"Caneta azul... azul caneta"

This week was a really really good one!

Joseph and Hyrum's baptisms were amazing! It was really fun yet the spirit was really strong. After we closed the door to the font, Joseph and Hyrum started doing mini bellyflops and splashing around in the font. A small part of me was cringing really hard but the rest of me thought it was hilarious. 

A lot of members came to the baptism and bore really powerful testimonies after the service. I ended the service by playing/singing How Great Thou Art in both english and portuguese.

Also, MAJOR SHOUTOUT TO SISTER MACLAY. She finished her mission super strong and got back home this past week. Seeing pictures of her and the fam gave me a good smile. 

In other news, the group of Pedregal will be starting this sunday! A group is like a branch but even smaller. The stake president announced it in ward conference, sort of just dropping a bomb on us. Me and my companion are absolutely stoked because the work will blow up so much in our area.

Last Sunday was the birthday of Jane, a recent convert. We had a mini party with their family (Jane, Aline, Eduardo, Diane) monday night. We had some cake and I brought my guitar. I've gotten really close to them the past few months- they were my first lesson I ever taught and my first 3 baptisms. The mini party didn't disappoint.

My wallet fell out of my pocket this week. I had some money, my driver's license, and one of those punch cards where if you buy acai 10 times you get some for free. It was tragic. Some lucky guy is gonna be a couple steps closer to free acai, not to mention licensed to drive in the United States.

We are teaching this really awesome girl named Deberah and her family. During the first lesson, their 3 month old dog came running in the room and hopped on my lap. He slept there the whole lesson. He continued to sleep on me while the fam gave us some food after the lesson.

Then the next visit we had with them he did the exact same thing. I don't know why he loves me so much but me and that dog really vibe.

Before the baptisms, we were talking to Joseph and Hyrum about church history. They know surprisingly a lot considering they are 9 year old boys that just barely started going to church. Their mom (a less active member of the church) teaches them a little bit about how they got their names. 

I asked them "What did Joseph Smith do in his life that was so important?"

Joseph replied, "He talked with God."

Little does Joseph know, that's the most perfect and simple answer you can give.

Joseph Smith talked with God and Jesus Christ during the First Vision. And the talking didn't stop after that. Joseph was the prophet of the Restored Gospel and continued to speak and receive revelation from God. The same goes for our Prophet today, President Russell M. Nelson.

I'm am learning how true this is every day! Joseph Smith talked with God.

Have a good week! Be happy!

<3 Elder MacLay

PICS

1. BAPTISM WITH JOSEPH AND HYRUM 

2. My favs, Jane and Aline 

3. Uma galinha

4. good ol fashion squad pic 

5. my DAWG 

6. mais um foto do batismo

7. MY BEAUTIFUL FAM WITH MARLI

My favs, Jane and Aline 

BAPTISM WITH JOSEPH AND HYRUM 

MY BEAUTIFUL FAM WITH Marli

"dom de línguas COMIN IN CLUTCH""

This week I'll start my email off with a cool little miracle that happened this week!

So we've been teaching this really awesome old lady named Mariah Pa Da Silva. She was super good about studying the pamphlets and following up on commitments. Things were really good and she had a strong desire to be baptized. Then, we lost contact with her for about 2 weeks. Also, I was really nervous that our next lesson wouldn't go very good because we had to teach the Word of Wisdom and she had been smoking for more than 30 years. I was worried that she would lose her excitement about the first few lessons.

Then on Saturday, I had the feeling that we should stop by her house. She was FINALLY home. Her sister had been in the hospital, so Mariah was staying there with her. 

 We taught the Word of Wisdom and she seemed to be really receptive. At the end, I invited her to follow the teachings of the lesson. She said that she had already stopped smoking this past week (she had been wanting to stop for a while and wasn't able to smoke at the hospital). She was very excited about the blessings that would come from living the Word of Wisdom! Now we got a baptismal date with her for the 26th of October!

Overall, it was a slow week. Almost all of our appointments fell through, which was really frustrating, but my comp is getting a nice taste of the mission life.

