Tender Mercies

Family and Friends,

Sorry for the solemn letters I have sent over the last few weeks.  I guess it was just one of those down moments in my mission.... When you feel like you are doing everything you can and nothing seems to go your way.

I have really had to find patience out here.  I thought I was somewhat patient after working at a physical therapy clinic for over a year but nope, didn’t really prepare me for this.  The hardest part is having people say they will do something, but 99% of the time they don’t go through with it.  It’s getting hard to even have the hope that they will actually do what they tell us they will.  So to make a long story short, we had a bunch of baptism dates drop because people won’t go to church.

Anyway President Miller at zone conference passed out a new Book of Mormon and 5 Highlighters to every missionary in the mission and started a new reading plan to finish the Book of Mormon by February.  I’ll give you the details below if you want to do something similar.

"Finding Christ in the Book of Mormon"

8 pages a day- 30-40 mins of "Studying"-(note "studying" not "Reading")

5 colors of highlighters for each of the 5 topics to search for

1.  Jesus Christ- The names, references to his name, and also his titles.

2.  His attributes

3.  His words- anything he is literally saying

4.  His Doctrine- (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End) and also any sub-categories to his doctrine IE. Prayer

5. Happy Scriptures- any scriptures that you like or receive revelation for.

I am now just finishing 2nd Nephi and I have a whole new outlook on the Book of Mormon.  Not only do I like the thought of having a Book of Mormon that is just entirely marked up with references of Christ but I am learning new things I have never seen before.  Like the journey of Nephi's family to the promise land is closely similar to our path here on earth, i.e. the Liahona is the Holy Ghost and guides us back to Heavenly Father (Promised Land) if we follow it, it works.  If we don’t, we are lost.  Notice how all of his family had access to it, but had their agency and chose not to follow it. (Laman and Lemuel) and they had to be repeatedly brought back into the right path.  Just like us.  We have been given the Holy Ghost, and we have our agency, and many CHOOSE not to follow its promptings.  But even though they repeatedly strayed, God always allowed them back.

Anyway once we started to read the Book of Mormon every day, there was a change.  People that seemed like we would need to drop them started to accept baptism dates; we started to find people "More Prepared" to hear the gospel.  And best of all God gave us a Christmas present, a baptism.  We had been teaching this young girl the lessons before she was going to be baptized and she was actually scheduled to be baptized the week before, but her uncle, who was going to perform the actual baptism broke his arm and they postponed it another week.  Well we found out Tuesday that she had just turned 9 years old on Monday and it became a "Convert Baptism" for our numbers and everything.  On top of all that, since the uncle couldn't do it, I had the opportunity to perform my first actual baptism. And it was honestly was one of the most memorable moments of my life.

In closing, I just wanted to challenge you all to increase your studies in the Book of Mormon, to receive blessings and guidance in your lives.  It’s like a Telephone.  There are 2 parts, the speaking part and the listening part.  Prayer is the speaking part of the phone and the listening part is where we wait to hear our answer.  We can pray our hearts out, but without scripture study, we get no answer.  And vice versa, one without the other is useless.  So please make it a habit. I love you all. Until next week

-Elder Stewart

Merry Christmas!

Oh Boy........

Hello Friends and Family,

It’s always nice to get your emails. Today is a super busy day and I probably won’t get the chance to get to all of them but I will make sure I do next week.

Well this week was maybe the worst one so far. I was told I would have weeks like this, but I didn’t think they would be this bad. Richardson was sick all week long, and threw up some nights, and because of that, we didn't get up on time any day, nor have comp study. Throughout the day we would repeatedly come back to the apartment because he "couldn't go knock" but he was fine to go out and teach lessons and all that. Anyway... our obedience was slacking and the companionship was going downhill because I wanted to go do work. No one came on Sunday to church and the Spirit just wasn’t there.

Well to make a long story short. Richardson got emergency transferred yesterday and I got a new companion, Elder Perez. He is from LA but his family comes from El Salvador, so naturally his Spanish is really, really good. He has been out for about a year and has a really good knowledge of the scriptures. It’s only been a day now so I don’t know a whole lot about him, but he does have a good relation with the Spirit. I’m excited to finally get back to work after this week and look forward to what comes out of the next one.

