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!

Yay, A Letter From Scotty!!!

It has been a couple of weeks since Scotty has been able to write me or his dad.  He is in an area that has very poor internet service.  Before, he was able to go to a internet cafe and send off an email without too much trouble.  The letter is short, but at least I was able to hear from him.

Dear Mama,
This is my second time trying to email you today. I have spent about 1
1/2 hours to get into my email.
So sorry I have not been able to email you for a while now. Things
have not gone well in the internet department. As well as being very
busy.
Things are going very well with the missionary work at the moment.
Elder Hovley and I are doing very well with working with the spirit.
We have so many spiritual experiences. I wish I had more time to type.
I am looking forward to my package hopefully it comes before Christmas
time. But also look into international calling for Christmas. By the
time that rolls around I will probably be in a new area though.
The transfer ends on Dec 16th and then I will be finished training
Elder Hovley and he will take over Rokel and I will go some side.
I hope all goes well. Do not worry about me mom. I am like 1000000
times tougher than you.
But you better stay tough. And tell everyone I love them. Especially
Dad. I do not have time to get an email to both of you today.
Love you dearly,
Love yo son Elder McDonald

 Left to right, Elders Walker, Woodhead, Serafine and McDonald.  Elder McDonald says, "Hi, Mom."  They have had trouble with the internet staying up at their Waterloo internet cafe so there have been no emails to home for two weeks.

Moving Day to Waterloo

I was getting worried today because I had not heard from him and neither had his dad.  After checking and checking my email, I decided to go to Brother and Sister Lauritzen's website  and there I found a possible reason why I haven't heard anything and that I shouldn't be worrying.  Here are some great photographs of Scotty and his fellow companions moving to their new apartment in Waterloo, which is the new area that Scotty helped to open. These photos are from their blog as are the captions.  I am so thankful that they are watching over my son and the rest of these amazing young missionaries.  We are so blessed to have these men out serving and teaching the Gospel.  

 Elders McDonald and Woodhead at the Grafton apartment.

Moving day at Grafton.  The Waterloo elders and the Rokel elders left the Grafton apartment and moved to the new Waterloo apartment.  The mission is expanding.  The young man in the center always hangs out at the Grafton elders' apartment.

The whole gang before the split.  From left to right:  Elder Aniabre, Elder Woodhead, Elder Iheanacho, Elder Bogh, Elder McDonald, Elder Serafine, Elder Nwoso, and Elder Hovley.

  Elder Bogh and a dismembered fan.  Said today, "This is the best mission in the world."

 

Elder Aniabre ... the district leader for the new Waterloo District ... a quiet but mature missionary and a natural leader.

The new Waterloo District, left to right:  Elder Hovley, Elder McDonald, Elder Bogh and Elder Aniabre.

The moving is done.  It's just about time to go hunt down something for dinner.

Scotty's Birthday On Halloween

Scotty just had his 20th birthday on Halloween.  I remember when he used to think that everyone was dressed up for his birthday...so cute!  He has always loved having a birthday on Halloween, just gave him another great reason for celebrating such a fun holiday.  As usual, he is working very hard and struggling to find the time to do everything.  It sounds like he and Elder Hovley are working very hard and making some great plans to teach even more people each day.  I can tell he is busy because this has got to be the shortest letter I have gotten so far.

