"Chicken Gunya" . . . REALLY? . . .

May 26, 2014

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for all of your support and everything that you have done for me!!  I love hearing that you are all having so much fun in life!!  You guys all seem like you are doing great!!

So this week was very boring to say the least!!  Elder Wassum got a sickness called "Chicken Guya",  it has got to have another, more medical sounding name, because chicken guya is just idiotic, but that is what everyone here calls it!!  It is similar to dengue, but it is very debilitating, and makes it so that your whole body just aches to the point that you can't walk!!  It comes with a super high fever, and it has just been a nightmare for him!!  He could barely eat, and so he has gotten even skinnier than he was before, and he only weighed like 135 before, so he is even skinnier now!!  They said that he needs to stay in the house, take acetamenophin, and rest!!  Not much, but we are just having to wait it out!! We have not left the house much since last Wednesday...  I have been so bored!!  I have slept a ton, read a ton, and just thought!!  I practiced a ton as well, hopefully that pays off, but it already has  ;)  The only reasons that we have left the house was on Friday to go tell Darline about her baptismal interview on Saturday, Saturday for her baptism, and then Sunday for church!!  I have been just sitting in the house, hoping that he gets better, but it made him so week that he started to contract other sicknesses, and we are thinking that he has pneumonia right now!!  It has been tough, but I am doing everything possible to stay healthy!!  I do NOT want to get sick, so I do everything possible to be healthy!!  I am still working out every day... and I am not going to lie, I am jacked right now!!  Oh new house comp, Elder Connell,  was a Division 1 college wrestler, and he even told me that I am jacked, so that made me feel good!!

So now about Elder Connell, he is a wrestler guy, and he is really cool.  He is from South Carolina, and he has been in the mission for almost 20 months!  He is most likely going to finish his mission here!  But he is a nice guy!!  He speaks like someone from the deep south, so it is fun to be around him!!  He plays piano well, and sings well!!  He just knows a lot about music in general!!

So now on to the baptismal service that we had on Saturday!!  Darline was so excited to be baptized!!  We had her interview, and she did great!! Then we had her baptism in the afternoon!!  It was so spiritual, so peaceful, and the Spirit was so strong testifying to us that what was going on was true!!  She really did look so happy!!  I got to baptize her, and I got down in the water, said the prayer, and baptized her!!  And guess what??  She got a little nervouse and raised her arm up!!  So I had to baptize her again, and it was the first time that I had to baptize someone more than once in the mission!!  So I baptize her again, and she went "dead weight" on me, meaning she lifted her legs off the ground and didn't help me get her up!!  It was a beautiful baptismal service!!

Darline's Baptism -- Elder McEwan, Darline, Elder Wassum

Very sad about Salem Hills baseball, but they all just need to remember that when it all comes down to it, the mission is what matters now!!  The state championship is huge, but the triumph of helping someone start on their road to salvation has meant more to me than a thousand state championships!!  This is the true work and glory, and it's not found on a diamond, it is found in the conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ!!

Also, the new President is here, and we get to meet him tomorrow at a Zone Conference, very excited to get to know him!!!

Love you all!  Until next week!!

Elder Garrett McEwan :)

p.s. We just celebrated Mother's Day yesterday in the D.R. :)!

Las Palmas Becomes Independencia . . .

May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

Things here are going great!!  Las Palmas is no longer a zone, it has been dissolved.  We had a special conference on sunday to reassign stake boundaries, and it wa really awesome!!  We are now forming a new stake, one that is called  Independencia!!   The official name will be la estaca republica dominicana independencia!!  It will take affect tomorrow!! We are all very happy about it!"!  I am also staying for another transfer, as well as Wassum and Pedersen!!  De la Cruz is the only one leaving, so we will see how all of that ends up!!  We are all doing really well, just continuing to work hard!!

So this week we did some pretty fun things!!  We watched the movie, The Son of God, at a ward activity!!  It was really good!!  We also had Familia Soto there, and they are starting to get reactivated!!  That is Angelica´s family!!  She still has a baptismal fecha for the 28 of June, and she is right on track!!  It is really awesome!!  She also has 2 consecutive times in church, so that is really great as well!!

Darline is doing great, and we are going to have her baptism on Saturday!!  We are going to go over with the ward mission leader to do paperwork on wednesday I think!!

Speaking of the ward mission leader, he got super sick this week!!  We went to visit a member family, Familia Reyes, that we are teaching the wife english to try to help he get a good job!!  The husband, who is the second counselor in the bishopric, was leaving to go visit the ward mission leader to give him a blessing, and asked us to go with him!!  We went, and the mission leader really was super sick!!  I asked him who he wanted to give him the blessing, assuming that he was going to say Herman Reyes, but he asked me to do it!!  It was crazy!!  The spirit was so strong!!  We blessed him that he would be better by the next day, to be able to go to work!?  And he was!!  That was crazy!!  An amazing testimony to me of the power of the priesthood that I hold!!

