12-31-12

Dear Family,

    This will probably end up being pretty short just because we are having our new years eve party this evening and we have to get some things done before hand. So I guess that every year on new years the mission gets together in zones and watches two movies. Obviously the are rated G haha but it should still be fun. We are going to be watching how to train your dragon and brave. Should be a good time. Elder Makaya hasn't seen either of them and so he is looking forward to getting to see it. They don't have many movies on his island and so this is definitely a treat for him! I am excited to be able to take my tie off and get back into a pair of jeans! hahahaha

    Christmas turned out great! The family that we ate with loves to throw parties and so I swear the whole ward was there! That house was packed with people and little kids running around it was sooo much fun! The food was great. They had ribs and tri tip and bbqed chicken and just a ton of stuff that they cooked on the grill! It was a good time and we were able to talk to a lot of people at once so it was a good time. Felt like we were all one big family and everyone really enjoyed it!

    So skype sure went well right?! Man it was super tough to see Kailei but that was for sure a huge blessing that I am soo thankful that we were able to do it. I didn't like the saying good bye part but other then that she looked so good and sure has a love and a testimony of the Savior doesn't she!?!? HAHA but at the same time she hasn't changed much! She is still pushing herself to the limit and freaking out about having so much to do and so little time to do it! It was so good to be able to feel like she was sitting next to us and just laughing and having a good time like our family always does! Elder Makaya said that we sure seemed happy and he was super impressed with Kailei's testimony and the spirit that radiated off of her!  I told him that I had one amazing family and a sister that just blows my mind!

     I am glad everyone in Utah is safe and having a good time. I hope Uncle Mark is recovering fast and everything there is going well. They have written to me a few times but I am so bad about writing back to people, I sure hope they know how much their letters mean to me and how thankful I am for them! Dad you know you have no business on a snow board! Your going to break your butt! Just be careful! My truck is not going to fix itself and if you aren't able to walk and lift it's just going to sit there!... well with Kadon getting his permit soon that may be the best thing for it until I can get home and fix it! =P  Glad to hear that you enjoyed yourself snow boarding Kadon! We will definitely have to hit the slopes if there is still snow on the ground in February of next year! That will be way cool. I know Luis wants to try out the board too so maybe we will road trip to Flagstaff or something together!

     Colby is doing soooo well! She has come to church two weeks in a row and has really been enjoying the lessons and beginning to pray! She prayed in front of us for the first time this last week and her prayer was so humble and so sweet that we felt the spirit sooo strong. She did bring up a few concerns that may or may not have to push her date back a week or two but she has so much faith and wants to do this right that she came out with a few problems and is willing and prepared to receive help in over coming them! She is such a smart girl and has such a testimony we love to go into her home and watch her love for the savior grow and her testimony become strong. To see her go from no knowledge to a little more each time is something that only a missionary can really understand! We love to see it. 

     Well this week was a bit slow compared to past weeks because there were so many people out of town, but we still were able to get in with our main investigators. Reina and Dena Roberts are progressing sooo fast! From our first lesson where we just sang and talked to them about the true meaning of Christmas and keeping the savior in our hearts to the message of the restoration, they have come to get sooo excited about the restored gospel! We messed up and forgot books of Mormon at the apartment, but were able to bring them by that next day. They were so excited to read it that I wouldn't be surprised if Reina had it finished by the time we go to teach on Wednesday! hahaha We are hoping to set a date here with them in a week or so. We want to set it now but the spirit for some reason has prompted us to share the message of the plan of salvation first! We will work with them though and definitely keep you posted!

      That is exciting about Carly! I told Elder Wilson who was companions with Elder Albretson when I was in Walnut Creek. When I told him that Carly Anderson got her mission call he looked at me like I was the weirdest person in the world and ask, How do you know Carly?! haha I reminded him that she was my cousin and he just laughed and said, That is still weird to how small of a world this all has been. I am proud of her and know that she will definitely be a great missionary!

      Glad to hear that the Baileys are doing well. I wish that I could go to the Philippines with them this summer! I miss those people so much. haha Teaching Colby and her mom give me a little taste of it but not enough. It's still hard to have had to leave. Those people have such a dear place in my heart that not a day goes by that I don't think about them and about all the friends and missionary friends I made there! I do miss President Schmutz the most though. What an amazing man. I learned more from the 4 months I served under him then I did in all my years of seminary and church alike. He changed my life and I owe that man a lot! I hope you are all planning on going to their home coming because if not I am going alone! hahaha they come home like three or four months after me so I am going to go see them again!

