Week 29 - 6 more weeks!

January 13, 2014

So I am staying for 6 more weeks well maybe more but I don't know.

!nyways welcome back hope you had a great week.

So nothing happened on Monday other then it was p day. oh and it was the day of the kings!

so Tuesday. Tuesday we had two lessons, one with Jose Gracia and another with Felipe Gonzales. with Jose we just stopped by to see how he was doing and we ended up talking for a little bit cause we haven't seen him in a while and he told us he wants to meet with us but he doesn't have time and so we told him who is really working hard to keep him from us and so on and so forth. and Felipe we meet with them every Tuesday but last couple of weeks couldn't due to the holidays so we stopped by to see how they were doing but his wife was very sick so he didn't let us come in, so we pretty much had the same conversion with Felipe as we did with Jose it was pretty cool.

Wednesday. we meet with the Vera family and talked about Hel 5 :12 and building ourselves on Christ. and then we smashed our fingers under a can (don't try that at home) but because we built on Christ he took the blow and we aren't hurt at all. and we also talked to the Bribiesca family. and we re taught the Restoration and asked them to be Baptized and they said when they find out if it is true then of course they would get baptized! i was so happy that they understood it!

Thursday. we finally caught Horacio off work and at home so we taught him and set some expectations with him and his family and he asked us to come back on Friday at 5 and so ya he is great he has lived a tough life, 2 months ago he was shot and the bullet went in one side and out the other and he live to tell his tale. and many other stories where he is saved from something he will probable get baptized this transfer.

Friday. so we went to see Horacio and he told us that he told his friends about us and that he wasn't going to be home but changed his mind and stayed at home so we talked to him about what he is willing to do if we finds our message true and after we talked to his almost 8 year old son (feb 4th)and asked when we could teach them as a family and they said Tomorrow! they are great! we also taught Marlen she was found by Elder Fernandez but lives in our area so we get to teach her she is prepared for the gospel it was great she asked us were our church was before we could invite her to come! and she is home all day every day.

Saturday. we taught Jaime Sanchez as we had lunch with some resent converts (he has a baptism date for the 26th on jan) and we talked about Mosiah 18 and wanting to get baptized it was a great lesson! we then taught Magaly and we haven't seen her in a while so we just read 3 Ne : 11 and talked about that for awhile and what she would do if she lived in that time. and then we went to Horacio Hernandez house to teach his family and when we got there we just left 5 minutes ago to get some parts for his car so we taught his son and his wife the Restoration and after we finish we invite them to be baptism and they said yes they would but wont commit to a date until they believe the Book of Mormon is true. but all is well is the vineyard.

so Sunday i woke up sick but i didn't want to be so i pretended that i wasn't tell after dinner i told elder Cavazos i need to lie down for 20 minutes and i ended up sleeping for 2 1/2 hours and then admitted i was sick and crawled back into bed to rest. (but i feel a lot better right now so)

anyways that was my week in a nut shell see you next week love you all take care

-Elder Joshua Mackay   

 

Week 28 -It is last week again!

January 6, 2013

so donde es Elder Mackay va a esta cambio?

and hello so i told you i would tell you about last Sunday so were starting there!

ok well not a lot happened other then President and Sister Castro gave a talk and the missionaries gave the 3rd hour lesson about missionary work it was a great Sunday to be frank with you. President and Sister Castro talked about Mosiah ch. 2, and we talked about "hasting the lords game plan" (pg 33 of this last conference ensign)

Week 5

so i start my second diet even (the first one was to gain weight for football) and ironically this one is to lose weight for missionary work!

so Monday i spend a lot of time throwing out food i was not going to eat and bought 4 things eggs, fruit, yogurt, and water. and some how i survived this week on only those 4 things. i have learned my lesson. but we had 2 lesson that day one we talked to Enrique and he was asking us how we were raised and so we talked about that for a little and we asked him how he raises his kids and he told us and then we discussed it and i happened to have a "for strength of youth for Parents" in my bag so we looked at that for a second and he liked what he saw, it was a interesting lesson. and second we talked to an English speaking man named Jesse and we talked about 3 Ne 11 and how it took 3 times before the people understood the voice from heaven. we then sent a referral to the English missionaries.

