Special Assignment- transfer to Murrietta

2/8/12
Hey! :)

I am doing great! I am now here in Murrieta! Yes it’s always sad and strange to leave an area and come to a new one; but, Murrieta is what they call the Land of Milk and Honey! I had the opportunity to meet
the bishop and our ward mission leader yesterday (the 7th of Feb.) and they are all about missionary work! My new companion’s name is Elder Schenk and he is a cool kid. He seems to know his stuff pretty well. He
has been out for about 6 months and I think after a couple weeks of getting my bearings back, we should be able to tear it up!

So I was called Saturday morning by our mission president, President Smart. He informed me that I was on a special assignment. From what it looks like, I’m a little confused. I think the missionary that was here before me was "sick" a lot with back problems and from what I can tell right now they were still working as
missionaries, but they just weren’t 100% obedient. I think that they have a lot of what I call “hang out houses”. It’s when missionary go teach less-actives. Not that it’s not missionary work, it’s just not super effective when some missionaries have a hole in their schedule, they go kick it at a members home who is more welcoming to have cool missionaries kick it at their house than less-actives you know? So I think my "special assignment" is to make sure that we don’t waste
time and to make sure that we are being 100% obedient so that the Lord can bless us because this is, from what I have heard, the best area in the mission for member- missionary work, as long as it’s done correctly and effectively.

As for me, I am doing great like I said before, it’s always a little bit of a struggle when I first move to a new area because it’s like relearning everything again and getting used to your surroundings all over again. It always feels weird to move. I
will be fine, it’s usually gone after about two weeks and being the Senior Companion and District Leader always helps too!

Alright, well, that’s about all for this week. I will be sending some
pictures on my USB home so you can see some of my adventures previous to leaving Moreno Valley.

Love. Elder McNew

1/30/12
This week was great! I had the opportunity of attending a leadership meeting in Riverside and that was great. I learned so much and I LOVE The Doctrine of Christ when truly understood! :) I hope to give my homecoming talk on the Doctrine of Christ. I know that it is a long ways away, but I feel like that is one of the biggest things I have come to understand on my mission. I think that it is something that all people need to be enlightened on.

I also had the opportunity to go to the temple this week and that was awesome too! I went with the zone, Brother and Sister Cassel and Dylan Johnson, my homeshare brother came with us too! It was sweet. I left so uplifted and just so happy and it rekindled my fire to work hard. Not that my fire was out, it just wasn’t roaring as it can be.

The last thing that I wanted to talk about is we had a way sweet second lesson with our new investigator this week. We committed him to Baptism and he came to Church! :) Oh yeah! So, I may be leaving Moreno Valley this transfer and I’ll probably cry but that’s okay because I know that the Lord has great POTENTIAL for me to live up to! :)

Okay well I love you!
Have a great week!
Love, Elder McNew

By Small and Simple Means

1/23/12
Hey, What’s up? Life is going well here in Moreno Valley. It has been cold lately and I’m not diggin it! And it’s raining!

So, missionary work this week was pretty good! We had a lesson with a potential that is now an investigator and it went really well. Then earlier this week we had a good 45 minute chat with this dude. It was pretty interesting and I figured it wasn’t going to go anywhere. But, I guess he felt the spirit. Because when we left I had given him my Book of Mormon that I use for tracting that has the three pamphlets that we use: The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel. Then we left and I just figured it was one of those seed planting moments. But, I had also given him our number. So, on Saturday he gave us a call and was impressed with some of our doctrine and said that he was coming to church. Well, we had Stake Conference this week so he’ll be coming next week.

Something stuck out to me this week that I want to share. We were at a less-active’s house reading scriptures with them and I rediscovered one of my favorite scriptures. It’s Alma 37:6-7 talking about small and simple things. It stuck with me for some reason. Then, in Stake Conference, one of the speakers, Paul Johnson of the Seventy, was talking about the Parable of the 10 virgins. He related the oil in our lamp to the righteous things that we do. All of the good choices we make are drops of oil, that throughout time fill our lamp. I related it to the small and means and all of the small things in our life that we do are really the things that matter, along with the righteous decisions that we make, like marrying in the temple or serving a mission. But, the little things like saying our prayers, reading our scriptures, and going to church are really the things that make a huge difference in our lives and affect our happiness. Anyway, I thought it was cool and that is something that stuck out to me!

