Working Hard

8-13

I’ve been doing really well this week :)

My companion has some heath issues, as I may have mentioned before, but we just keep working hard and seeing success. I’ve come to understand and know that companionship harmony is mucho importante, especially when you want to see the work move forward. I think that the Lord is blessing me for my diligence :) Although I can always do better; I feel that the hard work is once again paying for itself and that’s only on the mission.  Imagine all of the blessings about to come. Of course, we don’t do it for the blessings, but it’s a benefit to being obedient to the Lord!

So this a week ago tonight we picked up a sweet investigator! She is one of the only black people in Jurupa and she is legit! She is about grandma age and her friend is a member. We went over to her house to teach The Ward Mission Process lessons the 5.5.5. I’m not sure if that’s broadly recognized by members outside of ward counsel but it should be! Anyway, we went to her house and she had told us there would be a non-member there. Well, the lesson went really well.  We taught lesson 1, the Restoration, and the Spirit was so strong.  When we were resisting the vision that Joseph Smith had she was in awe AND Loretta is it so interested! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she asked us if it was okay that she comes back and listens to more of the lessons :) Of course! Lol

Then the Valencia family, the younger couple, JR and Monica they are progressing right along! We went and taught them at the end of the day last night and they are doing so well! They keep on surprising us with all of these random things.  Like JR has cut back on his own with some of his issues and they are just working right along. Last night we taught the Word of Wisdom, committed them to stop, gave both of them blessings and also taught the restoration.  I’m excited to see them continue on their path towards baptism.  We shared with them a sweet analogy that the Spanish missionaries taught me about setting a date. “So imagine that you are in the middle of an ocean in a row boat and you don’t see any land anywhere. How fast are you going to paddle and in what direction? Now imagine that you see an island or a piece of land in the distance! How fast are you going to paddle now? And in what direction? ha ha Yeah. They loved the analogy and they agreed to set a date.  We set up another meeting with them this Wednesday :) it will be awesome! :) Anyway so we are doing way well and I’m so excited to see the work moving forward! :)

Well that should be about it for this week!

Love you! Have an awesome day and week! :)

Till next time - Elder McNew

Teaching the Valencias

08-06

Hey what’s up?

 As for this week; things went great!

We have been seeing some great success and I think it is because I have learned to be more patient and it seems as though I have gained some pretty good trust in the ward already. I know that the Ward Mission leader respects me.  We taught one of the counselors to the bishop and he was really appreciative of us. :) I love feeling welcome and comfortable with the members!

So check this out, we have like 5ish progressing investigators right now and we had 2 come to church this week.  We have an interview set up with the mission president for another and he should be getting baptized pretty soon.  Then we have this awesome Hispanic family, the Valencia’s, they are getting more and more legit every time we meet with them. We had a cottage meeting in one of the members homes with them and we taught them the Doctrine of Christ.  Then we went over to their house and JR,  the son, brother, husband of the family said a prayer out loud for the first time ever anyone had ever seen.  Then he told us that he eventually wants to join our church. We went over the baptismal questions with them all and most of them were like, "Yeah!" They have a few things to work over, but I think their first covenant with the Lord is right around the corner :) It’s so sick! And also they had us bless their home! :) I’m impressed with them. It seems as though the spirit is totally working on them. :)

So yeah! Our week was pretty good and I’m loving it here in the Heat :) lol It’s really not too bad, the barn gets pretty cool at night we have a little unit in the window that blows cold air.

Oh this is kind of random, but we live with another set of missionaries and they are Spanish speaking so they teach me Spanish words and stuff. I’m getting pretty decent. Not too bad for a gringo.

Alrighty well that is about it.  If you have questions, please let me know.

 Love you have great week.

Love, Elder McNew  

Scripture Power!

7-30

This week I learned a pretty sweet lesson about scripture study.  Studying the scriptures really gives you power and fills your life with the spirit.

Okay, so as you know, I got transferred here to Jurupa it’s a small horse town and there is dirt every where and I live in a barn lol literally... Seriously, it has a loft and everything! Lol it was converted to a missionary house. 4 of us live there. It’s me and my companion (Elder Fielding) and the Spanish missionaries.

So back to the story: Elder Eddy, one of the Spanish missionaries, has been out a transfer less than me, nevertheless he is an older missionary. Okay so ever since he came I realized that he has the spirit a bit stronger than the rest of us and as I watched him I noticed that he studies a TON! Like every free second he has, he is studying his scriptures. Then on Friday we had a sweet little zone breakfast with all of the other missionaries. And one of the guys in the stake Presidency, Brother Tally, gave us this awesome talk about scripture study.  He went a little deep in some of the stuff in Abraham 3 and then he brought it all back to Christ and it was mind blowing!  After that, I decided that the next time I had gotten some free time that I am going to read the scriptures some more.

