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.