The Sun Coming Up After an All-Nighter of Deliveries

From Taylor Mission Pics

Churrasco Chicken Hearts

From Taylor Mission Pics

Getting the Cargo Loaded for Delivery

From Taylor Mission Pics

It's Another Beautiful Morning in Manaus

From Taylor Mission Pics

There's Nothing Better than a Brazilian BBQ

From Taylor Mission Pics

Elder Mackay's Gracious Host and Delicious Lunch

From Taylor Mission Pics

Want Some???

From Taylor Mission Pics

Elder Noorada's Farewell Tour with Elder Mackay and Friends

From Taylor Mission Pics

It's a Delivery and Mackay

I know what you are thinking...It's just not possible to have that much awesomeness all at once, but don't be fooled. Nothing is impossible and last night the missionaries of Missão Brasil Manaus became witnesses of that fact. Starting at about 8:30 p.m., our caminhão driver showed up and we started loading his truck with the various products we had ordered in previous weeks (all of which were delivered to the office earlier in the afternoon). With speed and cuidado, we piled the products high and got the big list for all the zones of Manaus. It was a long night and it didn't help that the streets here are not very well maintained and our driver was about 60+ years old. Needless to say, after a few near misses and a ridiculously uncomfortable ride, all the merchandise was delivered. We stopped in every zone, grabbed the leaders, and had them direct the driver to the respective areas within the zone. Some knew better than others and had prepared, but unfortunately, there were some that had not. At one point, we spent an hour driving around just trying to find a house. They really tested my patience but whatever...we did our part.

So, just to give you an idea of how tired I am...I had a normal workday in Staff, then hopped in the truck at 8:30 p.m., and finally arrived back at the escritório at 6:30 in the morning! My arrival time back is basically the time we're supposed to be getting up. I didn't sleep at all during the ride, so I laid down for a few hours and then didn't have a choice but to wake up and get working again. I might call it quits a little early tonight to make up for the loss of sleep.

This was a legit week of work: the lessons were good, the numbers were good, and we helped 10+ people make it to church (for many it was their first visit). We have a few people we are teaching and preparing for baptism, which should take place in September. I'm not going to give dates because when I do, everything seems to fall through. However, the names of those we are teaching are: Adriana, Ana Vitória, Anderson, Andrews, Erika, Glaucia, Marivane, Tatiana, and Wellington...along with a few others. The Ward Flores is finally getting back on its feet and rolling with the visits, which will definitely re-activate people and boost attendance.

One of the week's highlights, which doesn't have much to do with actual missionary work, was the lunch we had at the house of our temporary Ward Mission Leader. He is from Rio Grande Do Sul and decided to treat us to a churrasco on Saturday. It was pretty good and at the same time kind of weird since chicken heart was on the menu. It actually tasted fine, but the fact that you can see the divisions in the heart and the rubbery texture when you bite into it makes it a little less appetizing.

In other news, I had a meeting with President Jayme and was asked for a few names of elders who can take my place here in the office. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking I'll finish out this transfer alone and then I'll be training the noob the next transfer. Afterward, I'll be roaming around, teaching, and whatnot in another area. It caught me by surprise...I was like shoot...already? ...names? But then it hit me, this is my fourth transfer here and a total of five in one area is a lot. It will be a welcome change and a necessary step so nobody "dies" (ends their mission) in Staff. Well, that's about all I have for this week. I hope I was able to answer a few of the questions. Until next week…tchau!

Abraço,
Elder Taylor Mackay

The Baptism of Viviane Azevedo da Siva

From attachments_2009_08_19

Baptism Day for Dulce Gabrielle Romero de Sousa and Aline Melo Guimarães

From attachments_2009_08_19

A Day to Remember for Dulce and Aline

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Elder Mackay, Viviane, and Elder Seastrand...All Thumbs Up

