Monday, April 20, 2015

Bye Bye Newbury

April 20, 2015

Well I am leaving Newbury.... as much as I dont want to!

But I will be going to Paso Robles into a Spanish Branch.

But that's not all, last night we had a mission wide fire side and we had someone show up.
His name starts with a D and end with avid Arculeta, yes David Arculeta came and visited our mission!

But this is how the week went:

A. well my last week in Newbury park was great I learned a very awesome skill, Baking. A less active member taught me how to bake Tres Leches and it was super fun and they even came to church this past Sunday! It was awesome I love Mexican food.

As it is my last day here, which sucks... I love this place so much, all the people I meet like Angel and his family, the Rivera family and Zeya, Elena, Rodolfo and many many more and plus I hate goodbye and suck at saying them. The thing I learned from these people is incredible, from Angel I learned that anything is possible even when the odds are stacked against you, the Rivera family taught me how to love and support each other and how to suck it up and HIT, from Rodolfo I learned that there is never a dull moment in life and if you think there is just look around you and see all the beauty there is in this earth.

The members here are awesome. Seth is awesome, he is doing his very best to prepare himself to serve a mission by inviting his entire football team to play basketball with us. Our ward mission leader bro Judd is working so hard to get the ward leader to do their jobs with us to work as one, our unit leader bro Jensen is just full of love for every person that we need to help. Those are only a couple of examples about how this area is the greatest or one of the greatest areas in this mission.

But as good as Newbury is I hope Paso will be the same.

C. Well Elder Berg is awesome we got to go to the temple on his birthday and it was just a fun day he is awesome and I hope he works hard for his last transfer he is entering.

T. Well last night with bro. David Arculeta it was awesome, the spirit was very strong, I thought it was super cool when he sang the last song "glorious" because I could tell that song means a lot to him and he loved to be a missionary he has done a lot of missionary work both before and after his mission. Well during his mission as well! I can do the same. and I will.

S. This week we helped our ancestors in the temple. But we also helped Jim clean up his back yard.

Yep it was awesome this week was great : temple, Davie, and a lot of fun!

ok we have Seth and his father, and then his family. the Warne family. and the temple

See you around!

-Elder Joshua Mackay 














Tuesday, April 14, 2015

P-Day fun!

I was sent these pictures by a couple of moms... I love to see this smiling happy face!


Monday, April 13, 2015

Another Week down the drain

April 13, 2015

Well hello there, everyone looks pretty happy well at least those whose faces I know!

well its week 6 so hopefully I don't get transferred cause those suck sometimes

well this is my week!

A. well I LOVE Newbury Park this was been one of my favorite areas so far. What is really wierd about that is that this is such a slow area and it a lot of hard work. Which normally I get tired of pretty fast but it seems to me that my faith booster fuel supply was been awesome here. 

This week we had exchanges and I went with Elder Gaylor and we just went to las casitas it was awesome! We talked to everybody we crossed paths with, we did a little service, we went to go see some members who moved and see if they needed anything it was just a great day. Then we went to see Zeya. who said she would get baptized in the future but isn't sure if she is ready for that step now, which is good but the sooner the better right! We are going to focus on her this week and see what happens.

This week we talked with Elena, she is a former - she got really sick so we couldnt see her- and on the exchange I thought we could stop by and see if she is around and she was feeling awesome is what she told us and that she wants us to start teaching her again and then she made us some tamales which were awesome.

C. Well elder Berg was been awesome I really hope we can stay together this transfer. That would be great, he is just awesome, he doesn't say much but you can tell he is always thinking about stuff and hopefully its good stuff which I am sure it is!

T.  Well this week I had my patience tested, we set up a tv with chrome cast to watch part of conference during Sunday school and all we needed to do was hit play and it would have started to play, but some of the members -bless there hearts- thought that we wanted to tv on the other side of the room. and unplugged the tv and then moved it over there. which then turned everything off and then when we were setting it up again, a member thought she could help by putting the cords on the tv stand and well she lifted up the power bar to move it she turned it off........ and we had to start the whole set up process over again. Now many of you who knew me would know i would have got VERY annoyed at that but yesterday everything was fine. and I realize that I have changed a LOT. which is good.

S. This week we helped someone trim their tree so it could fit into a fire place.

It was a lot of fun best part about it is a member went to canada to visit his girl friend and brought my some caramilks!!!

and so last week p day we went to the m.a.s.h. site so here are some pictures, never watched to show but some of you older people might have, a member said its also on netflix if you want to watch it

but have a great week!

-Elder Joshua Mackay






Monday, April 6, 2015

Easter Week #becausehelives

April 6, 2015

well this week was awesome!!

And this is what happened.

A. Here in the los Robles Spanish unit it seems that something isn't clicking. People come to church, they show up, but through out the week we see them doing thing that they shouldn't be doing and I am sick and tired of it. We have talked to everybody we can find, we knock on doors and we do a lot of service, but there isn't a lot of stuff happening, and then the weird thing happens, I am not upset about it, it is just fine. I love it in fact. I really hope that I can stay here longer, if I could get my wish,  until I finish my mission. Something that has happened to me to this point, is as long as I am doing the thing I am supposed to do, then everything else just falls into place. 

