A Week Spent On My Knees

April 30, 2012

Hey Friends and Family,

      So I have kind of a lot to write today but I’m not exactly sure how to put it. As we see the MANY times in the Book of Mormon and the Bible, the children of the Lord, once obedient, humble, and following the paths of Christ always seem to fall back into an "Non-Obedient stage". No matter the amount of blessings they received or saw, they forget and go back to sin and forgetting God. Until they eventually get smitten by the sword, famine, plague etc., and turn back again to God. I am thoroughly convinced and can bear testimony this is one of the main purposes of the bible, that is, to show us all the mistakes of the people of the earth and to learn from them and try to not fall into the same pattern ourselves. Unfortunately that trick is actually "LEARNING" from them. After the hard time we had last week I decided that I was going to turn back to the Lord and do absolutely everything in my power to follow his teachings, and to seal that testimony I can report that last that as I have been following this goal has given me a closer relationship with Jesus Christ than I have had before.

     It all started with district meeting on last Friday, when our district leader was getting on the whole district for not getting up on time and following the morning schedule... including himself. Now don’t get me wrong, my companion and I still had one of the highest in the district, but I will admit my faults and say that I didn’t wake up on P-days and study, nor did I wake up on Sundays at 6:30 because I don’t work out those days. So a 5/7 was pretty good. But was 2 more days of getting up on time really worth the blessings I was missing out on? Well anyway, we all decided that we would make "Accounting to the Lord" every night a goal for the district and well as our District leader went around the room and asked every person if they would commit to getting a 7/7 for the following week. Of coarse everyone agreed.

     I report that I held true to my promise and I got up every single day like I was supposed to, except I decided to take it a step further. I decided that I would make every prayer I gave count. I would not miss a prayer before starting anything. I would make my studies more effective and actually directed at investigators. I can honestly say that I have not had as many prayers in my life with as much "Real Intent" or studied the Bible or the Book of Mormon with as much determination as I have this week. It really, honestly, and truly makes a difference. How sneaky Satan is as the first thing he attacks is the reading, praying, and going to church of the members of this church. Its the first thing he goes for and they all lead to something else, until you find yourself not doing the things you should.

    My attitude and my love for people have soared, my thoughts have stayed clean and mission driven, my lessons and teaching have increased in power and depth, and I have this energy that seems to have no end, except I’m tired all the time, and lastly I’m starting to see what "My Joy is Full" feels like as I’m starting to work my way to that point myself. People had been opening up to us more. I had spiritual experiences this week while knocking where we have found 6 new investigators and they seem to be way more prepared than any that we are working with now. (It is either that or just that the spirit was not as strong as it is now and so they progress more). People are reading their Book of Mormon and loving it, members are fellowshipping. All this has happened in just one week! Don't you just love our Father in Heaven?

    We last Friday we had another district meeting and when we put numbers up again, I was astonished that only Elder Humphreys and I had 7/7. The district leader and his comp had the lowest. I was even more surprised when everyone reported that they did their accounting to the Lord everyday. I honestly don't believe them because of the fact that I know our Heavenly Father would not be happy with the attempts they made at that and so I could see why they would be so happy about it. But I decided that it wasn’t my place to judge, neither do I know what their situation is. All I know is that I want to keep this feeling.

In Job, there is a verse

28 And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the LORD, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.

   That basically said it all to me. I can be obedient to what the Lord asks me to do out of wisdom because I fear him but that does not mean that I understand. Someone who understands is someone that is exactly obedient because he has the wisdom to fear God and the understanding to know how it will help him GROW to become more like Christ. Understanding is a characteristic of someone in the Celestial Kingdom. As I grow in wisdom and understanding every day, I feel the love God has for me and the people here. But I didn’t let that stop just after the first week; I have continued it, now on day 10, without any chance of stopping.

   I realized that it is perfectly POSSIBLE to be obedient for someone’s whole life. Just look at Nephi, Helaman, and Moroni, and many more who proved that it is possible. I hope that to my kids they will see that in me, like I see that in my father and his father. Though none of us are perfect in any way shape or form, we can get close, but the best possible thing to do is set an example... Like Christ did.

With much Love,

-Elder Stewart

100 Degrees and Still Rising. Another 6 Weeks On A Bike

www.mormoncartoonist.com

Hey Family and Friends.

I hope all is well and that everything is going as planned. Well transfer calls where Saturday and Elder Humphreys and I are staying together in Ascarate. I’m not Super excited but if I’m meant to be here then here’s where I will be. In the white handbook it says to make it seem in your letters that everything is fine and perfect, but I’m not going to lie, this week was a really hard one. The worst part is the heat. It’s starting to reach 100 this past week and so it’s very uncomfortable feeling to be riding a bike all day long. Add the sunburn and the sweat and its kind of depressing.

