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

Tender Mercies

Family and Friends,

Sorry for the solemn letters I have sent over the last few weeks.  I guess it was just one of those down moments in my mission.... When you feel like you are doing everything you can and nothing seems to go your way.

I have really had to find patience out here.  I thought I was somewhat patient after working at a physical therapy clinic for over a year but nope, didn’t really prepare me for this.  The hardest part is having people say they will do something, but 99% of the time they don’t go through with it.  It’s getting hard to even have the hope that they will actually do what they tell us they will.  So to make a long story short, we had a bunch of baptism dates drop because people won’t go to church.

Anyway President Miller at zone conference passed out a new Book of Mormon and 5 Highlighters to every missionary in the mission and started a new reading plan to finish the Book of Mormon by February.  I’ll give you the details below if you want to do something similar.

"Finding Christ in the Book of Mormon"

8 pages a day- 30-40 mins of "Studying"-(note "studying" not "Reading")

5 colors of highlighters for each of the 5 topics to search for

1.  Jesus Christ- The names, references to his name, and also his titles.

2.  His attributes

3.  His words- anything he is literally saying

4.  His Doctrine- (Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Enduring to the End) and also any sub-categories to his doctrine IE. Prayer

5. Happy Scriptures- any scriptures that you like or receive revelation for.

I am now just finishing 2nd Nephi and I have a whole new outlook on the Book of Mormon.  Not only do I like the thought of having a Book of Mormon that is just entirely marked up with references of Christ but I am learning new things I have never seen before.  Like the journey of Nephi's family to the promise land is closely similar to our path here on earth, i.e. the Liahona is the Holy Ghost and guides us back to Heavenly Father (Promised Land) if we follow it, it works.  If we don’t, we are lost.  Notice how all of his family had access to it, but had their agency and chose not to follow it. (Laman and Lemuel) and they had to be repeatedly brought back into the right path.  Just like us.  We have been given the Holy Ghost, and we have our agency, and many CHOOSE not to follow its promptings.  But even though they repeatedly strayed, God always allowed them back.

Anyway once we started to read the Book of Mormon every day, there was a change.  People that seemed like we would need to drop them started to accept baptism dates; we started to find people "More Prepared" to hear the gospel.  And best of all God gave us a Christmas present, a baptism.  We had been teaching this young girl the lessons before she was going to be baptized and she was actually scheduled to be baptized the week before, but her uncle, who was going to perform the actual baptism broke his arm and they postponed it another week.  Well we found out Tuesday that she had just turned 9 years old on Monday and it became a "Convert Baptism" for our numbers and everything.  On top of all that, since the uncle couldn't do it, I had the opportunity to perform my first actual baptism. And it was honestly was one of the most memorable moments of my life.

In closing, I just wanted to challenge you all to increase your studies in the Book of Mormon, to receive blessings and guidance in your lives.  It’s like a Telephone.  There are 2 parts, the speaking part and the listening part.  Prayer is the speaking part of the phone and the listening part is where we wait to hear our answer.  We can pray our hearts out, but without scripture study, we get no answer.  And vice versa, one without the other is useless.  So please make it a habit. I love you all. Until next week

-Elder Stewart

Merry Christmas!

Oh Boy........

Hello Friends and Family,

It’s always nice to get your emails. Today is a super busy day and I probably won’t get the chance to get to all of them but I will make sure I do next week.

Well this week was maybe the worst one so far. I was told I would have weeks like this, but I didn’t think they would be this bad. Richardson was sick all week long, and threw up some nights, and because of that, we didn't get up on time any day, nor have comp study. Throughout the day we would repeatedly come back to the apartment because he "couldn't go knock" but he was fine to go out and teach lessons and all that. Anyway... our obedience was slacking and the companionship was going downhill because I wanted to go do work. No one came on Sunday to church and the Spirit just wasn’t there.

Well to make a long story short. Richardson got emergency transferred yesterday and I got a new companion, Elder Perez. He is from LA but his family comes from El Salvador, so naturally his Spanish is really, really good. He has been out for about a year and has a really good knowledge of the scriptures. It’s only been a day now so I don’t know a whole lot about him, but he does have a good relation with the Spirit. I’m excited to finally get back to work after this week and look forward to what comes out of the next one.

