Charity & Love

I wanted to share with you what I learned this last week of the importance of charity and love . .

Charity and Love is a huge thing, and if not nourished and fed, it begins to dwindle and to crumble into dust . . . But when we turn towards the Savior, and we submit our will to be in line with His will, then He is able to develop us to be the Christlike lovers and Christlike charity givers He wants all of His children to be.

I invite us to, starting this week, make a reminder note in our head to be kind to everyone, and to always be willing to be there for someone in need, and always help those that stand in need of comfort.

Some ideas I thought of:
- Make cookies and take them to people
- Write in a card and take it to someone who may need it
- Serve someone by helping them on a project, or studying, etc

There are so many more ideas we can do. I'm very excited to take this challenge with all of you starting this week and going forward for every week from now on :).

Bump Day!

This week was so amazing and I am so happy; this Gospel is true and I'm so grateful to be a part of it :). Eternal families are God's plan of happiness and I'm grateful I have my family for eternity.

Tuesday morning we left the apt at 7:30 am to go up to the north part of Lewis Center and we met the Delaware Elders (Henshaw and Davis) and made the switch of companions for the day. I went with Elder Henshaw up to Delaware and we had so much fun! We talked to a lot of people, helped out at the food pantry for like 20 min, and we talked with a preacher who completely antied us for about 45 min in the Delaware library about what he believed to be true and that we were wrong in believing the things we did. When I was speaking with him, I felt completely calm and knew the Spirit was with me in what I was telling him and what I know to be true. And like in the words of Moroni, "I, Elder Dylan McEwan, will not deny the Christ." The guy left after a little while, so that made for an interesting day. We taught a lesson to a family on member missionary work and how important it is to be part of this great work.

Wednesday we woke up and I packed my things, and we drove from Delaware to the Powell church bldg which is about 30 min away. We had district council at 10:30, and then me and Elder Yukihiro went and helped Elder Weidman pack up a trailer to take down to Cainbridge to move elders into a new apt. Then we went to John Russell's house and had a very great lesson with him and his caretaker, Abdul. Abdul is super cool! He is originally from South Africa, and just moved here about a yr ago I think. We talked to Abdul about how important families are and how his can be together forever. I don't know if I said this already, but John Russell has been in a wheelchair for about 4 or 5 yrs now and it is hard for him to talk. He suffers from lots of seizures and has had one or two brain surgeries. It is so much fun to talk with him and get to know him because he loves the Gospel with every last ounce of his heart. :). Me and Yukihiro drove up to Marysville that night to spend the night with the ZL's.

Thursday was a great day! We had training visits with Elders Kamerath and Ricks. I went with Elder Ricks and we went tracting in the morning, and were able to meet Ashley. She is super cool and loved being able to answer the survey/questionnaire we did with her. We met up with Kamerath and Yukihiro at 12 and went to a delicious Mexican restaurant for lunch. It was called Fiesta Grande and was so good! I got a burrito for lunch, and man I could've had two or three more haha :);). Me and Ricks had a really great lesson with a family on how the Book of Mormon and the Bible correlate together. We used cardboard, paper, and two thumbtacks. And we showed how when only one thumbtack is in the paper stuck to the cardboard, that's what the bible represents and we still have the paper moving. But when we put two thumbtacks in, the paper stays still and we have a more solid foundation to what we know to be the full word of God. Me and Elder Yukihiro got back to Lewis Center at about 9:45, and I fell right to sleep. Two weeks in a row with 4 training visits total is very tiring :).

Friday we went to Polaris to Elder Bowers apt and we had a zoom video call with the whole Columbus north zone and the assistants and President Stratford about zone conference a few weeks ago and how we are implementing what we learned into our life. I took away from zone conference how we must be totally dedicated to the Lord everyday, to give our life over to him and let him mold and shape us into who we need to be. We helped Elder Weidman fill up 2 trailers in Powell so he can take them to missionaries apts this week and then he said he thinks we are all done now with moving missionaries to different apts. I was counting on Friday, and I totaled 7 times we have helped fill the trailers/move people just in this transfer. Haha good thing I got some good experience at moving people before the mission :);).

