Alex mail 11-27-2023: "Noche de Hogar🏠"

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Hope everyone had an amazing week with family, friends, food, and laughs! This past week was super fun and full of miracles, and we had a really great Thanksgiving here too and even though I was away from family, I'm super grateful for the people and friends I'm surrounded by that I got to celebrate with!

The title for this week's email comes from our ward Family Home Evening night. The past few weeks not very many people have come but the bishopric asked us to really put an emphasis on it and get it going again. Last week we had a really good turnout so this week we decided to play the game "lay it on the alter."  This was a game we played in Seminary where the teacher says a random object and the first team to put it on the table gets a point, and then is asked a spiritual question for a bonus point. It went super well and they loved it! On the last round we had all 20 people running outside the gym to try and find stuff and they just loaded up the table. Check out the picture below it was hilarious haha.

Had my first double dinners of the mission this past week. Let's just say one was good and one wasn't haha, but it's all good super kind of our ward members to feed us! And you best believe we ate all we were given especially when these people don't have much to give in the first place!

Thanksgiving on Thursday was super fun! We couldn't really do any normal missionary work 'cuz of the holiday but we had dinner at our Bishop's house which was awesome! The food was amazing and reminded me of Thanksgivings back home, cool tender mercy! Also got to talk with the family and share some good laughs with members in our ward!

We had a really great lesson with our friends Carlos and Mya this week! They're so awesome, Carlos is a member but his girlfriend Mya is not and they're living together so we'll have to work that out haha but Mya is super interested in learning more! Carlos also knows a ton about the gospel so it's really nice to have him there to help out in lessons.

Sunday I was able to bless the sacrament in Spanish for the first time! Such a cool experience and so grateful I'm able to help in that ordinance for others! We were also able to go do 2 hospital visits that day. The first was to take the sacrament to an older lady and the second was to give a blessing to someone in our ward. These experiences are my favorite! So humbling and so powerful to see the faith of these amazing daughters of God and be someone they can look to for help and support. I know that the priesthood is real and God's power is on the earth today! I've seen it bless my life and the lives of those around me! Focus on how you can serve others this week and bless them with God's love!

This upcoming week should be really good! We've got a few friends who are really close to baptism that we can hopefully set a date for! We've also got festival of lights starting this week at the temple 👀  they do Christmas lights like they do at temple Square in Salt Lake and we get to help out so stay tuned for that! Love you all and so grateful for the blessing each one of you have been in my life! Have a great week!!

Con amor, Elder McDonald

Word of the Week: Santa Cena (Sacrament) we had some cool experiences with the sacrament this week so I thought it was fitting haha. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to renew our covenants each week!

Invitation of the Month: COMPLIMENTS!! Last week of this invitation! Try to spread some Christlike love as we start the Christmas season! I know it makes a difference and would love to hear any cool experiences ya’ll have!

*Feliz Navidad & Bucket hat drip*

*Hospital Visit*

*Views from Washington Monument*

Alex mail 11-20-23: "Latino Thanksgiving 🦃"

Hello! Hope everyone is doing well and had a fun week! Shoutout to my dawg Drew and Brooklynn CONGRATS ON THE WEDDINGGG!! 🥳   Super hyped for you guys and to have Brooklynn in our family! Also you already know my cardboard cutout was the third most photographed person at that wedding 😏.

This week has been super good and crazy busy! We've had a lot of really good lessons with our friends and were able to invite 3 of them to be baptized! They're all super awesome and hopefully within the next few weeks we can get things more finalized because they're so ready!

We had Zone Conference Tuesday and it was so awesome! Always super spiritually uplifting and awesome to hear from President and our leaders. We talked about being bold with invitations and baptism, remembering the power or Covenants, and promising blessings and testifying in everything we do. Tuesday night we had a birthday party for a Sister missionary thrown by some people in the ward and had some bomb empanadas. 

Wednesday got Chick-fil-a with a member which was soooo good! After we went metro contacting and found a really awesome dude all by myself in Spanish! Gift of tongues is real haha sometimes it's a lot easier than others but that's ok! Also got creative with our finding outside Megamart, we had Elder Ingles on top of the car with the whiteboard for English class and it was a big hit😂.

Thursday we had a fiiiiire lesson with our friend Nelson! This dude is such a legend it's so cool to see people that are just ready and that the Lord has prepared! Before the lesson, Elder Ingles played the "I don't remember Spanish" card so Elder Kenison and I had to run it all but halfway through Ingles turns to us and says "I'm jumping back in this man is ready to be baptized" haha. We didn't quite set a date but he is set on getting baptized and wanted to pray about what day is best! Please keep him in your prayers this week! We also got to go to the temple on Thursday! The ward had a baptisms-for-the-dead appointment and we were able to take our recent convert Daniel! It was so amazing getting to go to the temple again and feel the Spirit and power that is there. Don't take it for granted if you live close by a temple go as much as you can!