Other than that we met this 91 year old lady named Elizabeth. And man is she hilarious. She agreed to a baptism date and will be coming to church with us next week. When we invited her to church she at first said that her "Maid" came on Sundays between 1 and 3. I asked her if she could go and leave the maid at her house. And she said "No! I don't trust her. She is a Jehovah’s Witness."  Haha that was the best. But we ended up getting the maid to come on Saturdays.

Anyway, that’s all for this week.

Love, Elder Stewart

It's Christmas time in El Paso

Dear Familia y Amigos

Como Estan? I hope everything is great in this wonderful Christmas season.  This week, I had a week that I will remember for the rest of my life.  Elder Richardson said that this past week was the best he has had on his mission as well.  It was a hardworking week of missionary work that ended up in snow at the end of the week.  Yes you read correctly, snow in Texas and Mexico this last weekend, and the temperature right now is 26 degrees.  Que Paso?  But like I said it was the best week ever.

Now when I said I hardworking week of missionary work, I was not kidding.  We taught 32 lessons this week which I think was the most in the mission, as well as finding some new solid investigators to teach.  With these new investigators I have had 2 of the most amazing experiences with the spirit that I have ever had.  In addition our teaching pool has grown to almost 15 progressing investigators and we have 10 with a date for baptism.  Oh man is it wonderful.

So our ward here in El Paso does not do any kind of missionary work.  They are one of the leading wards in family history work, but they don’t try to do anything for the living.  They seriously call names out in sacrament meeting to go over to the Family History office for the second and third hour of church and do the work over there.  Anyway, basically what I’m saying is we have to knock a lot of doors.  Richardson doesn’t like to knock doors and constantly reminds people that only 1 person in 1000 doors opened end up getting baptized.  And that’s only "Doors Opened" which is less that 50% of the doors we knock.  But I have a testimony of knocking with the Holy Ghost.  With the Holy Ghost to tell us where to knock, we will always find the people we need to teach.  So I’m always the one who picks the Street we will knock.

Anyway the first one was I had picked a street called "Gold" to knock on, but as we where driving up the street we had a feeling like it just wasn’t right.  We proceeded to turn the corner and something about this one block on a street named "Silver Street" caught my attention.  So we started to knock. On the 7th or so door we knocked and Gloria answered, after our initial introduction we asked if she was interested in hearing more.  She said she had actually been looking for a church to bring her grandson "Jordi" to, because he was wondering why they didn’t go to church?  So we set a return appointment and when we came back Gloria and her daughter Yani, and Yani's son Jordi was there to learn.  We taught a really choppy lesson but nonetheless, the spirit was there and they agreed to come to church the next day.  Well they actually came!  And I have really become to love them all and specifically Jordi, because it looks like he needs someone to look up to, like a brother.  And so I treat him like he was my younger brother.  Glori told me when we where at their house again that Sunday to watch the Christmas devo with them that Jordi had told his mom, "I like Stewart" and Yani asked "and why is that Jordi?” And he answered, "I wish I had a dad like Stewart... he actually talks to me and is nice to me."... Apparently Jordi's dad only makes an effort to see him 5 hours a month.  This really touched my heart.  It’s probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me.  We are working on a baptism date for them and hopefully we will set one tonight.

After finding that family, we were late for a dinner appointment and Richardson said we should get going to be there on time, but something told me to knock the rest of the doors there, so we did.  We ran into this woman who literally just found out she had cancer, and was praying and asking god for help through this time.  Then we knocked.  She was so overwhelmed by us being there and she started to cry so much, she asked us to come back the next day in the morning.  So we went back at 8 the next morning and found out she is from Columbia.  She came to America many years ago and has not gone to church in 19 years.  We gave her a blessing and then invited her to church. She came with her daughter-in-law the next day and now we are teaching her the lessons as well.  She is so excited to learn, and I can tell their family will all once again come back and be active members in the church.

