February 23, 2011

Everything is still going well here, the language is starting to come
a lot better and i can kind of teach in spanish now depending on what
we´re talking about.  our tour was ok, it efficiently wasted a lot of
time, but we saw some pretty cool stuff, ill send some pics next week,
e cumes is serving in gauyaquil ecuador north.  start sending letters
to bolivia now, my address is on my facebook page, my new companion is
from lima, we taught in the trc the other day and did a really good
job, lots of things that we could get better at, but we did really
good for our first time.  his name is e aquino.  thats to bad about
taylor, i definitely never would have missed a game. anyway, howd the
boys do? or have they not started state yet?  well theyre starting to
be a little stricter on our time, so i can´t write a ton, but i did
send u a letter on monday, and i did get the stamps and pics, thanks
so much! i think there was one pic of me evan tj and bauer, if u find
that i would like it too, but if not its no big deal, thanks so much
for everything!  i love u all so much and appreciate your prayers,
they help me so much!

Letter received dated Feb. 15, 2011

Well today (Sunday) they gave us a couple hours to write letters because all the Latinos leave on Tuesday so they have an extra meeting right now.  It is great to hear that Shiloh is still doing well even though the varsity teams are struggling.  I was really glad to get your letter cause I hadn't got one since I'd been in Peru.  But two days ago I got yours and Shawn Peters and yesterday I got the ones that got sent back to you from Prove.  Hopefully you continue to stay busy.  I'm pretty sure things will pick up.  I can't believe that Mo is 12, I bet he was walking around a little taller after that haha.  Well everything here is going well.  The food still gives me problems occasionally but I'm still alive so I guess it isn't too bad.  The first Saturday we went tracting I was feeling a little sick, and before lunch it was pretty bleak finding people who would listen.  After lunch I had a better attitude and we found two guys to teach.  So that was cool.  But I didn't talk very much.  So for this next time I committed myself to teach more and have a great attitude and Elder Cumes and I set higher goals.  This Saturday went a lot better.  We were in a poorer part of Lima, and it started off bad again.  About the first ten houses we knocked everyone said, "Estoy Ocupado" and wouldn't listen.  My comp got a little down from this, but after each time I was like, it's ok.  Let's go find more people to teach. We were blessed. As we were walking down a man chased us down and told me he wanted a BofM.  He was on his way to work so we only taught him for five minutes or so.  He was very interested though.  He was Catolico but he was receptive to other churches and wanted to learn more and wanted missionaries to come teach him more, so that was great. Then as we knocked more doors we found an 18 year old girl and taught at her window for 45 minutes and she committed to read and pray.  So that was great too.   As we taught about child baptism I told her about Sage, and that I know I'll see her again.  The spirit was strong too.  So hopefully that turns out well.  On our way back for lunch a man started yelling at me.  I had no clue what he was saying and he pointed at his wife whose face was all bloody. Apparently she had been drinking and not watching her kids, so he beat her and he wanted me to tell her she should stop drinking.  I told him to talk with my comp.  So we started talking to his wife who was still bleeding and told her that our bodies are a temple and other things.  And the guy got mad again, he didn't want us to teach the gospel, only tell her she was wrong, I guess.  Luckily two other  elders showed up and had a teacher, so we let the teacher take care of it and left. It was pretty crazy.  After lunch we went back to tn area we hadn't knocked before lunch.  I always have a good feeling after lunch about the first person we teach, or house we knock, and so far both times I've been out those have been my two hardest rejections, but directly after that we've found investigators so it is way worth it.  So the first house we knocked the people shut us down.  But the next house was 25 yr old girl.  I'm pretty sure we broke the rules cause we went in her house to teach.  I thought she's said more people were home, but there weren't.  It wasn't a bad environment and either so we taught her, and she alreacy believed God and Christ had bodies of flesh and bone, even though she was Catolica.  So that was cool.  Co we tought her a lot and she was receptive and as I was testifying of the bofM and Joseph Smith her phone rang, so that kinda took the wind out of our sails.  Luckily it was just her mom who was coming over.  So when she got over we started teaching her and again I used Sage as an example and my companion shared about his mom who'd died of cancer. (I didn't even know this) and we testified to them and promised them blessings as the read and prayed with faith, real intent, and sincere heart that they wouyld know these things are true.  They both committed and wanted the missionaries to come over again.  And the mom told me she knew my promises would be fulfilled.  It was great.  I know the spirit touched them and helped me with my spanish.  Well that's enough for now.  Thanks for your letter , I love You,
Con Amor, Elder Donaldson

February 17, 2011

Duskin finally sent some pictures, I will do my best to put them on here.

He didn't label any of them.

