Exchanges with the mission President - Carrizo Springs Week 15

November 30, 2015

Well on Monday night President Slaughter called us and said he wanted
to visit a family in our branch. So after the Zone meeting on Tuesday
my companion went with another Elder and President Slaughter's son and
I went with President Slaughter. He took me to eat some good tacos and
then we drove 2 hours to Encinal where the family lives. It would have
been an even longer drive but we took a shortcut by cutting through a
different mission. It was super awesome. It was like a 3 hour
interview I just got to ask him any questions I wanted. He said the
only rule was that we had to speak Spanish. So that was a pretty
awesome day.

On Thanksgiving we ate a ton of food. We had 3 thanksgiving meals,
lots of tamales, it was great. On Friday we just ate left overs
because everyone let us take home a plate of food. And then on
Saturday we were walking down the street past a member's house, and
they were outside so we went and talked to them really quick. They
asked us if we wanted more tamales of course we said yes cause you can
never say no to tamales. So we ate even more tamales! It was awesome!

It was a pretty good week. The church also came out with a new video
for Christmas. Make sure to watch it and share it with all your
friends.
#ASaviorIsBorn Christmas.mormon.org
o si lo quiere en español #HaNacidoUnSalvador Navidad.mormon.org

Here's a picture of the PopEye statue in Crystal City
And everyone in Eagle Pass after exchanges

Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Happy Thanksgiving - Week 14 Carrizo Springs

November 23, 2015

This week was another great week. The last couple days have actually
been cold. It's been pretty nice. It is still weird to be cold but not
see any snow though...

We had more exchanges this week which was pretty fun. Elder
Christensen, the new district leader, came down here with me. It was a
good day. We met an old Spanish lady who was super hard to understand.
It's always fun trying to talk to people when you have no idea what
they are saying to you.

I had an experience this week that reminded me of the importance of
becoming as a child like it says in the scriptures. We were having
lunch at the Branch Presidents house and they invited the Chavez
family over as well. And the 2 Chavez kids don't speak any English and
the Russo's niece was there who didn't speak any Spanish. And even
with that they just started playing and having a fun time together.
The language didn't matter. Well until Monce, the Chavez girl wanted
to learn more about her new friend so she got us to translate some
questions for her. It was pretty fun.
I think a lot of times children give us the best example of how we
need to be. It doesn't matter how different someone seems they are
still part of Gods family and we need to love them all the same.

Have a great Thanksgiving, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

I found where the Holy Ghost lives

Elder Christensen and I

Spinach Festival - Week 13 Carrizo Springs

November 16, 2015

Well this week was the Spinach festival in Crystal City. And Crystal
City is the Spinach Capitol of the world which means there was a ton
of people out there. So it was pretty hard to find people at home. But
it was still a great week!

We met a lot of less active members this week which was really good.
We have been trying to get to know all of the members of the branch
because it's pretty small so we could easily meet everyone. And that
way we know how we can best help them as well.

Yesterday we also had a potluck after church. And since it is close to
Thanksgiving it was a Thanksgiving potluck. It was super good.
Definitely ate way too much but that's alright. They told us that we
could take a plate home to eat later and one sister told me I should
take the whole leg. So I ate a turkey leg for lunch today and it was
just as good. I love Thanksgiving!

All in all it was a great week!

Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Rain - Week 12 Carrizo Springs

November 9, 2015

Well there was a lot of rain again this week. And it was actually cold
so that was fun! Finally didn't have to worry about melting it was
great.

Unfortunately because it was cold and there was a lot of rain there
wasn't a lot of people outside. So we basically spent the week
knocking doors with not much success. But we did meet a lot of less
active members that we are going to start meeting with now so that was
really good.

We did have a gun pulled on us this week but other than that not too
many exciting things happened this week. But it is getting close to
tamale season so I'm super excited for that!

We have just been trying to work a lot with the less active members.
The branch could be pretty big if everyone came but unfortunately only
like 20 people come. So we are trying to find those lost sheep.

It has been hard but it's been amazing to see the happiness that a few
people have felt as they have come back!

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Baptism - Week 11 Carrizo Springs

November 2, 2015

This week was pretty good. We had a lot of good things happen and saw
a lot of miracles.

We had exchanges on Tuesday and so I was here with Elder Tingey. It
was a pretty fun day. We were in this small town called Big Wells and
we were just walking around when we started to hear chickens. So we
decided to follow the sound of the chickens and then we met this guy
named Roy who was super interested. That was pretty cool! Always
follow chickens!

We also had exchanges again on Friday with Elder Mora. He is from
Costa Rica so that was super fun. That was also a really great day. We
found a lot of people.

And on Sunday Rosa got baptized! So that was great. We had a day to
figure out everything for it so I'm glad that everything went well. We
also had a super great lesson with Chris and Selena that night.

It's amazing to see the love God has for everyone and how willing he
is to help and bless us as we choose to follow him.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here is Rosa at the baptism and our district after the exchanges.

Creepy Story Caleb shared with me:

Well it was dark outside and we were walking down the street when we noticed there was a guy walking behind us a ways back. We got a weird feeling but we just stopped and said hi to him. He just walked up and shook our hands and just said "are y'all from the church?" Then we said yes then he just said have a good night and kept going. But when he shook my hand I just got the weirdest feeling ever. Just a really bad feeling and I noticed that his face was covered in blood and his shirt was just soaked with blood. He definitely got shot or stabbed or something. We asked if we could help him but he said no so we just got out of there because we just had a really bad feeling.