Elder Mackey's November 21, 2011 E-mail

Dear Mandy,

 

I don't think I am a "bit" little brother. :p I am doing good. Last week was pretty awesome! Elder Zwick came to our mission for a mission tour. He came to our apartment to check it out and then he prayed for us and our appointment we were having right after. :D Then we had a training from him and his wife and it was awesome! During the break he came up to me and apparently President told him about my accident. He wanted to give me a blessing and asked if I wanted one. I said ya! It was so awesome! He pretty much healed me in the blessing. But I thought it was so cool that I had a General Authority lay hands on my head.

 

The coldest I have experienced so far or from when I payed attention was 28 degrees with wind shield 18. Our first day of snow was on Saturday. It was at least three inches of snow! And guess what, I fell for the first time on the first day of snow fall. This is my companions first area on a bike so he was slowing down while coming up to the side walk and I was coming in pretty fast and hit the curb to miss him and went straight down. It didn't even hurt. Then I fell a few times the next day because it all turned to ice and I was trying to slide on the ice with my bike. I do have plans for Thanksgiving. We have a Turkey bowl in the morning (I am praying the snow will melt before then which its says it will) which is a big huge one they say. They have three games going on and tons of people come. Then we will be going over to a members home for Thanksgiving. So that will be my P-day and I will be writing letters then.

 

I think we had Thanksgiving at our house but I don't remember. We had the opportunity to go to a members wedding reception and they gave us the left overs and there was so much turkey that we got! I am going to be sick of it by the end of this week. I am with you, I love the sides; the jello, chips, carrots with that good dip. Thats a bumber that ASU lost. oh well. Maybe next year or the year after that so I can be there to watch it.

 

I have experienced a man who was like "the hypocrites when they pray". He prayed for like 10 min. saying Jesus Christ and "in the name of Jesus Christ" like half the time and the majority of the prayer was about how God is one and that they knew Him and the Bible was the only word. What I really liked about it was that my companion and I were very calm and not bashing. I said at the end, "well we have no purpose here in teaching you since we have already answered your questions" and the guy goes while trying to fake cry "you have a purpose, and that is to find out God and find God." I think there would be some spark in the other guy that we were teaching and his wife maybe.

 

The investigator (****) that had a baptismal date set will not be able to get baptized on Tuesday. :/ She loves coming to church and she will continue to but she has one thing that is holding her up. She has a strong testimony of the other questions so we are waiting for God to work miracles with her. She is so solid. President said that once she starts to live the thing she struggles with that she can be baptized on that day. But she is working towards it.

 

That is awesome about the Baptist lady. The Baptist out here really focus on the "rapture" which has no Bible reference.

 

I remember going down those McDonald slides in wrestling with a tray. You go really fast. I do concur with the smell of pee in the balls area. Not very sanitary especially for children.

I feel though that I'm not being a perfect missionary wastes Heavenly Fathers time that He has set apart for me. I will try to improve my relationship with Him and ask for more help. :) I love you and thank you for your prayers! I still have not received any packages yet so I dont know if you have sent them yet or not. 

Love,
Elder Mackey

Elder Mackey's November 7, 2011 E-mail

 

 

 

haha!

 

Dear Mandy,

 

haha Sorry I wont do that again. I was going to do it all black and then you had to highlight it but then I thought that was dumb.

 

My week is went pretty well. Its like we are starting from scratch. Its tough getting the area going. There are pictures of Elder Whitehead and I raking the leaves of our new investigator. There were a ton of leaves. It was fun, I am having a lot of fun with Elder Whitehead. Another investigator that we obtained while we were here as a date set for November 22. That was pretty cool. Tracting on Halloween was fun too. Although we were talking to a group of young kids and their parents and one of the kids kept hitting me in the face. He did it like 5 times. haha It was hard for me not to pick him up and throw him...not really but man. We got candy while we tracted and some people would talk to us. But very ineffective.

 

I still have not received any packages yet or letters. :( I hear that they are thinking about having the post office be closed on Saturdays. I hope that doesn't happen but I think it has or will. Thank you for all of the notes that you wrote and mom sent to me. :D They made me smile and feel loved! I forgot to take them with me today so I cant really respond specifically but I will next week hopefully. I will write it down in my planner. 

 

That is an awesome story/ miracle that your ward had! That is so EXCITING!  Keep me in the know about the families that are still going. I love hearing stories of re-activation.

 

--

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's October 31, 2011, E-Mail

Dear Mandy,

Wow Adam is amazing!!! He has so much faith! Way to go for him. I did send him an e-mail. Man I wish I had that kind of experience.

So it is getting really cold now. It was pretty foggy today and chilly. I am now in East Bloomington. I am in Presidents ward with the AP's. This ward is awesome!! They help out so much with missionary work its just crazy! We really don't have to do much except tract, teach, study, and be obedient. So my companion, Elder Whitehead, and I white washed the area so we knew nothing here. He has never served here and he actually has never been in a bike area and he goes home in 2 transfers. We just had a wedding followed by a baptism this last Saturday. It was awesome! We got in here with a baptism and wedding. That was pretty much it though. We don't have anyone else. Maybe one but we called and she said she wasn't interested. There hasn't been missionaries in this area for 2 weeks. But we were visiting a less-active and as we were coming out Elder Whitehead contacted a lady who was walking by. We invited her to come to church and she said she had a previous engagement but felt she needed to go. She did and she had a great experience. It was the Primary Program. There was this one kid who got up there and started to say his part and then he says "I don't remember anymore" loudly and throws the mic up and gets down. It was so funny. So yes this is a bike area and it is a huge one and I will be in it for probably the whole winter. My companion is awesome! He works hard and he contacts really well. He teaches with the Spirit and finds with the Spirit. We cook a lot here which is good because I am getting really good at it. :) Although I do need recipes that are good. And spices, good ones please. :) Maybe not as good as Kevin and Ju. I did not get Her package yet. :( The ward had it last Friday but we were thrown into the ward and we didn't know about it so we didn't attend.

The Police story is not even that cool. We just tracted into this one house and the girlfriend was really interested and was trying to leave the place. We stopped by again and the guy answered and he was really mad and said that he was going to call the cops because we were there again and said stuff about our church that was not true so I wanted to beat him up but I said have a great night and left. Ya I probably made it sound like it was intense but it really wasn't. 

I think we are finally on our feet here in this area and now we will be working our butts off I hope. I love you all! Oh, I have a request, Can everyone in the family send me a letter in the mail, like every person, and send it so I get them all on the same day. I just think it would be so funny for the lady in the office. So just coordinate it with everyone. You don't even have to send me a long letter. It could be a little note on a 3 by 5 note card. :) Also all the nieces and nephews send me something and send it in its own envelope. I hope you guys agree. ;) I love you and thank you for your prayers. :)

Love,

Elder Mackey