Monday, September 3, 2012

August 27, 2012 and September 3, 2012

                                                                                          August 27, 2012
So it was a good week. I so want to send photos and stuff like that but for some reason, the computers don’t like me… then I thought, “Huh guess I can wait two weeks… WHAT!” My companion keeps telling people that I’m going home soon and so then they ask me when I’m headed. I don’t know how to tell them anymore. It’s crazy,
So to do a little bit of story sharing, after I wrote on Monday an Elder accidentally put his finger in an overhead fan (in Mexico, they are metal and a little bit more wicked looking). Anyway so after I got to go to the hospital, and spend the night with him (the responsibility side of being a zone leader fun fun). The bed was ok, except for the fact that it wasn’t sized for me; my feet were hanging off the end. Fun night and morning.
So any who… this week was good we had a baptism on Wednesday. It was a nephew of the bishop so it was good. We didn’t have to worry about the program at all, just the baptismal font. Everything went good. Eduardo, (the kid who got baptized) was super excited. Everything worked out well.
As far as investigators go we got a few that are cool. We have one that was going to get baptized last week, but didn’t show up until yesterday (Luis). He brought his girlfriend from Puebla and it was interesting. We were talking with her and she said that the first thing that she wanted to do was start a family. Luis looked at me with a look like “I told you so.” We were really worried if he was going to be coming back. So that’s the news for this week.
Apart from that, we have a kid that is super cool (Geovani). He’s going to get baptized a week after I leave (what I’m leaving? When?). He has some super awesome questions. He is super excited about starting life over. Alexis has set a really good example of how to change things around. He went to church and the activities by himself this week!
Another one that we found that is pretty interesting. I think I talked about her a while ago. Her name is Goreti. She went to church one time out of the middle of nowhere, then the next day we taught her then she vanished to Cancun. Then we got a reference to go to an address. When I got there I said, “Hey I remember this place!” She has changed a few more things and is super excited for baptism (she was waiting to go to church half an hour before it started).
Well that’s about it. There’s not much more to talk about. I’m just trying to suck all the juice I can out of the mission. This has been the greatest experience of my life. I understand now how to live. I can’t imagine what life would be like without the mission. I can’t remember what life was like before the mission. But I am excited to access the rest of my future.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay
September 3, 2012
Its over!!!! I can’t believe it. For the past 15 years or so, my dream has always been to come down the stairs of the airport as an honorable returned missionary and I am on the way home!
There’s really not much to talk about. I’ll talk when I get home; the biggest thing is I want to bear my testimony that this work is real! I can’t count how many times I have sat down in a lesson and testified of so many things. I know and relied so much on one day in specific. I kneeled down and I prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true. I remember the feeling and the exact spot of everything. I was beside my bed in the new house four years ago. I knew that it was true. Later, because of this I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet called of God. Because of this, I know that what he taught was true. Therefore, because the church was restored, the church had previously been lost. Continuing, because the church was lost, this is the only true Church. A reformation of what was left behind would not have been enough. There was no authority left. Therefore, because I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet, I know that his successors are prophets as well. This fact shows that this church receives revelation today. Because God will not do anything in the world unless it be through his prophets. With prophets comes the authority of the priesthood, or in other words, the authority to act in God’s name to perform ordinances; such as baptism.
I testify that Jesus is the Christ, and that he has made an infinite atonement. I know that he has paid the price so that all mankind may dwell in the presence of God. I know that a person has to believe that and act in accordance with that belief. The act that is so key in it is to repent, for no man may enter into the kingdom of God in his fallen state. And the first thing anyone who has really repented after realizing how many errors they have done is the desire to clean up everything that they have done before. This is done through the gate of baptism, by water and by spirit. The second part is indispensable because if there was no way of purifying us after making this covenant, there would be no purpose in making it.  And in order for these things to be of any worth after death, a man must keep in this path his whole life. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I testify of it and I have been testifying of it for the past two years, and I will testify of it for the rest of my life here on earth.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Monday, August 20, 2012

August 20, 2012

Well it’s been a good week but a little bit difficult, but we keep going on. I have some super good pictures that I wanted to send, but this computer doesn’t want to let me... frustrating.
Any way the biggest thing that happened this week was Johanna got baptized! It was so good. There were so many people there, both members and non members. The Young Women sung a special number for her and everything. She picked me to baptize her, so that was cool, (side note I also found out and wanted to send pictures about her albino hedgehog! I had never seen a hedgehog before let alone an albino one.
Another crazy thing this week was working with Luiz. We have been trying with him for a long time and we were making progress. He doesn’t smoke any more as far as we know. We say that because on Thursday he found out that he was going to be heading for Puebla (another city in Mexico) to go pick up his girlfriend and bring her here. That put us in a little bit of shock. We explained everything again about the word of wisdom and said that he needed to get married. He said, that it sounded like a good idea. It’s going to be a crazy week, but things are looking good for him. Also up for the white clothes line is a kid named Eduardo. He is 9 and his mom is a member but his dad isn’t. We are teaching him and he’s already gone to church a ton, but he never got baptized. His mom had pregnancy complications for the last six months so that screwed things up a little bit. Anyhow things are going good with him.
A new face on the block is a kid named Geovani. He is pretty cool he is the nephew of Alexis (one of the guys that got baptized about two weeks ago). Geovani sent Alexis a message how he wanted to change his life and a bunch of things like that. Alexis invited him to listen to us and bam, new guy in the investigator pool. We are excited for him.
In other things, we are headed to go bowling. They just barely opened it up in a mall here this week. Last week using a bit of my birthday money I bought some nice cleats. Original price $100, Elder Mackay price less than $30 J the Barbra Mackay Bargain shopping award! Any how it’s going good here. Got a lot of people asking when I go home. I remember before when I use to be able to say six months, but they always are super surprised when I say two weeks left. It’s crazy
Well I got to go. I got to  have a doctrine talk at lunch yesterday. It was super cool. We talked about the temple, and the fall and all kinds of topics. We were thinking: “Is it any wonder that there is a Creator? How can we believe that all this just happened out of no where? That everything by luck and chance just happened to be the way things are? Everything that is here shows that there is a Divine Being steering this ship. A lot of the nights here are clear, and its fun to look up at the stars and wonder...
Con amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