My comp is solid. Training him won't be too bad, even though I've been surprised by how many things I've been able to teach him so far. I'm learning like crazy and it's cool to see how the Spirit is helping me understand and say everything I need to say. 

This week we have been teaching this really amazing family! Vanusa Smith, the mom, was baptized a long while ago and has the desire to be active in the church again. She has 9-year-old twin boys that she named Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith (PRETTY DOPE AM I RIGHT?). I'm just trying to figure out how these Brazilians have the last name 'Smith'.

Funny story of the week:

I've mentioned that people always point at me and yell "Alemão" (German). I must've been looking extra german this week because it happened more than usual. 

This one guy that we talked to kept insisting that I was German, no matter how many times I mentioned that I am American. He started trying to speak english to flex on his friends, but our conversation didn't get very far. To keep his street cred up, he told his friends he could not understand my english because I 'have a very strong German accent.'

Have a good week!

<3 Elder MacLay

"The student becomes the master".

Had myself another good week in Pedregal! General Conference was great and people fed us like CRAZY this week. 

So we had transfers this week and I'm gonna be a trainer! It was pretty surprising news since I'm still so dang new on the mish (I just barely finished my own training). But I'm super excited and I know I'm gonna learn and grow SO much. I'll be training someone named Elder Almeida. I won't meet him until tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure he's Brazilian. It'll be sweet to have somone fresh from the MTC and ready to work.

This week some punks on the street were talking some trash. They stopped their game of soccer to point at me and say "ayyyyeee ALEMAO" ('alemao' means 'German' lol). This is actually something that happens all the time. But I wasn't gonna take it, so I challenged them to a game of soccer. Me and my companion played some 2 on 2, and sure enough, I made the game winning goal (it was the luckiest thing that ever happened in my life). I really showed them what's up. This story would probably be really awesome if it wasn't for the fact that the kids were like 8 years old.

We had a bonfire with Ruy, Luan, and their friends and family. They are all so loving and accepting of the missionaries. It was so fun. I figured out Bohemian Rhapsody on the guitar a couple of weeks ago because it's one of the most well know American songs here. If you think we weren't jamming out to Bohemian Rhapsody around the fire, you are WRONG. It's hilarious to hear them sing in their super strong accents. They don't understand a single word of the sing, but they about have it memorized.

This week I got to bear my testimony in English, which was unusual. My homie Ruy is learning Enlglish, so I gave him english pamphlets of the lessons. I got to tell him about God's love for his children. It felt different to do it in English, but it was good for a change. It was awesome and the spirit was definitely there.

Well I just wanna share what I talked about with Ruy. 

We have a loving Heavenly Father, who wants us to be like Him. He gives us everything we need to make that possible- prayer, the ability to repent, guidance through prophets and scripture, families, and so much more (literally everything). I'm so thankful for the knowledge of prayer and repentance and I am so happy to share it with other people! 

Prayer and the Atonement are my favorite things to teach because they can change people's lives more than anything. It's such a blessing to have these things! Use them!

Have a good week!

<3 Elder MacLay

Picssss

1. Pedregalllll

2. a doggy

3. part of our basketball squad

4. lil homies

5. waterfall we went to last pday

6. another pic from last pday

7. the BROS Ruy and Luan

8. Ruy wanted to make a 'sacrifice'

9. my man elder bryner

I am so grateful for the Atonement! WE WOULD BE CRAZY NOT TO USE IT.

Hey people it's Elder MacLay! I wasn't able to send out a group email last week but this week my email will be JAM PACKED with two weeks worth full of action.

So two weeks ago I said that we had 6 baptism dates for September 28. Well, all 6 baptisms fell through. I'm not too frustrated though because we are still working with them and helping them become more prepared for their baptisms.

