Sunday, May 17, 2015
Dads apology; 5/11/2015
love you dad no worries ;) miss you too! you are so right, it is
all about teaching!
On Mon, May 11, 2015 at 10:38 AM, Keith
& Lori Macdonald <kekelolli5@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Dear Alex;
I reread the email that I sent you last night and I am sorry if it sounded negative. Truth is I just miss you and I'm really looking forward to you coming home. I know you're working hard and you are tired. We love you and you have our full support. DL or ZL big deal.... It's all about teaching. Love you son.
Dad
Sent from my iPhone
Mother's day skype: 5/11/2015
hola mi padre! it was great to see you yesterday as well! still
cant believe that in such a short time there will be no screen separating us.
and yes elder chavez is a great kid, one that is super easy to get along with
and that is willing to get out and work... as a missionary you can not ask for
anything more. its quite interesting, but i just know that these two
missionaries that i will train in the end will be a great help for the mission
and that is what i feel the lord and president needs right now. more
missionaries in the future that can start doing the work quickly because almost
all the missionaries with time and experience are finishing there missions.
i could tell that you guys were quite upset with the time limit and how
other parents of missionaries have the opportunities to talk with there kids for
as long as the want like Emily or a few others for as long as they would like.
the way i see it is, that the lord wants me to be as focused as i can in doing
his work for these two years. even thought it was hard to make that decision, i
have learned something to me that has been very valuable for me which is being
obedient even to the small and things that seem harmless. something that i
didn't really do to well back at home but something that i have learned and come
to learn in the mission. something that will help me endure to the end as well.
but you know that every misson president has his way of doing things, and being
missionaries we are subjected to be obedient to the man who was called of god
just like you have the solemn responsibility to be obedient as to what president
monsons says or the 12 apostles.
but you are right... sometime there are problems with some members that are
pharisees and critize everyone to the T as they say or people who look to try to
accuse us or have false witnesses against us, but they will have there reward
because they will be judged for their own judging. the only thing that is
important in this life is obeying the commandments, making and keeping your
covenants and always listening to the 15 prophets, seers, and revelators. these
are the things that help us get through the forest and see the meadow that
awaits us on the other side and not get distracted by the pharisees because you
know even the very elect will be tricked by Satan in the final days of the
world. i am just grateful that i had those 30 minutes to be able to see your
faces and say hi! for me that was perfect.
i am super jealous that you are going to be going golfing there in pebble
beach! make sure to take pictures for me! i miss you alot too dad! its a great
honor to be able to call you my best friend. thanks for all that you do! and
don't worry about the negativity, it all gets the best of us. Luke 19:11:17...
we must always be the man who came back and gave thanks. love you mucho
dad!
your son,
Elder Macdonald
On Sun, May 10, 2015 at 10:46 PM, Keith
Macdonald <kekelolli5@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Yo Alex;
So great to talk to you today. You look good. We sent your picture to all of your relatives. Your new companion seems like a nice guy and you have such a wonderful opportunity to train him. Your president seems like he is trying to get everything out of you that he can. Make sure that you teach this new "Green " elder the importance of having fun. You will have a couple of weeks of R&R when you get home.....Beach.....surfing....the ability to roam past your 1 x half mile area. That's a tough one.
I appreciate your desire to be obedient to your mission presidents rules. Truthfully....I don't think you need more than an hour to communicate via Skype. We talked to other parents who have missionaries out and they were able to talk as long as they want....but usually that was an hour. I don't really understand why your president wants to take a stand in this area and take away from the opportunity of a son to talk with his mother on mother's day...but it is his prerogative. It is not gospel....it is a clerical decision.....it is ridiculous.....but you will find that kind of stuff in the church and you just have to roll with it. Again, I appreciate your desire to be obedient to this most absurd ruling. Ok.....I'm off my soapbox. I have found in my studies of the Lord's life that he got very tired of the stupidity of the ruling class of Jews and some of their dumb rules. One of the best examples I can think of was when He and his apostles stopped
and picked corn on the Sabbath...They received alot of criticism by the ruling class. When asked about it Jesus answered....that he had picked and ate corn on the Sabbath because he was hungry. then he asked, "Was the sabbath made for man or was man made for the Sabbath..... They picked and ate corn because they were hungry and needed energy to do the Lord's work. Commandments are good.....Rules can be good.........but sometimes we lose sight of the forest through the trees.....
