Montana Vista Del Sol

Hey Everyone,

Hope you all had a great week this week! There were a ton of changes in the last week and so I’m trying to get everything straightened out. Well to start off, I’m in a new area. The ward is called "Montana Vista" and there are 3 pairs of missionaries in this one as well so I’m in an area called "Del Sol". The missionaries here before where not obedient at all and so President last transfer got rid of all 3 of the senior companions in this ward and put 3 more in. This ward is the biggest ward in the mission and is real close to my last ward. Those are pretty much rival wards. My companion is Elder Hurst, who has been out 13 months. He is my second companion from Idaho, and for some reason I have this opinion that all kids from Idaho are pretty weird. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t like him, but sometimes realize the difference between a boy raised in the city and one raised in the country on a farm, not going to lie, I’m glad I was raised in the country. Other than that, I am back to taking the majority of the load back on me because his Spanish is not that great and he is a little shy. I am so grateful to have had 2 native companions in the past because it really has helped my Spanish and has prepared me to be at this point today. Well I went from a full bike area to a car share area. So even when I thought that my bike days would probably be over, I only bike 3 /7 days a week now. I really missed having a car and so I feel so lucky now. Plus the area that I am in now is all hills compared to my virtually flat area before. I’m glad to be in Montana Vista though, because it is said to be the best Spanish ward to be in. There are a lot of youth and they are willing to go teach with you. I am looking forward to the success that we will have together in this area. The only thing is I will have to give a talk on my birthday this Sunday that I am pretty nervous about. Hope everything goes alright with my first talk totally in Spanish.

The cool thing that happened this week is that Bridget in my old area got baptized this Saturday. And she asked if I could come baptize her. So I got permission from Elder Keller and was able to go down to her baptism. She was so ready. Yeah it’s sad that she got baptized 4 days after I left the area, but I still taught her everything and am really close to her, so I feel really blessed. The baptism however was pretty bad. To start off, 2 people that had jobs on the program did not show up and there was a total of 7 people there not including missionaries. So there was not really a whole lot of support from the ward which was really the Elder's fault in the area because they didn’t tell a whole lot of people. The worst thing that a ward can do is not go to a baptism when one is about to happen. It is the saddest feeling for the missionaries and the person being baptized when they look out there and see that no one came. I hope you guys and the ward back home always makes it a priority to go to a baptism of a convert. The next day on Sunday, I got permission to go back down to my old ward to take part in the confirmation. It was nice to see everyone one last time again and see her get the Holy Ghost. I really am proud and thankful to my Heavenly father to have given me the chance to know her and to help her to baptism.

Well that’s all for this week, Love you all, Keep me in your prayers this Sunday.

Love,

Elder Stewart

Transfer 7

Dear Friends and Family,

Well it looks that I will be spending next transfer somewhere else. I’m not sure where but it will be somewhere here in El Paso so I’m excited to go somewhere new. I’m super sad to leave Elder Vallejo though. We only got to spend 1 transfer together and feel like we kind of got robbed. But I guess I am needed somewhere else. I don't know if I told you last week but he will be going district leader of the new district. He is not very excited and repeatedly asks me to switch him as a joke, but I wouldn’t want it unless God called me to it. Like yeah sure I would love to have the opportunity to be a leader. But I know that I already have a lot of those qualities. So God is helping me learn humility and obedience. Plus it will be nice to be able to just put my 100% in the area and God's children there. Anyway, it’s kind of sad to leave 12th ward, the only thing is it is super big. So I only really know a few families and really the only ones that live in our area. I think I’m up for a challenge though.

I have gotten to be the one to go to for the "Transfer Gossip" news. I don’t know how I ended up getting that spot but I find out everything really quickly, and because President does transfers super secretly, everyone doesn’t know anything until Tuesday and it drives us nuts. We call it "Secret combinations" but I pretty much know more news than anyone else and then as they call me I get whatever news they have dug up and give them whatever I have. So I don’t even have to call around to get transfer news anymore. But it turns out that all my previous companions are training. Richardson, Perez, and Humphreys. I’m super excited for them and that chance, even though I wouldn’t want to train. It’s too risky ha-ha.

Well this week we worked really hard. The Standard of Excellence is 20 lessons a week and the week we had the baptism we only taught 15 lessons so we wanted to finish with an all 20 average. Meaning we needed to get 25 lessons this week. Well we got 27, on bikes. Which is awesome, but it also helped us realize that we could have gotten more the other weeks... So we raised the bar a little for Elder Vallejo and his new companion. I feel pretty accomplished though because we had the chance to say goodbye to everyone I wanted to say goodbye too. We also went by some families that were reactivated when I was here with Elder Humphreys but slowly faded away.

Well I know it’s not much but I’ll have lots to say next week,

Love,

Elder Stewart

Eternas Puedan Ser Las Familias

Hey Friends and Family,

How is everyone doing? I hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July. To be honest I forgot all about it. How patriotic right? On the mission I guess its just not that important to you. I was more looking forward and stressing out about the 7th of July. My 10 month mark and also the Marriage of the Family Ortiz and Maribel's baptism. I think I saw more american flags than usual that day, but having almost everyone here from Mexico it was kind of different.

