6/19/2017

Hola Familia cómo están??? Big news this week! So we had transfer calls on Saturday morning and we found out that my companion, Elder Hatch, is leaving down to Cleveland Tennessee. We served a solid 3 months together and I am sure going to miss the guy. We worked so hard! My new companion is an Elder who just got done training so I will give you more feedback about him next week! This will be my 3rd transfer in the Spanish Branch here in Lebanon! Absolutely crazy week! 

The District: The district is doing a lot better than it has been. Combined as 3 companionships we only have 2 baptismal dates but there is a lot of potential here. We will be an incredibly young district here in Lebanon. The majority of missionaries will be less half a year out, so there is some greenie fire here for sure! One thing that the missionary leadership just came out with is the new TKM Mission Plan! I will post that. I believe that this plan will help move forth the work in such a vast spectrum. Last transfer wasn't really what we were looking for but things are moving! 

Spanish Branch: Honestly nothing really has changed with regards to this however we are trying so hard to get members out with us every single night. The stake here has a goal of 12 member present lessons each week which is a very large number but very manageable as well. 

Investigators: We have found quite a bit of people but for now I would like to put my focus upon two guys named Ramon and Mauricio. We had a miracle happen last week during stake conference where we met a member who knew these two dudes and works with them out in Lafayette. Ramon and Mauricio both do not have a church and are very interested in the Gospel! Pray for them! Pray for us! 

Hatch & Macdonald Legacy: we went hard every day all day. There was not a day when we were not hitting the streets and it did not matter if we would have success or not. It was super relieving to be able to work through the day. My favorite success we had together was definitely baptizing Jared Gonzalez to bring his family closer to the church. Adrian and Monse (the parents) still are not married (Adrian is a member) but they have told us multiple times that we are their favorite missionaries and we are slowly but surely making progress to help this family come into full fellowship. I love them! 

Zone Conference: This Friday was President and Sister Griffins LAST zone conference of their missions. Here in Cookeville we have an amazing zone. We received trainings on the new mission plan I posted on here and also President Griffin gave his last training. He had us all sit down in a massive circle and he started out with one question. He asked, "Why did you all come on a mission?" And he called on certain people to answer the question. He taught accordingly to their answers using the scriptures. And then he asked us "Now, why are you still on a mission?" These questions, as you can imagine, hit everyone so deep but it made me reflect back upon my decision to come to Tennessee and really why we are setting aside our lives to serve. The answers to these questions cannot be put into a few lines, but what it comes down to is a love for God. To love God is to serve those around you and to keep his commandments. 

One thing I was studying this week was a talk called "Grateful In Any Circumstances" by President Utchdorf. He said that gratitude is the catalyst of all Christ like attributes. 

Being grateful in our circumstances will make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious. There are always so many things to be grateful for, but more importantly there is and always will be something to be grateful for. It is easy to be grateful for the mellow, "all is well" times. But what about when life has you up against the ropes? What about when your life may seem to tear at the seams? Familia I invite all of you to live with an attitude of gratitude, even when the times get hard. The Lord is with you always. 

Elder Macdonald 

6/05/2017

Woah. This week was pretty legit out here in Leb! Y'all no creerían lo qué pasó este fin de semana! The weather has taken a dramatic change starting this weekend. The humidity has cranked up and will continue to do so (so excited woooo)! I remember walking out of the apartment with my sunglasses on and they immediately fogged up.. Ooo it is thick! This just a couple things I want to talk about this week! 

La Noche de Película: so last week in Branch counsel we decided we wanted to do a movie night again and we had less than a week to get it going! We went to Office Max and printed off a bunch of invitations! Having something like that to pass around always makes people a bit more open to talking! We passed all those out and invited everyone we could to come this Saturday Night! We had only one investigator come and a bunch of members but hey! We watched The Testaments (best movie in the league) and enjoyed the night. 

