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