In this work, an annealed proton-exchanged waveguide laser is designed and fabricated in x-cut Nd:MgO:LiNbO3. This waveguide laser is pumped by a laser diode at 814 nm with a coupling optics composed by a cylindrical lens and a microobjective. The optical feedback is provided by the polished endfaces alone. The threshold of the absorbed pumping power is estimated of 3.5 mW, and its slope efficiency in terms of total lasing as a function of absorbed pumping power is 16%. With the available pump power the laser can emit up to 1.2 mW without any photorefractive damage.