July 18, 2011
Well, another week down. It’s crazy how fast it’s all going. This week especially I don’t know why but it seemed like we would just do a little bit of work and it was time to move on to the next thing. We both are confused about how fast the time goes and where it goes.
This week has been a lot different. Well not different, but having a new companion is always an adjusting thing. We think a lot alike so it’s crazy how many jokes there are. Not that Elder Hutchison and I didn’t have our laughs, but it’s someone from the same world more or less. He played football and basketball too. Today in the morning we played and we played 4 on 3. We were the three and we won. It is nice to be with someone from the same area/culture kind of an idea.
As far as investigators go it’s pretty much still I the battle. We have four people that we are really working on. The coolest one is Yuri. She is so excited for the gospel. It doesn’t matter if we show up late or anything like that, she is still beaming. She is always excited to see us. We verified how she felt at church and she said that she liked it a lot and that her favorite part was that she felt close to God. Well, that’s about as good of an answer that you can find. She is so easy to teach too. She read 1 Nephi chapter 3 and she picked out verse seven. That’s the, “I will go and do the things …” verse. She really liked it and marked it. She is super exited for her baptism too.
Also there is Leonor. She got to the point where she has always felt good about the Book of Mormon but I think that she’s expecting a lightening bolt to come down. She told us on Saturday, “I think I just need to believe, and not try to deny. I just need to go forward with this.” She came to church all by herself too and she is super excited. We had a lesson in the gospel principles class that talked about the Holy Ghost and with our lesson on Saturday I’m pretty sure that she is on the right road. (In case anyone forgot she is the one that read the whole Book of Mormon).
We had another lesson with a lady named Maria de Carmen. We had had lessons with her before, but she never seemed very enthusiastic, but maybe it’s a change of companions or something but she was a lot happier. She also came to church by herself. It was really nice to have her there because earlier we were worried if she was ever going to progress. Now she is on the road. She isn’t super super excited… yet. We are working on her. She doesn’t like commitments so even trying to get an appointment to come back is hard. But she went to church all by herself so it was a big step.
The Last one is a guy named Eduardo. I don’t think that I’ve talked about him a whole lot but it’s a sad situation kind of. This is one of the most loveable guys you can find. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body it seems like. He has a bunch of animals that he has taken in or things like that. He always makes sure that we have something to drink and has given us food before. The problem is he can’t get baptized right now because he was married to someone else, separated, then later found another wife and is now living with her. So he has to divorce himself with his legal wife, and marry his current wife. Both of his sons are members so he should be a shoe in after he gets his papers figured out. He loves having the missionaries over. One of our first weeks, we didn’t go to his house for a week and he got after us at church. We usually go with him in the night time.
We had a few more good rainstorms. One was Sunday and it filled up a couple streets. Oh yeah, there was a Shakira concert here that was a few kilometers away that we could hear at our house. It was suppose to have 150,000 people go to it and it was free. Oh yeah, I had another interview with president this week. It was short and I feel like it’s a lot of the same thing. I wanted to ask more questions but it got cut off so that’s more of me being made to do some more thinking. I can’t believe that I will be turning 20 this weekend. I feel like I’m still 18 just with a few more years of experience.
When I was thinking about what I should write as a spiritual thought this week, I had a couple of ideas bouncing around inside and the lottery ball that came out is vision. Our vision is one of the most miraculous things that we have. And I’m not only talking about the vision that we have with our eyes. Our imagination is one of the necessary tools that were given to us in this world to learn and to grow. It’s what gives us passion to live our lives, set and later reach goals. If there were no imagination, there would be no reason to read fiction books because a person couldn’t imagine. If there was no imagination, the history books would be far less instructive and the scriptures would wane in power. An unimaginative person can’t imagine the red sea being parted. The understanding of the plan of salvation would be limited to what we could only see and feel. The Atonement and the agonizing pain would not be fully comprehended to its fullest degree because we couldn’t go through that. We can only visualize what it would be like. So since the visualization is so necessary in life, we should use it more I would imagine; its one of the things necessary in the goal making process, its one of the things that helps us to keep our decisions in line, its one of the things that helps us keep on the strait and narrow road, that leads us to the Celestial Kingdom. I have never seen the Celestial kingdom, but I want to go there because I can imagine it in my mind.
Well, kind of an off the wall one this week. Love you all, eat a chunk of cake or something for me, just not strawberry cheesecake.
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
Friday, July 22, 2011
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
July 11, 2011 through June 20, 2011
July 11, 2011
Well. It has been another crazy week. Yes mom it was changes and all that. A couple of milestones that are coming up in this change: I’ll turn 20! That’s a pretty big change. If anyone else wants to send anything for a birthday deal I would love letters by dear elder. It always makes a day brighter when someone from the “other world” remembers that I’m here. Also I’ll be half way done a week after I get this change finished. It seems to be about a quarter of the way done not almost half.
Anyways this week has had a lot of topsy-turvy stuff. One of the cool things is that we found the Hermana Leanor again. It was interesting to talk to her again. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and come to find out she had read THE ENTIRE BOOK OF MORMON. How crazy is that? And it wasn’t just a little bit here and there and stuff either. She had questions on the three Nephites and the gift of tongues and different things like that. Now she is reading the scripture index in the back to understand more things. We had a lesson with her and explaining a lot of things then later we talked on Saturday in the chapel. We went and visited the baptismal font and all that. It was super good lesson. She had a lot of questions on how all everything works. She was wondering what she would feel being baptized and if it would help her with her family problems. We got a hold of a member that was in the church and had him come and sit down. He told her about how his family has changed so much since they started the gospel. After that he told her how happy the felt being baptized and how clean and how it felt. He said that it was as if a load had been on him after he came out of the water it all came off. So that was pretty much perfect lesson for her, with the company of the spirit of course. The only problem was that she said she was going to go to church and she didn’t. We got to figure out why not but she is back on the list.
Another sweet prospect that has come up this week is a lady named Yuri (sounds like you-ree). It was interesting finding her. We were knocking doors and I was trying talk about hope and things because it had been a rough day. We knocked the door then this lady drives up in a mo-ped. We talked to her and she said we could come back. The day we had planned to come back we were knocking doors and found an atheist. We had a long battle and then realized how late it was (side note: one of these times I am going to baptize an atheist). We ran over to her and we were like 45 minutes late. We had a little chit chat for like 20 minutes. We made a follow up appointment for the next day. We came back and her sister (Yuri) came out and said that we would be there soon. We started talking with her and we just decided to teach her instead. We were with a returned missionary. We set a baptismal date, and taught her to pray. We came the next day and taught the restoration. We came the next day and she believes the Book of Mormon is scripture. We talked about going to church and all that and she was super excited. The next day (Sunday) she went to church all by herself. Then we had a class on baptism and when the teacher asked, she responded that she was going to be baptized.
This Sunday was changes. I was interesting because we had figured that we had three months together and so one was going to go. Then we found out that mayores usually don’t change as much so I was going to get sent off to some new area. Turns out that I’m staying and my companion is going. He went to Cancun (some area that is super hard t to say that I don’t know what it’s called. Something like teskoafpoeijr. Not really but that’s about all I know is that it starts with a “t”). While I was in the ADO (that’s the bus station) I got to talk with Elder Fuller from my generation. It was pretty cool; its crazy to swap stories and it’s even crazier to be able to swap stories. So I'm here with Elder Wynn. He is from Aberdeen Idaho (incase any of you know anyone there). He is a pretty cool elder. He was already in the zone so I already knew him. It’s funny because this is my third American companion and apart from the MTC I'm the first American companion he has had. He has fifteen months in the mission and is a farm boy so I imagine we will get along just fine. So do I give the birthday stuff to him then? Quien sabe. Any ways things are looking different. Even though he is senior companion, I got to show him the ropes and everything.
We had a couple cats show up at the house, don’t know were they came from. One yesterday turned really weird and started having spasms. When we came back after lunch he was dead. Not such a good thing. It rained pretty good while we were gone so that probably didn’t help him. Other than that no crazy stories. Oh yeah, we had a possum in our back area. It found some twine and used that to climb away.
The spiritual thinking that’s been going on in my head is how useless life is without the Atonement of Christ. We don’t understand the limitless power that is brought with the Atonement. It’s so crazy all the things that it means. Because of it, the gospel and the ordinance of baptism works. This gives people the opportunity to be reborn and to leave behind the burdens that they have been carrying for years. Because of the atonement, innocent children under the age of accountability will not be condemned if they die before the age of accountability. Because of the atonement, people can restore their lives in order. From someone saying a lie or gossiping, to someone who has make and broken sacred covenants in the temple, the power of the atonement can reach them. And without the atonement, there would be no hope for a better life after this short life span. Not only that, now every one can say that there is someone that has walked this earth that loves them and has done something for them. This I would imagine isn’t even breaking the skin on how deep and complex the Atonement is. But this is the one fix all cure. If you want to live a better life. Study the atonement and apply it to your lives through the gospel.
Well gotta run. Going to be a fun week. Love you all. Pictures…. Well hopefully next week
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay
July 4, 2011
Well, another week of the ups and downs of the mission. No crazy statistics this week. Guess I’m forgetting the entire math that I learned back in the day. Oh yeah happy Fourth of July! I just remembered. No red white and blue stuff in the streets makes it kind of hard to remember. Oh yeah, last week I said in my p.s. that it was raining. Well… it rained…. And rained… and rained some more. When we went to buy, it had flooded some of the streets. Like there was probably four or five inches of standing water in the street. Tuesday we got hit by a rain storm pretty good while we were in the street. We were about fifteen minutes away from our house and all the sudden big huge drops started coming hard. Wednesday and Thursday we got some more rain. Friday and Saturday and Sunday nothing. I’d love to hear some updates the week before if I could get it.
Well… it’s hard to remember what all happens. I should start bringing my journal to start remembering what all goes on (which I am still writing in every day over 100 pages now). On Tuesday we got to go with a sister to check out a reference. It was funny because she had invited her before and we had even contacted her and she finally just said yes. We had a sweet lesson and you could tell she was thinking a lot. The member that we took with us was super helpful. Her testimony is super cool. She said that she started reading the Book of Mormon without knowing how to read very well. Now she reads it every day and she loves it. She started it 11 years ago. I imagine she has finished it at least once or twice. She also talked a lot about all the changes she has seen in her life and in her family. We were glad to have someone that could relate to the investigator (oh yeah the investigator’s name is Virgiria). When we got to the part about praying the member got real excited and asked if she could teach it. I never realized how much members change missionary work.
Nothing super interesting happened during the week, a lot of rain and stuff. One of the funny parts was in service. We got to go do some grass cutting with a machete again, only this time for some members. The machete we have is the one that is in the picture that I sent a couple weeks ago. We got chopping away and I told my companion, “make sure you don’t cut yourself or me, please.” What do you think happened? Yeah, he cut himself. It was on his thumb and it was bleeding some. We always carry around sweat rags and he put that on it to stop the blood. We finished then I got to go back to the house to play doctor. It was nice to put the Boy Scout knowledge to use that I thought I would never use. It wasn’t super bad, it was just nice to know what to do.
Oh yeah, mom I’ve tried that colon health pill stuff that was suppose to help. Well… let’s just say it doesn’t. nuff said.
