11.21.11 Independencia, Guayaquil

Este es una foto de Elder Curtis y Yo. El es de Utah, y estabamos compañeros en el CCM en Peru.  ¡Vivimos juntos en Indenpendecia  y desfrutamos la misíon juntos!

11.21.11 Independencia, Guayaquil

Family,

This week felt so long!  Monday night I found out I was getting changed.  Tuesday morning I was on a bus to Guayaquil.  I got changed to the sector, Independencia.  It is here in the city of Guayaquil.  I live in the same house as ELDER CURTIS from the MTC.  It is fun to catch up on how our missions have gone thus far.  Independencia, a.k.a Ghana by day, Compton by night, is crazy.  It is the most ghetto city I have ever seen.  Pretty much all of the people are black.  

My companion is Elder Sulla.  He is from Peru.  He is super shy.  He has six months in the mission and this is his first change as a senior companion.  So he does not have a lot of leadership experience.  Because he is so shy, he is hard to understand and sometimes a little awkward when talking to people.  This has put a lot of pressure on me this week.  The pressure is good though.  I have learned I am pretty good under pressure.  I feel like I am becoming a much better missionary because of the pressure I am under.  I am expected to start the conversations and keep them going.  It has been fun because I can finally really communicate with the people.  My companion has been in this same sector for 6 months.  He has not had a baptism for 3 months.  He said he rarely talked to anyone the last six weeks.  Everyone just shut the door in his face.  But we managed to put 2 solid dates for baptisms this week.  This refueled his desire and we are hoping to bring back some success into this area.

All the missionaries from my group had a meeting this Tuesday which was awesome!! The meeting was good and I got to see all my friends from the MTC again.  It was great to share all our experiences and stories from our first 6 weeks in the mission.

I have learned a lot about this mission this week.  The sad truth is that there have been a lot of really bad missionaries in this mission...  For example, in my area, almost every single kid between the ages of 8 to 14 is baptized.  30 members attend the sacrament meetings.  Missionaries would baptize 10 or 15 kids a month to boost their baptism stats.  All those baptisms are completely inactive.  Most never went to church after their baptism.  This, to me, was so sad to find out.  And what is sadder is all the kids here know it.  When we talk to them they say, “oh yeah… Elder So and So just baptized me for their numbers.”  It makes it so hard to do missionary work.  The adults are not very receptive either.

But, Elder Sulla and I are going to work hard to be diligent, true missionaries.  The numbers are not important.  We want true converts.  So far we have 2 who are truly interested and want to be baptized.  With faith, we hope to gain more this week… and slowly, but surely, we can turn this sector around.  

It’s fun to hear about life back at home.  Thanksgiving is this week.  It’s funny that holidays do not mean anything to us as missionaries.  We just try and forget about them. Anyway let me know how that goes.

So what I learned about sending packages…  I guess you need to send packages with a green sticker.  I do not know what that means, but I guess there has to be a special green sticker on the box otherwise we will not get the package.  So that is all I know.  Maybe there are more instructions in my mission packet.  

Anyways, all is good here.  We are working hard and having fun.   Love you guys.

Love,

Elder McRae

11/14/11 Naranjito, Ecuador

Family,

Okay.  I really do not know what to talk about in this email.  But, here is the thing.  This week I have just caught fire with the work.  My companion and I are being as obedient as we know how to be, and making sure we turn Naranjito and the whole zone of Milagro right side up because it is upside down.  This is the zone with the most baptisms in the whole mission.  And this past week the whole zone, 3 districts, had zero baptisms.  So Elder Church and I made some goals to jump start our district and hopefully our zone.  We worked like animals this week.  Looking back on the week I don’t know how many miles we walked but I know it was a ridiculous amount.  We taught great lessons to tons of investigators and we are working with them every day to prepare them for baptism.  Since my first 2 weeks, I have not had a baptism.  No one had even accepted a date really to be baptized.  This week we have 8 dates with people.  In the next four weeks we should have at least 4 baptisms starting this coming weekend.  Our hard work is totally paying off.  We have great investigators who are preparing and excited for baptism!

The work is really becoming addicting.  When we see our efforts paying off, it makes me want to just keep going.  It is just a ton of fun.  I don´t even have any crazy experiences to tell about this week.  It has just been filled with us making sure we see every investigator every day so they can be prepared. 

The one gospel principle I have learned more of this week though, is agency.  Agency is everything in this work.  It’s everything in the plan of God.  We chose to come here, and it’s the choices we make that determine if we make it back or not.  But I can’t imagine how God feels when we know something is right and we don`t do it.  We have a couple investigators who we know for a fact have felt the spirit testify of the truthfulness of what we have taught and they still won’t accept it.  This is when Elder Church and I think about how good Satan`s plan sounds.  We want to just make them do the right because we want it for them so bad.  But we have to give them their agency.  And the thing is, when our investigators show up to church (when we never went to pick them up), nothing makes us happier.  Seeing them choose the right on their own gives us a great feeling.  I imagine it is how our Heavenly Father feels when we obey his commands with our own free will. 

The mission teaches so many things.  I can already see why this is such a crucial time in my life.  This is the best decision I have ever made. 

