Golden Pork, painting is a learned skill, and teach, love, and serve.

Haha SCOUT (our dog) is a baby. Tell him to shape up. Send him to the Mexican streets and he will man up a bit.

Well this week was super duper better. I suppose. Just in - Tomorrow we are moving houses to a better house. That’s good. But that means that today we spent 2 hours packing and cleaning. Super fun. 

So this week I learned more things about the area. I am starting to build better relationships with the members. It is all progressing slowly but surely.

We had a Zone Conference on Tuesday and I had to give the teaching time and it turned out well. I talked about Prophets and why we need them. I used the story in Exodus 32. It is when Moses came down from the mountain later than normal and all of the Israelites freaked out not knowing what to do, so they started worshiping a golden pork (translation error – it’s still a calf).... LOL. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?1 We learned lots of good things about the Sabbath day and also the importance of talking to ERRRRYONE. Elder R. (my buddy from Chinampas) is my Zone Leader. I have missed him ALOT. So good to be back together. 

On Wednesday we had interviews with the President and he told me that this ward might be a little tricky and just told me to teach, love, and serve. lol. Okay! I’LL DO IT PRES. 

What have you heard about the movie "Perfect Obedience".... it looks super interesting. Haha. I have actually only seen a poster. I assumed it is about the Catholic Church. Fill me in folks.

I did interchanges with Elder T. I remember when he first got here... and now he has 8 months! I was like HOWW?! I feel like this mission thing defies the laws of time. It was fun. Their area reminds me of the Forbidden Forest from Harry Potter. I was super tempted to run away and find the spider. It was POURING rain that day and we went from house to house and NO ONE LET US IN. I was like “RUDE please learn that when it is raining, you let the missionaries in. Especially if you had an appointment?!?!” But it was fun. They’re opening that area, so it is tough right now. The rest of my district is doing great. We are going to have like 4 or 5 baptisms this week! Yay!

We went to eat with an investigator this week. Her name is I... and she is hilarious. She is basically a long lost member of the familia C. She will get baptized soon. She doesn’t really know if she wants to yet. BUT she came to church!!! I was suuuuper stoked. But she only stayed for Sacrament meeting and the talks were very dead.... and so I am worried that she didn’t like it. She was like.... I HAVE LOTS OF QUESTIONS FOR YOUU!!!  - and ran away. eeep.. She made us yummy food though, and then we painted her house!!! Just a room. They made fun of me for not knowing how to paint.... I didn’t know you had to know... I thought you just did it. lol.

The Mountain View alumni brought his girlfriend to church! AWESOME YAAA. So there is lots of potential with that. ALSO an inactive member of 13 years came to church yesterday. MIRACLE. She finally came. It was good. She liked it a lot. 

Hoping that Sunday we have a baptism. Tomorrow we are moving. And it is starting to rain a lot. 

Love you guys so much. Sorry for not knowing what to say. Keeping working hard - oh ya... you’re in summer break. I don’t even remember what that is. Hahaha. BAIII

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

We painted with I. She's basically part of the C. family. hahaha and she came to church this week.

Super pretty. rainy season has come back from the dust.

Pizza on muh tongue

The church!

Selfie for the fam. I saw a poster in a Mexican bus that said "tomete un SELFIE".... and I was like WUUUUT. So I obeyed and did it.

We go to church to be perfected in Christ, Krispy Kreme, and adjusting to changes...

WOW. Lots of things happened this week.

So did I mention I don’t like changes. I don’t know. Maybe the mission is preparing me to move from state to state every year. Who knows? Haha.

I really miss Topilejo. But, oh well.

I really also am starting to like my new area. But I don’t think I am going to be here very long. 

My new area is called Aculco. The attendance is WORSE than my branch. Haha. WUT? Only 30-50 people go every Sunday... and there are about 550 members on the records. HOW EXCITINGLY FUN! Haha. Apparently everyone is super delicate here and gets offended about everything and it’s just a mess down here. Seriously. ALL I have heard are bad things. Everyone is so negative.  And so it’s just a little bit weird. I mean I have to admit that some of the leaders have a super sarcastic sense of humor... But it’s like... they aren’t that bad???  There is so much work to be done. 

On the bright side my house is TINY and super gross and ugly and I HATE IT. jk. It’s not that bad. We did a deep clean today. But going from my mansion in the mountains to my closet in the hood hasn’t helped give me a positive outlook. 

The area is SO BIG - So big. And half of it is the richest of rich and the other half is normal or super poor. It is strange. I have never had so many REAL restaurants in my area. There is a Chilis!!! We went to go eat THERE TODAY... But it is so expensive and so I am asking permission to buy myself and my comp a lunch there next Monday with the card? What about that parents? HAha. I haven’t eaten Subway and PIZZA. ohhmg. There is even a Papa Johns!! HAha. I have only seen Dominos. NO YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT. I ate Krispy Kreeeeeemes! HAHAHA. I died. I saw it and peed and cried and ran over and the donuts are like 16 pesos which is like SOO MUCH but I didn’t care and so I ate it. SO the best thing about my area is the FOOD. Which is good because the hermanas here apparently don’t feed the missionaries. I don’t know.... Lots of crazy things happened here with the missionaries and the members and now they don’t trust us.... I don’t know. It’s a different world. One of my Zone Leaders is ELDER R. That’s super fun. I really like him and missed him.

