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

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