      Well I need to get going but thank you all for your testimonies and for your excitement last week as we skyped. The kids are all getting so big! I love this gospel and I am so blessed to be able to share it to people here in this area. We have been working super hard and I can't imagine the blessings that the Lord could send that he hasn't already! We are excited to see about what happens here this Saturday as the transfer calls come in. We have no idea what is going to happen but are excited to be able to see the change and the miracles that the Lord has in store for our zone! Love you all and pray for you so often! Thanks and I love you!

 

Love

Elder Shelley

12-24-12

Dear Family,

    Well the holidays are here and we have all been working like crazy here in our district! So for the past two transfers me and Elder Makaya have had the goal of teaching 20 lessons in a week which is the mission standard of excellence.  That is a super high goal and we had yet to have a week that we taught more then 14 or 15. We decided that we were not going to stop or be happy until we did it! We wanted to do it before one of us got transferred and so we have been working like crazy to get more investigators so that our number of lessons would go up! We have been trying so hard and praying even harder that we would be blessed enough to be able to turn in 20. Well this week has been a week to remember here in the mission field! Over this last week we have found 4 new investigators and have really been super blessed! By Saturday night we had taught 19 lessons!!! We only needed one more on Sunday so we didn't think that that would be a problem. We usually teach at least 2 or 3 on Sunday so we were super prepared to exceed that goal! Well on Sunday at 830 we had been dropped by so many people that we were getting a bit discouraged  because it didn't look like we were going to be able to get to 20. Well we were running around going door to door asking to share Christmas messages with people just to be able to get that final lesson. No one would open the door though. We were on our way home when we both just looked at each other, ha honestly didn't even say a word but flipped the car around and went to one last house of a less active guy that hadn't let us in in like 4 weeks.. We went up to his door and he opened and was just like "Elders merry Christmas! Come in come in!" We taught our last lesson of the week at 910 and pulled into the apartment at 929 right in time to not be late. The District together found 10 new investigators which is over double what the entire zone found!!! I was so proud of our district and ourcompanionship. But obviously it was not us at all. The Lord had blessed us more then we could ever imagine and we are so thankful!

     Well family I got your boxes and so did Elder Makaya. We are both so thankful for such an amazing family and want everyone to know that we have a testimony of the gospel and that we love you all! Thank you so much and I will see you over the computer tomorrow hopefully if all works out! haha I will check my emails tonight around 11 while Elder Makaya skypes so please give me the final time of when I need to get online to talk to you and Kailei. I will be getting offline after that to go visit a family and will come back on to talk to the family for my hour at 3 oclock my time. Not sure what that is your time. Please give me all the times that I need to know though so that I can be sure to be on and ready! Thank you all so much and I love you so much!!!

Love,

Elder Mackay Shelley

pictures: 1. Mackay in front of the of the Oakland, California Temple

              2. Mackay and Elder Makaya with their tree and stockings

         

12-17-12

Sorry, half of this is yellow! This is how Mackay sent it to us, and I'm not smart enough to fix it. At least there are pictures this week!

Dear Family,

     Since Kailei stole my time to skype I guess I'll have to move it... hahaha totally kidding our member is so flexible it's not a big deal! Let's plan on me calling in at 3 then so that everyone is already there and that will also give Kailei time to talk and some give for her companion to figure everything out. Not a big deal. Elder Makaya has to call home at midnight on Christmas eve. Well I guess technically that is 12am Christmas morning! hahaha should be a great day to only get 4 hours of sleep. We found a ysa aged kid who was willing to let him come over and use his computer. That should be a good time.

     Well first off I just need to make sure that everyone knows that I have the most amazing family of all time!!! We had to go to the mission home on Friday after Elder Makaya's dr visit to pick up our new car (more details on the way). We walked in and there were Christmas boxes piled from the counter to the roof! Elder and Sister Lyman had just left that morning to go home and so the mission home was a little bit in panic and not running on all cylinders!  So we had some extra time to help, so we helped organize the boxes. I found one for me and saw that it was from grandma and grandpa! Thanks by the way! Then next to it I saw one from mom and dad and kadon then saw that it was for Elder Makaya. I said elder this one is for you. He got kinda upset with me and said elder that's not funny!... I said no seriously look it has your name on it! He seriously jumped over the table and grabbed the box. He said elder it is for me and it's from your family! I could tell he was holding back tears and said I have never gotten a package on my mission!... When we came home he ripped it open and went through it super fast! I got him to leave the wrapped boxes for Christmas but we played with that stuff for over an hour! He kept saying wow this is so nice this is so nice! Thanks for sending that to him. He was like a 7 year old Christmasmorning!

