In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

Buenos Dias Mi Familia y Mi Amigos!

As promised this e-mail will have a little more content than the others I have sent. Enjoy!

Last Tuesday was Zone Conference, which is a large meeting of missionaries from a large geographic area where we come together to be instructed and edified by each other and mission leaders, including the Mission President, President Hymus. It was a great meeting, more changes to the mission program, etc. I was inspired by President Hymus to be a more efficient and time conscience missionary.

Wednesday was P-DAY! For those that don’t know, Preparation Day, or P-Day as we commonly call it, is one day a week (Wednesdays here) mission wide for missionaries to take care of personal needs (sleep, laundry, etc.) and to participate in recreational activities such as e-mail, sleeping, mountain scaling (via automobile), bowling, etc. We had planned to go up to the summit of Pikes Peak, but weather (snow and wind) prevented that from happening. We ended up going bowling with two other companionships. I don’t understand how one game I could do so well, and on the next to do horrible. After bowling we had dinner at the Northgate Mission Leaders home and later sent out my weekly update.

We had planned Thursday to be a wonderful day for teaching people, and anticipated to start teaching eight new people, but like all good plans nothing worked out…well…according to plan. Perhaps the most interesting part of the day was out visit to a friend of one of the members in the Black forest Ward. She was 85 years old. Almost all of her children and grandchildren are members of the church, and she loved the church and what it teaches, but in her words, “I am 85 years old and a Methodist and I’m not interested in being converted.” We shared with her about how we came to know the Restored Gospel was true, and the Spirit was definitely there, but she had no interest in even considering the Church. We left a blessing upon her home and before we left she gave us chocolate candy from her trip to Hawaii and forced us to take $5 so we could “buy toothpaste or something”. She them invited us to visit again and we parted ways. Both Elder Housley and I left he house dazed and confused.

Friday was another day where our plans just didn’t work out. Everything we had scheduled from 10:00am to 5:00pm fell through before lunch. It goes without saying that we were a bit discouraged. We tried to catch the missionary satellite broadcast but we couldn’t find the satellite receiver at the church. Out plans later for the day fell through as well. One of these days everything will go according to plan.

Saturday we visited Sister D’llalo of the Black Forest Ward to set up a dinner appointment to continue teaching he father, Bob Anderson, who, as far as teaching him gospel principles goes, is close to being baptized. We set up or next appointment for the following Wednesday (this evening) Later we visited Ron Buchner, who was baptized on the 26th of September, and talked with him more about the Priesthood as he will be interviewed to be ordained a Priest soon. The discussion went well, even if I was a little scatter brained and often spoke on semi-related topics. After our discussion we had dinner with the Buchner’s and shared with them the new church video, “The Restoration”. I love that video, every time I see it is strengthens my resolve to get this important message out. Before meeting with the Buchner’s we went tracting and ran into Michael, whom we had a rather interesting discussion with. Once again we learn, as Alma of old did, that you cannot teach those who are not humble and seeking the truth.

Sunday was a pretty quiet day, went to Church, came home for a nap, and went to dinner. I love when Sundays really are a “Day of Rest”. As missionaries sometimes Sundays are some of your busiest days.

Monday was filled with a little tracting before lunch, and visiting members after lunch. Amazingly everyone we decided to visit was actually home. We set a few appointments to share the lessons with a couple families in the ward.

Tuesday we went way north in our area and tracted some long dusty roads. We didn’t have any success, but it was a beautiful day to be out. That evening we had dinner with the Garcia’s and continued to teach Joseph and Elizabeth, who upon hearing from their mother that they can be baptized, will be, which is something we look forward to greatly. We also met with Laura Roberts, who has been taught everything that missionaries teach, and has a testimony of the Restored Gospel, but she is having issues with her parents, not just about the Gospel, but other things are well. They are preventing he from being baptized as of yet. We plan to work with her parents so that Laura won’t have to wait much longer to be baptized. There is even some hope, as least within me, that we might be able to teach her parents the Restored Gospel as well.

How am I feeling about being a missionary? Some days are better than others. I constantly have a feeling that I need to improve in so many ways to more effectively teach. Sometimes I teach and feel as though nothing in sinking in to whom I am teaching, but then there are those times when you know the person you are teaching knows what you are saying is true, and those are amazing times. The awesome times far outweigh the times when you feel as though nothing is going well. I love being a missionary really. I think I am just getting over missing my old routine so that my thoughts can be more focused on the work ahead of me.