Feliz Navidad

Dec 29, 2014

Hey sorry dont have much time but this is what happened this week!

 

A. well this week we almost did the impossible and it was awesome we set a goal last week to find new investigators and we found 2 very solid investigators and 5 potenials that will be very good for the missionaries here in the next couple transfers! But that is not all we had a tons of miracles! and fantastic christmases it was awesome! so were going to start with miracle number 1 and her name is Florencia! we found her the other day and she said she had just come here from mexico and wanted to learn about our church! So we taught her the restoration! and she asked us if we could come back and read in the bible tomorrow (saturday) so we did and we read the birth of jesus christ and it was awesome and she said the last prayer and it was AWESOME ok beyond AWESOME maybe beyond infinite it was pretty great!

 

Number 2! we have been working with the Bishop in finding all the less active to see if they still live there and guess what we have found 2 awesome familys we are going to start teaching they said not to come back until after 2014 so we will be going back this weekend! hehehe I love miracles!!!

 

Number 3! Number 3 happened on a more awesome level, it isnt about Oxnard but it is about me. I have called it the Miracle of the challengling and testifying Elder Mackay. We found this awesome person (he is a friend of a member) and he taught him about the book of mormon and I thought I would try something different. That is to challenge him. So I asked him to read the book and pray. Normal. But then I asked him if it is true if he would get baptized, not a normal for me (yet). and he said YES!! But he said he will need time to read and doesn't want to set an apointment up until he is ready because he knows it will change his life.

 

C. Elder hernadez is awesome I have learn a ton from him, mostly this week is love for other people that he shares with them.

 

T. This week I read the challenging and testifying missionary, and applied it. And it seems to have worked pretty well.

 

S. WE MADE TAMELAS finally!!! and the results were tasty from one family we helped, the other family we haved seen yet...

remember I love you and care for you!!

 

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Feliz Navidad

Dec 22, 2014

Hello there how is it going?

 

well.. Who wants cookies and milk as they read? Well take your time while the rest read!

 

A. Oxnard is awesome we are working so hard and it is awesome! we had a couple of great lesson with Juliette.

 

Man I love Christmas but I also hate it, people get so caught up in giving gifts, which most the time ends up in getting head aches, that they forget the real meaning of this season. I believe that it was Thomas  S Monson who put it so well "if we drop the last 3 letters, it becomes the season of christ" so true that is and man I wish I could just have an infinite supply of money to make sure that every child in my area could get a gift but I am doing the best I can with the talents I do have whether it be a paper dragon or a flower the reaction is the same they love it and cherish these gift which reminds me I need to get a new letter pad!!

 

Oxnard is a great place and I can definitely feel what I need to do here and its about time that I hike up my socks and work even harder!

 

C. Elder hernandez is in the top 10 of my companions I love him! There is no one else that I would reather spend christmas with, well other then my family.... but he knows the jesus loves him and why he is on a mission and he loves to work!

 

T. well I did it,  I finsished jesus the christ and I need to read thourgh and compare the 4 gospels together and how they are different and how they are the same!

 

S. well last week we could help out alot but now people are starting to make tamales and are asking for help! I am excited, tamale making here I come!

 

you made it (almost)

 

PICTURES WITH SANTA!?!?!

 

have a merry merrry christmas

#sharethegift

 

-elder Joshua Mackay

Another week in the Sun, oh and Merry Christmas!

December 15, 2014

Hello there greetings from the shores of cali! (not literally the shore that gets me sent home...)

so I am Staying in Oxnard with Elder Hernandez for another 6 weeks!

So lets get this thing moving!

A. Oxnard is awesome as ever, but I learned I need to be careful with my bike.... some kids wanted to race me for my bike and every time those kids see us they yell at me to try to get my bike.... its awesome but other than young teenagers we had a interesting week this week full of hard work and other stuff!

One person we have work hard with is Juliette she is a recent convert and is very interesting. We had to go over some lesson with her because she didn't understand why we have these commandments (word of wisdom) and she even threw away her stuff she had after a little bit of encouragement and support it was awesome, but for her it was very hard. She is progressing so much we talked yesterday about her serving a mission and she said she isn't going to and we talked about it, and had to go to another appointment but we left that appointment and the phone went off and she asked "how can I get my mission papers?" but she is only 12 so she has a long wait ahead of her.

So to allow ourselves to work more with the members we have been giving them 3-10 He is the gift cards and talking to them about giving them out to there friends it has been pretty awesome to see them first look very scared and then second, after discussing about how they could do it to see the "fire in there eyes" to go and do it.