Saturday we went out and really got to work that day. We went to 3 or 4 members houses in the morning and were able to set up a few return appointments for lessons with them this upcoming week, and then in the afternoon and evening we were supposed to have 4 lessons with members . . . And they ALL fell through. We were completely in the dark for what we could do because our plans had fallen through. We decided to go visit the Worth family. They are so nice! And here's why: We showed up at their house about 4:45 Saturday night and they were about to have visitors over for dinner and a party. They let us in and asked us if we had dinner that night, we said we were just going to eat later. Sister Worth said, "Why don't you stay for dinner. It's not breaking mission rules because our friends that are coming tonight are nonmembers." So we stayed for dinner and had such a fabulous time with the Worth's and their friends and were able to tell their friends a little about what missionaries do everyday. They loved it and the Spirit was there! Was that anything short of a miracle? I am so grateful beyond words for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior that watches out for us when we don't know where to go or what to do, and all hope seems lost.

Sunday was a great and wonderful day! I finished reading the Book of Mormon, and it made me so happy to have that accomplished and to strengthen my testimony of the word of God. I spoke in Primary as well. Sister Worth asked me on Saturday night if I would speak, because they didn't have anyone. So I gladly accepted and spoke on the "Choice seer of Joseph Smith" and how Joseph was preordained to be a leader in this dispensation. It was about 3 min that I spoke and I'm so glad I could! :) We also had a dinner at Elder and Sister Weidmans house in Powell. It was so good and I'm so grateful for their willingness and love for us as missionaries.

It was such a great week! I will also hit my 6 month mark this week on February 14th (Valentines day)! I have been reflecting on my last 6 months as a missionary and the person I am today because of it. I'm so grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me this opportunity to serve a mission. A lot of the missionaries here in Ohio don't know what a "Bump, Hump,and Slump" day is as a missionary. So I've been able to share with them how cool and awesome they are:);).

The challenge I would like to extend for this week makes me so happy to think about. The challenge is this: "What are we doing everyday of our lives to 'Become Perfected in Christ'"? It is such a cool thing that we can be better everyday than we were the day before and that we can always have Christ's spirit to be with us. Ponder the words of the sacrament prayer, and it will guide all of our lives to be a little better today than we were the day before.

Transfers are next week on Thursday February 20th, and p-day will be on  Wednesday, February 19. We have 21 new missionaries coming next week, which is crazy a lot! Ten of those missionaries are Spanish missionaries and the mission will be opening 4 or 5 new Spanish areas here in the OCM, which is super cool! I'm so excited to have people who speak different languages be able to be visited by more missionaries.

Please pray for Gina Young and her family. We have been trying so hard to get inside her house and be able to talk with her and her family and hopefully be able to start teaching them. Heavenly Father has a time and a season for everything, we just have to keep moving forward in faith.

We got snow on Friday and Saturday this week and it was so cold! But we made it fun though and I had my boots, gloves, coat, and beanie to stay warm :):).

I miss you guys so much! And I'm so forever grateful for the examples you are to me, and for everything you do for me. I pray for you everyday, keep being awesome and doing your very best everyday!

I love you forever and always! :)
Elder Dylan McEwan

"One degree choices"- Elder Utchdorf (my favorite talk)
"Are you sleeping through the restoration"- Elder Utchdorf

Dare to Be Brave . . . Dare to Be YOU

Wow, that week absolutely flew by super fast. It was a great week!

On Tuesday, we went tracting in the morning to the west side of the area. It's been interesting doing tracting in this area because pretty much everyone works during the day, so we end up trying to go to the more "City" part of the area and catch people while they're walking on the street :). We helped Elder Weidman at the storage shed in the afternoon. I think everything is about finished with bringing everything down to Powell from up North. They're putting it all in the 3 storage sheds we have in Powell, so we have been organizing it and getting it looking nice. It's like an adult version of tetris ;). We also had a great lesson with the Ball family (members). We went over the ward mission plan and they also said they would love to have us and our investigators over for a Book of Mormon class at their house one night a week. I think that would be super cool and important to be able to do! We drove up to Delaware that night.

Wednesday we had training visits in Delaware with Elder Henshaw and Elder Davis. I went with Elder Davis that day and it was a ton of fun. We started off the day by helping at a food pantry in Delaware. It is put on by members from the Lutheran church as well as Delaware citizens. It is every Tuesday and Wednesday there. So we helped the people get their groceries and helped them load it in their cars. And oh my goodness, I thought I was going to start crying from seeing those people come into the building with NOTHING, and leave with groceries. I had never helped at a food pantry before and it was the coolest thing ever! We went over to a less actives house that night and taught him about prophets and why we need them. We also gave him a blessing. I was able to be the voice for the blessing, and it was such a tender moment. I had never met the guy, yet when I placed my hands on his head, my heart knew him from the pre-earth life. I then spoke the words the Spirit gave to me and realized in that moment, it doesn't matter if we know someone before we help them; we must always help people, even if we don't know them. We had a really great lesson with a member family in Delaware on the importance of dancing to the music of the Gospel. I shared that we all are on this journey called LIFE. But we all dance to the gospel differently and we must all help each other to hear the tune of the Gospel and what it means to us. Me and Elder Yukihiro drove 35 minutes south to the Polaris elders apt that night.

We had training visits with the Polaris Elders on Thursday. I went with Elder Jones and had a great day. We started the day off by going to the north east part of Polaris and walking for about 2 hrs to people's houses. We only were able to talk with one or two people at their houses, but those one or two people are the people our Heavenly Father needed us to talk to that morning. That afternoon, we walked for about 2 1/2 hrs (my leg muscles have gotten very VERY big from all the running and walking I do). We tried talking with one street of houses and also offering service, but all of their signs said, "If you are not selling Thin Mints, then Seriously Please Go away". So I turned to Elder Jones and said the next time they go back, to make sure they take thin mints to these amazing and good people of Polaris :):) We were able to set up an appointment with a member family for the future, so I was very grateful for that. Elder Jones and Elder Cox (his comp) went to the Columbus temple that night with some of their members, so me and  Elder Yukihiro took their lesson with a recent convert for them. His name is Danny and was baptized a few months ago I believe. We taught the importance of daily scripture reading and why we must "feast upon the words of Christ". It was great and the spirit was felt. Me and Elder Yukihiro were quite tired when we got back to the apt that night after having back to back training visits.

Friday was an amazing and fun filled day! We helped Elder Weidman in the morning with unloading a trailer that had an apartment's worth full of furniture and washers and dryers (it was my 2nd workout of the day ;). Then we had district council and interviews in Powell at the mission home. One of the perks about interviews at the mission home is Sister Stratford made everyone chocolate chip cookies while we visited, and they were so good! Definitely made it a great day :). My interview with President was so good. He told me that he knows the Lord wants me in the Lewis Center area, and that He wants me to start preparing to be a trainer in the future :) I gave a training at district council on How to become a Preach My Gospel missionary and the importance of it. I taught that we must talk WITH people, and not TO/AT people when we have conversations. People see the way members of the Church teach and talk. We must feast upon the words of Christ and treasure up in our minds continually the words of Christ, so that it'll be given us in the very hour, yes in the very moment, that which should be meted unto every man. I think my training went good and hope everyone was able to learn something. It was cool to be back in the mission home after 6 months since my first night in Ohio. We did weekly planning that night at Elder Bowers house in Polaris, and about 45 minutes into it, we had both fallen asleep, it was like 7:05-ish ;).

Saturday was what I am calling, "Max overload" day haha :). We helped the Brogdon family move out of their old house at 10 am, and then at 11 am we went with the ward mission leader (Brother Walker) and helped the Igle family move out of their house and we did that til about 1 pm, and then we went to the Brogdon's new house and helped them unload everything and put everything from the cars to the house. Then, at 3 o clock we went over to Brother and Sister Gornichecs house (members), and we helped them sand all of their cabinets and drawers in their kitchen so they can paint them. We were there for about 3 hrs and then we went up to Sunbury to the Tucci house (members) and talked with them about some questions Brother Tucci had. He is a convert to the church, and so it's always been super fun to talk with him and hear his viewpoints on things and opinions on things. We got back to the apt at about 8:45 and I was asleep on the couch by about 9:20.

Sunday was super good and awesome. It was fast and testimony mtg, and I got up and bore my testimony on Sister Cravens talk titled, Careful versus Casual. I talked about how we must stay on the path, not because of the temporal happiness, but because of the long term lasting happiness that comes from being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They redid the bishopric in the Lewis Center ward. Bishop Pease is the new bishop and I think he will do a great job! We went out with a boy named Ethan Cornelius to take the sacrament to John Russell after church. It was so much fun and reminded me of when I would go out with the missionaries, and brought back some good memories.