Well, my new companion has some health issues and he has to take 2 hours for lunch instead of 1 so during the last hour of my lunch break I tore into the scriptures and found some sweet stuff.  I noticed that my patience level and the spirit within me was magnified! It was amazing!

So. I just want to bear my testimony to you that the scriptures really so carry power! It’s just applying that power. The more you study the stronger the spirit is! :) I LOVE IT!!! I love the Gospel so much! I don’t know what I would do without it!

Also, this area is pretty sweet.  We have some pretty legit investigators, at least from what I have seen.  We have a few on date for baptism and a few that will potentially be :) It’s just being obedient and unified with my companion and then we will see some success I know it! :)

 K well I love you!

That’s about all for this week!

Love, Elder McNew  

Heather's Endowments & Transfer to Jurupa

7-23

So as for this week; it was great! I had such an awesome experience at the temple this week with my recent convert that had her endowments taken out.  It was amazing! I also got to see some other people from the ward.  Afterwards we all went out to lunch! :) It was sweet!

Okay, so there is some news that I have, we had transfer calls this week and guess what? Elder Kava is staying in the Yucaipa 4th ward for his 5th transfer! And Elder McNew is transferring off to Jurupa! It’s going to be great! I hear my companion... "Needs a good Example" but I’ll just make the best of it. And also I have been called to be a District Leader again!

 Alrighty well that is all for now.

 Love, Elder McNew

Tams

7-16

Hey! What’s up!

So this week went pretty well :) We had 17 lessons this week :) That’s pretty good. We helped someone move this Saturday and it took all day freaking long.  Then we barely make it to our dinner appointment. But luckily he saved us by bringing us In-n-Out from Redlands (out-side of our zone) lol it was quite tasty.

So I got some cool news this week. One of my recent converts from Yucaipa 2nd ward. (Sister Heather Allen) is going to be going through the temple for the first time this week! She is getting her endowments on Friday and I have been invited :) Hopefully everything will work out and I will be able to go! :) That will be such a wonderful experience.

 Other than that exciting news today we went on another hike and we found some wild berries, some cool looking trees and hiked around for a few miles. We took some pictures and then afterwards we went to Tams! The local food place. It’s a hit amongst the missionaries. I got to see 3 of my past companions today from the Redlands zone too! Elders Park, Spencer, and Schenk. So, that was good! :) ha ha Well that’s about all that I have to say!

 I love you all!

Love, Elder McNew  

4th of July

07/09

Hey what’s up y'all! I am doing great this week!

It was kind of crazy since we had the 4th of July. We also had our temple trip and a District meeting and exchanges :) lol So this week was full of variety and it was so busy. It’s good to be busy though it’s nice to feel like you are actually progressing. Some weeks just seem like a drag others seem like there is not enough time to accomplish everything.

As for our numbers and lessons this week it wasn’t too bad, but this coming week will be much better I can really tell. We have appointments for like every single night this week and we have appointments that want to schedule that we have to push back to next week because we already have so much stuff :) but I love it when it’s like this.

4th of July wasn’t as awesome as I would have liked, it’s nothing like Utah. Our home share (The Massey Family) had some other family over and we had a little fire pit and roasted some marshmallows and then we (Elder and Kava and I) watched a church movie in our room with our mini DVD player.  It was good though. I saw a few little fireworks at our dinner like smoke bombs and ground bloomers and then some sparklers, the lame paper ones. And then I saw like 3 big fireworks from our balcony clear over in Redlands or something lol but it was good none the less. Anyway so I am doing great and this coming week should be awesome as well! :)

 PS: Miguel is still missing... please pray for our investigators Lauren and Miguel and Cheyenne and their families :)

 Love you, love Elder McNew

Splits with Spanish Elders

07/02/12
 Hey what’s up?
 This week was pretty good! :)

We still have at least one solid investigator. Lauren, she is way cool! Though her date is pushed back a little ways to September. She is still progressing pretty well :)

 However, Miguel is MIA. I have no idea where he is. He went out of town for "a few weeks" but we cannot contact him, nor have we seen him at home. I’m hoping that his cell phone just died and that he is spending more time than he thought out of town. I know that he said he needed to go help out family so I don't know. But, anyway we will find him this week for sure! :)

Other than that, not much has changed. I did go on exchanges with the Spanish missionaries this week and spoke the best Espanol that I can lol :) It was a good experience, but man it would be tough learning the gospel in another language. Some of the things that we run into in English are hard to handle let alone speaking a different language. It was a great experience though and it makes me realize how much the Lord really does know me by sending me here to California speaking English. I know that this is a great place for me, I am so fortunate to have things that are so local and the opportunities that are available here in the states. I hope I am making sense.

 Anyways. Everything is going well :)

That’s about all for this week :)

 Love you have a good week :)

Love, Elder Justin Charles McNew