wanta stay here

Note:  This is our very last email from Russell as a missionary. He is responding to our last email.  I wrote him that we plan to return to Germany with him to visit.  He is not saying "Good-bye", only "Till we meet again."  He completes his mission tomorrow, Wed, Jan. 27, 2010.  He returns home Thursday, Jan. 28, at 10:00 pm.  We can hardly wait!

Yea, tomorrow we go to the temple in Frankfurt. I'm excited, it's been a long time since I've done a session.

I can't wait to visit. We've got about a million families that have offerred their homes to us. But I'm warning you now I've decided to do everything I can to do a study abroad here in germany. I just haven't had enough.
Anywho, I'll see you all in two days.

Elder McDonald

Where did August go?

Note: Elder McDonald turns 21 next Wednesday, Sept. 2.

I'm in a state of denial about my age. It's ridiculous.

Yea. It's kinda weird to think a year ago I was almost done in Darmstadt. Thanks for the money. I know a sweet cake place in Krefeld where I'm going to buy myself a cake. Ummmmm

My companion is Elder Wildey, He's from New York. He studied film at BYU, He's pretty young- we get along great. Krefeld just reminds me of a brid, I don't know why. The Zone Conference was awesome. We talked about member work, which I love, and finding through members. Which is something I really needed. I mean, I have nothing against doors, but ever since I got here it felt like it wasn't what I was supposed to be doing. Now we're going to work with the members, which just makes life happy, so I'm excited. However, that is not to say that I won't knock my fair share of doors, but I just love the members.

Anywho I know my e-mails have been wimpy, but I hate small talk. Plus, I've just got a lot of organization stuff to do since this area was in kind of a mess when I got here. We're in the oldest apartment in the mission. It's been around since the late 70's

alles güte

Elder McDonald

Note: What is a brid? Someone has the answer, but I don't. I tried to look it up- to no avail....

Transfers have passed

Note: I got behind in posting to this blog. I am going to post a number of them tonight so I can catch up. It has been about a month since I posted here.

June 30, 2009

Transfers have passed and Nothing changes. I'm staying in Solingen with Elder Gruber. Wonderful!

Well I'm not in much of and e-mailing mood this week. But just wanted to talk about a guy Elder Cräghead and I met last week. We were doing finding time at the Wuppertal University (on a split) when we met this guy from Solingen. He had known a member and was just way open but didn't really like organized religion. After a while of talking to him it became clear to us that the doctrine didn't mean a thing to him. He just kept on asking why we were members and what it did for us. It was way refreshing to just be able to talk about the love of God and how the doctrine was simply a sign and an expression of God's love.

Excited for this new cycle. It's gonna be great.

Elder McDonald

Solingen, It's great here!

Sooo I've got two cool experiences for ya.

1) We had a fallen out appointment, so we stepped outside the building to make a phone call and this lady walks out with some trash and dough on her shirt and stuff. Obviously she had been baking. Well, we just said hello while I waited to see if anybody would answer (the phone). After I hung up this lady then apologized for how she looked and said she was baking. We talked for a while, since we had an investigator in the house and lived down the street, she had seen us a few times. So we talked to her about the plan that God has for us and asked her if she'd like to hear it and set up an appointment. Yesterday she let us in, listened to the first half of the plan of salvation. It was really short cause her one year old kid started to cry. But I prefer twenty minute lessons. She liked it, was open and is ready to hear the rest of the plan. We really need to bring the spirit in there so she realizes this is a little bit more than plain old theology. But that'll happen when we talk about the Book of Mormon. What's funny was when we did that house the first time to find the investigator. We talked to her on the quatch box and she shot us down. Apparently God doesn't give up very easily.

2) We were doing doors in a pretty nice neighborhood. Well I was up and so I klingel and someone picks up on the quatch box. I HATE those things. Well, so I talk to him about happiness and faith. He said he was believing but in his own way. I, expecting him to hang up any minute, starting trying to milk him for information. What exactly does he believe and so on. Turns out he was Christian, just doesn't believe that we know everything. He talked about how he believes some of the truth is being held from us. Well, that's just begging for Joseph Smith. But I did not want to tell this guy the restoration on a quatch box (they're like spirit filters-- nothing gets through) So being sly, we lead into the Book of Mormon and said we had one with us and wanted to give it to him. He finally came out. We taught him a first and he liked it. Couldn't set up another appointment yet but we'll call and take care of that.

Everything's good here.

All right love ya'll stay cool.

Elder McDonald

Solingen, Germany

Solingen.

Well It's been a crazy week. Both of us are new to this area so we had no idea where we were where our area is and so on and so on. But finally we've gotten a pretty good idea. Solingen is not far away at all. but it's way different, more like Wesel. It is pretty small, but it's way pretty. It's in the mountains, so there's lots of hills but also tons of trees, also way pretty. Elder Gruber is way cool. Way excited to do missionary work. He's only been out for three months so I feel a little old. Soo, I'm getting more accustomed to the city. I'm warming up to it. The ward's way sweet! A little smaller than Köln but way nice and way efficient. I was given this packet that every missionary gets with my name on it and the goals, stats, members and whatnot in it. It was awesome. This ward is ready and willing to do crazy good missionary work, and Elder Gruber and I are more than willing to help them do it.

Well, I'm glad the holiday is over. Don't get me wrong I love Easter but holidays are a little different in Germany than in America. All the stores are closed and everybody makes a point of going somewhere where we (missionaries) can't find them. Holidays in Germany are really boring for missionaries. Normally I set up appointments, but then again, I got here on Wednesday, so I didn’t really have much opportunity. We'll dig down and do some great work this week.

Alright well I love you all. Stay cool.

Volle liebe
Elder McDonald

Solingen, Here I come

Well I will be leaving the beautiful city of Köln and go to the far far off city of Solingen. Actually it's not far off at all. Two stops away. I don't know a lot about the city, so I'll have to fill you in next time.
This week has gone by really fast. Luckily I was able to see all the members I wanted before I leave tomorrow. Plus we have stake conference not to far away. So it's not like it'll be a long time before I see my old ward. What I do know about Solingen is that my companion and I (Elder Gruber, I don't know him at all) are opening an apartment that was closed a couple of months ago, so we'll be hitting the streets. That's nothing new. But yeah, I'm sad to be leaving, though that's the life of a missionary.

I really enjoyed conference, as always, I hear just what I need to hear.

Well I gotta pack. Bis nächste woche. (Until next week.)

Elder McDonald

Meine neue adresse
Werwolf Str. 32 (that's right werewolf how sweet is that?!?!)
42651 Solingen germany.

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.

Sorry

Man, there's just so much to do in Koln. We're always busy. Right now Elder Burr and I are talking to a lot of people and trying real hard to find someone prepared. But it's fun and we're happy.
And our mission president said we are allowed to "dutz" ask Lyndy, she knows what I'm talking about.
As far as cd's go I've got a good collection now, thank you.
Other than that, you should probably stop trying to send me packages here in Koln. I just have bad luck in this city.

Love you all, I'll send a longer e-mail next week, I promise. I'll even write you before the (mission) president.

Loves,
Elder McDonald

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.