Friday, January 27, 2017

1/23/2017

Crazy Week!!!! My last week in Dalton wasn't not too
adventurous...that's right! I got emergency transferred up to
Tennessee in Poplar Creek East. I am junior companions to Elder
Sanders for 3 weeks and they at transfers will be replacing him as
District Leader and will be training a new Missionary fresh from the
MTC. Super excited to be here. This is a full English Ward which is a
drastic change from what I've been accustomed to my whole mission but
just gotta do it! I was pretty sad to leave Dalton. I grew to love
those people there so much. But God needs me here!

Monday: PDAY we met up with 2 districts and played a huge basketball
game and I played my Uke. Getting really good at Jack Johnson thanks
to another Elder who gave me some lyrics! Mom I know you'll love
that:)!

Tuesday: Zone Conference. Unreal every time. Trainings were fantastic.
Especially President Griffin once again. At the beginning of the
meeting he told me he had to talk to me after. So that's when he told
me about being emergency transferred. A great deal of trust has put
called upon me so I'm super excited for this opportunity.

Wednesday&Thursday: I fell behind on my journal and couldn't look back
in the Area Book but from what I remember it was just good ole grindin
days and having a ton of fun. Going to miss Elder Reyes and Fillingim
straight up!

Friday: best experiences from today was having the opportunity to
perform two priesthood blessings. One in particular was really power
because this guy named Willy Williams who has been on dialysis for
awhile and has lost one leg and is losing the other answered the door.
We offered to give him a blessings. The Spirit was amazing. We left
him with a Book of Mormon as well:)

Saturday: 3 straight dinner appointments this nights. All of you
return missionaries know what this is like. Went alllll out in every
single one too. I had to enjoy the Mexican food while I could! By the
end of the night I was cashed beyond belief. So good. Dalton was a
good time con la comida

Sunday: I got to bare my testimony in Sacrament and throughout the
meetings I was saying bye to people I love so much. It was tough...
Also with the emergency transfer deal I thought they were picking me
up Monday...but I got a call from the APs saying they were at my
house!! I had nothing packed! So we sprinted home I packed the fastest
I've ever packed and they went out to pick up President Griffin. I
rode with Pres for two hours and we got to talk a ton. Soooo awesome.
Ate dinner at the mission home with the Griffin Fam and then went on
our ways to the new area! New adventure new beginning.

There's not really anything going on in this area. But it's time to
change that!!!

I want to apologize if I don't email any of you back! I promise I read
all of it I just have such limited time to write! I love all of you
and thanks for the support!


Elder Macdonald








1/16/2017

Reason for the title this week.....well I couldn't think of a
title.....and we got our car stuck in the mud for like an hour or so
one night so that was classic. What a wonderful week. Words cannot
describe the joy I felt working with the Hispanics out here. I don't
have a lot of time so I'll jump into it.

Monday: for PDAY we decided to just walk around downtown Dalton all
day and look at all the Pawn shops, outdoor shops, government
buildings, murals. It was a wicked fun day. I heard CLEMSON TOOK DOWN
BAMA wooooooohooo!!!!! Atta boy Watson. If you know me you know my
passion for that game! BYU will get there one day..

Tuesday: I had a spiritual experience this week with my trainee Elder
Fillingim. We taught a very shaky Restoration lesson and there was a
ton of distractions in the room. He couldn't get the words out his
mouth very well. And afterwards I could tell he was very upset. Ladies
if you need to know something valuable, when a guy isn't talking to
you it's usually because something's wrong straight up. So of course I
happily went right along digging into why he was upset. Told me how he
felt then the spirit brought to remembrance the story of Moses and
Enoch. How when the Lord called them both to be prophets, and right at
the beginning they both told the Lord: how can this be? I am not a man
of words.....who am I to fulfill this calling? And of course we see
the result. He cheered up afterwards:) love the kid.

Wednesday: Liz Fraire my recent convert accepted a calling so I'll let
y'all know what it is next week:) so today we rolled up to a less
Actives house and it had been raining most of the day. Dark out so I
couldn't see what I was pulling into, then when I opened the door I
just saw thick, gooey mud.....keep in mind I'm driving a
Carolla....took about an hour to push out..being the driver I stayed
in and accelerated the whole time Hahaha meanwhile my comps and some
other Hispanics were pushing and getting drenched. Good times

Thursday: One unique thing that we started doin is using the game
JENGA with less Actives and investigators to explain the importance of
the Gospel. The blocks represent everything which we need to do and
follow, j think you get the picture. It's wicked fun and has been
adding a spice to the missionary work!

Friday: our ZLs have challenged us to invite everyone we meet to be
baptized in the first lesson. We are the lowest baptizing zone (most
southern too) so we took that to the maximum. We are teaching as best
as we can and constantly inviting. Haven't seen success from it yet
but it will come!

