Weekly report

Hey! Not much new this week. We've just been prepping for Christmas (only two weeks away- crazy!) It hasn't snowed in the past little while which makes me sad but what-ev. We've been doing a lot of member work. Trying to help them get the courage to open their mouths...So yea it's cool.
Well, one really crazy thing that I found out is that the sister of a member that lives in my old area (Wesel) lives here in Koln. We were only able to talk real short and I wasn't able to talk to her about the gospel, but she was really happy to see us and I was amazed by such a "random coincidence". Anyhow, like always, I'm real busy.

Till next week
Elder McDonald

Mir is kalt- #3

The latest email received from Elder McD this morning. He shares a response from an email I sent him. Our patriarch, David Feil, served in the same mission in the 1960's. Russell and Brother Feil have been comparing notes on the area and its changes in the past few years. See my original email below, and Russ' response on top.

Hey that's weird cause I sent a email to Brother Feil a couple of weeks ago if he didn't get it I'll just give it to you right now:

I must admit I never expected to be serving here in Koln- I just didn't think I was a big city missionary. Right now we've got three companionships here. One up north in Leverkusen. One on the east on the Uni center. Then us in Kalk, we're mostly between here and Mulheim we also go down to Portz and of course spend a good amount of time in Deutz. Well, actually at the moment the ward's relatively small (a lot of people have moved out). Right now the bishop's Brother Rimmel. I have no idea how long they've been here. The people who you've mentioned don't ring a bell but I'll check the ward list. After all I've only been here for a month.

It's funny that you mention Rome. We had lunch with an inactive member and his roommates and I learned all about Rome’s travel up the Rhein. It was really cool because I was also able to see the Xanten ruins when I was in Wesel. So I found it fascinating. But history discussions are hard in German.

I'm doing great. At the moment I don't have a German companion but I did! it was sweet. There's also a German missionary in our districkt so it's cool.

Well you know better than anyone a p-day on the computer in koln is just a waste of time.

Love
Elder McDonald.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok well as for me, Elder Harris and I are staying here in Koln, so The address you have goes. Umm as far as Christmas stuff I don't know, you'll have to use your imagination.

Well, it is transfer p-day so we've got a lot to do (mainly party before the members of our distrikt leave) so I'll send you a longer e-mail later.

Much love
Elder McDonald

-----Original Message-----

From: "Cyndy McDonald"
To: "'russell McDonald'"
Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2008 00:02:34 -0800
Subject: RE: Mir is kalt

Russell;
It was great talking to you on Thurs/Friday. It was good to hear your voice! I hope the rest of your day and weekend went well.

Did you receive an email from Brother Feil? He wrote to you and was wondering if you had responded in an email to me. If you can, send a return email to him- or send it to me and I will forward to him.

Are you staying in Koln? I hope that works out for you. If not, the Lord needs you somewhere else in the mission.

We do want to know where to send packages to you for Christmas. There is another couple in the ward that asked me about where to send packages to you, too. Should I send (and have others send) packages to the mission home? Or to your apartment?

Besides music, is there anything else you need or would like to request?

Food for thought: Helaman 5:44-45.

from an email sent by Russell 11/25/2008

It has gotten cold! It snowed most of Sunday, of course it's melted by now. But still. Transfer calls are this Saturday. So don't mail anything just in case i get moved to another city.

Well here's a story about an awesome guy I met.

J. is a young man who have a horrible car accident about four years ago, which basically made it so he had to learn everything over again, walking talking the works. So we've been trying to meet with him for awhile and finally got our first appointment. He had a lot of questions, but it was funny ‘cause he said "convince me, teach me." He is not ready for baptism or anything yet but he is prepared. When we got to the point where we told him how we found the truth, he asked us why we tell other people and whatnot. Then when we told him that we know this gospel is the key to happiness, no matter who you are. His first reaction was "That's a big claim", then the next thing he said was that he needed that. It was really sweet.

