A New Stake, A Wedding & A Baptism

Hello family!

Wow. This week was one of the most fulfilling weeks I've had so far.
But I'll get to that in a little bit. It was pretty crazy to hear
Breeann and DevOn are in Lafayette! Kind of funny really.  I can't
wait to read that article..(click on this link to read .http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/63030/Historic-milestone-Sierra-Leone-stake-marks-Churchs-3000th.html ) the 3000th stake of the church was made
here! Man so nuts. I'm hoping that before I go home I'll have the
chance to serve in a ward. That would be pretty sweet. If I had to
guess I would say I have only one more area after this one, but it's
pretty much impossible to guess accurately. Speaking of areas and
transfers and those things, we got transfer news yesterday! Elder
Dyngee is going off to Freetown, and I'll be receiving Elder Burton!
I'm super excited because Elder Burton is sweet! He's from Idaho and
he's a pretty funny guy. He was the super tall white guy that was in
the same apartment as me in Kenema. We're going to enjoy like crazy!
We just need to find some new investigators because the area is a bit
dry right now. Haha, but I'm not too worried about that one.

So one huge thing that happened was that we had a baptism! It was a
nice service and we switched it up and had it in the evening because
we were busy in the morning because that morning we had a WEDDING. So
this is the story. I think last week or so I talked about a man who
couldn't get baptized because of his living situation and how his
girlfriend wanted to change to Christianity? It's about that man. So
we were talking with our branch president about that man and suggested
that they could do a very simple and brief civil wedding in the
church, and then they could go have their big traditional wedding
whenever all the man's family could come in. He said it was a good
idea but the only problem was that the woman's father is super muslim
so we didn't know if he would approve his daughter getting married in
a church. Luckily for us, the father had traveled in from the village
that week and so on Tuesday, my companion and I, our branch president
and his wife, our investigator and his girlfriend, and their fathers
all met at the man's house. It was kind of sweet. We were sitting in
council with all these old African men. Kind of a sweet experience.
Anyway, to make a long story short the woman's father was very
agreeable and understood that marriage was important and said it was
fine. Score! He had to be there for the event but he was leaving the
next week so we planned it out quick and set the day for Saturday.
Everything somehow worked out perfectly and Saturday we all met at the
church building and witnessed their shotgun wedding. It was incredibly
simple but it was so humbling to me to see this man work so hard to do
what's right. There was about 25 people present, and they were married
by our branch president. They two of them were so happy and Elder
Dyngee and I just kept looking at each other and saying "WHAT????"
Because man, this kind of thing NEVER EVER happens. I've taught so
many people who say they'll get married but they never actually do it.
It was absolutely amazing and yesterday the man got interviewed for
his baptism. The baptism we had this last Saturday was his niece and
we've talked to his wife and his father and will begin teaching them
sometime soon. Needless to say it was a week I'll definitely never
forget. The gospel of Jesus Christ is true! Anyway, I love all of you
and will talk to you all next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart


P.S. Clayton Bridge- Happy Birthday TODAY. Go catch yourself a nice
big noona and celebrate. Miss you man!

The electric pump to fill the baptismal font in the district center
broke and someone drained all the water out of the font... so we
filled the entire thing the old fashioned way. 

  Super sweet wedding! Notice the tie.. figured I had to wear it to
at least one wedding.

Baptism!