Hey familia! Here's my week for ya !!
EVERYONE MY LIL BROTHER JAKE TURNS 16 ON SATURDAY(29th) LADIES GET AT
HIMMM!!!!!!! Just kidding leave my brudda alone. Can't believe he's
taking my car too....buena suerte amigo. Love jakester such a great
example to me! Have the best day bud.
3 Months down!!! Time flies kinda, it been a long time hahaha. The
time here in Dalton flies by. I remember in Mexico it seemed like an
eternity!! Everything is going well for me and Elder Mitchell! Not too
much action in the investigator pool but we did a TON of less active
work. Nearly tripled our weekly goal! Worked hard. The efforts of our
ward are skyrocketing as well. It went from us having no member
presence each week to having someone out with us every day! Our
leaders are really stepping up and we're trying our best to encourage
and find and teach of course. Just gotta keep going! Rocky Face Ward
is going to see some improvements I'm stoked!!! Voy a empezar ahora
acerca de mis experiencias esta semana pasada:
Oct 17: PDAY was absolutely unreal today. We decided as a district to
drive up towards Chattanooga and go visit this place called Ruby
Falls, an underground natural waterfall hidden deep in a cavern. The
history on the waterfall is amazing look it up! There's a long cave
walk to get to it and their were some really funny rock formation (see
pics) hahaha. The waterfall drops 150 ft as well. We then went to
Cici's buffet with the ward mission leader and pigged out. Had a great
lesson with an investigator named Esmiralda. She's been reading a lot
so we will see where that goes!:) Hope
Oct 18: EM and I decided to play 1 on 1 in basketball to start the
day.....score 11-3 Elder Mac. Can't let my jump shot get rusty while
I'm out here! Haha we had an extremely productive day! Saw less
actives and investigators at like every minute of the day. It was
exhausting and exhilarating at the same time. The highlight of the day
is when we got to teach Hermano Sanhueza's (ward mission leader) son.
His son had some recent things occur in his life and he wants to come
back to the church. We had an amazing experience with him, sharing the
Restoration of the fullness of the Gospel. It was so awesome because
we saw how humbled he really was and how he wanted to change his life
for the better! Through Christ! His name is Cisco and can't wait to
work more with him.
Oct 19: here's my 3 month mark date. Crazy.. today consisted of ups
and downs, as does every day of course. We saw so many less actives
today. The thing about members who are less active is that they do not
remember the blessings that are promised to us through attending
church and partaking of the Sacrament, and if they do they are just
super lazy. I invite y'all to watch a video on this called "Remember
Him Always" with Elder Holland commentating. It is awesome. Been using
that in lessons a lot. One thing I learned is that we can find the
origin of the Sacrament in Leviticus 2! The LA work here is huge.
Oct 20: oh I've been speaking is Spanish a lot more every single day.
I personally just try to speak it as much as possible. Elder Mitchell
has been following along which is good! He's a pretty good Spanish
speaker!! We found two 16 year old kids who showed some interest! One
of them seemed really down about life and even admitted he's been
wanting to learn more about Christ for a long time. We had an awesome
team-up tonight with a priest age kid in our ward named Agustin!! We
had dinner with his family (Olivas Fam) and he came with us and we
visited some more less actives. At one point, he played Viva La Vida
by Coldplay in the car and i don't think I've ever been so excited to
hear normal music... very productive day!! We are using our time as
wisely as possible.
Oct 21: best part about today. We taught this guy named Blas the Plan
of Salvation and he loved it. I love seeing how the knowledge can
bring so much happiness and peace to someone. He offered the closing
prayer and was in tears. Such a great guy with a lot of faith.
Oct 22: the sketchier the area, the more fun tracting is!!!! We hit
some very interesting parts of town today....to say the least. Dalton,
the carpet captitol of the world and sometimes referred to as Miny
Mexico, is filled with these places. Oh we volunteered at a marathon
super early in the morning which was fun cheering runners on and
stuff. Karrie Rodriguez is another lady we are teaching who is really
trying to work through her problems and to progress. Pure desire.
Probably the strongest I've seen. She just quit her job so she doesn't
need to work Sundays. She's awesome.
Oct 23: Héctor Rios, one of top investigators, didn't come to church
nor to the baptismal service we invited him too and we found out his
son has been having breathing/heart issues. So we explained to him
that we as priesthood holders could give blessings and he quickly
called his family into the living room and we gave his 8year old son a
blessing. It was awesome. They're such a fantastic family. Love them!!
Great week! Living one day at a time and not worrying too much about
the future. The support is undying. Love you all. Emails are much
appreciated!!! Have the best week! This work is amazing!!!
Elder Macdonald
So anyways I've been hearing a little bit about some of the crazy
things going on in the world right now, and wow am I glad to be on a
mission. This week was phenomenal. Weeks like this are what I love And
get me hype about this work. It was also a Transfer week!!! Meaning a
lot of missionaries in our mission were moved to different areas or
stayed where they are at (like me)! Anyways, I'd like to give a shout
out to the great Lori Macdonald and Keith Macdonald. Love you.
Let's go!
Oct 10: PDAY!!!!!!!! So if any of you know me....you'll know how much
I love the ocean... even wanted to be marine biologist at one point,
but hey! We went to the aquarium in the beautiful city of
Chattanooga!!! Gorgeous here. Some members of a different ward got us
in for free and it was straight paradise. Wildlife everywhere. Felt
like I was on the North Shore of Oahu again with my fam and the Wades!