From attachments_2009_08_19

Manaus Temple Grounds

From Taylor Mission Pics

Our Favorite Elder on Sacred Ground

From Taylor Mission Pics

An Ariel View of the Rio Negro

From Taylor Mission Pics

Semana de Poder

It was a week of success. The baptismal services were nearly perfect and church went very well. For starters, Saturday morning was the baptism of Dulce Gabrielle Romero de Sousa and Aline Melo Guimarães. They were part of a family we met by doing a simple street contact. They were always anxious to learn more, and once again, the hard thing for one of them was cutting her coffee intake. Through goals, cevada, and a lot of juice, she has succeeded in kicking the habit and has managed to integrate into the Young Women organization faster than I've ever seen before. She has a great friend, who is a member, which made the process much easier for her. It was a nice, little ceremony. The only flaw was the broken draining mechanism in the font. Two hours prior to the baptism we found out we would be using two week old water for the services. Fortunately, it appeared clean and all went as planned. It was good to see the members (especially the recent converts) accept them like family. We even had a returned sister missionary offer to do a special musical number on the spot both Saturday and Sunday.

Sunday morning, we woke up and coordinated with a high councilman to help us pick up investigators for church. The previous week wasn't much of a success, but things changed for us this week. After making several stops, we picked up a total of 15 people for church. It was definitely a great sight for the members since attendance is usually around 64 people, and through much hard work, there were 82 present on Sunday.

After being asked once again to direct the Gospel Principles class, the baptism took place for Viviane Azevedo da Siva. It was a full house...a ton of people stayed after church to participate. It was wonderful seeing all the support. Following the baptism, we dropped everyone back at their homes and headed off to lunch, which was at the house of Edigar, the Bolivian. Lunch was good, but the walk back was ridiculously hot.

This week we started the preparation for the new elders and sister that will be arriving here from the CTM (11 in total). For me, that means making sure all their health cards are ordered and their credit card accounts are active. Also, this week was pretty crazy because of the massive order of products needed for the various missionary apartments. Any day now, I'll be pulling an all-nighter with my fellow members of Staff, cruising around the city in a moving truck dropping off various household items.

Today, for the first time in a while, we went and played soccer on a P-day. It was cool, but we played on a little indoor-sized court, so it got pretty packed.

We are currently working with a few teenagers, who are the nephews of the Young Men counselor. It looks pretty promising, but the family situation is very complicated. Just the other night, we had someone walk up to us wanting to know more about the Church and asked to be taught. His name is Wellington and he's 18. Come to find out, he's already living with a lady and has 2 kids. It's going to make things a little more difficult but not impossible.

I think I've finally figured out a balanced diet and I'm starting to lose weight again (being up 5 pounds from what I consider normal). Thanks for all the postcards. I got them today. I don't want to disappoint the fans, but I'm not sure if my skimming skills will be up to par for the first part of the summer. Anyway, that's about it for now. Oh yeah, yesterday I hit a year and two months...pretty sweet!

Abraço,
Elder Taylor Mackay

A Day 23 Years in the Making

From taylor mission pics

Maria Gessy Dos Santos on Her Baptism Day

From taylor mission pics

Elder Mackay Reporting to Duty

From taylor mission pics

Elders Seastrand and Mackay with Maria Gessy Dos Santos and Her Family

From taylor mission pics

Staff: Elders Rangel, Mackay, Seastrand, and Reis

From taylor mission pics

A Symbol of the Mission: A Remo (paddle) Made by a Member of the Alvorada Ward

From taylor mission pics

O Remo

Everything continues to go well here in Staff. President Jayme finally returned from his conference schedule where he traveled all over Amazonas, Roraima, Acre, and Rondônia. Elder Seastrand and I also just returned from our travels, lunch with a family who lives in the Biarro da União. Their house is on wooden stilts and the quintal is full of coconut trees.

I wasn't able to send my e-mail yesterday because I got sent to MAKRO, a big supplier like COSTCO, to look at some items the missionaries are needing in their homes, such as washing machines, ovens, fans, irons, etc. It's been a complicated process, but it looks like it will be 100% complete in just a few minutes, minus the payment which is the easiest part.

The baptism interviews for Viviane, Dulce, and Aline will be held tomorrow at 4 p.m. Hopefully, we have prepared them well and everything will go smoothly. The baptisms are planned for Saturday morning at 10 a.m. (Dulce and Aline) and 12:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon (Viviane). We have also been preparing Anfrísio, the cousin of Viviane, so he can receive the priesthood on Sunday. We have given him a white shirt and tie, since his family doesn't have the means to buy one...he was pretty excited.

