Wrapping up June with Memories

 

What I've Learned

I wanted to share why I have come to love my mission so much. I have been reflecting a lot over the last 3 or 4 days about my time here in Ohio, and while I was at the Provo MTC. I have grown so much since then, but more importantly, my love for Jesus Christ and serving/teaching His people has grown so much. I remember when I was in Sunday School or sitting in priests quorum and just pondering about what a mission life would be like, and now for almost the last full year of my life, I've been able to experience that. I love these people of Ohio, I love my Savior Jesus Christ, and I love knowing that God has a plan for every single one of us.

You guys can share this with anyone who is contemplating going on a mission at this time: A mission will bless you so much. It teaches you so that you can teach God's children. He doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. There will be hard times on your mission, but those hard times will be the times that you grow the most and that you're the most happy. When you choose to serve God, you're choosing to go fishing in the water for those who need that truth in their life. I have loved the experiences I have had as a missionary, and I know that God lives.

Elder D

Halfway Through Summer

I saw that Traverse mtn was on fire this weekend, how is everything going with all of that???? Everyone is in my prayers. Is everyone ready for the wedding this weekend on Saturday? I'm so so excited for Kelly and Lucas! :).

Marissa: Happy Birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy Birthday to Marissa (on the 4th 😁), Happy Birthday to you! I hope you have such a great day, thank you for your example to me.

Well, we have all made it through another week, and not a whole lot has happened. Day 105 in quarantine, and still chugging along😎. We are really really trying to be creative and do anything and everything that we can possibly think of. With not being able to even talk to people as we pass them on the streets on our walks, it has made it interesting to just only say a quick, "hi, have a great day!" and keep on walking. We have been having a couple member lessons here and there, via zoom and messenger calls and so that has made it nice to still be able to "talk" to people somewhat. Me and Johnson have gotten pretty used to just talking with ourselves over the past few weeks, which has been nice too cuz then we can ponder and think.

Alrighty, so to spice this email up a little and make it exciting, I thought I would give a devo/talk/fireside/whatever we want to call it, type of thing:

" I have been thinking the last few days (which is good that I'm still thinking 😉), and truly pondering about the importance of HOPE & FAITH, and how the two connect and correspond together. What it led me to was this -- Faith is like a little seed, and if planted, it will grow. But how will it grow if we don't have the hope to keep going day after day, week after week, to water and nourish it. That stuck out to me. Why does having hope and faith, mean that every time we want to have something happen, we have to be patient and we have to allow it to grow within ourselves? When we truly yearn for something, we put Heavenly Father to the test; meaning, that we petition Him to help us accomplish our tasks in life. When Parker was sick with Leukemia, and it was very taxing on everyone, we asked God to help us and not necessarily take away our burden, but to help us get through it. That's what hope and faith both are, it's when we can accept what God throws our way, and then go forward with hope and optimism, having the faith that we can get through it one step at a time as we talk with God and ask for His help. Something else that has stood out to me for a while now, is when we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and are striving and pushing to get to the light, but forces and the natural world, are telling us it isn't worth it and we shouldn't try to go towards it. That then made me think of Christ on the night of His crucifixion, when He went into the garden of Gethsemane, and prayed and suffered for many hours, and then came back to find that His apostles had fallen asleep, and were not there for/with Him. He then asks them, 'Can ye not watch, but 3 hours with me'. He goes back to pray in the garden, and comes back to find them asleep again. He does this a 3rd time and same thing. And through all of this, Christ teaches us a simple yet powerful principle, "The way is never easy when we are talking with Heaven. But, He has promised us that He will be with us as we look to Him in every. single. part. of our lives." I know this to be true. I have never known it to be true, as much as I know it to be true today. Because I know, that God knows that I know, that Jesus Christ lives and is our Redeemer. He has bled from every pore of His body, so that we dont have to. He was rejected and left alone and forsaken, so that we wouldn't be. "Dont give up on the Lord, because He hasn't given up on you". I say this in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I hope everyone liked reading that ❤ Just some thoughts that have been on my mind lately, and have really made me think about why it's so important to turn to God, and hope and pray for good things to come.

Some fun things that we did this week: 

- Went on 2 bike rides around Wadsworth, which was super fun and really good exercise. 

- Took some pictures and videos on Saturday to post on Instagram and Facebook to continue sharing the Gospel.

- Did a puzzle that had the Avengers on it, that was fun :) 

President and Sister Stratford leave to head home to Utah in 24 hrs from now, and we are going to miss them  A TON. We are stoked to have President and Sister Horgesheimer get here to Columbus TONIGHT, and take on the reigns and roles of this mission and to continue to further the work here in Ohio. Oh also, this is just a random fact that doesn't have anything to do with mission presidents, but I got bit by a black spider on my earlobe a few weeks ago, and it is kind of swollen today, hopefully the swelling goes down. I had forgotten to mention it when it happened, and I remembered when I saw it swollen today :).

I'm going to be getting some glasses at Walmart today for my eyes. My eyes have gotten really bad the last few months and now I'm pretty much squinting everytime I try and look at something. Happy 4th of July/Wedding/birthday week this week!! Its going to be such a fun week for you guys and I'm so so excited to see pictures from this weekend with everyone there!! Tell Kelly and Lucas congrats for me!! 💯

I love you all oh so very much, and I pray for you guys everyday! Thank you for your support and for your examples to me each and everyday 🤙 Heavenly Father knew I needed people in my life as awesome and incredible as all of you guys! Keep on keeping on. I wanted to do a quote this week: "When our gaze is on the finish line, and we are laced up at the starting line, then everything in between will be overcome as we keep running this race". I miss you guys so so much! Dont give up, we got this, together ❤😁

I'm so excited to talk to everyone today!

