Monday, February 15, 2021

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

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