The weekend was pretty packed. Saturday in the morning was super cool! I talked to President one time about me playing basketball. He invited me to play! Saturday we went to a track and it was pretty much an everything area. Had a real track with hurdles (yes I did feel the urge), high jump, discus, pole-vault, tennis, basketball, even a high dive! It was nice to be the tallest one there. When we got there we set up teams and started playing. Our mission president is about mom’s height or maybe a little bit taller. I had heard a lot about him but wasn’t sure. I got to sit the first game so I took advantage to watch what he did. First thing is he said “poor elders. They don’t know what’s coming,” then he drained a three from about six inches behind the line. I guess he learned how to play. It was super fun though. I missed a lot but it felt so good to get back into it. Our crew was me and my companion, the assistants, president and his son, and the other four elders from the mission offices.
Then things kind of went down hill. We had been working with Vicente to try to figure out why he didn’t want to get baptized or what all happened. We went and visited him and he said that he hadn’t confessed everything and that he wasn’t worthy to be baptized. That was Tuesday. Later we figured some things out and he could go to an interview on Saturday. We went over to his house 15 minutes early to make sure he was ready to go and we’d go with him. He threw up a bunch of excuses and pretexts. Really a sad deal. We went and talked with president and we made some plans, but nothing came out of them in the end. It was a rough afternoon. I remember feeling really frustrated and not understanding why things didn’t work out so well. Later on Sunday I was thinking and I realized that that hour or so that I felt of total rejection was a tiny taste of what the Savior felt, as the people he was atoning for rejected him. I felt sad, but a little closer because know I knew how he felt more.
On Sunday we found Fray again. He said that something happened with his work and that he doesn’t have as much anymore but that he is constantly getting back at 8. Also, his family situation isn’t improving at all and he feels really alone when he is inside the house for hours with nobody home. The good side is that he’s kept reading the Book of Mormon. We’ll see how all that works out. We are going to have a lesson with the stake president this week.
Well… the week has been a little bit rough, interestingly enough my thoughts on what this last paragraph have orbited around hope. It’s interesting how much the mission itself teaches. These last few weeks in this area have been hard. It seems like I’m running into a wall over and over again with no changes. Hope is the idea, the desire, the goal, the dream, that things can and will be better. And accordingly with the seemingly impossible, the corresponding hope must be centered around something with limitless power. That is one of the reasons why Christ is so vital to this work. A missionary who doesn’t hope that things will get better, won’t get better and will return to his home missing out on many of the great lessons of the mission. However, the hope is the motivator that says that this door will open, that this investigator will read the Book of Mormon, that this can happen. It can happen, because if water can be turned into wine, that people can be raised from the dead, that the children of Israel can walk through on dry land; if these great miracles can be brought to pass, than why can’t this person change over the course of a few weeks and have the light of the gospel brought into the lives. “we are to give life to the hands that hang helplessly down.” That why this work is so amazing because there are so many possibilities for miracles.
Well I got to run, love you all. Thanks for the long email. Hope you enjoy the pictures and make sure you blow something up for me
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
Well. It has been another crazy week. Yes mom it was changes and all that. A couple of milestones that are coming up in this change: I’ll turn 20! That’s a pretty big change. If anyone else wants to send anything for a birthday deal I would love letters by dear elder. It always makes a day brighter when someone from the “other world” remembers that I’m here. Also I’ll be half way done a week after I get this change finished. It seems to be about a quarter of the way done not almost half.
Anyways this week has had a lot of topsy-turvy stuff. One of the cool things is that we found the Hermana Leanor again. It was interesting to talk to her again. We had a lesson with her on Thursday and come to find out she had read THE ENTIRE BOOK OF MORMON. How crazy is that? And it wasn’t just a little bit here and there and stuff either. She had questions on the three Nephites and the gift of tongues and different things like that. Now she is reading the scripture index in the back to understand more things. We had a lesson with her and explaining a lot of things then later we talked on Saturday in the chapel. We went and visited the baptismal font and all that. It was super good lesson. She had a lot of questions on how all everything works. She was wondering what she would feel being baptized and if it would help her with her family problems. We got a hold of a member that was in the church and had him come and sit down. He told her about how his family has changed so much since they started the gospel. After that he told her how happy the felt being baptized and how clean and how it felt. He said that it was as if a load had been on him after he came out of the water it all came off. So that was pretty much perfect lesson for her, with the company of the spirit of course. The only problem was that she said she was going to go to church and she didn’t. We got to figure out why not but she is back on the list.
Another sweet prospect that has come up this week is a lady named Yuri (sounds like you-ree). It was interesting finding her. We were knocking doors and I was trying talk about hope and things because it had been a rough day. We knocked the door then this lady drives up in a mo-ped. We talked to her and she said we could come back. The day we had planned to come back we were knocking doors and found an atheist. We had a long battle and then realized how late it was (side note: one of these times I am going to baptize an atheist). We ran over to her and we were like 45 minutes late. We had a little chit chat for like 20 minutes. We made a follow up appointment for the next day. We came back and her sister (Yuri) came out and said that we would be there soon. We started talking with her and we just decided to teach her instead. We were with a returned missionary. We set a baptismal date, and taught her to pray. We came the next day and taught the restoration. We came the next day and she believes the Book of Mormon is scripture. We talked about going to church and all that and she was super excited. The next day (Sunday) she went to church all by herself. Then we had a class on baptism and when the teacher asked, she responded that she was going to be baptized.
This Sunday was changes. I was interesting because we had figured that we had three months together and so one was going to go. Then we found out that mayores usually don’t change as much so I was going to get sent off to some new area. Turns out that I’m staying and my companion is going. He went to Cancun (some area that is super hard t to say that I don’t know what it’s called. Something like teskoafpoeijr. Not really but that’s about all I know is that it starts with a “t”). While I was in the ADO (that’s the bus station) I got to talk with Elder Fuller from my generation. It was pretty cool; its crazy to swap stories and it’s even crazier to be able to swap stories. So I'm here with Elder Wynn. He is from Aberdeen Idaho (incase any of you know anyone there). He is a pretty cool elder. He was already in the zone so I already knew him. It’s funny because this is my third American companion and apart from the MTC I'm the first American companion he has had. He has fifteen months in the mission and is a farm boy so I imagine we will get along just fine. So do I give the birthday stuff to him then? Quien sabe. Any ways things are looking different. Even though he is senior companion, I got to show him the ropes and everything.
We had a couple cats show up at the house, don’t know were they came from. One yesterday turned really weird and started having spasms. When we came back after lunch he was dead. Not such a good thing. It rained pretty good while we were gone so that probably didn’t help him. Other than that no crazy stories. Oh yeah, we had a possum in our back area. It found some twine and used that to climb away.
The spiritual thinking that’s been going on in my head is how useless life is without the Atonement of Christ. We don’t understand the limitless power that is brought with the Atonement. It’s so crazy all the things that it means. Because of it, the gospel and the ordinance of baptism works. This gives people the opportunity to be reborn and to leave behind the burdens that they have been carrying for years. Because of the atonement, innocent children under the age of accountability will not be condemned if they die before the age of accountability. Because of the atonement, people can restore their lives in order. From someone saying a lie or gossiping, to someone who has make and broken sacred covenants in the temple, the power of the atonement can reach them. And without the atonement, there would be no hope for a better life after this short life span. Not only that, now every one can say that there is someone that has walked this earth that loves them and has done something for them. This I would imagine isn’t even breaking the skin on how deep and complex the Atonement is. But this is the one fix all cure. If you want to live a better life. Study the atonement and apply it to your lives through the gospel.
Well gotta run. Going to be a fun week. Love you all. Pictures…. Well hopefully next week
Con Amor,
Elder Mackay
July 4, 2011
Well, another week of the ups and downs of the mission. No crazy statistics this week. Guess I’m forgetting the entire math that I learned back in the day. Oh yeah happy Fourth of July! I just remembered. No red white and blue stuff in the streets makes it kind of hard to remember. Oh yeah, last week I said in my p.s. that it was raining. Well… it rained…. And rained… and rained some more. When we went to buy, it had flooded some of the streets. Like there was probably four or five inches of standing water in the street. Tuesday we got hit by a rain storm pretty good while we were in the street. We were about fifteen minutes away from our house and all the sudden big huge drops started coming hard. Wednesday and Thursday we got some more rain. Friday and Saturday and Sunday nothing. I’d love to hear some updates the week before if I could get it.
Well… it’s hard to remember what all happens. I should start bringing my journal to start remembering what all goes on (which I am still writing in every day over 100 pages now). On Tuesday we got to go with a sister to check out a reference. It was funny because she had invited her before and we had even contacted her and she finally just said yes. We had a sweet lesson and you could tell she was thinking a lot. The member that we took with us was super helpful. Her testimony is super cool. She said that she started reading the Book of Mormon without knowing how to read very well. Now she reads it every day and she loves it. She started it 11 years ago. I imagine she has finished it at least once or twice. She also talked a lot about all the changes she has seen in her life and in her family. We were glad to have someone that could relate to the investigator (oh yeah the investigator’s name is Virgiria). When we got to the part about praying the member got real excited and asked if she could teach it. I never realized how much members change missionary work.
Nothing super interesting happened during the week, a lot of rain and stuff. One of the funny parts was in service. We got to go do some grass cutting with a machete again, only this time for some members. The machete we have is the one that is in the picture that I sent a couple weeks ago. We got chopping away and I told my companion, “make sure you don’t cut yourself or me, please.” What do you think happened? Yeah, he cut himself. It was on his thumb and it was bleeding some. We always carry around sweat rags and he put that on it to stop the blood. We finished then I got to go back to the house to play doctor. It was nice to put the Boy Scout knowledge to use that I thought I would never use. It wasn’t super bad, it was just nice to know what to do.
Oh yeah, mom I’ve tried that colon health pill stuff that was suppose to help. Well… let’s just say it doesn’t. nuff said.
The weekend was pretty packed. Saturday in the morning was super cool! I talked to President one time about me playing basketball. He invited me to play! Saturday we went to a track and it was pretty much an everything area. Had a real track with hurdles (yes I did feel the urge), high jump, discus, pole-vault, tennis, basketball, even a high dive! It was nice to be the tallest one there. When we got there we set up teams and started playing. Our mission president is about mom’s height or maybe a little bit taller. I had heard a lot about him but wasn’t sure. I got to sit the first game so I took advantage to watch what he did. First thing is he said “poor elders. They don’t know what’s coming,” then he drained a three from about six inches behind the line. I guess he learned how to play. It was super fun though. I missed a lot but it felt so good to get back into it. Our crew was me and my companion, the assistants, president and his son, and the other four elders from the mission offices.
Then things kind of went down hill. We had been working with Vicente to try to figure out why he didn’t want to get baptized or what all happened. We went and visited him and he said that he hadn’t confessed everything and that he wasn’t worthy to be baptized. That was Tuesday. Later we figured some things out and he could go to an interview on Saturday. We went over to his house 15 minutes early to make sure he was ready to go and we’d go with him. He threw up a bunch of excuses and pretexts. Really a sad deal. We went and talked with president and we made some plans, but nothing came out of them in the end. It was a rough afternoon. I remember feeling really frustrated and not understanding why things didn’t work out so well. Later on Sunday I was thinking and I realized that that hour or so that I felt of total rejection was a tiny taste of what the Savior felt, as the people he was atoning for rejected him. I felt sad, but a little closer because know I knew how he felt more.