We were able to cover the two areas just fine!!  It was a lot of walking, and one day Pedersen stayed in the house, the next day Wassum stayed in the house, and De la Cruz went out the next day!!  It was good!! They also are going to have a baptism on Saturday!!

I love you all so much!! I am so glad that you are all doing so well!!  I can not wait to hear even more updates!!

Love you!!

Elder Garrett McEwan

Mother's Day Skype Call . . .

What a wonderful Mother's Day to get to talk with this amazing Elder! We were able to have great reception for 2 hours and 15 minutes. How happy it made all of us to be able to see and hear him. Elder McEwan is as happy as ever as he serves the people of the Dominican Republic as well as his Heavenly Father.

There is no better way to spend Mother's Day -- Happy Mom, Happy Dad, Happy Boys . . . Happy LIFE!

Parker and Dylan and Elder Garrett :)

Still Working Hard and Loving the Mission . . .

May 5, 2014

Mega Pedazo!!!

Dear Family,

That is so great that you guys are all doing so well!!!  I am glad that you guys were able to give the tramp to the brinkerhoffs, they will have a blast with it!!!

So I am not going to lie, this is going to be a short email this week...  Just not very much happened!!  The investigators keep cancelling us, and the contacting has not been effective either!!!  We have had to start being more creative with the way we do the contacting!!  Knocking on a door isn't working right now, so we have started to plan family home evenings with investigators to invite their friends and families to the lessons!!  We talk to anyone who looks at us, and are just planting about ten million seeds, hoping that one day someone is going to want to have a cita!!  It is all good though, still just working hard and loving the mission!!

We had a bird in our HOUSE!

So Darline is so ready to be baptized that we almost moved her fecha to this Saturday instead of in two weeks, but we left it the same!!  She is very excited!!  She does everything that she can in her life, and just leaves the rest of it up to God!!  She really is awesome!!

Beautiful DR Sunset

So today is the 5 de mayo, a Mexican holiday, but they are celebrating it here??  A little funny, but the decided to call it the Day of the Worker, which was actually supposed to be on Thursday but they changed it to today to be 5 de mayo!!!

We are going to make district t shirts, supposedly ther it a place to customize them, so we are doing that for a multizone activity!!!

Love you all so much!!  Hopefully all is well!!!

Love,

Elder Garrett McEwan  :)

Testimony vs. Conversion . . .

Words from a wise young missionary :) . . .

Dear Family,

Thank you all so much for your letters and emails that I received last week! It is always such a nice surprise to have mail! Also, thank you for the hardcopy pictures that you sent. It is really nice to be able to look at them whenever I want and not just on P-day.

Congratulations, Dad, on the new calling to the BYU Stake. That will be a great opportunity for you all to grow and help others grow as well. Something that I have seen on the mission is that those early to mid 20's years are the hardest; it is important to retain a testimony and conversion through these years. If a person can remain converted to the gospel through those years, they will be converted for life.

This is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately, the difference between a testimony and a conversion. Sometimes we thing that a testimony is a conversion, but really a testimony is what leads us to conversion. A testimony is a knowledge of something we know to be true, while conversion is an action! How can we be truly converted if we never act? Conversion is what shows that we are willing "to leave behind the nets in an instant and follow HIM"! (Matthew 4:19-20)

I know that if we convert ourselves to the Lord, to His gospel, and to His plan, we truly will find the eternal blessings and treasures that are promised to us in Heaven. Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and if we convert ourselves fully, we will have His blessing.

The English class is still a little so-so right now, with not much out of class practice going on, and the attendance changes every time! New people, so it is a little hard, but we are doing our best!

I love you all so much, and hope that you doing great!

Love,
Elder Garrett McEwan :)

"One By One" . . .

April 28, 2014

Dear Family,

It was so great to hear from all of you this week!!  The rocks are looking amazing, and the yard too!! Congrats on the new car!!  You guys are very lucky to have that!!  Definately something that I miss!!  We walk lots here, but we get to appreciate lots of beautiful scenery!!  Also, Mitch and Clay look great, just like the missionaries that they are!!  So proud of them and everything that they have done!!

So on Wednesday, we went to Chili's to get some food for Elder Pedersen's birthday!!  They charged us an arm and a leg, but it was definately worth it!!  It was really good, and we got to just enjoy a good American Lunch!!

Thursday we had a zone conference, and it is most likely the last one that we will have with President Rodriguez.  Because of their housing situation, they need to leave to go live there this next week...  In CANADA!!  Not quite sure why they chose Canada, but that will be tons of fun for them!!  I got the Easter Package, we colored eggs, and made a cake for Pedersen's birthday!!  Also, we put up balloons, and I got him a basketball!!  FUN DAY!!!

