7/02/2018 My way on His way

My weekly title is based off a song by Frank Sinatra called, “My Way”. An absolutely fantastic song verifying my feelings right now. I cannot believe that my mission has come to an end. Much has been done, much has been said, much has been gained, and much has been lost. This last email is not going to be written to try to impress nor give some large giant description of everything I have learned on my mission. Only God  and I will know what kind of mission I served and what has happened to my heart while I have served in the great Tennessee Knoxville Mission. But I would like to share a few experiences from the week that highlighted this beautiful ending. I wouldn’t exit any other way. 

We had a baptism this Saturday for my lil bro Nicholas Martin. He is a young boy that was living with a member who had not been baptized. When we first met him earlier this month he was like a turtle in his shell. In fact, we were driving in the outskirts of our area and we found a turtle and named him Nicholas after him because he was so dang shy. He would literally hide behind his mother as we taught him the Gospel. But after a few lessons he came out of his shell and we were eventually having nerf wars with him by the time he was baptized. He is an amazing kid. His baptism was beautiful and I had the opportunity to baptize him. Elder Fillingim, the elder I first trained, was there and he said, “I was here for the first and for the last” meaning he was there when I first baptized someone and then my last time. It was really cool. 

I went on an exchange in Knoxville this week with one of our APs, Elder Sharp. Elder Sharp is going home with me. He was in my District when I was in Oak Ridge, TN. Probably the hardest part of my mission was that time no doubt. We spent the day working and talking about our missions and how excited we are to go home and share our testimonies with our Families. We ended up driving through Oak Ridge and where I lived and the areas I worked in there. I was overwhelmed with gratitude for how far the Lord has brought me since that experience I started to weep in the car as we drove. It was definitely a bonding experience between us. I felt as if I had done all that the Lord has asked me to do. A feeling I will never forget! 

I performed a Baptismal interview for a little 10 year old girl named Jada. She was so sweet. At the end of the interview I asked her in front of her father in the building, “so Jada what is the most important thing that I want you to remember? And she said, “That I am a daughter of God”. That is the most beautiful knowledge I have gained on my mission is that I really a son of the real living God. That I have divine potential and I can taste some of that through relationships. Eternal happiness can only be found in eternal things! 

Last amazing thing from this week out of the many feelings of love and miracles I experienced was fast and testimony meeting. Barbara Burrell, who got baptized last week got up to bare her testimony. President Pickett had committed her to do so and she was very excited. She got up there and bore a powerful witness on the power of faith. It was amazing. She made me blush because she constantly kept calling me out hahaha. After she got done I got up and said in my southern accent “BARBARA BURRRREELLLLL” and as she is walking back to the Pughs she says out loud “ELLLLDEEEERRRRR MACCCDDDDDOOOONNNAALLLDDD” hahahaha I cried it was so funny. My first Sunday in the field I bore my testimony to the congregation in Dalton and now on my last Sunday I got to bare my testimony once again. Praise the Lord. 

I have loved my mission. I look back and cherish every sweet second of it. I know the Savior lives and that what I have taught to others these past two years is true. I am so grateful for what other people out here have taught me. I know that God had specifically sent me here to learn from and teach specific people. My testimony cannot be put into a written page, or into a small conversation. But I just want all who read this or see me to know that I love the Lord, and I feel I have a new heart. For this I am grateful. The dye is cast. My ships have been burned. Tables have turned. You live and learn. I love you all. Thank you for the undying support! MOMMA IM COMING HOME!!

Elder Kyle A. Macdonald

 

And thus ends the blog of Elder Kyle Andrew Macdonald

 

6/25/2018 I have fought the good fight!

