Drew mail 1-25-2021: Learning Together

 

Hi everyone!! How are you doing? I hope you have had an incredible week! I want you to know that Heavenly Father loves you so much and is watching over you! Keep working hard and giving your all to Heavenly Father and I know He will bless you! 

This week was a good one! It has been a great experience working with Nacho, the young man who became my companion the past week, and it has been great to learn together and feel his fire and drive to work hard and do good things! It's definitely inspiring and it´s been a great blessing to work and learn together! I just want to share my testimony that I know that that´s one of the reasons why Heavenly Father has given us families and friends, leaders and all those around us! He doesn´t want us to walk this road alone and He has blessed you with the people who can help you in your life to get closer to Him and improve!! He loves you so much and is grateful for all your efforts! I´m so thankful for each one of you and I love you so much! Have a great week, and know that whatever I can do for you I´ll do my best! You are amazing and Heavenly Father loves you so much, have a great week!

Drew mail 1-18-21: "New Companion" :)

 

Hi everyone! I’m doing well and we've had a great week! Last night we found out that we would likely get a young man who is getting ready to serve as a missionary to join with us for a few weeks and help him get ready to serve! Today we got to meet up with him and he is going to be my companion for a little while until the end of this transfer! I'm excited to have another great young man with us, he has really impressed me so far and I'm looking forward to do what I can for him! I want you to know that Heavenly Father loves you so much and is grateful for all your efforts to come closer to Him! It is definitely worth it for every effort you put forth and I promise you'll have help along the way! I love you all and wish you a great week! 😊

~Elder McDonald

#Missionnotes Month #19

 

#Missionnotes  Month#19  "Hear Him" 

Drew mail 1-13-2021: "Finding the Mercies!!"

 

Hi everyone! It's been a great week! I definitely forgot how crazy the humidity here is, but it's been a great blessing for me to be here and to have Elder Lui and Elder Neira as companions, they are amazing! We've been seeing lots of tender mercies and I have been able to learn a lot and have great experiences so far! We have been working really hard to be able to have daily contact with people and get to know them so that we can develop relationships with them and begin to share this message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. We've met a few really neat people, one of them asked for a Book of Mormon and has been studying and praying and the majority of his family are inactive members of the church and I feel like there's definitely good potential for them to fully have all the blessings God wants to give them! It might take some time, but we'll do our best to help!  We've got lots of work ahead of us, but we're trying to focus on reaching out to as many people as we can! We are making lots of phone calls and using Facebook to find people who want to talk with us by making posts and joining groups and responding to people as much as we can! We've gotten quite a few referrals from media sources and we're trying to schedule visits with them, but it has been difficult because people will keep cancelling or not answer the phone. We're trying to do all of the different ideas and activities we can, and I'm looking forward to the things we're going to try to get going!

More good news is that church meetings in person are going to be starting up again this next Sunday, and I feel like there are lots of good things ahead! We definitely have been seeing tender mercies and lots of great blessings, and I know Heavenly Father will keep doing His work and helping His children as much as they trust and follow Him! I encourage you to really look for the tender mercies throughout this week and that you can know that He is involved in your life and will help you as you make time and give your all to Him! He loves you so much and is grateful for all your efforts to get closer to Him and will bless you for all you do to get closer to Him! I love you all! Whatever I can do for you, let me know! 

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 1-4-2021: "Best Trio Ever!"

 

 Hi everyone! I wish you all an amazing new year! Its crazy how quick the time has gone by! I know God has great plans for us and will bless you as you choose to give your all to Him and trust completely in your Savior, Jesus Christ this year. It can be a completely fresh start for you.  I know God wants to bless and help you and that He will as soon as you choose to trust and follow Him. 

I'm so thankful to be here with Elder Lui (from Tonga) and Elder Neira (from Uruguay). They are incredible missionaries and I'm learning so much from and with them and we're getting along extremely well. It has been super fun to get to know them and I know we've got work ahead of us but we're going to give all we've got and I'm looking forward to it! If there's anything i can do for you let me know. I love you all!

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 12-28-2020: "Back at it Again!"

 

Hi everyone! I am so grateful for all your prayers and love! I'm very grateful for everything I've been learning and experiencing! I can't believe it's been more than a week already of being back in Uruguay! 

It has been an incredible experience for me as I've worked to study, pray, write in my journal and make the most of this time. I've been pondering and thinking a lot about the experiences I've had and how I've gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon and of my Savior Jesus Christ. It has been such a special experience as I've focused on being able to give my efforts and time to doing that and I have felt so much love and peace as I've done so! I have recorded the ways I've learned the Book of Mormon is true and thought it would be cool to share a few with you! Almost every single time I read from this book I feel such an incredible peace, love or joy! I've had my mind opened and been able to learn more about and get closer to my Savior from this book and I know it is true! I've had so many experiences testifying about its importance and value and truth for us, when I've felt the Holy Ghost comforting or burning within me, and I've heard many testimonies from others which had lifted me up as well! All these things and more have helped me, but the most important or greatest thing to me is the relationship it has helped me to develop with my Savior. I love Him so much and testify that we can come closer to Him by reading this book than by any other! You can have these same experiences too and come to know for yourself that it's true and as we get closer to the end of the year I invite you to think about what you've learned and why you're grateful for certain people, things or experiences that have happened and express it to them or enjoyed it so you don't forget! 

I'm grateful for what's ahead too! I know good things are ahead as we put our trust in God, have hope and give our all to the Savior. On Wednesday I should be heading to an area called Tacuarembó and will meet my new companions over there! It's an area I haven't been to before, but I'm excited! Thank you again for your prayers and faith. I love all of you so much and wish you a wonderful end of the year and am incredible year like none before, ahead of you! Never forget that God loves you so much and will help you and that you are AMAZING! 

 ~Elder McDonald

 

 

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Hi everyone! Merry Christmas! I am so, so thankful for the great blessings that we get from our Heavenly Father, including the most important and valuable ever... Jesus Christ! I love the Savior so much and am so thankful for everything He does for me. I am learning so much more every day that Heavenly Father loves us perfectly and wants us to be happy, whole, clean and full of grace and His strength. The only way we can do that is through developing a relationship with and relying completely on the Living Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He is the King of Kings, the Messiah, The Only Begotten, perfect, loving, redeeming, healing, righteous, good, kind, powerful, miraculous, Great Son of God. We can get closer to Him and follow Him each and every day and I promise you that as you strive to do so each day to really get to know Him and love Him with all you have and are you will be blessed beyond your imagination. You will be filled with hope, love, grace, strength, healing, guidance, direction, and all the Heavenly help you will need to return to your Heavenly Father, clean and changed to love and rejoice forever with your family. This is the message of Christmas. This is the message of Christ, the King and Lord Jehovah! Trust in Him and love Him with all you have and everything will be made right in His time and way! I love you all and wish you a wonderful Christmas and that you always know He can make more of us than we ever can on our own. Merry Christmas!

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 12-21-20: "CHRISTMAS IS HERE!!! And... Covid??

 

Hi everyone! I am officially back in Uruguay!! I still can't believe I'm here, but it's great to be back. There are 24 Americans now who came back and it's been really neat to see a few missionaries I knew before. 15 of the missionaries are in my mission and 9 are in the other one. While we were traveling, I got to talk with quite a few people and have some great experiences in the airport.  One of the people was a lady from Uruguay coming back here too! So another miracle, we barely made it into the country before it had been closed down again to tourists. Literally the last plane! 

We got in to Uruguay on Saturday and we had to get tested for Corona again because Uruguay apparently doesn't accept the saliva test that all of us took so we got to do the good-old nose test! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't very fun. I was surprised again by how humid it is! In the airport it honestly felt like we were in the same room as a sauna 😂. We got to see President and Sister Dunford and they loaded all of us up on a big bus and took us over to the place we're staying in. We got assigned into companionships among us and given little districts and my companions were Elder Reeves and Elder Staheli (sounds like Staley - he’s from Saint George area 😉).  I had known Elder Reeves a little bit before - when I was here previously and I talked with him quite a bit in the airport.  I hadn’t known Elder Staheli before now. So we all got together with all those who came back into our mission and we talked with President and Sister Dunford about what's been going on.  We reviewed their goals and discussed how things have changed a bit. We also had some good old Uruguayan meals 👍.  Then got things unpacked and didn't have a whole lot to do from there so we talked, studied and got ready for bed. 

In the morning we were going to do a Sacrament meeting with everyone, but just after we got ready, the President's Assistants knocked on our door and had President on the phone.  He let us know that Elder Reeves tested positive in the airport for Covid and that Elder Staheli and I would need to move to another room and be quarantined in that room until we get tested next Saturday.  It's been weird to be stuck in this room but we've been doing good!  I am really grateful that I'm Elder Staheli's companion right now.  He is super fun and an incredible example!  I know Heavenly Father has blessed me to be with him right now!  We've been doing a lot of studying, listening to conference talks and have come up with some ideas for us to do /things to work on while we wait for more direction.

I'm so thankful to be here and want each one of you to know that I love you so much! I'm so thankful for your prayers and help and I want you to know that whatever I can do for you I will do it! I am praying for you and know that Heavenly Father loves you so much and will give you the help, answers, strength, healing and love you need as you trust in Him and in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.  I know that you will be able to feel the Savior’s love and power come into your life as you follow Him more fully.  I love you all and want you to know that you are AMAZING!  Have a wonderful week and know you've got prayers and great blessings coming your way! 

Much love

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 12-7-20: "Give Everything to the Lord! "

 

Hi everyone! I can't believe Christmas is coming up so quickly, for me it feels that this whole year has just flown by! I'm really grateful for this time of year as we've been able to focus on gratitude and more as we are able to focus on the Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I've been thinking a lot recently about the things I've been learning and what I've been able to do and trying to determine what more I can do, or what more do I want to learn and give to the Lord. It's been insane to me how quickly the time has gone by and I can't help but think about what more would the Lord have me do? As I've been pondering and trying to find how I can give more of myself, I've been thinking more about how perfect and loving the Savior is! I've really felt strongly this week that if we choose to follow Him and love Him all our days, one day everything will be made right and He can make more of us than we could be on our own. I love my Savior! I know we can be saved and healed and changed and strengthened and blessed by and because of Him! I want with everything I have to be able to serve Him all my days and keep my focus on Him and have His love, hope, and power in my life more fully. 

As we're focusing more on Christ this time of year, I've been thinking what difference would be in our lives if we kept a laser like focus on the Savior all year. We should be giving our all to Him every day, all year! It's an incredible feeling of love and peace when we dedicate ourselves wholly to Him and I know that as we give our all to our Heavenly Father, we will be blessed and filled with His love and joy! He can do more with us than we thought possible and I know He loves YOU perfectly! I encourage you to be able to give everything you have to Him, not only this Christmas but your whole lives and I promise you will be astonished and overjoyed with the love and change you feel! I know Christ is the Savior and He is here for you! You just have to choose to put your faith in Him and try each day to get a little closer to Him! I love you all and if there's anything I can do for you let me know!!

~Love Elder McDonald

#Missionnotes Month #18

 

#Missionnotes Month #18  of sharing the light of Christ - 

"Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us."  ~Luke 2