TWO GREENIES AND A GRINGO

                                               
                                          Alex with his two "sons"..... in other words he trained them.

6/22/2015

Hola daddo! que tal? 

bueno, i am in a new area for my last six weeks of my mission! very strange but bueno, the lord and president must have their reasons.  still trying to figure out why, but i will find out soon... all i know is that i have a strong testimony of the divine revelation recieved through the leaders with the experience i have had so there is a good reason why i am here.  my companion is elder webb! MY FIRST NORTH AMERICAN COMPANION!  hahaha... i never ever expected to have an american companion but he will be my last... he is a really cool kid... we are like the same in alot of ways... he has ten months in the mission... he is from midway utah snowboarder and a swimmer... swimming is just a whole lot better when you got a board underneath you. hahaha.. but we get along great and it will be awesome to be his companion.  this week we had the pleasure to watch the dedication of the new peru trujillo temple! it was truly awesome... uchtdorf and bednar came down... we watched it through transmission in the stake center.  he taught some really cool things and it was really interesting to hear and listen to the dedicatory prayers of the temple.  here are some of the things that i learned and that i was impressed to write.  

1. to have a photo of the temple always visible in the house.

2. buy your own white temple clothing.

3. fill out my family 

4. to do everything possible to have a recommendation

5. attend the temple often as a family and individually.

other notes: 

1. to walk before god with all their heart means to have a current temple recommendation and a determination to serve him... a recommendation is a symbol of love that we have towards god and the covenants that we make with him.

2. more temples means that satan has lesser power in the saints will keep their covenants.

 

3. when we dress in white, we are ALL the same... there is no difference between us or nothing that is seperating us... quite funny, in lehis dream... it talks about how the people in the great building had really fine clothing and it was something that seperated them people.  wearing white clothes throws away all barriers or means of seperating.  

4. our lives and conduct should be the same in the temple and outside of it.  there should be no difference.  

5. practice what we learn and feel in the temple.  

just some cool things that i learned that could help in your lives as it has helped in mine... i love listening to the hermanos mayores... which means the brethern... apostles and the prophets. 

this week we are going to have the baptism of hermano aholiva... she is a girl that has gone through alot of problems but is looking for a solution to help get her life on course and what better way to do it, by choosing to accept christ and live his gospel... there is no better thing that watching children of god choose for themselves the higher road instead of settling for less then what they really deserve.  we might have another who is from a part family who is having a hard time because she listens more to her friends that what her family and the lord thinks... but we are working with her.  we have a few more people that we are working with as well... like hermano felipe who is a dad who is not a member and has been coming to church so we are hoping that good things will come from that.  

this new area that we are in is filled with a ton of dust...there are no paved roads or nada por aqui... there is alot of work to be done too... which is good... it will have me working till the end. i want to hear more about kyle and byu! stoked to hear that he is up there! i hope that he does good so that he will stay! anyways, love you mucho dad! you are the best! 

Your son, 

Elder Macdonald 

On Mon, Jun 22, 2015 at 1:20 AM, Keith Macdonald <klmac4@aol.com> wrote:

Back again:

Flight is very turbulent.  I hated leaving mom and the boys but it's time to work.  I have s busy week ahead of me.   Tell me all about your new area?   Companion?  Hopefully all is well.   Grandpa & grandma Wade are driving to hang out w mom.  Lisa is also coming over.  But they should have fun.   Utah is hot but green and beautiful.  We spent some time up at Sundance.   Always beautiful.   I went on an epic ride with Uncle Alan but was pretty tired when done. I saw Matthew Macdonald today and he told me that he wants to be an orthodontist.  Interesting....I am going to work until Thursday afternoon and then drive over to Cbad.    My truck is still screwed for the moment....trying to fight w Toyota of North America to fix it.  Look forward to hearing from you tomorrow.

Aloha......Dad

Sent from my iPhone

THAT NEW COMPANION LOOKS A LITTLE GREEN !!!!

