Week 1 in Mission Creek (week 13)

April 20, 2015

Well my new area is Mission Creek. Basically it is Eastern downtown San Antonio. Has lots of cool parts of San Antonio in it like the Alamo, The Alamo Dome, and the River walk. So its a pretty awesome area. Also has this market place where you can get these cool TSAM rings. And it has lots of ghetto parts which is always interesting. Its an English area but most people here speak Spanish so I get to hear and use a lot of Spanish which is fun. 

My new companion is Elder Reimschussel. I can't even pronounce his name but he is awesome. Really funny guy and he is a great missionary. 

There is also army bases in this area so we on Sunday we go up to the Fort Sam branch on the base. It is pretty cool. Had to get a visitors pass but since I had a Utah License that wasn't a problem. The base is pretty cool. Basically it is just a mini city inside of a city. But they do all sorts of training in there as well.

Nothing super exciting happened this week besides being transferred. Was a pretty normal week of teaching people. Cool thing about the Fort Sam branch is people will get sent to the base then leave after they finish their training or whatever then they leave so it is always changing. But lots of times people will be talking to Missionaries at home then get sent to the base. So we just finish teaching then set up the Baptism. 

I have no idea how to send pictures of these computers so won't be any pictures for a while until I can find out how. Sorry!

Love and miss y'all

- Elder Mackay

Week 12

April 13, 2015

Well transfers are here again. It has been really fast. I am getting transferred so that is exciting. Don't find out where I go until Thursday though.

This week was a pretty good week. The weather still can't decide what it wants to be. Some days it is really hot then the next day its pretty cool and raining. But we had some awesome things happen this week.

I gave a Korean Book of Mormon to a Korean lady. Then used my very small Korean knowledge to say "Hi how are you" to her Korean family. Then they gave us a bunch of freshly made Korean Spring Rolls. That was a very good day.

We have an Investigator who we have been teaching for a while. When we first met her she said she doesn't believe in God. But this last week she told us she had finally found her faith and she even came to Church. And she didn't burst into flames like she said she would. So that's always good. 

On Sunday we ate at the Hansen's house. He hunts for a living so there was a lot of meat. We had Jalapeno Poppers, it was a Jalapeno wrapped in steak, wrapped in bacon. They were amazing. Super spicy but tasted really good. 

Love y'all

- Elder Mackay

Week 11

April 6, 2015

Well this week was pretty exciting. 

Had 2 exchanges this week. First one I went to a Spanish area so I got to use lots of Spanish there, that was really fun. Then I went to Fredericksburg again. My companion only spoke English so he didn't know any Spanish and we ended up talking to a lot of Spanish people. So I was the only one who could talk to them. So that was pretty hard but was really fun as well.

And then the craziest part of the week was probably Friday. We were doing service for a member. We had to pull out some trees on his little ranch. Well it turns out that those trees were in the part where his bull was... He told us the bull would leave us alone but I guess the bull didn't like us being there. Charged us once and was just going crazy the whole time. So after about 20 minutes we got out of there. I'm surprised that we survived in there for 20 minutes honestly. So I guess the lesson learned is don't go into a fenced off area with a bull inside :)

Saturday and Sunday was General Conference. I really enjoyed that. Sunday morning we had an investigator watch it with us which was really good. That session was just what he needed to hear. Then we went to watch the Sunday afternoon session at the Carlson's. They invited a Less Active/Part Member family to watch it as well. So that went really well also. Ate a lot of delicious food there as well. Can't go wrong with that.

A lot of the Conference talks were focused on the Family. I thought that was pretty awesome. Families are so important and it is sad to see that a lot of families are torn apart. Luckily the Gospel gives us the ability to become stronger together as a family as we live the Gospel as a family. And like many of the talks pointed out, that all starts with the Father and Mother. Parents are role models for their kids. If they aren't making the right choices, the kids will never learn to make the right choices. 

I'm just lucky that I had amazing parents who showed me the right way. And now I am going to do my best to show others the right way, so that they can experience the same happiness that I have experienced in my life. 

Love y'all

- Elder Mackay

Week 10

March 30, 2015

Well Texas is pretty awesome. Feels like its summer already. Weather is really nice. I better enjoy it before it gets super hot.

This week we had Zone Conference. It was pretty fun. Learned a lot of things and got to meet lots of other missionaries. After Zone Conference we had exchanges with Elder Hilario, one of the Spanish Area leaders. Funny thing about him is he is from San Antonio. So he went from San Antonio to the Texas San Antonio Mission. 

We visited a lot of people after the Conference. We were about to go visit someone else when I remembered there was someone across the street that we had visited a week or so ago. So we went to his house and the door was open and he was sitting on the chair. He could barely keep himself from falling over and was having weird spasms. So we called 911 and I guess he had over dosed on his medicine. So that was a pretty crazy night. 

That same day we were walking down the street then Crystal was coming out of her house. We taught here a month or so ago and when we taught her she didn't believe in God. But she agreed to meet with us again so we had a great lesson with her and even set up another appointment! So that was really awesome. 

That was all the exciting things that happened this week. 

Here's a picture of some sheep and a funny sign we saw.  

Also they released a new video for Easter

http://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

Have a great week!

Week 9

March 23, 2015

This week was pretty normal.

We did exchanges on Tuesday so I went up to Fredericksburg for a day. It was pretty fun being in a different area. 

We found a couple of new people to teach. Two of them are room mates. John and Juan. They are both really smart guys who are working at Taco Bell. They both seem pretty interested in learning. There is also a new family but I haven't met them yet because they found them during exchanges but it is awesome that we have another family to teach.

We talk to a lot of less active members. And it is surprises how so many of them still have strong testimonies they just have something happen then they gradually stop living the Gospel. And a lot of them notice a difference in their life when they aren't living the Gospel. It can definitely be hard to stand firm but God has provided things to help us. When we do the little daily things such as prayer and scripture study it gives us some protection for the day. Some help to stand firm. Then when we attend Church its like a big refill. Fuels you up for the rest of the week. So that you are able to constantly stand strong. 

Have a great week!

- Elder Mackay