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Baby and Beer?!!

4/24/2017

Beer I'm not going to drink!

Hey guys this week was fun. So Monday the ZLs came and visited us with their district. It was cool having some other missionaries in Segovia on p-day.

Tuesday, we had intercambios and I was with Elder Smith. He is from Utah and his parents are converts to our church. Also, he is the first member of his family to serve a mission, so it was cool talking to him and seeing the difference between my family (who all have served missions) and his family, who are still getting to know the church. We had a fun intercambio, did some service and then met with Raul and shared the plan of salvation with him. It was a good practice and a good review for Raul.

Wednesday we went to district meeting and it was good. Then we went to Madrid for our doctor appointment. The doctor is a cool guy who speaks perfect English. Well, my comp talked to him while they took my blood and good thing they took it on Wednesday and not Thursday because I had a beer on Thursday! Well my comp and I had to run to another doctor because my comp was pregnant (just kidding). He had to get a (I don't know how how to spell it) thing where they put the cream on your belly and use the machine to see the baby (ultrasound). Well, he had to get that to make sure all was going well there. Then, after we found a Subway and ate there. It was good (it reminded me of going out to lunch with my coworker, Salvador). Then, we headed back to Segovia.

Thursday we did weekly planning. Then in the afternoon we did some passbys for some old investigators and a old couple let us in. Well, this is where I confess and say I drank a beer (for all of you thinking, what is a missionary doing drinking beer! Well, it was alcohol free – so, Got ya!). So, this couple let us in, and in the end, offered us the beers. I tried saying no, but they insisted and they knew that it was because of alcohol that we can't drink beer, and this beer didn't have that, so I took it. Well, they pulled out their big glasses for the beers and when I opened the beer, just the smell made me want to throw up! Some how I managed to get it down and, well, then they insisted that I drink another. Thankfully, it was time to go, so they let us take the beers with us. Then we went to the branch family home evening, then headed home.

Friday we had a full day. We meet with Yunior and talked about the plan of salvation and how we need to think about the eternal view, not just the earthly view. Then we ran to Carola and Guillermo's house and, well, Guillermo wouldn't come out of his room, so we shared a message with Carola. Then we ate some French toast thing (an Easter week treat - a bit late, but, whatever. It was good!). Then we had English classes and we met with a new investigator named Mosta. He speaks Arabic, then French, and then Spanish. He was having a hard time understanding us in Spanish, so Elder Fletcher switched to French. It was a good lesson. Then we went to meet with Jorge, and it was good.

Saturday we went to Avila and met with the active members there. Then we met with Sister Ana. She is a sad lady, depressed, but we are trying to help her. Then we went to meet with Joy, a woman from Nigeria, who didn't show up and couldn't meet later. Then we talked to a of couple people and got some numbers. It was good. Next time we go, we will have a couple more investigators to meet with.

Sunday, Yunior came to church - a bit late, but at least he came. I gave a talk on marriage and family. It was good and I think it helped some of the members. Later that afternoon, we met with Sister Soledad, and ended up teaching her niece the Restoration. It was good, but she lives in another area and doesn't want to meet with the missionaries. But, she has the Book of Mormon.

Today we cleaned for a couple hours and now the piso is all clean.

Well, that was my week.

Take care,
Elder MacKay

From the great city of Segovia

Intercambio photo with Elder Smith and Raul

Subway!!

Cathedral in Avila

Semana Santa

4/17/2017

So Semana Santa, or Easter week, was, well, interesting. My comp and I did a lot of contacting this week. Most people were out of town, but there were a lot of people who came to Segovia to visit. On Tuesday, we met with Raul, and ate some good food. Wednesday, we had district meeting and that was good. I learned a lot. Then after, we went to a wok (all-you-can-eat Chinese grill place) and it was good - just very expensive for a missionary. Then we came back and worked the rest of the night.

Thursday, we met with Yunior and, well, things aren't going that well with him, but we will see. Then later we met and had branch council. Then Raul called us over and fed us. Man, I was fullllllll, but I ate it! Friday, we got up early and went over to Avila and met with some members there. We ate with them, and then had a good lesson with them. Then we got a reference from a woman from Nigeria named Joy - she was cool. Then we stopped by a less active and well she was sooooooo happy to see us, and invited us over again this week, so that was cool.

Saturday, we met with Soledad, and her friend showed up. We shared the Restoration with her. Her name was Zoy. She took it well for not really believing in God, but we will talk with Soledad to she if she wants to meet again. It was a bit of a surprise lesson. Then we met with Carola and Guillermo and talked about repentance - it was good. Sunday, some of the temple workers showed up with some of their kids and grandkids. It doubled the number of people in church.

