Hey Friends and Family,
I hope this letter finds you all in good conditions and that
you had an awesome week this week. Coming down on 5 weeks left no matter how
much I try to deny it, and I’m really tired. I think I know now how my grandpas
feel like when you sit down with your eyes closed for 2-3 seconds and then you’re
out cold. The only defense I know to that is to never sit down in the apartment
because if I do its lights out. Ha-ha. We have had a great week and I have had
an awesome birthday.
My birthday was so much better than last years. For P-day we
got up and after doing all we had to do in the morning we left to go spend the
day with the rest of the zone. I really felt the love from the zone when I saw
that a few of the sisters made a giant chocolate cake with cherries for me. I
also got many other gifts from missionaries that I didn’t think would have
cared a whole lot. We had an awesome time playing sports and hanging out. After
we had one of families we love sign up for dinner and there we had a party as
well. They got me this huge coconut cake that was super good but not the best
for losing weight. Now I have the fridge back home filled up with a ton of cake
and sweets but luckily enough I live with 3 other missionaries who can help me
out. Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and gifts. I had an awesome
birthday this year.
Now to more important matters. We were asked by the stake
this week to send 8 companionships of missionaries to youth conference to teach
a class on how to teach the 1st lesson about the Restoration. Elder Hunter and
I went and we split up to watch other companionships teach but it turned out
that I ended up teaching the youth anyway. I feel like God has blessed me with
abilities to connect and teach youth about the gospel. The spirit in the room
was powerful and later the stake president called to thank us because the youth
thought that out of all the youth conference, that the part were the
missionaries taught was their favorite by far. I have such a love for teaching
youth and look forward to maybe one day fulfilling callings with them.
We found a new family this week that really has some
potential for baptism. They are the Najera family. He was baptized over 20
years ago and then was converted into a Christian church and stopped going. Our
first visit with them when we knocked the screen to the door seeing that the
door on the inside was opened and I could see the outlines of the family
through the screen. At first they tried to stay quiet and pretend that they
were not there! And then the baby started crying and so they had to answer the
door. So they let us in and we had a lesson that really had to be taught by the
spirit. Well now, just a week later, they came to the church for a church tour Thursday
night (first time in a Mormon building in 20 years), they are reading the Book
of Mormon every day, and the last time we visited with them they fed us awesome
food. The change in their family has been a change that makes this all worth
it. And it’s not anything that we really did, but the power of the spirit unto
the softening of hearts is a very really thing. I have seen the spirit have
such an impact on our investigators lives and the funny thing is that they
rarely even notice the change that happens. But I know the spirit is real, and
that it can make all things possible, even in the shaping and softening, and
converting of people to the True Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Until next week,
Elder Daniel Stewart
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