Week 21

Fam!

Hey!!! Happy New Years!!! That came super fast, didn´t it? I´m a little bit taken aback. Time flies, when you´re having fun on a mission, right? I can already start using my WAY COOL calender from mom! Thanks again for the shirts pop. They're already being put to good use, showing my true blue colors during morning exercises!

Speaking of Christmas, Happy Christmas again!!!! It was really neat to get to talk with everyone a little bit individually. It was like I could feel the support of my family through the phone. Thanks for being such an awesome family of a missionary. I hope everything else turned out well for Christmas.

So... noticias. I´m in Ybaté!!! My area got changed. After two changes in Centro with Elder Swenson, and Elder Divis, I´m here now with Elder Ramirez.

Elder Divis Stayed in Centro to continue being District Leader. Damage from Centro: Zero. What a bummer huh? Even though I ate more food than I´ve ever ate in my life the last three months, I gained zero pounds. Still a shaky 165, with my missionary shoes, and trying to stand REALLY heavy on the scale. I´m just not sure what more I can do.

Ybaté. Did I mention that I LOVE it here?! COOLEST place ever. I´ve been here two days, and it´s already great. It´s one area with 4 missionaries, and we all live together. The Zone leaders, Elders Phelps and Reverone, and my comp and I. SOOO much fun. Everything´s super relaxed here, and it´s fun to have more than one person to talk with. We all live in a little house, accompanied by the little mice. Much more agradable than those cockroaches. The mice don´t bother us. They just poop. Those cockroaches would take little strolls on our clothes and face sometimes. I´m better friends with the mice.

Elder Ramirez is FANTASTIC!!!! He's from Texas, and his parents are both from mexico. He speaks perfect English and Spanish. We only speak english in the dorms. THat´s already helped our friendship grow a lot. Outside of the house though, we only speak Spanish. And he´s super picky with how I speak. I´m getting whooped! I love it. It feels good to progress like that. He´s a great teacher too. He´s studied lots. We´re going to bust out some work here, and get some people with baptismal dates. The zone leaders have 10, yes TEN, people with baptisimal date! SUPER encouraging to hear success stories like that. I know that I´m still learning a lot, but I really have faith that the Lord´s going to bless our half of the area if Elder Ramirez and I are willing to roll up our sleeves and get working. Elder Ramirez is so happy while he´s doing his contacts, and like I said last week, that´s going to roll over into new investigators, and eventually families who are ready to be baptized. This is the Lord´s work, not mine. And it´s going forward, hands down.

Mother, have you and Ashley been passing a lot of time together lately??? Because….. Winter Wonderland in Narnia…. I don´t know…. Just sounded like something J would have written me. ;_). J, remember my promise? Junior High´s going to be the BOMB!!!!! You just gotta look for those kids who need a real friend, and be that real friend for them. Haha, I love thinking about you doing it. You´re have such a pure, happy heart. Look for those people who need that happiness in their own lives ok? Look in their eyes. You can tell by how they look. They might be saying, “I need a friend!” or “Wow, today´s just REALLY hard for me.” Look for them, and just say hi to them. They´ll remember it all day long. Promise. Love you.

Bummer. It always was a race between Jessalyn and George, for that first marriage in the family. :_). No, just kidding. I´m super stoked to hear that about Jess. Tell her and her future husband congrats for me. I met him right before I left. He spoke REALLY good Spanish. :_). He seemed like a neat guy.

Jared and Aunt Martha were there when I called!!!! I would have loved to talked to them, if the rules had permitted. That would have been nice. I miss chatting with Jared. He´s a good guy.

Quote of the Week: “Hey! I actually missed you guys! How creepy is that? What kind of a teenager misses their parents?” -- Accredited to my dear sister, Smachy, whom I love dearly. :_). When you´re the best of friends (doo doo do dooooo) :_)

WOAH!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!! GEORGIE; YOU OLD MAN YOU!!!!!! What are you up to? Mom said you´d be looking forward to talk on Mother´s day….. I was stunned. “ Conference Call? That´s going to be hard to pull off, mom…” But no! No conference call will be needed. My big brother´s coming home from the other side of the world in like 2 more changes. Haha, I was trying to make a joke out of that, but I started getting all emotional right in the middle of writing. My brother, I love you man. I can´t believe you´re almost done. Man. Haha. Wow. It´s SUCH a blessing, isn´t it? I never dreamed of how rewarding, and how difficult, a mission could be. You´re just dumping hours and hours and hours of energy in every single day. How beautiful is it? That tired feeling? At the end of every day is nice. You sleep great. But how is it after working out of love for almost two years? I´ve only been out here for three months, and I´m already feeling the toll of the work. Pesado. The Responsibility. The Desires to work. The Emotional ups and down. They all take a physical toll. But there´s the quote, I think by Joseph Smith, that says, “I want to wear my life out in the service of my God.” Powerful. True. Wow, you big punk. I´m crying now. :_). Good thing there´s not many people here. Shoot, well keep out strong ok? Finish strong. It´s like that last 100 meters of the 400 when you were in track. Remember? You just gave it your all. And your reward? You threw up all your Gatorade. :_). The Lord’s got bigger rewards in store for you, George. You´re work, your family, everything, every aspect of your life will be blessed forever because of your efforts now. Helaman 10 I think. Peace, brother.

Family, I love you all. I´m so happy to be here. I´m grateful for the opportunity to serve. It really is an honor. Be safe and happy ok?

Elder Stewart.

