Transfers - Week 12 Adams Hill/Lackland

October 17, 2016

Well, another 6 weeks has gone by so we have transfers again. Not much
is changing this transfer. I'm going to be staying here with Elder
Peterson. But it's going to be my last transfer. And that's pretty
crazy.

We had a pretty good week. We were able to teach Victor a few times,
he is still doing well. We got a couple of great people to start
teaching. One of them is a man named Efrain. He is a great guy, who
really wants to change. The problem is that he lives in a super
sketchy Motel 6 so it's kind of interesting teaching him. But he has
been reading and enjoyed it a lot.

Lately we have been seeing a ton of success with less active members.
Every week there is like 3-4 less active families that show up to
church. It's been great to see them reignite the fire that they once
had. And it's always great to see the many blessings that come to
there lives as they start to partake of the Gospel once again.

I'm super excited for this transfer. Working with Elder Peterson is
hilarious and we work super well together. Hopefully we will be able
to see even more success in these next few weeks.

Here's some pictures, the first is from last Pday when we played
soccer at the church. The 2nd is from District Meeting. There is a
senior couple in our district and Elder Storrs is just a massive troll
and brought a skeleton with his wife's name tag on it. It was super
funny. And then there's a district picture with the skeleton.

Have a great week. Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Victor's Baptism - Week 11 Adams Hill/Lackland

October 10, 2016

We had a pretty great week.

We did exchanges this week with Hondo and so Elder Trent came here
with me for a day. That was hilarious. It was pretty fun to be with
him again for a day.

Victor also got baptized this week. It was super great. He is
literally the funniest little kid I have ever met. When we were
teaching him about fasting he was like "are you sure this is a real
commandment? I feel like you just want me to go on a diet." It was
pretty funny. The best part is that he totally looks like Choncho from
the movie Nacho Libre. He always says hilarious things. But the
baptism went super well. A lot of people showed up.

It has been great to see his family come back as well. They have
started attending church and have been able to see a big difference
from it. At the end of the baptism Victor's parents shared their
testimonies, the spirit was very strong.

Now we are just trying to work with all the other people we have so
that they can make that step as well.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

MLC and General Conference - Week 10 Adams Hill/Lackland

October 3, 2016

We had a super good week. We have been super busy and so it has been
crazy trying to get everything done. But it's worked out so far.

Last week we got a referral for a lady named Vanya. We were finally
able to actually teach her this week and she is awesome. A lot of her
family members are Mormon and she has seen how much happier they seem.
Basically right at the beginning she said that she wants to become a
member. Well she has loved everything so far and now her and her 9
year old son are getting ready to be baptized on Oct. 29th.

One thing that I have noticed is that you can usually tell if someone
is ready to here the Gospel by the way that they receive the
missionaries. It talks in Preach my Gospel about how those who are
prepared to receive the Gospel will recognize the missionaries as
servants of the Lord. Vanya is definitely a great example of that.
When we were talking about her baptism she said how she feels like
Oct. 29th was too close. Then said how she feels like after a year she
will have changed enough to get baptized. Literally all I said was
that baptism is important and we need to do it as soon as we can. Then
she just said that she trusts us and will do it whenever we want, said
if we think she is ready for it she will do it.

We also did 2 exchanges this past week. First I went over to 6th Ward
with Elder Duford. It was a pretty great day. I had to do a baptismal
interview while I was over there which was pretty fun. It was
definitely the longest interview I have done. The lady had a lot of
concerns but once those got resolved she was super excited for her
baptism. So that's good! For the second exchange I stayed here and
Elder Smith came with me. I did exchanges with him like a year ago
when he had just barely came out. So it was great to see how much he
has grown.

On Friday we went to MLC. Those are always awesome, you just get to
hear amazing trainings from President and the Assistants. And then the
next 2 days were General Conference. So for the past 3 days we have
just heard so many awesome talks and trainings. So by Sunday night we
were pretty tired. Too much revelation. Vanya actually came to one of
the sessions. She has 3 kids and a niece who live with her. And all of
them are young. Her 6 year old son actually has autism and just has a
ridiculous amount of energy. So basically he was running laps around
the chapel. But it was great, her kids were going crazy and it just
looked like a tornado had come through but she was just so focused on
the talks. It blew her mind that we had prophets and apostles today
because she had always grown up thinking that the heavens were closed.
So she was listening so intently to what they had to say.

