Yikes....Week 12....

Yikes! Week twelve! And that means transfers new week. I could be in a whole new area next week its frightening. With a new comp... I like Elder Perez and it would suck to have to change after just one transfer, but "I'll go where the Lord wants me to go." (As long as it’s not Espanola...) lol Just messing... But really. I hear there is almost no Spanish speaking up there so the work is really slow for Spanish missionaries. But anyway, I kind of want to leave, but I want to stay as well because of 2 families, and because I’m speaking a ton of Spanish.

I want to leave mostly because the ward to be honest. I know, I know. I’m not supposed to complain about it, but it’s difficult. The people here do not see that fulfilling a calling is part of making it to the celestial kingdom. If you disagree with me, I encourage you to look up a talk by David O. McKay. About the "Personal Priesthood interview" with Christ at the last day where he will specifically ask you about how you fulfilled your callings. He doesn’t care what positions you served in, just what you did to give your all in the callings you received. So there is maybe 7 people in the ward that actually fulfills callings. We haven’t seen our Elders Quorum Prez for like 8 weeks now and they never have ward council. I don’t think we have ward missionaries. Haha but it’s all good.

Anyway, we got knocked on by some Jehovah’s witnesses last week, and they gave us some pamphlet even though they knew we are missionaries. And then a week later we got knocked on by some more that looked like their big guns. Anyway, apparently they have missionary work down in their religion. They have the members knock doors once a month and they knock everywhere. And all they really do is hand out their pamphlets and stuff then when they get back, they report to their church those who accepted their pamphlets and then send their "Missionaries" to that house to try to teach. Not gonna lie, but that a really good idea.

Anyway, we have a baptism this Saturday. Olga is finally going to enter the water :) So excited. She will be the First investigator that I found, started at lesson 1, and got baptized. It’s such an amazing process i'm not sure how to describe it, or if it is even possible to describe it. To see the effect the gospel has on families is amazing. And her husband Rolando is such a boss. They were starting to have a really hard time with money and stuff, and the church was helping and all but that’s not a thing that can perm. So we were afraid we were going to lose her, cause they were going to move away to find jobs. Anyway last time we where there they asked us why God wasn't blessing them with work. They were paying tithing, following the commandments, and praying every night to find one and nothing was happening. I’ll be honest I was starting to wonder, "Why are you letting them suffer like this? You say throughout the Book of Mormon that you take care of your people?" and I prayed, and fasted. And soon enough we got a call from a member saying that he has a job opening and was wondering if anyone in the ward needed one. I could not have been happier. And so the Castros where blessed in the moment they needed it most, and I was corrected in my doubts lol. But Pray for Olga this week, to have the strength to know that this is what she needs.

Love you all, thanks for all the support.

-Elder Stewart

Such an amazing feeling....week 11

Family and Friends,

Wow, I am seriously starting my 11th week in the field and am just 2 weeks away from my 3rd transfer but the first transfer that I may actually leave El Centro and finish my first 5 months! Just one more month till imp not considered a greenie any more. The time really is flying past. Nothing like the MTC at all. Anyway with me, things are still just cruising along. I have noticed that towards the end of the transfer it gets harder and harder to work as hard as when the transfer just started. My guess is, that you have less motivation to set the Baptism date or find new people that you wont be there to see, or to teach them. Anyway though, we did set a new baptism date this week that I’m super excited about.

So we spend most of our time now looking for people still. And I think I have finally got over that terrible feeling of letting people that just are not progressing slip through the cracks. And I have seen that I haven't been quite as stressed out lately. It got to the point where I just did not want to let go of anyone we found and our load of work got to be to much, and there is a difference between to many good investigators and too many investigators that you set a lot of appointments and they are never there, or will never do any of the things you ask them to. Anyway we have 3 wonderfully progressing investigators. 

Olga, who is the wife of a recent convert, is just an amazing person. She reads everything we throw at here and does not miss a week at church. She even was signing up to feed us missionaries BEFORE she had a baptism date. Which I’ve never heard of before, but I love it, and I know she is going to be baptized. It’s so cool. Because the spirit, If you are looking for a person who is really prepared and will progress, will give you such an amazing feeling when you see them. It’s just like pure joy shooting through your body.

We have another interesting investigator named Vanessa, and she is the girlfriend of a less active member in the ward. And His whole family is members as well but only the father was active. And she is catholic, but never heard of Jesus Christ. But prays to the Virgin Mary......... I know right? So we have just started taking things slow and teaching her who Christ is and what he did. What’s amazing about her is we haven’t really taught the "going to church lesson" yet and she has come to church every time since we met her. And also the whole family has started to come back. It’s amazing to see what this gospel does for families.

The last one is a 14-year-old girl who comes to mutual every single week and is very active in the YW. We finally had the chance to teach her, and it was AWESOME. She understood everything and set a date. She really sees the need for baptism.

That’s all for this week.

Love you ALL

-Elder Stewart  

Feliz ano nuevo!

Friends and Family,

Feliz ano nuevo!  This week was a pretty good one with some neat experiences.  We started off the week deciding that we needed to start mostly all over again from new because a lot of our investigators just were not progressing.  Or just had some problems that they where not able to get over.  So we are going to keep their info and give them a little break.  Now we are starting with almost a clean slate and getting a chance to find more prepared people.

So we spent a lot of time this week finding news and getting a new ward list to look for unbaptized children and part member families.  And we realized that there are so many of them and inactive members that it is affecting the area.  Its hard enough to get people to come to church, but when they actually do come to church the ward is not very receptive, and we end up losing them anyway which is even worse.  So we have decided that this area needs our focus on the members.  And if we can do well in re-activating people into the ward then maybe we will get a couple unbaptized children or get part member families baptized together and on their way to the temple.

We also had a fun time biking this week.... kind of. We had run out of miles to early this month and had to bike the last 3 days. Man what an experience that was.  On Friday night we had 2 referrals we had to go contact way downtown, probably 5 miles away.  Well we went anyway and it was pitch black outside and we got lost.  We never actually found the house.  But we did bike through an abandoned train station and through the ghettoest part of Texas.  It was pretty scary and all that.  But we were fine.

Its good to hear my Utes won.  I didn’t get to go but I heard it was an amazing game.

Until next week,

-Elder Stewart