21 Hours (10-14-13)

Oi Tudo Mundo,

Well this week was very spiritually filling.  We had zone conference and zone training this last week.  We were supposed to have zone training the week before but tropical storm Karen postponed that...even though nothing came of that storm in these parts.  And all the zone stuff is in Metarie which is a suburb of New Orleans.  So it is far away, not super far but far enough.  So, we didn't teach many lessons.  But they were awesome.  In zone conference President Wall and his wife talked to us about hope.  It was really awesome.  He talked about how with his fear of elevators that a crowbar was his hope to escape an elevator if needed.  It was hilarious and then he compared the crowbar to the gospel and that we go and give people hope.  Which is so true.  We go and teach people how they can be happy for eternity.  Which is a long time.  We also had an area 70 talk to us, Elder Bluth.  he was cool.  Our zone leaders also talked to us, and they talked to us at zone training.  Both of the instructors were really good.

Since we didn't teach much we did a ton of service.  21 hours between me and Elder Arajuo to be exact.  We helped a referral to the other Elders paint.  She has an injured shoulder and had her house power washed and it took all the paint off.  So we are painting it for her.  She is super awesome and we are hoping she becomes an investigator.  I mean she already does missionary work.  She is a social worker and when people are having struggles she sends them to missionaries.  So we want to teach her, haha.  We also helped a recent convert paint and hang screen.  I got to use a staple gun.  That was fun and very easy.

So the only funny story that happened was tonight actually.  We were walking back home from contacting and as we were walking past a house a door opens and this guy in a towel or shorts in in the doorway and when he sees us he says "whoa" and shuts the door.  I don't know if we actually startled him or if he was afraid we would baptize him.  That doesn't matter, it was hilarious.

Also just as a side note, people here go ALL OUT for Halloween.  It is like Christmas!  And I am getting some sweet ideas for when I get my own place after my mission.

Well that's all for this week.  If you are sad that your college football team lost just remember, Wyoming won this weekend.  THAT'S RIGHT!  And stay classy.

Con muito amor,

Elder Mackay

I Loved Conference!! (10-7-13)

Oi Tudo Mundo,

So I'm just going to start by saying I felt like I was in the west again.  It was 75, no humidity, and there was a light breeze with super blue skies without a cloud to be seen.  It was gorgeous.

So, I'm going back to writing letters for the next few weeks.  The library here in LaPlace is closed for renovations til the 21st.  So now we have to use member's computers and we are only going to read the emails to save time.  But that will start next week.  Maybe.  Plans could change...hahaha.

Well first off, I loved conference!  I have never gotten more out of a conference before.  But that may be that I am a missionary.  I loved all the talks, but I really liked Elder Bednar's talk on tithing.  I had never thought about those small and subtle blessings we get through tithing and it was very enlightening.  I also liked Elder Holland's talk because I am finding that I know more and more people who are affected by depression.  And that stinks, but that talk was very comforting.  But probably the best thing of all of conference...Leo came!!!  We invited our Filipino investigator Leo to the Priesthood session and he came!  I was so excited, and I was even more excited when Elder Perry started talking about the thirteen Articles of Faith and that was what his whole talk about.  That was awesome.  I hope that Leo paid attention and now has a greater desire to progress instead of not dooing anything.  So that was the spiritual part of the week.

And just so everyone knows...tropical storm Karen was weak and scared of me and my glory (Jason is so modest!! haha).  So we were never affected by it.  Didn't even get rain.  So that is all I have to say about that..

Now for the more worldly/not spiritual side of this week.  This last Thursday was a festival called Battle for the Paddle.  What it is is a bunch of teams, mostly companies and organizations, make gumbo and/or jambalaya and the people vote for the favorite and the winners get a trophy.  Well we went.  And I had had gumbo before and it was good (gumbo is a soup), but jambalaya is OVER 9000 times better!  It is rice with meat and sausage with whatever seasonings they feel like.  It was glorious.  And it felt like they were all missionaries for different churches, except they were saying, Here, have my jambalaya, it is the best one.  And amidst this war of words and tumult of oppositions I decided to act on the words of Elder White, and go to the fire fighter with a sweet apron.  And his was the best.  Did you like my Joseph Smith rephrase?  It was pretty good right?  Haha

Well that is all for this week.  This next week should be awesome.  Zone Conference and Zone training should be great!  And here is some Portuguese I learned from the dictionary.  Vamos dar uma espiada which is lets have a look see.  I don't know how legit that is though...hahaha.

Eu amo voces and stay classy.

Elder Mackay

Jason & other missionaries

 Jason and Elder White

Fire fighter & the awesome apron

 

Kissing Gators! (9-30-13)

Oi, tudo mundo,

This week was a very slow week for us and the other Elders in this area.  Just bad luck all around.  But this week will be better.  We only taught 1 lesson to an investigator and we tried to hammer in the importance of the priesthood.  it went well and I think that he understands now.  He may come to the Priesthood session (of LDS General Conference) on Saturday.  So that is legit.  We also had interviews with President Wall on Tuesday.  That was awesome.  He compared waiting for a visa to Russian Roulette.  We talked a lot about patience and how it is not a passive action.  That was really cool and I learned a lot.  That was about all that happened spiritual wise.  I feel bad that these emails are mostly about the fun things and not about investigators and such.  But hopefully that will change soon.

Well this week was gator fest.  We went and I ate fried gator...and it was.......AMAZING!!!!  Check that off the bucket list!  It was way good!  They had a booth where you could hold a baby gator and I had no money, missionary probs, but this old guy heard me say that if I had the money I would do it.  So he gave me the 5 bucks to do it!!!!  I got a picture with him to show my gratitude.  I would have given him a pass along card, but there was a cop eyeballin' us because there was no soliciting at this festival.  But I got to hold a baby gator and I kissed it.  BOOM!!!!!!!  It was sweet.

Other than that nothing much has really happened.  Although we did help some people move which was nice.  We carried a bookshelf like two blocks because we didn't want to make two trips HaHaHa.  Gotta love when you move down the street.

Well that is all for this week.  Sorry it's kind of short, but oh well.  I love you all, and as always stay classy.

Elder Mackay

 Jason and a baby gator

 Jason and a bigger baby gator

 Jason kissing a baby gator

 Jason and the gentleman that gave him the money to hold the gators

 Deep fried gator

Joao the gecko