Sometimes I feel that we don't remember how much of a blessing it is
to have living prophets and apostles. The way that Vanya focused on
what they were saying made me realize that we should all be like that.
The heavens are open and we have the chance to listen to a living
prophet of God. Que bendición.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Elder Duford and I.

No Trespassing - Week 9 Adams Hill/Lackland

September 26, 2016

We had a pretty good week. It's been raining the last couple of days
so that's been super nice.

We got to go on exchanges with the assistants. That is always cool. We
both went up to their area and then I went with Elder Stanley. It was
a pretty good day. Their area is a lot of gated communities and we
ended up getting kicked out of one for "trespassing". That was super
funny.  This lady escorted us out, it was great. Even the police
showed up haha. It was the first time that either of us had been
kicked out like that. But we ended up having a few great lessons. It
is always great to go with the assistants cause they are always just
amazing and teach you a lot.

We were able to teach Victor again. He is still doing super good. He
got an iPad and just loves to play games on it, so we showed him the
app and how it can read the Book of Mormon to him. He is definitely a
fan of that.

There is a part member family that we were also able to get a hold of
again. The husband is a less active member and the wife and daughter
aren't members. I had taught them forever ago but we haven't had
contact in a long time. Well we finally got to have another lesson
with them and it went really well. The wife really wants to go to
church but the husband is kind of lazy and is a bit scared to come
back. But they did end up coming to a baptism that some other
missionaries had. They enjoyed it a lot. Now we just need to work with
them more so they can get baptized as well.

The work is going great here. God is definitely blessing us.

Sorry, I don't have pictures because I suck at taking them..

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Sopa de mariscos - Week 8 Adams Hill/Lackland

September 19, 2016

We had a pretty great week. It has been super hot again lately. It was
cooling down for a bit but now it is just super hot again. There has
also been thousands of butterflies migrating. So our car is just
covered in dead butterflies that we have hit.

We had a great Zone Conference this last week. The Main theme of it
was prayer and receiving revelation through prayer. It was been super
fun to apply the things that we learned there. We have been having a
lot of great experiences with people as we teach them what prayer
truly is and as they pray with real intent. We have been able to see a
lot of people have their prayers answered.

I went on exchanges this week as well. Elder Sarles came here with me
for a day. He is a great missionary. It is always great to go with
other missionaries because they all do missionary work differently and
it is cool to see and learn from the differences. And every missionary
is just so good.

I probably had the weirdest meal so far this week. We were eating
dinner and the lady served us some soup that she had made. Well she
called it sopa de mariscos which just means seafood soup. And
basically what it consisted of was shrimp, squid, scallop and fish
eyes. So it was super weird. Luckily it didn't actually taste bad.

I also got to do a baptismal interview for a couple that will be
getting baptized on Saturday. Those are always fun, I love talking
with people who are about to get baptized. Victor is still doing
great. And he is still just as funny as ever. His family is also doing
really well, so we are excited for them all to move forward in the
Gospel together.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Da un grado mas - Week 7 Adams Hill/Lackland

September 12, 2016

This week was pretty great. I was in a trio with Elder Hart and Elder
Peterson until Thursday and then it was just Elder Peterson and I.
Being in a trio is kind of weird, its a lot different. But it was
pretty fun.

Right now we have one person with a baptismal date. Its this 9 year
old named Victor. He is probably the funniest kid I have ever met. It
can be super hard to teach him because he is always just running
around all over the place. But he is doing super good. His family has
started coming back to church with him as well. So it has also been a
great way to help his family out as well.

My new companion Elder Peterson is pretty great. We have way to much
fun together. We both know a bunch of slangy, super Mexican phrases so
we just use them and then people think its hilarious and talk to us.
Its pretty awesome.

