Everything is going well in Africa! So this was a very very exciting week! I feel so special that you used those pictures in Camp Esther. Sounds like the camp went really well. I hope Mardi Gras isn't/wasn't too crazy this year. Also, I already emailed Dad, but once again, GOOD WORK. And finally! Haha, that PhD was ready to be completed.
Okay, so now I'll get to the exciting news. First of all, meeting Elder Holland was the sweetest thing ever. But before I get all spiritual and stuff, I have some other exciting news- I've been transferred! Yup, we got transfer news a week early and they already moved me to my new area. I'm sitting next to my new companion right now. I arrived to my new area about an hour ago. So today has been a pretty exciting day. So now I am serving in the Hill Station area in the Freetown West Zone. I'm actually living in the same compound as the mission office. So before I was super far on the edge of Freetown proselyting in the bush, and from what I've seen so far, I'm very much in the city. We'll see though. I haven't technically seen my area yet. But right now we're like in the downtown area and there are big buildings and cars and people everywhere. After being in Kossoh Town for so long I feel like a country boy who has come to the big city for the first time. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty overwhelming to see tall tall buildings. I'll see what the area really looks like tomorrow. My new companion's name is Elder Aseidu and he's from Ghana! He seems like a very good Elder and he seems very excited about missionary work. He's three months on mission so he just finished his training. I think the two of us are going to have a lot of good experiences together.
Anyway, so yes- last Friday we got to meet Elder Holland, Elder Snow, Elder Dickson, Elder Curtis (again) and all of their wives. The other three are all in the first quorum of the Seventy (Luke 10:1). We got to shake all of their hands and talk with them personally for a brief moment. I'm sure that Sister Roggia has a picture of all of us on the mission blog (save that picture for me!). After, we went and got to hear from all of them. Most of them gave small thoughts, which were all very very good and incredibly encouraging. Then Elder Holland spoke to us. He said one thing that I liked very much. He said that the process they go through to find the General Authorities of the church is very precise. They seek out members from every single branch and ward around the world, see if they are doing everything they can to come closer to Christ, see if they are truly wanting to do all things that are right, and after they've picked out that handful of people they call their husbands to do the work. Haha, it was pretty funny. He also said that he's so old he's got one foot in the grave and the other one on a banana peel. Most of what he talked about had everything to do with the joys that come from serving a mission. He was incredibly personal with us and shared a lot of his own experiences. He also didn't speak from the pulpit, he came down and walked around. That was kind of cool. I was sitting like right in the front so he was like right in my face the whole time. One thing he shared with us was that when he was in college he had just been called to be the basketball captain, and he was also running for the student body president. He said he thought that if he had won the election, he thinks he would have chosen not to serve a mission, and that absolutely TERRIFIED him. He said that serving a mission was without a doubt the greatest decision he had ever made. He expressed that without it he would have never been the person he was today. One thing I really loved that he said was that if we can't do something on the mission field, we will NEVER be able to do it in real life. If we can't wake up in time here, we can never wake up in time there. If we can't say our personal prayers here, we'll never say them there. They called the mission field the MTC for the rest of our lives. I can tell you that he's absolutely right. There are so many things that I'm learning here that I know I could never learn anywhere else. There are so many experiences that I would never have if I would have never decided to come. As he spoke to us he had tears in his eyes, and he expressed the great love that he had for all of us. He told us that we had been called to a truly real mission, and that everything that he had worked for in his life was dependent on what we decided to do with our time here on earth. He told us that we should never turn away from Christ, we should never forget the promises and covenants that we had made, and we should always be doing everything in our power to put God first; here in the mission field and in our lives after. There are so many things that he said that truly came through to me that I'll fail to mention. Everything he said was so true though. This place is definitely a very special place, and I feel very lucky and blessed to have been called to serve in this mission. I know that there is not a single other place on the planet that I would rather be right now, and that everything I'm learning here are things that are going to affect me for the rest of my life. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that without him we've got no chance! So I'm very thankful for that. It's all true.
The next Sunday we got to see him again as well as the rest of the country. Tons of people turned up and it was a very wonderful thing to see. I would say more but I am out of time! I will talk to you all next week though! I love and miss you all!
Love,
Elder Stewart
PS- Aunt Jen and Jessica Graff- Happy Birthday! (Aunt Jen I'm sorry I'm late! And yes I got the pictures that Addison and Carter drew! They were stinking awesome.)
Most of the missionaries from my MTC! This is all of us at 6 months except for the other 8 that are currently in Liberia. It was super good to see them all again.
Just look at that shirt.
Children here get really excited when they see a camera.
A lady we baptized!
Some children we were teaching, some of them were also baptized!
Part of my favorite family ever.
All the people at the conference center to see Elder Holland
The sweetest little baby ever and his mom.
He has big eyes.
Because both of our companions had their companions, Elder Taylor and I were companions for a night. So we slept outside on the cement. It was very comfortable. Nope.
Missionaries! My old district and some of another district and some other people.
No comments:
Post a Comment