February 2021 Memories

 

I See the Sun!!

This week was so amazing! From the time 6:30 came on Tuesday morning until 9 pm last night, miracles transpired this week. I am so grateful for what I learned this week about staying full of gratitude, being on top of my schedule, and desiring to improve myself. I have been looking back on past emails and journal entries that I wrote over a year ago, and I find myself treasuring those moments. In the easy, and in the tough times here in Ohio, I am so grateful for what those experiences taught me. 

The MIRACLE highlights of the week are:

• We got a referral from the elders in Independence, Missouri (yep, that is dad's mission). They had put this lady on date to be baptized and then given her to us. Her name is Christy, and she lives here in Chillicothe. We went to meet her on Thursday. We began talking about the Restoration and Jesus Christ's importance in our lives. Christy all of a sudden told her aunt Patti to come into the room. Patti came out and I began sharing with her the first vision and Joseph's experience with knowing what church to join. Christy turned to Patti, and said, "Do you want to be baptized with me on March 20th?" Silence. That is how powerful the Spirit was in the room. Patti said YES! So Christy and Patti are going to be baptized here in Chillicothe on March 20th.
• Myself and Elder Bennett have been so busy this week. We taught 43 lessons, and found 5 new people to teach. We went from south, to north, to east, to west the whole week. My area of Chillicothe covers 4 counties. Ross County is one of those four, and is actually the largest county in the entire state of Ohio. Lots of area to cover, and it has been so rewarding. President Horgesheimer gave a great devotional on Friday morning and said, "Elders and Sisters, you MUST be going to everyone. You MUST be finding and talking with everyone." I echo that statement. And I am so grateful for this last week, and even though I was so tired last night, it was so worth it. I love these people of Ohio so much. 
• We drove down to Jackson on Wednesday for District Council. It went super well. We talked about how we can be helping each of our wards and areas to come back to church. That is the big thing we have been focusing on right now. People don't want to come back to church. At one point in the meeting, I turned to everyone and said, "This is a test for everyone. The final exam is not yet here, but it is coming. We were called to invite others to Christ. We will continue to do that, and we will trust that God will help to soften the people's hearts." After the meeting was over, we all went to a super good pizza place for lunch down in Jackson. It was fun to just get together with everyone in the district and have some people interaction for us. 
• Me and Elder Bennett drove up to Pickerington on Saturday morning for exchanges with the zone leaders. It was such a fun day! My zone leaders this transfer are the best and so much fun to be around. I was with Elder Dansie that day, but we all 4 just kind of stayed together instead of breaking off. We shoveled a couple driveways in the afternoon, and then went to Bob Evans for dinner. Elder Bennett got Food Poisoning from it, so he was sick all of Saturday night. The zone leaders gave me a blessing, and then we headed back to Chilli. I was in charge of the district devotional that night. It was actually super fun! I had everyone get a spoon (and remember these devos each week are on messenger so it usually makes for an even better time ;). So I had everyone get a spoon, and then we went through the 42 points of the 5 lessons we teach as missionaries to people. I gave each person 20-30 seconds to share one of the points and a scripture to go along with it, and if they could not do them both in 20 seconds then they had to eat a spoonful of SALT. If they could do it in 20 seconds, they had to eat a spoonful of SUGAR. It was so much fun to watch and they all had to do salt at one point! The message I shared at the end of it was the principle of "We each have our own SPOONFUL of GRATITUDE and sometimes it can seem like it is BITTER or not very savorable. But that is dimming our light. We may not know the scripture or the answer to the question, but we do have a light to share with people and to keep that light we have to keep our gratitude." I think overall it was a fun time for everyone.

Things to look for this week:

• It is the last week of transfer. Transfer day is next week on Thursday March 4th. P-day will be Wednesday March 3rd.
• District Council is Wednesday this week.
• Exchanges with the ZL's down here in Chilli on Thursday.
• Service at the food pantry tomorrow morning (and we are not in a Level 3 snow anymore so we can go to service tomorrow after 2 weeks!)
• Elder Bennett's 6 month mark on his mission is this week on Friday so we will celebrate and do something fun for him that day!
• Jamie is still unreachable, as well as is Kris Rothe. Keep them both in your prayers the next few weeks as they have some very tough decisions to make. Especially Kris. 