Right now we are trying pretty hard to work with the members a lot
more. We keep getting given less and less miles so it is super nice to
have members drive you around. And missionary work just always goes
way better when the members are involved.

I hope everyone has a great week. Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Transfers - Week 6 Adams Hill/Lackland

September 5, 2016

Well, we have transfers again this week. It is super fun because since
I am a Zone Leader I get all the transfer information the night before
and then we had to call everyone in the zone and tell them where they
were going. That was pretty fun.

But for transfers I am going to be staying here and will be getting
Elder Peterson as my new companion. It should be pretty fun. I
actually had exchanged with him this past week. So I have already
worked with him a little bit. It should be pretty fun.

This past week was pretty great. We were able to teach a lot of
lessons which is always fun. The members have actually gotten super
involved in visiting less active families. It has been super great. A
lot of people have started coming back to church because of members
visiting them. It has been awesome.

We started teaching a few people who are doing pretty well. The
biggest problem that we are having right now is that they don't want
to be baptized because they don't want to go against the traditions of
their family. Even though they know it is all true. So thats rough.
But we are working on it.

Everything is going great. God is blessing us a lot.

Have a great week, Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

The District

Fun Times - Week 5 Adams Hill/Lackland

August 29, 2016

We had a pretty good week.

This week we met a guy named Alvin. He is friends with this lady who
lives in our Ward boundaries but goes to a different Ward. Not really
sure why. But Alvin just loves the church and already has a baptismal
date for the end of September and everything. He has already come to
church twice and is doing really good. And since he is coming to
church here his friend is coming to church here as well so now she is
actually in the right Ward. It's just great all around.

Thursday was kind of an interesting day. Our Ward mission leader had
planned out this activity where a bunch of young men would meet up and
then go knock on doors for a few hours. Unfortunately the only people
who ended up showing up to the activity was the Ward mission leader
and his 2 sons. So 1 son went with me and then Elder Hart went with
the other son and the dad. It ended up going pretty well. We got to
teach a lot of great lessons.

On Saturday some other Elders had a baptism and we decided to go
because we did the interview with the guy who was getting baptized.
President Polley ended up showing up at the baptism which was great.
The baptism was great and a lot of people ended up going.

We have found a lot of less active families and it turns out a few of
them have kids who need to get baptized. So now we are starting to
work with them as well, trying to get the whole family to come back as
well as get the kids baptized. It should be fun.

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Exchanges and Miracles - Week 4 Adams Hill/Lackland

August 22, 2016

Well we had a lot of exciting things happen this last week. 

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Assistants. So I went with Elder Hansen for the day. It was a great day. He is an amazing missionary, which is probably why he is an Assistant. But it was super great to just learn from him for a day. Definitely learn some great things. 

Then on Thursday we had a Zone Meeting. That was exciting. We had to plan out the Zone Meeting and unfortunately neither of us had done that before. So we didn't really have any idea of what we were supposed to do. But we planned out some things and it ended up being a great Zone Meeting. So everything worked out. 

We also did exchanges again on Thursday. I got to be with my old companion Elder Greene again for a day! It was a pretty great day. Sometimes it can be hard teaching on exchanges because you aren't used to teaching with the person you go with. But we didn't have that problem since we had already been together for 3 months, it was sweet. It was also really cool to see how much he has grown since we were companions. It was basically a super fun day and we were able to teach some great lessons. 

One lesson we had was with a man named Tony Alonzo. He has been investigating the church for years. He just has some problems that are hard for him to get over. But he had actually read the Book of Mormon in between the appointments we had. And that was just amazing because it was the first time he had ever read from the Book of Mormon, even though people have been telling him to do it for years. Hopefully he keeps reading and see the difference it makes in his life. 

There are plenty of miracles that have been happening every day. Even if they are sometimes hard to see, they are always there. 

Have a great week!

Elder Mackay

Here is Elder Greene and I, a sketchy house and a selfie in front of
an American Flag.

Rain - Week 3 Adams Hill/Lackland

August 15, 2016

Well, for these past few days it has been raining a lot. It kinda stinks because it gets really humid except it isn't as hot which is really nice. 