August 14, 2012

Well it’s been a good fast week! I can’t believe how fast things are going. I don’t have a lot of time to write so I’ll give the highlights of the highlights.
Biggest thing this week was Wendy’s baptism! Super, sweet baptism. We were figuring things out and she wanted me to baptize her. We convinced her to let her “friend” (meaning almost her boyfriend but not yet) to let him baptize her. He was baptized about a month and a half ago and he is on fire. He hasn’t missed  week in church, he has the Aaronic priesthood going for the Melquesadek pretty soon, and has the goal of going on a mission pretty soon. The Primary sang a song for her (I’m trying to be like Jesus). It all went well.
Next highlight was we saw the movie of the restoration with a few referrals. It was super sweet! It was about an hour long. Before we got started one of them asked, “How does a person know if they are ready to be baptized?”! I was super excited and it was such a cool lesson. After the movie we testified and everything was so natural, everything just came out how it should. In the end we invited her to be baptized and she accepted crying… it was so strong. They also came to church this week.
Then the last highlight is Johanna who is going to get baptized this week. She is fourteen but has had some super hard core problems. First her brother died when she was little. A bullet that was fired in the air went wild and it hit him in the head and killed him. Later her parents got separated. Later on in life her Uncle who was her father figure died. Her real father would come to
Merida on vacations but he wouldn’t stop by or say hi. Her grandpa is moving away back to Italy. Her little brother has a few sicknesses that limit him from having a normal life. He can’t play sports or anything. We talked about trials and things like that. To finish it off we talked about Christ’s invitation to come unto him all those who were burdened down, and singing “all is well”.
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY
AND MAGNIFYING MY CALLING
Elder Mackay

                                                                Wendy's baptism


Notice the note to the left - chicken itza! 

Monday, July 30, 2012

July 30, 2012


Well another week down. Not many more times I get to say that. Any way, it was an ok week. Nothing too exciting like last week, but it was ok.
This week we keep going with Wendy (after I met her I haven’t had a hard time forgetting her name thanks to a dear aunt of mineJ). We had a few cool lessons with her this week. We taught the word of wisdom and there aren’t any problems there. We did some other small stuff but the big finale was that we went to the temple with her mom and younger brother and sister. She liked it a lot. She’s programmed for not this Saturday but next one. Her mom is going to start reading the Book of Mormon too. Things looking good for her.
The next cool person we are teaching is a 15 year old girl named Joanna. I think I have talked about them before, any way she is pretty cool we had a lesson with about six other young women her age about the restoration. Two of them were converts too so that was nice.
A long time ago we found a guy named Luis. He was pretty cool and a miracle reference. We went out there and he was interested but never went to church. Now since we haven’t seen him as much he has gone to church twice and read a little bit in the book of Mormon.
Then also there was a lady who the other missionaries were teaching that is in our ward now. It feels a bit like pirating, but its all for the same team. She’s for a couple weeks more though. They are the only ones that are really worth mentioning.
Really there wasn’t much this week. I got the money for the souvenirs, I’m already planning on things to get but is there anything that anyone wants in specific? I’ll think about it some more but any who that’s about it for the week.

This week I learned something new. In a “letter from Raymond C. Shear” I remember how he talked about learning to turn obstacles to opportunities. I was thinking a lot about that this week along with a few talks. First is that we are placed in trials to come out of them better. We would never reach our maximum potential if we never had trials. Second, we are given trials to better our faith and love of the Savior. And lastly, I understood why they are opportunities. In these trials, we often ask that we be taken out of the situation. This I learned is a little backwards. We are in that situation for a reason. What we should ask is that we be strengthened to be able to overcome their trial. This way, we are made better, we learn and grow and we are prepared for what comes next in life. So, for “those missionaries that are in the end of their mission” and just hanging on till the end, but not really working aren’t using that trial as an opportunity, but as an obstacle; something that impedes them to get what they want, instead of wanting what the Lord wants. It made me understand how to finish these last few weeks. 
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Monday, July 23, 2012

July 23, 2012

          Hey it’s my birthday! I got a double dose of feeling old today. First, I am 21 now and second, this is my last change so that means that I am “older” than almost everyone else in the mission. Any way it’s been a way, way, way, way good week! So I don’t know how to write all this week. I think someone heard me about not having anything to write in my weekly letters so it’s cool.
First to start out today were changes! And I am staying, but Elder Traconis isn’t. He went to Campeche. It was interesting to see him go, something that neither one of us really expected. We both thought he was going to stay here and he was going to send me home but oh well. I’ll still see him in zone leader meetings. Anyway my new companion is named Elder Gutierrez, from Mexico City Mexico. He’s a cool kid, I had already known him before. He’s got 17 months in the mission so he’s still got a bit left to go. I feel like I know what I’m doing now more or less. I know the area better now and I can get us around. We got some sweet people to teach…
Last week I talked about a girl that we talked to on Sunday that accepted baptism super fast. Same story, she is reading a bunch out of the book of Mormon (chapter 10 last I heard). We have explained a lot and she understood it well. Saturday we had a super long talk about the Plan of Salvation (funny comment I just started writing Spanglish right there). It was a lot more indepth than normal. We explained about vicarious work, the fall of Adam, judgment and a bunch of other stuff and she said that it just made her happy knowing it all. She was super interested in temples so that’s pretty sweet. She went and talked to her boss about getting out of work on Sunday (after praying). Her boss said that he had already made plans for this week but after this week she could have all the Sundays she wanted. She is headed to baptism!
                Another lady that we found that was super cool is named Ligia. First thing that I think about her is that she is going to open up a pizza Restaurant. That’d be a nice place to do some taste testing as a service project. She’s going to be open before the end of August so that’s cool. We talked about the Book of Mormon and she is reading it. We talked a few times during the week and on Friday we went with her to take a tour of the church. It was super powerful. You could totally feel it there. The only thing that didn’t work out with her was that she couldn’t go to church this week because her son got sick and there wasn’t anyone there to take care of him (he’s three).  So we got to get her running.
Another one that was cool was a reference. Her name is Rosy. She is super cool too. We had a first lesson super strong with her. It was about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to be clean again. She just took it all in. After she said the closing prayer and she said that she felt something warm come over her. It was just a super strong, super direct and strait lesson that was taught to a totally acceptant recipient. She also brought her five year old son to church. We still got a ways to go with her husband so we got things going, but it’s a good start.
Then to finish up we had a good lesson with a lady we have been trying and trying to get a hold of for a long time. She was a reference that we checked out. She is a member but her daughter isn’t. We went over there and she had been inactive for a long, long time, and has had some rough bumps in her life. We finally got a hold of her on Friday and invited her to go to the walk through with Ligia. She showed up on time and everything. It was such a good experience for her too. On Sunday she brought her daughter and son to church and they loved it. Her daughter got some really good fellowshipping from the young women. They knew exactly what to do, who knows how. Anyway it was great. Another great start
So yeah, that’s the week in a nutshell. As far as a spiritual thought, we had a sweet talk this week about coming back. We talked about making mistakes and stuff like that. We came to the conclusion about a few things. There are three types of errors. There are transgressions, there are sins and there are covenant breaking sins. Transgressions are when we don’t know what’s wrong and what’s right and we are mistaken. Sin is when we know what is wrong and what is right and we choose wrong. Covenant breaking is when we have promised that we know and we promise to choose the right and we choose wrong. However, to all of these, it doesn’t matter how big of a problem it is, one can figure things out with the Lord.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Thursday, July 19, 2012

