Elder Mackey's October 18, 2011 E-mail

Amanda says "FYI - I asked him why he was emailing on Tuesday in stead of Monday, and I asked why the cops were called and what happened."
No for real. It wasnt bad, we just walked away from the house. We e-mailed on Tuesday because it was Columbus Day and the Libraries were closed (they actually weren't, only some of them) so they said we could e-mail on Tuesday. We are gaining a lot of trust with the Ward! This is awesome because now the ward will hopefully begin to give us referrals. But that is not the hightlight of my week. So this last Friday Elder Cook came to visit the mission. It was so awesome! The first thing he did was shook all our hands and ask us where we were from. Then he explained why he did that. He was giving us a "spiritual interview" where he looks into our eyes and see how we are doing. I knew they did something like that! He said that everyone looked good spiritually and physically. He talked about how we need to focus on having all those we are teaching keep commitments.  His wife spoke too and she is a very musically inclined person. Very sweet. Also, President Clements worked for Elder Cook in a law firm and they have known each other for a very long time so they are really good friends. Its starting to get cold here like 50 - 45 defreeze!!! I need to go and take my boy to get some warm winter stuff. I love you all! 

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's October 10, 2011 E-Mail

Dear Mandy,

 

Well it was pretty hot during the beginning of the week. We had to start wearing suits all the time now (except on bikes) and I think someone complained to the President (which I'm glad) that it was to hot for suits. So they moved it to last Friday. It has been really nice. There are leaves EVERYWHERE. Its so fun to bike right next to the curb and then put my foot down and gather a huge pile of leaves that makes it up to my lap. Crazy huh? How is Grandpa doing with his recovery? I love them. :D Was the fair fun? I dont remember ever going to any fairs. I went to one down here and it is way boring. Cool animals but ya not my way of entertainment. Actually I went to a fair in Mesa with the Blood family and Lauren went to. Did you throw up at all? Which one did you go on? the one off of the movie Sand lot? :P

 

On Sunday we had an amazing lesson to end the day. We are teaching a women whose husband is in Iraq right now. She has four kids. She said she was going to make it to church earlier but didnt make it for some reason. We were a little bumbed and we tried getting a hold of her throughout the week but were unable so we were nervous that she dropped us. I was praying and praying that this lesson will not fall through and it didnt. We were able to get two Sisters there to the appoinment and we decided to teach CPR (church, pray, read) instead of throughing more information on her with the plan of salvation and it was very spiritual. Everyone in the room was crying (except me) and it was just awesome! It boosted my excitement and will to do better. (And then all of the sudden I got a ton of rejection and cops called on us the next day)

 

Thank you for the quotes! I love you Mandy! You are awesome!

 

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's October 3, 2011 E-Mail

Conference was awesome!! I had a lot of prayers answered for sure. Tons of talks for investigators came to mind. Too bad none of them came. Hopefully they watched it on the Internet. So this past week was so awesome!! We had some amazing miracles!!! One investigator we tracted into a week before accepted to be baptized. We will see how serious he was. He kept saying sure and ok. He wants to quit smoking. Then we were in the area and thought we should stop by this one kid. We were going to do it next week but the idea came to our mind. We stopped by and his parents were out front. Their son (the kid) moved for good to Texas to do pipe lining. We taught the parents the restoration and invited them to be baptized! They accepted. The mom said that she was saying a prayer looking for guidance and she knows that we were an answer to her prayers which she asked like a few hours before. Then after the last session of conference we were going over to our dinner appointment and the neighbor was outside. We talked to her. She was very friendly and open. We asked if we could teach her at the members home and she said yes. We did and it was a spiritual lesson!! We invited her to be baptized and she accepted!!! So 4 accepted baptismal invitations during this week!! That was a pretty uplifter.