Maribel was baptized on July 7th 2012. It was the first baptism in this area since it opened in January, and Elder Vallejo and I are stoked! We really feel like we are getting this area moving. We should have another one on the 21st and 2 more in the new future if it's the will of Heavenly Father. Elder Vallejo and I contribute it to how well we get along. It is so true that the spirit is so much more powerful when you are with someone you are happy to be around. Not to mention the help with Spanish I get everyday. I thought I was getting the hang of it before, but now I feel like I'm growing at a more rapid place. I know that my friendship with Elder Vallejo will last forever and ever, and I kind of wished he would have been around back when it was Landon, Cory, and Me ( and of coarse Mitch). I feel like they would be the best of friends as well, and also probably added more of an example spiritually to help Landon from basically doing it himself. Not to mention with 2 hispanics in the group Landon wouldn’t have felt like a minority.

So about the baptism. I have attached some pictures from the baptism of Maribel and Her family. They were married first in one of the most beautiful weddings I have ever been to and will probably be until I of coarse get married. It wasn’t big, or expensive. There where no rings yet cause they couldn’t afford them, no giant white cake that is enough to feed all of Africa, and she was in her best dress (not a dress that costs too much money) and he was in a borrowed white shirt and tie. I went on for maybe 15 mins at most. Now all of you that had an amazing wedding that was expensive and beautiful, I'm not saying yours wasn’t amazing. I'm just saying that this couple, who have barely enough money to get from month to month and who had to borrow money in order to pay for the license, made a commitment with each other to change their lives into what God wants for them. A true commitment of love I feel is when someone who is comfortable where they change their lives even though they can't afford it, in order to be approved by God and be on their way to an eternal family. Thats what made it so beautiful.

After that Maribel's baptism started where she had asked me to perform the ordinance. While I tried to get her to ask a member in the ward, she still asked me, and I was happy to do it. It went perfectly and the baptism was amazing and celestial. She told me after she sat down that she "feels it" and when I asked her what "it" was, she couldn’t explain it because she was crying. I can't explain the feeling I had right then but I imagine that it's referred to in D&C 18. "how great shall be your joy, if ye shall bring many souls unto me." The next day Elder Vallejo confirmed her and he did an amazing job. Yeah he is already fluent and all in Spanish, but it was his first time and he was super nervous.

Family and Friends, This Church is true! I don’t say that as an opinion of mine, but as a fact. There is nothing to compare it to anywhere out there. It grieves me when I see people that have fallen away, and I know that there will probably be a day where I need to be reminded of it when I am slipping. Im glad I have all of you to be there to remind me. Don't lose the faith. Endure to the End. So that we can all see each other after this life and be happy. I love you all so much.

Love,

Elder Stewart

Month 10!

Dear Family and Friends,

     Well in 6 days I hit my 10 Month mark. Can you believe that I have 14 months left. Then I have to worry about school, work, girls again..... woooof. I''m just praying things slow down a little bit. We had an awesome week again this week despite the fact that its been 110 degrees outside all week, and I still have no hope of getting a car. Oh well. The hardest part is staying motivated to go out when its that hot and still do work, but I know why I'm here. I'm not here to be a baby and cry about the heat. I'm here to help people feel the heat of the spirit.<- (missionary jokes are so lame) But we still seem to laugh at that one. Other than that I have had some big leaps in knowledge this week, as well as some miracles this week.

     Ok well study wise. I studied up a little bit this week about making your calling and election made sure. And if you don’t know what that is I encourage you to look it up and learn about it. Anyway, I made a commitment to myself that I would see Jesus Christ in my mortal flesh. Meaning that I will either see him when I receive the second Comforter or the second coming will happen. (Which is closer than we all think) I want that so bad. Just imagine it for a second. Being able to converse with him, see the prints, feel his love for real. I feel the spirit just thinking about being able to behold my Savior and creator of this world. Thanking him in all my mortal weakness and hearing him tell me good work. There is nothing that gets bad thoughts or anger out of my head faster than that. I have a few guesses for when he will be here again, but then again there is no way anyone can know. I don’t have too long to prepare myself for that.


   I received a testimony of repentance this week. There was a night where I stayed up kind of late. Not doing anything bad, but it made it so when I woke up at 6:30 the next morning I could not focus on anything and I knew I did something wrong. And my previous thought of sin is that I'm just going to have to deal with the consequences of feeling bad till the spirit decided to come back to me. Well we got a call at 7:15 from a member and we didn’t get to it in time so she left a message, saying that she had someone at her house right then that wanted to talk to us right then. And so I called back right away. Nothing.... So an hour later I called again 2 times. Nothing. I called back 3 more times and still no answer. At that point I was feeling terrible. I knelt down and said a prayer, feeling it in my heart. Before I got done we got a call back from the member saying that we should come over right then. So we got on our bikes and rode all the way out there and we met Bridget Mota. And had an amazing lesson. She is so amazing.

Her story is that her whole family was converted to the church but her and when she was learning about the gospel in Mexico, her son was murdered by a cartel and she went into so deep of depression that she just stopped her studies with them. Well 2 years went by and she moved to the US and began work that week with the member as kind of a care taker who helps her do things she really can't do anymore. Luckily enough this lady is a powerful member of the church and knew that she needed to hear the message again. Well when we went over there and taught the lesson she cried many times, especially when we talked about the temple. She is so committed to be baptized and going to the temple for her son that she will be baptized in 2 weeks time. She has already left all word of wisdom drinks and has read non stop in the BOM. Everyday we go over, she has more questions and has read a lot more. What a blessing it has been to meet her.

    Other than that Maribel has her wedding this saturday followed directly by her baptism. It will be an amazing experience to see that and Im so excited.

Well thats all for this week.

Love,

Elder Stewart