Monday, December 16, 2013

Week 53: First Baptism Coming Up: Alfonso this Saturday; Then Christmas Skype!

Hey Guys!  

How was all your guys week?   Well my was pretty good.  My first week as a district leader.  I loved it! Wednesday was the district meeting and I gave the class, obviously. haha   I prepared everything tuesday and gave it wednesday.   It was really good!   I felt like i taught really well so thats good! 

then thursday I went to tampico for a meeting with all the leaders in the misison.  It was really good. We took a 4 hour bus ride to Tampico and stayed in the house of the assistents.  8 missionaries in a small appartment haha    I didnt go to bed until like 1 in the morning and woke up at 6 30.   Then the meeting there in the institute building. 

The president is changing things up in the mission because 12 x zone leaders finished there missions and he needs new leaders in the mission.  So he called like 25 new district leaders!  Its pretty sweet. The meeting lastest 7 hours and it was all about how to be a good leader and what we need to do as leaders in the mission.  I learned alot!

Alfonso is doing awesome. He is for sure one of those prepared by the lord.  The last monday we had a family home evening with him and another family.  It was good we talked about the life of christ and everything.  And we walked with Alfonso back to his house and he started asking us questiones about the temple and other things and then we started talkiing about normal life and he opened up to us and we were joking around!  It was good because before he was a little shy with us and stuff by now he just jokes around and all. 

Then my comp and another missionary taught him, because i was in tampico, but he told me all about it and Alfonso told them that he had finally recieved his answer.  That he was praying for several things and he felt a warm feeling inside and that he just knew that the book of mormon is true and that the church is true and that everything that we have taught him is true.  And he feels ready for his baptism and he is ready! 

What an amazing feeling to bring someone to the knowledge of thier redemer!  He will be having his interview friday and baptism next saturday!   OH man.   Im SO EXCITED!! 

Speaking about being excited. I CANT WAIT TO TALK WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!      Next week (on Christmas Day) i get to skype with you all.   Im so happy to be able to talk and see everyone. I'm going to cry but hey, who wouldnt at this time?  haha

In this mission arrived 7 sister missionaries, but the difference is, is that they are american!  The first time in forever that american sister missionaries have been in Mexico.  And theres 2 here in this town. BUt they arent in my district haha 

Hey! I will probably be call skyping on Christmas around 4 PM here so that will be 3 in utah and 2 in california. I might be calling a little earlier than that so be ready please. And come with questions and stuff that you want to ask me and things to talk about!!!    Please dont forget that!   Questions and things to talk about!!!!!!!!

I hope everyone will have a good week this week!   Love every single one of you. 

Love, 
Elder McNamara 

Monday, December 9, 2013

Week 52: David is Now a District Leader! Leading the Elders!

Hey guys!!!...well im still in my area, Huejutla B!!

I'm excited and glad that my compa and i will still be together. Like i said before we are like brothers haha oh and Im the new district leader! Woohoo.

Im excited to serve the other missionaries and be able to gain some experience as a leader.  Im a little nervous though because i dont really know how to be a district leader..oh well i will learn on the way!

This week was good. We taught Alfonso monday and thursday, we taught him the Law of Chastity and the other time of repentance. They were awesome leasons. I swear every lesson we have with him is so spiritual. And he understands about everything we teach him. He is for sure prepared 100 percent by the lord. I feel so grateful to be able to bring him unto his savior.

On friday the zone leaders, they are in our district, had a baptism. Their investigator was 100 percent prepared also and Alfonso came too!  It was good and helped alfonso clear up his doubts he had and when David (the person that got baptized) shared his testimony. OH YEAH it was perfect and exactly what Alfonso needed to hear.

He talked about how he would go to many different churches looking for something to fill the openness he had inside him. That each church he went to there was something that he didnt like and that none of them would fill that emptiness he had, until he came to our church. The feelings he had when the missionaries were teaching him and going to the church and all would fill the emptiness he had inside him. Thats when he knew he had to keep going and get baptized!

It was an awesome story and testimony! I actually taught David for the first time when i did divisiones with the zone leader Elder Stokard. My comp and i are thinking that David should baptize Alfonso in these next few weeks. How awesome would that be!

