25 July 2011

Hey Guys,

This week flew by for me as well. This whole month actually. The time just keeps going faster. I can´t believe that I`m going on my fifth week in this area already, it is insane. Sounds like a lot of cool stuff is going on. Sounds like trek was really cool for Makensie. That is really cool that she is going to get her Patriarchal Blessing this week.  He is a really amazing guy. If I would have known that you were going to visit President Jaussi, I would have told you to tell him hi for me as well. I really hope that he is still Stake President when I come home to report on my mission, but he should be, right? Speaking of Patriarchs, we are going to eat lunch at the Seventy´s house this week, Brother Athos, who is the Patriarch of this stake as well, that will be awesome

This week we are going to have interviews with President Lima, that will be really cool, I`m excited. The best news that I have though is that we baptized yesterday! It was really awesome, we had a lot of members there helping us, mostly the returned missionaries haha. It turned out really cool. Her name is Janaína- her parents also were at the baptism and stayed for the rest of church as well and they loved all of it. Janaína was baptized in the morning and then confirmed during Sacrament Meeting. Poor girl, it was really cold yesterday and the water was even colder, but it all turned out great. We are working with her parents and her brother to get the whole family baptized. The dad, Paulo, is really excited, but her mom still doesn´t think she is ready, but we are preparing a good lesson to share with them all tonight. This area is amazing, have I mentioned that already, heh heh. I love the people here. Yesterday was awesome, we had Churrasco again for lunch! Everyday that have baptized here, we have had Churrasco for lunch. We had another family night over at their house as well and we made American cookies for them all again, they loved them.

Danilo, a returned missionary in the ward, took a picture of us with him and put it on Facebook and he´s had a few people from my old Ward, Usina, in the same Stake that have commented on it and have asked how I am and said that they miss me, that made me happy haha. I feel loved. I am going to die when I have to come home, it´s going to be so hard. People always ask me if I get homesick. I always tell them no way, and that I am going to be homesick only when I actually go home and leave my mission. I need to get as much as I can out of this time that I can. It´s going way too fast

Well, I hope that you guys enjoy the rest of your summer and that everything goes well for you all this week. I´m still here working hard and loving my mission. I love you all. Have a great week!

Love, Elder McDonald

18 July 2011

Hey Everyone,

Sounds like you all had a pretty busy week, that´s cool. Sounds like the weddings were great as well. Dad, send me a picture of Jacob´s wedding as well, I want to see it. The picture that you sent is really good; Makensie and Johnathan look a lot different to me, the others look pretty much the same. Sounds like you guys are doing a lot of fun stuff this summer. I can´t believe that July is almost over already though, that is nuts.

This week was good, not as exciting as last week though. Yesterday was pretty funny, I learned how to be a good marriage counselor. There is a companionship in my district and they aren´t getting along too well, so yesterday I sat them both down in a room and had them tell me what was going on. Lots of venting, but I`m hoping it helped. I told them that I´m not their babysitter and that they know what they need to do, so just do it. My companion thought it was funny, he thinks it´s exactly like a married couple situation, going through counseling, we were laughing about it afterward. I`m glad that my companion is awesome and that I´ve never really had any big problems with my companions, I´ve been blessed.

We had a few days this week where it was really hard to find new people to teach. We were walking around the streets all day looking for people to teach, talking to everybody, but everybody was ``too busy`` or didn´t want to talk to us, which means the same thing, right? But oh well, it´s part of it. On Thursday, I had to go do five baptism interviews, four in a city called Itatiaia and the other one in Centenário, so I was all over the place that day. Right after lunch was when it started and I didn´t get home until about 10:15. The first two interviews were sad, they didn´t feel like they were ready, even though they were overly ready; I used every scripture I could think of, but they just didn´t have any desire for the baptism to be Sunday. The second two were really awesome; the Spirit was really strong during the third interview, especially when he gave the closing prayer. I love interviews, they are so cool.

Other than that, nothing really new happened. Our ward mission leader looks exactly like Leonardo DiCaprio; I forgot to take a picture with him yesterday, I need to do that and send it to you guys. There is a really cool National Park here in Itatiaia that I am dying to visit. There are tons of waterfalls in there and caves and it´s a jungle to say the least. I want to go there on one of these P-days.

Well, I don´t really know what else to write. I`m doing great! I still love this area, the people here are amazing! Hope that you are all doing great as well! Have a fun week and I will talk to you all next week.

Love, Elder McDonald