Mission Update: October 26, 2005
Greetings from the city of Wyatt Earp!
Things are going pretty good out here in Dodge City. We’ve been focusing on inviting people to church. We made up some nifty pass-a-long invitations to give out. It seems to be going pretty well so far. Hopefully we will have a few new people at church this Sunday.
We had a member request a Braille Book of Mormon for a friend of theirs who is blind. It took a while to obtain it because the mission office had to special order it and then find a way to get it out here. Once we received it we were amazed at how huge it was! I don’t think I have ever seen Braille book before. We got a few pictures with it before giving it to the member who requested it. [Pictures attached]
Our church building never had artwork ordered for it so the walls were pretty bare. Over the last few months Bishop Smith has been ordering art and last Thursday we helped unpack it to be put up. It was during our weekly District Meeting. It was exciting to be one of the first to see the new artwork. [Pictures attached]
Last Sunday we had dinner out at the Brinkerhoff’s. They have a little farm about 40 miles from here. It’s a nice place with goats, cows, and horses. We had a good time taking pictures. The horses were pretty crazy. They have personalities all on their own. Elder Larson and I ran around with our cameras taking various kinds of pictures. I shot one I really liked of an old barn garage door. The sun was setting behind me and my shadow was cast on the door. I liked it so much; I thought I would send it out. [Pictures attached]
The other evening we had a little photo shoot of sorts at the old Boot Hill Cemetery building. The sun was setting fast, so we were losing our lighting, but we ended up getting a few good shots. [Picture attached]
Yesterday was a little different. We got a call from one of the Sisters in the ward asking us to bless a house. We met with her later that day and found out that the people living in the house (including her son) have seen and heard a little boy in the basement of the house. The boy was white with blonde hair. The people living there are Mexican. They would see this boy for a moment and then he would disappear, or run into a closet and vanish. We went inside the house yesterday afternoon and toured the basement and listened to what the people had to say about what they had seen. There were rosaries on every wall and in every closet in the basement. I didn’t feel any overwhelming feeling or see anything strange as we were in the basement. We told them that we would meet with the Bishop later and come back in the evening. The Bishop came along with us and said he didn’t feel a bad presence in the home, but would bless it anyway (as all homes should be blessed). So we did that and talked to the people and assured them that they had no need to fear. A little different. I don’t think I ever thought I would be dealing with haunted houses on my mission.
I hope all is well with you. I would love to hear from you and I promise that I’ll reply to all e-mails (and letters) sent to me. Thanks for reading!
[Pictures not attached as noted]
God Bless,
- Elder Joel A. McDonald Jr.
Colorado Colorado Springs Mission
One response so far
Sounds like things are going well, Joel. Keep up the good works and great things will happen. You need someone like our neighbor in Okinawa, Shirley. She was in touch with the spritual world and could “see” things. She had visions of WWII soldiers (Japanese, mostly) in her house on Kadena. Very strange.