Iain Mckay Letter 2

8/24/15

Dear Elder Hawkes,

You are certainly having a variety of life's "experiences" in Modesto. I heard a Mission President say once that "Baptism is never a mistake" We are all Heavenly Father's children and he loves us equally- but not the sins we become involved in. In my lifetime in the Church I have seen people repent, be baptised and turn their lives around. I have also seen a lot who become worthy enough to be baptised and then revert back to their old ways and stop coming to Church. This then becomes a "burden" on the local ward and branch who have to try and reactivate . In NZ we used to call them revolving door baptisms- in the front door and out the back door. Of course, as Pres Hinckley used to say every new convert requires a friend and a calling. I think he might have also added "Home Teachers."  These are the things that provide stability and friendshipping for the new convert. Sadly, many times our wards and branches become overwhelmed. The missionaries leave and the new member dies on the vine for lack of attention, love and additional teaching.

Ideally we need families to join the Church- especially those with a strong husband and father at the head who can receive and magnify his Priesthood. Without adequate  Priesthood and families the Church cannot grow. I have been in Wards in Hong Kong where the Priesthood is almost non existent. Hundreds of Fillipino sisters who are faithful and incredible missionaries to other sisters but there is a dearth of Priesthood. As I have entered the chapel I have been asked to either bless or pass the sacrament- even before they check to see if I was a member of the Church!!!!

Love and blessings

Iain

Christ's Love and Unique

8/24/15

Dear Family,

Ya, Elder Shepard is a weirdo. He even admits it. That is how he wants to be remembered! Every time the Mahna Mahna song comes on in the car (don't ask me why that song is permissible) he taps the beat with the brakes. WITH THE BRAKES. It is so annoying! I will never be the same when that horrible song comes on. So guess what I figured out? Yosemite National Park is in my mission. Next week for Preparation Day I'm going!!! How cool is that??? I hope school is going well for everyone!! I'll admit, it is really weird seeing all the school kids. Interesting fact of the day: schools in Modesto don't have hallways, all the classrooms open to the outside! All the walkways are just covered. Isn't that weird? And then they just put a fence around the whole school. Crazy. Our third investigator, who I didn't mention in the big email, is named Janice. She is actually a great grandma, and the majority of her family is LDS but her and her son aren't and they smoke a ton. Anyways, Janice also speaks 7.3 million miles an hour. Her son smoked us some fresh bacon! I cooked it today and, despite getting burned all over from the excessive amounts of popping grease, ate a fantastic breakfast. Dad-apparently Modesto had a 2.9 earthquake two days ago, but I couldn't feel it at all. Mom-I sent you a card in the mail, can we pretend it came like 3 weeks ago? Sarah-I can't believe you are a Junior!!! Hey, at least not a Squashmore... Mary-still can't find the quarter collection? I found a quarter I don't have, I can send it if you find it. Christian... Just kidding buddy! How is the big third grade?? (again, just kidding) Hope soccer is going good! I'll send a few pictures of my companion Elder Shepard, my apartment, and a California sky next week. Love you all!!

-Elder Hawkes

Brothers and Sisters,

Well I'm certainly not in Centerville, Utah! Modesto is a great place though and I love the people. Good news! We have an investigator named Sister Singh who called us two days ago and asked to be baptized!!! I mean, she had already expressed the interest and has been taking lessons from missionaries for over two years, but she actually called us! Just like in all those crazy stories you hear! Unfortunately, she just got out of jail and has to take a bunch of classes before she can pass the baptismal interview questions, but she is totally willing! She is Hindu and has an absolutely crazy ex-husband. His new wife is even crazier and even beats Sister Singh up every once in a while. But Sister Singh can't fight back because she will go back to jail. Kind of a weird situation. Anyways, Sister Singh talks 7.3 million miles and hour and is in every way a crazy Hindu. She cooked us her Hindu curry recipe that still had bones in it. She said she wouldn't make it spicy, but by the end of the meal my mouth was on fire and I swear I broke every tooth in my mouth. Sister Singh is incredible though. She has a willingness to follow God that she developed in jail, and has patience like I've never seen before. It may not be before I leave Modesto that she gets baptized, but I am so happy that she has decided to take this essential step in her life.