Nashville: this was by far the most awesome thing that happened this week! Monse and her family (we baptized her son Jared a few weeks back) asked us to come with them to Antioch to watch Jared's soccer games and her husband Adrian is the coach! Talk about Hispanic town by goodness they were everywhere. We enter into the city and their was like 5 supermercados immediately and where we were watching the games there were Hispanic everywhere! We even went out to eat together at a local taqueria in which I ate my heart out! Lengua y Carne Asada. I'm going to by a soccer jersey now, I'm sold! But after all that Adrian and Monse drove us around only on the freeway (we were short on time) to see Nashville! We drove past the downtown area and saw the skyscrapers, bridges, and also the Titans Football Stadium! My face my so red by the end of the day but that was un día asombroso en el Campo. Vacación con una familia que necesita nuestro apoyo:) 🤙🏼🙏🏼🛣

El Domingo de Ayuno: Fast Sunday Esther, Raul, and Monse all came to church! I got up and bore by testimony today using several Book of Mormon scriptures. One scripture that stood out to me this week was Moroni 8:25-26. In verse 26 it talks a lot about desirable Christlike treasures we all want to develop and in verse 25 it describes the way in which we may do so! Give it a read! They all loved church by the way! Monse, she still needs to get married and we are trying to focus on her more! Esther and Raul we are going to teach them about temples this week! They are El Salvadoreños so Elijah Wade this one is for you man!! 

This week our district has started a 40 day Fast of putting "sacrifices" upon the alter so we may experience the purification and sanctification that comes from being obedient and following Christ. Pretty awesome! District Training for that. One time this week Elder Hatch and I ran around like lunatics on the streets talking to as many people as we could getting absolutely hype. I cannot rally explain it. But it was fun and so was this week! Love you all:) 

Elder Mac 

 

 

 

1-2: Caving w da boys 

3. Conquering fears left and right

4. AZ?

5. Pichy (Peachy) :)))

6. La Familia Gonzalez Castillo y asada

7. Un Equipo se llama La Familia

8. Nash City 

5/29/2017

Yes we are currently having a companionship movie night watching the

Testaments my oh my i remembering cryin with my boys in Mexico City

haha fantastic movie. I do not have much of an introduction. Wellll

this week was a solid one ☝️Vamos muchachos

Lunes: not going to lie, top 2 coolest PDays took place today! We plus

8 other missionaries went to a cave in Cedars of Lebanon State Park!

It was actually pretty insane. It had rained a few days before so when

we went it was super muddy. We can out drenched! This week was perfect

weather all around!

Martes: We started off the morning by teaching the Farmer family the

Restoration to help them rekindle their testimonies. Teaching that

lesson honestly it makes so much sense. God has and always will work

through prophets to help establish his church with his Gospel. Tuesday

is always the best because of the amount of service we get to do. Also

we have every Tuesday Una Noche de Futbol 🥅 and that has been pretty

successful! We had the Lopez Family come and play! The family that

came to like every activity for like two weeks straight then dropped

off!

Miércoles: There are these two vatos we are working with named Ramon y

Mauricio de Mexico and they are pretty cool. They are probably the

most sincere Hispanics I have ever met. Ramon lost his wife back in

November and loves to learn about the good word. Mauricio is a very

honest guy who tells us straight up what he is feeling which is

awesome. Will update on them more as we go along.

Jueves: Last Interview with President Griffin went down toady out in

Cookeville. I learn so much from him every time I meet with him. He

told me many things that I needed to hear and some things to look

forward to. He started the interview with a question: "How have you

changed thus far on the mission?". It cannot be put into words how

much this mission has changed me.

Viernes: Bought this less active girl a sonic shake in hopes she will

come back to church haha so hope that works out. But hey my man Elder

Hess and I went on a mini exchange today and I got to talk with this

one dude named Justin who has recently went through a divorce and has

had basically everything taken away from him and is on the come up. We

talked to him about the purpose of life and why he go through trials

and tribulations in this life. He took some of our materials and even

gave me a book called "Enduring Life or Enjoying Life?"

Sabado: Saturday Basketball 🏀 went off. Heard about Cavs vs Warriors

Rd 3. Curry! We are still trying to commit Raul y Esther to baptism

but they had some concerns today that we attempted to resolve. They

have faith in Christ and even belief the Book of Mormon is true but

are not willing to act (repent) yet. We are just trying to bring the

Spirit into their homes so they may feel the desire to come unto

Christ and to repent. By the way there was probably the most insane

Thunderstorm I have ever been in this entire day! Strikes so strong

that it was shaking everything!!