February 9, 2011
dear mom, did mo get his b doy card? they told me that those take two stamps usually after i dad already sent it, so i hope it got there.  i also dropped a letter in the mail for u on monday, i didn{t have enough stamps so i sent u a couple letters for u so send to my friends if u could do that for me please.  things here are getting harder, the language is getting tougher and they don{t give us a lot of time to practice, on saturday we went out tracting for 6 hours, it was crazy. we were in the richer part of town so a lot of the people didn{t want to listen.  it was really hard to understand, and before lunch i was really frusrtated, but i knew i needed to be possitive so we prayed on our way to lunch, our area was about 45 minutes of fast walking from the chapel we hasd to eat at, and asked for patience and help. aafter lunch we were able to contact two younger men who were interested and we taught them for like 40 minutes abd gave them books of mormon.  it was really cool.  untill i heard that my friends who went to the poor areas placed 6 bom and got into houses and all kinds of cool stuff. the poor people were a lot humbler.  elder schafer was in an area tracting in the slums when a guy got shot and killed like a block away, it was crazy, then another couiple missionaries in my district contacted a man, and asked if they could start with a prayer, and when they finished and opened therir eyes he was gone! haha so u never know what to expect down here.  on sunday things went really good, im thinking u were fasting for me cause i was able to start understanding native speakers a lot better,, i understood the man in out devo really really well, so whatever u were doing i liked a lot! haha well, this is my last week with elder cumes before he hits the field and i get a new comp.  ive learned a lot from him.  anyway, everything here is good, if u could also send some pics with dads letters that would be great, go through my boxes and send pics from dances, friends family sports, anything u could fing, and i would love one of sage.  and could u forward this to people like cass danica and others that woudl want it, i don{t have time to type long ones for everyone today. thanks, i love u so much,  con amor, elder donaldson


February 16, 2011

Hey!!
  well i actually won´t get my new comp till tomorrow because he is
from lima aand so they dont come in  till thursday morning.  it was
pretty sad saying by so elder cumes, he was awesome, and i really may
not see him ever again in this life.  I was so blessed to have him aas
a companion tho.  im glad mo got that card! i thought it´d crack him
up haha, well i sent some mail y our way on monday with lots of
updates for the blog, and i hope there are some stamps in the mail
heading my way cause i really need some, i can use them all through my
mission so send as many as u want, preferable at least 40.  well,
everything here is going pretty well, can´t complain about anything.
in a couple hours we get to go on a tour of lima for about 5 hours,
then we have a couple more  hours of free time so im excited for that.

hopefully the boys don´t choke, so is this like first round of
playoffs? thats cool, and then they need to beat fh again.  well its
always good to here from you, con amor, elder donaldson.

January 25, 2011

(I received this letter on 2/4/11) 

January 25, 2011

Well, this week seems like I've blinked and now it's over. I can't believe that I'm flying to Peru tomorrow. (Wednesday, 26^th) I'm excited to go down there. I'm sure it will help me a ton with the language. I should be able to pray for more than my teachers, friends, and family after I'm down there for a while. I never thought it would be weird to hear someone pray in English, and sound normal for someone to pray in Spanish, but that's about where I am. I've caught myself trying to read English sentences in Spanish and I'm like, I have no idea what that means! When I realize it is written in English and not Spanish. Haha Well, I was able to teach two lessons to mock investigators again this week. They both went well. The first lesson we taught was to an older couple and we taught about the plan of salvation and we only had 45 minutes. I'm pretty sure we could've taught for a couple of hours on the plan of salvation. Anyway, the lesson went well, we could feel the spirit, however, I talked a lot more than my companion and kinda rushed the lesson a little to make sure we covered every principle. It wasn't bad, it just could've been better. Luckily that lesson was in the morning so we had all day to evaluate and game plan for Friday. Both teachers taught about how to ask inspired questions on Thursday night so Elder Schafer and I really thought we could use inspired questions to help our lessons. We basically learned that we have to always be in tune with the Spirit and let Him guide the lesson. So in our lesson on Friday we tried to do just that. We had never met with our investigator before so we talked with him for several minutes and got to know him. As we started teaching I taught for a couple minuted, then my companion taught. While he was teaching I was able to have a prayer in my heart and ask what I needed to be asking. The spirit prompted me with what to say and as we continued this routine for the rest of the lesson I could feel the Spirit so strongly. Afterward our investigator told our teacher that he had also been able to feel the Spirit, so that was pretty awesome. This week has been pretty hectic besides that,I've been to gym twice maybe because they make us pack during that which is really dumb. And I had to say bye to both of my teachers, two best teachers I've ever had. But oh well, one of my buddies here told me a mission is basically 2 years of goodbyes, I'd have to say that's about right. Well, thanks again for all you've done, and still do for me. I wouldn't be here without all of you.

Con Amor,

Elder Donaldson