A spoonful of gratitude. There is power in those words. Not in just speaking them, but in acting them out. Too often in our lives, we get caught up in the noise of the world. We begin to look for the "crowd's applause and approval" and we forget the only approval that matters is our Heavenly Father's. Having that gratitude embedded in my life has taught me a great deal about the person I want to be in my life. We have a light in our life that we have been challenged by God and by His prophet's to share with the world. I remember thinking that I could only be grateful if I won the football or basketball game, or if I ran on the state 4x400 relay team my senior year. But that isn't what is going to bring the gratitude nor the happiness you want in your life. Having a spoonful of gratitude is about who we are becoming while we do those things. Are we going to stand up for Jesus Christ even when we lose, even when we are in a COVID19 pandemic, even when we are limited to what we can do, and even when people don't want to listen to what you have to say. I can honestly say with all of my heart, that is where I find my gratitude to be better everyday. I know as we keep that thanksgiving in our hearts, we truly will move mountains and we will beat the cloudy days and just like this last week when the sun comes out after 14 days of not shining, the miracles happen and the gratitude expands.

I miss you all lots, and I am so grateful for your examples and your continued support of me out here in the Buckeye State. I am so grateful for all you do for me. 

I love YOU ALL Forever and Always .  .  .

Elder Dylan McEwan

I Got in a Car Accident Last Week

That was the most adventurous week of my mission. Hands down. And yes it pertains to what the title of this email says. My testimony for this week is this: I know God is there for us. I saw it so evident in my life this week, especially on Thursday. He watches over us and He protects us. But we also need to be doing our part to be faithful and stay true to our covenants and promises to God. I know God is our loving Heavenly Father, and I know I am a child of God.

Highlights of the week:

• We had a level 2 snow emergency on Tuesday morning. We drove down to Waverly for service at the food pantry, the roads actually were pretty good so we made the trip down south. We were able to teach a lesson about what we as missionaries do, to the head lady of the food pantry. Super cool!
• We drove up to Columbus on Wednesday morning for District Council and Interviews. They were so wonderful to have interviews with President Horgesheimer in person. Very much needed. District council went super good. I had assigned everyone in the district to do a training on "Obtaining a Christlike life" and then left them to prepare for it, and they all did so wonderful.
• 😓Thursday😓 So Thursday actually started off with some sweet sweet stuff happening. We had 8 lessons before 12:30, had dropped a Book of Mormon off to a nonmember, shoveled snow at a
  
  
  
  member's house, and given a priesthood blessing to another member in the ward. But then the afternoon came. We were leaving the McMahan's house, they also live in the middle of the woods. I came to the stop sign, and completely stopped. It is a T intersection except that I was the only one who had the stop sign, then it was just thru traffic in front of me. Off to my left there is a little plateau of a hill (because there is no actual hill in the state of Ohio). I had looked both ways multiple times, and started to turn left onto the road. Well unbeknownst to me was that there was a truck coming at 30 mph on the main road, but he was in my blind spot and because you can't see cars coming until they are already over the crest of the plateau which is by the way about 50 feet from the stop sign, then I hadn't seen him. All of a sudden saw him and slammed on my brakes, and the front right of our car clipped the back of his truck. Thankfully we were wearing seat belts, but it had jolted both our heads pretty hard. Anyway, long story short is that the cops showed up and they gave me a ticket for failing to stop at a stop sign, which I did but whatever it's okay. Our car was pretty useless at that point so I drove it back home, and now we have a new 2021 Chevy Equinox. Elder Bennett is driving now, which is good to help him know the area. But yeah I think I actually have a little concussion from the way I hit my head on my seat and then obviously have some whiplash. I got home that night, ate dinner, and fell asleep on the couch at 8 pm. I will say though, that there were so many tender mercies for us. One was that the guy I hit into did not have any damage to his car (all the dents in his picture he said were from earlier in his life) and so he didn't press further on insurance damage. The other tender mercy was that I had seen the truck even at all. It honestly jumped out at me and if I would not have seen it when I did, then I would have completed the left turn and the truck would have struck me in the driver's side door at 30 mph coming down a hill. Just grateful that we are all safe, and that a little whiplash and concussion isn't something that is terribly bad.
  
