Macdonald Family - Building Something Eternal

1. Funny Mission Stories - I love reminiscing. Here's a good story:

So one night my comp and I were on our way back home. I decided that we should take a shortcut, so we rode our bikes through the parking lot of this elementary school. After riding through there for a few seconds I had a really bad feeling, so I looked back at my comp and said, "I don't have a very good feeling, let's ride faster." You can go pretty fast on a bike (even in a skirt, penny loafers, and nylons) if you get adrenaline from being scared. We were riding really fast and all of a sudden I was flying through the air and then my bike fell on me. I had hit this cement block that was just in the middle of our path. My bag opened and my stuff was all over the ground. I think I was already having a bad day because I just sat on the ground and cried. But then me and my companion started laughing about what had happened. I had so many falls on my bike that the Mission President's wife started using me and my stories as an example when telling the brand new missionaries why they needed to wear their bike helmets strapped tight. I couldn't get away from my accident-prone self even on my mission.

Okay, so here's another good one. In Taiwan you take your trash out at the same time everyday and a truck comes by and you throw it in the back of the truck. I must admit, I wasn't very good at throwing our trash out every day, and sometimes it would back up (which is sick now - I can't stand stinky trash in my house). At one point the trash was causing us to have fruit flies in our kitchen. They were grossing me out, so I decided to do something about it. We didn't have anything to spray them with except for some kind of potent shoe spray. I decided that would do the trick. I started spraying them like crazy. Well, the fumes got so strong that they sent off our fire alarm. Mind you, we were living in a 30 story building . . . and this happened to be the same apartment building our Mission President lived in. I got really scared thinking the whole building might have to evacuate, so I pulled up my skirt, leaped onto the counter and ripped the smoke detector off the ceiling. My companion at the time, Sister McGaffin (who I was training), almost fell on the ground laughing. It was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. Primary Kids - A little 3-year-old in our primary, Alex, got up in front of the class and recited from memory the 3rd Article of Faith. I think it was the cutest thing I've ever seen.

3. My husband - Mark has been such a trooper through all of this. It has been a hard last 7 weeks and he has been amazingly supportive and calm. I am forever grateful for his example and faith.

4. My kiddos - I love them! It is so fun having two! I can't wait till they can play together. Emma is so fun and thinks everything is funny. She has a great personality and sense of humor. Ethan is just my little buddy. He's always bundled up tight in a blanket with his little head poking out and his wide eyes looking around. He's just precious.