Trust, focus, and trials make us stronger

Wazzuuup? 

This week was super good and annoying because I got sick. But besides that fact, it was good. 

So on Tuesday we went to meet a new investigator that magically appeared at church with a SUPER inactive member last Sunday. It was so weird.... hahaha. Like first of all, the inactive member only came because she locked herself out of her house and apparently some members had her spare keys... LOL. She even called me the night before and was like “hey I need my keys.”, and I was all "why on earth would you give your house keys to missionaries?" and she was like “oh, maybe I didn’t”. So it was bizarre. But she came to church and brought her friend. And her friend seemed sooo SOOOO disinterested. I was like talking in her face like “heyeyyeyyeye STAY FOR CLASS OKAY?!?!” and she was like “no”, and I was like “okay, we will wait for you here so you can find the class”... hahaha. I am annoying and persistent. BUT SHE CAME to class. And when we walked in they were having an intense talk about the law of chastity and I was like “OH GREAT”.... and so the new girl was like laughing and felt so awkward so I kind of just let it happen and just forgot of all possibilities of her becoming an investigator. BUT BY THE END OF THE LESSON she seemed interested. And even MORE interested when her child ended up LOVING Sunbeams and was calm the whole time... because apparently he is not a calm child and it was a miracle. So thanks to that experience she invited us to come to her house in the week and I was like “OKAY”. So we taught her like 3 times this week and we already put a baptismal date with her. MIRACALE. She is seriously golden and so prepared. She was really affected by the happiness of all the members and just wants that same happiness. So we met with her and her husband and he apparently already knows about us. When she offered us coffee he was like “NOOOOO THEY DON’T DRINK THAT”. And I was all flattered because no one has ever offered me coffee but it was funny. So they are just fantastic. She was already reading her Book of Mormon and had lots of questions about baptism before we even gave her a date. They do have to get married first, but her inactive member friend offered to pay for the wedding? ahha. It is funny. The inactive lady is such a Catholic Mormon. She is literally so confused about beliefs so it’s cute because she always stands up to pray and does like the cross thing and it’s funny because she is supposed to be the example. But it’s great because we are teaching an inactive member with a new investigator at the same time! I hope to challenge the husband with the same baptismal date this week. We shall see.

Also this week the Assistant Couple to the President came and saw the house and so everything is all fixed and perfect and they love us again and always say HOLA to us and I am content again. 

Okay so it rained Tuesday to Thursday because of another Hurricane than came in.... and it made me super sick again. BUT I’m on meds so I am slowly getting better. Every member thinks I am dying because I keep getting colds and coughs so they always try to inject me when I am not looking and its like WOAH. But yeah it was really annoying to be sick because it drained all desire to work hard. Thursday morning I woke up and was like throwing up and I don’t even know why. So it was like strange. BUT even though I was sick and wanted to go back to bed I was like NOOO I HAVE TO GO TO THE WEDDING... because we had a wedding that day. It was SOO GREAT. So J. D. got hitched and is getting baptized this Saturday. The wedding was seriously so interesting and hilarious because they literally do it in a tiny office room and the Judge is interesting when he changes his voice to sound all authorized and I just was trying not to pee. But they are officially husband and wife so now he can get in dat agua. So stoked. And on the way home I talked to his wife about the church and she seemed kind of really uninterested but hey, I did my job. Haha. 

The new investigator I mentioned last week canceled all week on us, and it was awkward because literally 5 minutes ago she was on the computer next to us on facebook and I was like “uhhh sorry we ran into you when you told us you couldn’t meet with us.” LOL. I really think she is struggling a lot with her x husband and I really just hope she starts coming to church so the members can KNOW her and start SERVING her. 

This week we got free tacos, free hamburgers, and just lots of food. I was a little sick of it but I better take advantage of it while I got it. 

An investigator kind of dropped us because her husband (who is a member) doesn’t want to see us and we can’t meet with her alone cause she is a girl and she lives so far away so it’ll be hard to bring members. But we are going to try. It is tough because they need to get married but they don’t want to.  Then break up and they don’t want to be apart either. So it’s just like “okay well you’re just complicated then”. But the girl really WANTS to get baptized but she obviously can’t right now. Yikes!

