Hey Everyone,
I forgot yesterday was Easter actually, until today. I remembered a little bit during the day, but not too much. Yesterday was just a ton of running around, trying to help the other Elders find their people to bring to church, climbing up the biggest, longest hill I have ever seen in my life, only to get to the top and nobody wanted to go to church! How sweet is that? I didn´t even sit down from like 8 until lunch, that was crazy. Nonstop walking and hiking and sweating like crazy; Sunday is such a great day on the mission :) Then we went to lunch, left quick, went to find our investigators, nobody wanted to go again and they just gave a bunch of excuses, so we walked all the way to another ladies house, Penha, who lives about a half hour away from where we were, and we got there and her family said that she had already gone to church. So I got really excited and we got a bus to go back to the church, only to find out that she wasn´t there. It was sad. I called the Zone Leaders and told them about the situation and they told me to pray with my companion. So we went into a room in the church, knelt down, said a prayer. And immediately after the prayer, we got a phone call from the Zone Leaders. They were at the church in the center of the city visiting the other Elders, and they asked me if we had prayed yet. I told them that we had just finished the prayer exactly when they called us back. Then Elder Romo was like,``Wow, the Lord answered your prayer really fast, because your investigator is at this church here in the center with us! She showed up here and was asking everyone `Where´s Elder McDonald?`and everyone was running around looking for you and I told them that you were at the other church. So I`ll just take care of her here, don´t worry.`` Oh man, I was so happy! It was such a cool experience for me, it really strengthened my testimony about prayer!
Our Zone leaders are the coolest! Elder Romo is a huge example for me, as well as Elder Merrell. Elder Romo is from Los Angeles and Elder Merrell is from Salt Lake. They are really awesome Zone Leaders. Elder Romo always calls me Mac Daddy Donald, it´s really funny. On Thursday, I did a division with Elder Gentry in his area to try and help him find more people and a good area to work. His area has so many hills, it´s insane! We did really well though, that day. We found a guy for him that can be baptized because he already went to church a while ago. He´s a really awesome guy! They are going to baptize him this week! We found a lot of awesome families for them as well. On Tuesday, I had my first District Meeting where I had to give the training; it was really cool, I liked it. I was pretty nervous, but it went well. I felt the Spirit helping me out a lot, it was a cool experience. On Saturday I had my first baptismal interview with a lady named Helena. She is really cool. I was really nervous and I was praying a lot before hand. The Zone Leaders did a practice with me while I was on the bus to go over to Paraíba do Sul where the lady lives, another city in Rio. But the interview went really well, it was really cool! The interviews are the best part of the mission. The Spirit is always so strong during them. I have always wanted to interview people, so I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to do that.
We have an amazing investigator that is going to get baptized this week, her name is Wanderleia. She is an awesome lady who has had a lot of difficulties in her life. Her family loves us and whenever we go over there, little by little everyone ends up sitting there, listening to us teach. It´s really cool how the Spirit works and invites everyone. She was telling us about how her son fell out of a really tall tree and how he went to the hospital and all of the doctors said that he would never walk again. She said that she had faith and told everyone that he would walk again. She told us how she would stay up every night, crying just looking at her son in his bed, not able to move. But after 5 months, he was already getting better, doing physical therapy and today he is walking as if nothing ever happened. She also has a daughter, who got in an accident with fire and it burned her whole body, everything from her torso up to her head. She was in the hospital for a very long time as well, and everything was covered accept for a little hole where she could breathe. She said that she had faith again that everything was going to be alright, and now her daughter is as good as ever. She has a lot of scars, but that´s it. She has been tremendously blessed. These investigators are amazing! I learn so much from them and see that I am nothing! They have so much more faith than me and I hope that one day I can have as much faith as them!
So Mother´s day is coming up, and we have church at 3-6 in the evening, so it will be a little difficult to call you after church, especially if we have a baptism after. So I´m thinking it might be better to call you guys during the morning, like at 10 or 11 here (7 or 8 there). But I will have to see for sure. I want to call you guys from Geraldo´s house, he is awesome. We might be able to use Skype as well.