On Sunday we found Fray again. He said that something happened with his work and that he doesn’t have as much anymore but that he is constantly getting back at 8. Also, his family situation isn’t improving at all and he feels really alone when he is inside the house for hours with nobody home. The good side is that he’s kept reading the Book of Mormon. We’ll see how all that works out. We are going to have a lesson with the stake president this week.
Well… the week has been a little bit rough, interestingly enough my thoughts on what this last paragraph have orbited around hope. It’s interesting how much the mission itself teaches. These last few weeks in this area have been hard. It seems like I’m running into a wall over and over again with no changes. Hope is the idea, the desire, the goal, the dream, that things can and will be better. And accordingly with the seemingly impossible, the corresponding hope must be centered around something with limitless power. That is one of the reasons why Christ is so vital to this work. A missionary who doesn’t hope that things will get better, won’t get better and will return to his home missing out on many of the great lessons of the mission. However, the hope is the motivator that says that this door will open, that this investigator will read the Book of Mormon, that this can happen. It can happen, because if water can be turned into wine, that people can be raised from the dead, that the children of Israel can walk through on dry land; if these great miracles can be brought to pass, than why can’t this person change over the course of a few weeks and have the light of the gospel brought into the lives. “we are to give life to the hands that hang helplessly down.” That why this work is so amazing because there are so many possibilities for miracles.
Well I got to run, love you all. Thanks for the long email. Hope you enjoy the pictures and make sure you blow something up for me
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
A while ago you asked how do we set up the hammoks. I guess I haven't sent any pictures of how they work. It is just kind of a normal thing. There are three to get an idea of how it works. This is the basketball crew that we played with on Saturday. And the last one is a sign in the sidewalk. You find a hole bunch of them all over in the streets and things like that from a variaty of years. this one was pretty clean so I grabbed a picture. The years are the important parts. (Editors note - They are the years of his mission.)
June 27, 2011
So well… another interesting week here. It seems like it has been forever since Monday but at the same time I don’t remember, and it seems like we didn’t even get a chance to get out and work. Just another funny statistic (these always seem to come up in this paragraph) but I’ve lost weight! When I left home I was 168 lbs. I gained in the MTC until 177 (three big meals a day with only 50 minutes of exercise will do that to ya). Now I just recently weighed myself on a scale and I’m 160! I can’t believe it to me. Everyone here says it’s because of the heat. One of the elders that I came here with said that I even look different. I can’t believe it though, that I've heard all my life about when someone said , “It was right after I came home from my mission so I wasn’t quite in shape,” and I’m here loosing weight. I got a letter from Elder Clark (thanks Aunt Julie) and in his mission the average weight gain is 30 lbs. here I've seen elders loose 30 pounds or more!
Now getting down to business, is been a hard week with a few streaks of good; nothing big to start out the week. Last week we knocked a door and contacted someone in English! It was so weird. She is from the states, but speaks better English than Spanish. It was my first contact that I had done since I left the MTC. It was weird. We went back Wednesday to teach her with an English speaking member and she said that her husband didn’t like the idea of her listening to us and changing religions. I was sad but I was super worried that I would be able to teach. If contacting was hard than a whole lesson was going to be really different. In some of the meetings we have we see some elders teaching from the states and its weird to listen to it in English. For me it solidified that I was taught to speak in Spanish.
Thursday we had a conference with an area 70. He was cool. He talked a lot about miracles. One of his miracles was that he learned to speak English in two weeks. He said that it wasn’t very good and that he didn’t know how to write it very well, but he learned it. He studies for 16 hours a day for 2 weeks. It was so he could progress in his work. Pretty crazy. He also talked a lot about just the “coincidences” that seemed to happen when he worked with faith. It was pretty cool to listen to it all. Oh yeah, while I was there president winked at me! Just a funny fact but yeah…
Friday was a circus trying to get three baptisms lined out in three different areas. First one was for our zone leaders. We had trouble getting there because we had to take a convey out to a little pueblo. We went to Centro (like the center of the city) got lost, went out to the pueblo, got lost, did the interviews. It was interesting there but not quite the same as Telcahquillo. We came back got lost, then had to give some directions to the zone leaders to come do our baptisms. Then they got lost. We got ours done then we had to go do some interviews for the Hermanas in our district. Long day and lots of walking.
Saturday we had planned to have a baptism. We got there at 6:40ish and nobody showed up and not even the investigator showed up. I remember feeling empty. Like literally everything had been sucked out. I was so pumped for him to leave behind his old life and start a new one. He seemed like so sure Thursday and Friday but I don’t know why. He didn’t show up. It was a long Saturday night without knowing what all happened. We haven’t been able to find or get a hold of him so we don’t know what’s up.
The spiritual thought for the week is on repentance. That’s really the miracle of missionary work. I don’t know how many of you went through the scriptures that I sent last week but with one little teeny tiny lie, we are not able to progress eternally. Every single one of us, though we be rich or poor or smart or… well not so smart, we will all have to repent. Repentance cannot come about without the Atonement. Because of the eternal power of the Atonement, these errors and stains are erased. The power of the atonement is so powerful that we are the only thing that stops it from working. Doesn’t matter the time, the weather, the year, or the person. Even some of the things that are condemned in the scriptures can be forgiven. Guaranteed that some repentance processes take longer than others, but it can be done. One of my favorite scripture stories of all time is the story of Enos. The words are so deep. Also one of the old seminary songs, “oh my soul hungered, my heart cried out. Please, Lord release me from pain and from doubt. Oh my soul hungered…” That hungry soul is crying out for divine help. That heart is crying out for the comfort that comes when one knows that they are cleansed from sin. And the cool thing about it is there is only one cure it’s a one cure all medicine. Repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the only way to satisfy a hungry soul. This is the way and there is no other, and I love it. It literally takes the loads off. People can breathe again. And it is only for Christ and by no other name can man be saved. Then when the process is finally completed, the end result is a new person, for they have conquered the natural man. They have had a mighty change of heart and put off the desires to do evil. This is the big change, this is the work. Taking people from darkened or not so darkened paths and bringing them into the light. And when we come to the light, we can see more how we need to step closer and closer to the light until that last day. I hope that we all realize how much we need the Savior in our lives and how much we need to repent and step towards the light. Let nothing impede us from stepping and coming closer
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
P.S. Its raining out side =)
June 20, 2011
Well it’s been a good week here. Yes I did realize that it was father’s day. Hope that everything went well. I did think of you dad and wonder what you were up to. Also (probably because I’m starting to grow up and be big) that day when I get to celebrate Fathers Day seems to be getting closer and more real. A wee bit scary.
This week was pretty fun week some days and some days not so much. Monday after we wrote we ran to Wal-Mart (I know Wal-Mart in Mexico? Who’d have thought?) And when we came out it was raining and I mean really raining. We had to walk about five or six blocks and we were soaked by the end. It’s rained three or four times this week. Nothing super crazy like Sunday. That was a lot of rain and it’s a storm that comes from the ocean. That’s why there’s so much moisture. It’s still pretty fun though. The only bad thing is if there’s rain then right after the sun comes out. You get to experience the ¨rice in the rice cooker¨ effect. Its makes it feels like a living sauna just worst.
As far as people go we have found two new people. One of them we found on Sunday and it was an interesting experience. She’s an older lady that is really different from the normal Mexico. She has no religion. She believes in god but doesn’t do anything about it. We had a long talk. Come to find out she had listened to missionaries once before but had never really gotten anything out of it. We tried to set baptismal dates and such but she doesn’t like the feeling of commitments.
Another is a reference. We only got to teach him one time this week but it was about the easiest lesson you can get. His name is Angel and he is 19. We asked what he expected out of us and he said that he expected us to be like we said guides to help find and follow Jesus Christ. Well ya wanna know the easiest and only way to find Jesus Christ? Baptismal was accepted without a problem. Also he has started the Book of Mormon. It was probably one of the easiest lessons. He is going to be super cool to teach.
Saturday was a long day of walking. We really got pushed to see how far we were going to go. We had plans for a family home evening. The members fell through. We had a back up plan and we were going to go with the investigators to the temple. We went to the investigators house and they weren’t there. We tried going to another member’s house and they weren’t there either. Then we went to the investigators house a half hour later. Still not there. It was still pretty rough. We each got pushed to keep going and not give up till the end of the night.
Sunday we had a pretty cool experience. The lady we ate with is a convert she is really sweet to missionaries. She made sure that everything was perfect for us. She then told us how she came to be a member. It was two missionaries that came up beside her and helped her with her bags. They just were willing to help and that’s what they did. She helped us have a little bit more fire. It’s always easier to work when you see the end results. Her son is going on a mission too. I think that even if he didn’t want to she would kick him out the door. After lunch, we went and worked. We had a few really good contacts. Nobody slammed the door in our face. It was super nice. A different day. Also Sunday, the guy from Argentina got assigned to be mission leader. He asked if we would support him in his calling. That’s about a 180 degree change from the last ward mission leader that we had.
Tuesday we had a day of training with president. He talked a lot about faith and the level of faith necessary to do miracles. This leads into the spiritual thought for the week. The Book of Mormon in Alma 37 is part of Alma`s last words to his son Helaman. Part of it talks about the Liahona. The Liahona worked on two things. One was their faith that the Lord could move the two spindles and the second was that they would remember who was the one doing the miracles. President talked about how we are here to do miracles. What we need to do is to cultivate a level of faith where we believe that the Lord can touch the lives of these people. Then after we have achieved a level of success we need to realize that it was the Lord who did it not us. That’s the same thing in every day life. Thanks to the scriptures, our Heavenly Father has blessed us with the ability to know how to have miracles. And it is a pleasure to be in his hands as a tool to do these miracles. I hope that we all cultivate our faith so that the Lord can bless us with the righteous desires of our heart. And when we are blessed, we give thanks in prayer that he might bless us continually. That is what I want everyone to know.
The bomb
These are some scriptures that take me through the process of how big I really am. The activity is to read each one and apply it to yourself. Tied take probably about half an hour. But I’d say it’s worth it. I’ve tried writing it several times and have several versions, but this is the newest
D & C 1:31
Romans 3:23
Alma 39:8
Alma 12:14
2 Nephi 4:17
Alma 36:12-13
Mosiah 2:38-39
2 Nephi 9:9
Luke 22:42-44
Mosiah 3:7
D & C 45:5
Alma 9:27
Alma 36:18-20
2 Nephi 2:25
2 Nephi 4:28
2 Nephi 31:19-20
2 Timothy 4:7
Matthew 25:23
In order to find our chapel, look for a store called Soriana in the colony Canek. It’s a little ways a way from it. It’s kind of in the middle of nothing. On the right hand side if you are looking north.
Well I think that’s everything. Send some attachments. Hope you get them!
Con amor
Elder Mackay
Here are some of the encounters I have had with cockroaches. Later are some iguanas that are camafloged in the rocks. There are three of them. The last one was my creative way to heat up pop tarts.
