A visit from my good friend, D. Todd...

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you all had a good week this week...  because mine was sooo good. I don't even know where to start. On Saturday we had the opportunity to have D. Todd Christofferson here to visit the mission. The meeting with all the missionaries was at 9 am, and all the missionaries in the mission came down to El Paso. It was the first time I had seen all of the missionaries in the mission, and since I have been down south the whole time, I didn’t know half of them. Anyway, my companion and I were so excited, we got there 2 hours early to make sure we got seats, and we sat in the closest possible seats for missionaries, cause the sisters of coarse got put in the front no matter how late they where, but it’s ok. The first thing he did was to invite all of us up to shake his hand and tell him where we were from. It was one of the coolest experiences. Someone said "That hand probably has shaken the hand of the resurrected Christ himself." lol that gave me the chills.

The meeting was pretty good, we had Jim L. Right of the 6th quorum of the 70 and Elder Hallstrom of the presidency of the 70 there as well. They taught some really good things.

Some of the things that I remember are:

1. Often times we think of repentance as a huge deal where we have to repent of huge sins we committed, but repentance at its core is changing something in our lives to be more in line with the teachings of Christ.

2. That when we love our Heavenly Father, we are entitled to his love. And that love is reflected on the rest of his children.

3. Christ's main drive was Charity. Charity never faileth. He says there were times in the garden when he is sure Christ doubted and thinking there had to be some other way to accomplish the goal, but the answer to his prayers was "No". So he finished what he came to do because of His love of the Father that reflected to all of us. (I began to think about what it must have been like for Heavenly Father while he watched his son go through what he went through. I begin to think about what my parents would do for me if they saw me in pain or suffering and realize that have to let his son be, and tell him no, must have brought him to tears. Somewhere in the galaxies out there, I’m sure this moment pained the most powerful man we know to the core.)

4. That we were in debt to our Heavenly Father before coming on our mission, and a quote from Christofferson himself " Some missionaries come home from their missions and say, "Alright, I have served and done the work he asked me, now he owes ME." He smiled and said “If I hear any of you go home and say that ill strangle you myself" and everyone laughed really hard. We are more indebted to the Lord after our missions for all the blessings he has given us on our missions. 

Well there is more but I don’t have time to put them all. 
We got to hear from him again that night, just the El Paso missionaries got to. He talked a lot about reading as a family is the most important thing we can do and that when we testify to our kids, the spirit is what will teach them and change them. 

We also had a baptism yesterday. His name is Angel. He is 19 and now he is preparing to serve a mission. He had been investigating for a while and went through a bunch of missionaries, I’m glad that I was able to help him take the decision to. We have another 2 this weekend. I love the branch, the area, and the work. Thank you all for the prayers, I hope you can feel mine.

I love you,

-Elder Stewart

Bad week before the Temple....

Hello friends and family,

Another week has gone by, the weather is cooling down, mosquitoes carrying the west Nile virus are out, and the work of the Lord moves on. This week however was particularly hard for us. This week Satan worked harder than I have ever seen him work before in trying to discourage me and stop the work in Fabens from progressing. Last Sunday we had 7 at church and all 3 of our families where progressing towards baptism. And to be completely honest, there were a few minor things that we were slipping in when it came to the white handbook. Nothing super serious, but breaking rules is breaking rules. Well I suggested to my companion that we start cleaning up the rest of the stuff we are doing wrong so that we can have the spirit strong for these 9 people that we are teaching that were progressing. At first he wasn’t to sure if he wanted to, but on Friday our zone leaders challenged us that for at least this month, we follow 100% to the rules in the white handbook. That’s what got him motivated. So we started to do EVERTHING the Lord asks of us and prepared to enter the temple this week. 

Well that is when Satan really turned it on. We first went over to see Angel who was going to get baptized on Saturday, and we met his mom for the first time. She was super nice to us and we had an awesome lesson with her and she told us to come back. Well after we left we got a text that we shouldn’t go back to the house and that Angel would need to be meeting us somewhere else for a while. She was being fake to us the whole time and after we left, she had a huge fight with Angel. So he was not baptized. Later we were kicked out of a less active's house because they asked us to break a rule to do a favor for them. When we told them we could not, They got angry and kicked us out of the house. Then with the other 2 of the families, there started to be a lot of contention in their homes all over again, and when we went by for our appointments, they fell through because they didn’t want to let us in while they were fighting. I had a really hard time this Sunday when 1 person came to church. 

I had a question, Why does it seem like when someone is not completely obedient to the rules, they get so many baptisms in their mission that are just handed to them and nothing seems to go wrong with their investigators, but someone who is completely obedient has very few baptisms and everything seems to go wrong?

I got my answer pretty strong in the temple. The spirit told me that Satan, does not work as hard on those who are being taught by "Apostate missionaries" because he knows later in their lives he can give them some challenges, and they will go inactive, and like the scripture says, it would be better if they never knew the gospel at all. Where as missionaries who are fully obedient to the rules can teach more with the spirit and bring "Lasting Conversion." So even though their investigators go through so much before they are baptized, they are usually so converted that they and their generations after them stay active in the gospel. Which actually brings "more" baptisms than the missionaries who just baptize many during their mission. I can feel that this is true, and I am comforted in knowing that these challenges that my investigators are having only meaning that true and lasting conversion is on the way and a big part of their success depends on my obedience.

I love you all,

Elder Stewart

1 Year as a Missionary...

Hola Friends and Family.