Not only that our area is starting to suffer. The Nava Lopez family (who where our most progressing and solid family) ending up dropping us out of the blue. We had some of the most powerful lessons with them that I have had on my mission and so them telling me that they just are not interested was a blow to my motivation. We also went park contacting the other day. Where we went and tried to talk to people at Ascarate Park, which is the biggest park in El Paso, and I don't think we will try that again. After getting yelled at by a Christian lady who hates us because we follow Jesus TOO MUCH, instead of just having faith on the "Grace" of Christ to be saved, and having person after person we talked to just say, "No thanks, we don’t have time" as they sat there watching their fishing rods that where anchored to the ground not move for 5 hours at a time. Even when I took the approach of just talking about fishing or their life, or something that has nothing to do with a message we bring people where still mean to us. We where out there for 3 hours just knowing that there had to be 1 person there that needed us. Well there wasn’t.

The hardest part of a mission is people ignoring you. I would much rather just have people tell me that they are not interested any more or that they don’t want us to come by anymore instead of never answering or returning calls or texts. Making us having to go by their house at random times to catch them unawares. But what’s worse is when you see someone who is home not answer the door after seeing you. Even less active members of the church. I can't imagine how Christ must have felt after performing miracle after miracle, and trying his hardest to help people, just to have his own people reject and crucify him. That thought is honestly one of the only things that keeps me going during the day. I know that in other countries it is way worse for the missionaries but nobody is the same and some people can deal with it better than others.

I realized something this week when reading my P-blessing over again. It says that I will be a great tool in helping people become re-activated in the church. And its right after a part where it’s talking about the callings I would have in the church if I remained faithful.  I always just assumed that it meant in my future callings later in life, but I have looked back on my most successful moments of my mission so far and see the differences that God has made through me in the lives of many less active families in the wards I have served in. We didn’t have any investigators at church yet another week, but we had 6 less active members who have been inactive in church for more than a year come back, and we are one the edge of a breakthrough with many more. It really is an amazing feeling when someone comes back into full activity and just realizes the blessing that they where missing out on for all that time and to call us Angels.

Well that’s all for now.

-Love Elder Stewart

Missionary Humor

Week 6, Transfer 4

April 17, 2012

Dear Family and Friends.

Well, it looks like another transfer has just flown by. Its already week six and I hit my 7th month mark 9 days ago. Things are going well here, except for the extreme heat, dust, and wind that makes it harder to see the road than the worst days of fog in Pacific Grove. The start of the week it was still super hot and our swamp cooler was broken. Luckily though they just turned it back on and so everything is nice and cool in our apartment again. We still live in the ghetto though. There apparently have been 3 car robberies in the last 4 weeks, and there are gang bangers that live on the bottom floor. It was cool though because we knocked into the Rep for the "crime prevention" unit of El Paso, (she told us that we are living in some of the worst apartments in all of El Paso and that we needed to get out because we are too white) Luckily enough we are not too worried because we have better "Insurance" than anyone else in the area, and as long as we are being safe and taking all the precautions we need to like locking the doors, making sure lights are on, and doing are prayers, nothing will happen. But she did direct us to someone in this area who is willing to rent a nicer apartment to the church in a "safer" part of our area and for cheaper than what the church is paying here. We have a year lease here so there is not a whole lot we can do now, but it might be something that the church could look into next January. Even though she doesn’t have any interest in the church, gave us her number and said that if anyone is bothering us that we can call her and she can get them arrested. Which is nice back up for a dangerous situation.

But other than that, the Area is doing good in many aspects.... except church. We have the investigators, the baptism dates, and the time, but we are completing failing in church attendance. We have helped now 6 “less actives” come back into full activity but for some reason no matter hard we push, we cant get them to church. I personally think that it is the lack of fellowshipping that we are doing with the ward that is hurting our progress. So one day this week when I was sitting down and really trying to think of a way to get the ward and the new ward mission leader (who just got home from his mission and so is preparing to go to school. He also spends a lot of time with his girlfriend, so he doesn’t do a whole lot) be more active. I don’t blame him for not helping so much cause I think it is because the ward is so big and there are 3 sets of missionaries with tons of investigators each to deal with. So we thought up a plan that I hope will change the way that missionaries work in this mission, to most effectively use the ward mission leaders, and get fellow shippers picked specifically for investigators so that the investigators feel like they are welcomed, noticed, and wanted. Plus it will make the work 100x easier for the mission leader and the missionaries, have the members know EXACTLY what we want them to do, and hopefully get more investigators to church and enjoy it. More investigators at church= more baptisms of "Real Converts" that will have friends in the ward. We just have to get it started to see how it works. But you can see that I'm pretty excited about it.

We started it a little this week and actually have seen success in the quality of our lessons and the members stepping up to do their job. We have had 5 members come out with us this week for 4 of some of the greatest lessons that I've had on my mission. I never really understood how much of a benefit it was to have members come to lessons until we learned how to use them properly. One example is with a family who we are teaching that has baptism dates but isn’t progressing as fast as they could. and so through the system we are trying to set up, we used the Ward Mission Leader and the Relief Society to get someone perfect for the 20 year old girl we are teaching. After watching the restoration, all three of us bore testimonies and ended with the member who hammered it home. She got the girls number and invited her to institute this Tuesday, as well as offered to pick her up and take her there. That sounds pretty good right? But that's not all. She even offered to the 15 year old brother to take him to mutual on Tuesday night, even though she has nothing to do with mutual anymore. She offered to bring him with another boy with that is his age in the ward. To make a longer story short, it was the best lesson and I can tell deep down that no matter how long it takes, these 2 are going to be baptized someday.

Well thats all my time this week,

Love you all

-Elder Stewart

A Week to Remember His Sacrifice

April 10, 2012

Hey Friends and Family,

Hope everyone had an amazing week and weekend. As we all know this weekend was one that over 1900 years ago, the Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for the sins of the world, which specifically includes each of us. Now I really had a lot of time to study this week about Jesus Christ and his Atonement, and i want to share my thoughts and feelings with you. The reason that I had so much time to study this topic is due to the fact that on Thursday night and all Friday my companion was seriously sick, and on Saturday night and all Sunday I was super sick. Satan was working really hard to keep us from going to the temple Monday. Luckily I didn't throw up or anything but I fainted twice which was kind of scary experience. We think it was due to the heat here and the lack of food and water that my body was taking in because I was sick, but that would in nowise stop me from going to the House of the Lord. To make a long story short, the work did not go super far this week, but my knowledge, love, and gratitude for my Savior made leaps and bounds.

I really just wanted to bear my testimony, that I know the Jesus Christ is the Literal Savior of the world. Now lets break that down.

Jesus Christ- The ONLY Begotten of the Father. Which means that he was the only one who was conceived literally by God without a earthy father. Thus meaning that his Father in both spirit and the flesh is Our Heavenly Father. Why is that important? That means he brought the Power he had before this life as a God to the Earth and is the reason that he is the only one possible to have been able to lay down his life for us. I also know that he was born to an earthly state. Meaning that he didn’t come down as a babe all knowing and all powerful, but he learned the ways of his father and ways of the gospel in his time and became the Person, Man, God on this earth. I could go on and on but this is sufficient for the point I am getting to.

Literal- In the scriptures it says that no unclean thing can dwell in the presence of God, and I always thought of this as "Well God can really let anyone he wants be in his presence cause he is God, he just doesn’t want to have anyone that sins in his presence. But thats not true. We literally can not see, be around, or come in contact with God. He is God because of the Justice and Truth that he rules by, which means that if he could make an exception, he would cease to be God. So we could never ever have a chance to live with God again after this life because we all sin, and this is the LAST thing Our Heavenly Father wants.

Savior- Jesus Christ did in no wise have to come down an save us. Before this life he already had so much growth that all he really needed left was a body to be like his father. In fact it says in the scriptures that by him coming down and saving us was "Unprofitable" to him. He does not need us for exaltation and glory. He would have not needed to suffer at all. When he came to this earth it is a fact that Death had no power over him, meaning he could literally not be killed. ONLY when he put his life down and allowed himself to be crucified was he able to give up his spirit..... but take it up again 3 days later.

This is what Brings my testimony of the Love that Our Savior Has for us. Without us he would still be everything, without him we would be lower than low. Feeling all the pains of the imperfections in our lives. He loves us so much to come, pay, and die for us even though we do not deserve it. So please. Don't forget him. In the name of Jesus Christ, Our Savior Amen

Take a min to watch the talk "None Were With Him" by Jeffery R Holland.

-Elder Stewart

Pictures from El Paso

El Paso, Texas area

Elder Perez and me

Our apartment gets very dusty!

Jordy, Me, Yani, and Gloria Cordero. A family we were teaching in El Centro.

Raul Castillo, Me, and Alicia Castillo. Converts

Me, Yei Yei, Nei Nei, Hana Toro, and Jason Toro. A Family that fed us every week in El Centro.

Brian Allen, and me. He is a recent convert from another ward.

Jorquera Family (My Favorite) Bruno, Cisca, me, Hna Jorquera, Ignacio (Nacho)

The Kellog Family. Jack, Me, Jack-o-wick, and Hna Kellog (less active family brought back into activity)

 The Gutierrez Family. Aaron, me, Karen, Hna Gutierrez, and Isias Gutierez. (Less active brought back into Activity.) Also Miguel who wasnt there.