I cannot believe I am on my last week of my time serving as a full-time missionary for the Lord. I know this work is true!!! One of the best weeks of my mission by far. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have had to end my mission in Hendersonville NC! The people here are amazing and have blessed my life immensely.  I want to talk about a few specific events for the week.  Departing Interview: as missionaries we are interviewed by our mission Preisdent once every 6 weeks. We talk with Pickett about how we are doing and what we can do etc etc. This week was my final interview and I cannot express how much I have grown to love the Pickett Family. President is one of my bros. That is how we have been and always will be. We talked a lot about my previous life before the mission, and how much I have changed. My desires as a human being have changed from glory seeking, to glory giving. My heart has been softened to see God’s children how they really are. My mind has been made clear. My sins have been forgiven. I am a new man with the same personality. We talked for about an hour and all was fine, and then he read me the Temple Recommend Questions that had been read to me 2 years prior by Stake President Whimpey. It was impossible to hold back tears of joy as I was able to answer those questions with a clear of conscience and honest “yes”. Yes! It was the first time in my life when I had answered those questions with a full heart of conviction and integrity! All I care about is being right with the Lord.  Split w/ President Pickett: right after interviews I was able to spend a few more hours with President Pickett to go visit our baptismal candidates, Barbara and Molt! I have never taught a lesson with my mission president before, and this was an experience I will never forget! It was so cool looking to my side (expecting my companion) and seeing President there testifying. I felt like I was with the prophet Alma, and I was his Amulek. Right after the lesson we all rejoiced and hugged and took a picture. As we were walking out, I was a Hispanic crossing in front of us carrying his groceries. I called out , “Hermano!!!” And we started talking. President Pickett tried to speak some Spanish hahahaha so classic. It turns out that this man named Jose already had a ton of friends in our church and had been several times! It was so cool and he was interested in learning about the church! I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and I know if we follow the promptings given the Lord will bless us. We drove together for awhile and just talked about la vida loca. He took us out to dinner at a Mexican joint and then we had Stake Correlation!  Stake Correlation: is when we meet with Stake President Vann to discuss the needs to the missionary work here in Asheville. Preisdent Vann has been one of the greatest Priesthood homer examples to me on my mission. He is actually a dentist from Mesa, AZ!!! He was called by President Nelson to accept the calling out here. We worked hard all transfer to diagnose the needs of each unit and to present it in this meeting! It went really really well and I feel as if I have done all I could to help this zone progress. New leaders will continue to keep it up! V Baptism of Barbara and Molt: So I will tell the story of Barbara Burrell and Molt Edwards! Barbara was found like more than 6 months ago and had been taught for awhile, however, no one had really taught her too seriously and so we visited her and committed her to a Baptismal date a month ago. She is about as Southern as you can get. Super thick accent, no teeth, lives in a trailer park. Barbara is the best person you will ever meet in your life. She has the most faith I have ever seen, and charity is embedded in her soul. She would give you the clothes of her back even though she doesn’t have any. She runs an unofficial foster home where she takes in kids that do not have support of parents. Her husband Molt, who is also 61. we started teaching him about a month ago. Even though he cannot speak normally nor understand normally, we learned some sign language and also spoke more slowly so he could read our lips! They were baptized this Saturday and I had the opportunity to speak at their baptism and also Baptize Barbara Burrell! Such an awesome experience! We are having another baptism this weekend for a young boy named Nicholas Martin who is have American and half Micronesian!!! I love you all!!! The GRIND!!! Elder Mac 1-3: baptism posin 4: Mi hijo Lopez from Lebanon  5-6: split with Pickett  7-8: Sharp and Sisters Jensen and Erickson 9: gettin ready for the beach like 10: President Vann 11: Elder Cox

6/18/2018

This week was so hard. I love it. We had a lot of appointments this week fall through, but the Lord blessed us as we continued to be diligent this week. My weekly title this week is based off of a “hype talk” my cousin Steve and I had up at BYU pre-mish. He was recounting to me all of the amazing things about the mission....and then of course the tough things. But when it came to doing the hard things he just said, “ya just gotta do it”. It was one of my mottos in my first area that helped me try my best to be obedient and diligent. 

Many of you must be wondering my thoughts about my clock winding down on my mission. The only thoughts I have are that pertaining to satisfaction. I try my hardest every day and I know the Lord is blessing us. The days can be long sometimes especially with the humidity picking up, and so it is important to have a well planned day to keep things rolling. I am giving all I can!!!! No regrets. 

One thing I have been consistently praying for this past week is an opportunity to go to the temple with one of my converts. This week will be the baptism and confirmation of Barbara Burrell and Molt Edwards! They are the coolest! I will write more about their journey in the next couple weeks. Hopefully we can go to the temple with them on the 23rd or so. 