Anyways. The members here are great. The investigators are great. But its a little bit scary whenever things are great because whenever something good happens it later proves that it was too good to be true because SATAN is rude and just so selfish. So I don’t want to have the mind set that things are too good to be true but I kind of have to be realistic sometimes. I still haven’t found a happy medium between the two. 

So I hope that this week I can be a little bit more focused in the real meaning of this work because it is easy to just get caught up in the numbers and the goals and everything that is really not important if you forget the meaning behind everything. It is super easy to forget about all of that and it is frustrating. So yeah. I am going to try and study harder and love harder so that I can have the Spirit stronger during the week and during the lessons we have. 

I don’t know if any of that makes sense so I'll just jump to another tangent and add a quote I LOVE.

"If you trust God... and if you then go and do what he would have you do, your power to trust him will grow and in time you will be overwhelmed with gratitude to find that he has come to trust you"

-Elder Henry B. Eyring.

I have really found this to be trust throughout my mission. Seriously. God is just trying us to see if we really will do his will. That’s why we have trials and challenges. So if we prove to have faith in him and keep chugging along, we will come to trust him and we will be unstoppable. He is really giving us hardships to help us grow and gain his trust. He loves us so much. Really, I know it’s easier said than done, but it doesn’t make it any less true. So just keep trusting in God. Trials really can make us stronger if we figure Him out. 

Love you guys so much. 

PS - funny story. So we went to some guys house today to wash some things in his laundry machine and then left to go shop for food... and when we came back we realized that the hose that was draining the laundry machine water fell out of the sink and drained into his whole house and yes, we FLOODED his house. I WAS FREAKING OUT. Seriously I felt so bad. My comp was surprisingly calm. Haha. I was like “HOW ARE YOU NOT FREAKING OUT WE FREAKING MADE HIS KITCHEN A SWIMMING POOL”. He was like “it’s fine we can fix it”. And so we cleaned it up and I was shocked because the owners of the house just ended up laughing about it and offered us food. #Mexico.

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

My companion

I can hear the bells

Waiting for people to come to the door.

The bedroom

The beautiful bathroom with AUTOMATIC HOT WATER AND I'M LIKE YAY ITS HOME. #BESTTENDERMERCYWHENYOUARESICK

The big other room with kitchen stuff and study stuff

Gramps

the ROOF

rooftop

selfies

JUGO. JUICE IN A BAG AND ITS REALLY SO GREAT. best jugo ever.

Crazy good, scary and stressful, and congrats to Emmy!

AYYYY THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY GOOD, BUT SCARY AND STRESSFUL - BUT GOOD I THINK. 

So it was good because our investigators are great, we had lots of good lessons, I had a District Leader training and I got to go in intercambios with Elder W. and it was soo fun. It was scary because we moved houses and the owners of the old house HATE me. It was stressful because it’s always stressful and we just had like 500 more things to do with moving houses and with all the meetings I had. So is that sufficient for the email....? No? Ok. Now, I will explain.

OKAY. So this Tuesday we had the first lesson with a fantastic new investigator. She is apparently good friends with a recent convert and we didn’t even know. I had always seen her walking in the street and we would always greet each other, but I always chickened out to contact her because we were either too busy or whatever. So that was dumb of me because the spirit was TELLING me to contact her. Finally after like the 6th opportunity to contact her I finally listened to the spirit and did it! She was so nice and was excited to learn a little bit more. We made a cita for the next week and didn’t think too much of it. Then on Sunday a member came up to us and told us she has a reference for us and we realized it was the girl we just contacted. I guess this member had talked to her about the church the day after we contacted her and was like OMG I’m totes coming to this cita you have with the missionaries! It was just a big testimony that this girl NEEDS the gospel. The spirit was throwing her at us and at members for like 2 weeks and I was just silly and didn’t listen to His promptings. But I learned and whenever I get that same prompting, defs going to contact like a crazy man. The lessons we had with her this week were great. She has lots of problems with her x husband and life with  young kids and work and everything. Really she needed this message so bad. She cried when she offered the closing prayers and the message of the Restoration just really made sense to her. I hope she can start progressing more because we haven’t seen her for a few days.