      So just so you all have the story, yes we have a car now. Elder Makaya had his elbow checked out and found out that he broke it! It's not a terrible brake and thankfully the bones are still in line so it won't have to be casted or surgery so that is a blessing. But he also can't ride a bike with one hand so they gave us a car for the next month, month and a half! That has been such a blessing since it has been seriously cold and rainy here.

       Peggy has not contacted us for over a week now. She is in contact with our member that she is friends with but won't return our calls or texts and hasn't been coming to church. We are going to be dropping her date tonight if we can't get a hold of her. It is always so hard to see someone that you thought was so solid back away from the church. She knows it is true, I just don't think she is prepared to make the changes that she needs to make to be baptized. I still have faith that somewhere down the road she is going to be baptized. The seed has been planted and elders or sisters down the road will harvest her. haha

      Colby is making steady progress. She is really trying to grasp the concepts that we teach her. She has been given a lot of mixed info from her parents since one is catholic and one is lds. She has a really open mind though and is really praying and studying it out with us to see what she believes it true!  That is all that we can ask of her. She is going to start coming to church next week hopefully. She is a ref for basketball and so she works on Sundaysbut is trying to get the hours of church off. We hope to set a date with her this evening during our lesson so wish us luck!

      My back is doing much better! It still hurts a lot but at the same time is making progress. I have one more appointment with the chiropracter tonight and if its not better in a few weeks I may have to go get an mri just to make sure I haven't done too much damage to it. It will all work out though. The work has really been moving forward!

      We had zone conference last week and man was it amazing!!! The spirit that we all felt was out of this world and we all learned so much! We are really focusing on raising our vision as missionaries and trying to help our districts grow and feel the spirit more and more in their lives. It has been a really stressful week with trying to plan some trainings that I have been asked to do and then district meeting and going on splits with other missionaries. haha it has been a big job being a district leader! I hope that this is as far as the Lord has planned for me to go leadership wise because I see what the Zone leaders have to go through and it is nuts! I am definitely a prime example of the lord not calling the qualified but qualifying the called! He knows that I am in need of help and blessings and I love receiving them! Me and Elder Makaya have been trying to keep track of all the things that the Lord has blessed us with and it blows our minds how many miracles and blessings the Lord has seen fit to give us.  I love this work sooo much and am so happy that I have had so many experiences serving the Lord!  I have been able to share stories from the Philippines as well as stories from here in Cali!  I am so blessed to be able to have served in two countries and to be able to enjoy the cultures and the people. I love teaching Colby because I have gotten the opportunity to talk with her and her mom about the Philippines and to enjoy their stories and their experiences as well as share a few of mine with them!  Such a tender mercy of the Lord!

      Well family, I love you all sooo much! I love the Lord, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and all the things that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with! I hope that we all can remember the true meaning of christmas this holiday season and enjoy being together as a family both in person and through skype! I wish that I got to see Kailei, but hey Mothers day is coming soon and she will be there on the screen then!  I can't wait!!! I have such a testimony of the Savior and his teachings! He has blessed me and carried me through so many hardships but has givin me the opportunity to grow and progress through the gospel and through out life! Thank you all for your examples and for the love you have sent my way! I got Uncle Mark and Aunt Pams Christmas card along with Sarah Welches families and have really enjoyed seeing all of the families joy and love this season! Remember who you are and who you represent and I love you so much!  I am not sure how email is going to go next week with Christmas eve and some things that we are going to be doing next week but I hope to be able to at least get a short email off so that we can confirm skype and things like that! love you all so much!  God Speed!

 

With so much love,

Elder Mackay Shelley

pictures: 1. roasted chicken Mackay fixed for dinner

              2. Merry Christmas from Antioch, California

              3. True companion love!

  

12-10-12

Dear Family!

