Macrae and Elder Maiava & others

18 and Counting, Power Housing, High-Jacked, Keep it Up Up on Diggin, Home, Home on the Range

Dun-nu nunt nunt nunt, another one bites the dust! Another transfer gone, another close friend dead, and a peanut butter M&M just met its fate, just as so many of its other brethren have... This makes my 18th to last p-day as well... Yo Cresswell and Johnson what does that make for you ;3!? Anyways I'm not Trunky and I have the evidence to prove it since all of the young pawns around me seem to have made it the new thing to tell me every chance that they get. But that's ok since I know that they will all take their own turns when they reach my point of the mission ha! So anyways to continue on with what has been going on we had an extremely good week that kept us really busy. So rather than giving individual lessons I'll give people updates. Jachin: So we had two very good lessons with him this past week and we were super excited to see him at church his Sunday... Well we would have been had he actually shown up so now we are going to have to push his date back once again since our Ward mission leader would like to see him come at least three more times which is reasonable. I'm a bit sad and worried what will happen there but luckily for me that will no longer be my job to break the news. Tom: Crazy as usual and we aren't sure what to do with him. Still a flip flopped on believing in and not believing in God which I just don't understand. We are just going to go through with the Restoration tomorrow and quit dancing around the subject. Probably will be dropped. Lamonica: We were finally able to re contact this less active family which was sweet! They are doing better since the death in the family and have had some great questions about the plan of salvation because of it. Ultimately I feel that they will be reactivated due to this. So I'll move onto some new people so that I don't bore everyone to death with reports. Elder Miava and I were tracting on Wednesday and as we sat outside one of the doors Elder Maiava told me that he had a really good feeling about the door which turned out to be correct. Her name is Lizbeta and is from Puerto Rico and has a husband and three kids. We came back a few days later and taught her though her husband left since he doesn't believe in God. She accepted the message pretty well and had really good questions but she wants missionaries who speak Spanish so we reluctantly handed her off ;). So the last like really big success we had this week is that there has been this family who has been coming to church for about a month who are friends to a member that finally said that we could come and teach them! So last night we went to a members house and I guess we kinda taught them? There were a few members over there for dinner and the host of it all literally just took over and I was on edge the whole time! Started talking deep doctrine and about the endowment it was just ridiculous what he through at this family! I only got a total of twenty words in since when ever I tried to get to know them or teach them he would interrupt. We talked with the member who is their friend and he said we need to figure something else out since we are going to the same house next week haha! Well Maiava will. It's a family of six and another on the way and all at the moment are accountable woot! But anyways it would seem that I will be on the road again since I got the call on Friday night. Surprisingly I wasn't really stressed at all and here I am now with a bunch of crap scattered everywhere on my desk ready to be moved :P. Well I love y'all and guess we shall see where I end up!

Oxymoron Thinking?, Spiritual with the Crazed, Draggen

Our week and it's cancelations. So we saw Tom again last Tuesday and it was one of those good but yet strange lessons where it leaves you feeling as though your tires are spinning out in a four foot snow bank with little direction in sight due to a Grizzly taking a nap on your hood.... Something is happening and has the possibility of great things but there really isn't anything to grab onto to get out. Mostly I am trying to figure him out. He knows what the spirit is and what it feels like, but he seems to switch off from knowing there is a God to not knowing, to thinking that non of this is real, back to saying there is probably some sort of entity out in this great blue yonder of a universe. I just don't have much to go on since he's one of those that is comfortable where he is at and when we mentioned about Gods plan for us he wasn't to fond of the idea that there was an actual plan since he is an artist and prefers to just kinda go with whatever. I feel that he thinks plans are rigid fences but in our next visit I've been thinking about talking about absolute truth, teaching the Book of Mormon and then if still nothing to go on, possibly might drop. I'm not sure. Later that night we went on splits and I went with a Brother Isom. Really cool guy who is a private airline pilot who has essentially lived all over the United States. We got to know each other pretty well since our appointments didn't hold nor the back ups. Not to mention we waited forty five minutes in the car waiting for Maiava to get back to then learn from his split partner that he had dropped him off at the church an hour earlier with the other missionaries there >.

