The Work Goes On . . .

Dear Family and Friends,

I was not able to buy a camera yet...  We need to go to a bigger version of the store, called La Sirena (The Mermaid),  to buy one. Hopefully we can do that next week!!

Dylan,  I am glad that football is going so well for you!!  That is what hard work does for you!!  Have you been working out every day!? Do you like your new room?  I want to see lots of pictures!!  That is cool that you got to see Cosmo!!  One of my room mates is pretty anti BYU, so he was a little mad when I told him about that!!

Parker, are you just rolling in the dough now!?  Seems like it, with how much you are working!!  Just make sure that you continue to attend social events, and have fun, and do school stuff!!  It is important to be well rounded!!  Dude, we recently had Fifth Sunday too!!!  It was weird being in with the Adults for it instead of with the nursery or sunbeams...  But it was cool!!  We learned about tithing and the uses of tithing, since we only have 8 full tithe payers in the ward!!

Mom,  our Primary Program has happened as well.... the kids sang all the songs in spanish ;).  But it was really different!!  They do not have choir seats, so they had the children sit on folding chairs!! The reverence was very different, but it was good!!  They sang a lot more, and talked a lot less!!  They didn´t really have parts, they just bore their testimonies!!  It was cool to listen to what these kids believe in.  They all have a very strong testimony of prayer, and that God listens to us!!

Dad, I am glad that you have been able to progress into a new role in your job!!  I forgot to tell you, but I saw a Nature Sunshine shuttle type car here!!  Just a little taste of home!!  However, it had the older logo on it!?  So that was cool!!

Well, this week was a little tough!!  We have been working hard to be able to find new people, but it felt like we weren´t having any success!!  We spent a lot of time contacting, and found some people!!

Our best family right now is la Familia Suarez.  They are a family of 6.  It started out that we were talking to a man in a park, and they were there, and they said that they were interested in our message.  We started teaching them, and they are very open! They read the Restoration pamphlet in one day, then prayed about it.  They invited their whole family to our next lesson, and they loved it too!!  They read the pamphlet again as a family, and then prayed to know that it was true!  They felt peace, and that they had never understood the will of God so well!! They have started reading the Book of Mormon, and we are hoping that they will know that it is a true testament of Jesus Christ!!

Dominguito and Raquel are in a tough situation right now...Dominguito just got a job that requires him to work on sundays..  It is sad, but we haven´t taught him in over a week.  We pass by often and teach Raquel, and she is doing well!!  The coolest thing was when we went and were able to talk to Dominguito.  He told us that he is working to get Sundays off for church, and then we asked him how he felt about the church.  He picked up his book of Mormon, and said ´´I know this is true, and that I hold my salvation in my hands´´. So crazy!  He also told us that he is wanting to work so that he can pay tithing!!  They are a great couple!!

As far as other investigators go, we are in the early stages with most of them.  It is hard, because the economy here is very bad.  The poor people have nothing, so they have no hope that anything can help them. They sit in the cuñada and play dominos all day.  The rich people have to work or go to school, so they are hard to have return visits with!!  It's hard, because we have about 6 families that are rich that have a good desire to learn, but are too busy to meet!!  We have been creative in scheduling our return visits ;).

Anyway, my apartment doesn’t have a dirt floor, but it is really dirty all the time  ;)  I sweep every day, but since there are no glass in the window panes, the dust blows in!!  We have almost no power and no water!!  It is a thing on the roof that is called a tinaco that gets filled with water, but the people who fill it have been turning the switch off so we have no water!!  Then the government turns off the power all the time, this is difficult cuz it is unbearably hot!!  The only good part about that is that I have been sweating off all my fat!!

I am so thankful that you guys taught me how to make a budget!!  I have been living within my budget, and I have been happy and had good food!!  My companions don´t understand how I can eat so well with so little money, and I say ,¨No tengo dudas que mis Padres le conocieron¨.  Alma 56:47.

Love you all so much!!

Elder Garrett McEwan