Photo from Rio das Ostras-Braden with Elder Billins and Sam Jr.
Hey Everybody!
What´s going on? How´s everything going? Sounds like you all had an exciting week, and an exciting Sunday, full of stress and such haha. Wasn´t any different here. Right when we got to church, Bishop asked me if I could give a talk because they didn´t have anyone...that was great. I just talked about the importance of being obedient and trusting in the Lord with the commandments that he gives. Then I was trying to tell about the story of Nephi when he was commanded to build a ship, except I forgot the word for ship when I was up on the stand, so that kinda stunk. So Nephi was commanded to build a.....um......anyway, going on to this scripture that I just love....hahaha it was funny. I don´t think anyone really noticed besides my companion. He was like, you should have looked at me, I was mouthing the word for ship to try and help you out! I just laughed and said, oh well, it´s over now. It was funny because I was sitting on the piano already, so I got up, gave my talk, then went right back and sat down on the piano and played the rest hymn immediately after. It was great; I was a nice one man show yesterday :) This week was really interesting, a lot happened, mostly funny stuff. It´s still pretty cool here and it´s really nice! :)
So Tuesday, we went to Juiz de Fora for Zone Conference and it was really awesome there, so pretty. The way there was pretty crazy though haha. We had to get up bright and early at 3 and I had like 5 minutes to get ready with 4 of us in our house, so that was pretty fun. If I didn´t have to shave 8 times a day, it would have been less hectic. So we get in the van with the rest of our zone that came to pick us up, and we put in the RM and started watching that on the way, pretty funny. So...about halfway through the movie, I hear some strange noise from one of the Elders sitting behind me, almost like he is about to throw up...huh, this is weird. I turn around, and he comes up to the front by the sliding door, opens the window and just throws up out the window...but you know what happens when you are moving and trying to throw something out the window, generally it comes back inside as well... so needless to say, I got a bunch of it all over me and my suit. I´m so lucky. So I´m trying not to freak out and trying to clean up most of it with some of the wipes that you sent me (thanks mom, saved my life). It was not fun. Haha then I was talking to Sister Alves when we got there, and she was asking me if I got it all cleaned up and said that now I´m prepared for when I have kids, so I guess she has a good point haha. It was so nasty though. Of course I was the only one who got thrown up on too, only me. Ai ai ai. Anyway, it´s all good now. Just another good old memory to hang on to and reflect on.
Zone conference was really amazing though! I saw Elder Billin again so that was really good! Good to talk to him and see how things were going there. All I can say is that our President is so amazing. His talks that he gave were so good and the Spirit that he gives when he speaks is so powerful. I think he will be in the Seventy for sure once he learns English. And then we had practice for inviting people to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, and the Assistants went up first and gave us an example, and then President said, alright who wants to go next? And nobody raised their hand, so Elder Glade is like, let´s go Elder McDonald, and I´m like alright. So we start walking up there, and President asked the Bishop that was there if he wanted to do it, so It ended up being me and him up there practicing, and Elder Glade just went back and sat down. I´m like, oh man, I´m toast. Thanks Elder Glade haha. But it ended up being really good and President gave me some good compliments after in my interview with him, for doing the practice in front of everyone and for playing the piano too haha. It was really great. I got your package too and a bunch of letters from friends so that was great. Thanks for all of the candy and the stuff that you gave me, it is awesome.
This week we invited about three or four people to be baptized, but they all fell through, kind of sad but oh well, we are still trying to just work as hard as we can. The adversary is really strong here with these people, but we just need to teach with more power and pray harder for them and I know that it will work out and be better. We learned a lot from Zone Conference and we have noticed a huge difference in our lessons because of what we are applying. It is really great. I am so grateful for the Spirit and how powerful it is to comfort and to bring peace. It has helped me so much. I´m so grateful for the testimony that I have and so grateful for the power of prayer. I am also so grateful for the Love that the Lord has for all of us to Atone for all of our sins and take all of our sins upon him so that we can return to our Father in Heaven and be happy forever. I love all of you and hope that you are all doing well. I will try to send you some pictures today since I have the card reader now. Love you and I will talk to you next week.
Love, Elder McDonald
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