*spider man pointing meme w/ jehovah's witnesses

This week we had a very funny encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses. 

So we had knocked on the door of a lady named Terezina a couple of weeks back. We talked to her and her family and planned to visit in the future. We had tried to visit a few times, but Terezina was always alone and we wanted to teach the whole family together. 

As we were going down the street, Terezina's door was open and I saw that there were some people inside. I was pumped because she finally wasn't home alone. So we clapped in front of the gate (I promise this is normal in Brazil haha) and she invited us right in. We come inside and I quickly realized that the people that were in Terezina's house were two Jehovah's Witnesses (one a nice but quiet young woman and the other a mean old lady). The old lady did not seem very happy to see us. She was glaring pretty hard into my soul. 

Basically you can just imagine Elder MacLay trying to smile and talk his way out of an uncomfortable situation with a hostile Jehovah's Witness, while my companion decided he didn't want to say anything, even though he's the one that actually speaks portuguese. I tried to break the very cold ice and ask some questions, but they didn't do much talking.

We left really quick after exchanging pamphlets and invites for church. I didn't want to be disrespectful and I had to leave because it was so hard to hold in my laughter. 

The work is going really really really well here in Porto. We had 12 investigators at church this week. I'm learning to work with the members a lot better and it's really paying off (mostly because the members here are amazing). I am absolutely loving the area.  

I mentioned Andreia and her family in last weeks email. We finally got to teach them and it is going SO well. They are the most elect family I have found on the mission. They just moved to Porto Nacional and are searching for friends and church. They made a lot of friends at church and were talking about how they want to come back next week. 

This family is a every missionary's dream. Every visit is so fun and spiritual. The parents love us and the kids love us. There are 4 kids, whose ages are 10, 8, 6, and 4.

All they have in their house is a fridge, an oven, a table, a bed, and one crappy plastic chair. We just sit on the floor for the lessons and, honestly, it's pretty awesome. 

In other news, I have started running to counteract all this weight I've gained on the mish. I run back and forth on our street while my companion sits in the shade on the side of the road and practices his Rubik's cube.

I fixed my bike but then Satan broke it again. I don't even know how it happened this time. We went to get our bikes for a long appointment on Sunday night and found that the tire was all messed up. The bikes are the worst bikes ever constructed.

Life is good as a representative and disciple of our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ! 

Have yourself a great week.

<3 Elder MacLay

Satan broke my bike

João Elias's baptism went great! He was pumped. We've been teaching a lot of his immediate and extended family, so it was great to see just about all of them show up. 

Funny (but also terrible) thing that happened this week:

I mentioned that we have bikes in this area. All of our investigators live pretty far, so the bikes are extremely helpful. 

One night we had a lesson scheduled with Andreia and her family, who are extremely elect, but live extremely far. I was absolutely stoked for this lesson. We finished up a lesson on the other side of town with Odillon, then started our journey to Andreia's fam. Not even 30 seconds into the journey, the pedal of my bike broke. I was going up a big hill and pedaling as hard as I could and the pedal just straight up broke off the bike, in a way I never would've imagined was possible. My only explanation is that Satan broke my bike.

Unfortunately, we had to reschedule with Andreia and her fam, and even more unfortunately, we currently have to walk everywhere.

Opening an area is tough. We started off week 1 with nobody to teach, but now we are rockin and rollin to start week 4. We have so many people to teach that we have to plan our days carefully to get the best of it.

Other stuffs:

-An investigator named Gilvania came to church. When the sacrament came around to her, she straight up grabbed a handful of bread. 

-We discovered that it only rains when we don't bring an umbrella and it never rains when we bring an umbrella.

-Even though it's a more moderate time of year here, it gets really hot and humid. I started carrying a sweat towel with me.

-I discovered that my Português and scripture knowledge is now good enough to kick butt in a typical bible bash sesh. This man was talking trash about the Book of Mormon on a street contact, so I pretty much just laid out everything I knew about the bible testifying of the Book of Mormon and my personal testimony. He started off with a really hard heart and closed off mind, not wanting to learn anything. But we cleared up the doubts and misconceptions he had and I feel he became a little more open and understanding. There was tension at first, but he ended up really liking us and being a homie.

