Choir, hot water, and cleaning competition

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL MOTHER, SHE MAY THINK I FORGOT.... BUT I DID NOT! FYI.

HAHA. 

Okay well I hope it was a fantastic birthday. I thought about you yesterday as I went to a special choir practice. It was super fun. Only a few missionaries were asked to sing for a special occasion... because.... Elder OAKES is coming to Mexico on the 8th and the 9th of February and its gonna be sick! So first, on Saturday, he is just going to talk to all the missionaries in the stake center close by the temple. That is when I am going to sing. Then on Sunday he is coming to OUR STAKE CENTER to give a stake conference talk here. That either means that this stake is fantastic.... or he is going to planch the hairs off our chinny chin chins. Apparently there is a bunch of apostasy in our stake.... it was the first stake in Mexico and so some of the members have been members for a LONG TIME and they are just prideful and confused about what that means. Who knows?? #missionrumorsarethefunniest Or he just might planch us about the missionary work... But I doubt it... because we were asked to study his recent conference talk about NOT having other Gods. Hahaha.... uhhh awkkk. No it'll be so cool. I am stoked. 

Okay so we worked hard this week. We taught 41 lessons.... we found a few new people, and I got a perfect score on the cleanliness of my home... 4 more perfects and I am eating with the President and his wife. Hahaha. lol. It is some competition to motivate the missionaries to be more clean. No doubt we have a winner here. And everyone knows it. 

So we also suffered a whole lot this week with cold water because the gas truck never passes by our house cause we live so far away.... But luckily some person sells it in their tienda so that was a tender mercy. HOT WATER. The best... Never will I take it for granted. 

We are working with 3 people fur shur with fechas. Some other people kind of have fechas but they just are not as convincing. So I am super stoked. The 22nd of Feb we have 2 planned. One is the grandma of a family! She finally wants to be baptized. She was like, "yes it would be a beautiful thing to be baptized with my family". So she is convinced. She loves the Casa de Oracion and is just such a quiet nice little Grammy. The other one is L. We found her in the street a couple weeks ago. She is perfect. She loves the way she feels when we teach her and when she learns more about God. But she LOVEDLOVEDLOVED the Casa de Oracion and was so convinced that everything is true. The only problem is she isn’t married. I promised her if she made this sacrifice God would provide the way to do it. So hopefully she trusts in that promise and gets hitched with her husband who I personally don’t like. I find him very rude. All he does is laugh at us in a mean way, but whatever.  They have 2 kids, so I was like... get married... If she can’t get the money together I will be very tempted to pitch in. BECAUSE WE NEED HER IN THE RAMA. 

So everything is great. We just have to keep contacting in the street a TON - BECAUSE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BAPTIZE EVERY WEEK. And so that means we need to find more and more people. Pray for us to be able to do so. 

I am glad you talked about missionary work in stake conference. Don’t worry about being too pushy. That’s how I have gotten by my whole life... And look at how I turned out? It’s the way to be. You are just offering others the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Think of a few people that you haven’t invited in a few months… and invite them again, and if someone bails out or seems uninterested... just keep inviting and bearing testimony. And if they still don’t come... SEND THE MISSIONARIES to their house. Give the missionaries the address and the name. That gives the missionaries an opportunity. Just trust God. It’s really nothing too hard. So don’t stress out about friendships. You can do it..

Well everything is great. I have lots of practices for the choir this week... So that’ll cut into work time. And. Yes. It’ll be fun. I am almost at the year mark and it freaks me out because it’s like... I just got here. But whatever.

Love you all so much! I am glad your birthday was great mom. I miss ya. I will find time to write a letter to you!  But, heaven knows when you will get it. nbd.

Con Amor, 

Elder Macdonald

hahahhaha the only pic i took this week.... 41 lessons didn't leave time for pictures. Sorry. We made yummy quesadillas. 

He will be warm, Cathedral, ruins, and hastening the work

HAHAHAH OMG I’M SO SORRY YOU SENT THAT COAT AHHHHH BECAUSE TODAY I JUST WENT TO CENTRO TO BUY A COAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHH. Well. I’ll sell it to some cold Mexican. 