The last one is one day when our appointment fell through, I was asked where I wanted to go.  As I was going over the streets, I remembered seeing in my head one came to my mind "Cumberland". Neither Richardson, nor the member we were with had ever heard of that street, but sure enough, it was in the GPS in our area.  So we went and knocked, it wasn’t until the last door that we were invited in and taught an amazing lesson with a Grandpa and Grandson named Rene and Fernando. They both set baptism appointments.  It was an amazing experience because Richardson is convinced that we have not once, driven past that street.  And so the spirit was there once again.

I love you all and I hope everything is well.

Love, Elder Stewart

dstewart@myldsmail.net

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...in El Paso!

Dear Familia y Amigos

Como Estan? I hope everything is great in this wonderful Christmas season.  This week, I had a week that I will remember for the rest of my life.  Elder Richardson said that this past week was the best he has had on his mission as well.  It was a hardworking week of missionary work that ended up in snow at the end of the week.  Yes you read correctly, snow in Texas and Mexico this last weekend, and the temperature right now is 26 degrees.  Que Paso?  But like I said it was the best week ever.

Now when I said I hardworking week of missionary work, I was not kidding.  We taught 32 lessons this week which I think was the most in the mission, as well as finding some new solid investigators to teach.  With these new investigators I have had 2 of the most amazing experiences with the spirit that I have ever had.  In addition our teaching pool has grown to almost 15 progressing investigators and we have 10 with a date for baptism.  Oh man is it wonderful.

So our ward here in El Paso does not do any kind of missionary work.  They are one of the leading wards in family history work, but they don’t try to do anything for the living.  They seriously call names out in sacrament meeting to go over to the Family History office for the second and third hour of church and do the work over there.  Anyway, basically what I’m saying is we have to knock a lot of doors.  Richardson doesn’t like to knock doors and constantly reminds people that only 1 person in 1000 doors opened end up getting baptized.  And that’s only "Doors Opened" which is less that 50% of the doors we knock.  But I have a testimony of knocking with the Holy Ghost.  With the Holy Ghost to tell us where to knock, we will always find the people we need to teach.  So I’m always the one who picks the Street we will knock.

Anyway the first one was I had picked a street called "Gold" to knock on, but as we where driving up the street we had a feeling like it just wasn’t right.  We proceeded to turn the corner and something about this one block on a street named "Silver Street" caught my attention.  So we started to knock. On the 7th or so door we knocked and Gloria answered, after our initial introduction we asked if she was interested in hearing more.  She said she had actually been looking for a church to bring her grandson "Jordi" to, because he was wondering why they didn’t go to church?  So we set a return appointment and when we came back Gloria and her daughter Yani, and Yani's son Jordi was there to learn.  We taught a really choppy lesson but nonetheless, the spirit was there and they agreed to come to church the next day.  Well they actually came!  And I have really become to love them all and specifically Jordi, because it looks like he needs someone to look up to, like a brother.  And so I treat him like he was my younger brother.  Glori told me when we where at their house again that Sunday to watch the Christmas devo with them that Jordi had told his mom, "I like Stewart" and Yani asked "and why is that Jordi?” And he answered, "I wish I had a dad like Stewart... he actually talks to me and is nice to me."... Apparently Jordi's dad only makes an effort to see him 5 hours a month.  This really touched my heart.  It’s probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me.  We are working on a baptism date for them and hopefully we will set one tonight.

After finding that family, we were late for a dinner appointment and Richardson said we should get going to be there on time, but something told me to knock the rest of the doors there, so we did.  We ran into this woman who literally just found out she had cancer, and was praying and asking god for help through this time.  Then we knocked.  She was so overwhelmed by us being there and she started to cry so much, she asked us to come back the next day in the morning.  So we went back at 8 the next morning and found out she is from Columbia.  She came to America many years ago and has not gone to church in 19 years.  We gave her a blessing and then invited her to church. She came with her daughter-in-law the next day and now we are teaching her the lessons as well.  She is so excited to learn, and I can tell their family will all once again come back and be active members in the church.