Cultural Experiences:

-Spanish Elders are crazy. Elder Moreno and Elder Lopez make us pick them up and drive them to zone soccer every morning at 5:30

-We have a car

-Elder Shepard is a crazy driver

-Tiwi yells at us if we drive too fast, and Catherine yells at us if we take a wrong turn

-Elder Beck, my district leader, speaks like an inner-city black mobster except he is tall, skinny, and pale white

-I have never seen so many shirtless men walking around town

-I have never seen so many tattoos

Unique is another one of our three investigators. She is about 18 years old and has a 3 year old daughter. As expected, the father left her. She lives with her grandma and takes care of her child as well as two or three of her sisters who are under the age of 10. Her daughter, Unity, has more energy than Jeremy Harms at 3 in the morning after drinking caffeine. And to top it off, she lives in a sketchy part of town and has to work all day to support herself. When we stop by, she comes out exhausted and sits in the chair on the porch, watching her little daughter run around the front yard. She is very quiet and hardly talks. Even when we talk, she can't listen for very long because her daughter will do something to distract her. We keep trying to get her to attend church, or even read a verse out of her scriptures. She is interested in the church, but her life is just too crazy. I feel so horrible for her. There are times I wish I could just trade her. Take her place. Give her rest. But I can't. Only one person can. Christ is the only person that can ever truly understand how we feel. Like I wish I could relieve Unique of her overwhelming challenges, there are times I wish I could help Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. Take away just a portion of that pain so he doesn't have to bear it. But there is no way to do so, he has already done it. And the best part of it? He was willing. Because he loved us, he suffered for all our pain, all our sins, and all our weaknesses. That is why I am here. The majority of the world doesn't understand His love for them, or at least to it's full capacity. Like homeless Bob from last week, if I can just help people get a little bit closer to Christ, my mission is a success. May we all study the life of Christ and come just a little bit closer, step by step.

Welcome to Modesto

There are two weird churches here in Modesto: the House and Shelter Cove. The House is this huge compound with a gym, daycare, sports fields, and all sorts of memberships you can buy. The other day at Sonic, six of us missionaries were sitting around a table when a white guy with his shirt off and lots of tattoos (VERY common here in Modesto) came up and asked for a few dollars. Before we could say anything he said, "I'm getting out of here, that crazy lady is coming." Sure enough, here she comes! "I'm black and I'm Mormon! OOPS! They told me I couldn't! OOPS!" she says as she bounces in a circle around the table, eyes blazing, "They all got the disease because they didn't wipe their ears! OOPS! They got it through the telephones! OOPS!" Then a lady from Sonic came out and chased her off. All I could think of was "Welcome to Modesto!" A large majority of the population is hispanic or black, and the rest is white-trash. Turns out, Modesto is the single largest producer of almonds in the world! Almond trees are everywhere. And if you check the label on produce, odds are that it says Modesto. Everyone here drives cars nicer than their homes. I thought I saw a lot of tattoos until I came to Modesto. Because my companion Elder Shepard has a hurt leg, we get to drive a car! It's pretty nice not having to bike everywhere, even if it's harder to street contact. We cover two wards! The 8th and 10th. We have a cell phone for each. Unfortunately, we are both new to the area so it has been extremely hard getting to know everyone and trying to get started on the work. Well there's a bit about Modesto! Ultimately, the people are awesome and the missionaries here are super loving. Like, we say 'love ya' on the phone all the time and I have never hugged so many people of the same gender. Kinda weird. Shoot me some questions if you have any!

-Elder Hawkes

Nerf Guns and Meeting Bob

8/17/15

Brothers and Sisters,

A week ago today, I was sitting between a Brother and a Sister on a plane. The Brother apostatized after serving a mission because he felt the members were all too proud and that if he lived a good life he didn't need to go to church. Ironically, he has a strong testimony. The Sister was a recent convert with a strong testimony as well. Anyway, he commended me for serving a mission and for being brave enough to talk to me, but our 2-hour Gospel discussion didn't help too much. Anyways, the tires hit the Tarmac and like any other missionary these thoughts came to my mind, "What on Earth am I doing. I'm in Modesto California and I have no idea what I am doing here." Yep. I had a slight change in my flight plans at the MTC and now I have a six-week layover in Modesto California. My visa had some problems and I am temporarily reassigned. Thank you for all the emails about landing in Taiwan though! I will have to reread them in six weeks! So, it turns out a doctor in the MTC accidentally marked "Tuberculosis Probable" on my visa and now I'm here. Clearly for a purpose. My new mission president gave me a warm welcome and gave my new companion the promise that we would find a non-member who spoke Chinese and that I would be the key. He said that 10 other Taipei missionaries had been reassigned to Modesto but all had come in the day before we were supposed to leave except one--mine.

