This week felt like it absolutely flew by! And day light savings is this next week on Sunday, which means to bounce all of our clocks ahead one hour, and one less hour of sleep.
Tuesday was a great day! We went and helped Elder Weidman at the storage sheds over in Powell and helped him to organize all of the furniture and shelves so that you could actually walk into the shed without tripping over something. Elder Weidman took us to Dairy Queen afterwards for lunch; and man, I didn't realize how much I had missed having a hamburger with fries, and a Mint Oreo milkshake. That very much satisfied my day ;). Me and Elder Marler went on knocking on doors in the afternoon, and we were able to find 2 new people! Hip hip, hooray :) There names are Brian and Praveen. Brian lives with his parents and is in the military. Praveen has a super young family, and is so so nice to us. It also rained on us all day long, which made it for an adventure. At night, we set up appointments for Saturday to go teach a few member families.
Wednesday we had District Council at the Powell bldg. I gave a training on "True Disciples of Jesus Christ" - Elder Vincen. I did an activity where I had 2 sandwich bags and I had cut a corner on one of the bags, and left the other bag sealed. I then had an elder pour rocks into both bags, and afterwards showed everyone and taught everyone how important it is to make sure we don't have any "holes in our bags". Meaning, are we effectively planning each day to fulfill everything Heavenly Father wants us to during the day. It was a super great training, and when I give trainings now, it just reminds me how much I love doing them and how much I learn from preparing for them. We went up to Sunbury in the afternoon and went to John Russell's house. We started talking with Abdul about prayer and the different "types" of prayer there is. The conversation led to priesthood blessings and I felt prompted to ask Abdul if we could give him a blessing, and then explained to him what a priesthood blessing was. As I placed my hands on his head, and said the blessing, I felt calm reassurance that he would find the truth. We also put Abdul on a Pre Baptismal date!!!!! He said he knows the church and Book of Mormon are true. He just needs to ask his wife if he can get baptized because he said he is a family man, which is even better :) Please keep Abdul in your prayers that he will want to be baptized. We also taught Brother and Sister Mathis. We taught them about 1 Nephi 3:7, and how sometimes the Lord asks hard things of us, but always provides a way for us to accomplish the task. They gave us hot pockets and ginger ale for dinner.
Friday was very wonderful! :) President M. Russell Ballard spoke to the whole Ohio Columbus Mission, via video call from his office in Salt Lake City. All 185 missionaries met at the Dublin bldg for the video call. He is such a cool guy! He spoke on "being more bold, more confident in ourselves to share the Gospel with everyone, and to strive constantly to have the guidance of the Holy Ghost with us as we talk with people." And then as he was finishing up his call, he had all of us stand up, put our hands up, and then he "shook our hands" through the video camera and told us to write in our journals that we had shook President Ballards hands :). It was a ton of fun to see all of my past companions, as well as the missionaries who came out with me in my travel group. I also saw Sister Aubrey Tasker, so that was fun to talk with her for a few minutes. That afternoon, we found another new person. Her name is Laura and she has another church she goes to over in Polaris, but said she would pray to know if she should have us come back to talk with her. Super cool lady! We went to Jersey Mike's for dinner. I had a gift card so I was like, "Hey, why not. It's a Friday ;)".
Saturday was energetic, like hopping energetic. We had 5 member missionary visits with 5 different member families, and we had a lesson with Praveen and talked with him about the Restoration and what it means to us to have God's light and truth here upon the earth. I felt really good by the time we got to the apartment that night. I love being able to talk with people and meet new people, and hear their life story. We also went to the trailer park and quickly knocked on a few former's doors, and were able to delete their dots because most of them have now moved to somewhere else.
Sunday was super super great! It was Fast Sunday, and I always love Fast Sundays because I love listening to everyone's testimony. We went to 4 members houses after church and had lessons with them. We went to the Blackhams, and we had chips and salsa before the lesson and man, chips and salsa have never tasted so great. Also . . . Cool fact! Sister Blackham is 1st cousins with Katherine Sorensen (Karter's and Khristian's mom). Sister Blackham said Sorensens come and stay with them here when they come out for baseball tourneys. We went to the Corenlius', Walkers, and Elder and Sister Weidmans. We taught all of them about the first vision and watched the video called, Ask of God. Super cool video, I encourage all of us to go and watch it before General Conference. We had squash, meatballs, and strawberries at the Weidmans.
On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings this week, we are going to seminary at the Olson house. That's where Lewis Center ward has their seminary everyday. It's at 6 am, and Brother Olson said he might have us teach one of those 3 days. So that'll be super fun! It's very weird to not only be having seminary at a members house, but to have it be early morning seminary. I'm so used to 12 or 1 pm seminary in a bldg right across the road from the high school. Guess I'm not in Utah anymore ;).
Zone Conference is this week on Wednesday. It's at the Galloway bldg, so that should be super fun. We are exercising again this zone conference. I'm taking a pair of clothes to change into this time :).
I had a very great week. I am able to realize more and more every day, how I can use my voice to persuade people by the Spirit to what I'm trying to tell them. Elder Marler turned to me on Friday last week and said, "Elder McEwan, How do you do it everyday? You literally talk with everyone you see and you're not afraid to approach someone." I love talking with people, and I have felt my confidence in myself continually growing more and more everyday to be brave, and to most of all, be myself.
My testimony has grown so so much lately. I know this Gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I get to share it with people everyday, and I stand firm for what I believe in, even if those people try to persuade me to think or do otherwise. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is on the earth, and is the only true and living church. I know Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior.
I saw Salem girls basketball lost in the quarterfinals, but super cool they made it that far. BYU is on a hot streak, I'm rooting for them to go far this year :).
I miss you guys, so much ❤ I'm very grateful for all of you and for everything you do for me, and the love and support you give to me. I'm so blessed to have all of you in my life :).
I love you forever and always 💙
Elder Dylan
No comments:
Post a Comment