C. I love Elder Hernandez. That is all he is the best. case and point. Yep he is awesome why well because he is a child. But that is great for now, his is in the kingdom of god.

T. Jesus the Christ will strengthen your testimony 100 fold and if you don't believe me go read the first 200 pages and say that your testimony wasn't been strengthened.

this week I read about the Saviors last week in mortality and his betrayal and suffering and then his glorious rise from the tomb to never leave his body down again. 

S. this week we helped at a thrift store sorting moving and unloading thing it was pretty fun, and we got to find some pretty cool treasures and hidden treasures and even a little bit of knowledge!!

yep tons of fun!

there are some picture of christmas here in oxnard!!

well have a good one!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

December 8?

December 8, 2014

What the heck has happened with the past 2 months gone way to fast, time should get a ticket for speeding. No really

So transfers are next week what do you think is going to happen?

This is what happened this week!

A. well this week was nuts! the zone leaders challenged us to get 7 member presents (members at lessons) and guess who reached that goal...... WE DID. We had some awesome lessons and some miraculous ones as well we worked hard and it payed off!! We had awesome lessons with Marithza and her mother a recent convert and she was going to get baptized but doesn't know anymore and we are going to start to work with the father to get him baptized because then the kids will follow, hopefully!!

We also have been working with a less active family that rents out their room and we had 2 great lessons there with 2 diferent people! I love spanish houses!!! We then had one other lesson with a less active mother and her son who just turned 10 and has been baptized. It was awesome to see that we had a goal and we didn't think we could have made but then God leads the way and prepares it for us to reach our worthy goals!

This week was also the start of a new advertisement called "He is the gift" if you haven't seen it your nuts. But it was awesome to try a give out at least 10 cards a day but we only made it twice... but there is always this week!

C. Elder hernandez is awesome he is working super hard to become a better person, and from stories I have heard he has done a pretty good job and there is only one way he can go and that is to the best!

T. Well where is my question? What does the atonement mean for you?

This week I learned something that has changed my life forever. I learned that Jesus Christ could have only died if he wanted it to happen, He gave the ok for him to give you his body. And that is what he did after he suffered so much, was to bring him to ask if there is no other way and he finished his test and because he did that we will all see our loved one again and we will all live again!

S. This week we did a ton from lighting up houses and giving out food, to make Christmas trees out of food cans.. yes trees made out of cans. It was awesomely fun.

I never thought making a can tree would be so fun.

Anyways have a good week see you next week!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Food can trees

In the car with Elder Barlow and Elder Sorenson

Happy Thanksgiving!

December 1, 2014

Well for the entertainment of all of you we had 2 thanksgiving dinners all within 3 hours...... we were stuffed quite literally.

But this is what happened!

A. Oxnard is nuts. but its a good nuts! we have been working super hard but this week being thanksgiving I am thankful for the opportunities that I have been given to be here. I am thankful for my awesome family that has been behind from day 1 and untill day 700 and BEYOND, I am thankful for the bike problem that I have finally taken care of and they haven;t come back yet!.

But lets get back to that later its time to talk about lessons that have been happening. This week Elder Hernandez and I went around looking for people that Elder Hernandez used to teach when he was here a year ago. and it has been working we have found 2 less active families and a couple of potential investigators. It is awesome!

Last but not least we found a new man named Emanuel! He is awesome had a ton of good comments about what we teach (the restoration) he is so ready for the gospel but can only meet on saturdays... but its going to be awesome to see what happens!

C. Elder Hernandez is awesome he is the best missionary I could have asked for. but I didn't have to ask, God gave him to me for a transfer and maybe more! He listens to the spirit a ton and follows the promptings.

T. This week in my studies a went over all the talk the I have collected over the past year and re read them because what good do they do collecting dust on my desk!!

S. I don't think I had any service this week only elder Hernandez on a blitz. oh well always next week!

yep thats all folks see you around!!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

After 2 thanksgiving dinners! 

Nov 24, 2014

good to see you welll so i wrecked my bike!

yep it happened and hopefully wont happen again!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING eat a ton for me!

Well lets get into this week! oh and we got shot at! With a BB gun, so don't freak out mom..... but Elder Hernandez got hit in the ankle.

