Dear Family of friends,
Well it's definitely been a challenge but we're slowly making progress. The zone leaders had a baptism this Sunday and I did the interview. The brother's name was Moorthy and he was a great young man. He is from a different state but recently moved in with his cousins who are members here in Coimbatore. It wasn't long before he agreed to meet with the elders and four months later he was baptized. This week Suresh and his family came to church this week for all three hours and the baptismal service afterwards. Suresh is the one who is unemployed who was looking to get a job in Saudi Arabia, but it looks like that idea is dropped. Now he's just looking for any kind of work and it has softened his heart to the point where he is extremely teachable. He needs help following the Word of Wisdom but he is willing and he wants to come to the church as much as possible. We still have not been able to meet with his whole family for a lesson and that was mostly due to our fault but this week we will definitely teach all of them.
We have had some big news with the big extended family we are teaching. Punitha and Antony were having some concerns about the Book of Mormon and we did everything we could to resolve their concerns. Punitha seemed to even be a little flustered because she was asking very pointed questions. We left them with a chapter and told them to read and pray about but we weren't quite sure if they would. Well I called the next night and a miracle happened--they read. Punitha said they all read and prayed together as a family (children included) and that she was now convinced that the Book of Mormon is from God. This happened last Friday and they didn't come to church on Sunday so I don't think we're quite out of the doghouse of concerns quite yet but we're moving forward. I'm suspecting she didn't come to church because of some problems they are having with a plot of land they are trying to build on and had to attend some legal issues.
Punitha's nephew, Rahul, is also doing really well and probably progressing the best out of all his family members. But we met him last night and he expressed how lonely he was. He tried to get all his direct and extended family members to church but none came and by the time he was done trying church. He even expressed how lonely he was at school and how he feels like he is an outcast. I don't know why he would be though, he is a sweet and bright young man. I know he'll fit in with the young men at church so we told him to just come to church and establis himself there and then his family would follow.
An investigator of the sisters in our district had a cool experience this week. Her name is Shermilla and she is a muslim orphan. She is the maid of one of our recent converts and as the family was learning the gospel, Shermilla became interested. The sisters began to teach her the gospel as well as English and she absorbed it all so rapidly. Well Shermilla works at the orphanage she grew up in and and the other day the owner told her to make food for the 50 children that were there and he gave her 2 kgs of rice. 2 kgs may sound like a lot but not when it's all you eat, and definitley not for 50 kids. But Shermilla didn't lose faith. She remembered the story of when Christ fed the multitude of 5,000 with only a few loaves of bread so she got down on her knees and prayed to God saying if God could feed 5,000 then surely he could feed the 50. After that she got to work and prepared the rice and curry and she was able to feed all 50 of the children until they were full and still have rice left over. Another time she was feeding the children again but she forgot about two of the children who had smallpox and therefore couldn't attend the mess hall. By the time she remembered the rice was all gone so again she prayed and she was inspired to look in a cupboard and there she found a small bag of rice. She took the rice and looked for the pot but she then found the fire was put out. She had no other source of heat then the left over embers but she made use of what she had and put the rice in the pot. Some time went by and she opened the lid to find the pot full of fully cooked rice. Next time I think something is impossible, I'll just think of Shermilla.
Sorry I couldn't write so much today but I hope you are all doing well and I love you all so much. Thank you for the recipes and support.
Love you a million miracles,
Elder Mackay
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Brownies and Cakes - July 22, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for your letters and love. Paige I am so proud of you. I remember when I had the flu over at BYU. It was during the winter time and I was just like you. All my friends brought over saltines, cranberry juice (yes, I did drink it Jocelyn and you were right, and it had a pretty good effect), and gatorade. Byron also came over and gave me a blessing, immediately after which I puked into our sink. Byron called it the quickest healing he's ever seen.
And Carly you have such a photogenic crowd of people asking to hire you. Must be your amazing newfound talent. I was going through some of the gallery pictures while reading your letters and their really good. And with Dad's new book he's reading about conceptual focus I think our family is pretty well rounded to reach both parts of our brains. Altogether we should be able to come up with some killer business. And I'm so jealous you get to go to the temple Mom, I'll make sure to attend with you in Spirit. I can't wait and start to answer some of my own questions. I've been so busy answering others that I forget to think of my own. Luckily I learn a lot from teaching. I did a study of the Bible's prophecies of the Book of Mormon and found a lot of interesting insights. My favorite was comparing 2 Nephi 26 with Isaiah 29, Nephi explains clearly Isaiah's meaning in such a way that you can't deny that Isaiah was talking about the Nephites.
Anyways as for my week it was the like the Himalayas: big ups with big downs. No one came to church this week but we did still manage to make some progress. Renald and Deepa are doing really well, they are the newly wed couple with a new baby. They've been being taught since February and now we're almost to their baptism. Last week we met them and committed Renald to follow the Word of Wisdom by July 28th. This Monday we met him and we watched the Restoration with him and Deepa. We then followed up with his word of wisdom and he said it was just going on. Then our member who was with us had to take a phone call and went outside. Renald then got a little serious and told us that he was really struggling. He wasn't sure if he was going to make his goal date and he really wanted to but the temptations were getting the better of him. We offered to give him a blessing and he accepted. Afterwards we told him that the Elder that first taught him, Elder Hullinger, would be coming on exchange and visiting him on Saturday. He was so happy to hear that, and he said "Elder Hullinger is the man who changed me. Before I listened to so many pastors but I didn't care what they had to say or offer but when Hullinger talked with me it made me change. Before I would never have let anyone give me any blessing but today you just saw me accept." Thank our Heavenly Father for Elder Hullinger.
We also found out the concern for our struggling investigators, Lukas and Nivedhana, another newly wed with no children. They are Hindu background but want to be baptized. They also want to come to the LDS church Lukas' auntie who lives nearby calls them every morning to ask them to come to the Assembly of God church with her. Solution no. 1: Go to the Auntie's house and teach. Solution no.2: tell Lukas and Nivedhana they're just going to have to explain to the auntie that they can't go with her. If they feel it's true than they shouldn't have to worry if they are making any mistakes, plus I don't think the auntie will be that offended. So with a plan, testimonies, scripture, and a lot of Spiritual guidance we can make this happen.
So as for the subject of the letter, I've been having fun with the new oven. We were able to find some pillsbury cake and brownie mixes and we all pitched in to make delicious desserts for the past week (don't worry Jeevan your baked goods will still be an oasis in the desert for me). But it has been fun to scramble together to make good meals. Elder Valluri and Korrayya make the main Indian course, and Elder Hullinger and I make the dessert. And one time this week I somehow whipped up Shepard's pie. Don't ask me how I remembered but it was pretty good, minus I put too much flour in the mixture (I think you know what I mean Mom). The home-made food is a good motivation booster for us. The resturaunts are not good here at all so having good food keeps us going, even if it takes a little extra effort.
Another transfer is finished and my year mark is coming fast. We're discussing new goals for the zone this week and we decided we want to focus on finding. So this is my request, if you could all think of ways we can find more people, whether it be by ways to increase the Spirit during finding, methods of finding, ways of doing service, or whatever it may be to find people that are interested, please send your suggestions. I know finding is different in all places but maybe one of your ideas will inspire us to do something more.
Thank you so much again for all your letters. Keep it up Matt and Jen, the Lord will work a way for you. Just remember when the Apostles were crossing the sea of Galilee and the storm was tossing them to and fro it was until the fourth watch that Jesus Christ came up to them walking on the water. The fourth watch is nie so keep you eyes open for that piercing hope that will show you the way.
Love you a million brownies,
Elder Mackay
p.s. Mom if you could send some easy bake recipes, that would be great. Also the shepherds pie recipe so I can know the right quanities.
Thank you so much for your letters and love. Paige I am so proud of you. I remember when I had the flu over at BYU. It was during the winter time and I was just like you. All my friends brought over saltines, cranberry juice (yes, I did drink it Jocelyn and you were right, and it had a pretty good effect), and gatorade. Byron also came over and gave me a blessing, immediately after which I puked into our sink. Byron called it the quickest healing he's ever seen.
And Carly you have such a photogenic crowd of people asking to hire you. Must be your amazing newfound talent. I was going through some of the gallery pictures while reading your letters and their really good. And with Dad's new book he's reading about conceptual focus I think our family is pretty well rounded to reach both parts of our brains. Altogether we should be able to come up with some killer business. And I'm so jealous you get to go to the temple Mom, I'll make sure to attend with you in Spirit. I can't wait and start to answer some of my own questions. I've been so busy answering others that I forget to think of my own. Luckily I learn a lot from teaching. I did a study of the Bible's prophecies of the Book of Mormon and found a lot of interesting insights. My favorite was comparing 2 Nephi 26 with Isaiah 29, Nephi explains clearly Isaiah's meaning in such a way that you can't deny that Isaiah was talking about the Nephites.
Anyways as for my week it was the like the Himalayas: big ups with big downs. No one came to church this week but we did still manage to make some progress. Renald and Deepa are doing really well, they are the newly wed couple with a new baby. They've been being taught since February and now we're almost to their baptism. Last week we met them and committed Renald to follow the Word of Wisdom by July 28th. This Monday we met him and we watched the Restoration with him and Deepa. We then followed up with his word of wisdom and he said it was just going on. Then our member who was with us had to take a phone call and went outside. Renald then got a little serious and told us that he was really struggling. He wasn't sure if he was going to make his goal date and he really wanted to but the temptations were getting the better of him. We offered to give him a blessing and he accepted. Afterwards we told him that the Elder that first taught him, Elder Hullinger, would be coming on exchange and visiting him on Saturday. He was so happy to hear that, and he said "Elder Hullinger is the man who changed me. Before I listened to so many pastors but I didn't care what they had to say or offer but when Hullinger talked with me it made me change. Before I would never have let anyone give me any blessing but today you just saw me accept." Thank our Heavenly Father for Elder Hullinger.
We also found out the concern for our struggling investigators, Lukas and Nivedhana, another newly wed with no children. They are Hindu background but want to be baptized. They also want to come to the LDS church Lukas' auntie who lives nearby calls them every morning to ask them to come to the Assembly of God church with her. Solution no. 1: Go to the Auntie's house and teach. Solution no.2: tell Lukas and Nivedhana they're just going to have to explain to the auntie that they can't go with her. If they feel it's true than they shouldn't have to worry if they are making any mistakes, plus I don't think the auntie will be that offended. So with a plan, testimonies, scripture, and a lot of Spiritual guidance we can make this happen.
So as for the subject of the letter, I've been having fun with the new oven. We were able to find some pillsbury cake and brownie mixes and we all pitched in to make delicious desserts for the past week (don't worry Jeevan your baked goods will still be an oasis in the desert for me). But it has been fun to scramble together to make good meals. Elder Valluri and Korrayya make the main Indian course, and Elder Hullinger and I make the dessert. And one time this week I somehow whipped up Shepard's pie. Don't ask me how I remembered but it was pretty good, minus I put too much flour in the mixture (I think you know what I mean Mom). The home-made food is a good motivation booster for us. The resturaunts are not good here at all so having good food keeps us going, even if it takes a little extra effort.
Another transfer is finished and my year mark is coming fast. We're discussing new goals for the zone this week and we decided we want to focus on finding. So this is my request, if you could all think of ways we can find more people, whether it be by ways to increase the Spirit during finding, methods of finding, ways of doing service, or whatever it may be to find people that are interested, please send your suggestions. I know finding is different in all places but maybe one of your ideas will inspire us to do something more.
Thank you so much again for all your letters. Keep it up Matt and Jen, the Lord will work a way for you. Just remember when the Apostles were crossing the sea of Galilee and the storm was tossing them to and fro it was until the fourth watch that Jesus Christ came up to them walking on the water. The fourth watch is nie so keep you eyes open for that piercing hope that will show you the way.
Love you a million brownies,
Elder Mackay
p.s. Mom if you could send some easy bake recipes, that would be great. Also the shepherds pie recipe so I can know the right quanities.
You are all wonderful - July 14, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
I love being able to read you emails first before I write mine because it inspires me so much and puts me at a more cheerful mood. Thank you so much for your encouragement because this was the week that I needed it. For some reason this week was a tougher one and it put me down a little bit to the point where I asked, like you said Matt, would I spiritually survive. Most all of our appointments cancelled, leading out the area is tougher than I thought, having a new companion changes everything, and all of it mixed together just puts me way out of my comfort zone. So hearing your words really helps me to know that it will be alright and that I really am on the right path.
But I don't mean to complain because we still had a great week. Maybe not all of the things went perfect and maybe there were a couple of disasters but looking back on it, it all turned out alright. My favorite part was getting three separate families to church on Sunday. I want to also mention Renald and Deepa. They have been investigating since January and just now they are really progressing. We got Renald on his way to be tobacco free, they are both reading the Book of Mormon together, and we almost got them committed to a baptism date. Renald just wants to make sure that he quits tobacco before commiting to a date. Only one obstacle left to remain: the parents. A few weeks ago I learned that Renalds parents live right above him on the second floor and I was a little bit nervous about what they think about the church and how much of an effect that will have on Renald. Renald talked to us about baptism and he said he wanted to but he would need to inform his family first. He sounded really confident that everything would be alright so we'll just pray for the best. He is definitely doing the right thing by informing his family, especially as that will open up the door for more potential missionary work. President Nichols always tells us "parents are not the enemies, they are potential investigators". It's hard to see that at the moment but the Lord has a plan and timetable for everything so we'll just wait and see.
Elder Korrayya and I are getting along great. I'm pretty lucky to have had some time before getting a native companion because 1. I can understand him now after having my ear accustomed to Indian accents, and 2. I know the culture better so I know what to talk about with him. But the problem is he has a tough time understanding me. The truth is Elder Korrayya didn't understand English before his mission, he tells that to everyone he sees and I know its true because when he came on his mission I couldn't tell if he was speaking English or Telugu. He's learned a lot by now and although he still stumbles he can get his thoughts out. It's really fun though to teach him English, and we have a blast. The other day I was helping his pronunciation so we sang an old pre-school song, the one that teaches all the vowels, it goes "I like to ate, ate, ate apples and bananaes...I like to eat, eat, eat apples and banenees" and so forth. He really enjoyed it and sometimes as we are finding we'll sing it.
I also learned a lot from him about Indian culture. Now I have a native companion at my disposal to ask any questions. I've learned a lot about the relationship between men and women in India, Hinduism and even circumcision...mostly I taught him about that.
We've had some exciting news, we're going to be holding a open house in August to give tours to the church building. If you haven't seen the picture, the church building is big and white, but not many people know it's a church because there's no picture or cross on it. Even worse many rumors are spread around that we are Satan's church and that we don't worship Jesus Christ. Well to absolve all doubts we are holding a grand open house on Indian Independance Day and we're advertising it through pass along cards and newspaper ads. Even two weeks before we're releasing an article about the church and our beliefs. The focus of the open house will be to show people that we are a church of Jesus Christ and that we do worship Him. It's amazing what some people believe without finding out for themselves. On Sunday my companion and I had to go to a big meeting to represent the missionaries so we could plan for it. I really hope it helps because we do get a lot of people who tell us that we are not Christian or who have heard something bad about the church and so they won't listen to us.
Okay here's individual messages. Paige I still need to hear your story about you going to Idaho. You can send that one to me directly so you can tell me all the details;) And don't worry, College gets better. Just keep yourself motivated and set goals and plans and stick to them. Find out when you study best and study at that time everyday, that was one tip I received from a couple missionary who did a lot of research on study. And Byron please keep me updated on this girl so I can have some influence. I don't mind if you get married to her, I'm just going to prolong it so I can be there:) Just kidding, but send a picture if you're able to. Thanks. And Harry Potter 6 is out! Man, I wonder if I'll see the 7th in theaters. Just keep the theater till I come home so one night we can rent them and watch them on the big screen. And o my goodness so many people are getting married. I don't it has really hit me yet but I think my friends will be cut in half when I go home. And Dad there are carbon tipped drills and didn't Han Solo get freezed into carbon (carbon freezing?) anyways that could be a fun one.
Thank you so much for all your hard work to write me letters. I know it's not easy.
Love you a million midnight showings,
Elder Mackay
I love being able to read you emails first before I write mine because it inspires me so much and puts me at a more cheerful mood. Thank you so much for your encouragement because this was the week that I needed it. For some reason this week was a tougher one and it put me down a little bit to the point where I asked, like you said Matt, would I spiritually survive. Most all of our appointments cancelled, leading out the area is tougher than I thought, having a new companion changes everything, and all of it mixed together just puts me way out of my comfort zone. So hearing your words really helps me to know that it will be alright and that I really am on the right path.