• The last highlight of the week was that on Friday the zone leaders had brought the new car down to us, but they didn't have a way back to Powell to the mission office where their car was, which is 80 minutes away from Chillicothe. So we drove them to Powell on Friday night, and then stopped at the mall for dinner in Columbus and then drove home. We also had our mission devotional on Friday morning. We learned the real and honestly true emphasis of "not running faster than we have strength". Elder Thebenin who is a counselor for missions in the United States, spoke to us about that missionaries and for this I will say that this applies to everybody whether missionary or not. He said that we need to stop having the "ego" that we have to be perfect, and if we need to talk about something personal to us or for missionaries if we talk about our home life, that we are bad. He said that YOU need to stop that. Because 100 percent of the time, your ego will slow you down everytime and eventually you will fail. Be humble enough to realize that these are trying times, and we as people do need help. So stop trying to do it all yourself. Reach out for help when you need it. Honestly when Elder Thebenin said that stuff it really struck me. Super powerful principles stated. 
  

What to look for this upcoming week:

• We are driving to Columbus/Pickerington on Saturday for exchanges with ZL's
• We possibly will go down to Jackson Tuesday night so I can hopefully do interviews for that same family who is on date. It ended up not happening last week. Keep them in your prayers.
• District council on Wednesday down in Jackson
• We have a really cool lesson set up for Wednesday at the Winfield's house.

Update on people being taught:

• So sad. But Jamie is not meeting with us for the foreseeable future. He said that his doctor told him to quarantine until he is completely better. Jamie said he doesn't want to see anyone in person and that all he wants to do is sleep. My fear is that this isn't just a sickness, and it is him slowly slipping away. Please please keep him in your prayers. I want him to be baptized so bad. So April 6 baptism is now not currently happening for him. 
• Kris is doing alright. He just needs love and support.
• Lisa Massie is doing well. She is one we have been working with for about 2 months. She knows baptism is true and is currently reading Book of Mormon and praying with us on our phone lessons with her. She is a super cool lady who just wants to change her life. 

Sorry I know this is a long email this week. But man it seems that everything was going super good for this area on members and on our people on date, and then something happened with most of them. We are struggling to get members for church and just to meet with us, they don't want to meet at all with us. I love these people, with everything I have. We had 36 lessons this week, and every one of these lessons had a person or a family behind it with a principle taught. These people, and all of us need to remember that we need to be reaching out to the one, just as the Savior did in His earthly ministry and continues to do now. It pains me to see what is happening because of what is going on in the world, that it is affecting members in the church. In the words of many prophets, "Let your faith be bigger than your fear". This is the test of life, and we are promised that it will only get harder and tougher from here on out. So, are we ready? Are we doing what we need to to spiritually survive? Immerse yourself daily in prayer and scriptures. This is the point in the final minutes of 4th quarter that we HAVE TO BE playing our hearts out. This work is the greatest thing any of us can be doing here on earth. 

Quick Ohio snow emergency for the 8th day in a row update . . . We are currently on a level 3 snow emergency which is pretty much don't go anywhere, don't do anything type of scenario. We are expected to have more subzero temps and 10 to 12 inches of snow today and tomorrow.

I love you all so much. I miss you all lots. Thank you for all you do for me and for your support of me everyday.

Love you forever .  .  .

Elder Dylan McEwan

18 months already!! Happy Slump day!

This week was so awesome and I have learned so much. Also, it is freezing currently. The state of Ohio is currently under an emergency freeze order and temperatures are supposed to be tipping to Sub Zero to negative digits this week. 

Some highlights from the week:

