In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

Greetings All,

Today was transfers, which meant some changes for Elder Housley and myself. I’m staying in the Black Forest/Northgate area for at least another six weeks (which is great because I love this area), but Elder Housley has been moved into the local Singles Ward and is the Zone Leader now. I have a new companion, Elder Collins, who served in southern Colorado for most of his mission. He has taken Elder Housley’s place as the District Leader of our area, however he doesn’t really want to be District Leader as he’s served in leadership positions for most of his mission. He’s going to talk/write to the Mission President about it and see if he can get it changed. Fun fun.

Things continue to go well in our areas. Bob Anderson, who decided to be baptized about a week ago, has not decided to postpone his baptism to look deeper into some concerns he has. Bob is awesome and I’m certain we can help him progress toward baptism, it will just be a little while longer. We taught Caroline last night. She’s 15 and is just amazing. Her plan is to get baptized in June, so she can make certain this is what she wants to do. From talking to her last night though, I don’t know if she is going to want to wait that long. No progress with Laura’s parents letting her is baptized yet. The Ward Council (Bishop and other leaders), the youth of the ward, and of course us, will be fasting and praying for her and her family this coming fast Sunday. I think it is awesome how that ward really cares about its missionary program and those who are investigating the Gospel. Joseph and Elizabeth and still waiting for a letter from their mother before they will be baptized. Great things happening. These next six weeks should be awesome.

Please forgive me! I meant to bring my pictures with me to send some to you. We finally made it to the top of Pikes Peak. It was so beautiful up there…and very cold too. I’ll probably get some pictures out to you next week.

I’m looking forward to the next six weeks. Elder Collins seems pretty cool and we should get along well.

Thank you all for writing me and reading my updates. I hope they are not too boring. Life as a missionary is sometimes hard to put into words. I wish you well!