Bye Fillmore!

November 3, 2014

Well Hello there!

Well next time see hear from my it will be from Oxnard CA. and I will have lose 15 pounds on my new bike!

Well its time for business!

A. Well i am leaving Fillmore and it is the most bitter feeling in the world, more sour then an unripened orange or something... but the lord was a plan here and I cant interfere with that as sucky as it is.

But on a good note we had a great time here I met a ton of awesome people, Bryanna, the Peralta family, Ramirez family, Bernard and his family, both the Zavala families, Lucia and her 3 boys Eddie, Salvador, and Israel.

We had a couple with Bryanna this week and she is So ready to be baptized its awesome we are going to see her tonight and have one last lesson with her before we hand her over to the new Elders to Baptize her who knows maybe i could see it! We finished teaching her the laws and ordinances and gave her the baptism interview and she passed the practice run and will definitely pass the real one in 2 weeks.

 Bernard has started to show less interest now that he is getting sicker then ever but his sister Cynthia is awesome and wants to get baptized the first week of December! We taught her a lot this week and she read a ton and is going very well towards her date she just needs to come to church and we feel that Bernard will get baptized with her! That is all the good stuff happening in our area that I can remember!

C. Well lets be honest I love elder Moreno and was looking forward to maybe having another transfer with him, but then I thought it would be cool for him to be a zone leader and leave me, but what ever. I have learned a ton from Elder Moreno and he is one of the best District leaders I have ever had. He will be missed here in Fillmore for sure and maybe even more then me!

T. well i am trying my best to learn and grow my testimony and it is working for sure I have learned a lot this week and I feel like it is only going to keep on growing stronger and stronger. It is awesome isnt it! The thing that has been awesome this week is learning about all the stuff Jesus Christ went through even before he was sold away. It is crazy to think that all the people did was tell him he was breaking the law when really he was the law!

S. Well this week we helped some people gleam some orange trees and man was it fun and tasty! Hopefully the other elders can help out as well!

Yep that is what happened here in Fillmore land of the loved! And guess what I got pictures!!!

So there is our ward mission leader acting Chinese.... Elder Moreno and yours truly :), Bernards sister Cynthia (her baby is William) and mother Carmen, that's Bryanna and Rachel, and the Peralta boys with there sister jenny

anyways i hope you enjoy and i wish you all the best of luck... and to the one person who i know reads my blog see you soon..... stalker....

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Another Fun Week

October 27, 2014

Hey everyone what is up?

So what are your Halloween costumes this year?

Anyways time for the lo down.

A. This week we had 6 investigators at church! 2 of them have never been and they loved it we're meeting with one of them tonight and are going to teach the Word of Wisdom, its going to be awesome! They also came to the Halloween/fall festival party we had on Saturday it was pretty fun but I got out eaten by a skinny man in a hot dog eating contest........ and that is all I will say on that! But Brianna helped at one of the game booths and at a trunk during the trunk or treat it was awesome, Carina the other investigator brought us a TON of questions that we answered all night and then she rode the bus to get to church it was awesome, her 2 little girls loved primary.

 All in all the party was awesome, we had 3 boys show up (1 skeleton, and 2 zombies) and they had a blast the next day we stopped by to see them and there mom hid their candy it was pretty funny. We had a couple less active families show up, and a less active young women brought her boy friend and her cousin it was pretty cool they had fun!

Back to Brianna we taught her the Restoration and when we were talking about the book of Mormon she stopped us and asked if we had a extra copy for her, and so we gave it to her to read and she said she wants to get baptized so we set her with a date of the 22 of November. So I am praying that I get more time in Fillmore. 

Carina is awesome as well her boy friend who is a less active and the missionaries found him on the street and then they went to look in Santa Paula for the starting time and ran into the Hermanas there and they gave them a tour and gave us a referral and the rest is history, the Hermanas also gave her all the pamphlets and when we went to see her 3 days later see had read every single one! She has a baptism date for the 15th of November. and that is why I must stay in Fillmore!

C. Elder Moreno is awesome we have been working hard and it feels like were hardly working. I will miss him when we do leave which won't be for a while.

T. Well Jesus the Christ is a great book and I have learned at least 3 thing everyday, I have made a goal to finish it in 3 transfers which means I must read 200 pages a transfer, which I can do for sure!

S. Well this week missionary lawn service proved to be awful....... the other Elders (Elder Lopez and Elder Simpson) found a lawn that needed work. so they got permission from the owner to work on it so they signed us up to help rip out what was left of his mans lawn. Now its dirt and the man isn't too happy..... I guess its the thought that counts.

Anyways have a great week love you all!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Sweet Home Ventura!

Sept 20, 2014

Why hello there!