• We got a text from President H that me and Elder Bennett led the entire mission in lessons taught last week with the 41 that we had. We then basically repeated that and taught 38 lessons this week with 4 new people found. Some great things are happening here in south Ohio and I am so excited to see what the next few months hold in store.
• We drove to Athens on Tuesday morning and had a quick training visit with them. About an hour and a half drive to their apartment, and then an hour and a half back. In the 3 1/2 months I have been in Chillicothe with the car we have, I have driven 4700 miles. We average driving 350-400 miles every week with either driving to Columbus, or over to Athens and Jackson for mtgs or down to Waverly for service and people being taught. The Chillicothe ward covers 4 counties, and so to drive from north of the ward to south of the ward is about 2 1/2 hour drive time.
• We drove up to New Albany on Wednesday. That is like east columbus so it was a good road trip for us. We had to leave Chillicothe at 6:45 am and got to New Albany about 8:15. I saw Elder Johnson there. It was a combined conference with the South and East zones. Elder Johnson and I talked for about 45 minutes and he told me he is actually headed home in 4 weeks to start classes at Oregon and to be getting ready for basketball this fall. So that was kinda sad to hear because he and I got pretty close as we helped each other get through the summer of quarantine. Zone Conference was super good. We had lots of role plays and learned about how we can be allowing God to prevail in our lives. After it was over, me and bennett went with the Athens elders to Mod's pizza in New Albany. I had never been there before and it was really good. Definately one of the faves.
• Church was good on Sunday. We had fast and testimony meeting, and then hopped on the ward Sunday School and youth Sunday School zoom mtgs. Super fun day! Probably the coldest day yet. We went walking to a couple members houses in the afternoon and I walked out our front door and was like, "It's sunny out I won't need a jacket." We started walking to the houses about 15 minutes away and my whole body I think went into shock because of the cold. I think it was 16 degrees is what the car said when we were walking. But I made it through the walk and I actually think we got one of our lessons that day because the lady felt bad we were standing in the cold on her porch so she let us share a scripture. Hey! Whatever works right.

One story I do have from this week. We were going around to a few part member and non member families on Tuesday night. We stopped at this one lady's house and knocked on her front door. She opened it and immediately through her hands up and said (in a very southern accent), "Elders!! Where have y'all been? I have been wanting you to stop here for the last 6 years since I last saw you." We got to talking with her. She is currently going to one of the baptist churches here in town. We talked for about 10 minutes on her porch about the bible and how she was raised in a strict baptist family. I asked her if we could come back later and do a bible study with her. She smiled and said, "Yes, I would love that. And while you are here I will make sure you have a cooked meal while we dive deep into the holy scriptures". Her name is Susan Bowen. The south accents are strong in these parts of Ohio. Kinda fun though to hear them speak.

Things upcoming this next week:

• We are driving down to Jackson tomorrow night. I am giving baptismal interviews to the 6 people that the sisters have on date to be baptized. So that'll be fun, I am excited for that!
• Interviews and District Council are on Wednesday (Either in New Albany or Reynoldsburg, but either way it'll be about 2 hrs drive time to Columbus.)
• Training Visit with the Zone Leaders here in Chillicothe on Thursday.

Keep Kris Rothe in your prayers. He is not doing good currently. Jamie Krueger is sick right now but that isn't a big concern because we have taught him everything to this point and we are doing a live proxy baptism on April 6 for him so that will still happen. But keep him in prayers too.

This is my testimony for the week. It comes from what I took away from Sister Horgesheimer's talk on Wednesday at Zone Conference. I like how she shared Spencer Hadley's decision to either have a hard heart about the mistake he made in college while attending BYU, or he could have a soft heart and allow the Lord to take place in his heart.

"I know who I am. I know who you are. All of us in this room have made mistakes. I know that we can change and we can right the wrongs that we have done. "The first step on the road to redemption is to bless others." - Bronco Mendenhall. We have to merge with Jesus Christ. The only thing Christ asks of us is a soft heart, what you gain is everything. We have to measure our spiritual hearts. In your life, you're going to be presented with a challenge and there will be times in your life (child, spouse, etc.) and you will find yourself in the parking lot like Spencer Hadley was, and you will have the decision to make, "Will you get on the bus?"

Do we have a soft heart? Do we have a gentle heart? Or have we allowed the loud voices of the world to distract us. Check your spiritual heart before you make every decision in your life. Soft hearts earn everything."

I am super grateful for all of you guys and for the love you guys give to me on the mission. This week is a momentous one. 18 months ago I stepped into an environment that has proven to shape me, test me beyond my limits, shown me to embrace the awkward, and become the priesthood holder that Heavenly Father needs me to be. I can't even begin to explain the happiness I have in my heart. Through a worldwide pandemic, 127 days in strict isolation, and everything since, I am grateful that God took a chance on me and I am forever grateful that I chose to get on the bus.

I love you all forever and always!

Elder Dylan McEwan

Church is Cancelled . . . Too Much Snow

Happy February 1! It has been a very wonderful week, and I feel like a different person today than last week. Something I focused on this week was having Hope and Humility and having it be focused on Jesus Christ. You all will find out why I feel this was such a blessing soon!

