We be service Elders Driving the Van! And ... Pretty plant and a nice message from your friendly grinder

All Over and Not Much to Say, Many Concerned Men, Little Twerking Nudist

Oh the joys of being a missionary and wondering why your iPads wifi doesn't work meanwhile your companions is moving along just fine. Anyways I'll kick start us off for this weekly email with the fact that we went to a lot of different places and were able to do a bit of service but not to much else happened. On Monday we had Elder Kecher from the Seventy come and give us our mission tour/Zone Conference. To say the least I wasn't to satisfied with this one compared to the others. He main message and how they presented it pretty much said that if you have a good attitude you will teach at least 25 lessons a week sorta deal which didn't make to much sense. I fully agree that it will change how you go about doing the work which will lead to improvement but I wouldn't say that it's a clear cut in stone mega improvement machine. Oh well. He also made an interesting comment about mission leadership that I'll leave to a more personal email. Well Tuesday came and we had our P-Day when all of a sudden there was whirlwind out side full of rain! I got on the weather app and we had a tornado warning woot! Nothing happened and the tornado only touched base with the ocean but it was interesting to see that warning for the first time in my life ;)! With inclement weather we made a lot of phone calls and set up appointments and member presents for the week which was great... But only two of them held haha. Bit of a rough week but all is well... I hope. Wednesday we were asked to go give a blessing at the Pennsylvania University hospital. Well we made the trek into center city to find out that there is another Penn hospital within our area so thus a long trek back to find it haha. It was worth it though and the lady needed us. She was from Atlantic City NJ and had been having some great struggles from her post cancer surgery so it was good to talk with her and her non member husband. Friday we were called in to go and begin a two step process move for a senior couple that will be moving to Montrose PA this coming PDay. We also had an interesting truth revealed to us. The mission office had received word multiple times from this senior couple that the couch they had was terrible but the moment we told them that we were going to toss it they suddenly had sentimental value for it and said the mission could really use it.... We tossed it ;). Not to mention that our storage units are packed to the brim yeck! We took a lot of stuff out of that house and we told our higher up that there wouldn't be room for it which he said there would be. Well there wasn't so we took out a lot of junk, reorganized at least 7 years of mission furniture to fit the new stuff, and am now making sure I have no spider bites :P! Elder Murphy and I had to go to the dump this morning to get rid of it all. So here we go win Saturday. We were asked to come in and help with a group called the "Concerned Black Men Assoc.". So I wasn't sure what exactly that was and I never did since I was manned at the front door but upon setting up we were also informed that a baptism had been double booked for the same time 0.o... Also being maned at the front door we received little to know info and my companion who was designated elsewhere forgot to give notice that he baptism food was being served and didn't think to deliver ack! I had only had two pieces of jelly toast that morning and with how things were scheduled I would eat until 8:30 that night :3! From that meeting we went to an investigators house with one of our members. Her name is Danielle and she is a nice lady with two kids. One is 11 and the other is three and has autism. So I've met her at church before but this was an interesting visit. She had just come from the store and practically met us at the door when we arrived. We went up the stairs to be greeted by a naked three year old being watched by grandma playing on a phone. Well grandma had to get going and required her phone which caused quite the kerfuffle! He wailed and thrashed at her all of the way to the door and proceed to stand by the door wailing for at least three full minutes when he decided to smack the door. Upon doing so he hit the door nob which opened the door and he was stunned for a moment and just stared for a moment before very slowly turning his head towards us, ever so slowly till eye contact was made with us all as we stared back. He then made a break for it as did elder Murphy and Danielle. We got him. Wrapped him up in a diaper and gave him another phone to play on. Let just say it was a really bad lesson, mostly attributed to the little nudist who after five minutes removed his girded loins and proceeded to run this way and that with the finishing touches of Twerking on Elder Murphys chair through out our plan of salvation lesson :|. So that happened. Also our meal appointment cancelled :(. Tired and unhappy with not really having much going on this week we went to give a blessing to a man in another Penn hospital. It was super rainy but it was a great way to end the night. He is a non member but has a lot of member family and from what I can tell he is looking to join the church soon since he had made sure that his family brought him his quad. His name is Richard Gundrum and he lives up in Jenkintown. The reason he was in the hospital was that he was out cycling down a long usually non busy hill when a car for whatever reason decided to pull out into the suicide lane, you can imagine the rest. Luckily he only had some broken bones and road rash but it looked like a pretty hard hit :P. We talked about Moab and Biking though which was a lot of fun. And that about sums up this past week

Free Mason Temple & holding a second edition copy of the Book of Mormon

For the Road

Things went well this past week. I was finally able to go around our area and see what it has to offer. Truthfully honest it is ginormous! I thought my last area was one of the biggest walking areas in this mission, and is, but this place just dwarfs it 0.o! For the service Elder Gig we didn't do to much besides getting certified to drive the van. That was crazy but good, mostly just crazy in the fact that it has almost been a year since I last drove and the first thing I drive is a large 12-13 seater can woof! But I did fine and did well on the paper work so I am now certified :). Next week we will be going to almost the very tip top of the mission so maybe I'll have the opportunity to hit the last state of our five miles worth of New York ;). Also things have gotten nasty hot around here with the humidity bleck! Sweating all the time outside (tmi probably)... But it is what is and hey guess what, it's just going to get hotter from here haha. Also thanks for the tip about tide for this past year and a half, we have other missionaries come do wash with us and all of there stuff is a nasty grey |:P! I think I might buy some bleach just to help over the summer. Also with the pants if you get time would you mind fixing them? It's not an immediate problem for me since I have my other suit as well as the other pair of suit pants. I don't get Mr. Mac though. The one pair fits and the other is super tight on the waist. Though melted the contents of the package have been a delight so thank you! Though I will be honest that it hasn't taken to long for Elder Murphy and myself to go through it haha, still have some things left but you know how it is. So I'm glad that Grandma is doing better and that Emree is alright. Kinda strange that she just had a little cyst/mass like thing in her foot... Weird. I hope all goes well for Bianca too, strange how life seems to just pick times to throw down, am I right? If it's not big it's little and if it's not little it's big. So I have done terrible when it comes to cards this year :(. Just missed dad for Father's Day and I haven't gotten anyone else previous to that either. Just get so caught up that I totally forget what I need to plan for with he coming weeks ya know? I'll work on it though and I'll make sure to write dad a big email today. I hope all went well. So I got an interesting email this past week from President stating that Elder Murphy and I were put together to strengthen one another and that I shouldn't get to comfortable. It was interesting since he never really stated anything else besides from there giving me a the cookie cutter email (busy guy so I understand). Today we are going to go take a tour of one of the Free Mason temples out here.

Last Days, Return of the Companionship!, 500 Mile Week, Where Am I?