This week we did exchanges. It was pretty fun. I went to another area with Elder Camire. It was a pretty great day, he is a fun guy and a great Elder. This coming up week should be pretty crazy though. We are going to have to do 2 exchanges so it will be super fun. And we have to do a Zone Meeting that we are trying to organize. Neither one of us have planned Zone Meetings before so we are kind of just making it up as we go.

We had a pretty crazy day on Friday. Our ward mission leader had set up a lesson at his house with someone that he had met a few days earlier. Well right when we got there we got a call from other Elders asking if we were still doing the baptismal interview. Apparently they had told us that we needed to do a baptismal interview that night but we had completely forgot, and it just happened that we were super far away from where we had to do the interview. So we ended up having to do splits and Elder Hart went with Bryan, one of the ward mission leaders son who is leaving on a mission soon, and I stayed to teach the lesson with the ward mission leader. Luckily it all ended up working out great, but yeah.. that lesson was pretty crazy. His other son stayed with me for the lesson as well. So it was me, Bro. Villarreal, his son Johnny and then Roselio. And the 3 of them just love talking, so it was pretty hard to stay on track. But it worked out great.

Hopefully everything enjoys this week!

Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Chile - Week 2 Adams Hill/Lackland

August 8, 2016

Well, another week has flown by. 

We had a pretty successful week. We have been going by a lot of less active members trying to figure out who lives there and who has moved. And we basically walk everywhere. It is a lot of fun. It gives us a lot of chances to talk with people who are out on the streets. The only bad part is that it is super hot, luckily there is a lot of nice people who give us water.

Through walking around and talking with everyone we haven't really found anyone that was super interested. But we have had a lot of miracles come from out of no where which have been super cool to see. We are still working a lot with less active members, still just trying to figure out who lives there and who has moved. Turns out that the majority of them have moved and now we need to try and track down their address which is super hard. But we are working on it. 

We also have been getting fed a lot of chile lately. Apparently we never learn. They will ask if we eat spicy food so we say yes and they bring out this salsa and just say 'cuidado, pica mucho' which means careful its spicy. Well always eat it and then find out that it really is super spicy but it tastes super good so we have to keep eating it. So by the end of dinner we are both sweating, sometimes crying. And then we proceed to do the same thing at the next dinner. It just tastes so good, but it hurts so bad. 

This week we actually got a phone call one day from this guy named Joe Naranjo. He said he was from the Mission Creek ward and that he had a referral for us. So I talked to him for a bit about his friend and then at the end of the conversation he asked what my name was. I told him I was Elder Mackay and then he asked why my name sounded so familiar. Well I told him that I had actually served in Mission Creek like a year ago and his name sounded super familiar too. He told me where he lived and stuff and then it all clicked. When I was over there he was pretty less active but then one day we decided to stop his house and we showed up just as he was driving away. He quickly parked the car and invited us in, saying that he really needed to pray with us. So we said a prayer with him then he left. Well he came to church a few times after that and then I got transferred. Well in the phone call he told me that he is active again and he is now getting ready to go to the Temple! It was so great to talk to him and hear how much his life has changed. It was a great example of the difference we can make in peoples lives even if we can't see an immediate change. But they can definitely change. When we said that prayer with Joe a long time ago he was having a pretty rough time, but on the phone he told me that he as never felt more happy and blessed. 

The gospel brings happiness!

Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Adam Hills - Week 1 Adams Hill/Lackland

August 1, 2016

Well I had my first week in the new area. It is pretty great. We cover
the Adams Hill ward which is a Spanish ward and then we also cover the
military branch on the Lackland Air Force base. It is pretty fun. Both
the ward and the branch are doing super well.

Right now the stake is doing this big initiative to work with Less
Active members and figure out where everyone is. So that has been a
lot of what we have been doing. And we didn't have much miles left at
the end of the month so we had to walk a lot. But it let us talk to a
ton of people which was great.

