26 September 2011

Hey Everyone,

Sounds like you are all doing great. I can´t believe it is already the end of September, time is really flying by. Can you believe that this last transfer is already over? It´s ridiculous! This was honestly the fastest transfer I have had yet in the mission. I´m really excited for Conference this weekend, it will be really great. Sounds like you guys are keeping really busy between school and work and running around traveling everywhere, must be fun haha.

So this week was another really crazy week of running around. This week we did divisions in all of the areas in our zone to help everyone firm up their baptisms for this week. It was crazy! Wednesday I was in the other part of São Gonçalo; Thursday, Barreto; Friday, my area; Saturday, Niterói. It was a huge mess. I´m really tired. I need to sleep today, it stinks sleeping in other missionaries houses. But it´s part of the process right?

I really love the members of this ward; I´m excited for you guys to come down and visit them with me, there are a lot of great people. We had transfers today, but I stayed here again. Not very much changed at all in our zone. Elder Menezes left because he is going home, but if it wasn´t for that, I think he would have stayed in the area.  President really didn´t change hardly anything this transfer, but I´m alright with that. I really love my missionaries in my zone.

Well I hope that you are all doing great. It was funny this week when I was with Elder Knight, he got kissed on the cheek by two crazy guys, and another crazy guy kissed him on the top of the head yesterday hahaha poor guy. I said, ``You´re like a man-magnet, Elder.`` and he´s like, ``Can´t I be a lady-magnet?`` hahaha it was really funny. He´s a funny guy. He´s grown a lot this transfer; he´s not as shy anymore. It´s cool to see how he has changed. The mission does that I guess, huh?

Well, I hope that you all have a great week! I love you all! Talk to you next week.

Love, Elder McDonald

19 September 2011-English and Portuguese

Hey Guys,

So like I said, crazy week, but great. It´s been a long timesince I´ve been as stressed out as I was yesterday. We were doing divisions again this week and I was here with Elder Knight working in our area.

Basically this transfer I am serving as Zone Leader/Trainer,it´s pretty crazy. We have been doing a lot of divisions to help out our zone.I always said that I never really wanted to be a trainer, so now the Lord is giving me the unofficial calling and chance to train a missionary haha. This week, like all of the other ones this transfer, flew by and I can´t believe that this week is already the last week of this transfer. So nuts!

I saw Samuel yesterday, he came to our church yesterday and stayed with us through all of the meetings. I was sitting in the back row in Sacrament, and he came in and sat right next to me and gave me a huge hug, it was funny. Afterwards, Bishop came up and asked who my friend was, who obviously knew me because of the huge hug that he gave me haha it was pretty funny. Bishop is awesome. I was really happy to see Sam yesterday, it seems like it hasn´t been that long, even though it´s been about 9 months since I´ve seen him. He called me on Saturday and I was confused about who it was at first, but it was really cool to hear from him and catch up on stuff yesterday.

This week we had a lot of cool experiences with teaching some really awesome people. We are working with a family in our ward, Igor and Estefani,and we baptized Igor´s sister (Beatriz) and cousin (João Vitor) yesterday, it was really cool. We also have been teaching a really cool couple, Jorge and Sandra, that are friends of Paula and Silvio, a really cool family in our ward as well. They went to church yesterday, BY THEMSELVES (MIRACLE), and they loved it. We are going to get them baptized this week. João Vitor and Beatriz were really excited yesterday to get baptized and their parents and grandparents allcame to see. We are going to work with them as well this week and baptize everybody! Yesterday was really, really crazy though; a lot of work to get these two baptized.

So Saturday, we had it all planned out that Igor would baptize them both, since he is related to both of them. If it could be that easy. Sunday morning, we find out that Igor has some huge infection thing in his stomach and is really, really sick and wasn´t going to be able to come to church to baptize Beatriz and João Vitor. I thought, ``great, well now they aren´t going to want to be baptized today because Igor isn´t going to be able to baptize them.`` So what happens? Igor decides he will tough it out and come to church, but when he gets there, he is about to fall over, so he and his wife go try to get into the hospital without telling anyone where they went, so I´m out looking for them, meanwhile, members are talking to Beatriz and João Vitor to see if they want to wait until the next week (bad idea). Thank goodness JoãoVitor is awesome and said that he was fine if I baptized him and Beatriz was too, they were both really, really excited to be baptized that day. Estefani was helping them out as well. Thank goodness for Estefani haha. So they stayed all excited and were baptized!Miracle!!