I am seriously so sorry... can you like call it back or something?? haha jk.... uhh. 

Okay well this is funny. I guess I will start with the trip to Centro! Well President was like you need to go buy something if you’re cold!!!! And so I was like SWEEET and we were allowed to go to Centro today. It was just as cool as it was 9 months ago! Haha. I feel like it was yesterday. This time was different because we went shopping - SO WEIRD. I haven’t been shopping for clothes in a long time... It was just weird to see normal clothes at the tip of my fingers. Haha - but I’m super down to keep the mish rags on for a while. But it was a good day. I bought a coat, two sweaters, a scarf (yes.. it is that cold), and new black shoes. I bought the shoes because mine will only last me like one more month. So better to be prepared than suffer. They were all pretty good prices too! I hope. Haha. I don’t remember what is cheap in dollars actually. So I just went with my gut. But man were the stores fancy and beautiful with so many classy dressed people. I was like what in the world. So not used to that. We went to go see the templo mayor, which is the pyramid here and it was unfortunately closed so we couldn’t enter. But we could see it from the outside. It is just a bunch of ruins. So fantastic! Those rude Spaniards built their cathedral on top of all the beautiful indigenous temples. But hey. Gotta do whatchyou gotta do to spread the word about Christ, right? Haha in fact today we met a group of tourists from Canada in McDonalds and I was like yaaaa so fun. They were a Catholic group and their Bishop was hilarious. I loved him. They are Orthodox Catholics. My comp and I talked to him for a while about their beliefs and the differences between all of the Catholic churches. He was a great man. Super animated. It was interesting to learn more about their beliefs. Unfortunately he talked the whole time, not leaving us any time to tell him about our beliefs. But he said he went to a Mormon church one time and in one Sunday learned all about Joseph Smith and our beliefs about how we can progress eternally. He probably was way overwhelmed that day. But it was nice to discuss religion civilly. Especially to talk to a Catholic that knew what he believed. Then we had to hurry and buy my comp a camera and leave cause we just barely got back. WHAT A DAY. So yeah, sorry you sent me that big coat in the mail. I might send it back...? idk tell me what to do... Cause that coat will definitely take up a whole suitcase. 

So this week was awesome because we also had a baptism! I mean that day was a bit hectic because our water disappeared, and our gas was frozen so we couldn’t take showers. So it was just “go to the baptism dirty day”. It was crazy. We went super early, like at 7:30 am, to fill the font up with warm water, but the water turned out being cold and I was just expecting it with my running luck. But the important part is they were baptized and gave fantastic testimonies afterwards. GUUUREEEAAAT. I love that family so much. It was a mom and son. Their other family members we baptized a few weeks ago. We just about finished the family. We are only missing the Grammy. I think I can help her. Haha. 

We also had a great Zone Conference. Seriously, president and his wife are rock stars - Such amazing people. I wish you guys could understand them when you come to pick me up. So hurry and learn Spanish. 

Well. We are finding lots of new investigators and putting them on a date. So we have seen lots of tender mercies in the work. God is hastening his work. We have been asked to teach 40-60 lessons a week and baptize every weekend in our mission. And that is coming from the Area Seventy Presidency. Seriously... God is getting a little bit hasty with this, but we have got to put our shoulder to the wheel and work hard. We can do it. We just have to focus more now than ever. No time to think about ourselves. More on how we can help our current investigators and constantly find new people to teach and invite to be baptized. We have received promises and I have seen God keep his promises this week when we keep ours. It’s true! The work is truly pressing onward. It is fantastic!

Well I am kind of losing time. But I love you all so so so much. I invite you all to stop being babies and bring the missionaries to the homes of your non-member friends. Just do it. Don’t think about it too much, and just wing it with da spirit. Ka boom. And that’s a wrap folks. 

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

BAPTISM 

YAYA FAMILY

We didn't shower that morning. #baptismbath

my breakfast.

catedral

The ruins of the templo mayor

great acoustics

Cowboy land, loves his rama (branch), and freezing!

HI. OKAY - WELL HEY.

