Blog Archives

Bus Troubles!

3/29/2017

We are here at the church. The guys are playing basketball. This week was good. We did a lot of visits – a lot of contacting. It snowed a couple days – 2 or 3 times. It actually stuck, which is heavy snow for Spain.

Highlights of this week and a half. Elder Fletcher and I are getting along pretty good. He is a funny guy in the mornings. For example, this morning someone “ding-dong ditched” our piso and he wanted to run downstairs and go after him. It's best if I don't talk to him in the morning. But, once its study time, he's okay. He's a funny guy.

I was sick a couple of days. I didn't wear enough layers when it was snowing. I've been getting sick a lot lately. It's kind of annoying.

Tuesday we visited everyone in the branch. We had 3 lessons set up and we ended up running into all the members and we visited with all of them. Wednesday we had district meeting and it took us FOREVER to get back. Normally after district meeting we get back around 3:30, but this time we got back around 7. It was kind of ridiculous – everything went bad. The bus left later then we thought it was going to. Then there was a car accident and when we got to the bus station to go to Segovia, the bus was full and we had to wait an hour and a half for the next one. Then its another hour ride. It was ridiculous! We didn't get much done Wednesday because of that.

Thursday we went and visited someone named Iluminada. She is really cool and we are trying to teach her. Her mom was taught by some sister missionaries awhile ago. She made us some delicious Dominican food. I loved it! It was really good. She is awesome! She comes to our English classes. She can write and read English all day, but when it comes to speaking English, it is really hard for her. So we are helping her with that. She is also letting us teach her a little bit about the gospel and we are trying to turn that into something because she is very cool.

Other than that, not much is going on. Elder Fletcher goes home a transfer before me and sometimes he talks like he doesn't have much time and then that makes me feel like I don't have much time. But, I still have six months, so I have plenty of time.

Hope everything is going well – loved getting all the letters. I was thinking of Melissa on Friday. She is like 15 or 14? Sorry – I don't remember – I just know she's getting too old and and she should be younger.

Well, you guys take care. You are awesome!

District Meeting - We had a lesson on Faith

Photo Bomb!!

24 at Church!!

3/20/2017

Well, this week was fun. We did some intercambios with the other elders in our district. They came in the morning on Tuesday and we did some contacting... then we had English classes and some less active visits. Wednesday I was also in Segovia for the intercambio and it was just like Tuesday. Thursday we did weekly planning and we had an afternoon full of lessons set up that all fell through. Friday we had English classes and contacting. Saturday we had some less active visits and then transfers came (Elder Liptrott is opening Zamora and I'm getting Elder Fletcher). Sunday we had 24 people at church which is huge for us, but 8 were visiting. That is still a lot of people. After that we had good bye visits. Sorry - this week should be more exciting.
Love y'all. Have a great week!

Snow?!

3/13/2017

Hey guys! This week was cool. We just kind of did the same things, but I'll try to tell you about the fun stuff. Monday nothing really happened because I was still sick.

Tuesday was a good day. We visited Raul and ate some really good Dominican food. I really liked it. Also, a sister that ended her mission my third transfer in the mission came and visited Segovia and it was fun talking with her (she started her mission in Segovia, and there were sisters and elders when she was here). I never had the chance to meet her because she was in the north when I was in Madrid, but cool sister.

Wednesday we skyped in to district meeting because we didn't have money to travel (we're waiting for reimbursement money). Also, I talked to a nice Spanish man, who, when I asked how he was doing, told me he was doing better than me. I told him he must be mistaken because I was smiling and he wasn't. After that, I told him I could help him find lasting happiness and he just said something I didn't understand all the way (but I got the point - it wasn't nice). Then he just walked away, annoyed.

Thursday we did our weekly planning and contacting, we went to the ward family home evening and then we met with the ward leaders.

Friday - not much happened

Saturday - nothing

Sunday Elder Liptrott gave a talk and we got out of the church before 2:00. Church starts at 11 and we only have 2 hours (it's kinda weird, but whatever). Normally we have to wait til 3 because the branch president wants to talk to us and everyone else.

Well, other than that, Elder Liptrott and I have been making smoothies with chia seeds and we are getting better at it. Using just fruit is expensive, but it's worth it. Also, I forget what day, but it snowed just a little bit.

Lame week

3/6/2017

With Elder Liptrott and a member

So to start off this week, I talked to you guys on Wednesday and that was fun. When we got back, we visited the Franco family and ate pancakes with maple syrup... it was nice. Thursday we went to Avila and had some really good food with the members there, but we stayed a bit too long and we missed our bus. So we took a train to Madrid, thinking it would be faster than the bus that would come 4 hours later. Everything went wrong and we barely got back on time before we had to be back in the piso. Friday we did weekly planing and we visited Raul. We had some really good food, but I started to get sick, so we called it a night a little early. Saturday we spent almost all day in the piso because I wasn't feeling great. Sunday we went for the first hour of church and then left. I slept all day. Yeah, so my week was not too exciting. But, yeah, (sarcasm here) it was fun sitting in the piso all day, not being able to do anything.
Hope you all have a great week.
Elder Craig MacKay

Work with the less-actives

3/1/2017

Zone meeting that he talked about with Elder Suarez. Craig is in the third row, third from the left.

This week and a half seemed kinda long. We are going to the temple this morning. Let me tell you about some of the highlights.

When I wrote you last, we were in Madrid. Then, last Tuesday we had a zone conference with the area 70, Elder Suarez from Portugal. He's a cool guy. He talked a lot about our studies and the importance of them. He also talked about the importance of commitments. It was a good conference. We spent the rest of the day in Vialba on intercambios and finished on Wednesday. We were out of our area for 3 days. It was kinda rough, but it was what we had to do. On Tuesday night, we ditched the elders from Vialba and went to visit our branch president who lives there. He doesn't live in Segovia. It was very fun visiting with him and his wife. They fed us some grilled cheese sandwiches and some salad. Because my comp wasn't feeling well and wasn't hungry, he was struggling to eat. He hid the sandwich in his bag so he could eat it later. Our branch president assumed he finished the sandwich and said he would go get him another one, since they had made 3 for each of us. My comp was freaking out at the thought of eating all of that. We don't normally eat dinner and after I ate one sandwich and the salad, I was full. Yet, there were 2 more sandwiches waiting for me. My comp saved me by saying he wasn't hungry, so we just wrapped them all up. They gave us some brownie-type things which were really good. We ate them the next morning for breakfast.

On Thursday, one brother called us at 3 in the afternoon – he was drunk. We went to talk to him. He's an interesting guy. He doesn't really keep his commitments. We offered to give him a blessing of comfort. He didn't read what we asked him to and he wasn't doing any of it. We don't feel like he took it serious. But now he seems to be doing better. He came to church on Sunday, so that's good.

It seems like everyday is the same. We meet with the same group of people – Raoul, Pancho and his family, Guiermo, Yunior, and sometimes we meet with Esteban. Saturday we met with an old investigator. She doesn't seem like she's really that interested, but she likes to know people and be friendly. She fed us some homemade flour tortillas with beans, eggs and avocado. It was okay. It was different from the normal Spanish food, so I enjoyed the diversity. It was okay.

Sunday we had the branch president and his wife come along with 2 members, 2 sisters, so they could get to know Segovia. It was cool seeing them there. One of them was from England. She is the wife of the old branch president here.

Monday we visited Guiermo and his mom, Cordoba. They told us about the dad, being drunk at 11 in the morning. He came home at 4 in the afternoon, completely wasted and had about 12 more beers on him. He just said he was sorry and that he is really bad, that he is not feeling too good. It was sad seeing him like that. We hear he is really rude to people when he's drunk, but he wasn't that mean to us. But, it sounded like he started yelling when we left.

Other than that, we are just trying to get to know less-actives. The funny thing about it is the members say that the ones coming to church are the only ones with interest. But, other less-actives keep showing up for church with interest to become active again. So, we are kinda ignoring what all the members are saying. We are just going to go through the ward list and visit everyone... cause that's what we do. We find less-actives and find their friends or family members that aren't baptized and we teach them. That is how it works in a little village. Otherwise, everyone we talk to is Catholic... very Catholic. They tell us they are Christian. We let them know we are Christian, too. I think its funny what some of the people think of us. The other day someone called my companion an anti-Christ. That was kinda funny.

Last night we slept in Torrejon because it is closer to Verones and the temple, by 30 minutes when you use public transportation. But, we chose wrong this time, because the train broke down for 30 minutes and we missed our temple session. We are currently sitting in the chapel by the temple, waiting for the next temple session. It will take an hour and a half, but we really don't have anything big planned for the day, but we will have fun.

So that was our week. Oh, I saw Santiago, the wonderful guy I baptized in Torrejon. He's doing good – we took him out to Burger King. It was very good. The elders in Barrio 8 were supposed to send me photos of Primo's baptism (the father of Craig's first baptism), so I'm going to have to get on them.

Hope you guys all have a great week. Bye!!

At Burger King with Santiago

​

Bus Troubles!

24 at Church!!

Snow?!

Lame week

Work with the less-actives

Archives