Ollo

How y'all doing :D.  Now for the week lol. So your question about the third guy chuck is
correct. Chuck is in the middle right now and is no longer living with
Michael and Anthony full time but we do see him on the street from
time to time. We were unable to have a lesson with Anthony this week
which was unfortunate but we were able to get two in with Michael. The
first one we had a lesson we showed him a video on Christ healing a
man with Palsy and then talked about how through Christ he can be
cleansed spiritually and then physically. He really felt the spirit
strongly and even stated that he had cut down on the drugs that day so
hopefully he's working to do that every day :D. Our second lesson with
him we brought along Brother Argondiza (he totally looks like the guy
who steals DNA on Jurassic park lol) and the two hit off pretty well
in my opinion. Michael was supposed to come to church but probably slept
in, we are going to go see him later tonight hopefully.
Also last week I got my big dose of by the book missionary XP. However
on that day I also got to do something awesome which I will tell ya
about but I wanna save that for last. Elder Evans is a good guy and
he's usually up in center city but we were on exchange last Wednesday
and let's say this was a bigger dose of by the book than I had with
Burkholze, but I still like him more than Burkholze. Well I found a
potential who is now an investigator :D named Chartur Rai. Well let's
say there was no emotion in this lesson and that it was just blocks of
preach my gospel shoved down his throat since I let Evans lead the
discussion. Never happening again lol. But that's not what bugged me
and right after that is the good part. So I don't know if I've told
you about Bishnu and her daughter Roslynn who is three but I will tell
ya that they are recent converts of about 3/4 of a year and are super
awesome. Well we received a call that they were extremely sick and
wanted a blessing so we made our way over there.


Well we get there and are invited in and the only thing Evans can
think about or say is there has to be a male. There has to be a
male........ Let's just say he struck a nerve like none other and that
I was about to go in and leave him outside... Luckily there was a male
(like usual) who was at least there for Evans to see when Bishnu's
sister didn't understand that repeated bland statement he made. Well I
gave my first blessing ever to Bishnu's daughter Roslynn. Such an
awesome family and I'm glad that things worked out that Evans didn't
call pres on me lol. But I was going in with or without.


Today for Pday elder Whitaker has to do school stuff so we are
going to the church to do that and hang out with other missionaries
who we will more than likely have a ping pong tournament with ;).
I told elder Whitaker that I'll work on my temper with by the book
missionaries so we will see how I improve with that over time lol.

Namestey

Ha another way to say hello lol, that one is Nepali ;).  So it fricken snowed again here!
About a week and a half ago the weather was really nice and we could
leave the big puffy coats behind but since then it's just snowed,
warmed up, and snowed again. Really looking forward to spring here but
from what I've heard is that it's very short before it just becomes a
steam house outside lol. This week we didn't have to many lessons
unfortunately but the ones we did have counted.
Monday we had a lesson with George Callahan and it went extremely
well. We made him a bit angry the last time we talked with him about
doing the baptism for himself rather than his soon to be wife and it
ticked im' off a bit but this week his heart was softened and we had a
really good lesson. He was also amazed that Joseph Smith is actually
referenced in the bible and I think it put quite a few puzzle pieces
together for him.
We also had quite a few lessons with Michael and Anthony. Our first
lesson last week actually started off with Anthony in a melt down.
He's on drugs and hates it and wants to get off but was very sure how
to do that by himself. So we went right into how the gospel of Jesus
Christ can help us in are greatest struggles and then went right into
what we could do to help him. So far we've helped him get his id so
that he can get into a clinic to help him get off so hopefully he
follows all of the way through and doesn't get scared. Super great guy
and knock on wood here but I think he has the high chance of being
baptized. He is very greatful for how much we've helped grow in his
faith and has even mentioned that he needs to be baptized!
And then after that we saw them throughout the week helping with that
stuff but other than that not to much has happened. Transfers begin
today and almost my entire district, actually all but one are staying.
Elder Rockwood is leaving to Brazil which is super awesome since he's
waited almost a year for his visa but super sad because he's a fricken
stud. I got his info to stay in contact so all is good.
Being the district leaders companion I get moved around a lot through
the companionships. This past week I was with elder Richlyck who's
from center city.I was also on exchange with elder rich who is a Spanish elder and is also a stud.
Had a great time on the companionship with him but during lessons I
said about three words since everyone we talked to was Hispanic and
knew two words of English.

Howdy

So hey I finally got to go sight seeing here. its been pretty sweet and I've got a few pictures to send ya. We went to China town here which was a little disappointing do to not being anywhere near as good as the one in San Fran. we literally walked into China town and then two minutes later left it lol. But we then went to Redding Mon Tunnel which is one of the coolest things I've seen yet here. It used to be a train station I guess but now its like a food court mini mall with everything you can imagine in it. I've got pics and some video but you really gotta be there to experience it. Sorry I don't have as much to say for this week of email. I actually got a lot more on the Ipad at home but I didn't get to finish, so Ima try to send as much as I can now.