My companion is Elder Shepard. I don't think I have ever met such an interesting person. He has about 30 Nerf Guns in our apartment, he was going to be in the 2016 Olympics for swimming, he has previously been engaged (he proposed in High School mind you), he tore his hamstring last week and walks with a cane, and his parents own a game store so he used to judge card game tournaments. Oh, and we have already rivaled my record for getting lost. The other day we tried to go to a doctor appointment for his leg and we got one and a half hours lost. Yep. He doesn't have the best sense of direction. Nevertheless, he is awesome. We get along great and he has an amazing testimony.

I have had a ton of amazing experiences in the short week I have been here, but I will only share a few. The first whole day in the mission, we went to downtown Modesto to hand out Book of Mormons: two each. In an hour, my temporary companion and I got two amazing referrals and talked to a ton of people. How easy is the responsibility to share the Gospel that we have been given. 

Two days ago, Elder Shepard and I visited the Jones Family. They are a part member family. We knocked on their door and the father answered. He apologized for the not so warm welcome, as he had been drinking that morning and was still wearing pajamas. He said he had been a member in the 70s and wasn't interested in the Gospel, but that we were welcome to visit his daughters (who have been recently baptized) if we only called about a half hour before to let him know we were coming. We didn't realize it until church the next day, but he never lets people onto his property. Missionaries and Home Teachers alike. One Sister saw us about to knock on his door and almost stopped to warn us not to. The lessons taught to his daughters all had to be at different places. Wow! 

Final story. Today is preparation day, and my companion wanted to stop at Dollar Tree. So we stopped, milled about,  bought a few things, and left. As we were leaving, a man asked me for a few quarters. I told him yes! Of Course! "What's that name tag you are wearing?" "Oh! I'm a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!" Long story made short, he was homeless. He felt he wasn't worthy of church and religion. I gave him two dollars and a Book of Mormon. I told him about Moroni burying the plates, Joseph Smith finding and translating the Book of Mormon, talked with him about Temples and the Church. He said he would love to read it. He thanked me. He said that that night he would sleep in the dirt, hungry and alone, but not really alone because I had reminded him that Christ is always with him. He said I had saved his life. He said it meant more than I could imagine that I would stop what I was doing to sit on a curb and talk to a dirty, grimy, hopeless, homeless stranger. It was an absolutely incredible experience. I hope someday to find him again.

The Gospel is simple, the Gospel is fun, and yet it can change lives more than anything else in this world. It is so clear that it makes me want to scream when people refuse to even open their eyes. We don't have to spend millions of dollars or invest millions of hours to change the world. All we have to do is sit down with a homeless man. Give him a few dollars. Let him know someone in this world cares. My thoughts and prayers go out to you in whatever trials and challenges you face. My hope is that we all can further understand and glorify in the simplicity of this magnificent Gospel.

-Elder Hawkes

Modesto Missionaries

Dear Elder Hawkes,
So glad to have you in our mission
Please forward to your family.
We love you.
Sister Palmer

Iain Mckay Letter 1

8/15/15

Dear Elder Hawkes,

You have been in my thoughts and prayers. I am so thrilled to receive your emails via your Mother. I shed some tears over the last one. Ignore what Elder Facer said. The Lord moves in mysterious ways and this is a day of miracles.Too, His time is not our time. It all works out- eventually. 