During all of this time, however, the Elders in São Gonçalo that meet in the same building needed two interviews and I was the only one there who could do that, since my companion was on the division. So during all of this craziness with our baptisms almost falling through, I`m interviewing these other two ladies that can get baptized as well. It was funny, poor Elder Knight has no idea what is going on. It´s his first area and he doesn´t know how to speak Portuguese still, so he was with Samuel during this time. Samuel was helping out too, that was great. At the end of it all, it turned out great. The Baptism Service turned out really great, I´ve never seen so many people at a baptism before, it was amazing! The room was loaded with people! There were a ton of members there and a ton of support, it was great! Everyone was really happy.I felt really good that everything turned out great. It was a crazy week, but turned out really great.

Last night the Elders from Barreto stayed at our house as well because they had to go to Rio for a meeting this morning, so we had six of us in our little apartment, it was an adventure. I was dead tired when I got home last night. It´s good to stay busy though. So that was my crazy week.
Hope that you are all doing great. I´m glad that Grandpa´s surgery went great! I have been praying a lot for him this week! Glad that you are all doing great as well! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love, Elder McDonald

Hey Guys,

Então, como eu disse, semana louca, mas legal. Tem sidoum longo tempo desde que eu estive tão estressado como eu estava ontem. Nósestávamos fazendo divisões novamente esta semana e eu estava aqui com ElderCavaleiro, trabalhando na nossa área.

Basicamente, nesta transferência, estou atuandocomo líder Zona/Trainador, é muito louco. Temos feitoum monte de divisões para ajudar a nossa zona. Eu sempredisse que eu nunca quis ser um treinador, por isso agora o Senhor está me dandoa convocação oficial e chance de treinar um missionário haha Estasemana, como todos as outras, e esta transferência voaram e eu não possoacreditar que esta semana já é a última semana desta transferência. Muito maluco!

Eu vi Samuel ontem, ele veio a nossa igreja onteme ficou conosco durante de todas as reuniões. Eu estavasentado na fileira de trás, na hora do Sacramento, e ele entrou e se sentou aomeu lado e me deu um grande abraço, foi engraçado. Depois, obispo veio e perguntou quem era meu amigo, que obviamente me conhecia por causado grande abraço que ele me deu haha ​​foi muito engraçado. O Bispo éimpressionante. Fiquei muito feliz de ver Sam ontem, parece que não foitanto tempo, ainda que tenha passado cerca de nove meses desde que eu o vi. Eleme ligou no sábado e eu estava confuso sobre quem era no início, mas foi muitolegal ouvi-lo e colocar tudo em dia, ontem.

Esta semana tivemos muitas experiências legais noensino com algumas pessoas realmente incríveis. Estamostrabalhando com uma família em nossa ala, Igor e Estefani, e nós batizados a irmãde Igor (Beatriz) e seu primo ontem (João Vitor), foi muito legal. Nóstambém temos ido ensinar um casal muito legal, Jorge e Sandra, que são amigosde Paula e Silvio, uma família muito legal em nossa ala também. Eles foram à igreja ontem, por si só (MILACRE), e eles adoraram. Nós vamostentar batizá-los esta semana. João Vitor e Beatriz estavam realmente animados ontempara ser batizado e seus pais e avós todos vieram para ver. Nós vamostrabalhar com eles também esta semana e batizar todos! Ontem foi muito, muitolouco embora, um monte de trabalho para obter esses dois batizados.

Então, sábado, tínhamos tudo planejado que Igoriria batizar a ambos, já que ele está relacionado com ambos. Sepudesse ser assim tão fácil. Na manhã de domingo, nós descobrimos que Igor tem algo comouma infecção grande no estômago, e está muito, muito doente e não ia ser capazde vir à igreja para batizar Beatriz e João Vitor. Pensei, “caramba,agora eles não vão querer ser batizado hoje porque Igor não vai ser capaz debatizá-los. Então o que acontece? Igor decidiu que ele iria aguentar e iria à igreja, masquando ele chegou lá, ele estava prestes a cair, então ele e a esposa foram parao hospital, e sem dizer a ninguém para onde eles tinham ido, por isso eu fiqueià procura deles, enquanto isso, os membros estão conversando comBeatriz e Vitor João para ver se eles querem esperar até a próxima semana (máidéia). Graças a Deus João Vitor é impressionante e disse queele estava bem se eu o batizasse e Beatriz também. Eles estavam muito, muitoanimados para serem batizado nesse dia. Estefanifoi ajudá-los também. Graças a Deus por haha. Então,eles permaneceram por todo tempo animado e foram batizados! Milagre!