    Thank you all so much for the emails and the news about all the missionaries preparing to enter the field! Please pass my love on to all of those guys and if they have time tell them to drop me a line or two! I am sooo excited to watch the new stream of Elders and Sisters enter the mission field armed and dangerous! That is a line our mission is using knowing that the Lord is arming his missionaries with the tools and the traits they will need to really be amazing missionaries! We start to see the new missionaries start to come in mid February or so. We are so excited!

     Peggy is doing ok. She set a date for baptism with us but is really struggling with the idea that she has to get baptized again. She was pretty offended when she heard that we don't recognise her baptism as by the proper authority. She is praying really hard about it and trying to get an answer. She is struggling with the WOW and had to be living it by last night to have the date go through. She didn't come to church either so we are a little worried about her. She didn't answer her phone this morning when we tried to call and schedule appointments so we will see how all that goes.

     We are super excited to start teaching a new girl named Colby. (yes like the cheese!) She is a Filipino girl who is 19 and has a less active mother who has been coming to church for the past few weeks. She is very interested and wishes that I spoke Tagalog because she said that would be fun to take the lessons in her native tongue. Dang Cebuano! hahaha I can understand her when she talks to me but she can't understand when I reply. It was something that she had in common with us though so that really broke the ice well. We talked a lot about the Philippines and about my experience there. She enjoys reading the bible but never really felt like the catholic church was for her. She made the decision that Saturday coming up after finals that she was going to really investigate the LDS Church and then make a decision from there. She is as Golden as Golden investigators get we think. We will see how everything goes, but we are preparing to set a date with her for the first of the year!  The Lord has blessed this area soo much and we are so excited that he has allowed us to be the missionaries that were here at this time. We have no idea how long we will be together but we went on exchanges with the zone leaders last week and they said that the spirit that is in our apartment and our companionship is night and day from our first transfer together! That was so good to hear because we have really been working on our relationship and helping each other to grow and to progress. Thank you all so much for the prayers and the support!  We really felt them.

     Tyler Heath is still doing so well! He has yet to miss an hour of church since he was baptized and is really enjoying it. He is going to be given a few families and a companion for home teaching and you should have seen the joy that came into his face when he found out that he was going to get to go and teach people like the missionaries do! We talked to him about maybe serving a mission but he is really attached to his family and gets really home sick. We talked to him about a service mission in the area and to not give up on the idea of it. He liked the idea of serving people and teaching them but not having to leave home so in a year that may be what he does! We have seen such a change in that young man it is amazing!  We are so blessed to have been here to watch this transformation!

     Christmas is around the corner and the Lord is prepared to give us the gifts that we need and ask for. Are we all prepared to give the Lord the gifts that he deserves? Our family has been so blessed the past year and a half from the time that Kailei left for her mission. I feel like we all need to pay him back for the things that he has given us and so my challenge to you all is to think about all the things that the Savior has done for you personally, and then to think of what you are going to do or what gift you are going to give the savior! He gave his life for us that sacred night in the garden and on the cross. The least that we could do is to serve him and to be the best we can be. Look around for those that are less fortunate than we are and do something kind for them. What ever it may be start thinking today what you would like to give the Lord for Christmas. I am so very blessed to first of all be alive and second of all to be back in the mission field. I have been through a lot of struggles and hardships but through out it all the Lord has carried me through the worst of it and has supported me through the times that I needed to grow! I am so thankful for the opportunity that he has given me to stretch and to grow. I would not be the person that i am today if it was not for the challenges and the struggles i have been through. I would still be the same old kid that i was in high school. I have such a testimony of this Gospel and love it so much. I wish that I could say that I was always faithful and that I never questioned it. But even through all those questions and all those trials I have come to know for myself that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only true Gospel on this earth! Joseph Smith truly was a prophet of God and through the things that he went through we are able to be free from the bands that Satan has placed in our paths. We have the fullness of the Gospel at our finger tips! Please take advantage of that and do everything in your power to receive the blessings that come from this church! I want you all to know how much I love and miss you. But I know that even though we are miles and miles away, we are all together through our faith in Christ! It binds us together and makes us strong! Stay true to the faith and remember the true meaning of Christmas is my prayer and testimony!

