Blessings, Blessings, Blessings . . .

What a blessing to have a loving Heavenly Father. When we think we have exhausted every possibility of ourselves, He puts someone else in our path to make everything fall into place. After four months of contacting people from Coast to Coast and in the DR to get Garrett's Eagle Project to the Academy, everything was taken care of in a matter of about three minutes on the phone! We were able to contact and meet the Schramm family. They were leaving for the Dominican Republic the day after we called them! They were able to deliver the long-awaited for Eagle Scout Project to the Dominican Republic Sports & Education Academy, take other sports equipment to Elder McEwan to use as a "tool" as he teaches the gospel to the people of the Dominican Republic, AND take Christmas to him!

12 Days of Christmas from my family; Soccer balls &
Footballs to give to the children

November 25, 2013

Dear family!

Dude dyl pickle that is so cool about the braces!! What color are you going to get? How long are you going to have them for?? I wish I could see Peter Pan... I bought some Peter Pan peanut butter, and it made me want to watch it!! What is in your mission handbook????

Parker I am so glad that your birthday was so fun!! Too bad I couldn´t be there to surprise you with some birthday spankings at your surprise party!! Who was there? I can not believe you are a priest now!! Seems like just on November 20 you were a teacher!! ;) SO, have you had any dates planned yet?!

So Mom, I heard that you found out what was hurt with your hand?? What was it exactly?? I am glad that you guys are finishing their rooms!! So much fun!! How is the Gift Club going? Any other fun gift ideas lately??

Dad, we too have been talking a lot about tithing and fast offerings. THe only way we can split the ward here is to have more full tithe payers, which we have about 6. A little rough, but it is ok!! How was the temople?? Were you guys able to go at all before that??

So Enmanuel is going to be baptized on the 30th, so that is good!! He recently (Sunday Morning) Had a gas explosion at his house and burnt of his eyebrows completely!! He still came to church, even though I am not going to lie... He looked like an alien!! That is a true man of God, a man that has truly changed his life!! What a great example he is to all of us!!

We also have a girl named Crismaldi and her brother, Brian. Crismaldi has been to chruch every week since I have been here, and Brian has gone 2 times in a row. They will be baptized on the 4th of December.

As far as other investigators, we have a lot more that we are teaching, but just waiting to see if they will progress. THe people that want to listen and change their lives don´t have time, and the people who have time don´t want to listen!! Frustrating, but so goes the work!!

Bag full of the some of the sports equipment from my
Eagle Scout Project to give to the children

So on Friday I think it was, Thomas´s trainer calls him and says "Hey Thomas, it´s Rhett Crandall, we want to come see you!!" A moment of silence, then, "hey do you know an Elder McEwan?" Thomas responds, "yeah, he lives here!" He said they had a surprise for me. Thomas and Pedersen went to go meet them at the cemetary, and me and Galindo stayed at the house. Galindo said that he didn´t want to leave his food that was cooking. All of the sudden a van is in front of our house, and all these white people are coming up the stairs. Rhett comes in the house, drops a gigantic duffle bag at my feet and gives me a huge hug. Then he unzips the bag and I see my Eagle Scout stuff that wasn’t going to the Academy!! They had brought it down right to the house!! Super cool!! And now it is finished! Then they pull out a big white bag... Christmas!! By the way, thank you for the stocking and presents!! We had to open the stocking because we were all so excited!!! We were so blessed to have that, because the teaching has been a little rough lately, so that was a welcome blessing!! We now have a bunch of stuff to give to kids as Christmas presents as Christmas gets a little bit closer!! I have these little kids that love me, and always say, "hey McEw (they can´t say McEwan, like mac ewe) vamos a jugar hoy?" Every day!! We are going to give them some actual bats and balls, so that will be really cool!!

Also, thank you for the 12 days of Christmas for me and my companion. We didn´t open those yet, we are going to do them on the actual 12 days leading up to Christmas. It will be fun to look up the scriptures and try to guess what is inside of the packages. Also, I am going to share with the whole house if they don´t get packages on time, but Pedersen has a package coming soon, so it will most likely be just my comp who opens those other ones!! But thank you so much!! Yes, I did see the flash drive in the stocking, thank you!! DId you get my picture card yet??

Also, we got that new big house. President felt bad for us or something, and so we will be moving in there pretty soon!!

Still doing well out here. I have lead all the lessons this week, so I have learned a lot!! The members also really like me, and give me lots of food, ties, etc.!! So good to be here in this place!!

I love you all so much!!

Elder Garrett McEwan