Durante todo este tempo, no entanto, oselderes de São Gonçalo que se encontravam no mesmo prédio precisavam de duasentrevistas e eu era o único lá quem poderia fazer isso, já que meu companheiroestava na divisão. Assim, durante toda esta loucura com osnossos batismos quase caindo, eu entrevistei essas outras duas senhoras quepodem ser batizado também. Foi engraçado, pobre Elder Knight, não temidéia do que está acontecendo. É a sua primeira área e ele não sabe falarPortuguês ainda, então ele estava com Samuel durante este tempo. Samuel estava ajudando muito, foi ótimo. Nofinal de tudo, tudo deu certo. O trabalho de batismo ficou muito legal,eu nunca vi tanta gente em um batismo antes, foi incrível! A sala estava cheiade pessoas! Havia uma tonelada de membros lá e umatonelada de apoio, foi  ótimo! Todo mundo estava muito feliz. Eu me senti muito bem que tudo saiu bem. Foi uma semana louca, mas ficou muitolegal.

Ontem à noite, os elderes do Barreto ficaram emnossa casa, mas também porque eles tinham que ir ao Rio para uma reunião estamanhã, por isso tivemos seis de nós no nosso pequeno apartamento, era umaaventura. Eu estava morto de cansaço quando cheguei  em casa ontem à noite. Apesar disto, é bomficar ocupado. Então essa foi a minha semana louca.

Esperamos que todos vocês estejam indo muito bem. Ficofeliz que a cirurgia do vovô foi ótima! Eu tenhoorado muito por ele esta semana! Estou contente que todos vocês estão indomuito bem também! Eu amo todos vocês! Tenhamuma ótima semana!

Amor, Élder McDonald

Picture with Elder Mazzagardi.  Zones: Niterói, Macaé, Arsenal, Engenho de Dentro, and Rio de Janeiro. 

12 September 2011

Hey Guys,

I got another bunch of emails today that took a little while to read, but it was really great. I got an email from Tanner, that was really cool. I got another one from Sam as well, and that blog that you put up turned out really good, Elder Menezes really liked it haha. Last week, we passed our P-day with them and the sisters in Niterói and took some really awesome pictures of the sunset at the beach (don´t worry, we didn´t go in the water, nor step on the sand) and of Cristo Redentor and Pão de Açúcar. It was amazing. Niterói is an amazing city, I`m loving our zone. This week we saw a ton of miracles happen. We had 7 baptisms in the zone; the Lord blessed us so much yesterday, it was amazing to see. I Love my área, it´s so great. This computer hás a mind of it´s own and isn´t recognizing my English, so it puts random accents on top of some words, I´m sorry. Just ignore it.

We had a lot of divisions again this week; more interviews and helping the Elders and Sisters with their baptisms. Time goes a lot faster now, we are always so busy, running around everywhere.  This week we had a special conference with Elder Mazzagardi; it was amazing! We learned a lot of deep doctrine, it was really cool. He is a really funny Guy.  I played the piano and Sister Hochstettler led and she also sang a solo, it turned out really cool. I got trapped behind the piano playing prelude while Elder Mazzagardi was shaking everyones hands, one by one and they came up to the pulpit and sat back down, how fun, huh? Haha I saw Elder Gallacher there again, that was really cool to see him again and talk about what happened with some of the people in Manchester. He stayed there one more transfer after I left and I was glad to hear that most of them were still firm in the church, but sad to here that some of them weren´t being visited anymore, that really stinks.  I need to write to everyone, the problem is finding time to do all of this haha.

I Love the mission so much. I´m so grateful for the sacred experiences that I AM having and all of the amazing examples of missionaries that I AM working with; they teach me a lot of stuff. I realize that I really can´t do anything and that the Lord does so much for me. I don´t know how else you could explain what is happening in these áreas that I have passed; miracles really do exist.  Everything really does testify that the Lord exists. I don´t have a doubt about this. I know that He is still working.  I Love all of you. Have a great week. Tell Cory hi for me and I will send you guys an email for you to send to Tanner. Tell Sam to look up the missionaries from São Gonçalo when He comes and He can leave with us to help teach. Haha Love you, have a great week.