So well… another interesting week here. It seems like it has been forever since Monday but at the same time I don’t remember, and it seems like we didn’t even get a chance to get out and work. Just another funny statistic (these always seem to come up in this paragraph) but I’ve lost weight! When I left home I was 168 lbs. I gained in the MTC until 177 (three big meals a day with only 50 minutes of exercise will do that to ya). Now I just recently weighed myself on a scale and I’m 160! I can’t believe it to me. Everyone here says it’s because of the heat. One of the elders that I came here with said that I even look different. I can’t believe it though, that I've heard all my life about when someone said , “It was right after I came home from my mission so I wasn’t quite in shape,” and I’m here loosing weight. I got a letter from Elder Clark (thanks Aunt Julie) and in his mission the average weight gain is 30 lbs. here I've seen elders loose 30 pounds or more!
Now getting down to business, is been a hard week with a few streaks of good; nothing big to start out the week. Last week we knocked a door and contacted someone in English! It was so weird. She is from the states, but speaks better English than Spanish. It was my first contact that I had done since I left the MTC. It was weird. We went back Wednesday to teach her with an English speaking member and she said that her husband didn’t like the idea of her listening to us and changing religions. I was sad but I was super worried that I would be able to teach. If contacting was hard than a whole lesson was going to be really different. In some of the meetings we have we see some elders teaching from the states and its weird to listen to it in English. For me it solidified that I was taught to speak in Spanish.
Thursday we had a conference with an area 70. He was cool. He talked a lot about miracles. One of his miracles was that he learned to speak English in two weeks. He said that it wasn’t very good and that he didn’t know how to write it very well, but he learned it. He studies for 16 hours a day for 2 weeks. It was so he could progress in his work. Pretty crazy. He also talked a lot about just the “coincidences” that seemed to happen when he worked with faith. It was pretty cool to listen to it all. Oh yeah, while I was there president winked at me! Just a funny fact but yeah…
Friday was a circus trying to get three baptisms lined out in three different areas. First one was for our zone leaders. We had trouble getting there because we had to take a convey out to a little pueblo. We went to Centro (like the center of the city) got lost, went out to the pueblo, got lost, did the interviews. It was interesting there but not quite the same as Telcahquillo. We came back got lost, then had to give some directions to the zone leaders to come do our baptisms. Then they got lost. We got ours done then we had to go do some interviews for the Hermanas in our district. Long day and lots of walking.
Saturday we had planned to have a baptism. We got there at 6:40ish and nobody showed up and not even the investigator showed up. I remember feeling empty. Like literally everything had been sucked out. I was so pumped for him to leave behind his old life and start a new one. He seemed like so sure Thursday and Friday but I don’t know why. He didn’t show up. It was a long Saturday night without knowing what all happened. We haven’t been able to find or get a hold of him so we don’t know what’s up.
The spiritual thought for the week is on repentance. That’s really the miracle of missionary work. I don’t know how many of you went through the scriptures that I sent last week but with one little teeny tiny lie, we are not able to progress eternally. Every single one of us, though we be rich or poor or smart or… well not so smart, we will all have to repent. Repentance cannot come about without the Atonement. Because of the eternal power of the Atonement, these errors and stains are erased. The power of the atonement is so powerful that we are the only thing that stops it from working. Doesn’t matter the time, the weather, the year, or the person. Even some of the things that are condemned in the scriptures can be forgiven. Guaranteed that some repentance processes take longer than others, but it can be done. One of my favorite scripture stories of all time is the story of Enos. The words are so deep. Also one of the old seminary songs, “oh my soul hungered, my heart cried out. Please, Lord release me from pain and from doubt. Oh my soul hungered…” That hungry soul is crying out for divine help. That heart is crying out for the comfort that comes when one knows that they are cleansed from sin. And the cool thing about it is there is only one cure it’s a one cure all medicine. Repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ is the only way to satisfy a hungry soul. This is the way and there is no other, and I love it. It literally takes the loads off. People can breathe again. And it is only for Christ and by no other name can man be saved. Then when the process is finally completed, the end result is a new person, for they have conquered the natural man. They have had a mighty change of heart and put off the desires to do evil. This is the big change, this is the work. Taking people from darkened or not so darkened paths and bringing them into the light. And when we come to the light, we can see more how we need to step closer and closer to the light until that last day. I hope that we all realize how much we need the Savior in our lives and how much we need to repent and step towards the light. Let nothing impede us from stepping and coming closer
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
P.S. Its raining out side =)
June 20, 2011
Well it’s been a good week here. Yes I did realize that it was father’s day. Hope that everything went well. I did think of you dad and wonder what you were up to. Also (probably because I’m starting to grow up and be big) that day when I get to celebrate Fathers Day seems to be getting closer and more real. A wee bit scary.
This week was pretty fun week some days and some days not so much. Monday after we wrote we ran to Wal-Mart (I know Wal-Mart in Mexico? Who’d have thought?) And when we came out it was raining and I mean really raining. We had to walk about five or six blocks and we were soaked by the end. It’s rained three or four times this week. Nothing super crazy like Sunday. That was a lot of rain and it’s a storm that comes from the ocean. That’s why there’s so much moisture. It’s still pretty fun though. The only bad thing is if there’s rain then right after the sun comes out. You get to experience the ¨rice in the rice cooker¨ effect. Its makes it feels like a living sauna just worst.
As far as people go we have found two new people. One of them we found on Sunday and it was an interesting experience. She’s an older lady that is really different from the normal Mexico. She has no religion. She believes in god but doesn’t do anything about it. We had a long talk. Come to find out she had listened to missionaries once before but had never really gotten anything out of it. We tried to set baptismal dates and such but she doesn’t like the feeling of commitments.
Another is a reference. We only got to teach him one time this week but it was about the easiest lesson you can get. His name is Angel and he is 19. We asked what he expected out of us and he said that he expected us to be like we said guides to help find and follow Jesus Christ. Well ya wanna know the easiest and only way to find Jesus Christ? Baptismal was accepted without a problem. Also he has started the Book of Mormon. It was probably one of the easiest lessons. He is going to be super cool to teach.
Saturday was a long day of walking. We really got pushed to see how far we were going to go. We had plans for a family home evening. The members fell through. We had a back up plan and we were going to go with the investigators to the temple. We went to the investigators house and they weren’t there. We tried going to another member’s house and they weren’t there either. Then we went to the investigators house a half hour later. Still not there. It was still pretty rough. We each got pushed to keep going and not give up till the end of the night.
Sunday we had a pretty cool experience. The lady we ate with is a convert she is really sweet to missionaries. She made sure that everything was perfect for us. She then told us how she came to be a member. It was two missionaries that came up beside her and helped her with her bags. They just were willing to help and that’s what they did. She helped us have a little bit more fire. It’s always easier to work when you see the end results. Her son is going on a mission too. I think that even if he didn’t want to she would kick him out the door. After lunch, we went and worked. We had a few really good contacts. Nobody slammed the door in our face. It was super nice. A different day. Also Sunday, the guy from Argentina got assigned to be mission leader. He asked if we would support him in his calling. That’s about a 180 degree change from the last ward mission leader that we had.
Tuesday we had a day of training with president. He talked a lot about faith and the level of faith necessary to do miracles. This leads into the spiritual thought for the week. The Book of Mormon in Alma 37 is part of Alma`s last words to his son Helaman. Part of it talks about the Liahona. The Liahona worked on two things. One was their faith that the Lord could move the two spindles and the second was that they would remember who was the one doing the miracles. President talked about how we are here to do miracles. What we need to do is to cultivate a level of faith where we believe that the Lord can touch the lives of these people. Then after we have achieved a level of success we need to realize that it was the Lord who did it not us. That’s the same thing in every day life. Thanks to the scriptures, our Heavenly Father has blessed us with the ability to know how to have miracles. And it is a pleasure to be in his hands as a tool to do these miracles. I hope that we all cultivate our faith so that the Lord can bless us with the righteous desires of our heart. And when we are blessed, we give thanks in prayer that he might bless us continually. That is what I want everyone to know.
The bomb
These are some scriptures that take me through the process of how big I really am. The activity is to read each one and apply it to yourself. Tied take probably about half an hour. But I’d say it’s worth it. I’ve tried writing it several times and have several versions, but this is the newest
D & C 1:31
Romans 3:23
Alma 39:8
Alma 12:14
2 Nephi 4:17
Alma 36:12-13
Mosiah 2:38-39
2 Nephi 9:9
Luke 22:42-44
Mosiah 3:7
D & C 45:5
Alma 9:27
Alma 36:18-20
2 Nephi 2:25
2 Nephi 4:28
2 Nephi 31:19-20
2 Timothy 4:7
Matthew 25:23
In order to find our chapel, look for a store called Soriana in the colony Canek. It’s a little ways a way from it. It’s kind of in the middle of nothing. On the right hand side if you are looking north.
Well I think that’s everything. Send some attachments. Hope you get them!
Con amor
Elder Mackay
Pictures - So the first one is a kid here named Noe. He is about as rambuctious and crazy as you can find. He finds great delight in running his little toy scooter into the wall. The next is my current tie collection. Its pretty different than when I left. the next was my companion after a long day of work. It was more testing out of the features of my camera and liked this one. The next is a hamburger that a family gave me while I was on splits. It was a super good burger and to drink they gave us a drink from blended cantalope. The last one is our new machete that we bought for cutting the weeds and I liked it alot. Made me think of back in the days with crocodile Dun Dee. "Now thats a knife". Now lets get some reply pictures?
Here are some of the encounters I have had with cockroaches. Later are some iguanas that are camafloged in the rocks. There are three of them. The last one was my creative way to heat up pop tarts.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
June 13, 2011
Well as the subject said the gortex Works but I’ll talk more about that later. It was a pretty good week. As far as sticking to it but its still rough as far as investigators go. The mission is always getting clearer and clearer as I get into it more. There is so much that I have learned. One of the things that has been in my heads is how is normal life? I don’t remember. I know I use to do it but I don’t remember how. But the gospel is so clear. This is how it is to live and I love it
This week we are working on a guy named Vincent. He is about fifty or so and is quite an interesting story. He grew up in a little pueblo and worked and worked and worked. Finally he got into Merida and started working in the police. I guess he saw some pretty rough stuff back in the day. Part of everything that went on he kind of started out with anger problems. It grew and grew and grew. He got into drugs drinking and women. He ended up in the psychiatric ward and was there on drugs for a while. Finally he got out (I don’t now what got him but he got out) and he says that he wants to change. A couple missionaries found him awhile ago and it was interesting to read the comments that they had on him. They dropped him; later other elders picked him back up and then dropped him. A member was driving us around one day and he said that he went to an interview with the elders here once. We got in and started talking. He’s a lot more into it now. He still has angry problems and such but he wants to get better. The best part is that he likes our church because he felt a “peace” when he went to church. He’s quite a chatter box and is interesting to listen to. He has a baptismal date for the twenty fifth, but it’s more of just trying to tame him down. All the other elders already taught him everything; we are just more following through.
