Finishing my mission here in New Mexico.....

July 23, 2013

Hey Friends and Family,

How are you all doing? I hope everything is going well and that you are still enjoying the summer vacations and the heat. I had a really good week this week and we had a baptism. It feels like forever since our last one! It was a wonderful experience and a super spiritual baptism. We got transfer news this week and Elder Hunter and I are staying in the area. So I know I will be finishing here and it’s such a relief that we will be staying together for this last epic transfer. I couldn’t have asked for anything better. Also Elder Keddington, my son, got a zone leader call today and will be over the missionaries in the El Paso Zone. I’m so excited to see him again and tell him I told you so.

This week Jorge was baptized. Just two months prior to meeting us here in ALB, he was doing serious drugs, running around with gangs, and not exactly being the humble follow of Christ that we all hope to be. On Saturday July 20th, he fully left everything in the past behind and became clean from all his sins. Just 3 weeks ago he walked up to the church building with only the clothes on his back and his car, he had just left Arizona and had been trying to find work. He was a homeless person and sure looked like one too, to be honest I learned a big lesson because at first sight of him, I kind of wrote him off as someone who was not going to make any progress. Well I was wrong. He came to church the day after we met him and loved it. The following day he got work and found a place to stay with some members. The first lesson with him was one of those lessons where everything went right and the spirit was so powerful. He accepted a date for baptism and was working for the 27th. This week he practically begged us to move the date up and he was more than happy. At his baptism he bore a powerful testimony about how he knows this church was true and how this baptism was the true and only baptism that he can receive.

Maybe even more impressing than the story of his change and conversion is the story of the members in this ward really stepping up to fellowship him. I don’t think we actually did anything besides teaching him the doctrine. But it seemed to me that the Elders Quorum and a few other members made sure all his rides where taken care of, that he had a place to stay, and that he had all the food and clothes he needs to live here. Even better was that we had no part in the baptismal service besides filling the font and making the program. The members gave the talks, the prayers, baptized and confirmed him. That’s how missionary work should really be done.

Love you all,

Elder Stewart

Acts of Faith…..

July 17, 2013

Hey Friends and Family,

We have had another very good week. We are so busy and working so hard. After a night of planning I lay right down on my bed and almost instantly I’m out like a rock. But life if good. We are still getting desperately needed rain and of course miracles. Transfers are the next weekend and so I’ll be going into my last and final transfer. I pray that I stay in this area for one more, but as always, I go where he wants me to go.

We had a series of miracles this week with the Gallegos family. I’m not sure if I have already shared this story in earlier letters but now I can add on to it. The Gallegos family is a family dear to my heart, a little family of 4 that have portrayed great faith. The father of the family works two jobs as a chef for 2 restaurants. He works the first job from 8-4 and the second one starts at 5:30 and goes till late in the night. Well his story is that his mom joined the church 20 years ago and 3 months after her baptism, she dies of cancer. After all that time the missionaries are led to the family and from then on his faith has grown tremendously. Last week we challenged him to ask for Sundays off from his job. When he did, the boss told him no, and so he quit right then and there. The next 4 days he got calls from the manager and other employees begging him to come back, until Thursday the owner called and gave him Sundays off and paid him for the last 4 days he missed. So he went back and little to our surprise, his coworker call him this week on Saturday saying that he couldn’t go to work the next day due to his wife getting in an accident and going to the hospital. So he was going to have to go in. He decided to wake up 3 hours earlier to go to work and prepare all the food for the other chefs to cook so that at 9 he could be at church with his family. What faith.

At church another miracle happened where one of the members walked up to them and turns out she knew his mother and stayed with her in the hospital the entire time until his mother passed on. She told him things about his mother like it had just been yesterday. She was her mother’s fellowshipper in those days and upon talking with the son left all of us in tears. I bare testimony on the importance of members going out with the missionaries and fellowshipping and being friends with the investigators of the church. The biggest problem is that "Most" members feel like going out with the missionary for an hour or 3 is doing their part as members of the church in the Lord's work. I bare testimony that, that is wrong. Here is the example of a woman who "Truly fellowshipped" an investigator to the church who was baptized. And now 20 years later, because of the time and energy she spent becoming friends with her, she was able to remember all the experiences that she had, and she now is an instrumental part of the conversion of the family. The 2 boys of which will most likely serve missions and the Father of them will most likely be a bishop or even stake president. There are so many blessings that come from fellowshipping and I encourage you to seek out recent converts, less actives, or people learning about the church and try to be their friends. I say this in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

Love you all,

Elder Stewart

Mission Release Date

Elder Stewart's release date from the mission field is set for September 4, 2013.