Christian Tribalism and Spirituality, That "Rich Friend", Foretold Delays

We saw Jachin a lot this week... I am pretty sure that it was almost five times but I could be wrong on this one. Anyways we were trying to get him prepped for his baptism this week but it would seem that we will delay that a little bit so I'll give reason why in just a little bit. So this past week was pretty good and kept us a bit busier than the past one. Mostly due to Jachin and Tiefa but we were able to go and see my first member referral this past week :D! It was from the guys brother in New Hampshire and we had tried to find him before with little success. His name is Thomas and he is a pretty sweet guy but he has some interesting beliefs. Christian all the way but it seems that he's not to sure on absolute truths besides Christ. Meets with the Jehovahs Witnesses, does tribal prayers with the local Indians, it's just kinda strange all together. But he enjoyed what we had to say and likes our three kingdom view and stated that no matter how the world ends he wins in the end. We have some good promise here so hopefully we will be able to accomplish what we have designed to do ;). On Wednesday I went on exchanges down to Newark Delaware with an Elder Wiesler, our zone leader. I would like to relate this exchange to that one rich friend that most of us can associate to. Rich, nice house, beautiful woman (vice versa), has a dog who's breed is on the endangered species list. Or in our case great area, super supportive members (they drive them everywhere), live on a college campus (fulfills the beautiful women part). We were stuffed with lessons and went from one right to the other which I enjoyed, meant less finding for me ;)! He's a good guy, definitely is a young zone leader and he knows it :3. Thursday was a bit of a strange day. Last transfer President instituted what are known as training Elders who were supposed to work with those who are six months and younger. But it seems that all are game so we got Elder Long with us which I was pretty happy about. Not to much happened during the exchange, we had a family history event with Tiefa and Jachin right before it but past that we were just walking around looking for people. We only came across a very fiery Pentecostal woman. I told her that I had already been to a Pentecostal church and she asked why I didn't stay there, and when I told her why she stated that if I came to her church I wouldn't leave and that I would see how the gift of tongues actually worked. We would have gone but we couldn't find her church. Also I've already dismembered the case so I don't really care. Friday he and his companion gave us a kind of training on how to plan? It was nice but for the most part I feel there were bigger reasons for them being there. Friday was mostly taken up by weekly planning. So on Saturday we talked to Jachin about the baptismal interview questions. He did amazing and we felt that he was really ready for baptism as we went through all of the stuff with him. I think he got a little scared when a certain member started going off about not watching things over PG, only listening to Christmas music, and other non doctrine points that scare us missionaries as you could very well guess, but otherwise all was well... And then he didn't show up to church yesterday so we are pushing it back a bit :P. And that is the news for the week! Love and for Delanee... Happy Birthday Delanee, there used to be an Elder Hainey, I once taught a girl named Lanee, Happy Birthday Delanee!

Playing at the baptism (hate wearing my glasses) and what happens when you & your companion find a nerf gun in the closet!

Kids! What's the Matter with Kids Today?, Getting To Old?, Double Blitz, Slow Week

Well I am now at that ripe old age of being a one handed man... Both transfers and months fit there individually :/... But all old missionary pride to the side I'm waiting to take over as the oldest missionary in this zone come next transfer✌🏻💪🏻!! 19 months down with a little less than five to go is a strange feeling. Ok I'll quit being trunky. So this past week didn't hold to much for us but I'll report the good and plenty. So Tuesday we had a lesson in the morning with some recent converts. A mom and Daughter duo Nicole and her daughter Hailey. They seem to be a sweet family though I didn't really get to know who they were since our member was the one driving the lesson, and a good lesson it was too... Such a great description right? Later that night we went on splits and I was left with Brother Hooper to teach Jachin about the Law of Tithing. It went really well and like usual most people have a bit of a concern that they will be asked to give money but after some explaining he was totally fine with it and as we followed up we found out that he has pretty well quit drinking tea so we are right on track for his baptism next week ;)! Wednesday? Let's just say that everything fell through and I really am not sure what we did during the mean time besides going and doing service for our one meal appointment. I don't know about anyone else but when I get back I'm going to the gym daily... Every other day... Maybe twice a week. Anyways I'm one of the few elders that works out every morning and I'm tired of everyone thinking I'm just this skinny wimp so I have some goals! Thursday... So I've been noticing for about the past transfer or two that all of the rules we received last year are being regivin this (new missionaries and all). But what's gotten a little bit annoying is that all of these new zone leaders who are a year or under act as if the older missionaries have never heard of these things and have the aura that they are the more obedient generation. Maybe I'm wrong but that's the vibe that I'm getting. Anyways I had a faulter after zone training for the first time on the mission. We went down to pray before leaving the apartment and all I remember is saying amen and then my arms hurting for some reason. Well I guess that amen had happened thirty minutes earlier cause I was down and out for the count :/! We had another lesson with Jachin but we had to go to his house since we didn't have a member to take him to the church with us. Surprisingly his house was super quiet and not busy like it usually is so we had a great lesson about the Ten Commandments and the priesthood. His drunk uncle was a bit of a jerk though. We are teaching the Ten Commandments and suddenly he yells Moses didn't say that it was Jesus! It was Jesus who said that, you Mormons are so screwed in your thinking. As he stormed out of the house. Meanwhile we were in the Old Testament :3... Friday we doubled into the 1st Ward elders area since neither of our companions has a legal drivers license for here in the states. It was fun since I was with Elder Foster who I served around in North Philly. Cornelius went to him right after me so it was all good. Saturday nothing. Yesterday not to much. We almost didn't have a lesson since we showed up just to see our investigator get into and drive off in her car. We sat there for about thirty minutes with a less active till she showed up again. Later that night I was asked five minutes before the Spanish baptism to play the piano... True to Hispanic culture I got an hours practice before the actual things started and it was all one handed, so yup!

