Drew mail 4-19-21: Be focused on the Good!

 

Hi everyone, quick letter this week but I'm very grateful for the things I've been getting to experience and great lessons I've been feeling and learning! It's such a great thing that I've seen to be able to focus on the good and keep progressing and getting better little by little. Even when it's hard we can choose to see the good and feel God's love if we look for it! We were talking with a lady who's been having lots of struggles and were able to Express just how much God loves her and that she can choose to feel Gods love and see the great blessings or no. It was a great experience to feel and hear the change in her voice and laugh a bit as we had the phone call and I know that like the prophet has taught us, gratitude and love change and help strengthen hearts and faith! So know you're incredible and have a great week! I love all of you!! 😊

 

 

Drew mail 4-12-2021: "It's all about progress!"

 

Hi everyone how has your week been? I hope you've been doing great and that you've felt Gods love and seen some great blessings and miracles from Him!! Like Elder Rasband talked about in General Conference, we've got to look for, believe in, remember and give thanks for the miracles we see each day in our lives, and as we give thanks we'll see growth and even greater strength and blessings in our lives!

This week was a great week, we've been working doing lots of different things, but I think we can do quite a bit better on focusing on individual progression with each one of the people we're working with and helping! One of the great ladies we have been helping was baptized this week and it was a great experience! The light, great joy, love and peace in her face and eyes after being baptized was incredible! I'm so grateful to be here and learning and growing myself as well as helping others. I know God lives and that He is giving everything He's got (which is saying quite a bit 😉) to be able to bless, lift, heal, help, guide and prepare us for when His Son,  Jesus Christ, comes again! I encourage you to think about where you were in the past and where you are now, and where you want to be and think about what are you willing to give to be changed and give all you've got to God! I know it comes little by little but I promise it will come! It's also important to make specific plans and follow up with them! I know it'll come if you just give your best effort and leave the rest to God! I loved how the Prophet mentioned that it requires great, true faith, no fear and no doubts! Choose to believe and act in courage and faith and the miracles will come! I love you all and am so grateful for your prayers and strength and I'm giving all I've got! Have a great week and know that God loves you perfectly 👍😃

~Love Elder McDonald

Drew mail 4-5-2021: "The Marvelous Light!"

 

Hi everyone! Happy Easter!! I hope you've had an incredible week and been able to feel of God's love for you as we've been focusing a great deal on Christ with Easter and the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ! It truly has been wonderful! I am so thankful for all of the great experiences I've had in seeing how the light of God and Jesus Christ, His teachings and gospel bring great, marvelous light into the lives of everyone who accepts the message and follows Him. I know that that's part of the message of Easter. That because of Jesus Christ we can have great hope, light, change, and even miracles! We will eventually overcome all of the problems and darkness and difficulties if we choose to love Christ and accept Him as our Savior. I know He lives and loves each one of us. He has given His life to bless, strengthen, forgive, change and open up the path to give us all the Father wants to give us.

One of the neat things I've learned about Jesus Christ and His great atoning sacrifice for every single being is that it started in Gethsemane where He suffered beyond description, as He tells us in Doctrine and Covenants 19:18-19 "Which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit—and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink—Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men." He took upon Himself our sins, pains, afflictions, weaknesses, trials and whatever struggle we experience in our life, then suffered on the cross and died for us! I know that He did this for each one of us personally and it truly is incredible! Usually when we think about the atonement of Jesus Christ, we stop there, but we need to remember as well that it culminates in His glorious Resurrection. I think it's vital to remember that this is part of His atonement for us, because it shows us that no matter how dark the night gets, no matter what we suffer, the pains we go through, if we choose to accept Jesus Christ we will be filled with Glorious light and life eternal, never to be darkened again if we give all we've got to Him! It will all culminate in love, hope, love and strength if we give what we've got to Him!

I know He lives! I know He is perfect and can help each one of us through whatever struggle we can have and will bless us and give us great change and marvelous light if we put our faith completely in Him! 

We also got to hear a little bit about how to do that this weekend - with General Conference.  I hope you were able to watch or listen to it - if not, do it! I know you will be given strength, peace and direction specifically for you if you choose to listen to the voice of Jesus Christ through His chosen prophets! I loved getting to feel the Holy Ghost through the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ that we have in the Earth today! I especially liked the talk by President Nelson about growing Faith in Jesus Christ and the importance of giving all we've got to Him, even when it's hard! I invite you to listen to this talk if you missed it!  :)  

Things have been going well here for us, lots of great experiences and I'm so thankful to be here! I'm seeing a few of the reasons why God has allowed me to come back to Uruguay and it has been a wonderful, great, challenging, powerful experience for me! I know God and Jesus Christ live.  They will help us keep learning and growing as we put our faith actively in them!  Choose to give your all to Heavenly Father, and I know everything will be ok! 

Have a great week, and whatever I can do for you, please let me know! I love you all, thank you for your prayers, strength, faith and great examples! I know God wants to pour His marvelous light into your life and the lives of those you love, so just keep doing your best and pray for direction from Him, it will come, I promise! Love you all!  

~Elder McDonald

#Missionnotes - Month 22

 

#missionnotes  on to month # 22!

He is not here: He is RISEN!

Drew mail 3-29-21 "Keep Going!"

 

Hi everyone! How are things going? This week has been a great one! I'm here in Cerro with Elder Llorente! He's great and I love working with him tons! We've got 7 areas that we're in charge of and working to organize everything and help as many people as we can! It's been great so far and I'm grateful to be here! It's been pretty crazy, we've got lots to do, and we've had some great miracles and blessings come as we've been working to do what we can! There was a lady who was baptized on Saturday and that was a great experience to see all that come together! We've got a few other specific people we're working to help and teach as well and working to get to know Leadership better and help unify the wards in the work! 

I know God answers prayers and loves each one of His children perfectly! You're incredible and I hope you have a fantastic week!! Let me know whatever I can do for you! Have a great week!

~Elder McDonald

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