My family disowned me when I joined the Church. Some of my so called "best friends" said they never wanted to have anything to do with me ever again"  .... and they haven't. Others have come back but it has taken time.Some struggle to be friendly. Others are hostile. It NEVER affects me. I just pray hard and try to "radiate" the Gospel. My parents struggled with my decision as I was their only child. There were some stormy scenes- especially when my Mother got drunk- but they came around. They are both gone now but we have done  their work and know they have accepted. Too personal to put in an email but I'll tell you one day. My Mother's dying words to our Dr were "Tell Iain if her baptises me I'll come back and haunt him". That was pretty scary!!!!!! - but I finally had it done and when I plucked up courage I was sealed to them in the Bountiful Temple.

Years ago when I was a new member of the Church and not married, I was called   by Elder LeGrand Richards of the Twelve to be a counsellor in the first Stake created in Wellington-  the Capital City of New Zealand. Some months later I was in SLC representing our Stake at General Conference. Elder Richards took me to lunch at the old Hotel Utah. I "unloaded" on him about all the challenges we were facing in the newly created Stake. He listened patiently. Finally I caught myself and said "Elder Richards  you must have a LOT more "problems"  in your position than we do in our Stake"   Elder Richards replied- and in so saying taught me one of the MOST powerful lessons of my time and service in the Church "Iain, I am a  very prayerful man . I work VERY hard. But, at night when I go to bed I sleep like a baby.  Then he paused ( to make sure I was getting it into my dumb head)  and said "I let the Lord do the worrying. It is His Church"..............

I have tried to follow that counsel all my years.On occasion I have "worried" but this life and service in the Church is a walk of faith and hope and trust. You hold the Priesthood of God- the authority to act in His name. You have been called  by a Prophet to serve. Work HARD. Sleep well and have faith. It will all work out in His time. I go back to NZ now and see Stakes everywhere. In my lifetime we struggled to have enough leadership to have a full High Council and many times we couldn't even find a Bishop!!

There will be times when you will be tested- sometimes by lazy or difficult companions- Continue to do your VERY best and let Heavenly Father do the worrying.

I hope you are "enjoying" rice instead of Chicken Hamburgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ha.

Hugs and prayers

Iain

Visa Update

Hey Family!

This is just a quick letter, don't forward it on or anything. Here is the official email of my reassignment, just thought you might want to glance over it. Thanks for the awesome package! I'm excited to talk to you all in two days on Monday!!!

-Jordan

Attention Missionary:

Please review the attached document concerning your visa.  If you have further questions or concerns, please contact your current Mission President.

Sincerely,
Missionary Department

Dear Elder Hawkes:
By now you are aware that your visa to Taiwan has not yet been approved. While this is undoubtedly a disappointment, please know that we are doing everything possible to secure your visa. We will notify you immediately when it is received. We ask that you and your family members not do anything, such as call or e-mail the consulate, to try and secure your visa more quickly. Such actions may actually slow down the visa process already in place.

While you are waiting, your mission experience in the United States will prove to be a great blessing in your preparation to serve in Taiwan. We encourage you to work hard, remain focused, and be involved in all aspects of missionary work. A you serve the people in the California Modesto Mission, your testimony and ability to teach will increase, you will set the pattern of study and hard work for the rest of your mission, and you will come to love the people.

Both your initial mission assignment and your current mission assignment were made by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. If your visa is not granted by the time you are halfway through your mission your current mission assignment will generally become permanent.

May the Lord continue to bless you and your family as you dedicate yourself to preaching the gospel to those who are seeking and ready to accept your initiation to come unto Christ.

Sincerely,
Brent H. Nielson
Assistant Executive Director

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Hi Jordan:

So you know, before we got this email, I did work through Ming Shun (Dennis) Tsai of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in San Francisco to see what I could find out about the hold up. He quickly identified the problem (emailing me a copy of the problematic check mark) and asked us to get the doctor's signature over the fix. I then called the Travel Office to get clarification on whether that was an MTC form or the original physician's form, but they were already well ahead of me. Bottom line: we did "intervene," but of course we didn't have this letter at the time and so I just went ahead and tapped whatever resources were available. (Mr. Tsai is the one who invited us to the Utah-Taiwan event the other night.) Hope it gets straightened out soon, and--regardless--we're sure you'll "bloom where you're planted."

Talk to you on Monday!