This week on Thursday we had a lesson with a new kid. He is eighteen. We were going to do some other stuff then it started raining (didn’t have my gortex). We went to his house and tried to see if he was there. Nobody answered the door. Then the rain REALLY started. He came out to go some where and took pity on us and let us wait on his porch while he left. We had a good talk on the restoration. He was super interested in it especially the Book of Mormon but is super busy. He works on concerts during the week and the week ends he does them. It’s a frustrating deal but he is a super good kid.
On Saturday we had a battle. We were knocking doors and we were in a richer neighborhood. We were going to contact a guy who was sitting on his porch and he said the equivalent of, “Just keep walking.” It was hard not to turn around and throw some scriptures in his face, but we just kept on walking. We knocked on a few more doors then this one door; a guy just let us into his door without even asking who we were or what we did. I gave my companion funny look and we both knew something was different. We went there and he is a guy who has traveled the world. He has studied a lot of religions and wanted to know what we believed. We talked about the Restoration and the 13 articles of faith. After the fight began. He talked about how it was “our truth” but that it wasn’t “his truth”. We talked about personal revelation and this and that but he just kept fighting. He said that we were a lot like the Muslims but I failed to see the comparisons. It was pretty rough. We came out two hours later. He was still the same but our testimonies of personal revelation were strengthened.
As far as ward news goes on we had a sweet change as far as missionary work. Our missionary leader that we have now has a super rough work schedule of twenty-four hours of work and then twenty four hours of rest. He doesn’t seem to be super excited about much else (and even less missionary work). The bishop said he is going to change him for a guy that we did lessons with. The guy is from Argentina (yes Allen he has the funny accent). He is super stoked about missionary work. We’re just waiting for the announcement. Then yesterday we ate with a family of a kid who is thinking about going on a mission but isn’t sure yet if he wants to go. It was a really peaceful house with just him and his mom. I realized how much the mission has changed me and I thought about the ¨pre-missionary me¨.
Later that day it rained and I mean rained. It flooded the street in about an hour. It came in super hard then backed off, but didn’t go away for a few more hours into the night. The gortex shoes work good. I felt like a kid walking through puddles again. It was pretty sweet too see the water just go off without any problems. Jacket still works to. Although I think its anti weather powers only work in the states, because it doesn’t have any affect here (if you don’t get that one you’ll have to ask my mom). It was fun though. Some of the streets were super flooded as in up to my ankle and overflowing onto the sidewalks.
The spiritual thought for this week is on personal revelation. One of the reasons why faithful member are so faithful is because they KNOW its true. Many people have said that there is no way to know if something is true. That person hasn’t ever heard of revelation. Revelation comes from the true source of knowledge and in its pure form isn’t misunderstood. Therefore, if a person feels the spirit while something is going on or while the pray or are asking for guidance, they can KNOW what to do. Not just believe. When a person says that they know that the Book of Mormon is true it is because they have received an answer from the heavens and this answer cannot be confused. This is the only way to know spiritual things. Joseph Smith said that a person cannot enter into the kingdom of God without revelation. Its true, and revelation isn’t just visions and dreams. It’s the little moments reading the Book of Mormon and realizing that three hours have gone. It’s the little things of coming out of the temple seeing a great view and taking a deep breath. It’s the discussions around the dinner table. It’s the little things that grow the big testimonies. I know these things are true, and I know them to my core.
Hasta la próxima.
Elder Mackay
Pictures!
ok well only one this week there is no time.
this is my companion.
ok maybe two this is the crazy rain. gotta run!
This week we are working on a guy named Vincent. He is about fifty or so and is quite an interesting story. He grew up in a little pueblo and worked and worked and worked. Finally he got into Merida and started working in the police. I guess he saw some pretty rough stuff back in the day. Part of everything that went on he kind of started out with anger problems. It grew and grew and grew. He got into drugs drinking and women. He ended up in the psychiatric ward and was there on drugs for a while. Finally he got out (I don’t now what got him but he got out) and he says that he wants to change. A couple missionaries found him awhile ago and it was interesting to read the comments that they had on him. They dropped him; later other elders picked him back up and then dropped him. A member was driving us around one day and he said that he went to an interview with the elders here once. We got in and started talking. He’s a lot more into it now. He still has angry problems and such but he wants to get better. The best part is that he likes our church because he felt a “peace” when he went to church. He’s quite a chatter box and is interesting to listen to. He has a baptismal date for the twenty fifth, but it’s more of just trying to tame him down. All the other elders already taught him everything; we are just more following through.
This week on Thursday we had a lesson with a new kid. He is eighteen. We were going to do some other stuff then it started raining (didn’t have my gortex). We went to his house and tried to see if he was there. Nobody answered the door. Then the rain REALLY started. He came out to go some where and took pity on us and let us wait on his porch while he left. We had a good talk on the restoration. He was super interested in it especially the Book of Mormon but is super busy. He works on concerts during the week and the week ends he does them. It’s a frustrating deal but he is a super good kid.
On Saturday we had a battle. We were knocking doors and we were in a richer neighborhood. We were going to contact a guy who was sitting on his porch and he said the equivalent of, “Just keep walking.” It was hard not to turn around and throw some scriptures in his face, but we just kept on walking. We knocked on a few more doors then this one door; a guy just let us into his door without even asking who we were or what we did. I gave my companion funny look and we both knew something was different. We went there and he is a guy who has traveled the world. He has studied a lot of religions and wanted to know what we believed. We talked about the Restoration and the 13 articles of faith. After the fight began. He talked about how it was “our truth” but that it wasn’t “his truth”. We talked about personal revelation and this and that but he just kept fighting. He said that we were a lot like the Muslims but I failed to see the comparisons. It was pretty rough. We came out two hours later. He was still the same but our testimonies of personal revelation were strengthened.
As far as ward news goes on we had a sweet change as far as missionary work. Our missionary leader that we have now has a super rough work schedule of twenty-four hours of work and then twenty four hours of rest. He doesn’t seem to be super excited about much else (and even less missionary work). The bishop said he is going to change him for a guy that we did lessons with. The guy is from Argentina (yes Allen he has the funny accent). He is super stoked about missionary work. We’re just waiting for the announcement. Then yesterday we ate with a family of a kid who is thinking about going on a mission but isn’t sure yet if he wants to go. It was a really peaceful house with just him and his mom. I realized how much the mission has changed me and I thought about the ¨pre-missionary me¨.
Later that day it rained and I mean rained. It flooded the street in about an hour. It came in super hard then backed off, but didn’t go away for a few more hours into the night. The gortex shoes work good. I felt like a kid walking through puddles again. It was pretty sweet too see the water just go off without any problems. Jacket still works to. Although I think its anti weather powers only work in the states, because it doesn’t have any affect here (if you don’t get that one you’ll have to ask my mom). It was fun though. Some of the streets were super flooded as in up to my ankle and overflowing onto the sidewalks.
The spiritual thought for this week is on personal revelation. One of the reasons why faithful member are so faithful is because they KNOW its true. Many people have said that there is no way to know if something is true. That person hasn’t ever heard of revelation. Revelation comes from the true source of knowledge and in its pure form isn’t misunderstood. Therefore, if a person feels the spirit while something is going on or while the pray or are asking for guidance, they can KNOW what to do. Not just believe. When a person says that they know that the Book of Mormon is true it is because they have received an answer from the heavens and this answer cannot be confused. This is the only way to know spiritual things. Joseph Smith said that a person cannot enter into the kingdom of God without revelation. Its true, and revelation isn’t just visions and dreams. It’s the little moments reading the Book of Mormon and realizing that three hours have gone. It’s the little things of coming out of the temple seeing a great view and taking a deep breath. It’s the discussions around the dinner table. It’s the little things that grow the big testimonies. I know these things are true, and I know them to my core.
Hasta la próxima.
Elder Mackay
Pictures!
ok well only one this week there is no time.
this is my companion.
ok maybe two this is the crazy rain. gotta run!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
June 6, 2011
June 6, 2011
Another week in Mexico!
First thing that was super cool this week was that my package got here! With everything in it! Also came a package from Chris oops … PRESIDENT Dahl. I think about every elder knows when another elder gets jerky because this has happened to me every time that it’s been sent to me. My companion loves it and wants his own bag, and asked that if I die, that he can have my jerky. Another elder gave me the package and knew that it was jerky by the smell. So it’s a pretty hot item here. The rubix cube is so nice to feel again. Because it’s so new, it slides a lot better than the old one that Elder Brixey taught me on. Love the Fruit snacks (my companion does too). He says you’re an awesome mom. The camera got here fine and everything. I miss my old one, but this one has some new features so that’s always nice. Oh yeah, maybe I didn’t explain what I wanted when I said egg timer. I was talking about a timer I can use for like up to sixty minutes. The one I remember is just the simple face one. Oh well. I wanted to use it for my studies because what happens a lot I get going and have planned time. Then I look down and I got ten minutes left when I should have been studying this and this and this. Anyway, till next time if you can. The fishing game was a surprise. I think I’ll use it for a kind of family home evening. Help them with the “fishers of men” kind of an idea.
This week as far as work went slow again. A lot of the people we had planned to do different things this week they couldn’t or they fell through. One was on Sunday a kid that we had been teaching a little named Henry. His family is Catholic but he believes in his own way. We taught him some things then set up an appointment to come back, wasn’t there. The next week he was this and that and any way really frustrating with him. We came to his house on Sunday to go to church because he said that he would go with us. He basically lied to us and said that he had to go to a football game. Little things like that make the mission hard.
A new thing that has been pretty fun was we found a recent convert that we didn’t know. His name is Rodrigo. He is studying to be a chef. He is 21 and is a big guy; like taller and a lot wider than me. He is a really cool kid though and I respect him a lot because he is the only member of his family. So that’s cool. He brought his younger brother to church. It is super cool to see someone like that working in the gospel. It’s so fun to see people share the gospel. That’s one of the things that we are starting to do better at. We have plans to do family home evenings. Oh yeah this will make Allen a little bit more excited. I got to go with a guy from Argentina this week. He talks different, but talks a lot. That night we found three examples of people who were frustrated and on dangerous grounds with their testimony because of being offended. When we got home that night, the lesson of the day was to put our trust in the Lord, and not be offended. The church is true because it was given by divine revelation. The people within it however, are not so divine. If there is anyone that is offended, think about all the temporal and eternal blessings they are losing, all for some badly said words. Puts those words down the list a little in importance.
Well it’s a little bit shorter this week but we got to run. Here’s the spiritual thought for the week. Sunday we didn’t have a meeting like normal so we went knocking doors, seeing and experimenting how fruitful it was. It was trying to rain and we got in a door, but he really didn’t accept what we said. My companion was frustrated. Well we were both frustrated but him more, because the people seem to be rejecting so much. The cool part was the bit of a talk on missionary work from Elder Holland we found. He said “Anyone who ever does any type of missionary work has the opportunity to ask, “why is this so hard? “ the missionary work is hard because the experience of salvation was never a cheap one. The work of salvation was never easy. How can we expect it to be easy for us when it was never easy for Christ? It’s my opinion that everyone who does missionary work should spend a few minutes in Gethsemane. Also they should take a few steps on the hill on their way to Calvary. And then they will have a question, “is there not another way?“ This is a normal question. But there is no other way. And we must remember that we aren’t the first one to ask ourselves this. Once a man much greater than, a long time ago asked if there wasn’t another way.” Kind of stings a little but at the same time puts things into perspective. Helps me to understand more of why we are here. Also in this little battle of despair I thought about that one time when I figured out why I’m here. That great man suffered more than I can bear. He paid the price that I couldn’t. He was so great and did so much for me that I can never repay. He still gives and blesses me. Now, when he asks that I give two years of service and to give it the best I’ve got. I’ve got an everlasting opportunity in front of me. He asks me to serve a mission and the answer is easy: of course I will.
