PRIMERO BATISMO

my doods

It's Elder MacLay here! I had another good week in Brazil! 

This week was pretty tough not gonna lie! Adjusting to mission life is not super easy especially while learning a language. But there were some really awesome moments this week!

First off I had my first baptism! It felt SO awesome. I baptized a 12 year old girl named Ileeny. She is super fofo and a super good example for her family. 

This week I was telling some members about my beloved home Arizona. I was telling them how winter is colder in Arizona than Pedregal. The word "inverno" is winter but I accidentally said "inferno" which means hell. Needless to say, they were confused for a little bit.

I went on splits with a Brasilian elder this week, meaning I was his companion for a day. It was pretty fun and helped me learn a lot. He did not speak any english so it was interesting. After we were done, he told my companion that I try to talk with everyone in the whole world but never understand what they are saying back to me. He is SO right, but joke's on him because I understood what he was saying that time.

The other day I was reading 3 Nephi 17:13-22. The scriptures usually show Jesus as a "man of sorrow", which is sad but true. But these verses show how happy and pleased Jesus is when we are living righteously. There are so many sad accounts of Jesus's suffering (usually his suffering is because of the choices of other people) but these verses talk about him being so joyful with the righteous Nephites that he wept multiple times in front of the multitude of people. Imagine how powerful it would be to see the Savior crying tears of happiness and saying "my joy is full"! It shows that he loves us SO much. He loves to see us follow the straight and narrow path. 

Love you people! See ya next week! 

Also let me know if you want my address to send me letters and stufffff

<3Elder MacLay

Heres some pics. Not gonna lie, I have some really icy pics this week

primero batismooooooo. she obviously looks very amused

squeezing into the trunk of a car so that we can bring people to church. thats what missionary work is all about lol

we flew some pipas (kites) for pday with Ruy AKA our FAVORITE person ever. 

Week One Down

Hello amigos! My first week of being in the mission field has been GREAT.  I got lucky with my area, Pedregal. The people here are so welcoming to us and always willing to give us some snacks and juice and other goodies, even though they have no money. It is a very poor area and the people have a hard time making it to church because they can´t afford the bus ride. This obviously makes it pretty tough to get investigators involved. Also a lot of people can´t read which is a real bummer because we have a very good book to share called the Book of Mormon haha. But the people are SO kind, humble, and accepting.

Speaking of humility, I have been getting plenty of it here. I was already the most humble person ever before the mission but learning a language makes me feel pretty dumb sometimes.I just wanna say that classic line "This aint the language they taught me in the MTC." 

We teach A LOT of lessons. I LOVE IT. Lessons are the best part of each day, which lucky for me we get to do it nonstop from about 3 to 9:30. It gives us a chance to get to know these awesome families and helps me practice my portugese.

There are some INTERESTING people here. There is this one guy who is very nice to us but has a couple of loose screws. EVERYTIME he sees us he somehow manages to mention his weird outy belly button and then pulls up his shirt to show us. 

Another funny thing was that this girl told me that if we had a baby it would be a work of art. lol. I did not know how to respond to that, especially considering I had to respond in Portugese. 

We got two baptismal dates this week! So pumped. I did not contribute much to be honest it was all my trainer. 

But the Brasilian culture is AMAZING. They are just soooo giving and unselfish. They are always willing to talk and invite people in their homes.

Honestly a great week! I have had some hard moments but some really awesome moments too! 

Love you all and miss you all! If you want my email it is payton.maclay@missionary.org  

<3 Elder MacLay

Heres some pics. Our favorite investigator named Ruy took us to this sweet waterful for p-day. Ruy is the guy in the middle that looks like Bin Laden. Dont worry, he brought the knife to protect us

Pedregal

my best friends from the MTC!

HEY PEOPLE i made it to my first area! I am still a noob when it comes to Portugese but I am a real missionary now haha. The area is called Pedregal and it is a pretty small town on the outskirts of Brasilia. My companions name is Elder Young and he is a STUD. He has not been out for very long on the mish and he is American so it will be interesting to say the least. 

I can finally send some pics so get ready for those ladies and gentlemen. I do not have any pics of Pedregal yet but enjoy my pics from the MTC

Something that is SUPER awesome is that President Russell M. Nelson is visiting my mission! As a missionary that is like the equivalent to Lebron James visiting your school or something lol but even MORE HYPE

I had to say bye to my friends from the MTC and that was not fun haha

Well I do not have much to report yet and I gotta get preachin the gospel so enjoy these pics! Love you all! Never forget how blessed you are and never forget to express your gratitude to God!

<3 Elder MacLay

some of my favorite brasilians

2 brito and the boyz

3 my man Igor. best instructor on the whole terra

SUCULENTAMENTE

HOLA PESSOAS it was another good week here in the Brasil MTC! This is my last email from the MTC! This time next week I will be going to the field!  I dont have much. Ill give some bullet points

-there is this brasilian that speaks fluent english but refuses to talk normally. he only speaks in the super deep batman voice lol

-we did splits this week and i got to be with the most awesome brasilian guy. he was super spiritual and super hilarious. this man brought a durag to the MTC and wore it when we were pretending to be investigators

-portugese is going good! i got the lessons down pretty good. I still got a LONG way to go though

-we had an awesome 4th of July party. My district is the bestest!

-every night my district does a think called a happy thought counter. we look forward to it all day and it helps us count our blessings. i promise everybody that you have so much to be grateful for if you just look for it! when you stay positive and count your blessings, live is always so much better.

-if you want more info on counting your blessings and being happy then go read chapter 3 of `Teachings of the President of the Church Gordon B Hinckley. Chapter 3 is about cultivating an attitude if happiness and a spirit of optimism. it is SO awesome

alright i love you all! I invite you to take action this week to help your faith grow! Faith takes action. Say an extra prayer or read the scriptures some more.

next stop BRASILIA!

<3Elder MacLay

 

faze cosegas

Hello people! This one will be a short one but it was another great week! The mission is hard for sure but it is a good time and I am very happy! The gospel brings happiness to my life.

Highlight of my week: we went proselyting the other day. That means we got to go out to the streets of brasil and teach people. It was SOOO fun to finally get out of the MTC and talk to real Brasilians. We could not understand them super great (big surprise considering I have been learning this language for 4 weeks) but we got to talk with them a little bit and bear our testimonies. Me and my companion tore it up! We made it RAIN with contacts (contacts are just where you get their information because they want to learn more). We got twice as many contacts as any one else out of the other couple of districts that were there, even the brasilian missionaries. SO fun to feel like a real missionary and not be cooped up in a classroom all day. Not everybody had a good time. A couple of girls got a swift shot of mustard to the back. 

I also got a package from my momma and was so grateful to eat sour patch kids lol

Another awesome thing is the power of the priesthood. I got to give a blessing this week.

I would like to invite everyone to go read Mosiah chapter 14 in the Book of Mormon! It is an amazing chapter about Jesus Christ and it is nice and short :)

alright people see ya next week! 

<3 Elder MacLay