We got call on Sunday morning from the ward mission leader telling us
that we needed to give talks at the Adams Hill ward that day. So we
had like an hour to prepare talks, which was great. But then right
before it was my turn I felt like I needed to talk about something
else. It is a good thing the spirit is here to help because it is
super hard to give a talk when you got nothing prepared, especially in
another language. But the talks were both super good.

Also on Sunday after church we got a call from some lady. I answered
the phone and she just said "Hi, I would like to be baptized and
become a member of the mormon church. How do I do that?" That was a
miracle. I have been studying a lot about faith lately and one thing
that has stuck out is that God can only provide us with miracles if we
exercise faith. This week was a great example of that. God gave us
that miracle but it didn't come out of no where. We walked around all
day for 4 days in the hot sun, even got rained on super bad one day,
talking with everyone that we saw. Showing God that we had faith that
there was someone he was preparing to accept the Gospel. Then the very
last day, that person found us.

The transfer has been good. I am with Elder Hart. He is from bountiful
Utah. We actually came out the same time he was just in the Mexico
MTC. Then we have just never served around each other. But he is
great. Its been a lot of fun. It is super weird being with someone who
has been out the same time. For the longest time I have just been with
new missionaries or with missionaries who are kind of struggling.. So
it is weird adjusting to working with another missionary who has lots
of experience and isn't struggling. So its good.

I got a cool story that you will enjoy. So my first day here Elder
Hart was telling me how they had a baptism the Sunday right before I
got here on the Air Force Base. Well I looked at the baptismal record
and it said Liam Hamilton McKelvey. So I was like whoa, I know that
guy, and I had no idea that he wasn't a member. But he had graduated
so he wasn't going to be at the base anymore. Well look who I found on
his very last day at base. He was leaving at 2am on Sunday so I saw
him at church!

Have a great week, love y'all!

Elder Mackay
(side note from Mom, Liam and Caleb were Bff's in high school, so this was amazing)

Transfers - Week 6 San Marcos - De Zavala

July 25, 2016

Well we have transfers again this week. And surprisingly I will be getting transferred after just one transfer here in De Zavala. 

I am going to be heading down to San Antonio. I will be in the Adams Hill ward and also covering the Lackland Air Force base. So that should be pretty cool. It turns out that I will also be a new Zone Leader. That will be pretty fun.

We have still been able to work with a lot of less active members here. A lot of them have started coming to church consistently which was been great. The branch has just been really involved in missionary work lately which has been very cool to see. It definitely has helped out a lot. 

The work is always moving forward. I am excited to head out to a new area and see even more miracles. 

Have a great week, Love y'all!

Elder Mackay

Awesome Baptism - Week 5 San Marcos - De Zavala

July 18, 2016

Well, I had another great week here in San Marcos. Everything went pretty well. I had to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting and no body got up to leave so I guess that went pretty well too.

The other Elders in our branch are just on fire right now and had the craziest baptism last week. Basically Last Monday night they called me and asked if I could do a baptismal interview on Wednesday at 8pm and then a baptism at 8:30pm the same
day. Turns out after church on Sunday the Branch President introduced
them to a 12 year old boy who had been going to church his whole life
with his Grandma but wasn't baptized yet because his mom wouldn't let
him, and told them that he needs to get baptized on Wednesday. So on
Monday they had a FHE with the mom and she agreed to let him get
baptized. So Wednesday was just the craziest night. What happened was
I interviewed him at 8pm the he got baptized, then received the Holy
Ghost. Then he had a quick interview with the Branch President and
then came back and got ordained a Deacon, all within an hour and a half. It was awesome. And then to top his week off, on Saturday he went to
the temple to do baptisms for the dead. So that was super cool. 

This past week we were able to meet a few awesome part member families. They are pretty solid. One of them came to church which was super sweet. We have met a lot of people who love the church and believe everything that it teaches. The problem is just that they work so much that it is hard for them to make it out to church. But God always blesses those who are willing to make the sacrifice. 

This week I also learned that I am now the fat one of the apartment. All the other Elders are trying to lose weight and eat healthy. So whenever someone gives us a cake or something I have to eat all of it. But of course I am more than willing to help them out by eating all of it :)

Have a great week, Love y'all!

Elder Mackay