Update on grams... SHE ACCEPTED A FECHA. hahaha it was hilarious. We offered the baptismal date as a tentative goal. She eventually accepted and was like trying to be all cool about it like "okay, I guess I will...." it’s really cute because I know she really wants to, but she is just a little too prideful to admit that she has been stubborn and wrong. We explained to her that we don’t want her to be baptized from the pressure of her family, the ward, or the missionaries (US). We told her she really needs to want this because she has a testimony of it. Hopefully she will be a little bit more humble and pray to ask God for a stronger testimony. If all goes according to plan she and her son will be baptized the same day.. NOVEMBER 15TH! Then the family will all be members (except for one son who isn’t interested) and they can get SEALED in one year. THEY ARE SO STOKED. 

We have another guy who is going to get baptized PROBABLY THIS SATURDAY, but we aren’t sure. First he has to get married legally. I think he made an appointed with the judge, and if he did, I think we are going to a WEDDDING. boooyaaaa. After planning like 5 I can finally attend one. He is so great and so willing to do WHATEVER. Seriously he is always like "I am yours, tell me what I need to do to be baptized, and I will do it...." hahah. It is hilarious and so great how willing he is. Makes our job easy and fun. 

Other people are great but I can’t remember what happened. Forgot my journal... hehe.

So this Friday Elder W. and I were COMPANIONS until Saturday afternoon and it was like the best thing ever. I remember when we were in the Immigration thing together (like when we had been in Mexico for 2 months) and I told him we would be companions some time in the mission. And ya, my words were MARKED. It was so great. Seriously he is probably the best missionary ever. It’s the best because this whole time in Mexico we have just had more opportunities to talk, vent, and get to know each other. It was definitely a tender mercy for us. We just get each other and it was just a treat to be able to talk to someone like that. We taught a few lessons in his area and were fed so much. That night we were just reflecting on the growth that we have both had since the MTC and all the things that have happened to us. We laughed, cried, and it was just a good time. Then the next morning we went to a training for us as new District Leaders. It was such a tender mercy to hear the President talk again. He is my role model. Seriously, he literally is led by the spirit. He said some great things on how we can be good leaders that really stood out to me. He said our strength as District Leaders comes from the strength we bring to our areas and the strength we have with our companions. He told us to not be the crazy leaders that just focus on planching other missionaries. We will be strengthened by the Lord, if we do our part in our ward and with our companions. WOW. Loved that. Then he said our virtud (righteousness, virtue) as a leader comes from our personal work ethic. The influence we can have on the missionaries in our District will come from serving them. And finally he said that a good leader is a better follower. So basically we just need to follow the example of Christ. HA, well that’s good advice. It is so interesting because W. and I have seen so many politics in the mission and missionaries being corrupted by the "power" they are given. But President made it clear to us that it is truly something simple, we just have to follow the example of the Savior, and yeah the rest will follow. He explained to us all of our responsibilities and how we can accomplish them... like give interviews, have district meetings, and everything else we are supposed to do. It got me to feel really good about this opportunity God has given me to share my time and serve the missionaries in a more influential way. So that’s what I will try to do. I actually need to plan my District meeting because I haven’t had much time.... waaah. But I have ideas. Bummer, I’m already failing. I'll start getting better. But yeah that was a great weekend break from the stress of the mission. One, to be with my best bud elder W., and two, to have the President teach and train us. 