Week 20

MY FAMILY:

Elder George, my brother, man you´re a good guy. I love you a lot. Your example, your letter, this last week really helped me as I just read it. What a missionary I have as a brother!!!!! YEAH!!! Way to get out there and get to work. The success you´re having is a testimony to me that the Lord has got his sleeves rolled up and is working right alongside you in your own misión. The best part is that he´s doing the exact same thing here in Paraguay, on the other side of the World. This week has actually been super tough for us. We were riding an awesome wave from this pool of investigators that we´d had from elder Swenson and I. We opened up with three baptisms this change, and the misión was just perfect. Well, the numbers are a juggling act. If you´re teaching tons of lessons every week, but you never have many new investigators, eventually you´re going to run dry. That´s what happened this week. After Olivia´s incredible baptism, our wave just died. Our solid investigators were baptized, and the others had completely stopped progressing. Haha. It was really really emotionally hard. A few days with next to no lessons just kills your spirit. Well, you know that old saying, when the going get tough, the tough get going? I sure didn´t feel very tough, but we decided that we should get going. :_).

So, lesson of the week? Do your contacts. I hadn´t been counting my contacts before in my misión, but we´re supposed to do at least 10 every day. It´s something that´s so simple, but for some reason so hard to follow. It´s a lot easier to just plan out your day, and then think that you´re too busy to stop and do a one minute contact along the way to your appointments. Haha, it sounds super selfish, and it is. But, want to know a secret? It´s actually a lot more fun! If your constantly looking people in the eyes, trying to find people who are selected of God, you don´t have time to think about yourself. AND, guess what else? God LOVES us. He´s just waiting for every posible chance he can find to dump blessings on us. Especially as missionaries. So, we started off by doing our contacts. We had faith that if we did our contacts, our number of new investigators Would go up. RESULT: We had more than double the number of new investigators this week than we had this whole change. We found a 16 year old kid named Sebastián who´s already gone to church and assisted the First presidency christmas rebroadcast with us, and has a bautismal date for the beginning of January. The misión president sets his vision of what he thinks our misión could be at, and I know he sets it with inspiration.

It´s a goal of mine to really try to get outside of myself, get lost, very very very lost in this work, and I can do it in contacts. I can think about how hot it is outside, or how humid it is outside, or how my pinkie toe hurts, or cualquier cosa. But when I think about the work, our investigators, what we´re going to be teaching, or how my companions doing, I´m happier. The day goes faster. My work is patterned more after the manner of the Lord.

Speaking of which… I´m always very interested in how hot it gets here, and what the humidity is. What if we make a deal. Can you tell me how hot it gets? I never know how to check. People say the signs in the street are always way off. Haha, and an investigator told me that on the TV they never post it as more than 40 celsius because it would make the people depressed. I thought that was pretty funny. Probably not true, but still funny. I guess we´ve had a TON of luck this year. Normally it starts getting hot in November, but the real heat didn´t start until 2 days ago. So it´s a great year!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.

Elder Stewart

Week 19

Well, family. You´ve caught me in a very pensive day. Usually, p day is a super big rush, and we´re just trying to cram tons of things in and whatever else. But today´s a little bit different. I don´t know why. It´s been really nice.

Can I share a little of what I´ve been thinking?

Well… I have a choice. I can Either be Grateful or Stressed.

Funny selection of choices, huh?

Let me explain. Being a missionary is an incredibly strong calling, with a lot of responsibility. I take this calling, and my responisibilities that have come along with it very seriously.

Remember my Anatomy class? With Dr. Schively at UVU? Same deal. Tons of responsibility, and I took it very seriously. Hardest thing I ever had to do. ( the Word anatomy is written inside of my scriptures, next to Ether 12 27) Hardest class, and a class that I really needed an A in. Well, I cried to the Lord almost every single night, because I was so overwhelmed and didn´t feel like I could soak in everything I needed to. The Lord ALWAYS fulfills his promise, especially with Ether 12 27. I have a testimony of that, because I left the class, miraculously, with an A. Now, I definately put in my part. A LARGE part, of studying till midnight at UVU almost every day. Even so, after all that I could give, it still wasn´t enough. I know that the Lord pulled me the rest of the way up that mountain of a class.

So where´s the moral? Yes, I got through it. And now that I´m done with it, I´m so grateful for the experience and the testimony that I gained. But let´s be honest. Was there anyone who really wanted to be around me for those 4 months of my life? Who wants to sit around and listen to someone whine about how pathetic they are for 4 months straight? My poor, poor friends. I apologize to you now, if you ever get a chance to read this. Haha, but really, think about it. The rest of my life, there will be hard things to do. There´s always going to be a new school subject, a new job, an new church calling, whatever.

So here is the choice. I can either be grateful or stressed. It´s my choice.

Chels wrote me something for Thanksgiving that I just got, and she told me to stop and enjoy the small things of Paraguay. It just really hit me. I´ve got BEAUTIFUL things happening around me. Lives are changing, I´m learning and changing, and I can choose to be grateful and happy for it if I want to. It fills me with hope, and excitement for missionary work just writing about it.

I´m glad I´m realizing all of this. Most of it was thought of this morning in the Shower. (best place to ponder life). Some of it I´m just realizing as I type. Haha, I think I´m going to print this out and go think about it some more tonight! I tried it out today, just trying to look for the blessings. And today´s been awesome. I´m so blessed here. We had a great district activity this morning. We passed some really relaxing time reading the scriptures, playing pool, and eating lunch.

I was just really worked up over all of the numbers, and plans, and projects that I wanted to be improving on this week. I was feeling really inadequate. And I think I was really wearing out my comp. ;_).

It´s just been a really neat learning day for me. Thanks for letting me share it with you.

It´s funny that Life´s moving on without me, whether I´m there or not. I guess all missionaries have to learn that lesson. What a bummer.

Love you all!!!

Elder Stewart

Week 18

And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of Miracles and yet be an unchangable being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not, if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. Mormon 9:19

Olivia va a bautizarse.

Nueve de Diciembre.

Este Jueves.

YEAH!!!!

La historia de Olivia:

When I arrived in Paraguay on Oct. 6th, we had an investigator, Werner, who we were teaching. Werner had 22 years, and lived with his mom, Olivia. Shortly after I arrived, the 21st of October, Werner was baptized.