But I don't mean to complain because we still had a great week. Maybe not all of the things went perfect and maybe there were a couple of disasters but looking back on it, it all turned out alright. My favorite part was getting three separate families to church on Sunday. I want to also mention Renald and Deepa. They have been investigating since January and just now they are really progressing. We got Renald on his way to be tobacco free, they are both reading the Book of Mormon together, and we almost got them committed to a baptism date. Renald just wants to make sure that he quits tobacco before commiting to a date. Only one obstacle left to remain: the parents. A few weeks ago I learned that Renalds parents live right above him on the second floor and I was a little bit nervous about what they think about the church and how much of an effect that will have on Renald. Renald talked to us about baptism and he said he wanted to but he would need to inform his family first. He sounded really confident that everything would be alright so we'll just pray for the best. He is definitely doing the right thing by informing his family, especially as that will open up the door for more potential missionary work. President Nichols always tells us "parents are not the enemies, they are potential investigators". It's hard to see that at the moment but the Lord has a plan and timetable for everything so we'll just wait and see.
Elder Korrayya and I are getting along great. I'm pretty lucky to have had some time before getting a native companion because 1. I can understand him now after having my ear accustomed to Indian accents, and 2. I know the culture better so I know what to talk about with him. But the problem is he has a tough time understanding me. The truth is Elder Korrayya didn't understand English before his mission, he tells that to everyone he sees and I know its true because when he came on his mission I couldn't tell if he was speaking English or Telugu. He's learned a lot by now and although he still stumbles he can get his thoughts out. It's really fun though to teach him English, and we have a blast. The other day I was helping his pronunciation so we sang an old pre-school song, the one that teaches all the vowels, it goes "I like to ate, ate, ate apples and bananaes...I like to eat, eat, eat apples and banenees" and so forth. He really enjoyed it and sometimes as we are finding we'll sing it.
I also learned a lot from him about Indian culture. Now I have a native companion at my disposal to ask any questions. I've learned a lot about the relationship between men and women in India, Hinduism and even circumcision...mostly I taught him about that.
We've had some exciting news, we're going to be holding a open house in August to give tours to the church building. If you haven't seen the picture, the church building is big and white, but not many people know it's a church because there's no picture or cross on it. Even worse many rumors are spread around that we are Satan's church and that we don't worship Jesus Christ. Well to absolve all doubts we are holding a grand open house on Indian Independance Day and we're advertising it through pass along cards and newspaper ads. Even two weeks before we're releasing an article about the church and our beliefs. The focus of the open house will be to show people that we are a church of Jesus Christ and that we do worship Him. It's amazing what some people believe without finding out for themselves. On Sunday my companion and I had to go to a big meeting to represent the missionaries so we could plan for it. I really hope it helps because we do get a lot of people who tell us that we are not Christian or who have heard something bad about the church and so they won't listen to us.
Okay here's individual messages. Paige I still need to hear your story about you going to Idaho. You can send that one to me directly so you can tell me all the details;) And don't worry, College gets better. Just keep yourself motivated and set goals and plans and stick to them. Find out when you study best and study at that time everyday, that was one tip I received from a couple missionary who did a lot of research on study. And Byron please keep me updated on this girl so I can have some influence. I don't mind if you get married to her, I'm just going to prolong it so I can be there:) Just kidding, but send a picture if you're able to. Thanks. And Harry Potter 6 is out! Man, I wonder if I'll see the 7th in theaters. Just keep the theater till I come home so one night we can rent them and watch them on the big screen. And o my goodness so many people are getting married. I don't it has really hit me yet but I think my friends will be cut in half when I go home. And Dad there are carbon tipped drills and didn't Han Solo get freezed into carbon (carbon freezing?) anyways that could be a fun one.
Thank you so much for all your hard work to write me letters. I know it's not easy.
Love you a million midnight showings,
Elder Mackay
New Companion - July 7, 2009
Just finished picking up Elder Korraya. He's a great guy and I feel we're going to get along great. Hope everything is doing well with you.
Love
Curtis
Good Evening, Morning, and Afternoon (depending on where you are),
My morning today was bitter-sweet. I lost Elder Smith to Erode but I got Elder Korraya now. And good news, Elder Korraya can ride cycles. He's actually been riding them for a few months in another area and it seems he likes it more than walking which I can imagine. He doesn't have a clubbed foot like I thought he had but he has polio sadly. But it doesn't seem to get his spirits down. He was so warm and happy to see me and I him. His English is a lot better than I remember it being at the beginning of his mission but I have to make sure I don't break mine so I can bring him up to the next level.
We have our work cut out for us. We have plenty of families and referrals we need to integrate into the branch that are progressing fairly well up to this point. There is the Francis family who we met on Friday with the first counselor of the Branch presidency, president Charles. Charles did the most wonderful interpretation of the plan of salvation, listing every piece of important doctrine with promised blessings. He put it in such a simple and easy way to understand, and in perfect English (Charles is the official church translator for English to Tamil and he knows both languages pretty darn well). After the lesson he talked with the family about music and told how he was the former organ player for a local Roman Catholic church and he told us "Elders you can go home, I'll take care of it from here." Well I just love to hear those words. Francis came the Sunday alone because his daughter had school in the morning so his wife went to go get her and he came to church. He came for the first two hours and loved it so much that he told us he would change his daughter's school timings so they all could come to church.
We have a very interesting situation with a few families. Last week I think I told about how we met two brothers and a sister in one home. Well we met with each of their respective families and on Sunday one member from each family came to church for a certain period of time. To make things easier to explain I'll list the names of the families. There is (oldest brother) Poopathi's family, (sister) Punitha's family, and (youngest brother) Stanley's family. Stanley and Poopathi's son, Rahul, came to testimony meeting. They both loved it so much. I talke with Rahul later and he said "Your church is so amazing. I've never seen a church like that before. Thank you so much for inviting me, I'll definitely come again next week." Punitha's family made a small visit for five minutes so we showed them around a little bit. Punitha's children loved the church so much that they may be the reason for them coming back next week. I've been really excited for these three families and also a little nervous. I feel like the situation is so good that some opposition is on the verge of happening. But we'll stay strong, work hard and involve the members in our efforts.
On Sunday we had some great news. I went to the Priesthood Executive Committe on Sunday and the branch presidency told us that for the past four months they've been focusing on the less active members of the branch and haven't gotten anywhere with them. So they decided after much prayer that they would leave the less active responsibility to the Elders Quorum and focus the most part of their efforts on missionary work. My heart flipped when I heard this. We have such an amazing presidency, and their spirit and authority is going to move our investigators. So the plan is set and the work will go forward. I hope to have some good pictures of many baptisms to send home:)
Just to make the week that much more spiritual we had an amazing testimony meeting. The members have had so many difficult yet great trials. They ranged from financial problems, family problems, down to the sincere question of if there was a God. But I was able to see, hear and feel the power of the gospel that has blessed these people's lives. There is one Anglo-Indian sister, Teresa, who got up and shared about how much she had to fight her way into the church. Before she never knew the gospel even though she was Roman Catholic but her sister introduced her to the church and after almost a year of family and personal struggles she was finally baptized and confirmed a member. It's so great to hear testimonies of the gospel proclaimed when the rest of the world tries to push it in the attics of their minds.
Well I love all of you so much. Thank you so much for your prayers. Jen I hope a week without Matt around wasn't(isn't?) too horrible. And Paige I can't wait to hear from you. College is a blast but just be careful as finals come up. You don't want to be caught empty handed, or I should say empty brain-dead, when the exams are passed out. As for not having the name-tags in the auto picture, we were in Bangalore and there you have to take off your nametags when you go outside. If you serve there one companion will have to wear a colored shirt a neither can wear ties outside. They're just safety precautions but the work is still going on there so there's not too much hinderance.
Love you a million bright faced companions,
Elder Mackay
Oh yeah and I forgot to tell you about the rain. So far so good, there hasn't been much more than a few sprinkles here and there. Definitely though when it gets heavier, we'll be using less cycles (and hopefully more members will feel sorry for us and take us in their cars:)
Hugs and love
Love
Curtis
Good Evening, Morning, and Afternoon (depending on where you are),
My morning today was bitter-sweet. I lost Elder Smith to Erode but I got Elder Korraya now. And good news, Elder Korraya can ride cycles. He's actually been riding them for a few months in another area and it seems he likes it more than walking which I can imagine. He doesn't have a clubbed foot like I thought he had but he has polio sadly. But it doesn't seem to get his spirits down. He was so warm and happy to see me and I him. His English is a lot better than I remember it being at the beginning of his mission but I have to make sure I don't break mine so I can bring him up to the next level.
We have our work cut out for us. We have plenty of families and referrals we need to integrate into the branch that are progressing fairly well up to this point. There is the Francis family who we met on Friday with the first counselor of the Branch presidency, president Charles. Charles did the most wonderful interpretation of the plan of salvation, listing every piece of important doctrine with promised blessings. He put it in such a simple and easy way to understand, and in perfect English (Charles is the official church translator for English to Tamil and he knows both languages pretty darn well). After the lesson he talked with the family about music and told how he was the former organ player for a local Roman Catholic church and he told us "Elders you can go home, I'll take care of it from here." Well I just love to hear those words. Francis came the Sunday alone because his daughter had school in the morning so his wife went to go get her and he came to church. He came for the first two hours and loved it so much that he told us he would change his daughter's school timings so they all could come to church.
We have a very interesting situation with a few families. Last week I think I told about how we met two brothers and a sister in one home. Well we met with each of their respective families and on Sunday one member from each family came to church for a certain period of time. To make things easier to explain I'll list the names of the families. There is (oldest brother) Poopathi's family, (sister) Punitha's family, and (youngest brother) Stanley's family. Stanley and Poopathi's son, Rahul, came to testimony meeting. They both loved it so much. I talke with Rahul later and he said "Your church is so amazing. I've never seen a church like that before. Thank you so much for inviting me, I'll definitely come again next week." Punitha's family made a small visit for five minutes so we showed them around a little bit. Punitha's children loved the church so much that they may be the reason for them coming back next week. I've been really excited for these three families and also a little nervous. I feel like the situation is so good that some opposition is on the verge of happening. But we'll stay strong, work hard and involve the members in our efforts.
On Sunday we had some great news. I went to the Priesthood Executive Committe on Sunday and the branch presidency told us that for the past four months they've been focusing on the less active members of the branch and haven't gotten anywhere with them. So they decided after much prayer that they would leave the less active responsibility to the Elders Quorum and focus the most part of their efforts on missionary work. My heart flipped when I heard this. We have such an amazing presidency, and their spirit and authority is going to move our investigators. So the plan is set and the work will go forward. I hope to have some good pictures of many baptisms to send home:)
Just to make the week that much more spiritual we had an amazing testimony meeting. The members have had so many difficult yet great trials. They ranged from financial problems, family problems, down to the sincere question of if there was a God. But I was able to see, hear and feel the power of the gospel that has blessed these people's lives. There is one Anglo-Indian sister, Teresa, who got up and shared about how much she had to fight her way into the church. Before she never knew the gospel even though she was Roman Catholic but her sister introduced her to the church and after almost a year of family and personal struggles she was finally baptized and confirmed a member. It's so great to hear testimonies of the gospel proclaimed when the rest of the world tries to push it in the attics of their minds.
Well I love all of you so much. Thank you so much for your prayers. Jen I hope a week without Matt around wasn't(isn't?) too horrible. And Paige I can't wait to hear from you. College is a blast but just be careful as finals come up. You don't want to be caught empty handed, or I should say empty brain-dead, when the exams are passed out. As for not having the name-tags in the auto picture, we were in Bangalore and there you have to take off your nametags when you go outside. If you serve there one companion will have to wear a colored shirt a neither can wear ties outside. They're just safety precautions but the work is still going on there so there's not too much hinderance.
Love you a million bright faced companions,
Elder Mackay
Oh yeah and I forgot to tell you about the rain. So far so good, there hasn't been much more than a few sprinkles here and there. Definitely though when it gets heavier, we'll be using less cycles (and hopefully more members will feel sorry for us and take us in their cars:)
Hugs and love
No interesting subject Sorry - June 30, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well we had emergency transfers because we have a batch going home mid transfer and Elder Smith will be leaving me after such a short time. I was just barely getting to know him too. My new companion will be Elder Korraya and he will be my first native companion. I know Elder Korraya because we were in the same zone in Hyderabad. He came in one batch after me and he is a really sweet guy. His English is not very good though and he has a clubbed foot but he is so humble that those challenges don't stop him. I haven't seen him in a long time so it will be cool to see how much he has progressed since we both started our missions together.
On Sunday I was really sad because we didn't get anyone to church and for someone reason everyone gave the same excuse that they were out of town. It just seemed to be a series of unfortunate events. After church all of our appointments canceled on us and we were scrambling to find something to do. We did a little bit of tracting but didn't find anyone than we went back to the church to meet a last minute appointment we made. The guy was told us he would meet us at the church at 5:30 but when we got there he said 6:00. We took the opportunity to meet and talk with the Branch President and receive some assignments from him. After that we called the guy back and he again postponed to 6:30. We waited for a little bit, tried calling him back and he didn't answer so we just left. We were both really frustrated at this point and we didn't know what to do or where to go because the places where we wanted to go were too far out and it was too late. I said a prayer at the bustand and asked what we should do. Immediately after I said my prayer and man about 24 years old came up to us and asked us what we were doing. We quickly explained and he introduced himself as Charles and asked us if we wanted to meet his family. We jumped on it like a child jumps on a trampoline. We caught the next bus and took a 15 minute busride to his home. We met his Father, Mother and Sister and we shared with them the restoration. Interestingly enough the Father seemed more interested than the son, usually from what I've seen the younger people accept the restored gospel much faster than the older generation. But we got a return appointment (which people here are reluctant to give for some reason. In Rajahmundry it was easy) and then we were on our way.
Monday was a little bit better. I first finished my registration and mailed off my passport and regristration papers to Bangalore. I didn't want to say earlier in case it wasn't such a big deal but I had some problem registering into Coimbatore and they were giving me a lot of grief over not having a paper. Unfortunately the India Foreign Registration Office is not very organized and the city which I came from did things differently from Coimbatore and Coimbatore didn't like that and tried to put the blame on me. But one letter to the comissioner solved that so now I'm on my way.
That night we met Renald and Deepa. We had a great lesson where we taught the ten commandments. It's funny how the ten commandments is one of the most universal beliefs among most religions and yet people do not understand or even know what they are or how to follow them. We focused on the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament and Renald (who missed church the last Sunday) said "Well I told you I can't make it next Sunday because my work is having a huge anniversary that I'm in charge of but I have to come and take the sacrament". What a star! His wife Deepa is much more amazing. If it were up to her, they would have both been baptized by now. But slowly and surely they're making progress.
I had a pretty cool finding experience yesterday. Elder Smith and I were tracting all afternoon and we were running thin on time and we hadn't found anyone yet. Our legs were very tired but we were trying to pump each other up and keep a good attitude. As we were walking down our last street we noticed a Christian home and we knocked on it. Inside we found 6 people that made up parts three individual families. Actually they were all family techinically. A Sister and two brothers were all meeting together with some of the their kids and they were just having a good time playing games (can someone say family home evening). We came to the door and they told us to get in--that seems to be happening more and more frequently. We got to know them and we met Stanley, Punitha, and Poopathi (hehe). Each had their own families. We also met three of the kids: Alexander, Francis and Rahul. It was a strange situation but we made the best of it. We taught them the restoration and it seemed to click pretty well. The amazing part is that we got return appointments with the individual families at their homes on different times. It was quite a feat to organize. But I can just see this whole family come into the church and be one of those power house LDS families. The hard part is now we have to meet their spouses, that's always a bother because usually one will accept and the other will be hesistant makes a strong influence on the other. But we will bring our spiritual blow torch on them and give them the spirit.
Well I better get going and read your letters. I'm trying my best to get the pictures on here but for some reason the computer is being really stupid and not reading my SD card. I'll keep trying though.
Love you a million moments when the computer works the first time,
Elder Mackay
This one of us glowing is a cool trick we found in Golconda fort in one of the dungeons. The light coming down from the ceiling makes you look like an alien in the camera
Schools out for summer - June 24, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
First family business: Paige, I am so glad you are having a great time at BYU. Make the most of it because it does go by fast. And Matt, at the start of your letter I thought it was Dad writing and I scrolled down really fast to see it was you...so I guess you fill Dad's shoes pretty nicely. I almost got tears in my eyes when you told me about Reese being sick. I don't know what it will be like when it's one of my children having to go through that. And as for you Dad, losing weight, huh? Well if you can't do it this summer than definitely the next because you might be my only workout partner when I get home. Sorry I haven't sent pictures in a while. I am sending home a CD that should get there by next weekend. But tomorrow I will be going to the Mission Home for our interviews and they said they will have two computers there for us to email on if we haven't emailed yet so I'll send some pics that way.