Me, Yukihiro, Elder Jones and Elder Cox (Polaris elders) went to an Asian buffet on Thursday, and it was so good! I had a ton of food! I had egg rolls, pasta, and a lot of other Asian food that I can't pronounce ;) I made it through 3 plate fulls!

It was a very very great week! I learned the importance of doing my best everyday, and leaving the rest up to Heavenly Father. My testimony was strengthened as well this week. I know this church is true, I have felt it play a significant role in my life. And I think more than anything else, Heavenly Father taught me the importance of staying and being HUMBLE, and able, not being afraid to open my mouth to talk with someone. There is a time and a season for everything the Lord has for this world, and we can only trust in Him that He has that way provided for each of us, as we do our part.

It's also super important not to get discouraged and get down on yourself. If anything else, a mission has taught me the ups and the downs of everyday life. The Lord hasn't forgotten His people, He is right beside us every day. We must stay positive, do our best, and have courage and confidence everyday of our lives.

The challenge and invitation for this week is something I have valued in my life as very important. It is this: To be YOU, and to stand tall and firm for who YOU ARE. Just like President Monson says in his talk, "Dare to be brave. Dare to make a difference. Dare to BE YOU." I want to second that. Heavenly Father created us in His image, and wants us to learn and grow to be who we need to be. I invite us to make a commitment to ourselves to stand tall and to stand brave everyday, and to not let our faith be shaken, and to BE YOU.

I've also been thinking a lot about the importance of growing and improving everyday. I want us to ask ourselves the question, "How am I becoming who I need to be everyday, and how am I being a little better than I was the day before?" We see that by small means, are great things brought to pass.

It is sunny and blue skies in Lewis Center, and about 34 degrees everyday with humidity.

I pray for you guys everyday, and I know Heavenly Father is blessing each of you in all of your efforts. I miss you guys so very much!

I love you all forever and always!
Elder Dylan

Alma 36:3
"My Sacred Grove" -- This is such a cool song to listen to :) Look it up on YouTube or Facebook. It has a great message of building our OWN sacred groves and waiting patiently in faith.

Lift Where We Stand

Elder McEwan & Elder Yukihiro

It rained and snowed on Saturday here in Lewis Center, and was sunny the rest of the week. This Ohio weather is very indecisive when it comes to choosing when it will rain or be sunny.

This week was an interesting week! It taught me a lot about who I am individually and who I am striving everyday to become, not just as a missionary, but as a person who wants to be closer to my Savior Jesus Christ.

Alright, here we go! On Monday night, we had invited the Olson family (members) to play hockey with us at the Powell bldg, they absolutely love hockey! They're from San Diego and moved out here last year. So it gets to be 7 o'clock and they show up. Elder Yukihiro is on the pew in the chapel laying down. Me and the Olson family went into the gym and started playing hockey and some football (just like the good ol days ;)). At around 8:30 pm, we went to check on Elder Yukihiro and get ready to leave. He looked so so miserable! He had thrown up 4 or 5 times already, and had a fever. Me and Brother Olson gave him a blessing, and we drove to the apt where I proceeded to play Dr. McEwan and give him medicine and everything he needed to be comfortable, for the most part.

This was a great experience for me in many ways. One way is that I learned the importance of being and staying worthy for the opportunities that will come to us in an instant, like giving a Priesthood blessing. I was very grateful to be there for Elder Yukihiro to help him. Also, the second way is that I very much learned the ability more than I ever possibly have, of serving my neighbors. And that Heavenly Father needs us, ALL of us, to go to work and serve everyday. Because people are in need of our ministering.

So on Tuesday, we were supposed to go to Zone Conference, but President Stratford called and said for us to stay at the apt and for Yukihiro to rest up. So that's what we spent the day doing. Elder Yukihiro slept literally all day long, and I read the Book of Mormon for a couple hrs (I'm in Alma now :)). And I watched Ephraims Rescue, and did some laundry.

Wednesday, we went to the other Zone Conference over in New Albany. We had a great time there! It was fun to see some familiar faces from missionaries who came out with me, as well as meet some new ones. They had us do a workout segment right before lunch -- all the elders were in suits and sisters were in slacks. It was about 10 min long, but super fun to do :). Sister Stratford said, "Elders and Sisters, I want this to be a jumpstart for you to start working out and being healthy. Because I know some of you aren't doing either of those things." I smiled and was very grateful that I have stuck to my workout routine every morning and have been able to stay healthy. I'm literally in the best shape of my life, and I love it. We got home from zone conference and Yukihiro went back to sleep, and I read Book of Mormon and did a lot of thinking.

Armor Up Coins

Thursday gets more exciting. We went around knocking on doors all over Lewis Center and tried to make the most of our time that day. We were able to have a great lesson with John Russell (member) and his caretaker, Abdul, who isn't a member. Abdul is from South Africa and a super cool guy! We talked about the Book of Mormon and why we have it and need it. He asked a lot of questions and I can honestly say, the Spirit was felt there as we bore witness of the reality of the book and that Jesus Christ lives. We had a lesson also with the Canon family (members). We went over the ward mission plan and gave them the member missionary tags. I also gave them the armor up coins that you guys sent me. Thank you very much! They loved them and some of the kids thought they were chocolate coins and tried to bite into them. I also gave 3 coins to the Tucci family and was able to share with them what the coin signifies.

Friday, we decided to make chocolate chip cookies and take them around to members in the ward. We made about 2 dozen I believe, and then went around the ward all day meeting with a few families and setting up appointments to come back and visit. We were able to set up an appointment with the Ball family and the Cornelius family for this upcoming week. Ministering is very widespread and can be done in many of ways; it doesn't have to be a lesson. It can simply be a drop by and a short visit. We had pizza Friday and got Little Caesars pizza. It made me happy because I haven't had pizza Friday since before I left, so it was a good night. And we did weekly planning at Elder Bowers house in Polaris.

Saturday it was raining all day, the routinely Ohio rain. We went about in the morning hitting up some formers who hadn't been talked to in a year or two. None of them said they were still interested, but we had a great visit with them about loving one another as our Heavenly Father would and serving where we can. Saturday afternoon we went tracting, haha not the funnest part of missionary work ;). We met a guy named Kamelesh who is also from South Africa area. He was about to leave, so he said we could come back in a few days and visit. We then went to the library and cleaned out the area book and texted some people to set up appointments, and none of them responded; but we press forward. I then suggested we should start a Book of Mormon/Bible class for the ward and invite the Polaris Elders and members to it. We are going to talk to Bishop Nelson (Lewis Center bishop), and see if he agrees with us that we should start it.

Sunday was so great! We had church, and in sacrament meeting Bishop Nelson talked about the importance of patriarchal blessings and why we must always study them out in our minds of what we wish to know. He said something that stuck out to me and I want to share with you. He said, "A patriarchal blessing is God's promised blessing to an individual. But the key word is, 'Promised'. Meaning, we have to work hard and put forth effort in what our patriarchal blessings say, in order to receive those promised blessings." Please read your patriarchal blessing frequently. I have felt the joy it brings and I will take the committment as well to continually be reading it. We had dinner with Elder and Sister Weidman. They live kind of in between Powell and Lewis Center. We had french toast, my favorite! I needed it actually -- I was craving some generic food.

That's pretty much it for the week! We did talk with Elder Weidman last week and he said he is going to be needing us A LOT over the next few weeks to help him out with moving all the furniture not needed in the northern zones, down here when Elder Gorrell brings it down. So that'll be fun to help with. Hopefully it can warm up this week. It was 34 degrees all week with about 80 percent humidity, the BEST.

Something I Learned from Zone Conference this week is this: We as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, need to give our lives over to Jesus Christ so that He can use us in the areas of this life that people need to hear our testimonies. It is nerve wracking, because I have felt it. But I know change is necessary in this life. I have felt a huge change come over me this last month, and I'm grateful Heavenly Father blesses us to always learn and grow and improve everyday. Pray for opportunities to strengthen your testimony everyday.

I also wanted to invite us to strive to have the Spirit with us as we plan out our days. Seek guidance from Heavenly Father for what He wants us to accomplish everyday, so that we can, everyday, make the most of our time.

This challenge for this week is a very special one, and I'm very very excited for all of us to strive to do it this week. I challenge and invite us to: "Each day this week, share our testimonies with someone we feel could use it. It doesn't have to be a long one, but even a short brief conversation of why we are so happy. A quote comes to my mind from Eleanor Roosevelt, 'Do one thing everyday that scares you.' What power! I invite us also to do this, to do one thing everyday that scares us. As Fast Sunday is this next Sunday, I encourage us to bare our testimonies in church, and share what we know, because we know this Church of Jesus Christ is true.

This Gospel is true, Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I'm so grateful for Him that He died so that we can all live and become who we need and want to be in this life. Take advantage of everyday, starting TODAY :). Lift where we stand, and serve those around us. Say hi and smile at someone who feels lonely. The Savior is using each of us to bless the lives of someone within our midst, we must go forth and share that love with them.

Keep up the great work! The Lord is on our side.

I pray for you guys everyday and miss you so much, and I know Heavenly Father is blessing us to do those things He needs us to do. Always look to Him for the ultimate example, and strive everyday to bless those people around you. I watched President Monson's video this week, "The Lords Errand." He said a simple phrase in it and it stuck with me. He said, "Following through on a prompting from the Spirit, is answering the prayer of somebody else." May we all do this, and be in tune with the Spirit to help answer those prayers around us.

I love YOU Forever and Always!

Elder Dylan ❤

On the Lord's Errand

I wanted to share something I learned in church this week and what it taught me about always having the Spirit with us. It was on Spiritual Capacity by Michelle Craig, October 2019 General Conference.

She talks about the importance of having the spirit with us so that we can be influenced to go and help one of our Heavenly Father's children. I like that she talks about being on the Lord's "errand". When we act on a prompting from the Holy Ghost, we are answering the prayer of somebody else. Heavenly Father has given all of us the ability to serve and to have the Spirit everyday of our lives. And then just like President Monson states, "If the Lord needs an errand to be run, _____ will run it for Him". I challenge each of us, myself included, to always strive to have our name in that blank space. The blessings we receive from it will be insurmountable.

We don't know the time or place we will be called upon to act in our Heavenly Fathers name, but when we are called, may we all respond with the sound of a trump ❤.

I love you all so very much and am so very grateful for each of you!
Elder Dylan

Pictures from Lewis Center

Preparing Ourselves for His Coming

This week was great and I was able to learn more than I ever thought possible about myself and about the importance of opening my mouth to everyone I see.

So on Tuesday we went out and met with a lot of formers in area book who hadn't been met with in about a year. No one came to the doors, but we were able to talk with 2 or 3 people out walking their dogs on the street and have a good conversation about what we as missionaries do and it was super cool. We had a lesson with the Forgrave family (members) and also had a lesson with the Tucci family (members). At the Tucci house, we taught with Brandon, who is 18 and deciding if he wants to go out on a mission or not. So it was super good to give him this opportunity to see first hand what "Mission life" is like.

Super sad thing happened that I found out about. I don't know if you remember Carol Hoeningman who lives up in Chardon. Well, apparently something happened literally the day after I left, and she passed away Jan 10th :'(. They had the funeral for her this last Saturday. She was a really really sweet lady and super kind in every way.

Wednesday we had the Marysville Zone leaders in our area for training visits. We started off the day by driving to Powell to the church bldg and going to district council. I gave a training/role play on "How to Begin Teaching" (chapter 10 in Preach My Gospel), and I think it went very good! All the missionaries who I give trainings to always say they are super impressed by how I present them and that I give them in my own unique way. We had a guy from Sandy, Utah come and talk to us about marketing and selling our product, "The gospel". His name is Mark Peterson, and he owns Apple Spice in Sandy. He is friends of Elder Bower (driving coordinator), so that's why he was here.

I went out with Elder Kamerath Wednesday afternoon. All 4 of us went and helped Elder Weidman move furniture into the storage shed in Powell. It was a couple washers and dryers, shelves and beds from an apartment. Maas360 also decided to give up on Wednesday afternoon and it deleted ALL missionaries area books and all the apps.  Not just for the OCM, but missionaries worldwide. So we were driving blind for about 2 hrs, but then it came up and started working again, and we had a good time! We found 1 new person up in Sunbury. His name is Greg Laycock. He has a Book of Mormon and was talked to 3 or 4 yrs ago by sister missionaries, and we met him while he was out walking his dog, so we walked his dog with him :). He said we could come back anytime and meet with him and help him answer his questions. We also met with John (member) and his caretaker, Abduul. Abduul said he would love to come to church with John, so that is sweet!!