PRAY FOR US! We walked in on Barbara smoking and she had been good the whole week and the Lord guided us to her house on a drop by visit and we saw her smoking. We took her cigs and she was so grateful. Nicotine is such a killer. Destroys everything. She is looking really good. Barbara has one of the greatest testimonies of the Savior I have ever felt and Molt has the kindest heart. He is deaf, and when we teach him the spirit makes me cry every time. 

I love yall!!!!!! Momma HOLD ON :) 

Elder Mac 

Tennessee Knoxville Mission 

11320 Station West Drive #101

Farragut, TN 37934 

6/11/2018

So many funny AND odd things happened this week I cannot even begin to explain.. At this point in my mission there is no easy coast to the finish. I can feel every nerve and everything I have ever learned on my mission being tempted day and night. I am quite exhausted (I won’t lie). Everything in the book has happened this week. I can feel the adversary attempting to discourage me daily from my efforts and how with the Lord, miracles can be wrought through faith, obedience, and power. 

Preparation Day will be key to set my sights continually on God’s path. Everyone needs a day to work on themselves. The Sabbath Day is a day of reflection upon our past week and the Savior and how he played a role in guiding along our path.  

We have two people who are going to get baptized in 2 weeks. Barbara Burrell and her husband Molt! They are the most classic Southern couple of all time. I love them to death. Seriously the kindest people I have ever taught. Molt is deaf as well so we learned sign language and asked him to be baptized this past week! Gift of Tongues....

My last Zone Conference was this week here in Asheville. I gave my departing testimony which was a really weird feeling. I just know that I testified of the importance of relationships and how grateful I feel to have served with all my heart, might, mend and strength!

Elder Macdonald 

6/04/2018

WOW whata week. I am so tired. So tired. But so not at the Same time. We are working so hard to. Bring souls unto Christ. At one point during this week my left ear and a few fingers were completely swollen from bug bites and I was sweating like crazy while fasting at the same time but saw some of the biggest miracles this week. 

One thing I am doing before I go home as well is writing all my companions’ parents letters. I have learned so much from my friends out here and looking back on it has been a blast. 

The work here is doing so well. I am fasting, praying, and testifying like I never have before. I know the Lord is blessing us as we strive our very best to do what he needs us to do. I have several goals before the end of my mission which I will share: 

1. No regrets. So far so good. Finishing stronger than ever 

2. Helping a few people come unto Christ through baptism (we have many who can) 

3. Leaving Hendersonville Ward with an absolutely solid foundation and a desire to do missionary work, and it is doing really well so far! When I first got here people were almost pessimistic towards the missionaries but the work is progressing 

4. Elevating the Asheville Zone by helping each companionship establish a missionary work foundation in each of their congregations. 

5. Prepared for the future (bright) 

We had some absolutely crazy stories this week. Usually regarding the element of prayer. I have been praying so hard this week for what Elder Bednar calls a Light switch miracle. I went on an exchange with Elder Cordner from Alpine UT, who knows our family as well; but we started off strong today by pulling up to this street and parking behind a car. Right when we parked the car a family of 6 kids and a husband and wife got out. We got out too and started to talk to them. We met the father named Kevin! He opened right up to us and told us that he really needed help moving because they were on their last day of their lease with almost no money left and they were planning on packing everything up and going to Nashville. We ended up helping him move for the next 4 hours and through that time we found out that he believes in SO much of what we believe. He is Golden!! We got our truck and started to load it up and also a trailer hitched on with furniture etc and then it started to RAIN! It was a disaster. But Kevin asked us to pray with him to ask God if he would stop the rain. We kneeled down with him on his floor and prayer to God. As soon as we ended our prayer the rain STOPPED. And if you havent been hearing I am in the middle of a huge flood zone in NC with record breaking monthly rainfall measurements. It did not rain for the rest of the day! Such a cool miracle. Kevin is going to Nashville but we hope to pass him along to the missionaries there. 

We had some wonderful member missionary work experiences this week and I would like to share one specifically. We were having a dinner at a members home for Lateicha and Laziah Peak who both want to be baptized and so we are working with them! However, Lateicha was running about an hour late and we had no idea where she was and she actually ended up being lost. She was frustrated with being lost that she almost decided just to go home, but without knowing that we prayed with the members that Lateicha and her daughter would be able to make it. As we were praying, one of the member’s phones Rang and it was her! We identified where she was parked and went and had them follow us to the home. We had a wonderful lesson filled with the Spirit of the Lord. 