Dear Mama,
I am very happy to hear that about your schooling. I can understand
that you would not be ready for the class yet. I hope your week has
been good. Though,
So I had a fun time on Halloween, me and a couple of the Elders each
tried to eat our own individual box of bon bons that night. Wowee I
thought I was going to puke. But I still love bon o bons. So I hope
you guys had a fun Halloween. How is everyone currently doing?
I am still trying to find time to get letters out to everyone. I have
probably like 10 letters I have been meaning to write. So I will try
this week.
This past week has been wonderful. Elder Hovley and I are
experimenting with different techniques of finding and our pattern of
teaching to try to maximize our efforts. Things are going well. On
Saturday we had an amazing lesson. I do not know if I have ever felt
the spirit so strongly. I could hardly sit still. But this lady was so
flippin stubborn. We were both thinking how are you not converted
right now?!? Even though it was a first lesson. I wonder if maybe her
heart was so hardened to the Spirit, she still didn't or barely felt
what was so overwhelming to Elder Hovley and I. But we spent probably
45 mins of pure Testimony about the Book of Mormon especially. I love
all that about your testimony. A testimony is the #1 thing a
missionary needs to be armed with. Followed by the Scriptures. But no
one can ever argue your Testimony.
But I hope all goes well. I will write more back to you next week

Elders Wuthrich, McDonald and Bogh

Book of Mormon and Shieks

I am a bit late putting this on the blog, sorry about that.  This is his letter from last Monday, and I will have a new one to post tomorrow as tomorrow is Missionary Letter Day!!!!!  I look forward to Monday mornings every week as they are the day that I feel connected to Scotty.  He is companions with a great new missionary who is friends with Kait Boman, a very special friend of Scotty.  I am so proud of how strong he has become, and that is he able to share his testimony and strength with the new elders he has been assigned.  I may be prejudiced, but I feel they have the best example in the entire mission. I know that my testimony has grown since Scott has been on his mission, as I feel the spirit closer than ever.  Today was Fast and Testimony meeting and I truly felt his strength in me as I bore my testimony.  I feel that I have not shared with my testimony enough with my children which is so important as they develop their own testimonies.  Scotty, I know you are reading this, and I want you to know that you are setting such a great example for so many of us here. We love you and miss you so much!!!!

Scotty and his wonderful companion Elder Hovley on their first meeting with Shieks from Saudi Arabia

Dear Mama,
This week has been a very interesting week for Elder Hovley and I. All started last Sunday. We had 2 people baptized the day before a mother and her son. They missed confirmations and got to Church during the
Sacrament. As soon as it was over and I went to talk to her. She was so saddened she had missed it. We visited her after Church. We got there and she was standing outside still in her Church clothes just very upset she now had to go one more week before she was a member with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. So we had a small lesson and we didn't have much to share with them. She explained she feels there are spirits there at night. So we told her let us know if it continues. So we shared a scripture and asked them if they had any questions. Her son a 13 year old boy who was very sad about missing it as well, looked at me and asked "What does it feel like to have the Holy
Ghost?" My heart dropped. I felt inspired just to remind him he knows what it has felt like, and we reflected on his spiritual experiences that let him to conversion. From here on out we couldn't think of anything else to tell them, then I just had the urge to bear my testimony to them. It was a very powerful short meeting. But now they were confirmed yesterday, and her son received the Aaronic Priesthood,  we visited them once again after church. And they were just beaming with smiles. They were so happy, I felt so happy as well. But after discussing a bit, she asked if we would say a prayer for her house because of the feelings and things she hears at night. So I said a
special prayer for them. Afterwards I felt prompted to let them know that it will improve not because of the prayer but because they now have the Holy Ghost and especially she now has a Priesthood holder in the home. So we will follow up on that this week.  

On Thursday we were contacting in our area and we were almost to the top of the mountain so we decided to hit the top. It was a super steep hike but we have some pictures from it I will try to send soon. But what was truly
wierd was afterwards we met with this Muslim man who said he has some people he wanted us to meet. So we went with him to this Hotel Courtyard in our area and met with these 2 Shieks from Saudi Arabia they are hear working on some Islamic stuff. But we discussed religion on very friendly terms. We actually made a plan to meet again and exchange Books of Mormon with Qu'rans. So we met again with them Sunday and I sincerely believe they will read the BoMs. But I now own a very pretty Qu'ran. We have snapped some pictures with
them so I really hope we can get them to you soon. But anyways the work is wonderful and I know it is divine.


Love your Son, 
Elder McDonald