A strange bacteria, genealogy, opening our mouths always, and laughing is good for the Spirit.

This week was fantastic.

Yesterday we had Leadership Counsel with the President and after... we wasted the WHOLE day... because I had to go to the doctor to finally get my results back. I tested positive for some nasty bacteria. It is called.... Rinofaringitis by Estafilococo Aereus.... I have no idea what that means. If you are interested, I give you permission to look it up. I am all swollen in the nose and throat and it is just pure joy. But it’s getting better. The doc gave me like 6 medicines that are either going to kill the bacteria or me... Hopefully it’s the first one. 

The Leadership Counsel was fantastic. We are planning good things for the mission and working on recent convert retention. 31 percent of the recent converts this year are already less actives... YIKES. The truth hurts. 

Okay so we had fantastic lessons with L... the mom. We were talking about the plan of salvation and we explained the part that is between death and the resurrection. We went more in depth this time and talked about the work for the dead. She started understanding slowly but surely. When it all made sense in her head, she starting balling because it the was the most beautiful thing she had heard and KNEW that she needed to start her family history to do baptisms for her dead. She has actually been interested in genealogy before, but here it is harder because no one had any dates on their grandparents.... but when we told her that the church dedicates so much to this work she got stoked to be able to find out more and more about her ancestors. It was the coolest lesson ever. The Spirit was manifest in that lesson through that gospel principle. And I had never met a new convert of a week that truly understood the importance of that work. Loved it. This week we are going to paint her kitchen and living room. She also has her own salon and invited us to get free massages from her massage machines whenever we wanted... too bad we can’t. Hahaha. But she is going to cut out hair today. She is glowing with a new light. It is the Spirit! Woohooo.

M. A. was super hard to find this week... But he came to church with his son. He is scheduled to get baptized this week.... but we aren’t convinced that he is ready. He might need a little bit more time. He is the funnest guy though. He always has the best, most controversial comments in gospel principles. Hahah everyone calls him MIKE and I love it. They all love him. He actually rides his motorcycle to church every Sunday and like 2 minutes before we start the sacrament meeting all you can hear is the LOUD motor pull into the parking lot. And my comp and I get super excited. It’s hilarious. 

L. is doing AWESOME. We couldn’t find her this week but she went to church and loves going with her son to the nursery. We always try to make her go to gospel principles.. but she likes being with her son. She is almost convinced about her baptism date for September 27th. Hopefully this week she convinces herself, or at least listens to what God has already told her...

We had a miracle story. We contacted a woman one night through service! She was carrying two big bags of clothing and so we offered to help. Obviously, we started to talk to her and then got her info and invited her to church. She said she would go.... Didn’t see her the whole week until Sunday. On Sunday we passed by her house and she was all ready. LITERALLY. That doesn’t happen. We took her to church and the members were super nice to her. She loved it all and stayed the whole 3 hours. She was like dying because she knew it was soo true and soo good and that God put this in her life for a reason. We taught a quick lesson about the Book of Mormon right after the services because she didn’t know what it was and she was like WOW THAT’S COOL. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted a date!!! She is soo prepared and so elect. The only problem is that she works all week and won’t be able to see us until Saturday. The Lord wants us to open our mouths in all times and in all places. Just so we can find His elect.

It was a good week. Church was awesome. 9 investigators came and we think they all liked it. We are doing lots of good things here. My comp and I get along super great. We laugh all the time. Laughing is really good for the Spirit. 

I sent my scriptures to get a new leather binding... Hopefully it is cool. I am doing it super blind. I sent it with the sisters and they will just call me and tell me what the color options are and such.... hahahahah eeeek. But it was cheap so I decided to do it. I will let you know how they turn out. 

The church is true! The family is ordained of God. The Priesthood is His power. Everything we teach is the truth and I love it. I am losing thoughts and words... SOooooo BAI.

Con Amor, 

Elder Macdonald

The Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders

A weird small museum.

The map of the whole mission. little little little. I am the top right corner of the mission. It is barrio Iztacalco and it is the stake ermita. The bottom right corner is Chinampas... my first area.... then two areas to the left from Chinampas is La Noria... and one more to the left is Topilejo.... and the other two areas are hard to find so just make your best guess.

Mexicans are oddly crazy about coughing germs.... I was offended when they forced me to put the mask on. hahahah.