Okay so now I will explain the crazy house situation. hhahahahah IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. i wanted to die. But it all started out great. So Thursday we found a house, let President know that we found one, and then we expected to wait like a long time for him to actually come out and see the house... But it was meant to happen apparently because he texted back and was like "okay I will be there at 6 o clock to see it....", which was in like 2 hours from that point. Anyways he came and was like "WOW I LOVE THIS HOUSE. WE ARE RENTING IT!" And so he gave the guy 500 pesos to hold him over thirty minutes until we returned from the bank to pay the rest. SO yeah he kind of rented the house and everything really fast and did it all before we could say anything to our old landlord.... ugh. So when we were leaving we randomly ran into a guy we know with a big van so we were like hey can you help us move tomorrow morning and he was like OKAY. And so we went to go teach some more.... but then the van guy called us and was like hey I can’t drive tomorrow so can we do it tonight.... I WAS LIKE UUHHH OKAY? And it was kind of dumb of me because it was like 7:30 at night and we NEED to be in our house at 9..... But I already said yes so we ran home started packing like maniacs and then the land lady freaked out on us and was like YOU CAN’T LEAVE and I was like WHAT? YOU CAN’T SAY THAT. It was crazy and stressful. So we continued to pack as she ran away. Then the van guy got there, took our beds apart, put like everything in his car and then the landlady came back with A MEMBER from the church, our neighbor grandma friend, and she was like ELDERS YOU CANT LEAVE and I was like T. what the heck - why are you here?!?1 So I guess the land lady was angry (for good reason) because the apartment has a bunch of damage and she needs money to repair it.... but she was silly and didn’t make the missionaries pay a DEPOSIT before (like 8 years before) and so she kind of got her self in trouble with that and was stressed because she thought we were going to leave and never come back with President to see the damages and get money to fix them. So she almost didn’t let us leave but I was just like okay well we HAVE TO BE IN A HOUSE AT 9 or we DIE so sorry we are leaving.... And she was really mad at me. But we left and miraculously moved almost everything before 9....!!!! We also left a few things in the house until this morning because we didn’t have time to get them Thursday night. So hopefully the President comes today to see the house because I am afraid to walk over there in that part of town. The thing is... there is a lot of damage.... But it isn’t all from the missionaries... it is from water damage and humidity. Like there is mold all over the walls and so much water damage and it is just a dangerous place to live... I am convinced. So I hope that President gives her some money, but I don’t know if he needs to because it is kind of the landlords fault for not maintaining it for 8 years with like 400 missionaries. I don’t know... I don’t want to be involved. I just moved because the President paid for a house and it was crazy... So right now we live in a new house that is bigger, newer, and NOT HUMID. It is great and still super close to everything.... So yeah it was weird and awkward and I was just the missionary in the middle of it all.

Anyway. Sorry to bore you with my weird missionary life. ALL is well. I hope to fix everything we ruined with the changing houses, but I really think it was meant to happen because the people that live below us and our new landlords seem to be interested in our message. Let’s hope that that stays to be true, otherwise I will continue to feel like a bad man without a cause...

LOVE YOU ALL. Thanks for the emails and letters. Life is good. Enjoy your lives...

Oh PS - congrats to one of my great friends EMMALINE WRIGHT for being engaged. You have to name your first son after me. Okay. But really, CONGRATS I am very happy for you and your fiance! 

Con amor,

Elder Macdonald

Saying goobye to ELDER R. So sad.

We went to Provo for the night.

We are brothers.

Cambios and chances to learn and grow

 CAMBIOS

Okay so we JUST GOT CAMBIOS LIKE AGAIN. It’s kind of like, SLOW DOWN, but it’s also, whatever, and perfectly fine. 

The good news is that my companion and I, are STAYING in Quetzaaaal. Woooohooo. That is good. I didn't want to change because we have lots of good things going for us here. And two, I didn’t want to change because I LOVE the people. It’s a good ward.

The bad news is that I was just called to be DISTRICT LEADER. odigfifdhsnfugirt. You know, its not really bad news... But it is a tweee-bit interesante. I mean I kind of called it as a joke, and then my joke came true. But it’s fine. I am excited. One, because it will help me grow and learn.. Two, because District Leaders can make or break a District... I really have so much respect for all of the District Leaders I have had. All of them have been amazing examples to me. So now I just get to return the favor to the missionaries in my District. I mean I don’t think I can measure up to Elder B., Elder P., or Elder R.... But I think I can steal some of their humility, work ethic, and love to spread it around a bit. 

Who knows how this will turn out. But I am going to definitely try my best. 

District Leaders are in charge of reporting every Sunday. So missionaries report to the District Leader for a bit of time after church, talk about the week, figure out how we can do better, find out what help we need, etc. Then the District Leaders go to report to the Zone Leaders about the whole District. Then all the numbers go from the Zone Leaders to the Assistants and to the President. It is a system. I am only a bit worried because I get the feeling that my Zone Leader doesn’t like me too much, but all is well. THEN every Monday night we have our District meetings for 2 hours. I am in charge of teaching according to the needs of the District and planning practices to do. I hate practices. BUT I guess I need to start loving them.. hahaha. I am also supposed to do baptismal interviews. I am actually most excited for that because I imagine that being a really cool spiritual experience. I hope I can do all of these things with Christ-like attributes. I just see, over and over again, people getting power hungry, super strict, or super entitled. My plan is to avoid those things.

So yeah I might be a little bit stressed about all the responsibility I have now been given, but I think it’ll be good for me. The coolest thing is that Elder W. and G. are both going to be District Leaders too! I love that we are from the same generation, get along so great, and basically do the exact same things at the same time. Also W. is coming to the ward that attends my same church building! So we will see each other all the time! And when we report we will be together!! It’ll be so sweet. 

Anyways. I will let you know how this week goes. Pray. This week was super good. We had lots of great lessons, ate yummy food, found many new people, AND had a beautiful baptism! The baptism was for M. C. – he is the grandpa that I love. So my comp and I went super early that day to clean the nasty font and fill it up with equally nasty water. It was a success. We finished right in time for the baptism, which was supposed to start at one. BUT the only person that got there at one was GRAMPS. I was like uuuuhhhhhh thanks for coming to your baptism. Guess we will wait for the ward and your family. Anyway, long story short, we waited for like an hour and a half for people to show up- Mexican standard time. It’s a real thing. LOL. The magical thing was that everyone eventually got there at the same time... Even though it wasn’t planned.  So they all know how they think and they just show up when they think is best. It’s a true talent. The family went all out. ALL OUT. It was like a wedding. There was SO MUCH FOOD. There were tablecloths and flowers as center pieces and just so many people all decked out. It was hilarious. Luckily I got them all to hurry up and take pics so we could start the baptism. When we started the whole room was full. It was such a great spirit with all the members and non-members that came. When Gramps went in the water with my comp to get baptized he immediately was like "uno... dos... tres..." and was about to dunk! HAHA. We were all like NOOOOO. Then he was like oohhh, and got that my comp was going to say the prayer first and then he got in the water. FIRST TIME and it was done. Those are the best. Then I sang a song and luckily it brought a really cool spirit into the baptism. Plus the acoustics are really good in that room so I was pleased... haha. Then we ate food partied and had to leave cause we had citas. But I guess people stayed there until 7 PM, aayyy. That family is a hoot. Our two new converts received the priesthood this Sunday and they are both preparing to bless the sacrament on Sunday. The best is that they are close in age and are like bffs already. Love them. 

The rest of the week was good. I can’t remember specifics though... Good lessons. Good spirit in the lessons. We are preparing three people for baptism. Two are family members of Gramps... His wife and his son. The other is another older guy... Unfortunately, we just found out he is only married in the Catholic Church... which is a bummer, because in Mexico everyone has to get married twice if they want a legal marriage and a religious marriage. He only got the religious one. So we have to tell him this week that he has to wait until he can get married by a civil judge. Hopefully he can do it quick. Crossing fingers. 

We had a great couple drop us this week. It was super sad. I didn’t see it coming... Hopefully they can feel prompted to talk to us again soon because they are investigating other churches. I have a feeling the other missionaries from another church talked to them and tricked them into stopping talking to us because they "need to learn more about the old and new testament before they should start learning about the Book of Mormon". It was like a scripted break up. Argh. Oh well. 

We are two missionaries in the ward, so that means we have the big area all to ourselves.  AAAYYY. I don’t like walking so much. My other areas we were able to take buses to places, but here it is walk or pay to take taxis. I want a bike. 