So yeah, this week I have been studying some conference talks on doubts for one of our less active members, and, well, I keep seeing it go back to the little things. If we are reading the scrips and praying and going to church, then everything will work itself out. Those doubts can, in fact, help strengthen our testimonies, if we go to the source of all truth to get the answer... God and his prophets. But, is was fun studying about that. Well, here are some photos.

Elder Craig MacKay
From the great city of Segovia

I found the wall in Avila again

Semana Santa people

And a castle for fun

This Week was a Party!

4/10/2017

I almost fell but I caught myself

Companionship fun!

His shirt is 3 sizes too big - makes him look heavy!

Well, this week was just a party... so Monday after p-day we headed to Torrejon to sleep there. We got there early and I took Santi (the recent convert from Africa) to BK to get some ice cream. It was fun talking to him and seeing how thing are going. Then we slept at the ZL's pizo and stayed up talking for a couple hours. Then we got up at 5:30 (2 hours early) so we could get Elder Fletcher to the church by the temple. We had to wait an hour for the lady to show up with the key to the organ. She was supposed to show up around 7:15, but got there at 8:15. Elder Fletch was not happy to have lost an hour of practice time after not playing the organ for about a year. He did the best he could with the time he had, and it turned out okay, but he wasn't happy with how he did. Oh yeah, this was all for zone conference.

Well, at zone conference they talked about a lot of things, but the 3 things that struck me the most were:

Working with members better. They talked about the example of Ammon and how him doing service, then sharing the gospel, is what helped him have more success. Compare that to his brother Aaron, who got locked up after preaching right away. So we talked about how we need to serve the members and our investigators more, and then we can have more work with the members. Also, we need to take the time to help the members find friends to share the gospel with. They said it will take longer, but in the end, we will have way more quality people with friends.
Being more natural around people. In our mission, we have a big habit of just going out in the streets and presenting ourselves and talking about the gospel, but our president said we need to find more normal ways to talk with everyone. For instance, in the store, on the bus and train, and just in places where we can make it more of a natural conversation and then bring up the gospel. It was interesting seeing our president suggest some idea like sitting down with some kids and getting a soda and talking, or playing sports with kids when we walk by. These are just some ideas that a lot of missionaries have told me are a waste of time, so it will be interesting to see how this goes for the mission.
Just making sure we plan out everything. So I enjoyed the conference

Wednesday was fun. We met with Soledad and talked about and showed the new Easter video and it was good. I think it helped her out. Then we ate - basically French toast, but a Spanish version, with honey instead of syrup - and it was good. I enjoyed it. Then we met with Raul and got some info on some less active members and also shared the Easter video - it was good. Then we ate this really good Dominican soup.

Thursday was weekly planning and the branch family home evening. We did some passbys for some members, but no one answered.

Friday we met with Yunior and talked about the importance of the commitments we give him and found out some of his worries. Then we met with Guillermo and talked about repentance and ate some really good food. I don't know what it was - just meat and rice. They are Peruvian, so it was typical of them.

Saturday was just a lot of talking to people, trying new ways that are a bit more natural, and passing by old investors.

Sunday, Yunior didn't come sadly, but we had a bunch of people from Utah, Idaho and Madrid come and visit, so that was fun. Then we walked out to a small town and passed by some old investigators. It was fun being in a different town. It was pretty far out, but fun.

Also, I had a funny experience this week. So, a couple weeks ago, we went to the temple and we slept in the elders' piso that is just across the street. Well, they wanted to stay up late talking, but we wanted to go to bed. So, we slept in another room and it wasn't very comfortable. The other elders were up talking and hollering down the hall, and kept coming in our room to mess with us. So... I grabbed an alarm clock from one of their desks and put it in a bag and put that in a Tupperware container. Then I walked in their room with one of their phones (4 elders - 2ZLs and one DL so 3 phones all together) and told them one of them had a call at 1:00 am. I gave them the phone and hid the alarm clock (which I set for 3:25 am) under one of their beds. Sadly, we didn't hear it go off and they didn't get up or say anything, so I didn't say anything. We just got up and left as they were getting out of bed, so we could make it to the temple on time. This past Saturday night, I got a call from those same elders, and they started asking if I knew about the alarm clock. I almost played it off, but started laughing in the middle of the call and they knew it was me. The best part was that it took them one week to find the alarm clock in their room! They just thought someone was calling them every night at 3:25 am, lol! It took them another week to figure out it was me, so I got a good laugh out of it! Also, it's a cool thing that I live super far out from Madrid, so they can't do any pranks to me! But, yeah – fun! Well, sorry it's a really long letter, but that's what happened this week.

