one of the reasons I´m here in the mission is for her, I´m here to show the same love she showed to all people.

 

  I could go on for hours and hours talking about Nanny but I know I don´t have that much time in the program, so to end I want to share two quotes and my testimony. The first quote I found in the copy of an orbiter (her ward news letter) that she sent me in the MTC, which says; "Every sister who stands for truth and righteousness diminishes the influence of evil. Every sister who strengthens and protects her family is doing the work of God. Every sister who lives as a woman of God becomes a beacon for others to follow and plants seeds of righteous influence that will be harvested for decades to come. Every sister who makes and keeps sacred covenants becomes an instrument in the hands of God." - Elder M. Russell Ballard -

   

  Than this last quote I found in a talk by Elder Holland while I was in the MTC, the name of the article is "However long and hard the road" and in a part of this talk he talks about how each of us are building our own temple, each stone of our temple is experiences, and the part that stood out the strongest to me was this -- "As long and laborious as the effort may seem please keep shaping and setting the stones that will make your accomplishment, a grand and imposing spectacle, Take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow. Dream, dreams and see visions. Work toward their realization, wait patiently when you have no other choice. Lean on your sword and rest a while but get up and fight again. Perhaps you will not see the full meaning of your effort in your own lifetime. But your children will or your children´s children will, until finally you with all of them, can give the Hosanna shout."

 

  We all know that Nanny worked very hard building her temple throughout her life, and today as we look at her hard work and dedication we can see clearly and without a shadow of a doubt that her temple is a "grand and imposing spectacle" that will last throughout the eternities. Nanny has been an inspiration to many people. Through her hard work, love and compassion she has touched many people´s lives. "Mary´s life has not been easy. She is a true example of faith, and enduring to the end. Mary is a friends to everyone. Her neighbors love her, her co-workers love her, and her family loves her dearly." She is a great example for everyone to follow.

 

  Don´t worry about me in Chile, I will be fine, because I know that right now she is by my side and I have had that confirmation of that in the past few days by the feeling of the spirit as if it were a fire burning in my chest, and it was the strongest I have ever felt the spirit and I know it was her. I know that through the plan of salvation none of us need to have fear, because we can know for a surety that we can be with our loved ones again. "And that same sociality which exists among us here, will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy." D&C130:2. I know with all my heart and every fiber of my soul that this church is true, and that through Christ and His Atonement we can all learn the way back to our Heavenly Father and live forever with those we love. DO NOT FEAR, DO NOT WORRY, right now start learning about this plan because that is what our beloved sister, mother, grandmother, friend, and example would want us to do. Know that she is looking down on us right now with the biggest smile you can imagine because she can see the eternal aspect and true meaning of this plan. We will choose this day to be happy and follow her example, that is what Nanny would want more than anything is for everyone to do all they can to return and live with her again, and we can all do this through Christ, so follow Him. Make her wish come true. I seal these words with my promise as one of the Lord´s missionaries that all will be well, have no worries. Just smile and move forward. Remember no experience is a total loss if you learn from it. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

 

Love Always and Forever,

Hermana Aubrey Jo England

 

week 13 in Chile - 04/23/2012

Place: Hualqui

Companion: Hermana Sanchez

Date: 23/4/2012

Hola Mi Familia,

         How are you all doing? I hope that all is going well, things here in Hualqui, continue to do really well. If you want to know the truth right now I can hardly believe that it is Monday again. This week has passed by to who knows where, but that is how it goes at times. First off I need to tell you that P-Day next week is going to be on tuesday, because we have a General Authority, Elder Duncan from the Seventy, coming to our mission to talk to us, and so P-Day has been moved to tuesday, so don´t worry when you don´t get a letter next monday because you won´t, you will be getting it on Tuesday! :) 

        Ok so on to this week, nothing too exciting has really happened this week, but I can tell you I have had experiences that I won´t forget. I have really seen the hand of the Lord helping us out this week. So this coming week, we have planned three baptisms, we have Carlos and his two sons, Carlitos y Ignacio. We are really excited for them, but we also know that this is going to be so much work, each baptism is, and by Sunday night after proselyting and after planning, you just look at your companion and start laughing, because we are both just wasted with the amount of work that we have done, but it is such a good feeling and we are so looking forward to helping Carlos and his two sons enter the waters for baptism together, then we will be little by little working with his wife, Catalina, who is the sweetest lady ever, but is very set it what she believe, so it will just take time. Oh my, something that Carlos did to us this week, so you know how Washinton is crazy and we are really scared of him now, so much that we either have a rock or have to call Carlos to take care of him, but we were walking away after a cita with Carlos and behind us all of a sudden we heard Carlos say, "WASHINGTON NOOO!" You can imagine that we took off like a bullet running, but then we look behind us to see where he was at and we see Carlos laughing his head off, and Washington was somewhere else, laying down. Lets just say it wasn´t funny at the time, but now it is, but a veces Washington is alright, he has been somewhat leaving us alone, we just make sure that we have a rock.