Well, till next week (here's hoping I stay in Kln)

Elder McDonald

I have been very busy in the last two weeks with students, so I have not had time to update our Elder's blog. Here is his email from 11/18/08

This week has been really cool and gone by really fast. This week we had Zone Conference and I loved it. The second counselor in the area presidency came and talked to us and it was amazing. I learned lots of cool spiritual stuff and it's helped me to grow a lot. The more I learn the more amazed I am at the amount of spiritual Giants there are among our church.

We've also had the opportunity to meet with a young man who is extremely honest and searching for the church. At the moment he is really busy but he still takes the time to read and pray and I'm certain that he will come to the knowledge of the truthfulness of our message quickly.

Well I'm off.
Love you all

11/4/2008

Yea, the parallels in the Book of Mormon are crazy. No, I haven't gotten the package yet, but I'm not putting my hopes and dreams on it. We know my luck with packages.

Well this one's really short. Sorry. Things are going great here in Kln. I'm enjoying it a lot. Perhaps Brother Feil could give me a few hints about Kln culture- that'd be sweet. Everything’s great here.
Much love
Elder McDonald


11/3/08

Dear son;
I hope you are doing well. Our thoughts and prayers are with you! Have you received the package we sent yet? As dad mentioned, tomorrow is an important election day. More than voting for a president, we are voting for the sanctity of marriage. We will let you know how everything turns out.

I started Helaman today. It is amazing how our times parallel the times in the Book of Mormon. We need to read and heed the lessons there. The wonderful news is those that love the Lord can have peace in this time of uncertainty.

Mom

Kln

Note: Cyndy's email to Russell is included below to give context to Russell's response.

10/28/2008

Hey everything’s fine here. Wow, I didn't know Brother Feil served in Cologne. I doubt that the apartment that Bro Feil was in is still around, but you can tell him that I live in Kalk. And my area is Mhlheim.

Kln is great, the area's got a lot of work and there's a lot of stuff to see. It's been kinda crazy because our district leader's getting a companion from the Preston MTC (they come in the middle of the transfer). We've been in a drit (threesome) working two area's. It's been really fun, actually.

Alles liebe
Elder McDonald.


-----Original Message-----
From: "Cyndy McDonald"
To: "'russell McDonald'"
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:11:50 -0700
Subject: transfer

Dear Son;

I hope you are all settled in at Cologne. Tell us about your new companion. Patriarch Feil is very excited to hear you are serving in one of the cities he served in. He is wondering where your apartment is. He told me all about where his apartment was when he was there. Were you ever able to contact Daniel Lee? Last Ihad heard he was in Cologne.

One cycle wonder

Well another Transfer has gone by, and... I'm going to Koln (Cologne). What? Four transfers in my first city and now one in my second. Especially odd since no one had done a one transfer in Wesel for over a year. But It's pretty sweet that I'm going to the biggest city in the mission. It's also well known for the Christmas Market that it has every year. Which I will probably be able to enjoy...if I'm there long enough.
I'm sad to be leaving Wesel after such a short stay, but I'm excited for the new area and change of pace.

Loves <3>

Elder McDonald

Hewwo (Hello?)

It's been a pretty good week! The members are great, we're trying to focus on finding people through members. Which seems like it will work. We even had a member ask us to come with her to visit an inactive member. That was pretty cool.

On quick story: So Elder McKee and I were walking back from the Bahnhoff (we were going to go grab some food) when this guy was like “Hey, you're the ones that speak Spanish right?” Way off but whatever, so we started talking to him and he was pretty interested in us and what we're doing here. After a couple of minutes we told him about the Book of Mormon and he told us to meet him at a bus stop so we could give it to him. So we went home real quick grabbed the book and met him at the bus stop. It was a pretty good lesson. It was a little distracting with cars and everything going by, but other than that he was pretty interested. Although he is going to drug therapy, he said that he was addicted and wanted to get off drugs. So it's not going to be a baptism in a week, but still it made my day.

Anyway I've got better stuff to do then sit here in an internet cafe.