Well we had an amazing Zone Conference. The theme was recognizing the Spirit. We talked about the difference between revelation and inspiration and how we can receive and recognize the spirit. President Nichols made an interesting point: The speed at which prayers are answered varies with the importance of the request. He said we have to be more patient, and the reason why we are not patient is because we are simply unexperienced and childish. He compared it to how a young child is always looking forward to their birthday. The child will always ask their parent "is it my birthday yet?" a the mom or dad will usually respond "no we just had your birthday you have to wait nine more months". The mom won't give in and celebrate her child's birthday again just because he's begging for it. Instead she makes the child wait until the proper timing. Basically we too often request certain things and think that they are important enough that we get the answer right away but God in His wisdom prolongs and waits for the proper time to answer our prayers. Simple fact but interesting.
This past week was pretty wonderful. We found two new families at odd times of the day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. But for some reason the families were home and both are great. One, George Anthony and Agnus Rose are CSI (Church of South India) members and they soaked up the message pretty well...well George did, Agnus doesn't speak English. George is retired from the Air Force and is now a lecturer for Aeronautical Engineering at a local College. He speaks great English and on our last visit he said he was really interested in the Book of Mormon and wanted to read it for himself. This was before we told him of the promise in Moroni, and after we told that he said he would definitely pray about it.
The second family was a pretty miraculous find, not for the manner of finding them but for their present situation. It was a young couple Lukas and Nivedhana. We were walking down some dirt roads in a poorer area and we hear a woman's voice "hello who are you?" We look over and see Nivedhana. We tell her we are from the Church and she said "great, get in". We were taken aback by her accent, it was almost british, and you don't argue with someone with that good of English. So in we went a we met her Husband. Ironically both are Hindu by birth, despite Lukas' name but them and Lukas' family was looking to convert into Christianity. Lukas and Nivedhana are two month old newly weds, they just moved into Coimbatore after their marriage, Lukas speaks great English and Nivedhana's first language it English, followed by Hindi then Tamil. What a perfect family to bring the gospel to!
Elder Smith and I were amazed at the findings and we remembered the prayer we offered on Monday during our weekly planning session. We picked out three areas where we wanted to go finding and we submitted our decision in prayer to Heavenly Father and requested His help in finding the families we needed to find. Well, Byron I have to throw my hat off for you, you told me there was a big difference between doing something, and praying and doing something. I have a sure testimony of that.
The new area is pretty beautiful but I don't have very many pictures of it yet except for the church building. It's a massive building! It will be the future stake center when India gets stakes but it looks more like a mini temple. Unfortunately we get some pretty nasty rumors about what goes on inside the church. Many people in the area call it Satan's church and other say we worship the devil inside. It's ironic because the first thing you see when you go inside is a picture of Christ inviting the Rich Man to follow him. I guess it's reminder that you have to swallow your pride if you want to come into the church. The Branch President wants to really change the public appeal of the church. Right now he's working on getting his friend to publish a newspaper article about the church.
At church this Sunday we had Renald, Deepa and Daphne come. Renald is a medical transcript worker and Deepa is a brand new mother with their three month child Daphne. Daphne was a steal after Sacrament meeting as the whole relief society piled in rows around the baby. We also had Binny, a young man doing his studies, come along with his friend Godwin. Both of them are a little immature and the texting craze is just as strong in India as it is in America so they were just texting during church. I wanted to scold them but they were far away from me and I decided to do it later. We were also surprised by a visit from Nathan and Jyothi. They only stayed for forty minutes but they are an old Roman Catholic couple. I never thought in a thousand years they would ever set foot in the church but I guess I was wrong. They really enjoyed Sacrament and found they had plenty of old neighbors and distant relatives in the branch. So it seems we have them interested. Nathan even said he would come to church every other week, which was music to my ears.
Had a little bit of a scary experience the other day. Elder Smith was mergin lanes on his cycle and as he was going a lady tried to dash by him on his right side. He didn't see her, she didn't honk her horn, nor did she brake so they locked up and fell over. They skidded a few feet and kicked up the dust pretty good. To me it looked like a slow motion action shot from a movie. I quickly pulled off to the side and got to the crash site but already a mob of tamilians beat me to it. Suddenly the mob was surrounding us yelling every which way in Tamil. Finally an English speaker came to translate for us and explained that the lady wanted us to pay for the damages. Her bike was fine and all she had was a few scrapes but I was worried that we would get tied in some legal situation. I called Sister Nichols to see what I should do but as I was talking to her I guess the lady decided it wasn't worth her time because she drove off. So we got off pretty good. Elder Smith's pants were a little chewed up but other than that he and his cycle amazingly enough were completely fine.
There is only one more thing I need to talk about. I wasn't able to talk about him much because the day I wrote about him the computer crashed. I had an investigator in Rajahmundry who we were teaching for about five weeks. The week before I left Elder Loomis and I challenged to set a baptism date for June 28th and then to pray about it and ask God if he should be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on that day. He was hesistant to take a baptism date before but this time he agreed. I wasn't sure how committed he was but we left him for a week making small visits but nothing major. On my last Monday we went back to his house and asked him if he had received an answer. He cracked a small smile and said "yes brothers, I will be baptized!". Hallelujah! Both Elder Loomis and my mouths dropped and soon enough he brought out chicken curry and chapati for us to eat. It was one of the cooler experiences on my mission, but sadly I had to leave before his baptism. But I just got an email from Elder Loomis confirming that Efraim was baptized and is now a strong celestial member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Now they're just working on his wife Mary:)
I have to get going and Sri Lanka is in the Bangalore mission, it used to be Singapore but changed about a year ago. But no missionary is in Sri Lanka except for a set of couple missionaries (we're having visa problems but we're trying to get missionaries back in right now). The couple is doing an awesome job. They are baptizing more converts than two of the zones in the mission. That's pretty impressive. The Church is true, what more can I say.
Love you a million spiritually confirmed testimonies,
Elder Mackay
First family business: Paige, I am so glad you are having a great time at BYU. Make the most of it because it does go by fast. And Matt, at the start of your letter I thought it was Dad writing and I scrolled down really fast to see it was you...so I guess you fill Dad's shoes pretty nicely. I almost got tears in my eyes when you told me about Reese being sick. I don't know what it will be like when it's one of my children having to go through that. And as for you Dad, losing weight, huh? Well if you can't do it this summer than definitely the next because you might be my only workout partner when I get home. Sorry I haven't sent pictures in a while. I am sending home a CD that should get there by next weekend. But tomorrow I will be going to the Mission Home for our interviews and they said they will have two computers there for us to email on if we haven't emailed yet so I'll send some pics that way.
Well we had an amazing Zone Conference. The theme was recognizing the Spirit. We talked about the difference between revelation and inspiration and how we can receive and recognize the spirit. President Nichols made an interesting point: The speed at which prayers are answered varies with the importance of the request. He said we have to be more patient, and the reason why we are not patient is because we are simply unexperienced and childish. He compared it to how a young child is always looking forward to their birthday. The child will always ask their parent "is it my birthday yet?" a the mom or dad will usually respond "no we just had your birthday you have to wait nine more months". The mom won't give in and celebrate her child's birthday again just because he's begging for it. Instead she makes the child wait until the proper timing. Basically we too often request certain things and think that they are important enough that we get the answer right away but God in His wisdom prolongs and waits for the proper time to answer our prayers. Simple fact but interesting.
This past week was pretty wonderful. We found two new families at odd times of the day, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. But for some reason the families were home and both are great. One, George Anthony and Agnus Rose are CSI (Church of South India) members and they soaked up the message pretty well...well George did, Agnus doesn't speak English. George is retired from the Air Force and is now a lecturer for Aeronautical Engineering at a local College. He speaks great English and on our last visit he said he was really interested in the Book of Mormon and wanted to read it for himself. This was before we told him of the promise in Moroni, and after we told that he said he would definitely pray about it.
The second family was a pretty miraculous find, not for the manner of finding them but for their present situation. It was a young couple Lukas and Nivedhana. We were walking down some dirt roads in a poorer area and we hear a woman's voice "hello who are you?" We look over and see Nivedhana. We tell her we are from the Church and she said "great, get in". We were taken aback by her accent, it was almost british, and you don't argue with someone with that good of English. So in we went a we met her Husband. Ironically both are Hindu by birth, despite Lukas' name but them and Lukas' family was looking to convert into Christianity. Lukas and Nivedhana are two month old newly weds, they just moved into Coimbatore after their marriage, Lukas speaks great English and Nivedhana's first language it English, followed by Hindi then Tamil. What a perfect family to bring the gospel to!
Elder Smith and I were amazed at the findings and we remembered the prayer we offered on Monday during our weekly planning session. We picked out three areas where we wanted to go finding and we submitted our decision in prayer to Heavenly Father and requested His help in finding the families we needed to find. Well, Byron I have to throw my hat off for you, you told me there was a big difference between doing something, and praying and doing something. I have a sure testimony of that.
The new area is pretty beautiful but I don't have very many pictures of it yet except for the church building. It's a massive building! It will be the future stake center when India gets stakes but it looks more like a mini temple. Unfortunately we get some pretty nasty rumors about what goes on inside the church. Many people in the area call it Satan's church and other say we worship the devil inside. It's ironic because the first thing you see when you go inside is a picture of Christ inviting the Rich Man to follow him. I guess it's reminder that you have to swallow your pride if you want to come into the church. The Branch President wants to really change the public appeal of the church. Right now he's working on getting his friend to publish a newspaper article about the church.
At church this Sunday we had Renald, Deepa and Daphne come. Renald is a medical transcript worker and Deepa is a brand new mother with their three month child Daphne. Daphne was a steal after Sacrament meeting as the whole relief society piled in rows around the baby. We also had Binny, a young man doing his studies, come along with his friend Godwin. Both of them are a little immature and the texting craze is just as strong in India as it is in America so they were just texting during church. I wanted to scold them but they were far away from me and I decided to do it later. We were also surprised by a visit from Nathan and Jyothi. They only stayed for forty minutes but they are an old Roman Catholic couple. I never thought in a thousand years they would ever set foot in the church but I guess I was wrong. They really enjoyed Sacrament and found they had plenty of old neighbors and distant relatives in the branch. So it seems we have them interested. Nathan even said he would come to church every other week, which was music to my ears.
Had a little bit of a scary experience the other day. Elder Smith was mergin lanes on his cycle and as he was going a lady tried to dash by him on his right side. He didn't see her, she didn't honk her horn, nor did she brake so they locked up and fell over. They skidded a few feet and kicked up the dust pretty good. To me it looked like a slow motion action shot from a movie. I quickly pulled off to the side and got to the crash site but already a mob of tamilians beat me to it. Suddenly the mob was surrounding us yelling every which way in Tamil. Finally an English speaker came to translate for us and explained that the lady wanted us to pay for the damages. Her bike was fine and all she had was a few scrapes but I was worried that we would get tied in some legal situation. I called Sister Nichols to see what I should do but as I was talking to her I guess the lady decided it wasn't worth her time because she drove off. So we got off pretty good. Elder Smith's pants were a little chewed up but other than that he and his cycle amazingly enough were completely fine.
There is only one more thing I need to talk about. I wasn't able to talk about him much because the day I wrote about him the computer crashed. I had an investigator in Rajahmundry who we were teaching for about five weeks. The week before I left Elder Loomis and I challenged to set a baptism date for June 28th and then to pray about it and ask God if he should be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on that day. He was hesistant to take a baptism date before but this time he agreed. I wasn't sure how committed he was but we left him for a week making small visits but nothing major. On my last Monday we went back to his house and asked him if he had received an answer. He cracked a small smile and said "yes brothers, I will be baptized!". Hallelujah! Both Elder Loomis and my mouths dropped and soon enough he brought out chicken curry and chapati for us to eat. It was one of the cooler experiences on my mission, but sadly I had to leave before his baptism. But I just got an email from Elder Loomis confirming that Efraim was baptized and is now a strong celestial member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Now they're just working on his wife Mary:)
I have to get going and Sri Lanka is in the Bangalore mission, it used to be Singapore but changed about a year ago. But no missionary is in Sri Lanka except for a set of couple missionaries (we're having visa problems but we're trying to get missionaries back in right now). The couple is doing an awesome job. They are baptizing more converts than two of the zones in the mission. That's pretty impressive. The Church is true, what more can I say.
Love you a million spiritually confirmed testimonies,
Elder Mackay
I've come to the Garden of Eden - June 16, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well I made it to coimbatore and it is a wonderful place. The heat difference is about 10 degrees celsius from Rajahmundry so I've been enjoying even the hottest of afternoons. It is really beautiful here, probably even more than Rajahmundry but it is definitely more crowded. The streets can get pretty thin, buildings pack up the area, and there are no hills so you don't see the horizon very often. But when you do get to a farming area it is beautiful to see. And there are plenty of trees and shrubs to make the area very pretty. And they have pizza hut and dominoes here! Right now I'm trying to convince my companion to go but he says it's too expensive, I say eat, drink and be merry;)
Speaking of companions, my new companion is Elder Smith. He is from Idaho and he comes from a family of 14! He is the oldest boy with two older sisters but he is the first in his family to serve a mission. A very nice and humble guy, and he teaches really well too. He has told me he worries a lot, at from what I have seen so far that's true but I just laugh when he worries and sing Bob Marley to him. At the beginning it was a little rough because we had very few good investigators so we spent a lot of time finding and the appointments we did have seemed to cancel on us. One thing I don't like about Coimbatore is the schedule everyone has. Everyone who is free is uneducated and doesn't speak English and everyone who speaks English works at some corporate job and works from 7am to 9pm. I know that sounds ridiculous and I can't believe that someone works that much at one job every day with only one day off a week. But amazingly enough we found some people to teach and we started to progress with some of the investigators we had already.
Another and probably the bigger challenge is getting members to come with us to appointments. In Rajahmundry it was very easy to have members come with us and it was suprising if we had a lesson without a member. But here with everyone's busy work schedule it's harder to schedule lessons with members present. But we're making do and our goal is to get one member with us to an appointment every day. Yesterday we brought a recent convert young man to two appointments and he did great so hopefully this is just the start to some awesome member fellowship.
I know this area has a lot of potential. In the Coimbatore branch there has been 26 baptisms already, 11 of them on the same day. There are a lot of families to teach and people speak a lot better English here so language will not be a factor. The elders before were really hard workers too. The area is really big and it takes a lot of cycling to get to appointments (by the way I'm still cycling and the cycles are so much better here!) so you have to go really fast...in a safe manner of course. And the people seem to be a little more hesitant to meet with the elders than Rajahmundry but nevertheless I looked at the numbers and the elders are finding just as many, if not more new investigators every week.
Right now we have a great newly wed couple we're working with, Renald and Deepa. They have a newborn baby and the elders met them at the beginning of the year. We met with them on Monday and had a taught them about baptism. We asked them to set a goal date for baptism in July but Renald was hesitant and didn't accept. They both said that they wanted to be baptized but they wanted to be absolutely sure that they were doing the right thing. Also Renald wants to be completely ready and sure he won't go back to his former ways. For him the Word of Wisdom is his biggest stumbling block but from what I've heard he is doing a lot better now than he was doing before. He already quit tea and coffee and just the other day he went to a party and didn't drink. Now he's just working on his tobacco addiction and he'll be home free.
It's been quite the experience so far and the district here is great. We have the zone leaders as well as the sisters in our district and let me tell you it was weird following up with the sisters at night. They are the only sisters left in the mission because all the Indian Sisters now are being called state side, which is a really cool thing. One of the sisters, Sister Yadav, is sick right now though with a stomach infection so were hoping she gets better soon and doesn't need surgery. Luckily they are in a threesome so one of the sisters goes on splits all day with one of the members while the other two stay inside, so at least the work still moves forward.
The Zone Leaders are a funny pair. Paige you would love Elder Hullinger. He is an amazing piano player. Apparently you can see a video of him on Youtube playing the piano in the MTC so check it out. But he's also a very femmy kind of guy. He would fit in as a host for what not to wear. Than there is Elder Valluri who is from Rajahmundry so we talk about how good Andra food, how nice Raj is, and how Tamilnadu doesn't know anything about taste. Elder Hullinger said I'm Indian because Elder Valluri made us dal and rice and I ate a portion three times as much Elder Hullinger.
Anyways I better get going and read your letter. I'm glad that you are safe Mom and please take care of yourself.