We still haven’t moved. We found a house, and President is talking to the owner trying to work things out so we can go there. Maybe in the near future we can move. Who knows? It is going to stink to have to move... 

Anyways this email isn’t very exciting, but I can’t remember anything else that happened. Oh yeah, we are teaching English classes now. And that’s it. I think it will be good to find new investigators. Wooohooooo. Service. 

Love you guys so so much. I will send pics soon. Miss y’all. Glad you enjoyed October break. Can’t believe that already happened. I can’t believe it is time for Christmas hymns. jajaja. 

Con Amor, Elder Macdonald

More tacos

So yummy. Be jealous

That water is IZTAPALAPA

Da fam

More fam

GRAMPS

To Planch, Learning from mistakes, General Conf, and God's mercy

This was an interesting week. I feel liked I have never been so planched in my life... Planched is like a Mexican slang word for being burned. Burned by punishing words. hahaha. I swear I'm not a bad missionary. But people just like to planch me. Its like... I can never do anything right. I'll explain later maybe. Actually I will start with Monday in the evening.

So the Zone Leaders came to the District meeting that we had Monday night, just for me. Usually you might feel special, or flattered. But ya. No. So they came to read some Law of Moses scriptures with me and my comp about doing things that are not OKAY, like the baptism and confirmation in the same day. Yeah I knew it was bad, okay? But I guess I will give them credit because they kind of did the planching in a loving way. It was a little uncomfortable. But I mean it was necessary. At least I am now 100 percent positive that the Bishop does not have the authority to authorize an early confirmation. So I mean I won’t let it happen again... Pres also just told me the same thing - that it is bad. But I mean now I knoooow. Then, in the end they all congratulated us on the baptism. So yeah. It happened. 

Then the week was good. We worked super hard. Brought lots of members with us to lessons. Had lots of lessons. And we had 32 lessons by Friday. Cause every week we are expected to have 30 at the end of Saturday. We always do. But this week we knew we wouldn’t be able to work Saturday so we had to work a little bit harder to get it all done by Friday night so we could just sit back and enjoy the CONFERENCE. And I was really able to sit back and enjoy the conference. We got lots of new fechas bautismales (baptismal dates) this week and I am super happy. In fact we are baptizing Gramps this weekend and I really hope his wife decides she wants to get baptized too, with him, so that they can get sealed in the temple!! That would be a dream. They both came to Conference. Grandma is cute because she was like “I already saw this last Saturday” (when she went to the Relief Society Conference), but then we had to explain that they are all different talks on different subjects and by different people. Haha she was convinced it was the SAME and wasn’t too impressed. She is just nervous because she might get baptized this Saturday too. But her hubby’s getting in da water this Saturday at ONE in the afternoon. Love him. So happy he is finally making this covenant with God. He LOVED conference and learned so so much. His son came too! Slowly M. (his son) is getting ready for his baptism. Wooohooo. Seriously it is amazing to see his change in view of the importance of the Gospel in his life. At first he liked the lessons but was like what’s the rush to get baptized??? And NOW he is coming to church every week, reading all about Mormon history, bought a Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants and a Bible, and is in all of our lessons instead of being there when it is convenient. So great. Love this family. We had one lesson when everyone was having a laugh attack and really I felt so bad but there was no way we could talk. It started when M. got up from her chair to read but like broke the chair and it was just super awkward. Hahaha. uuugh. 

Another family that is progressing has fechas for November and they are excited. Another investigator I have has so many doubts about prophets in this day, the Restoration, Jospeh Smith, and the Book of Mormon. Her church said she has to pick between the Mormons or them. So I think she might stop talking to us, which would be really sad. But the thing is I can help her with all her doubts. She is really just making them worse and worse and she isn’t motivated enough to sincerely pray and study/investigate. So it is like a brick wall. I really wish she could’ve heard Uchtdorf’s talk about doubting our doubts before we doubt our faith. It would've been an answer to her prayers and mine. She actually even committed to coming to that exact session. But she was a no show. I still don’t know why..... Satan is annoying. Back off hater. What else?...... I think we are slowly but surely finding new people. I am getting a little bit nervous about the changes that we have this upcoming week. In my next email you will know if I change or stay... ugh. I am worried. Not too worried though. I feel like I will stay here. 

