Okay so I think this week was the best week ever, and I know I said that last Monday but I truly think this one was the best. I am so truly happy and it makes me so happy knowing that I am happy. This Gospel of Jesus Christ is so true, and I love knowing that everything I am doing is bringing other people happiness.
Cool thing of the week also -- This is from the Columbus South Zone's social media specialists (so our zone): Hey all! We just got mission wide Facebook stats and wow!! The whole mission reached 500k people this past week alone! What blows me away is that 25% of those people came from our page (and there are 8 pages, so it would be reasonable for us to only be 12%). AWESOME right??
But anyway onto the week now, which was brought with much learning and growing and love for others. That is something that I feel I have truly learned this transfer of the mission, is the principle of High Love, High Expectations for myself and for others around me. Our district is on fire right now with teaching people, and finding new people. Our district found 4 new people this week, and taught close to 50 people which is super good. I am so grateful to know that what we are doing is furthering the work of the Lord not just in Ohio, but everywhere. Who woulda thought that 17 months after I got set apart as a full time missionary, I would not only be in Ohio but would be finding new and creative ways to share the Gospel with people. So cool to think that the Lord is at the center of this work and all we need to do is simply allow Him to prevail in our lives, and we will see the guidance to move forward in life.
Cool news of the week:
- Me and Elder Bennett challenged Kris Rothe to be baptized and he said YES! He wants to be baptized somewhere towards end of March and beginning of April. Right now he currently needs to get married to his girlfriend before baptism, but we are so optimistic that that will be made possible before March maybe even February. So cool!
- Me and Elder Bennett found 2 new people, invited 1 of them to church, and started doing bible studies with the other one yesterday. Kinda cool right? I would say so :)
- We have 42 total people on date in the entire mission for the month of January and so we are all so excited for what this month is going to bring.
- We were able to do service at a local food pantry on Tuesday morning for about 3 hours and that was so much fun.
- We took the Christmas tree down on Tuesday ;)
Wednesday we had district council down in Jackson and it went super well. I think what district councils this transfer have taught me is the aspect of letting the spirit guide me as I learn and teach. I leave each district council now so profoundly inspired to do the work that I sometimes have to sit in the car for a minute before I put it in drive so that I can focus on the road. Elder Bennett also misplaced his wallet so we searched for that for a little bit, but thankfully found it down the side of the seat in the car haha.
Thursday was New Year's Eve and we had such a great day! We visited with a member named Tyler Terry at his house. He is a convert of about 2 years now, and we talked with him on his front porch for about 40 minutes about religion and how he has felt strengthened since he was baptized, which was so cool to hear his conversion story. Elder Bennett made brownies and we celebrated at midnight and it was so much fun! So cool that it is now 2021, what cool things can we do this year? But yeah Thursday was great! We woke up on Friday morning and had a mission wide training at 9 am, and then went over to the Anderson family house and visited with them for a little bit. Overall super great days!
Saturday the Zone Leaders came down for exchanges. We had such a great time with them. I was with Elder Hinton for the day, and we went walking around to members houses in the morning and in the process we were able to stop by a nonmembers house and share a scripture with her and invited her to church. Then we met up with the Elder Bennett and Elder Dansie and went to Olive Garden for lunch (thanks guys for the gift cards 😉). Then we went over to Brother Suber's house and helped him set up a little bit of his tv stand on the wall as well as move some desks and shelves for him, and left him with a scripture of Ether 12:4 which talks about having hope and happiness in the Lord. We then met with Brother Cain for ward coordination and we talked about the new 2021 ward mission plan and how we can be providing for the ward members and helping them to make it to church and to stay strong. Brother Cain then provided us with a stop at Wendy's for burgers and fries (great day of food). Me and Elder Bennett then hopped on our district devotional at 8:45 and had a great training by the Athens elders on scripture chase and finding objects in our apartments that reminded us of Gospel objects, kinda intriguing to see what everyone came up with!
Sunday was a great day! Shared my testimony in sacrament meeting, said the opening prayer in sacrament mtg, and said the opening prayer in zoom sunday school also, basically a day of blessings which made me really appreciate the power of prayer and communication with our Heavenly Father. We then had a great mission devotional with Sister Troyer. Sister Troyer is the mom of one of the amish families out here who converted and was baptized members of the church here a few years ago. Her son has since served a mission in Salt Lake City, and so it was super cool to hear from her and her experiences of being a member of the church. ALSO, amish people are just cool from being with them for the first 5 months I was in Ohio and now seeeing Menanite and Amish people here in Chillicothe. So COOL!
Things to look for this week:
- Tuesday we have interviews with Horgesheimers and district council up in Reynoldsburg
- Wednesday we have training visits down in Jackson with Elder Brown and Hammond
- Thursday we have training visits here in Chillicothe with Elder Hutchason and Blaker (they serve over in Athens)
- Social media/district leader call will be on Thursday on facebook messenger at 8 pm
Organization is so keen and so important. I forget what scripture it is, but there is a scripture that says we must prepare every needful thing, and to keep a house of order and cleanliness. I in turn relate that to we must be keeping our lives in order to do everything we need to. That goes from planning things we gotta do that day, setting goals for how we want to do them, etc etc. With being district leader this transfer, they put me in 4 or 5 different messenger chats that are going off on a daily basis and most of the time hourly basis. And with many other things going on, we need to be taking time to ask the Lord what He wants us to be doing so that we can be doing it the best way, which is also the way of the Spirit which is God's way. I learned this week the cool thing of letting the spirit guide me in my daily efforts as I lead and serve. I love the aspect of when we allow our thoughts and feeling to be turned to what God wants for us, EVERYTIME it turns out the way it needs to. How cool is that! That we get to have the ability to be guided by a Father and His Son who truly want what is best for us here on earth. I am also so grateful for the blessing and knowledge of priesthood keys and the gift of using those keys to bless the lives of others. I am forever grateful for the experiences I have had on the mission that have shown me and taught me of staying worthy to always use the power and authority of my calling to be who the Lord needs me to always be, and show those around me by my influence and hopefully good example. Because the priesthood keys and authority have been restored to the earth fully, we all can have that priviledge of using what God has given to us and using it for the blessing of others. We should all strive everyday to "Let God prevail" because the rewards of putting our effort with the Lord's is the eternal perspective of great blessings waiting for all of us. This is the true church of Christ, and I am just grateful for the chance I have been given and are continued to be given to represent His name on my chest everyday. And when we don't have a metal nametag on our chest, we need to paint one on our hearts as Elder Bednar invites us to do.
How are all of you guys doing? How was New Year's, and did everyone make it to midnight hopefully? :) I hope so! Mom, G, and Parker good luck this week with starting school for the new semester and continuing on with medical assisting for you Parker. You all are going to do so so well! I will be praying it all goes well :) Continue to get that good education, it will take everyone far in this life!
I love you all and am so grateful and excited to talk to you guys today!
Love you always and forever . . .
Elder Dylan McEwan
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