"Chicken Gunya" . . . REALLY? . . .

May 26, 2014

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all of your support and everything that you have done for me!!  I love hearing that you are all having so much fun in life!!  You guys all seem like you are doing great!!

So this week was very boring to say the least!!  Elder Wassum got a sickness called "Chicken Guya",  it has got to have another, more medical sounding name, because chicken guya is just idiotic, but that is what everyone here calls it!!  It is similar to dengue, but it is very debilitating, and makes it so that your whole body just aches to the point that you can't walk!!  It comes with a super high fever, and it has just been a nightmare for him!!  He could barely eat, and so he has gotten even skinnier than he was before, and he only weighed like 135 before, so he is even skinnier now!!  They said that he needs to stay in the house, take acetamenophin, and rest!!  Not much, but we are just having to wait it out!! We have not left the house much since last Wednesday...  I have been so bored!!  I have slept a ton, read a ton, and just thought!!  I practiced a ton as well, hopefully that pays off, but it already has  ;)  The only reasons that we have left the house was on Friday to go tell Darline about her baptismal interview on Saturday, Saturday for her baptism, and then Sunday for church!!  I have been just sitting in the house, hoping that he gets better, but it made him so week that he started to contract other sicknesses, and we are thinking that he has pneumonia right now!!  It has been tough, but I am doing everything possible to stay healthy!!  I do NOT want to get sick, so I do everything possible to be healthy!!  I am still working out every day... and I am not going to lie, I am jacked right now!!  Oh new house comp, Elder Connell,  was a Division 1 college wrestler, and he even told me that I am jacked, so that made me feel good!!

So now about Elder Connell, he is a wrestler guy, and he is really cool.  He is from South Carolina, and he has been in the mission for almost 20 months!  He is most likely going to finish his mission here!  But he is a nice guy!!  He speaks like someone from the deep south, so it is fun to be around him!!  He plays piano well, and sings well!!  He just knows a lot about music in general!!

So now on to the baptismal service that we had on Saturday!!  Darline was so excited to be baptized!!  We had her interview, and she did great!! Then we had her baptism in the afternoon!!  It was so spiritual, so peaceful, and the Spirit was so strong testifying to us that what was going on was true!!  She really did look so happy!!  I got to baptize her, and I got down in the water, said the prayer, and baptized her!!  And guess what??  She got a little nervouse and raised her arm up!!  So I had to baptize her again, and it was the first time that I had to baptize someone more than once in the mission!!  So I baptize her again, and she went "dead weight" on me, meaning she lifted her legs off the ground and didn't help me get her up!!  It was a beautiful baptismal service!!

Darline's Baptism -- Elder McEwan, Darline, Elder Wassum

Very sad about Salem Hills baseball, but they all just need to remember that when it all comes down to it, the mission is what matters now!!  The state championship is huge, but the triumph of helping someone start on their road to salvation has meant more to me than a thousand state championships!!  This is the true work and glory, and it's not found on a diamond, it is found in the conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Also, the new President is here, and we get to meet him tomorrow at a Zone Conference, very excited to get to know him!!!

Love you all!  Until next week!!

Elder Garrett McEwan :)

p.s. We just celebrated Mother's Day yesterday in the D.R. :)!