These are daily experiences on the mission and it is amazing to see God’s hand influence everything we do. I know that if we ASK God for help he will guide you if you keep his commandments. 

“Ask and ye shall receive, Seek and ye shall find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you” 

(Find the ASK) 

Love yunz

Elder Macdonald 

5/28/2018

Esta semana ya ha pasado tantísimo rápido muchachos oye pues....... My companion is legit. 2 Legit 2 quit. Elder Natis “Praying” Matis. Been out about 11 months and I get to train him as a new Zone Leader:))))) life is good. 

This week we have been swamped. I do not think I have had a personal study in a week because we have been running around like crazy Mormons trying to bring salvation unto every soul that shall hear it. These last 5 weeks will be legendary beyond description as we work our tails off day in day out. I can truthfully say the Lord has helped me work hard every day of my mission and I do not want to change that. 

Craziest experience this week. SO Elder Matis is the driver of the Tacoma since they do not allow us to drive on our last transfer in the mission. And on the way back fro transfers going from Asheville to Hendersonville we side swiped another vehicle. Totally our fault haha. Anyways so we get in this car accident and Matis was pretty upset; however, when we talked to the man named Kelly. It was quite classic at first and no one got hurt and no one was really too upset (except Matis lol) but Kelly started to talk to US about the Gospel!! It was crazy. We looked at each other and could not believe that we are really teaching this guy, whom we just crashed into, the Gospel of the Lord!!! Long story short he accepted a Book of Mormon and we should be meeting with him this week!! 

Our area is cooking!!! We should have a few baptisms by the end of next month. We just really need to be willing to put in the work. 

I had an interesting experience this week with people trying to confound my testimony. We went to lunch with a Baptist Pastor and one of his colleagues at Chik-Fil-A lol....and in this meeting we respectfully discussed our religions and the similarities and differences. Elder Matis stayed quite quiet (biting his toungue) most of the time and so I did a lot of the talking for the most part. Topics included: Salvatio, exaltation, Bible, Book of Mormon, Pre Earth Life, Prophets, Interpretation, and so forth. I want to share my testimony that there truly are good Christians in this world who want to serve Christ, but when you get down to the nitty gritty and teach them true doctrine ACCORDING to the scriptures in which they read from, their biases and denial of the power of God comes forth. What an experience w the Spirit of God that was. We have another lunch this week. 

Saturday night we went to the wedding reception for one of members who had married a nonmember in which we are teaching, Ken. I love Ken. I respect him and he knows we want the best for him. However, after the reception in private conversation he reveals to me a packet on Anti- Mormon literature and material he has been studying, believing  himself that what he was reading was published by the church on LDS.org. Though I had answers, I was not given time to answer, but prompted to listen to him as he rambled about the falsehood of our church and then the Prophet Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He then stated, “Macdonald, I love you, but my faith is much stronger than that of your own”. Taken back and very calm, feeling much sorrow for Ken’s confusion, we drove home that night and I contemplated what he just told me. My companion Elder Matis asked, “Are you ok Mac?” I replied yea yea I am tired of course. I was to give a talk tomorrow in church, in which Ken usually sits front row. Ken has read the entire Book of Mormon and has found no fault with it, which is the evidence of al in which we believe. I challenged the whole congregation to judge according to the Spirit the words I would speak, and also invited them to think about charity and then related to them a talk I call, “A Gift of Love”. I will attach the notes. 

 I know that God has established his kingdom upon the Earth today to help guide his children through this tumultuous time. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and that the Bible is as far as it is translated correctly. These experiences listed above are DAILY occurrences and have allowed me to grow. I do not have this testimony because I have been immersed in it (sure it helps); but the Spirit of God has bore testimony to my soul that what I am doing is right and what my purpose and course is is straight and narrow and correct. I love yall:) 

Elder Mac 

1. Bye Hermana Hall 

2. Flexin 

3. Less active girl from my first area who is now going to go on a mission 

4-5. Praying Matis

6. Fillingim mi hijo and mi Nieto Ortiz 

7. My boy Fausett 

8. Gave Molloy my favorite tie