The last one is one day when our appointment fell through, I was asked where I wanted to go.  As I was going over the streets, I remembered seeing in my head one came to my mind "Cumberland". Neither Richardson, nor the member we were with had ever heard of that street, but sure enough, it was in the GPS in our area.  So we went and knocked, it wasn’t until the last door that we were invited in and taught an amazing lesson with a Grandpa and Grandson named Rene and Fernando. They both set baptism appointments.  It was an amazing experience because Richardson is convinced that we have not once, driven past that street.  And so the spirit was there once again.

I love you all and I hope everything is well.

Love, Elder Stewart

dstewart@myldsmail.net

Thanksgiving week! I love Thanksgiving, except.....

Hey Everyone,

How is it going?  It seems like just yesterday that I emailed home, but then I think of everything that has happened this week and realize there has been so much.

Thanksgiving week!  Happy Thanksgiving!  I love thanksgiving, except it’s not so good for missionary work.  Our numbers were not nearly as good this week, but we did spent a lot of time with the members and gained a better relationship with the ward which is very important as well.  We held a "Sports Day" on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week for the youth in the whole stake because they all had school off all week long.  And there was probably more non-member kids there than member youth, which gave us some good referrals and new investigators.  But we played volleyball, soccer, basketball, football, pretty much something for everyone there, which I think gave all the non-members a really good experience with the ward and its activities.  Hopefully we will start getting better turnouts in mutual.

The Narviez Family... They are so perfect, but they are never home.  We keep going over there to teach the plan of salvation lesson but either the husband is out looking for a job, or she is gone doing something with one of their kids.  So we always get invited in and they are so nice.  But we haven’t been able to teach them.  It’s somewhat frustrating.  I think once we teach them the plan though, things will go much more smoothly.

Chris, he is doing so much better.  I heard before my mission of people turning their life around for the gospel but I guess I never seriously believed it.  Chris has quit smoking, drinking, moved out of his girl friend’s house, and like everything else.  But we can’t get him to church! Gaahhhh!  Why is it so hard for investigators to go to church!  So our plan is just to have someone his age come pick him up in the morning.

Bro. Marquez.  So we finally come back to the Plan and he hasn’t read the book of Mormon, which is understandable because of the hectic week we had, but honestly, its only 5 mins a day.  Oh well, we still taught the Plan anyway and man IDK what it is about that house, but every lesson is an amazing one there.  The spirit is so strong it’s impossible to deny it.  He seemed a lot more interested though in this lesson, probably because it had to do with living with your family forever, and they are so important to him.  So we will see.

We had Rolando's baptism this Saturday!  Yay, baptism number 2!  It was such a great experience, except we only had 9 people there.... 4 missionaries, him and his wife, bishop and one of his counselors, and the ward mission leader.  If there is one thing I can stress to you guys its GET ACTIVE WITH THE MISSIONARIES!  We need to be getting lessons with a member present and also we need people to fellowship our investigators when we get them to church. That’s why none of them go to church! Because no one will support them or be their friend.  It’s frustrating to have a ward who thinks that missionary work is solely the responsibility of the missionaries.  Anyway there still was an amazing spirit there.  And his wife, who is a hard core catholic, came and also came to church.  We went to their house after and the home literally felt different!  Like brighter and the spirit was there and his wife actually came and listened to the first lesson!  Her heart was opened because she has seen a great change in her husband for the better.  The gospel makes so-so men great and great men, greater.  And their marriage has been going so much better.  Before we left, we gave them a little "Sneak Peak" about the Plan of Salvation lesson and I felt prompted to tell her that they would be able to have kids in the next life and she broke up into tears.  Apparently she doesn’t have the ability to have kids, but really wanted them. How great is the spirit.

My Thanksgiving was really nice; we had 2 dinners with different families and basically stuffed ourselves to the brim.  Then when we got back we passed out.  We were so full haha.  I don’t really have a whole lot to say about thanksgiving.  It was nice, but we didn’t do a whole lot of missionary work. The church cleaned up after the parade though, the streets where covered in beer cans and was so gross, but we still did it. And got Free T-Shirts

Love,

Elder Stewart

The power of baptism is an amazing thing.......