Hope you all have a great week!
Elder Craig MacKay

Photo of Segovia from the small town we visited

Elder Fletcher got his "death letter" - letter sent out 5 months before going home.

Conference Weekend

4/3/2017

Hey guys! Not much has happened - just a lot of little funny things. I wrote you guys on Wednesday. On Thursday we had district meeting and we made some arepas. They were good. The sisters told us to bring stuff for ourselves to put in the arepas but what happened is the sisters forgot to bring stuff. The other elders brought hot dogs, so we shared our stuff. Then we got back and barely made in time to the branch family home evening and the branch council meeting. I shared the movie “Only a Stone Cutter” and talked about how there is always a way to keep the commandments of God. The members liked it.

Friday we did weekly planning and then we went out to pass by some less active members that we don't know. None of them were home. Then we went to the church to apply for a discount card for the bus to Madrid because we spend a lot going and coming. Every trip is 16 euros. I needed a scan of my residency card but it was too late to go get one. So, we packed up our stuff. The branch secretary came in and asked us to help him clean the chapel, so we did and then he took us to Telepizza. It is kind of gross, normally, but the pizza he got wasn't bad. Domino's pizza is still the best pizza here in Spain (well, fast food pizza. The Italian restaurants' pizza here are way better). Then we headed home.

Saturday we got up, did our studies and then we went to scan my residency card. We got the paperwork filled out for the discount bus card. Now I just have to wait 15 days and then pay 40 euros every month and I get a trip to Madrid and back every day. Much cheaper and just paying once is so much easier. Then we went to talk with some people and ran into a less active in the street. So, we helped her with her bags all the way across town to her piso. Then she invited us over on Wednesday at 4 to come visit her and her granddaughter who is 20 and doesn't believe in god. She told us that we have to help her granddaughter, so that she believes in god. It kind of seemed like, “Make her believe or I'll...” sort of thing.

Then we ate lunch and then visited Yunior and Esteban. They are crazy together! It was hard to keep them on topic and to get them to stop messing around. I imagine that this is how it must of been for all my church leaders when Gubby and I were together, lol. Then we meet with Guillermo and his mom and shared a conference talk from 2013, by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It talks about joining the church for the first time or coming back. It's a really good talk, but Guillermo still needs time. He is starting to want to come back but is worried and pushing it off a bit. We'll keep going with him. Then we headed over to the church to watch the Saturday morning session at 6pm. However, the members couldn't get the computer to work. So we went to go buy a converter for my iPad, but all the shops were closed so we missed it. Then we met with Pancho and talked about the Word of Wisdom. He isn't smoking and he's not drinking anymore, but he won't give up decaffeinated coffee. We talked about the blessings the he would get, but he told us how he had to get up every morning at 4 to get to work on time and that he needed it. We reminded him that it's just a drink and that there is no caffeine in it. He told us how much he liked it and didn't like any other drink. We just told him that cup of coffee is one of the last few things holding him back from his salvation and from his sealing to his family. We testified of the importance of those things and invited him to throw it away. We told him to drink hot chocolate or something like that. We will have to do some follow up with him. Then we headed home because the Saturday evening session starts at 10:00 when we have to be in piso.

Sunday we came over to the church and set up in the branch president's office so the members could watch conference. Thankfully, we don't have a lot of members, so they all fit. But, there wasn't room for us, so we went and watched it in English in another room. Then we camped out and watched the priesthood session and Saturday morning session, since we had missed it. Then we ran over to the branch grandparent's house (a couple that are 80 some odd years old and have been members for 25 years and are the almost the first to be baptized in Segovia) and shared the area plan with them. Then we ran back so we could watch one more session, the Sunday morning one, and then headed home.

Today we went a bought a bunch of food, a microwave and a sandwich press. Also, we cleaned the piso so it is nice and organized.

Well, that's all I've got for you guys. Oh we also bought 8 kilos of strawberries, aka 20 pounds, because they were 3 euros for 2 kilos. So we bought a lot and froze them to make smoothies. Also, I forgot my password and reset my iPad, so I lost my photo of this week. The rest of my photos were on my iCloud, so I'm all good. But, yeah, sorry no photos this week.

Well, that was more that I thought I had to say, but have a great week!

Elder Craig MacKay
From the great city of Segovia

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Baby and Beer?!!

Semana Santa

This Week was a Party!

Conference Weekend

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