So I have literally jumped off the face of the earth (meaning Mexico City) and landed in true hick town, mountain hillside, cowboy land, but it is just fantastic. I am also in a RAMA. #branch.

To start... our house is beautiful and big and an actual house. The only negative side is that is gets super super cold. HERE it is really cold. Apparently it snows in some parts of my area. So that is the negative because the house is super cold and airy since we don’t really have much furniture. But the upside is that we have a legit big house and its clean and new and smells good and we have a YARD. It is a real yard with grass. I thought it was a joke at first. But no.. it’s real. So the house is cool (pun intended).

The next thing is that I really do miss and love the people from my old ward but I am really starting to love the people HERE. I knew I would. But the mind is just such a strong thing. Haha. One day I will triumph over my doubts and worries. The people are fantastic. There are probably like 55 to 65 members. 55 came to church on Sunday. Our Branch President has a year and 3 months as a member and was just sealed in the temple. Oh, and same with his Counselors. HAHAH. It’s so funny. No one knows what is going on. Well that’s not true. There are probably 5 members with experience. But it’s great because the lack of experience just makes all the members so humble and so willing to learn. So I do just love it. Some of them have apostate ideas, but I mean we can definitely work with that. 

My Zone Leader is Elder P. again and I love him and missed him a bunch. He was one of my old District Leaders in La Noria. He’s a beast of a missionary. The other Elders in my District are both Mexicans with like 6 and 5 months each. They are great, super smart, loving, and have strong testimonies. So that’s an upside as well. 

What else. I am trying to hurry because we are in a time crunch as always...

Okay so the area was actually just opened up and it is a work in progress. Everything is super spread out and very beautiful. The land and mountains and everything just makes me super happy and makes me want to sing "The Hills are Alive…" five times over. Lots of cows. Probably more cows than there are humans. Lots of Jehovas Witnesses... probably more JWs than there are cows. I actually am pretty positive they have more success then us. So I see them going to our investigators all the time so I take creepy stalker photos. I want to be their friend! There are lots of dogs that have lots of puppies and so it is just super happy. And super tempting to take one and put it in my yard because we have a YARD so why wouldn’t I? But I can’t because that is against the rules. Dumb. But I pet them all the time. I might die of worms. 

Oh and forgot to tell you. WE HAVE A CASA DE ORACION. (It means a House of Prayer – usually a rented building to hold the meetings for the branch) Haha seriously it is a replay of my first area and it makes me super happy and grateful - Such a tender mercy. I mean I hated the fact that I was in a branch with a house at first, but after being in Chinampas I decided that ramas and Casas de Oracion are just better. It brings back lots of memories. Also funny because all of my areas have been touching the outside border of my mission. Prez hates me wut? No. But it’s good. I like it a lot. I mean we literally only have small tiendas to shop in so that is a downers. But I like top ramen.... and chips. Haha. 

I really have been dying of COLD. I am not exaggerating. Thanks so much for the gloves. What an inspired gift. I need to buy a jacket but ONE BIG PROBLEM.. WHERE? So I think I will just tough it out with my sweaters. 

The people here are great. Don’t have too many crazy stories. Just learning as I go. Lots of nice people. The people here actually want to talk to us a lot. It surprised me. Who knows? We might have lots of potential. Also we have baptizing a mom and son this Saturday! Woohooo. They are super awesome. I feel bad cause they totally miss the other Elder that was here and kind of made it clear that I wouldn’t be baptizing them. No well it was more the grandma. Haha. So I was just like sorry. But they will learn to love me, I am sure. 

Anyways I love you guys so much. Still haven’t gotten the packages. It is a little bit worrisome. And the next package you send, please send me warm articles of clothing. Anything. I don’t know. Oh yeah and an umbrella - Because mine literally disappeared. Weird, huh????

Love y’all so so much! Pray for the rama de Topilejo! We need your prayers! 

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

the apartment is boootiful

kitchen yaaa

WE HAVE A HOUSE TO OURSELVES. WUT?

Comp Elder L. We do everything in our bedroom because it keeps us warm. The house gets absolutely freezing. ayayay

the HILLS.

horsies

haystacks

running away from my comp.

The Nimbus 3001

quidditch in the backyard

cool house, huh?

