Elder Joshua MacKay - California Ventura Mission

Monday, February 24, 2014

Week 35 - Goodbye Ventura

Feb 24, 2014

So its transfer week and I am leaving!! I am going to Carpinteria!

Ok so I left my planner at home so this is going to be off memory.

Monday, we had a lesson with Mariala and we talked about her past experience with missionaries and a little about the Restoration it was a pretty good. and then we did a blessing on Gilberts house. It was a great experience for him and his kids, we found him walking on the street and he asked to bless his house so we did.

Tuesday. So after a normal district meeting we went out and taught some people we taught Alfonzo, the Gonzales family, and the Diaz family. So Alfonzo lives in Ojai and we just taught him the Restoration we then we had to come back to Ventura. The Gonzales family we talked about the Restoration and asked them to be baptized and they asked what they need to do so we briefly (like 5 seconds) talked about the Word of Wisdom and they told us they are going to try to quit coffee! It was pretty sweet they said they want to pick the date though. and with the Diaz family we were a little late so we only had 5 minutes before the kids needed to be in bed so we shared Alma 53:20 I believe I could be wrong on that one, but it was a great day.

Wednesday. well Wednesday I cannot remember to save my live, but I remembered that we stopped by the Diaz family looking for Ricardo and we shared Moroni 10:32 and Carlos (Hna. Diaz's ex-husband) was there and he listened in it was a little weird cause he is hard to the bone catholic.

Thursday. So we taught Xochil and she was so chill, and we read Ether 12 from the Book of Mormon and talked about Faith it was pretty good she said she would try to make it to church. and then we taught the Diaz kids about prayer and oh boy Dominic said the most beautiful prayer I have ever heard EVER. It was so sincere and full of love we could tell it came from his heart.

Friday. so Friday we helped someone move to Oxnard and it was almost all day it went a lot longer then we thought it was going to be but we got some weekly planning in finish it up on Saturday.

Saturday after we finished weekly planning and contacted some referrals Martin and he is a great guy we talked about Prophets and stuff like that, gave him a Book of Mormon, we think he is starting to learn from the Jehovah witnesses as well but were not sure.

Sunday. in church I taught the 2nd hour about the holy Ghost it was alright.We also sang in sacrament that was pretty good, and then we had a branch movie night and we watched the Prophet of the Restoration and the Gonzales family showed up!!! They said the hardest step is the first and now that they have been in the church they are going to be there a lot more.

anyways love you all have a great week.

picture next week.

-Elder Joshua Eric Mackay

Elder Mackay's new companion is the tall one in the grey suit

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Week 34 - Lask Week of Transfer 4 in Ventura

February 17, 2014

Hello every one we had an other great week what about you?

Anyways it all started on Monday! We talked to Ricardo about how God helps us in our trials and when we are not in trials as well. It was a pretty good lesson. We took a picture with the family after wards and headed on our way.

Tuesday, after District Meeting and other fun things we went and stopped by Gilberto's house because he asked us to bless his house when we were talking to his brother on the street (his Brother is Bryan Tadeo is a member but Gilberto is not) and so we stopped by to see when we could do that and he asked us if we need some olive oil or something so we explained that oil is used for healing blessing only and we talked about what would happens and set up an return appointment for tonight. We also talked to Carmen and Felipe Gonzales and we talked about the Book of Mormon and Carmen told us she started reading it from 1 Ne and is now read the index about pride! She told her husband, Felipe that he needs to take at least 2 minutes a day and read the book. He then said he would try to do that.

Wednesday, was Ojai day. we tried a lot of the Spanish potentials up in Ojai but a lot of them moved but we had dinner with the Torres family. They are part member and Enrique the non member showed up late and ended up not eating because he wanted to listen to our message. We watched the movie Finding Faith in Jesus Christ and we talked about Faith they are such a great family they just need to get Enrique baptized and go to the temple.

Thursday we talked with the Vera family to see if thier mom was home but she wasn't but we had a great Restoration lesson with a focus on modern day Prophets it was a powerful lesson and I think we may have planted another seed but we will see later this week.

