Pictures with the Children

Look how happy that boy is :)

I can´t decide which picture I like the most cuz all of them show different parts of their personalities

Marley, the little girl, just got baptised 2 months ago and gives the best hugs :) and the only hugs for that matter that I have had for 4 or 5 months

ya they ruined my jacket yet touched my heart so I think it was a good trade off.

This little boy on the left just started following us on the way to church and ended up following us the whole way there. Hes from such a poor family and didn´t have a shirt or shoes when we arrived but he sat next to us during sacrament and then in the primary they gave him a shirt and shoes and he became real good friends with all the kids. I hope his mom doesn´t kill us but we didn´t know he was following us at first. Anyway, I wish all people had the faith of a child.

Familia Escudero. They´re all members and Luis on the left is a returned missionary and wants to live with me in the states after my mission. But right now we´re really wanting to get the dad a testimony so he´ll prepare to get baptised and go to the temple later.

Fixing the bike...again

Thats the little girl Marly that gives great hugs. Its a banner her family made and its hanging in their front room. It says, "memories of my baptism" - I love how much it means to them. And its so cool to be a part of it. I´m not worthy of such an honor. Well, you know what I mean. :/

Ancient Relics P-day Pictures

Elder Aquino and I visiting this place with ancient relics for Pday. Sweet.

Elder McD fighting the Dinosaur

Elder McD

Elder Aquino and I

Elder Aquino and I

Elder Aquino and I

Elder Aquino's perfect Peruvian face. Priceless. Can´t you see him walking up a street in machu pichu. haha

Elder Aquino and I

Elder Aquino and I visiting this place with ancient relics

This picture is of what I almost stepped on while walking on the sidewalk and not looking cuz I was reading my notebook of spanish words. Whew! I´m glad I looked up right before I was eaten. ha. cool huh?

New Pictures!

Matthew has sent these pictures but hasn't given any commentary on them. We've requested commentary and will hopefully recieve them with next weeks letter. For now just enjoy the images. :)I´m croutching down is with Marleny Rojas who was baptised two satudays ago. And this was directly after her baptism. :) I don´t know if I´ve ever seen someone so happy. She´s in her upper 40s and she just skipped down the street toward her home after the service. Seeing happiness or should I say "Joy" like that makes everything worth it.

Viviana who is 26. When we first talked to her was just a contact on the street and she kinda of laughed it off as if it was a joke that we wanted to meet with her. We she say that we were serious she said, "Pero, Soy Pecadora" which means that she´s a sinner and then said we proly wouldn´t wanna meet with someone like her. That´s when I told her, "Ah perfecto!" She was caught of guard by that and then I continued to tell her that what it is we want to share with her is perfect for a person like that. :) With a smile of course. She agreed and when we had our first lesson with her we felt like we should talk about the Plan of Salvation and Repentance. She really liked having answers of where she came from and having more of an identity but when we talked about repentance and forgiveness she said, "Oh no. I don´t feel that I could ever be forgiven" And she went on to tell us briefly some very personal reasons of sins in her life that have haunted her for years and years and she knows she can´t be forgiven for those. The impression was made to open up to one of my absolute favorite scriptures which is 3 Ne 9:13. We asked her to read it and when she did she began to cry. She told us she wants to change and that is when the Spirit really entered our hearts. Oh how blessed that night was for us. Souls are starving. And dying to be fed. Even our own. Read the Scriptures so that you too can stay nourished.

This is not from our house. Thomas S. Monson the Prophet told us to be 4th floor last door missionaries which means to talk to everyone and don´t give up. So one day while walking and contacting we saw this house clear up on the side of this hill but we had no clue how to get to it so we embarked on this journey and finally found this little alley way which led up a flight of stairs similar to the one on Ace Ventura when he´s testing out the slinky. But we charged up it and this is just a picture when we turned around to find this amazing view. It probably isn´t the same in a picture but it was great. Oh, and p.s. the family that lives up there received the invitation and we´re going back this next week to speak with them about the Restoration. As you can kinda see in the picture, they´re very poor but very kind and very humble. I love poor people; For they truly will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.

They feed him well... take a look at that gut!

