Happy New Year - Marble Falls week 2

December 28, 2015

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

We had a pretty good week. Of course Christmas was a lot of fun. A
member had us over for lunch and it turned out they invited basically
their whole family. So there was a lot of people there. It was a lot
of fun.

Since it was Christmas there was a lot of people at home with their
families. So we got to meet a lot of great people and we had a lot of
amazing lessons this week. But nothing super exciting.

I've heard that there has been a lot of crazy tornadoes lately. But
don't worry there has just been a lot of rain here, nothing too crazy.

Have a great New Year! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

The longer email to his mom:)

The day was pretty good. We ended up spending basically all day at the
members house haha. They really didn't want us to leave cause they had
planned on us being there for everything. They even took family
pictures with us in it hahaha. Aw that's too bad. You can try again on
New Years!

Not much really exciting happened since Friday. We taught a few
lessons, and met a couple of weird people. I've noticed that up here
since it's a wealthy area there isn't any crazy people. Some of them
are just really weird.

I got the picture from the Christmas conference so I will attach that.
And also I finally gave in to Texas.. I bought some cow boy boots
today. They were on sale and I had a bunch of money that members had
given us so I decided it was the best time. So yeah I spent like $90
but it was so worth it. They are sweet!

But yeah not much else happened. It rained a lot the past few days but
not terrible. Oh and the family that we were with is going to get us a
digital copy of the Christmas pictures they took with us so we can
send it to you. I believe they texted you another picture. They just
really wanted y'all to know that we had somewhere to be for Christmas
haha.

Love you!

Elder Mackay

Here is the Conference picture (hopefully you can find me) and here's
the awesome boots!

Elder MacKay and Elder Greene Christmas Day!

Marble Falls - Marble Falls week 1

December 21, 2015

We had transfers and I got transferred all the way up to Marble Falls.
It is somewhere by Austin, I'm still not exactly sure. But it was
pretty sad to leave Carrizo Springs but I'm excited to be up by
Austin. I've heard a lot about Austin!

It is kind of weird adjusting to this area. It is a really nice area
and everyone is white. So it's a lot different than Carrizo. The Ward
is also like 3 times bigger. I'm excited to see what we can do up
here. I am also a District Leader now and I'm training again. I'm with
Elder Greene, he has already been out 1 transfer so I just get to
finish his training. But he is already an amazing missionary.

We have been working hard to try and find people to teach. It is kind
of a struggle in this area because no one is ever outside and not a
lot of people want to talk. But we have been working hard and it's
payed off. We had a family come up to us in a restaurant and ask about
where the church is because they had been baptized a while back and
wanted to go again. And then we met a few other people who were pretty
solid.

There is people who are ready for the Gospel, some of then just hide
really well so it takes more work to find them!

Have a great Christmas, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here is the Guerreros. They are an awesome family from Carrizo.

Transfers - Week 17 Carrizo springs

December 14, 2015

Well transfers are already here! I got a call this morning and found
out I'm getting transferred. That won't happen until Wednesday though.
So I still have no idea where I'm going. But it is going to be sad
leaving Carrizo. It's basically the greatest place ever.

This week was an interesting week. We had a mission conference with
Elder Pino of the seventy. That was super cool. I learned a lot from
him. And man he is super funny! We also got some amazing BBQ after the
meeting which was great. And since it was in San Antonio we got to see
all the other missionaries that we never see because we are in exile
at the border. So that was fun!

We had exchanges again so I got to go to Eagle Pass with Elder Smith
again. That was pretty fun.   It's a bike area and the bike I was
using had no lights. So at night when it was dark I could not see
anything haha. So I just had to follow the little red light from Elder
Smith's bike.

Everything is going great. There are miracles everyday. God is
definitely in charge of this work.

Have a great week! Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

1 Year - Week 16 Carrizo Springs

December 7, 2015

Well in a few days I will hit my 1 year mark so that's exciting. It's
amazing how fast time goes by. I've learned so much in this past year,
it's a blessing to be in the service of the Lord.

Well I don't have too much time today, but this week we found a less
active that we have been trying to find. We saw him on a lot of
teaching records but he was never at home and the number we had didn't
work. But then we knocked on a door of some people that we had talked
to a while back and they let us in. So we started teaching and then
there was this other guy there so we invited him to listen as well.
Turns out he was the member we had been looking for!

We have been trying to work a lot with the members lately. We started
giving them cards to hand out to their friends and then share a little
about the church with them. It's been great. As they've shared the
gospel with others they have increased their own testimonies as well
and they have all said that they felt happy afterwards.

God is always willing to bless us, we just need to do our part!

Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Here's an awkward photo