For those wishing to see DJ and hear his homecoming talk, he is scheduled to speak on September 8th at 9am in the Monterey 2nd Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which meets at: 1 Forest Knoll Road, Monterey, CA  93940.

For assistance with accommodations, please send an e-mail to Greg Stewart at 2gregstew@gmail.com.

A Fast for Rain....

July 9, 2013

Hey Friends and Family,

I hope all is going well for you, that it’s not too hot and that you are enjoying your summer vacation. We are doing awesome. The area is really progressing and we are finding joy in our efforts. This week the Mission President and the Stakes in the area asked the members to fast for rain, due to the drought that Albuquerque is going through. The Rio Grande has nearly dried up due to the lack of rain and the heat this summer. So on Sunday we added rain into our fast. Well yesterday and last night it rained and thundered so hard that they sent out a text to all the phones in the area with a flash flood warning. It rained harder than I have ever seen it rain. What a blessing it was for us and the people here in ALB. I know its small, but the response to the fast helped increase my faith. God said himself that it is by small and simple things right?

We are still working with the Cruz family on their way to being married and baptized. Sunday was a sweet experience because Javier got up and bore his testimony. He spoke about his conversion and how he is 100% convinced that the church is true, even though he is not baptized yet. He talked about how it has not been easy since they started coming to church, in fact it has been harder financially and mentally, but said that as he has passed through the problems he is facing now, he has learned to rely on the Lord. Which I thought was very cool. He is the type of person that we could see being a stake president or in the Seventy one day. We are also teaching another family named the Gallegos family. They are probably just as equally prepared for baptism as the Cruz family. The only problem is that we have been having such a hard time getting members in the ward to come out with us. So we decided to ask Javier Cruz if he wanted to come. Well he and his whole family came and we had such a good, spiritual meeting. They got along so well and Javier was able to answer some of the questions that we have been trying to answer for a while now. So I guess when you don’t have a good fellowshipper in the ward, you need to find and baptize one. Ha-ha

We had our first ever MLC with the new President Miller this week. Again I was left so impressed with him and the Leader he is. His personality is one that everyone likes to be around, but his spirit overshadows his personality by far. It is awesome to see how he has adjusted to this new calling without even missing a beat. You truly understand "being led by the spirit" as you watch a change in the church's leadership.

Well I love you, until next week.

Elder Stewart

Visit from Elder Echo Hawk and Elder Villarreal.....

July 3, 2013

Hey Friends and Family,

I hope that you are all doing well and enjoying your summers, and that its not to hot out there. It is super-hot here. 110. But at least it is a dry heat. We had a really good week though, we are so grateful to be in this area at this time and to be doing the work that we are doing.

We had a visit from a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy Elder Echo Hawk this week. He is the only Native American Seventy as far as I know and he came to our mission to speak to us and also had a meeting with the Navajo Nations Government. He told us that the meeting with the Navajo Nations President was a really good meeting and that at the end, the President asked him for a copy of the Book of Mormon, How cool right? He talked a lot about our calling a missionaries. Elder Villarreal and Elder Echo Hawk are both converts of missionaries knocking on their door and they expressed their gratitude. Elder Villarreal told a story about how he once was visiting a mission and a missionary came up to him and showed him his name badge. It didn’t ring a bell to him and so he asked him who he was. Turns out he is a convert of Elder Villarreal’s daughter from her mission. He then called the missionary who baptized him and said that he met one of his other converts today. The returned missionary had no idea who he was talking about. He said because he baptized him. His daughter went on a mission and since his daughter went on a mission, this young missionary was baptized and went on a mission. And that missionary will have many baptisms in his mission, and that they will all be his converts. I thought about the effect we have on the future generations and into the next life. I’m so grateful to be part of this work in these Latter Days.

We met our new Mission President and his wife yesterday. They are also named the Millers. All of the Zone Leaders got there early to have an interview with him and his wife before the meeting. I feel so privilege to have the opportunity to sit down with them and to talk to them individually. It was a very special experience for me to meet them. Both of the interviews with them where very spiritual and even though I only will have 8 weeks with them I am so grateful for the experience.

Well we had a missionary in our little apartment go home due to his Cystic Fibrosis. Which was a very sad experience for us, also Elder Marler had to change companions to an English area so we are kind of sad about that. One nice thing that happen to us yesterday though is that we got a brand new Nissan Tacoma truck for our area. It has a whole 17 miles on it. It’s a good upgrade from the truck we had before. Well I don’t have much else this week. The Work is good, I’m happy.

Love,

Elder Stewart