Holy cow, it feels like I still just barely got here. Its way different here in Playa del Carmen. In Merida it was already done the whole city. Very rarely would you find something new or if it was new it was because they had destroyed what was there before and now it’s a remodel. Here there are a lot of roads that aren’t paved and there are a lot of people constructing. Also something different here is that they rent out rooms. But it’s just one room. So if anyone is just staying here for a month they just find a house and can rent a room. But it’s a lot more expensive to rent here. But anyway it’s a lot different. It’s not as hot anymore either. But I still sweat as much
There are some pretty cool people in this area. The first people that I got to meet are a family. Well it’s the majority of a family. The dad doesn’t want to stop drinking so we are teaching a mom, and her two kids. It is really fun to teach them. The kids sometimes get a little bit distracted but the mom is super focused. They are getting baptized this week so that’s pretty cool. Their names are Guadalupe, Bracey and Alberto. Bracey is 11 and Alberto is 9 or so. Alberto is quite a hand full. They are all ready; it’s just some reviewing for this week.
Apart from them is a guy named Felipe. He is pretty cool… already read the whole Book of Mormon! That helps a lot. I guess that he is going to leave pretty soon though, but I hope to help him out. He is leaving the end of the month but it’s looking like its going to be pretty good. He was about to get baptized when the elders before me found out that he was not married. Well, you can’t get baptized if you’re not married. He is reading the Book of Mormon again and he is marking. Apart from that we found a bible for him. It’s pretty cool to see him get excited because he is going to learn more with this attitude.
The last really cool people we are teaching are a couple. The husband used to be able to “consume a lot of liquids” if you know what I mean. He was really down in the dumps kind of guy, but the elders were teaching his wife and I guess she was praying a lot that he would stop drinking. She ran away to Cozumel (an island over here). They got things figured out but he said that one morning he woke up and realized all the bad things that drinking did and how badly it was affecting him. From that point on he hasn’t drank. The only weird thing is he wanted to know if there was a way to make a pact with God to get a car. We taught about praying that the Lord would bless us according to our needs, and we’ll see if he needs a car.
In the district it’s going good. I have two sets of elders, and one set of hermanas. All of the junior companions are in their first or second change in the field. One of the elders is going through his first change as senior companion, opening an area, and training a brand newbie all at the same time. I can feel a little bit of his pressure. Now as I’ve seen almost all my companions prepare district meetings, now I get to have this opportunity to learn. I remember how much I started learning about the gospel in the MTC when I first started teaching it. Now that I get to start teaching about the missionary work, I’ll be able to learn about it even more.
In a family home evening that we had this week, I started thinking (I know mom that’s a bad sign). The family home evening, the theme was about time. There were three things that it started out with that I never thought about. One was that we can never buy or save time, because no matter what we do, it is always running. Another is that we can never go back in time. Once something is done it is done. With many things, after we have done something we can try to fix it. Many things that happen in this world we can fix it. We can change it, but time is one of those unique things that can’t be changed. And thirdly was that we never really know how much time we have. We never know when out of the blue we will be changed or when blessings or trials would pass us. We never know what’s ahead. I came to understand that agency is more the choices that we make on how we use our time. All of the things that we do take up time, and as a missionary, I’ve had to learn how to use my time more efficiently. Something that someone said in Sacrament meeting was, “Many times we aren’t passing trials, we are just receiving the consequence of our past decisions.” Our decisions now will affect our time in the future. Studying and graduating high school make take some time, but afterwards it will make our time much more enjoyable. Training will takes time gives us many enjoyable opportunities later on in life. So many decisions give us a better grip on our time and how we choose to spend it. The decision that will affect the most time is how we will apply the atonement in our lives and how we will live the gospel. It is the most important decision because it will not only affect this life, but it will affect the time after this life.
Con Amor
Elder Mackay
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