Prayers really truly and sincerely ARE answered

Friends and Family,

This week was a good one. And to start it all off last Monday, after emailing, we climbed "Mount Franklin" which is the mountain that our house is basically built on. It took us 3 hours to get up it and back down. It was actually not a whole lot of fun because we had to climb rock at a few points and we all wore shorts, which is the worst idea in the world. The whole way up and down I was reminding the bushes and cacti that one day they would be burned at his coming. but I don't know if they heard me because I still suffered hundreds of scratches and stabs. All in all though, at the top you could see all of Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas which is quite the view. Plus I have a bunch of rocks that I'm gonna send home that are super cool.

                               ***************************************************

 

Prayers really truly and sincerely ARE answered! Our ward has officially changed mutual to Tuesday nights and that means volleyball as well. And we had 4 youth bring friends! 4! 4! 4! That's more referrals than I've gotten it 13 weeks. Anyway volleyball and the youth in this ward are the things that have been the most successful. So i guess that's what we are going to focus on. We now have 6 non member investigators that come to volleyball nights and also a lot of less actives come as well, which gives us a chance to get to know them and set up appointments... that is, if i don't go to much into beast mode and play too hard ha ha.

 

We had our first "Ward Correlation" this week and they called some new people this week. Almost the whole meeting was about missionary work and we got a few referrals right there. It seems to us that this ward has just been holding back all their referrals from the missionaries or just didn't realize they had referrals to give. But I think the "Missionary Talk" in the 3rd hour of the 5th Sunday of January really started things going. Pres. Perez (One of Pres. Miller's counselors) came and taught a combined 3rd hour class and at the end Elder Perez and I had to give a surprise testimony. I wasn't ready, but the spirit really helps missionaries out in times of need, and I spoke the best and most fluid Spanish I have on my mission. The spirit was so strong.

Anyway we started this "PMG class" for 3 families every Tuesday night for an hour. We will teach all 3 of the basic lessons, and role play introducing the gospel to their friends. As missionaries, we don't want the members to try to teach their friends everything, but to be able to at least answer some questions. But then to hand them over to us. Anyway we are excited to see this ward start to get more active and this area.

 

That's it for this week.

-Love Elder Stewart

 

Armor of God Lesson and District "Battle"

Another week in El Paso....

Well another week down, without much success I’m afraid. Dad your totally right about the fact of a lot of areas don’t have ward mission leaders or missionaries, but remember that investigators have to go to church 2 times before their baptism and 90% of the time they come once and then don’t come back which is the frustrating part. I did start p90x this week though :) it hurts so good.

Olga didn’t go through with it. Don’t you just hate agency. Now I realize why Satan was able to get 1/3 of all the hosts in heaven to follow him. Because on paper it is quite a good idea, but there is no progress either..... Hmmm kind of sounds like communism. But I guess she just needs a little more confidence. We get a feeling that it hast to do with her family who is all catholic. The reassuring part though is that she knows it is true, and comes to church every Sunday and feeds us twice a month, so it’s just a matter of time.

We have another investigator who is 14 and she really loves the church.  She goes to every Wednesday night mutual and came to church last week.  But here mother doesn’t want her to get baptized because she thinks that Mormons are a cult, that have multiple wives and do all this crazy stuff, but she won’t talk to us... any way her daughter has convinced her overtime to just go to church and see what we are like. :) God answers prayers! God answers prayers! God Answers Prayers!!! Anyway we are excited for that.

One last thing is really to my brothers and more importantly sisters. DO NOT MARRY SOMEONE OUTSIDE THIS CHURCH. And make sure he/she is a RM. It works out to be good 1/1000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 of the time.  But other than that it always ends badly. So just warn whoever you guys are dating to be a member….. or else.

Love- Elder Stewart

It has officially been 5 months...

Hola Family and Friends,

How is everything going?  It has officially been 5 months on this 24 month journey and this week was the first transfer that I had the possibility of leaving the 3rd Ward here in El Centro. But it looks like I am staying here for at least 6 more weeks with Elder Perez.

Anyway this week was a really good one because we decided that if we where to leave this week that we would want to go out with a bang. So we worked harder than any week this transfer, and were actually blessed because of it.

This week we have really focused on helping Olga feel ready for baptism. She had her interview this week and she passed everything. She is living better than most Mormons live, following all the commandments, and even is able to bear testimony of this church. She just does not feel ready for it. So we just have to keep spending more time with her and lots of praying.

One of our investigators with a baptism date actually came to church, which is so much harder to do than you think.  We taught a ton of lessons this week and visited a bunch of less actives. We have really been trying to help people come back to the church and feel like it has been working. We have gotten a lot of people to come back and go to church. Too bad there isn’t a place in the numbers for "Less Actives" that came to church because we would be doing real well. But then again I guess that is the job of the members and ward missionaries.  Unfortunately, this is now week 3 we have gone without a Ward Mission Leader or anything. So all the work has basically fallen upon us. I sure hope that we can help get this ward back into missionary work and that the other wards in the mission are not like this one.

Anyway, not a whole lot this week.

-Elder Stewart

Yikes....Week 12....

Yikes! Week twelve! And that means transfers new week. I could be in a whole new area next week its frightening. With a new comp... I like Elder Perez and it would suck to have to change after just one transfer, but "I'll go where the Lord wants me to go." (As long as it’s not Espanola...) lol Just messing... But really. I hear there is almost no Spanish speaking up there so the work is really slow for Spanish missionaries. But anyway, I kind of want to leave, but I want to stay as well because of 2 families, and because I’m speaking a ton of Spanish.

