Blessings in Azua . . .

What a blessing it is to have the opportunity to communicate with Elder Garrett McEwan each week so far in his mission. We learn so much from him and hope that we truly help him as well. What a wonderful time to be a missionary and the family of not only one missionary but two!

June 30, 2014

Dear Family,

I love you all so much!!  It is so amazing to have your support and love every week!!  I am so glad that I am able to hear everything that is going on in your lives!!  You guys are so amazing!!

So this week was packed full of work!!  It was amazing!!  We were working harder than ever, and we taught 46 lessons!!  It was amazing!!  I am going to jump right in to the investigators and how everyone is doing!!

My new District: Me, Elder Dabady,
Elder Reyes, Elder Cisneros

So we have Alexis, and he is super cool!!  He is a very hard worker, and he is doing an amazing job preparing himself to be baptized!!  His one problem is that he is not married.  He needed to get divorced, and he did that, and now he just needs to get married to the woman that he lives with!!  He also just recently got a job, so now he  has the difficulty of working on sundays...  He is already looking for a solution to this!!  He said that he is supposed to work 6 hours a day on sunday, so he is going to take his hours out of his lunch hour, like work through lunch hour the other 6 days of the week so that he can go to church on sunday!  He is really amazing, and his faith is incredible.  He is a person full of questions, and he is always asking us things, sometimes very obscure things, to try to confuse us!!  He is super awesome though, and it is really great to be able to teach him!!!

Next we have Edailin and Warior, and they are both 16 years old.  They live in Las charcas, and they are progressing really well!!  They live like 45 minutes away from La Colonia, and they went to the district conference still!  They are awesome!!  They are learning about chastity right now, and they are keeping all of the commitments!!!  They are hopefully going to be getting baptized on July 26, so that will be a very awesome day!!

Next we have Mary and Igrid, and they are both in the same situation...  19 years old, 2 kids...  Yikes.  They both seem really innocent though??  It is definately an experience though.  They both have the goal to be baptized in September, but they both need to get married first!!  They are really cool though.  They love learning, and have learned a ton, especially about the plan of Salvation.  They are progressing really well, we just have to start teaching their boyfriends, and help them to understand how that if they really love this woman, they need to get married, and that they can be an eternal family!!  But they are doing really well!!

Those are the progressing investigators that we have, but we have a ton of others that we are hoping will start to progress!!  We are also trying to help this branch become a ward, and the district to become a stake!  The work here in Azua is booming, and that means that more an more people are preparing themselves to receive the gospel of Jesus christ!!!  It is really amazing to see how the Lord has prepared this little place of Azua...  he really has touched this area to be a strong place in the church!! I am so priviledged to be able to work he as a missionary.

P-Day Activity BEFORE

So I sent a letter off to you, I hope that you get it soon!  I tried to include a little bit from each day, so that you can see exactly how the work is out here in good old Azua!!

So any way, yesterday I had a really cool experience.  We had a District Conference, and there were about 500 people there.  We were just talking to the people, and I saw a man.  He was dirty from head to toe, just standing off kind of by a big group of people, and no one was talking to him.. He looked really out of place, and he just looked different than everyone.  He caught my eye, and then called me over.  I went over, and he told me a really sad story about his life, that he couldn't find happiness, and what caught his attention was that all of the people in the church were laughing and enjoying themselves, because they knew that they were children of our Heavenly Father.  It made me really sad to hear how sad he was.  I started to talk to him, and he was just listening.  I shared a little bit about the plan of salvation, and it was really great!  I talked to him, and any way, we started to start to go inside the church!!  I invited him inside, and he told me thatt he would love to, but that he couldn't.  Then he turned around and walked out...  So I went inside.  I left for a second to answer the phone, and he went in!!  He called me over to talk to him, so I sat down next to him.  It was great.  he was so happy!!

This was just a really strong testimony to me that God does not make exceptions of any person.  He wants all of His children to hear His word.  It was hard for me to go talk to that man, because he was so different, and looked so bad.  but then I thought to myself, "How does God see me?"  With all of my sin, with all of my imperfections, I am sure that I look like that man to Him.  But He sent His son,  Jesus Christ, to bring me back to Him, just like he has sent me hear to bring the people of the Dominican Republic back to Him.  I am extremely priviledged to be here, doing this work, and to be able to be an instrument in His hands.

I really do love the mission, and I really am taking advantage of every second I have here!!  We are working harder than ever, and I am so glad that we are able to help so many!! 

P-Day Activity AFTER

So Dylan asked me what are some of the blessings that I have received on the mission.  Probably the biggest blessing tha I have seen in my mission is the greater understanding that I have of the Atonement of Christ! I know that He suffered for everything, and that he did these things because he loves us.  He empowers us, with strength to over come any challenge that presents itself.  He gives us His spirit to be able to soften the hearts of his children.  he gives us the faith to carry on.  He loves us perfectly.  I can say that I know for certain that this Sacrifice thatt He did for us is the greating blessing in our lives!!

My other biggest blessing is my new found knowledge of the Plan that God has for families.  My family is the biggest thing in my life, and I thank God every day for giving me the opportunity to come on the mission and become the man that my Future Family needs me to be as a husband and father!!

I love all of you!!  I can not wait to hear all of your experiences for next week!!

Love, Your Son and Brother,
Elder Garrett McEwan

Oh p.s. we pulled weeds as a service project!!  everyone was asking how I knew how to do it so well!  I just told them that I learned from La Maestra  ;)