This week we had an awesome opportunity to talk with Angel and talk about what he is doing with his life, his body has fallen apart because of his choices and he knows that he was been a member for almost his whole life and wasn't been living it, but Elder Berg and I needed a ride to the temple and he seemed like the perfect person to take us, well his wife would drive because he is very blind. We were able to talk to him about temple blessings and how he should set a goal to go there someday it was great!

So this week being General Conference we watched it all alone in the church, there was less then 10 members who showed up to watch it with us, but we had an investigator text us after the Sunday sessions were over and she said she loved it and that Elder Zabellos talk was her favorite. It was awesome!!

C. Elder Berg this week has been coming down with something, cold or something similar. but he was never complained or anything and we worked pretty hard this week it was good!

T. Well the big question that I brought to conference is: what is the most important thing to do after my mission. and every person talked about the answer it was very clear to me what I should do. I really enjoyed elder M Russel Ballard's I thought it was cool how he talk about raising the bar for new missionaries and here i am and now he wants us to raise the bar for when we get home it was pretty cool to think about.

S. This week we help move a barn... yep a barn! Well unload the barn for the trailer and stack all the wood together it was pretty fun!!

so general conference was great. everything else is great and it going to be funny!

So to the family who want to send me something for my birthday, the 21st is a transfer day so I might not be here in Newbury so if you want to send something send it to
3301 W Gonzales Dr
Oxnard, CA
93036
that the mission office they will make sure it gets to me 

oh and pictures!!
so we have a balancing egg, post easter egg hunt put on by a member here. and a puzzle i have been working on in my spare time

and go watch because he lives the new one

hope you had a great week!
-Elder Joshua Mackay 



Sunday, April 5, 2015

Time is Still Soaring


March 30, 2015

Well hello there!

So I forgot my cord this week so no pictures, now after that is over time for some fun!

A. Newbury Park is awesome I never want to leave I really hope I can finish my mission here, the people are incredible and the ward is awesome! This week we had a couple lessons with Jenny and we talked to her about general conference and watch the women's broadcast and she said she loved it and she has been reading the book of mormon and is doing awesome she knows it is true but her dad doesn't let her out of the house much so were going to bring over some young women leaders to meet him so he might feel more comfortable with her going!

We almost had a huge miracle I have been thinking about how we are going to do work outside this place called las casitas and then we got 6 referrals from the los robles sisters and they are mostly solid, one of them is solid but it was still awesome to get some more people to teach we still have to contact a couple of them but it is great! 

C. Well it seems the more Elder Berg and I are together the more we realize that we have a lot of the same interests, which is pretty cool because he is an awesome dude and to be honest, I didn't give him a fair chance the mission has changed him a lot from beginning to the end and I hope it was changed me too!

T. This week I got a package from one of my neighbors who I don't even think I really met, but it was awesome! They gave me a little Easter egg full of things that represent something that happened this week almost 2000 years ago. It was been an awesome dinner message and study topic!

S. Well this week we helped a member clean their house and put window visors on there car. it was pretty fun!

that is our week this week it felt pretty slow but it picked up a lot of speed!

have a good one i promise pictures next week!
-Elder Joshua Mackay

Another Week in the Dust!

March 23, 2015

Well hello there!

So this week was been very awesome, we had a great time with a lot of communicating with other missionaries to get work done!

But this is how it went! 

A. the los Robles unit is doing awesome we have started to work outside of the los Robles ward as an out reach to find new investigators, for some reason the missionaries never left the los Robles ward when we cover three English wards.. So we have been doing that and seeing miracles in that as well!

We have also been trying to work with the Hermanas in the other side of the stake to re-draw areas cause we had 2 different lines (one for investigators and one for less actives) and so we got that figured out and there is a new energy in the unit they are excited to have the Hermanas there its going to be great! When I started my mission I never knew there was so much stuff behind the scenes in missionary work.

But on that note we had a great time this week we found another less active family that moved into our area and they are awesome but very shy... that's always fun, trying to figure out who everyone is and how there related to one another, and no one says anything. but it was good because half of them came to church!! it was awesome they said they will bring the other half this week!

C. Elder Berg is awesome, he is super funny, this week we have been having a blast and he really isn't as different then he seem to be at first!

T. this week we got zone goals (put into action) and I studied my patriarchal blessing and I discovered that I really am a big lump of clay right now and I could be made into many different things and do anything really, well as long as the Lord wants it to happen!

S. We got a call from bishop this week and he has a friend of a friend who needed help moving and they had started packing and had 4 days to get out of the house..... it was very fun and a lot of hard work and it was exactly what I wanted to do this week move some stuff around!

Hope you have a great week see you next week!

there is a picture of someones china house on their hill.. rich people making cool looking things

but have fun got to run!
-Elder Joshua Mackay