      So like I believe I told you last week, Hermana Joglar has come to Hualqui, and is now companions with Herman Kraemer, so that is awesome, and we are all doing amazing! Hermana Joglar is a really awesome missionary, and now I can actually understand her, unlike when we both first arrived in Chile, I really didn´t understand her too much, and definitly couldn´t talk to her but now it is so much better. We have so much fun together. Oh thank you so so much for the brownie recipie, we have made them twice this week, and they have been our incentive to make sure that we have all of our goals finished by the end of the day, like contacts and lessons with a member, but little by little they are turning out like the brownies from home, because I don´t have measuring cups I have to guestimate, and being in a different country with humidity, but they are working out great, I think the ones I made this morning for some of our investigators is the right batch we´ll see! Cross your fingers :) But we love to cook it is a good awesome thing to do. 

     Alright so let be think, cool experience this week, so we fasted this saturday, because we needed to know which of the people we have listed were supposed to get baptised this week, because at the beginning of each month you make a goal for how many people to be baptised and we felt after we had prayed that there was 3 people, so louis was one, but we falted two, so we fasted, and we felt durning that it was Carlos and his two sons, and there have been miracle of finding them when we needed to because they are so hard to find together, and we knew the things that they needed to hear, and little by little we are working with them, and with others we were able to know the things that they needed to hear as well. There really is a special power as a missionary and how you can tell the things people need when you just listen to the spirit, it is so awesome! and the coolest feeling ever when it happens. I don´t know but that was something amazing that happened this week, and how I have seen the Lord´s hand in my life, and I´m able to see it each and every day. 

   Well that is pretty much it for this week, I promise to have more next tuesday! Remember how much I love you all, which is so strong and can never fail! I love you all and pray for you all every day! Thank you so much for the letters, I ´m sorry that I´m the worst at writing back but please know I´m working on it, I really don´t have too much time, but little by little you all will be recieving a letter. Please take care, and each day please look for the hand of the Lord in you life! I know you can find it if you just look and write how you saw it down!

Con Amor, Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad

Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 12 in Chile - 04/16/2012

CAMBIO 2 SEMANNA 6

 

Place: Hualqui

Companions: Hermana Sanchez y Hermana Kraemer

Date: 16/04/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!

 

       ¿Como Estan todos? Ok just to warn you off right now this letter is going to be a little short because I´m kindof on a time limit because we have to leave here soon to meet up with our zone for a last activity because people change for cambios. Yep that is right another cambio is over, it is so crazy, during the cambio it felt so slow, but now just looking it is crazy that it is over and I´m in the third cambio. Cambios here are pretty much like march madness picks, we working on it for weeks trying to figure out which hermanas are going where and whos staying and stuff like that. What is really funny is we all thought Hermana Sanchez was leaving because she has 4 cambios in Hualqui, and that is usually how many you have, but nope she is with me for one more cambio!!! I´m excited, I really believe that the Lord knows that Carlos, his kids, and then also Elizabeth need her, and I know that there are other people that are waiting that need the both of us. Like that one man I told you about last week, who thought I was a testigo, well he is being very accepting to the message that we have and has been looking at different churches for years, so we are excited to teach him, because we know that the message that we have is the exact message that he has been looking for, for years. But yeah so Hermana Sanchez is with me for six more weeks than it is inevitable that she will leave for another sector, because it is very rare, that you have more than 5 cambios in a sector, but hey you never know! ;) But then Hermana Kraemer is with another Hermana, whos from Argentina, Hermana Joglar, she actually arrived the same day I did in the mission, so it will be good to see her again. But yeah that is pretty much cambios right now.

 

      So Hermana Kraemer almost got bit by a dog this week, luckily it didn´t bite hard and didn´t tear anything. But what is even worse is that Hermana Sanchez was bit by the same freaking dog three days later, but this time the teeth scratched her a bit, but she is alright luckily, and we talked to the doctor, it´s all good. So you are not going to believe this the same day Hna. Sanchez almost got bit by another dog, a german shepard this time! So if you want to know if satan has a dog, we have found it, his name is Washington!! Holy Cow this dog is huge and very mean, and what worse is it is always out, and right next to Carlos´s house because why it is his dog! So it is so hard to walk down this street with out being barked or chased at, but we are being very careful, and we make sure we can see Carlos before we walk down the street so he can get rid of the dog, and tambiem I have a rock in my hand just in case. But no worries like I said as long as we are careful the Lord will protect us.

 

    So there hasn´t been too much that has been too exciting this week, just a lot of work, haha last night though it was fun, I taught Hermana Sanchez how to play slap jack, because we found some cards in our house, and she loves it, haha but I´m just a little two quick for her! But she loves the game and wants to learn more. Oh and thanks for the brownie recipie we are going to make them soon! Because they are amazing! as you all know! 