Tuesday. HAPPY NEW YEARS. so after District meeting we had a lesson with Julio were we finished talking about the Restoration. he liked it a lot and said he believes that but he doesn't know if god is even there. so we asked to pray about it and if we receives an answer would he get baptized on such and such date, he said i will not on that say yes to a date but if that happens yes i will get baptized.

Wednesday, Jan. 1 2014, weird. so we had one lessons with the Pinedo kids and they told us they have found another church.... turns out there mothers (less active member) boyfriend Corey was been taking them to an Lutheran church. so we talked about it and they liked that church better so we don't know what to do with them.

Thursday. so we had one lesson with and less active members dad, Carlos and he told us that he is scared for him. we didn't tell us why but we shared a scripture with him i forgot to write it down so i don't remember what one it was. but after we shared it he asked for our phone number to call us when his son is home to find him at home.

Friday. after all the fun in our apartment with weekly planning. we had 3 lessons 2 of which on the same street just 3 house down. Spanish work is great! so we talked to Vanessa and with her we talked about Luke 1: 37 and how she can do all things with god. short sweet and straight to the point. and as we were walking down the street we started to talk to a Maria and she had said something about how she has been waiting for her husband to stop smoking and drinking so we looked at each other (Elder Cavazos and I) and shared Romans ch 8 24-25 she then finished her story about how then one day her husband woke up and said he would never smoke or drink again and has lived to those words ever since. and finally we were passing by the Perez family and they were taking down there Christmas lights so we helped them out and then shared a lesson with them before we had out to correlation and then start our exchange with the zone leaders.

Saturday. we had exchanges with the zone leaders and we taught a potential investigator John, and we taught him the Restoration. we asked him what we believes about god and we explained the Trinity by saying GOD send HIS SON, Jesus and when he died that created the Holy Spirit and they are all the same. and we told him what we believe and he responded i take back my statement it doesn't make sense. WOW is all i could even think it was so good. we also talked to a less active Bro Head and we read 2 Ne 4, it was pretty good. and Elder Klienman need to do a baptism interview for someone in Santacoi east of Ventura. it was a great day!

Sunday. well we went to church in Ojai to bear our testimonies and introduce our selves it was pretty good. and then we went to Ventura where they changed to branch presidency. other then that it was a normal Sunday preaching the word

anyways have a great day

-Elder Joshua Mackay

     

  

Week 27 - FELIZ NAVIDAD!!

December 30, 2013

well first off merry Christmas o feliz Navidad (which ever you prefer)

second Happy New Years

third yes i spelled feliz wrong on my Christmas card so Felix Navidad (they should be in the mail or i don't have your address, which my mom is working on)

so this week was short since we had to be in a 8 for Tuesday and Thursday, and p day was on Monday and weekly planning on Friday but all is well in the vine yard of the lord!!

so Monday we had two lessons but i forgot to write them down so I forgot who they were with... Wait i remember wooh!! so for dinner we ate at Hermana Pacheco's house had some great Mexican (como siempre, y yo como siempre:D) but since she doesnt have a husband or a son older then 17 we called eusibio to eat with us and we gave he well a Christmas lesson... it was in two days! then we went over to the Pinedo family's house and shared another Christmas story it kinda what we do around Christmas share the word!