As far as a Christmas present, I don’t know.  And I never got a package yet.  So I don’t know what you’re talking about.  For Christmas I want just a cheap, cool looking tie, a long sleeve white shirt, and crazy amounts of candy.  Oh and SUPER IMPORTANT.  I know I said I didn’t want this stuff but I found out it would help a lot.  I want PICTURES.  Pictures of the family, DANTRELL, KYLE, JARED, Sarah and her family, and maybe a couple of me.  That would be perfect.  But especially pictures of MY BOYS! Dantrell, kyle, and jared. 

Love,
Elder McRae

11-7-11 Naranjito, Ecuador

Family,

I don´t really have a whole lot to talk about.  Tuesday we were walking home when my companion turned around and started yelling at a man in his front yard.  He was asking him what his problem was.  I was really confused.  The man and my companion argued for the next 20 minutes and I didn’t really know what they were saying.  Afterwards Elder Silva told me the man was saying things about Gringos behind our back.  Elder Silva is from Chile, so he turned around and basically told him to explain himself.  The man talked about how if he wanted to go to our country he would get shot by boarder control but we get to walk freely in his country.  Elder Silva said, ¨I am from Chile, so I don’t know what you’re talking about, talk to my companion¨ I had no idea what the guy was saying so Elder Silva explained some things to him about boarder patrol or something and we left.  It was an interesting experience.

Last night we taught a clown.  Literally, a CLOWN.  With face paint and the outfit and everything.  He came to church and said he would be baptized.  Again, another interesting experience.

So today I was up at 4:30 am because there are changes today.  Elder Silva went to Guayaquil to be a zone leader and I got a new companion.  His name is Elder Church and he is from Gilbert.  So maybe people in our stake know his family or something like that.  There is something encouraging he told me.  Our apartment that I have been living in is horrible compared to others.  So really, I got to experience the worst of the worst first.  So when I leave Naranjito, I will have a good apartment to look forward to.  Possibly with HOT WATER!

So I am really excited to get to work this week.  I think it is going to be a very important week.  We have a lot of interested investigators.  I am learning a lot about love in general here in the mission.  Love for others, and love for the Lord.  It’s easier to love the Lord when things are not going perfect or you’re having a hard time.  But I like that.  I enjoy the difficulties because of what I learn from it and how I grow.  Look at the positives of your situations, Christ is always there to help.

Love,

Elder McRae

10-31-11 Naranjito, Ecuador

Family,

It´s October 31. So Halloween, football playoffs, soccer tryouts, and all that good stuff.  This week was defiantly one of the more difficult ones.  My companion had to go to Guayaquil for the first few days.  This was very frustrating because 1. I couldn’t work in my own sector the whole time, and 2. I didn’t have anyone who could translate for me if I didn’t know how to say something, or needed to answer a question.  The other two Elders I was with didn’t speak any English.  

Besides that though, the week began awful.  We visited Marcos Monday night.  Your letter mom was about Guillermo, not Marcos.  Marcos was going to be baptized on Saturday so we went to his house to see how he was doing.  The door is always open so we looked in to see Marcos on the couch with a cut forehead and road rash on his foot and arm.  His wife looked furious.  We asked what happened and spent the next 2 hours talking.  Marcos feels depressed because he doesn’t have a job.  He went out to drink, didn’t want to pay for a taxi so he rode his motorcycle.  He crashed it because he was drunk.  His wife was disgusted in him and didn’t want to look at or talk to him the whole night.  She told us he didn’t have the power to change.  He told us that he believed her.  If she didn’t have the faith in him for him to change then he couldn’t believe either.  I didn’t do a lot of talking.  I was pretty shocked.  We got them to pray together.  It took a lot of convincing but his wife said she would eventually forgive him.  Marcos promised us not to drink anymore.  

Leaving that appointment made me remember that this is real life.  We are working with real people, with real problems, not just baptismal statistics. The family is doing better now and Marcos has committed to being baptized on the 26th.  

Guillermo and Felix are stuck.  They cannot spiritually progress anymore right now because some people are holding them back.  Guillermo`s girlfriend has opened up to us more and said the does want to get married.  Her mom doesn’t want them to though.  So Guillermo cannot truly repent and enter the waters of baptism unless he marries Linda but she is not allowed to.  Felix needs to come to church.  His mom always says she wants him to and has given us permission to baptize him but she never lets him go to church.  Every Sunday we come to pick him up and he says his mom won’t let him.  We have learned that she is very much in love with money.  She is willing to do whatever it takes for more money.  She doesn’t want to let Felix leave for 1 hour to attend sacrament meeting because she wants more money.  It is hard for my companion and I watch this.  Because we both love Felix and Guillermo and there is so little that we can really do for them right now.  

So, guess what? The mission is hard.  It is supposed to be.  So I am going to continue to work my hardest and hopefully the Lord will help Felix and Guillermo to be able to be baptized.  

I am glad to know everything is good at home.  I liked Dad's email.  They always make me laugh because I can imagine him saying all the things he writes.   I finished my 3 month.  The time is flying by!

Love,

Elder McRae

10-24-2011 Naranjito, Ecuador

Dear Family,

Not a lot really happened here this week. Just a full week of work.  It does feel like I just emailed yesterday though.  The week went by so fast.  That’s what happens when you stay busy.

Monday my companion got Dear Johned.  At first, you know, I said, “oh I’m sorry” but then he replied in an angry Spanish accent, ¨THATS THE 3RD TIME!¨ So then I just erupted into laughter.  I asked him if it was the same girl who dear johned him 3 times or if it was the 3rd girl. He said both.  I guess my companion has a lot of women waiting at home in Chile for him and they all keep sending him emails saying they are dating someone else.  But once they break up with their ‘other boyfriends,’ they start writing my companion again.  I laughed for the rest of the walk home.