July 16, 2012

So it was another good week. I don’t know what to write about anymore, it all just seems normal to me now. My companion and I were talking about this and in the beginning of the mission I was supper excited to write on pdays because there were so many new things to write about. Now I feel like there aren’t so many things new.
This week we had a cool experience with a family. I think I talked about them last week that the mom is super sick (her name is Rosa). She has kidney failure and has to be hooked up to a home set up of dialysis every night. We went there and she has a lot of kids so we were trying to work there. She invited us to food this week. We ate moley. I don’t know if you know what that is, but it was interesting. They try to take care of us. We took them through a baptism and they were interested. As a closing hymn we sang families can be together forever. It was funny because there’s a little granddaughter that started swaying to the music.
This week we also found a new investigator on Sunday. She is Alexis’s girlfriend (Alexis is the guy that got baptized a few weeks ago). She came to the church for a tour on Thursday. Then on Sunday she went to church and stayed for the three hours. Afterwards we went to teach her and after explaining baptism for five minutes she accepted a date. She has seen so many changes in Alexis that she wants them too. It’s cool to be there again.
We got another referral this week about a member’s boyfriend. We talked a lot about repentance and it was so hard core that he sat up and went out side for a little bit because he was feeling so bad. We just couldn’t find him afterwards.
Right now I’m in a little pueblo called Tixcokob. The big trade here is hammocks. A really nice, nice, nice one would probably be about a hundred dollars US but you could probably find one for about forty and be fine. They can do them custom made and things like that so it’s pretty sweet. We also found  senote. A senote is just a cave that is connected to an underground river. And we are just kicking it with the elders here. One of them goes home in a week so he’s a future look of me... that’s crazy.
 It’s rained some more. I am really just lost on what to write about I’m just rambling on.
This week I saw a conference by President Eyering. It was pretty cool. It talked about two principles that I can really remember. The first one is that while we are going through trials and while we are working and getting things done, all this is capacitating and training us for future things. That is so when we get into another trial we are grateful for passing other ones because we have learned from past experiences. So basically it isn’t just to learn about something and that’s nice to know. It’s so that we learn something because we will need it in the future. Then later I remember him talking about how we should develop the habit of going further than what we have before, and going further than what we know to be possible. I thought a lot about goal setting and how much more productive things would be if I had this mode. I got a little bit of time to achieve it.
Con amor,
Elder Mackay

Here are a few pictures that President Salinas posted on Facebook.
                          Glenn is in the back row, 8th from the left. June 9 2012 Zone Leaders Conference
 Glenn is in the back row, on the right side of the middle.  You can see only the top of his head!  July 2012 Area Leaders Conference.


Glenn is second from the left on the back row.  July 14, 2012 Missionary activity with the Stake Aaronic Priesthood in the Brisas area.
                             

Monday, July 9, 2012

July 9, 2012

            
Well it’s been a crazy long week and every day has had something not go to plan.
On Tuesday we had consejo. (zone council) It was cool, and a bit different. It might be apostasy but when president a red tie, that means he’s angry and when it’s a green tie, that means he’s ok. He wore a green tie, but that’s probably because there were a lot of new zone leaders. About 30% of the zone leaders were new so I think he gave us a break. Then we had to get boxes and stuff back home. A bit of work after that. On Wednesday we had to give the info that we received in consejo to the district leaders. It was cool. Its fun doing that. After lunch we had a normal working day. On Thursday, we had a meeting with President Salinas and the Stake president. We had to prepare some numbers so it was a little nerve racking when he went strait for the file that we did. It was cool though. Five hours of that day were spent on that project. On Friday we had interviews! I didn’t have anything big though, just renewed my temple recommend. We were super behind though afterwards. So our schedule was super screwed up. On Saturday, we had to do a baptismal interview and get things all written out for that. But at the same time we have found a few cool people.
We were looking for members and we saw a lady sweeping her porch, we went over to ask (the people that we were looking for should have lived right in front of her so we figured that she should know). We got talking to her and we found out that she is a member (inactive for about 10 years). We kept going and we found out her husband isn’t a member so we started talking with him and he has some super good questions. He had a lot of questions about the plan of salvation and it all went together perfectly.
Another cool situation was about the same thing when we were looking for some other members. The address ended up being wrong, but we found a family that has been prepared by a lot of trials. And they use to listen to members and went to church a few times. They could be a sweet family.
We are working on a big missionary project for the stake focused in on the youth. We are going to be capacitating and we are going to take them with us. Its going to be fun (that’ll be on Saturday). While I was studying for them I read over the story of Alma and his brethren. I understood one of the reasons why they were so good. They were so good because Christ had every right to abandon them in darkness because of their actions. Yet Christ was merciful and called them back. They loved Christ for that. They were willing to do whatever he wanted them to do, even if it was going with blood thirsty, robbing, murdering, people who killed for sport. They knew that they were in debt and they were willing to do whatever. Don’t we all have a little bit of debt? Don’t we all have at least one or two reasons to do things the Lords way?
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

