Week 34

Family!

I`m a happy camper down here in Paraguay!

Life is Beautiful. Remember that movie???

George, I`ve stopped telling people where you are. NOBODY here knows where singapore is. So I just tell them that you`re serving in Asia, by China. ;_). They`re always super impressed.

I`ve got to tell you about Elder Gleason next week. He`s a CHAMP!!!!! SOOO obedient. Sooooo excited to work. So happy to be a missionary. We`ve already had some very spiritual moments together. We`re having a blast together, and ripping up the work here together.

Well, I`ll tell you more next week! ;_). Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Week 33

Family!

I`m a trainer!!! Haha, today`s been a really emotional day. I still can`t believe it. I`m so grateful for the blessing that the Lords has decided to give me in allowing me to train one of His missionaries. I prayed to be sensitive to the Spirit today, and it`s been touching me all day.

Elder Gleason is his name. Darren Gleason. He graduated 2010, from Pleasant Grove High School, and was one of the best runners that school`s had in a long time. What are the chances that we already knew each other before the mission? ;_). I recognized him as president was introducing him to everyone yesterday, I waved to him, and then President announced that he would be heading out to Santa Rita with me. Unbeleivable.

He`s a worker. He has a lot of desire to work, and work hard. He knows why he`s here. He told me yesterday that there are people in Santa Rita right now, who agreed before this life to come down without knowing the gospel, because they KNEW that Elder Gleason would be faithful, and give it to them on his mission.

He`s got the strongest spirit with him. I can`t believe it. He just took the spirit in the MTC right on the plane with him. He bore his testimony yesterday, and the spirit just flooded the room. Man, I`m crying as I`m typing again. It`s so true though. The new missionaries are some of the strongest in the mission.

The Lord`s put all the confidence in the world in Santa Rita this change. Elder Snow became our district leader. Elder Bazan is his companion. We three got here at the same time, and now we`re here with a brand spanking new greenie. ;_). I KNOW that the Lord has not called us here, the four of us that make up district 3 of zone 9, to flounder in our inexperience. He has called us here together to humble us, to teach us to have confidence in His arm, instead of our own. And he`s called us here to work Miracles. I promise you all that we will see those miracles because Elder Gleason likes to be obedient. ;_).

Mom, I`m using your serve your companion ideas. They work great. My whole goal for Elder Gleason: By the end of this change, to LOVE being a missionary, LOVE the work, and LOVE being obedient. We`re going to have a blast together. I can`t wait. We already get along like best friends.

George, thanks for your football story. Haha, I got emotional over it. Something about men and football I think. I have this new mental image of you finishing your mission, and I love it. I`m so proud of you, Elder. I tell all of my comps about you, and about your obedience. How you`ve always naturally wanted to follow the Commandments. I tell them how focused you are in your mission. I tell them how you are baptizing so many people, and that it`s because of your obedience and your consecration of your mission to the Lord. I look up to you a lot, George. And I know that Heavenly Father`s looking down, and saying, ¨”Well done, my good and faithful servant.” He`s pleased with your work. Know that. Always look back on those two years with gratitude, and happiness. That`s how it should be. Love you, Elder.

Tell Grandpa Flitton for writing me a person letter. I`m grateful for his advice that he gave me. I respect his words a lot. They have a lot of weight for me.

Elder Stewart

Week 32

My dearest family,

Did I ever tell you all how BEAUTIFUL Paraguay is? I`m seriously considering living the rest of my life out here in Santa Rita. ;_)

Well, the Lord blessed me with the most blessed part of the whole country to work in. The members here are some of the most faithful I`ve ever met. They have no Church building, no bishop, no leaders whatsoever, no primary, no NOTHING!!!! But they`re so pure. They`ve got the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that`s all that really matters. I don`t ever remember hearing about beautiful church buildings or extravagant meetings in the Scriptures. The most powerful teaching moments simply happened when sincere seekers of Christ came to hear His words. That`s what`s happening here. The faith of this city is incredible.