Elder MacLay

quase cagei

Hello hello hello it's Elder MacLay!

We grinded this week. We found a bunch of new people to teach. On Tuesday, we pretty much knocked on doors all day and marked a bunch of appointments with people. A lot of appointments and lessons fell through this week, but Friday was a really good day and we taught a bunch of lessons.

We are teaching a lady named Laura and her 99 year old mom. You heard me. NINETY NINE. She's got terrible hearing, but she loves to have us around. 

We have a homeless friend named Emerson. He is the PUREST guy. He's one of those guys that talks about 2 times louder than necessary and he's got a really bad lisp. If you stand too close to him, you'll get a facefull of his lisp saliva. But the guy is THE BEST. A sister in the branch gave us a bunch of leftover lasagna, so we brought a container to him to eat. Whenever we walk by, he always asks for us to say a prayer with him.

I found a group of kids my age that would totally be my friends if I lived here. They have a lot of similar interests with music, movies, and tv shows, which is hard to find in Brazil. It's funny how they treat the missionaries here- we showed up while they were all hanging out and they let us right in like we are one of the bros. 

One kid named Lucas especially stands out- he's searching for a church and I see a lot of potential in him.

It is dang hot around here. One minute it will be raining and then the next it is 100 degrees with 85 percent humidity. We show up to appointments drenched in sweat. I didn't know this was possible, but even my tie gets drenched. I'll send a pic of the tie after a good day of work.

Our area is ridiculously big. The people that live close to our apartment and the church are really closed off, so we have to go to the outskirts of town to find receptive people. Luckily, we have bikes. 

People love to inform me about what's going on with Trump/America. One guy told me to 'give a hug to Trump' when I get back. A lot of people just straight up refer to Trump as my dad.

I'll finish this email up with an amazing quote from my homie Jeffrey R. Holland:

“Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”

Love you all!

<3 Elder MacLay

PORTO NACIONAL 2020

First week in my new area was a great one!

We are opening the area and the elders before us didn't leave us a whole lot to do, so we have been doing a bunch of finding. We knocked a lot of doors this week. The people are really receptive here, so we already found some solid people to teach. We also experienced some rejection- funny rejections and not-as-enjoyable-rejections. 

We already got a baptismal date marked! Irma Mariah really liked us and had us come over to teach her grandson, João Elias. He came to church and accepted a baptismal date for January 18th! He's a really good kid. 

I left Cristalina at about noon on monday and arrived in Porto Nacional at about noon on tuesday. I took three different buses for a total of 17 hours (along with some waiting at bus stops). We arrived in Porto absolutely EXHAUSTED. That night was New Year's Eve. We had dinner with the branch president and his family to celebrate. We got home and I was so tired that I fell asleep at about 9:30. But, I was woken up by an insane amount of fireworks at midnight. I woke up freaking out because I was so out of it and the fireworks were so loud lol. Brazilians and fireworks are a pretty wild combination. 

I don't have a whole lot to report this week. We are in the early/finding stages with all of our investigators, so I don't have a lot of progress to report.

We had a family night with the branch President Almeida and his family. They are some of the coolest people I've met on the mission. 

We had a really interesting message by President. He talked about a man named Saulo, who was an alcoholic. The man drank all week, but frequented a church every Sunday. President said that he was internally judging Saulo for his decisions, but a friend corrected his judgements. The friend said, "Sick people go to the hospital; sinners go to church. We are all sinners, so we should all go to church." 

A lot of people go inactive in the church (or don't go to church at all) because they have feelings of unworthiness and shame. These feelings of unworthiness and shame can't come from anywhere but Satan. Satan wants us to think we are not good enough to go to church and not good enough to repent. but this is SO backwards. It can't be further from the truth. Jesus suffered and died for everyone; everyone is sufficient to receive His peace and atoning power.

Also, there are two different types of sinners: repentant sinners and non-repentant sinners. We are all sinners, but we can all be repenters as well.

Love you all and I hope you have a great week. 

Enjoy these pics. One of the pics is from the President Nelson pic in August. You can see your boy Elder MacLay on the very right, by the door. You can see your boy President Nelson in the front and center.

<3 Elder MacLay