June 18, 25, July 2, 2012


      
                                                                              July 2, 2012

So… it was a cool week. We had divisions twice and I got to stay in the area so it was a bit chaotic but it was ok. A few cool stories though. A long time ago when we had the changes, I forgot to mention that Elder Badillo (my companion before Elder Sosa) came to the zone. I got to work with him on Friday and it was pretty cool. It made us remember some of the old times.
On Tuesday we had a pretty cool experience that made me remember a lot of one of Dad’s stories. We were looking for members that we don’t know and asking for referrals. . We were looking for a specific house number but we couldn’t find them, so we figured that we would start asking around the neighbors. Ok well first I have to explain a little bit of Mexican culture. In the states, you would normally go up and knock the door as if it weren’t anything. But here in
Mexico, it’s a bit different because they always have big fences up so you stand outside the fence and yell and if they want to talk they come out. So we went to the first house and we asked if they knew anything about the person. They came out and said that they didn’t know and didn’t want to listen to the message either. Then the next door we yelled and the guy just said, “Come in.” He sat us down and gave us a glass of water and told us to wait a second because he was eating. We figured we had found the member that we were looking for but we found out he wasn’t. He talked about how he didn’t let just whatever person in and that he knew who we were; baptismal date! That was pretty cool. His favorite hymn is Nearer my God to Thee, and we sing it every time we go over there, but it’s cool. We’re also working on his wife and his kids. The only problem is that his “wife” isn’t actually his wife. He has to get divorced and married before he can get baptized. But we are getting there. He went to a baptismal service and he really liked that.
We also had four people show up to church in the middle of nowhere this Sunday. There is one that we already knew that he didn’t want to get baptized, there is one that his girlfriend is in the ward and there are two that are part of a family that they just showed up with a member friend (him being from another stake). Happy early birthday from the Lord.
This week I was watching a movie from my comp about
Zion's camp. From the Lord’s point of view it wasn’t exactly the fighting what interested him. To men maybe they were supposed to fight but not to Him. The Lord sent them there and back without firing a single shot at another man. They went as a bunch of men but the came back united, humbled, dependent on the Lord and decided on doing what the Lord would have them do. And I understood that lot of the time that’s why we are allowed to go through tough times, or that actually that is the reason for our existence. I remember the phrase, “and now we will see if they will do the things that their Lord would have them do.” That phrase was made before mankind existed, and it applies to us every day. Every day we are given the challenge to see if we will do what the lord would have us do.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

June 12, 2012

Hey so this week we got changes, but I’m staying! The bad news is that my companion is going home, as in he has finished the mission. A little bit sad but oh well. My new companion is Elder Traconis, from San Diego California. He’s got two changes less than me so we are almost the same, and he says hi. It’s been another good week. I can’t believe how crazy things are in the mission. There are so many things that happen, and now the days aren’t long at all, the weeks seem like they are jam packed. This week I had two conferences. First was a conference of just zone leaders. It was super cool. We had a few problems of things to change (new rule in the mission is that we can’t go on a diet, don’t think that will be a problem). But it’s always good because our president knows a lot. Then the next day we had a lesson about the 8 fundamentals principles of teaching (if that sounds broken, that’s because I translated it I’m not sure if it’s right.) Any who, it was a pretty good training, it was fun to go around with some of the elders in the zone. Then on Thursday we had a normal day of work. Friday we had a meeting in the morning with the district leaders to pass them the new things in the zone. I got to talk about real growth in the zone. It was good. But I’ll talk about that at the end. I felt the spirit super strong. Then on Saturday, we did exchanges. We had two kids that showed up and they wanted to work with us (things that my companion had set up that I had no idea of.) Then after, we found out that they weren’t sixteen! Oh man ,now what? So we got a few things set up and we did some splits and a few other things. Then we went with a councilor of the bishop to look for a few inactive. Then Sunday was a bunch of parties for my comps farewell. One of the funny ones was this week; we found a kitten that was wet in a park. We felt bad so we took it home to try to find it a place to live. We ended up giving it to a sister that now has 19 cats! She really likes them.
Well, I know this is the Lord’s work and it’s not just the Lord’s work to baptize. It’s the Lord’s work to bring them to Christ. Sometimes we get a little bit confused between the two, but the aim shouldn’t be in the water, it should be in the Celestial Kingdom. We are here to invite others to come unto Christ and He lives there.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Monday, June 4, 2012

June 4, 2012

So this week has been pretty good. A Little bit crazy but that’s normal. This week we didn’t have anything planned, but we had a baptism! It turned out to be good. It was a little bit crazy because the baptismal font was locked for a while and there wasn’t anyone from the bishopric for a while. Everything turned out good. His name is Carlos; he is the husband of Nidia that got baptized a few weeks ago. He is a really noble guy. He gets paid about 7 dollars a day but he doesn’t complain (he works for about 6 or 7 hours). Everything turned out good there.
A long time ago my companion and the elder before me found Loida. She is super sweet and got baptized. Then later in the same house they started teaching Nidia. Then we baptized her and we started teaching Carlos. Then after Carlos got baptized, his brother Alexis has gotten a lot more interested. And he’s up next on the chopping block. It’s a sweet house to work in. Everything goes well there. Yesterday, we had a family home evening and there were ten people there (7 weren’t members). It was super strong and we have a lot of work to do in the house. Things are coming along there.
To give an update last week I talked about Monica that was super sweet and is really prepared. This week was okish for here. She didn’t go to church again so we are trying to figure out how we are going to get over that. We weren’t able to see her as much this week. Things keep coming up, and things don’t happen much with her.
On a better note, we had a similar story. There was a story almost exactly like Monica in that we were sent to a specific direction but not to that person on the reference. Her name is Bernice and she is from Cancun. A few weeks ago when we started checking everything, we left a pamphlet about the restoration to make sure that everything was going good we stopped by a few days latter. She had read her pamphlet, so we dropped off the Book of Mormon. She read the introduction so we talked some more. Finally this week on Friday, we went over and it was for the make or break lesson, and it looked like she broke. She said more or less, I know what you guys say is true, but I don’t want to accept it because it would mean that I would have to change a lot of things. You guys can keep coming and I appreciate it but I think I’ll stick to my ideas. Then we went back the next week and read Alma 5 and it helped her to see things differently. Baptism accepted! Whoot whoot!
As far as a spiritual thought, I am memorizing scriptures in my Spanish study. One of the scriptures that I really liked was Ether 12:4. More or less, “those who have a belief in God can have hope for a better world… and this hope comes from faith, gives an anchor to the souls of men….” I like how if we really believe that Jesus is the Christ, and then we believe that through him we can have a better world. Therefore, to attain this better world we need to change, and we need to be strong in front of temptation, like unto a ship. Instead of being tossed by the will of men (tossed about by the sea) we are firm, and stable, because our faith has anchored us. This is the start of the conversion processes because latter, to be able to attain this world, it is also necessary that we leave a few things behind, or in other words repent. To complement this process of repentance, baptism is the final step, or in other words, enter into a covenant that we will always do what he wants us to do; that we might have a better hope in reaching that better world. Baptism must be by water and by fire or it is not complete. Therefore, in order to complete the process, one receives the gift of the Holy Ghost. Then after these ordinances, are completed, we must maintained anchored. If not, then everything we have done would be lost, along with our hope of a better world. This is where everything starts, and is the core of our belief, the Author being Christ
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay


Monday, May 28, 2012

May 28, 2012

Well it's been a crazy week! I can't believe that I’m going to have a month in this area already. It feels like I just barely got here. We had a cool things happen this week, I'll try to hit the highlights.
Well first, on Monday after the district meeting (21st) we had a super sweet lesson. It was with a family and they were very tightly bound to their beliefs, but it was one of the strongest lessons we had. Everything felt guided. However, they said no to the baptismal invitation. It was super tight though. My companion and I were thinking about it when we came home and it was super intense. We'll try to see them again next week.
Other things were a few rain storms and a special training with president. It was for those missionaries that had 20 months or more. I thought, “What am I doing here?” Another cool thing is that there is a young adult that is getting ready to go on the mission. The elders before us reactivated him and now he goes to work with us almost every day. He wants to work so much that we bought him a “future missionary” badge.  
This week we also found a miracle. Last week I talked about how we had an activity and that we had a ton of references to contact. One of them was to go visit what would be like a little pawn shop (casa de empeña? Como se dice en ingles). Anyway it made me laugh a little bit, but I kept it in the stack. We were walking down the road and we just happened to pass by that specific store and its title called my attention. I remembered in a flash and we went back to go contact to it. We were looking for a young adult male but there was a woman working. We asked and she said that he didn't work there anymore and that he was her brother. We started talking to her and we realized how the Lord had set everything up. She had listened to the missionaries for three months in the states while her son had an operation, and she also already had the Book of Mormon. Later, we went back the next day and she was talking to one of her friends. The friend had also talked to missionaries before, and also had read a little bit of the Book of Mormon. It was pretty sweet and I understood again, how that this is the Lords work and not ours. It was the biggest story and the spiritual thought for the week
Sorry its short but I got to run to the food.
Love you!
Elder Mackay

Monday, May 21, 2012

May 21, 2012

I think that my body is going to get used to just being tired. This will be a good conditioning for college life. Everything is just a big blur though. I really don’t remember anything about this week. As far as investigators go we have a few. A few days ago we found one. He seemed pretty cool but we didn’t know how cool he was. He had left drinking a long time ago. Actually the elders use to go to his house but he didn’t want to change. Now that he has left alcohol, he wants to come closer to Christ. When we asked him why he wanted to come closer he said, “Being close to Christ is important for our salvation… you guys are here to save my soul.” I don’t think I have had an investigator in his five senses that has ever said that (maybe the street drunk here or there). He is really open and really wants to listen, he just didn’t go to church.
Another one that is pretty sweet is a lady named Mari. Her daughter (named Mari as well) has a daughter that had a perforated intestine. She had a bag attached to her that had to be changed out every once in a while. This week she got operated on and everything went well. It was her second operation in six months but everything should be good. Now that the grandma doesn’t have to worry about that anymore, she feels like she can focus more on what she needs to do. She said that if she knew that the Book of Mormon was true, that she would get baptized. That’s nice.
Those are the two biggest things that are going on for right now. This week we had an activity for young men and women getting ready to go on the mission. Our mission president spoke and it was sweet. One of the sweetest things that I remember was that he talked about what he was doing and what his goal was he said, “I’m not here to get you excited to go on the mission, I’m here to tell you to go.” I also got to speak in church this week. The whole seven months that I was in Playa, I never got to speak in church. The bishop never talked to me, but here, it’s my third week and I already got called up.
In my talk I talked about the need to do missionary work. I have really come to understand this though. These things are so important. There is a phrase in Preach My Gospel by Elder Holland that talks about how this is the most important race in their entire lives. They need this so badly. I compared it to being on a boat in a storm. While we maintain ourselves alert and on the boat, we will be ok. However we see millions of people that are in the sea drowning. They need our help desperately. We have the power to throw a lifesaver and bring them to the boat of safety. And if we don’t throw them the life saver, then they will most definitely drown.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

May 14, 2012



May 14, 2012
Well I don’t have much more to say.
For those of you who weren’t on the phone, it’s been a fun week! We’ve been super busy with everything. I did divisions three times this week and had a zone conference apart from it. Man I don’t even know what to talk about - everything is good. Today we got our hair cut, we played basketball and baseball. We ate crepes. It’s just been a lot of fun. Elder Sosa and I get along really well (look mom after so many times of saying things backwards and speaking Spanish for two years almost, my English has improved!). But really it’s a blast. We have some sweet families here. The biggest thing that happened this week was we had a baptism! It was with a sister that isn’t super literate. Like she doesn’t know how to read, but she is pretty sweet. I was talking on the phone with everyone and the house where we teach her is like a referral mine. We have the goal to get everyone in that house to church. It’ll take some work but we’re getting there. Some drink, and smoke so we’ll see how things go.
If I didn’t mention in one of my last letters, we are covering three areas so it’s pretty crazy to get everything all done. We had to send some of our best investigators to another area because we found out that they live there. It was so sad but oh well. Maybe they’ll invite us to their baptismal service.
Really there’s not much to talk about.
Hey mom I need that information as soon as you can about the stake president as fast as you can. Preferably this week. Dad asked a while ago so I’ll spill the beans in case everyone doesn’t know the rest. I’ll be coming home on the sixth of September. That is really weird. I feel like I got a bit over a year maybe. I finally got figured out more or less what I’m doing. I guess that will be to keep me on my feet!
As a spiritual thought, I was watching a clip on the plan of salvation and how it answers a ton of questions that we have in the world today. They compared life to a three act play, the first act being the pre existence, the second act earth life and the third act being after life. The problem we aren’t just watching the play, we are in it. Many times we see injustices in life that we don’t understand when the “and they lived happily forever and ever” part comes in. That’s because we are only focusing on the second act. There is so much more to this life than what we see here in the world. We shouldn’t expect to know everything, but we can study the scriptures and have faith that everything will be fixed. Our judge is perfect and not one injustice will pass by Him. All things are within his view and when we stand to be judged in the third act, every good or bad deed will be complete in consequence.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay



Monday, May 7, 2012

May 7, 2012

Well… life’s crazy as a zone leader I have discovered. I’ll try to go through a day by day schedule of what’s happened.
Ok Tuesday. We had to go to the mission office to get some stuff and drop off stuff. We worked super hard for a few hours then we had to go out to a little bity town because they are going to open up the area. We walked for probably two hours looking for a house. We didn’t find one but it’s ok. We are working hard so that they can get things done there. We have a house in mind but it would have taken a week or so to get ready. So then we came back super tired. For now they are going to stay in the “church” until Sunday, then after that they are suppose to move in to a different house.
Wednesday: it was a normal good hard working day. We taught six lessons and got some people getting ready for baptism. We are teaching a part member family. They are so into the gospel. Just a good day.
Thursday was fun. I had my interview a week ago but it was my comps turn for his interview so we had to go back to the mission office. Then next we had weekly planning and a little bit of planning for the consejo (I think that’s council in English). Consejo is where we go over a bunch of stuff for the zone. Then later on in the day we had a lesson with a new guy. He’s a little bit older but knows Maya and he taught us how to say “don’t sin anymore” in Maya.
 Then Friday early morning we had to go to Centro for consejo. It was super, super, super, super but super sweet. Normally we have to present a bunch of numbers and things like that but we just sat in awe of the stuff that president was teaching us. In consejo, there are the zone leaders (20 missionaries) and the APs and president. It was cool.
Saturday was divisions with a district leader. I feel so weird being in a new position. I remember when I was district leader and now I have to be the boss of the district leader. But it went well. In the food appointment that we had, the sister was going through some trials. Her sister had died recently and she hadn’t talked about it to anyone so we were the ones there to listen to everything. She broke down crying but it was nice to be sent. I thought about Mosiah 18:8 that says, "morn with those that morn…"  it is always fun being a missionary.
Sunday was stake conference. We got to see our mission president again. He talked super sweet. We worked a bit. Oh yeah, in the night my comp got super sick and I got to help him. But any who… afterwards, we worked and then we had to pass numbers to the assistants. Life is always full.
This week in the meeting that we had with president, he talked a ton about repentance. It was super sweet. Something that he talked about was that pain and repentance go hand in hand. I thought about how it all worked. It made me think a lot. Literally it’s so important that we repent. Every time we do something wrong and we know that we do something wrong, we feel it deep down inside. That is the feeling in our soul, that justice will have claim over us and we will not be claimed by mercy. Then in contrast when we do repent, the peace that we feel is the peace that we are accepted. And the pains of justice can only start to go away when we repent. The other thing that I love about repentance is that there isn’t a limit of repentance, as long as its sincere repentance.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

April 30, 2012

                                                                 April 30, 2012
Well it’s been a really, really good week! Man I can’t believe how much has happened.
Ok Tuesday and Wednesday regular working days. Nothing too crazy. Then on Thursday we had a rough day of not getting much done. First was weekly planning, then we had to go to Tulum (a little pueblo an hour away by van) to do a baptismal interview. Then next we had to wait almost an hour for him to show up. Then we went back and I had to hurry and pack, and go to another pueblo (half an hour in the other direction). We got there and on Friday we had a great day. We just worked hard and were two normal missionaries. Then after, on Saturday we did divisions again but this time with another area. It was super sweet. We had so many lessons. We had eight lessons in one day! And one of them was in English! I hadn’t taught in English since the MTC! It was hard, and I didn’t have any scriptures, but it worked out ok. He had the pleasure of reminding us of a few cuss words and dirty jokes. I hadn’t heard those words in a long time.
Well it was about time I got changed wasn’t it! Now I’m in Merida. It’s a lot hotter here, and you sweat a lot. I’m with an Elder that I already knew from when I was in Merida a few months before, his name is Elder Sosa. We are in an area called Chicheniza. It’s in the same zone were I started the mission. Oh yea… remember how all my brothers and dad were zone leaders? Well, I’m following prophecy. I’m a zone leader now too! That was a little bit crazy. I was up till one packing last night. Then I got up at six. Then I was on a bus for five hours. I’m here in the internet and I haven’t done much, but I’m super excited. He’s got a few changes more than me but we’ll see how it goes.
So the coolest thing think this week was teaching on the changes. We had a lot of lessons were we said, “Why do you think we are here? Or what do we want to accomplish?” Also there were a few times when we helped people recognize the spirit. “You feel that? That’s called the Spirit. This is how you can know that what we teach is true. The is the way you can know that is what God wants from you.” Pretty sweet. I’m going to miss teaching.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

March 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23


 