I am doing well though and the Lord’s work for sure is moving forward. Unfortunately, I may be leaving Moreno Valley soon. Transfers are coming up Monday Feb. 6th! If things happen I will let you know then! I have definitely enjoyed my time here in Moreno Valley and will continue to learn and to grow while I am here. We have a leadership training meeting and the temple trip coming up this week, so that should be good!

Love you! Have a good week!

Elder, Justin Charles Lamar McNew

Teaching the Restoration & Exchanges

1/16/12
Hello!

Well just so you know I am doing great! We all have struggles sometimes but I have learn to overcome them! :) All is well :) Elder Spencer and I are getting along better and the work seems to be picking up. We taught two lessons yesterday that went really well! There is a family in our ward that has us over every week for FHE and they have us teach or assist sometimes but just recently to make a complicated situation simple. I’ll just say we are teaching the granddaughter that is 10 and not baptized and her mother who also attends the FHE :) It is so great that we get to teach them. We have gotten to know them quite well throughout the weeks from attending the FHE so now we are teaching them the lessons.

Yesterday we taught the restoration and it went really well and previously we had taught the Doctrine of Christ so that set the mood well for when we taught the Restoration. They both committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and we bore our testimony. It was a really good lesson. Last night after we had been home for a while and we had been making a few plans, Dylan my home share brother asked if we would teach him and his girlfriend the lessons! It went well since we had already had the practice of teaching the first lesson right before.

This week went well, I had the opportunity of going on exchanges with a few other missionaries and it was nice to go to their wards and to see how they were doing, and to see how I can improve. The cool thing is, the learning really goes both ways, I think exchanges are so great! In both of the areas that I went to we got two new investigators in each area :) I guess I was just the good luck charm. It went well this week!

Love you, have a good week!

Wedding & Baptism of Jamie & Nicole

01/03/12
Hey family!

What’s up! :) To update you all on what has been happening… well, first, this week has been super crazy! Jamie and Nicole got married and I got to be the best man. Then this week we got to baptize and confirm them. It was such a great experience!

This week has been super crazy and just busy because of all the holidays and stuff! So last week, or the week before I think, I had written a big long message and it got lost into outer space. So here I am rewriting it today. The only problem is that it’s probably not going to be the same.

So I have had quite a few cool experiences lately; mainly with following the spirit. The first one was the week before Christmas, it was later at night and we had about an hour before we had to go home and not really anything to do. So, we decided to go on a walk to the local shopping center parking lot so we could just talk to people as they were coming to or from wherever. We walked down the street past the shopping center and had already talked to a few people and were walking back the other way (I know it’s confusing but just bear with me). So, as we were walking down the side walk, I saw a medical bracelet on the ground and I kicked it over to look at the name and it was dark and fuzzy. So, I just thought, “Oh, forget it,” and continued to walk. As I was walking, I got this strange prompting to turn around and go look at the bracelet. I was thinking, “What? That’s weird, no way!” So I continued walking and the thought entered my head a few more times and I thought, “Okay, whatever!” So, I turned around and Bam! This guy was walking toward us. I talked to him about the Gospel and he accepted and invited us to come to his home the next evening. Sweet! Well it’s the Zone Leader's area. But the point is that I think there was a reason I turned around and listened to the spirit. It was awesome!

Next, I have been struggling a bit lately so I asked Elder Alexander (one of the Zone Leaders) to give me a blessing along with some of the other missionaries assistance. It went really well and I was able to receive some great instruction. It hit me that it was just what I needed. Now I have even more confidence that the spirit leads and guides others to do what they need to do, to say what they need to say, and I know that God answers our prayers. Sorry, that this one doesn’t have a ton of detail. After the blessing we were getting our stuff together so that we could go and I had lost my wallet. I was looking all over and I paused said a little prayer. Then, I went directly to where my wallet was stuck it in my pocket and off we went!

These experiences are awesome and I am still learning so much! The Gospel is so true and it makes so much sense. I know that God answers our prayers if we just look to Him! I would bear a longer testimony and talk more but I have to go because I am running out of time!

Love you all and have a great week!