Until next week!
Elder Mackay
Another week in Mexico!
First thing that was super cool this week was that my package got here! With everything in it! Also came a package from Chris oops … PRESIDENT Dahl. I think about every elder knows when another elder gets jerky because this has happened to me every time that it’s been sent to me. My companion loves it and wants his own bag, and asked that if I die, that he can have my jerky. Another elder gave me the package and knew that it was jerky by the smell. So it’s a pretty hot item here. The rubix cube is so nice to feel again. Because it’s so new, it slides a lot better than the old one that Elder Brixey taught me on. Love the Fruit snacks (my companion does too). He says you’re an awesome mom. The camera got here fine and everything. I miss my old one, but this one has some new features so that’s always nice. Oh yeah, maybe I didn’t explain what I wanted when I said egg timer. I was talking about a timer I can use for like up to sixty minutes. The one I remember is just the simple face one. Oh well. I wanted to use it for my studies because what happens a lot I get going and have planned time. Then I look down and I got ten minutes left when I should have been studying this and this and this. Anyway, till next time if you can. The fishing game was a surprise. I think I’ll use it for a kind of family home evening. Help them with the “fishers of men” kind of an idea.
This week as far as work went slow again. A lot of the people we had planned to do different things this week they couldn’t or they fell through. One was on Sunday a kid that we had been teaching a little named Henry. His family is Catholic but he believes in his own way. We taught him some things then set up an appointment to come back, wasn’t there. The next week he was this and that and any way really frustrating with him. We came to his house on Sunday to go to church because he said that he would go with us. He basically lied to us and said that he had to go to a football game. Little things like that make the mission hard.
A new thing that has been pretty fun was we found a recent convert that we didn’t know. His name is Rodrigo. He is studying to be a chef. He is 21 and is a big guy; like taller and a lot wider than me. He is a really cool kid though and I respect him a lot because he is the only member of his family. So that’s cool. He brought his younger brother to church. It is super cool to see someone like that working in the gospel. It’s so fun to see people share the gospel. That’s one of the things that we are starting to do better at. We have plans to do family home evenings. Oh yeah this will make Allen a little bit more excited. I got to go with a guy from Argentina this week. He talks different, but talks a lot. That night we found three examples of people who were frustrated and on dangerous grounds with their testimony because of being offended. When we got home that night, the lesson of the day was to put our trust in the Lord, and not be offended. The church is true because it was given by divine revelation. The people within it however, are not so divine. If there is anyone that is offended, think about all the temporal and eternal blessings they are losing, all for some badly said words. Puts those words down the list a little in importance.
Well it’s a little bit shorter this week but we got to run. Here’s the spiritual thought for the week. Sunday we didn’t have a meeting like normal so we went knocking doors, seeing and experimenting how fruitful it was. It was trying to rain and we got in a door, but he really didn’t accept what we said. My companion was frustrated. Well we were both frustrated but him more, because the people seem to be rejecting so much. The cool part was the bit of a talk on missionary work from Elder Holland we found. He said “Anyone who ever does any type of missionary work has the opportunity to ask, “why is this so hard? “ the missionary work is hard because the experience of salvation was never a cheap one. The work of salvation was never easy. How can we expect it to be easy for us when it was never easy for Christ? It’s my opinion that everyone who does missionary work should spend a few minutes in Gethsemane. Also they should take a few steps on the hill on their way to Calvary. And then they will have a question, “is there not another way?“ This is a normal question. But there is no other way. And we must remember that we aren’t the first one to ask ourselves this. Once a man much greater than, a long time ago asked if there wasn’t another way.” Kind of stings a little but at the same time puts things into perspective. Helps me to understand more of why we are here. Also in this little battle of despair I thought about that one time when I figured out why I’m here. That great man suffered more than I can bear. He paid the price that I couldn’t. He was so great and did so much for me that I can never repay. He still gives and blesses me. Now, when he asks that I give two years of service and to give it the best I’ve got. I’ve got an everlasting opportunity in front of me. He asks me to serve a mission and the answer is easy: of course I will.
Until next week!
Elder Mackay
May 30, 2011
May 30, 2011
Well, another week. I figured out this week that 3/8 of my mission is over already. How crazy is that? I feel like I’m just getting around the bend as far as not being so green. Hard to imagine too that nine months ago I saw everyone for the last time. There was a missionary that is leaving this week and he gave his farewell talk today. It was a good talk and brought me back to that time of excitement, how I was super excited to go, but didn’t really know how it all was going to be. I don’t think I really understood what an adventure this mission would be, but I’m glad I’m here. There is no other place for me. Oh and by the way this week was changes. No news, I'm still here. And my companion is too. We were figuring that it would be like that.
Well nothing super exciting for me has happened. This week was more baking in this oven. Still no rain either. They say that it should start any time now, but I haven’t seen anything of that yet. My companion has a little over a year and he said one night it started raining and it didn’t stop. They went out and took some pictures and
the water was up to their ankles. That will be cool to see when it finally comes.
Some pretty rough stuff has happened this week. We taught one lady a while ago and she was really pumped up to read the Book of Mormon. She said she was going to read it in two weeks. We hadn’t been able to visit her for a couple weeks and we finally found her. She sent her little girl out and she gave us the Book of Mormon back without a word. That was pretty rough. Sometimes you’ve seen, “I'm busy, can you come back later?” Or “I'm leaving right now can you come back tomorrow”. After about five or six times a normal missionary can figure out what’s going on, but this was one of the hardest
straightest “no” that I’ve ever found. Also we had a sweet lesson with the lady Georgina. We taught the plan of salvation lesson (after checking to read the Book of Mormon. She said she had and was in chapter five after the intro and testimonies). We taught pretty well bouncing off one another and teaching how important things are in this life; that they can affect what we do throughout our life. The next appointment we had was for Friday. Right before we left the house she called us and said that she wasn’t going to change religions and that she wanted to check things out in her own first. We went there and had a long talk with her about trusting in what God wants and not what we want. It was really interesting and hard. We came to the conclusion that we were going to wait a little while and she was going to keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying to find out which church was true. Someone’s relying on Higher Powers to testify of the truth. When we left I turned around after about half a block and she was still watching us go. I don’t think it’s over with her but hit was a really hard blow. The two things that are the worst about this mission really hit hard. One is when people like her lose interest or are confused. The second and this is probably worse is that this mission is only for two years and there is no second chances.
Another cool experience was with the grandpa of Kendra (one of the girls that got baptized last week). He said that he didn’t really believe in God. Not that he believed that there was no God, but that he didn’t know if there was a God. How do you teach a guy like that? I remember Elder Luke talking about one of his investigators had some questions similar. To try to see if he’d open up, we took him to the temple. We went and two or three people came by and bore testimony of the existence of our Heavenly Father. He said the only problem was that he couldn’t feel that (I'm thinking more not wanting to feel and denying the feeling; honestly who goes to the temple and doesn’t feel the spirit?). Anyway, it was pretty interesting to see him think and look at the temple. Sometimes people would come up and see where we are from. When they would talk to us he would stare at the temple. In the end an old couple asked us to take some photos of them. It was funny because some of them spoke English and Spanish, some just
Spanish and some just English. But that’s the basic isn’t it? Having the confirmation, and believing that there is a God is the most fundamental principle of the gospel. If there is no God, there was no pre-life, no purpose here in life, and there is no post life. How boring is that? But we do have a Heavenly Father. He loves us and has a plan that we are to come down to earth and exercise the power of the Atonement in preparation to come back with him. Had there been no God, there would be no reason to prepare ourselves. But there is a God and a reason to prepare ourselves. There is a reward for clean hands and a pure heart. There is a reason for everything in the Gospel and everything we are asked to do. The thing is that we can’t see probably about 75% of how it all works. Sure we see and read scriptures but without the divine testimony of the Book of Mormon, it is only a history book. Sure we can have prophets, but without the testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, these men today have as much authority as anyone else. We can pay tithing, but without the faith that this is a commandment of God and that all this is for a purpose, it is just giving money that we’ve earned to someone else. The feelings and identification of the Spirit are essential to our eternal progress. Without these feelings, we will be like the seed that fell among rocks in the parable of the sewer. When the sun comes (like the giant ball of pure heat that I'm getting to know here) it will dry up our puny roots and we will not bring forth fruit. Testimony is necessary; it (grouped with the blood of The Lamb) was the only thing that allowed us to keep our first estate. They are also the only things that will help us to continue on and progress. And it all starts with one question. ¨Does he exist? ¨ He does.
In answer to your questions real quick mom, I'm pretty sure that I meant to put that the baptism was 10 in the morning. I don’t know how to get some people to church at 10 let alone to a baptismal service at 4. I don’t have the bomb scriptures with me. I’ll try to bring them with me next week. Also with the hammocks, there are… well I can’t really describe them. They are well, I’ll take a picture and that will explain how it all works. And I still have my card reader. Don’t worry about that one.
Well don’t have any more time. Thanks for those that have repented and written. I’ll get back as soon as I can. For those who don’t, well I'm still waiting.
Con amor
Elder Mackay
p.s. all hopes on getting my package today
Well, another week. I figured out this week that 3/8 of my mission is over already. How crazy is that? I feel like I’m just getting around the bend as far as not being so green. Hard to imagine too that nine months ago I saw everyone for the last time. There was a missionary that is leaving this week and he gave his farewell talk today. It was a good talk and brought me back to that time of excitement, how I was super excited to go, but didn’t really know how it all was going to be. I don’t think I really understood what an adventure this mission would be, but I’m glad I’m here. There is no other place for me. Oh and by the way this week was changes. No news, I'm still here. And my companion is too. We were figuring that it would be like that.
Well nothing super exciting for me has happened. This week was more baking in this oven. Still no rain either. They say that it should start any time now, but I haven’t seen anything of that yet. My companion has a little over a year and he said one night it started raining and it didn’t stop. They went out and took some pictures and
the water was up to their ankles. That will be cool to see when it finally comes.