Ay Padres y Hermanos,

Como Estan? Espero que todos es bein. Les amo mucho.  Man things are starting to pick up quickly. Tuesdays will now be the normal day for me to email so it should be normal from now on. Sorry again about last week and not being able to write till later.

Let’s see this week....Well we will start with the least important and end with the best highlights. Yesterday was P-day and it was nice to kind of relax in the morning instead of the having to start right away.  But the best thing about yesterday was the Turkey Bowl we had.  Mount Franklin Zone vs. El Paso Zone, (I am in the Mount Franklin Zone) and the score was 70-42 Mount Franklin.  We lit them up. Haha, it was really competitive but what was nice is there was no one who got their tempers up.  We played earlier in the week with some members and they were just awful to play with, because if I didn’t know better, it looked like it was the Super Bowl game because everyone was super annoyed with each other. But when our group of missionaries got together it was really no problem.  And I scored a few touchdowns :).

So we have been teaching this almost nine year old girl named Brenda, who apart from Dallin and Christopher is probably the most adorable kid in the world.  It’s funny though because I’m more nervous to teach her than anyone else in Spanish, because I have to speak with correct grammar and use words that she will be able to understand, which limits my already limited vocabulary.  But we finished teaching her all the lessons and set up her baptism date for the 3rd of December.  Since there is no worthy priesthood holder in her family, Elder Richardson will be the one to baptize her and she asked me to confirm her... I couldn’t refuse.  But I am super nervous, because I have not given anyone a blessing before, and because I have not studied using the informal Tu form at all, which you have to use when giving a blessing.  So that’s what I’m going to focus my Language Study time this week on.

I think Friday of last week we had an amazing day.  It was funny because my companion hasn’t been the most obedient missionary when it comes to waking up on time, and so I convinced him this one day to wake up with me and work out.  When he did, that day we found 2 families that are willing to hear the gospel.  One that are we are going to go see today and one that we committed to baptism that day. In addition to that family, we committed another one of our investigators to baptism that same day.  We taught 8 lessons that day and committed 4 to baptism and found 6 new investigators.  It made him realize that he needs to wake up on time.  It was so awesome.  So now the baptism dates are Maritza 11/19, Rolando 11/26, Brenda 12/3, Chris 12/10, the Narviez Family (3) on 12/17 and hopefully Bro Marquez from last week on 12/24. It’s so amazing.

We had my first baptism on last Saturday and I realized how long it has been since I went to my last baptism.  It’s been so long that I forgot what happens really.  But it was so nerve racking.  Maritza is a really shy girl and so we were worried about her and to see if she was going to show up.  But we got her there.  She was so nervous though that she wouldn’t look directly into the camera before the baptism. But we took another one after the baptism and I can see a noticeable difference in her character.  Like she is still the same shy Maritza, but now she is clean and any shame she had is now gone.  The power of baptism is an amazing thing that I had started to forget about.  You really are completely clean from sin as if you where just born.  I want to bear testimony of this that Baptism by Immersion is really the only way to enter into the gate.  Jesus Christ himself showed us how to be baptized and he didn’t need to be baptized.  So, always cherish and remember your baptism.

Anyway, that’s all for this week.

Love,

Elder Stewart

It feels like I have lived in El Paso forever....but I'm having the time of my life

Hola Familia,

Wow….it feels like I have lived in El Paso forever.  I don't know what it is but I feel like I know everyone as if I had known them for years.  So much has happened over the last 2 weeks and we are doing so much work that I barely have the energy to write in my journal every day, but I did haha.  Well let’s see, we arrived in New Mexico at like 10am and went and saw the temple and took a picture.  Then hurried back to the mission home to have the best lunch I have had in 2 months.  It was super good.  At that point we went through interviews and got all the general info out of the way, then came the time where they took us out to do our first contacting. I only had the chance to knock a few doors before having to leave and it was nerve wracking, but so much fun.  There is a thrill that comes from not knowing who will answer or what the spirit will tell you to say.  Sure it is disheartening when you are constantly unsuccessful but I find joy in finding new people to teach.

