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.