Written 7 February 2011

Hello Everyone!

Thanks for all of the emails, they were really great! Sounds like you guys are just as busy as I am out here hahaha. This week was really, really great! Lots of walking and working really hard in the hot sun, but it all paid off in the end. When I got here, a lot of the members in the Ward were really unexcited because of the old missionary that was here before me that didn´t want to do anything and just complained about everything, which is pretty sad. But I´ve been working really hard, trying to gain their confidence again and we´ve been visiting a lot of them just to help them out and get them excited again and it´s been working really, really well! They are starting to get really excited again and are helping us out a ton! Like I said before, the Bishop here is amazing and I think I´ve gained his confidence a lot more now so things are going great here! We marked an activity with a family here and we have a ton of members going there and they are all bringing friends that aren´t members for us to teach and have an activity so it is going to be amazing!!! Elder Fernandes came and did a division with me here and we had a lot of success with planning this activity with them. He´s hilarious, oh man! He makes me laugh all the time when he calls me during the day, he´s a great missionary and a great district leader.

Well, let me get to the best part of this week here!!! We had three baptisms yesterday!!!!!! It was so sweet!!!! It´s the first baptism they have had here in the Ward for almost three months because of the other Elder who was here before and didn´t want to do anything, so the members were really excited and we had a huge turnout at the baptism service with a lot of support from the members and everything!! It was really, really great! We completed a family and baptized the ex-wife of a man who got baptized like 5 years ago and also his two kids! We were really blessed!! We have been working our butts off out here and the Lord has blessed us!! It is really cool to see that the Lord will bless us when we do everything that we can and we show that we have a desire through our works! So we found this family on Friday afternoon, I called Elder Fernandes and he came and interviewed them on Saturday, and we baptized him yesterday! I will try and send you guys a picture!! This family is so cool, they really were prepared by the Lord!

So this week, we´re still going to work our butts off and keep baptizing here! This area is Zion, I swear! It´s so awesome, I´m loving it! I have been really blessed with amazing areas on the mission and am really seeing the hand of the Lord in all of this work and how he is using me to help out his children here that are prepared to be baptized by me personally! It´s really cool. That´s really funny about Elder Clegg´s dad, that he served with you Dad. He has less time on the mission than me though. That´s really a huge coincidence. I also met a lady here in our Ward who was visiting my last area, Galeão, and she said that she saw me at church all of those Sundays during January and now I´m here in her Ward! That was pretty sweet as well, she knows all of the people that I met there in that Ward! The members here are amazing and we have a ton of help.

Today Elder Fernandes called and asked if we wanted to do something with them so we are going to meet them there in their area after this and go do something! The missionaries here are really sweet, we are all really close and it´s been really cool to hang out with them. I can´t believe how fast these last two weeks have gone by though, it´s been pretty ridiculous!! I can´t believe I´m on my last year of the mission!

Well, I hope that you all have an amazing week and keep working hard as well! I know that the Lord is blessing all of us. I´m so grateful to be a missionary and help people out and forget myself. I´ve been learning a ton everyday out here, it´s been amazing!! Love you all so much!!

Love, Elder McDonald