Love, Elder McDonald

5 September 2011 (Portuguese)

Olá a todos,

Eu só queria quebrar este computador irritante, euescrevi um e-mail enorme para vocês, escrito por cerca de meia hora, e tudo oque eu escrevi foi deletado e não foi salvo, fala sério! Então, agora eu voutentar lembrar tudo o que eu escrevi para vocês antes. Então, emprimeiro lugar, com o meu retenção, eu não tenho uma forma permanente, lembra? Ambas as partes de cima e de baixo são removíveis. O quequebrou foi a parte superior, de modo que o membro do Barreto fixou o meuantigo para mim e quando você disse que eu precisava de um novo, ele mandoufazer um novo, que é cerca de 25 dólares, assim bem tarde demais para voltaragora. Eu só vou usá-lo, na noite de qualquer maneira. Estou molengando,por isso não vai realmente fazer uma diferença enorme haha. E também,eu não sei quando eu estou voltando para casa, eles não me disseram nada atéagora. Eu acho que poderia ser dia 21 de dezembro, mas isso éapenas suposição. Eu não sei ainda, nem quero saber agora:) Só me deixeaproveitar o tempo que eu tenho, tudo bem? Eu seique vocês todos estão ansiosos para ver-me, Estou animado para ver todos vocêstambém, mas eu não quero sair daqui. De qualquer forma, já está bom de falar sobre isso.

Hoje eu fui bombardeado com e-mails, havia umatonelada deles! Eu fiquei animado! Eu tenho um monte de membros nas minhas áreas antigas,dizendo o quanto eles sentem minha falta haha. E eu sinto falta deles também. Eu achoque uma das famílias que tem enviado cartas e não as tem, isto é realmentefrustrante. Vou ter que enviar um e-mail para eles para ver o queestá acontecendo, ok? Eu também recebi um e-mail do irmão Salas, foi muito bomouvir isso dele.

Infelizmente, eu não tenho tempo para escrever para elehoje, mas vou tentar voltar a escrever em breve. Diga-lhe obrigado.

Parece que vocês tiveram uma semana agitada, eutambém! Esta semana foi incrível, havia uma tonelada de milagresque aconteceram na Zona esta semana. Esta semana foi muito louca, correndo por toda parte,fazendo as divisões e entrevistas em todas as áreas, mas estou feliz em dizerque 4 dos 5 áreas na nossa Zona tiveram batismos esta semana, incluindo onosso. E a área que não teve um batismo teve uma confirmação,por isso estamos todos felizes com os resultados que tivemos esta semana! Agoravamos apenas continuar trabalhando duro para ter mais resultados! Eu amo essesmissionários, eles são exemplos enormes para mim!

A coisa mais legal que aconteceu esta semana foi obatismo de Neuza, foi incrível! Eu estava em uma divisão aqui na minha área com Elder Knight,o novo Elder que está sendo treinado. Estávamos no sábado de manhã na igreja com os Elderes deSão Gonçalo; Elder Roque e Elder Sanchez, limparam e encheram a fonte batismal.Tínhamos planejado para as duas horas naquele dia. O batismoque tivemos caiu completamente, mas o Senhor nos abençoou com outro. Então, deixamos a igreja, vimos um dos nossos investigadores que já havia idopara a igreja algumas vezes e ela deveria ser batizada na semana passada, masela estava doente. Ela é cega e quase completamente surda e ela estavasozinha fazendo seu caminho para o centro. Fomos atéela e perguntei: ”Neuza, você quer ser batizada? Ela disse: “É o que eu maisquero!” Duas horas depois, ela foi batizada, foi incrível! Foi o maiormilagre. Nós a ajudamos a chegar à igreja, e a entrar na água. Eu deixeiElder Cavaleiro batizá-la, porque ele nunca tinha batizado antes, até agora,então ele estava realmente feliz. Ele e Elder Sanchez entraram na água com ela paraajudá-la, foi muito espiritual. Ela estava muito, muito feliz, e assim ficamos todosnós. Foi uma bênção muito especial para mim. Tambémtivemos três confirmações na igreja ontem. O Senhorabençoou muito nossa Zona, temos trabalhado como um louco, e isto valeu a pena. Agoravamos só continuar! Eu amo a missão !!!!!Tantas experiências incríveis! Eu nãoquero deixar!

Esta semana vai ser muito grande, porque vamos teruma conferência de zona especial com Elder Mazzagardi dos Setenta, eu estourealmente animado. Eu tenho que tocar piano para a conferência que, oh eh! Orem pormim, tudo bem? haha Eu não posso acreditar o quão rápido o tempo estápassando! Eu não consigo acreditar na quantidade de milagres que oSenhor está nos dando. Quando chegar em casa, eu gostaria de dar minha palestrahomecoming sobre fé e milagres, porque eu tenho tido tantas experiências comessas coisas na minha missão, tem sido incrível. Eu amotodos vocês. Eu fico triste em pensar em deixar a missão, eu odeioisso. Eu quero ficar aqui para sempre e ajudar a essas pessoasgrande e ficar com essas pessoas incríveis que eu conheci, mas vamos voltar evisitá-los depois, para que ajude um pouco:)

Eu amo todos vocês. Ficofeliz que vocês  vão ver esta ​​cartahaha!! Tenham uma semana incrível! Bye Bye!

Com Amor, Elder McDonald

5 September 2011

Hey Everyone,

I just about wanted to break the dang computer; I wrote a huge email to you guys, writing for about a half an hour, and everything that I wrote got deleted and it didn´t save, what a joke, right? So now I will try to remember everything that I wrote to you guys before. So, first of all, with my retainer, I don´t have a permanent one, remember? Both the top and bottom are removable. The one that broke was the top one, so the member from Barreto fixed my old one for me and when you said that I needed a new one, he sent to make a new one, it´s about 25 dollars, so oh well, too late to go back now. I will just use it, I use it at night anyway, I´m asleep so it doesn´t really make a huge difference haha. And also, I don´t know when I am coming home; they haven´t told me anything until now. I think that it might be December 21, but that´s just guessing. I don´t know yet, nor do I want to know right now :) Just let me enjoy the time that I have, alright. I know you are all anxious to see me, I`m excited to see you all too, but I don´t want to leave here. Anyway, enough talk about that.

Today I got bombarded with emails, there was a ton of them!! I was excited! I got a lot from members in my old areas, saying how much they missed me haha I miss them too. I think that one of the families that I have been sending letters to hasn´t been getting my letters, that is really frustrating. I will have you send an email to them to see what is going on, ok? I also got an email from Brother Salas, it was really good to hear from him. Unfortunately, I don´t have time to write him today, but I will try to write back soon. Tell him thank you.

Sounds like you guys had a busy week, me too! This week was amazing, there were a ton of miracles that happened in the Zone this week. This week was really crazy, running around everywhere, doing divisions and interviews in all of the areas, but I´m happy to say that 4 of the 5 areas in our Zone had baptisms this week, including ours. And the area that didn´t have a baptism had a confirmation, so we are all happy with the results that we had this week! Now we will just keep working harder to have more results! I love these Missionaries, they are such huge examples for me!

The coolest thing that happened this week was the baptism of Neuza, it was amazing! I was on a division here in my area with Elder Knight, the new elder who is being trained. We were at the church Saturday morning with the Elders from São Gonçalo; Elder Roque and Elder Sanchez, cleaning and filling up the font for a baptism that we had planned at two o´clock that day. The baptism that we had fell through, but the Lord blessed us with another. Right as left the church, we saw one of our investigators who had already been to church a few times and she was supposed to get baptized this last week, but she was sick. She is blind and almost completely deaf and she was by herself making her way into the center. We went up to her and I asked her, ``Neuza, do you want to be baptized?`` She said, ``It´s what I most want!!`` Two hours later, she was baptized, it was amazing!!! It was the biggest miracle ever. We helped her to the church, then we helped her into the water. I let Elder Knight baptize her because he had never baptized before until now, so he was really happy. Him and Elder Sanchez went into the water with her to help her, it was really spiritual. She was really, really happy, and so were all of us. It was a really special blessing for me. We also had three confirmations in church yesterday. The Lord blessed our Zone a lot; we have been working like crazy and it has paid off. Now we will just keep going!! I love the mission!!!!! So many incredible experiences!!! I don´t want to leave this!!

This week will be really great because we will have a special Zone Conference with Elder Mazzagardi of the Seventy, I´m really excited. I have to play the piano for the conference though, oh yikes!! Pray for me, alright? haha I can´t believe how fast the time is passing! I can´t believe how many miracles the Lord is giving us. When I come home, I would love to give my homecoming talk about faith and miracles because I have had so many experiences with these things on my mission, it has been incredible. I love all of you guys. I get sad thinking about leaving the mission, I hate it. I want to stay here forever and help these great people and stay with these amazing people that I met, but we will come back and visit them afterwards, so that helps a little :)

I love all of you. I´m glad that now you will get this letter haha!! Have an amazing week!! Bye Bye!!

Love, Elder McDonald

5 September 2011-Week 4 in Niterói

Technical difficulties today-All Braden wrote was in the subject line-"More Miracles!"  We are waiting to see if he will write.