So I'm going to leave my destination on a thread for a moment and will cut it in just a moment. This email won't be long anyways since there was a lot of travel which I will explain as well in a moment :3. So Monday night we went to Brother Abad's so that I could have my last family home evening with him which was pretty adventurous. His house has always been a phenomenal mystery since he never lets anyone in but by the smell one could tell that it sure had something up with it. Well we stowed away inside at the last moment with the other Elders to find out that I really never actually wanted to go inside due to its contents :P! Not a hoarder house but I myself feel that a condemnation of the house would be less than appropriate. It was bad. We then had dinner at Bryan's along with his wife which was awesome. She was really nice this time compared to the first time that I met her and I have very good feelings that within the coming months that Bryan will be baptized :D! We also took him to the temple the next day and he enjoyed it thoroughly so I hope that things go well in the time that I'm not there. It'll work out how it should. Tuesday was literally just a bunch of goodbyes which I'll leave there since it was a pretty sad day :(. So Wednesday I get to transfers and I'll tell you the true honest feelings I've had at transfers since about my year mark. Where I go doesn't really matter but I look at all of these missionaries and I know none of them! Funny lookin, please don't pair me up with you, and other such thoughts. Well it was super exciting cause Elder Murphy was called to be my new companion woot! It was awesome! So here we are at 17 months ready to go at it! Also I didn't go to far since I am now in west Philly and the Upper Darby region (just another section of philly). I can't say to much about it yet though since I really haven't had the opportunity to be in it. Elder Murphy and I were also called to be Service Elders which means we drive a truck and at times a van and are essentially one of the back bones to the mission. Still have a proselyting area however on Tuesdays and most Friday's we will be delivering stuff, moving apartments, and oh something a little special this transfer is that we will be delivering stuff in preparation for the opening of the Priesthood Restoration sight visitors center booya! It is cool but it will be a challenge to figure out how to work everything out in terms of balance. Well to say the least the day of transfers was used to deliver all of the city missionaries their luggage and then we had a meal appointment to conclude. The next day we went into South Jersey by Atlantic City and a little place called Bridgeton before going into Bayview Maryland closing and setting up apartments for missionaries. Friday we helped set up a wedding for one of our investigators who I didn't get to officially meet until yesterday. That was fun but right as we were about to go out and find we received a call that some missionaries in Philly needed some AC units. Well that finished our day since traffic here is awful :P. So yesterday was my first full day in the area (besides church) so ya, don't know much besides Upper Darby is a melting pot of people and west Philly has a total of three white people... Including myself, my companion, and the other random bystanders traveling through by bus!

As the Days Go By..., Boss Moving, Empty Week, Psychy Zone Lord

Well I'll give the news now that after eight months here it seems that I won't be breaking President Anderson's record :( of six transfers. But that's ok, if everything goes according to plan i will be back for my last transfer haha ;)! But ya I'm pretty bummed but I'll put that aside and move to the past events of this week. So with the high stress of exchanges and transfers mixed with a good ol' dose of moving we weren't able to accomplish the stellar week that I had hoped to do but things still went well. On Tuesday we went to go see John who is the less active I've told you a bit about the past two weeks. We showed up and he had a lady there helping him with the plans to move out of his sons house. She told us it should only be fifteen to twenty minutes but 45 minutes later we left him with his large print Book of Mormon and headed out to a move we needed to be at. Arriving only a little after the time that it was supposed to start we came in to find it mostly done, have pizza, and ship up the last few boxes :/. So most of our day was killed with travel time before we got home and then proceeded to have more appointments fall through till we saw Jen that night. We got a good dose of just how much Jen actually knows/desires to know when Elder Crowther made the comment that Elder Perry had died and she stated that there were no more apostles besides the twelve. Wednesday we spent most of the day moving Sister Rios up into the North East part of Philly. It took us a little while and after all that work I was so bummed when I forgot to get a picture with her! She was supposed to be at church to but no luck :(. Thursday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. I've been a bit upset with them this transfer ever since we got Elder Cowley. Very good missionary but yet also a missionary who's only about the business of it all. I was with him and pretty quiet for most of the exchange. Not to mention if I even had a desire to talk to someone he was already on top of them :P. Friday we barely avoided one of my missionaries in the district going home which was a big reliever. He's been going through a ruff time but thankfully his trainer and a few other missionaries were able to bear some pretty powerful testimonies that changed his mind from getting on the plane the very next day. We would later that night go and see Mike where we had a good lesson using the new Lift Mormon message. It went well. Saturday was probably the hardest day this past week. We showed up to play football like usual but the only people there were Elder Cornelius and Foster. We waited twenty minutes with no avail so we then decided to have lunch with them. They will both be doubling out of their area so we will see if I end up with Cornelius again ;)! That would be sweet! We had nothing for the rest of the day. Sunday was a bit odd. So all the missionaries were asked to pass the sacrament. On the way up I was asked to play the organ instead which was awesome, rusty as all get out but I still played fine! After sacrament there was a strange individual by the name of Brother Perkins who wanted to teach us how to properly teach about Race and the priesthood. Well we started for about ten minutes when we found out that he wasn't authorized to teach so our mission president told us to get out of there (a missionary called and asked). And then a little bit later we got the call to listen to what he had to say. Stuff I already knew and it kept me from getting pictures with the ward members. This would also disrupt our evening plans with Mike and Dana so I was a bit upset since it was my last time for Sunday dinner ya know? President wanted us to go over what was talked about with one of his counselors so that no one had any concerns for the opinions raised by this guy. But we were still able to do dinner with them thank goodness. Well that about sums up the week. I love you all! Love, Macrae