Well as you might be able to tell this week I went to Ventura, 3 times - Monday (oil change), Friday (interviews) and Saturday (exchange)

On Friday I also got to talk to an old friend who got reassigned to my mission, she lived in my ward in Provo until I  moved to Spanish fork it was awesome to share some story and to hear the other side of her stories I heard from her parents. (Hermana Kiana Keith)

But its time for some ACTS

A. Well to be honest this week felt like a long month it feels like ages ago when I last wrote/typed letters, but we had a awesome time in Fillmore this week, why because we found a new family!!!! We were looking for a lady named Dulce and knocked on her door and a girl named Sissy (sissi not sissy) opened it, so we talked about the restoration with her after she told us she had moved in 2 weeks ago! We then met her mother and had a very powerful lesson with her it was AWESOME, well minus the fact I didn't understand one word she kept using so I thought she said she didn't feel worthy to pray, but what she really said was she can't forgive someone for some thing........ oh well I am learning little by little, but we both bore powerful testimony about the book of Mormon and it was AWESOME!

And another AWESOME this week was exchanges with my Trainer Elder Fairbourne, the best part in Ventura!! I got to talk to my old investigators and some new people it was awesome and this time I didn't get hurt with Elder Fairbourne! that's always the best part! We got to talk to an investigator that I found in Ventura my first week, David Hernandez and turns out he wants to get baptized soon! So I told him that it will totally be worth it and that he should continue to listen and learn from the Elders. It was a great time in Ventura!

C. Well this week Elder Moreno and I had some fun we went to a movie Meet the Mormons and it was really good it was a great rally cry to get us to work together in more unity.

T. this week we watched Meet the Mormons and it was awesome I loved the whole thing and I hope that I can be like them and live a good live and love all those who I come into contact with my personal favorite was the candy bomber that was a very touching story and some day who know maybe I can leave an impact like that on a group of people.

S. well Elder Fairbourne and I had a great time on Saturday crushing beer cans for someone so that they can recycle them easier. It was the most satisfaction we have had in crushing beer cans.

And that my family/friends and others is how one has the best week in his/her life. Hope you have a great week and talk to you soon! And sorry I forgot my cord to get pictures on the emails.

-Elder Joshua Mackay

The fun week take 60 something i think

Oct 13, 2014

Well hello there is been 7 of the most fun days of my life.

So it time for some acts!

A. I might have said this before but business is booming here in Fillmore. The biggest thing is that it is because the Lord is at the helm, but the biggest thing we saw this week is in the Paralta family the father left town to go work somewhere in a 2 hour radius from here, so we had to cancel his baptism date for this week but we talked to his 2 boys Edward and Reuben and Reuben is a little nervous to pick a date but Edward said that he will get baptized on November 1st. They are awesome kids and they remind me of my brother and me by the way we acted and the way they are acting.

We also found Lucia she is VERY full of potential and its going to be awesome to see her this week and get to know her and how we can help her. I met her once and Elder Moreno found her on a blitz with Elder Lopez.

But that is our area in a nutshell!

C. Elder Moreno is the best. that's it no more needed to be added.  He is the best.

T. This week I have learned a very important thing. In the white handbook it says that God should be our first source of knowledge if we have questions and I have always taken that for granted and just asked my companions, and or mission leaders. But this week I had a real question that I needed a real answer too, so I studied the white handbook looking for ruling on my question but I didn't find it there, so I turned to preach my gospel again wasn't there either, and so I went back to the white handbook and read that paragraph about how God needs to be our first source for answers. so iI stood up snuck back into the bedroom and prayed, and prayed and that is where I found my answer and my new testimony. On my knees talking to God.

S. This week is the service side of things we had a awesome time helping a food share move there pantry it was very interesting. And food share run by the LDS church, held in a Methodist church, with a ton of Jewish food. That was pretty cool and now we have food we can eat over the Passover! (they gave us some food to take home after we finished)

and that is the week in a nutshell!

PICTURES!!!!

Meet the stripling warriors! aka yours truly and his companion Elder Moreno Elder Lopez and his companion Elder Simpson

have a great week i love you all <3

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Best week ever

October 6, 2014

Hello this was an awesome week with a great week end!

First of all how was conference for all those who watched it?

Anyways this week was great as previous stated.

But I am doing something crazy called A.C.T.S. area, comp, testimony/studies, and service.

A. our area is awesome! we have had a lot of fun here in Fillmore we have set Bernard with a baptism date for the 27 of December He is getting a lot stronger the more we meet with him. He even watched conference with us during the priesthood and Sunday after session.

Elizabeth is doing great as well. We have been writing her questions and helping her answer them, we did D&C 122 this week and she told us that she learned a ton.