Till next week
Elder McDonald

Blargy

Hey ya'll
So I'm way up here in the north. All of a sudden it got really cold and rainy. Otherwise it's pretty sweet. We had Zone Konference and president made a few changes, namely we don't count finding time anymore (we used to keep track of how many hours of finding time we do) and no sport, other than our morning sport. But actually that didn't affect us at all so I didn't mind. Actually I freued (Gr: happiness) myself so much when we stopped counting finding time, now I can just work without numbers getting in the way.
Well at the moment we're doing lots of doors cause the fu (church) in Wesel is small, we're also working a lot with the members, which are totally cool. There's a recently returned Returned Missionary and he can't even speak German. It's hilarious.

Well, I think we're going to go do something. All's wonderful here Bis nchste woche (week).

NOTE: I have no idea what a morning sport is (Exercise?) It is fun to see our missionary becoming more German each week! Wesel is a city near the German/Netherlands border, north of Dusseldorf. I found a picture of Dusseldorf- but not of Wesel.

Wesel's awesome

So, last week's email that I sent was weak.
Man time flies when you're having fun. I can't believe it's already the third week. Zoko already. It really has gone by fast, I assume it's because of all the change. Elder McKee and I are enjoying our time here in Wesel, that doesn't necessarily mean that everyone's flocking to the baptismal font but nevertheless we are being blessed by the Lord. It's actually- to my surprise- quite beautiful here in the north. Plus the geminde (church community), although small, is always excited for us. They are willing and open, just need some help with step number one- overcoming fear and opening mouth. So as far as here in Wesel we're doing good. Trying out a few new things to see what can help put some new fire into the area but all's well up north.
Elder McDonald

Versetzed (Transferred)

Well I had a decent length e-mail...geshrieben...written...man it doesn't work in English. Anywho, I'm going way up north to Wesel. You probably haven't heard of it cause it's the northern most city in our mission and it's pretty small. That'll be such a change, from big humongous Darmstadt soo, if you wanted to send me something well...don't send it to Darmstadt cause I won't be there.
Here's my Wesel Address.
Wesel
Viehtor 12
46483
Germany blah blah blah

As far as missionary work goes, T. finally got her papers so now they can travel to Danemark and get married (in Octorber), then they can get baptized. So that's cool. Otherwise Elder Franke's been sick so I've been really, really bored.

Love you all. It rocks to be out here.
bis aoufwiedersehen
Elder McDonald

A VIRTUAL birthday Cake

Since Elder RAM's post was so short this week- I am including part of his dad's message to him.

Sending a birthday cake isn’t very practical, so I am sending you a virtual cake!

We just got back from seeing Noah (and Nicola, Rachel, Lyndy and Danny). He is growing and changing so much. He talks (makes noises) and smiles much more. Apparently he has rolled over at least once (he didn’t demonstrate for us). He enjoys grabbing his toes, but hasn’t figured out what to do with them yet.

This morning we went to the Oakland Temple Visitors Center to see a display of a series of sculptures a bronze sculptor did of the life of Christ. Very nice and interesting how she took advantage of different textures and finishes through bronze to express the meanings and feelings. The picture below is of the artist and part of one sculpture depicting some of the options we can choose. The part you can’t see is the highest with Christ. Behind her, you can see the one of Christ with the leper. The textures on the leper are very interesting.

Birthdays Rock!

My Birthday rocks...... I'M OLD!!!!!!!!!!

aaaaand we went to the temple so we don't have a lot of time.

Lots of love

Elder McDonald

whazzup?!?!

Hey-ey
Umm, still no packeage.... i think it was eaten by a killer whale.

Anyway, nothing much new, my danglish is freaken bad.
I put German words into my English and English into my German...without eaven realizing it...well I guess that's what you get for living with a German.

Here's a couple of cool stories for you.

First is an awesome appointment with A. We didn't have much time, so it had to be kept short. She's an interesting investigator because she searches, she reads and prays and looks on the internet. We have to be on our toes sometimes (like when she asked us about the word of wisdom and the law of chastity) but it's all good. We decided that she needed strengthening on her testimony of Joseph Smith. We read the portion of Joseph Smith history where he's looking for the true church, and she talked about that and said that she's praying every night to know if it's true. She said that she feels that it is, and that it's growing. She just wants to take things slow.