Domingo: Went to the English ward this morning because we brought my

boy Nick Stevenson to church. Just so happened to come on the day

where they taught the Law of Chastity in Sunday School. We got a good

laugh out of that hahaha but my old Ward Mission leader from Oak Ridge

came up along with a few members to visit some friends they had up

here and they invited us to dinner! Super grateful to have seen them.

Time flies folks.

One thing I was studying this week was virtue from Preach My Gospel.

Virtue to me really is just a characteristic that embodies all good

things, or all things in accordance with the Spirit. To measure how

virtuous we truly are we can observe what we continually think about

when we are "alone" or when we think no one is watching. Often times

sin or temptations come into our mind but if we are consistently

trying to think of virtuous things in life we will have the Lord's

Spirit to be with us! Memorize a scripture folks.

D&C 6:36- Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

Happy Memorial Day Amigos. Shout out to all those who have served and

are serving this great nation!

Elder Mac

 

 

 

 

5/22/2017

If any of you are wondering about the title of my weekly this week,

whenever I see hispanics in the streets I usually yell "AYYYYY

HERMANOS!!!!" And they get so happy or think I am super weird but hey

that is how it goes hahaha. Aquí estamos encontrando los hispanos en

los calles!

Lunes: Fuimos a Cookeville for the whole day an hung out with that

District because we would be going on a power up with the Zone Leaders

ELDER SANDERS my boy from good ole Oak Ridge!! I made a lot of new

friends that day as well. Elder Sanders and I went out together and we

ended up giving a blessing to this man who had been struggling with

illness quite a bit. Very spiritual experience, especially teaching

him about faith. We got dinner and caught up on the good times.

Martes: I went out with the other ZL Elder Lakko today to spend some

more time in Cookeville and we met this lady named Ashlie who has jus

been through every crappy thing known to man in her life. The first

thing he said to us when she answered the door was "did you know Jesus

as black?" Yea I am spiritual". With some patience and diligence we

ended up teaching her the Plan of Salvation and how this gospel can

help her be happy in this life. Freakin awesome

Miércoles: Miracle of the week. Elder Hatch and I were out for about

3-4 straight hours of just nothing happening and on the way to a

service activity we decided to stop at this house in which we saw some

Hispanics at. Una Hermana answered the door and she immediately let us

in and gave us waters and sat us down on their couch. She invited all

her kids in to listen to us. The mothers name is Marisela and she has

several kids. She is so freakin awesome that she was even taking notes

as we were teaching her. I will update more on her next week fam:)

Jueves: D-Meeting tho, I gave a training on how we can use the Book of

Mormon as a better tool to answer peoples questions and to teach using

the stories within it. Highly awesome, very spiritual. Read 2 Nephi 5:

6, 10, 12, 15,16, and 27. I call it the "Formula of Happiness". Love

it. Le Amo Hermana Zuniga!

Viernes: Best thing from today was we met a young engaged coupled

named the Farmers who were baptized a few years ago but now are

inactive as a result of not feeling welcome at church because of their

circumstances which always sadden my heart. We Should always love

those around us even if they are in different circumstances regarding

worthiness or trying to make things right. We expressed our apologies

and they told us they want to start coming back to church! They are in

the English ward but we will work with then on a weekly basis. They

need Christ in their lives.

Saturday: Yoo I ran over my toe with a chair cart (completely full) so

like destroyed by toe o couldn't play basketball lol, but hey we had

the coolest lesson. We taught Esther and Raul with a young couple in

our Branch about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy and keeping the

Commandments. Since they're from El Salvador we compared a Pupusa to

the church meetings. The Sacrament is the meat, beans, or cheese

inside and Sunday School is la maíz and Relief Society and Priesthood

are las verduras and salsa that you put on top. Gracias a Dios para

pupusas!

Domingo: They did in fact come to church but decided to leave after

Sacrament. They are lazy. So we working on that with them. But hey we

also are teaching this 22 year old black kid named Nick who will

definitely be baptized. So stoked.

All in all, better week, more fun, finding new ways to enjoy life out

here and also to work smart. The love the Lord my goodness. He is

continually helping me to take my weaknesses to help them become

strengths. It is getttiiinnnnnnn hawwtttt out here in Tennessee. This

will be a summer I will never forget. Love y'all. I love the Gospel. I

love the Book of Mormon. It is all good and all true. Ciao Pescao!!!