Tuesday night we ate at an investigator´s home.  Afterwards my companion said he felt pretty sick.  We had a district meeting the next morning and he endured through that.  But after that, he spent the rest of the day in the bathroom puking and using the toilet.  We went out that night but had to hurry home because he went to the bathroom in his pants.  As he lay in the bed above me he said, “My girlfriend crapped on me, I crapped on me, Elder McRae, are you going to crap on me too?”  After that, I laughed for 10 minutes, then I told him ‘no’.  But the president called about 5 minutes later and said he needed him in Guayaquil.  The president crapped on him too.

I had to go with him to Guayaquil to drop him off and then I returned with the two other elders who live with us.  My companion is staying in Guayaquil for a few days so I am here in Naranjito in a trio.

My favorite experience this week was Wednesday.  We were teaching a man who has done some pretty bad things in his past.  He has a family now, but doesn’t have a job.  He is going to be baptized this Saturday but on Wednesday he was telling us sometimes he doesn’t want to read the Book of Mormon or do anything because he is depressed.  He looks at his past life, his family he can’t provide for right now, the job he doesn’t have (and a few other things) and it causes him to be depressed and to doubt whether or not this church is true.  My companion told him always read the Book of Mormon because it will give you strength.  I then piped up.  I said, ¨I cannot relate to a lot of the things you are going through.  I am just a white boy from the United States who never had to work a day in my life, who always had a family there for me, and never have had a worry or ever doubted that this church was true.  But, since I started my mission, and my family was gone, and I had to work every day, and no one can understand me because I don’t speak Spanish, all of the sudden for the first time in my 19 years of life I began to question and wonder.  What am I doing here? Is this church really true?  What would happen if I die? Will the lights just go out? Is there really a heaven, a Jesus Christ, or God?  For the first time in my life these feelings entered into my mind in the MTC. And there was only one thing that gave me strength… only one thing that was always there to confirm my testimony that this church is true… my English Book of Mormon.  I read it non stop in the MTC because when I read it, I have no doubt that this church is true.  The Book of Mormon will do the same for you.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ is absolutely true.¨

That was a very emotional night for Marcos, but I was glad that for the first time, I could relate to someone here.  It’s hard to relate to them when I’ve never lived like them.  But now I have.  And I am thankful for it.  For the tiny house, the poor conditions, the freezing water, & the bad water.  Oh and the power goes out all the time.  I am thankful for these things because I can relate to these people and help them come unto the fold.

Love you all,
Elder McRae

10/17/2011 Naranjito, Ecuador

Family,

Okay I am done hearing about football.  It’s the only thing I miss.  I can’t believe A) that Liberty had a chance for a game winning field goal and I couldn’t kick it, and B) that Liberty started choking again and not being the pure dominating, steamrolling force they should be every year.  Tell Dantrell I wrote him a letter today so he should get it in a week or so.

So much has happened this week it is hard to remember it all.  We had another baptism.  A 10 year old boy named Luis Telmo Quispe Loor.  Yeah, that was fun to say while I was confirming him in front of the whole church.  We have more investigators than I think anyone else in our sector.  It seams we almost have too many to handle them all.  The sad part is all of them have either problems or are just really fighting baptism.  We are hoping to get 6 to commit to baptism this week.

For the first time, at the very beginning of this week, I felt a strong urge from the spirit.  My companion said he had an impression to go visit a family.  We walked way out of our way to visit this family but they were not there.  He was wondering why he felt this impression if they were not even going to be there.  I didn’t know any of this at the time but turned around and saw a door.  It was light at night but I really felt the urge to knock on the door.  I went up and knocked on the door and a 14 and 18 year old boy answered the door.  They let us in and we talked to them and about our purpose as missionaries.  The 18 year old (Guillermo) told us he has been wondering what he should do with his life this past week.  He got his girlfriend pregnant and she lives with him.  He doesn’t know what he should do with his life at this point.  He said we were like angels from God answering his question.  His brother loves us as well and they both want to be baptized.  Felix, the 14 year old, is scheduled to be baptized in 2 weeks.  Guillermo has to wait a little bit.  His girlfriend doesn’t like us… or the church… or any religion.  She is mad at the world.  We are all going to fast together this Sunday to try and soften her heart.  Guillermo really wants to do the right thing and is willing to get married and join the church.  He just wants his girlfriend to be okay with it and want the same thing.  But the point is, I listened to the prompting of the spirit and 2 or 3 baptisms may come of it.  It is so important to 1) Have the spirit so you can hear these promptings, and 2) Follow them! This will change this family´s life forever.

The other thing I have been thinking about this week.  WHY?  Why do I have what I have? Why do these people have what they have?  What did I do to deserve so much more? I don’t know why I was blessed with so many things for no reason.  This is what I have come up with.  I must have done something pretty freaking amazing in the premortal realm to be blessed like this.  You all better of done something amazing.  To be born into an LDS family in the country of the United States of America where you have a good job, clean water, a nice house, an amazing ward, education, and much more.  You must have made some pretty unbelievable covenants with the Lord to be blessed with all this.  So the question I have been thinking about is, “Am I keeping those covenants?”  Am I, and are you working your tail off so that you are worthy of all your blessings?  We need to keep in mind that we have been blessed with so much, more than 99% of the world.  Are we wasting Heavenly Father´s blessings?  Just something to think about.