I want to leave mostly because the ward to be honest. I know, I know. I’m not supposed to complain about it, but it’s difficult. The people here do not see that fulfilling a calling is part of making it to the celestial kingdom. If you disagree with me, I encourage you to look up a talk by David O. McKay. About the "Personal Priesthood interview" with Christ at the last day where he will specifically ask you about how you fulfilled your callings. He doesn’t care what positions you served in, just what you did to give your all in the callings you received. So there is maybe 7 people in the ward that actually fulfills callings. We haven’t seen our Elders Quorum Prez for like 8 weeks now and they never have ward council. I don’t think we have ward missionaries. Haha but it’s all good.

Anyway, we got knocked on by some Jehovah’s witnesses last week, and they gave us some pamphlet even though they knew we are missionaries. And then a week later we got knocked on by some more that looked like their big guns. Anyway, apparently they have missionary work down in their religion. They have the members knock doors once a month and they knock everywhere. And all they really do is hand out their pamphlets and stuff then when they get back, they report to their church those who accepted their pamphlets and then send their "Missionaries" to that house to try to teach. Not gonna lie, but that a really good idea.

Anyway, we have a baptism this Saturday. Olga is finally going to enter the water :) So excited. She will be the First investigator that I found, started at lesson 1, and got baptized. It’s such an amazing process i'm not sure how to describe it, or if it is even possible to describe it. To see the effect the gospel has on families is amazing. And her husband Rolando is such a boss. They were starting to have a really hard time with money and stuff, and the church was helping and all but that’s not a thing that can perm. So we were afraid we were going to lose her, cause they were going to move away to find jobs. Anyway last time we where there they asked us why God wasn't blessing them with work. They were paying tithing, following the commandments, and praying every night to find one and nothing was happening. I’ll be honest I was starting to wonder, "Why are you letting them suffer like this? You say throughout the Book of Mormon that you take care of your people?" and I prayed, and fasted. And soon enough we got a call from a member saying that he has a job opening and was wondering if anyone in the ward needed one. I could not have been happier. And so the Castros where blessed in the moment they needed it most, and I was corrected in my doubts lol. But Pray for Olga this week, to have the strength to know that this is what she needs.

Love you all, thanks for all the support.

-Elder Stewart

Such an amazing feeling....week 11

Family and Friends,

Wow, I am seriously starting my 11th week in the field and am just 2 weeks away from my 3rd transfer but the first transfer that I may actually leave El Centro and finish my first 5 months! Just one more month till imp not considered a greenie any more. The time really is flying past. Nothing like the MTC at all. Anyway with me, things are still just cruising along. I have noticed that towards the end of the transfer it gets harder and harder to work as hard as when the transfer just started. My guess is, that you have less motivation to set the Baptism date or find new people that you wont be there to see, or to teach them. Anyway though, we did set a new baptism date this week that I’m super excited about.

So we spend most of our time now looking for people still. And I think I have finally got over that terrible feeling of letting people that just are not progressing slip through the cracks. And I have seen that I haven't been quite as stressed out lately. It got to the point where I just did not want to let go of anyone we found and our load of work got to be to much, and there is a difference between to many good investigators and too many investigators that you set a lot of appointments and they are never there, or will never do any of the things you ask them to. Anyway we have 3 wonderfully progressing investigators. 

Olga, who is the wife of a recent convert, is just an amazing person. She reads everything we throw at here and does not miss a week at church. She even was signing up to feed us missionaries BEFORE she had a baptism date. Which I’ve never heard of before, but I love it, and I know she is going to be baptized. It’s so cool. Because the spirit, If you are looking for a person who is really prepared and will progress, will give you such an amazing feeling when you see them. It’s just like pure joy shooting through your body.

We have another interesting investigator named Vanessa, and she is the girlfriend of a less active member in the ward. And His whole family is members as well but only the father was active. And she is catholic, but never heard of Jesus Christ. But prays to the Virgin Mary......... I know right? So we have just started taking things slow and teaching her who Christ is and what he did. What’s amazing about her is we haven’t really taught the "going to church lesson" yet and she has come to church every time since we met her. And also the whole family has started to come back. It’s amazing to see what this gospel does for families.

The last one is a 14-year-old girl who comes to mutual every single week and is very active in the YW. We finally had the chance to teach her, and it was AWESOME. She understood everything and set a date. She really sees the need for baptism.

That’s all for this week.

Love you ALL

-Elder Stewart  

Feliz ano nuevo!

Friends and Family,

Feliz ano nuevo!  This week was a pretty good one with some neat experiences.  We started off the week deciding that we needed to start mostly all over again from new because a lot of our investigators just were not progressing.  Or just had some problems that they where not able to get over.  So we are going to keep their info and give them a little break.  Now we are starting with almost a clean slate and getting a chance to find more prepared people.

So we spent a lot of time this week finding news and getting a new ward list to look for unbaptized children and part member families.  And we realized that there are so many of them and inactive members that it is affecting the area.  Its hard enough to get people to come to church, but when they actually do come to church the ward is not very receptive, and we end up losing them anyway which is even worse.  So we have decided that this area needs our focus on the members.  And if we can do well in re-activating people into the ward then maybe we will get a couple unbaptized children or get part member families baptized together and on their way to the temple.

We also had a fun time biking this week.... kind of. We had run out of miles to early this month and had to bike the last 3 days. Man what an experience that was.  On Friday night we had 2 referrals we had to go contact way downtown, probably 5 miles away.  Well we went anyway and it was pitch black outside and we got lost.  We never actually found the house.  But we did bike through an abandoned train station and through the ghettoest part of Texas.  It was pretty scary and all that.  But we were fine.

Its good to hear my Utes won.  I didn’t get to go but I heard it was an amazing game.

Until next week,

-Elder Stewart