Shout out to Gramps! I loved it so much. My favorite movie is Surf's
Up so when I saw the penguins I flipped out as well. Someone watch it
for me 🐧🐧🐧 finally ate out in Downtown Dalton. Downtown here is
pretty sweet.
Oct 11: we had a great day today and it started off with us meeting a
new investigator named David Juarrez!!! Coincidentally his wife had
literally just had a baby the day before so we got in and shared our
message with him! He seemed pretty open so that was awesome! Another
lady we met up with who is like the Mexican version of my Aunt Marci
(she's awesome) named Dulce Nunez has a lot of potential as well. We
invited her to be baptized and she said she wants to make the decision
as a family! Woohoo. Highlight is when we went out with the 1st
counselor of the Bishopric named Hermano Lemon. We always say: "the
man, the myth, the Lemon". He's a boss! We went to see this Less
active family named the Mestas and had a great lesson with them, but
we also got in with probably our top investigators right now named
Araceli and Ezequiel Martinez. They are the coolest people and not to
mention super smart. They loved the Restoration message and totally
accepted it! Araceli is the woman we tracted into at 8:55 pm and she
already knew the Bishops family so that was perfect.
Oct 12: so classic story. So from 8 am to about 1 pm we have studies
and at 8:30 I heard a knock on the door, thinking it was the mailman.
Turns out some hobo saw our Jesus pictures on our windows and wanted
to come talk about God with us. So we sat there for 45 minutes while
he talked to us through our screen door....during this he professed to
be a prophet of God, also said he was the Anti-Jesus, and when I asked
him what he was going to be doing today he said," uhhhhhh I might go
look for a wife, or do some methamphetamine and smoke some marijuana,
oh hey did you know that....." then that was when he handed him some
pamphlets and wished him the best. Oh we also taught about 5-6 people
this day and it was awesome! Just trying to get people going. The
hobo's name was Wesley by the way, gotta love the guy haha.
Oct 13: so Elder Park our district leader (a 5-foot angry Asian dude)
was transferred out and my comp was made the new DL! Then we met the
new Elder who came in named Elder Raymond!!! He's a total stud! Super
nice guy! We got in with this investigator who had been progressing at
one point but the Elders before me hadn't been able to get in contact
with him! His name is Alberto Rosas. Stud. Love him. Can't wait to see
him take off. That's the beauty of the Gospel is it helps people
change their lives for the best, to follow Jesus Christ. Also went to
dinner with the Olivas Familia!!!! They're amazing, one of the kids in
the family is 16-17 years old so we're trying to get him stoked for a
mission. Taught them and his non member girlfriend. We then had a 2
and a HALF HOUR LESSON. My Spanish is doing really well btw so this is
fine, but this lesson was really important because it was with Edy and
he really had a lot of questions that needed answers. Good stuff. Also
learned today how important Goal setting is. Everyone can set goals
for anything. "A goal not written is just a wish".
Oct 14: not to much on this day. Had a member present dinner appt this
young woman's ex husband named Jesus (Hay-Zeus). Real quick I wanna
talk about the importance of the Book of Mormon. I've really come to
know for myself that this book really is the word of God, and I've
done so through study and prayers, and it's truth has been confirmed
to me by the feelings of the Holy Spirit. I believe it, just as the
Holy Bible, to be the word of God. Another real, true testament that
Jesus Christ is our Savior. I know it is true, and if any of y'all
have questions about it email me!! 🙌🏼 would be happy to help!
Oct 15: okay so best news of the day..... I GOT ACCEPTED TO BYU!!!! I
was so happy. I ran up a wall like ninjas do in movies. So stoked.
Can't wait to continue to learn about God's wonderful world there in a
couple years. I didn't get in my first time applying but with hard
work and the Lord's help it paid off. (Ether 12:6) today was nuts. We
had appointments at 9am and at 10 am and then went to a baptismal
service for the sisters in the Dalton Ward (they're doing really well)
so we tried to invite some people to that. No one could come but it
was beautiful to watch some people take upon them the name of Christ
through baptism. Today we had 10 set appointments and only 3 came
through and we found 3 others to teach. That's the life of a
missionary right there. Loving it!!:) Hector Rios is going to commit
soon to baptism I know it. Wants to continue to learn more. My comp
legitimately fell asleep during a lesson today haha? Didn't know that
was possible. Oh and also our car like broke down at 9:30 pm at night
and our ward mission leader had to come save us. Also earlier in the
day I got attacked by 6 dogs. Woohoo!
Oct 16: we had 2 investigators at church today!!! They're golden!!! It
is the couple who is named Araceli and Ezequiel! They stayed for
Sacrament and then attended the institute Class after church that is
taught by Hermano Sierra (an ex-general authority) and they were super
receptive and participated a lot! We also had dinner with them at the
Bishops house and we invited them to be baptized and they basically
said they would but they want to learn more about our church but they
accept everything and love it already!!! Quality people. So excited to
work with them.
Basis of this week. I know that challenges and problems are given to
us for a reason in this life. And it is a FACT that God will never
give us more than that which we can bear. Trials in this life help us
become the people that God wants us to be and that we should want to
be as well!!! If you are struggling with life in any aspect hit your
knees in prayer, ask for help and strength with a faith and hope that
something will happen in due time, and I can promise you as a friend,
brother, son, cousin, or whatever I am to you that you will receive
answer you need. God loves us. So stoked to be out here helping people
to come unto Jesus Christ. I love him! Adios amigos y Dios les bendiga
en todo esta próxima semana!
Elder Macdonald