I went 10 weeks without playing basketball but FINALLY GOT TO PLAY. The past two P-days, I've gathered the self-proclaimed "ballers" of the zone. Out of the many people that claim to play basketball, there's only 1 (MAYBE 2 ON A GOOD DAY) other guys who can play. The hoops were only 9 feet tall, but I was still having the time of my life. I dunked on everybody at least once, but I don't want to get too ahead of myself considering the circumstances. Also, we played a little bit of soccer and it was a very good opportunity for me to learn humility.

I'll just make a list of all the little funny/interesting things I have from the past 2 weeks:

-During a contact on the street, a guy said, "you got a weird way of talking... you from México?" 

-There's another missionary in the ward named Elder Ocampo who I'm really good friends with. Some members started calling him "Elder Obama" because they couldn't remember his name. The name Obama stuck and I thought it was pretty funny until they started calling me Elder Trump just because of the simple fact that I'm a blonde American. In conclusion, my new name is Elder Trump.

-I saw this guy spraying his couch down with soap and water. 

-Me and my companion were doing contacts. A bunch of kids had just gotten out of school and they saw a tall white blonde american (ME). I got swarmed and it was the funniest thing. They were asking me how to say a bunch of random stuff in english. It was hilarious and I was wish I could've gotten a picture of the swarm.

- We knocked on a door and a kid answered saying "my mom told me to tell you that she's not home right now"

-I was on the bus with my companion and I was asking him for help with pronounciation of the word "Roeva", which means "red-head girl." UNFELIZEMENTE, there was a red-head girl sitting two rows ahead of us. I had said "ROEVA"  about 4 times (and pretty loud too). She looked back at me and I quickly realized what I had done. Luckily, she thought it was funny because I am obviously not from around here.

-My last companion Elder Young recently got famous on social media in Brazil. He did this challenge at a restaurant to eat this GIANT hamburger with like 6 burgers, a couple of hot dogs, and a couple other random stuff thrown in here and there. He finished the burger and got 100 bucks for it. The restaurant posted it on social media on people went nuts about a giant American coming in and owning this challenge. 

I don't usually talk a lot about the people we teach in my group emails, but I want to talk about this awesome lesson we had with this family. Yolanda (21), Jasmin (8), Arthur(17), and David(13) are cousins of my super good friend Ruy. They are young and super fun to be around. Their parents always give us the most amazing food and ice cream. But after we had an amazing dinner with them, we talked about the Plan of Salvation. They have a really good understanding of the Bible, so we were able to get more deep into conversation than usual. We talked about how the Plan of God is not possible without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Atonement of Jesus Christ enables the plan to work. Together, we listed off the reasons that the Atonement enables the Plan of Salvation to work. Here are my reasons (if you have more, send me an email so I can add them to my list to teach people):

The Atonement of Jesus Christ:

1. Allows Christ to fairly judge us and forgive us because it GAVE HIM AN UNDERSTANDING of our hearts

2. Payed the "'PRICE" for our sins. We don't have to suffer like He did if we repent.

3. Allows us to overcome physical death. We are guaranteed Resurrection

4. Allows us to overcome spiritual death through REPENTANCE

5. Gave Christ the understanding of "how to succor His people"

Some of these things are closely related, but you get the picture. It was a really good discussion and we all felt the Spirit really strong and felt a deeper love and appreciation for Jesus Christ.

I am so grateful for the Atonement! WE WOULD BE CRAZY NOT TO USE IT.

Mosiah chapter 14 and Alma chapter 7 are super good chapters to learn more about the Atonement

Well I could probably put a lot more but I'm about out of time. 

Have a good week! Find ways to focus more on Christ in your life! I promise you will be happier!

<3 Elder MacLay

PICSSSS. I actually have a few more that aren't working that I'll have to send next week instead

1. RUY and LUAN. The real bros of Pedregal

2. Ruy took us to a waterfall for p-day

3. Elder Obama, Clarice, and Elder Trump

4. Familia TOP

5. My buddy Jasmin

6. Ruy's new ride

7. A cat in a bowl

8. more lil cats

9. Hike that Ruy took us on

10. Sim, more Ruy

11. A picture is worth a thousand words, but this video is worth more