We would return to visit our recent convert often. His mother, who had previously elected to not participate in our lessons, (she wanted Werner´s Baptism to be his own, without a decision influenced by her) began to listen to our message, and within a matter of days just caught fire. She was devouring EVERYTHING we had to offer. We would teach a principle, and she would take every last peice of it in, understanding with remarkable clarity. She would complete reading assignments, and share what she learned when we met the next day. I found myselt, on multiple occassions, being taught by her, just listening as she would explain something like reverence, and how it´s not just outward, but involves our heart and our mind. Very impressionable, the way she learned. Soooo many questions. So, we passed by almost every night at 7:30, 8pm to follow up with Werner, and teach Olivia.

About a week ago, we hit a wall. We had taught everything that´s required for baptism, and then some. She knew it all. But she was still smoking, and drinking coffe. So, we taught one day, and told her that she was going to quit the next day. She was a little bit taken aback, but agreed.

The next day, we passed by, and she had smoked. We didn´t understand it.

A few days later, she told us that she felt like we were pushing her, rushing her. And because of that, she had dropped. A lot. She wasn´t reading. She wasn´t studying. And she was smoking MORE.

Bad Idea, huh?

I was distraught. E´ Swenson had once taught me that I needed to write down my questions, my challenges. The ones that I didn´t know how to resolve myself, the ones for which I needed to receive revealation. So I did. And during my estudias, I would search for her. We would come home at night, and my mind would just be swimming with ideas on how we could help her to quit.

We spent the next few days just trying to fill her with the spirit, get her back to health with her spirituality. We loaded her with reading assighnments, areas of study, chapters, talks, anything that came to us, that we felt like would help. And we just gave her a little bit of space.

And then Monday came around. We went and visited her after p day. She had had a terrible day. Very unlike her. And she was bothered. At her work she had felt very confused, and very lonely. Previously in her life, she had felt very in charge. She was the boss, the author of her own days, thoughts, and feelings. But something had changed. She felt something missing in her life. Her mind was cluttered. Giving up smoking was what sat in the back of her thoughts all day long. It was driving her nuts. She felt very lonely in the day. It wasn´t the same anymore. Her most peaceful times, the times she had begun to look forward to, were when we were teaching her at nights, and when she was in the Church.

I had never seen Olivia struggle before. She´s a very small, petite woman, almost 60 years old. Regardless, she was strong. A weathered, tough woman when it came to emotions. A long life of major ups and downs. She was almost always positive, without a doubt. But that day, you could see it. She was at a breaking point. The end of her rope. The strong mother who had raised her kids solo most of her life, who had been successful in her business world, who had done just fine alone for so many years, was stuck. Without an answer. It showed in her eyes. She was beat. Almost crying. Her voice kept wavering, trying to hold back her frustration and doubt.

Heavenly Father had given her that day, as we will come to see. Ether 12:27.

We just listened for most of the lesson. Olivia tried to explain what was going on. I think she was talking, just trying to explain it to herself. AS I quitely listened, thinking of who she was, and what she was becoming, how she had changed, I felt this overwhelming sense of the Love that Christ had for her. It filled me, up and down, with empathy, and.... I don´t know how to explain it..... just the Love, Pure Love, that Christ had for her. I had been filled with that love earlier in the day, during my personal study. I was reading in 3 Nephi 17, where Christ calls the Children and the Afflicted. His bowels are filled with mercy, and he takes each one individually, and blesses them.

I shared that with Olivia, along with 2 other scriptures that consecutively came to my mind. Elder Divis shared. We testified of Christ´s Love. That´s all. The spirit was there, and strong. We didn´t have every answer that she might have wanted, but that Love seemed to wash out everything else.

That perfect feeling didn´t last forever. Elder Divis and I got home and got into an hour long, very heated discussion. He felt like she wasn´t progressing. She knew EVERYTHING the we could teach her, and still couldn´t give up smoking. If an investigator isn´t progressing, we have to visit less. A lot less. That´s the rule. THat´s the rule. He wanted to visit her 1 time a week, give her time to think, to decide. He felt like we were babying her, not letting her progress on her own.

I was pretty mad, I´m not going to lie. She read everything we gave her. She prayed SOOOOO fervently, she really talked with God. She was trying so hard to figure things out. But she was stuck.

I tried to convince myself and elder Divis that she needed us, that she really was progressing, and that we needed to keep going by her house.

It´s a tough line, between friendship and missionary work. A really tough line. Are you doing what you´re doing because it´s what´s best for them spiritually? Or are you letting your love for your investigator cloud your judgement?

In the end Elder Divis had reason. I knew it. And I felt sick about it.

Tuesday morning. District meeting. We shared what was going on, and everyone agreed. She wasn´t progressing. We needed to visit her less, give her some space, some time to think for herself.

I was down. Really down. I couldn´t figure it out. I had once received a VERY strong spiritual impression that she was prepared beforehand, for years, and I was in centro, if NOTHING else, to teach her and her family. I KNEW that. I just couldn´t figure out why we felt like leaving her was the right thing to do.

Ether 12:6. "...Faith is things wich are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."

My MTC teacher explained it to me once. Sometimes you´ll be walking down a hall. You know it´s the right hall. At the end of the hall, there´s a glass door. What you´re heading for is on the other side of that door. You can see it. But the funniest thing is happening. That door isn´t opening. You´re walking, and it´s not opening.

You arrive to this point, this split second in time that seems to extend much longer. Your foot´s in mid-stride, your nose is practically touching the glass. (I was there and I was just thinking, "wow, this is really quite ridiculous" ;_). I that moment, you have no choice but to choose. You can either close your eyes and step forward, or you can stop.

THAT is the trial of your faith, in that moment.