Saturday: we invited like 7 people to be baptized. Nada. Hahaha. All
good tho. We trying. Jasmine Vasquez had her baptismal interview this
morning and passed with flying colors. Angel. We met a new Less Active
I'd never met before named Carlos Martinez! He's still super strong
and wants to come back and has been dating his GF for 6 years. Her
name is Tora and we set a dinner appt with them on Friday! Carlos said
we could teach her so she's golden I think. Plus a less active family
woooooo!

Sunday: Baptismal Service for Jasmine today:)))) so we had a classic
mission don't problem. My dude Elder Reyes didn't put the plug all the
way in so when It came time for the baptism she literally was baptized
in like 1 Ft of water. But it was beautiful and we had a completely
full room. We got permission from the mish president to do it today
and then immediately after we confirmed her a member of the Church!
Her mom is a returning member and she has two little sister who want
to follow in her steps! Beautiful example of happiness, love, and
faith to me!

Love y'all

¡Ciao Pescao!




Sunday, January 15, 2017

chilling in Dalton 1/09/2017








1/09/2017

Yea you read the Title for this week.....WE GOT SNOW IN GEORGIA!!!
And by snow only like 2 -4 inches but hey can't say I was expecting to
see that! The temperature dropped to the teens this week and out here
in Dalton they don't have the equipment to salt the roads and keep
this hilly place safe for vehicles.......we had to cancel our baptism
this weekend to next weekend for Jasmine Vasquez...all good though!! I'm
loving the South out here because something new happens every single
day and life just gets better and better!

Tuesday: my favorite part about  today was hands down giving our
recent convert Liz and her husband Manuel a framed picture of the
Atlanta Temple after we taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They
both absolutely lit up! Regarding to them, please keep them in your
prayers! We are working to get the husband to leave behind some old
habits and also to get them temple recommends and callings!

Wednesday: So we work at Providence every Wednesday which is volunteer
work at a Christian church program in a shelter kitchen. One thing I
learned recently is that all the other guys that work with us are
previous or recovering drug addicts and we're either forced by law to
sign up for the program or did it voluntarily to help themselves. I
have had many wonderful conversations with all the guys that work
there (usually around 24-35 years old) and had one awesome one in
particular today. We were talking and discussing his past he had with
incarceration and drugs and discussed his religious background and
what he is learning while he is enrolled that Providence. When all was
said and done he really wanted a Word of Wisdom Pamphlet so can't wait
to give one to him this week!

Thursday: some more Spiritual guidance hit us today! We had members
come out with elder Fillingim and I while Reyes went up to Cohutta,
named the Sierras! Hermano Sierra is an ex-area seventy and mission
president from Honduras and his wife was an excellent institute
teacher! We had an initial plan but as we were heading that way we
decided we should go try to see a less active part member family.
Turns out the mom, named Maria, who isn't a member is from Honduras
too so they had a fiesta the whole night and we ended up having food
with her. Hope she soon has the desire to take the charlas!

Friday: We had been randomly notified that we were going to get hit by
a snow storm and that's what we woke up to was a fresh blanket of snow
❄️ ❄️️❄️️ to be honest before my mission I didn't pack any winter gear
assuming I was going to be sweating my life away out here all 2 years
but I was wrong....it's cold....realllly cold. And it's a completely
different cold than out west. The humidity intensifies it to such a
degree it's crazy! I'm all bundled up don't worry Mama. I saw today
the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation touch the heart of a woman who
lost her husband today. Whata Day:)

Saturday: Hands down the coldest day in Dalton since I've been
here.....15 degrees was about how low it got.....WOOO:) we had a good
time with it, snowballs fo sho. Favorite moment: so we met this 9 year
old kid named Melvin who is ridiculously smart and previously the day
before we met him when he was in the house of the neighbor we were
teaching and when he saw the Book of Mormon he said,"Give me one" and
immediately starting reading it. So today taught him and his
cousins...uncles....dad...I'm not sure who they all were but there was
like 6 of them. After teaching the Restoration Levin got distracted by
the Liahona picture in the cover so all of us read 1 Nephi 16
together. Classic Hispanossss.

Sunday: No investigators came to church...but some awesome less
Actives did and that was really great to see. A lot of members are
getting callings as well so people are getting excited! Liz and Manuel
didn't come to church for the 2nd week in a row. Manuel we believe has
been causing some issues with that so keep them in your prayers otra
vez! Strong testimonies just need to resolve some things. I love
seeing less Actives come back. Just as good as the waters of the font.

Making every minute of my time here in Dalton count and practicing as
much Spanish as possible! I'm learning every single day with regards
to that! The companions are awesome we get along really well and have
a blast every day in the Trio. For those of you who have seen the
Three Amigos they been calling me El Guaaaapppoooo. Classic. Ciao.
Love you all. Especially Momma:)

1. Liz y Manuel y Josemanuel (chiquito)
2. Nothing Was the Same
3. Daily
4. Missionary Revista Portada
5. Este Hogar es Católica
6. Home
7. DALTON

Elder Macdonald