New Companion Elder Aquino from Lima Peru

Old Companions

Family Ruiz commited to be baptised!!

Feb 1, 2010

Que mas? bien?,

Ha, everybody says that. "How you doin? good? ok." and then they change the subject before you ever get a chance to respond. Kinda funny huh.

Ya I was thinking about how strange it is to think that summer will be 19 years old when I return and Smachel will be 13 as a Beehive and E-mily will have 4 years under her flub. I at times feel I´m missing precious time, but if your time is contrary to the Lord´s will, you lose even more precious time, so I´m glad that I´m where I need to be and gonna be happy to see everybody at the season that has been appointed to me.

What´s up with England? The US really is the promised land. I didn´t understand that until I moved to Colombia. I love the people and the culture is rich but it isn´t America. Well you should start telling Ryan about times like when the new rush album came out or you heard sweet child of mine for the first time, next time you stay up after 10. haha, I love Ryan and his passions. :)

Wow, I thought mom wanted to live in our house forever? Where is the new house? do you think you´ll actually move?

Does Karasten still work for you? What do you think people´s biggest hurdle is that is keeping them from being a producer? I´m actually really excited for the work habits, study habits, and goal setting that comes from the Mission for when I get back. Part of me wants to vacation after a straight 2 years working but a bigger part of me wants these habits to propel me into a working machine who has goals that can´t be stopped cuz the vision is there. I´ve set a few goals for after my mission but not many cuz although I wonder what I´m gonna do afterwards, I´ve told myself that I´ll only think about those things on P-day and I´m not allowed to think about em during the week. If I have a good idea I have a little notebook I write em down to address them more in depth in my journal on P-day.

I´ve felt that there are things that needa´ be changed and huge potential here in Colombia if simply diligent consistent faithful effort is put in. And that it is possible. The spirit is very kind and I´m happy about the near future if I can maintain focus and forget the tiredness of my body.
Anyway, I love you all so much and I hope you´re doin well. I´m certain that if Mom and Dad are attending the Temple consistently together that I really really don´t have anything to worry about and neither do you. You can´t afford not to go.
Ok, until next time.

Su Misionero,

Elder Mateo McDermott

PS: Family Ruiz commited to be baptised. I´m so happy for them. And that was after the lessons of tithing and word of wisdom so it shouldn´t be a problem. The 20 of February is their date. Thank you so much for your prayers.

Trip to the Bogota' Temple

January 12, 2010

Hi Mother,

I´m sorry for not writing yesterday. Yesterday we were so blessed to travel to Bogota to attend a session in the temple. We traveled all day there and back and it was very tiring but goodness the peace I felt there was so strong. I always feel or think about something different yet significant each time I´m in the Lord´s House and yesterday it was just peace. Even in the locker room and then even in the chapel and then all through the whole thing in Spanish and meditating in the Celestial Room, I felt peace. I could feel my testimony growing and the Lord strengthening me. I could feel my desire to serve with more diligence and love and persistence and boldness grow. Out of everything, it just felt right. It felt right to be there and that it is the House of the Lord. There weren´t thoughts of, I hope this is true because its pretty and a nice place to be, which I have thought before, but it actually felt like home (you know, like our real home), as if I´ve felt that presence before. It was very sweet.
My companion is Absolutely Amazing. Elder Aquino from Lima, Peru. He´s 26 and so . . .goodness, everything. Ha, I feel such strength as he´s my companion. He´s only been a member for 2 years and his testimony is so pure. He´s very obedient and we have the same ironic humor so we crack each other up. ha, the other day as we were taking a bus from Girardot to Melgar he says, "I need a smaller bus." "What?" I said to him not understanding what he could possibly mean as I looked down and around and saw our knees cramped against the seats in front of us and the bus packed even with standing people and all heads were bowed slight because of the low ceiling and us pressed shoulder to shoulder. And then he replied, "I mean, cuz this thing is huge." with a slightly raised eyebrow. hahahahahha, I got that he was being sarcastic and I laughed so hard. We get along really great. The main thing that helps with that is respect and service. He asks every time he wants to use my shaving cream. And the first morning with him I came out of the cold shower and saw that my shirt had already been ironed by him. Man, He´s a stud.
Ok, I got Carrie´s package and the tube package with letters gum and chocolate but that´s it. Does that mean that one is missing? Did you send another one for Christmas? Is there a way to track it if it really didn´t get here? I hope so. I love the care that always accompanies these packages. I feel that you all aren´t that far away. :)
Pnut butter is so nice. I just finished my one from gma mitchell. I never knew how blessed peanut butter is until I tried it after a month or two of Colombian food. Goodness some things are just so rich back in the states. ha, but I´m really good. I don´t wanna seem like gimme gimme gimme. I love you guys so much and thank you for all that you do. Especially your prayers. Did you guys not get your letters yet?

