I hope everyone is so excited for Thanksgiving in 2 1/2 weeks, I know I am! It was very sad to hear about Hunter Turner last week, I'm going to miss him. Very grateful we have a strong knowledge of Heavenly Father's plan for us, and that we know that He is always there for us and will never leave us.
Alright, now onto the amazing week that we had here in Chillicothe! But, a little update that we got from President Horgesheimer last night. So, we have zone conference scheduled for this week and we were supposed to have them in person like we have been doing. But we got an email last night that said because of missionaries in this mission getting sick recently, they have moved zone conference to over zoom again for this transfer. So we will have zoom zone conference this week on Wednesday morning from 9-12. Super excited for that!
Tuesday: It was Elder William's birthday and so just overall a really fun day. We were able to make a street contact with a lady named Patricia who was out walking her 2 dogs, and so she let us pet them and we talked with her. She is a baptist of faith, but super super passionate about prayer and how that leads us to a deeper relationship with Christ. That afternoon, we went and explored a trailer park and walked around in downtown Chillicothe, where a whole bunch of antique buildings are and a Church of Christ, so it was a ton of fun to walk around there and be able to meet a whole bunch of people. We then went to Tim Hortins for Elder William's birthday dinner. I had never been before, but it was actually pretty good, I almost wanted to order a 2nd order to go.
Wednesday: We woke up and got ready, and then drove about 45 minutes south down to Jackson city, where we will have district council each week. It was such a scenic drive, and so fun to see mountains (Ohio mtns, NOT Utah sized mountains ;). I gave a training about how we can be applying what we learn in our personal studies, to our everyday life. I believe that we can do this, by knowing what we really want out of our personal studies, and making goals and plans to learn something new in our studies. Myself, and the 3 other elders who were there, were able to give Sister Masina a blessing of comfort, which I was so grateful to be a part of. The Jackson county sheriffs also showed up to our district council! Apparently, an alarm had been triggered, and they thought someone had broken in. Nope, just the missionaries ;) Super exciting! We got back to Chillicothe, and we had a lesson scheduled for 7 pm down in the south part of our area, QUICK FACT: I didn't realize until about 2 days ago, but Chillicothe ward/area, covers 4 counties. So the lesson we had scheduled tonight was in the bottom county with the 2nd counselor in the bishopric, so we drove 55 minutes to his house, and turns out he was taking care of livestock, so had to cancel on us. But, we got to meet 2 other members who were there helping him. So that was a bonus!
Thursday: We had a zoom conference call with all the new missionaries who have gotten here in the last 4 weeks. And then we went over to the church, and made a super cool video for the South Columbus Christians page, so that was super fun, we did a running video! Then, that night we were on a walk in the west part of Chilli and a guy called us up. He said he has really been struggling with mental health and illness lately, and really is just trying to find his purpose in this life. At that moment, my training from being on HOPE squad kicked in, and I was able to listen to some of what he said, and talk to him a little and give him some advice. The call lasted about 45 minutes, and in the end he thanked us for being so willing to listen. He said he would call back when he is ready. Please pray for Tim. After that, we went over to Sister Barr's house, and she made us some really great mexican food and Elder William's gave a stellar lesson on Alma 56. We visited with them for a little bit, and then left and headed home. Overall, super great day!
Friday: We had our weekly Friday morning training meeting with the whole mission. We heard some very cool miracles, and then President shared a miracle to all of us. The bretheren in Salt Lake have been listening to the Lord and His counsel, and they have allowed us now to start doing service for nonmembers and members, and not just Justserve organizations only. This will be a huge blessing, especially going into these winter months now. That night, we were able to have a really awesome phone call lesson with a pastor guy named Randall. He is super cool! He tried to get us to attend an event with some other ministers and pastors this weekend in town, but I just told him that we were good, and thinking to myself (we get plenty of other people's opinions already, definately don't need anymore of it than we have to). We had our district devotional, and it was so fun! These have become my favorite! We just call over messenger and have a video devotional with our district members. So awesome!
Saturday: Alright, so Saturday was super fun! and busy. We got to the church at about 9:50 and set up to do our facebook live. We did our facebook live, which we taught about Moroni 10:32 and how we can become like God. Then, we had our ward missionary meeting with Brother Cain who is the ward mission leader. That lasted for about an hour, and we were able to get some really good names from him of who to call and reach out to. We also talked about how we could bring a lot of less actives back to church. I love these types of meetings, because so much gets talked about and we are able to accomplish so much! Very productive to say the least. Then, that afternoon we called up about 14 or 15 people who had been on the less active sheet. We shared a scripture with one of them, and set up a lesson for Friday this week with someone else, so keep the ward members here in your prayers the next few weeks ❤
NEW PERSON being taught! So, we met Kris Rothe tonight. He has met with missionaries in the past, accepted to be baptized many times, but never gotten baptized. We had an incredible First Vision lesson with him and his mom, and he told us he wants us to call him every week, and meet with him in person every Saturday night. And then, he was at church on Sunday the very next day! Keep him in your thoughts and prayers, he is a phenomenal human being.
Sunday: My favorite day of the whole entire week! Me and Elder Williams both gave talks in sacrament meeting. Elder Williams spoke on prayer and the importance of it and I spoke on having Courage and Faith, and how we can touch people's lives through having courage and faith. I shared Parker's story, and a ton of people came up to me after and said how much they appreciated me sharing it. Park, you're even a hero to these people in Chilli buddy ;) In the afternoon, we went over to Brother Anderson's house and had an hour visit with him and he talked the whole time about Noah's ark and how we can be receiving light and revelation for ourselves. We did the smash the can lesson with him and his son afterwards, super fun! We got back to the apartment and I had to lay down because my head was hurting very badly. Then we went on a walk to a cool place we hadn't been yet, and had a super awesome phone lesson with a lady in the ward who actually thought we were sales people at first haha! I assured her we weren't, and she said she would give us a call back after some things calm down for her life. Please pray for Katie. We had our Sunday Night mission wide devotional with one of President's friends from Utah, and did it over zoom. It was super fun! I feel like I have 2 or 3 or 4 zoom lessons or devotionals a day, it is definately more busy and efficient than knocking on doors and the Lord is providing a way.
We got invited to 2 Thanksgiving dinners on Thanksgiving day from 2 families here in the ward. I am just hoping so badly that we are approved and allowed to eat with them in their homes. I am going to ask President Horgesheimer this week about it, and pray he says yes or the area presidency says yes!
I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and I know miracles can and will be seen as we accept President Nelson's challenge to Hear Him, and to become more like Him. With everything that went on last week with the country, and the election, I want us to remember and invite us to remember, that Jesus Christ is at the center of it all. He loves us, and He cares about us. Pray to Him daily for peace, comfort, and happiness in our life. His kingdom is the only kingdom, that will stand on the day of judgement. Don't lose hope, because we have every reason to hope, because of our Savior.
I hope everyone is doing well! Crazy that the holidays are starting to pick up! It is still 70 degrees, blue and sunny skies where I am. :) Is it snowy there yet? Have they gotten the trees up on Salem Pond yet for Pond Town Christmas? The most wonderful time of year!
I love you all and am so so grateful for all that you all do for me. I miss you all so very much, and I know we are being blessed and strengthened each and every day. You all mean the world to me :)
I love YOU forever and always!❤
Elder Dylan McEwan
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