The Christmas spirit of success...

Dear Family and Friends,

How is everyone? I hope all things are going well and that you are getting ready for an awesome December. We are seeing lots of blessings here in Fabens, TX, that truly are just miracles. This week I had a pretty good week and we were happy to see some people with us at church on Sunday who our Heavenly Father is preparing to be baptized. How amazing it is to see the affects of the spirit on the heart of someone who is willing to change their life to receive the blessings needed for salvation.

I had a few really nice experiences this week.  A great one was that I was asked to confirm Nathan (A recent convert) to the Aaronic Priesthood. It was the first time I have ever done a confirmation.  All of the priests in the quorum I am currently teaching on Sundays stood in with me. Later in the week Nathan went and did baptisms for the dead in Mexico with the youth. I didn't see him till Sunday, but when I did, I could already tell there was something different in his conversion. He was actually dressed in shirt and tie with a sweater vest on instead of just a white shirt and slacks. He passed the sacrament in church for the first time and even though he messed up a little bit he said that he wants to be there early every week so that he is one of the kids who gets to pass the sacrament. Later, I taught the class of the youth because the teacher did not show and I asked Nathan to share the experience he had in the temple. Even though he is really shy, he got up and shared an amazing testimony about how strong he felt the spirit in the temple and that he knew that temples were from God.

We had an appointment this week with the soon to be married daughter and (soon to be) son in law of the Morales family. He had not come to church this week and when we entered the room we could literally feel this tension in the room that was not the spirit. They were sitting across the room from each other with the whole Morales family in the middle and Richie was not saying anything. It really took asking the right inspired questions that got him to open up. The lesson was a really good lesson and by the end, they were sitting together, and he asked the father if he could marry his daughter and then got on one knee and asked if she would marry him. She said yes. When we were planning the date for them to be married, I was expecting it to be later in the month right before the baptism, but they looked at me and said, "Well, we need to be following the commandments, so would it be ok if we got married this Sunday?" WOW!

Anyway, I hope that everything is going well and that you are trying to have some good missionary experiences this Christmas season.

Love you all,

Elder Stewart        

Thanksgiving in Fabens....

Hey Friends and Family

I hope everyone had a great week. I know my week went pretty well. We had a good Thanksgiving this year where we ate at 3 different houses and died once we got home. I have not been so full in a long time. Thanksgiving is basically the same here but they still have tortillas with every meal.

Other than that, this week we started a "40 day fast." from Thanksgiving day to the end of the year there is 40 days and my companion and I were reading a letter written to a missionary by his father (who was a stake president) about how to purify yourself so that you can have the spirit with you as a constant companion. What you have to do is fast to find out a few things that keep you from having the spirit with you fully and then starting the next day you covenant with the Lord that you will do nothing on that list. Every night you sit and talk with Heavenly Father about what happened and areas that you lacked in and every morning you recommit to not doing anything on that list, taking it one day at a time.

So we started on Friday and that night we had an amazing lesson with the boyfriend of a less active member that we are helping to come back to church. We taught to his needs and he accepted a Date and came to church to Sunday.  It was a miracle because the parents of this less active member never thought that he would come around and accept the gospel.

The next time we saw him on Saturday night, he said that he wasn't going to go to church and he did not read because he didn't feel ready for it. It was then that I felt the spirit most and I preceded to tell him that I knew he felt the spirit and that I know he knows it is true, and that all we are asking him to do is read, pray, and go to church so that he can learn from the Holy Ghost. I told him that we can’t give him his answer, that only going through the steps unnecessary to feel the Holy Ghost will he learn.  He understood it, and was at church!

Well I am super happy, I love the area, training, and I finally feel like I can fully express myself in Spanish to the point that I can help these people progress through the spirit. I wouldn't mind staying in this area for the rest of my time here.

Love you all,

Elder Stewart