 

I came into the mission with the determination that I was going to be 100% obedient and I am not even close to that. Mandy, I feel like I am getting into the "funk" again. :( Its hard to get out of this funk. Seriously I thought I would be a better missionary than who I am right now.  Well I love you oh so very much. I love the family and I am so grateful to be apart of this family. Thank you for your prayers. and that picture is so funny and thank you for sharing that with me!
--

Love,

Elder David Mackey

No E-Mail for October 3, 2011

Elder Mackey's September 26, 2011 E-mail

Dear Mandy,

 

So we found General Conference 2008 on CD in the apartment so we have been listening to that all the time in the car. It was great! So the Weather here "I think" is getting a little cold. The people here say it is really nice and great but I think it is cold. They laugh at me. I thought I was ready for the winter but then I am remembering that my toes froze a lot. :/ I do miss the one season state. Its easy to prepare for that...shorts or shorts. :D

 

I am finding out that my companion is very different than I am. He is too laid back and tells me that I need to be more "loose". He is just a green bean though haha. I just laugh. Anyways this week was pretty hard, we received a lot of discouragement. I mean we got a huge package with the sender Satan, Lucifer. (that was a dumb joke hehe) That's the thing though. We can be interested and open it up and get the surprise or just leave it alone and still have a positive attitude and receive the blessings from God.

 

Its hard for me to write right now because my feelings are going all over the place. :/ Thank you for your prayers Mandy. I love you very much. I read the letters you gave me before I left on my mission this morning. Thank you so much for those letters. :) They are great council for me to follow. I think I am being a worry wart. ha


--

 

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's September 19, 2011 E-mail

Whaaa Hannn!!!  This is the funniest saying that I have heard. My district leader, Elder Dillard whom I will love forever, made it up when he was young and been saying it since then. It means "whats happenin?" There is this special way to say it and its just great. He got the Mission Presidents Wife to say it now. She calls us the Whaa Hannn club. haha Its just silly. Anyways....

 

Yesterday was the Presidents Fireside and I was called to do the musical number. She wanted me to sing "Redeemer of my Soul." This meeting was so good and the Spirit was strong! This Fireside is where a few recent converts are chosen to speak about their conversion. There is a missionary from Ohio, the big time hood part, who told his story. He joined like two years ago and then went on a mission. He is 26. He got shot twice, he was in a gang. But anyways, then there was this guy who found out the church to be true during trial and then went to jail for 10 years and read the BoM, Jesus the Christ, Bible, Miracle of Forgivness, and a bunch of other stuff 10 times. He got out and then got First Presidentcies approval to be baptized. It was so good! It was a good Spiritual day yesterday. I will put in here my letter to the president.

 

Dear President,
Thank you for the opportunity to attend the Presidents Fireside. That was a very spiritual meeting and I was able to participate and even contribute to the meeting. What a blessing! I think it was good for Elder Van Orden to experience that to boost his enthusiasm. We are going to be running chapel tours on Tuesday at 6:30 pm to help with the members in inviting their friends in missionary opportunities. This will help them invite their friends to something a little less overwhelming and help them get into the church to feel the Spirit, see the Christ center pictures we have and to have a lesson from the missionaries all at the same time. I feel that this will be a good experience and will hopefully bring success into this area. Elder Van Orden is doing great! He is a really good companion in helping the investigators in their individual needs. We are on tract with the training guide and I am helping him learn the lessons. I am trying to work with helping him talk to everyone no matter what situation he is in. He is a little shy about that but he is working on it.
We found this couple while tracting and they said they have been meeting with the mormon missionaries for 28 years. They said to stop by another time and so we did and we caught them working on their yard. We dropped our bags and went straight to work. They were impressed and felt bad we were working in our "nice" clothes. They let us "fellowship" with them and I learned how to take the conversation and environment and direct it all towards the plans which we have made (which was restoration) and we were very bold and testified powerfully in te Book of Mormon and about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I invited the wife to be baptized and she accepted. I then invited the husband and he declined saying he was already baptized. So then the wife backed down. :/ She said she will read and pray about the Book of Mormon and so did the husband. The Spirit was so strong in the house and I learned how important it is to point out the Spirit and then TESTIFY! This Saturday a member will be coming with us to help with their yard and also teach. I am trying out here. I hope it is what Heavenly Father wants. I just dont see baptisms. I know thats not how you measure success but I would like to have a baptism. I love you President. :D
Love Elder Mackey

Thank you for all your love and prayers. Pray that I will get a baptism!! I really want one really bad!!
--

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's September 12, 2011 E-mail

Dear Family,

 

It is a lot of work being a trainer! I have never ever thought about someone and worried about someone so much. Thank you so much Grandma Flaherty for the e-mail! I am actually not serving in Blaine. I did serve in New Brighton just under Blaine. I am still in Farmington. My new companion is Elder Van Orden who is from Blackfoot, Idaho. He is the youngest of 5. He works really hard and wants to be a great missionary.