Some pretty rough stuff has happened this week. We taught one lady a while ago and she was really pumped up to read the Book of Mormon. She said she was going to read it in two weeks. We hadn’t been able to visit her for a couple weeks and we finally found her. She sent her little girl out and she gave us the Book of Mormon back without a word. That was pretty rough. Sometimes you’ve seen, “I'm busy, can you come back later?” Or “I'm leaving right now can you come back tomorrow”. After about five or six times a normal missionary can figure out what’s going on, but this was one of the hardest
straightest “no” that I’ve ever found. Also we had a sweet lesson with the lady Georgina. We taught the plan of salvation lesson (after checking to read the Book of Mormon. She said she had and was in chapter five after the intro and testimonies). We taught pretty well bouncing off one another and teaching how important things are in this life; that they can affect what we do throughout our life. The next appointment we had was for Friday. Right before we left the house she called us and said that she wasn’t going to change religions and that she wanted to check things out in her own first. We went there and had a long talk with her about trusting in what God wants and not what we want. It was really interesting and hard. We came to the conclusion that we were going to wait a little while and she was going to keep reading the Book of Mormon and praying to find out which church was true. Someone’s relying on Higher Powers to testify of the truth. When we left I turned around after about half a block and she was still watching us go. I don’t think it’s over with her but hit was a really hard blow. The two things that are the worst about this mission really hit hard. One is when people like her lose interest or are confused. The second and this is probably worse is that this mission is only for two years and there is no second chances.
Another cool experience was with the grandpa of Kendra (one of the girls that got baptized last week). He said that he didn’t really believe in God. Not that he believed that there was no God, but that he didn’t know if there was a God. How do you teach a guy like that? I remember Elder Luke talking about one of his investigators had some questions similar. To try to see if he’d open up, we took him to the temple. We went and two or three people came by and bore testimony of the existence of our Heavenly Father. He said the only problem was that he couldn’t feel that (I'm thinking more not wanting to feel and denying the feeling; honestly who goes to the temple and doesn’t feel the spirit?). Anyway, it was pretty interesting to see him think and look at the temple. Sometimes people would come up and see where we are from. When they would talk to us he would stare at the temple. In the end an old couple asked us to take some photos of them. It was funny because some of them spoke English and Spanish, some just
Spanish and some just English. But that’s the basic isn’t it? Having the confirmation, and believing that there is a God is the most fundamental principle of the gospel. If there is no God, there was no pre-life, no purpose here in life, and there is no post life. How boring is that? But we do have a Heavenly Father. He loves us and has a plan that we are to come down to earth and exercise the power of the Atonement in preparation to come back with him. Had there been no God, there would be no reason to prepare ourselves. But there is a God and a reason to prepare ourselves. There is a reward for clean hands and a pure heart. There is a reason for everything in the Gospel and everything we are asked to do. The thing is that we can’t see probably about 75% of how it all works. Sure we see and read scriptures but without the divine testimony of the Book of Mormon, it is only a history book. Sure we can have prophets, but without the testimony of Joseph Smith as a prophet, these men today have as much authority as anyone else. We can pay tithing, but without the faith that this is a commandment of God and that all this is for a purpose, it is just giving money that we’ve earned to someone else. The feelings and identification of the Spirit are essential to our eternal progress. Without these feelings, we will be like the seed that fell among rocks in the parable of the sewer. When the sun comes (like the giant ball of pure heat that I'm getting to know here) it will dry up our puny roots and we will not bring forth fruit. Testimony is necessary; it (grouped with the blood of The Lamb) was the only thing that allowed us to keep our first estate. They are also the only things that will help us to continue on and progress. And it all starts with one question. ¨Does he exist? ¨ He does.
In answer to your questions real quick mom, I'm pretty sure that I meant to put that the baptism was 10 in the morning. I don’t know how to get some people to church at 10 let alone to a baptismal service at 4. I don’t have the bomb scriptures with me. I’ll try to bring them with me next week. Also with the hammocks, there are… well I can’t really describe them. They are well, I’ll take a picture and that will explain how it all works. And I still have my card reader. Don’t worry about that one.
Well don’t have any more time. Thanks for those that have repented and written. I’ll get back as soon as I can. For those who don’t, well I'm still waiting.
Con amor
Elder Mackay
p.s. all hopes on getting my package today
May 23, 2011
May 23, 2011
Well… this is going by way to fast. It’s not fair that my mission is going away and I only have one shot to do this. Any way a pretty good week; we have some interesting things going on.
First is on Tuesday I had a conference with all the junior companions. President talked a lot and some pretty cool stuff. He is such a good speaker and so nice to listen to. One of the cool things is that I got to see the two guys that were in my district before in the MTC (Elder Calvert and Elder Fuller). Elder Calvert has put on about twenty pounds since he started the mission and I hadn’t seen him in about three or four months. It was way nice to see them again
Then later we had a few interesting things happen this week. One was we found a lady and we finally got to talk to her. Her name is Georgina. She right now is catholic but doesn’t go to church and was really interested in the Book of Mormon. I hope that she can really get into things. We found a couple of people who were temple workers who live nearby. Can you say member help =). We taught Georgina the Restoration and she seemed super interested in what we had to say.
Next is the guy Fray that I had mentioned a few other times. We finally found him again. He is really an interesting guy. He wondered how he could prove to himself that there is a God or things like that. But he prays and things like that so it’s kind of backwards. He however really wants help on reading the Book of Mormon. When we got on the topic he wondered if we could come by his house in the morning. He said something like this:
Fray: Yeah so I was wondering because I don’t understand this book as well as I’d like maybe you guys could come over in the mornings and I could take time out of my work. What time do you guys get up?
Elders: 6:30 but we have studies and things like that in the morning could we come by at about eleven?
Fray: Yeah that’d be great. We could start at eleven and finish around one or twelve thirty…..
He was super interested in us and he’s starting to make jokes which is pretty cool. We invited him to the baptism we had and he went, (cool statistic that President said. 90% of the people that go to baptisms end up getting baptized if they haven’t already been baptized). He said that he was going to go to church today but he didn’t go. We’ll have to go see what’s up but if he starts understanding the Book of Mormon will be a short trip to the baptismal font.
Another cool lady is a lady named Nora. She is also a teacher and we had a fun time getting to know her. One of the things that helped us get in with her is that I told her that my mom is a teacher (thanks for that by the way). We got talking and we had a super distracted lesson but she accepted a baptismal date. She also likes to read so if we can get her started with the book of Mormon things should be pretty easy.
We also have the lady named Leonor that we started teaching last week. We only got to meet with her one time this week, but we passed by and she said that she was in chapter seven of first Nephi (after having read the introduction and testimonies first). Now she is still reading, but she says that she’s only going to be able to have time to meet with us for once a week. We’ll see how that goes. But she’s doing a really good job at doing her homework and stuff like that.
The weather here is really really hot. Like the hottest it’s been. Friday it was 42 degrees Celsius (that’s like 110) with a lot of humidity. Fasting in this weather is super hard and it sucks the strength right out of you.
Oh yeah how can I forget the best part. The BAPTISM! It was on Saturday at four in the morning. It was good. We had quite a bit of people come. A lot of it was family of the two girls getting baptized so instead of trying to do one person the next goal is incomplete families =). The only problem is that we didn’t realize if the font was super full or not. There wasn’t as much water in the font as we thought. We both had to baptize twice. The first girl her foot came out and the second one her elbow didn’t go down. But there were juice and cookies afterwards. It’s all good though I’ll try to get some pictures next week. Well love you all
There was a cool thought that president shared with us in a few meetings. It was in reflection of Mosiah 2, 3, 4 about how much we are in need of a savior. I’ve also put together a couple scriptures (I call it the bomb) and it takes about 15 minutes but you go through a lot of emotions. Through these kind of experiences we really understand our need for help and how much we really don’t do. There was a story about a man who made his own company and grew rapidly and wealth. When he was going to a meeting his limo got hit by a truck and it killed him instantly. Getting up to the judgment bar he thought of his biggest achievement in life and he said, ¨I made the biggest fastest growing company in the world. And I did it all on my own without any help. I don’t owe anything to anyone I paid all my debts and actually a lot of people owed me money.¨ The Creator looked down on him and said, ¨I made thee.¨ We will never be able to make up our debts. But a cool quote that President Monson said, ¨To live a life of gratitude, is to touch heaven.¨ Lets not take things for granted the things that aren’t ours.
Well got to run. I miss hearing from a lot… well pretty much all of you. Excluding mom, dad, and Aunt Julie I refer you all to Alma 60:6 (and repentance). If I’m going to be sharing my experiences with you I want to hear yours too!
Con amor
Elder Mackay
Well… this is going by way to fast. It’s not fair that my mission is going away and I only have one shot to do this. Any way a pretty good week; we have some interesting things going on.
First is on Tuesday I had a conference with all the junior companions. President talked a lot and some pretty cool stuff. He is such a good speaker and so nice to listen to. One of the cool things is that I got to see the two guys that were in my district before in the MTC (Elder Calvert and Elder Fuller). Elder Calvert has put on about twenty pounds since he started the mission and I hadn’t seen him in about three or four months. It was way nice to see them again
Then later we had a few interesting things happen this week. One was we found a lady and we finally got to talk to her. Her name is Georgina. She right now is catholic but doesn’t go to church and was really interested in the Book of Mormon. I hope that she can really get into things. We found a couple of people who were temple workers who live nearby. Can you say member help =). We taught Georgina the Restoration and she seemed super interested in what we had to say.
Next is the guy Fray that I had mentioned a few other times. We finally found him again. He is really an interesting guy. He wondered how he could prove to himself that there is a God or things like that. But he prays and things like that so it’s kind of backwards. He however really wants help on reading the Book of Mormon. When we got on the topic he wondered if we could come by his house in the morning. He said something like this:
Fray: Yeah so I was wondering because I don’t understand this book as well as I’d like maybe you guys could come over in the mornings and I could take time out of my work. What time do you guys get up?
Elders: 6:30 but we have studies and things like that in the morning could we come by at about eleven?
Fray: Yeah that’d be great. We could start at eleven and finish around one or twelve thirty…..
He was super interested in us and he’s starting to make jokes which is pretty cool. We invited him to the baptism we had and he went, (cool statistic that President said. 90% of the people that go to baptisms end up getting baptized if they haven’t already been baptized). He said that he was going to go to church today but he didn’t go. We’ll have to go see what’s up but if he starts understanding the Book of Mormon will be a short trip to the baptismal font.
Another cool lady is a lady named Nora. She is also a teacher and we had a fun time getting to know her. One of the things that helped us get in with her is that I told her that my mom is a teacher (thanks for that by the way). We got talking and we had a super distracted lesson but she accepted a baptismal date. She also likes to read so if we can get her started with the book of Mormon things should be pretty easy.
We also have the lady named Leonor that we started teaching last week. We only got to meet with her one time this week, but we passed by and she said that she was in chapter seven of first Nephi (after having read the introduction and testimonies first). Now she is still reading, but she says that she’s only going to be able to have time to meet with us for once a week. We’ll see how that goes. But she’s doing a really good job at doing her homework and stuff like that.
The weather here is really really hot. Like the hottest it’s been. Friday it was 42 degrees Celsius (that’s like 110) with a lot of humidity. Fasting in this weather is super hard and it sucks the strength right out of you.