Other than that we met this 91 year old lady named Elizabeth. And man is she hilarious. She agreed to a baptism date and will be coming to church with us next week. When we invited her to church she at first said that her "Maid" came on Sundays between 1 and 3. I asked her if she could go and leave the maid at her house. And she said "No! I don't trust her. She is a Jehovah’s Witness."  Haha that was the best. But we ended up getting the maid to come on Saturdays.

Anyway, that’s all for this week.

Love, Elder Stewart

It's Christmas time in El Paso

Dear Familia y Amigos

Como Estan? I hope everything is great in this wonderful Christmas season.  This week, I had a week that I will remember for the rest of my life.  Elder Richardson said that this past week was the best he has had on his mission as well.  It was a hardworking week of missionary work that ended up in snow at the end of the week.  Yes you read correctly, snow in Texas and Mexico this last weekend, and the temperature right now is 26 degrees.  Que Paso?  But like I said it was the best week ever.

Now when I said I hardworking week of missionary work, I was not kidding.  We taught 32 lessons this week which I think was the most in the mission, as well as finding some new solid investigators to teach.  With these new investigators I have had 2 of the most amazing experiences with the spirit that I have ever had.  In addition our teaching pool has grown to almost 15 progressing investigators and we have 10 with a date for baptism.  Oh man is it wonderful.

So our ward here in El Paso does not do any kind of missionary work.  They are one of the leading wards in family history work, but they don’t try to do anything for the living.  They seriously call names out in sacrament meeting to go over to the Family History office for the second and third hour of church and do the work over there.  Anyway, basically what I’m saying is we have to knock a lot of doors.  Richardson doesn’t like to knock doors and constantly reminds people that only 1 person in 1000 doors opened end up getting baptized.  And that’s only "Doors Opened" which is less that 50% of the doors we knock.  But I have a testimony of knocking with the Holy Ghost.  With the Holy Ghost to tell us where to knock, we will always find the people we need to teach.  So I’m always the one who picks the Street we will knock.

Anyway the first one was I had picked a street called "Gold" to knock on, but as we where driving up the street we had a feeling like it just wasn’t right.  We proceeded to turn the corner and something about this one block on a street named "Silver Street" caught my attention.  So we started to knock. On the 7th or so door we knocked and Gloria answered, after our initial introduction we asked if she was interested in hearing more.  She said she had actually been looking for a church to bring her grandson "Jordi" to, because he was wondering why they didn’t go to church?  So we set a return appointment and when we came back Gloria and her daughter Yani, and Yani's son Jordi was there to learn.  We taught a really choppy lesson but nonetheless, the spirit was there and they agreed to come to church the next day.  Well they actually came!  And I have really become to love them all and specifically Jordi, because it looks like he needs someone to look up to, like a brother.  And so I treat him like he was my younger brother.  Glori told me when we where at their house again that Sunday to watch the Christmas devo with them that Jordi had told his mom, "I like Stewart" and Yani asked "and why is that Jordi?” And he answered, "I wish I had a dad like Stewart... he actually talks to me and is nice to me."... Apparently Jordi's dad only makes an effort to see him 5 hours a month.  This really touched my heart.  It’s probably the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me.  We are working on a baptism date for them and hopefully we will set one tonight.

After finding that family, we were late for a dinner appointment and Richardson said we should get going to be there on time, but something told me to knock the rest of the doors there, so we did.  We ran into this woman who literally just found out she had cancer, and was praying and asking god for help through this time.  Then we knocked.  She was so overwhelmed by us being there and she started to cry so much, she asked us to come back the next day in the morning.  So we went back at 8 the next morning and found out she is from Columbia.  She came to America many years ago and has not gone to church in 19 years.  We gave her a blessing and then invited her to church. She came with her daughter-in-law the next day and now we are teaching her the lessons as well.  She is so excited to learn, and I can tell their family will all once again come back and be active members in the church.

The last one is one day when our appointment fell through, I was asked where I wanted to go.  As I was going over the streets, I remembered seeing in my head one came to my mind "Cumberland". Neither Richardson, nor the member we were with had ever heard of that street, but sure enough, it was in the GPS in our area.  So we went and knocked, it wasn’t until the last door that we were invited in and taught an amazing lesson with a Grandpa and Grandson named Rene and Fernando. They both set baptism appointments.  It was an amazing experience because Richardson is convinced that we have not once, driven past that street.  And so the spirit was there once again.

I love you all and I hope everything is well.

Love, Elder Stewart

dstewart@myldsmail.net