Brother Robbins from UVU always said that Heavenly Father LOVES a photo finish. He will take you down to the wire, the last second of the fourth quarter, the last play of the second half. We can´t get up early and leave just because it looks like it´s going to be a rough ending. If we stick with Him the WHOLE way, he will show us a miracle. A beautiful, miraculous ending, that goes JUST the way he planned.

(Don´t take this wrong, but I almost picture Bronco Mendenhall´s game face, teeth gritted, tensely watching, and then his still-very-formal fist pump when the critical play goes through. ;_)

2 Nephi 27:23. " For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; ...and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith."

We had made our decision. We had taken our step. We were going to tell her that Tuesday night, the 30th of November, that we couldn´t come by any more.

3:00 p.m. She called. The door whipped open. Baseline, fade-away buzzer beater. Touchdown. Whatever you want to call it. She called us.

"I want to set a date for my baptism. I don´t have time to talk. Today´s been a wonderful day."

"Bueno Hermana. Hablamos esta noche."

"Bueno"

"Chau"

And who said you can´t have awesome phone calls on your mission???

We got there, she couldn´t explain it. She felt like it was a cumulation of many things, over a very long time. She had had a terrible day monday that just pushed her over the edge, and woke up Tuesday wanting to quit her addictions. She said it was a peaceful decision. It just came. She had one cigarrette let in the box, and it´s still sitting there, a week later, in her purse. Unwanted.

Olivia´s getting baptized the 9th of December. She will be a leader in the church until the day she dies. I have no doubt of that.

She´s looking forward to the temple. The last 20, 30, 40 years of her life will be full, joyful, beautiful ones.

I testify that God IS a God of Miracles. I´m working for him right now. He works miracles, changes lives, because he loves us. He pleads with us to trust Him to stick with him. And he promises that if we do, he will work something beautiful.

I get to be here, and watch it all first had.

This is what happens here on the Mission. I´m being given these wonderful experiences, watching light come into lives. Including mine. I love it here.

I share this experience with you, and my Testimony that HE LIVES, our Savior, Jesucristo, and loves us. Because of that Love, he Atoned for us so that we can Change, and Become the person that he sees in us. This I leave in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Stewart

Week 17

Hola!!!!!

That´s about all of the spanish I know. But the work continues!

Alright. So here´s the breakdown of what´s going on in Centro.

We´re changing up everything this week. Elder Divis and I had a huge talk, and feel like we need to change our focus a little bit.

Right now we work three little areas, the Chacarita, San Felipe, and a bajo. 90 percent of our time is spent working there, but it´s probably, all together, 1/20 of the whole area of Centro. The missionaries have always worked there, that´s how it was when I got here, and that´s how it´s been for a long time.

There´s a lot to the story, but I´ll try to cap it up really quick. We work in more of the poor area. Most houses are just little one room, dirt floor huts. Lot´s of people are out of work, or if they do work, they´ll get thier whole family to find plastic and paper to recycle. In short, there are many very poor, very humble people. Which also means they´re very easy to teach. We´re very well accepted there.

But this is our problem. There are 700 members of our ward, and 60 come to church every week. A ton of the inactives live in the area that we´re teaching in.

We run into the problem of them being so easy to teach. They´ll agree with what we say, come to church if we bring them, and get baptized eventually. But after that, the missionaries stop carrying them, and they stop coming. Nobody knows them in the ward, and they get lost in the thousands of people who live in the Chacarita.

So. WHat does all of that mean? We´ve had three baptisms since I´ve been here. All of them very solid, very neat people, who we will work with to stay active for the rest of their lives. Everyone needs the gospel. Everyone needs a baptism. It´s a saving ordinance. But the fact of the matter is, Rama Centro needs more people who are ready, and capable to lead. People who know how to organize, to direct, to LEAD. They´re soooo short on people, especially men, like that. There´s not enough to fill all of the callings that they need to fill. And it´s sooo hard to retain everyone we bring in, if the leadership doesn´t function like it needs to.

We met with some of the members of the ward, and we´re going to start working with them to work in the rest of our area.

It´s going to be hard. But We´re here to strengthen Rama Central. We´re going to continue to work with a few of the solid investigators we have right now, and the Conversos Recientes, but we´re going to take a little leap of faith, and start working in new parts of town. We really feel like it´s what we need to do. We´re praying hard for help with this. Haha, it´s uncomfortable just thinking about it. But really, we´re not here for ourselves. It doesn´t matter if it´s not easy for us. We only have two years to forget ourselves like this.

Whew. Sorry. That´s all. I just wanted to get that out. It´s good to feel like I have the understanding from the people I love back home, you know?

Hmmm….. funny story. So Elder Divis told me Happy Thanksgiving the other day, but it was the day after Thanksgiving. They don´t celebrate the united states´ indian feast down here, so we forgot that it was thanksgiving. What a bummer, huh? I think I´d miss home a lot more if it was cold….. but when it´s a LOT of degrees Celsius outside… It´s hard to conjure up memories of sledding, and hot cocoa, and snowmen and such. What a blessing it is to serve here!

Listen, I´m super focused. I promise. But it´s really nice to get letters from friends. It keeps me more normal…. Ish….. Haha. The President of the Rama and Elder Divis were laughing at me last night, because I LOVE to talk about the work with them, and I have a hard time staying with non work related conversation. I guess I get really antsy too when it´s time to leave, and we´re not leaving yet. I really try to stay on time, and especially get home on time. Elder Divis and I are really trying this week to be 100% obedient. It´s amazing how easy it is to get home a few minutes late, or start your personal study a little bit late, or whatever. Cory Beighly talked a lot about how almost obedience gets almost blessings. I really take that seriously.

ANYWAYS…. All I´m saying is that we´re focused. We´re working hard. But it´s nice to hear from my closest friends.

We had a baptism this week. I love the little kid.

More questions? I love those.

Wow, I really do love you back home. Take care.

