Note: I wrote Russell that I was asked to give a talk updating the ward on his service as a missionary. I asked for his thoughts, and any advice he would like to share with the ward concerning his mission. This is the response I received.

As far as missionaryish talks go. Well I've been reading a lot about...everything. More specifically: sacrifice.

• The great and infinite sacrifice of Christ is important (Alma 34).
• Our sacrifice of our hearts (Alma 5)
• The sacrifice of our will (Abraham).
• It also ties in with perseverance, patience, and our trials. (DC 122)
• and ends with eternal reward. (Matt 5-6 Sermon on the Mount. The Be-attitudes.)
  
  By the by, we found this really cool children’s toy store and I wanted to know if Noah was old enough to play with toys, if he liked toys and what not. sooo...yea. love ya all,
  Elder McDonald

Missionary Experience

This week has been a lot of finding time, which isn't bad. I have the feeling there's going to be a short period of opposition before we see the step up in the work. For example, Elder Jackson and I had someone kick us out of a building TWICE in the same evening. But, as it always has been, we just have to persevere through and the blessing will far outweigh the effort.

Yesterday we met an interesting person. An old Italian mistook us for Catholics (Jehovah Witnesses, I can understand, but Catholic? I don't see the similarity.) Anyway, he blew past me and said, ”Who do you want to convert?” (I consider that a pk shot.) So I replied, “I don't want to convert anyone, that's not my job.” He replied, “Such days are over.” That kind of made me sad. I mean, a large portion of the world has given up and doesn't care enough anymore to fight Satan. Well, I said, “There are a few who still would like to know, and I'm going to find them.” Well then he went off, said he's from Rome, worked with the Catholic Church and doesn't believe in them. He also said all the other churches are just break offs from the Catholic Church and just as false. With that he left. It made me sad, he knew what was wrong but he'd allowed himself to get so hardened against religion. He missed the truth.
So it's not necessarily a success story but nonetheless I learned something from it. Plus I got a better idea of how the world see's religion.

Addressed by an Apostle

This week was super awesome. On Friday we had an "all area conference" which means the area president spoke to us, and Elder Oaks- that's right, Elder Oaks - of the twelve apostles. It was soo cool because every missionary in the mission was there. So I saw all the people I was in the MTC with, I'd send ya`ll a picture but this computer doesn't like my camera and they don't want to talk. But yea, I love apostles.

The weather is great. The people happy. It's a great time to be in Köln! It's a great time to be on a mission. Speaking of which, I've got work to do. There's a wave of miracles coming our way. I can feel it. Elder Oaks said it. We're expecting blessings.

Elder McDonald

I'm Staying!

Feb. 25, 2009

Alright, this'll be my mass e-mail. Soo, first off I didn't get transferred. Amazingly enough. I stayed. Elder Burr, however, unfortunately got transferred. I feel kinda bad for him, he was only here for six weeks and now he's going. I, on the other hand, am going to be adopted by the ward and just live here. Ok, not really, but I'll be here for at least six weeks. My new companion is Elder Jackson. He's three months younger (mission wise) than I am. He actually comes from Enoch, Utah, and his dad teaches at SUU. He went there too. Crazy. Soo yea. Kreyfeld was cool. (The city Russell was in during Karnavale last week.) But I'm happy to be back in Köln and to be staying here. I'm really stoked though, cause we're having an "all area conference", which means that every missionary in our mission is going to gather at the same place at the same time..so we can listen to Elder Oaks (that's right of the quorum of the twelve) Pretty awesome. I'm going to try to send pictures soo, here's hoping.

Elder Mcdonald

If You Want to Know what Mission Life is REALLY Like

Watch errand of angels it's a new church movie about sisters in Austria, The sisters in the movie have such horrible German it hurts my ears, but the movie is the best portrayal of mission life I've seen yet.

Really, it's cold outside

Really it's cold. It's so windy it looks like it's snowing sideways. Luckily we have an appointment tonight (home teaching with a guy with a car wonderful!).

So considering pictures, I'm starting a g-mail address. With which I can send pictures, and it won't get destroyed when I get released from my mission. From- just so you know

Things have been a little insane. Life's just crazy in Koln. Basically we had no one to work with about a month ago when Elder Burr got here. Which means we've met a lot of interesting people, like M. an old Italian guy who considers the Book of Mormon a better authority on the things of God than the Bible but still doesn't quite get it. Just waiting till he gets back from Italy to get him baptized. Then there's R. who thinks the KBG is after him. When I asked him what a prophet was to him, he said I was his prophet…. ….we've got a ways to go with him.

Things are great here, next week will be fun cause we have Karnival. You know that crazy party in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, "topsy-turvy day"? Well it exists and it's here in Koln. We missionaries are going to get yanked out next week. Although they haven't decided where we're going to go yet. Hmm anywho, thanks Ya'll, till next week.

Elder McDonald