The Ramos Family. Italy, Hno Ramos, me, Diana, Hna Ramos

 The Acosta Family. Teresa, Hna Acosta, me, Hno Acosta

Fierro Family. Hno Fierro, Diego, Hna Fierro, Not Sure, Me, Manny, and Evelyn

Moi and me (Investigator who loves soccer)

Gutierrez Family (moi), Rebekah, Not sure, Hna Gutierrez, Me, Hno Gutierrez (Bishopbric), Carla, and (Eduardo- recent convert)  

Me, Raul, Alicia, and Elder Perez

Hno Carzoli (Bishopbric)

Easter Sunday

Let us not treat lightly the gift of the Atonement that has been given us. As I come to think about the pain he went through to give us the opportunity to become clean, it reminds me of the desire to never sin again. That every time I sin, it was another drop of blood or another moment longer. But how do we show God that it is important to us? We USE IT. Jesus already paid for all of our sins, the Atonement is already there. By not using it we are showing to him that we don't really care or appreciate it. How do we USE IT? Don't miss a single Sunday or a chance to take the sacrament, don't let someone or something someone said pull you away from the church, don't let "work" or a "social life" be a higher priority than going to church, and above all SHARE IT. I know that Jesus is our Savior and Redeemer. He loves us, would do anything for us, and above all he wants us to be PERFECT even as he and his father are. In Christ's name. Amen


Love, 
Elder Stewart

A bitter-sweet conference week....

Me, Raul, Alicia, and Elder Perez

Hey Friends and Family. Family and Friends. Whoever still reads this haha...?

I hope everyone is doing wonderful and that you all watched conference this weekend. I don’t have my notes, but I wanted to share some of my favorite talks, from memory.

I really loved Elder Bednar's talk about how the priesthood is active, not passive. Too many priesthood holders out there wait to be acted upon instead of acting and how it’s a greater sin to have a dormant priesthood instead of not having it at all.

I loved Elder Nelson's throw down on the big bang theory, a renowned scientist, making fun of all those scientist out there who claim there is no God and the world happened by chance. Also how the spiritual and physical gifts we have in our lives should not be taken for granted.  We need to give thanks to God.

Elder Cook said a few things that I really loved because of things I have to deal with currently and have had to deal with on my mission. Something like, you could have all the proof or facts in the world that the Gospel is true, but without a testimony built on faith, through prayer and reading, those things mean nothing.

I can’t remember who commented about "Authority and Power of the Priesthood, maybe Elder Scott? But he said there is a difference between receiving the Authority of the Priesthood, but without the Power of the priesthood, your priesthood can not be truly represented.

There are more but it will have to wait till next week.

The reason I call it a bitter sweet conference is because we had a grand total of 0 investigators come. Our investigator pool is very large, we found ourselves planning for 16 investigators last week. All which were invited, offered rides, called to remind, fellowshipped to come, and basically not one came to it. With excuses ranging from "being to Mexico" to "I have a relative in town that just showed up at my house" it was quite the site to see. On the other hand, I learned so much from conference that it made up for no one coming. Both my companion and I think that the reason that no one came is that God needed us to learn something from conference, and if our investigator would have came we would have had to watch conference in Spanish. So in that sense it was a blessing.

Other than that, we found two new families this week and they are just wonder full. One is 4- generation of women that were excited to hear the gospel and all set baptism dates. The other family was found for us by some faithful English missionaries, knocking in one of the hardest areas to knock due to the amount of Spanish there is. The girl that invited them back is almost 21 and is living with a younger brother and her mother. Both her and her bother set dates as well. We want to extend a date to her mother but sadly, she was asleep when we did. Their eagerness to hear the gospel is moral boosting; the only problem is that the father lives in Juarez and they go to Juarez many Saturdays and Sundays to see him. So it could be a huge struggle to get them to church. Never the less, the Lord has blessed us for the experience and they went to church this past week and we now have 10 investigators with a baptism date.

The zone leaders, when they called to congratulate us told us that we hold over half the baptism dates in the entire Zone. Then this week the sister missionaries in our same ward set 5 more dates as well. So our ward alone has 16 baptism dates. So they better step it up on fellowshipping.

My recent converts Alicia and Raul Castillo went to the temple to do baptisms last Tuesday! And Loved It! The thing I am most happy for is that I will still be on my mission when they are able to be sealed in the temple for time and all eternity. What a blessing that will be!

Other than that I learned so more things about my companion. He is currently dating a girl that lives in Saudi- Arabia, who he met in an online game that is a lot like world of warcraft. He says he is going to marry her (even though he has never met her in person), but the problem is that he is Mormon and she is a Muslim. In order for her to come to the USA and be married he said she had to fake her own death or something and never talk to her family again. Apparently by law, a Muslim father is allowed to kill his daughter if she wants to marry someone who is Christian. So idk if that gives you any idea what he is like but that basically sums him up. Haha

Until next week……

-Love Elder Stewart