Can' Wait to Hear His Voice!

Scotty is now a District Leader which will keep him busier than ever.  If anyone can do it, Scotty can.  He has moved to an area that is even more rural than before and his companion just learned how to speak English.  I would say he has many things to learn in this new area.  I am really excited for him.

Dignified

Dear Mama,

I am so happy to hear from you.
This week has been a busy week. I am now the District Leader of Bo
District. I have to prepare an instruction for tomorrow. There is so
much to do, with so little time! My new companion Elder Lokpo is an
awesome guy. He is from the Ivory Coast and so 3 months ago he spoke
no English. Now he speaks it almost perfectly. I am very excited to
work with him.

The new area, Njaie Town is soooo confusing I am always lost. We are
in the villages and it is way out there next to the jungle. But it is
such a cool looking place. I will get a lot of pictures of it. But I
am taking things small small right now. As Elder Lokpo shows me around
the area more. We have a really strong branch.

I have not received my package yet, but that is probably due to the
fact that it could be sitting in the mission office, waiting to be
carried out to Bo. So do not hold back on sending more!

I do not know if the Senior Couple out here have a blog or not. But
you could look for an Elder and Sister Schlehuber. The work is going
well. But I am trying to get into the groove of the area.

So Mom, continue to be the saint that you are and keep praying. Mom I love
you dearly.

Love your son
Elder McDonald
P.S. coordinate with Dad about the phone call on Christmas. Whoever
wants to be apart of it needs to be together. I get 1 phone call for
about an hour.

Reality

Hovercraft with Elder Holland

This is a video of the hovercraft that brought Elder and Sister Holland into Freetown, Sierra Leone for the celebration and creation of the 3000th Stake.  Sister Roggia posted this on her YouTube channel.

Six Months Already!!!!

Scotty is being transfered to an even more remote area of Sierra Leone.  I asked him quite a few questions about his living conditions and the area around him, which he answered in this letter.  I am anxious to hear about his move and being made a District Leader.  I know without a doubt, Scotty will make a great leader for the district, as he has already proven in training so  many new elders.  

Dear Mama,
I am glad you are able to see about the 3000th stake thing. It was a
sweet thing to be apart of.
So this is the last week of my 4th transfer. This is the last week I
will be training Elder Hovley. He will now be training a new Elder
here in Rokel. I am so happy he will be training. That also means I
will have a grandson. Wahoo.

I am now being transferred to the city of Bo. My area is called Njaie
Town. I am so excited. I have actually been called to the District
Leader of Bo District as well. I will be leaving this Thursday. I will
be the senior companion to an Elder Lokpo. He is the same MTC group as
Elder Hovley. But he is from Cote d'ioviore and I guess when he came
he could not speak even a bit of English. He had a french speaking
trainer so hopefully he knows some English now. But out here they do
not have an English training for the French speaking Elders. So he has
to pick it up as he goes. So I hope I will be able to communicate with
him.

I will be hitting 6 months on Saturday! I cannot believe it has come
so fast. Mission is just getting faster. I hope everything is going on
alright at home. 

The area I was living in is pretty rural. But Bo is suppose to be even
more so. There in Waterloo our plumbing does not work properly,
everything leaks but maybe 2 or 3 times a week we have water flowing
out a faucet in back. And occasionally we get power mostly on
weekends. But in Njaie Town we will be fetching by well. Out in
Waterloo people do random small things to sustain themselves. But
truly it is very undeveloped. Everyone lives in either a concrete home
still without lights or water or a sheet metal shack.

So how is Justins business going? How is he doing? I hope all are doing well.
I am now going to be a Njaie Town Elder next time you hear from me!

Love your son
Elder Scott McDonald

Exchanging Gifts

Time to play Scripture Jeopardy

The Missionary Gang!  What is that hanging out of Scotty's mouth?

3000th Stake In the Church

 Scotty was able to participate in something wonderful, and that will be explained in his letter.  We don't get to hear from him much because he is out in such a remote area.  He left this note telling us how to see where he is on Google Maps.
I guess you can actually find our house on google maps. Go to a place
called Waterloo and look for the Police Station on Liddle (or Liddel)
street. We just live down from it by like 50 ft. Let me know you can
find it. It is at the very first part of Waterloo if you are heading
there from freetown. The very first junction.

The Freetown Stake Presidency is Pres. Swarray, Pres. Charles and Pres. Minna with Elder Holland.  The 3000th Stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was created this morning.  We had almost a 1000 in the congregation.  This is the first stake in Sierra Leone!

Historic Day:  http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765616902/Historic-milestone-Sierra-Leone-stake-marks-LDS-Churchs-3000th.html?pg=1

Dear Parents,
I am so happy to hear from you. I want you to know it is very fine to
send me long letters. I have the time to read them. I just have a hard
time getting things sent out. Many times the internet crashes as I am
typing so I continually have to restart if I was not continuously
saving or copying my current text. So I enjoy the long letters.
I am so thankful about the recovery of Jareds stuff. I hope all his
health issues are resolved. I know that no matter what he will be fine
though. It is truly a miracle that has taken place. I wish I could
have seen it first hand, but it does not make much of a difference. I
am grateful that the Lord is looking out for where I cannot. I hope
all is going well in Phoenix as well as Tremonton. Amy and Jaron say
they are doing well I see, how are the smaller kids doing with the
change? Particularly Samantha.
Back to things in Sierra Leone, things are going very fantastically at
the moment. We have had a good time in our proselyting endeavors.
Elder Hovley and I have found so many amazing investigators, the best
part is that they are mostly all potential missionaries. I would love
nothing more than to see them go on missions. There truly is no better
place in the world to be on a mission. I am guessing you might have
heard of it or you soon will. But Elder Holland came to Sierra Leone
yesterday, we attended a conference in western Freetown. Freetown west
District is now the first Stake in Sierra Leone. He came and gave an
amazing talk. The coolest thing is that he was specifically sent for
this because it was a special occasion. Sierra Leone Freetown Stake is
actually the 3000 stake ever to be created in the Church. The Church
has always celebrated the 1000 mark. The 1000th was created in Nauvoo.
The 2000th in Mexico City and now Sierra Leone has been the 3rd. It
was so cool. But it was a sweet sweet day.
So about the international call, I will probably call you for like 1
second on the phone so that you will have the number and then you just
make the long distance call back to me. So look into the cost or
whatever to make a long distance phone call. I will probably be able
to be on around an hour. I would advise maybe writing down a bunch of
questions and stuff you would like to ask me. If you want me to just
talk I will not know what to say. So get me a bunch!
So I should be getting the package soon. I am excited, also in my next
one I could use a bottle or 2 of multivitamins.
But I love you all dearly,
I will talk to you again next week :)
Love your son,
Elder Scotty Ross McDonald
P.S. my companion is currently trying to send pictures to his mother,
so hopefully they go through and you get them.

Elder Hovley and Elder McDonald enjoying some chocolate cake

 Here is an interesting picture that was on the mission blog.  What a way to move a mattress!