What's
up everyone?! Hope it was a good week for ya! Oh man, this week was definitely a good week
in the good ol' Mon-Valley! Despite the
depressing news of leaving Sister Roper, starting My Plan and my last transfer,
it's been a great start to my sprint to the end of this adventure!
Let me update you on the new area, new comp
and all that jazz-
New comp- Okay, okay!! My new comp is Sister Jackson from Bountiful,
Utah! She is the 3rd of 8 kids and is a
convert to the church! Okay this girl is
a stud. She is the only member of the
church in her family, has been out 6 weeks and the poor girl has had to move
around so much with a couple different comps but I'm blessed to be her momma
and learn with her. The greenie fire is
so real!! I'm so glad too because I need
that to help me get some fire for the last leg of the journey! We immediately bonded over our love for Oregon
so you know it's gonna be a good 6 weeks J
New area- So I'm now in Monongahela or the
mon-valley! And I love it! It's a part of the same stake as Pitt 3rd (one
of my old areas💕) so that's legit. I love being on the west side of PA again! I've missed all my black homies!! Oh man and there are SO many prepared people
out here. Like it's awesome! We are teaching a ton and going to baptize the
Mon-valley before I depart! So keep
those prayers rollin’ in for us - they are working miracles fo’ sho’! Another fun fact is that there are SO many
McDonald connections in this ward - it's so funny. The McDonald's even started the Monongahela
branch back in the day. 💁🏾 This
ward has been so welcoming and it's been great to jump right in and keep moving
forward. I'm pumped to see what other
miracles happen because there were tons this week! I don't think I can pick just a few highlights
so I'll try to break it down day-by-day so you get an idea for the "CK"
status of this area J
The miracles be flowin’ in, I'll just pick
favorite highlights of the day even though there was a ton more that went down-
Monday: (throw back to New Bloom)
I finished packing and we had dinner with one of my favorite families from New
Bloomfield, the Blazinas! The dad hasn't
been active and we've really had some good progress with him since we've been
there. He was so disappointed I was
leaving but I'm excited to hear how that family continues to progress. I just
love being able to be a part of that journey back it's the best!
Tuesday: Shout out to transfers for
reuniting me with most of my daughters and what homies I have left in the
mission. It was a long day of driving
but as soon as I met up with Sister Jackson we got right to work:
- Sam: one of our investigators
thanked us at the end of a powerful lesson for being true Disciples of Christ
and taking time to come and visit him. He
said we empowered him to want to change.
-Rebecca and Jim (the GEMS💎): they are set to be baptized
real soon and are super pumped about learning more about the gospel. We taught
them at the Hyita family's house (okay fun fact- Bro Hyita told me that he's my
homie -Elder Nelson's second cousin! Small
world HA!) But- We talked about temples
and they were beaming and so happy as we made plans with them to get sealed a
year from their baptism! Woot woot🎉
Wednesday: We had an awesome
District Meeting #InspiredAsAlways! We
also taught some awesome lessons:
- Yvette: Okay this lady is so
humble and open to the gospel. We taught
her about the restoration a bit and about the power of the Book of Mormon and
she was smiling the whole time and excitedly accepted our invite to read and
pray. She even said an amazing prayer at
the end! I love humble people!!
- We tried a lady who had been
taught a long time ago and she was so open. Her heart has softened a lot! I guess she used to be pretty firm and not
quite bash-y but anyways now she just sat and listened to us. THANKS SPIRIT!
Thursday: We get to help out at this Senior
Center every week and boy oh boy do I love old people, I was laughing so hard! I love service!!! More bomb lessons:
- We visited this less-active girl
who's just a few years older than we are - Sister Sellers. She told us her story about how she moved from
Utah and hasn't been active and was being all smug and proud about it. And I straight up said- "Why?! You're missing out! When are you going to come back?" And it kind of caught her off-guard but she's
like “wow..um, I guess I should.” Ha,
ha! Anyway she said we could teach her the lessons again and help her get more
involved so I'm excited! J
-We went with the elders to visit this older
guy in the ward. He didn't want to sit outside and talk so while the elders
talked to him inside, we worked outside. We saw this kind of sketchier dude and the Spirit
was like "Go talk to him!" Sister Hansen would be so proud ‘cuz he
had headphones in and I just marched on up and talked to him! (I've had a lot
of bad experiences with the headphones but NOT TODAY!) Anyway we taught him the
restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon and it seemed like his mood just
lightened when we walked away.
- OH OH OH! Also on Thursday nights we go to
this less actives knitting shop and knit and teach her. Basically I'm going to
be the pro-of-pro knitters when I'm done here 🙌
Friday: We did service and weekly
planned....my favorite. But we also had an awesome lesson in Monessen (aka- the
legit ghetto.) This lady realized after not meeting with missionaries for a
long time that something was missing. So
we brought the Spirit back into her home and she was so ready and excited to
soak it all up!
Saturday: We met up with a couple recent
converts and taught them the restoration again. Man I love bearing testimony of the
restoration! How cool is it that because
Joseph Smith was courageous enough to ask in faith we all can experience the
JOY of the restored gospel! It's SO
GREAT!! I love hearing new member's
testimonies of it too. It's the best.
- We met with one of our other
investigators- Antoinette and man, she's the best. Ha, ha, I love her! She makes up these songs about what we teach
her and she loves learning! She gave us
a referral for her neighbors so we went to see them too! Carl and Maggie were the referrals and it was
awesome! Carl recently had a spinal cord
injury that paralyzed him and he was telling us how frustrated he was that God
would do that to him. I had the
mountains to climb video come to mind as Sister Jackson was talking. We shared it with him and he cried. He's pumped to learn more and we are pumped to
teach him! I absolutely love helping
people realize the blessings of the gospel and finding answers to their
questions.
Sunday: Oh hey lovely Sabbath Day!
It truly was such an amazing day. We got 5 of our investigators and a few less
actives out to church. The fellowship
was on point, the lessons filled with the Spirit and my heart was full of
gratitude. It's the little moments like
looking around and realizing that when we do our part the Lord blesses us. We may have to wait weeks or months or years
but those blessings always come. I was
reminded how blessed I am to just have a glimpse of the glorious work of
bringing souls to Christ. I love being a
missionary and serving my Father in Heaven every day! It's been the most
humbling and rewarding thing. I was
really reminded this week that there are more blessing around us than meets the
eye we just have to stop and look and reflect.
I LOVE THIS GOSPEL! I love my Savior. I love
helping my brothers and sisters in the Mon-valley on their path back home.
Here's to another great week J
Love
Yinz!
💕Sister McDonald
Ponderize:
"Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" D&C
18:10
Commitment:
"Abide in His love" ~ Christofferson
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