In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

Greetings,

This past week has been awesome. Ronald Buchner, who we have been teaching for a while was baptized last Sunday. He chose me to baptize him, which was a great experiance. Definitely a wonderful time to be a missionary.

We should be getting some snow this coming Friday evening, which we are looking forward to. Well, we are looking forward to Friday for two reasons really, snow, and it’s a new month so we get our new miles!

We got our new mission materials yesterday! ::does a happy dance:: Now all of the old materials, discussions, training books, etc, are obsolete. The new book is so awesome! We also got nifty new planners which replace the old blue ones so now we can plan weeks out at a time and have all that information with us instead of having to deel with the blue ones which only have one week on them. Very nice. Awesome changes being made, it is an exciting time to be a missionary.

Elder Housley and I should be very busy in the upcoming weeks working on a project which hopefully will get our wards (yeah, we have two now) exciting and actively participating in missionary work. Should be a lot of fun, but a lot of preparation as well.

I hope everyone is surviving the storms well, I keep hearing about the hurricanes that are just ravaging Florida, southern islands, and the East Coast. Everyone affected is in my prayers.

Took a nice trip to the Air Force Academy for my b-day last Saturday. It was pretty cool. I’ll have some pictures in a week or so, or whenever I fill my camera and make a picture CD..hehe…Walmart is great.

Take care out there, and remember that “God is bigger than the boogie-man”

Greetings,

Awesome things are happening here in Blackforest! Probably one of the coolest is that while Virginia is having lows in the 70’s right now, we had snow last night! No, that’s not the coolest thing happening on my mission…but you know how I love snow.

We are continuing to teach wonderful people. We had the baptism of Liesa last Sunday, and Ron will be baptized this coming Sunday. Very exciting.

Both Elder Housley and I will be staying where we are for another five weeks (at least). Instead of only covering the Blackforest area, we will also be covering Northgate. So instead of only having one very large area, we now have two areas covering a super large area. Fun, fun. New people to meet, places to go, people to find.

We drove up Pikes Peak and visited Garden of the Gods this week. Pretty awesome. Looking to visit the Air Force Academy sometime this transfer.

I always have trouble remembering what I want to write when I actually am able to sit down and write it. I think I covered the main things.

Greetings from Beautiful Colorado!

It’s that time again…the time to catch a small glimpse into the life of a missionary…in paticular…me! I always have trouble remembering things to write, but I’m going to try really hard.

Last Friday my companion and I did a three hour service project which consisted of moving a large pile of fire wood for Gene, who is sort of a former investigator. Real cool guy. We had a good time as he had us use his ATV to haul the wood. Gene has just about any auto part you can imagine and he specializes in military vehicles. He has his own military hummer, a huge military wrecker, and a few old jeeps. His basement is like a musuem filled with uniforms, guns, medals, daggers, and other items from every war going back to the Revolutionary. He handed me a WWII Nazi medal, I believe it was an Iron Cross, and said it was worth about 5 grand. Amazing. He runs a little ebay business where he buys and sells this kind of stuff. Pretty cool.

The ward here is growing very fast. It had split only a month before I arrived and now I think there are more members than before the split. The entire chapel and overflow/gym is filled.

We have a baptism this Sunday, the 19th, so we are really excited about that. I suppose we are teaching about seven people right now. A few are close to baptism, so things are going well there.

I’ve gotten used to the altitude a bit more, which is a huge help. I no longer sit on the couch, doing nothing, and still feel out of breath. Now it takes effort.

Had dinner with the Mingo’s last Wednesday, which was wonderful! Thanks Mingo’s! You’re awesome!

Transfers are next week, on the 23rd, so we’ll see what happens. I would love to stay here, so that is my hope.

I’m happy to say that my family down in Florida survived the hurricane minus a few areas of damage to the house.

I turn 20 in 10 days! ::does a little dance::

My two month anniversary was yesterday, leaving me with 22 months minus one day left in my mission. Time is flying by so fast.

Elder M. Russel Ballard came and spoke to young adults, including missionaries. It was my first time hearing an Apostle of the Lord speak in person. Direct quote from him, which is advice we could all use, “Don’t be goats”. Ask me exactly what that means if you aren’t too sure. ::smiles at his casual plea for e-mails::

I hope all is going well for everyone. I wish you the best!

—-

Here’s a couple pictures from a while back…

Me & Elder (Drew) Mierzejewski reconnecting @ the MTC after two years
Me @ the Provo Temple

Greetings!

It’s now september! In 13 more days I will have completed 2 out of 24 months of my mission. Time flies by so fast!

Things are going very well. Yesterday we had Zone Conference (a meeting of about 30 missionaries in the general area, attended by the mission president and other mission leaders). Heard some great stuff. I love the direction the mission program is going. The changes are very exciting. Even better my companion and I won the award for cleanest apartment and car! Pretty spiffy. I also achieved my goal of earning the mission pin. The mission pin is a nice golden lapel pin that is awarded to missionaries who memorize a series of statements, quotes and scriptures including Doctrine & Covenants section 4, and all 13 Articles of faith. There are four other statements/quotes that one much memorize as well. I have a horrible memory, but I accomplish my goal (with a lot of prayer) and was also awarded the mission pin yesterday. Very good day.

We are still teaching some wonderful people and finding new people to teach every now and then. We have one baptism scheduled for this month, with another possible. The mission as a whole had its best month in August, so we are hoping for an awesome September.

I hope all is well with you. Feel free to write back! Take Care!