I am meeting Clark and Darin Iverson at pebble beach this next weekend to play some golf. Can't wait, Love you son... Have a good week.
Love..........DAD
PS....Jordan and Laura just had their baby girl. I think her name is Aubrey. Both mom and baby are doing well.
5/4/2015
hola padres! que tal? como estamos! bueno this week was a good week
for us! and you will not believe how hard Satan worked to make sure that Jaime
and his daughter didn't get baptized this weekend, but we prevailed!!!! i will
send the photos! as we walked to the font, hermano Jamie said, i am going to be
a new man. seriously this man has gone a mile and a half in such short time.
he has left so many things and he doesn't know how he did it. i had the
privileged to baptize him and his daughter, his wife was already member but less
active and went inactive because she could never get his husband to go with her
and over time fell away from the church and what we did in 6 weeks, she tried
doing over 10 years and never could. you could see the look of happiness on her
face to see her husband being baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. the water
was freezing as well... haha but the best part was that as i was baptizing
because i had to baptize the hermana from the sister missionaries as well... but
while i was doing it, i wasn't cold at all. as hermano Jamie was changing he
told me, elder macdonald, as i entered in the font i was freezing, but when i
left i wasn't cold at all. in fact i felt really warm. it was a great moment
for me to testify to him what the lord was trying to tell him and he before he
didn't want to give his testimony in front of the people but he volunteered to go
up and express his feelings! it was awesome! it has been a pleasure to help this
family come unto the gospel. his wife told me yesterday, what have you guys done
with my husband... he is a different man! and i asked her well is it for the
good or bad, and she said of coarse for the good! in fact is quite weird seeing
him like this but i am so thankful the changes that has happened in him. he
also told us that he hates getting dressed up and that he never would and this
Sunday he put on a white shirt and the next week he said he would come in a
shirt and tie! crazy the changes that happen to people in such little time from
the gospel!
jealous that you guys just had your father and sons activity... i loved
those moments! do you remember dad i am not sure who it was, but when we were
little either me or kyle or jake when one of us tried to take a crap and we
crapped in our underware! hahahaha... i still remember that moment of coarse
those famous horse shoe matches with gramps and andy and dave... and good to
hear that those stupid spurs got knocked out of the tourny...
sadly i have changes! tonight i will going around saying goodbye to all
those people... its been crazy the friendships and the moments that i have
passed in this area.... its going to be hard to say goodbye tonight. but the
lord needs me somewhere else to finish my ministry here in Peru.
hey before i forget, this Sunday i will be calling you guys from skype for
the last time!!! my username is still the same... alex.macdonald1994 i will be
calling at about 4 oclock Peru time! if there are changes i will let you
know!
don't got much time but i will see you guys this Sunday!!!!!!! love you
guys!!!!
elder macdonald
On Sun, May 3, 2015 at 10:57 PM, Keith
Macdonald <kekelolli5@yahoo.com>
wrote:
Yo Alex;
so probably the most important new of the day is that the San Antonio Spurs lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs to the LA Clippers. The Clippers are pretty good this year but it is still amazing. It was probably the best series I can remember. The games were really close and hotly contested. Josh pitched again this week and did good. He is a pretty good little pitcher. They won both their games this week. We had the father & sons outing this weekend which was pretty fun. we stopped off and got KFC which was of course nasty....but I didn't have time to get food as I played in a golf tournament with Uncle Alan and it took a long time. Kyle also went to prom this weekend and had a good time. I will have mom or Kyle forward you some pictures. His date got sick right before they were supposed to go have pictures and went to the emergency room. She later showed up for dinner and apparently they had a good time. Work is going well and we are
finishing some beautiful cases right now. We went out on the boat on Thursday and had a good time wake surfing. The new boat is really awesome. the water was glassy and it was a gorgeous day. School is winding down and we are heading into summer. We just got your itinerary today and it shows you flying home on Monday July 27. It also has you flying into phoenix. We thought you were coming in the 28th and you were supposed to fly into San Diego. So, we will have to deal with that. Let us know where your new area is....that will be a big change for you. I hope all is well. I hope your baptisms happened. Love to you son. Sure miss you!
Love, DAD
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)