Love you a million cool breezes,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Baker, Huh Dustin? Well I agree that the other destinations are cool but I think I have to shake my head at the last one. So i guess since Paige went on a date with Elliott he has been released and won't go back out or is there still a chance? Thank you so much for your letters, I love every little bit of it. Eat some Texas Doughnuts for me will ya? Love ya
Well I made it to coimbatore and it is a wonderful place. The heat difference is about 10 degrees celsius from Rajahmundry so I've been enjoying even the hottest of afternoons. It is really beautiful here, probably even more than Rajahmundry but it is definitely more crowded. The streets can get pretty thin, buildings pack up the area, and there are no hills so you don't see the horizon very often. But when you do get to a farming area it is beautiful to see. And there are plenty of trees and shrubs to make the area very pretty. And they have pizza hut and dominoes here! Right now I'm trying to convince my companion to go but he says it's too expensive, I say eat, drink and be merry;)
Speaking of companions, my new companion is Elder Smith. He is from Idaho and he comes from a family of 14! He is the oldest boy with two older sisters but he is the first in his family to serve a mission. A very nice and humble guy, and he teaches really well too. He has told me he worries a lot, at from what I have seen so far that's true but I just laugh when he worries and sing Bob Marley to him. At the beginning it was a little rough because we had very few good investigators so we spent a lot of time finding and the appointments we did have seemed to cancel on us. One thing I don't like about Coimbatore is the schedule everyone has. Everyone who is free is uneducated and doesn't speak English and everyone who speaks English works at some corporate job and works from 7am to 9pm. I know that sounds ridiculous and I can't believe that someone works that much at one job every day with only one day off a week. But amazingly enough we found some people to teach and we started to progress with some of the investigators we had already.
Another and probably the bigger challenge is getting members to come with us to appointments. In Rajahmundry it was very easy to have members come with us and it was suprising if we had a lesson without a member. But here with everyone's busy work schedule it's harder to schedule lessons with members present. But we're making do and our goal is to get one member with us to an appointment every day. Yesterday we brought a recent convert young man to two appointments and he did great so hopefully this is just the start to some awesome member fellowship.
I know this area has a lot of potential. In the Coimbatore branch there has been 26 baptisms already, 11 of them on the same day. There are a lot of families to teach and people speak a lot better English here so language will not be a factor. The elders before were really hard workers too. The area is really big and it takes a lot of cycling to get to appointments (by the way I'm still cycling and the cycles are so much better here!) so you have to go really fast...in a safe manner of course. And the people seem to be a little more hesitant to meet with the elders than Rajahmundry but nevertheless I looked at the numbers and the elders are finding just as many, if not more new investigators every week.
Right now we have a great newly wed couple we're working with, Renald and Deepa. They have a newborn baby and the elders met them at the beginning of the year. We met with them on Monday and had a taught them about baptism. We asked them to set a goal date for baptism in July but Renald was hesitant and didn't accept. They both said that they wanted to be baptized but they wanted to be absolutely sure that they were doing the right thing. Also Renald wants to be completely ready and sure he won't go back to his former ways. For him the Word of Wisdom is his biggest stumbling block but from what I've heard he is doing a lot better now than he was doing before. He already quit tea and coffee and just the other day he went to a party and didn't drink. Now he's just working on his tobacco addiction and he'll be home free.
It's been quite the experience so far and the district here is great. We have the zone leaders as well as the sisters in our district and let me tell you it was weird following up with the sisters at night. They are the only sisters left in the mission because all the Indian Sisters now are being called state side, which is a really cool thing. One of the sisters, Sister Yadav, is sick right now though with a stomach infection so were hoping she gets better soon and doesn't need surgery. Luckily they are in a threesome so one of the sisters goes on splits all day with one of the members while the other two stay inside, so at least the work still moves forward.
The Zone Leaders are a funny pair. Paige you would love Elder Hullinger. He is an amazing piano player. Apparently you can see a video of him on Youtube playing the piano in the MTC so check it out. But he's also a very femmy kind of guy. He would fit in as a host for what not to wear. Than there is Elder Valluri who is from Rajahmundry so we talk about how good Andra food, how nice Raj is, and how Tamilnadu doesn't know anything about taste. Elder Hullinger said I'm Indian because Elder Valluri made us dal and rice and I ate a portion three times as much Elder Hullinger.
Anyways I better get going and read your letter. I'm glad that you are safe Mom and please take care of yourself.
Love you a million cool breezes,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Baker, Huh Dustin? Well I agree that the other destinations are cool but I think I have to shake my head at the last one. So i guess since Paige went on a date with Elliott he has been released and won't go back out or is there still a chance? Thank you so much for your letters, I love every little bit of it. Eat some Texas Doughnuts for me will ya? Love ya
Hyderabad is great - June 3, 2009
Hello Family and Friends,
Well I'm in Hyderabad for zone conference and what I think is the closest to a vacation that a missionary will get. I feel great being in my old area and visiting all the people again. Today we had an amazing P-day: We went to the tombs of Muslim kings, went to Golconda fort, and ended with a wonderfully delicious meal at the marriot hotel buffet (an expensive meal is 200-300 rupees...This one was 900 and worth every bit).
But the Zone Conference was definitely the highlight. Matt, I think I found my disruptive innovation. President Nichols gave a huge training on setting goals and it blew our minds away. We were given the assignment to set three goals that we wanted to accomplish before the end of the mission but we aren't suppose to share it with anybody, sorry:). But the next day for my personal study I studied more about setting goals and decided to set some life goals. They aren't completed yet but I have four categories: Family, Gospel, Education, Job. I'm just keeping it in the back of my mind but it is fun to think about. President also told us to set our goals high and to not restrict ourselves. We're now in the process of raising our zone goal and the training came in just at the right time. Our original zone goal was 60 baptisms among 12 elders. Well we blew that out of the water because after 5 months we have 58 baptisms. So as we were talking among the zone and district leaders and after a long discussion we came up with 180 baptisms by the end of the year. When we arrived with that number we had a long silence as we all contemplated what that meant. We swallowed hard and girded up our loins and sustained the goal. It isn't final yet but after this next month and President Nichols' approval we will have it set in stone, and there's no turning back. We're just putting our faith to the test so we'll have to see what happens.
As for what happened with Missionary work we had a few setbacks. Anand and Uma went with their family to Uma's cousin's funeral so they were not in town for church on Sunday. They told us in advance but they still need some more experiences at church before being baptized. Anand is great though and his baptism is always on his mind so we're confident in his sincerity.
Our biggest set-back was with Kranthi Kumar. His wife and his mother got involved and convinced him not to be baptized. I knew his wife, Neelima, wasn't interested in our message but I never would have thought her opposed. I was on exchange but the last lesson with him ended up being a dispute between agency, terrorism, wars and how religion has a negative affect from all of these. He brought up these concerns before last time we dropped him but I'm not giving up again. Elder Loomis and I are going to do as Alma did and go in another way. We visited their home but only Neelima was there which was perfect in my mind. I asked if she read the Book of Mormon and she said a little. I responded "Honest sister." and she confessed she hadn't. I then gave her a chapter and gave her my strongest exhortion and commited her to reading it. Hopefully if we focus on Neelima we can cut at the root of her concern.
But we did have success nonetheless. We have been teaching a brother named Efraim for a while. He is an older man, about 50, and is a high school teacher. He has been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon and believes in it but is hesitant about baptism because he has been baptized before. He said he's been praying about but hasn't received an answer. I know well enough now that someone who claims not to recieve an answer either doesn't know what the spirit feels like or something is keeping him from asking with real intent. Well on Saturday we went to his home and shared Ether 12 with him. We talked about faith and how we need to try and test our faith and then we will receive the witness. So I told Efraim "brother, what you need to do is show God that you are serious about this. You need to commit to one day that you will be baptized. Tell God what you've done and that you need an answer and He will answer you." It only took a few moments of thought and then he agreed. I'm praying that he is sincere but we have a lot of work to do and our first goal is to have him and his wife to feel an uplifting and spiritual experience that will confirm the truth to him. Not to mention we need a lot of faith for this to work.
Paige I'm so excited for your patriarchal blessing. I wish I was there for it but we're going to need a brother-sister day together when I get back. It sounds like you have a lot of direction in your life. Set goals now and write them down. Keep them in a place you will see them everyday and never say you can't do it. I love Dallin's pictures. He really does have a muscle body, I swear I can see a six pack. Dad, I'm really glad your school is going awesome. You might have to talk to one of the members in Rajahmundry. He owns a school and is very interested in project work for his students. Maybe you can give him a few pointers. His email is dineshkulathil@yahoo.com. By the way the street vendor food is pretty darn good here. My favorite is Pani Puri and tomato bajji.
I love you all a million goals,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Well I'm in Hyderabad for zone conference and what I think is the closest to a vacation that a missionary will get. I feel great being in my old area and visiting all the people again. Today we had an amazing P-day: We went to the tombs of Muslim kings, went to Golconda fort, and ended with a wonderfully delicious meal at the marriot hotel buffet (an expensive meal is 200-300 rupees...This one was 900 and worth every bit).
But the Zone Conference was definitely the highlight. Matt, I think I found my disruptive innovation. President Nichols gave a huge training on setting goals and it blew our minds away. We were given the assignment to set three goals that we wanted to accomplish before the end of the mission but we aren't suppose to share it with anybody, sorry:). But the next day for my personal study I studied more about setting goals and decided to set some life goals. They aren't completed yet but I have four categories: Family, Gospel, Education, Job. I'm just keeping it in the back of my mind but it is fun to think about. President also told us to set our goals high and to not restrict ourselves. We're now in the process of raising our zone goal and the training came in just at the right time. Our original zone goal was 60 baptisms among 12 elders. Well we blew that out of the water because after 5 months we have 58 baptisms. So as we were talking among the zone and district leaders and after a long discussion we came up with 180 baptisms by the end of the year. When we arrived with that number we had a long silence as we all contemplated what that meant. We swallowed hard and girded up our loins and sustained the goal. It isn't final yet but after this next month and President Nichols' approval we will have it set in stone, and there's no turning back. We're just putting our faith to the test so we'll have to see what happens.
As for what happened with Missionary work we had a few setbacks. Anand and Uma went with their family to Uma's cousin's funeral so they were not in town for church on Sunday. They told us in advance but they still need some more experiences at church before being baptized. Anand is great though and his baptism is always on his mind so we're confident in his sincerity.
Our biggest set-back was with Kranthi Kumar. His wife and his mother got involved and convinced him not to be baptized. I knew his wife, Neelima, wasn't interested in our message but I never would have thought her opposed. I was on exchange but the last lesson with him ended up being a dispute between agency, terrorism, wars and how religion has a negative affect from all of these. He brought up these concerns before last time we dropped him but I'm not giving up again. Elder Loomis and I are going to do as Alma did and go in another way. We visited their home but only Neelima was there which was perfect in my mind. I asked if she read the Book of Mormon and she said a little. I responded "Honest sister." and she confessed she hadn't. I then gave her a chapter and gave her my strongest exhortion and commited her to reading it. Hopefully if we focus on Neelima we can cut at the root of her concern.
But we did have success nonetheless. We have been teaching a brother named Efraim for a while. He is an older man, about 50, and is a high school teacher. He has been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon and believes in it but is hesitant about baptism because he has been baptized before. He said he's been praying about but hasn't received an answer. I know well enough now that someone who claims not to recieve an answer either doesn't know what the spirit feels like or something is keeping him from asking with real intent. Well on Saturday we went to his home and shared Ether 12 with him. We talked about faith and how we need to try and test our faith and then we will receive the witness. So I told Efraim "brother, what you need to do is show God that you are serious about this. You need to commit to one day that you will be baptized. Tell God what you've done and that you need an answer and He will answer you." It only took a few moments of thought and then he agreed. I'm praying that he is sincere but we have a lot of work to do and our first goal is to have him and his wife to feel an uplifting and spiritual experience that will confirm the truth to him. Not to mention we need a lot of faith for this to work.
Paige I'm so excited for your patriarchal blessing. I wish I was there for it but we're going to need a brother-sister day together when I get back. It sounds like you have a lot of direction in your life. Set goals now and write them down. Keep them in a place you will see them everyday and never say you can't do it. I love Dallin's pictures. He really does have a muscle body, I swear I can see a six pack. Dad, I'm really glad your school is going awesome. You might have to talk to one of the members in Rajahmundry. He owns a school and is very interested in project work for his students. Maybe you can give him a few pointers. His email is dineshkulathil@yahoo.com. By the way the street vendor food is pretty darn good here. My favorite is Pani Puri and tomato bajji.
I love you all a million goals,
Elder Curtis Mackay
The time is far spent - May 26, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
I feel like my time in Raj is dwindling. We're not supposed to speculate about transfers but I still think I should be prepared. I'm a little crossed as to whether I want to leave next transfer or not. A new place would be fun and exciting but I don't want to leave the people I love here. But if I stay another transfer I know it'll be deadly when I tell people that I'm leaving. So many people cried when Elder Chagoya left that I don't know what I'll do when I tell them. Elder Loomis and I were talking about it and he said I should just invite everyone to the church, tell them I'm leaving and run out the back door where the escape auto is waiting and say "Sayoonara!".
Not to mention that next week we're taking a five day vacation to Hyderabad. A missionary on vacation? How is that possible? Well first we're spending Monday on a train just going to Hyderabad, then we have zone conference the next day, after we interviews on Wednesday and on Thursday we're going to Ramoji Film City for the zone activity (yes Jeevan, Ramoji Film City...I know you're jealous), then on Friday we travel home. I know it sounds junky but somehow it got approved so I'm leaving my beloved Rajahmundry for much too long. The saddest part is that that week is the final full week before transfers.
The saddest news is that last week I told Sagar and Manikiyum that they have to come to church on time. I warned them that if they didn't than something bad may happen (I was half joking and half serious). Well this Sunday Sagar came but there was no Manikiyum. Now her baptism date is June 14th, the Sunday after transfers. Now I'm really praying that I stay. I haven't told her that but she called me last night and explained that she went to her grandmother's house with her mother but she felt really bad. She seemed like she was about to cry so I just told her that we'll come tonight and just teach her and her brother the next night and that it was no problem. At least I'll definitely be there for Sagar's baptism, which I'm really proud of him for doing. He made sure to come before two-o-clock and was attentive the whole time. I also hope to see his younger brother Manindra receivethe priesthood.
We had a pretty successful week last week in the District. We have 10 people set with a date and with many new investigators. 11 investigators total came to church and we had our investigator and recent convert class fairly full. This Sunday we're hoping for much more. This week we're off to a good start. Already we found a slew of new investigators. Most of them have a pretty interesting story too. There is Vijay and Aruna, husband and wife who were converted to christianity five years ago. They saw us pass by their window and Vijay commented how hard we were working. Five minutes later we knocked on his door (we were going to pick up our cycles, I noticed he had a picture of Jesus hanging in his house and so we went to see who lived there). We shared the Restoration and they told us that they were looking for someone who could teach them more about Jesus Christ. We just smiled and rolled up our sleeves and said 'sure, we would love to do that'.
Then there was Sagar. One of our appointments cancelled and we were in a slummy area but we decided to go finding anyway. Down the first street I saw a door and I had a feeling about it so we knocked on it. A young bachelor opened up, smiled and let us in. His name is Sagar, he is Hindu and he lost his father five years ago. Ever since then he lost faith in all gods and didn't trust anyone (reminded of the discussion I had with LeGrand about trust and faith). Well we shared with him the Plan of Salvation and ended it with sharing a Book of Mormon with him. He seemed willing to try so we'll see.
Then we met a member referral. I've been trying to get in contact with them for over a month and now we finally got them. And they are a sweet family. Father passed away along with one brother and left is the Mom, 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I've never seen such a big Indian family. English was okay except for one, Madhu. They seem really good though. They were excited about Free English class (who isn't!) and they said they would come to church.
Elder Loomis made me proud yesterday because we got access to an apartment complex and as we were going up to a family we heard was Christian Elder Loomis saw an open door and said hello to the man inside. THere was a family of four inside and all spoke English (YES!).
Rajahmundry is once again magical!
Sorry this letter is a little shorter (I think at least). And Dano I love your letters. You got it tough out there but the Lord definitely called you to shine your smile. I guess it's easy to see the spirit work when you see other people working and it's tough to see it in yourself. Next week I hope I have a lot to share but I will have four proselyting days to talk about. No baptisms this week but June 7th we have one and I'm hoping that June 14th we'll have 7...but to be realistic we'll say 2:) Things just happen like that sometimes *cough*all-the-time*cough*.
Love you all a million super duper zone conference weeks!
Elder Curtis Mackay
Wait is Jai Ho the song that Riahanna sings (I'm not sure if it is but all the missionaries swear it has to be her)? I never knew it was from Slum Dog Millionaire. And yes that song will certainly bring back memories. I forgot to mention I met some American RM's last week who were making their tour of India. The total trip is costing them each $1000. That's what you get when you stay with members. I love all of your letters. Keep up the good work. I am so proud of all of you. When I read your letters I see a hard working family, unafraid of doing what is right. Love ya!
I feel like my time in Raj is dwindling. We're not supposed to speculate about transfers but I still think I should be prepared. I'm a little crossed as to whether I want to leave next transfer or not. A new place would be fun and exciting but I don't want to leave the people I love here. But if I stay another transfer I know it'll be deadly when I tell people that I'm leaving. So many people cried when Elder Chagoya left that I don't know what I'll do when I tell them. Elder Loomis and I were talking about it and he said I should just invite everyone to the church, tell them I'm leaving and run out the back door where the escape auto is waiting and say "Sayoonara!".
