Drew mail 5-24-2021: "God Loves YOU"

 

Hi everyone! I hope you've had a blessed week. You should know that you're incredible! God loves you so much and wants to bless and help you! 

This week we've gotten to see how great and powerful and important it is to know and feel that love. We were able to have a lesson with a lady who really was broken down and beat up with a lot of things that have happened and it was incredible to see the need she has for the love of God in her life. Each of us need that and we worked to help her feel that and feel like we're going to be seeing great changes and miracles happen with her and her family! I'm so very blessed and thankful for the great opportunities we have to be able to lives and hearts change and be opened when God's love is experienced. 

It's real and it's powerful! Don't ever forget or doubt that love, keep doing the best you can and love Him with all you've got and the rest will come little by little! Have a great week, I love you all!!

 ~Elder McDonald

Drew mail 5-17-2021: "Miracles Galore"

 

Hi everyone! What a great week this one has been! I really don't have time to tell you everything, but we've had some great blessings!! We've been finding some great people to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with and we had an amazing experience with 2 people in one lesson where we felt prompted to give them baptismal dates for the 29^th of May and the 5th of June! Prayers for them would be incredible so that we can keep seeing miracles and help them be baptized! Their names are Maria and Valentino and I'm very grateful to be serving where I am when I am!

I've had lots of thoughts and feelings going through me recently and I've been recognizing how blessed I have been by God throughout all of this and how important the Gospel of Jesus Christ is, and having a personal testimony and relationship with Him is to our spiritual survival and wellbeing! I know God lives and loves you and that we have a prophet on the earth today thanks to a restoration of the fulness of the truth! It can be so easy to get distracted or caught up in the focus/things of the world and it is so important we can learn to be and live like Christ so we can be with our families forever! I hope you have a great week and know that you are loved! Just keep trying to do your best each day and know that as you increase your faith in Christ you will be blessed with miracles! 

P.s. if you haven't heard or reviewed President Nelson's talk about faith from this last General Conference recently you should do that and apply it!   Love you all 😊

~Elder McDonald

Drewmail 5-10-2021: "Who would've thought that a bicycle would kill me 😅🤣"

 

Hi everybody! How's your week been? I hope everything's going great and that you've been seeing great blessings from God!

This week has been great! I'm so very grateful to be serving in Paysandú now for my last transfer! Its absolutely crazy to think that but I've been so blessed and am so very grateful for all I've been given from God! This is a great area with great people and my companion,  Elder García is incredible! We're definitely going to go out with a bang! 😁 We've also got bikes which is a great blessing even though I about died the first day (I guess I've got to get a bit more in shape 🤣). It's a great place where we're at and I'm looking forward to doing the best we can!

We're working hard to give all we've got to the people here! There are some great people who are getting prepared to be baptized and hopefully we'll keep them getting ready in the way they need to! Thanks for your prayers, you're incredible. Know that God loves you, and I promise good things are ahead for all those who follow and put their love and trust in God! 

~ Elder McDonald

Drew mail 5/3/21: "Heart, Might, Mind and Strength"

 

Hi everyone! Happy Monday! How are y'all doing? I hope you've been doing well and had a great week! This week we were able to have a few great lessons and be able to meet and get to know some great people that have incredible desires to learn and grow more! 

On Tuesday we had one of the Zone Leaders come to be with us for the week because his companion finished his missionary service. Among us three we were covering the whole area of Cerro and Colonia which use to be 2 zones back in the day 😅.  It's been pretty crazy but we've had lots of great blessing, one of the last ones being on Sunday night when it kind of hit me more that we had so many people to help and that we just couldn't help everyone so we had to decide where to focus our efforts I put in the last few minutes of the day to make some phone calls to people in our contacts that I felt like we needed to call. I really prayed that God would help us to find the people that needed strength and that we needed to help because we just couldn't do it on our own. I called a few people, the majority of whom didn't answer, but the very last person I called answered and said she had talked with missionaries before and sounded interested in being able to learn more. It was a great experience for me and I'm grateful for the love, direction and help that God gives to us as we fully put our faith in Him.

I was also thinking recently that God is going to be asking us a few questions when we come before Him at the last day and one of them will be if we gave all of our Heart might mind and strength to love and serve Him and help His children return to Him. I definitely want to give all I've got and I know that I definitely haven't been perfect and have made my fair share of mistakes and bad choices, but I want to give all I've got to Him and do the best I can! I feel like God can bless and help us more than we can realize if we just choose to love and follow Him. I think it's more about the direction we are heading and what we've been feeling and desiring in our heart as well and that we've just got to put all we've got for the use of the Lord! I know He will help and give all He's got for us which is such a great blessing, and I pray that we can do the same for Him! So I encourage you to think about that a little bit more; "what more can I give to the Lord/be doing for Him/increase in my love for Him?" I promise the love and strength, help and answers and blessings will come if we put all we've got at the feet of the Lord! Have a great week, love you all! 

~ Elder McDonald

#missionnotes - Month #23

 

#missionnotes - On to Month #23

"To bring the world his truth!"

Drew mail 4-26-21: "Its the Best!"

Hi everyone! How are you? I hope you're doing great! This week was a great one, lots of great blessings and great things going on! Just a few of the experiences I wanted to share with you…

First of all, we got to watch a devotional for all of the missionaries by Elder Holland. It was absolutely incredible and I'm so grateful for living prophets and apostles we have in the world today! He talked a lot about being worthy to have the Holy Ghost with us constantly and seeking that constant companionship. It was great to hear counsel from Him and look back over the course of my mission and see each of the ways he mentioned about how the Holy Ghost helps and blesses us in God’s work. Something else that I loved was a great blessing he extended to all of us missionaries and I've already seen the fulfillment of that blessing which is incredible!

Another great thing from this week, was that we were able to get in contact with lots of great people! We received quite a few references and have started teaching the majority of them which has been a great miracle! We had a great lesson with one of the people we're working with and we really were able to testify and focus on sharing from the scriptures. It was a powerful spirit we felt and I'm so grateful for the truthfulness God has given to us!

I've been think a lot about all my experiences and things I've been learning and it was a great experience for me to be able to stop and take a step back today and ask Heavenly Father, am I doing good? Am I doing the best I can, what dost thou see from me? I felt such an incredible sense of peace, comfort, strength and love and it was a great moment to be reassured that God knows and loves me personally.

I know that each one of you can have these personal experiences with God as well as you put your love and faith in Christ and give all you've got to Him. Each one of us need to learn how to live according to God's will and be blessed by Him. We can draw closer to Him by living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and learning to love Him and all around us as well. It requires time, effort and patience, but I promise it will come! I love you all and am so grateful for you, have a great week and whatever I can do for you let me know! Prayers are headed your way 😊

 ~Love Elder McDonald

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!