So then at Sunday conference after the morning session, one of our recent converts (who is like 40) wanted pictures with all the missionaries and was like putting her arms around us. I was dumb and didn’t say anything because I thought it was too funny and not appropriate to embarrass her right there. I was planning on telling her later in one of our lessons we would’ve had with her. But the Zone Leaders saw us and so they literally were yelling at me for not saying anything. I thought it was silly, but whatever. Then after all of the conferences they gave a big speech to all the missionaries about the opposite sex and made it a huge deal and I could tell like 80% of it was my fault... I understand that we need to say stuff if it is a problem but they were making it sound like we can’t even talk to the Hermanas. And I was a little bit shocked because they are the ones that always help us get references and give us food and are nice to us. AND THEN that night we ate with a family and after we left, one of the guys (who is a returned missionary and newlywed) talked to us and told us to stop having his mother in law come with us to visits with investigators because it looks inappropriate to see a single woman going with us to appointments. I was seriously so shocked and felt so awkward. So I have been planched on many occasions before to BRING MEMBERS with us to EVERY lesson possible. But then I was just told by a member to stop inviting his mother in law to come with us because it looks like something else??!?!?1 He told us to bring more men instead of women. First of all, we have invited him like 3 times and he flaked... and second, all the other guys are too busy.... So we ask the sisters- Especially if the lessons are with girl investigators. I was fed up. I felt super dumb. Like a failure. ACCA AWKWARD. And just annoyed due to a day full of being yelled at and thought of badly... Especially when I thought I was doing a good thing by involving willing members because the lessons are strengthening their testimonies and the testimonies of the investigators. So it was a tough night. 

I think I came to the conclusion that we really do need to be more careful with our associations with the sisters of the ward... EVEN IF THEY ARE LIKE MY MOMS AGE. Haha.. Love you mom. Because this world is strange and thinks things when they shouldn’t think them. It really is tough because I don’t want to offend the sisters and un-invite them to appointments with us. I will try to think of something. Maybe we will just meet people at investigators houses instead of walking to the houses together. That might be what’s bad? I don’t know. It’s honestly ridiculous. But I know this is a trial of my faith. I will keep working hard and doing what I know is good. God knows what is right and that we are working our hardest to really build this ward up in all aspects: Investigators and Members. 

Okay. Done with that rant. So I really LOVED CONFERENCE. I forgot my notebook so I don’t really remember the details and all but it was such an inspired conference. I loved Uchtdorf’s talk on Saturday and in the Priesthood session. I loved Eyring’s talks too.... and Monsons. So pretty much I am biased and think they those three are the best, with the exception of Holland talking about the subject of depression and mental health. It made me super emotional because I felt like it was super personal when thinking of some family members that struggle with those types of diseases. It was so inspired and amazing and beautiful. Then I just really think all of the talking about Chris-t-like attributes and applying his Atonement helped me remember the beauty of His life and sacrifice. Like that’s the whole point of conference - To really just come closer to Christ... through prophetic teachings, the commandments, and his gospel. It is so simple really. But it’s super great to hear all of the interesting talks that they give too. Haha. I loved it so so much. Maybe I’ll remember my notes and try to talk about my favorites next time but I really don’t remember details and who said what. But I loved it. The American gringos all watched it in a room with so much food. #nevergohungry 

Well I love you guys so much. I’ll send pics in a sec. Sorry if this is boring or negative. I try to be happy and kind. Sometimes I take my own advice. I’m working on it. I know God has mercy on me. That’s what keeps me going when I am obviously imperfect and dumb. I am trying my best. My best really is pathetic. But He still loves me. That’s the best part about having this knowledge that I have gained from the mission. His love is an energy source. Love ya. Hope all is well. baii.

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

While your comp is in the bathroom and the family is upstairs.

Posing

Us

Us

Going to tacos. Well, searching like chickens without heads.

The beautiful stake center

Sunday morning

The gringo room. Backstage passes only

Comps