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