6/15/2015

On Mon, Jun 15, 2015 at 4:31 PM, Alex Macdonald <alex.macdonald@myldsmail.net> wrote:

hola mi compadre! que tal? 

bueno today they just let us know about changes and after a quick six weeks, i have changes... looks like i will be finishing my mission in some other place and tomorrow i will find out.  i cant tell you how fast these past 6 weeks have gone by.  after opening up the area with my son, we had our first baptism!! his name is angel moises romero tarfur! he is a 51 year old man... and was a student of the bishop in this ward... he was a reference from the bishop about a year ago and when i was looking through the area book i saw his name and saw that he had a baptismal date a long time ago, we called him and set up a time to visit him. he was stoked to get a call from us.  and from there it all took off,  the ward members still cant  believe that he got baptized because they said that he was a completely different person before.  it was awesome to see how determined he was in his decision to get baptized and follow christ.  he invited a ton of his family to be apart of his baptism and now more than half of them are interested in the church which is awesome.  we also taught a man yesterday the restoration and we told him to pray about it and if he receives his answer, that he would follow the example of Christ and be baptized and we saw him this morning before he was heading to work and we were buying breakfast and he told us, "elders i want to be baptized", i am going to talk with my boss so i don't have to work Sundays.  it was pretty cool too see that little miracle.  today i tried to challenge my companion in ping pong... lets just say he destroyed me.... he competed back in Chile and does work on the ping pong table.  i am not surprised that mom is already in cali! hahaha... and really 1600 turn out! that is awesome!!! and makes me laugh about you surfing in big surf! how was the wave?? hahaha.... bummer about the truck! 

wow, Kyle is on his way up to byu huh! awesome! i am stoked for him! bueno dad if you want to know what i think,  is that you should put out the fire and the goal if he wants to go out in fall.  i will make sure that he is ready to go, in fact it could be better for him that way and especially if he has the desires to do it... you just got to encourage him because by telling him to wait could put the desire and fire out.  6 weeks seems like nothing... i am nervous, scared, sad, and a whole bunch of mixed emotions right now... i see other missionaries going home and its not really a happy face that they have.... its more sad than anything... but i will be happy to see you guys but sad to leave the side of the savior and how awesome it is to work with him.  

and Satan just doing his work no! hahahahaha... reminds me of the time that one brother had a heart attack right after singing! some interesting stuff.  sounds like all is well back at home! the next time you hear from me, i will be in another area! 6 areas and 10 different companions.  i am going to miss my second son.  he is a stud and is going to be one great missionary.  love you dad! and by the way.... its buenas noches ;) hahahahaha 

On Sun, Jun 14, 2015 at 11:23 PM, Keith Macdonald <kekelolli5@yahoo.com> wrote:

Yo Alex;

Whats up broddah?  It has finally gotten really hot and as usual mom has made her exit.  I don't blame her.  She left for Carlsbad today since Heather & Ryan are over and Josh will have lots of cousins to play with.  Josh always prays that you will come home soon.  He is excited to be baptized soon.  We will have to teach him some lessons so he is prepared.  We had our annual pool party this weekend and this year we had it at Big Surf.  The City of Mesa told us that our party was too big for their pools.  Last year we had 700 people.  This year we had over 1600.  It was crazy but really fun.  Patients loved it.  It was a little more expensive for us but I hope it will be worth it.  They had a couple of surf sessions...so the guy in charge got me a board and I surfed in the desert.  It was pretty funny.  Big Surf has it's own set of Locals....but it is always fun to ride a wave...even if it is big surf.  The bad news is that we burned up the engine in
 our truck.  It is going to be expensive to fix.  So, i'm in the process of figuring that out with Uncle Alan.  Such a bummer.

I have a busy week at work and then we leave Thursday afternoon to take Kyle to BYU for summer semester.  He is excited about it. We went home teaching today to the Piersons and he was telling Mike that he is going to go to Fall Semester and then put his papers in.  I was excited to hear that....although i would rather see him reapply to BYU for Winter Semester and hopefully get an acceptance and go on his mission after winter semester.  That way you guys can shred over the winter.  What do you think?

It sounds like the work is coming along in your area.  You come home in exactly 6 weeks.  I am trying not to think about it because I just get excited.  I am looking forward to getting over to CBAD soon as I am ready for more surf.

In Sacrament meeting today the fire alarm went off in our building and there apparently was a little fire in the mens bathroom.....So church was cancelled.  So, Kyle and I did our home teaching.  Jake was called to be the Teachers quorum president....and he called his counselors today.  He goes up to basketball camp at BYU in about 8 days.  He is playing basketball with the high school team.   Love you bud.....be good......have fun.........Buenos nochas.........

DAD