Friday, after weekly planning and all the fun morning activates we stopped by the Diaz family and taught the Plan of Salvation it was a great lesson one of the Kids asked "how does it feel up there?" that is a great question and we don't know but the Scriptures tell us it a joyful 24/7 feeling. Then we brought Alicia Bribiesca to dinner with us and she asked us if we believe in the saints and the virgin and before we could open our mouths the member Hna Cisneros answered the question and brought up the ten commandments and well number 1 and 2 it was great and since she was late to dinner we had to leave early to get to correlation but Hna Cisneros said she had everything under control and not worry about Alicia.

Saturday, we had a exchange with Elder Simpson and Elder Moreno so I went with Elder Simpson in my area. and we talked to the Diaz family and we just shared Alma 53:20 and how we need to be good kids.

Sunday, Was great but I am out of time until next week!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Not really sure, but I think this is the Christmas tree Meliah sent him.

Elder MacKay and Lee with a Family...

Cute little girl!

Elder Simpson, Lee, Moreno and MacKay with some locals.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Pictures!

Elder MacKay and Sister Wood

Elder MacKay and Cavazos

Elder Jackson Hernandez

From Elder Moreno

Elder Moreno must be a man of few words. But he did send these:) Love him already!

Week 33 - Another Week in California

February 10, 2014

Ok so this week was great, just like every other week!

Monday we had a dinner lesson with someone who I had no idea lived in our area because he is always at a house outside of our area. But we talked about Faith in Jesus Christ and how he can help us with work and everything else. We are having dinner with him again today as well!

ok so this week was great just like every other week!

Tuesday, Elder Lee was invited to MLC in Oxnard so I worked with Elder Simpson and Elder Moreno. So in my area we taught a Maria who is Apostolic (Jackson, remember those girls who invited us to the apostolic church? Their mom) and we talked about baptism because she asked how we do baptisms. We talked about it and then she told us that her daughter (Diana) has beeen reading the Book of Mormon, then I realized that we were at the same house 3 transfers ago with Elder Hernandez (Jackson). They invited us to their church, but we never went, it was a great lesson none the less. In the other Elder's area we taught Sara the Restoration and she finished teaching us all about Joseph Smith! Then we taught Erica the Restoration at a members house, it was a great lesson but her kids keep her distracted from what we were saying. Hna Nunes was great bearing testimony and helping with her kids. It was great!

Wednesday I had a Exchange with Elder Smoot. We taught Keith about the creation and touched a little bit on the Godhead, how they are 3 people but 1 in purpose. It was a great lesson, he understood and wated to learn about it instead of staying closed off. We also taught Shyna when when talking to Kieth, she walked over and asked us to giver her a chapter in the Book of Mormon to read (they have about 7 different investigators in that house) so when we came for dinner (a member there wanted to feed us) we asked Shyna if she read Moroni 10 yet, she said no so we read it together. It was a great lesson and then we helped cook some Mexican food.

Elder Smoot

Thursday, We had a blitz with Elder Rasband and Elder McKinley. We tried some people but no one was home. That night we went to the Diaz family and we taught the Gospel/they taught it to us. It was a great lesson to have them teach us so that we know that they know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Elder McKinley and Elder MacKay

Friday. After weekly planning we went and taught the Vera Family and we talked about the restoration. It was a good lesson, it seems the more we teach them the less they want to go to church... But at dinner with the Diaz family we talked to the kids about 1 Nephi 8 and how Nephi was so good it made his father proud and how Laman and Lemuel were so bad it put his father to shame, so be good kids!

We went to the Bribiesca family and read Mosiah 18 together and they are doing great, little by little. Hna Cisneros is helping her a lot and answering her questions and stuff.

Saturday. We finally found Xochil and taught her the Restoration she is great, she watchs kids for work and little by little is going to make her way to Christ. We also talked to Maria Carerra about why she didn't want to meet with us. She said she is scared to take the step alone. So we have plans to get her some great fellowshipper that can be there to answer her questions and help her out a lot. It is going to be GREAT!

We taught Felix and Adriena the Restoration and they loved it and said they want us to come back later! They are golden (we found them under a rainbow)

Sunday! So we didn't have anyone got to church, but we taught the Bribiesca family about keeping the commandments so that God will bless us as well as John 7:17. It was great, the are doing so good! We also talked to the Vera family about prayer and they told us they are going to the Lutheran Church and do not want to meet with us on the week end... :( BUT oh well, at least they didn't say NEVER!