Another cool experience:

On Friday we had nothing, so we were talking to people on the streets, which isn't too bad. After two hours it started raining. That was about the time we needed a little switch. Something to change it up. So we remembered a less active member who came to church a few weeks ago, we tried meeting with him but he doesn't answer his phone. So, we thought, “Let’s go by to see this guy and then we'll have something different, and after that we can hit the streets again." Well, he wasn't there, though his neighbor was- he showed us where R. lives - so I gave his neighbor a card with a note for him. Nothing more than a “Hello. Missed you at church. Your phone doesn't work.”

Then on Sunday, at church R. came. I was naturally thrilled. He came up to me and showed me the card I had left for him. Then he told me how the man I had given it too was completely interested and kept on asking him (R) about his beliefs, so naturally I was again thrilled. Now we've made plans to have an appointment tomorrow bring a Book of Mormon and everything. I don't know what comes out of it, but it sure ensured my testimony that the Lord uses every little thing we do to get to his children.


Alle liebe
Elder McDonald

Shh- It is Elder McDonald's Birthday soon

Our Elder sent an email this week that essentially said, "I have no time to write this week- I will write next week." So, I am using my perogative as a mother to commandeer his site to mention the fact that Elder McDonald will be having a 20th birthday soon.

It would be great for him to receive lots of notes and letters from friends and family. Send a letter- with a picture or something to put on the wall. Let's all use a theme of "ties". I started it with a card with a necktie on the cover.

Russell's birthday is Sept. 2 (the day after labor day.)

Thanks for reading his blog and keeping in touch with him and us too!

Cyndy McDonald

Really short

Well, as far as normal stuff goes, I've got nothing new. My German's improved a million fold.
The work is on fire. For example, two investigators who we've been working with for over a cycle are finally in a position to make progress, though part of that entailed handing them off to other people. That doesn't matter. We also had a new person to church and she loved it!

Speaking of which, she's our miracle of the week (one of the many) Though actually, I wasn't personally at the appointment, I was at the street display (we did a mini split). This lady was actually the first contact Elder T. and I ever got. Considering that was in March, and this was probably the fourth or fifth appointment with her, things have been moving slow. But we persevered, we were averaging an appointment every other month, with a lot of fallen out appointments in between. At one of the appointments it came out that she really was interested, she really wanted to know, but whenever she tried to read in the Book of Mormon she'd get a panic attack. She even almost came to church. But again she panicked. So we prayed and prayed and hoped that she could overcome this obstacle. Anyway, the day I was at the Street display, Elder T. U. Elder F. walked up and said that she's overcome the panic, she has been reading in the Book of Mormon, and decided that this is the path she wants to go on. We have another appointment where we'll give her a baptismal commitment, and then Elder T. goes home. Miracle? My vote’s for yes.

Will kücheln

sent by Elder RAM on August 5, 2008

Don't ask won't tell.
We'll leave it with the fact that missionaries are weird.

I'm going to be real short today because I don't have a lot of desire being stuck in an internet cafe with the guy who smells like smoke.

Anyway, life's been good. Right now there's three of us missionaries, (zum dritt) because elder Thorne has to go home early, and by early I mean next week.

Now I have a new companion, Elder Franke. He's from Hamburg, which is funny cause that mean he already knows families and stuff. He's a real German so my language skills are improving at a wonderful rate. He's big, funny, and relaxed, just what we need to do some awesome missionary work.

Love ya'll. Here's a story

This Sunday E. came to church alone(which I thought it was cool that he came regardless of whether T. could make it. He's really dedicated). After asking him how T. was, he said that she was sick. So we went over to their place after church. We explained a little about the priesthood and then gave her a blessing. It was odd, Elder Thorne knew at the beginning what he should say but then there was a block. However there came a point where the spirit flooded into the room and Elder Thorne was able to keep on going. It was quite an amazing experience.