Love,

Dad 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Family,

It was awesome talking to you this morning! Sorry this is just a short email letting you know I made it to Modesto California safe and sound. I've already seen a semi high-centered on the concrete barriers on the side of a freeway and heard a interesting man tell me they sent us on missions at this time in our lives so that we would be isolated from the world and therefore further strengthen our brain-washing. Yep, I forgot about the world. Well, I'm not sure when I'll send a more substantial letter but most likely soon! The mission president will send a picture of us at the airport. Love you!

-Jordan

Letter from Willy Su

This is an email from Willy Su, who I told you all about. Don't send this out, just read it if you are interested. Thanks Family!

-Jordan

麻煩你了! 幫我傳達給他們 :) Thank you :)

Hello ! missionary, I'm Willy Su ,How are you guys? how's mission study? I want say thank you. Last time you guys taught me in TRC, you let me know the gospel is real, I'm learning a lot, and of your love, now my family is stable ,they are awesome :), because they accept me. I'm so sure BOM is true and gospel is true, I know God will give me a way, and NOW I FEEL FREE :D, I love them and love you guys. Because of you, I'm the person that I am today, thank you .

Hope I have a pleasure to share more with you guys !!! :) 

哈摟! 最近好嗎? 傳教還順利嗎? 我要先跟你們說謝謝，你們上次在TRC的教導讓我感受到福音的真實性，也讓我感受道你們的愛，現在我的家庭非常穩定，他們非常棒，因為他們接受了我!，因為我知道福音是真實的，我知道天父會給我一條屬於我的道路。我現在很自由，我很愛他們也很愛你們，因為有你們的幫助才有現在的我，愛你們。

希望我可以跟你們分享這件事情的過程，我不會忘記們了!! :) 謝謝你們。

蘇福文 Willy Christopher Su

Deferred to Modesto, California

8/5/15

Dear Family,

I assume you have noticed that I am sending an email during a somewhat interesting part of the week. Today I got a letter that I have been temporarily reassigned to the California Modesto Mission because my visa didn't come through. It should just be a very short time, maybe not even a full transfer. They haven't made it clear if I will be speaking English or Mandarin but I have to assume the latter. I still leave the 10th of August, but my flight is much earlier in the day and instead of around 10am I will probably be calling from 6am to 9am if that isn't too early. As of right now, that is all the information they have given me, I can fill you in on anything I learn on Monday when I call. Until then, I'm willing to go wherever the Lord wants me to go and I guess there is something he wants me to do in Modesto, California before I head to Taiwan. I hope everything is going great at home and I'm excited to talk to you this Monday!

Skyping Willy Su

8/3/15

Hey there Family!

Quickly, I feel bad that you have to keep sending out emails every week so if you want to you can just log onto my account for me and put all the contacts that want an email in a group on my account, or send me all of their emails and I can do it. Either way, I just feel bad. And Derek wants on the list: 'derek.ashliman@myldsmail.net'. Sounds like a way fun trip to Yellowstone! I'm about to head out on my 22 month trip to Taiwan! A week from today I will be on a plane to Taiwan. My flight leaves at 11, so if it works for you all I will be calling around 10 on Monday the 10th. I have a 13.5 hour flight to Tokyo, Japan, a two hour layover, and then the final 3.5 hour flight to Taiwan!!! Today it was raining buckets so it really made me excited to get out there. I also got a haircut and boy did she cut it short. The Chinese is alright, not as well as I would hope, but it's going good! I don't think I need anything else before I leave. I'll try to send a package from Taiwan right after I get there! It's the middle of Monsoon season so it will be crazy in respect to rain. So after the experience with Willy Su in my big email, I'd like to say a little bit more about what happened. That night, I was looking for my wallet because I hadn't been able to find it for like half a week. I literally looked everywhere! I was starting to get scared, and then I was like, "Hey! I haven't even said a prayer yet! What kind of a missionary am I?" So I said a quick little prayer in my heart and the next place I looked had my wallet. Well, I guess I better start praying sooner. That night, a bunch of missionaries were keeping us up. They were up and talking after lights out, and it was making me pretty upset. I thought to myself, "Hey! Why not just go tell them to be quiet and be exactly obedient and maybe it will change their missions!" I thought it was some missionaries upstairs so I went out into the hall to find to my disappointment that it was the other room that had Elders in our district, so I knew them well. I figured I might as well tell them though, so I went and knocked on their door but they didn't hear. I walked back to my room, Elder Jensen walked out the door right before I walked in, and then guess who comes around the corner to find me alone in the hallway? MTC Security. They were doing the rounds to make sure everyone was in bed, and the only reason I was out of bed was because I was trying to enforce the rule he then promptly enforced on me. It was really ironic and pretty funny, but I slept well after. Teton pictures looked amazing! So jealous of you all floating down the river in the big yellow kayaks with beavers swimming alongside (and Mom I'm sorry you 'forgot' your swimsuit, what a shame you couldn't swim in that cold water)! Next email will be from Taiwan with a ton of pictures!!!! I love you all!!!