OH my. You won’t believe it. We have some guy in our ward that is a less active that graduated.... wait for it..... FROM MOUNTAIN VIEW.... TOROS BABY.  I was shocked. Utterly. Strange no? HAHA.

We have really fun investigators. I am loving the people here even though everyone tells me I should hate them. I am thinking about doing a unity building activity. LOL. 

We should have baptisms in June. We will see about that. 

I really am happy. This week was just hard to get used to everything. I have LOTS of work to do. It should be good. I am in physical shape because my WHOLE mission I have had the hilly areas. I think he loves me or something... He also sends me to the wards with the least attendance in the mission. It’s like he thinks I am good at getting people to go to church? 

Haha.

There are lots of beautiful houses here. I am going to baptize one so they invite us over to eat. 

I am happy and adjusting. Love you all so much. The church is true. The members aren’t perfect. Get over it. That’s why we GO. To be perfected in Christ. So have patience and keep going. That’s all I have to say. 

LOVE YOU ALL.

con amor,

Elder Macdonald

#sayinggoodbyes

Love this District

 

favorite family. 

doooogy fat dog

My mansion, my clean and beautiful mansion. 

I SAW MY RABBIT FAMILY AT CHANGES AND I WAS SOO HAPPY. minus grammy and M.

big stuff.in da city

TOPILEJO IS ALL THE WAY OVER THERE IN THE MOUNTAINS. pain.

Forest

wooohoooo

the beautiful house in the hood.

SUBWAY YUMMMINESS

KRISPYKREEEEEME WUTUUUTUTUTUT. 

found a poncho in the house... hahahahha so weird.

Moving, hard work, and God knows us perfectly.

Transfers always come even when we don’t want them to… It is really frightening because time is going by extremely fast and I only have 6 more transfers. But guess what? All I can do it keep working and enjoying the work.

President changed me to Aculco in Contreras. I am still a District Leader and I am still training. I am pretty sure I will die training at this rate. I am actually super excited to go to Contreras because it is supposed to be super beautiful like here (Topilejo) with trees and rivers, but there in Contreras, I think it is a ward with lots of people! So that'll be fun. But I really actually have no idea because I have never heard anything about this place - And that’s life. Tomorrow we have changes. I really hate packing because curiously I have accumulated more THINGS that aren’t fitting in my suitcases. HELP. Haha. I think I am going to leave lots of stuff in the house here.... Sorry, say good-bye to dads huge warm winter coat. Awk... Frustrating.

The other side of me is super sad because I LOVE TOPILEJO. Hahaha. I know this always happens. I always end up LOVING my areas. So I just have to remember it is a good thing. Hopefully this area doesn’t let me down. Yoyoyo. But I didn’t get to see all my efforts harvested. But that’s the mission right? Some of us are planters and others are harvesters. Fun stuff. I have already said good-bye to lots of good people. Tears. So depressing. I HOPE that the branch keeps fasting and keeps working hard to baptized every week. We have set up the way. Keep going. 

Hilarious drunk grandma came up to me and Elder H. and told us that we were in her dream and that she needed to know who we were.... umm. And then she kissed us on the cheeks. Hahaha it was super funny because it was like an eternal struggle trying to tell her we can’t kiss women as missionaries and she was like "that doesn’t MATTER" and so she grabbed our faces like a cute little drunk grandma would and slobbered all over our cheeks. How loverly, right? Haha so yup definitely feel violated and it’s just wonderful. Hopefully she gets baptized someday. hahaha

We taught 40 lessons and it felt like it too. Seriously. IT IS TIRING.  Practically running everywhere. Being a missionary is really hard but I think that the Lord makes us super humans for 2 years without even knowing it because we walk SO MUCH. I don’t think I could’ve done this before the mission. I didn’t even realized this before. But yeah. We are super humans. 

F. and C. and progressing a WHOLE lot. They read and everything but the silly little fritos didn’t come to church. I wanted to nail them to the pulpit by their toes. But I know they will get baptized. I feel good about them. Everyone else is also doing well. They are gunna be baptizing lots here soon!

I ate a whole pig this week and wanted to die. Thank you very much. Wakala. 

Okay seriously we found 9 new investigators this week and I was super PUMPED. But now I will never be able to see them progress. It’s really a sad life. 

Topilejo is going supér well. I am honored to have had the opportunity to teach and work here with these great souls. I am going to miss them with all my heart. But soon we will visit them right? Yeah. 

The other elders in the branch had a miracle baptism! It was super fun to be able to interview him and see HOW READY he was. I love it. God loves all of his children so much. And it boggles my mind to know that he knows us individually and PERFECTLY. Its soo true but I just don’t get it. So great.

It was a pleasure talking with you FAM. Can’t believe the next time we skype I will be on the road to Calvary coming home. hahahaha. Love y’all. Pray for me to love my new area and people. I just want to be a better missionary and I am really trying. Hopefully I can make it by the time I am finished. 

I love you all soo much and I know this is true! I will go where HE wants me to go even though I don’t want to. Haha. Love ya.

Con Amor,

Elder Macdonald

Walking miles to teach.

wut?

bootiful

mi companero y yo

you folks!

meee

family R.