Virtual Stake Conference

Crazy that in 10 days its Thanksgiving!! What are the plans for that week for everyone? We have been told that we are to pick up food from a members house on Thanksgiving day, and then me and Elder Williams just have to take it back to our apt to eat it. What a way to end my last Thanksgiving on the mission, doing it in style . . . COVID STYLE😎 ;) Parker: Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to Parker, Happy birthday to you! I can't believe you will be 23 this week! Don't have too much fun! 

I wanted to give a quick statistical update on this mission life in the OCM. Right now we are:

- Baptizing 30 people in our mission this month of November SOLELY from technology finding and teaching people

- Teaching 4 to 5,000 people every month throughout the whole mission

- Finding on avg about 100 new people every week for the last 7 weeks

This week was a very great and amazing week! We had so much fun and so so many miracles came to us as we worked in Chillicothe. So without further ado, let's get into the week shall we?

Tuesday was a great day! And so also I am not sure if I have told everyone about what mission life kind of looks like right now. So we go on lots of walks, we call lots of people (I kind of feel like Garrett and Parker and being in a call center). But it is so much fun and honestly I love just being able to interact with people over the phone and being able to make these awesome connections and relationships with people that I may never meet in person while I am out here. Also, if you guys remember a guy named Jamie Krueger that lives here in the area. Well, he reached out to us on facebook messenger on Tuesday night and we started chatting with him through that. We ended up having a video call lesson with him that night. He had a stroke about 2 or 3 yrs ago and is confined to a wheelchair. He has a speech impediment and so he can't speak and he can't hear. So we had the video on during the lesson and texted a lesson to him for 45 min! And then guess what happened???? We challenged him to get baptized, and . . . HE ACCEPTED! We talked to Pres. Horgesheimer and he said he will get in contact with Salt Lake since we probably will need to do a live proxy baptism for Jamie because of his health condition. Don't have a date for his baptism quite yet, but will be working with President to figure out a day.

Wednesday was fantastic! We had zone conference in the morning from 9 am to 12. It was over zoom, but still super spirit filled and spirit led. We talked about THE WAY, and about how we as members and missionaries are clearing and plowing the way for people to come unto christ and to accept the Gospel into their life. I never really had thought about it like that before, but my mind and my heart completely agree because I believe it is only through the pioneering efforts of what members are doing now, that people can see the straight and narrow path more clearly and then be able to stay on that path once they are on it. Nothing really else happened that day, we talked with Jamie again, and were able to have a really good lesson with him on the 10 commandments. 

Thursday was wonderful in every. sense. of that. word. and here is why. We were able to find 2 new people that day. We were calling around the area, and on 2 seperate occasions these people picked up and we started talking. I shared John 3:15 as well as Luke 1:37 with both people, and they said that they felt that was heaven sent because of what they had been experiencing and been going through in their life lately. They said they want to have us call them again this next week, and be able to talk with them more about how they can find that peace that they are so desperately needing in their life right now. The other person we found was a guy named Will Sims. Will stopped us on our walk and said that his brother is a member here in the ward. Will has wanted to change his life now for a while, and when he saw us walking that day he knew that was his answer. We gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and gave him our number and we got his and his address. Super cool! We had a super cool lesson with the Wagner family that night. They are members here in the ward and the coolest people ever. Brother Wagner is a parol officer in Columbus, and she is from Mexico originally. We talked about General Conference with them.

Friday was such a great day (basically this whole week was just awesome). We were able to find 1 new person. He was a Do NOT Contact in our area book. I came across his name and told Elder Williams that we needed to call him. So we did and he said he hasn't met with missionaries for about 2 yrs now but wants to again. We set up a plan where we are going to call him every week and share a scripture or two and discuss them with him! Super awesome :) Overall it was a fantastic and great great day :).

Saturday was Saturday, which means AWESOME. We were able to find 2 new people that day, and then also were able to hand out another copy of the Book of Mormon to a guy named John. He lives in the outermost part of the woody part of the area and so we drove out there at 8:30 at night and man it was a pretty cool drive, with lots of twists and curves and feeling as though we would fall off a cliff any moment. ;) We also did a facebook live that morning on Temples and the importance of families in temples. With the Columbus South Stake having their stake conference this weekend and needing to do it virtually, all of us missionaries in the South Stake were able to watch the adult session on saturday night and the general session on Sunday morning through a zoom link. It was pretty fun and my 2nd stake conference I have been at on the mission. We had our district devotional that night.

