MTC Week 5 - Happy Birthday!

Grandkids insist on 70 candles, happy to help blow them out!

Thank you for the picture of Grandpa's birthday! It made me smile a TON! As for the package, I have no idea if it's from you or not, but I have a package slip right now. I just gotta go pick it up. but, in the event that it is yours Mother, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! IT"S FANTASTIC AND I LOVE IT!!!! IT MAKES ME SOOO HAPPY!!!!

Also, just as a side note. Today's p-day has been going reaaallllllllllyyyyyy slow. Soooooooo, I may or may not have missed my ukulele so much that I tried to construct one out of cardboard, rubber bands, and paperclips.... And I may or may not have been pretty dang successful. Also, my district was board, so I made us a chess set out of cardboard and paper, etc. It's pretty legit. All the pieces stand up and everything!

I got a letter from the MTC yesterday. It had all the legit address and seal and everything, and I was worried really that something was wrong with my visa, or my call had been changed and I had to learn Japanese or something like that. Surprise! It was just a "happy birthday" written a day in advance. But it had the date Jan 5 on it, so I joked that the MTC President was so powerful, he could write letters from the futuro. (future) Hahaha!!

Ummm... [role play] So I don't know what else much to talk about. So, I'll talk about mi investigador.(my investigator) His name is Nicolas and he's from Columbia. Everything's been going great! We even taught su (his) mom that one time, and he testified to his mother. However turns out he has participated in an abortion. He was really distraught about it, but we assured him that everything would be okay, that Christ's Atonement can heal any wound, and he has an interview with our Mission president tomorrow to see what he needs to do in order to be baptized. []

My studies are going well, I'll still trying to answer my question of "What exactly Charity is, and how may I attain it" Well. This week we had a devotional, and the speaker talked about something completely different, but he mentioned at one point that Charity was a gift of God, y mi mind started to think. In D&C it says that there's a law irrevocably decreed in Heaven that any blessing that we receive in this life is because we obeyed some law. Now, that's terribly bad paraphrasing right there, but the fact still remains in my head. There must be some law that if we obey, we can become blessed with Charity. Then my mind jumped again, and I thought about how in the end of Nephi's writings, he mentioned charity and essentially how he had it for every soul. So right now, I'm following the council of Elder Bednar and reading through my Book of Mormon, desperately trying to find the answer to this question, and now I have a fantastic place to begin searching. I've lately been reading in Nephi about his story. His life, the torture that his brothers continuously put him through, and how he continued to love them unconditionally. I'm trying to find what he did to develop that love. I want to know how I can better apply the  ejemplo que Nefi (example of Nephi) gives us, to mi (my) life.

So that's pretty much mi life right now. Oh! And I was terribly horrifically sick the past two days. It was really cool! Well, being sick wasn't the cool part. It was almost like being right in the middle of a sneeze, or having to sneeze really bad, and su ojos (your eyes) are watering, and your nose is getting all tickley, and you can't focus or think at all, but you CAN"T SNEEZE!!! Fue terible.(It was terrible.) However, it seemed like everytime we had a lesson with our investigador, or when we had our testimony meeting after the devotional on Tuesday, everything was fine. I felt fantastic! And I was able to testify, and teach, and say the things I needed to say. But then as soon as it was over, as soon as we left the room, or said the closing prayer, it came right back! Quia! However I know now that el Espiritu (the Spirit) will NEVER leave us out to dry. When I needed it's help, it was there. No questions asked. I felt it so strongly, and I know that I was extremely blessed to have that opportunity. I can truly testify of the difference that it makes when you have, and you teach by the spirit. I finally stopping being so stubborn with my "I'll get over it myself" mentality, that I asked for a blessing yesterday night. The other misioneros en mi districto (missionaries in my district) gave me a Priesthood blessing, and I guess we had enough faith, porque hoy, (because today) I feel FANTASTIC!!! As if I hadn't been sick at all! It's great.

The End.

Elder McDonald