Friday had a really great lesson with our friend Bryan! He's 16 and is basically a member, his parents just won't let him get baptized. He hasn't been to church for awhile so we were able to clear up some questions he had and get him excited about the gospel again! We also had a really cool miracle, that night we were visiting members and we were trying to visit a lady we hadn't met. However, the apartment building was locked (like every other one here haha) but luckily someone came out at the exact same time so we got in and she was home! She was this super sweet old lady who has cancer and so she hasn't been able to come to church and never has any visitors. We were able to give her a blessing and have a really great talk!

Saturday we had our Ward Thanksgiving dinner! It was super fun and the food was money even though it did start an hour late #latinotime 💀😂  but we were able to have Bryan come and the ward was so awesome about welcoming him back! Quick side note haha if you see someone at church or an activity you don't recognize go talk to them! It could be that person's first experience with church stuff and it makes all the difference to have normal people, not just missionaries, come talk to them! It'll make them feel so much more loved and welcome and you'll be the missionaries best friend😁!

Had church on Sunday and I gave the opening prayer in church, yeah that's right I'm basically fluent 😂 and then had a really fun member-dinner with a super elite family in the ward!

As we're approaching Thanksgiving this week I wanted to share something I'm grateful for, laughter! Right now I'm blessed with companions that are super similar to me and we laugh and have fun a ton! But no matter what our circumstances are I testify that we can find joy and laugh through it all! Laughter is how we get through the hard times and recognize what's truly important and what brings us joy! I invite y'all to laugh more this week and find that true joy! Love you all have a phenomenal week and happy Thanksgiving!!

Love, Elder McDonald

Word of the Week: Broma (Joke) this one is a fun one, my companions and I love to joke with each other. Obviously there are times to lock in and be serious but also remember we're here on the Earth to experience joy!

Invitation of the Month: COMPLIMENTS!! Perfect chance this week to compliment others! Tell them why you are grateful for them!

*Megamart Athletes*

*Beautiful DC*

*Temple Trip*

*McDonald's drive thru run & Chick-Fil-A*

*Empanadas & Thanksgiving Dinner*

*Ultimate "Backer" & Ingles spilled my Mac & Cheeses! / B-day party and Monopoly Gang*

*Elite Relief Society*

Alex mail 11-13-2023: "Yo hablo Español! (Kinda)"

Hellooooo!! Hope it's been a great week everyone! Found out some exciting news today, I will officially be traveling to Mexico on December 14th! Grateful I get the rest of this transfer to keep practicing Spanish here but super hyped to get to Mexico! This week has been really good, Spanish is a grindddd and some days it's better than others but super grateful for the opportunity to push myself and learn to rely on the Lord in every aspect of this work!

We did lots of metro contacting and megamart finding this week which went pretty well! It's super good practice and really good spots to talk with lots of Latinos. We found a good amount of people who were interested so hopefully we help some friends keep progressing! Also did my first contact in Spanish all by myself when we were on the metro and somehow through my broken Spanish the guy was actually interested! Big testimony to me that God is the one doing this work through us, he's the reason why we can have success!

Wednesday had my weirdest meal so far on the mission haha. It was these 2 older Latino ladies and they gave us this soup that just had a fat chicken drumstick sitting in it 😂 actually wasn't horrible mostly just weird haha. Had district council and my comp Elder Ingles is the District Leader and we're in a district with only sisters so he calls himself the Relief Society President 😂. Also had interviews with President which was awesome as always!

Thursday we helped our friend Denys move,  but he was like 30 min late so we had some fun waiting (see the video down below) #latinotime. That night we met a really cool new family in our ward! It's a single mom with 2 little girls who are all recent converts! Super fun family and they made us traditional Honduras food called baleatas and they were soooo good!

Saturday we did exchanges with our Zone Leaders so I got to go to DC with my boy Elder Angell! We worked super hard all day and focused on inviting every person we saw to come to church or read the Book of Mormon! Actually super cool and helped me realize I need to testify to everyone I see and be confident that Christ will help! We also had a lesson with one of their friends and had a ward member come with us. After we realized he used to a mission president and made so much sense haha. Man was a spiritual tankkk probably the greatest member lesson ever, so cool!

Sunday we had church and it was the primary program! Loved hearing the sweet testimonies and songs of the kids! Our ward is actually pretty big for a Spanish ward and there's some really awesome families I'm excited to get to know them more!

Spanish is definitely getting better! It's definitely still a struggle, especially understanding people. It takes a lot of extra effort to listen to others but I'm grateful for the chance to learn and struggle! It can definitely be discouraging at times when we go through difficult things but I know we can always rely on our Savior Jesus Christ! He's been there and he knows how we feel! He promises us that he won't leave us alone if we choose to turn to him for strength and help! I've seen this with Spanish and other tough things about the mission and I know you can rely on him in your difficult times too!

