Laundry In A Bucket and Mud!

Scotty is having some wonderful experiences on his mission, many of which are too sacred and personal to share. I started reading a book about the people of Sierra Leone and the trauma and suffering as well as the repercussions of the civil war there. Thousands of people were killed, and young boys, as young as 6 years old, were abducted and made into boy soldiers. The book is call 'A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of A Boy Soldier' by Ishmael Beah. If you want to know what this book is about, you can look the author up on Youtube. The book is his story. You will see in Scott's letter why I mention this. How does one forgive someone who has killed your family before your very eyes? There are so many questions that I have, and won't go into them here. But everyone should at least know the story of the war there and why and how they are related to the diamonds that we love to wear.

This is a post from the Senior Missionary couple that Scotty is working with. "Dinner with the Carlos family. It was chicken and fresh herring on rice served family style. It was cooked over charcoal in a corner of their small front porch. Sister Carlos did not eat with us. It's their custom to put guests first and there was limited space around the plate of food. There were five spoons around the dish and we all sat in a circle on benches in a little room. There was no light in the room except what came through the window and door. It took a little courage to dig in, but we bravely did. It was good. Elder McDonald explained to Sister Lauritzen beforehand that when you are eating family style and you get a mouthful of small fish bones it's best to just swallow it. Brother Carlos told us stories as we ate. We laughed and had a fun time."

Hamburgers and Fries!!!!

Dear Mama,

This week has been so sweet. We had many activities. We had our Zone Conference in Freetown. It was such a great learning experience. And they gave us Hamburgers and French Fries. It was a magical moment for me. Sure compared to the US, they would have been mediocre. But trust me, you learn to be grateful for the U.S. very quickly. That mediocre hamburger and french fries tasted amazing. And then they gave we chocolate cake. Oh man, I sure ate it slowly. So you should know I am very excited for my next package.

So I am glad to hear about the Temple. I wish it was up before I left! That would have been nice to be able to go there. But you noobs better be going, or somebodies gonna get smitten. But anyways, I hope school is going well and I think the art stuff is either under the stairs or in kitchen area.

I am so much happy to hear about Jared. And pfft there is no way he has a GF! He is still so young and goofy. But good for him anyway. I am very gladdy that the letter made a difference. I know Jared has always had good intentions. But he is like me, a procrastinator. So those good intentions are for deeds tomorrow, not today. So make sure he keeps doing well. Or I will send a Juju curse in a package or something. I am also happy to hear about Colin baby. It is crazy to think how big he will be next time I see him. He better be talking by then.

Interesting you have read a book about the war. We have been receiving an increasing amount of stories or questions from the war from our investigators and members. We think these principles we live are easy. But see someone ask about how we are to forgive all when they have had family members killed in cold blood during the war. There were many innocent victims in that time. Many of the things I do not feel comfortable sharing in letter form. I have many of these in my journal you will be able to hear when the time comes.

Thank you very much for sending my blessing. I will be anxiously awaiting. And I am so glad you are involved in Lorenzos life somewhat right now. I am so excited for him at the moment. As we plan each day I think "Holy smokes, Lorenzo leaves soon." Make sure you do the thing that you did for mine so I receive those updates for Lorenzos blog as well. Speaking of Blogs, I actually very rarely see Sister Roggia. I live like 3 hours away. So do not expect to many pictures from her. But I have been seeing the Senior Couple a lot lately, they informed me of their blog. Look up Elder And Sister Lauritzens blog. I am not sure how to find it. But you can do some digging.

I am slowly piling up pictures and on a day when the internet is good I will send some. I am also waiting for these next couple of baptisms so I can send pictures in bulk.

Today we had a very sweet football match against the Elder's Quorom. I am getting a lot better at it as I go. It is a lot of fun. so before you know it I will be so sweet at it. But I always slip in the muddy areas. And then that means I have to to laundry and I have decided I think doing laundry in a bucket is from the devil. I guess it would not be to bad. But when wherever you go is all dirt and you have to sit/teach in it pretty much. Laundry is soooo annoying. I miss washing machines and dryers.

You ask how the new District is coming? I am still in the same district mom. But we did have one Elder transferred and a new Elder come in. I love my district. We get along very well. We have 2 Americans 1 Ghanaian and 3 Nigerians.

But things are sweet right now in my area. We are finding a lot of super prepared people. A lot of people who will be ready for baptism soon. But with my area splitting I do not know if I will even be there for the baptism.
But I love you a lot even though you are super nerdy. Let me know how things go.

Love Elder McDonald

If you have any comments for Scotty, please take the time to leave them here on the blog. He gets a copy of this blog on a weekly basis, at least every time I update it or someone makes a comment. So, if you don't have time to write him, but would like to say hello and give him some encouragement, please leave a comment. He will see it every Monday when he has access to the internet. And those of you who know Lorenzo Martinez as well, I will have a blog for him at www.elderlorenzomartinez.blogspot.com.

Mud! Mud! and more Mud!

Picture of Freetown, Sierra Leone taken from the ferry

East Zone Missionaries