Tuesday after having Distract meeting and taking care of some doctor co payment. we headed to the mission home to drop off result of some tests with a Christmas "Felix Navidad" card and Elder Cavazos gave them some Chocolates and we are driving away after leaving he left it on the door step and i put mine in the mail box about 5 minutes later we get a text from Sister Castro that said "Thank you for the gift. My favorite thing. You both are so kind and thoughtful. I love the picture. "felix" Navidad. We sure love you!" Elder Cavazos and I laughed about that one for ages, I don't know what was going on and we then went home for lunch and language study and for lunch I had baked cookie to drop off to people but we forgot them at the apartment :( (almost 3 dozen chocolate chip kiss cookies and 6 candy cane cookies) but we still went caroling with Elder Moreno and Elder Fernandez. (don't worry mom i got feed good on Tuesday and Wednesday)

Wednesday. Well after the longest studies of my life we open all the gifts we received, so thank you if that involved you. and after we cleaned up and Elder Cavazos tried his first Terry's Chocolate orange we went over to the Cisnero's family who invited us over for lunch, after lunch we returned to call our families, which was the highlight of the day. after call we went caroling again with Elder Moreno and Elder Fernandez. we ha dinner with one of the many Hernandez families and well after we learned we forgot to do cookie drop offs so we went and did those after dinner before heading home.

Thursday. Finally i full day of working Wooh. and we got back to work teaching the Diaz family, and we talked about D&C 4 and missionary work it was a great lesson and after everyone taught of someone they could teach the gospel to or that they said they would introduce them to us to teach them so we are following up this week so cross your figures. and we went to go talk to Magaly Perez but she was working so we talked to her mother and she asked about where we wait to be judges so we semi taught her the Plan of Salvation and by semi I mean from when we die tell when we are judged and go to one of the 3 kingdoms. she liked it a lot and asked us to give her the full lesson on Thursday.

Friday, back to semi full days!! so after we finished weekly planing and all that fun jazz, we headed up to Ojai for dinner after we finished eating we talked with Enrique and his family about creating spiritual goals for the coming year, but they said being from 2 different faiths makes it hard to do that and Enrique said that religion is like a math problem, the catholics have the simple way to get to god and the mormon have the long complex way after he said that Elder Cavazos replied that though the long way we get more blessings, like temple marriage, eternally families, and many more, and like math test the people who do it the long way learn more and are more prepared for the test.

Saturday, so we had a funny lesson for dinner cause a resent convert asked "if god made the universe who made God?" so since we didn't want to go that deep into doctrine we gave them the scripture in 1 NE 13: 22. go read it.

but i have gone way over and we have to go so turn in next time for sunday and this coming week!!!

Week 26- another week another 1000 miracles

Dec 16, 2013

Hola mi amigos como estan!?

Pues Felix Navidad

esta semana fue muy bien como siempre.

Lunes. during dinner one of Hna Pacheco's friends showed up, she met with the missionaries before but in Carpintera (a town north of Ventura) and we talked to her about the book of mormon because it is only the most important thing about our gospel. We asked her if she had a question and she did and then Elder Cavazos answered it with the Book of Mormon as I was talking to one of the girls who also had a question so we did a Q&A session.

Martes. we had a lesson with the Gonzales family and when we started (felipe) he thought that babies need to get baptized or they live in "limbo" we talked and he didn't say anything and I said "tenia pruguntas" and he said "no tenia pruguntas" and believes that babies don't need baptism. woohoo. and the mother (Carmen) wanted to get baptized! but she doesn't want to go to church alone and felipe can't go tell January. that was Tuesday!

Wednesday. we had 3 people with a baptism date!! so we visited the Vera family or the Pinedo that what the kids last name is and we asked them if they wanted to get baptized and they said yes and we asked them how about we set a goal for the 28th and they said yes!! so we create a plan to prepare them for the 28th. Wednesday was great!

Thursday. was better then Thursday! so we had 3 lessons first was with the Pinedo kids and we showed them "on the way home" a movie released by the church that talks about a family who lost a daughter/sister in a car crash and there family is falling apart and the gospel brings them together. they got baptized in the movie so we wanted to show them how we do that. second was with a man named Eusibio he is dating one of our members for awhile but he doesnt want to feel pressure or take missionary lesson so we shared a Christmas lesson using both the bible and the Book of Mormon and gifts God and Jesus have given us and what we can give them oh it was so good you should have been there. and third with Jose Gracia he didn't have much time so we just talk/gave a condensed version of the Christmas lesson he loved it and asked us to come back Saturday.

Friday. after a good doctor visit and weekly planning Elder Cavazos played the flute for the English wards Christmas party he did pretty good and then got chosen to play for the Christmas zone devo. on Wednesday this week. 

Saturday. so we went back to Jose's house and taught him the Plan of Salvation he like it a lot and after we finished he showed us his church's webpage and showed us the thing that were the same but he said ours made more sense. we then showed himlds.org and showed him who to research topic using lds.org and he said he is going to read some stuff. I'm not sure if that is going to be good or bad. but after that we headed to Ojai they replaced the Spanish elders up there with English ones so we got all the Spanish into our area. so we taught the Torres family all are members but the father oh and the mom and dad aren't married.. but we had a great lesson the spirit was very strong. we set expectations with him and his family it was very very well done i feel.

Sunday. we missed the Pinedo kids at church so we had to drop there date so we went to visit them to talk about it and set them for the 11 of January (they didn't know they had to go to church 3 times before getting baptized). so all is well. we also talked to Maria Carrera she has those vein things in her foot (like my mother) and she is getting them removed (huhh) but we some how remembered that she wanted us to visit her son in Ojai so we stopped by and talked to him he was busy but told us to stop by later. and reported what happened to Maria. so that was Sunday.

so sorry but i forgot my camera at home so pictures next week :( 

but hope you have a great week love you all take care!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Week 25 Hola

December 9, 2013

 

Well hello there, I didn't see you looking at the computer screen, well or your phone or tablet.

 

So this week has been great, very interesting in a lot of different ways.

 

So to start of the week Monday, as many of you are aware I stayed in the San Buena Ventura Branch, so I didn't go to transfer meeting... :( I hear it was really good! A lot of great missionaries going home. But Tuesday morning we got a call from our Zone Leaders, they gave us a call with a special assignment to go to Camarillo  to help the United Methodist chursch set up for an event called "no room at the Inn" where they display nativity sets from around teh world. We spent from 9am to 4:30 pm moving tables, boxes, chairs, and many other things. We were so tired but it was tiring! But all is well I got a good nap on the way home:)

So Wednesday after District meeting and language study  we found out that the new sisters branch didn't dinner. So we made a few calls (1) and found them dinner and after dinner we went down the stairs to an investigators house (Moreno Family) and we started talking about Chapter 7 and out the window we saw the other Elders ( Elder Moreno and Elder Fernandez) run by heading to the sisters dinner, following we saw the sisters run by and the Elders again  and then the sisters came back and me and Elder Cavazos were confused about what was going on. So after our lesson we headed to the car as we unlocked the car the sister came and explained the whole story and lead up to the point, that they had left the lights on.

Thursday. Oh man, so at 4ish we picked up some recent converts and walked with them to the Vera's house and they had a great lesson about how baptism has changed their life. After the lesson one of the recent converts Crystal invited them to church, and told them that if they say they are going to come, they better come. It was great, but whether they came or not you will have to wait... Then we taught Jose Gracia and he is golder then the gold plates!! We taught the restoration and we loved it and then he told us about his fellowship in Santa Paula who would come to Ventura to go to church with him! He asked all the right questions about the church, doctrine, oh man so much gold!

Friday, we went alone to the Vera's house this time just to see what they thought about the 3 kids and all that. Somehow we started talking about our bodies and tattoos and piercings and we then proceeded to teach them about how our body's are temples and we shouldn't do those things. Elder Cavazos showed them his hole for his brow piercing.