Bis aufwiedersehen

Four cycle feat

sent by Elder RAM July 29, 2008

I didn't get transferred!?! This means I'm in my Golden city for another six weeks. Seriously, that makes it six months, at least a quarter of my mission will be spent in Darmstadt.

On a more tragic note, Elder Thorne will be dying soon. It's sad but true, I will be killing him, with the help of a German. Because Elder Thorne is going home in the middle of the cycle Elder Franke will be coming to live with us till Elder Thorne kicks the bucket.
Cool news is that Elder Franke is German, and his English isn't so good. So i can't even be lazy, my German is going to rock the hizz-ous.

My address is the same of so that you have no worries when mailing, so come on and send the love. WOOO HOOOO.

The Polish couple we are teaching came to church of course. But also someone else did who we actually didn't expect. On our first day here in Darmstadt we had a contact with a woman. After about three fallen out appointments we had an awesome first lesson where she told us that she's been searching for something but she doesn't know what it is...That was in our second month here, for two months we couldn't get an appointment with her or find her at home. Something always came up. Finally we got an appointment with her. That she tried to cancel, thankfully we were on a split and I had the phone and we had no way of getting a hold of the other two. So they went to the appointment anyways, that's when she said that something was trying to stop here from learning about this church. She'd pick up the Book of Mormon and get a panic, once she tried to come to church, panicked and went home. This week we had another fallen out appointment, but we did a go by and talked to her and invited her to church. Well to my surprise she showed up, I was talking to a member and looked over and all of a sudden there's this sister standing next to Elder Thorne, what's even better is that the members talked to her, a member invited her to sit with them, and another member took other two investigators. Elder Thorne and Just kinda stood there and said, well our investigators don't need us to sit with them...what to do now?

it was an awesome miraculous experience,

Welbis aufswiedersehen

Elder McDonald

Bump WHAT! six months out already!

sent by Elder RAM on July 22, 2008

Well, as of tomorrow I’ll be a quarter through my mission...weird.

We went to the temple this morning so I'm in a really good mood but I'm really tired. It's a lot of complicated German.

Since Ii'm really tired and I'm not really feeling a writing groove so I'll just end with a cool story.

We're teaching an American who's only going to be here for a few weeks. He's got lots of questions and knows the Bible very well. Well, we were teaching him, and finally we just said "You don't have enough time to get baptized here in Germany, but we want to help you to prep to get baptized in America." He was in agreement. So we decided we'll meet later to figure out the steps he needs to take.

Bis spter
Elder McDonald

Ausgezeichnet

July 15, 2008

Well, it's halfway through the month and our new mission president hasn't turned the mission upside down...yet, who knows, in two weeks are transfers. And then we'll see.

Actually He's really cool. A lot different from President Webb. President Ninow is 20 years younger. We had our first Zone Conference and he gave a really good talk. He's pretty hardcore. I'm excited.

On the other hand I'm doing great. I came to a realization the other day about how awesome living the life of a missionary is- even if you had nobody to teach.
Let me break it down for you:
1) I don't get graded on my German,
2) I don't have to do better than my companion
3) I don't have to worry about a job
4) or girls
5-100) Basically anything that makes life troublesome is no longer part of the picture.

I could dance the day through. Too bad I don't have my tap shoes (that's a joke, don't send me my tap shoes, It would probably drive my companion crazy)

Anyhow, I've always got a miracle for you- I see one just about every day, but I'm too lazy to type them all down, so you just get the big one of the week.

This is about a cool guy we met. He was with one of our newer members and sooo naturally we got to know him. He's American and been living in Heidelberg for the summer (perhaps you heard about him from the guys down there.) He's been investigating the church, however he's not like other investigators. First he found the church on his own, second he already has a testimony of the church. The problem right now is that he's not really in a stable position to get baptized- he lives in America, not Germany. But we did take him to the temple yesterday, did a tour there. He's just ready, he wants it. He loves the Lord he loves Christ and he wants to learn everything he can. Furthermore, when he learns, he acts on it. For him, there's not really a distinction between faith and knowledge. It's quite an amazing experience to meet such a person as him.