Elder Pedersen's Birthday "Party"

Everything is going great as usual in the mission!!  Just loving the work, and really trying to consecrate myself to that!!!  We have been working really hard lately, knowing that the Lord is going to bless us one day!!!  We recently decided that we were going to find all of the members in our half of the area, and so we set out with the list and are going street by street, alley by alley, looking for these people!!!  We have taken on the challenge that is given in the Book of Mormon, going "one by one" to rescue the lost sheep!!  It has been a crazy adventure, and I am sure that people think that we are from the CIA.  I am not going to lie...  I sometimes lean my head over to the side and whisper something into my shoulder, but my hand to my ear like I am listening to something, and click my pen when we walk past a group of people!!!  We were talking with Erika, and investigator that we have had for a while, and she is really nice!!  But anyway she was joking around that people see to Americans walking around and think we are from the CIA, and I said that we were!!  She said she didn't believe me....  Challenge Accepted!!  Finished the lesson, prayed, and got up to leave!!  Walked out the door, and I just held my pen up over my shoulder, popped the top off, dropped it in the middle of her front room, and took off running!!  My comp got the joke and took off too!!  She freaked out and jumped behind the couch!! Came back in, dying laughing, and it was just a good old time!!!  Hopefully we can just get her to church now, and she can start to progress more!!

Love my Easter basket!

So now on to the others, starting with Darline.  This is a situation that just kills my heart.  She does not have the means to move out of her exboyfriend's house, and so she sleeps on the floor to keep the law of chastity.  She comes to church every week, and now has 8 times consecutive in church!!  She is truly amazing!!  She is working so hard!!!  It is awesome to see her progression, and I have truly felt the spirit manifest itself in our lessons!!  She is also teaching me French, so hopefully by the time I go home I will have that as well!!  

Next we have Yackeline!!  She asked us a really profound question this week, about how she could REALLY get an answer!!  She told us that she is a person that wants to know, and so we talked a ton about prayer and the spirit!!  She has been praying very hard, and hopefully we will be able to help guide her down the path!!

The mission really is the most fulfilling part of my life that I have lived.  The level of my conversion to this gospel has grown at an amazing rate!  The Lord didn't need me personally;  there would be others.  But I was the one that needed the Lord.  I was the one that needed the help, the change, the opportunity to help others have the joy that I feel!!!

I love you all so much, and just want to let you know that I know that the gospel is true!!

I LOVE YOU!

Elder Garrett McEwan  :)

I Love This Church . . .

April 21, 2014

Dear Family,

One of "our" beautiful flowers in the DR

Wow, the flower bed looks really nice, as well as Easter stuff and all of the pictures that you sent me!!  I am so glad that you were able to enjoy all of the festivities, as well as remember our Savior Jesus Christ!!!

I am not going to lie, this last week made me so happy to be a part of the one and only true church of Christ!!!  The Semana Santa is a holiday that is observed by the Catholic church and has been instituted as a national holiday in the majority of Latin American countries!!  But it is like spring break here, and everyone is off from school, EVERY SINGLE store closes, and then every one goes to the campo, the country side where they are from!  In essence, no one is home, so it was definately very hard this week!! WE were doing everything that we could possible think of to stay busy!!

P-day lunch with all the "brothers"

Well, right now our only progressing investigator is Darline, and she is doing wonderful!!  We have decided to really put the emphasis on her, and get her super prepared for her baptism on May 17!!  She is reading in the folletos, and then she circles the words that she doesn´t understand, and we come and teach it to her!!  ALso, we have been reading everything with her to help her understand, and she retains it really well!!  ONe time this week, something super cool happened, and she was trying to explain to us what she learned, and she couldn´t think of a word in spanish!!  She was struggling, so I told her to just say it in Creole, or French, or which ever.  She said the word in french, but in my mind it just sounded EXACTLY like english!!  It was the word for "disobey", talking about Adam and Eve!!  SO cool!!  She is doing amazing!!



P-day in Payless!

So that is about the most memorable experience from this last week, except that this last week was the first time that I have been denied entrance some where because of my Religion!!  We wanted to go into a big residencial area to contact on Friday, and the guard stopped us.  He asked us what we were doing, and we told him all about the mission and our purpose, and then he tells us that this residencial area is Catholic, and that we can´t go in during the Semana Santa!!  He told us to come back on TUESDAY! Wow, it was crazy, but we will be back there tomorrow!!

Elder McEwan and a statue at the restaurant
we went to for lunch

We are also going to have another Zone Conference of Wednesday of this week, because the president is going home in 2 weeks!!  We will be getting a new president shorly!!  Also, we will be going to Chili´s on Thursday for Elder Pedersen´s birthday!!

Today was fun, we played some basketball, and finally me and Pedersen were on the same team!!  We wrecked, and then went home and showered!!  Went to a buffet that was like a chinese buffet, and it was amazing!!  I ate 8 plates and 2 bowls of ice cream!!  Went home, took a nap, and here we are!!  Also, last night we had a fun night, we pulled the mattresses out in the front room and watched two movies, Fireproof and Courageous, both by the same director who did Facing the Giants!!  They were seriously amazing, even better than Facing the Giants!!  Both talk a ton about the family!!

Well, that was the week!!  Love you all!!

Love,
Elder Garrett McEwan  :)