Saturday. We thought before dinner we should stop by the Vera's house and remind them about church, but their mom was there. She is a less active member and we have been trying to see her since Elder Cavazos joined me (we have been together for 1 transfer and going on 2) so we had a lesson about church attendance and the mother said she would go to church for 1 hour on Sunday and leave her kids with us! We were so excited that we showed up late to dinner! But after dinner we had a lesson with Hermono Torres and we taught him the plan of Salvation because he thinks his Grandma is dying soon. (she is 105 as of yesterday/Sunday) and he knows a lot about the Plan of Salvation just not the whole thing like where we wait to be judged and other small things like that. We also had a lesson with Guadalupe the daughter of Guadalupe we taught her the Restoration and she also loved it and said that as we spoke that she felt it is true and just felt peace, well that is how she described it.

Sunday. If you haven't watched the Christmas devotional from the first presidency go look at 3 Nephi in the last chapter, and read the 2nd verse and then continue to repent and watch it;P That's all I got for Sunday.

Have a great week love you all take care. and Happy Holidays

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Sunset at the cross

Elder Fernandez, Hermana Howell, Hermana Fitzpatrick, Me, Elder Cavazos, and Elder Moreno (only the sisters left)

Elder Van Every (he came home) Elder Hofhienz

Week 24 Transfers

December 2, 2013

so im staying 6 more weeks here in the good ol' San Buena Ventura Branch

so highlight of the week was the baptism we had on Saturday oh it was so good!

but anyways the week went a little like this:

Monday was a normal, p-day with shopping, washing everything. but after 6 we went over to join a family home evening with the Diaz family and they were watching "a special witness of Jesus Christ" its a good movie it just all the of the 12 and the first presidency bearing testimony of Jesus Christ. oh so good and after the movie me and Elder Cavazos bore our testimonies. and then went and made a program for the baptism on Saturday.

Tuesday. so something interesting happened that day during distract meeting we were coming up with ideas for service and Elder Smith (Distract Leader) asked me what i was thinking and i said "it sounds crazy but helping people to set up or take down bouncy houses" and he said i like that idea so we prayed to help people with bouncy houses, lights, and washing dishes. and then in the evening we talked to the Gonzales family about faith and hope. it was a pretty good lesson and they are looking forward to meeting tomorrow.

Wednesday. we had a couple lessons that day. starting with the Vera family they were watching a scary movie when we came over and we asked them how they sleep after watching that they said its a long night but we talked about prayer and there is a great scripture in Alma 37: 37 that talks about praying to the lord before you sleep and he will watch over you and in the morning you need to pray giving thanks for the thing that he has given so we shared that and headed on our way. we then went to Hna. Ruth lopez's house for dinner and her boy friend Eusiebio was there and we talked about the 12 tribes cause hna was confused about them (we talked about them in Sunday school). after we meet Ricardo (the one who got Baptized) and talked about the priesthood and what it mean and what you can do with it. and of course where it comes from.

Turkey day!, i mean Thanksgiving, i mean Thursday. well happy Thanksgiving to all of you. hope it went well and for some reason all of our evening lesson cancel to meet with there family(who would ever do that). but we had a great thanksgiving dinner with the branch and we meet an x-Elder Vaca Guzman from South America somewhere i cant remember. but that was thrusday.

Friday. so we talked to Ricardo and he changed his mind on the pictures he wanted for the program so we went to do some Black Friday shopping to print out 2 pictures our total on black Friday was $0.50. and then we went to change the pictures. but for we meet with a resent convert (baptized in june) to talk about "stand ye in holy places" (talk by John Bytheway) but her cousin came to town from Oxnard so we shared it with her as well.

Saturday. all day Saturday i had butterflies in my stomach. my first baptism and i have to do it in Spanish :S. but all went well i spend a lot of time that day repeating the pray in my head and out loud. Elder Cavazos must have been tired of it, but we taught some people thing as well. first we talked to Julio Flores and we taught him the Restoration, until his dad came in and told us to go away, well nicely he did. so we left after we prayed. then we went to a Jakie Orozco and she has been talking to her cousin (a member) about the three kingdoms so we talked to her about that and explained that a little using combo sizes! and oh course the baptism, where the water was way to hot and i want to repeat the prayer 5 times and his elbow and foot didn't want to be baptized but other then that it was a great service and then the english crowd moved in and did there baptism. yep it was all good.

