Drew mail 3-25-2021: "Some Come Early, Some Come Late and Some...."

 

Hi everyone! How are you doing this week? I hope you’ve been doing good and that you feel great love from God in your daily life! I'm so grateful for all you do and am so greatly blessed by your faith, example, love and prayers, so thank you! I hope you know that God just loves you so much. I've been praying for you and hope you have been getting answers to your prayers and getting more direction, light and love each moment as you look to Christ with love and hope! 

I'm going to be leaving Tacuarembo tomorrow to go to the same zone I started in, Cerro! I'm excited and grateful for this great opportunity and sad at the same time to be leaving here and leaving Elder Lui. He has been an incredible blessing for me and I'm so grateful for everything he does to work and lift others up, he's incredible! I don't know who I'll be with or where exactly I'll be, but I feel good about going to this new area!

The title of the email I took from a quote from Elder Holland where he says something to the effect of "Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven.” Having looked back on my time here on Tacuarembo I feel good about my service but I also think I could've done more and worked to better develop relationships with others if I stayed longer,  but then looking back I've realized I've seen so many great blessings and experiences and I know it's been according to God's will! I've seen so many tender mercies that have been miracles for me, some things that may seem small to others but have been incredible and great to me. I know God loves me, answers prayers and that Jesus Christ is working with us in His work. I've loved getting to serve others and help be a little light in their path that I hope will help guide them and give them the direction they need to draw closer to and become more like our Savior and Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful for the people we've been able to find and talk with and share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them. I love seeing the light come into their lives and be filled with hope, it's incredible! I'm so grateful for my Heavenly Father and I just love Him so very much! 

All of this applies to you and I want you to know that you can see miracles and receive blessings according to God's time and way.  He will give you all you need as you trust in Him. Ask to see the blessings, ask to serve and grow and love, then buckle up and get ready to work and give your all to Him. I promise you'll be blessed and given what you need and as you work to remember your experiences and share them and give all you've got to give to the Lord you will be filled with great love, light, joy and great purpose and miracles. It will come, I promise! Just take one step at a time, love God and put your faith in Jesus Christ and great things will come. I love you and am so grateful for you! Whatever I can do for you, let me know! Have a great week and look for those great blessings from God! 

~Elder McDonald

#missionnotes - Month #21

 #missionnotes on to month #21

Drew mail 3-15-2021: "Seguir Adelante"

 

Hi everyone! How are you doing? I hope everything is going well! I want you to know I love you so much and am praying for you! I know Heavenly Father loves you perfectly and is watching over you! I can testify that He lives and loves all of His children and wants the best for them! I'm so grateful for the great experiences, miracles, tender mercies, answers to prayers and everything that comes from God.

Throughout the week we visited with quite a few different people working to help build them up and strengthen their faith and it was a great experience! We were also able to have an activity with the stake where we did a "face to face" or question and answer activity with specifically the youth throughout the stake, but there were more adults than youth which is fine haha! 😅

One of the neat things I've been focusing on throughout the week is becoming just a little firmer in my faith each day and study I have of the scriptures. I know God answers prayers and helps us keep moving forward throughout all that is going on! It's been an incredible experience here so far with Elder Lui and I've loved the great experiences I've had as a missionary. One of the things my mission president commented to me in my interview with him on Tuesday was that we're here to practice! We've got to keep working on improving and not get caught up on the mistakes or struggles we have but keep looking for the good and move forward with faith and hope and love! I know it can be hard sometimes, but I love that because of Jesus Christ we can truthfully overcome whatever struggle and problem we have and be healed and strengthened completely by Him. I know He loves us perfectly and knows us perfectly! He wants to help and can if we choose to love and follow Him. So just keep trying one step at a time and remember you're just practicing! I've got a great talk in mind by Brad Wilcox called "His grace is sufficient" and I invite you to listen to it then think about what you can do to more fully love and follow the Savior in your life! If you give all you've got, i promise that God will work miracles in you, for you, and with you to bless and help others! Have a great week, I love you all!! 😊

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 3-8-2021: Build Testimony

 

Hi everyone how are you doing? I hope you have a wonderful week! I just wanted to tell you that I love you, and I'm grateful for everything you do. I know Heavenly Father loves you so much, and each day just do the best you can to focus on building a relationship with Him, and developing a testimony of the Savior. I know as you do the little things each day you're going to be able to overcome all of the struggles and trials and be able to get closer to God than you ever have before. I'm praying for you, and whatever I can do for you, let me know. Have a great week!! 

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 3-1-21: "Explain God's Will"

 

Hi everyone! I hope all of you are doing good and have been having a great week! It's pretty crazy how the days and everything seems to be blurring together! We've been working hard and had some great experiences this week! One of the most notable was when we got to go visit a lady who is a member who is trying to return to the church of Jesus Christ. She's had a lot of struggles and has made a lot of bad decisions and we felt we needed to explain a few of  God's commandments to her including the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom which are incredible blessings to help take care of our bodies and keep us free, happy and healthy, able to do everything God wants us to do. 

She expressed that she was feeling a really profound pain and great burden because of her bad choices and she wants to change. We were able to express that God loves her perfectly and that she has a divine potential. That she can be healed and forgiven and receive everything God has for her if she chooses to repent and become more like the Savior. It was a really great experience for me, and I've learned so much about why God gives us commandments and asks us to live a certain way. I know that it's because He wants us to be happy and clean and be changed to be able to become like Him and be filled with His love, blessings and power of the Holy Ghost. I know that if we trust in Him and do what He asks of us we WILL be blessed and protected from all the bad Satan wants to throw at us. It's vital that we can decide now how we will live and what we will do when we're tempted to do wrong and that we can fully put our faith in our Savior Jesus Christ. 