We then also came to the temple where its being built. All four corners are up and they are working on the steal part now. Supposedly the spires will be done within the next two to three months which will be awesome. We also have hung out with the sisters here along with Brother and Sister Carr who watch over the temple grounds here. Super awesome and we've had a really good time. We went to lunch at a place called the snack shack that has one of the best burgers I've ever had.

 I'm also experimenting more with food and having a fun time with that. One of those things I'd like to share with you about that is ya know those things called plantains? They look just like a banana but they aint? Well what ya do is buy a couple of those and then let em age till they is either almost black or completely black so that they are sweet enough. Slice em really thin and then fry them on a pan with some butter until they get crispy and then after that sprinkle some sugar or some cinnamon on em (you can eat em just fried too) and then eat em :). Really good. In the package ima send you a recipe for a really good burger to, however it won't have the amazing sauce that also helps but I'm not sure how to make that so it wont be the exact same.

Anyways today has been really awesome besides the snow :P. Ya we got fricken snow again lol. Hopefully the winter goes away here soon. Supposedly this winter has made it to almost top five winters ever here with snow and cold. Can't stand it lol.

Ollo

So this past week has been pretty good. Yesterday we were able to get
Michael to church. I was with Elder Rockwood and we went to his little
apartment to wake im up and walk with him to church almost two hours
before church since he was worried that he would take a long time with
how bad his knees are. We ended up getting to church an hour early but
oh well lol, we gave him a tour of our branch meeting house and
introduced him to people. Thomas Holmes was supposed to be there as
well but I guess he forgot about it unfortunately.
Anyways Michael really liked sacrament meeting, but we are going to
have to work with him on staying for a bit longer each time so that he
can see everything we do at church. We ended up not being able to stay
the whole time either though. Elder Whitaker got permission for us to
go up into north Philly so that he could see the baptism of one of the
people he taught up there. Her name is Jeanine Thomas and they found
her by going out and caroling back in December I guess. It was really
cool to see and elder Whitaker felt great from then on for the rest of
the day. He says that seeing someone you taught get baptized is the
best feeling in the world.
Guess I'll find out for myself once we get one here lol. We also saw
the baptism of the Spanish elders investigators Maimay and her son
who's name I don't know how to spell or pronounce but he was baptized
to :3. It was really cool to see so many in one day. By the time we
got home we has no time for proselyting so we just did some study's
instead.


Let's see what else is there. So the other day I'm out on exchange
with elder jones in my area and we are looking for a couple who were
former investigators named Anthony and Amanda. Well elder Whitaker and
myself have come in contact before with Amanda. She's a short and
stalky white lady, probly about twenty eight but heck I don't know
lol. Well elder jones and I were going there to set up an appointment
with them for later, and so I knock on the door and elder jones asks a
funny question, is Anthony a big black guy? I answer not that I know
of and begin to worry that I have the wrong house. Whelp what I found
out is Anthony is a big black guy.... I wasn't expecting that combo
XD.
Really nice family and hopefully we can catch them this coming
Thursday. Sheesh it is week six already. Transfers are six weeks long
and here we are, almost two months into the mission. The first two
weeks were hard since we had nothing going for us, but since then time
as been accelerating exponentially at a ridiculous rate. It's slowed
down a bit the past few days but all the missionaries say it does that
at the end of transfers and then goes even faster once the new
transfer starts

