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