Now, we`re still working towards all of the wonderful buildings, and classes, and full-functioning church activites, and leaders, etc… That`s our goal. We want to be a Rama, a Branch. (I KNOW that one day, not too far in the future, there`s going to be an entire stake here, just in Santa Rita. The People are open, they want to hear a new message. We do contacts, and just ask if people live close by. If they do, we tell them that we share a message of Jesus Christ, and 90% of the time they just tell us to come on by. Incredible. (just to give you a gist of it, we found 49 new investigators this past week. In Ybatè, 10 was a great week.) And the FAMILIES!!!! THERE ARE FAMILIES HERE!!!!! Sooo many moms and dads live together with their kids. Wonderful. We`re teaching a lot of really neat families right now.) Anyways, for now, we`re working on becoming a Branch. We`re capacitating the Men, the Fathers in the ward, to become leaders. We`ve got a man, Hermano Tengaten, who comes out 24km on a dirtbike, over SUPER slow, bumpy terrain, with his little girl with him, to make it out to church. They then go home to their family, a wife and two more younger girls, to share what they learned in church. Why can`t they just all come? Because a few months ago they heard the Prophet`s counsel to do whatever you need to to get out of debt. So, they sold their car. The only thing that they had to transport their whole family, they sold, just to follow the Prophet. Haha, tell me you wouldn`t kill to be a missionary here. ;_) Right now, his family is all studying their Preach My Gospel, Chapter 3 lesson 4, to make sure that they`re complying with all of the commandments, so that they can come to our temple trip that we`re planning in April.

I`m super grateful to be here. I`m comps with Elder Villegas, a Super solid, older missionary, who teaches like a champ. I`m learning a ton from him. He`s my first Latin comp. It`s really helped me a lot to have to speak Spanish all the time, makes me progress a lot.

Speaking of which, guess what?! I wasn`t kidding about the Portuguese. Haha, we`ve taught a lot of Brazilians this week. Everyone understands spanish, so I can speak just fine. Haha, the funny part comes when they respond in Portuguese, and I`m left with my mouth hanging...."Uh.... Elder? What did they say?". Funny. But no worries. I`m starting the Book of Mormon in Portuguese this week, and my half hour of language study will be portuguese now. I`m stoked. Elder Villegas understands portuguese perfectly, and gives all the credit to reading the Book of Mormom. What an opportunity, huh? Learn to communicate in two different languages on your mission. Blessings, blessings, blessings. We come here to bless people`s lives, and the blessings just get dumped right back on us. ;_)

We live here with 2 other missionaries who came to Paraguay the same time as us. Elder Bazan, from Peru, and Elder Snow, from California, who I sat next to the whole plane ride down here! Really fun to be together. In fact, Elder Snow bought Monopoly last week. We`ve got a big game waiting. I`ll have to finish this email quick... ;_)

Tell Grandfather Stewart good luck from me! That`s really exciting to hear about his new calling. MTC Branch Presidencies really have a lot of influence on the young missionaries. I still remember mine, and I`m going to pay my old President a visit when I get home. He lives in Provo, and served in Paraguay. ¿M`bae?

Gotta run! Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Week 31

Saturday Morning, I woke up in a whole new world.

Thursday we found out there was a special change. Friday Morning I was on an 8 hour bus ride to Santa Rita, Paraguay.

I left Niko and Praxedes, who are getting baptized this saturday. I left Suni, who`s getting Married and Baptized the 19th. I left Victor, the man that Elder Ramirez called the most Golden, Prepared investigator that he`s ever met in his life, and his awesome wife, who were both getting baptized the 26th. Haha, I left everything I had worked my guts out for. But Christ called, and my calling says that I`m to come.

The truth? God has everything worked out perfectly. I`m in Santa Rita now. It`s the most beautiful place I`ve ever been in in my life. It`s like a group of 30 year old, fun-loving, hard-working, goal-driven young couples got together and decided to build a city. The people here are happy. They laugh, and have a great sense of humor. There`s a positive, exciting, optomistic feel that permeates the air. This is a clean, vibrant people.

And half of them speak portuguese. ;_).

I`m out of time. Love you all.

2 days in, and we`ve already found an awesome, super prepared family, that are on date to be baptized.

We had 15 people in sacrament meeting yesterday. Rented building. We`re not a branch, we`re called a group. The church hasn`t even been here a year. Lots of people have never heard of Joseph smith or Mormons. What a chance, huh?

Elder Stewart