A quote I wanted to start this week off with is kind of where my thoughts of hope and humility lay:

"You are LOVED, You are ENOUGH, but you are not yet COMPLETE"

Here is the highlights of the week:

• We taught 40 lessons, and found 3 new people. I know we are not supposed to focus on numbers, and so something I have been focusing on instead is the principles that we are teaching these people, and really desiring for their progression towards the Savior. I feel that is what has helped us be able to find so many people and teach so many people this month of January. When we are focusing on the welfare of others, we in turn work hard and also work smarter to help them.
• District Council was on Wednesday. I also got the Valentine's package you guys sent me, I picked it up from Meighan Stevens and it was so awesome to open it. We had training visits that day so the other 3 elders and I ate a couple of the things! We set some transfer goals, and then one of the sisters asked me to give her a blessing at the end of the meeting. We had a ton of lessons that day, and because of that I ended up driving a total of 102 miles that whole day, but it was worth it because we met with some members that are clear out in the middle of nowhere, literally middle of nowhere.
• Thursday we had a district leader meeting with all the DL's and Pres Horgeshiemer. It was super good and we talked about how we can be leading by example for the benefit of those people around us to help them and keep everyone motivated. Super cool meeting!
• Saturday we had ward mission mtg with Brother Cain, and then drove an hour south to drop a bible off for a nonmember who had requested it, and then we stopped at Brother and Sister Flinders house while we were there. We then went to Brother Suber's house and had a super good lesson with him about "Coming to Zion" and taking time for ourselves. Then we stopped at Panda Express on the way home, kinda been missing it so we had to go because it just barely got put in here!
• Sunday was exactly how the title of this email says! So we ended up having church over zoom because it snowed the night before. Here in downtown Chillicothe it snowed about 4 to 6 inches so honestly we still could have gone, but Bishop Brower said that the members who live about 45 to 60 minutes away from the church had a lot more than 6 inches of snow. But it was good anyway. We had a super humbling lesson with the Allen family. They have a 7 year old daughter who is wanting to be baptized in April, so about 2 months away. Her parents are worried though, because the daughter (Natalie) has Autism. They don't know if she completely understands baptism or would understand being put under water for a few seconds. So we are going to be calling them and stopping at their house each week to talk with Natalie and just help her the best we can. Keep everyone in your prayers, so we can be able to know exactly what we need to do to help Natalie.
• We also got to teach seminary this morning to the youth here in the ward. We did it over zoom and it was early morning seminary and so that was fun! We talked about how I and Elder Bennett had prepared for our missions, etc. So I've been up since 4:45 😂
• Quick side note, so I was shaving on Saturday morning and completely sliced the corner of my face by my eye open on accident. So that was fun because now it hurts super bad.

People focusing on:

• Jamie is a stud. We met with him on Wednesday and he is doing super good. April 6th is still the date for his baptism so keep praying for him.
• Kris Rothe. Well we have hit a rough spot with Kris, and have not been able to meet with him for 2 weeks now. He keeps missing our lessons when we go to his grandma's house who is a member. Keep him in your prayers and that he can get married before April 1. 
• Lisa Massie is doing super good. She is praying for a date to get baptized, and wanting to come to church in the future soon.
• Chris Madden. We met Chris on facebook messenger yesterday and she is wanting a church tour and to come to church this week.

This week was amazing. And it was amazing for 2 reasons. 1.) The week finished a lot differently than it started. 2.) The scripture that I find myself saying a lot is the one that says, "It is not requisite that ye run faster than ye have strength". This scripture helped me a lot this week, as we are trying to push this area of Chillicothe so much, and then I have been trying to think about and focus on Athens and Jackson's areas to help them out and know what trainings and things to do to help them. It then occurred to me this weekend, that I have been missing the gist of what I have learned over the last year since COVID began. It was to take opportunity at the small things to refresh, and ultimately refocus your mind on what matters most. So many times, we as disciples of Jesus Christ get going and we forget. We forget what we need to be doing because ultimately we want to be doing it all. But, we need to be doing things out of priority and that is why praying in the mornings as you plan out your day is so beneficial. I have a strong testimony on this, and that as we focus on becoming everything we need to be becoming each day, we will become that person.

How are you all doing? How did the week of events go for everyone?? I hope life, and school as well as work is going super good :) Also, just so everyone knows my pick for this Sunday's game: Kansas City Chiefs!

I love you guys so much! You all are doing such great things. Remember who you are and who you stand for, and be the best version of yourself today. :)

Love you always . . . love you forever . . .

Elder M