-Jordan

Brothers and Sisters,

First off, I was thinking that it is the start of a fresh month and the upcoming of new events. For many of you, school and college will be starting and life will get crazy again. For everyone else, I'm sure that the situation is very similar. The point is, I am not sure how many of you continue to read these emails home, and frankly I don't very much care. My hope is that every once in a while you will need a little uplifting thought, a little encouragement, and that you will take the time to read what one of thousands of missionaries in the world has to say before you click the delete button. And even if you do click the delete button before reading the rest of my emails, I hope you will remember these few simple things:

-God loves you

-Christ loves you

-The Holy Ghost loves you

-I love you

I am convinced that if you never forget those four things, you cannot go astray. You are always in my thoughts and prayers and I know that the other three are even more concerned with your eternal welfare. Of all the things I have learned in my life, it is that you are never alone.

This time next week, Monday the 10th, I will finally be on a plane towards my place of work and sacrifice for two years. I certainly am not perfect, I certainly am not prepared, but I am certainly excited. I hope that you will remember me in you prayers, but especially the other missionaries in the world who are laboring so hard for the salvation of everyone they come into contact with. By my next email, I will be facing enormous feelings of doubt, discouragement, and frustration. I hope we all remember that promise given to us from our Savior Jesus Christ that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. I know that if I whole-heartedly consecrate myself to His work, that those feelings will become easy to bear. I also know that if you do the same, you will receive the same, along with Heavenly Father's choicest of blessings.

As another matter of importance, I have had my first real 'mission experience'. We were skyping a Brother named Willy Su from the other mission in Taiwan. He is a recent convert to the church, and the day before we skyped him he told his family about his involvement in the church. As typical to Taiwanese culture, his family told him he was not welcome as part of their family until he abandoned his new found belief. It was at this time of doubt, discouragement, and frustration that we came into contact with him. We got to know him a little bit in what Chinese we could in a room full of other missionaries skyping, and then he told us of his current predicament. We tried to help him, and there was one point in the lesson where I asked him if he thought that if he displayed how happy the Gospel made him, would his family accept him again? To which he replied in the negative. I told him I knew his family loved him, to which he got uncomfortable and disagreed. "Well," I said, "I know that even if they don't love you now that they will." We talked a little more, and invited him to pray and study the scriptures to solve his problem. After the lesson, my companion Elder Facer sort of chastised me for telling him his family loved him, because in many of these situations their families don't actually love them. He told me that it was an ignorant thing to say. So I went on, feeling horrible about the lesson and the unnecessary

 pain I has caused Brother Willy Su. That night, I prayed for him, and that the hearts of his family would be opened. Two days later, our teacher had a message from him. He said a miracle had happened. That night, he too had prayed and had followed our commitment. The next morning, his family forgave him and let him continue to attend church, even if they didn't agree with it. My heart was filled with joy at the receiving of this news. I knew that the Spirit had helped us in that lesson. I don't know if what I said was good or bad, but I knew that because we have been exactly obedient here at the MTC, our companionship had the Spirit with us in that lesson. Even if we didn't know it at the time.

Well, I've watched many Elders from Viewmont come and go, and it's finally my turn. To the Elders that have yet to come, sorry, except not, because I am really sick of eating chicken burgers. Good luck. May we all have a few more spiritual experiences in our lives, a few more moments of charity, and a few less chicken burgers.

Love,

Elder Hawkes