Not to mention that next week we're taking a five day vacation to Hyderabad. A missionary on vacation? How is that possible? Well first we're spending Monday on a train just going to Hyderabad, then we have zone conference the next day, after we interviews on Wednesday and on Thursday we're going to Ramoji Film City for the zone activity (yes Jeevan, Ramoji Film City...I know you're jealous), then on Friday we travel home. I know it sounds junky but somehow it got approved so I'm leaving my beloved Rajahmundry for much too long. The saddest part is that that week is the final full week before transfers.
The saddest news is that last week I told Sagar and Manikiyum that they have to come to church on time. I warned them that if they didn't than something bad may happen (I was half joking and half serious). Well this Sunday Sagar came but there was no Manikiyum. Now her baptism date is June 14th, the Sunday after transfers. Now I'm really praying that I stay. I haven't told her that but she called me last night and explained that she went to her grandmother's house with her mother but she felt really bad. She seemed like she was about to cry so I just told her that we'll come tonight and just teach her and her brother the next night and that it was no problem. At least I'll definitely be there for Sagar's baptism, which I'm really proud of him for doing. He made sure to come before two-o-clock and was attentive the whole time. I also hope to see his younger brother Manindra receivethe priesthood.
We had a pretty successful week last week in the District. We have 10 people set with a date and with many new investigators. 11 investigators total came to church and we had our investigator and recent convert class fairly full. This Sunday we're hoping for much more. This week we're off to a good start. Already we found a slew of new investigators. Most of them have a pretty interesting story too. There is Vijay and Aruna, husband and wife who were converted to christianity five years ago. They saw us pass by their window and Vijay commented how hard we were working. Five minutes later we knocked on his door (we were going to pick up our cycles, I noticed he had a picture of Jesus hanging in his house and so we went to see who lived there). We shared the Restoration and they told us that they were looking for someone who could teach them more about Jesus Christ. We just smiled and rolled up our sleeves and said 'sure, we would love to do that'.
Then there was Sagar. One of our appointments cancelled and we were in a slummy area but we decided to go finding anyway. Down the first street I saw a door and I had a feeling about it so we knocked on it. A young bachelor opened up, smiled and let us in. His name is Sagar, he is Hindu and he lost his father five years ago. Ever since then he lost faith in all gods and didn't trust anyone (reminded of the discussion I had with LeGrand about trust and faith). Well we shared with him the Plan of Salvation and ended it with sharing a Book of Mormon with him. He seemed willing to try so we'll see.
Then we met a member referral. I've been trying to get in contact with them for over a month and now we finally got them. And they are a sweet family. Father passed away along with one brother and left is the Mom, 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I've never seen such a big Indian family. English was okay except for one, Madhu. They seem really good though. They were excited about Free English class (who isn't!) and they said they would come to church.
Elder Loomis made me proud yesterday because we got access to an apartment complex and as we were going up to a family we heard was Christian Elder Loomis saw an open door and said hello to the man inside. THere was a family of four inside and all spoke English (YES!).
Rajahmundry is once again magical!
Sorry this letter is a little shorter (I think at least). And Dano I love your letters. You got it tough out there but the Lord definitely called you to shine your smile. I guess it's easy to see the spirit work when you see other people working and it's tough to see it in yourself. Next week I hope I have a lot to share but I will have four proselyting days to talk about. No baptisms this week but June 7th we have one and I'm hoping that June 14th we'll have 7...but to be realistic we'll say 2:) Things just happen like that sometimes *cough*all-the-time*cough*.
Love you all a million super duper zone conference weeks!
Elder Curtis Mackay
Wait is Jai Ho the song that Riahanna sings (I'm not sure if it is but all the missionaries swear it has to be her)? I never knew it was from Slum Dog Millionaire. And yes that song will certainly bring back memories. I forgot to mention I met some American RM's last week who were making their tour of India. The total trip is costing them each $1000. That's what you get when you stay with members. I love all of your letters. Keep up the good work. I am so proud of all of you. When I read your letters I see a hard working family, unafraid of doing what is right. Love ya!
It is good! - May 19, 2009
Dear family and friends,
Okay here it goes:
Anand and his family (hindu background, family of four, never came to church...until now) came to church last week! And they came an hour early, early enough to catch the first branch's baptismal service. They stayed and listened intently to all the classes, we had members accompany and sit with them everywhere they went and it was just super awesome. Anand told us to meet with him on Monday night and he would tell us about his family's baptism. We had high hopes but it sounded kind of strange that he wouldn't tell us at that time. But we went and brought the first counselor of the branch presidency with us. We shared our testimonies and then he told that his whole family loved the church, they are inviting their neighbors to join them and that they will be baptized May 31st. Wow! I was so happy and both Elder Loomis and I ate ice cream that night.
But it doesn't end there. I went on exchange with Elder Singh last week and we had an amazing day. Every lesson was so spiritual and effective. We met with Kranthi Kumar, one of our former investigators who we picked back up and he is just so humble now. He told us he wants to quit smoking so bad and he wants to follow Christ. He said that whatever we told him to do he would follow because when we were with him before he felt so much peace but when we were not there or when he didn't read the scriptures his life seemed much to hectic. Now he is starting his journey to quit smoking--this is the same guy with the smoking problem and child problem before. By the way for some reason Sri Mayi, formerly devil child, went to be nice and playful. She says hi to us, she'll leave the room if she makes noise and she just seems a lot more mature. Anyways miracles are just filling this home. Kranthi called us Sunday morning and told us that he didn't want to gradually quit smoking, he was so fed up with it that he just wanted to quit cold turkey. We were so shocked but we went over before church and gave him a blessing to help him and so far so good. He has gone 3 full days without a cigarette, the longest he has ever gone before!
But the miracles have stopped yet. Elder Singh and I also visited another former investigator, Rinju. He is from a Roman Catholic family, and although he felt a witness from the Book of Mormon he wasn't so sure if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true and if he needs to be rebaptized into the Church. But we had a good sitdown and Elder Singh listed out the doctrine to both him and his father Paulson. Paulson is an old man and he says the reason why he is stubborn is because his mind works slower (it's kind of funny to meet someone who admits their stubborness). We met them again this week and continued to open up the scriptures to them and bear our testimony, but it's now up to them. We have to be very patient, even though they have excellent English they don't seem to get what we're trying to say. Just goes to show that language does not convert but the Spirit. I feel as if they are rock hanging on the edge of a cliff. All they need is that small budge and they will begin to roll.
And Manikiyum and Sagar are still progressing and we have set a goal to get them baptized before I leave. We will do whatever it takes to get them to church on time. Manikiyum knows everything. Just the other she joked that she would come to America with us, then she paused and said 'no wait, I have to go on my mission first, then I'll come to America.' The desire is there now we just have to get past the distance for church. This week Manikiyum is planning to fast her lunch to come to church because she has to go to church in the morning with her mother and if she eats lunch it will cause her to be late to church. So we'll see if her words match her intent this week. Cross your fingers and pray hard I guess.
Anyways this week has been great. We are still finding people to. We got plenty of potentials and referrals to work with and still a plethora of people we still have to meet personally. I'm learning so much about studying and planning for lessons. I feel the spirit so much stronger in lessons. It's a pretty amazing time right now.
I love you all so much. I'm a little bit jealous of all the fun you're having but it's not so bad here. And Matt I'm jealous that you get to go back and do the Father and son campouts. I hope it was a blast. Well I'm going to go and read your letters.
Love you a million gratefully answered prayers,
Elder Mackay
Okay here it goes:
Anand and his family (hindu background, family of four, never came to church...until now) came to church last week! And they came an hour early, early enough to catch the first branch's baptismal service. They stayed and listened intently to all the classes, we had members accompany and sit with them everywhere they went and it was just super awesome. Anand told us to meet with him on Monday night and he would tell us about his family's baptism. We had high hopes but it sounded kind of strange that he wouldn't tell us at that time. But we went and brought the first counselor of the branch presidency with us. We shared our testimonies and then he told that his whole family loved the church, they are inviting their neighbors to join them and that they will be baptized May 31st. Wow! I was so happy and both Elder Loomis and I ate ice cream that night.
But it doesn't end there. I went on exchange with Elder Singh last week and we had an amazing day. Every lesson was so spiritual and effective. We met with Kranthi Kumar, one of our former investigators who we picked back up and he is just so humble now. He told us he wants to quit smoking so bad and he wants to follow Christ. He said that whatever we told him to do he would follow because when we were with him before he felt so much peace but when we were not there or when he didn't read the scriptures his life seemed much to hectic. Now he is starting his journey to quit smoking--this is the same guy with the smoking problem and child problem before. By the way for some reason Sri Mayi, formerly devil child, went to be nice and playful. She says hi to us, she'll leave the room if she makes noise and she just seems a lot more mature. Anyways miracles are just filling this home. Kranthi called us Sunday morning and told us that he didn't want to gradually quit smoking, he was so fed up with it that he just wanted to quit cold turkey. We were so shocked but we went over before church and gave him a blessing to help him and so far so good. He has gone 3 full days without a cigarette, the longest he has ever gone before!
But the miracles have stopped yet. Elder Singh and I also visited another former investigator, Rinju. He is from a Roman Catholic family, and although he felt a witness from the Book of Mormon he wasn't so sure if the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true and if he needs to be rebaptized into the Church. But we had a good sitdown and Elder Singh listed out the doctrine to both him and his father Paulson. Paulson is an old man and he says the reason why he is stubborn is because his mind works slower (it's kind of funny to meet someone who admits their stubborness). We met them again this week and continued to open up the scriptures to them and bear our testimony, but it's now up to them. We have to be very patient, even though they have excellent English they don't seem to get what we're trying to say. Just goes to show that language does not convert but the Spirit. I feel as if they are rock hanging on the edge of a cliff. All they need is that small budge and they will begin to roll.
And Manikiyum and Sagar are still progressing and we have set a goal to get them baptized before I leave. We will do whatever it takes to get them to church on time. Manikiyum knows everything. Just the other she joked that she would come to America with us, then she paused and said 'no wait, I have to go on my mission first, then I'll come to America.' The desire is there now we just have to get past the distance for church. This week Manikiyum is planning to fast her lunch to come to church because she has to go to church in the morning with her mother and if she eats lunch it will cause her to be late to church. So we'll see if her words match her intent this week. Cross your fingers and pray hard I guess.
Anyways this week has been great. We are still finding people to. We got plenty of potentials and referrals to work with and still a plethora of people we still have to meet personally. I'm learning so much about studying and planning for lessons. I feel the spirit so much stronger in lessons. It's a pretty amazing time right now.
I love you all so much. I'm a little bit jealous of all the fun you're having but it's not so bad here. And Matt I'm jealous that you get to go back and do the Father and son campouts. I hope it was a blast. Well I'm going to go and read your letters.
Love you a million gratefully answered prayers,
Elder Mackay
Hope is still there - May 12, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
Well the phone call home was reinvigorating. I loved all of your questions and they were really thought-provoking. Byron I gave some thought to my greatest weakness and strength as a missionary, and I changed the question to what do I appreciate the most about myself and what I want to improve most on. The one strength I have appreciated most is patience, though not nearly perfect it has saved me in many moments. I think working at the movie theater has helped me with that:) The one thing I really want to improve on is decision making. That has always been something I've wanted to improve on and I asked my mission president in my third interview how to improve (you can just imagine a mission president's face light up when a missionary asks that question). He told me 'good decisions flow from facts and are impeded by wishful thinking and heresay. That has been one of the most helpful advice I've recieved on my mission thusfar and I've applied it many times but I've realized it takes much practice and selfevaluation.
Well I do want to get to the weekly update and there is so much to say. We have a large pool of progressing investigators right now, each with their own challenges. There is Giri and his family. Giri is a police man for the railways here. He has a daughter Monica who is a very active investigator. Monica finds a way to church every week and has many friends but her father doesn't. Giri even came to drop her off and pick her up but didn't even stay five minutes. Well we had a nice chat with him last night and by the end I think we at least convinced him that he needs to read the Book of Mormon. The elders quorum president is getting very involved and we are so grateful for his help. Members are truly the bringing someone in the church. It's like what L. Tom Perry said in his last talk: the investigator is like a lost sheep but the member is like the shepherd that the sheep recognizes.
Then there is Malishwari. She has by far the saddest story. Her father died 3 years ago followed by her mother and her sister 7 months ago. She is now 22 and lives with her Uncle and Aunt but her Uncle recently got in an accident where his arm broke. Now his arm needs surgery that will cost 18000 rupees, which they don't have. Malishwari has just lost hope and she feels like she hasn't recieved an answer to her prayers. We tried to comfort her through the scriptures and are trying to do our best to guide to overcome her trials through God's aid. I'll let you know how it goes.
We met with Anand who missed church last week. He expressed to us how bad he felt for not keeping his commitment and we taught him the principle of repentance. It was a pretty amazing lesson. We were bold but loving as we taught him what he needs to do to recieve forgiveness from God. If he comes to church this Sunday then I have no doubt he'll be baptized soon but that will require a lot of prayer and encouragement on our side.
Elder Loomis and I are trying to work on having faith, hope and charity together. We definitely have plenty of practice everyday. Even with finding people we have to practice a lot of faith and hope. One of the elders in my district saw me and said I looked sad. He asked me what was happening and I said nothing and that I just had a lot to think about. He told me 'alright just don't get discouraged. If you're discouraged then that means that you don't have faith'. I didn't think I was discouraged but as the day went on I started to see myself get frustrated with all sorts of disappointments, and I realized that my faith was dwindling. So I picked myself back up, put a smile and talked to the next person. Step by step I just kept the thought in my head "the Lord will lead us to the person we need to see" and that thought kept driving me. We found one person at the end of our finding and I'm not sure how interested he is but he may just be the person the Lord sent us out to find. We'll see (his name is R. Krishna just so you can keep tabs).
I've been reading D&C 121:34-46 a lot lately along with my patriarchal blessing and it's amazing the amount of instruction the Lord gives in a few lines. I've found so much insight on what it takes to be a good leader. I've also been trying to keep a good attitude with the responsibilities. I do have a lot of fun because I get to learn more about other investigators from other companionships and I have joy in their success as well as ours. I think about God and how He has just as much joy in our success as He would if He did it Himself, probably even more since He loves us more than Himself.
We had a beautiful evening the other night where we had a storm roll in. It cut off all of the power so it was pitch black outside. We seeked shelter at an investigators home as we watched the rain come down. It made the ground smell so good. After it passed and we were riding home we were able to find patches in the clouds where we could see the stars. It was a perfect night for stargazing becuase the power was still out so there were no lights to ruin it.
All is well for me. I love all you very, very much. Thank for your letters and support. By the way if anyone wants to send me an email they can. I'll have to respond by snail mail but I'll do my best to do so.
Love you all a million star filled and hopeful nights.
Elder Mackay
Well the phone call home was reinvigorating. I loved all of your questions and they were really thought-provoking. Byron I gave some thought to my greatest weakness and strength as a missionary, and I changed the question to what do I appreciate the most about myself and what I want to improve most on. The one strength I have appreciated most is patience, though not nearly perfect it has saved me in many moments. I think working at the movie theater has helped me with that:) The one thing I really want to improve on is decision making. That has always been something I've wanted to improve on and I asked my mission president in my third interview how to improve (you can just imagine a mission president's face light up when a missionary asks that question). He told me 'good decisions flow from facts and are impeded by wishful thinking and heresay. That has been one of the most helpful advice I've recieved on my mission thusfar and I've applied it many times but I've realized it takes much practice and selfevaluation.
Well I do want to get to the weekly update and there is so much to say. We have a large pool of progressing investigators right now, each with their own challenges. There is Giri and his family. Giri is a police man for the railways here. He has a daughter Monica who is a very active investigator. Monica finds a way to church every week and has many friends but her father doesn't. Giri even came to drop her off and pick her up but didn't even stay five minutes. Well we had a nice chat with him last night and by the end I think we at least convinced him that he needs to read the Book of Mormon. The elders quorum president is getting very involved and we are so grateful for his help. Members are truly the bringing someone in the church. It's like what L. Tom Perry said in his last talk: the investigator is like a lost sheep but the member is like the shepherd that the sheep recognizes.
Then there is Malishwari. She has by far the saddest story. Her father died 3 years ago followed by her mother and her sister 7 months ago. She is now 22 and lives with her Uncle and Aunt but her Uncle recently got in an accident where his arm broke. Now his arm needs surgery that will cost 18000 rupees, which they don't have. Malishwari has just lost hope and she feels like she hasn't recieved an answer to her prayers. We tried to comfort her through the scriptures and are trying to do our best to guide to overcome her trials through God's aid. I'll let you know how it goes.
