Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Philadelphia Temple & other sites





Cracks with Gold

So this week has been a ton of clean up, and when I mean a ton of clean up I mean that we won't ever do it again since we won't have such a large pool of miles to draw from with our car lol. We litterally have the use of 150 miles a day at the moment since the previous missionaries weren't able to use it, which lead to us being able to go where ever we want with no conciquences, so we are going to be shocked a bit come Thursday when we actually have to plan out our miles in the car :P.
Also last week we had a ton of service which was great, since we wanted the change up of facebook and then spending the rest of the day trying to find people. From what I can tell at the moment, this area will give us a lot of service which, I love, since for one, everyone seems to be moving different places and doing spring cleaning as well.
One of our service projects was with a member who has a lung problem, and though she lives in a trailler her front and back yard were huge! We probably baged about fifteen bags of leaves and it would have been doubled had we bagged up the back yard rather than leaf blowing them into a ditch lol. Her street was a bit lop sided more than likely do to the weight of the leaves ya know?
We also moved a family out of Laurel, which is about ten minutes from Seaford into Seaford to a tiny little house. Don't know the story but he and his wife are going through a divorce so its pretty sad to see things like that happen. He has three adopted kids from what I can tell, dont know about the fourth but I always find it cool when I see other families with adopted kids and I'm like ME TOO :D.... scept they is siblings not my kids :P
So Kelly sorry but from what we kinda saw coming is that she is debating on whether or not she is actually interested in the church. As she told us she doesn't really have the drive to do much and from what we could tell really only met with us so that she had something to do, but I don't know maybe in our possible last visit with her this week things will change.
We did however pick up another new gator named Calvin who seems pretty sweet. We were looking for someone else when we came across him and the first thing he asked us when answering the door is what literature do you guys got cause I want it lol. So I gave him a Book of Mormon and while Elder Whitney went and got a pamphlet he and I talked about what a Mormon is. I explained that we believe that a prophet has been called today just like in old times with the old and new testament which he really liked the idea of. We will have our first official lesson with him tomorrow though so details are pending on this one.
We also have quiet a few more potentials turning into gators real soon here so this area isn't as dead as we thought, but rather it hasn't been weeded and pruned for some time and there are a few flowers within the weeds trying to grow :).
One thing that is weird though about this area is that no one ever seems to be home... Like ever. Trying to do clean up is hard when no one is around so we've been trying different places at different times to see when people are most likely home. So far six to seven thirty is the sweet spot for most places. Not home anytime before and if you go after eight at all people seem to get angry for whatever reason (shrug).
So that Philly Cruiser pick I sent ya, well we found out is part of a car group known as the Misfits car group here in Seaford which is pretty dang rediculous. Cars super low, strange paint jobs, the list goes on and on. And its not just this car group that is strange, but rather Delaware has some other really strange individual stuff that I would have expected to find in other places such as Philly but nope, out here in the middle of nowhere, I'll send pictures of it all when I get em lol.
We will get things back up and running, or rather God will, we are just here to help :3.

Well today we are going to the Atlantic Ocean for kicks today, we have the miles so why not ya know. From what I've been told is that its pretty dirty and not as pretty as the pacific but when we get there and take pics I'll let ya know. Also don't worry we are going to stay as far away from the water as possible lol. Funny thing, with all the things I miss doing swimming really isn't as big for me as other missionaries, guess it probly will just take till my year mark before I really start to feel like going for a swim and then I'll just end up having to wait lol.
Happy Birthday Emree!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Last P-day in Philly with Elder Whitaker & First find in Seaford




Long Green

So for those wondering about Dela...Where? Here is the first thing that is probably the most prominent thing about it... Its very green... As is Maryland as well. Long expanses of farmland and green terrain thats flatter than all get out, driving me nuts that nothing stands taller than three stories at the most lol.
But ya, grass out here is considered a weed pretty much. Dont have to water it, take care of it besides mowing it, it litterally just grows and it is everywhere around here. Anyone whos been out here their whole life and then decided to move out west would probably be in a culture shock if they saw a sprinkling system. Be like what is this Witch Craft?
So Seaford Delaware is about an hour and a half to two hours away from Philly and is very flat with a ton of farm land. The Northern tip of Delaware is about the same in population density but once you hit Dover Delaware things just become extremely spread out and looks nothing like the rest of the East Cost.
Below Dover there are LSD problems, or in our case Lower Slower Delaware problems :3. Which means everything is way more laid back and not much happens past the Dover city limits. I can litterally say that Ive probably only seen about fifteen people outside of there houses and seven of those not in there yard, everyone else is in a car going somewhere else lol.
So transfers happened on Tuesday and I am now with Elder Whitney. Do to my personal problems things started off slow but now we are doing pretty darn well together as a companionship. He's into Games and Cars and plans on being a Mechanic when he gets back from the mission this September. I tell ya I've only known three missionaries that wont be dead within the next eight to nine months and two for a year.
We are in a car area, which I must say at the moment, I've found not to be as exciting as some missionaries like to put out there about cars lol. I would much rather be out and about on the streets talking with people who are right off my front door step, but cant get your way everytime I guess ;). Cars create to much down time and thinking time.
We were both doubled into this area so that makes it my second time and also included in that is that this is my second time being doubled into whats know as a dying area. I didn't know this before transfers but Seaford has had a reputation of not much going on down here which we found out really quick when our area books updated the second day we were here.
The area book here has also been kept terribly for forever! They had people on the progressing list that hadn't been taught in a year and everything was just a mess. Elder Whitney and I have a lot of clean up work and we haven't even dented it. Whats even more annoying is the huge list of potentials that are given. Missionaries got despret or something down here cause this is my favorite discription thus far... "Big Black Guy."... Right?
Oh well, anyways not much in terms of work has happened in the past week. Just trying to get everything cleaned up and such. We did however finally come across an eternal last night who will be baptized, but its going to take about a year since thats when he will be married to his fiance. Been taught everything, at the least seven times and knows it all, we are here to just keep him going lol.