Lots of fun,
Family: have fun in Cancun,
Others: have fun...doing whatever.

Mucho luvo

Elder McDonald

A week of miracles

I have an awesome story about the Polish couple I mentioned last week.

We went in for our second appointment on Wednesday. (A member also came with us) as we walked in I saw a book that was about halfway open- it also had a blue cover. It crossed my mind that it possibly could be the Book of Mormon, I had no doubt that they read, but it couldn't be, that book was 100 pages in. As the member goes to look at it, she points and says, “I love Alma”. I was shocked and amazed. They had only had the Book of Mormon for three days. We said a prayer, and then we asked them how the reading went. The wife held the book close and said: “It's like bread, I can't get enough of it, It's the light in my life I've been searching for.” The husband said that he knew it was true. Then the wife said that she'd have to correct a few things, namely smoking- before we talked about baptism, word of wisdom or anything. Really the Holy Ghost is teaching them everything they need to know. So naturally we committed them to baptism and they accepted. They just have to kick smoking (they basically have already) and get married. Really though, they are the best people ever.

If it was always this easy, missionary work would be a piece of cake.

Much love, stay strong.

Elder McDonald

Leider dass deutchland kein Meister ist :(

Leider dass deutchland kein Meister ist :(

It's too bad that Germany isn't the maseter :(

German flag courtesy of 4 International Flags

Yes, we came in second place. I was sad, but also a little relieved. If Germany had won, we'd be seeing a lot of drunks.

I never know what to write. I'm just not a big e-mail person. Actually I'm not a big mail person period. But man, the Lord's been keeping us on our toes, and by that I mean the Lord's been keeping us busy.

For the record, yes I'm still in Darmstadt and I'm still with Elder Thorne.

So we've had some pretty good success; for example we found an old class mate of a member and she's really interested. The wife of a member is also really interested. She's been reading and really wants to know if it's true.

But most awesomest of all is this Polish couple. They came up to us and asked us how they get in contact with the church, so we set up an appointment for Sunday. When we got there the woman started off talking about how she's been on the search for the truth her whole life. We taught the lesson, and at the end she kept on saying "I think it's true, I believe that it could be true- that's only my opinion but still I think it could be." We just smiled, and to top it off, we were unlocking our bikes and Elder Thorne asked the man if they had anything planned. He said he didn't, then paused and said,"Reading. We're going to read the day long."

Well, I'm doing great over here. I hope all's well back home. Love you all und bis aufswiedersehen.

Elder McDonald

Super Busy

Sorry, I am super busy. Not to mention I just don't really want to sit here in the interenet cafe all day.

But life's great, the work is good.

We said goodbye to President Weeb this week. It was sad to see him go, but we are excited to meet the new President.

kk much love,
Elder McDonald

(sent Tues. June 24, 2008)

Not a Golden Reject

I am not a Golden reject, I'm staying in Darmstadt for another six weeks!
(A Golden reject is somone who gets transferred after only two cycles in their golden city.)

Soooo, my address still works. YES! Our district is moving around a little which makes me sad, but it's always exciting to get to know new people.

It's kinda sad my German is just getting to the point where I'm realizing how hard I am to understand. Go ME!

Mom and family, thank you for the letters. They were sweet. Actually a married couple who's been serving down in the institute center is being transferred to the genealogie department, they were interested in hearing about what cool stuff you're doing down there.

As far as the work's concerned it's going really well. We have a lot of cool people to teach. It's just hard to meet with them. Man, life would be so easier if our investigators didn't have lives. I mean, if they just sat at home, prayed, read the Book of Mormon, and waited for us to come teach them, everybody would be baptized in no time. Too bad people've got to work, right?

Though I've decided mission life is weird, it's almost all I know. I know that I had a life before, and I know I'll have one after...But one seems like an old dream and the other is just a far distant unlikelyhood. This is the life to live.

I can't really think of anything to write, so I'll leave you with a cool story.