We spent the night there in Albuquerque and it was so cold it snowed that night and into the morning. Then we met all the missionaries who were going to be reassigned or going to be our trainers at the mission offices.  From there they announced all but six of the trainers and areas and I was one of the 6 who didn’t get assigned a trainer then because I was going down south.  So we packed into the van and drove 4 hours south to Las Cruces, NM.  There we met with another group of trainers and 2 of us again, didn’t have trainers there and found out we would be in El Paso.  We were so excited because the 2 areas where we are training in the El Paso zone are the highest Spanish speaking areas and also by far the highest baptizing regions in the mission.  After another hour of driving I met my mission Dad, Elder Richardson.  He has only been out for 5 months and is now training and the district leader of our district.  He’s a pretty awesome missionary.  So this was at like 2pm and we went right to a Spanish lesson at 3 o’clock.  Holy cow was it scary, but I managed.  And that was pretty much our day.

Now as I’m looking at my journal I realize that I have just stopped writing down the details of my life that don’t have to do with my investigators.  And to be honest I don’t really care to think about those things.  All I seem to care about is talking about my investigators and other stories while tracting.  So if anyone wants any specifics, then make sure to ask me specific questions for me to answer.  Or else I will just talk about how amazing the people are here, which has enveloped my real focus.

So we have my first baptism this Saturday for a girl named Maritza.  She is 25 and she was found while knocking doors one day.  Man is she a character.  She would have been baptized a lot sooner but all of her friends hate Mormons.  They show her a lot of anti-Mormon literature and have been a constant obstacle for us.  But over the last 2 weeks we have really been working on our friendship with her and help build friendships in the ward for her.  And finally on Tuesday we got her to an interview, and she basically gave up her friends outside the church for baptism.  What an example of faith she shows.  I don’t know if I would be able to do it.

Next weekend we have a scheduled baptism for another investigator named Rolando.  Rolando is maybe late 40's and only speaks Spanish.  He doesn’t understand English and his Spanish is super slurred, so it’s taken 2 weeks for me to understand what he is saying as I have been building my processer to process the language quicker.   But now I understand him.  Rolando has been investigating the church for a few years but apparently he went to the Salt Lake Temple Square a few weeks ago with a relative and felt something different.  And so he came back and read the Book of Mormon in 1 week and contacted the missionaries and said he is ready to be baptized.  He is golden and I feel so blessed to know him.  All of our lessons go so easy.

Ok, so last one I want to talk about is an investigator named Bro Marquez.  He is such an amazing guy it’s so hard to describe.  Ok, his situation is his wife and daughter are both baptized and his son will be baptized in a few months, but he is not a member of the church.  The weird thing is when I met this family for the first time I thought he was a member.  He is doing EVERYTHING a member would do, just living an amazing life.  He has gone through 3 sets of missionaries, 2 sets of elders and a set of sisters.  He would be baptized except his family is catholic and got him going back to the Catholic Church and since then he has been blessed in his work and thinks that it’s because he is going to the Catholic Church.  So anyway, we taught the lesson that I have been dreaming of for the last forever of my life. Switching and transitions where perfect and the spirit was pretty strong as we taught the first part of the restoration, and I led my companion up to the first vision, and when he started with "I saw a pillar or light" the spirit hit with the force powerful enough to force tears into my eyes, which for me is shocking. And when it was time to bear my testimony, I just let myself go, holding nothing back, and then invited him to be baptized. He accepted and Dec 17th is the date.

I love it so much here and I’ve only been here 2 weeks.  I knew I would see amazing things happen but I had no idea I would feel like this.  I truly know what the definition of a "Miracle" is and they really do exist.  I don’t think of anything else really anymore.  Anyway I better go before I get too teary eyed in the library.  I love you all.  I’m working so hard please everyone be patient with me if it takes me a little while to respond.  I’ll get to it I promise.  But right now I having the time of my life and working my time away.

-Love, Elder Stewart

New York City!.......get a rope....

Hey All!

