Drew mail 10-26-2020: "The House of the Lord"

 

Hi everyone! Have you had a good week? Seen any neat blessings or answers to prayer? I have! I can definitely testify that Heavenly Father loves each one of His children, hears, and answers our prayers and gives us exactly what we need to progress and become more like Him!

I want to focus though on temples today. We had the opportunity to drive to Cedar City on P-day and got to go visit the outside of the temple there! It was such a neat experience and I'm so thankful for temples! I have missed being able to be inside the temple so much, as it's been a little over a year since I've been able to serve there! Even though I didn't step into the temple, today was such a sweet reminder, that it is the house of the Lord. I felt the purity of the temple and know without a doubt that  things that happen inside the temple, the promises we make there about how we will live, and the blessings that God promises to give us are so, so special.  Words can't describe how I feel about this sacred place. I know without a doubt that the central driving force of all this is love! 

The love that God has for each one of us is perfect and is overpowering of everything else we could ever experience. I testify that everything, covenants, ordinances, commandments, the plan God has for us, the Savior, repentance and forgiveness, everything is centered on that LOVE! God is so desirous to bless us and purify us and help us get back to Him and I testify that He has prepared the steps to do so. They are to have faith in Jesus Christ, repent, be baptized by His authority in His name, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and keep moving forward repenting and making more covenants until the end of our time on this Earth. 

I honestly cannot express with words the love and spirit I feel as I think about temples and the things God does for us to help us return to Him. I know that even though right now we may not be able to consistently serve in the temple, we can receive the blessings from the temple and keep becoming more pure and learning about these things while we wait for the day to return there. I have faith that all the promises we receive from God will be fulfilled in His time and way as we do the best we can to follow Him and trust in His word. 

One last thought I have is to invite you to look at the talk by Elder Ronald A. Rasband from this most recent General world conference "Recommend to the Lord.”  I love the Lord and love His house and the covenants we make there. I testify of their importance in our salvation and promise that as you seek to be more worthy and follow Him with everything you have, you will feel the Spirit testifying to you of His love and plan for you! You are amazing! Keep trying and take one step at a time. God loves you so much and will help you each step of the way as you trust in Him! Have a fantastic week, I love you all!!

~Elder McDonald 

Drew mail 10-19-2020: "God's Love!!"

 

Hi everyone! This week again seemed to fly by! I can't believe it's been 5 months since I was home, it's been such an incredible experience to be serving and I'm so thankful for the experiences I'm having! Even though it may be hard at times, it's definitely the best thing I've ever done and I'm seeing that Heavenly Father really does have a plan for me and is aware of my needs and of everything that's going on! 

So this week we met a few times with a man we met a while ago. He's really awesome and is very nice and we've been able to talk about some different points of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with Him, and he has incredible faith! One of the visits we had though we were being in the defensive side and we could feel that both us and him weren't feeling understood or loved. We felt the Holy Ghost in a few points of the visit, but we definitely weren't creating an environment where the spirit could testify continuously and help him feel God's love. After the visit we sent him a message apologizing for that and expressed that we need to always help others feel that love as missionaries. After this he responded and told us he was grateful for our efforts and wants to keep visiting with us. I felt so much better and felt like the wall which was keeping that love and spirit from being felt was taken away instantly. 

So a few things I've learned from this are

1) we need to ALWAYS respect others and love them as Christ would. He has commanded us to love others and to always help them get closer to Him through feeling that love. It isn't an easy thing to do though! We can get angry or choose to be offended and believe we're in the right while someone else is doing something wrong, but it is so essential that we choose to let those negative feelings and judgments go and that we just choose to love and see others as Christ does. 

2) we need to ask for forgiveness and let hearts be healed by the Atonement of Jesus Christ. No matter what has happened, we need to love and extend our hands to others. Whether we've been hurt or we've hurt others, we're all brothers and sisters and we're all trying to do better. We're all in this journey together and we all need to be more united and loving. 