Since nearly no one has cars here and church is relatively far away for some, we cruise around in a big, white school van every Sunday morning picking up our investigators. This week looks to be a good one for the Cooper family (family of Anfrísio and Viviane) since a lot of exciting things will be happening with their family at church this Sunday (for some, it will be the first time in 7+ months that they will be in attendance).

So, one of the interesting things of the week, I wouldn't say highlight, was the High School Musical show the Stake put on. First off, everyone here is obsessed with this movie. On the very first song, the music cut out, but the crowd knew the words and sang for the performers. I was really shocked when I realized this...I almost felt bad that I didn't know the lyrics, but the fact that it was High School Musical softened the blow. I was talking with Elder Seastrand at one point and asked a good question, "How interesting can this be when they don't understand the words and the actors are lip-synching the lyrics?" Due to the long intervals between scenes, many people left during the show, leaving few in their seats at the end (we were one of those who left due to our curfew).

This has been a pretty low-key week with regards to crazy events in Alvorada. One of the blessings of the week was that the pão de queso at the bakery was extremely delicious and fresh out of the oven every morning we passed by. Also, I started a little jump rope routine that should really trim off all the unneeded fat that is trying to accumulate at my waist.

Lastly, I'd like to give a shout out to Kyle, who will be heading up to USU on Saturday. Congrats and work hard. Don't accept any contracts from NASA unless they give you a signing bonus and make sure to become a true Aggie ASAP (except don't make the same mistake I did by kissing someone who lives in your hall...it makes for an awkward rest of the year). Take advantage of the environment, resources, facilities, and activities. You better continue to e-mail and send pictures throughout the year. Make sure you study up on Calculus...I'll need the help in 2010...yeaaaaahhhhhh!

Até mais,
Elder Taylor Mackay

Stacked

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was like a week and a half all jammed into one with an intense heat wave and conference. It was absolutely amazing to do a lot of last minute, serious financial moves because nobody planned ahead...and when the mission needs money, there is no other option. I was able to finally start my own system that will, in the near future, give us a little bit of financial freedom since things right now seem to be a bit of a mess (this new plan does not involve robbing a bank...it isn't that efficient).

I guess the big highlight of the week would be the baptism of Maria, which was a 23 year process. I felt like the detective who finally cracked the case and found the evidence to prove a point. Her family was very grateful and it was awesome to see someone so prepared do something she has been praying she might be able to do before her time is up on this earth. I made the delicious funfetti cake, as I promised I would, and it was a big hit at the baptism. Everyone was asking for my secret recipe. I told them it was nothing special, but I did put a lot of love and care into it.

For the third week in a row, I was given the awesome privilege (being sarcastic) of teaching the Gospel Principles class. It was on service, so as a missionary, it wasn't too terribly hard to pull a lesson out of nowhere. Here in Brazil, the key to having success in the classroom is keeping everyone on their feet, entertained, and participating. Our lunch appointment on Sunday fell through at the last minute, so we joined the other elders from Alvorada in order to get fed. That's the point where you kind of feel like an animal wandering the streets to find food...but it worked.

We had a big ward planning meeting where the members got burned for not doing their visits and we laid out a plan of action to get the ward back in shape. Unfortunately, the teaching really suffered this past week due to the ridiculous amount of problems with planning but...we did have 13 investigators at church on Sunday. When you see numbers like that, along with the amount of recent converts, it makes it clear that missionaries are a necessity here in Brazil. All is going well with our area and it looks like we should have quite a good rest of the transfer.

In other news, the highly anticipated High School Musical production is going to happen on the 8th at 7 o'clock. We are hoping to watch the show with our investigators and not have to ditch them at the door. Although HSM is ridiculously lame, it would be nice to see a little bit of worldly Disney entertainment. I would imagine I'll get most of my laughs from the unfamiliar English lip-syncing by the Brazilian performers.

Today is Elder Rangel's birthday. In honor of this occasion, we had legit Pizza Hut last night, which runs about $2 USD per slice. Even though it is a bit pricey for the amount of food, it was totally worth it.

Até mais,
Elder Taylor Mackay