Meals for Days, Serve Up!, Member Presents are Ideal... Debatable

Well my very first week has come to pass where we had six out of seven days this past week where we were fed by members, my goodness. We would have had all seven but right at the last moment yesterday, they had to reschedule so my record stands at six :P. All is well though since they were literally our only hope of surviving and getting a complete diet! Anyways I'll move away from our meal business to the normal grind we have experienced for nearly 19 months as of this coming Saturday. So going back to meal appointments, on Monday we met with the Savage family. All of them are active except for their fifteen year old son, who from what I have been told, thinks he's to "cool" to go to church and that it's boring. Well long haired hippy man likes books, video games, and Pokemon and though their isn't anything bad or uncool about these things I just feel he has a bit of a case of the small nerdy man syndrome when I met him. Anyways we are working to make some good connections with him at this time and since Maiava was never into any of those things I guess I'm the one who has to put in the wedge :3. We had probably the best member meal appointment lesson I've ever had. We went over scripture study by watching an old 1980's seminary video called "The Maze", which has become a favorite of mine. We discussed in depth the reason for scripture while our target went in and out from pretending to sleep to watching the video. I'm determined! Tuesday we had a good lesson with our one investigator Jachin. We took him to the church since his house seems to be the community inn and out which doesn't always provide for the best of lessons but the spirit was pretty strong in this lesson as we went over prayer and scripture study. He is a cool kid, grandson of a member and at the moment has something strange going on with his leg, so hopefully the Dr.'s can fix it. Wednesday we were able to find a new investigator named Michelle. She is about in her fifties and I feel like she has a lot of promise at the moment. Found by Elder Maiava's last companion, we meant to just drop by and set up a return appointment but she sat us down outside and just kinda dropped her whole life's story on us before we could say a word. Either way the next day we came back and taught her half of the Restoration which she enjoyed, hopefully she likes the second half too :3. We also saw a less active by the name of Jose. He filibustered us super hard and to say the least I tried not to doze off but after an hour it was near impossible... But from there he decided to show his guns to us and though empty I wasn't fond of a twelve round fully automatic twelve gauge being pointed in my direction 0.0! He's a cop. Thursday not to much happened besides being on exchanges with a newer missionary who I was cringing with the entire time since he said some stuff that quite a few people could have taken offense to. We also played Volleyball which I had improved in a lot since our first time. I just looked at it like a game of tennis and it kinda solved everything. Friday... I don't remember much and due to some random events not much happened either. Saturday we had interviews and I'll leave that for other emails. Afterward we went and helped serve in a food kitchen which was fun. I hadn't done anything like it before and it really was an enjoyable service. However one man didn't think it was enjoyable, he had five minutes to wait to get seconds but he wanted it then and there. We left so the kitchen was left to solve it themselves. Now we come to our new investigator Caleb. Since we didn't have to much going on we showed up to help with the Spanish Elders wedding when he also decided to show up 45 minutes early. So we sat down with him and got into it. Had super good questions which we went along with for about an hour when we then moved into the restoration a bit... When our member we had called for another lesson showed up an hour early and completely took over. Not in a good way either... We totaled three hours in there with random nonsense to then leave and him not be available for the lesson we had scheduled him for. Oh boy. Well to end on a good note we have a lot of work going on here and I am excited to see what else we can do here as we move a long. I love you all and I wish you the best!