Anyways, I am having a blast here.  Everything is great.  Love you all.

Love,
Elder McRae

10-10-2011 Naranjito, Ecuador

Family,

My P day is Monday now.  The stamp situation is just that no one in South America knows where you can buy stamps.  And I don’t have a white companion who knows anything about mail.  So I have to figure something out.  Otherwise I will just stick to emailing.

SO... Super long week!!!!!!!   We arrived in Ecuador and went to a temple session.  It was great.  We had a long meeting with the president, met our companions, and stayed the night in a hotel across from the temple.  The next morning we had our interviews and left.  It was sad to see all my friends leave one by one to different parts of the country.  Anyway, my companion is from Chile but knows a ton of English.  He is a great missionary and helps me a lot.  My apartment is the smallest one in the mission.  We are in the city of Naranjito.  It is about 1.5 hours from Guayaquil. 

We have about 20 investigators right now.  My companion has already been here for 6 weeks.  Saturday I had my first baptism!  Her name is Isabel.  Even though I only taught her one lesson it was still so neat to see her get baptized.  We have another baptism this week.  Things are a little stressful with getting settled in and constantly traveling for meetings and things like that.  But it is true that this is where I was called to serve.  I have a lot of room to grow but I know this is where the Lord called me. 

Be thankful for what you have.  We have nothing here… no clean water, no hot shower, no air conditioning.  Be thankful for your ward.  It’s the best ward in the whole world.  This was my first Sunday in a real ward and it just did not feel the same.  But I will get used to it.  I am always the happiest when I am tracting.  I love hearing about the experiences at home. 

Here is a picture from the baptism.  Next week’s letter will have a lot more information in it.  I didn’t get that much time to write today because of meetings.  I saw the Ecuador Venezuela game though on Thursday.  Everyone was out in the streets watching it as we contacted.  It was so fun.  Ecuador won 2-0.  This place is so fun during games.  One of the other Elders today tried to tell me US plays Ecuador sometime this week but I don’t know if I believe him because I haven’t heard anything about it.  But maybe.  I may have to hide in the apartment during this game since we all know US would massacre Ecuador... ;) Anyways my P day is now over.  I will try and talk more about the culture and stuff in my next letter on Monday.

Love you all. 

Elder,

McRae

9/28/2011 LAST letter from Peru MTC

Family,

This week has been a great week.  Thursday morning, my companion got sick.  By the afternoon, he was in his bed… too sick to work.  He asked me when I came in that night if I could give him a blessing.  I said, ‘of course’ even though I had no idea what to say, especially in Spanish!  But I went ahead and gave him the blessing the best I could.  He was so thankful, and then he hopped into bed… coughing all night.  He was up a few times in the middle of the night (to go to the bathroom) but shockingly, he woke me up at 6 25 to get ready for the day.  He said he felt completely better.  I still think it was a miracle because of the faith he had that his white companion, who didn’t know enough Spanish, could help him be healed.  I know I will probably have countless experiences like this on my mission, especially after reading my patriarchal blessing.  It was a great experience for both of us.

Saturday we went out tracting.  Me and my companion were without another member, which at first, made me hesitant.  Besides the fact that i didn’t know where we were, I knew my companion hadn’t had a lot of practice and was already shy to begin with.  I have learned from the past 2 times tracting, that we can´t pass anyone up.  I told him, “every single person we pass we have to talk to.”  We had to have talked to 50 people.  It was an awesome experience.  We had tons of great lessons with people.  We met non-members and members of other churches, and people that said they had no purpose in their life.  Many people were very willing to listen to us.  It bugs me every time though, that we can never see these people again.  Ecuador will be amazing because we will get to see them grow. 

One man we talked to was great.  He was sitting on the curb, just staring into the park across the street.  We started talking to him and asked what was most important in his life.  He said, Faith in Jesus Christ.  We were so shocked to hear such a perfect response.  I told him that that was the first principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ… and then we taught him a bit about our church.  He asked us, ¨When will Jesus come?¨ We said, “soon, but no one knows, so we have to prepare.”  We asked him to come to church the next day… and he asked if Jesus would be there.  I said ABSOLUTLY.  If you want to feel closer to Jesus and your Heavenly Father, and feel the Spirit, come to church.  He was so excited to come to church.  Now again, I don’t know if he went to church or anything, but seeing his eyes as we taught him gave us plenty of joy.  I can’t wait to go to Ecuador and begin my mission.  The MTC has gone so fast.  When you’re working hard, the time goes by too fast.  This time next week, I will be in Ecuador.  It is so exciting.

I am so thankful for my opportunity to serve a mission.  I have read the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and I am finishing the New Testament this week.  I see why people don’t want to leave their missions ever.  And I haven’t even gotten to mine yet.  But… I always feel so close to the Spirit-  it’s almost tangible.  It’s an amazing feeling.  The next 22 months are going to be the best time of my life.

Love,

Elder McRae

P.S.  Get Grandma baptized so she and Grandpa can be mission presidents… or presidents of an MTC.  Our president reminds me so much of Grandpa.  He is as tough as nails when he needs to be… but also has so much love for the missionaries.  And he is a historical genius and loves sharing deep doctrine and historical evidence to back up the Book of Mormon.  He is amazing.  Just like Grandpa.