Know that no matter what happens you can put your faith in Him. Just keep trying your best and give all you've got to Him. Make up your mind know to be living in accordance with Gods will and I promise you'll be safe from many wrongs and harmful things that happen when we don't do what God asks. Satan works hard to make us feel fearful or ashamed when we make mistakes and that's not from God. He wants us to do the best we can and to love Him, admit our wrongs and change so I invite you to pray and listen to what the Spirit tells you you can do better or more fully commit to Heavenly Father and repent when you make mistakes. 

I testify that if you truly love God and give your best to Him, repenting daily of your sins and mistakes, relying on the Savior to become better, and change you will be filled with great joy and power and love. I know God loves you so much and will help you as you fully trust in Him! If there's anything I can do for you let me know! I'm praying for you and I love you! I'm grateful for all you do and I know God loves you too and has great blessings and good in store for you! Just keep trying and take it one day at a time! You're the best, have a great week! 😊

~Elder McDonald 

Drew mail 2-22-2021: "Power of Prayer"

 Hi everyone! How was your week? I don't have a lot of time today but I wanted to share how grateful I am for an incredible experience we had this week! We've been working hard and it seems like we haven't found a lot of people to teach in our area (we're going to start a few new things soon: English Classes and Talent/Activity nights with the ward which we're excited about), but we've been able to see lots of great blessings with helping others including inactive members of the church start to come back and participate in the church again which has been a wonderful experience! It's also been really neat as we've worked hard to help people make goals and plans for themselves and see them complete and fulfill those things! But one of the greatest experiences of the week was when we got to meet together as the whole mission and have a conference together!

At one point in the conference we were able to all have a moment to kneel down together and pray individually about how we can improve and what more we can give to the Lord in our service. I absolutely loved this experience and felt such a powerful feeling of the companionship of the Holy Ghost as we all sought revelation together and turned to God, trusting in Him! I loved it so much! I had the thought of the people who worked with King Benjamin in the Book of Mormon and of when they all prayed together and cried to God for forgiveness of their sins. It was a great connection for me, and I encourage you to go look at this story in the Book of Mormon in Mosiah 4 and 5 where they put their faith in God and prayed for some time together. I love that prayer really does bring great blessings and strengthens us, especially as we do it in families! One of my favorite things when I get to talk with my family is getting to pray with them! I love the strength, love and power I can feel with them and I know you will feel the same way when you pray to Heavenly Father individually and with and for those you love! Thanks so much for all of your prayers too, they work miracles and I just want all of you to know that I love you so very much and am grateful for everything you do! If there's anything I can do for you let me know! God loves you and I love you too!! :) 

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 2-15-2021: "The Lord is Advancing His Work"

 

Hi everyone!! How was your week? I hope it has gone well for you!! I just wanted to share that I'm so excited for the things that I've seen this week being developed in missionary work! There have been lots of great ideas and experiences we've had and I don't have enough time to explain all of them, but it's been an incredible experience being able to feel that Heavenly Father is in control. I know without a doubt that this is His work and that He loves His children and wants what's best for them. He's going to give everything He's got to lift up and bless, love, strengthen and change everyone who will come to His Son and trust in Him. I love you all so much and wish you a great week! Whatever I can do for you let me know I'll be praying for you!! 

~Elder McDonald

 

#Missionnotes - Month #20

 

#Missionnotes - Month #20

Upon you my Fellow Servants

Drew mail 2-28-2021: "We all need a little love!"

 

Hi everyone! How are you doing? I hope you all are well and that you have a great week this week! 

We had a great experience of going to another area assigned to us called Ansina. We were able to meet a lot of great people and it's an incredible little town about an hour away from where we normally are.  Before the pandemic started it was a little branch of the church and the area was just opened about 2 years ago. There were quite a few people who were baptized, but in March when all the United States missionaries left, the area started to struggle. Originally some members from barrio Lopez (Lopez ward) brought them to the chapel on Sundays for meetings but then they couldn't do that anymore because of the restrictions from COVID so the members in Ansina were left on their own and haven't had a whole lot of support or church activity in about a year. 

Elder Lui and I found out that we're both going to be staying here for the next transfer so we have a goal of being able to get these people the ability to attend church and begin to nourish them spiritually again and help them feel that love from God that we all need. Each one of us has individual needs and problems, but something we all have in common is that God loves us perfectly and has a plan for us. Nothing that can happen will destroy or change that love and His works can't be changed or stopped. We all need to draw closer to Him and feel of that love so we can keep growing stronger and prepare to live with Him again. I'm looking forward to being able to help these people and I just want to testify that God loves you so much and has a plan for you. If there is anything I can do for you please let me know! I love all of you and am so grateful for everything you do for me and for the help you give to those around you to feel that love from God! Have a great week!! :)

~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 2-1-2020: "It's the Same Work!"

 

Hi everyone! Again… I'm short on time so I just want to share my testimony that I know Heavenly Father is in charge! I know He is working to bless and help His children and that He will give them what they need and guide them according to His will and timing, but we also must accept Him! We must seek Him and be able to follow His will.  I know that as we do so we will be greatly blessed!

We have been able to contact quite a few different people and the majority of them that we have found through Facebook are people who live in other parts of Uruguay, so we have sent them to the missionaries there. I know Heavenly Father is watching over these people and will help them, just like He'll do for you if you let Him prevail in your life! We've seen great blessings and learned lots.  I'm so grateful for everything that has been happening! Thank you for your love and prayers, you are amazing and I'm so grateful for all you do! I love you so much and am praying for you! Have an amazing week!! 

~Elder McDonald