Oh yeah how can I forget the best part. The BAPTISM! It was on Saturday at four in the morning. It was good. We had quite a bit of people come. A lot of it was family of the two girls getting baptized so instead of trying to do one person the next goal is incomplete families =). The only problem is that we didn’t realize if the font was super full or not. There wasn’t as much water in the font as we thought. We both had to baptize twice. The first girl her foot came out and the second one her elbow didn’t go down. But there were juice and cookies afterwards. It’s all good though I’ll try to get some pictures next week. Well love you all
There was a cool thought that president shared with us in a few meetings. It was in reflection of Mosiah 2, 3, 4 about how much we are in need of a savior. I’ve also put together a couple scriptures (I call it the bomb) and it takes about 15 minutes but you go through a lot of emotions. Through these kind of experiences we really understand our need for help and how much we really don’t do. There was a story about a man who made his own company and grew rapidly and wealth. When he was going to a meeting his limo got hit by a truck and it killed him instantly. Getting up to the judgment bar he thought of his biggest achievement in life and he said, ¨I made the biggest fastest growing company in the world. And I did it all on my own without any help. I don’t owe anything to anyone I paid all my debts and actually a lot of people owed me money.¨ The Creator looked down on him and said, ¨I made thee.¨ We will never be able to make up our debts. But a cool quote that President Monson said, ¨To live a life of gratitude, is to touch heaven.¨ Lets not take things for granted the things that aren’t ours.
Well got to run. I miss hearing from a lot… well pretty much all of you. Excluding mom, dad, and Aunt Julie I refer you all to Alma 60:6 (and repentance). If I’m going to be sharing my experiences with you I want to hear yours too!
Con amor
Elder Mackay
Sunday, May 22, 2011
May 16, 2011
What! Monday again! I wish that the week was like twice as long sometimes but at the same time at 3:30 when it’s the hottest, the clock doesn’t seem to move (hitting the hundreds quite regularly). Well this week has been pretty cool and full of fun adventures. Let’s see if I can get them all in.
Tuesday, we had a zone conference. The coolest part was that we talked about Mosiah 4 together. Super strong! And with so many elders dedicated to the work and a mission president speaking, well the spirit would have probably put a drunk in comatose like Alma the younger. We talked about some of the verses and how the desire to share the gospel comes from learning to love the Lord. It was such a cool zone conference. We have a mission goal of every companionship baptizing every week. Realizing that that is a big goal, it seems over whelming, but if we all do the little things and do our best, this inspired goal will be realized. We also as a zone decided that we wanted to finish the conference (we went over two hours).
My companion and I (look mom using good grammar) did an interesting activity. There is a principle in chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel about going about doing good works. We had a couple small little simple things that we could do for people. We started by singing a hymn and then if they let us sweep off their porch. The worst thing is that a lot of the people didn’t want us to do it. One lady finally let us in. She is older but said that there was some more family living with her. We swept then did the Mexican equivalent of mopping after. She was very grateful and we set plans to come back. While we were there, we left the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We came back and the family wasn’t there. She told us to come back and if they weren’t there we could at least talk with her. We came back on Saturday and started the lesson normally. Then we asked if she had any questions, she said many =) First was about the idea of a judgment, then later about baptism and what’s the preparation for a baptism. Then a lot of, “How does your church do… Why? “ type of questions. Super sweet lesson and when we asked if there was anyone else that we could invite they said that she would talk to her other friend who is in her eighties and has a lot of fear about death and what’s going to happen later on. Other than that activity we didn’t see anything super big come out of it but that lady is going to be something to keep your eye on.
We also found a lady contacting and we had a lesson with her later. The coolest thing is she has a goal to finish the book of Mormon in two weeks! That’s probably speed reading but hopefully something will catch her attention. She not too much going on with her because we only had one lesson and such but it could be the start to a super sweet story.
Another cool thing is that there is a recent convert family that has really taken hold of the church. They met the missionaries in December and when we get to talk to them, they are always so happy. They had a lot of problems but now they are a cute little family. The little kids were behaving badly for a second and she started counting 1….2…..3….. and it brought me back to when I use to do that. I told her that my parents use to spank me and she got big eyes and said to her husband, “Did you hear that? His parents use to spank him to and he’s a good man!” Then the husband said, “Well than maybe we need to spank them more?” It brought back a lot of memories of things that I wish I could take back that I did as a little kid (yeah more growing up. I don’t think I’ll ever be a big kid even though I’m bigger sized than Allen (feel like I’m in math class with double parentheses but in case you didn’t get that last joke it’s a family one so ask my mom)). Anyway it’s super cool to see how the gospel changes life.
The family that we’ve been teaching, well they still haven’t gone to church yet. We had a long talk about the restoration and the importance of Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. We had a talk about the family living forever and being prepared for the second coming of Christ.
A phrase finally made sense to me. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon, the second to the last paragraph talks about how to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And it really is true that we invite all people to come to Christ and ask Heavenly Father in the name of Christ if the book is true after reading and pondering its importance. The last paragraph talks about what other parts will come to be a part of our testimony if we achieve a testimony of the Book of Mormon. First is that we will come to a greater knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. Second is that Joseph Smith has been his Prophet and Revelator. Third that this (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the Kingdom of God built here on the earth in preparation for the second coming of the Messiah. The first two always made sense but the third not so much. We as members of the Church, missionaries, and more importantly I desire all to read the Book of Mormon to find out if this is the church of Christ. There is no other way (2 Ne 31:21. It isn’t just being a good person and believing in Christ. To achieve our potential we must be part of his kingdom having faith where is necessary and following the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After the first Covenant that we make to follow Him, we must stand on that foundation, which is strong enough to stand the whirlwinds of Satan (Heleman 5:12). This is the way and there is none other. Satan’s lies deceive people that there is a free ticket given to all through the atonement but it is not so. Read the Book of Mormon (even if you already have) and ask with the unquenchable desire to know if this is the Kingdom of God, be ready to follow the answer given and having faith that you will be answered. There is no other way to find out this spiritual knowledge other than faith. And there is no other piece of information more important than this. Because in the Kingdom of God lays the salvation of everyone. There is only but to find it through Jesus Christ and His atonement. Ask and ye shall receive.
Wish you all a happy week and for those of you who have been slacking on the writing side and are in need of repentance, my mailbox is open=)
Love you all
Elder Mackay
Oh yeah, P.S. a few photos.
First two are a couple pictures of a scorpion we found while we were walking to a meeting. It was probably about three inches long or so. Just to keep you on your toes
The last one is kind of a long story. The toilet works fine, but the hand on the toilet broke. We were trying to figure out how to fix it. My companion piped up and said, “Maybe we could tie a string to it or something?” Well with a little bit of ingenuity and engineering, we now pull the small rope to flush the toilet. More adventures of a lovely mission. Can’t wait to do it at home (just kidding Mom). Love you
Tuesday, we had a zone conference. The coolest part was that we talked about Mosiah 4 together. Super strong! And with so many elders dedicated to the work and a mission president speaking, well the spirit would have probably put a drunk in comatose like Alma the younger. We talked about some of the verses and how the desire to share the gospel comes from learning to love the Lord. It was such a cool zone conference. We have a mission goal of every companionship baptizing every week. Realizing that that is a big goal, it seems over whelming, but if we all do the little things and do our best, this inspired goal will be realized. We also as a zone decided that we wanted to finish the conference (we went over two hours).
My companion and I (look mom using good grammar) did an interesting activity. There is a principle in chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel about going about doing good works. We had a couple small little simple things that we could do for people. We started by singing a hymn and then if they let us sweep off their porch. The worst thing is that a lot of the people didn’t want us to do it. One lady finally let us in. She is older but said that there was some more family living with her. We swept then did the Mexican equivalent of mopping after. She was very grateful and we set plans to come back. While we were there, we left the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We came back and the family wasn’t there. She told us to come back and if they weren’t there we could at least talk with her. We came back on Saturday and started the lesson normally. Then we asked if she had any questions, she said many =) First was about the idea of a judgment, then later about baptism and what’s the preparation for a baptism. Then a lot of, “How does your church do… Why? “ type of questions. Super sweet lesson and when we asked if there was anyone else that we could invite they said that she would talk to her other friend who is in her eighties and has a lot of fear about death and what’s going to happen later on. Other than that activity we didn’t see anything super big come out of it but that lady is going to be something to keep your eye on.
We also found a lady contacting and we had a lesson with her later. The coolest thing is she has a goal to finish the book of Mormon in two weeks! That’s probably speed reading but hopefully something will catch her attention. She not too much going on with her because we only had one lesson and such but it could be the start to a super sweet story.
Another cool thing is that there is a recent convert family that has really taken hold of the church. They met the missionaries in December and when we get to talk to them, they are always so happy. They had a lot of problems but now they are a cute little family. The little kids were behaving badly for a second and she started counting 1….2…..3….. and it brought me back to when I use to do that. I told her that my parents use to spank me and she got big eyes and said to her husband, “Did you hear that? His parents use to spank him to and he’s a good man!” Then the husband said, “Well than maybe we need to spank them more?” It brought back a lot of memories of things that I wish I could take back that I did as a little kid (yeah more growing up. I don’t think I’ll ever be a big kid even though I’m bigger sized than Allen (feel like I’m in math class with double parentheses but in case you didn’t get that last joke it’s a family one so ask my mom)). Anyway it’s super cool to see how the gospel changes life.
The family that we’ve been teaching, well they still haven’t gone to church yet. We had a long talk about the restoration and the importance of Joseph Smith and The Book of Mormon. We had a talk about the family living forever and being prepared for the second coming of Christ.
A phrase finally made sense to me. In the introduction to the Book of Mormon, the second to the last paragraph talks about how to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. And it really is true that we invite all people to come to Christ and ask Heavenly Father in the name of Christ if the book is true after reading and pondering its importance. The last paragraph talks about what other parts will come to be a part of our testimony if we achieve a testimony of the Book of Mormon. First is that we will come to a greater knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. Second is that Joseph Smith has been his Prophet and Revelator. Third that this (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) is the Kingdom of God built here on the earth in preparation for the second coming of the Messiah. The first two always made sense but the third not so much. We as members of the Church, missionaries, and more importantly I desire all to read the Book of Mormon to find out if this is the church of Christ. There is no other way (2 Ne 31:21. It isn’t just being a good person and believing in Christ. To achieve our potential we must be part of his kingdom having faith where is necessary and following the Gospel of Jesus Christ. After the first Covenant that we make to follow Him, we must stand on that foundation, which is strong enough to stand the whirlwinds of Satan (Heleman 5:12). This is the way and there is none other. Satan’s lies deceive people that there is a free ticket given to all through the atonement but it is not so. Read the Book of Mormon (even if you already have) and ask with the unquenchable desire to know if this is the Kingdom of God, be ready to follow the answer given and having faith that you will be answered. There is no other way to find out this spiritual knowledge other than faith. And there is no other piece of information more important than this. Because in the Kingdom of God lays the salvation of everyone. There is only but to find it through Jesus Christ and His atonement. Ask and ye shall receive.
Wish you all a happy week and for those of you who have been slacking on the writing side and are in need of repentance, my mailbox is open=)
Love you all
Elder Mackay
Oh yeah, P.S. a few photos.
First two are a couple pictures of a scorpion we found while we were walking to a meeting. It was probably about three inches long or so. Just to keep you on your toes
The last one is kind of a long story. The toilet works fine, but the hand on the toilet broke. We were trying to figure out how to fix it. My companion piped up and said, “Maybe we could tie a string to it or something?” Well with a little bit of ingenuity and engineering, we now pull the small rope to flush the toilet. More adventures of a lovely mission. Can’t wait to do it at home (just kidding Mom). Love you
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