9/20/11 letter from Peru MTC

This week was interesting.  Because all the new missionaries arrived this week, we didn’t get to go out on Saturday to proselyte.  This made Friday seem longer because there was nothing to look forward to on Saturday and Saturday felt like an eternity in the classroom.  We also fasted on Sunday because we always fast the first week the new missionaries arrive.  So I spent the whole week in the classroom studying.  It is easier to work your hardest in the class because the time goes by so much faster.  And when you can see yourself making progress you feel a lot better as well.  So, I don’t have too many spiritual or humbling experiences this week- just that my Spanish is getting better and better.  It would be hard to talk with a native but whenever there is a gospel discussion in Spanish, I feel like I would understand it all and be able to say what I wanted.  When we have firesides in Spanish, I can just pay attention and understand what is being said.  It is such a weird feeling when you almost can’t tell which language someone is speaking because they both sound so familiar now.  I have the Temple today and I get to take my new companion through.  That will be a good experience to share next week.

On Wednesday this week, we went on our tour of Lima.  It was great!!!!!  I took a lot of pictures (which I don’t know how I will get them to you but I will find out).  We saw some really cool things:  Huge catholic cathedrals, a tank, swat members, and much more.  Me and my district bought ¨Link hats¨ (hat´s that Link from Zelda wears). Ask Cameron and Gavin… they will know what I’m talking about and can explain it.  Mine is blue and I will wear it every P Day.  My new companion is Elder Nunton.  He doesn’t like soccer, which is funny.  He kicks the football with me or we play basketball at Gym… or he will play volleyball while I play soccer.  He LOVES Taylor Swift.  He is a funny kid. 

Sunday, I consecrated oil for the first time.  It was a great experience to use my priesthood authority.  I feel like I am going to possibly have to use it more pretty soon.  The other night I gave another elder a blessing of comfort.  Again, I got to use my priesthood authority.  It was a humbling experience for me.  Listening to the spirit is the difference between a good and bad missionary.  I tried my hardest to say what the spirit wanted me to say.  I blessed him that he would be able to be comforted and see the progress he was making in learning the Spanish language.  I blessed him that he would feel the affects of the atonement and know that Christ feels his frustration and through prayer he can be helped.  He was thankful for the blessing and I was thankful for the opportunity. 

We had a rat in our classroom the other night and it caused quite a riot.  Everyone jumped on their desk as it frantically ran around.  We finally led it outside with no damage done. 

Hopefully, I have more to talk about next week, since we will be tracting on Saturday and going to the temple today.

Love,

Elder McRae

I just got back from the Temple.  It was great.  I put names down on the prayer roll.  This was the first time I had ever done anything like this.  My favorite part of the temple was hearing the prayer, ¨Por favor, bendiceles las familias en la iglesia¨ (Please bless the families of the church)  The workers giving the prayers always say exactly what is on my mind.  They are truly inspired and it proves the trueness and divineness of the Temple.  I also got to see my companion walk through the doors of the celestial room with a huge smile.  It was just as great as the first time I went through, and the first time my first companion went through.

I have an interesting story about getting to the temple however.  I was actually a little hesitant to tell it but I will anyway.  Me and my American companion, Elder Curtis, were running a little late to catch the bus for the temple.  As we left the MTC, the bus drove off leaving us behind.  We were waiting for another bus to come by when a man called out to us and pulled over.  He had the little family sticker on the back of his car and we felt good about accepting his offer, so we got in his car as he drove us to the temple.  We thanked him and in our best Spanish, asked how he was and if he was a member.  We were shocked to hear him say no.  We were only in the car for about 5 minutes but managed to tell him that our church blesses families and God would bless him for his generous action.  We also mentioned that maybe God prompted him to stop to pick up two white boys off the side of the road because we had an important message for him.  We left him with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet since it was all we had.  We both wished we had a Book of Mormon or something, but we didn’t.  Anyways, point is, God puts people in your path for a reason.  We have no idea if he will come to church on Sunday or even give us a second thought, but at least we did our part and just maybe planted a seed that will grow.  I am not even in the field, but am seeing the miracles the Lord is allowing us to experience.

I am going to go play soccer on a beautiful turf field now for 4 hours on a beautiful sunny day.  (first time we have seen the sun in about 5 days)

Love,

Elder McRae

9/14/2011 Letter from Peru MTC

Family,
3 weeks down, 3 more to go.
My Latino companion is gone.  They woke us up yelling and turning on the lights at 4am as they left for the airport.  As annoying as they could be at times, they could be spiritual giants when they needed to be.  We will miss them even though we are glad for the peace and quiet.  We get new Latino companions today.