How are you doing? I made it to New Mexico, and my first area is in El Paso Texas. What’s nice is it is the highest Spanish speaking population area in the mission and so I will be learning Spanish a lot faster here. My first comp is Elder Richardson who’s pretty cool. I’m still trying to get the hang of things out here and it may take a little while. What’s cool is from our apartment, you can see the whole city of Juarez, the most dangerous city in the world, it's neat. Anyway my p-day is on Mondays but I had the opportunity to get on and let you know I’m here. BTW my address is:

2531(1/2) Fort Blvd.

El Paso, TX  79930

My mail should go to that address; if you go through the mission office it will take way to much time to get to me. And you can look that up on Google earth or something and see where I am.

http://g.co/maps/sujg6

Anyway love you, talk to you on Monday- Elder Stewart

48 hours left....

Dear Friends y Family,

 
2 days left! 48 hours.  Santa Vaca Yo voy a la campo.  About time too.  Just to answer everyone's question about the flight plan, I leave Monday morning for the airport somewhere around 5:30 and my flight leaves at 8:42 AM (4451 Delta) and we arrive at 10:20 AM in New Mexico.  There are going to be 14 total elders and sisters in my travel group and my companion is assigned to be the "Travel Leader".... go figure.  He’s not too happy about it, but everyone is now just calling him the "Tribal Leader" instead and it cheers him up a little.  Apparently I have the time before my flight to call my family and talk for a little.  So I’m going to take advantage of that.

 
This week has been very strange.  It seems to me like Satan is working very hard on this distinct to try to take the spirit away.  My district seems to just not have patience with each other this week. I had a few experiences this week that didn’t go very well.  And let’s just say I thought I understood women, and it turns out sisters at the MTC are not the same.  Apparently I’m not allowed to say "Sister Coles can we please get back to our quiet study time?"  1. Because when you don't say it in a general sense to the whole class (even when they are the only one talking.), women talk it as if I am specifically attacking them. And 2. MTC sisters who are 21 don’t like to be told by a 19 year old District leader to quiet down and get back to studying.  Anyway it just wasn’t a very good experience on my part and I realized that I have no idea how to really work with some people.

Um since last p-day it has been really cold and windy, and even snowed some days. But it’s all good because I have my gloves and my coat. My favorite day of this week though so far would have to be Sunday because of the devo. For this Sunday Devotional, we had Brother and Sister Swenson come. I worked with Robert Swenson for a few months at Physical Therapy (He was the guy who let me come pick up my call a day early from the church office). Anyway he had told me he would be coming on the 5th Sunday of October and so I had my district get there early so I could get one of the best seats. Anyway they immediately recognized me and when Sis. Swenson spoke first, she gave a talk about "Not Taking a Mission for Granted" which was a very nice testimony and she specifically said "whether you are going to (some random place) or New Mexico, don’t take you mission for granted".  My district felt pretty special at that point. Then she closed and up went my good friend Elder Swenson, and he started off by saying "that the only reason he was able to be there giving a talk was because of one of you here”, and told the story about me helping in physical therapy and how when I left he stopped going and got back surgery, but still turned and looked right at me and said thank you, in front of 2700 missionaries. It was pretty cool. But the most important thing is that he was able to come all the way down to Provo and give an amazing talk and have no pain. He talked on Testimonies, and my district is talking about how amazing his talk was. My favorite quote was "A testimony is a powerful but insignificant attempt by me to try to describe a knowledge of something so amazing that it can’t possibly be described using words" and wow, how true that is. The gospel and the Atonement are so amazing, it’s impossible to effectively describe the magnitude of these things in our lives. He basically told us that we need to be confident and bold when we bear our testimonies. What amazing talk it was. And I even got to see him for a little bit after the talk. And it was nice to catch up with him and his wife.

Lets see, on Wednesday we had the opportunity to host and I looked for Landen at didn’t see him, only because the little knuckle head came at like 10 am in the morning. But I still got to host 2 other elders which was a neat experience. It turns out though that Landen's class in only 5 doors from mine on the same floor, and he also has meals at the same time as me every day. So I will get to see him a bunch of times before I leave. I also have been giving him and the other Elders of his districts all the secrets of being here at the MTC. It is pretty cool to have him here... even though he’s a Port-u-gays.