Monday, April 14, 2014

Moble

So this past week was a bit crazy but yet really good. Ricky's sister
died unfortunately and doesn't have the funds to pay for a burial or a
cremation so yesterday she asked president Degner if he could help at
all and at the moment there is a bit of help but not to much but we
will see how things go in the near future. However the good news is
that we taught the plan of salvation which both Bill and Ricky loved
and they also came to church yesterday and they both loved it a lot.
Ricky says she loved how sweet the service was, how nice everyone is
and how happy they are as well as no one randomly just screams during
church :3... Guess that's how her old church expressed the Gospel lol.
Bill got along real well too and says that this is the church he wants
to join. It was pretty sweet.
Not only did Bill and Ricky show up but Frank and Michael Gabbet
showed up as well. Now news on Frank is that I told you we had him at
conference last week and then on Wednesday went to see him. At
conference he was only 3 pages in the Book of Mormon. On Wednesday he
was in Mosiah and said that this is the first time that he has ever
found something in a religion that seems to fit the missing piece
which is super awesome. He talked about how he wants to go on a
mission and everything... And he took this real well but we broke the
news that we would have to get special permission to baptize him and
then if that happens he's twenty six now and they don't allow males
twenty seven and up back on a mission till they are married. He
thought that was cool lol.
Now to blow off some steam and get back into good stuff I had my first
baptist encounters last week. And to say the least those are the
hardest encounters cause they don't allow you to say anything and if
they do, it's wrong cause that's not how they interpret it.
I do love however the tract paper one of them gave me. First
paragraph, please don't take this tract as an insult but we are here
to tell you that God loves you and that you are on a path to be burned
forever and ever... Pretty ridiculous right? I don't get it either, by
all baptist beliefs if you believe in Christ your saved... So why do
they bother every other Christian? We is all saved if that's just it
lol.
I sat by Michael Gabbet at church yesterday and it was super funny. He
leans over to me half way through and he's like ya wanna know
something? I ask what and he says, the last time that I was here
everyone was Cambodian! He got me smiling good.


So I guess last up in news is that I'm being transferred :(. I learned
that Friday night and I've been a bit heart broken by that. I know it's part of the process and such and I'll know Tuesday morning where I'm off to which I'll let ya know as events
pend.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Dwopted

So to start off this weeks listing we have Michael  who we
dwoped on Tuesday. It was a bit sad since it was my first actual drop
of an investigator and one that I had thought might actually push for
baptism but as we found Tuesday he wasn't really into it like he had
shown before. He was supposed to quit smoking on the first and when we
went by he had all of his stuff to move the next day out on the
sidewalk. Mostly just scrapping junk but besides the point when we
started talking with him about quiting smoking coffee and tea and if
he had stopped doing them he said that he hadn't and wasn't going to
give them up. Coffee he was like I don't know about anyone else but it
gives me a boost in the morning... Of course it does cause of caffeine
and addiction... >.<... Anyways he isn't willing to strive at the
moment and I would say that it's the memory thing but he can remember
everything else except the things we've taught him. Well I bought a
calvin and Hobbs book off him for twenty cents.


Anyways to other things Bill and Ricky are doing awesome in
progression but Ricky is going through a very hard time at the moment.
We will find out what happened the next time we visit but Ricky was
given the very unfortunate and rare decision on whether or not to pull
the plug on her sister in the icu. Her sister was getting better but
then fell back again in progress and had to be put back under so she
didn't have seizures anymore and it's really hard for Ricky since her
sister is the last living family member she has left :(. Hoping for
the best but we will find out.

So I found my own gator by the name of Frank a week and a half ago I
don't know if I told you about him but he's doing awesome. We met him
once last week and taught a very ruff restoration lesson but he loved
it and is reading the Book of Mormon. He already believes it's true
but is going to continue to read and pray to know for himself. He also
came to the morning session yesterday and really liked that. He said
that Elder Uchtdorf (slaughtered that name)s talk is what spoke out to
him the most and he is going to live by those principles from now on.
He's a really cool guy and I can't wait to talk more with him. However
we've run into a problem here to lol. So Frank is a professional mixed
martial arts fighter and way back in the day for status had his hands
licensed as legal weapons. Well as he explained to us how this works
is that if you have that done and get in a fight outside of the ring
things can go heavily against you in a court case. He was defending
himself but do to that little quirk he was charged with attempted
murder with a weapon. He's on probation till 2019 so we might have to
ask president for special permission to baptize him do to being on
probation for so long... To be continued lol.

Yesterday I made those pumpkin cookies for the pot luck we were having
after the first session of general conference and let's just say they
were a big hit and I now have none left. Luckily I was asked to make
one more batch for someone who wasn't there so I get to eat some more
;). Anyways I'll send this one off and see if there's anything else I
can think of. I love you guys!
Love
Macrae

P.S. Can finally just wear white shirts with no coat or sweater :D