We met with Anand who missed church last week. He expressed to us how bad he felt for not keeping his commitment and we taught him the principle of repentance. It was a pretty amazing lesson. We were bold but loving as we taught him what he needs to do to recieve forgiveness from God. If he comes to church this Sunday then I have no doubt he'll be baptized soon but that will require a lot of prayer and encouragement on our side.
Elder Loomis and I are trying to work on having faith, hope and charity together. We definitely have plenty of practice everyday. Even with finding people we have to practice a lot of faith and hope. One of the elders in my district saw me and said I looked sad. He asked me what was happening and I said nothing and that I just had a lot to think about. He told me 'alright just don't get discouraged. If you're discouraged then that means that you don't have faith'. I didn't think I was discouraged but as the day went on I started to see myself get frustrated with all sorts of disappointments, and I realized that my faith was dwindling. So I picked myself back up, put a smile and talked to the next person. Step by step I just kept the thought in my head "the Lord will lead us to the person we need to see" and that thought kept driving me. We found one person at the end of our finding and I'm not sure how interested he is but he may just be the person the Lord sent us out to find. We'll see (his name is R. Krishna just so you can keep tabs).
I've been reading D&C 121:34-46 a lot lately along with my patriarchal blessing and it's amazing the amount of instruction the Lord gives in a few lines. I've found so much insight on what it takes to be a good leader. I've also been trying to keep a good attitude with the responsibilities. I do have a lot of fun because I get to learn more about other investigators from other companionships and I have joy in their success as well as ours. I think about God and how He has just as much joy in our success as He would if He did it Himself, probably even more since He loves us more than Himself.
We had a beautiful evening the other night where we had a storm roll in. It cut off all of the power so it was pitch black outside. We seeked shelter at an investigators home as we watched the rain come down. It made the ground smell so good. After it passed and we were riding home we were able to find patches in the clouds where we could see the stars. It was a perfect night for stargazing becuase the power was still out so there were no lights to ruin it.
All is well for me. I love all you very, very much. Thank for your letters and support. By the way if anyone wants to send me an email they can. I'll have to respond by snail mail but I'll do my best to do so.
Love you all a million star filled and hopeful nights.
Elder Mackay
May 10th ...so close - May 5, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
It has been a pretty exciting week for me. I got my brand new companion Elder Loomis. He is from West Jordan, Utah and he came straight out of high school. He likes to ride dirt bikes and after his mission he's planning on doing an ROTC program. He is a great elder and ready to get to work. He picked up talking slow so fast (sounds kind of funny when you say it that way). He teaches well and he's not afraid to talk but at the same time he's not overpowering. I think I'm going to have a good time working with him. I just hope I train him well. So far so good but I have to learn to let him take the reigns a little by little as well as give him enough instruction for him to do well.
While I'm training Elder Loomis, being a District Leader is training me. I'm starting to feel the effects of leadership stewardship take it's toll but luckily I have good Zone Leaders who are a great help. We even got a new zone leader last week from Bangalore, Elder Singh. He was actually my District Leader in Hyderbad so I'm very happy to see him again. Another added responsibility is now I'm in charge of the petty cash for the Rajahmundry branches. That means I have to reimburse all the eletric bills, travel charges and whatever else the missionaries and church maintence need. I also got charged this morning to be the church auditor for purchasing new cycles. Elder Linton, the senior missionary who is in charge of mission finances, gave me some good advice. He said that in all of his callings he has had a lot of problems as well as seen many others have problems with theirs. He then said that it is better to look at these problems as challenges where you make a plan and you initiate as quick as possible so that you solve it and get on with your life. Problems are things that don't get solved right away and you stress and worry about them and they sap all of your energy away.
Well that's definitely the way I have to look at it because among all my usual missionary problems I also now have to figure out how we're going to live in our new apartment. We moved in yesterday and we have to water for the washer, no A/C, and no church maintenance people to help us. Regardless we are going to get these challenges solved today!
As for missionary work I am very happy with the work we accomplished with as little time as we had. We were able to set Anand with a baptism date for May 24th. Anand is Hindu but he wants to start a new life in Jesus Christ...it doesn't get much simpler than that. He is from Karnataka so he is a foreigner to Rajahmundry so fellowship will be a huge key in his conversion. He also has a wife and two kids who are eligible to be baptized as soon as we meet with them more and teach them as well. The house he lives in is very small but he doesn't mind. From the very first day we met him he has told us that family is more important than money and that as long as he has his family and they are growing well then he is happy. I just want to let you know that the Lord does put people in our path who are ready to hear the gospel.
Another success has progressed very fast. Last week we met a brother named Efraim. We found him in his home studying the bible. We briefly shared the Restoration with him and after his first question was '
What is the difference between Heaven and Paradise?' It was a little off topic but it was a question we were definitely able to answer it. The next day we came with a Book of Mormon and gave him the answer through the book of Alma. He was impressed and he said he would study the Book of Mormon. We followed up with him the next day and then he came to church the day after. He stayed for all three hours and took vicarious notes on the Sunday School lesson of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in former times. We met him on Tuesday and we challenged him with baptism. He was hesistant at this point because he had been baptized before (he even showed his certificate) but luckily the member we brought with us had the same concern and was able to offer support. He said he would pray about it and we'll meet with him again on Saturday so I'll let you know how it goes.
If you remember Manikiyum and Sagar they are still slowly progressing and Sagar overcame his Chicken Pox so we'll seem him this Sunday at church. But he wants to push his baptism date back because he feels he is not quite ready for May 24th. We're going to meet with him tonight to give him strong encouragement and explain that God will bless him to be prepared. Manikiyum last week fell down the stairs at church and had cut up her face a little bit and now she's fearing coming to church. We'll also have to encourage her as well.
I am very excited for this Sunday. I think there will be a little change in plans about when I call. I think I'll call you early Mother's day Morning. Hopefuly you have afternoon church but I am allowed to call on Saturday and tell you when I will call so that you can be ready and so I'll go ahead and do that. Just be ready for a Sunday morning or evening call. I also just got word that I received your package in Bangalore so I'll get it couriered to me by tomorrow I think.
By the way Paige I love what you did to Blake's room.
I love you all a million mother's day calls,
Elder Curtis Mackay
It has been a pretty exciting week for me. I got my brand new companion Elder Loomis. He is from West Jordan, Utah and he came straight out of high school. He likes to ride dirt bikes and after his mission he's planning on doing an ROTC program. He is a great elder and ready to get to work. He picked up talking slow so fast (sounds kind of funny when you say it that way). He teaches well and he's not afraid to talk but at the same time he's not overpowering. I think I'm going to have a good time working with him. I just hope I train him well. So far so good but I have to learn to let him take the reigns a little by little as well as give him enough instruction for him to do well.
While I'm training Elder Loomis, being a District Leader is training me. I'm starting to feel the effects of leadership stewardship take it's toll but luckily I have good Zone Leaders who are a great help. We even got a new zone leader last week from Bangalore, Elder Singh. He was actually my District Leader in Hyderbad so I'm very happy to see him again. Another added responsibility is now I'm in charge of the petty cash for the Rajahmundry branches. That means I have to reimburse all the eletric bills, travel charges and whatever else the missionaries and church maintence need. I also got charged this morning to be the church auditor for purchasing new cycles. Elder Linton, the senior missionary who is in charge of mission finances, gave me some good advice. He said that in all of his callings he has had a lot of problems as well as seen many others have problems with theirs. He then said that it is better to look at these problems as challenges where you make a plan and you initiate as quick as possible so that you solve it and get on with your life. Problems are things that don't get solved right away and you stress and worry about them and they sap all of your energy away.
Well that's definitely the way I have to look at it because among all my usual missionary problems I also now have to figure out how we're going to live in our new apartment. We moved in yesterday and we have to water for the washer, no A/C, and no church maintenance people to help us. Regardless we are going to get these challenges solved today!
As for missionary work I am very happy with the work we accomplished with as little time as we had. We were able to set Anand with a baptism date for May 24th. Anand is Hindu but he wants to start a new life in Jesus Christ...it doesn't get much simpler than that. He is from Karnataka so he is a foreigner to Rajahmundry so fellowship will be a huge key in his conversion. He also has a wife and two kids who are eligible to be baptized as soon as we meet with them more and teach them as well. The house he lives in is very small but he doesn't mind. From the very first day we met him he has told us that family is more important than money and that as long as he has his family and they are growing well then he is happy. I just want to let you know that the Lord does put people in our path who are ready to hear the gospel.
Another success has progressed very fast. Last week we met a brother named Efraim. We found him in his home studying the bible. We briefly shared the Restoration with him and after his first question was '
What is the difference between Heaven and Paradise?' It was a little off topic but it was a question we were definitely able to answer it. The next day we came with a Book of Mormon and gave him the answer through the book of Alma. He was impressed and he said he would study the Book of Mormon. We followed up with him the next day and then he came to church the day after. He stayed for all three hours and took vicarious notes on the Sunday School lesson of the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ in former times. We met him on Tuesday and we challenged him with baptism. He was hesistant at this point because he had been baptized before (he even showed his certificate) but luckily the member we brought with us had the same concern and was able to offer support. He said he would pray about it and we'll meet with him again on Saturday so I'll let you know how it goes.
If you remember Manikiyum and Sagar they are still slowly progressing and Sagar overcame his Chicken Pox so we'll seem him this Sunday at church. But he wants to push his baptism date back because he feels he is not quite ready for May 24th. We're going to meet with him tonight to give him strong encouragement and explain that God will bless him to be prepared. Manikiyum last week fell down the stairs at church and had cut up her face a little bit and now she's fearing coming to church. We'll also have to encourage her as well.
I am very excited for this Sunday. I think there will be a little change in plans about when I call. I think I'll call you early Mother's day Morning. Hopefuly you have afternoon church but I am allowed to call on Saturday and tell you when I will call so that you can be ready and so I'll go ahead and do that. Just be ready for a Sunday morning or evening call. I also just got word that I received your package in Bangalore so I'll get it couriered to me by tomorrow I think.
By the way Paige I love what you did to Blake's room.
I love you all a million mother's day calls,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Another Transfer - April 28, 2009
Dear Family and my dear friends,
So another transfer is completed and I'll tell you the results in a second but first business. Elder Chagoya wanted me to send some things for you at home to look at. To all the brothers he was wondering if you had seen any of the Beetles movies (i.e. Help, A Hard Days Night). Knowing Matt and Dustin I told him that they probably have but he just wanted to know. Also I have one for Paige: look up The Awareness Test on youtube. You may have already seen it but I want you to check it out and see what you think of it. Elder Chagoya told me it was pretty cool. Also he keeps telling me about a show called Burn Notice. I'm not sure what it is but let me know if it is as truly noteworthy as he says it is.
This Sunday we baptized John. John is a great guy, 19 years old, and loves the gospel. It was a great baptism service and his parents and his brother came. They have a strange situation in there family where they all live in different places in Rajahmundry so having them all together was really cool.
I also had something really cool happen this past week. I was on exchange in my area and we were making some visits to our investigators. As we were walking we found Anil Kumar, an older man who I had met a month ago with Elder Chagoya. When we first met him he was a wreck, he told us that he couldn't stop drinking alcohol and it was wasting his life away. His wife was crying and his eyes were bloodshot. He didn't have the best English but we tried to console him and when he calmed down we shared with him the word of wisdom and how with God's help we can overcome all addictions and restore our bodies and spirits. We got a return appointment but it fell through and ever since we haven't been able to get in contact with him until this last week. We talked with him and he told us that ever since we came to his house and prayed with him he has only taken one drink. He told us he was much happier and he saved a lot of money since. I was absolutely in shock. We got in his home and shared the restoration of the gospel with him. He loved it and just yesterday we shared it with his whole family. We met his daughters who had come from Karnataka (for study purposes) and I guess they were shocked to hear that their father stopped drinking because they hung on to our every word. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. Unfortunately the daughters are going back to Karnataka next week and I'm not sure if a branch is nearby to them but we will definitely work with Anil and we even gave him a soft commitment to be baptized.
That was definitely the highlight of my week but that is not the end of news. We got our transfer calls on Sunday night and Elder Chagoya is going to Karnataka to a small village called KGF or Kola Gold Fields. It's a really small village but the work is really strong there. We just heard the other day that between two companionships they are getting 20 investigators to church every week. Elder Chagoya is going to have a lot of success but he won't be too comfortable. From what we hear there are no grocery stores or big shops there. You're lucky if you can even find bread. Not to mention that the local food is terrible. He's really nervous about the food situation but at the same time he is really excited to have even more success.
As for me I'm going to stay here a little longer and train a new elder fresh out of the MTC. I'm really excited for it. Ever since I started my mission I wanted to be a trainer, probably because I love my trainer so much. I don't know his name but he's coming in tomorrow morning. Elder Chagoya and I are thinking of playing a little prank on him but we're not sure exactly what we want to do. We could get a member to pretend to be angry with us, we could get him to eat something really nasty, or anything. The best prank I heard someone do is two elders bought an idol and set it up in their room. When they brought the new elder home one looked at his watch and say "quick elder. It's 2:00!". Then they ran to the idol and started bowing to it. They told the other elder to bow to it also and said it was the law and the other elder starting bowing to it. Then the other two elders stepped back and took a picture of it and said "Oh elder you're in trouble. We're going to send this picture to President Nichols and tell him you're worshipping idols". It sounds funny but I don't think I could get my make my new companion break the second commandment.
Anyways I am really excited for this next week but it's going to be hectic. Trying to transfer American elders is a pain because we have to de-register and register for each area. It takes so much time because we have to take an hour bus ride to the government office and then we usually have to wait 2 hours until the S.P. arrives and he can sign our papers. It's a pain but it's necessary.
I love you all so much and I keep you in my prayers everyday. I hate that I'm missing all the little kids grow up. I'm starting to realize how foreign the world is going to be when I do come home, luckily I got three brothers and a dad who served missions who can help me recoop.
Love you all a million greenies!
Elder Curtis Mackay
Oh my goodness you are one happy family. Carly I'm so proud of you. Keep it up! And yes Ashley I did laugh hysterically at you but I'm glad you and Dustin are still together. And Paige I am so happy for you also. You're going to have an amazing senior prom. Tell Jake he has my condolensces. Matt I'm so sorry for missing your birthday. I lost track of time but I hope you like my letter. I made some pictures for the chilluns. I love you all so much and I can't wait to call home sooooo soon.
Love ya!
So another transfer is completed and I'll tell you the results in a second but first business. Elder Chagoya wanted me to send some things for you at home to look at. To all the brothers he was wondering if you had seen any of the Beetles movies (i.e. Help, A Hard Days Night). Knowing Matt and Dustin I told him that they probably have but he just wanted to know. Also I have one for Paige: look up The Awareness Test on youtube. You may have already seen it but I want you to check it out and see what you think of it. Elder Chagoya told me it was pretty cool. Also he keeps telling me about a show called Burn Notice. I'm not sure what it is but let me know if it is as truly noteworthy as he says it is.
This Sunday we baptized John. John is a great guy, 19 years old, and loves the gospel. It was a great baptism service and his parents and his brother came. They have a strange situation in there family where they all live in different places in Rajahmundry so having them all together was really cool.
I also had something really cool happen this past week. I was on exchange in my area and we were making some visits to our investigators. As we were walking we found Anil Kumar, an older man who I had met a month ago with Elder Chagoya. When we first met him he was a wreck, he told us that he couldn't stop drinking alcohol and it was wasting his life away. His wife was crying and his eyes were bloodshot. He didn't have the best English but we tried to console him and when he calmed down we shared with him the word of wisdom and how with God's help we can overcome all addictions and restore our bodies and spirits. We got a return appointment but it fell through and ever since we haven't been able to get in contact with him until this last week. We talked with him and he told us that ever since we came to his house and prayed with him he has only taken one drink. He told us he was much happier and he saved a lot of money since. I was absolutely in shock. We got in his home and shared the restoration of the gospel with him. He loved it and just yesterday we shared it with his whole family. We met his daughters who had come from Karnataka (for study purposes) and I guess they were shocked to hear that their father stopped drinking because they hung on to our every word. The spirit was so strong in that lesson. Unfortunately the daughters are going back to Karnataka next week and I'm not sure if a branch is nearby to them but we will definitely work with Anil and we even gave him a soft commitment to be baptized.
That was definitely the highlight of my week but that is not the end of news. We got our transfer calls on Sunday night and Elder Chagoya is going to Karnataka to a small village called KGF or Kola Gold Fields. It's a really small village but the work is really strong there. We just heard the other day that between two companionships they are getting 20 investigators to church every week. Elder Chagoya is going to have a lot of success but he won't be too comfortable. From what we hear there are no grocery stores or big shops there. You're lucky if you can even find bread. Not to mention that the local food is terrible. He's really nervous about the food situation but at the same time he is really excited to have even more success.
