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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Temple Trip with Members . . .

August 11, 2014

Dear Family,

It is so great to hear everything that has been happening to all of you!!  It is crazy how fast the summer has gone by!  Where did it even go??  It seems like just yesterday you guys were telling me about Salem Days 2013, and now it has passed in 2014!!  What a crazy thought, to think how short the mission is, and how quickly the time goes by....  I didn´t even remember that it was Salem Days this week!!

Any way, this week was really good, and just flew by!!  On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to do two more baptismal interviews, one of a woman named Nancy, and the other of a man named Israel.  They were both really prepared, and have progressed and gained that testimony that we want all new converts to have!!  I was also able to teach Israel about the priesthood, and helped him prepare himself to receive the priesthood yesterday!!  That was a cool and humbling experience, and I know that he is going to be a great and strong member in the future!!

On Wednesday we just had a normal day, and we went and visited all of our people:  Feyo, Deysi, Ingrid, Mery, Alexis, and all of the rest of them!!  We taught a lot about church, because that is the only thing that is a little week right now!!   All of these people are so strong in their belief in the church, it is just a little tough to have to fight against something that is part of the culture!!  Dominicans don´t like to leave their houses, so it is a little tough sometimes to get them to come to church, but they are all going to try harder, and that is all that the Lord asks of them!!

We had our last District Meeting as a District on Friday, because Elder Reyes is getting transferred and Hermana Stewart is going home!!  It was fun, we had a good time!!  Hermana Stewart and Hermana Flint also made me no bake cookies, because they know I love them!!  They have made them 3 times out of the 6 that we have had district meeting this transfer!!

On Saturday we had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple with the branch, new converts, and a few less actives that we helped activiate!!  We left the house at 6:30 a.m. to go to the church, and then sat on the bus for 3 hours to get to the temple!  It definately made me super appreciative for the opportunity that we have in Utah to be able to get to more than 10 temples in that amount of time!!  ANy way, we got there, ate breakfast, and then went to the Baptistry.  We as missionaries are not allowed to baptize or be baptized because we are commissioned to preach to the living, but we were able to help with paper work and watch the people perform the ordinances!! Some were even moved to tears as they were baptized and confirmed for their family members and friends that have passed away!!  It truly was a beautiful experience to be able to participate in!! After the temple, we went to the CCM and ate lunch!  I was able to talk to a few new missionaries, as well as some of my old teachers!!  It was cool to see that they recognized me on sight!!  It was a great day!!  Then we went home, and Elder Cisneros and I talked for a really long time!!  He is just about done with his training, so it was cool to be able to talk just me and him and see how he felt about the mission!

So today we went on a hike to this radio antenna in the mountains!!  It was pretty cool!!  It was funny though... to get to the top took about a half an hour...   I remember hiking Mt. Timp on my birthday for like about 6 hours!! What a difference  ;).  Any way, there was also a baseball field up there in a clearing, so we went to watch for a second.  We were just watching, and a ball came over by us that was batted, so I fielded it and threw it in!!  They invited me to play, and it was just like back in high school...   I felt great!!  I did really well, they invited me to hit, I went in to hit, and hit 3 homeruns on 8 pitches!  That was a good feeling!!

Any way, I hope this email finds you all well!!  Keep up the good work, and the Lord will continue to bless you all!!  I LOVE YOU!!

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan

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