Hola de Uruguay! How are you all doing? I hope you are doing
well and that you can feel of my love and gratitude for each of you! I can´t
believe I am finally in Uruguay! Its such a beautiful country and I love it so
much already! My first area where I am serving is called Cerro and is outside
of the city and there's not really another way to describe it than to say
¨campo¨ (field). I love the people here so much and I know that this is exactly the
place I need to be right now. So I wanted to share some of the
great blessings I have seen already in my time here.
First of all, traveling to Uruguay was a miracle (milagro)
in and of itself. We had three separate flights and about 22 hours of travel
time. Our first was to go to Georgia where we would catch our
international connection. We only had one hour in-between flights so we
needed our plane to be on time. The first thing was that our plane was delayed
in leaving which made our group of missionaries nervous as to if we could catch
the connection. But soon we left and were underway. As we were getting close to
Georgia our pilot came on the speaker and said that due to bad weather we would
be circling until we had permission to land. Now at first I was not happy
with this. I was really nervous because I wanted to catch the flight to
Uruguay, but I decided to say a prayer and stop worrying. It turns out that the
pilot coming on the intercom was a blessing! The woman who was sitting next to
me had put in head phones at the beginning of the flight and didn't speak to me,
but I had prayed that if Heavenly Father would make a way I would open my mouth
and speak to her. Of course, prayers are answered! So when the pilot came
online this woman took out her headphones and I actually was able to talk with
her for a moment. Soon enough we were able to land and as we were leaving the
plane I offered this woman a Book of Mormon. She politely declined, but I
felt good knowing I had done everything I could. More, I had hope because
we still had time to catch our next flight. As we looked at the directory we
realized however that our gate was at the farthest end of the airport and we
would have to take the subway train to get there. So we started to jog
towards the train and just as we got to it the doors opened and we got on. MILAGROS!
So we were able to make it to our plane and safely arrive in Uruguay on time.
Often times miracles are not great or overwhelming things,
but come in small simple ways. I have seen so many and I wish I could
tell each one to you, but that would take too much time. I have seen
miracles in who was assigned as my trainer. His name is Elder Letelier and he is from
Chile, so yes he speaks only Spanish. He has been such a wonderful example to
me already of hard work and faith, and I know he is exactly who I need to be
with right now. Further, I have come to know that Cerro is exactly where I need
to be to start my mission. It is remarkable to me that as we go out
¨contacting¨ or simply clapping at people's homes, hoping they will open to talk
with us, I have prayed ¨Where do we need to go¨and have truly felt a pull to
take a certain direction to a certain home. Sometimes people answer,
sometimes they don´t, but I know that there is a reason for us to go to that
place.
One last specific miracle I want to mention has to do with
oranges. On Saturday night I really started to want some oranges, but we
didn't have any in our home, so I decided to just not think about it. On
Sunday I still wanted oranges, and after church we went contacting. We
felt impressed to go to a certain home and out in the yard was a man who was
gardening. As we talked with him for a moment, he welcomed us into his
yard and gave us.... ORANGES! I know its kind of a silly story and something
not really important, but this showed to me that Heavenly Father knows our
desires and will take care of us in everything we need. I didn't need
oranges. I would have been just fine without them, but I believe Heavenly Father wanted
to show me that he knows me and that He is there for me. To me, this was a miracle.
Yo sé que todos ustedes pueden ver milagros en vuestras
vidas. Sé que fe, obediencia, y acción trae milagros. Dios les ama mucho,
y él quiere bendicir todas personas que venir a él. Yo prometo que
ustedes pueden recibir más luz en sus vidas mediante el evangelio de
Jesucristo. Yo oro por todos ustedes cada día y les amo. Vamo arriba!
(I know that all of you can see miracles in your lives. I know that faith, obedience, and action bring miracles. God loves you so much and He wants to bless all people that come unto Him. I promise that you can receive more light in your life through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I pray for you all each day and love you! Keep moving forward!)
--
-Elder McDonald
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