Fat Tie Baptism

January 30, 2017

Hi friends and fam,

Fantastic week here in the Big Apple. I was sick last week and got three of my roommates sick too, but we are doing good now and working hard, so all is well!

Joshua and Freddy got baptized on Sunday! Tons of members were there and the relief society room was totally full. It was awesome because the two people baptizing and one of the witnesses were all baptized within the last 3 years! Super cool!! Joshua and Freddy are the coolest guys ever. It is so amazing to grow with these people and help them change and come closer to Christ. It helps me better understand the atonement of Jesus Christ in a deeper and fuller way.

For the past couple of weeks we have been street contacting by helping people quit smoking. The way that we do it is by walking up to guys smoking on the sidewalk and say, "Hey brother, when can we help you quit smoking?" We shake their hand and then proceed to tell them that we love them and because we love them we want to help them quit. We give them the most positive peer pressure ever by saying "come on man, drop the cigarette! Come on, you don't need it! God loves you. We love you. God wants you to be healthy. That is killing you. Come on, you can do it. Let's pray right now! We will pray so that you can have the strength to drop that, give us your pack, and quit today. Come on, we love you." And we give them hugs and such and then pray for them and with them right there on the street. It sounds crazy but we honestly feel a lot of love for people as we do it and they almost-always appreciate the love and support. If nothing else, it is a memorable and positive contact with representatives of Jesus Christ a.k.a. Missionaries.

Elder Gong of the Seventy attended our sacrament meeting and it was awesome!

Overall it was a really fantastic week.

Love you all!

Elder Mackintosh

All of us Joshua and Freddie's the baptism! Wahooooooo!

This is Scott Storch - Coolest member ever and his bedroom is the greatest

You can't tell but we are soaking wet in this picture because we

ran 15 streets home in the pouring rain to make it home on time. 

(I got sick 3 hours later)

D&C 10:5

January 23, 2017

Yo,

Great week! Lots of stuff happened. jaja. Satan has really been working hard on our investigators and has caused some road blocks but all is well. Freddy and Joshua are still getting baptized this weekend!

Freddy got a job this last week and it was a miracle and a blessing for him. Then he was told that he had to work Sundays! It was awesome because we said a prayer for him and then invited him to say a prayer and then he ask his boss for work off. His boss said Yes, all Sundays off with no questions asked! That's why I titled this email D&C 10:5 because we prayed and we conquered Satan. It was so awesome.

I gave a talk in church yesterday. Is it weird that I enjoy public speaking? Yes! I spoke about priorities and I based my talk around Matthew 6:33 and 3 Nephi 13:33 "but seek ye first the kingdom of God". I learned a lot while writing and even giving this talk! It is important that we have righteous desires so that when choices come up, we can choose the right and choose the choice that will actually get us closer to getting what we actually desire. If you desire an eternal marriage and pornography pops up on your phone you are then faced with a decision. You can either give in to what you might want in that moment or choose to get it off your screen and keep you actions in line with your desire of eternal life with your spouse. To me that is how you seek first the kingdom of God. It is having righteous desires and making decisions based off of those desires.

Love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Mackintosh

 I've in New York for a year and a half and this was my first time in a taxi. jaja

I was soon happy to run into Elder Carlos Glick today!! 

Miracles Keep Coming

January 16, 2017

Hey everyone!

So I really don't have time to write today. It is hard to explain but yeah, no time!

I went to the temple this morning and that was really special of course. I sat in the temple feeling the spirit so strongly and just hought "wow, and most of the world has no idea how this feels... I love being a missionary."  Those are seriously the thoughts that ran through my head because it is so amazing to help people get to that point of feeling and recognizing the spirit! Love it.

The update on Joshua is that he is still getting baptized on January 28th and he is awesome! He is really excited. The other great news is that Freddy is getting baptized on January 28th as well! He is golden. I think I shared his story last week about how he just came to church and shared his testimony. He said that he found the church on google! He is seriously incredible and he strengthens my testimony every time that we meet with him. Grateful to know him.

Sorry for not writing more but it was a crazy day... but a great day! I love you all and I'm grateful for your prayers. I am humbled every time I go to the temple and remember how many people pray for us as missionaries.. it is humbling. Love you all!

Elder Mackintosh

Today at the Temple. (wow I was standing so awkward) jajaja

Selfie with my apartment roommates

Just Simply DO Your Best

January 9, 2017

YO!

Most spectacular week ever! Before I go spiritual on you, I will share a funny story…

So we try and talk to everybody on the street that are between the ages of 18 and 30. We started talking to this one guy and he seemed super excited to talk to us and told us to walk with him. We walked a few blocks and then had to part different ways but before we separated he started going off on us about how he doesn't tell people what they should believe but we are wrong with all that we believe. (jaja) Interesting guy. Then he messaged us on Facebook later and asked to set up to meet with us so he could interview us on his radio show! We tentatively agreed just to see if he is legit but then it ended up falling through so it's all good. But then he messaged us the next day again and started going off about how we gotta make it in the world wants to start a company with us.  (jajaja) Street contacting in Manhattan allows you to meet some great people!!

Besides that, yesterday was one of the best days of my whole life. We were able to go back up to my old area to see Jermaine get baptized. The baptism was awesome and it was great to see him and the family because I became really good friends with them. The best part of it all though was when he shared his testimony at the end. His story is amazing but the cherry on top was the sweet testimony that he has about the Book of Mormon and the peace that he brings him. When he simply said, "I know that the Book of Mormon is true” the spirit flooded the room. It was so powerful to me. I am so grateful that I was able to be one of his missionaries and to have been able to help him find the truth. Life long friends!

What was amazing as well was going straight to our ward after the baptism and having 5 investigators be there for their first time! 3 were invited by us, 1 was invited by a member, and 1 felt he needed to go to church and found ours on google! Jaja - it was so amazing! We set a baptismal date with Joshua for January 28^th.  Pretty spectacular!

The reason that I title my email "Just Simply DO Your Best" is because

looking back on this week I don't know what amazing thing we did to deserve all of these blessings. All that I can think of is that we tried our best and things really fell into place. I'm so grateful for the day to day miracles and blessings. Being a missionary is the best.    #RepentanceIsCool  #theAtonementIsReal

Love you!

Elder Mackintosh

 Jermaine's baptism

The view of the city from a members roof

Brother Ray Smith took us out to dinner! 

INCREDIBLE WEEK!

January 2, 2017

Aloha,

So this week was incredible as you can see from the title of this email… I just want to share a couple miracles.

Cool Story: Last week we felt inspired to meet with a certain member and to talk to her about missionary work and praying for missionary opportunities. We met with her right after church and had a good spiritual lesson about it. We said a closing prayer and she prayed to have missionary opportunities. She left and then 2 minutes later came back up the elevator with two people that just happened to walk in the church right then and wanted to learn more about the church! She was able to share her testimony with them and then pass them off to us. We had an awesome lesson with them and it built all of our faith and especially the members. Ask and ye shall receive. 

And Another One: We prayed and told Heavenly Father our plans for the day and asked him to put people in our path. Then, as we walk down the street we have been talking to more people than I have ever talked to in my life - it has been crazy - we both have a great desire to build up the YSA (Young Single Adult) wards here.  As we were walking, we passed by a big Arab guy with a full beard, uni-brow and dressed in all black, and right when we passed by him we both turned around and made eye contact, so we started walking towards him, and right when we got to him he said, “Alright, what do you got for me?” and right away we told him that God is his loving heavenly father and he is his child and he loves you more than he can comprehend.  He nodded and said thank you. We pulled out a Book of Mormon and he said that he has one already because he found it in the street a couple years ago and didn't want to leave it there! We got his full address - he lives right by the church. We also got his Facebook and phone number – everything we needed to contact him  right there.  Just as he left and turned the corner, he saw a book of Mormon advertisement on a taxi and he said it was a sign from God that he had to see us. (cool huh!) He text us right away and said he will never let another cigarette touch his lips ever again, and he was just kept repeating that he believes in everything we were saying it was just so awesome to witness.

So that's it! Great week right?

Setting goals right now is weird because I know that I will be home for the second half of the year… so I'm still trying to figure out how to do this. Maybe I will break it into half-year. jaja.  I’m following the way that I learned how to set goals in the bible in the four areas that Christ grew in Luke 2:52. The four areas are:

Wisdom (intellectual) 

Stature (physical) 

Favor with God (spiritual)

Favor with man (social). 

I would also challenge everyone to think about what your real desires are and set your goals. Your real desires. Then pray about it! Yep, it will be awesome. 

Love you all! Happy new year! 

Elder Mackintosh

We started a conversation with a man by having him take a picture of us at grand central! 

 William and me after a mean game of dodgeball!