In the Rough - The Blog of Joel McDonald Jr.

17 Month Mark! Today I have 7 months and 7 days left. On January 1st, 2006, I will have 199 days left on my mission!

This update is going to be a little different as I will try to break down the last few the best I can, starting with Sunday. I’ll try not to bore anyone with the minute to minute details.

Sunday: If I could describe this day in one word, that word would be “Depressing”. The previous week we focused on teaching and inviting people to church (what else would be focus on??). We “went about doing good”. By Saturday night we were expecting at least five visitors at church. Thursday and Friday I took some time to produce my latest publication which is a visitor’s guide to the typical LDS Sunday meetings. Sunday came, and I stood ready to give this new publication to the visitors we were expecting. No one showed. Not one person we expected came to church. I cannot begin to describe the roller coaster plummet that my emotions took. I was devastated. I mean, these are wonderful people we are working with, some of the best I’ve had the opportunity to teach, and not a one showed. The brighter side of the coin is that a young man came to church with a great family in the ward. It was his second time visiting. We talked with him and set up a dinner/lesson with the family he came with for next Sunday. Perhaps this was the Lord’s way of making sure we focused on him. I don’t know. I spent Sunday evening reading, being quite beside myself with the shortcomings of the day.

Monday: At first a continuation of the previous day’s depression, and then a launch into the work. I think my companion may have been worrying that I would never be focused and jovial again after the alarms went off this morning. I don’t even know if mine still works after the abuse it took from me. My companion’s attempt at cheering me with a joyful noise (that’s the best I can describe the greeting) was not met by the kindest of words from me. I sort of feel bad for that. In short, let’s just say that nothing moved quickly or joyfully this morning. It took a while for me to transition from my “What’s the point of trying” attitude to my “Let’s get back on the horse” focus. When the transition was complete, things started moving again and once again we were at work. The first item of the day: Referrals. We have been blessed to see amazing things with referrals this transfer. People are requesting Book of Mormons, videos, DVDS, Bibles, etc. We have even had the rare opportunity of seeing someone actually respond to a couple Pass-A-Long cards that we gave out. It happened twice this transfer, which brings the grand total of these occurrences to two! Anyway, I spent some time contacting/recontacting these people by phone and left a bunch of messages. Anyone want to guess how many messages I received today in return? If you guessed none, you would be right. What’s with people not returning phone calls? We ran around town visiting people and trying to get things accomplished. We finally picked up the 500 church invitations (a hit publication of mine) we ordered a month ago. We also finally met with a lady who works in the Senators office here in Dodge. We had lunch with her a while ago and she said to stop by. She asked if there was any kind of local literature she could have on hand to give to people, and I gave her a stack of the invitations we have just picked up. She placed them on the corner of her desk and said she would give them out as information about the city. We had dinner with a young man who we have connected with. Elder Larson and Rubio came along. True to character, Elder Larson used a comment made by this young man and launched into a half hour (at least) discourse. I think it was good, but it just felt long. I love the guy though; I can’t tell you how many people have been taught by him. He always finds opportunities to teach.

Tuesday: Tuesday was a good day. The morning was spent catching up on my Book of Mormon reading. I have to keep a reading schedule of about five chapters a day in order to finish by the end of the year. I fell two days behind, not including the reading I had to do Tuesday. So in the morning I had to read 15 chapters. I got caught up. I’ve never really read The Book of Mormon through again since first going through it. In seminary I slowly went through it during the school year. Reading through this time has been really helpful as I have felt that not knowing where things are in the Book of Mormon has been a weakness of mine as a missionary. I’ve also decided that I have enjoyed having a set schedule in my scripture reading and that I will read The Old Testament beginning on the first of the year and ending in March. Then I will read the New Testament, Doctrine & Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. I will be finished with them and reading The Book of Mormon through again when I return home. I’ve never read the Bible through before (Got stuck in Numbers last attempt) so I am excited to be able to do so. We did a bit of service at the Boot Hill Museum and then went over to the mall to fix the computer of a small store owner who we’ve been teaching. After that we had a bite to eat and then walked around town and did some tracting. We had more success for the Spanish Elders than we had for ourselves, but that’s still good. It is almost comical to listen to Elder Adams and I try to explain who we are in Spanish and try to set up an appointment for the Spanish Elders to visit them. We do our best, and for the most part are successful. We hooked up with the Spanish Elders for dinner at a wonderful family’s house. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful as we didn’t have any set appointments.

So yeah, that has been this week up until today. Not anything too interesting. I’m really looking into pushing our goal of visiting different local churches. We have been to only two churches since I’ve been here, The Mennonite & Nazarene churches. Hopefully we’ll visit a couple more in the upcoming weeks.

FYI: The mission office is moving to a new location sometime before the first of the year, which means my default mailing address in also changing. If you are at anytime unsure of my mailing address, please send mail to:

Elder Joel A. McDonald Jr.
Colorado Colorado Springs Mission
4090 Center Park Drive
Colorado Springs, CO 80916

For now however (at least until the 22nd) my direct mailing address is:

Elder Joel A. McDonald Jr.
1213 N. 13th Ave. #1311
Dodge City, KS 67801

Please mail me at my direct mailing address. It will arrive to me faster and doesn’t make the mission office have to sort my mail.

I suppose that’s about it for now. Have fun, be safe, and have a holly jolly day.

God Bless,
- Elder Joel A. McDonald Jr.
Colorado Colorado Springs Mission