9 May 2011

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to wish you a Happy Mother´s Day again, Grandma and Mom! Hope that everything went awesome. I´m with you guys on this, I don´t have much to say after yesterday. It was really good to see all of you again and see the house and everything. It really feels like it hasn´t been that long since I have been there, it was cool to see again. I liked seeing Grandma and Grandpa and Kitty, he looks different to me now. Bishop is really hilarious, he´s a great guy and has an amazing family, I love them. You saw his son Renan and his daughter Suellen and Gregory was asleep and his wife Sandra wasn´t there, so that kind of stunk. They are hilarious. We ate lunch with them afterward and it was really good. All that meat that you guys saw and he made one more as well, he knows how to cook. :) Church was good yesterday as well. Wanderleia and Penha were confirmed and we passed out those cards to all of the moms and they really liked them, it went well. Then after church, we went back to the bishop´s house and Elder Gallacher called his family. He has a huge family, oh man. People everywhere, all gathered around the little camera in the computer room haha. I was talking to Gregory while he was talking and we were both just laughing at what he and his family would say. I talked to them a little bit, but felt like an idiot because I didn´t know what to say. It was cool though, he really liked it as well. It was cool to use the Skype thing though.

This week was pretty busy as well, this transfer has been flying by so fast, it is nuts. It is the second to last week already of this transfer. Elder Billin and Elder Johnson are going home here in two weeks, that´s pretty crazy. The mission is starting to change a little bit with all of these new missionaries coming in that I don´t know.

Thanks for getting JJ´s address for me, I will write him today. I wonder if he has found a job yet. Do you guys talk to them a lot still? I really don´t know what else to talk to you guys about today. Nothing really big happened this week or since I just talked to you guys yesterday.

I haven´t borne my testimony to you guys for awhile, so I will do that. I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, revealed through His scriptures. I know that we have a living prophet, President Monson. I know that Joseph Smith restored this, the true church of Christ. I know that Christ came to the earth, taught His Gospel and invites everyone to follow Him. I have learned on the mission that nobody can be forced to accept this Gospel, just as they weren´t forced when Christ was here. He didn´t demand to be followed, but simply invited everyone with love. I am grateful for our agency and for the opportunity I have to study and ponder better here on the mission during study. I learn a lot and I´m trying to get as much out of study everyday as I possibly can. I love the Scriptures and the Doctrine of the Gospel. I know it is true. I know that the Spirit is real and that we have the Gift of the Holy Ghost to always guide us. That is so amazing to me. I have been trying to use this gift and recognize it a lot more on the mission. I love you all, I hope that you are all doing great. Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder McDonald