As I've been thinking about these things I've had a thought stick out to me that I heard from General Conference. I don't remember who it was from, but they said something along the lines of there will come a time when all Christians will need to be united and rely on each other. I really feel it is important to be one with all those around us. It's not an easy task, but I know it's what God asks. And since He asks it, that means it's possible with His help. So I encourage each of you this week to think about how you can be a little more loving and united this week with all those who are around you. I promise you that you will feel greater joy and will be able to have less fear and anger in your lives as you learn to see and feel for others what Heavenly Father does for you. 

Love you all! If there's anything I can do for you let me know! 😊

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 10-12-2020: "Apple Cider"

 

Hi everyone! How was your week? I hope it's going well and you always know how much Heavenly Father loves you! I wanted to write about something fun we did this week. Last week we met a couple who are religious and the wife was a member of the church a while ago but now goes to a different church, and they are super awesome! We got to meet them and have been able to do some service for them chopping wood, then they invited us to go make apple cider with them! It was an awesome experience and we got to develop our relationship with them quite a bit! I want to relate the process we went through of making apple cider to the atonement and hopefully help you know that Heavenly Father has a plan and will help you become the person He wants you to be! 

So first of all we had to go get apples. We have a friend who has apple trees and mentioned she was wanting to get rid of the apples (tender mercy!) so we went over there and pulled the apples off the branches we could. Then there were some that we couldn't reach so we had to shake the branches and make the apples fall to the ground. We then had to go through and find which were good to use and which were eaten by birds or unusable. 

So we gathered all them and took them to where we'd be turning them into apple cider. The people we were helping had an apple press which worked something like this.. We had to wash and cut the apples then feed them through a part of the machine where they were ground up into even smaller chunks which filled the barrel where they would be pressed. We then had to spin and rotate a plate down onto the barrel which squashed the apples so tightly that they released their juice into a pan which drained to buckets we filled up with the product we wanted. And voila! Apple cider! 

It took quite a bit of time to complete the process of making what we wanted to, and it wasn't exactly they easiest thing to do, but I can tell you that this was probably the best apple juice I've ever had! It was a powerful lesson as well in relation to the atonement of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we don't want to go through the process we have to to be changed (refined) into what God knows we can be. Sometimes we're comfortable on our tree branch, not wanting to be moved, or not wanting to experience trial or pressure, but just like how diamonds are made from incredible amounts of pressure on coal, we can be made into something better than we could be on our own. I testify that Heavenly Father has a plan and sees the bigger picture perfectly. He has enough love to shake us from the tree and turn us into something more, something better, something we can only be because of His son Jesus Christ and the refining process of repentance. 

I love you all so much and know Heavenly Father will help you as you put your faith in Him and let Him refine you! 😊

~ Elder McDonald

Drew mail 10-5-20: "COME and Hear the Word of the Lord!"

 

Hi everyone! I hope you've had a wonderful week and that you know how much Heavenly Father loves you!! He is proud of your efforts and wants to bless and help you! We got to see and hear and feel that as we had General Conference this past weekend! It was such a great experience to feel of His love and receive answers to our questions and if you haven't been able to watch or listen to it yet, I encourage you to do so! Also keep studying the messages after they are posted and I know you'll learn more and feel greater help and love for you from Heavenly Father as you study them! 

Two of the things that stood out to me were from Elder Rasband where he spoke of the importance of being worthy and clean before the Lord to be recommended to Him, and President Nelson talking about the importance of "letting God prevail" in our lives. I testify that God has a plan for you and will work miracles in your life as you work to follow Him and choose to let His will be done over yours. I love the Savior and testify that we can receive divine answers and help as we trust in Him! Love you all, have a fantastic week! :) 

 ~Elder McDonald

#Missionnotes - Month #16

 

#Missionnotes - Month #16

"Behold your little ones..."