One of My Favorite People I've Met Here

Helloooooo

So the big news for transfers is...... nothing! Not that nothing happened but that they haven't told us yet. Things have been a bit crazy for President so I guess we're still waiting on that one. Maybe tonight. I'm pretty sure that hardly anything will happen in the whole country, but it would just be nice to hear an official word so we can get that nagging thought out of our minds. Yeah, I heard about the election, we were actually in the middle of teaching a lesson when someone's radio nearby announced it. I got really distracted (which is bad) and then I couldn't remember what I was talking about so I just suddenly stopped and asked if the person had any questions. Haha. My companion laughed at me later. But yeah, I'm pretty bummed about that. Right after they announced it they started talking about legalizing marijuana or something and so then I just tuned it out. Anyway, I'm glad that so many missionaries are being sent out now from our stake! It would be cooler if one of them came to this mission though! Oh, some big news in the mission is that Elder Holland is coming again! But he'll be in Freetown to organize the country's first stake so we won't see him. They said he's not doing anything with the missionaries. But it's still exciting because I served there (Hill Station) so it'll be interesting to see the changes that come along with that. Freetown is split into two Districts and only the West one is becoming a stake.

Well, this week was pretty great because we had a NICE baptism! this is the only weekend in this month that we can have baptisms and confirmations because last week was General Conference, next week is Sierra Leone's own presidential election, and the other one is District Conference here in Bo. The building we baptize at is also shared with other branches so generally there's always a big service with lots of people there. But this one was especially huge. There was like 20 people baptized that day! So nuts. One of the women we baptized though has been probably one of my favorite people I've met here. She's the lady with the pink thing on her head in the picture. The little boy in front of her is her son. Anyway, the reason she's so great is because she's so different from all the other moms I've ever met here because of the way she treats her children. Most people here will shout and yell at their kids if they do the smallest thing wrong and don't really show them a lot of love. Whenever we would teach her and her son, her son would always say these crazy things like young kids say and she would always just laugh and treated him so great. She has two other children who have baptized and she is a single mom. She works really hard and tries to make things good for her family. One time when we went to see her she was talking about her past husband. She said that after she had been married to him for some time he started trying to force her to be a muslim. She said she didn't want to be one and he continued to force the subject until finally he left her over it and left her to take care of their young children. She expressed to us though that she really has the faith and belief that the right guy will be able to care for her and her children and that the choice she made to be a Christian was the right one. It was pretty sweet. But the thing that really made this whole story sweet was on Sunday when she was confirmed. The guy that confirmed her blessed her that she would one day enter into the temple and be married and sealed to her family. After the confirmation was over she was crying and it was pretty much the most spiritual punch in the face ever. Man! It was so awesome. The day that I hear about that one being fulfilled I'll probably just fall down and cry like a little baby for joy. Anyway, it was really great and that Sunday as a whole was filled with lots of people coming to church and just enjoying the Spirit. Anyway, this last week was good and hopefully this next one can be better! I miss and love all of you!

Love,
Elder Stewart

 The baptism we had last weekend. So sweet!

 Our little two man apartment. That little separate grey building is the kitchen. It's so great when it's pouring rain outside.

 The baptism we had a couple weeks ago. I don't think I sent a picture.

One of our investigators walked out of his house with three sticks and said "Gotta make a place to sit down." We kind of laughed at him because he came with three sticks and nothing else but then he made this little deal and laughed at us. He said "I'm a true Scout!" They don't even have Scouting here!