 

     Well time for a quick thought from your favorite missionary! :) This is a quote that I found today that I love! "Live so that those who know you but don’t know Him will want to know Him because they know you" Always be an example of the believers and do all you can to help others want to learn about Christ, remember that everyone is watching and that you are a bigger example than you think you are! Remember how much I love you all and please take care this week, I promise to write more next week when I have some more time! Love you all so, so much, and you are always in my prayers. Take care!

 

Con Amor, Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 11 in Chile - 04/09/2012

CAMBIO 2 SEMANA 5

 

Place: Hualqui

Companions: Hermana Sanchez y Hermana Kraemer

Mini Missionary: Hermana Penailillo

Date: 9/4/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!

 

       HAPPY EASTER! ¿Como Estan Todos? Wow this week has been crazy but has been a lot of fun too! We have done lot of work, haha pretty much every night we get home around 10 or 10.30 and we plan real fast for the next day and then collapse on our couch downstairs, it is such a wonderful feeling to be tired, because it is just evidence that you worked really hard that day. So great news! LOUIS SE BAUTIZO!!! It was an amazing baptism, and very spiritual. Adrianna wasn´t baptized with him, because she didn´t feel ready but she has a fecha for the end of the month, and what will be really cool is, that Louis will be able to perform the baptism because he will have the Priesthood, or that is the goal that we are working towards. We are still working with Carlos and Elizabeth, like we said we left them alone for a few days, but then read in PMG that it probably wasn´t the smartest to leave them for that long, after about 4 or 5 days we made contact, and they are doing good. Elizabeth is still having a hard time coming to church, but we are working with her. Carlos actually came to church, and he brought his two sons with him, and some menos activos that live next door, it was amazing and he is progressing really well, and has changed a lot, and tonight we have a noche de hogar with him and his family; hopefully by the end of the month they will be baptized! I´m not too sure if his wife will want to, because she has some doubts, but we are working with her to resolve them. And we have some other really great investigators.

 

      So like I told you last week, we had mini missionaries this week. This is when there are some young men and young women who was to see what a missionin is like to see if they want to serve one, and give them a little taste of it. Before hand I will be honest I scared myself out of my mind that I wouldn´t be able to do this, and be on my own in hualqui, but when the time came i didn´t have a choice, I had to go out and teach, and that is what I did with a prayer in my heart. But the experience went amazing!!!! I was with Hermana Penailillo, and we worked so well together, and got some good work done. I know more spanish than i gave myself credit for, It isn´t perfect, but it is improving and much better than when I arrived. haha I didn´t think I would be a mom in the mission this early though, haha well I guess more like a foster mom, because it wasn´t permanent :) But we adventured around and looked for people to teach, we had some good lessons. Saturday was weird though, after the baptism we went out to teach, and no one let us in! We taught one lady but it was in the street, and only for about 5 mins, but it was good. Then we pretty much walked around all day knocking doors, but everyone pretty much told, sorry we´re Catholic or Evangelicas, and we don´t want to listen, but we got a few people to accept another day so that we could teach them. haha there was one man that we contacted, and i started off by telling him who we were, but he looked at me and told me he wouldn´t accept anything I had to say because i wasn´t Chillean, and that he knew everything about our church. haha i don´t think he heard me well because he thought we were Jehovahs Witnesses, But I continued talking to him, and he accepted another day this week that we can visit him, so we will see how it goes. But the Mini mission went great. I have made a really good friend, and I know she will end up being a missionary! :) 

 

     Everything is going well with Hermana Sanchez and Hermana Kraemer, we continue to have lots of fun together. Haha ok funny story, so I woke up tueday morning, and my feet hurt kind of bad, more like sore, and I couldn´t figure out why, but after thinking about it for a bit, I had a thought that I had fallen out of my bed during the night, so I asked Hermana Kraemer, if she heard me fall, but she said, she didn´t hear anything. I still couldn´t figure it out so I went upstairs and asked Hermana Sanchez and asked, ¿me cayo durante el noche?  at first she looked at me weird, and then she just started busting out laughing and told me that I had, pretty much I fell and i landed straight onto my feet like a cat! and then she asked if I was alright and I told her yep, and climbed back into bed. What is really weird i don´t remember it very well, i only remember it because my feet hurt. Yeah but it was funny, lets just say I moved down to the bottom bunk that was empty because I don´t want to fall again, I was lucky this time. :) 

 

     Well that is pretty much it for this week, I need to get going, we have some things to do to go get ready, like go to the store, and things. Remember how much i love you all. You all are always in my prayers! and I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Oh I forgot to tell you, for Easter, we really didn´t do to much, pretty much just worked, and went to church, but we had Chocolate! of course! But it was a good day for working! But again i hope yours went well! 