I forgot yesterday was Easter actually, until today. I remembered a little bit during the day, but not too much. Yesterday was just a ton of running around, trying to help the other Elders find their people to bring to church, climbing up the biggest, longest hill I have ever seen in my life, only to get to the top and nobody wanted to go to church! How sweet is that? I didn´t even sit down from like 8 until lunch, that was crazy. Nonstop walking and hiking and sweating like crazy; Sunday is such a great day on the mission :) Then we went to lunch, left quick, went to find our investigators, nobody wanted to go again and they just gave a bunch of excuses, so we walked all the way to another ladies house, Penha, who lives about a half hour away from where we were, and we got there and her family said that she had already gone to church. So I got really excited and we got a bus to go back to the church, only to find out that she wasn´t there. It was sad. I called the Zone Leaders and told them about the situation and they told me to pray with my companion. So we went into a room in the church, knelt down, said a prayer. And immediately after the prayer, we got a phone call from the Zone Leaders. They were at the church in the center of the city visiting the other Elders, and they asked me if we had prayed yet. I told them that we had just finished the prayer exactly when they called us back. Then Elder Romo was like,``Wow, the Lord answered your prayer really fast, because your investigator is at this church here in the center with us! She showed up here and was asking everyone `Where´s Elder McDonald?`and everyone was running around looking for you and I told them that you were at the other church. So I`ll just take care of her here, don´t worry.`` Oh man, I was so happy! It was such a cool experience for me, it really strengthened my testimony about prayer!
Our Zone leaders are the coolest! Elder Romo is a huge example for me, as well as Elder Merrell. Elder Romo is from Los Angeles and Elder Merrell is from Salt Lake. They are really awesome Zone Leaders. Elder Romo always calls me Mac Daddy Donald, it´s really funny. On Thursday, I did a division with Elder Gentry in his area to try and help him find more people and a good area to work. His area has so many hills, it´s insane! We did really well though, that day. We found a guy for him that can be baptized because he already went to church a while ago. He´s a really awesome guy! They are going to baptize him this week! We found a lot of awesome families for them as well. On Tuesday, I had my first District Meeting where I had to give the training; it was really cool, I liked it. I was pretty nervous, but it went well. I felt the Spirit helping me out a lot, it was a cool experience. On Saturday I had my first baptismal interview with a lady named Helena. She is really cool. I was really nervous and I was praying a lot before hand. The Zone Leaders did a practice with me while I was on the bus to go over to Paraíba do Sul where the lady lives, another city in Rio. But the interview went really well, it was really cool! The interviews are the best part of the mission. The Spirit is always so strong during them. I have always wanted to interview people, so I am glad that I finally have the opportunity to do that.
We have an amazing investigator that is going to get baptized this week, her name is Wanderleia. She is an awesome lady who has had a lot of difficulties in her life. Her family loves us and whenever we go over there, little by little everyone ends up sitting there, listening to us teach. It´s really cool how the Spirit works and invites everyone. She was telling us about how her son fell out of a really tall tree and how he went to the hospital and all of the doctors said that he would never walk again. She said that she had faith and told everyone that he would walk again. She told us how she would stay up every night, crying just looking at her son in his bed, not able to move. But after 5 months, he was already getting better, doing physical therapy and today he is walking as if nothing ever happened. She also has a daughter, who got in an accident with fire and it burned her whole body, everything from her torso up to her head. She was in the hospital for a very long time as well, and everything was covered accept for a little hole where she could breathe. She said that she had faith again that everything was going to be alright, and now her daughter is as good as ever. She has a lot of scars, but that´s it. She has been tremendously blessed. These investigators are amazing! I learn so much from them and see that I am nothing! They have so much more faith than me and I hope that one day I can have as much faith as them!
So Mother´s day is coming up, and we have church at 3-6 in the evening, so it will be a little difficult to call you after church, especially if we have a baptism after. So I´m thinking it might be better to call you guys during the morning, like at 10 or 11 here (7 or 8 there). But I will have to see for sure. I want to call you guys from Geraldo´s house, he is awesome. We might be able to use Skype as well.
Well, I love you guys and hope that you have an amazing week! Hope that you had an amazing Easter with lots of candy and stuff :) Take care and I will talk to you all next week!
Love, Elder McDonald
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