So Elder Thorne and I were waiting for an appointment to show up yesterday. (He's Jewish, we were sooo excited- though we have had a fallen out appointment before.) After about five minutes, I see this girl walking toward us, I didn't think much about it because we were waiting for a guy. But she just came up to us and asked which church we were from, so I told her. She asked where we were headquatered and whatnot, then we started talking to her about her beliefs and what religion means to her in her daily life. We were able to give her a Book of Mormon and talk some more about Joseph Smith. Unfortunately she's moving to Bolivia, but, still, it was amazing to see how open and curious and ready she was. Hopefully she'll find the church there.

Have fun, Talk to you later

Lots of love and other mushy stuff.
Elder McDonald
Alma 24:15

P.S. I'm buying shoes next week, nothing expensive, just so you know.

RAWR

WOW, this week's been fast. But crazy tiring. There's a lot more to missionary work than I ever thought. For example fixing your stupid lock (more on that later).

First, thank you for the package. It was yummy loving goodness which warmed my soul after a long cold day in the storm (German thunderstorms are awesome, the lightning is horizontal, ahh it's so awesome, wish I could get a picture, nut it just ain’t gonna happen). But yes I'm very thankful for the good loveness.

Oh guess what I realized. I turn twenty three months from yesterday. How trippy is that? It made me feel extremely old, all the stuff that was so far away isn't- like I'm on my mission! I swear it was only six months ago I was sixteen and still had three years before I went on my mission. Yes, I'm getting old.

As far as mission prep goes...gosh there's so much, I'd say study Mosiah 28 and Alma 26, they're the feelings of the sons of Mosiah before they go on their mission (Mosiah 28) and when they return from their missions (Alma 26). There's a lot to be learned from there. Also Preach my gospel always helps. However the key to being a good missionary is that he's already converted to the gospel before he goes on his mission. That means we need a testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, How do we get that? The same way investigators do. Read every day, pray specifically to know if it's true and come to church. If he is converted before he's set apart, he will be able to be a "serviceable man of God" (I'll let you look up that scripture reference)

This week’s been up and down. We've found a lot of cool people, also had a lot of fallen out appointments. Yesterday we had three hours of finding time planned, and we were stoked and ready to go when we couldn't get the door locked. It was ridiculous. So we had to call the Haus Meister and he couldn't come for two hours, then all he did was put wd-40 in the stupid thing, which we could have done. It was stupid.

We were contacting and I asked this lady if she knew the Book of Mormon, she replied yes. So I asked her if she's ever read in it. She said she's read the whole thing. Then she said that she reads in it when she's upset and it comforts her...at this point I was wondering if she was just a member playing a trick on me or something. Well, someone had come up to talk to Elder Thorne so I figured I'd just have faith that she and I were on the same page. At this point I asked her straight up if she thought the Book of Mormon was the word of God. After a brief moment she said “yes”. Then my jaw dropped. So next I asked her if she knew who Joseph Smith was. She said she had heard the name, now I was truly amazed. So I told her that Joseph smith was the prophet who translated the Book of Mormon. We traded information. She said she couldn't meet for another three weeks, and left. So, yea really awesome though unfortunately we won't be able to follow it up till later. Though I thought it'd be a cool story to share.

Well that's about it for this week, it was nice to hear from you guys, leave me some love for next week.

Till then

Elder McDonald

Alma 26: 35-36

Kein Lust

I did not have time to post to Russell's mission blog last week- so here are two weeks posted today!

On 5/27/08 Elder McDonald wrote (notice the German spelling that is creeping into his letter):

Sorry this one will be short again. I tend to find myself not really into letters. I guess that's what happens when you're in Germany doing the Lord’s work.

This week we had Zone Konference, the presiding authority for the Europe Central Area came and talked. He gave us a lot of good ideas about how we can be better missionaries. So we're taking it up a notch. But I guess when you step up the work, the opposition steps up too. It's kinda crazy but I love it.

