First Week in Albuquerque....

May 7, 2013

Hey Friends and Family,

I’m emailing you from Albuquerque NM this time for the first time in my mission. I’m not sure why I am here but I know that God sent me here for a reason. In fact, I talked to President's wife this week and she was telling me that on my folder I have a note there that says "South only" which means El Paso. The reason for that is that the doctor that prescribes my medicine is down there and I was going to have to stay around him for my whole mission. Well she explained to me that while transfer planning was happening, President Miller came out and asked her if I could go up north, she said she expressed some concern that I didn’t have enough medication. And President said "well the Lord will provide the way, all I know is that Elder Stewart needs to be up here." So here I am in ALB, in the ward called Rio Grande, with Elder Josh Hunter. Elder Hunter was my district Leader for 3 transfers straight when I was down is Fabens and we grew pretty close. I’m so glad he is my companion because of how capable he is as a missionary and with his responsibilities. I would be so lost here if he wasn’t here, but I am having a blast.

Faith and Unity is not something that we lack in this companionship. We have literally seen many miracles this week because of faith and are looking forward to this transfer. We have 3 families in particular that we are working with that are so awesome. Families that we have received witness from the Holy Ghost that they will be baptized.

Quintana Family is an awesome family and probably the closest to baptism. It’s basically a Grandma, 2 daughters in their mid-20s, the boyfriend, and 2 kids. Not to mention they have invited their other sister and husband to come listen as well. They are so awesome. They have a testimony of the priesthood and have asked for blessings every time they have been sick. They know the story of Joseph Smith like the back of their hand, the only thing left is Baptism.

We also have the Poqui Family, who have already received their answer that the church is true. They are just waiting on some things so that they can get married and then will be baptized. It should take about one more Month they said.

The last on is the Cruz family. They came on Thursday night last week and we gave them a church tour. The whole time they were soaking up everything we said. At the end of the tour, we got to the sacrament room and he asked if he could play the piano. He played the piano for maybe 20 mins in the sacrament room and it sounded so beautiful. You could tell how hard he felt the spirit while playing, and after my companion Elder Hunter, (who is the 2nd best piano player I know) (Grandma Stewart) Got up and played some songs as well. Ever since we have had such a great bond with this family and their progression has gone through the roof.

Life is good. Love you

Elder Stewart

My Days in El Paso Come to an End....

April 29, 2013

Dear Friends and Family,

This week has been a good one, and as it turns out, I will not finish my mission here in El Paso, but I am being transfer up to the north tomorrow. To tell you the truth, I’m excited to go see the other half of the mission for once. I have not spent much time there and am excited for what lays in store for me there.

As I’m getting ready to leave not only El Paso but the mission in 4 months, I feel like I’m leaving home again to go to another strange place that I know so little about. It makes me sad to think that I’m leaving really all the friends I have here in El Paso, but I’m sure that I felt pretty similar a little over 20 years ago. I knew then that when I left, that I would be able to grow and progress more, that Heavenly Father would always be with me and that he had a need for me in the places I would find myself. I’m sure back then I responded with bravery and so why not now?

I was surprised with the goodbye I am getting from the people down here in this ward. Even though I have only been here for 3 months, I am surprised with the people that I have had contact with and how much they care for me. It’s awesome to realize the affects that the spirit can have on relationships and how much they flourish is such short time. I think we have 8 appointments in the 3 hours tonight all of which told us to come hungry.

Other than that there’s not much I have to say.  I love you all so much.

Elder Stewart

It's a Beautiful Day...

April 22, 2013

Hello Friends and Family,

What a beautiful day it is. And what an awesome week we had. I hope everyone has been doing well, has been staying safe and being an example. I had an awesome week this week and am 100% recovered from the accident.

