First Week in Texas

January 27, 2015

Well this week has been interesting. Got to Texas on Wednesday then we went to Temple and talked with the Mission President for a bit. Then they dropped us off at the Alamo and told us to start handing out Book of Mormons. So that was fun. Until it started pouring rain. It rained all night on Wednesday, All day on Thursday, then it even snowed a bit on Fridaymorning then rained the rest of the day. So it has been really cold the whole time I've been here. Not exactly what I expected... 

So I'm in the Kerrville area. Mainly stay in the city Kerrville. It's an English area so I don't get to use all the Spanish I had to learn which is lame. Took a while to get used to teaching in English. But its been awesome. My companion is Elder Jackson and he is fluent in Spanish so I am still somewhat learning Spanish. Thursday night we actually taught a Spanish lesson but then we had to hand them over to the Spanish assigned Elders which was lame. 

So basically everyday we try to teach as many people as we can but usually people don't answer or they just say no which is fine. I noticed that people will either be nice and talk to you and hear what you have to teach or they will just straight up reject you and say no. Which is fine. Just means they aren't ready yet. Funniest thing I had happen was we knocked on a door then a lady opened the door and saw us and just said "Ugh Mormons" then closed the door. I thought it was pretty funny. 

We got 1 of our Investigators to come to church yesterday. His name is John. He's an old man who is completely crazy. He is really hard to teach cause his mind just wanders all over the place. But anyways we got him to come to church and that went really good. But all he said after was that he wanted to read the Pearl of Great Price cause someone said something about Abraham. But I guess that's good.

Anyways this week has been good. Love you all

- Elder Mackay

Timpview Friend Elder Henderson

First group of arrivals with the Mission president

MTC district/Branch Presidency

Last week in the MTC

January 15, 2015

Well I only have 1 more week in the MTC then I go to Texas. I'm pretty excited. Being stuck in the same room all day every day is getting pretty lame. This week was a pretty normal week. The MTC presidency is getting changed so on Tuesday Elder Russel M. Nelson came and talked again. That was really the only cool thing that happened this week. Besides that it was just studying all day and teaching lessons. 

My Spanish is definitely a lot better. Still hard to teach though but I learned that you can pretty much just say "por que" which means "why" after everything they say and then they open up more. So that's been fun. Basically we are supposed to ask lots of questions while we teach but problem is after we ask a question they go crazy with Spanish and then I got no idea what they said. But its getting better.

Things should get more exciting next week when I get to Texas though. Love you all

- Elder Mackay

MTC District
Branch Presidency and wives
President Shallenberger
Brother Slingerland
Brother Dowdle
Elder Smith
Elder Peltier
Elder Beckett

2 Weeks left!

January 8, 2014

Well only 2 weeks left in the MTC. Time goes really fast. This week was pretty good. Just a lot of studying like always. Spanish is coming but its still hard. Hardest thing for me is just knowing what to say. People will ask some question that is hard to answer in english then I'm supposed to try and answer it in spanish. No bueno.

I'm pretty excited to leave the MTC. Feels like I have been here forever. I am finally starting to realize how the food isn't good... so that sucks. But it's alright.

I think my favorite part of the MTC is how spiritual it is. If you are being good and not getting distracted you can always feel the spirit its awesome. But it's hard to not get distracted when you are stuck in the same class all day. That's what I am most excited for about leaving the MTC is that I won't have to sit in a class all day and I can actually do stuff. I've pretty much accepted the fact that I won't understand what people are saying for the first bit so I feel pretty ready. 

Hope you all have a good time. Love you all

- Elder Mackay

First tie Trade! Traded the pink tie from Meliah for this tie from a Canadian Elder in his zone.
Although Elder Mackay was pleased with the trade, little sister was not, and will be sending a new pink tie soon!

Week 3. Half Way Done!

January 1, 2014

Alright so on Christmas we had an awesome Devotional with Elder Russel M. Nelson. He talked about the Doctrines of Christ and how there is so much that we can learn even if we already know a lot. There's always more to learn. After that we had a big Christmas Lunch which was really good. Then we had an awesome Talent Show. There was some pretty good talents but also some really weird ones. For Dinner we had a lame sack meal. Wasn't that great but the lunch made up for it. Got to call my family which was nice. 

Rest of the week was just like any other week. Just lots of studying and teaching nothing too special. My Spanish is getting better, its to the point where I can somewhat teach a lesson and investigator can understand most of it. But that depends on the lesson. Some things are hard to explain in English so its a nightmare trying to explain it in Spanish. Spanish just feels like i'm a little kid again and have to use really basic words. 

So Elder Johnson left to the Mexico MTC on Wednesday so that was sad. Now i'm companions with Elder Smith. The 2 worst at Spanish in our District. It's okay though, its gonna force us to study harder so that we can teach better. I also became the Zone Leader this week. Its not a whole lot different. Just means more meetings and doing orientation for new missionaries. New missionaries came on Wednesday so there is now 3 Districts in the zone. Yea I don't know what else to say. I'm just doing my best to learn and I'm being nice to everyone. Even if they are complete weirdos and annoy me. I just feel like people have a hard enough time being away from home and having all this stress so i'm just nice to everyone. The Hermana's say i'm the nicest Elder in the Zone so I guess it's working. :)

Anyways have a good week. Love you all!

-Elder Mackay

The district minus Elder Beckett
Elder Smith, MacKay, Johnson, Peltier

MTC lights

Elder Mills from New Zealand

All the Canadians from the floor.

Temple

The Zone (Dec 30th)

Full District
Elder Peltier, Elder MacKay, Elder Smith, Elder Johnson and Elder Beckett