6-3-13

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this week has been a crazy one! We have been working like crazy and finally were able to get our lessons up about 7! We had been teaching 7 lessons every week since we had gotten here, and just couldn't seem to get over that hump. We even got to 7 last week by Friday, and then had every single lesson cancel or fall through for the rest of the week. It was nuts. This week we were able to get to 11 which doesn't seem like much, but it was a huge jump for us. We were able to get in with a few of the less active people in the ward and really got to be able to meet with a few key focus families! The work out here in Daly City has started to get going strong!

We found a new investigator this week from the formers list that we had in the area book. Our area book is a joke, but we have been working to clean it up. We have probably over a hundred former investigators, and so that is great to be able to go through those and see if any of them are interested again or if they have any friends that are. Kenneth is the name of the man that we found. He is the uncle of one of our recent converts, and seems to have a pretty good decider to get going in the church. He has quite a few issues with the Word or Wisdom, and we have a feeling that he may be gay also. That is a pretty big problem among the Filipino men both here and in the Philippines. We are going to talk to him about it and see just what is going on there. We are hoping that he is not and that if he is that he does not act upon the feelings and be able to start progressing in the gospel. He is a very very good singer and actually sings semi professionally. He is more of a volunteer right now, but he is really trying to get his name out there to the different groups around and to get everything moving forward. I am excited to be able to have a new investigator though. We have been trying so hard lately to get in with people that it is a HUGE blessing to be able to start to strengthen our teaching pool. 

Elder Santiago is really starting to be a good missionary. He has always been a great missionary, but he has now really started to get comfortable and to be able to share his thoughts and feelings with others and to let the ward members get to know him. He is going to really go far in this work as long as he continues to progress like he is. Elder Peralta is amazing as usual! He never stops amazing me with the knowledge that he has and with the love that he has for the gospel. He works so hard, and really has to hold his own in this companionship because I don't speak the language! I know just enough that I can make the people think that I speak it, until they rattle off this huge sentence and I look at them like Elder Calhoon did in the Best Two Years! Some times I even wonder if they are speaking Tagalog or another dialect that they know. Elder Peralta just laughs and tells me that they are speaking Tagalog and to keep working on it. They are very understanding though and have been helping me a lot. It is nothing like Cebuano though which is tough cause I have been mixing up words like crazy. I don't want to loose my Cebuano, cause it's actually better now then it was in the Philippines! But I am afraid that I will have to just let it go if I want to learn Tagalog and the sentence structure. It's all good though. Things are going to come together I am sure. 

I got the opportunity to be able to go on a 24 hour exchange with Elder Makaya in his area last week. He is doing sooooo well. His teaching skills have gotten so much better, and he is really loved by those members out there. I know that the members out in Brentwood really enjoyed him also, but he seems to really have stepped out of his comfort zone in this area and is really doing well. They are struggling to find as are we, but they are keeping their heads up, and are really doing what the Lord wants them to do. I am very pleased with the district and with the work that is happening out here. The Zone Leaders were talking to me the other day and were saying how pleased they are with the increase in numbers that has happened and with the spirit that they are feeling in the zone with all the changes and new missionaries that have come in. We have really been blessed out here to be able to work hard and to receive some really needed blessings.

  

I was finally able to get the MRI stuff all figured out. It took WAY to long, but it is going to happen tomorrow. We are hoping that it's just a muscle thing and not a disk issue. I'm not too sure if President knows yet, so we are hoping that its nothing! haha. I should know by Thursday what is going on and what will need to be done from here. We just keep praying that it will be a quick fix and that we will be able to keep going strong. Thanks for all the prayers in my behalf. I have felt those time and time again through out the past year and a half really. The time is flying by, and I don't like it! There are never enough hours in the day it doesn't seem like. We have got so many things going on this next week just with District leader and Trainer responsibilities that we will be lucky to be able to teach any lessons haha. It's all good though. We will be getting to go to the temple next week on Wednesday, which reminds me, our p day is going to be on 

Wednesday next week rather then Monday because of the temple trip. The Brethren have asked that we use our P-day to go to the temple rather then missing out on prime work time. So I will be emailing next Wednesday!

I love this work! I love this gospel. It is the best choice I have ever made, and I don't regret the decision for a second. I have had a few people ask me the last few days why I came back out after being released and basically becoming an RM. I just kinda laugh and tell them that if they knew the story that it really wasn't a choice! (President Johnson knows what I am talking about!) I was called Tuesday and left Friday and that was that! But I would have chose to come back anyways! This is truly Gods work. His son is at the head of it and it is being hastened day after day! We are so blessed to be apart of all this great work, and I can't tell you how many blessings have come my way just in the past few months! We have had the opportunity to give some really really neat blessings, and my testimony of the Priesthood has been strengthened so so much! Dad was right in his letter when he said that we need to always be ready to act when called upon! It is neat to be asked if we have oil and all three of us be able to pull it right off the key chain and be worthy and ready to use it! I have been able to be voice in quite a few very special blessings, and have seen lives change both physically and spiritually! I have been given inspirations that I have not acted on in blessings in the past, and let me just tell you that that will never happen again! All you young men out there please read my words and prepare yourself for what you hold in your hands! Even when your hands are "empty" you hold in your hands something that is more precious then the finest Gold, and that is our Heavenly Fathers Priesthood! Never forget that and always be worthy and ready to act is my prayer! I love you all and love this church and this gospel! Thanks for the prayers again and I will talk to you all next Wednesday!

Love 
Elder Mackay Dale Shelley