I love you forever and always :)

Elder Dylan

LOTS of Adventures to Fill June

 

Triple Digits . . . Day 100

Needed to get some glasses, so Walmart
came through for now

How are you all doing today? How have the last few days gone since we talked on Sunday? It was so good and so much fun to talk to all of you on Father's Day and to see everyone at the bbq! Very grateful for technology these days 😀.

Transfer news!!!!🤙🤙 I am staying here in Wadsworth with . . . Elder Johnson! He will be the district leader again, and we will both be the tech specialists for the Akron zone. So we will both be getting instagram and then our job is to approve the posts to post on the Akron fb page, and reach out to as many people as we possibly can. It's such a blessing and I'm so excited for this transfer! It's also crazy to think that I will be at my year mark on the mission at the very end of this transfer! Time flies when you're having fun.

Well, as the title states, we have now officially hit the triple digits of quarantine and have now been inside the apts for 100 days today. It is so crazy that it has already been that long! We found out too that missionaries in missions all over the world are in a 4 phase plan to be back outside. Right now, Ohio Columbus mission hasn't been approved to start phase 1 yet, which means we are still inside and we just found out on Sunday that we can no longer do training visit exchanges and service projects and we can no longer gather with other missionaries on Pday until we start Phase 1. There have been some riots and protesting as well here in Ohio on corners and streets and such. Please keep everyone in your prayers ❤ Needless to say, my mind has gone stir crazy and I think most of the missionaries in this mission are getting pretty discouraged with just having more and more restriction on what we can and can't do. 1 Nephi 3:7 is truer than it ever has been, and I've realized too that D&C 6:36 is true to its word too. When we look to Christ, He helps us and blesses us not to fear and not to doubt. Time in quarantine has been hard, and there are times the last little while that I have wanted to give up and stop . . . I'm reminded of Elder Holland's talk though when he says, "It was never easy for Jesus on the road to Damascus, so why should it ever be easy for each of us". I don't know what is going to happen in the coming weeks and months with missionary work, but I do know this: God is in charge. We are the players and we have to choose which side of the "line of scrimmage" we are on and then stay on it. "Do the spiritual work to find out for yourself that it's TRUE, and please, Do it Now. Time is running out." - President Nelson.

President and Sister Stratford will finish their mission here in Ohio in 5 days on June 29, and then fly home the morning of June 30. President and Sister Horgesheimer will land in Columbus the evening of June 29 next week, and begin their service as mission president and wife. I'm so stoked to meet them!! We have scheduled to do zoom call interviews 1 on 1 with the Horgesheimers all of next week, so that'll be great! President Horgesheimer is a distance runner and he was on student council, so I think we will be a great match here in the mission together 😉

Some fun things we did this week:

- Had zone conference via zoom
- Went on many of walks to the pond and it was sweet! :) 
- Made a sweet video with the Canton elders and posted it on Facebook
- Watched some church movies on Sunday too, that was fun!
- Went on 2 mile run on Sunday night and on the way back it poured rain on us, so we were sopping wet when we got to the apt. What a night!

I've been thinking and decided that starting this week, instead of doing invitations and challenges, I'm going to share with you guys my testimony and I invite all of you to share your testimony each and everyday with anyone you see that day ❤.

"I know Jesus Christ lives. He is my Lord and my Savior. Above all, He is my older brother. He does not leave us. I have felt His hand in my life on my mission. This has been the hardest point of my mission up to this point and He is that sure and solid/firm foundation that I build my salvation on. Helaman 5:12 will forever remain embedded in my heart for eternity. Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. He doesn't expect us to know the end from the beginning. He just wants us to trust Him enough to do what He asks, and help others along the way. I love this Gospel, and I love my family ❤ Each of you! Family is the centrepoint for this life and the life to come. Do everything you can each day to strengthen the family unit and build up the kingdom of God." 😀😀

I can honestly say that I'm a different person than I was August 14, 2019. I used to be afraid of change and growth but I now love it and know that change is so crucial and vital to progression and to becoming all that we need to be in this life. Be creative everyday and have fun while doing it. Growth is meant to be fun. It's meant to be everything Heavenly Father intended it to be. Trust Him and He will endow us with power. I've been remembering a lot lately about what was said in my blessing when I was set apart as a missionary on August 13. It was said, "That I would be brought to be humble and that my heart would grow in love and wisdom for the people I serve on my mission". I know that God is blessing those things to be brought forth in my life at this point in time. He has helped me to get through hard things. I was telling Elder Johnson the other day on the way back from getting a drink at the gas station, "You know, we CAN do hard things. Why not us? Let's do this, and finish what we started". We ALL got this. We haven't come this far, just to come this far (Elder Holland) 😀

How are you all doing today? How is work and school going for everyone? :) Mom you're almost finished with this block of classes. Are they doing the freedom festival balloons this year for 4th of July maybe not just with Covid?? I'm so proud of all of you guys and everything that you're doing and accomplishing. It's so so very much a huge blessing to see your growth and progression every week when we talk. I truly have the best family ever 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👩‍👧‍👦.

I pray for you guys much everyday and I miss you guys very much everyday. I'm so grateful for each of your examples everyday to me and for who you guys are to me in my life. I'm so excited to talk to all of you today!!

I love YOU ALL forever and always 🧡💕

Elder Dylan McEwan

Oh What Do You Do During Quarantine?