SO this week was one of the hardest weeks of the mission.  Me and my companion set out Saturday on the streets of downtown Lima.  There were not a lot of doors, so we tried contacting from the streets.  This was a rather wealthy part of Peru so the doors we did knock on were very nice.  We spent the first hour getting doors slammed in our face with people saying ¨soy catolico!!!¨ I could see my companion was taking it hard.  I started feeling discouraged as well.  A couple hours in, we had gotten into one house and taught a lesson that ended in a lady committing to nothing and not scheduling a revisit.  This was hard on both of us.  We trudged along as people would shout from buildings and on the side of the streets (translated) ¨Go worship the devil somewhere else!¨ and all manner of swear words.  My companion gave me rough translations but I could tell basically what they were saying.  We continued walking and I happened to see 2 white tourists.  I immediately went up to them and asked if they needed any help since they looked lost.  They couldn’t speak Spanish and began walking away.  I then asked in English.  They turned around yelled NO and said a couple other sentences in French, or some other language and stormed off.  3 hours passed and we felt like failures.  We knocked on an old lady’s door.  She shunned us pretty quick and was about to slam the door when her grandson asked who it was.  He was a 16 year old boy, Jose.  We asked if he wanted to hear from us and he agreed.  I taught him about the restoration and showed him a picture of when Jesus visited the Americas.  He was so interested.  He agreed to read a few chapters in the Book of Mormon and to come check out the church with us.  We escorted him to the church and he met with one of the members who worked out to pick him up from church the next morning.  The smiles on my companion and my faces were easily noticed.  The 3 and a half hours of rejection was forgotten by this boy’s desire to come to church.  We are so happy for him.  My companion is now in Mexico, and I will never see Jose again, but knowing that we helped him begin to change his life is amazing.  After we all got on the bus again, everyone had a similar story.  Door after door was shut in their face but because these Elders are so strong each one came home saying it was a great experience because of the one or two families or people they taught.
Being a missionary is hard.  You can’t coast.  Every second has to be devoted to learning the language and listening to the spirit.  It is so obvious the spirit is your companion.  And it’s more obvious when you don’t feel the spirit in a lesson.  When the spirit is there, miracles happen. 
I am so glad I am a missionary.  The Language is coming so fast.  I have been studying Spanish for 6 weeks and can basically teach any gospel principle.  The everyday language is difficult but the lord has prepared us with what we need to know.
Love you all.  Shout out to Ms. Hagar!
Elder McRae

9/7/2011 Letter from Peru MTC

Family

I think you should have my Ecuador address, but I don´t.  I know my address for here but I don’t have it right here with me.  I’ll send it later tonight.  If you do send anything it has to consist of only 2 pieces of paper.  Also, stamps are 6 dollars a piece here, so it would be nice if you could send me a letter with some stamps in it.

I have a ton to talk about. 

On Saturday we went tracting all day.  Me, my Latino companion, and the huge real world of Peru.  We tracked in the poorest area I have ever seen.  It looked like hoovervilles.  People lived in either sheds, homes made of tarps for walls.  I couldn’t believe how people could actually live like this.  Kids were playing soccer in the dirt roads, wild dogs roamed the areas in search of food, and garbage filled the streets.  Everyone looked at us as we walked from door to door. (if they had a door)  I couldn’t talk much; A. because I couldn’t understand what anyone was saying and B. because I was shocked at the living conditions or these human beings.  Sugar lives a life a royalty compared to these people.  It was unreal.  So I spent most the lessons not saying much.  I shared my testimony and maybe a scripture in the handful of lessons we taught. 

The best experience of the mission so far though came at the last home we visited.  It was a single young man named Mori who used to be a member.  My companion was asking him how he was and the gift of tongues started to kick in.  I could understand almost everything he said.  He talked about how he quit going to church because the members were mean to him and ignored him.  I finally spoke up.  I don´t know how I did it but I spoke with what seamed like flawless Spanish.  I said, ¨look Mori, I don’t know what happened previously in church.  I don´t know why they treated you poorly.  But I do know this.  We are representatives of Jesus Christ.  And heavenly father sent us specifically to you because he misses his Son.  He misses you and wants you to return to him.¨ He began to tear up.  I asked him that if we went to church with him, or if a member picked him up and brought him to church would he come on Sunday.  He said ¨I don’t know.  Its too hard.¨ So I said ¨Mori, I am going to say a prayer.  During the prayer I want you to think about what your Heavenly Father wants you to do and after the prayer I am going to ask you again¨ He said okay and I said the prayer.  In the prayer I asked heavenly father to make his will known to us and to give us the strength to follow his will.  After the prayer I asked him again and he began to cry and said okay yes I will go. 

The excitement and joy that me and Elder Flores felt was amazing.  We didn’t want to leave.  We felt ready for the field.  All the missionaries felt that way after Saturday.  When you can truly touch someone’s life the joy you feel is unlike anything we have felt before.  I am so excited to go to Ecuador.  And we look forward to Saturdays so much now.  We have agreed they are even better than P Day because we get to do the real work and touch real people’s lives.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to be a missionary.  I am doing great and not feeling any sorrow or missing anything or anyone.  We missionaries are the most prayed for people on the face of the planet.  We feel the world’s prayers everyday. 

Love,

Elder McRae

8/31/2011 Letter from Peru MTC

I have so much to say and absolutely no time to say it.  So many great things have happened but I will just share what is most important.  My companion is from Peru, speaks no English but doesn’t stop talking, and stands at 5 foot 2 on a tall day.  He is the greatest.  He is so funny.  All the Latinos crack us up all day long.  They try so hard to speak English and teach us Spanish.  I can see why people begin to love the people of this mission.  (besides when we play soccer I love these elders.)  They are so humble and willing to help and serve. (besides in soccer)  Anyway I think I know one reason I’m in Peru (besides to learn the language).  I need to learn to love the people of my mission.  This MTC teaches that more than anything.  It is true, the more you serve someone the more you love them.  The mission president told us that on the Latinos’ last Sunday, two weeks, they have to bear their testimonies in English.  Helping my companion speak English is forcing me to love him.  Listening to him stumble through "I know the book of Mormon is true, I know Christ lives, my companion is the best, in the name of Jesus Christ amen" is so touching.  Then to add onto that, my companion took out his endowments this morning.  Guess who was is escort?  Yes me.  Watching his eyes light up as he walked into the celestial room was the best feeling I have had since being here.  I guess it actually won’t be hard for me to love the people of South America. 

So I was getting a little sick of the Latinos saying they were so great at football so me, 3 other club soccer players, the safety for BYU, and a couple other athletes challenged them.  We slapped them around for an hour and won 5-0.  It was the 2nd best feeling of the MTC so far.  We now all just play together and it is fun and not competitive. 

We eat the same things over and over and over again.  Rice, and some kind of meat. And we eat it in baby portions. 

Anyway… that is a little bit of my adventures of Peru.  Also, stay as far from the street as possible.  And the bus rides to the temple are terrifying.  Be thankful for U.S. transportation.

Love,

Elder McRae

8/25/2011 Letter from Peru MTC

I am in Peru!

This MTC is amazing! …besides the fact that it looks like we are in a confined prison it is great.  They are so laid back here.  A lady just came and told us we have free time until dinner.  So me and the guys from my district went and checked out the soccer field.  I will try to send you pictures because it is the most beautiful thing we have ever seen.  Tell Gavin and Cameron it looks exactly like something out of FIFA STREET.  The most ghetto houses are behind the field yet the field is miraculous.  The computers here are in Spanish so it is hard to type.  Anyway, they will let us email whoever we want family or not.  Peru is very 3rd world.  The houses are completely run down.  The roads have no laws.  At 2am when we drove to the MTC from the airport the bus driving was honking and swerving through all lanes of traffic.  My P day will be on Wednesdays again.  I have to get off now though.  There are tons of elders waiting and I’m going to go play soccer since they let us do that whenever we want basically.  This place is GREAT. I don’t know to push enter on this computer.  Love, Elder McRae

8/23/11 Letter from Provo MTC

Family,

This week has consisted mainly of preparing to leave.  Me and the three other elders have been attending meetings and getting information to leave.  I still was never given an address for Peru but I will get it the day I enter the MTC. 

Nothing really changes in the MTC so there isn't much to report. 

We watched a video of Elder Holland speaking to the MTC in 2001.  He loved his mission so much.  He firmly told the MTC that this was the most important time of our life.  He said it will be hard.  He said we represent Jesus Christ so how dare we ask for it to be easy.  How dare we want to represent Jesus Christ and expect to not feel a fraction of the pain that he felt in The Garden of Gethsemane. 

The devotional is tonight so I can’t report on that yet.  We had a fireside on Sunday however.  The speaker spoke about not being STUPID.  He spoke of a missionary who bet his companion that he could jump on a moving train.  When he tried he slipped and fell under the train.  It was very powerful.

Yesterday we had our going away devotional.  They just went over steps we had to take to make sure we transitioned smoothly into the next area.  The part that was most touching to me was the closing hymn.  We sang, "God be with You till We Meet Again"  And it was just very powerful and the spirit was very strong.  The Spirit is always strong when we sing in the MTC.  

Anyway that's all that’s gone on here.  I am sure I will have plenty to write about next week after being in Peru.

Love,

Elder McRae 

8/17/2011 Letter from Provo MTC

Dear Family,

Next week I will be writing on Tuesday because we will be leaving for Peru early on Wednesday.  I have no Peru information as far as how you can contact me yet.  I am sure I will get it before I leave however. 

While I was reading your dear elder about the pornography talk in church it reminded me of a movie clip I watched that I think you should check out. You may have already seen it but I remember when I first saw it, it had a great impact spiritually on me.  If you go to LDS.org and click on Mormon messages, the video is called "Watch your Step" Of course it is elder Holland speaking so it’s going to automatically bring in the spirit.  The part that gets me every single time whether is see it or just think about it is when Elder Holland says, "Picture the faces of the ones who love you... (gets choked up) AND HOW THEY WOULD BE SHATTERED!"  the video just makes it even more dramatic so I think you should watch it.

Anyway, nothing new has been happening in the MTC.  We are slowly going insane just like we promised we wouldn't the first day upon arrival at the MTC.  It is the little things that bring us excitement here.  It only takes one good pealing of your hard boiled egg to make your day here.  Or using your workout stretchy band as a sling shot to launch jolly ranchers into the flesh of your fellow elders at night. Yes, imbedded into the flesh.  We have created a weapon. 

Someone explain to Dad what Foursquare is.  Everyone in the MTC plays it to the death.  No one plays soccer or volleyball and even basketball is not that popular.  But foursquare is the thing of the MTC. 

On Sunday two elders were giving a lesson about the attributes of Christ.  The week prior I was getting frustrated because our teachers would not teach Spanish.  They focused on more things like how to teach and how to plan to teach.  I felt like I already knew these things from mission prep so it bugged me that he wouldn’t focus on learning Spanish so I could speak better.  Anyway, so during the lesson we went around the room expressing our feelings on Faith, Knowledge, Patience, Charity, Obedience, Virtue, Diligence, and so forth.  Finally it hit me towards the end of the lesson.  I raised my hand and said, "Why are we learning this lesson? Why are we here in the MTC?  We are literally representing Christ as missionaries.  If we are to represent him, we better have his characteristics.  We sit in class for 11 hours a day to learn knowledge.  We give up all our time to serve to learn charity.  They suck every un-virtuous thing out of the MTC to teach us virtue.  THEY GIVE US A COMPANION TO LEARN PATIENCE.  The MTC is training us to be the best representatives of Christ that we can be.  That is why we are here."  After I realized this and said this we have been better missionaries.  We have been more diligent and have been complain free.  Because we now understand why we do what we do all day.  The lessons really do not matter that much.  Whether we speak Spanish well won't matter either.  Every convert usually says, "I had no idea what they taught me, but I do know how I felt." If we develop the attributes of Christ then they will feel our spirit that we bring in their homes and that is what will convert. 