Moving to the "far away top" and New Year's goals

CAMBIOS and guess what -me cambiaron. They changed my stinkin’, sorry butt. I’m seriously so sad to be leaving this area, but I am also excited for the change because change has always proved to be good. Hopefully it stays constantly good. 

So I was changed to an area se llama Topilejo. It means “far away top”. Haha. I am literally going to a mountain far away in the cold. I even think it snows. Haaha jk. But people actually do joke about it snowing there. I guess I will have to see for myself. I am worried because I have been super cold lately here. DANG. But it’ll be good. So when I started the mission I was in the farthest area southeast. AND NOW I am going to the farthest area southwest. That should be fun. I am going to the four corners of Mexico City. 

I really am content BUT I am sad to say goodbye to the amazing people I met here. Elder W. and I went to go say goodbyes this morning to some people and they all cried and were sad and it made me sad and cry too. Haha. But I told them in a year we will come and visit them! That’s the good news. CHEER UP ELDER MAC. So tomorrow we will be leaving QUEZTAL and I will be almost on my way to Cuernavaca. 

This week was super funny and long because no one was home. But it ended with a perfect Sunday testimony meeting. And I was prompted to bear my testimony so I pretty much knew I was going. That has been the pattern on my mission - Lots of people coming to sacrament meeting and bearing your testimony means you did your part and you’re done and on to a new adventure filled with challenges and wonderfully joyful experiences. SO I just accepted it even though I didn’t necessarily want to. 

This week was New Years Eve, New Years, and of course MI CUMPLEANOS. Well let me just tell you the only person that knew was Elder W. but he forgot. lol. And so it was just a tender mercy that others found out secretly and gave me cake and parties. Hermana T. and the Familia C. gave me cakes and it was fantastic. The C,’s surprised me after we watched the Testaments with them and then it was super funny because they sang me happy birthday in the Spanish traditional song and it is super long and not repetitive so I don’t think I will ever learn it. But I got it all on video. HAH WOOOHOOO. SO I will show it to you I guess in a year. I can send stuff over email;, but idk how... Other missionaries in my district somehow knew and gave me Snickers and we also went to learn about Family History that day and I ate my first brownies in 11 months. WOOHOOO. It was yummy. But yeah it was a great birthday. Super calm and filled with love from other people. 

Well it is also a New Year and I am super excited to make it fantastic - A whole year as a MISSIONARY. I feel super lucky and blessed to dedicate this whole year to the Lord. I know he has blessed me and will keep blessing me as I continue trusting in Him. It is an interesting thing trusting in the Lord. I don’t think I have ever doubted the Lord could bless me because I have lived a life full of His blessings. But the tricky part is gaining His trust because sometimes we decide to be disobedient. Well actually I know he trusts me even if I haven’t proven to be completely trustworthy. He knows my potential and loves me and wants me to be greater. So he keeps putting more trust in me... I guess the hard part is living up to his trust. I know I will fall. I know I will get distracted. But I can also live up to this trust as I trust in the Atoning sacrifice of His Son. I have lots of goals to become better this year as I live and serve in new areas and have new companions. I have learned so much this past year about my weaknesses and imperfections... And I am so grateful to be aware of these defects of mine so I can constantly try to better myself in these defects. I have learned a lot and still have lots to learn. eeeey, that’s okay though.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to bring others unto Christ through being a vessel of the Lord. It is a blessing from God. My mission is shaping who I can become and what I will be for the rest of my life. Right now is the learning process and after will be the applying process. 

Okay well my mind is really blank. This ward truly made an impact on me. So many fantastic people with so much “fantastic-ness” in their spirits. I am not worried about them. 

I love you all so much and just miss you all a bunch. I mean I am tempted to ask for a winter coat because my sweaters won’t be too helpful. But then if you send it it wouldn’t get here until after I die of frost bite so I will just try and knit a coat of tree leaves since there will be a bunch where I am going. Haha. Saying goodbye to the Concrete Jungle and saying hi to green forests. 

PS still didn’t get my package. Maybe I’ll get it tomorrow.

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

Birthday with T. family!

Birthday with the Rabbits! 

candle