We finished the night by teaching Magaly about Prayer and how important it is!

Great week, hope you all have a great week take care and until next week.

Love you all

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Monday, February 3, 2014

Week 32 - Week 3 of Transfer 5

February 3, 2014

ok well hello everybody so highlight of the week is Sunday i confirmed someone into the church in Spanish it was mas o menos.

but Monday, Monday we only had one lesson with Norma Perez and we just talked about Alma 37:37 and how we must report to the lord what we did that day and then give him thanks in the morning. it was a pretty good lesson she was very open and said we could teach her more later.

Tuesday. we had 2 lessons one with the Diaz family and the other with Eusebio, the Diaz family we taught them about the Plan of Salvation it was a pretty good lesson its hard to teach kids so that they understand but i feel like we did a great job with that. and Eusebio we just talked to him about the book of Mormon and asked him to read and pray about and he didn't really give us a yes or a no but we taught him later this week and he said yes.:)

so Wednesday we were walking down the street and we found an Adriana and she is golden will get baptized here soon, we gave her a Book of Mormon and she gave us some water and a pop, and said she will read the book before we could ask her to do it. we then went to visit another person who wasn't home but there son was interested in learning more about the church and also took a Book of Mormon (we have been giving those out like candy) ha we told us to come back next Wednesday so hopefully he is there. and we also taught Horacio and we just talked about 2 Ne 25:26 he is slowly moving forward we invited him to the baptism that night but he was sick and couldn't go so he told us to come back Saturday. oh and we had 4 investigator at Jamie Sanchez's baptism (Elder Moreno and Elder Simpson are teaching him)

Thursday we had an exchange with Elder Rasband and Elder Mckinley so i was with Elder Rasband in Ventura and we taught a lot of lessons well only 4 but a lot of Spanish for me and little English for him but we talked to the Vera family (they went to the baptism) about the baptism and what they taught and Kimberly the youngest asked why we baptize in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost. she is Lutheran and believe they are all one person so we talked about the godhead and invited them to be baptized and they said they would talk to there mom about it (she was working). we also taught the Diaz family about the Gospel of Jesus Christ using the pepper and soap experiment and they loved it! it was great they are going to teach us the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Tuesday (tomorrow). we taught an Esperanza BuenaVentura about the Book of Mormon and she said she would read it after we gave her one we are going to follow up on Thursday, it was a funny lesson cause twice during the lesson some kids asked us for cards in Spanish so i would tell Elder Rasband to give them cards. we also taught David Hernandez finally after 2 transfers of searching for him we found him and we talked about the Restoration but he wanted to talk about parenting so we talked about Lehi dream of the tree and what his kids did or didn't do, it was a powerful lesson he told us to come back again this week.

Friday. we taught Eusebio again about the book of Mormon and got him to say he would read and pray about it, but his girlfriend is moving in tomorrow so its going to take some pushing to get him baptized but we just chippin away, chippin away. yep we also had correlation and it was good we found out were an less active lives so we are going over there today, the work is picking up a lot of speed its great.

Saturday we had an exchanges with the Zone Leaders Elder Kleinman and I worked in the Spanish Area and Elder Lee and Elder Crandel worked in the English Area but we had a great day we taught Magaly the Plan of Salvation and she really understands it we went in and made sure she understood everything before we continued. it was great she still doesn't want to get baptized tell she receives her answer though. we also talked the the Vera Family again and this time the mom was there but she didn't want to sit in on the lesson so she sent her kids outside but we talked about Mosiah 18:8-10 and invited them to think more about Baptism and what it would mean to them.

Sunday, well i confirmed Jamie and it was terrifying i was so nervous but once it was done i felt like it was the easiest thing in the world. but we taught the Diaz family again... about Ether 12:27 and making weak things become strong if we go though the lord and ask for help it was great! we also stopped by the Vera family agian... and taught about prayer and how Enos hungered for prayer and Ribay (one of the priest of the branch) invited them to Young Men's and Young Women's. it was great!

well hope you had a great week tell next week

-Elder Joshua Mackay