That was the main lesson I learned this week. One more thing since I have time.  Last night, Elder Evans of the 70 spoke to us.  One thing that stuck in my mind is that I, as a missionary, will be the answers to people prayers.  If I do not stay 100% receptive to the spirit then someone's prayer may not be answered.  And, I at the end of my life will have to sit before God while he asks why I didn't listen to the prompting to speak to that ONE person.  And then he may go on to say, "because you did not talk to the ONE man when i prompted you to he did not feel like his prayer was answered.  He then did not accept the gospel and it rests on your shoulders because you ignored the prompting." So I learned to listen to all of your promptings. 

My time is up.  Next week on Wednesday I will be calling Mom's cell phone and Dad's.  I am allowed to call while in the Atlanta airport.  I don't know exactly when that time will be so just keep your phone's on in class I guess.  I can also call when I land in Peru possibly.  Tell Gav his phone doesn't update pre-season games.

Love,

Elder McRae

8/10/2011 Letter from Provo MTC

Dear Family

I will only be able to write letters and respond to emails on Wednesdays.  This may change when I get to Peru.  My district and especially the four of us going to Peru got that short end of the stick when it comes to P-Days.  Our P-Day is on Wednesdays which means we had to wait a whole week before we got one.  Also, for us going to Peru we leave Wednesday the 24th which means we are out another P-Day.  So I will only be writing one more letter while here in the Provo MTC. 

The days are so ridiculously long here that they all just feel like one day smashed together.  We have NO free time ever.  I only have 25 minutes to respond to emails on P-Day.  I am only allowed to email my direct family as well.  So our day consists of waking up and heading to the classroom for personal study.  We eat breakfast then have another hour of companionship study in the classroom.  We then spend the next 3 hours in the classroom learning how to teach in Spanish.  Then we go to lunch.  After lunch we do another hour of language practice in a different classroom with computers. We go to gym after this for an hour. Then we get dinner. Then we return to our classroom for 3 more hours of Spanish and teaching an investigator in Spanish.  We then close in the classroom with an hour long district meeting.  Then we go back to our rooms for an hour of personal

 quiet time study then we sleep.  We are in the classroom for about 11 hours every day.

My district is great.  We are all different.  Most are very nerdy, some are not, but we all get along almost too well.  We have a blast together.  My companion is by far the most nerdy and can get very annoying.  Luckily I have a lot of patience so he is in great hands.  I just have to save him sometimes from one of the other district members before he gets attacked.  I have been dubbed the KING of 4 square in the gym.  It can get very intense and heated but of course that is exactly what I love.  I was standing by the world map one day and a group of elders came up to ask me if I was leaving soon.  I said "yes sorry do you want to look at the map?" they responded "no we would just like to be able to win at four square and we can't until you leave!" 

Lucky for me I have 2 other elders from my district in the same room and me and my companion.  They are my favorite district members.  They keep me sane while I have to listen to my companion take way too long to explain himself.  We all have a great time together though. 

Now for some spiritual insight.  The first 3 or 4 days I began to feel like a worthless missionary.  I knew I could teach the lessons just as well of better than any missionary in the MTC.  The only problem, I can’t speak Spanish.  I felt useless.  Like a missionary who could in no way fulfill my purpose to bring souls to God.  It troubled me greatly.  I felt like the Lord would have to babysit me since I couldn't explain the lessons in Spanish the way I wanted to.  After studying and speaking with my AMAZING branch president I discovered that God has humbled me for a reason.  The more prideful you are as a missionary the less effective you are.  The Lord makes some missionaries humble themselves but with me he couldn’t afford to waste time.  He got me early.  He called me to Ecuador so in the MTC I would feel worthless.  He called me to Ecuador so I would have no other option but to reply on him.  He is going to mold me to be what he wants me to be.  He can’t mold a hard piece of clay.  He had to break me down and soften me to mold me into what he wants.  If I try to fight that I WILL be worthless.  I have accepted that only through him and the Holy Ghost will I be an effective missionary.  Elder Samuelson from the 70 spoke to us last night.  He spoke of the importance of our missions.  He told a story that made me think if those missionaries in Aberdeen Scotland did not accept their call to serve a mission i would not be here today.  How important is it that i strive to be the best missionary I can be so that in 40 years some little Ecuadorian 19 year old kid can say, "I am on a mission because 40 years ago Elder McRae taught my grandparents the Gospel."  When I think of it in these terms it makes clear sense why I am here.  I am here to change lives of not only the people I teach but all of their posterity as well.

Keep sending the dear elders! It’s what we look forward to most during the day.  Try and get my friends to write and tell me what’s up so I can share my testimony with them.

Love you all, I miss you just as much as you miss me.... which is not that much ;)

Love,

Elder McRae