 

I have been playing the piano a lot at random peoples homes because it helps us get into their home. But I really like it because I don't play piano that much so I get my practice at random peoples homes. Whoa, a missionary just walked in who has both legs cut off. He has two prosthetic legs!! Man its so cool.

 

Anyways....umm well I am just working really hard trying to train my "boy" so he doesnt go down the deep end.

 

Missionaries want to use the comp so I got to go. I love you all.....
--

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's September 5, 2011 E-mail

Dear family,

 

The weather here is turning cold! :/ My feet get cold now when I study. It feels great though. I am a little excited for  the winter to come but I am getting a little nervous because I am not use to it. The leaves are changing a little but not to big of a change.

 

So this transfer ended a week early because the MTC did a mistake about the scheduling. Next transfer will be a week longer. Anyways, Elder Waller will be transferred to Blaine, just north of New Brighton, and I will be staying. They called me to be a trainer so I will be training a new missionary!!!! I am pretty excited about that!! I hope I do a good job. I am pretty nervous! Laurens sister said a quote that I really like and applies to me at this point, "The Lord doesn't call the qualified but He qualifies the called." When you train you usually train for two transfers so I will be here in Farmington during the winter months. Luckily its a car area but I love biking so I want to use it at the least except for big trips. You can talk to more people on a bike and do more work than in a car I think.

 

This week I have been studying about goals. I want to really focus on working towards the goals I have set and not only that but pray and have my goals be the same as Heavenly Fathers goals. I feel this is a way of submitting my will to the Fathers will. Its gonna take a lot of work because I want to see some outstanding miracles here.

--

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's August 29, 2011 E-Mail

Dear Family,

 

The work here is going pretty well. We had a few days that were slow, no teaching at all or contacting, but that happens in rural areas. We have been really building the trust with the members and it is working really well. There were some less-active and investigators who might of dropped out of our teaching pool because of me being bold but thats what we do. Thats our purpose, to baptize. I tell my companion that (he isnt as bold and doesnt open his mouth too much) why our purpose is to baptize is because that opens the door for their salvation. They may not know it yet but they will. We dont just extend the invite because its a number to write down but because we love them so much that for them to be even more happier is to make those covenants with God and then receive the Spirit and then enter in the straight and narrow path to eternal salvation which is the greatest gift of God. We lost one baptismal date set but we still have one. He went to church all three hours and he loved it. He was bobbing his head in priesthood but he made it. ;p He might want to get baptized even sooner. We will see. So how is Sam doing? I need to write him a letter and Becca too. Has Adam gone to Argentina yet? The weather is getting beautiful now. It is starting to get into the fall season and it is just nice! Oh guess what.....I helped a member of the ward (I pretty much did it for him) put in the inside and outside barrings of his fron wheels for his huge truck. He broke his right hand so he needed me to do it for him. He told me what to do and taught me a lot about cars. It was so cool! :D So now I know how to do barrings and brakes. ;) so dad if you need help, just give me a call...when im home of course. Love you all.

Love,

Elder David Mackey

Elder Mackey's August 22, 2011 E-Mail

Dear Family,

The Farmington Ward is really awesome! There is a lot of diversity of
talents in the ward. The work is coming along very successfully and I
try to work really hard out here. Yesterday we met with one of our new
investigators whose fiance is a less - active member. We invited him
to be baptized on Sep 24 and he accepted and then he said he would get
married on that day. Then the member came home from work and she was
freaking out about being so soon and "worrying about what her family
(who are not members) would think about her." So now it was moved to
December 31. He is wanting to change his whole life and become better.
Its way awesome! Have any of you checked out mormon.org? They have
some sweeeeet clips. I strongly believe, and I teach this to the
members out here, that we all need to have a profile so we can touch
those who can relate to us to bring them the gospel or prepare them to
receive the gospel. I love you all. This is kinda short sorry.

--
Love,
Elder David Mackey