Change

Well this week was busy as normal. We have a new family of investigators we are teaching, the mom has cancer and she is confined to a chair all day and is in a lot of pain and slips in and out of consciousness in the lessons, but the daughter really is progressing. We are working for a miracle to get a birth certificate from the middle of the jungle which is a red zone, meaning white people don"t go there and the church doesn't exist there because its really dangerous, but we need the paper to help one of our families get married and then baptized, and its gonna be a process it looks like, but with God's help shouldn't be too hard. 

Our other investigator, I'll send pics of him, we gave him a shirt and tie and he wore it to church.  He will be getting baptized next month. Henry came to church this week, and he finished the drawings. haven't been able to go pick them up yet, gonna do that this week. And Dianna is doing well, we are teaching her daughter and her friend that live with here and they could get baptized really soon.

Henry's drawings.  I got them!

Anyways, there is an update of our investigators. This week we tried a new strategy of verifying our commitments we left to them , and almost all of them came to church so we have a lot hope for this area. 

My comp are getting along great.  He's told me a lot about military life, and sounds kind of interesting.   I've been thinking about becoming a pilot, but haven't totally lost the idea of becoming a lawyer.   Honestly I have no idea what I want to do after the mission. Thankfully, I have time.

Week 2

This week was kinda crazy. Changes, changes changes!   Elder Cox left Saturday, kind of a surprise because transfers aren't for two weeks.  He is in the offices now as the immigration secretary... so I was in a trio with my the other two missionaries in this area for the weekend, and then they transferred his comp out too, and combined my area with the other elder's area for two weeks and just told us to work both areas until we get new comps in two weeks!   This will be interesting!!  We have a lot of work in my area these next two weeks,and now have to figure out the time and how to do it.   I have no idea how it's going to work out. 

Just to name a few:

We have a fundraiser I'm in charge of for a family that needs money to get married, 

We have an investigator getting baptized who's blind and I have to create a schedule for the members to start picking her up for church and there's only two members in the ward who have a car... so gonna be an interesting situation there. 

We have about three young women we are teaching who could possibly get baptized this week.

We have a bunch of other investigators that we just gotta keep teaching so these next two weeks are gonna be really busy.   A serious lesson in Trust the Lord to see how this all comes together.

Crazy Experiences from the week:

I had to give a foot surgery to my new comp Elder Cusworth because he stepped on a piece of glass. 

And this crazy kid in church wrote all over the walls, ate a marker, and spilled his soda all over himself during the gospel principles class, pretty entertaining to watch... 

Hey sleeping Beauty..it's time to go!  :)

And least life is not boring.     Throughout these past months I've been through and seen many things, heard stories unimaginably tough, yet have received many if not daily confirmations or promptings.  this spiritual growth has led me to understand one truth fundamental in my heart.  He Lives.  Jesus Christ lives.  He loved me enough to suffer and die for me.  That truth sinks in a little deeper in my heart every day just how in debt I really am.    

And all those times you said "you'll thank me one day" well that day has come.  Thank you for showing me what really matters in life.  Thank you for teaching me the gospel and for guiding me through my youthful years.  Thanks for never giving up on me.  And remember, when Katie, Charlie, or Lydia give you a tough time (they probably won't be near as tough as I was) remember that they will eventually figure it out too.  I love you tons.  You are always in my prayers.  

I'm working hard and I love you all.

Love,
Elder Donaldson

Miracles.

Hola Familia!

I'm doing well and loving this area. We have lots of investigadors too. We should have two getting baptized this week so I'll hopefully have some pics of that as well. And the ward here kicks butt. They really help us out and a lot of them are young converts . (July 10)

Elder D a little fond of his 45 liter Coke bottle collection. 

Well this week was quite the week! We had some cool experiences, definitely a testimony to me that the Lord runs this work. We spent 2 weeks planning these baptisms to a T, verifying with all the members, getting all the music and videos and everything else we needed, making assignments, everything. We did everything. But Satan did not want these people to get baptized. It started on Tuesday. We went out Tuesday morning to buy some coke and bread, which we shouldn't have done, but we left anyways. As we were walking down the street, we ran into H, which is super weird because its far from his house, and he just looked furious. He came up to us, and explained that his mom, the landlord of his house, called the police and evicted him from his tiny house because he said some rude stuff to her the night before. So he was homeless for the moment. But finding him that morning was the first miracle, because if we didn't find him he would have gone to Bogota to get away from everything, and we wouldn't have seen him ever again. So finding him due to our disobedience was the first miracle. So we walked to a panadería to sit down and drink something to try and calm him down.

30 seconds later, his brother, the elders quorum president, drove by on his motorcycle. What are the odds.? Miracle number two. So his brother comes and talks to him and calms him down, and makes arrangements to talk to his mother and work other things out. Meanwhile, we made arrangements with H to accompany us to our visits for the day, a chance to feel the spirit and distract him for a while. It worked. H is back at his house, his mom forgave him and went to his baptism and confirmation, and he feels great about everything.


Satan didn't want him to get baptized, but the will of God is more powerful, and based on the odds of those two miracles happening, God really wanted him to get baptized.



H, our convert is also a painter. He paints pictures of Jesus, and well just about everything you want so if you would like him to do a painting of Jesus or the family or something let me know. He charges about 30 bucks for a hand done painting or drawing, and I could send it home with a returning missionary. Just a thought of a cool souvenir for the fam. (July 17





Another investigator, D had a bit of a rough week as well, but we did everything we possibly could with the ward to figuratively hold her hand through everything, and when she finally got baptized, I had never seen her smile so big for so long. Y'all have no idea what has happened to her in her life. And if she never smiled once for the rest of her life I honestly wouldn't blame her. But she is just so much happier now, there is an incredible difference between the first day we met her and her life now.





I can't express it enough. It's been some really good weeks. So grateful to my Heavenly Father and his blessings. Furthermore, we still have lots of potential discussions to teach for the weeks ahead.


The mission has really settled in. I feel like I've been here my whole life. Just this last week a lot of the north American missionaries went home... making me pretty much one of the older missionaries in the mission now... I still feel new though. I feel a lot of peace and so happy to be a missionary. It's hard to describe, but I love it. The clouds were out everyday this last week so we didn't have too many hot days, well its always hot but it was more bearable this week. Our converts are doing well, H was out of town all week working and got back late Saturday night. He had an accident so he didn't come to church yesterday, we are gonna go visit him tonight. We passed by D last night and she just thanked us over and over again for bringing her the gospel.



Weekly Fried Chicken!


Amongst the spiritual outpourings we still have a little fun. Probably the funnest thing this week was making empinadas with Elder Cox Sunday night... we had no idea what we were doing and they turned out really gross but the guacamole was good.

Anyways, I love you lots and I am grateful for all you do. Thanks for all the updates, and the story about Grandpa! :) I'll make sure I always remember my belt now. (July 24)

Lots of love,
Elder Donaldson

August 7th, 2017, Elder Donaldson sent a picture of a letter rather than an email. Shared below. Love this missionary.