Elder stockard finished his mission today. He left during church yesterday, he passed behind me and put his hand on my shoulder and said I love you man and then left! Oh my gosh just thinking about when that time will come for me makes me a little sad! Thats going to be so hard for me. I love the mission, its so fun!  Well only 11 months until i finish my mission. That time is going to fly by!!

One day we were walking in the street and we didnt know where to go because all of our citas fell through. I was thinking to myself like this stinks, what the heck are we going to do now...i was kinda mad but then we see a old lady in front of us pulling this cart thing packed full of wood and straw!

When i say packed full i mean its coming out of the edges like 2 feet on all sides haha so we help her pull it to her house which was like 2 miles away. I pull it the whole way and oh man!! I was sweating like a pig!

But we get to their house and turns out they were going to use the wood and straw to make their mudd house. They already had the mudd they just needed to add the straw! We ended up talking to her son and her sons wife. We talked a little bit then we brought up religion and they go to a christian church and are liking it and all.

So we talk to them about the book of mormon and profets and stuff. they seemed pretty interested.  We are going to visit them this week so we will see how it goes!   That was pretty much my week for you. I love you all so much! I miss you guys like crazy, but the time will go by.  Have a good week!

Love,
Elder McNamara

the hermana taly was cooking some chicken and out her dirty hand on my face!! hahha



For Dad, a somewhat sad Mexican Festivus 2013 (it was the best pole I could find)


For everyone, instead of the Festivus Pole, a Christmas Tree in el pueblo



"Only 11 months to go .... hmmmm?"


Monday, December 2, 2013

Week 51: Dreaming "I'm Thirsty for Water ..." in SPANISH

Hey family!  How are you all?

Im doing good.  It was a good and fast week.  Im just still thinking about the OSU game that mom told me. HOW SWEET IS THAT!  I wish i could have saw it.  Thats my team right there killing it like they should. GO BUCKS!!!

Those pictures that you sent me mom brought back so many memories from nags head and good old deseret!  What awesome times those were.  Such a blessing to have lived in a place like we did.

I cant believe that Bryan O´conner ("Brian O'Conner" was Paul Walker's character) died in a car accident.  Now i wont get to see anymore fast and furiious movies!!

Today has been a really good day.  So in the center palaza a ton of people from all around has put their tents and stuff to sell.  Its so cool and lets just say i bought some really cool stuff.  I had to get out of there before i bought more things haha but hey...YOLO.

So i get to talk to you all in 23 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Im so excited to get to talk with you all again. Its been 7 months since i have talked to you all in person, well kind of.  Im going to say right now im going to cry when we talk haha.  Its all good.

So i have been on my mission for a year now.  WOW where has the time gone? Really it has gone by really fast. And ill be home in 11 months!  One missionary has told me that the mission is 1 year and 1 second. Im sure thats true!  I have learned so much in all areas, Living on my own, getting alog with people, talking with people, and especially about my savior! The best thing that i can grow here is my testimony that will help me for the rest of my life!

Want to hear some thing funny that happened this week? So like tuesday morning at like 3 in the morning. My compa was awake because he couldnt sleep and then all of the sudden he heard me say ¨Tengo sed....agua....ahhhhhh!!¨ haha the thing is, is that i said it in spanish while i was asleep. Looks like im dream in spanish now! Im becoming mexican.

So our investigator, Alfonso esta con ganas todavia!!. He is for sure one of those people that are prepared by the Lord to hear the gospel. I am 100 percent sure about that. Every lesson that we have with him is so spiritual and he is progressing so much. Guess what?  He stopped drinking since we taught him the first time!

Alcoholism is something that is really dificult to break but the gospel and the desire changes everything and makes everything possible. And guess what else. We found out that he plays xbox 360, AND he plays Halo and Call of Duty!!!  What person is not more perfect for me to teach on the mish?

We talked about Halo for like 10 minutes after a lesson we had last week haha.  He always invites us to play with him after but we got to say no...:( He came to church for the 3rd time in a row yesterday.  And he is in 1 Nephi 17 in the book of mormon. I cant wait to see him baptized the 28th. That will make my whole mission worth it.  My first real baptism in my whole mission.  Not only the fact of having a baptism, seeing someone coming to the knowledge of their savior and seeing that light grow in their eyes.  (Took that from a scripture in mosiah)

That was my week for ya.  This week is the last week of the change. so i might get changed out this next monday but who knows.  I dont want to be changed.  I want to stay here because we are raising this area and my comp and I get along really well, and for alfonso!   Pray for me that i stay.

I love you all so much.  Have a good week   :)

Love,
Elder McNamara

                                                       
"I am the Stig"





Monday, November 25, 2013

Week 50: "What We Do in Life, Echoes in Eternity"

Okay just awesome today opening my email.  Because i got news of 3 mission calls!!  How awesome. A shout out to my cuz blake going to Africa.  Thats so awesome and cool!  then my friend Adam going to Australia so cool too!  And lindsay getting her call any day now.  Im proud of all of them. Nothing better than to serve a mission at this time in your life!

I enjoyed reading everyones letters today.  Mom thats game of the Bucks sounded so cool!  I kinda forgot about football  haha  but i miss watching the bucks play and even more when they are winning!  And thanks about the lesson you had on sunday!  Interesting about how the blacks came to have the preisthood, i dont know that much about it!  Dad with your crazy 12 day trip for USANA and thanks for your advice!!  I really liked it;  and yeah i remember the Guzowskis (however you spell it) when i used to play with the daughter my age!

This week was pretty good!  Again my compa and I get along really well!  I feel like he could be brandon or michael because we always make random, wierd noises in the house and in the streets with stupid faces haha its awesome.  And sense we get along really well our teaching is that much better and we can feel the spirit. We are really raising this area more than it has been for awhile!

This week nothing to exciting like the past 2 weeks. We had interviews with president Jordan. It was good and he taught me some new things that im going to put into pratice!  We taught Alfonso on tuesday and he is still going strong like ever.  We could only teach him once last week because he had a lot of work to do in his job.  But guess what?  He came to church again!!!  Woohoo.  And guess what else?  He has read all the way to ! Nefi 12 in 2 weeks.  More than what i read haha  how awesome is that.

We are going to teach him tonight so pray for him!  Oh i just remembered.  In this lesson last week we had him pray at the end the lesson., well we do every lesson, but this time was special.  We had him ask God directly if the things we have taught him are true.  And he did but he also asked about his baptism if he should continue on and when he asked that he like paused for a second and we could all feel the spirit and he tried to go on to finish but he couldnt, he almost started to cry but held it in.  SO he ended the prayer.

It was so powerful prayer.  I have never felt the spirit or see the spirit touching someone time after time like i have with  Alfonso.  He is really prepared  to hear the gospel.  And i feel so blessed to be the person to help him!  The next morning i was thinking about it and just felt so grateful that the Lord is using me to teach His children.  Im so grateful to be here on my mission, what a blessing in my life and it will be for my future family ;)

The mission really turns boys into men.  Yes im saying im a Man now   haha.

What we do in life, echoes through eternity!

Love you all,
Elder David McNamara




Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Week 49: Cold Day in Mexico, but the Spirit of God Burns Bright

Hey family and friends!

Well this week was the BOMB!  It was really fun and full of adventures.  Tuesday lets just say we had a experience that i thought it would never happen to me.. Starts with E and ends with a M,  Thats all i will say, if you want to know more write me and ill tell you.

Wednesday was the COLDEST day in Mexico history im sure.  It was 4 degrees...celsisis like 40 degrees farehiet!  I was rocking a long sleve white shirt and when it started getting dark we had to go home to put on a sweatshirt!  It was honestly that cold that i need a long sleve shirt and a sweatshirt!  Crazy. The next day was hot like always. haha

Last week i dont know if i told you about the drunk guys that we talked to last sunday. We were walking to a members house and on the way some drunk guy was like HEY!! you come here!  i ignored him like 3 times then i was like what the heck.. lets go talk to them.  SO we talk to them all and stuff and the one that was talking to us was drunk but not so much but his friend Alfonso was drunk out of his mind.  His eyes barley open and about fell down 3 times while we were talking.

So we set up a cita with the mas sober guy and we go on wednesday night. Turns out the direccion he gave us was the house of his friend Alfonso, so alfonso comes out and lets us in. He wasnt drunk at all this time. We start talking and getting to know him and all. Turns out that he actually wants to know more about us and about God.  Because he doesnt believe in God or Christ.  After his grandma died he stopped believing. And her death really affected him.

So we taught him the restoration of the gospel.  And OH MY GOSH, that was the most spiritual lesson i have had in my mission ever!!  My comp and i felt the spirit guiding us and telling us what to say. We bore our testimonies a ton.  We knew that Alfonso was feeling the spirit as well.  At the end of the lesson i felt impressed to bare my testimony about how much God loves us and how Christ lives.  So i did and I havent felt the spirit that strongly in awhile and Alfonso about cried and then my comp bore his testimony too and Alfonso started crying.  It was an amazing lesson.

So we go back on friday night and teach him the Plan of Salvation.  First off we could see a change in him. He did his hair, put on nice clothes and all and a lot better than the first time we taught him. We asked him how it went with reading and praying. He read the chapter we left with him..twice! And another chapter, then he started reading the book of mormon from the title page!! No one does that. It was awesome. And he prayed and all.

SO we teach half of the plan of salvation and near the end i get the impression to talk about baptism. I had no idea how to bring it up all of the sudden. But i tried my best and it worked perfectly. We read in 2 nephi 31 all about baptism.  My comp had no idea what i was doing so i had to teach the whole part with the scriptures.  It was amazing, it was deffinately the spirit guiding me knowing what to say.

The whole time we were talking about each scripture we read i had a thought. "you need to invite him to be baptized" I had a mini battle within myself haha i was a little scared to say it and didnt know how to bring it up and all. So i decide okay ill do it.  So i find a way to do it and i invite him to be baptized "Seguira el ejemplo de jesucristo y sera bautizado por alguien que tiene el sacerdocio de dios?"  He said "Si, yo quier" Yeah i want to. Then i told him we had a date prepared for him on the 28th of deceber, then he is like "Wait, let me check if im free that day" He pulls out his phone and checks then says " Yeah im free that day!" So it looks like we will have a baptism after christmas!!!

One more thing about Alfonso, he came to church yesterday! He got there before we did!! And guess what? He cut his hair, shaved his beard, and took out his lip ring he had. He is honestly changing so much so fast. Its so amazing! Its awesome. Another thing my comp told me after the first lesson with him he said "I have never heard you speak so perfect and clear spanish before" What a testimony right there that the lord really puts the words in your mouth and if he needs you to do something...He will help you do it!

That was the cool experiences this week.  We also taught a lesson this morning, yeah on our p day. We have a new investigator that has a lot of potential!  Do you want to know his name?  Here it is... Tlakayoltonatij ...And no i did not just type random letters even though it looks like that  haha  thats really his name.  Its kinda hard to pronounce it haha

Lets see..about one more month and i get to talk to you all over skype!!!!! OH YEAH im excited to see your faces!! I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder McNamara

PS:

yep that peper is a Habanero peper. I almost died but it was so worth the half peso price








Monday, November 11, 2013

Week 48: One Year to Go! Now Returning Home November 10, 2014 ...Wow!

Hey Guys! hows everyone doing? I hope well.

This week was really good. I have been in a wierd, happy, crazy mood pretty much all week haha  Our area is a little difficult right now.  Honestly no one is there in their houses when we go there, what a coincidense huh?  Its pretty frusterating.  So what else can we do?  Contact people in the street and the houses.

This week I contacted 14 people.  That only the people that I actually had a converstion with, the other people that flat out rejected me and just went back inside i didnt count or can count how many!  HA  So im becoming pretty pro at contacting random people and starting a conversion from nothing and moving it towards the gospel!  Its kinda fun and interesting to learn about the peoples lifes.


Friday the district leader did divisiones with me.  He came to our area to check how we were working and how we can help.  I love my district leader.  He is crazy and so cool.  His name is Elder Marecus and he is from Paraguay.  So all our citas fell through...nothing out of the ordinary.  So we went around looking up referencias and contacting.  SO we go to this one house in the mountains to look up this one person and she wasnt there but her mom was.  And her mom barely spoke spanish.  She speaks the native language here, Nahualt.

So all of the sudden Elder Marecus starts speaking the natvie language asking questions and stuff.  He has been in this area the same time as I, but he learned the other language.  By the way he speaks english, porteguesse, spanish. and some other language.  So that surprised me.  He asked her if she believed in God and if she knew that god loved her.  She said no to both and told us to leave..okay esta bien!  But i learned how to say I know that God lives...Nai mati toteco estok... its a way hard language.

Oh also with my district leader we were talking in the morning about what we did before the mission and stuff and somehow we got to talking about doing backflips and we started practicing them in our house haha We both can do them and I have videos of it haha its pretty cool and crazy.

This week we didnt have any cool lesoons.  Just the normal.  But a service moment.  Ready?  here i go.  So yesterday we were up in one of the mountains in our area going to a cita we had but it fell through.  I had no idea where to go because everything in our agenda fell through so i decided that we where going to go to the other mountain.  SO we had to go down this slope with a few rocks in place as steps but there arent really any.

There were this teenage kids in front of like 16 17 years old laughing and stuff.  then they started to climb the stairs on the other mountain.  By the way the stairs are the worst to climb.  The picture i sent like last week with the stairs and trees and all behind..those stairs.  The teenage kids started to climb them and there was this women in her 40 or 50 with her little daughter beside here.  She was carrying a huge bag of corn on her head!!

I watched to see if the kids were going to help her but nope!  So i ran up the rest of the stairs to help her.  I asked her if i could help her and she didnt say anything, then i said it again but at the same time took the bag off her head...and OH MY GOSH the bag wieghed about 100 pounds!  I about dropped it because i didnt expect it to be that heavey, i mean she was carrying it on her head.  So i carry it down the insane stairs and to her house there in the valley.  Then i asked her if we could past by some day and talk a little bit and she said yes.  But the lesson there is to help people!!  Especially the teenagers these days. ( Im 20 now so ya haha)

Remember the women martha that we taught last week.  We werent able to teach her this week but guess what???  She came to church!!  One of the members in our area past by and brought her to church.  I was so excited that she was there and so happy!  I never thought that someone coming to church would make me so excited and pumped!  haha but she enjoyed everything especially the hyms and i was watching the whole time haha she sat up front.

And she got all emoincioal during the sacrament.  It was awesome!  After she said that the whole meeting she felt an imense peace inside her that she has never felt in her life. That she felt safe, happy, and at ease. What a testimony right there.  Its so awesome and amazing to see others experience the joys of the gospel for the first time in their lifes.  It builts my testimony just seeing it!

This past week has been pretty cold actually.  Or i have gotten used to the crazy hot heat.  But on thursday it rained all day and was cold and i got soaked and was freezing the whole day.  ANd the next day i woke up with a cold haha  Its been really cool in temperature here.  Its nice and i like it!  Just not my annoying running nose.

Thanks for your emails and your love!
I love you all!

Love,
Elder McNamara

PS:

Just so you know i will be home on November 10th of 2014!!
Just a little update for ya.
I will send you a hand written letter next week for your birthday dad!
I promise!  I love you dad
Oh, and I'm a artist with soup haha


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Week 47: From Dia de los Muertos to the Resurrection of Christ

How are you guys doing?  I hope great!

This week was pretty well. I really like my new companion Elder Santeliz. He is quiet most of the time and has a soft voice but hes cool. We get along pretty well. He has 9 months in the mission so i have to show him and teach him a few more things. I like it though. I have to talk a lot more and lead around. Like in the lessons and stuff. I like the challenge and I feel a lot more comfotable teaching.

I think I have felt the spirit more this week in the lessons than I have before in my whole mission. Just because I have to rely so much more on the spirit than i have before. Its so cool to be let by the spirit.

I think it just hit me how comfortable I am with Spanish now. I speak well and fast like the people here haha just with an american accent and i can understand everything. Im definately blessed with that.

This week lesson wise was a little difficult. Difficult to find the people in their houses or just know with who we should go with. We went with an investigator that we have that has been taking the lessons from the missionaries for years now.  And we showed up at their house and he was drunk.....we prepared a lesson for him and everything but we didnt teach him obviously because he wouldnt remember it  so we talked a bit and with his son that was there. His son actually seemed interested so we set up a cita and left.

Another day we contacted a reference that Elder Garcia and I recieved like 5 weeks ago.  She is such a sweet lady.  She is in her 50s, she has red hair (like Katie, haha) and is really nice. We sat on her front pourch and started talking about her family and her job and stuff.  And then how she has felt blessed in her life.  She has some really cool stories and she really has been so blessed in her life. I think everyone is!  They just need to take some time and look back and the miracles that have happened.

We started teaching her the resturation.  It was a good lessons but got even better when we started talking about when Cristo was here and about the atonement.  She started crying when we talked about that and shared our testimonys of christ.  Then we shared the Jose smith story and she started crying again when we shared the first vision.  the spirit was just so strong!!  She accepted a book of mormon and said she was going to read it.  We have another lesson with her on friday.  We´ll see how it goes!

Well last night we taught a couple who just had thier baby. And now they are going through problems in their relationship. they are on the point to get married. But they are having fights and stuff and they lack communication between them. Like the guy, Julian, comes home and eats and goes a sleeps and they dont even talk to each other or say i love you or any lovey dovey words towards each other.

So last night I had to be a marriage counsiler for them, because my comp didnt know what to say. I asked them questiones like what did they like first like about each other and what did they do before with one another and questiones like that.

Then i shared with them about Katie! I talked about our relationship and how much we care for each other. because we have the same amount of time together as them. It seemed to help them and we left and they were finally talking to each other!

I never thought that i would talk about katie in a lesson, but i did and it helped them a lot!

So that was my week pretty much! want to hear some gross things i have eaten this week? Im going to rate them with first being the one i kinda liked better to the last being i couldnt stand it one bit.

1st Chicken feet...It actually wasnt to bad a taste, just when it reached my stomache i wanted to throw up
2nd Pig stomache... really really gross! I didnt even chew it, i just swollowed the pieces whole haha
3rd Cow stomache...I tasted it and about threw up on the spot. I refused to eat it!!

So their was my menu for the week. Saturday night i threw up at like 1 in the morning. I felt so sick to the
stomache and it was the worst throw up i have ever had in my life!! Then i threw up again at 6 and i felt like poop the rest of the day and a little today! But i will be all good!


Here's a picture of the Mexican Halloween in the Huasteca!  Here its called Dia de los Muertos or in the native laungue Anauctl its called Xantolo.

I love you all. Have a good week!

Love,
Elder McNamara

Monday, October 28, 2013

Week 46: New Companion, New Week, One More Month Until Hump Day!

Hey guys!

Welp, its the first day of the new change.  And my comp got switched out.  My new comp is called Elder Santeliz?  I dont konw how to spell it  haha  but im waiting for him right now to get here from tampico with another elder waiting for his comp.  Im excited to have a new companion. This last week was pretty tough with elder garcia and I.  We got in fights pretty much everyday this past week. ha

Like on wednesday i was feeling so bad!  I dont know what it was.  I was feeling sick to my stomach, head ache and i was homesick too.  I was feeling so sick so we went home and i called sister jordan and then i went to bed at 5 in the afternoon and diddnt wake up until 6 the next morning.  I was feeling so bad and down.  BUt i woke up refreshed and all good.

The past week we contacted in the street a ton!  We contacted 16 people.  I contacted 6 and my comp 10. It was a difficult week with the lessons.  Not really much there.  Saturday we had 6 lessons though!  We worked our butts off that day just going over to everyones house and trying to teach them! haha

We are teaching this one less active named Gloria. She has been a member for 16 years but hasnt gone in 15 years. We were teaching her and we were getting to know her better and her story and stuff. She was telling us how she and her family were going good in the church and everything and they went to te temple to do baptisms and after some things happened and they all just stopped going all of the sudden.

And she was saying how when she stopped going her life got so hard and she was feeling super lonely and everything. And that now she doesnt believe in the church and the prophets and feels like the book of mormon is completey false. When she was saying all that to us i wanted to cry hearing all that. How could a person that has been in the church so long and knew at one time the church is true and then a few years later be so against it and non believing?! It made me so sad. After i shared my testimony to her. About when i first found out that the church is true and everything. That i know that the book of mormon is true becasue i have asked heavenly father about each one and have recieved an answer each time! It was powerful for me and i was feeling the spirit real strongly. Its amazing the power of a testimony!

That was pretty much my week. Im excited to have this new change with my new comp. WE{ll see how it goes!

I love every single one of you.

Love,
Elder McNamara






A tarantula that "needed" to be killed while on a service project.


Meanwhile, Katie is almost mid-way through her Freshman year at Snow College, while David is about a month away from from being a year on his mission!   She's getting excited to be over the hump.  :)


Monday, October 21, 2013

Week 45: Zone Conference and a Week of Rejections on Approach

Hey Family!

Well this week is the last week of the transfer! wow its gone by pretty fast!

This past week was a little interersting. It started out pretty well and ended a little difulcult. Wednesday until Sunday we had such a hard time to find people to teach!! We were honestly walking around all day and no one was in their houses!

Friday we had a zone conference with President Jordan. It started a 10 and ended at 6 in the afternoon!! So long. BUt it was really good. The first 2 hours was a devotional for the Elder (Kuntz) that past away last week. And we also talked in depth of the plan of salvation. It was really awesome. IM not going to lie...i was holding back tears most of the time. I just feel so bad for his family. I couldnt imagine anything happening like that. BUt he is in a way better place preaching the gospel!

Then we ate and after the asistantes talked to us and we started the practices!! We were in groups of 3 and each person had a paper with 2 investigators to act. And the missionary had to find out the investigators needs and teach without reading the paper! Oh and we only had 7 minutes to do it haha and when i was the missionary teaching president Jordan came over and watched me and gave me advice haha i was a little nervous to have the president there haha He is such a cool guy though!

Then after one of the asistents came with us to do divisions! It was Elder Flores!! My companion in soto for 3 weeks haha it was so fun to be with him again. We just joked around and laughed the whole time. And at night we talked unitl 1 in the morning. He so cool.

Saturday was a decent day. we had the opportunity to teach the sister and her family of one of our less actives that we are teaching!! He just had his baby with his wife. The baby is so cute and little! Anyways we taught his sister and her family and them seemed really interested in the gospel and were participating in the lesson and everything. BUt at the ended we invited them to church and for another lesson but they flat out rejected us!! OH MAN:..

Then saturday night i started feeling sick and my throat started to hurt me. Then Sunday i started to feel even worse! I was so tired even though i slept normal.

Honestly ALL of our citas fell through...every sinlge one. Sooooo we put ourselfs to contact in one colonia! Lets just say i dont know how to contact very well. I have never done it before. My comp contacted like 3 and then it was my turn.

So we stopped in front of thier house and i said Buenas Noches!! And the woman came out and i said buenas noches again and she said what do you want? so my mind went all blank and i didnt konw what to say so i asked her "Como se llama?" I asked her for her name..how lame huh? and even more funny she said huh? I dont understand you! Then my comp took over. They rejected us anyways

Then it was my turn again. Its like 8 at night and we see this guy waiting under a lamp post. I asked my comp. What do you think about him? Should I go contact him? all the while we were staring at him then he looked over, so we had to go over. So i start contacting him and it went pretty well!! I didnt sound retarded and i went smoothly. All in all..he rejected us too but..he did it nicely.!

Well that was pretty much week for yáll!
I love you so much family!

Love,
Elder McNamara

PS:

Thanks dad for your email! Thats so awesome that your buisness is going so well right now. Going all over the place. And glad that i got a part in that when i get home!

Thats cool that luke is improving in sports . Yeah i remember when that happened when my coach asked me what happened. i did say usana but he said "no..thats not it. Its the workouts your doing" haha  i miss my coach a little bit. Hes a cool guy.   I love you dad like always.   The picture of julie and her friend is funny haha   Love, David