We also had Veronica watched conference with a member and she said she loved it and we're going to talk to her tonight at family home evening at the bishops house its going to be great!

C. Elder Moreno is doing great he is really learning how do be a great district leader. slowly but steadily I am sure one day he might even become a great assistant to the president! just kidding, but seriously he is awesome I only have good things to say about him. This is the most unified district and it is so awesome we learn so much from district meetings and well general conference. and that has been Elder Moreno in a nutshell.

T. this week I re read the whole General Conference from April and got some questions ready, and looking back the lord light up all the questions that I brought to him, I loved Elder Bednar's talk, I sat with Bernard as he was speaking and after that he said he feels like he needs to get baptized as soon as possible.

S. this week in the service department we did many thing like bring super glue to an old lady to glue her fake tooth back in... and break some couches with Bernard. the wrecking missionary services is very reliable, if you want some destroyed.

but all in all this week has been GREAT.

sorry no pictures this week forgot my camera cord at the apartment...

with tons of love and broken couches,

-Elder Joshua Mackay

ps Fillmore was the hottest city in the nation on Saturday at 107.

Week 1 was Awesome

Sept 29, 2014

So hello again this week was been super duper fun with Elder Moreno

But again I am changing the format of my email to use my time better! 

hope you enjoy this weeks adventures cause I sure did!

Our area is going great we found a new investigator named Veronica and she went to church and the womans conference Saturday night and Sunday night she asked if we could talk to her and asked us "what is the baptism process?" so we told her what we need to teach her and told her to pray about her baptismal date it was awesome she even had a talk with her friend and talked about how it is her choice so her friend should respect that.

We also meet with the P family and they are going great! We taught them an English class and the restoration, and Carmen (the mother) went to the womans conference as well. it was a great restoration lesson and as far as we are aware they are going to stay in Fillmore we helped them find a job for a strawberry farm field thing. We gave them the plan of salvation pamphlet to help them prepare for us to teach that to them this next week!

That is the biggest highlights of the week. We also have been meeting with Bernard and we found out that he can travel to Santa Paula but not to the lake in Piru so we asked him to pray about where he should get baptized, were going to follow up on that this week when we see him next. 

 Elder Moreno is the best! I was so excited to be able to serve with him it is going to be a great 6 weeks! He is learning how to be a great district leader and its going to be great to see him grow and progress!

 This week was been a great week in studies, and Elder Parrish taught me something really profound about Ether, well the brother of Jared, he had 3 problems and the lord gave him 2 answers and he brought the 16 stones to the top of the mountain and prayed the the lord would touch them and one by one the Lord touched the stones and gave him his answers, and compared that to bring questions to conference and how 1 by 1 the lord will answer us.

 This week we had a lot of fun helping Bernard changing his spark plugs, but just like his oil we sucked.... and only changed 3 of the 6 and tomorrow are going to finish the project. :)

and of course pictures!

so the disrict Elder Moreno and Me, Hermanas Miller, Clark and Shepherd, Hermanas Young and Killpack, and Elders Lopez and Simpson

and some camels and zebras we pasted looking for a house. turns out we passed the turn :)

hope you have a great week!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Transfers??

Sept 27, 2014

Well its that time again and I am staying and Elder Moreno is coming to work in Fillmore!

Elder Parrish is heading to Oxnard

Well this week is going great and next is sure going to be better I cant wait to start working with Elder Moreno! anyways here are some highlights.

Well here in fillmore its going great we are working very hard, and we got a family set with a baptism date for the 18th of october, if they find work and dont move to bakersfeild that is. so i am hoping they find work we have been keeping our ears open for work! but its a family of 5 but the young is 1 and a half so she wont get baptized with her family.

We have been working hard with bernard as well and he is doing good but is feeling very sick so he didn't come to church again, I hope and pray everything goods well. 

And on thursday we went to a part members house and invited (last minute) to a fire side with elder malm and she said she would go if she could bring and friend and we said YES OF COURSE YOU CAN. So she brought her friend Brianna and Brianna enjoyed the fireside better then Nicole so we started to teach her this week and sunday we found out that her best friend is a member (very active member too) so things are looking up here in fillmore.

Well this week was been a blast sorry its so short but i love you all I and I am writing my testimony whether you like it or not!

But i know  that Jesus Christ live and that He died for all of us and the we can truly be saved through His grace that He gives to us, and that you can discover this truth through reading and praying in the book of Mormon. As a representative of Jesus Christ I invite all of you to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it to find that it is true and after that know that nothing else in this world can take that away from you, because you are built on a testimony of Jesus Christ.

Anyways no pictures this week forgot my cord at the apartment sorry!

with tons of love and prayers 

-Elder Joshua Mackay