LOVE YOU ALL!!!! Until next week with more adventures.

 

Con Amor, Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad!

Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 10 in Chile - 04/02/2012

CAMBIO 2 SEMANNA 4

Place: Hualqui

Companions: Hermana Sañchez y Hermana Kraemer

Date: 2/4/2012

Hola Mi Familia!

           How are you all doing? I hope you all are doing great! Things here are going really well as they always do. There have been many great things that have occured this week. First there was a mission conference for the newbies that have arrived in the past six months, and it was for two days! And this conference was actually in our own language they split the Latins and the Gringos into two different classes, and President Humphrey and Hermana Humphrey taught us all the fundemental lessons that we need to know as a missionary, and we did lots and lots of practicas, basically splitting off and teaching eachother as if we were investigators, but it was really fun, I was paired with Elder Ferguson, because there was only Hermana Brennan and me, President split us up, but it was really fun, because one, I knew Elder Ferguson from the CCM because we were in the same zone, and two it was really good to pretend to be your investigator and try to look at things through their eyes and we were able to recieve inspiration and advice from each other through the Holy Ghost, for them. All I can say though is that the Conference was amazingly great.

          Things are going really well here in Hualqui, we continue to work really hard, and as you can see we are in a trio! Triple the power! But things are continuing to go really well, and we have been working our hardest with people. Louis y Adrianna are doing really well, Louis is so ready for baptism and has a baptismal date for this Saturday!! Adrianna we are working to have her baptised with her husband, but she has a few problems that we need to work through, one she has Santos, I´m not really sure what you call these in English but she has an alter type thing and worships these figures, but we are working on helping her leave these, and helping her gain a testimony of the Libro de Mormon, because she admitted to us that she doesn´t believe in it, and for another she can´t read, so we are contiuing to go by each day and we read a chapter with her and explain it, and hopefully this way she can gain a small testimony, but she really liked it when we came the other day and read Alma 32 the part of faith being like a seed, and then at the end of the lesson we had her pray, it took a while, because she didn´t want to and insisted that we pray, but we all got on our knees and we explained to her, that a pray from a mother for her children is much more powerful than any prayer a missionary could offer for her children, and in the end she prayed, and even though it was short, it didn´t matter the spirit was so so strong and I know that Heavenly Father will help her with her prayer.

        As for Carlos and then Elizabeth, they didn´t come to Conference this week, when they told us they would. That is a major problem that you have to work with here is getting them to come to church, but they both have not been to church for a month, so we are postponing their baptism for another day this month and another thing we are not vistiting them at all this week; now before you say that this is harsh, you need to realize that we pretty much stop by and see them every day, and so we have been figuring a lot about sacrifices, because President Humphrey talked to all the missionaries about it as well as in conference it was talked about, entonces we have decided not to visit them because they need to feel the difference when we aren´t in their life, and they need to realize that we are sacrificing our time, and not only our time but more importantly the Lord´s time to go and visit them. We are hoping by the end of the week, we will know the words we need to say, and help them realize the importance of how we need to make Sacrifices in our lifes to gain greater blessings. So continue to pray for us that we can help them realize this.

       So now on to the coolest thing that has occured this week, GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Wasn´t it SO AMAZING!! I absolutely loved all the talks and I have learned so much from each of the talks given. Haha you want to hear something really funny though the very first session I watched in Spanish, because they didn´t have the English set up for the missionaries that speak English! Bueno, I´m not sure how much I completely understood from the first session but I´m sure the Spirit gave me what I needed to know until I get the magazine to read them over again. But Conference was so amazing! I was telling the Hermanas that when I was younger I would complain because conference was soooo long! but know it is like, oh my goodness where in the world time go??? Conference can´t be over already!! NOOO!!! Haha but seriously that is how I feel. But I´m grateful we have to the magazines to re-read them until the next conference, and I would invite you all to do the same and learn how to apply these messages into your life, because remember if you pray to know how to apply it into you life, through the Spirit you will learn how.

      So one more thing before I go, it looks like we are having three mini missionaries come to Hualqui, and they will be doing splits with us for 3 days. AAAH I´m going to be on my own with someone who doesn´t know any English and I will be teaching the majority of the time!! I think you get the drift that I´m a little scared. But I know that this is going to be good for me becuase it will teach me to become a better missionary, and will help this young woman that will be coming to have the desire serve a mission. I know that "I can do all things through the Lord that gives me strength"

     Well that is pretty much it for this week! I hope you all will always remember how much I love you all! I´m so grateful that I have been blessed to have a wonderful family, and friends as all of you. Thank you for all the prayers, we can really feel all of them! Well that is all but remember to keep on smiling! Because there is always a reason to Smile! Until next week with more wonderful adventures!

  Con Amor, Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England