Quick little story:
We had a block of finding time and taught two lessons, almost back to back. Then right when we were about to go into a building this guy came out of nowhere and asked us for something about our church. So we gave him a Book of Mormon, well he didn’t want to give us his number but he said he’d find us. Then right when he was done, this crazy drunk guy started talking to us. It wasn’t the first drunk guy who we’ve talked too, but he was the first one who blasphemed against the Lord. I didn’t know how to react, thankfully Elder Thorne just said, “Sir you’re a little drunk. We’ll be more than happy to talk when you can think straight.” Then just a couple minutes later, we found a Jehovah’s Witness and that was an interesting conversation. Then another drunk guy talked to us, and wasn’t so kind himself.

It's a good life,

Till next time
Elder McDonald.

All in a Day's Work

We went to a world famous guitar maker and Elder Thorne's going to spent thousands of dollars on a guitar.

Next Sunday is my two month mark in the field, goes fast, well for me at least. As far as this past week goes nothing really extra-ordinary, we've been doing a lot of finding time. It's helped my German a lot! Now we've some pretty strong contacts, so I'm excited. Plus we have an appointment with a guy named jah…….., How rocking is that?

Here's a cool story from an awesome appointment we had this week:

We had a meeting place planned for this appointment, we'd been doing finding time most of the day and we had already had a fallen out appointment, so all in all I was pretty tired. So we're waiting for this appointment and I had no idea what to expect, though I was hoping it would be good. Well he shows up and we ask him a little about his religious background. He's sixteen, believes in God, is active in his church group, and loves learning about religions. So we were introducing the Book of Mormon with the pictures on the front and he's like "yea" "ok" "Klar", eventually he asked why it was important to him. So we taught him about the restoration and he was sooo attentive. At the end we bore our testimonies and started to come to commitments. He committed himself to read and pray. Then we were going to very gently give him a soft baptismal commitment, [but before we could] he said if he finds out that it's true then of course he'd get baptized without us even having to ask. It was awesome and I'm excited. It's been a good week.

Picture: A picture in the Book of Mormon that Elder RAM was sharing. This is of the Kirkland Temple, in Ohio.

RAM- Elder Updates

We will be using this blog to post information for our son, Elder Russell McDonald (RAM for short), who is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Frankfurt, Germany. It will be a way to let everyone easily hear how he is doing, and to see pictures he shares from his mission. I will post new information on this every Tuesday.

Elder RAM (if I use his first/last initials it makes him an RM- which he is not yet!) recently sent pictures. Most of the pictures were taken in the MTC in Provo. Those are saved for another post. There were only two taken in Germany.

#1- Elder RM with his companion, Elder Thorne at the Frankfurt Temple, Frankfurt, Germany.




#2. A picture of the countryside in Germany. The countryside near Frankfurt is very picturesque. It is not mountains- more hills and grassland. This is something that a lot of people do not realize about Germany, that it has this type of terrain also.
He is serving in Darmstadt, a small town south of Frankfurt.

Gotta Love Holidays

It's just like I talked to you guys a few days ago...oh wait I did!Nothing much is new, but it was a little interesting this week. What with our district changing around and whatnot. Yay, new missionaries! I'm not part of the "baby" missionaries, though I'm still "golden". Holidays are long for us missionaries here in Germany. Not because it makes me homesick or anything, but it's just Germans don't like being talked to on holidays. So you don't knock doors. Which is normally no problem- we'll talk to people on the streets. Oh wait, by law stores can not be open on holidays, unless it's a restaurant. so there's no one except really drunk people out, and other random couples/families.I've decided it's somewhat like poking something furry with a stick. Always entertaining, plus the added thrill that you never know what's going to happen: find a cuddly puppy, or get mauled by a bear. Man, I love analogies. That's basically been my week, talking with lots of people.Though, on Tuesday we had a really good appointment with [a family], I love that family. We wanted to see why Herr .... wasn't active. so we taught and then just basically asked him. He had some things, and habits that need to be resolved but it's in his thoughts now. We challenged him to read the Book of Mormon every day. Hopefully that'll help.Well, I don't really have mcuh to say this week except that those little crytal light powder drink things are like love in a packet. Just add water, and you get liquid loooove. Anywho, we've got good things planned this week. So I'm excited.


Viele liebe und erfolg


Elder McDonald