Sunday was phenomenal! We had Stake Conference at 10 until 12. And then we went out on a walk after lunch in the afternoon. We hadn't been able to schedule any lessons before Sunday came, but we called up 2 people in area book who we met 3 weeks ago, and they both answered and we talked with them and shared Ether 12:4 with them, Shawn Ramsey was one of those people (who we gave the bible to 2 weeks ago) and she asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon on Sunday and so we were able to go and take that to her. Then we stopped by a guy named Gary's house that we met on Saturday and were able to talk for just a couple min that he had, and then share a scripture. So overall we started the day with zero lessons planned, and ended it with 3 lessons done and a Book of Mormon drop off. Just goes to show that God is with you as you play and do your part. We then had our mission wide devotional with one of Pres. friends from back home in Bountiful. I was also so happy I could hop on cousin Meg's Homecoming zoom call last night too!! So awesome she is home and doing well! I am hoping that by the time I get home in 8 months that I can have my homecoming IN PERSON ;).

So update on COVID in this mission. We found out that 6 missionaries have it right now, and Elder Bower who is the car specialist here. We found out that he was in OSU hospital with COVID as of Thursday last week. We held a mission wide fast for him this weekend, and we hear he is doing much better as of today. We are allowed to go outside, just have to be cautious. The mission office is not allowing anyone in until Thursday this week. Basically what happened is, when the Horgesheimers and senior office couples took the new missionaries to the Indianapolis temple that hadn't been endowed yet, some of them tested positive. Horgesheimers have said they are doing good and great. So that is a plus right now.

ALSO, before I forget . . . We found out this weekend that this next Sunday November 22, is the North America Northeast region broadcast at 11 am. President Henry B Eyring will be presiding over the meeting and Elder Soares of the quorum of the 12 apostles will also be apart of the broadcast. Super cool! I am super excited for it. I think we as missionaries will be allowed to watch it since it will take the place of church this week, I think🤞

Overall, this last week was probably the most rewarding week of the mission that I have experienced. My testimony has grown so much in just a short 7 days. I know God lives, and I know He lives because of what He has done for me in my life. He has always been there, the whole time. Sometimes we just get a MYOPIC view of things and forget to look at the eternal perspective of things. I am so grateful I know that God is with me, and that we as a family are going to be a family for eternity upon eternity. I love this Gospel, with all of my heart.

Here are some of my notes I took in the adult session of Stake Conference on Saturday night:

- Do what they think you can't do. He knows all truth. Most people stop learning, because of fear. You can learn whatever God would have you learn. Sometimes we think we are alone because we are the only ones walking, but those times when you saw only one set of footsteps, is when the Lord carried you. Our foundation must be the plain and simple truth that we grew up in. Deep learning comes from hard work, and an earnest desire to live and to triumph over our frailties.

- Prayer is needed. We don't have to have 'a reason' to talk to our Father in Heaven. Pray humbly and frequently. Prayers can be offered even in silence. We need to pray, even when we don't feel that we do.

FIGHT or FLIGHT

- Are we all in

- Start each thing you do with a prayer 

- remember you are loved by Heavenly Father

- Moroni 7:45

- Christ suffered in Gethsemene so we wouldn't have to. Forgive 70 times 7. Don't hold off til God has forgiven us; keep repenting daily . . . There are too many good things to let is get, so turn to God and allow Him to bring you toward Him.

- Ridicule cannot be there, it just cannot. We must be kind and loving, we must be the Lord's hands.We don't know what other people are doing there, we need to be kind.

- Integrity is defined as MORAL SOUNDNESS; Great blessings shall be poured out while we are in the temple, because it blesses us and build us up/strengthens us all.

- LET'S NOT WASTE TIME DOING DUMB THINGS; LET'S WASTE TIME DOING AWESOME THINGS. This life is the ONLY time we get to prepare to meet God. What we do with everyday we have, will in fact matter in the long run. Obedience matters.

- When we choose to see others deeply, we then are deeply seen

I hope you all know how much I love you and care so so very much about all of you guys. You guys are my lifeline, and my best friends in the whole world. Thank you so much for what you guys do for me everyday of my life. I miss you all so so so very much. I am so grateful we get each week to call and talk together. Forever and Always. It also has been raining a lot now too, but still nooooo snow, wahoo! This may be the only time in my life I may not get snow for a winter, unless its saving it for Christmas eve ;).

I love you forever and always,

Elder Dylan McEwan

D&C 4

Risen -- by Shawna Edwards (such a heart throbbing song)