I hope you are all doing well. I’m doing pretty well. I’m happy, and we are still being blessed down here in Fabens. I hit my one year mark on Friday, and now I’m in limbo mode because I will be on a plane home Sept 11th next year. (you really serve for 2 years and 4 days) so after today I will have exactly 365 days left. It’s kind of sad because It seems like too short. But then again I’m excited to see everyone again. On Friday night a member took us out to a place to eat called Cattleman’s Steakhouse. It is probably the most expensive place to eat in all of el Paso. This Steakhouse is in the middle of the desert and has its own Zoo. But it’s not like any normal zoo. It has long Horns, Ostriches, and buffalo. Huge animals that could kill so easily. My companion and I had the biggest and most expensive thing to eat on the menu, a 2lbs Steak with french fries beans and coleslaw. The members did not believe that I could finish it because I only weigh about 170lbs. But I finished it all and out ate my companion, who is up there at 280lbs. I can eat so much food. but the thing is I’m not able to exercise like I used too. So, I’m still gaining weight. Oh well though. I can always lose it later.

Well we have been having lots of success in our area as of late. We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday, which I think was one of the highest in the mission, and we have been preparing them for baptism. We had a fast Sunday with one of our investigators named Angel this week, and he is set to be baptized this Saturday. It has been a long process with him but we are all excited to see him take that step. Other than that we are still working with the people we have as well and trying to be extra obedient for the next few weeks to come. With the temple trip and the Apostle, stake and general conference, there will be lots of time to receive some inspiration for the area and our investigators.

Anyway, I am happy and doing well, thanks for all the support and love you all send.

Until next week,

Elder Stewart 

Life in the middle of nowhere......

Hey Everyone!

I hope everything is doing well and that you had an awesome holiday. I’m doing pretty well. The last week has been pretty successful, and I feel like it’s a lot easier out here. People living in small towns are a lot kinder and friendly than people living in a huge city, and so people are generally super nice to us and there is not a ton of opposition like there was in El Paso. Elder Hernandez and I have been doing pretty good. This is the first time that I feel like a super duper old missionary. I have been in the field double the time my companion has and I’m the oldest Spanish missionary in the district. I never thought that would be the case but then again here I am. And it’s nice when we do district meeting in Spanish and everyone asks for help with words and also comments on my Spanish. But I keep the pride from getting to me ha-ha. Here in Fabens we have the biggest truck probably in the mission that is the biggest thing I have ever driven. It’s like a tank and built for off-road.

We had some cool experiences this week. We got a referral from this less active member of the church who is looking to come back. The sad part is that he is an ex-missionary and that he messed up somewhere down the line and stopped coming to church. But he is looking now to come back and be fully active. His wife is not a member and we had a lesson with her on Saturday. We taught one of the most powerful lessons of my mission there. Not only was the first vision and the testimonies of the missionaries so strong, but the returning ex-missionary bore his testimony of the church and its truth when we asked him to throughout the lesson, the spirit could be felt as a real person in the room and she was brought to tears many times. This puzzled me at first because he knew and we knew that he had not been doing the things he needed to for the past 10 years and yet the spirit was so strong. I gained a testimony of repentance and humility right there. When a man has made a real desire to humble himself and make the decision to repent and come back, he is often times at his most powerful point. I realized that I need to constantly let myself be humbled, in order to have the same power and the power I desire with my testimony. She accepted a baptism date for 3 weeks and came to church the next day. Including reading the section we gave her to read. I’m excited to continue to see her and him grow and progress and come back to the church. We also had 3 non members come to church this week which is such a great feeling. But even greater is the fact that they stayed for the baptism of 2 young girls at the end. It is said that 80% of investigators that see a baptism will be baptized. I’m hoping this is true.

Anyway, that is all this week.

Love you all,

Elder Daniel G Stewart 

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Missionary Postcards

Pictures August 2012

Getting the bullet.....

Missionary postcards

Hey Everyone,

How are you all doing? Good I hope, even though school has started. Haha. I’m doing ok. We had transfers this week and I found out that I was getting the 6 week bullet. This means I only got 1 transfer in the best Spanish ward in the mission. Not only that, the area I was in got closed and merged in with the other set of Elders. All of our investigators, all my hard work on fixing the place and the area was just given to them. And my companion Elder Hurst was sent to the 3rd area in the ward even though he has had 3 transfers there already. I’m down here in the farthest area from ALB. In the middle of nowhere Texas in a town called Fabens. On Google it says that Fabens has a population of 8,000+ but that’s a lie. There honestly cannot be more than a thousand. The town takes 5 mins to drive all the way through. But this is what I thought my mission would really be like. Just roughing it on dirt roads and dying of heat haha. But oh well.

On Monday I got to go see my recent converts Raul and Alicia Castillo, who are still on track for the temple and doing fine. It was nice to see the surprise on their faces when I just showed up on their door step after 6 months. I also saw my favorites the Jorquera family from my first area. And hang out with them for a little while.  I was waiting for transfers. Anyway, my new companion is Elder Hernandez, from San Bernardino, Cali. He is Half Mexican half Tongan and speaks little Spanish. He has been out for 7 months now and spent all that time here in Fabens. He loves it, so I guess there is some hope for me. The Branch here is literally just 2 giant families that are all related. My new address is PO BOX 2754 Fabens TX 79838.  The apartment is a lot smaller than my last one and I’m back to a swamp cooler. Its rough I know. Anyone that went to a 3rd world country can just skip this part though. Haha.

Not much more to talk about though.

Love you,

Elder Stewart