Carrizo Springs Week 2

August 31, 2015

This was another great week. It is still really hot but its finally
starting to cool down which is nice. Still pretty hot but not quite as
bad. We had a pretty good week. Ended up teaching a lot of lessons and
we will even have a baptism pretty soon!

We had to go up the Eagle Pass for a District Meeting. Eagle Pass is
super cool. It is right next to the Border so there was a super big
Mexican flag. And I made it past the Border Check so that's always
good.

I guess the day before I got here they met a guy named Gerardo (Since
we are pretty gringo he makes us call him Jerry) but we have been
teaching him a lot and he is all set for baptism. He just needs to go
to church 1 more time then he is good to go.

Teaching him has been super cool. He is so prepared, he takes notes as
we teach him and then we will give him the pamphlet and he will look
up every scripture that is on the back. It is sweet. But it is just
amazing how willing he is to act. He knows it is true so he just
follows everything that we teach. As soon as we teach him about a
commandment he just starts living it. He was a little hesitant to give
up coffee but then ants got into it so that made it pretty easy for
him haha.

So yeah it has been a great week. We had to go on a super long drive
one day to the bottom of our area for a lesson. It would normally take
45 minutes but we have to go straight across and then down so that we
don't leave the mission boundaries so it ends up taking almost 2
hours. That was a long day.

It has been great. Everyone switches to English mode once they see us
but most of them will speak Spanish to us if we ask if we can practice
Spanish with them. So that is also super fun. Oh and we got a call
from the Branch President last night saying that we have another
person that he set up with a baptismal date. That was the coolest call
I have gotten.


Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

The Border!

August 24, 2015

Well I got transferred. We got a call Monday night saying that I was going to the Border so I needed to be at some church on Wednesday morning. So I only had 1 night to pack everything up. I was super excited to go to the Border because it is where all the Spanish is. But I got sent to the only English Area at the Border... But it is pretty awesome still!

So I am in Carrizo Springs now with Elder Craner. We actually came out together he just went to the Mexico MTC and I went to the Provo MTC. When we were driving down to the Border the Zone Leader told me that Carrizo Springs fights tarantulas every night. And apparently they have had a couple tarantulas in the house. So far I've only seen a scorpion and there was a mouse that tried to climb up my leg. Needless to say I check my shoes every day.

But yeah it is awesome. Everyone here speaks Spanish cause they are all from Mexico they just don't speak it to us most the time. There is all sorts of cool Mexican culture things here. Like they hang bows on there fences for things. Like a purple bow means a family member died, black bow means someone they knew died, blue and pink mean someone in the house just had a baby boy or girl. It makes it easy to know which doors are the best to knock :)

There is also some crazy things. Like sometimes we will walk up to a door and see a Santa Muerte (Saint of Death) which means that they are probably in the Drug cartel and they are into weird black magic curse sort of things. So we just don't mess with that.

So yea that is basically Carrizo Springs. Everyone is either Hispanic or they work on the Oil Fields or they are Border Patrol. Its great. It is a pretty small branch here. And the best part is the Branch President is a short guy from Argentina who looks just like Mario!

So that pretty much sums up this week. Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here is my favorite family from Mission Creek. They are hilarious!

And here is our little yellow shack that we live in!

Mission Creek Week 18 - Transfers again

August 17, 2015

Well we have no idea what is happening for transfers because they
decided that they are going to send an email on Tuesday saying what is
happening for transfers.

This week has been pretty good. We have 2 returned missionaries in our
Ward now so we have been taking them out with us a lot. It's been
pretty fun. We had some awesome stuff happen with both of them. Haha I
think the funniest thing was when we were trying to find someone but
the gate to their house was locked then Bro. Parker was like "oh don't
worry this happens all the time in Malaysia" so he starts yelling the
persons name and hitting the fence with a key. And the person came out
haha it was super awesome!

On Sunday we had another lesson with Tirik. He is still doing super
awesome. He is so ready to be baptized. He is even talking about
serving a mission already! So that is pretty much the coolest thing
ever. Only problem with him is that it takes so long to teach him
everything he needs to know because we can only meet with him once a
week because the army owns his soul.

We also met with Renae a couple of times. He is also doing awesome. He
said he is really starting to feel the spirit and he really wants to
be baptized. He just needs to make some changes in his life then he
will be ready. But I think it will happen pretty soon.

That's the most exciting stuff that happened. Only other thing that I
remember is that one day we were driving down the street and there was
a yard sale and I recognized the house because it was a Less Active
member. So we went over there and she gave us ice cream and then also
gave us some super sweet hats! It was great!

So yeah that's basically this week. Love y'all

Elder Mackay

The awesome hats and the district

Mission creek week 17- Milagros

August 10,  2015

Well this was a pretty awesome week.

Last Monday we went to the Alamo which was pretty cool. I got an
awesome key chain. Was probably the best $7 I have ever spent. I'll
attach a picture of it at the bottom.

We met another awesome investigator on Monday as well. Sis Luna from
the Highland Hills branch invited us over to teach her friend for
family home evening. He is pretty awesome. We met with him again on
Friday as well and set him up with a baptismal date. So that is pretty
sweet. I am super excited for him.

We had the Area Leaders come with us on Thursday so we split up and I
went with Elder Masters and Elder Forbush went with Elder Meidell. It
was a pretty fun day. Area Leaders are just Elders who are pro at
Spanish so they help out everyone else. So I got to learn lots of
Spanish that day. We also ended up talking to a ton of Spanish people
throughout the week which was super fun. Elder Masters was pretty
awesome, he is a super good missionary. And he is like a huge
linebacker so that's pretty sweet too.

Saturday was an awesome day as well. We were walking up to a
Less-Active members house and then a car was pulling out and started
driving away. Then he pulled over once he saw us and came and talked
to us. Said he really needed help and wanted us to say a prayer with
him. I'm just glad we showed up at that moment or we would have missed
him.

Also later that day we were just walking down the street then this
lady stopped in the middle of the road and then waved us over. Turns
out she was baptized a few weeks ago in a different part of Texas and
she had just moved here a couple of days ago and she had been looking
for the church and then she saw us walking down the street. God
definitely knows what is going on in our lives. And he is going to put
others in our path to help us, or put us in the path of others to help
them. It is amazing to see the love that God has for all of his
children.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Alamo Picture, awesome selfie, keychain, and the Area Leaders

Mission Creek week 16 - Already August

August 3, 2015

Well time is flying! It is already August! Crazy!

This was a pretty good week. It just keeps getting hotter and hotter
so that's exciting.

We had a 2 exchanges this week which were pretty fun. The first one
Elder West came with me. He has only been out like 3 weeks. It was
pretty fun. We talked to a lot of people. Met a lot of interesting
people.. But it was a good day.  The second exchanges I went over to
Randolph with Elder Acor and Elder Hall. So I was in a trio for a day.
It was fun. It was a shorter exchange because we had zone meeting in
the morning but it was still great.

We were walking down the street one day and met an awesome family. It
was the mom and her 2 kids. And so we had a quick lesson with them.
The son is like 11 and he is totally awesome. He knows a ton about the
Bible, and so he was super excited to read the Book of Mormon.

We also got another awesome investigator on Fort Sam. He just showed
up with his battle buddy and so we talked to him. Then taught him the
Restoration, he understood it all really well and loved the Joseph
Smith story. I asked him if he would be baptized and he just got the
biggest smile and said "yes I would love to" so that's pretty much the
best. I'm super excited for him!

That's all I can remember from this week! Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Mission Creek Week 15

July 27, 2015

This week was pretty fun.

We had exchanges so I stayed here with Elder Christensen again. It was
a pretty fun day. We got a flat tire so we had to put on the spare. We
both had no idea what we were doing but it ended up working out so its
all good. And it turns out that you can burn your finger just by
touching the road here in Texas.

On Wednesday we went up to Plum Creek to help out at this thing called
Camp Helaman. Basically a bunch of young men from the Kyle stake go
there for a mini mission sort of thing. So they needed missionaries to
go and take them out tracking for a day. So I got 2 young men then
went and knocked doors for 3 hours straight, in a really rich area. It
was a bit different but it was lots of fun.

We had an awesome lesson with Elmer and Gloria about church. They were
super excited about church but they ended up not even coming to
church. But that is okay. One day they will!

We had a super hilarious dinner on Saturday. The wife speaks Spanish
and a bit of English and the husband speaks English and a bit of
Spanish, then they kids only speak Spanish. The first thing the
youngest one did was steal my glasses. Then later he asked if we knew
how to swim. So we said yes and then he told me I would need to get
glasses for water to swim haha. Then he was like "when you got your
glasses they took you in an ambulance and rushed you to the Hospital
right?" It was super funny haha little kids speaking Spanish is the
funniest thing!

Here's a picture of my mini missionaries

Mission Creek 14

July 20, 2015

Well this was a pretty interesting week. It has also been a super hot week.

We taught a lesson to Elmer and he told us a super funny story about
how he tried to take out a wasp nest by using hair spray and a lighter
and ended up almost burning his house down.. Not the smartest thing to
do. But the lesson was great.

This week we ended up meeting all sorts of hilarious, crazy people. It
was so fun haha.

We got some cookies from church and when we were bringing them back to
the apartment there was some guy sitting on the stairs. And when we
walked by he mumbled something about cookies. So we gave him cookies
then he invited us into his house then started talking about how every
morning he wakes up then he opens his blinds so he can get his daily
entertainment of watching us back the cars out hahah. It was super
funny. He was hilarious. Turns out he is our neighbor so that's pretty
cool.

We had a lesson at this sketchy area. Then after the lesson we were
driving away and this old crazy looking Indian guy flagged us down. So
we parked at some sketchy looking Mexican restaurant then got out and
talked to him. He was awesome. He just kept saying how God loves us
and that God told him to watch out for us and let us know that we are
being for blessed for what we are doing and a bunch of other stuff. It
was super cool.

Haha and one morning when I was in the shower apparently some old guy
just walked into our apartment and started asking about his son. So
that was pretty weird. We now always have the door locked...

So yeah basically it was just a great week with a lot of funny stuff happening.

Here's a picture of the awesome Sonic cup man we saw.

Mission Creek week 13

July 13, 2015

This week was pretty awesome. It is super hot everyday but it is
great. This week was transfer week. And I ended up not getting a mini
missionary but I got Elder Forbush!

He started his mission in Kerrville and so I took his spot when I got
there. And everyone said I looked just like him. Then I followed him
here to east zone so we have known each other for pretty much my whole
mission. And now we are companions! Super funny!

This area is still awesome. There is a lot of super fun people here.
There are a couple of awesome people that we are working with right
now. We discovered that having to drive through downtown San Antonio
on a Saturday night takes a long time because there is so much
traffic.

Fort Sam is still awesome. A lot of the soldiers got transferred to a
new base but we got a lot of new ones as well. We got 2 new
investigators who are super interested on base as well. I am super
excited for that.

So other than transfers nothing too exciting happened. Have a great
week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Mission Creek week 12

July 6, 2015

Well it's been another 6 weeks so we have transfers again! I am going
to be staying here and Elder Reimschussel will leave. So I am going to
get a new companion, as well I am going to get a mini missionary. Not
really sure what that is but from what I have heard one of the young
men from the stake come out and live with you for a week. So that
should be pretty interesting.

This week has kind of been crazy. It started off normal but then on
Wednesday we found out that one of the Elders from Highland Hills had
to go home for medical reasons. So we had to go up to the mission home
with him and his companion to drop him off. And so we got to hang out
at Presidents House for a while then we became a trio with Elder
Wanlass. And we are going to be a trio till transfers on Thursday.
Which has been pretty fun. We now cover 3 wards which is pretty crazy.
We are always busy. But I get to cover a Spanish area for a week so
that's awesome!

It has been an awesome week. Really hot week but still awesome.

Love and miss y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here is some pictures
Here is my zone

Mission Creek week 11

June 29, 2015

Well this week was pretty fun. Had a couple of awesome things happen as well.

We had 2 exchanges again this week. The first one Elder Rowland came
to my area. It was a pretty good day. We ended up having 5 lessons
which was awesome. Elder Rowland is a great missionary and he is super
funny also. So that was a super fun day. Then on Wednesday Elder
Hilario came with Elder Reimschussel and I and helped us learn
Spanish. It was funny cause Elder Hilario's family used to live in our
area so he knew a lot of the people we saw because he grew up with
them.

On Sunday we both had to give a talk at the Fort Sam branch. The talks
went well except for it was super hot that day and the air
conditioning was broken. So everyone was sweating like crazy. It was a
rough sacrament meeting. Since it was so hot they ended church after
sacrament meeting, but we stayed for a while after to teach one of our
investigators.

One thing i definitely learned this week is how important it is to be
calm and focus on the spirit. I had to give the dinner message one day
and I hate doing the dinner messages cause I never know what to share.
But then when we were talking to them a scripture came to my head so I
just shared the scripture then it got them talking about their friend
so we showed them a few ways to share the Gospel with their friend.
And it all ended up going great. So I learned that listening to the
spirit makes good things happen.

Nothing else too exciting happened this week. Just another awesome
week in Texas.

Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here's a picture of my District
From back to front it goes Elder Christensen, Elder Rowland, Me, Elder
Reimschussel, Sister Gibson, and Sister Angulo

Mission Creek Week 10

June 22, 2015

Had another awesome week. Started to rain a lot so it is pretty humid
now. So that's lots of fun.

We had a really awesome lesson this week with one of our investigators
Adam. First we taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He smokes but he
agreed to quit smoking. Then later that week we brought a member with
us and had an amazing lesson. And Adam hadn't smoked at all since we
last met with him. But unfortunately he wasn't able to make it to
church.

One day we were walking down the street and we saw these people
outside shoveling broken up cement. So we went and helped them out.
They didn't have enough shovels so I just had to talk the older couple
that wasn't helping. That was super hard cause they just went super
crazy with the TexMex. Switched between Spanish and English so much it
was super hard to understand. But we helped them out and said we could
come by later this week to teach them. It was pretty awesome. Even
though it was super hot and humid and I was sweating like crazy and I
wasn't even working haha

So yeah we had a pretty awesome week. Had a ton of little chihuahuas
try to eat us but other than that the week was great!

Have a great week! Love y'all!

- Elder Mackay

We decided to have an apartment photo shoot, so here's those haha