One lesson that really stood out to me this week was just how generous Latino people are! One man we visited who lived in a very humble and poorer neighborhood literally gave us each a pair of shoes! He wouldn't take no for an answer and was so set on giving what little he had to others! And then the family from Honduras we met on Thursday took time to make us dinner and feed us with what little food they had. Such eye opening experiences and I'm so grateful for the kindness of others! It's something I want to work on and do the rest of my life, always give back to those around me! I encourage you guys to look for ways this week to give back to others as well! I know it will bring more joy and blessings into your lives than anything else! Love you all have a wonderful week!

Love, Elder McDonald

Word of the week:  Chevre (cool) this is Elder Ingles favorite word he uses it all the time haha

Invitation of the Month:  COMPLIMENTS!!  How'd this week go?  I didn't do the best every day at it but I did notice that the days I did it was easier to talk with people and feel Christ's love for them!  Keep trying it this week, I will too!

*Ingles shlumped*

*Ingles & My boy Erling*  *Game night* 

Video = Ingles sneaking up on a pile of leaves 😂

#missionnotes #4

 

Alex mail 11-6-2023: "New Area and My Visa!!"

 

What's good everyone?! Hope everyone is doing well! It's been a crazy busy week but 2 big things happened! (1) I got transferred to a different area, I'm now in a Spanish area right outside DC! And (2) I'm currently in Houston, Texas at the Mexican Consulate to pick up my visa! It finally came ha,ha.

Tuesday was Halloween! Honestly just felt like a normal day for the most part ha,ha. Luckily we had a member dinner that night so we could actually do something because we can't contact anyone so definitely a blessing! Also got to call both my sisters and talk for a bit! Fun to see my niece and nephews and the costumes love the Spidey gang ha,ha.

Wednesday had an amazing District Council, focused on how we can teach better and with more boldness, always focusing on testifying of Christ in all things! Also found out that Elder Koester and I would be getting transferred on FridayGot Cafe Rio for lunch, soooo good 😋 . Also had a clutch member give us a $25 domino's gift card for dinner, we ate niceee that day haha.

Thursday had an awesome lesson with our friend Adeline! She's crazy busy but finally we were able to meet with her and talk a lot about the scriptures. Had service at bacon ridge, finished up the trail we made it was beautiful 😂 after we had a fire and roasted hotdogs and smores which was hype!

Friday was transfer day! Packed in the morning and then headed to the mission office to find out where I'd be going! I'm now in the Washington, DC Zone and my area is called DC 1st South and its a Spanish area babyyyy! Tough leaving Odenton I learned to love that place and my comps it was definitely where I needed to be! Super excited for a new adventure though and to start speaking Spanish! My comps are so awesome! I'm in another trio, my new trainer is Elder Kenison and then Elder Ingles. Elder Kenison is just a transfer ahead of me and was one of the Spanish Elders in my last district, so super nice to already know him! Elder Ingles is a dawg he's been out for 16 months so he carries us in Spanish haha. They both love to run and are super clean, tender mercies haha. They're also both clowns it's so fun we laugh a lot haha. Friday night got food from a member, had a ward soccer night, visited an awesome member family with 2 little boys who are legends, and then got to call my dad for his birthday!

Saturday had a sick lesson with our friend Nelson! Dude is super locked in and has a ton of faith in God! Super excited to help him progress! Also hit up Megamart and then did studies on the subway because it's free for us. While we were on it we met a young couple who go to the Catholic University of America in Maryland and they took us to see the largest Cathedral in the US that's on their campus! It was actually super cool to see and learn about what they believe in!

Sunday had Stake Conference and a member of the Seventy came to speak, super spiritually uplifting! Then went to the airport, flew to Houston and stayed overnight at a hotel! This morning met up with 8 other missionaries and we've just been sitting in the Consulate office waiting to get the visa haha. I'll fly back to DC tonight so pretty quick trip. Super glad it's come though and can't wait to get to Mexico! I've loved my time in DC and hopefully finish out the new transfer there but I know Mexico will be so amazing too!

Quick spiritual thought is that God truly is aware of us and takes care of his children! It was so cool to see so many little miracles and tender mercies this past week, especially with traveling, that just testified to me that God truly is aware of me and is protecting and providing for me! Look for those little miracles! Love you all have a great week and feel free to reach out with anything!

Love, Elder McDonald

Word of the Week: Consulado (Consulate) Pretty fitting for this week, especially spending the day sitting in a a government office all day 💀😂 

Invitation of the Month: COMPLIMENTS!! New month, new invitation! This month I invite y'all to give someone (maybe someone you don't know 😉) a genuine compliment each day! Let's spread joy, goodness, and kindness and share Christ's love! Y'all got this I'll be doing it with you!

*Lungie photo shoot & Album Cover (Elder Koester served in India haha)*

*TEMPLE*

*Early morning run with new comps! & beautiful Fall drive* 

*GINORMOUS Cathedral* 

*Elder McNeill (DL in MTC) at the Mexican Consulate in Houston! & Pizza feast from Members*

**SHOUTOUT to Sis**