Elder McKay

Hi Mom!

 

Alright, I have a confession to make - the first week of being a district leader was not too bad.  I had to throw together a district meeting and some trainings my second day on the job and thankfully the zone leaders were not present to critique anything, but it came off ok.  The best part of it though was doing a baptismal interview!  It was for an investigator named Crystal in Darien (~15 miles north of Brunswick). That was actually really fun and she is super prepared!  She had to make a lot of changes to accept it, but knows she wants to be right with God and raise her kids with that environment.  Her baptism is on Tuesday and Elder Jensen and I will be singing (again) at that.

 

In other news, transfer calls just came in yesterday and I am being transferred out of Brunswick this Wednesday.  We were all kind of surprised about that since I've only been here for two transfers and Pres. Barry usually likes to leave people places for a lot longer. So I guess I'll have a new address to send you next week.  I'm quite bummed that I'll be missing all three baptisms that are lined up for the next few weeks.  It is like working hard for three months (planting, digging, dunging) only to leave when it's time to harvest the fruits.  Oh well, I guess it's God's fruit and not mine and I should probably let him have it.

 

Do you remember the Pieper family?  Elder Holland was supposed to be here this last weekend for stake/zone conferences but was reassigned at the last minute and Maurina's uncle, Elder Paul Pieper of the Seventy, came instead. It was pretty sweet - I heard the name and saw his face as we came in for zone conference and just had to ask, "Are you by chance related to Charles and Wendy Pieper?"  It was an awesome weekend having him there to work with the missionaries!  Elder Jensen and I had to sing a special musical number there as well with two other elders - they are definitely using us a lot now that they've found out we sing pretty well together.

 

Sunday afternoon, after conference, a younger couple in our ward invited us over for lunch.  He served his mission in Peru and she's from Ecuador and they're both about my age - we've become pretty tight over the past few months. Anyway, it was hard to say goodbye to them, but they did invite me to come back someday, so we'll see. We had some fun with photos too.  In the last one there, she had a mirrored pose going on too while I had my foot in the air, but then (once again) Elder Jensen snapped the photo after she had already put her foot back down.  Haha, oh well.  Anyway, they made rice and beans for us as well as these awesome fried green plantains.  Best part is, they showed us how to make them and I am totally hooked!  I'll be buying green plantains every other week now.  =P

 

Take this, Benji - 9 new gators this week!  6 of those were families of 3 too! Booyah!  Hahah, yeah, we've worked hard and our teaching pool is pretty big. We're going to spend a bit of time tomorrow before I leave weeding a few of the unprogressing ones out though.  I think I would be a lot more in your situation though if I was Spanish speaking here.  There are a lot of Spanish people in Brunswick, but not enough to actually have full time missionaries here for them. Especially since Georgia passed these anti-illegal laws recently and a lot of latino people are vanishing...

 

Today was Elder Grant's (ZL) birthday and the other three of us have spent several days conniving on how to throw a surprise party for him. We even got Sister Barry involved - she called his mom and found out for us what his favorite flavor of cake is.  As soon as we got back from grocery shopping, the three of us jumped him with blankets and sheets and a burlap sack over his head and wrestled him into the car. We then took him on a wind-about until we ended up at a local restaurant where we had the surprise lunch/cake all setup with the help of one of the sisters in our ward. It was a blast. We took a picture afterward with the satchel back on his head, but it was a lot of fun.  =D

 

Good luck with the camping, the school, the Eagle Scout projects, the races, and the lottery golf ball drop!  That last one sounds a lot like 20000 bouncy balls from a helicopter. Haha, you should ask Jake to find that video of when the USU physics club did that this spring near our football stadium.

 

You know, I forgot to ask you to thank Sheena for that family collage photo she sent me a while back, but reading her name reminded me of that.  Thanks!  I have it tacked to the wall above my desk. She really is quite good at the photography.  :)

 

Love ya!

 

Elder M.

 

 

 

 

 

Elder Grant's Birthday





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