Last Email: Man Do I Love Being A Missionary!

Hello!

Honestly I currently feel really weird jaja. Definitely, the most bitter/sweet feeling that I've ever had in my life. While praying last night about what I should share today, I simply felt to share about the Book of Mormon, repentance and service.

I have honestly really loved being a missionary for the last two years. Mine time  as a missionary has been full of the highest highs and definitely the lowest lows. How grateful I am for that!!!

Book of Mormon: The Book of Mormon has blessed my life in so many ways that I don't know where to start. I feel this deep peace and love for and from God when I read it. When questions come up in my life I know that I can turn to prayer and the Book of Mormon to be able to find God's will and guidance. Not even just talking about the small questions of life, but also the big ones such as "Why am I here?" "Like seriously, what is the point of all of this "life" stuff?" Peace and answers have come to me through the Book of Mormon. (Alma 40-42)

Repentance: I used to see repentance as a scary and bad thing but now I see it as the same thing as joy. I see it as such because of experience. We all have felt or some currently feel intense guilt for the sins that we have committed. But in Gods plan of happiness, I have come to learn that we don't need to feel like that forever. Sin is bad but repentance is good. Sin brings guilt and shame. Repentance brings joy and peace. I personally testify that this is true and this amazing gift is only possible because of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives because I have felt his influence in my life. (Alma 42:4 and Helaman14:13)

Service: Service has become a necessary element to my life because I have found the truthfulness of it actually being one of our core purposes of life. As I have strived to serve others from my heart, that is when I have honestly felt the closest to the Savior. His life was service. All that he did was selfless and service. When I say service I don't necessarily mean organized service projects (which are awesome by the way) but more so I mean the way that we simply should live on a day to day basis. Looking for opportunities to make others smile and feel loved. I have come to know as a missionary that this really is what life is all about. (Mosiah 2:17 and Alma 42:4)

Just to close I want to share a verse from my personal study this morning. Ether12:41 says "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen." This is my simple invitation. In my scriptures I have "seek this Jesus" underlined and Next to it it says "3 Nephi 14:7 says 'seek, and ye shall find;'" 

I love you all! Thanks for reading this long email if you made it all the way to the bottom jaja. 

2 Nephi33:6 

"I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell."

Here is the info for my homecoming talk! ALL are invited. 

August 13, 2017   

496 river way Lehi, UT 84043-5616

Church starts at 1:30 pm! 

Love,

Elder Skye Dallas Mackintosh 

The Bronx Zoo again! 

 My companion received a fun package from home!

 Lunch with Ray Smith!

Week of Blessings & Miracles

Hey Hey Hey! 

This week was super awesome. We saw some great blessings and miracles! I will write about two of them.

So last transfer, my companion and I were on our way to a member's house and we stopped at a park bench and talked to this man. We gave him a Book of Mormon after a great 10 minute conversation, but he wouldn't give us his contact info, he said he couldn't have visitors at his place and didn't currently have a phone. He said that if we gave him the address he would come to church sometime. We hear that A LOT so we didn't think much of it. Well last Sunday a member came and grabbed us during sacrament meeting and said "There is a man back there that is looking for you." We went back and sat by him. I didn't recognize the man and to keep the reverence of the meeting he just opened his Book of Mormon and I saw my old companion and my name on the inside! I still didn't remember who he was until after the meeting. He loved sacrament meeting and set up an appointment with us for today! It is amazing to see things like that happen when we honestly didn't think that much would come of that Book of Mormon 6 weeks ago.

Another cool story was while I was on a split with Elder Hunt this week. We were planning our day in the morning and we wrote a man's name down because he kept showing up as a new investigator in our area book. (as a glitch in technology) We went to his house and he let us right in. My companion asked him "So, we felt that we should come see you today. What has changed in your life since you last saw the missionaries?" To my surprise he replied with tears in his eyes "My dad passed away yesterday." From that moment on the feeling was different because everyone in the room knew that we had been guided there by a loving Heavenly Father. We shared Alma 40:11-14 and 23 with him and it was amazing to see him change through this process. He began to have this smile on his face and a lighter and better feeling about him. Hope entered into his heart and he had a renewed faith in Jesus Christ. It was amazing to be a part of this. It just amazes me that had we gone over even 24 hours earlier, he wouldn't have been prepared necessarily for our message. God knows his children.

I love you all! Next week will be the last time that I send out a group email because it will be my last Pday as a missionary. Have a great week! I know that Jesus Christ is real and joy is found through him and his gospel.

Elder Mackintosh

7/11 - Slurpee

The Robinson family! Love them.

Went to the MET museum today

Grandma Mack, Mexican Choo-Choo & Representative of Jesus Christ

HEY!

So first off I just want to say a couple thing about my sweet grandmother Mackintosh that passed away last night. Although I will really miss her and it will be weird to not have her at my homecoming, I honestly feel happy for her and feel at peace. I always enjoyed playing Mexican Choo-Choo with her and grandpa. But now they can play together again! I sure love that woman. And I sure love that man. I’m grateful for their examples throughout my life.

Side note: Do you ever get the giggles at the wrong time? I don’t know why, but every time Elder Baker and I start companionship study, we begin with a song because singing is supposed to bring the spirit into the study. But in this companionship it does not. We start laughing every single time we sing!  Jaja it is a mental thing at this point and we are losing the mental game.

This last week I have been thinking a lot about what it means to me to be a full time, authorized, set apart representative of Jesus Christ. After a lot of thinking, I have come to the conclusion that it means a lot. Jaja, sounds simple but it feels deep to me. Yesterday I had my last zone conference ever and there were a couple of times when the emotions got to me, but the strongest was when I was just sitting there after sharing my testimony. I stared at my name tag sitting on my Book of Mormon on the table in front of me and the spirit was just so strong. I felt that I have done a good job, could have done better maybe, but a good job overall. And I feel honored to be able to have that badge over my heart for one more month. My life is so different right now because of the things that have happened with that name tag on my chest. The beautiful thing is that the name tag is now in my heart with that spiritual experience. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ now and my mission scripture means SO much more now.

3 Nephi 5:13 "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been

called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might

have everlasting life."

I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Mackintosh

P..S. I will only be home for a month and I need to make a little bit of money before I head off for college, so please message me if you would like to have me take pictures for something and I would love to. Just in case you have forgotten, I’m a photographer. J Thank you!

I was privileged to baptize this cute little girl in the ward! Super cool.

 The family

Elder Bakers first Bodega sandwhich

Last Transfer & New Companion

Hey!

The big news of the week is that last weekend we had a baptism! Yep, we baptized Edisson - he is a super cool kid - teenager!! My favorite part of his baptism was his testimony at the end, he said "Aunque sea miembro, lea el libro de mormón. Eso le ayuda mucho." Or in other words "Even if you are a member, read the Book of Mormon. That helps you a lot."  It was so cool!   He has changed so much! The best part is that he is now helping us teach another 15-year-old that also has a baptismal date coming up. So cool, cool.

This last week was also transfers and I am staying in the Bronx for my LAST 6 WEEKS (crazy weird to think about) and my new companion is Elder Baker from Mesa, AZ.  This is super crazy! At the end of this transfer I will have spent 13 1/2 months with companions from Mesa, AZ! How random is that?! He is a great missionary and I'm grateful to be serving with him.

In closing, I just want to share a simple testimony. I know that God speaks to me through the scriptures. If I ever have a question, doubt, or concern, I just read and the answer is always there. I know that our Heavenly Father wants to communicate with all of his children. We just have to love him enough to let him.

I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Mackintosh

Edisson's baptism! (with Elder Aurich) 

Kingsbridge Zone

  My new companion, Élder Baker and I!

Birthdays, Baptism & Daily Repentance

Hey everyone!

This week was really awesome. We saw a lot of miracles and also had some pretty fun things happen to us. For example yesterday we were on the train and a woman was wearing a crown that said "Happy Birthday" so we said, Happy Birthday and we asked her what her name was. She told us and so we stood up and announced to the bus "Hey everyone it's her birthday! we're gonna sing to her." and we just started singing! Almost the whole train joined and it was so much fun. jaja. Then you won't believe it, but we are on the bus later and the same thing happened except even a bigger crowd sang. jaja

Another funny story is we are walking down the street and this man stopped us that had a bird mask on his face! He started off by asking for a pamphlet and so while in the process of handing him one he said "You've never seen a woodpecker like me before!" He then put his hand on his ear and began to kind of body role/move his hips. Such a wonderful experience.  jaja

This weekend we are baptizing a really cool teenager that we've been working with since I got to the Bronx.   We met him when his grandmother brought him to the church and said "Hey he wants to be baptized" so I asked him "You want to be baptized?" he said "Yes." And now here we are baptizing in this weekend! It’s awesome. There is a lot more stress and details involved in the story but all is well (jaja) we love him soooo much!

To end I want to share my testimony of daily repentance. As I have strived to repent daily, honestly, and from my heart I have felt an actual joy. Repentance and serving God really are the purpose of this life. I have a testimony of that. Alma 42:4

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week. Be happy! It's a choice.

Elder Mackintosh

Street Tacos

Carrots, carrots and more carrots, we eat carrots at night so we don't eat cereal! jaja

The Question of the Day....

May 31, 2017

Hey hey hey,

Currently sitting in Manhattan in Ben Pelo's apartment. We just ate some wings for lunch. ''Tis a good day.

We went to the top of the Empire State Building today and it was rad! I really love NYC. Will be a sad day when I have to leave this place.):

Cool story time:we started talking to this woman on the street and she was nice but not so interested. We asked "Who do you know that has recently lost a loved one?" She said that she had and that it had been really hard for her daughter and husband to find peace since the passing of her grandfather. We gave her a Book of Mormon and marked Alma 40 and testified from our hearts. She opened it up and literally read the whole chapter right then and there on the street. We sat in silence for about 5 minutes and just let her read. After she said she felt peace while reading it and she wanted to continue. It was amazing and we will be teaching her and her family next week.

What is amazing is that on the way down to Manhattan this same thing happened! We prayed before leaving the apartment to have someone in our path that would have an open heart for the gospel and then we started talking to this guy on the train and he was awesome! We asked him "do you ever wonder what the purpose of your life is?" And he said "yes! Every day!" So we introduced the Book of Mormon and showed him Alma 42 to read later. He grabbed the book and said "I am going to read it right now!" And he started reading. He read the whole thing and after just said "wow this verse really spoke to me.. and I love what it says here.." and it was just so cool to be able to testify about the purpose of life and see him light up.

Also this week I got hit on by 50ish year old women like 3 different times. So that's fun. Jaja

I love you all! Can't believe that tomorrow is the first day of June...

Elder Mackintosh

Joshua got baptized in my last area and now he lives in my new area!! Woot Woot!

An Awesome Investigator.

Its dark but this was on the 102nd floor of the Empire State Building!

Como Tamo Dominican Style

Hey! Sup?

First, here’s a little Spanish lesson; "Como tamo" is Dominican Spanish for what really should be "Como estamos" which means; "How are we doing or how is everything?"

So two and a half weeks ago we were walking in the street and we heard someone say "Como tamo?" As soon as we heard it we naturally repeated the same phrase out loud with a thick Dominican accent as well and we turned around to see 2 men behind us laughing along with us. That is how we met Carlos Reyes. He went to church in Honduras for 5 months before he came here to New York and one of his best friends is serving a mission in Argentina. (it's funny because he's not even Dominican but people just like to talk like Dominicans) We met with him a week later, taught the restoration and invited him to be baptized and he accepted!!! All he wants is to come to church more before he makes the covenant to make sure he is ready. The coolest part is that this last Sunday he went to stake conference and brought a friend with him! Tonight we will meeting with his friend and hoping to set a baptismal date. All because of "Como tamo"!

Another cool experience happened yesterday when we were walking towards the church. We were like 20 yards away from the door when 2 people walked passed and we just stopped in our tracks because we felt we should talk to them, it took us a few seconds to follow the prompting so as usual we had to go running back to catch up with them. We asked them if they knew anyone that had lost a loved one recently and they didn't want to talk to us, I mean they really didn't want to talk to us. So after 2 minutes of walking and trying to figure out why we had felt so strongly to go talk to them,  we decided to stop trying to start a conversation and leave. We were so confused because we were sure we had followed a spiritual prompting. After talking to one more person that wasn't really interested we decided to head back to the church a little discouraged and confused. As soon as we had hit the same square of concrete at which we turned around the first time we heard "Dámelo" from a man as he pointed to the Book of Mormon in our hands, which means "give it to me!".  His name is Manuel and he is from Guatemala. We gave him the Book of Mormon of course and we added him on Facebook and set an appointment for this Thursday. He called us through Facebook video call later that day and we talked for a little longer. So cool how if we wouldn't have followed the first prompting there would be no way we could have met Manuel because the timing just wouldn't have worked out.  Secondly I reaffirmed the reason why it is essential to always  carry a Book of Mormon our hands at all times. You never know who will say "Give it to me!"  jaja.

So yeah. Life is great here in the Bronx. We are receiving sooooo many blessings.

Hope you have a great week.

Love,

Elder Mackintosh

We saw Jermaine and the family at stake conference! Sure love them.

I got to go to my last area to see Ben get baptized! He was so happy

and it was just amazing.

With our investigator Ricardo

We decorated our investigator and a members door with some stuff to

help them remember the goals we set together! Woot! Woot!