Hot Christmas, Bush Deer & It Doesn't Take Much to be Happy

Hello family!

Well it has been another nice week. We had a baptism and the service
just went along oh so well. Good to hear about everything going on at
home. So like I said last week, on the back of those "ornaments" on
the Christmas Tree, some people who wrote asked questions or said
things I want to respond to. Sooo Elizabeth Awbrey- YES it's hot for
Christmas. It’ll be cool in the morning but its generally hot during
the day. Cade is driving? What? I thought he was still a little kid?
Ryan Nelson, I love you (not in a weird way) too. Grandma Semmerling,
give Bertha a kiss for me. Payton Nelson- the weirdest animal I’ve
seen is called a bush deer. Its head is in the shape of a donkey head,
its body is shaped like a deer but is super small, about the size of a
medium sized dog, and its legs are the size of these tiny little twigs
and I honestly don’t know how it’s able to support its own weight on
them. Grandpa Wayne, that little cabin is HUGE now.  So I hope I
answered all the questions. I really loved the gift and it was nice to
hear that so many people read the blog. But it would be a little bit
nicer if you people that read the blog would write me so I could
actually know what’s happening on your side of the world! I hardly
ever get letters! So feel free to write me, even if I don’t know you.
Mail is just exciting.

This week I had a sweet moment of realizing that really it doesn’t
take a whole lot for someone to be happy. One of our investigators is
living with someone he’s not married to and so he can’t be baptized.
He’s been wanting to get married but the way they do marriage here
requires getting the woman’s mom, dad, uncle, sister, brother, dogs,
fish, third cousin, neighbour and children to all come meet one place
and then you have to give all of them some money. So most people just
skip the whole marriage thing because they can’t pay for it or they
can’t get the people to all come together. Anyway, this guy is
absolutely great and comes to church every single week. He even
chastises the members when they don’t show up to church. It’s pretty
funny. Well, he’s managed to save enough money to pay the family
members but the problem he is facing now is getting the people to come
so they can do the traditional wedding.  Anyway, the point I’m trying
to make is that the guy is stinking sweet and really tries hard to do
what’s right. One thing though is that the woman he is wanting to
marry is muslim and he is a Christian. It’s really common here to see
people of different religions together, but seeing as how it’s hard to
build an eternal family when one is going one side Sunday and the
other another on Friday, it can still create problems. This last week
though we were talking to him and he said he had news for us. He told
us that he had talked to his wife and she said she wanted to change to
Christianity! The week before this we had been at his house teaching
his niece (who is getting baptized this Saturday) and his woman was
around. We were teaching the Word of Wisdom but for some reason this
time she was super interested and started asking us lots of questions.
We had also sat down with the guy earlier and taught him about temples
and how families can be together forever. He said he wanted that and
understood what had to happen to get that. I don’t know what it was
but she decided to change! The thing that made me really see that it
doesn’t take much to be happy is because of how happy this man got
when he saw his wife wanted to be with him as a Christian. It just
made me think about how such simple things can sometimes bring the
greatest joy. We definitely are excited and they’re actually going to
have a small marriage ceremony done by our branch president so that
the man can finally get baptized. I was just super happy for him. I
also realized this week that with all the many many things and
experiences I’ve had here and what I’ve learned, after these two years
I still won’t know how to use a washing machine. Yeah. Give me a
bucket, water, soap, and some dirty clothes and I’m golden. But when
it comes to pushing buttons I have no idea. Anyway, I love all of you
and will talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart