Investigators set Baptismal dates & Thanksgiving

11-28-11

Hey what’s up! :)


So I have to tell you! This week was so sweet! The Lord has been blessing us so much lately! :) I am so satisfied with the reward of my effort. Sometimes I feel like the reward is greater than my efforts, which means the Lord's hand is in all things! I have noticed that a lot of people have been praying for me lately because the work is going great!


I don’t want to sound like I am bragging but this is what is new! So we have 7 investigators 2 not progressing and 5 with a baptismal date! All for the 17th of December. Unfortunately, I am going to be realistic and say that probably not all will come through with their date and we will have to make changes. However, I know that at least 2 or 3 will make it!


So this week we got 2 new investigators, Jamie and Nicole, a couple. We taught them the first lesson: "The Doctrine of Christ" (2 Nephi:31 & 3 Nephi: 11), and on the first lesson committed them to be baptized. This was Wednesday, then we met with them again on Saturday and they were asking about requirements for baptism so I brought a paper with the interview questions on it. Then, on Sunday they came to Church all 3 hours! And they were telling people yeah, we are planning on being permanent. Then, get this, for our gospel principals class I gave them a manual and Jamie was looking through it and I had showed him where the commandments were and I saw him reading some of the commandments and stuff! YAY! It was so awesome and our other investigators are pretty legit too! Of course some of them are more ready than others, but it is going great! :)


So that is basically my week! Thanksgiving was great! We went to the bishop’s house and he is Mexican along with his family and we had Mexican food for Thanksgiving dinner! It was the best ever! I think we should start that as a tradition in our family. I love Mexican food! There was home made horchata, and homemade tortillas! (The best I ever had) then there was spicy beans, and pesole (like a soup stuff) and there were ribs and turkey and for dessert flan and other things mmmm! Then we visited but didn’t eat a ton at other families. And also we played turkey bowl football that morning so it was great!

Alrighty so that is about all for this week! I am doing great, I continue to pray for y'all and I appreciate all of the prayers that are said for me!

I love you! Have a great week! Love, Elder Justin Charles McNew

One Year Mark!

11-21-11

Everything this week is going great! My new companion is still green.  I have been helping him and stuff!  For some reason the Lord keeps putting me with companions that have to rely on me a lot.  It's hard but I know that the Lord is teaching me something.  I do have some good news this week though.  We taught three lessons with members present and that may not seem like a ton, but it's been a little more difficult in this area.  Also, two of our new investigators are on for a baptismal date for December17th.  It was really cool to teach them.  It's kinda funny we taught them at separate times but the lessons went pretty close to the same! Lesson 2 (The Plan of Salvation) and we committed them to baptism when talking about the Atonement! It was so sweet! :)

Then another cool thing that happened this week was that on Friday, Eric, the oldest son of my homeshare family, was working on Dylan's (the youngest son) car.  He was installing a new clutch so, guess what? Yep, I went and put my work clothes on and went to work i did! lol i helped change out the clutch and put the car back together.  It was pretty sweet! I still have slight grease stains on my hands and I feel well accomplished. It has been a good year since I have worked on a car so it was nice to get in there and play in some grease :) ha ha ha.

This week was also my One-year-mark so on Thursday night I burned a shirt! I got it all on video so y'all can see.  I also got the packages that everyone sent me :) So thank you very much for that; it was an awesome time of year and it's not the end of the holiday season.
Well thats about all for now!

I love you! Have a good week!

Love, Elder McNew

Tracting in the park

11-14-11

Hey y'all!

I am doing so good this week on the mission. It has been a bit difficult but great all in one! So, to start, we have 3 new investigators this week and 4 people at Church! I know that the Lord is blessing me for sticking through it all and I think that the Lord is preparing things for when my new companion comes in!

That's right! I'm getting a new companion, but I'm staying in Moreno Valley.  My address is the same if you could make that known to others that would be great! Okay so my old companion Elder Park is going to Banning which is an off-shoot of Yucaipa; the wind just blows more! Replacing him as my new companion is Elder Spencer! I dont know much about him but I know that he was just serving with my former companion Elder Reimann; and he is from Utah (I don't know what city).  Anyway, it's cool though because then they aren't so closed off to new ideas!

I like trying new things, like for example, instead of tracting we street contact as we go places on our bikes :)  This week I also got a sweet idea to have a meeting in the park.  Like they used to do in the early church, we have a park close to our home so I had Brother Cassel print off some flyers and we went and taped them to a bunch of trees and cross walk posts and stuff :) So hopefully that works out! Anyway as you can see I am doing great! I am so excited to see how this next transfer goes with my new companion, my year mark, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all happen in one transfer! This week Thursday when I turn a year I will be burning a shirt as a common ritual among missionaries.  I will have to send some pics of that!