This big guy is who I play football with every Saturday. He will be moving this week

Theme from Jaws, Oh's No's Doors, This is what My Leaders Do?, Sign Fun

Tis' a strange week no? First of all we only saw Jenn once and that was for about a thirty minute period of time so I am a bit confused as to where everything went this past week. Anyways this week is week six or in other words the end of the transfer. I already have plans to be packing my bags since I'm pretty doubtful of my continued stay. I've been very blessed in the fact that this is my favorite area and that I was given the opportunity to be here so long with those that I love. So here we go for the week. So we began the week extremely busy with the last half pretty well dead. We went to Brother Abad's as well as Mike's for the Memorial Day Celebration. It was a very quiet celebration but a celebration none the less. Mike had made cheese dogs before we had gotten there and had kept them safe in the microwave for us... Well if you saw that microwave you would only eat one dog out of respect as well ;3. On Tuesday we had quite a few lessons that kept us busy. We went back to Mike's house and had a pretty awesome lesson. We talked about magnifying our callings which was new and a ways from the beaten trail for him. Is was a very spiritual lesson though we left with both sides a bit confused on how he can magnify setting up chairs before church :/. Hopefully he will be called to be a ward missionary here soon. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Brianna and Meloney. I swear that I can here the Jaws theme song every time that we go over there... Just waiting for the darn shark to burst from the water since I know that Meloney is at that stage where she knows, it's just figuring out what is holding her back ya know? We need her soon to other wise I feel that keeping Brianna over the summer will be a bit hard without family support ya know? It'll all work out. We then had a lesson with Miguel which was sweet. He's so amazing. 10 PM Saturday night we still had no ride to church for him and he requested to be skyped in haha. Thankfully we found him a ride. Wednesday we had a really good time with Brian. We finally braved up to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went very well. He told us that he has come to the conclusion that either Joseph Smith was one of the Smartest men in 1830's or that the Book is true haha. He's been praying a lot and said that since he wasn't sure what to look for that he asked God to make two thumps if the book was true and then heard something crash outside... But it was only one so he was confused haha. So we talked a lot on the spirit. We should also officially be meeting his wife on Wednesday so hopefully we can set a good impression so that she'll let her husband be baptized ;). After this event though everything just kinda fell through for the rest of the week :/. Pretty depressing but as Bruce R. McConkie stated the caravan moves onnnnnnnn........ However there were a few interesting moments. There are those people in your life, especially missionary life that you just avoid. In this case it's because this person is nuts and likes to call me and tell me about revelations twelve and how everything in the Book of Mormon is true besides what she thinks is racism. I'll get to the point.... I knocked a door and that very person answered the door and my stomach dropped, Bleck!!! Strange as usual so I leave from there to Friday. For the first time ever under President Anderson all district leaders were invited to the Mission Leadership Coordination meeting. I thought it would be fun and exciting, it had its moments and being taught by President was good... However I found out that for pretty much the last hour it's just zone leaders and Sister Training Leaders tossing ridiculous rules around :/. Thankfully nothing new was implemented since President Anderson has stepped away from carpet ruling (rules that should only govern a few but restrict the rest of us). It was a bit aggravating. Well Saturday we helped a member move down the street which was easy since there were literally eight items to move. It's alright though since we got water ice which is dang good stuff! Last but not least we had a fun time at church yesterday. Noticing that Miguel wasn't having the easiest time lip reading we talked with him via iPad when he then began to teach us sign language. Super simple as well as fun to do haha. If you want to see what I'm talking about go to the gospel library app and switch the language to ASL and then watch a conference talk. Trust me 😏.