A.  Well here in oxnard everything is going awesome we are having a great time! And hard times. Meaning on Thursday I crashed my bike. It is all in good condition, the only thing that happened was my pants ripped and I got a good road burn on my leg it was pretty funny. What happened was I turned to sharp and my bike tire slid and I went with it. :) But it was awesome for some reason it seemed to strengthen our relationship with the recent convert in the area.

 But other than crazy bikes and teaching people we had an exchange this past week and it didn't go to well... well it was great but we never taught anyone! We went to an investigators house and they weren't there, but we found a desk and we managed to get in to our tiny car to give to a family that has nothing and noticed we were late for lunch with a member so we rushed over there ate and because we were late there, we were late to pick up the other Elders for correlation. but remember we had a desk still in our car so we ran that over to the family and set it up, and then got the Elders. Then our ward mission leader cancelled correlation and so we got more time to talk to people to find no one home and then it was time for dinner and then sat in stake conference for 2 hours. It was the best exchange and the worst exchange! But it was so fun!

C. Elder Hernandez is the best artist I have seen in a while and drew me some pictures this week they are pretty cool!

T. Well this week at zone conference I have been reformed! You could say, and I have a new desire to be a better missionary and so this week I have studied the white handbook and wrote down anything that I could improve on and to my amazement I have a 2 page paper of improvements so now I am going to start on working it down to a clean piece of paper!

S. Well the funnest service this week happened right after I wrecked on my bike and we did 70 push ups to help/motivate our recent convert Juliette do her 70 push ups that she had for gym class

Yep that was fun hope this week is twice as much fun.... well minus the bike wreck and shots fired.....

Talk to you soon!

-Elder Joshua Mackay

Another Week in the Port

November 17, 2014

Hello everyone!

well lets get straight into it

A. Well Oxnard is awesome! We worked very hard this week to get someone with a baptism date and who would have thought it worked!!! We got a little girl named Marithza with a baptism date for the 6th of December! It was awesome we are so excited!!

This week we didn't teach as many lesson as we hoped for but we had a great week none the less. It is interesting how each area that you serve in works differently, Ventura we spent a lot of time with member and they lead us to their friends. Fillmore we spent all our days running from appointment to appointment. and Carpinteria we walked and talked to our investigators, and in Oxnard we walk around and try to talk to people but they take the card and walk away.  It has been so much fun to see the difference in every area because each area shines you in a different way, makes you a better person for the next one. Like Juliette reminds me of Elizabeth, of course Juliette hasn't seen as much as Elizabeth but I can tell by being with Elizabeth prepared me to meet Juliette and this is how I know that God really is at the helm of this work everything you young kids do know it will come back to you to do something later.

This week we also had an interesting experience at the Rodriguez's house, living there is a man named Jose who was baptized in 2006 who needed a blessing of health, so we show up and we give him the blessing and went to talk to Hermana Rodriguez and she was in such a bad condition it hurt her to move even an inch and she never even thought about asking for a blessing. So we told her that she should get a blessing and she said yes, and so we located her husband in the kitchen about to jump into the shower and we told him what was going on. He didn't want to do it, so we tried to tell him again, and he finally said ok. So we walk back into the room where the hermana was lying and Elder Hernandez anointed her and Antonio (the husband) read through the missionary hand book and with out a second thought gave his wife the most beautiful blessing I have ever heard and it was awesome the spirit was so strong, after we asked him if he had given a blessing before and he said he has never given one before and that's why he was nervous at first. Now that was awesome!

But back to Marithza we taught her the restoration and the 10 commandment and she took it pretty well and then Saturday night her dad came home from work and they haven't seen him in over a month and so we taught him the restoration and turns out he was been meeting missionaries for over 3 years now! they are awesome, but just moved in and literally have nothing. We gave them a bed and so they rotate who sleeps on it the 2 boys and then the 3 girls. such a humble family when we teach them we all sit on the ground in a circle and they listen intently and quiet there children (2 girl and a boy) they are just the best thing to happen to this world. well ya.

C. Elder Hernandez is awesome, he is very good at explaining thing so people understand  and making sure that they do under stand! It is the best! 

T. Well for a zone goal we are teaching the parables of Jesus at set appointments, so I figured I better read and study the parables so I know what I am talking about and turns out I learned a ton so far my favorite is the parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price! 

S. This week we had missionary landscaping and we did a great job it looks good other then we couldn't fit everything into the bin so we left the extra branches on the street in a pile, like the person directed us to do it is funny how when people tell you how to do it they are happy but when they don't they are not happy!

yep awesome week!!

hope you have a good one!

-Elder Joshua Mackay