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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Great Leadership Learning Experiences . . .

December 6, 2014

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for your email this week!!  I am so lucky to have such a great family as I do!  I love you all so much!  Thank you for sharing your experiences with me!!

So this week was very long and interesting!!  We have been super busy every day this week.  We had a trainers capacitation meeting on Wednesday, another one on Thursday, and the Zone Leader Council on Friday.  Next Monday and Tuesday, we have the Mission Christmas Parties, one in the South and the other here in the Capital.  It has all been super busy, because San Juan also has their district conference this weekend.  We also have the transfers coming up at the end of the week, as well as an activity for all of the wards in the Capital at the president's house. Elder Paulino is going home, and then we have the week of Christmas!  We have to plan Zone Activites for Christmas day, service projects through out the week, as well as help with a Flash Mob for the Institute and make a choir to sing at the park next to the temple.  I guess we could say that we have been super busy lately, and that we will continue to be busy until 2015!

So on Wednesday,we had the first of the two trainers capacitations.  It went really well!!  It was a lot of fun because I got to see my son, Elder Fallentine, and my grandson, Elder hansen.  They are both doing really well, working hard in their area, which is actually the neighboring area to Los Girasoles.  Any way, we were able to pull the meeting off with out a hitch, and ate really good food as well!!  It was like a late Thanksgiving dinner, so that was awesome!!  My part in the capacitation was fairly simple!  I spoke a little bit about budgeting and helped them to make an example budget plan.  I also spoke a little bit later about Preach My Gospel and how important that is, as well as gave them a little calendar to study Preach My Gospel.  Finally, I just spoke in the division that we did between the trainers and trainees about Conversion, and how important it is that we are truly converted before we try to convert someone else!!  It went really well!!

Thursday was the other capacitation, this time in Azua.  It was really great to have the opportunity to go back there and see everything that I used to see every day!!  I got to talk to my old Zone Leaders, as well as with Elder Castillo and his trainee.  They said that the area is going well, and that Alexis is getting baptized this next Saturday and so is Evelyn, two people that I taught, so that was really awesome to hear!!  Also, Mercedes, one of my converts, is getting her eyes operated on finally, so hopefully all goes well with that!!  The meeting went well.  The kids were a little bit tired because they had to travel a lot more than the people from the Capital, but it still went well!!

Friday was the Zone Leader Council.  We had everything ready, and then the president told us that he wanted a copy of our new ZL manual that we did for everybody, so I had to run home and print off 15 copies of a 46 page manual....  let's just say that that was not a short trip home.  We were able to get it all printed off, and went to the ZL Council.  It was a lot more calm in this meeting for me because I did not have much participation!!  :)  I had a half hour participation talking about the new Christmas program "El es la Dadiva", so that was super easy!!  I could have talked about God's love for us and His Son Jesus Christ for 30 years, and I only had 30 minutes, but it went well!  Then we took people to where they needed to go to go back home, and went and taught some lessons.  The lessons have been a little bit hard for me lately because the people just aren't progressing.  They might go to church fairly often, but they don't keep the commitments to read the Book of Mormon and they aren't praying for answers!  It is hard and a little bit tricky at times to try to help them along because I don't want to offend them because they are my companions family members, but I really want to help them understand that we aren't just there to be their friends and have a bible study class, but that we are there to help them change their lives!!  Hopefully all of that will start to pick up soon after the transfer finishes!!

Elder Peña is doing great, we are having lots of fun!  We are both just trying to get accustomed to the office life and trying to find what we can do to improve the things that might not be functioning the way that they should be here in the office!!  We have some big plans for when the transfer comes, one of which includes the idea to only work in the office in the morning and try to be out teaching in the afternoon!!

Dad, congratulations for applying for the new job!!  I know that it is hard, but things happen for a reason, and we need to put our best foot forward.  It is never easy to change something that has been done for so long in a certain way, but there is always room for improvement!!  That is something that I learn more and more every day here in the office.  Some of the things that we do here have been done in the SAME way for YEARS!!  If something doesn't work, we have to find a way to make it better.  If we are not progressing, we need to find a way to progress!!  I love you so much and I wish you the best of luck in the new job hunt!!  I LOVE YOU!!

Family, I love you all so much!!  I hope you have a wonderful week, and I can't wait to talk on Christmas!!  Love you!!

Love,


Elder Garrett McEwan

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