Anyways we had in-field orientation yesterday..... So our p-day is today. I didn’t know this till like yesterday so sorry for the not giving a heads up. Anyway In-field orientation yesterday was real boring. It started at 8:30 Am and went until 9:30 pm. and we basically just went over everything that we have learned about being a missionary over the last 9 weeks. It was pretty interesting but I’m glad it is over with. With p-day today, we are all fasting today and going to the temple for I think 5 hours and I’m pretty excited about it. It’s really happening, I’m really leaving. Also I read a talk this week called "His Grace is Sufficient. And the first name of the guy who gave it is Brad (Wilcox). Loved it, about the atonement, read it.

Love -Elder Stewart

Grandma Stewart- Hola, thanks for your letters this week. It’s always great to hear from you and to always add new scriptures to my Jesus Attribute list and the cheat sheet. Glad the weather is all good there. It’s sooo cold here. It’s good to hear that Grandpa got a little break, and is doing better, you will have to let me know how that bone marrow biopsy goes.  Make sure you have "The Flower Rock" with you. I really want to see the video of you doing just dance, and also Dallin.  The sad thing is that my mom sent me a video on my camera with a chip and I wasn’t able to watch it because it was made on a different camera. Oh well. But I definitely agree with you that it is a great feeling to be an instrument in the Lord’s hands. Anyway thank you for all you do, and the inspiration in every letter. -Love Elder Stewart

Grandma Jill- Hey Grandma! Thanks for your letters this week and the updates on everyone’s health. I’m glad that Grandpa is still here as well. Tell them that I love them for me will ya? Glad Catlin is feeling better, I remember those days when I used to be able to sleep 16-18 hours a day... but those days are long gone.  Haha. Man I am so mad that I won’t be able to be there for Kristen's and Thomas's sealing. I have done so many sealings here that they are one of my favorite things now. I bore my testimony last Tuesday on Temple Marriage to the district and them being sealed after a year of waiting is definitely a testimony builder. Anyway, I love you Grandma. Until next week -Love Elder Stewart

Dad - A ton of stuff has happened this week, and sorry I didn’t tell you about not having a chance to email yesterday, but they gave us some more email time today.  So I’m able to fit in everything I want to say. Oh about the package uncle mike sent me.  So I got the package, and I wrote out a letter to say thanks but when I got to Friday to finish it and send it, I could not find the box they sent it in.  So I didn’t have their address and did not know where to send it to, so I meant to ask you what it was in one of the emails but I just have been forgetting seeing as I do my email way early in the morning. Anyway, it turns out that one of my roommates took the box and used it for one of his crazy projects.  Entonces plz make sure to tell me the address when I call you on Monday so I can get that sent. And tell them I’m sorry.

I have seen Sonhee a few times and she told me that you say hi. And I didn’t have a chance to see Stehly because stinking Landen couldn’t wait to get to the MTC and came at 10 o’clock instead of the normal time. But I see Landen everyday so it is pretty cool. 

It sucks that Utah isn’t doing very well but I’m happy to hear they beat Oregon (State). Hopefully they will continue to be on the up and up, sounds like they need an offense and their defense is carrying them. How are them devils doin? 

I think it’s funny that all the lessons you tried to teach me when I was younger and growing up, I only now understand them. and their importance. I definitely am happy with my life right now and have come up with a plan for the rest of my life..... When I get off a mission, I’m going to marry a super model with a trust fund from her dad, in the temple. Then I won’t really have to work and when we turn 40 together, we are just going to do couples missions every year for the rest of this earth life. That would probably be the most perfect life I can think of. 

I read this talk this week that changed my entire perspective on the Atonement, I got it shrunk down and laminated so I can keep it with me. ("His Grace is Sufficient") read it and tell me what you think. It is truly amazing. I have respect for those who go and repent of their sins even if they are scared of the consequences, because that just means that they are striving to be more heavenly beings. 

That sounds like an awesome fireside, war stories are always my favorite. And I can’t believe Cory broke his collar bone. I told him not to be so crazy with his longboarding. Oh well. Landen made fun of me because Cory went to his farewell. He thinks he is funny... -Love Elder Stewart