Hello

So here's a bit of news, we got iPads on Friday to help hasten the
work... Thus far Elder Whitaker and myself have found them to cause a
Lawl in the work. They are very good and have some really cool
features that can allow us to FaceTime and Skype people in the case
where we can't reach these people in person, as well as keep an
electronic record of our area book and is our planner. How ever it's
mostly just a glorified planner that frustrates us all lol :3.
It takes a long time to get everything done on it and since it's new
technology we are pretty much beta testers since we can email salt
lake the good and the bad with the programs they have given us to use.
We aren't supposed to use our paper planners anymore but we do since
we don't always want to be pulling out our iPads and showing the world
that we have a pretty toy they can take from us.
Anyways to things that are cooler and more interesting. So last week
on Monday we committed Michael to baptism on the 15th of March (I
think ;)) which is really cool, he has a bad memory though since he
was electrocuted at one point in his life so we have to remind him of
a lot of things. We also committed his one room mate to baptism Chuck.
We don't have a date on him yet but we is working for it. And the last
room mate Anthony we haven't invited to be baptized yet but we taught
him the plan of salvation and it was really interesting to observe.
Anthony is very sincere and wants to know what's right. He's read the
bible many times and when we talked to him about the kingdoms of glory
it clicked for him. He's always wanted to know what these three states
of heaven are and he finally got his answer.
George is doing good, he's an eternal investigator until this summer
when he and sister Shoester get married. As for the moment we are
trying to get him to do the baptism for himself. He's an interesting
investigator since he believes that Joseph smith is a true prophet, we
will get it outa him some day.
Thomas Holmes is doing good, we talked to him about the law of
chastity. He was very glad to hear that there are people who are
members of our church that also suffer from same gender attraction and
that we actually don't hate gay people. He still states that he
doesn't want to change from Catholicism but we will see about that ;).
So let's see here. Tell Delanee to quit hurting herself lol, seems she
hasn't caught a break yet so stop it lol. Good to here that jet is
mostly in one piece. Also I don't mind being told about all the ruckus
there in Moab lol, reminds me of home and I like that.
Ya know how like back in the day when everyone was heading west for a
better life. I would have to agree with them, a little biased here but
western society is a lot better than eastern lol. People here are good
like they are there, stuff like that doesn't change much. But just the
style of living is just one major difference. We also keep are streets
cleaner lol.
I'll have pictures sent to ya at the beginning of March since I know
y'all wanna see more than just the four I was able to send ya when I
first got here to philly ;).
Hmmm is der anything else... Aw so another thing I learned this past
week. Ya know how my mission has the southern part of New Jersey in
it? We'll I learned that both it and the northern half of Delaware
used to be its own mission. The New Jersey cherry hill mission to be
exact. Well what happened is that about three to five years ago almost
the entire mission went apostate so they wiped the slate of that
mission off and our mission then absorbed it so that new missionaries
there didn't hear what had been done and then tried it out for
themselves.
We are the second largest mission on the east coast. Brooklyn beats us
by one missionary lol which we wanna beat since we is awesome :3.
However on the other hand, our mission is also on the top five for
success in the world. Take that Brooklyn lol.
Whelp I think that's about it I think, I might buy a key board today
for my iPad so I can get more in with a shorter time frame. Since we
have wifi here we probably will just use our iPads to email from now
on so we have more time to do things today. Gonna see if we can make
it to china town and redding tunnel and sight see :D.

I love ya all!!!
Love,
Macrae

Week 3 in Philly

I find this week to be the most interesting for quite a few reasons. One, I've noticed that the longer I have been here, the faster things are going. It's like the weeks are getting exponentially faster. I guess the reason for this is, that God see's that if you are out working and having a good time, he keeps things sweet and memorable. But I really do like it out here in the field, being able to see so many people and just how different the life style is here. Let me tell ya, Phillies do some pretty strange things.

So first off last thursday I finally had my first Philly Cheese Steak from a place called Gooey Louies. Really big steak and I regret trying to have eaten it all at once lol. I didn't end up finishing it then so I left it for dinner. According to the other missionaries here, that not being able to finish a steak here sets a pretty high standard for the rest of the steaks that I'll have on my mission :3.

Lets see here, some of the strange things here hmmm... ah! So something you'll will find very interesting about here is people and their cars, such strange things they do with them. So ya know left turn lanes and double yellow line lanes right, well here that just means extra parking. Literally people park in the middle of the street and they find it normal, makes me wonder who was the first person brave enough to start that tradition, lol. 

Also, with cars is, that there is very little parking here in South Philly, so a lot of them have their cars parked about halfway onto the side walk. Also emergency lights that set off both blinkers at once, here that actually means I'm parking where ever I please. I've seen cars literally parked right up to the front steps and in the middle of the street. 

Philly is pretty good, the people here are pretty nice however if ya mention religion they just say they are catholic and say they are fine, its strange cause most of them say they are catholic, but they don't even know that they are christian, just stuff past down by parents I guess and they regurgitate it :P.

Heres also something I noticed since getting here to Philly. One is that when it gets late of course it gets darker, but it doesn't feel like it since the sky only reaches a dark grey rather than dark and black like at home. I didn't expect to see stars when I got here, ya know with all of the pollution, but I also find it kinda funny that since getting to Philly, I haven't seen the moon once and the sun I've had mere glimpses do to just being surrounded by two to three story row homes no matter where you go.

Hurro

So things have gone pretty good for the past week, we have three guys that we are teaching and their names are Micheal Anthony and Chuck. They all share an apartment together and we are definitely sure that Chuck will more than likely get baptized, Anthony is on the half side with a slight lean towards a baptismal date, and Micheal we think if we keep teaching him that we will probably catch him in the spiritual hook. Lol.
We have two service projects today, one that we will be moving a newly wed couple and another where we will be hauling a bunch of old ladies stuff to a different place in their house. Yes, they are known as the "Ladies"! Lol, We got to meet them last week, three old ladies that live with each other in their house. Two are members and one is a potential investigator, but they are in the west elders area so we don't teach them.