                                                                                    April 23, 2012
Well, a great week!
First we had the visit from Elder Anderson. It was quite a show getting everything together. Imagine in a house that normally fits two missionaries, we crammed ten. In one room, there was one elder in his hammock and one on the floor. In the living room, there were three on the floor (and when I mean on the floor, like literally on the floor, not a mattress or anything. Then in the other room there were three on the floor and two in hammocks. And to make things better we got up at four to get good seats. I didn’t fall asleep in his speech, but when I got home at the end of the day it didn’t take very long to fall asleepJ. It was such a cool time to see an apostle close up. We got to shake hands. One of the things that he reminded us that have a little bit more time in the mission is that the mission does end and that we need to be prepared to go home; kind of felt like he was talking right to me… and not wanting to go home. But it was such a great talk. Ok so that was Tuesday.
Wednesday: we had a few lessons but the best lesson was with George and Irma. Oh but first I have to put this in so it makes more sense later on. We went and visited Consuelo and when we got to her house, her neighbor told us that everyone had moved out and she didn’t know where too. In this time our phone didn’t have any credit so we were a bit worried. Anyway so back with George and Irma, we found out that after 42 years being together they haven’t gotten married! I was so shocked! We talked about a ton of stuff and the spirit was super strong. I remember sharing the story about when Mom and Dad went to London (well at least I think I got all the details right. There weren’t any lightning bolts crashing down around me in the lesson so I don’t think I was teaching false doctrine). I described that they were getting ready to go to London and were going to cross the ocean in the plane. Then later Dad leaned over to Mom and said, “Honey if anything happens to us, I’ll see you in a bit.” It was a sweet lesson.
Thursday, we had a few sweet lessons. The biggest thing was that we finally found Consuelo! We spent about three hours looking for her (we got a bit distracted with teaching few lessons in between). Anyway we found her and we got all the details figured out for her baptism on Saturday. It was a super hardcore lesson.
Then on Friday, two baptismal interviews. It was super good. We tried coordinating the baptisms, but it wasn’t going to work. So we got things figured out. A few lessons, but nothing too crazy. A missionary that ended his mission in my area came to visit. I knew him so it was pretty crazy to see him without his name tag.
Saturday was two baptisms! One at twelve and one at seven. To make things more complicated, this week was also stake conference so in the evening baptism, there wasn’t hardly anyone. And also, one of them forgot to bring her bag with clothes! In other words, she didn’t have white clothes, a change of under clothes, sandals or a towel. We rushed a few things to get them together and everything worked out good.
Sunday was stake conference. We had two miracles show up to church. The problem about stake conference was that it is an hour away (made me think about home how we have to go to Missoula). Then at night we had to go to a family home evening that accidentally got canceled without telling us. We had a good talk with the members though, (they are a bit less active).
One of the cool things that I understood this week comes from a bit from each day. In the conference that we had with Elder Anderson, he had a cool quote that talks about the importance of the work and success. He said, “you can count how many seeds are in an apple but you can’t count how many apples are in one seed.” Our job as missionaries isn’t to count numbers. It is to work with all of our heart might mind and strength to preach the gospel to those who are in need of repentance. In the process there will be many who accept and many who do not. It is not however, our job to force the gospel upon them. I have been stressed out a lot because sometimes the people don’t accept, but I hadn’t understood that I couldn’t do anything more. I had planted the seed, and who knows how much someone in the future would be able to harvest thanks to that one seed. I’ve come to this conclusion: work hard to preach the gospel, and don’t worry about anything else.
Con amor,
Elder Mackay

 

                                                                        April 16, 2012
Well a good week. I’m really tired so I think that’s good.
First things first, I have to give a big thanks to Sister Everson. I got her package this week and it was awesome! Thank you so; make sure that she knows how much I appreciated it. I really wasn’t expecting anything and I was super excited when I saw the package so once again, thanks.
In other news, we have a big treat tomorrow. I am going to see an apostle! ¡Estoy tan animado que podrĂ­a explotar! But it’s going to be interesting. The whole mission is going to be in Cancun, (it’s a pretty good sized city, with two or three zones), and we are going to be sleeping in the houses of the missionaries there tonight. It should be pretty crazy because every house is going to have three or four companionships extra!
As far as the past week, we had interviews with president. It was super crazy! Normally president is really on time and really strict as far as scheduling. There was a big problem with roads and he was almost an hour late. We were the first companionship to get there so when we got there, and had to wait, we got worried. But everything ended up really good.
 As far as investigators, we had some interesting lessons. We have a couple of young adult type. They are family and friends of a few recent converts. They are going to take a bit of work. We went there one day and they were drinking…. Oops. They were going to go to church but they didn’t show up. There is the hermana Consuelo that was getting ready to be baptized this week. She drank coffee this week so she couldn`t get baptized. Grr…. Oh well. This week on the 21 then will be her baptism. Everything is good. On Saturday we had a good lesson in the morning. We read Mosiah 18 and we talked about baptism (we just happened to be in the baptismal font). It was pretty good.
Then last on the list is a couple. They are a bit older, but are really sweet. They are the ones with the laundry mat (George and Irma). We are trying with them. The husband knows a lot so we get a bit off topic some times, but we try hard. He’s reading the Book of Mormon so that’s where they are at.
I had a few cool experiences about repentance this week and it made me think a bit. I understood why humility is required in order to repent. Firstly, a prideful person would never think to second guess their actions. They have such a high opinion of themselves that they forget to think about their own imperfections. Secondly, they have to admit that they are wrong. This is something that a prideful person would almost never do. And finally it takes humility to accept something new, and not come up with your own solution. The majority of the time when Christ was on the earth, his tone of voice was soft, and did not want to hurt anyone. But now I understand why a good chewing out is important. Like he did with the brother of Jared, he had to make things known that they were wrong. Interesting how the more I learn the more imperfect I see myself.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay



 
            April 9, 2012
pero no hay coneja = but no rabbit
Well, a really crazy tiring week, but at the same time I don’t even know what to write about. One of the crazy things is it’s starting to warm up. By the end of the month, we’ll be in the good oven.
One of the things that I think was super cool is a couple that we are teaching. They were a reference a long time ago. We went there and they have a laundry mat type thing (it’s a little bit different because here in Mexico, you leave your clothes and they wash them and fold them then you come back. There are a few like in the states where you do it by yourself.) Anyway we got to take a trip with them to the church so they could see the inside of it. As soon as we went in there the spirit hit and it started working. You could tell because they started talking quieter and quieter. We went in to the sacrament room and it was amazing. The wife said, “Nobody has done this for us. We have gone to so many different churches and nobody has treated us like this. They felt the spirit super strong then we went to the baptismal font and it was super sweet too. We are working pretty well with them.
Apart from them, we went and visited an old investigator. He said that he had been having some family problems and who would know but we just happened to call. He doesn’t even remember that we had his number. We also went and checked out the church and he loved it. The only thing was because of Easter break, there are a lot more tourists so his work got complicated.
Apart from them we have three investigators that we are having a ton of problems trying to get a hold of. They are just floating around waiting to get baptized. In football terms we are good at driving the ball down the field but we are having some problems in the red zone. They are ready and could get baptized this week if everything went well. They are Josias, Consuelo, and Mari. Consuelo is pretty likely because we have a better opportunity to find her. Josias just got a job where he works from 9 in the morning to 9 at night so that’s making things hard. And the Hermana Mari (that’s the lady that her husband died so now she can get baptized) just disappeared on us. We call her and go to her house a bunch but we can’t find her.
This week was good as far as Easter goes (minus there wasn’t an Easter bunny… maybe he doesn’t like the heat) it made me think a bit. (Just a cool quote that I heard this week as well, we don’t celebrate so much the fact that Jesus died, but we choose to focus on the fact that he resurrected)  Its super cool to think how perfect God’s plan is. He knew exactly what we needed and he gave it to us. Because of the effects of us being mortal, we have the inherit problem of dying. With this trait, we cannot bear the full presence of our Heavenly Father physically. Therefore, we needed a way to live again with an immortal body after death, (because if there was no time, there would be no end to our probationary period.) This is overcome because Christ broke the bands of death and made it so that every child of God that would receive a body would take it up again in immortality to be judged. Were it not so, we would never be capable of being judged and the plan of God would fall short. The other obstacle that we have is being less than perfect. Because we do not reach perfection as our Heavenly Father, we cannot be with him. Our filthiness would in turn make him filthy and that could not be. Therefore, we need a way to overcome this imperfectness. Once again this is possible only through the Atonement of Christ, and unlike our physical inability, this solution is not free. Forgiveness is not attainable without considerable effort on our part. Only after we have done all that is within our power to repent and to come unto Christ will we be able to overcome this obstacle. Having things planned out of this manner perfectly satisfies the demands of Justice and Mercy; satisfying the need for punishment of sin, while extending a helping hand to a learning soul. Our Heavenly Father’s plan is so perfect, is there any doubt that it wasn’t created by a Divine creator? Is there any doubt that it can’t be foiled? This is the plan and it has been placed before the birth of man. Our Heavenly Father knowing the beginning from the end has placed all the pieces to make salvation attainable. I have also come to one more conclusion. I imagine that our Heavenly Father is an awesome chess player.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay
P.S. Last week I forgot to mention, I ate fish head soup. It was eatable especially because as a desert, we ate homemade yogurt that the sister sells at 4 bucks a liter.




