3/9/15

hola padre! como esta?? once again the jealous of you being at Carlsbad is always there, but this week you were not the only one tha got wet this weekend ;) and you know what i mean (baptisms)! hahaha... wow you kidding that Alan just got to the 50th mark... that is crazy! i can not believe it! and it was a suprise get together how awesome! i am sure you guys had a great time! loved the pictures that you sent me... going to use them to show all the Peruvians how big of a family that we have and how blessed we all are to have the gospel and what it has done to our family.  how was the Mexican food? i am dying for some good mexican food.  but the Peruvian food is quite good as well.  you better enjoy those waves because you know i will be snaking you every time.  but glad you had a good time with your brothers and sisters and the fam! good memories.  

this week we did have the baptism of yon and his wife cindy... it was a great experience.  getting ready for a baptism is always very stressful because you want to make sure that everything is perfect and all ready to go.  we had a great turn out with alot of members present because the entire week we went and told all the members to come and give support to this great family.  it was a great program and it then came time to the baptisms.  i had the privilege of baptizing the father, yon... it was awesome to see his entire family there and the family of hermana Cindy... it was a great feeling baptizing him and it was quite different because hermano yon is taller that i am by an inch but it was executed to the perfection... as we waited in the corner of the baptismal font for his wife, i could tell that he was feeling something.  as he watched his wife enter with my companion and when she came out of the water... you could see the tears starting to come on... as she started walking towards her husband, Cindy couldn't hold it back any longer... the tears of joy and knowing that she had received a true baptism with her husband was an experience she thought she would never have.  the spirit was really strong as yon and Cindy where hugging of joy in the baptismal font and i couldn't help myself but get in on the group hug after a few seconds... it was a very great experience for not only them but for us as well.  it was always awesome watching Johnathan baptize his own mom who was called to serve in the Bolivia Cochabamba mission... where my companion is from! that was quite the scene as well to see how far this young man had changed.  afterwards when it came to the testimonies, as they walked up holding hands to the pulpit, Cindy shared how she felt and that she knew that it was the spirit.  yon first started talking about how he first saw us walking one day and knew that we were the Mormons and one day he heard a knock on their door and we were standing in his front door.  that desire to know more about us was given to him and he said the moment that he say us, he said that there was something different about us and he felt if when we talked with him.  he went to bear a great testimony of the church being restored to his parents and everyone there... its always such a great feeling hearing the testimonies of the people that you have helped... when Sunday came around, we were picking up some investigators to go to church and we get a call from hermano yon asking us where we were and why we were late... at when he called it was 8 45... ten minutes before church was starting...we got there at 8 50 to see him wearing the white shirt and pants and a tie with his family sitting in the second row waiting for church to start.  i am so grateful to have been apart of the conversion of this little family because not only were they converted, but it converted me even more to this gospel and how true this gospel is.  another cool experience is that me and my companion were walking around  and we didn't even know why we were there and we started heading back when we sat down for a second and as i was sitting down i felt a little impression and the next thing i know i saw a hermano driving his moto taxi and waved and i waved him down and in the end he was trying to find the missionaries to help him and is family get activated back in the church... it was cool little experience for me that the lord will always put someone in our way to help them come back to the road of our heavenly homes. 

these are just some of the things that had happened this week that i thought i would let you know... we are know teaching the parents of yon and cindy and are very interested now in the church! hopefully it goes well... we have a few more baptisms coming up which we are stoked and feel extremely grateful especially for how hard we have worked lately.  

and dad i am not quite sure what to do for schooling because i have not even thought about it once... i have been to focused on the people for example last night i had a hard time sleeping because i was just so stoked on who we are teaching and what we need to do for them to help them... what do you recommend me to do? and i don't remember really my yahoo account and i cant get on it... you serious... off to Hawaii?? not fair! i hope you guys have a great time! love you dad... miss you every day! look forward to having my surfing buddy back but after i finish going ham in the mission field

love the stories... send me some more!! 

love your son, elder macdonald 

On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 9:40 PM, Keith Macdonald <kekelolli5@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hey Alex;

We just got back from CBAD this afternoon.  We went over on Thursday afternoon to celebrate Alan's 50th bday.  He was unaware we were doing this ...but all of his siblings and Granny flew in from all over the country.  Scotti and Scott brought him over to Los Olas for dinner and there we all were.  It was pretty funny.  He was definitely surprised.  We all spend the weekend together and the weather couldn't have been any nicer.  We had some fantastic beach time.  I paddled out at the reef at Terramar on Thursday PM and had some fantastic waves.  There were alot of guys out so it was hard to score too many but I had about 6 really fun waves.

Hopefully your baptisms happened with these people that you are really excited about.  I hope it was a great experience for them and for you.  It will be impossible for your mom and I to register you for school.  Your going to have to do this.  I wouldn't know what classes to sign you up for.  You need to talk to your mission president and take some time to do this.  Your mission president has to give you an ecclesiastical endorsement.    I also don't remember your yahoo account and password.  could you give that to us?  Mom will give you more info.  I have a very busy week this week and then we are off to Hawaii for spring break.  Love you son.  I will send some pictures of Carlsbad.!!!

DAD 

Spiritual experience:

I was dating your mother and she took me over to Oahu to meet her parents for Thanksgiving.  We were having a great time and I really enjoyed her family.  I had never been to Hawaii before so it was a great experience.  I was walking on Hukulau beach with Lori heading around the bend toward Goat Island when I received a powerful witness that I would marry this girl.  It was so strong that I got choked up.  I didn't ask her that day but did about a month later in Arizona.  I will always remember that witness and the fact that Heavenly Father sent the Holy Ghost to let me know (in no uncertain terms) what I was to do with my future when it comes to this all important choice.  I have always been grateful for that witness.