 

With all my love,

Elder Mackay Dale Shelley

12-3-12

Dear Family,

    Well we had another great week here in the mission field. We started this week out with not much at all. We only had Peggy as an investigator but she has been super flaky and we haven't been able to meet with her for almost two or three weeks... We were planning on having to drop her which would mean we would go down to not having a single person to teach! haha You better believe that we were on our knees for quite some time asking the Lord to bless this area and us as missionaries to find those people that he has been preparing to teach. As I was looking at the map of the area I was really trying to figure out where we needed to go to tract to find people to teach. I remember right before I left President Millet had shared an experience with me of his mission that came to my mind. He had talked to me about expecting miracles in missionary work and that as long as we were worthy and prepared for it the Lord would give us miracles. Well I got back down on my knees and asked the Lord to give me a miracle and help me to know where we needed to go to tract. I went back to the wall where the map was and looked at it again. I stared at it for what seemed like an hour but was trying really hard not to loose faith and to expect the miracle! Sure enough as I was staring at the map I heard very clearly the words: W. Country Club! Elder Makaya was in the shower at the time and so I just kinda sat there and waited for him to come out. When he got out I told him that I wanted to go tracting on that road and he just kinda laughed and said there is no way I am going back there again! I guess about 5 months ago he had tracted that area and had been told not to come back by quite a few people.. I was a little nervous but knew that I had to do what I had felt and tract that road. He was pretty upset that I had asked him to go back but said that he would do whatever I felt if it was truly from the Lord. Well we went back and sure enough we were yelled at and swore at for the first 30 houses.. There were even a few people who recognized Elder Makaya and got really upset. We were about to go home after 2 hours of going at it. I told him I wanted to knock 5 more houses and he said ok. Well guess what! We knocked 5 more houses and found 5 houses of potential investigators even setting up appointments for this coming week with two of them!  We then went home in silence after spending 3 hours tracting.  When we got home Elder Makaya looked at the paper of where he had tracted and told me to come look at it. When I read what was on the page I was filled with the spirit. 5 months ago Elder Makaya had knocked that street but had stopped tracting right at those 5 houses. Guys we almost stopped tracting exactly where they had stopped 5 months earlier but the Lord was with us and helped give us the strength to knock those last five houses. We are not sure what will happen from it but the one thing I learned was that when you do expect miracles they come! President Millet if you read this thank you so much! I know that you are an inspired man and that you were meant to share that with me before I left! So thanks again!

     Tyler is doing so well! He received the priesthood yesterday at church and has been working with his parents trying to get them to church! They are not very interested but his dad has come out of respect for his son two weeks in a row to see him get the holy ghost and the priesthood! I sure am proud of him! He is really working hard!

     Peggy came to church also!!!!!!!!!! We taught her finally in a members home Saturday evening and the members then invited her to stay for a high priestsdinner and indexing night. She stayed and met all these great members who friendshiped her and invited her to church! They made our job so easy! We were going to set up appointments with her for next week and when I asked her when we could meet- she told me that she had already scheduled them with members and told me when we were going to be meeting!!! hahahaha I have never been told by an investigator when we were going to teach them and so that sure was an experience and a blessing! We tried to set a date with her Saturday but she brought up the concern that she had already been baptized and didn'tthink that she needed to again. We ran out of time to talk to her about it and why she needs to be baptized in our church by our men because of the dinner but we are sure that we will be setting a date for the end of December here this next week. We have been so blessed as missionaries here in this area. The area hadn't had baptisms in over a year and we are looking to have two before the end of the year. We have a goal of 1 in January too so we will be working sooo hard to find more people and strengthen our numbers! Thanks for all the prayers!

    I need to wrap up but thank you all so much for your love and for your testimonies! They have gotten me through some pretty hard times here in the mission field but they have been good times full of growing and experience. I want you all to know that I truly believe in the church and that Jesus Christ truly is the Son of God! I know that the Book of Mormon changes lives when it is read with an open heart and when it is taken seriously! I know that the Lord blesses and takes care of his missionaries and that he brings them home with honor! I am so proud of Kailei and her service you have no idea how much I talk about her and the experiences that she is having also in her area of the Vineyard! I know that through the spirit of our father in heaven people are able to find the joy and the truth that they didn't even know they are searching for! I have never felt this close to my savior or had this much faith as I have gained on my mission. I love the Lord and am so thankful for his guidance and his direction that he gives to me! I love you all and pray for you on a daily basis! Stay strong and remember that the Lord is in charge!

 

Love

Elder Mackay Dale Shelley