11.3.14

How was halloween?! I want a picture of Lily and Isac and all of my baby cousins in their outfits!!! This is important!

Hey, 

I loved having ward council here in Rivera. It was so positive and things got done. We had a meeting with the stake president here on Thursday so we couldn't go to our ward correlation. The Hermanas in our ward gave us the report on how it went though, and they said that it lasted 10 minutes and that it was just the bishop, his first counselor and the hermanas.

One day this week, we had a garbage lesson with an investigator, then I went to turn on the bike and the handlebars broke on me, so the bike kept going straight into the middle of an intersection (I almost ran into a parked car).  I had to pay for the new bike handle bars (that were broken in the first place) and I got into an argument with the financers because of the large amount of money that is not reimbursable.  We got to our ward activity and the power was off in the church, and when we finally got the power going, the laptop didn't have a video playing program, so we couldn't even watch the video that we planned on watching.  Then, our investigator that was going to be baptized this Saturday said he wouldn't be able to be baptized and I found myself thinking, “MAN TODAY JUST SUCKS!” I was a total jerk that day, and by the end of the day, I felt a huge need to repent. I prayed saying, ''Heavenly Father... I just don't like it here. The organization is awful and I don't feel like I can do anything about it this time. Can you please just lighten the load a LITTLE bit so that I can remember how much I love the mission? Please give me patience, give me ideas, give me something! And more than anything, help these leaders at least have the desire to magnify their callings.'' I asked for forgiveness from Elder Marín and he said that he felt the same way when he got here to Tacuarembo. We set goals to help the ward and stake little by little. 

My prayers were answered when we did divisions with the assistants. Their area is Cerro 8 which boarders with Cerro 1 (my first area). In the morning, E' Huerta had nothing planned so we went and visited some of my old converts. It was the best thing ever! We first went to “J” and found out that he hadn't gone to church for a long time. We taught him the doctrine of Christ and he agreed to go to church for FOREVER. They said that the missionaries haven't passed by in a long time to talk to them and I called the Cerro 1 elders and asked them why they weren't working with the recent convert list. They had no excuse, so E' Huerta laid down the law.  Remember last Christmas when I talked to you guys from the Maciel's house? Well we went to visit them as well. When we clapped in front of their house, the Hermana was like, “pasen! (come in)”. (By the way, it has been raining like crazy for the past week and a half) when I got to the entrance of the door, the hermana couldn't see my face and looked completely confused. We took our hoods off and stepped in the house, and the Hermanas eyes lit up and she freaked out. She called to her kids and was like, “Elder McRae's back! Elder McRae's back! Wake up everyone!” The three oldest kids didn't believe her and took a while to get up. I was calling for them and they were like, “that's not Elder McRae, he doesn't know how to speak Spanish and his voice is deeper!” They all freaked out when they finally came out and saw it was me and told me that I look skinnier and more handsome (lies). We also taught them the doctrine of Christ because they stopped going to church when Elder Bedke and I left. The end of the lesson got a little emotional and I was VERY clear with them when I read in 3 Nephi 18 about how the gates of hell will be opened to receive them if they don't go to church. I told them that I loved them and that I want to be able to see them after this life and the only way for that to be possible, is if they go to church and live the doctrine of Christ. Also, Belén was 8 years old, and I committed her to be baptized! I said I wanted to see a picture of her baptism soon and her mom was like, “or you can come back next time and baptize her!” They too agreed to go back to church and go EVERY SUNDAY to partake of the sacrament. It was awesome being able to go back to the same place I was a year ago! 

Later on, the divisions with E' Huerta went amazingly! I wish I could tell you everything but I don't have time. 

LOVE you all!!

Elder McRae

saying good-bye to Elder Neilsen