Sunday, was a great day we just meet with some members and less actives and resent converts cause we thought we were both leaving but were not so here we are!

anyways have a great week love you all

- Elder Joshua Mackay

Week 23 1 more week in the Transfer

November 25, 2013

Hello!

So where you think am going? Staying, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Santa Barbabra, or somewhere else?

so this week was great well better then that we had our first zone conference!

so Monday! or cleaning day cause zone conference is on Tuesday so we did everything and cleaned  out car and went bowling as branch missionaries (3 companionship's) 

then we had a lesson with Magaly and we taught her the Restoration and she really liked it and thought that this might be the true church with all of Christ teaching restored to full form. so it was pretty solid.

Tuesday we had Zone Conference so we had a long but very spiritual day in the church. we didn't get out of the church until 7:00 pm and we got there at 9:30 am but every moment was worth it i learned a lot and how i need to improve my teaching skills using scriptures, defining words, and direct commitments. it was great!

Wednesday. the week begins with a bang! so we got a new scripture to use for obedience its D&C 130 : 20-21 and we used that to share with everybody that day.. ok only the dinner message but its a great scripture look it up! after we taught the Bribiesca family about the tree of life and they como siempre (like always) liked it a lot. then something awesome happened! Ricardo Zavala wanted to meet with us at the church so we headed down there and we started talking about baptism and he said he wants to get baptized on the 30th. so we taught him the 10 commandments and test drove the interview questions and started to create (in our minds) a baptism program (whos going to pray and give talks) so Wednesday was a great day. 

Thursday. in the morning Elder Cavazos read the story of the ten virgins and wanted to use it that day well teaching people. so we were knocking door and we came across a women from Mexico named Lara who had dinner with a member the night before and she asked of after talking about how God loves us today so he called a prophet asked if we could say a prayer with her so we taught her how to pray and we prayed with her. then we visited the Bribiesca's home and only the mother was home so Elder Cavazos took the chance and shared the ten virgins story and we talked about how we can prepare our families for his coming. then we went to talk to Hna. Arenas about Ricardo (they are dating) so we wanted to make sure everything was alright, but he was there so we thought it might not be a good idea to do that at that time so we shared a bible story of the ten virgins and talked to Ricardo about what he can do to prepare for his baptism. and we set up a time for his interview on Saturday, we also created a baptism program.

Friday. after weekly planning and all that fun stuff we eat some food and headed to correlation meeting. after that finished he followed Hna. Arenas home to meet with Ricardo and teach him the final lesson The Law of Chasity, but we found out that they don't live together and have set boundary for what they do and don't do, Hna Arenas is the Best!

Saturday. the day of Ricardo's interview. so we meet him at the church that night and Elder Carter came down from Filmore to give that interview and all is well so were having a baptism this week (if all goes well this week and he doesn't change his mind)

Sunday. most of church Elder Cavazos and I made sure that everyone knew about the Baptism and made sure that the people praying and talking knew and are planning on going as well after church we made some tune salad sandwiches (so good) studied Spanish and went back to work after dinner we went over to the Bribiesca's and Luis and the mom went leaving to get some food for dinner so they asked us to come back in 30 minutes so we said that works perfect. we headed over to see Magaly (she wasn't home) but we saw a man talking on the phone driving passed so we walked over to talk to him and he was just standing outside and we started speaking to him in English and he only know a little English but after we heard dios after we asked "do you believe in god" we switched to Spanish and we had a great chat with him and we invited us over on Thursday. but we got to Magaly's house and her mom opened and we started talking to her about what we are teaching her daughter. and she asked if we could share it with the whole family after they get back from Mexico to visit there grandpa who is very sick and about to pass away. so we might be getting 2 more families this week!

this week was great hope your was as well.

-Elder Joshua Mackay