Translate

Monday, May 18, 2015

New Companion, New Investigators, & Elder McQueen . . .

May 18, 2015

Dear Family,

It was good to talk to all of you this last week.  It is crazy to think that that is my last phone call home on the mission.  I guess that it is just a sign that I am pretty close.  It was good to see in your email that all of you are doing well and that you are all having a good time.  Sean and Parker, congrats on the ceremony thing for your class, I hope you had fun.  Dylan, good job on track this week, I am glad that you are liking it!  Mom, I hope you can get that job that you want, just let me know how that all goes!  And Dad, I am glad that you had fun at your family home evening last week.  Sounds like that ward will be fun for you.

So this week, as you all know, I received my new companion.  His name is Elder Palomar, and he is from Payson, Utah.  I wasn't friends with him before the mission, but I knew who he was.  He is really cool, and works hard.  He just got baptized a year before he went on the mission, and he is an only member in his family.  The rest of his family are members of the catholic church.

Anyway, things this week have been going really well.  We have just been focusing on teaching people who are genuinely interested in learning more, and we don't even put lessons with people who don't show true interest.  We have been working hard to change this area, which has struggled for years, and it has been tough, but we saw some good changes this last week.

First off we have Yeni, who is really cool, and her daughter Jeidy.  They have been being taught for 3 weeks now, and they came to church for the first time yesterday.  They loved it.  Yeni said that she felt something different, and that it was different from any of the other churches that she had ever been to, and Jeidy, who is 8, loved the primary.  Yeni also has a 2 month old that she brought, and it was amazing because the baby slept the whole time, letting Yeni just focus on what was being said!  She also has a two year old named Dillan, but he didn't go.  It is funny because in this area no one can say my name, so I just told everyone to call me McQueen, like lightning McQueen, because it was easier, so they do.  It was funny because Dillan said to Yeni that they needed to leave the door open because  "El hombre McQueen viene hoy".  They are a great family.

We also were able to receive a reference of a girl named Cami.  She went to church 2 weeks ago and we got her address and everything to be able to go and teach her....  and in the street that she lived in, there were 3 houses that had the same house number...  So we contacted all three of them.  None of them were her house, so we contacted the whole street...  and still didn't find her!  So we just started at one end and walked the whole street, hoping that she would just see us...  didn't happen.  Then we went with some members yesterday who had been to her house before and were able to get it all figured out!

We also found a cool guy named Alfred and his wife Yuli.  They are really cool, and were genuinely interest in how the gospel can help their family and their relationship.  They have been together since she was 15 and he was 17,  and have been together for 15 years.  They have 5 kids, but things just aren't going super well in their family life.  Hopefully they will be able to come to church.  We gave Alfredo a shirt and 2 ties so that he can feel comfortable going to church.

Today we had an activity at President Nuckols house.  It was a lot of fun.  We played dodgeball, soccer, and basketball.  My team took first in dodgeball, second in soccer, and first in basketball.  Then we had a water balloon fight, then had a barbecue.  It was fun. 

Something that I just want to share really quick is the importance of showing our faith by our actions.  Like it says in James 2:17-18, faith with out works is dead, and that we need to show our faith by our actions.  It is more than just NOT doing bad things....  WE NEED TO DO GOOD THINGS!!!  I encourage you to continue reading and praying everyday, with purpose, and to put your faith into action and LIVE the gospel.

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

The Work is Progressing . . .

May 5, 2015

Dear Family,

Well, this week was full of contacting, but this time we were able to have a little bit more success.  We found a couple of new people who seem like they are really interested in learning more about the gospel.

The first is Cami.  She is a reference from the other missionaries in the house.  They contacted her, and she lives in our area, so they told us about her.  She is 16, but came to church this week, so that was good.  We still haven't had a lesson with her because we can't find her house!  We took her address down, and we have found the street, as well as the number.  We contacted all of the houses and couldn't find her, so we contacted the whole street...  Still can't find her.  Called her phone number and it didn't work, so that wasn't good.  We are hoping for a miracle right now!

Next we have Alberto.  He is a really humble guy that is really anxious to learn more about the gospel.  He talked with us and told us his life story.  He is a young guy, like early 30s probably, but he was really awesome.  We are hoping to meet his wife this week!  He also asked us a super funny question.  He asked if we were from the CIA, and we said no.  Then he told us that he had heard that because people told him that we were looking for Osama Bin Laden!?  That was the first time that I heard that, so it was super funny!

The final person that I think will be really cool is Yeni.  She is cool, and actually thinks about what we say.  She said that after we talked about prophets, she had a dream about prophets!  Kind of funny, and lots of Dominicans think that it is like revelation, but she just realized that it is something that interests her and that it has been on her mind.

Yesterday was Labor Day here so the internet places were closed. I appreciated the Bishop letting me use his little tablet to let you know I would email today J. I hope that all is well!  Sorry that this one is kind of short!

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan

P.S. I'm excited to talk to you all for Mother's Day. I'll be calling on Monday since we go to internet places and have to pay.