I really do love you, my dear family. I try to pray for you all, individually. It´s amazing how love can grow with being so far away.

Send me a piece of turkey.

Elder Stewart

Week 15

Hello Family!!

I´m alive!!! I haven´t written because it´s transfer week. But perfect love casteth out all fear, as george always said. So don´t worry about me!

does the spanish ever sound like noise to you when you are tired??? Haha, yes. But i´m getting used to it. Sometimes my comp will say something, and I´m not sure if he said it in Spanish or english, because it all just goes through this translator in my head. Kind of funny. Kind of weird.

-do you exercise? Go running or anything? Nope. I´m just gradually growing larger. OF COURSE I EXERCISE!!!! Every single day! I´m up to 120 push ups, 3 sets of 40, and a LOT of sit ups every morning. Send that part to george if you could, and let him know that his cheeks are getting chunky in his pictures.

-what do you do on your p-days? email, groceries, write, clean a little, PREPARE FOR A BAPTISM TODAY!!!!

-what is the one thing you are really glad you brought with you? What is it you think you might NEVER use?! ha ha! I´ll think about this one. Ask me again next week.

-how are you doing with keeping your stuff up OFF the floor? Is your room clean? (a MOM question! :) I have a fear of the floor. Nothings on the floor. There´s PK, or I don´t know how you spell it, some bug like that that lives on the floor.

-is it starting to get hotter there? Because I think you are headed into summer? It´ll get up to 120 degrees here for the next 3 months. I´ll complain when it comes.

-DO YOU DO YOUR OWN LAUNDRY???? Your own cooking????? Nope. A member does our laundry, and Irons our shirts. We cook breakfast. HAHA!!!! Cereal. And then we eat an ENORMOUS luch. My stomach literally has had to expand here. We eat lunch with the members. And then we don´t usually have time for dinner. Wé´re on the Lord´s errand here! We´ll make a pb and j sandwich or hot dogs or something when we get home.

We´re on the brink of seeing a lot of miracles here in Centro. We´ve got 7 people with baptismal dates in the next 4 weeks, all of them progressing. We´ve got the baptism of Mario tonight. He´s been working through a few doubts and struggles, but he´s finally made his decision, and he´s happy. He´s just happy. You can see it in his eyes, in his face, in his ambiance when we´re around him. We´ve got a baptism of an 11 year old from a less active family next week. They´re so great. The mom has to work on sundays, but her kids come to church every week with their aunt. The dad isn´t interested at all. We´re going to try to get working with them, and get them to be a solid family. We´ve got more people coming up in the escalator of investigators, and we´re working hard to meet each of their individual needs. Mauricio is one of those. He´s 35 and lives with his mom. He has a big problem with drinking. It´s been really tough on his mom, and his extended family, who are members. He had an interview with the stake president and really wants to turn his life around. We taught him of repentance, and the different steps therein. We taught him about restitution, trying to make things right with those that are closest to him, whom he´s hurt a lot with his alcohol habit. Right there, he walked over to his mom, who was sitting and listening with us, and dropped to his knees and asked for forgiveness. I´ve never seen, in person, a grown man cry like that. They sobbed, and they hugged, and they talked. She told of her years of hurt and pain. He told of his sorrow, and desires to change. We sat and watched a miracle. The gospel is beautiful. So beautiful. It changes and heals lives, and it´s so real here in the mission. I love it.

I got a new Comp!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Divis, from Washington. I can´t tell you how much I respect my companion already. It´s his second day here, and I already love him. He got here yesterday with almost no sleep, and just plowed through the work all day long. He´s incredible. He has an incredibly high vision of the mission, of what it can be, of what we can be as laborers in the Lord´s Vineyard. He´s been climbing at an incredible rate for 17 months of his mission, and for that he´s been rewarded with being able to look out from the mountain of the mission, and see clearly what needs to be done. Along with this, he has fun. Haha, we laughed and talked yesterday like good friends. He can see the fun in the work, and balances it perfectly. Yesterday was amazingly successful, and I was smiling a lot. Probably the funnest day I´ve had on my mission so far. I guess a missionary really can have the two together. He laughs at the ridiculous sights here, and takes pictures of them, and laughs"!!!!!! haha. It´s great. These six weeks are going to be awesome.

Alright, don´t ask me any more questions for next week. I want to have time to send pics. I´ve got pics with a lot of our families here, because elder swenson left. Love you all!!!!!!

LOVE YOU ALLLL!!!!!!!!

Elder Stewart

Week 14

Hey Fam,

First off, Congrats David!!! That´s really neat to hear about his call. Wowsa. Really sweet. Look at this family, just heading out hacer un poco daño a satanas. Muuuyyyy bien.

Listen, we have important things to discuss this week.

Food. The first day I got here, I thought I was going to die. Really. My first meal here was horrendous. If that´s a word... But you get the idea. REALLY bad. It was at a member´s house, and I couldn´t even finish it. They put it in a little bag for me to take home, because I kept telling them how good it tasted, but how i just didn´t have room to finish. I threw that sick little bag away.

Fast forwart to this week. We were eating at the same house, with the same meal. And I couldn´t help but laugh. I was savoring it. It turns out that that is one of the best meals, one of my preffered ones. The mission can change taste buds. A fast food burger with onions and tomatoes and everything that I never liked, sounds AWESOME right now. Picky? That was in my past life. I´m a changed man.

A man stopped us on the street and very politely told us how our church, and especially Joseph Smith, was of the Devil. Really interesting experience. First one of it´s kind with me. We bore simple testimony, and shook hands and left.

Pigs. Guiness book of World Records never came to paraguay. The biggest pigs I´ve ever seen in my life walk right by us in the streets. Haha, they´re not scared of us one bit, but I found out that if I make a cougar noise, they squeal and RUN. And I mean RUN. I have a little bit of fear of the super big ones though. THey might come charge me....

