110 Degrees and Rising

It was kind of hot yesterday, hence the title of this email. This week was a great week for the zone and the remainder of the month should be equally good with regards to baptisms and confirmations. So far, there have been 8 baptisms this month with the potential of 2 more this week and several more the following week. However, our numbers for teaching and finding new people were pretty weak in my opinion.

One of the big goals we established with the zone at conference was to give 100% to find a new family to teach each day. Why every day? Well, those of you who have served missions know of the funnel theory. You start with a ton of potentials, and then after time, the shady people will get a nice spot in the area book and those who progress will continue on to become members of the Church. As a mission, we are using what we call an "escalator." Our goal, in the near future, is to have every duo baptizing a family every week. The reason we are focusing on families is because children aren't the ones who receive the Priesthood. So far, our zone is rockin' with the dates. Every dupla has at least one man or family marked for the next 6 weeks and several have more. Considering the zone only had one baptism last month (a 9 year old), the missionaries have really re-doubled their efforts to establish a balance here in Boa Vista.

This week I had the privilege of doing a division with Elder Seastrand in Canaā. It reminded me of the good, old times in Flores. One thing I noticed during the division is the work nearly becomes perfection when working side by side with certain people...there was no down time and we finished the day teaching 7 people and me interviewing a girl who was baptized the next day. I'm really excited for this month and the month of May. There is going to be a ton of baptisms and zone progress. This will hopefully make for a sweet grand finale.

One of the interesting things about Elder Seastrand's area is that there are a ton of frogs...little frogs, big frogs, green frogs, and brown frogs. As a result, I finally learned last Friday how the game Frogger came about. As we were walking back to the church to do an interview, there was a monstrous frog hopping around on the street. After 5 minutes of watching it evade oncoming traffic, I became very impressed with its skills and decided it was worthy to live and let it work its way back to the sidewalk where it could hop in peace.

Yesterday, the entire mission had to get the immunization for gripe suína (swine flu). It went well although I'm definitely glad I got it here in Boa Vista where everything is clean, organized, and I was able to see her get a new needle and dispose of it once she was done giving me the shot.

We were able to get Skype working with the webcam at the house of a member, so we will be able to see Elder Jeffrey R. Holland ao vivo via Internet. It's not the same as seeing him in person, but it'll be pretty cool. The Mission Counselor, Presidente Souza, said he would take us paintballing to make up for us not being able to attend the conference to see an Apostle.

As my time narrows down to less than 2 months, I feel weird. The mission reminds me of a Nike slogan "There is no finish line." My mind just can't comprehend that one day this is all going to come to a close and I'll begin another chapter in my life. There is a lot I could say about the way I feel, but as Gandhi once said, "It's better to have a heart without words than words without heart." So with that, I'll end this week's e-mail.

Até logo,
Elder Taylor Mackay