I love you! and hope and pray for you often! Have a good week. Love, Elder McNew

an FHE lesson

11-07-11

This week I had the opportunity to attend the temple! There is a guy in my ward that is crazy about genealogy and temple work; so when he found out that I was going to be attending the temple he got all excited and offered me a ride.  He told me that we were going to go early so that we could do some initiatories before I went in for a session.  So, I got to go to the temple earlier than everyone else which was cool because I haven't done initiatories for a while.  It was a great experience and then when I went and did a session, the Spirit was really strong.  I learned so much this past time for some reason.  I don't know why, but things just stuck out to me and it was awesome!  I think it's because I have been learning more and more and maturing.  When I went to the temple, I was ready to learn more.  Unfortunately, my companion wasn't able to go because he had a meeting at the church.

Okay,  So that's what was cool this week.  I also had a cool experience this week with a family that we taught yesterday.  So, there is this family in my ward that has an ex-son in-law and his girlfriend that live close.  To make a long confusing explanation short, I'm just gonna say that they attend FHE at their house and stayed for the lesson.  Kim, the girlfriend (non-member), attends the lesson and she is somewhat interested in the gospel but doesn't want to take the lessons.  So, to avoid being awkward we have been going to the FHE for a few weeks now, we met Kim and the guy and we are friends now. So, this week we got the opportunity to teach half of the first lesson which is the Restoration.  We taught up to the Savior's Earthly ministry and Atonement.  The spirit was really strong and we ended the lesson with a great testimony about Jesus Christ and how he is our Savior and Redeemer.  We taught about how we can be clean and find true happiness in and through him! Then after the lesson we sang the primary song (there are a bunch of kids present) "A Child's Prayer", and the spirit was so strong and I felt it; it was real!

Love, Elder McNew

a letter from President Smart

Elder McNew,

We had a wonderful week as a mission. Lots of good work and progress made. Congratulations on a job well done.

The more we work with you and get to know you the more we love and appreciate all that you do. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to doing the work the Lord has sent you here to do.

Just a quick thought this evening: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6) We demonstrate our trust in the Lord by obeying His commandments. As we do that we show Him that He can trust us. When we gain His trust great things happen in our lives. May we all be worthy of His trust and the promised blessing that follow.

I know that God lives. May you feel His Spirit in your life as you dedicate your time, talents and energy in helping Him fulfill His purpose for this world.

Sincerely,

President Smart

PS - Please remember to send us pictures from the baptisms that have taken place since our last Multi-Zone Conference. We will begin creating the Baptism DVD in the next few weeks. Thanks you!

Home-Share family dressed up as the Adams' Family for Halloween.

At the ward Trunk or Treat

Brother Cassel, the bread man.

10-31-11
Hey, Hows it going?

I'm doing pretty good! :) The work is getting better and better slowly but surely. We got a new investigator this past week! his name is alex! he is way cool! he is a mechanic for mercadies and we fonund him while he was working on his car. He seems to be interested, hopefully things work out and he keeps progressing.

I had an interesting chat with my mission president this week. We had interviews and I talked to him about some stuff that was on my mind. One thing that I talked to him about was my companion.  I told him that I felt like the work was being held back or that we aren't seeing much success as I'd like.  I felt like the first 6 months of my mission I had lots of learning opportunities, and now I feel that it's going a lot slower.

My mission president basically told me that I was here to help my companion learn and to grow.  I am here to be a good example and to show him how to work hard.. It's hard to be the one pulling the weight sometimes, but, after my meeting with President Smart, I was just super happy and ready to go out and work.  He just made my day a ton better. So, this week has been good! If anything, I know that I am learning and growing and going on from what it says in my blessing,  the Lord is preparing me now for things that I will accomplish in my future!

Love, Elder McNew

Street Preachers

10-17-11
We had a good week.  I had one cool experience that I will share.  We were leaving the house after a lunch break and we were heading to a members home to invite them to take the lessons.  We were riding on our bikes and we passed a dude working on his car. So I stopped to talk to him and invited him to hear more about Jesus Christ's gospel. He kindly replied and said, "Yeah, I always have time for Jesus."
So, I asked him when would be a good time.  He said, "right now is fine!"
"Do you have a place where we can sit or... ?"
He said, "Well,  this isn't my place so..."
"Okay, well we will just teach right here in the street then."
We ended up teaching him the entire first lesson disregarding all of the distractions all around us.  Another guy rolls up in his car bumping some music and start hollering at his other friend behind the guy we were teaching.  It was crazy. But, we had a great experience.  We ended up giving him a Book of Mormon. He commited to read and pray about it and then after he gave us his contact info he offered the closing prayer! It was so sweet! The Spirit was leading us and that has never happened before on my mission.
So anyway, it was a good week!
Love, Elder McNew