Mom, haha! I LOVE to hear stuff like that. You and rachael going on runs together, and you painting the girls´ room, and Dad and Rach and King Alex all shopping together. It makes me miss home a little bit. A good miss though. I really wouldn´t ever have been properly grateful for you all without this misión. I really love you all, and I´m so happy to hear that you´re happy.

Dad, your store blew my mind. Incredible. Before the misión, I never Would have thought that posible. But it´s so true. WAY TO BE!!!!!!!!!! Missionary in American Fork. That´s my dad. Keep in touch with him. Just like you said, Satan really is merciless, and just smacks people when they´re down, and trying to get back up. That man needs a friend. Wow. The Lord´s work is everywhere, if we can just open our eyes to the people around us.

Companionship. Every week I grow a little more grateful for my companion. He´s solid. He teaches me sooo much, and I´m really growing from him. He´s tough. He makes me get out of my comfort zone, especially with my contacts and with the language. It´s really helped me to move along though. His trainer didn´t push him to do contacts, and he felt like that held his language back a little. He wants the best for me, and I appreciate that.

Testimony. My testimony has strengthened this week. Last night, as we were teaching, the Spirit hit me really hard, and I just started to cry. The spirit told me that the Lord had been preparing Olivia for years, so that she´d be ready to receive our message at this moment in her life. She´d talked with the missionaries a time before, and went to church, but it just wasn´t her time, and she just dropped the whole religious idea. But she told us last night that she quit taking anti depressants two weeks after she started meeting with us missionaries this time around. She never mentioned that once before, while we were teaching her. She said it was super hard, but she just quit, because she knew that the Lord was giving her a new path to start walking. She told us how happy she is, how much light and joy our teaching brings to her. Haha, she called me her little angle. She said she could understand everything I ever tried to tell her, even right when I first got to paraguay. She called elder swenson the big boss, that keeps everything moving along, and then just told us both how grateful she is for the two of us. She´s still struggling with quitting to smoke, but she´s down to 3 ciggarretes and a cup of coffe each day, which is a huge improvement. I love the spirit. We´re not doing the work here. The spirit is. The Lord is. There´s no way she understands what I´m teaching without some divine help.

I love this work. I hope everyone´s happy back at home. Love you all.

Ask me some more questions!!! I loved answering them.

Elder Stewart

Week 13

Hey family!

This week was neat. Again. Never enough time. Buckle up.

STARTING WITH INVESTIGATORS!!!

Mario. Will be baptized this week. He was going to be baptized last week, but the day before his baptism, he smoked ONE cigar. ONE CIGAR!!!! That was all that kept him from entering in at the gate. We were super bummed. But listen, he´s the greatest guy ever. He´s sixty ish years old, and doesn´t speak or understand spanish super well. We have to teach SUPER simply, and even then he´ll get mixed up a lot. But he just really wants to do what´s right. When we started teaching him, he said, ¨I´ve found the way of God, and this is the path that I will follow for the rest of my life.¨ Incredible faith. Haha, everytime we come, he pulls out the nicest of his broken chairs and boxes for us to sit on, and his member friend, eva, makes us juice. (I think that´s how i got the runs when I got here...... But it´s the nicest thing ever, and we drink happily!) Every once in a while, he´ll pull out his guitar and play and sing in guarani. I always thought that it was the same song, but I´ve come to realize that it´s actually just the same chords. Different lyrics. Haha. Imagine it. Super skinny. Shirtless most of the time, with short shorts on. He´s just a happy man of the land.

This week, on Elder Swenson´s birthday, coolest day of the mission so far. The restoration and the Book of Mormon, really neat experience. That Night. it started to hail. Big gumball sized hail drops. Car alarms were going off because they were getting hit. It was crazy. And then came the rain. I couldn´t beleive it. It was 9 10 and we had 20 minutes to get to Olivia´s apartment and back to ours. We had a book of mormon in Portuguese, her native language, and we needed to get it to her that night. Why? Because she couldn´t wait. We had in our hands the most important book ever written, and NOTHING was going to stop us from getting it to her. She´s making huge strides, and loves what we teach her, but she´s having a battle with deciding to quit smoking. There´s power in the book of mormon, and there´s greater power when it´s in your native language. She needed that book. So, shoes in hand, pants rolled up, we ran. The water was past our ankles, and pouring like a fast running river down the street. The rain was coming down in sheets, and soaked us completely through within seconds. We got to Olivia´s apartment, and the power had gone out. We politely made our way through the crowd of people at the apartment entrance, getting a few funny glances, and arrived at the elevator. Well, the elevator doesn´t work when the power´s out. So Elder Swenson and I looked at eachother, laughed a little, flipped on the little light that we have on our cell phone, and booked it up the 10th floor where she lives. We arrived, out of breath, and happy.

That´s the beauty of it. I´m happy here. I really am. For some reason, it´s different. Usually when you arrive somewhere, at your house, or wherever, and you´re exhausted.... you´re not happy. You know? But there´s the greatest sense of tired happy here in Centro. President Nunez, the branch president, talked about taking care of your sheep in Sacrament meeting yesterday. There´s a joy that´s hard to describe when finish a day of doing all that you possibly can to care for your sheep. I think I´m finally learning Charity. I really do love Mario, and Olivia, and Berner. If I can learn to see everyone on the street, and feel that same love for them... I don´t know. I think that I´ll be closer to doing this work how the Lord would do it if He were in Asuncion.

I love you all. Take care.

Elder Stewart.

Mom. It´s me and Elder Swenson living together. I love it. I think the other pic was from a district meeting.

Yes. It´s kind of like AZ here... kind of. THere´s palm trees!

Week 12

Hello, my Family!

Anyways, let´s start off with the MOST IMPORTANT ITEMS!!!!!

HHHHHHAAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYYYYYY BBBBBBIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHDDDDDDDAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Haha! Rachael. Happy Birthday. The 28th of October. Sorry, can´t email that day, so this´ll have to do. 17! Haha. That´s about as far back as I can remember in my life. Congratulations. Tell me how it goes this week ok?? I sure do hope it´s all awesome for you. You´re going to be WAYYY grown up by the time I get home!

Ashley. I beleive you have a birthday coming up too. The 3rd of November, if I haven´t forgotten everything yet. That big happy birthday is for you too. Let me guess..... Harry Potter party????!!!! Haha, whatever it is, it´s your first of jr. high, which means it´s important. Ashley, jr. high was when Garrett and Caleb and Mckay started hanging out. 7th grade, we´d ride the bus home to caleb´s to make waffles. Live it up!!!!! Almost all of my friends I have now I didn´t find till Jr. High. Don´t be afraid to meet some new people! Find some bus buddies. Call mom first though.

Dad, I got all of your letters that you had sent while I was in the MTC. Thanks for sending them. I think I took too much time reading them, this letter´s going to be a little short! Haha, it really is sooooo good to just hear how regular life is going back home. Dad, you realize, but I never did, regular life at home is a blessing. An incredible blessing. To have a family that eats sunday dinner together, who talks to eachother, who plays, and laughs, and sings together. To have a family who has a mom and a dad both, who love eachother, and their kids. It´s SSSSSOOOOOOO hard to find. It´s sooo important. Haha, I´m so grateful for you all. To hear that you´re singing around the piano, and having fun with the special plate. That´s what life´s about. One of the quorom of the 12 told the Temple president of the Asuncion Temple, when he was a stake president, to stop devoting all of his time to being a stake president, and to first devote his time to his family. Because his stake wasn´t going to be a stake after this life. But his family would be a family. Way sweet.

Haha.... well, that´s what I think he said. I was translating..... 90 percent sure though.

Speaking of which. I got to go to the temple today!!! President Udall from Mesa, Arizona was there. He´s the president of the temple. He says to tell Grandpa Hi. They know eachother from the Maricopa Stake. Temple was INCREDIBLE. Really neat. We get to go once every six months.

My p day was switched to today. That´s why i`m emailing today. Also, I figured out how to send mail. Sorry. I didn´t mail anything to you, my family. But you´ll get pictures!!! Just count your blessings, would you??

Life Lessons I´ve learned during my three weeks on my mission....

1. Don´t buy the Cheap Brand of Paraguay cereal. Cheap brand of U.S. food is one thing, but.....

I´d rather eat well, and spend like 60 cents more, than have a bunch of food left over because it tastes like wads of colored paper. Literally.

Time´s out. ç

Love you!

More life lessons to come!!1ç

AHHH!!!! We baptised Werner last week, and we´re baptising Mario this week. I´ll tell you about the work next week. Love you!

Elder Stewart

Week 11

Family!

Hello! I got ALL of your emails this week, even dad´s! Thanks a lot for writing. It really is fun just to hear everything going on back home. I get to work all week, and, don´t feel bad, but I really don´t think of you all too often. It´s kind of how missionary work is supposed to get. We´re soooo focused on our investigators, and where we´re walking to, and who we can contact, and what we can improve on in the language, that there are days where I get home and I haven´t thought about my other home practically all day. BUT!!! I pray for you. So no worries.

Haha, this is a good thing. Trust me. Let´s be honest, I was pretty homesick that first week. Never thought it would happen, but it did! I´m finally feeling like I´m settling in though. I´m getting the hang of things, and really jumping into the work.

Dad is the exception here. Dad, I´ve actually been thinking about you quite a bit this week. I could try to re word it, but I wrote it all in my journal the other night, so I´ll just type what´s in my journal. It´ll be better worded that way I think.

" I´m so grateful for my Father. My Dad. I´ve always had a great respect for him, he´s been a role'model dad my whole life. But it wasn´t until I got here, half a world away, that I really realized how grateful I am to him. I´ve been given an incredible example of a missionary. When I´m tired because we´ve been walking, and contacting, and teaching all day long, and it´s 8 30 p.m. and it would be so easy just to call it a good day and head home, I don´t. Because that´s not how dad would do it. I think of the story he told me of when he stayed out looking for people, until the last minute that he could have, and the Lord put a golden investigator in his path. Dad always taught me that exact obedience leads to specific blessings. Every time. I want to go home after two years, changed into the Man that God wants me to become, because I was exactly obedient. That´s how Dad would have done it. That´s how he did do it. And that´s whay he was able to be a real father to me, and teach me correct principles, so that I can be here, on a mission. I owe a lot of this to him."

Dad. Haha, I hope this doesn´t embarrass you. I just really want you to know how grateful I am to you. You have built EXACTLY what we´re looking for in our investigators. You´ve built a family of faith, a solid, tight knit family, who has their foundation built upon the Rock of our Redeemer, like in Helaman 5 12. We try to teach Families here on the mission. And if we can find a good hearted man, who loves and sacrifices for his family, and does everything so that they can have the best in their life, we´ve found gold.

Ok. Haha, hard to transition from that into anything else, but we´ll try.

Mom, In answer to your questions.....
are the people friendly? Incredibly. We clap houses, and people open up their doors and invite us in. Arms wide open here. Soooo different. I really like it. People have a great love and respect for us strangers, people they´ve never met, and are just willing to open up and talk about their beleifs and whatnot with us. 95 percet of the time.
do you feel safe in that big city? Uhhh.... yes? Haha. There´s parts of the area that we´re not even allowed to walk though, ever, and there´s parts that we can´t be in after like 6 or 7. Peligroso. Haha, we´re well instructed on how to stay safe, and for the most part it really is a safe place to be.
don't they sell cheap, yummy food on the corners of the street in little stands? This is a bad idea. It all smells good, but we´re instructed not to eat anything on the street, just because you don´t know how old it was, or how they prepared it, or where it came from.

how is the water to drink? What do you do with that? Clean water in the U.S. is a blessing. Incredible blessing. We don´t drink from the tap here at all. Except when a member offers us some, or juice, or something. I just say an extra prayer in my head, and smile and drink up. It´s not that bad really. You can usually tell by night time if the water you drank was dirty. When you´re at home. and you have to run to the bathroom. HAHA!!!!! Sorry. We don´t joke around too much here. and that sounded really funny in my head.

what time do you get up in the morning? 6 30

what time do you go to bed? 10 30

do they have afternoon siesta time? Please. We´re here doing the most important work in the world. Time for siesta´s? Not here.

sorry I can´t respond to everything you write about, but keep writing about home, and what´s going on. I loved dad´s narrative of the weekend. It´s fun to hear stuff like that.

