Fubeca

 WASSUP PEOPLE ITS ELDER MACLAY. 

Still having a great time out here in the brasilian mtc! me and my tall blonde companion have gotten the name `Q tips` by the brasilians. a bird pooped on my shirt. i found out that in the portugese bible peter is named pedro. this weekend we are proselyting by a gay pride parade and that will be interesting. 

We defintiely have the party room in the mtc here. brasilians and americans alike come to our room to hang out. the other day they all had just barely left our room and we knelt down for prayer as a room and the mtc president walks in. i was so grateful that he was not in the room 5 minutes earlier to see us partying with guarana and 5-star candy bars (if you know you know). 

This american companionship gave me and my companion a giant rubber band ball with a super old portugese book. these things have been passed down for a while between the americans at the mtc and they are so cool. the rubber band ball is super big and heavy. the book was the first edition portugese book that they used at the mtc. its been passed down and has a bunch of signatures in it. such an honor to have it haha. we are about to add a million rubber bands

So my favorite line out of any church song is from the song `a childs prayer`. the line is `some say that heaven is far away but i feel it close around me as i pray`. i really have such a strong testimony of this! prayer is the biggest blessing especially when you are far from home, far from your families, far from your friends, and trying to speak a new language. i encourage everyone to sincerely pray and work on their relationship with God. it is what keeps me going.

I miss all my family and friends so much but I am very happy! not to brag but nobody has been more blessed than me when it comes to my family and friends back home, and now my new friends out here. love you and see you next week!

<3 Elder MacLay

Desculpe

A little late in sending Elder MacLay's email this week.. . ..

Hey friends! Its elder maclay again! i dont have a lot of time but i have so many awesome things i want to share from this past week! ill list the most awesomest stuff.

Desculpe in portugese is like saying sorry except its supposed to be said when the accident was your fault. sorta like saying my bad.we were in a practice discussion with portugese investigators and one of the investigators said her gramma died. my companion was like `desculpe`. basically saying my bad. lol. i couldnt stop laughing but the brazilians did not think it was funny.

We"ve teased some new missionaries. these american kids came in looking so dang gullible so me and my companion took care of business. we made them think that they had to sing in front of everybody right when they showed up and that they had to give talks in sacrament meeting in portugese. we also told them the wifi was down on email day lol

The language is coming really well for me! im able to give simple prayers, lessons, and conversations in portugese. we went on splits and i got paired up with this brasilian who did not speak any english. i had to teach two brasilians who spoke very little english. it went really well though! im so grateful. the gift of tongues is real people. i could not do it without the spirit. the spirit is so strong here it is crazy!

Temples are amazing. the spirit is so strong in the Lords house and im so grateful we get to go every week.

If you want a scripture that will make you cry then read 2 kings chapter 2 verses 23 and 24. FYI dont get your hopes up because it made me cry from laughter lol. funniest scripture ever.

Still really wish that i could send pics! love you all and im so grateful for such great examples that prepared me for this!

<3elder maclay

payton.maclay@missionary.org (to email Elder MacLay directly)

P.S. Note to his mama I wanted to share: 

im having such a good experience out here and genuinely loving it! i love the people around me and the language is coming very well! also learning so much and feeling the spirit stronger than ever! had a very spiritual experience in the temple last week.  im gonna send an email to you  to forward for the group email.  love you! 

eu gosto seu relojio

AYYYYYYYEEEE PEOPLE IT YOUR BOI ELDER MACLAY COMIN AT YOU FROM THE MTC.

The first week of the mtc has been AMAZING and long and spiritual and hilarious and fun and eye opening and the best. but at the same time i miss home and my family and friends!

So first things first is my companion. his name is elder millburn from utah and he is SO awesome. he is 6 foot 3 and super blond (both his hair and intelligence). sounds like someone you know am i right. we have way too much fun together. as a joke earlier today we told our district that the mtc president said the wifi was down and we would not be able to email our families until next week. we literally made two people cry and felt terrible. hahaha. i felt so bad but it was hilarious. but my companion is so awesome. we are pretty dang popular because we are the tallest and whitest and blondest kids here and probably the most outgoing americans

the rest of my district is absolutely amazing! best district ever. a bunch of instructors and branch presidents talk about how special our district is. everybody is so awesome. once again we have too much fun but we are learning much faster than the other districts so its ok

theres one dood in my district who basically has the missioanry handbook memorized. he has chastized me for playing full court basketball (which i kick brazilian butt at) and for wearing socks that dont match my slacks. haha but i shouldnt complain because hes one of the most spiritual and amazing people ive ever met.

The language is coming very well! its only been a week but ive been able to have some good conversations with brazilians. the brazilians are the coolest people ever. i almost cried today when i had to say bye to a brazilian friend named elder brito this morning. he was one of the funniest people ive ever met and we had the dopest handshake. he barely spoke any english but we got so close in such a short amount of time. he had these three doods who followed him everywhere. we called them brito and the boys. he pretty much ran this place so now its up to me and millburn to take this place over.

I've been learning how simple the gospel is and how important the spirit is! the spirit has helped us learn so much and theres no way i could learn a language without it. ive learned more portugese in the last week than i learned spanish in the 2 years of it i took in high school. 

Sadly we cant send pics in the mtc! i have some awesome pics of sao paulo, my district, elder brito, etc. but ill send those in 5 weeks once i get out of here.

A te mais amigos! boa noite from sao paulo. send an email my way if you want a funny story on the background behind the subject of this email. my email is payton.maclay@missionary.org

Couldnt be happier to be here! everybody is so so so awesome. there is only one person in the entire mtc who is not super happy to be here and we call him elder pessimist. haha. 

see ya next week!

te amo 3000!

<3 elder maclay