As for me I'm going to stay here a little longer and train a new elder fresh out of the MTC. I'm really excited for it. Ever since I started my mission I wanted to be a trainer, probably because I love my trainer so much. I don't know his name but he's coming in tomorrow morning. Elder Chagoya and I are thinking of playing a little prank on him but we're not sure exactly what we want to do. We could get a member to pretend to be angry with us, we could get him to eat something really nasty, or anything. The best prank I heard someone do is two elders bought an idol and set it up in their room. When they brought the new elder home one looked at his watch and say "quick elder. It's 2:00!". Then they ran to the idol and started bowing to it. They told the other elder to bow to it also and said it was the law and the other elder starting bowing to it. Then the other two elders stepped back and took a picture of it and said "Oh elder you're in trouble. We're going to send this picture to President Nichols and tell him you're worshipping idols". It sounds funny but I don't think I could get my make my new companion break the second commandment.
Anyways I am really excited for this next week but it's going to be hectic. Trying to transfer American elders is a pain because we have to de-register and register for each area. It takes so much time because we have to take an hour bus ride to the government office and then we usually have to wait 2 hours until the S.P. arrives and he can sign our papers. It's a pain but it's necessary.
I love you all so much and I keep you in my prayers everyday. I hate that I'm missing all the little kids grow up. I'm starting to realize how foreign the world is going to be when I do come home, luckily I got three brothers and a dad who served missions who can help me recoop.
Love you all a million greenies!
Elder Curtis Mackay
Oh my goodness you are one happy family. Carly I'm so proud of you. Keep it up! And yes Ashley I did laugh hysterically at you but I'm glad you and Dustin are still together. And Paige I am so happy for you also. You're going to have an amazing senior prom. Tell Jake he has my condolensces. Matt I'm so sorry for missing your birthday. I lost track of time but I hope you like my letter. I made some pictures for the chilluns. I love you all so much and I can't wait to call home sooooo soon.
Love ya!
mmm... Toasty - April 21, 2009
Dear Family,
Well another week has speedily gone by. Transfers are coming up (We'll find out what happens Saturday or Sunday), We have a baptism this Sunday, and it's getting so hot that I think Satan went back to Hell to get away from the heat. As for business I needs Jeff Groesbeck's address so I can write him. Dano if you're reading this then I still haven't received your letter but I have hope. Thank you so much for working on getting me more shirts, mine are just about toast and now I don't have to worry about getting more stitched.
The baptism this Sunday is John Bobbi, a great young man. He's been coming to church since December with his friend who is a recent convert from last year. When I first met John I thought he was a member because he was so comfortable with church services and had a lot friends. The reason why we've been taking it slow with him is because we want to make sure he is fully commited to coming to church. We brought a counselor of the branch presidency over yesterday to check up on him and gave the approval for him to be baptized. John was way excited and he bore an amazing testimony.
I got double duty this week because I have to go on exchanges with all the elders once more before the transfer finishes. Because the mission is filled with young missionaries President Nichols ordered for double the exchanges so that the knowledge from the older elders can spread quickly to the younger ones. I don't consider myself an older elder by any means but we do have one older elder in the district so I take that opportunity to learn from him so at least I can pretend to be experienced in front of the younger elders:)
Going back to the heat we got to be really careful. We get dehydrated quickly even though we're drinking plenty of water because we lose all the salt through our sweat. The other day I lost all of my energy and we were probably going about 3mph on our cycles at the fastest because I just couldn't push any harder. It kind of brings me back to my wrestling days. The temperature gets up to 41 degrees C and the humidity is killer. This morning I went out to play soccer and within five minutes my shirt was drenched with sweat. I'm looking for some type of electrolyte packets so I can stay energized.
Our teaching pool is getting healthier everyday. We are meeting with a lot of new people everyday that are showing some great potential. One problem is that a lot come from the same church and I have a feeling that the pastor is gonna get suspicious of us. We actually already met the pastor's son and he was a nice kid so maybe we can make this relationship work out. One man we're teaching, Hari Babu, was really excited to hear from us. When we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon his eyes went wide. We're going to meet his whole family on Friday and he said he'll bring them all to church. We visited him yesterday and met his son who was playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I was pretty surprised to see someone playing a video game in Raj but that gives me an idea that they also have the internet and therefore we can finally use mormon.org. That would be a real treat for us.
I better start wrapping this up. I love you all so much and thank you for your support. Umm I'm thinking I might need some more stick old spice deodorant so if you could send that up in the next package that would be great. Make sure to insulate it with newspaper or something so it doesn't melt. Also if I could get some more pics of the kids and also of Matthew and Dustin and their families that would be great.
Love you a million Shady trees and central A/C churches,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Well another week has speedily gone by. Transfers are coming up (We'll find out what happens Saturday or Sunday), We have a baptism this Sunday, and it's getting so hot that I think Satan went back to Hell to get away from the heat. As for business I needs Jeff Groesbeck's address so I can write him. Dano if you're reading this then I still haven't received your letter but I have hope. Thank you so much for working on getting me more shirts, mine are just about toast and now I don't have to worry about getting more stitched.
The baptism this Sunday is John Bobbi, a great young man. He's been coming to church since December with his friend who is a recent convert from last year. When I first met John I thought he was a member because he was so comfortable with church services and had a lot friends. The reason why we've been taking it slow with him is because we want to make sure he is fully commited to coming to church. We brought a counselor of the branch presidency over yesterday to check up on him and gave the approval for him to be baptized. John was way excited and he bore an amazing testimony.
I got double duty this week because I have to go on exchanges with all the elders once more before the transfer finishes. Because the mission is filled with young missionaries President Nichols ordered for double the exchanges so that the knowledge from the older elders can spread quickly to the younger ones. I don't consider myself an older elder by any means but we do have one older elder in the district so I take that opportunity to learn from him so at least I can pretend to be experienced in front of the younger elders:)
Going back to the heat we got to be really careful. We get dehydrated quickly even though we're drinking plenty of water because we lose all the salt through our sweat. The other day I lost all of my energy and we were probably going about 3mph on our cycles at the fastest because I just couldn't push any harder. It kind of brings me back to my wrestling days. The temperature gets up to 41 degrees C and the humidity is killer. This morning I went out to play soccer and within five minutes my shirt was drenched with sweat. I'm looking for some type of electrolyte packets so I can stay energized.
Our teaching pool is getting healthier everyday. We are meeting with a lot of new people everyday that are showing some great potential. One problem is that a lot come from the same church and I have a feeling that the pastor is gonna get suspicious of us. We actually already met the pastor's son and he was a nice kid so maybe we can make this relationship work out. One man we're teaching, Hari Babu, was really excited to hear from us. When we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon his eyes went wide. We're going to meet his whole family on Friday and he said he'll bring them all to church. We visited him yesterday and met his son who was playing Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. I was pretty surprised to see someone playing a video game in Raj but that gives me an idea that they also have the internet and therefore we can finally use mormon.org. That would be a real treat for us.
I better start wrapping this up. I love you all so much and thank you for your support. Umm I'm thinking I might need some more stick old spice deodorant so if you could send that up in the next package that would be great. Make sure to insulate it with newspaper or something so it doesn't melt. Also if I could get some more pics of the kids and also of Matthew and Dustin and their families that would be great.
Love you a million Shady trees and central A/C churches,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Conference after conference - April 15, 2009
Dear Family,
General Conference was really great. We watched it last Saturday and Sunday via DVDs. It was a little strange because the branch presidencies decided to play the sessions back to back, which is not a very good idea in my opinion because it was just too draining. But regardless there were many amazing and inspiring talks. President Monson just about made everyone cry I think in the Sunday afternoon session when he talked about the German woman who was a widow and buried four of her children. It really is a blessing to have the sealing power of the priesthood bind our families for forever. I really like President Eyring, Elder Christofferson and of course Elder Holland. I think you are right Jeff, that talk can definitely help some of our investigators.
We just came back from Zone Conference in Visac, which was both a great and horrible. The great part was how uplifting and inspirational the conference was. The horrible part was that I was suffering from naseau, diarrhea, and a fever. Luckily I made it through and I was able to have plenty of time to rest. It seems the Lord only allows me to be sick when I have down time. I'm almost 100% now so I should be able to go out tonight, which I'm grateful for. We also have District Conference this weekend so I'm definitely going to be ready for a normal schedule by time this week finishes.
Wow, Carly I can't believe your already doing your first triathalon. I told all the other elders and they were way impressed--especially when I told them that it has been less than a year since your second child was born. And yes I know Uday Gali. He was the former branch president and I'll be sure to give him Mark's email because I have to actually get him to sign some papers. As for the faith talks I think Lectures on Faith will give much more than I know. You should probably talk to Byron about it also because he knows much more than I do. But I was talking with my companion about fear and why it is the opposite of faith. I like to describe faith as confidence in a promise made but not yet fulfilled. There is always an assurance that these promises will be fulfilled that is the witness of the Spirit. But sometimes we fear that the promise won't be fulfilled, and then we begin to doubt our personal witness of the spirit. At that time, for whatever reason, we doubt God as well as ourselves and we spiritually expose ourselves to Satan's attack. Satan likes to entice us with promises that give immediate satisfaction and many people feel more comfortable with this because they feel more certain that those actions will bring them more happiness later because it brings them happiness now. But we know that Satan is a lier from the very beginning and his promises cannot be fulfilled. His purpose is to make us miserable. So in the end I concluded that faith is confidence in a divine promise from our loving Heavenly Father while fear is falling into the false comforts of Satan's hollow promise. That is why faith and fear cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Hopefully that was doctrinally sound and of some help.
In other news we are working to gather more investigators. We actually found a pretty nice family that learned a little bit about Mormons and not from a local pastor (whew). Sagar, the husband, read an article about Mormons in a Reader's Digest 20 years ago and his wife Sri Devi met the elders in another area of India. We had a nice visit with them and at the very end Sagar asked if any of our prophets had more than one wife. I wasn't quite sure how to answer because a recent convert with us and I was pretty sure he hadn't learned about polygammy yet. I sidestepped the question because Sagar referenced a book and I told him I never heard of the book and he said "okay just leave it". I talked with President Nichols about it and asked how I should have responded. He appreciated my hesitation to answer directly but he said that I should have done just that. I should have said "yes sir, polygammy was practiced in the church for a time but we discontinued the practice due to revelation and have left it since". The church is true, we shouldn't be afraid to tell the truth even if the world looks at it funny. President Nichols told me not to worry about talking about polygammy because in India there are many cases of polygammy.
I'm learning so much as I go along in my mission. During Zone Conference we were doing practices where we tell about an actual investigator and his or her concern and then practice resolving the concern. Elder Chagoya and I chose Manikiyum and wrote her concern as following the word of wisdom with tea. As we were practicing we were focusing on following the word of wisdom, President Nichols stops us and says "Elders in all my years I have never heard of someone who won't be baptized because of tea. Do you really think that's the real reason?" Well we did at the time but of course we quickly changed our mind. After some discussion we came up with several other concerns and came up with a list of questions we could ask do find out the concern. Basically I learned that we have to really know our investigators. Too many times we make assumptions and make excuses for them and then we have no clue how they really feel. I got a lot to learn but it's kind of fun to figure things out.
Anyways I better get going. The new car sounds nice. I'm excited to take for a spin as well so keep in good condition;) Thanks for the advice Mom and I'm glad you got my letter. Maybe having Shawn work for Moviemax will be a good missionary opportunity, you never know. I'm sure if anyone could have an influence on Smurph it would be Paige.
I love you all a million General Conference talks,
Elder Curtis Mackay
General Conference was really great. We watched it last Saturday and Sunday via DVDs. It was a little strange because the branch presidencies decided to play the sessions back to back, which is not a very good idea in my opinion because it was just too draining. But regardless there were many amazing and inspiring talks. President Monson just about made everyone cry I think in the Sunday afternoon session when he talked about the German woman who was a widow and buried four of her children. It really is a blessing to have the sealing power of the priesthood bind our families for forever. I really like President Eyring, Elder Christofferson and of course Elder Holland. I think you are right Jeff, that talk can definitely help some of our investigators.
We just came back from Zone Conference in Visac, which was both a great and horrible. The great part was how uplifting and inspirational the conference was. The horrible part was that I was suffering from naseau, diarrhea, and a fever. Luckily I made it through and I was able to have plenty of time to rest. It seems the Lord only allows me to be sick when I have down time. I'm almost 100% now so I should be able to go out tonight, which I'm grateful for. We also have District Conference this weekend so I'm definitely going to be ready for a normal schedule by time this week finishes.
Wow, Carly I can't believe your already doing your first triathalon. I told all the other elders and they were way impressed--especially when I told them that it has been less than a year since your second child was born. And yes I know Uday Gali. He was the former branch president and I'll be sure to give him Mark's email because I have to actually get him to sign some papers. As for the faith talks I think Lectures on Faith will give much more than I know. You should probably talk to Byron about it also because he knows much more than I do. But I was talking with my companion about fear and why it is the opposite of faith. I like to describe faith as confidence in a promise made but not yet fulfilled. There is always an assurance that these promises will be fulfilled that is the witness of the Spirit. But sometimes we fear that the promise won't be fulfilled, and then we begin to doubt our personal witness of the spirit. At that time, for whatever reason, we doubt God as well as ourselves and we spiritually expose ourselves to Satan's attack. Satan likes to entice us with promises that give immediate satisfaction and many people feel more comfortable with this because they feel more certain that those actions will bring them more happiness later because it brings them happiness now. But we know that Satan is a lier from the very beginning and his promises cannot be fulfilled. His purpose is to make us miserable. So in the end I concluded that faith is confidence in a divine promise from our loving Heavenly Father while fear is falling into the false comforts of Satan's hollow promise. That is why faith and fear cannot exist in the same place at the same time. Hopefully that was doctrinally sound and of some help.
In other news we are working to gather more investigators. We actually found a pretty nice family that learned a little bit about Mormons and not from a local pastor (whew). Sagar, the husband, read an article about Mormons in a Reader's Digest 20 years ago and his wife Sri Devi met the elders in another area of India. We had a nice visit with them and at the very end Sagar asked if any of our prophets had more than one wife. I wasn't quite sure how to answer because a recent convert with us and I was pretty sure he hadn't learned about polygammy yet. I sidestepped the question because Sagar referenced a book and I told him I never heard of the book and he said "okay just leave it". I talked with President Nichols about it and asked how I should have responded. He appreciated my hesitation to answer directly but he said that I should have done just that. I should have said "yes sir, polygammy was practiced in the church for a time but we discontinued the practice due to revelation and have left it since". The church is true, we shouldn't be afraid to tell the truth even if the world looks at it funny. President Nichols told me not to worry about talking about polygammy because in India there are many cases of polygammy.
I'm learning so much as I go along in my mission. During Zone Conference we were doing practices where we tell about an actual investigator and his or her concern and then practice resolving the concern. Elder Chagoya and I chose Manikiyum and wrote her concern as following the word of wisdom with tea. As we were practicing we were focusing on following the word of wisdom, President Nichols stops us and says "Elders in all my years I have never heard of someone who won't be baptized because of tea. Do you really think that's the real reason?" Well we did at the time but of course we quickly changed our mind. After some discussion we came up with several other concerns and came up with a list of questions we could ask do find out the concern. Basically I learned that we have to really know our investigators. Too many times we make assumptions and make excuses for them and then we have no clue how they really feel. I got a lot to learn but it's kind of fun to figure things out.
Anyways I better get going. The new car sounds nice. I'm excited to take for a spin as well so keep in good condition;) Thanks for the advice Mom and I'm glad you got my letter. Maybe having Shawn work for Moviemax will be a good missionary opportunity, you never know. I'm sure if anyone could have an influence on Smurph it would be Paige.
I love you all a million General Conference talks,
Elder Curtis Mackay
Converting to the gospel with a hint of Indian - April 7, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
We had a great and busy Sunday. There were four baptisms in the branch, two from the other companionship and two from ours. Elder Chagoya and I baptized Vijay Seera and Manindra Singh Chadalawada. Vijay is only 15 years and he is great young man. He was so excited about baptism and when we talked to his mother and father about it the father started yelling in Telugu. At first we thought he was angry but then we later found that he was yelling something along the lines of "If Vijay is getting baptized, We need a PARTY!!!". We were relieved to hear that. Manindra is Vijay's neighbor. He is great but a little more shy than Vijay. He really surprised me because we started teaching Manindra's sister Manikiyum and then later we met Manindra and his brother Sagar. Out of the whole family I thought Manindra would be baptized last but he showed me what was up and pulled out of nowhere. He was so nervous for the baptism interview. It's tough to put people at ease for the interview because you need to prepare them to answer in English, which doing that alone can cause a lot of stress.
