5-20-13

Dear Family and Friends,

Well we got back a little earlier than we had planned, and so we decided to email today rather then tomorrow so that we can spend tomorrow getting Elder Santiago up to speed and get him all settled in and feeling comfortable. Just a quick update for those that don't know, Elder Suing went home this past Friday of his on choice... We had been fighting to keep him to stay basically since we got here but he just didn't have a desire to serve. So after about three days of phone calls home and his parents not agreeing to pay for his ticket home, they decided to just let him do what he wanted and bring him home. We were really sad to see him go, but honestly if he wasn't going to work hard and bring the spirit into the area, then there was no need for him to keep going. So after he had gotten his plane ticket and we were packing him up, I got a phone call from President Meredith. He told me that he had gotten a call from the MTC and that they had a missionary that was called Tagalog and went to the MTC to learn English but already could speak it. They told President that they were going to send him out early and asked if he was prepared with a trainer for him. He had a feeling that even though I don't speak Tagalog that I was to be his trainer! Haha So we just got back from picking him up and I am training for my third time. I guess after the last two elders I trained went home, the Lord was determined to keep one here for the whole two transfers. The crazy part is, president told me in private today that he has another Filipino coming in in 4 weeks and he thinks that he is going to want me to train that one too. Elder Peralta will finish Elder Santiago's training and I will take the new one and go and open a new area of the Tagalog program! I am so humbled by the trust and respect that President has in me. I honestly don't know how I am going to accomplish a task like this, but I know that the Lord is going to make things work out the way that they are supposed to! I just hope that he will be patient with my language issues, and that the gift of tongues will be given to me in a quick time frame! The members are so kind though. They understand that this is by no means my first language and they are helping me! I am doing what Brother Zufelt told me almost two years ago, I am having the young kids that speak Tagalog teach me! They laugh at the way that I pronounce things, but they are such a help to me! I love these people and am so blessed to be able to serve with them!

Our investigators are doing soooo well! We are teaching Ken, an African American man who is so spiritual and so prepared. He comes from a very christian back ground and so he has a great understanding of the bible. I have been working on my bible knowledge lately, because I have found that you need that just as much as you do the Book of Mormon if not more here in this area. He has a few issues with things like God, Christ and the Holy Ghost being separate beings, and things like the apostasy. Honestly those are standard concerns, and we know that with time it is all going to be worked out. He loves to be in the scriptures with us and to look at things the way we do. He says that he feels the spirit when he studies with us! He told me that he just feels a connection with me that he hasn't with many "preachers!'' Haha I never thought that I would be considered a preacher. haha But it was so awesome to be told that he feels the spirit when I teach him things and that he doesn't understand why, but that I can just explain things to him that puts it in words that he can understand! Honestly I have done nothing but quote the scriptures and Jesus the Christ! I have been breaking that book down from cover to cover, and have been learning soooo much!!! Elder Talmage just puts the most deep doctrines into the most simple words. I have been working on speaking like he does and explaining things in that way so that all audiences could grasp it. It has made teaching the deeper doctrines so much easier! We are hoping to set a baptismal date with Ken here in the next week or so! 

We also have an investigator named Johanna that is really doing well also. She reminds me a lot of Colby cause she takes notes during our lessons and while she reads her scriptures! She is really fresh from the Philippines, I think she said she has only been here for about three weeks. Her family finally earned enough money to send her and her little sister over to the states. She is fifteen and is now living with her aunt that lives in our ward. I cried the night after we taught her on the way home, cause when she told me that her parents had saved their entire lives, and when they finally had enough money to get someone here they sent her so that she could have an education and a good life!!! All of my memories of the such humble people flooded my memory as I could seriously still picture teaching the Bourlaus family in their little hut and seeing the joy and happiness on their faces! Then to look at all these multi million dollar homes here in cali just blows my mind! We don't realize how blessed we truly are to have what we have! Here I am still complaining that my cameras screen is a tad scratched and that my suit is a tad big and there are people out there that would give anything to have what we have! I was so upset with myself at how quick I was to forget all of those experiences and to become so prideful again! I looked through all of my pictures of the Philippines the other day with Elder Peralta and had a few laughs and had a few tears, but all in all it helped me remember why I am out in the field. That it is the least we can do to be able to help all of Gods children be able to make it back to him. I love what I do and I love being a missionary! It is such a blessing in my life to be able to serve the Lord and to be his servant! 

