Church Historian Finds Family Connection with Australian Missionary

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Elder Kyle S. McKay, Historian and Recorder for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, discovered a distant family connection in Australia prior to a recent speaking assignment in Brisbane, Australia.

Elder McKay learned that his 93-year-old father, Barrie Gunn McKay, had served part of his mission as a young man in the city of Toowoomba, 125 kilometres west of Brisbane. In 1953, his father had baptized William Kelso Glen in Brisbane’s original Gibbon Street chapel, the first chapel of the Church in Australia.

Elder McKay contacted Matthew Glen, who lives in Brisbane with his wife, Rhonda. They currently serve as the Church’s Senior Missionary Advisors for the Pacific Area. He was able to meet with Elder Glen and some of his family prior to his evening speaking assignment to members and missionaries in the Australia Brisbane Mission.

In 1949, the Glen family migrated to Australia from Scotland and settled in Toowoomba, where the missionaries first contacted them and taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Glen shared documents and other historical records of his parents and two older siblings’ baptisms by Elder McKay’s father and his companion, Elder Nalder.

In reflecting on the events of his father’s Australian mission, Elder McKay expressed his delight at the re-established intergenerational connection with the Glen family.

“The proof of the gospel’s truth can be found amongst people of every country and nation who will rise up and bless you for the saving work you perform for them,” Elder McKay stated. “We are meant to be gathered as eternal families and unified in our efforts to link generations together as part of the great Plan of Salvation and Exaltation.”

Elder McKay recounted his own Scottish ancestry’s conversion and the hazardous immigration to the Salt Lake Valley. He spoke lovingly of his great grandfather, Angus McKay, and his miraculous experience as a young lad that foretold his acceptance of the Gospel and its promise of salvation for the dead.

Even more amazing to Elder McKay was his realization that William Glen, his father’s Scottish convert in Australia, was also a distant relative to his own family.

In his closing remarks to his Brisbane audience, Elder McKay expressed his love for the Saviour and His atonement for all mankind. “A mission experience is not a coincidence, as it allows those with earthly priesthood to be closely connected to those with heavenly priesthood,” he emphasized.