This week I have been applying in great extent the teachings that I received in the Temple to the lessons we are teaching. As I said last week, I had a strong impression that I needed to show others more love and they NEED to be reading the Book of Mormon. So I set out this week with the determination to fulfill with these promptings. I have found it really easy to show more love to the investigators. It takes little or no effort just to tell them that we care about them a lot, desire for them to go to the temple one day, and let them know we will always be a part of their lives. I think that once they realize that we desire to keep in contact with them not just till we get transferred but until and through the next life, which they seem to take things more seriously and desire to have us over more often. I in particular saw drastic changes in 4 of our investigators this week to the point where we will be seeing each of their families 3-4 times a week. Which I have found that if you can see the people you teach 3+ times a week, their chances of baptism go a lot higher.

We also have changed our focus for the time being from trying to teach all the lessons quickly, to just going over to the investigator's house for 30 mins and reading a chapter in the BOM. We have found that when we do that, that the BOM chapter teaches a lot better than we do, and when we start out the lesson with reading, the spirit comes in and prompts them to ask questions or doubts that they have, even when it has had nothing to do with the chapter we read. As we get members out with us, it makes reading so much better. Not only because when a member is there, that there are more people to take turns reading, but more like they are able to expound on scriptures so much better in their native language. It also gives members that don’t have normal study habits the chance to read during the week. We have had 3 of those lessons that instead of being 30 mins like we planned they have turned into 1 hour due to all the questions they bring up. Yesterday we were able to set 2 more Baptism dates and see some real progression.

Life is good, God is merciful, I am so weak, but Christ has redeemed me, and in him, I can do all things.

Love you,

Elder Daniel Stewart

A Weekend of Joy and Excitement....

April 17, 2013

Hello Family and Friends,

I am grateful for the opportunity it is to again be able to be here and email you all about how I am doing. I have had quite the exciting last few days and most of my letter will be focused on that. Hope all is well and that everyone is staying strong doing everything that is asked of them, whether from earthly parents or the Ones in Heaven.

Anyway, this week on Saturday we had 2 more people use there agency for good and were baptized and confirmed. Mario and Armando have been preparing for quite a few weeks now and it was an honor to be able to be here at this time when they were baptized. I could hardly believe my eyes when I read about the story of my brother and 4 other kids being baptized this week and the water being so low. Well at our baptism, what happened is that we asked so other missionaries to fill up the font for us. And when we got there, we had a problem with the programs and so while we were all running around trying to get that taken care of, the font started to over fill. So I went in and pulled the drain so that the water could go down, however, I found that it is impossible to plug it after you pull the drain out due to the pressure of the water. So I tried to put it back in and after some other attempts to get it plugged we finally thought that it would be fine so we continued with the service. Well when it was finally time to baptize them we opened the curtains and the water was at knee level. The baptism of the 16 year old was hard because of how low the water was, but in the end we were able to get him all the way in. It sounds like Satan was trying overtime this weekend to stop baptisms, but as it says in D&C 1, the work of the Lord cannot be stopped, only the work of men.

On Sunday, we had an awesome confirmation, on Sunday and all of Armando's and Mario's respective families where there. All of Armando's family are not members and are not talking the lessons from the English missionaries, I think they already have a baptism date. Mario's Dad is not a member, but has been taking the lessons for a while with us and I don’t think it will be much longer now. He says that in his mind he knows the church is true, he just needs to feel ready in his heart for the commitment he is going to make. We have gotten so close to this family and they are another family on the visit list when I come back. We also had Hermana Guzman come again like always, she is still progressing. I don’t think she is reading the book of Mormon however we are making plans to go read with her.

We went to the temple Monday and it was a blast. I loved being inside and feeling the spirit. I received some answers pertaining to the needs of some of our investigators. After the temple there was a little scare. I was in the hospital for 5 hours. Waiting rooms are ridiculous, and are getting worse. Thank you Obama. Anyway I got home at 5 am and rested all day yesterday. The Priesthood is real, the Blessings work. That is my Testimony In the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love,

Elder Stewart

Mario

Elder Bath

Armando