Ok, I love you and hope to talk to you soon.

Love your son and or brother and or whoever else this is gonna get exploited to.

Chow

Elder McDermott

p.s. Remember Family Ruiz who I wanted to be prayed for . . .well we had an amazing lesson with the spirit about the restoration and Jose smith´s experience and then they came to church last Sunday and they want us to come over at 4 today. I´m so excited. I think they´re gaining testimonies and it´s not just cuz of wanting to be around a good looking gringo. :) -That´s everything I want anyways.
Thank you for your prayers.

New Year Goals

January, 12, 2010

Hi Grandma,

I sure miss you. And am also happy when I see that I have emails from you. Things are going good here. It´s sure hot but I am fine if I just keep in mind that it´s temporary and that the sun will go down sooner or later. No one has a scale here so I don´t know how much I weigh but I sure feel like I´ve gained weight. The meals are so big here. I couldn´t eat everything when I first got to Colombia but now I´m always hungry for more. However, I noticed I was eating too much and feeling really tired because of it, and I realized that I can´t let food get in the way of my ability to work so I´m eating more conservatively now.
I like your 3 things you said you are going to do this year. One thing I´ve learned in not only boy scouts and leadership classes in school, but also here on the mission, is that a goal needs to be measurable or else it can´t be accomplished cuz you don´t know what exactly you´re working for and then when it´s all said and done you don´t know how to measure it. -So for example (that is, if you want my opinion:)) You can put for your goals: "Read my scriptures 1 hour every day" or maybe "read my scriptures for 30 min in the morning and 30 min at night" - "I will not start my day without a prayer and I will not close my day without the same." - "I will lose 7 lbs."
All those are examples but if you can measure it, then the next step is easy which is you can identify how you´re going to accomplish your goal.- And just remember this quote that a friend shared with me and I really like it,
"Failure? I never encountered it. All I ever met were temporary setbacks." -Dottie Walters
Ok Grandma, I must go. I´m excited to see your newly decorated home. You´ve always been really good with making the home feel relay cozy and inviting so I´m sure you´re gonna do the same :)
I love you so much and I will talk to you soon.
Love,
Elder Matthew McDermott

p.s. I gotta go to the temple yesterday in Bogota. Most of the day was traveling, so that stunk, but goodness the peace I felt in the temple helped my testimony to grow and made me want to work even harder as a missionary cuz I want people to feel the truth that I felt.

love ya

Cold Showers

Hello Grandma,

How come waterbottles remind you of me? haha.
I´m living in an apartment with my companion. We have a fridge. The shower has no hot water but its ok because its so hot here that the cold shower for once is quite refreshing. We boil our water and then cool it in our fridge to prevent bacteria. We eat lunch with different members every day. I usually have no idea what I´m eating. A lot of rice and beans and chicken but it´s all cooked so different here. Oh, I eat a lot of soup also. I´ll cook for you when I return. Next monday an investigator family is gonna teach me how to make a Colombian meal. I´m really excited about this family because they´re new contacts but I feel really good about them going to accept the invitation to be baptized. They´re coming to church with us this Sunday. Can you pray for them to be baptized? thanks.
:) I´m very proud of you making sure the point on your pens aren´t out after you use them. haha. I learned it from my dad.
Holy Smokes about your car. I´m sorry its having problems.
Do you need anything from me? I love you very much and I hope you know that you also are in my prayers. That you can have safety and health and especially peace in a world with so many troubles.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Love,
Elder McDermott (your grandson)