Me and Elder Peralta were able to go to a really cool place called cliff house out on the coast of San Fransisco. The tide wasn't going as hard as they say it usually does, but I still thought it was really cool. We also ran out to Golden Gate Bridge and were able to take a few pictures out there. I am not used to doing anything but play sports on p-day, but there are sooo many cool places to visit out here on the bay! We had so much fun today! I got super lost trying to find Golden Gate, cause we were so afraid to cross the bridge. If you cross it, President gets a text that you left the mission, and he will be calling you to have an interview with him!!! hahaha So we made like 6 circles, but finally found where we were supposed to go. There were some really cool pictures that we got of the beaches around the coast as we drove up! We ran into a few LDS bikers that had come all the way from Canada and were doing a big coast to coast trip on motorcycles. I don't remember all the places they had been, but they had been gone for like a week and a half already and this was one of their final stops. You would be amazed at all the people that were there! There were even surfers in the water surfing under the bridge! I didn't even know that that was possible. People said that they travel from all over the world to surf under that bridge! It was sooo cool. You could barely see Alcatraz out on the water because of the fog. It's crazy how even just a little bit of fog can make it impossible to see a thing.

  

We are preparing to get a ton of work done this coming up week. We have zone conference on Thursday and so that should be a blast like always! I am also looking forward to all the lessons that we have with our investigators. It's been a while since we have had some really solid progressing investigators to work with and so we are excited about the way that the Lord is blessing this area! I wish that we could take some of the credit, but honestly it has been all him. We just go where he tells us to. haha The teaching is the easy part. The finding is the hard. We have been working with the members to try to get some referrals, but they haven't really given us any lately which is uncommon. We are going to really try to get them going and get this ward to start taking off. We have been brain storming some new ideas about getting new investigators. There are so many Filipinos out here it should be easy! haha We think that we are just going to head over the Jollibees (Filipino McDonalds) and just start talking to people. It's really funny to have gone to Jolibees in the Philippines and then to walk down the street and see one here in Daly City. Guess that tells you how many Filipinos there are here. Its like little Manilla here! I love it!

Well I better get going. We have got to go and shop. President has asked me to stop eating with the members, cause my stomach just can't handle it. I was doing really good there for a few weeks and now it has been hurting as bad as ever! All the grease and Lumpia is great in portions, but when they feed you lunch and dinner every day I just can't do it. President is going to talk to Salt Lake and see if they well give me some extra money each transfer so that I can buy and fix my own dinner daily too. That will be good cause everything out here is sooo expensive. Me and Elder Peralta were laughing and saying that we were going to have to eat like Elder Makaya with raman and hot dogs every day for the rest of the transfer. We hadn't planned on getting sent out here and so we ate out a few times in Brentwood. Thankfully the members are so willing to help and I swear bring us food like every day! They are such humble people! 

Man I love this Gospel! I love this church. It has blessed my life more then I can even start to explain! I have just loved doing what I do. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much with the strength and stamina that it has taken to do this great work. When I think about all the blessings that I have received in the past I just am so amazed and humble by the joy that has come into my life because of this work. I am so excited to hear about all the young missionaries going into the field. It is the best choice that you will ever make. It will be hard, but it will be sooo worth it! Don't be afraid. The Lord protects his missionaries I am a living witness of that! I wasn't supposed to live through my experience in the Philippines, but I did. I was able to even come back into the field when doctors and others told me that that would never happen. And because of that I was able to meet people that have changed my life. I was able to see one of the members from Brentwood today at the mission home as we picked up our new comp and man were those some good memories! I loved that area and I loved those members. The missionaries said that the work out there is just going crazy! That they have a baptismal date and that they are hoping to set a few more! It is such a blessing to be able to enjoy this experience with so many people! I have a testimony of this gospel I hope you all can see and feel that! I love the book or Mormon. It has changed my life for the better and I hate to even put it down every morning after studies. I love to be able to look someone in the eye and tell them that I KNOW that Joseph Smith was a prophet of god. To be able to bear a strong and heartfelt testimony of what the prophets have taught us! I get to put my testimony right next to Moroni's each day as we go into lessons that all you have to do is ask! Just ask with a sincere heart and I can promise that your answers WILL come! Weather your a member or not the answers that you are seeking will come through constant study of the greatest book that has ever been written! I love being a missionary! I love being a trainer! I get to be there from the beginning again! I get to remember all the struggles and the trials that come. But I also get to see all the miracles and the blessings that come from being fresh out of the MTC! The Lord blesses those that are trying to learn this work with people to teach and so we are prepared to find them! Thank you all so much for your love and your prayers! I love this work so much and I love you all too!

With all my love,

Elder Mackay Shelley

Pictures: 1. Golden Gate Bridge State Park
               2. Golden Gate with Elder Peralta
               3. Panaramic view of Golden Gate
               4. Cliff House State Park
               5. Elder Suing and Mackay flexing (Elder Suing has a picture like this from the MTC with his companion, and promised to take a similar picture with each companion!)