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 (21^st) 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

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

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

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

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