The food situation is good. I actually did figure out how to cook an incredible cheese crisp, and I cooked some eggs this morning for breakfast. I´m going to come home and start my own cooking show actually. It´s been revealed to me. Tell dad I´m switching my major.

Well, for whoever had an hour and a half to read this politically incorrectly LONG LONG LONG letter, get busy with your life. There´s a lot to be doing.

Gotta run! Love you a lot.

OH!! Huge. Most important. I feel terrible. This is my whole week,and I didn´t write about it! Our baptisms didn´t go through this week. Crazy stuff. One is set for sure for this week, and the other.... her mother pretty much banned her from EVERYTHING church related for the rest of her life. But no worries. We´re working on her. Bigger miracles have happened. Faith. Also, I challenged my first person to baptism this week! Mario. He´s an older man. Being baptized on the 28th. No time, but the Lord placed Incredible investigators in our path this week, and I´ll tell you all about them next week! Love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Stewart

Week 10

¡¡¡¡¡¡hOOOlla!!!!! (they have a sweet way of almost singing certain words, where they exaggerate a vowel. They do it with hola. I like it a lot)

My family! Good to hear from you. And sooo much to tell, even though it´s only been a few days.


Well listen, this whole mission deal is quite the business. I´ve had probably some of the biggest ups and downs of my life already, and I haven´t even been here a week!

Let´s start with the downs. ( It´s like eating the vegetables first, so that you can enjoy the dessert last, right?)

I´m in a different world. Most of the time I feel like someone who got thrown off of a ship, and I´m just getting tossed right and left by these monstrous waves...... Ok. It´s not that bad. But it´s a little discouraging at times, when I´ve worked so hard to prepare myself in the areas of Preach my Gospel, with the lessons and scriptures and whatnot, and then I can´t hardly communicate with the people. You know? It´s just a little frustrating sometimes, when I have so much I´d like to contribute, and I can´t.

But. There´s no sense in complaining about it. I already tried it, and it doesn´t help one bit. Haha, for the most part, if I listen really carefully, I can follow the conversation and throw in a sentence here or there. Elder Swenson and I talk all day in Spanish, and he says that there´s no better way to learn than just to speak, and speak a lot. He corrects me as we go, and I have a firm hope that one day I will learn to speak here.

The people. It´s incredible. They´ve really got nothing. Nothing. I can´t complain about the food. At all. They´re dead broke, and there´s a family every day that feeds us lunch. When they feed us, they feed us a HEAPING plate of whatever they can make, usually the nicest food they have. We know that they dón´t have enough money for it, but we don´t want to offend, so we eat. To turn down the food would be to tell them that they´re poor, and to not eat all of it is to tell them that we´re ungrateful north americans. So we eat.

Mom, I´ve never seen a child dig through garbage bags for food before. Garbage bags that have been picked over a hundred times before. It´s just a way of life here. We pass it all the time. There´s families we teach that, for their job, they find paper and plastic in the trash, put it in a big wagon, and pull it to a recycling place. It´s just sad. Terribly, terribly sad. And they´re stuck. It´s a poverty cycle that´s almost impossible for them to break out of. Haha, Elder Swenson says that we lived in a never land back home. A place where you´ve got good friends, good strong leaders, good parents, good schooling, good food, clean water, and everyone´s got a place to stay. It´s just different here. It´s hard to adjust to. American Fork is a dream.

Whew. Haha, on that happy note! Sorry. I don´t mean to sound down. Life is good. We share a ton of scriptures about hope and faith here. Ether 12 vs 4, and Alma 34, the last verse in the Chapter (41 I think). Lesson two is all about where we can go after this life, why it´s important to keep working, to keep pushing forward. It´s good. I forgot to mention, yes, I am in the city of Asuncion. Elder swenson and I cover our area, which is just a section of it.

The happiest time so far in the mission was sunday morning. Incredible. We start at 8 in the morning with priesthood meeting, and I´ve never been happier to get up after a meeting has already started, and move to a different seat. One of our investigators who Elder Swenson and I started teaching this week came to Church, and we went to go sit by him as he walked in. Soooo awesome. Guess what?! We´ve got two baptisms this week! Both are people who already commited before I got here, and so I just get to help with the tail end of things, but still, it´s so awesome to be a part of. This is what the mission is about. Right here. To bring people unto Christ. This is where not having MTC food to eat, is worth it. Because we have real investigators with real needs. I love it.

Anyways, the work goes on.

Just kidding. Haha, we´re safe here. I´ll get my bugspray out of my suitcase. No worries. What you can worry about though, if you have a few SUPER simple recipeis, that would be awesome. We dont´have ranch dressing here, so be real careful. I just need something I can slap together so that I come back weighing more than 100 pounds. But, if worse comes to worse, frosted flakes and milk haven´t failed me yet.

Alright. Gotta go. I forgot pictures. Next week. Love you all!

Elder Stewart

p.s. If you want anything specific, let me know, like info or whatnot. Food, culture, whatever. Everything´s different, and I can´t write about everything. But it´d be fun to answer some cool questions, because, I don´t know. Everything´s different!