On Thursday we went to Polaris to Elder Bowers apt and Elder Yukihiro had a video conference call with the APs, President, and all the DL's in the mission to train them on being good leaders and having good, model areas. We then went to a gated community in the afternoon and tried to meet with a guy named Joydeep Gupta, but he said he was just leaving the house. So we decided to do a little tracting and started offering service to people as our approach. They said they were all good, and one guy even asked if we had licenses to be doing what we do (I lost my ministerial certificate . . . :)), but other than that, no one came our way. We had a lesson with Brother Edgson. It was supposed to be the whole family, but everyone else was at a choir concert.

Friday we met 2 new people again! Do you remember Gina Young who I told you about last week? Well, we tried to stop by on Friday and see her but she wasn't home. Her 2 sons were though. Tareek and Dakota answered the door and they asked us what we do and wanted to hear our message. We shared the restoration and why we as the missionaries go out to the world to teach the Gospel. Tareek said he has been searching recently for truth and really wants to know where he can find it. We gave him our number, and the address to Powell church bldg, and invited him to Church. God works in mysterious ways and I'm so glad we could find them.

Saturday was an incredibly WET day. I have never seen it rain so hard in such a short amount of time. But did we go out in the rain and preach the gospel? Behold, I say unto you: Yay :).It was so much fun! We walked up and down the streets in Lewis Center and everyone we talked to at the door step said we were crazy and to stay warm. We were hoping they would've let us in to get warm, and share a message ;). It stopped raining by the afternoon and we met with a guy who is a preacher for a church over in Powell. We talked to him for 25 minutes on his front porch. He was super interested, so he gave us his number and said to call him and we can talk more and go get lunch. Double win! ;) We talked with 2 Hindu people and 1 Egyptian. That was quite fun! The Hindu people couldn't understand English and we couldn't understand them, but hopefully they could feel the spirit. The Egyptian said he would read the Restoration pamphlet we gave him and call us if he was interested, we also invited him to church. We had really good lessons with the Obarr family (members) and the Nielson family (members) that night. We talked about the ward mission plan and gave them each a Member Missionary tag that they could wear and use everyday to remind them of their calling and purpose.

Sunday we had ward council at 10:30, and then church at 12, and then a zone wide conference call on messenger with the zone leaders to go over the zone focus for the transfer. We also have zone conference this week on Tuesday at the Galloway bldg.

It was a super great and amazing week! Time seems to be just flying, and I know that when we are in the service of our fellow being, we are only in the service of our God and we have the ability to lose ourselves in the work. (Mosiah 2:17 :)

I have learned so much about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week. I was able to reflect on a year ago when I first started my mission papers and how far I've come since then. I am forever grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who has blessed me so much on my mission to learn all that I need to and hopefully to help others on their spiritual and life journeys as well.

I've been thinking a lot about the challenge we should do this week, and I've had a lot of ideas come to mind. The challenge I have decided on is based on the title of this email: Preparing Ourselves for His coming. I want to extend this challenge: As we prepare for April General conference in about 2 months, I want us to truly focus on what we are doing everyday to have the Spirit more abundant in our lives and how we can be closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. Just picture, if the Savior himself was standing right beside you right now, would you be saying or doing the things you were doing? I invite all of us to ponder and pray this week, and always, how we can be closer to our Savior. And as the 5 virgin's with their oil ready, be ready for the bridegrooms coming.

Also, go and read Joseph Smith's account of the first vision to prepare yourselves for Conference. The work is hastening in it's time, and Christ is getting everything ready for His coming. So we must be ready.

I know this Gospel is true! I have seen the joy i'ts brought to my life, and I know that families are central and eternal to His plan of happiness. I'm so eternally blessed to know that families are together forever, through Heavenly Fathers plan. I always want to be with my own family and the Lord has shown me how I can, the Lord has shown me how I can. (The best primary song ever :)).

I invite all of us to open our mouths everyday and talk with everyone, and be the example of who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are, and who we are. Be confident in yourself, and pray to know what to say in the time that you very most need it. "Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word; and then shall your tongue be loosed, yea, unto the convincing of every man." - PMG chapter 1.

I care about you all so so much and I pray for you everyday. I miss you a lot, and I know we are all being blessed everyday. Keep praying and immersing yourselves in the scriptures everyday, and do what you can do, in the best way you know how, and the Lord will accept your effort - Marjory Pay Hinkley.

I love you forever and always!
Elder Dylan

P.S. Study conference talks from Oct and April 2019 general conferences, and make an individual mission statement and vision to what you're wanting to do to strengthen your testimony and become who you need to become. "We Can Do Better and Be Better - President Nelson. A super good talk.