At the baptism all of Vijay's extended family showed up. It was great and spiritual but unfortunately none of them spoke English so maybe the Elders will meet them again after 10 years or so when a Telugu mission opens.
Manikiyum and Sagar our next on the baptism list. We were trying to get them to be baptized the same time as Manindra but they wouldn't commit and for the longest time we didn't know why. Arun, a member and Manindra's friend, came with us for one appointment and he spilled the beans by pointing at Manikiyum accusingly said "Elder, she won't be baptized because she drinks tea!". It was followed by a sharp scowl from Manikiyum and a rebuke in Telugu that I'm pretty sure translates into "shut up". But it unlocked the door and Manikiyum and Sagar both confessed that they weren't keeping the Word of Wisdom. But the problem was diagnosed and now we can start working on the cure. Already they have both committed to quitting tea cold turkey so we will have to see what happens.
Yesterday I went on exchange with Elder William, a native elder from Hyderabad. He has been out for 20 months and got an extension and he has a firm determination not to get trunky. He runs up steps, he speaks boldly, and he won't take no for an answer. We were talking to a sister and he told her about God's plan for happiness and she said she wasn't interested. "Sister, so you're telling me you don't want to be happy?" he said. She was caught off guard and said no. "Then sister, you don't know our message, how can you say it can't bring you happiness unless you listen to the whole message?" She was a bit confounded. We didn't get a return appointment but throughout the day everyone we talked we made sure to raise a warning voice and tried to convince them that our message was worth listening to. Elder William is a strong elder and I'm glad to have him in my district.
So as for the subject I have funny story that happened this week which was my most recent step to becoming an Indian. It all started because I must have ate something funny for lunch. On Monday we were cycling out to the boonies of our area and as were cycling I noticed I needed to go to the bathroom of the number 2 sort. Well by the time we made the 30 minute cycle ride out there it was confirmed that I really did need to go...and it wasn't going away. We were in an area that was less populated and I didn't want to ask anyone to use their bathroom. But I needed to go so Elder Chagoya and I found an open field with lots of bushes for covering. I had a handkerchief for toilet paper and I had hand sanitizer so I thought to just go out to the field and do it camping style. I just about finished when my stomach churned a little more and I realized that I wasn't done yet. The handkerchief was ruined already and the only thing I had left was my water bottle. So I took a deep breath and went Indian style. It wasn't the most pleasant experience ever but now I know when I go camping that I don't have to bring toilet paper anymore...just a water bottle:)
The work is coming a little slower now that Summer is hitting. Only a few months ago I was complaining because we had so much to do and so little time, now I wish those days would come back. And having a district to worry about doesn't make things much easier either. I feel like this is my next mountain I have to conquer. Just when I thought missionary work was getting easy I get another thing tossed on me. I was reading a talk the other day by President Eyring in the 2008 October Priesthood Session where he talked about how life always gets harder as you go along but the Lord will give you strength to do all the things you are asked to do. So I guess I just better be diligent and have hope that I can overcome this challenge.
Thank you so much for your letters. Matt, I hope you had a great time in Utah. You definitely deserve the break. I sent a letter to you and Jen and the children so I hope you get it soon. I love you and your family so much. I love you all so much. Remember that Satan wants us to be miserable and to think that the worst times are worse than they really are and that the best times are not worth our attention. Always look for the eternal.
Love you a million apostilic testimonies that you have heard I and I am about to enjoy:)
Elder Mackay
I think that it's absolutely amazing how quickly we can talk to each other. I'm glad that you all had a break from the physical and spiritual tempests of the world. I'm looking forward to the General Conference talks and yes Paige, night boarding is amazing. It will be on the top of our to do list when the separated twins become a dynamic duo again. And I'm so jealous...not of the frosted cookies, although I must say it almost lead me to covet, but that I am missing out on the four babies being put together. It must be like Rugrats at Carly's home.
Love ya
Curtis
We had a great and busy Sunday. There were four baptisms in the branch, two from the other companionship and two from ours. Elder Chagoya and I baptized Vijay Seera and Manindra Singh Chadalawada. Vijay is only 15 years and he is great young man. He was so excited about baptism and when we talked to his mother and father about it the father started yelling in Telugu. At first we thought he was angry but then we later found that he was yelling something along the lines of "If Vijay is getting baptized, We need a PARTY!!!". We were relieved to hear that. Manindra is Vijay's neighbor. He is great but a little more shy than Vijay. He really surprised me because we started teaching Manindra's sister Manikiyum and then later we met Manindra and his brother Sagar. Out of the whole family I thought Manindra would be baptized last but he showed me what was up and pulled out of nowhere. He was so nervous for the baptism interview. It's tough to put people at ease for the interview because you need to prepare them to answer in English, which doing that alone can cause a lot of stress.
At the baptism all of Vijay's extended family showed up. It was great and spiritual but unfortunately none of them spoke English so maybe the Elders will meet them again after 10 years or so when a Telugu mission opens.
Manikiyum and Sagar our next on the baptism list. We were trying to get them to be baptized the same time as Manindra but they wouldn't commit and for the longest time we didn't know why. Arun, a member and Manindra's friend, came with us for one appointment and he spilled the beans by pointing at Manikiyum accusingly said "Elder, she won't be baptized because she drinks tea!". It was followed by a sharp scowl from Manikiyum and a rebuke in Telugu that I'm pretty sure translates into "shut up". But it unlocked the door and Manikiyum and Sagar both confessed that they weren't keeping the Word of Wisdom. But the problem was diagnosed and now we can start working on the cure. Already they have both committed to quitting tea cold turkey so we will have to see what happens.
Yesterday I went on exchange with Elder William, a native elder from Hyderabad. He has been out for 20 months and got an extension and he has a firm determination not to get trunky. He runs up steps, he speaks boldly, and he won't take no for an answer. We were talking to a sister and he told her about God's plan for happiness and she said she wasn't interested. "Sister, so you're telling me you don't want to be happy?" he said. She was caught off guard and said no. "Then sister, you don't know our message, how can you say it can't bring you happiness unless you listen to the whole message?" She was a bit confounded. We didn't get a return appointment but throughout the day everyone we talked we made sure to raise a warning voice and tried to convince them that our message was worth listening to. Elder William is a strong elder and I'm glad to have him in my district.
So as for the subject I have funny story that happened this week which was my most recent step to becoming an Indian. It all started because I must have ate something funny for lunch. On Monday we were cycling out to the boonies of our area and as were cycling I noticed I needed to go to the bathroom of the number 2 sort. Well by the time we made the 30 minute cycle ride out there it was confirmed that I really did need to go...and it wasn't going away. We were in an area that was less populated and I didn't want to ask anyone to use their bathroom. But I needed to go so Elder Chagoya and I found an open field with lots of bushes for covering. I had a handkerchief for toilet paper and I had hand sanitizer so I thought to just go out to the field and do it camping style. I just about finished when my stomach churned a little more and I realized that I wasn't done yet. The handkerchief was ruined already and the only thing I had left was my water bottle. So I took a deep breath and went Indian style. It wasn't the most pleasant experience ever but now I know when I go camping that I don't have to bring toilet paper anymore...just a water bottle:)
The work is coming a little slower now that Summer is hitting. Only a few months ago I was complaining because we had so much to do and so little time, now I wish those days would come back. And having a district to worry about doesn't make things much easier either. I feel like this is my next mountain I have to conquer. Just when I thought missionary work was getting easy I get another thing tossed on me. I was reading a talk the other day by President Eyring in the 2008 October Priesthood Session where he talked about how life always gets harder as you go along but the Lord will give you strength to do all the things you are asked to do. So I guess I just better be diligent and have hope that I can overcome this challenge.
Thank you so much for your letters. Matt, I hope you had a great time in Utah. You definitely deserve the break. I sent a letter to you and Jen and the children so I hope you get it soon. I love you and your family so much. I love you all so much. Remember that Satan wants us to be miserable and to think that the worst times are worse than they really are and that the best times are not worth our attention. Always look for the eternal.
Love you a million apostilic testimonies that you have heard I and I am about to enjoy:)
Elder Mackay
I think that it's absolutely amazing how quickly we can talk to each other. I'm glad that you all had a break from the physical and spiritual tempests of the world. I'm looking forward to the General Conference talks and yes Paige, night boarding is amazing. It will be on the top of our to do list when the separated twins become a dynamic duo again. And I'm so jealous...not of the frosted cookies, although I must say it almost lead me to covet, but that I am missing out on the four babies being put together. It must be like Rugrats at Carly's home.
Love ya
Curtis
Lots of Pictures - April 1, 2009
A building under construction. You can notice they put scarecrows hanging off the side of the building because there is superstition that if you look at a building while under construction then something bad will happen to the building. So they put a scarecrow there so the people look at the hanging body and not the building.
A pic of a school gate
Buses in Hyderabad.
These pics are from an 'import store' we found. The second one is a picture that describes how we felt.
It's Getting Hot Here - April 1, 2009
Dear Family and Friends,
I am so sad to hear about Rafe. I just finished writing a letter to him and I was going to send it off to the MTC today but I guess I'll have to change that. I'm glad Elliott is having high spirits. When I saw the pictures the two things I noticed were Elliott's California State wrestling shorts and how grown up Paige was. And Paigey, since when did you start to want to do scripture study? We're going to have a ton a fun when I get back...but not to soon. Hearing about everyone having to come home makes me realize how blessed I am to still be out and not only that but how much of a responsibility I have. I have to find all of those people the Lord has prepared for me before my time is up and now I know that I can't be certain how long that will be.
Dustin and Ashley, I hope the treatment works out. I was praying about you the other night and I had a prompting that something good had happened or was going to happen. My first impression was that Ashley was pregnant so I was half-expecting a baby-announcement but now I hope that that impression is a future event about to happen.
It's been busy and a little confusing. Everyone with a baptism date is being really shifty, some for the good and some for the not so good.
There is Manikiyum, a young women about 20 years old, who knows the Book of Mormon is true, loves the church, wants to be baptized, but won't say when. We try to encourage her but there is something else there that she won't say. Her younger brother and his friend, Manindra and Vijay, are great though. They were set for April 12th but last week at church they said they wanted to be baptized the next week. Well that was just fine by us but that means we have a lot to teach them. But teaching them is a blast. It's more like teaching Sunday school than teaching an investigator. They soak up everything and they're both a bit of jokers so every once in a while they'll say something funny and we'll burst out laughing.
Then there is Angelica, the anglo-indian. This is a big deal because I have never seen an anglo member in India. She is set for April 19th and she has a great desire but her children are a mess. Her son Elton is kind of a punk, her daughter Saby is good and a nice girl but her faith is weak in God, and then there is a 2-year old daughter who is cute but is a little bit of a burden. A little difficult for a widow to handle. But she is slowly learning how to keep commitments and we're excited for her.
Then there is Kalidas and his family. Kalidas is a referral from his uncle Peter, a recent convert. They have a great family but they have trouble coming to church. It is very difficult to keep the Sabbath day holy in India because very few people understand the concept of a day of rest. We were thinking about dropping them for a while but when we met with Kalidas and told him our concerns he said that we would ask for his employer to let him take Sundays off or at least change the shift so he can come to church. He was really sincere about and it touched me and my companion so we decided to stay with him. Also there was a similar situation with another recent convert from our branch. It took him 5 months to be baptized because he couldn't come to church full time. Eventually after much persuasion with his boss he was able to get Sundays off so he could come to church. Well if it worked for him then it can work for Kalidas. We just got to have faith that the Lord will provide a way.
The other day I we were in a poorer area to meet one of our investigators. As I was setting an appointment with her a swarm of kids mobbed my companion. I thought he would get frustrated but instead I turn around to hear my companion say "Who...Let...The...Dogs...Out" and a chorus of little kids repeat "Hoo...Wet...Da...Dogs...Owt". They didn't do that bad of a job and I think that the Baha Men would have been proud.
Anyways thank you so much for your letters. I'll do my best out here and tell Rafe and Elliott I love them (in an Elderly way). Dad, please send me the notes and pictures of your science excursion, I would love to see them. The heat is getting to be a little much. When we go inside for lunch our shirts are stuck to our skin. In May it should be hitting India's worse.
Love you a million Broken English Children Choirs,
Elder Mackay
p.s. They are going to open up Sri Lanka again. It closed just before I got here but now they are obtaining legitimate year long missionary visas so we can go without any problems. Just thought you might think that was interesting.
p.s.s.
Dear Angie,
Happy Birthday! I never got to thank you for your Christmas card. I got to say that out of all of the cards I got, yours was the best. Mostly because it said so much in little words. I wish you the happy Indian birthday as well, but that won't do you much good because that means that you have to treat everyone else to candy, chocolates and cakes. But if you want to have an Indian birthday dinner go to a local Indian resturaunt and order Hyderbad Biryani. This is the special festival meal and it's really good...if you like rice that is. I hope your birthday is a special one.
Love,
Curtis
I am so sad to hear about Rafe. I just finished writing a letter to him and I was going to send it off to the MTC today but I guess I'll have to change that. I'm glad Elliott is having high spirits. When I saw the pictures the two things I noticed were Elliott's California State wrestling shorts and how grown up Paige was. And Paigey, since when did you start to want to do scripture study? We're going to have a ton a fun when I get back...but not to soon. Hearing about everyone having to come home makes me realize how blessed I am to still be out and not only that but how much of a responsibility I have. I have to find all of those people the Lord has prepared for me before my time is up and now I know that I can't be certain how long that will be.
Dustin and Ashley, I hope the treatment works out. I was praying about you the other night and I had a prompting that something good had happened or was going to happen. My first impression was that Ashley was pregnant so I was half-expecting a baby-announcement but now I hope that that impression is a future event about to happen.
It's been busy and a little confusing. Everyone with a baptism date is being really shifty, some for the good and some for the not so good.
There is Manikiyum, a young women about 20 years old, who knows the Book of Mormon is true, loves the church, wants to be baptized, but won't say when. We try to encourage her but there is something else there that she won't say. Her younger brother and his friend, Manindra and Vijay, are great though. They were set for April 12th but last week at church they said they wanted to be baptized the next week. Well that was just fine by us but that means we have a lot to teach them. But teaching them is a blast. It's more like teaching Sunday school than teaching an investigator. They soak up everything and they're both a bit of jokers so every once in a while they'll say something funny and we'll burst out laughing.
Then there is Angelica, the anglo-indian. This is a big deal because I have never seen an anglo member in India. She is set for April 19th and she has a great desire but her children are a mess. Her son Elton is kind of a punk, her daughter Saby is good and a nice girl but her faith is weak in God, and then there is a 2-year old daughter who is cute but is a little bit of a burden. A little difficult for a widow to handle. But she is slowly learning how to keep commitments and we're excited for her.
Then there is Kalidas and his family. Kalidas is a referral from his uncle Peter, a recent convert. They have a great family but they have trouble coming to church. It is very difficult to keep the Sabbath day holy in India because very few people understand the concept of a day of rest. We were thinking about dropping them for a while but when we met with Kalidas and told him our concerns he said that we would ask for his employer to let him take Sundays off or at least change the shift so he can come to church. He was really sincere about and it touched me and my companion so we decided to stay with him. Also there was a similar situation with another recent convert from our branch. It took him 5 months to be baptized because he couldn't come to church full time. Eventually after much persuasion with his boss he was able to get Sundays off so he could come to church. Well if it worked for him then it can work for Kalidas. We just got to have faith that the Lord will provide a way.
The other day I we were in a poorer area to meet one of our investigators. As I was setting an appointment with her a swarm of kids mobbed my companion. I thought he would get frustrated but instead I turn around to hear my companion say "Who...Let...The...Dogs...Out" and a chorus of little kids repeat "Hoo...Wet...Da...Dogs...Owt". They didn't do that bad of a job and I think that the Baha Men would have been proud.
Anyways thank you so much for your letters. I'll do my best out here and tell Rafe and Elliott I love them (in an Elderly way). Dad, please send me the notes and pictures of your science excursion, I would love to see them. The heat is getting to be a little much. When we go inside for lunch our shirts are stuck to our skin. In May it should be hitting India's worse.
Love you a million Broken English Children Choirs,
Elder Mackay
p.s. They are going to open up Sri Lanka again. It closed just before I got here but now they are obtaining legitimate year long missionary visas so we can go without any problems. Just thought you might think that was interesting.
p.s.s.
Dear Angie,
Happy Birthday! I never got to thank you for your Christmas card. I got to say that out of all of the cards I got, yours was the best. Mostly because it said so much in little words. I wish you the happy Indian birthday as well, but that won't do you much good because that means that you have to treat everyone else to candy, chocolates and cakes. But if you want to have an Indian birthday dinner go to a local Indian resturaunt and order Hyderbad Biryani. This is the special festival meal and it's really good...if you like rice that is. I hope your birthday is a special one.
Love,
Curtis
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