                                                                                    April 2, 2012
Well… a crazy week!
I loved conference. We had a great time. The rule here in the mission was that we can only go to a session of conference if we had an investigator with us. One of our investigators usually is stuck in the house all day because he doesn’t have a job right now so he was our ticket into every session of conference! It was great, although there were a few difficulties. First is that there was a screw up on the scheduling so the first session on Saturday we only got the first half. Secondly, in the second session on Saturday we had computer problems so we missed elder Holland’s talk (I almost wanted to cry. We just heard enough to know that it would be him speaking then it cut out). Then on Sunday in the evening session the computer cut out again. But what we could get went well
The investigator that we took with us to conference is named Josias. He’s a great guy. He’s a member’s brother so we got some pretty good connections. The problem is that a lot of what he knows is from the JWs, so we got a lot of fixing to do. The good thing though is he has a ton of questions. I remember when I was scared in high school if they were going to ask something. After a little bit of practice I feel so much more confidence. He’s praying, reading the Book of Mormon, and went to every session of conference, so I think he’s progressing.
We had a super sweet investigator named Consuelo that was progressing and going to get baptized this week. We went to her house on Tuesday and she looked like there was something wrong. We asked and she just laid it out that she doesn’t want to get baptized. We tried a ton of different ways of asking “why not” but she had a pretty good lock on her mouth. We’ll keep trying. And the other lady that was going to get baptized this week had some health problems so she couldn’t go into water above the waist. It should be good this week though. Not really helping the situation out though.
Another lady that we are starting to work with is a reference that we contacted a long time ago that we are starting to visit again. Two cool things. First yesterday, we had a really good lesson on how the Book of Mormon can answer the questions that she has about life. She had five really good questions that we answered with the Book of Mormon; so that’s the first part. The second part is that she gave us some HUGE bananas! Like, I’d say twice as big around as a normal sized banana. So it’s going good there.
Also we found a new couple. They are a little bit older, but are really sweet. We went to their laundry mat and when I we offered to help she gave us a hug. It felt really awkward. I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when I’m at college in a LONG, LONG time. But they are reading the Book of Mormon as well. They are a good prospect.
One of my favorite phrases from conference turned out for my spiritual thought. Elder Uchdorf said, “being grateful is one of the most important ways to show our love to our Heavenly Father. I have thought a lot about gratitude. And it’s true. It’s not fun to work with people that are ungrateful. They are always unsatisfied no matter what you try to do. But when someone says thank you, for a little thing, it completely changes your day. Gratitude is a Christ like attribute, that we should all poses. It will change our lives, and turn the tint, from a blue downcast, do a bright optimism.
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay

                                                                                                March 26, 2012
Well, a crazy week! But it’s been a good one. Full of work so that makes things go well. The harvest is coming!
This week we had a fun time for investigators. The lady that I talked about last week Mari (that her husband died so she could get married) well we couldn’t find her the whole week until Saturday. We talked to her and she wants go get baptized. We didn’t even have to twist her arm or anything! So that’s going to be this week.
Another investigator that we were talking about is Consuelo. She is a super sweet story. We were talking with her for a really long time and it was looking good but she got a job in Wal-Mart so that cut her Sundays out of the picture. We talked to her this week and she came to church. We found out that it meant that she had skipped work! That’s a lot of faith and I’m not sure how she is going to be rewarded, but it should go over pretty well. She also is going to get baptized on Saturday if everything goes to plan.
We also have a few young single adults that are going along well. They are relatives of a few members. They have a ton of questions. One day this week we went over for a lesson and it was an hour and a half of straight questions. They are also good looking candidates for baptism.
A lot of other small business, but it isn’t worth writing about. As far as something crazy going on, well there’s not much. Just a bunch of work to get going on. Something, maybe I haven’t talked a whole lot about it in other letters; we have a pretty special ward as far as church goes. Every week there are tourists that show up for sacrament meeting.  You get a new group every week. It’s fun to practice my English with them. A lot of them don’t understand Spanish, but they still come. It’s hard being translator though sometimes because I get my English line and my Spanish line mixed up. I end up either speaking English to a Mexican or Spanish to an American. And even some times half the sentence is in English and the other half in Spanish. It’s going to take some work to get back to normal.
This week I had a fun opportunity to have a spiritual moment. I got to give the lesson in a family home evening with some less actives. I got to speak on prayer. I had never studied it out so much. I realized how big of a role prayer has had in my life. I understand now how lost we are without prayer.  That we really need it in order to be ok. Many investigators talk about how just praying every night and every morning helps them to change so much. Prayer is an inexhaustible tool that we have to change our life. It doesn’t have batteries or a limit on time. It is free of these things due to its spiritual background. The question is "are we really using this tool to its full capacity?"
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay