"Trump all the way!"

YO,

Okay so I bet you are wondering why I titled my email "Trump all the way!"  I will start with telling the story that will explain it. (jaja)  Sorry if it isn't funny for anyone else but it makes me laugh just to think about. (jaja)

Here’s the story: This week we were tracting and this guy opens the door and my new companion, Elder Brasileiro from Brazil, says to him; "Hello sir, what is your name?" And the guy replies to us with a fist in the air, "Trump all the way!!!"  My companion having English as his second language says, "Okay Trump, we are missionaries..."  I chuckled a little bit, but I just go with it and we teach him part of the restoration – he  tells us he’s not interested.  Well afterwards, as we were walking to our car, my companion says,  "So what did he say that his name was?" I said "He didn't tell us his name." I then explained what happened, and my companion thought it was hilarious (jaja) he said, "That makes sense! I had never seen someone so excited to say his name!" Now it's funny to us and we continue to play on it… "Brother Trump" or "Brother all the way" (jaja oh Elder Brasileiro)

(Also, on a side note, my email glitched out and I lost my drafts again... Soooooo if I never respond to you. That's why. Sorry!)

Now to be serious, life is so great as a missionary. We have seen so many miracles this week and just crazy huge blessings. I would to share all of them but that would take too long so I will just write one out. Here it is…

We looked up an investigator named Juan. When we got to his house we knocked on his door only to be told by his daughter that he was not home. Right then a truck pulled partially into the driveway and it was him! Well unfortunately, the truck then pulled out and drove away. (jaja) The daughter called him and told him who we were and that we were there waiting for him. Juan turned around and came back to his house immediately so that he could meet with us. We took him through the lesson on the restoration and it was an all-around solid lesson. We told him about Joseph Smith and how he prayed to know which church was true, and Juan said "yeah, and that's what we have to do to. We need to ask God."  He nailed it - we were just so excited for him. Then we talked about how we have a prophet today and he stopped us and said "Wait, we have a prophet on the earth today?!" I responded "Yes, he lives in Utah." His wife then enters the room and he says to her "Do you know that we have a prophet?! We have a prophet! He is in Utah!" He was so excited about it and so excited to pray and ask God about everything that we had told him. He set up the return appointment with us instead of the other way around. (jaja) Golden.

Life here is great. This whole week I have been dissecting Alma chapter 5 in the Book of Mormon, and it has been so amazing. I would like to invite you to study that chapter and set goals after reading. Repentance isn't an event, it is a process.

Love you all and I wish you a splendid week!

Elder Mackintosh

P.S. Elder  Brasileiro and I jogged across the Hudson River today but I took pictures on my camera and can't get them to load onto my iPad right now, so will have to send them next week.

PHOTOS:

1. Elder Cruz and I (he is my roommate from the Dominican Republic)

He’s a cool missionary.

2. My companion holding up the walkway over the Hudson. Boo-ya!

Change is Good!

I'm excited to write this email! (jaja) The things that missionaries get excited about are weird.

This last week was transfers and it was most likely that I would be leaving. Well Saturday comes and President Smith gives me a call in the afternoon and says, "You will be going to a new area and...  and I will call you back later to tell you your area and assignment."  After hearing that, my mind was going through all of the possibilities, but really I had no clue where I would be sent...


A few hours later, I received another call from President Smith and he says, "So you know how I said that you would be going to a new area? Well, I have been praying and pondering a lot and..."

At this point my heart is just pounding out of my chest and then he continues, "You will be getting transferred to Poughkeepsie to serve with Elder Brasileiro and I'm calling you to be a Zone Leader."   When I heard that, I had an immediate calmness come over me and felt peace instantly. It was so cool to have that spiritual confirmation so quickly and so noticeably!  I know that I'm supposed to be here in Poughkeepsie and I'm very excited to do the work here. 




My new companion is from Brazil and speaks Portuguese and understands Spanish, but he doesn't know how to speak it - he was called to speak Portuguese and then got switched yesterday to Spanish with me. (jaja) So lots of growth.  He is so cool! I'm so excited. Also, I will probably learn a little Portuguese now, so that's awesome!

Another cool thing that happened when I was saying goodbye to members on Sunday.  I was talking to brother and sister Tavarez. (I have worked with them ever since I got here and it has been super hard honestly. What it came down to was that I just kept on loving them and tried my best to show them that love. Well through a couple of miracles and huge blessings, they have come to church for the past two weeks and it appears that they are committed to continue coming!) Well, I was talking to them at church and sister Tavarez looked me in the eye and with total sincerity and gratitude said (in Spanish) "Thank you for loving us. Thank you for always visiting us and for helping us. You (and obviously other missionaries) are the reason that we are back in the church."  It was an incredible moment and we both had tears as we continued to talk. I am so grateful to be here on a mission... There is nothing that I would rather be doing. Those moments of joy completely surpass the moments of difficulty. These blessings are incredible.

Love you! Have a great week. I know that I will and you know why? Because I already chose to.

Elder Mackintosh

PHOTOS: 

Elder Brasileiro and I eating some great tacos.

The missionaries from my last Zone. 

My last picture with Elder Cruz Santos before he went with his new companion.

 Picture with the brother and sister Tavarez.

Megan Yates (my brother-in-law's sister) is funny.  

Elder Smith finished his mission today and I shall miss him.

General Conference for Life

Dear fam and friends,

This week was solid. Ever since I decided that every day would be a good day, they really have been good days. It's interesting that what you put out comes back. Being positive is powerful.

How about conference though? GREAT! It was so fun to receive personal revelation through the words of Gods servants. Tears were shed. jaja. My favorite talks were Elder Uchtdorf in the priesthood session and Elder Holland to end the conference. If you weren't able to watch I just have one thing to say. GO WATCH! It's pretty special that we have a living prophet and apostles. It's  pretty special that God wants to talk to us. That reminds me of a big theme of conference which was basically "remember who you are. You are a son/daughter of God. He is your father. He knows you. He loves you." Well that's at least a big theme that kept sticking out for me anyways. I loved what Elder Holland said (roughly) "The first great truth is that God loves us with all of his heart, might, mind and strength." It is just so special to me.

So I will just finish with a quick miracle that meant a lot to me. So I have talked about our investigator Rafael for months now right? Well I wanted so badly that he would go to conference. I prayed for it a ton and we set a goal and made plans to get him there. He said that he would be there for the afternoon session on Saturday and when he didn't show up it made me a little bummed. Well between that session and the priesthood session we went and were determined to find him. We called repeatedly and he didn't answer. We went to his apartment and no answer. We decided to wait there for a couple minutes and make some calls to other people. We then decided to knock a couple of doors. We knocked on rafaels door and he still wasn't there. We decide to not necessarily give up but to start heading to the church. While walking to the church we ran into Rafael on the street! We talked him into taking his stuff home and coming with us. He went to the session and loved it! It was so good and spiritual and he said that he felt it and learned a lot. God answered my prayers and put a lot of things into place so that we would run into him on the street and take him with us. Miracles!

Well, I sure love you all and hope this week is the best one of your life! Choose to be happy.

Elder Mackintosh

George Washington bridge. Wow, I take a lot of pictures of this bridge.

Hermano Manzano took us out to lunch

Pigeons for day. jaja