Being "Genios" . . .

February 7, 2015

Dear Family,

Wow, it sounds like you guys had a really good week!  Sounds like everything is going really well for you!  Cool to finally see some pictures of Sean, since he has been home for like a week!

Any way, this week has been really busy!  On Monday, we had a missionary get hospitalized again.  He a collapsed lung a little while back.  Well, he went in for a check up on Monday, and they told him that it had collapsed again!!  They put him back in the hospital, and then told him that he was going to need surgery.  So that was Monday, just kind of helping him, making sure he had the things that he needed, and also a lot of planning for the leadership counsel that we have every month!

On Tuesday we spent the whole day looking for things to finish up the planning.  We also had to go buy a ton of stuff for the house, the mission, and the consejo.  Then all of the zone leaders started getting in and we went to pick them all up.

Wednesday was the day of the consejo.  I was looking forward to just a really relaxed morning, because we were all completely ready.  Turns out that life had different plans.  All of the planning that was made on Monday with the doctors about for the Elder's surgery fell through.  He needed two units of blood from the blood bank just as a back up plan for his surgery, just in case.  I talked to the doctor, talked to the Red Cross, and got everything set up.  When the surgeon went to go start the surgery, he started asking questions that they didn't tell me anything about, so I missed the entire morning trying to get things figured out with the blood for the surgery, because obviously they couldn't start the surgery with out the reserve of blood.  Anyway, in the consejo, I was able to teach the main part of how to help people make and complete commitments. 

So in Alma 18 it talks about when Ammon is teaching King Lamoni.  In verse 23 it says that "ingeniously committed the king" to listen.  I took that word and challenged everyone to be "geniuses" ("genios" in spanish) in how they extend commitments.  Then I made an acronym with different letters to teach how to make and set commitments with people!!

G:  Ganar Confianza...  V. 21:  He gained the confidence of the king by supporting and serving him, and then the king was willing to do anything for Ammon.

E:  Escuchar...  V. 20:  He listened to the king's questions that he had as well as his doubts.

N:  Necesidades...  V. 14-16:  He found out by the spirit what the king's needs were to be able to find the solution.

I:  Invitar...  V. 22:  He invited without obligating the king to do something that made logical and spiritual sense that would better his life.

O:  Osado...  V. 24:  He spoke boldly to the king, without fear or confusion, stating exactly what he knew to be true.

S:  Seguimiento...  He gave follow up constantly on the way to completing the goal.  Anytime that it came up, he was thinking about it and asking how the goal was coming along.

So that went really well.  It was fun to see how all the people were taking notes, as well as having fun with my little presentation.

On Thursday I honestly don't even remember what we did.....

On Friday we had an exchange with the Zone leaders of Independencia, our own zone.  It was a lot of fun, and lots of things happened that were a first for me in the mission!!

Today, P-Day, Elder Peña went to stay with Elder Sigler in the hospital, so I just stayed in the office with Jensen and Whittier.  Then we made dinner for a sister in our ward who always makes us food, so we paid back the favor.

Well, I love you all, and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan