Special Transfer . . . New Experiences . . .

Good 'ol Juan Pablo

July 7, 2014

Dear family,

So this week has been really crazy!!  But, before I move on, I really just want to tell all of you Happy Fourth of July.  We are so fortunate to call the United States of America our home!!

Ok, so we went to Las Charcas on Tuesday, and at about 4 o clock in the afternoon, we get a call from the Assistants....  Special Transfer for us?=! Needless to say we were both very surprised and very sad, Elder Dabady and I because we did not have much time together.  We went immediately home, packed him up, and waited for the other missionaries to get there. They got there at like 9, and then they stayed the night, left Wednesday morning.

Wednesday I was called as the District Leader.  I had about 12 days in the area, and we have two areas.  It is definately something that will be good for me, and is something that is going to help me a ton!!!  We had our first district meeting.

Me and Elder Gallo

Anyway, my new companion is named ·Elder Gallo.  He is from Colombia, and has 21 months in the mission.  He was a Zone Leader in Bani before he came here!!  He is really nice, and has a lot of excitement to be here. He is a hard worker, and is friendly with all of the investigators that we have, and is really just a good missionary.  

So now on to the investigators...

Right now, Alexis is having some very hard problems with his girlfriend that he lives with.  They fight physically, they yell, the don´t talk to each other, everything that you can imagine!!  He is very torn up about it, and we don´t know what to do!!  We are having a family home evening with him, and we are going to show him a movie that will hopefully hit him pretty hard, and help him to want to make the change!"!

Next we have Edailin and Guario, the two young people!!  Guario didn´t come to church this week, but Edailyn did!!  He even shared his testimony!! He is going to be baptized on the 26th of July, and he shared his testimony about how he has been so fortunate to get to know this church, and that he is so happy that he is going to get baptized!!  He wants to go on a mission and be "un buen misionero"  like the missionaries who are teaching him!!  It was really amazing!!  We taught him a bunch of commandments this week, like the law of chastity and tithing and word of wisdom, he has zero problems with that, and we are working hard with him to read the book of Mormon!!

Next we have Ingrid.  She was not feeling well this week, so we just stopped by, made sure that she was doing ok, and then continued on our way!!

We have a man named Fello, and he is amazing.  His daughter in law, Maria Isabel, is a recent convert, and he said that he had a dream about him with two people that weren´t dominican in white clothes, and he was in white as well!!  We have been teaching him really slowly, because he is a little old, like 65, and has a hard time understanding, but we are having lots of patience with him and he has accepted a baptismal fecha for the 13 of september!!!  His son, Rudy, also has a fecha for that day, so hopefully we can have two strong, worthy priesthood holders!!  

We also have a woman named Daisy.  She has come to church twice, and last night also accepted a fecha for the 13 of september.  We want to have a "White Out"  with a huge group of people who are making a sacred covenant with the Lord, because when we do things as a group, like one big family, we stay strong, just like a closed fist.  We can easily break a single finger, but if we are united, like a closed fist, nothing can enter and harm us!!

We have a ton more people that we are teaching, but these are the ones who have accepted baptismal fecha.

La Plaza de Juan Pablo

Now on to my new experience.  I am the President of the group in Las Charcas, like the Branch President.  That was a pretty big surprise to hear that!  I basically do everything over there!!  Haha I set the program, and even collect tithing and offerings!!  What a big thing!!  But this last sunday as you know was fast and testimony meeting.  The other elders here told me that no one ever shared their testimony, and the missionaries ended up having to get up and talk for 15 minutes each to keep the reverence and such.  I decided that I was just going to call people up individually if no one wanted to share their testimony.  I spoke for about 2 minutes about testimonies, and then called on Milania.  She came up and shared a beautiful testimony about her family and the plan of salvation!!!  I was ready to get up and call someone else when she sat down, but immediately after her, her husband got up!!  All of the people shared their testimonies, and we had a full on sacrament meeting!! Then we had a great sunday school about the holy ghost, learned a ton, had some fun game activity things, and went back to the other area!!  I love it here!!

Today we had a district activity, but only one companionship of the sisters came.  We ate ice creams, tostadas, and took pictures!!  Those will be coming your way soon!!

Thank you all for the birthday wishes, it made me very happy!!  Sometimes I feel like I am 18 going on 30, but 19, wow, that is a big number!!  I love you!!

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan  :)

Just hangin' out on P-day :)