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