Hello for the final time, Wow, that is a very, very good question you asked me. My list could probably go on forever and that's why it's hard for me to just pick few. But some of those things that I would love to eat are Taco Bell, cheeseburgers, that creamy chicken casserole, Dorito casserole, pizza, those sausages from that little cajun store off of verot, any other meals with cheese in it... I don't even know! Anything but rice. No rice, lots of meat. That sounds good to me. I think I'm okay on rice for the next 80 years. Holy cow. And no fried leaves. Man I'm excited to eat. Haha. I'm good with that plan to go to Baton Rouge the next morning though. Just try to get all the talking in before I get released because on the way back I'm going to be BLASTING music. Ohhhhh man I miss music a lot. Haha. So I guess that's everything. Today was a pretty sweet day. Our district got permission to go to this beach that is on the Atlantic coast about a 25 minute taxi ride from Waterloo called Kent beach. Since I've been here I've always heard how great and how nice the beach was and when we got there, HOLY COW. So nice. It's maybe the nicest beach I've ever been to. There was nobody around too. You just go out to this little village, walk down a road and there's this massive beach with a little stream flowing into it. We took some pictures, played some American football, and some ultimate frisbee. It was pretty stinking sweet. Tons of fun. Then we rushed to get here and email and from here we're going to my good friend Richard Carlos's house (and the 1st counselor in our branch) and the branch is having like a small party for me. This last week has been pretty interesting and it's been weird saying goodbye to all these people. The thing that makes me sad is that the possibility of seeing this people again is soooooo small. Probably I'll never see them again. But at the very least some of the people have Facebook here so I can still keep in contact with them. My mission as a whole has been the most profound experience of my entire life and it's sad that it's coming to an end. I can honestly say though that I have no regrets and I felt that I worked as hard as I could for the 2 years. I'm going home satisfied and looking forward to what happens next. I love the people here and it's not possible at all that I could ever forget these people. Maybe when I get back we'll call some people small and you can even talk to them! Haha. I'm grateful to Heavenly Father that I got to serve in the greatest mission in the world. Seriously. This mission is way better than any other mission. I don't know how I could have served anywhere else! The call was inspired. I can't wait to see you all this week and finally be able to talk about everything very very well. I love you so much for all the support you've given me during and before my mission. I've also been born into the best family in the world! I love all you and will SEE and talk to you THURSDAY! Love, Elder Stewart (for the last time)
Hey Mom, Yeah, it's all pretty weird that everything is coming to a close. It doesn't feel like it though. Everything is still going on as normal and nothing has changed so it doesn't seem like I'm going anywhere anytime soon. I'm also still wondering about what's going to happen
about me getting released. I just want to know so I can have everything
planned out in my mind. So this week was a pretty normal week. I've just been working hard to try and show these two Elders the area and help them to meet the investigators. They have just been following me around and things are just going along little by little. The best thing this week was that we had a baptism for this one guy we found about a month ago. He was sharing his testimony at his baptism and said that when we would come to teach his brother he would always try to listen from inside until one day he just decided to come out and join in on the lesson. We talked to him and now he's been baptized! His brother has not. Haha. His brother always runs away when we come. So we don't go to see him anymore. Anyway, it was a nice baptism and it turns out that it was my last baptism on mission. We have been teaching this other guy who came to church for the last two weeks who we thought would be getting baptized this next Saturday but he's just not ready yet so we are pushing his baptism back. Another nice thing that happened this week is that some of that sweet family came to church. Not all of them came but the ones that we have been teaching all came. The other members of the family are usually busy and we never get a chance to really see them. But this week we'll focus on them and help them to see the importance of the message. No problem. There are so many wonderful people and I'm sad that I won't be there for their baptism but I'm glad I was able to help them to find out about this message. Anyway, everything is going just fine and its just so weird that in less than two weeks I won't be here anymore! I really can't even believe that. I love all of you and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hey family, I have small time because of all the Happy Birthday emails (not complaining- thank you!) so I’ll be quick! We have been doing great this week and have been contacting and talking to seriously every single human being we run into. One thing I’ve been dying to do my whole mission is find a family and have them all get baptized on the same day. It’s close to impossible to find a couple living together that’s married but finally at long last, this week I think we found them! It’s a man and a woman who have a 9 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. The woman is pretty uneducated but the man seems pretty sweet. We’re going to really focus on them and hope that we can help them to seek after the message we’re sharing with them and have them come to know that it is true! It would really be a miracle to me because if they get baptized it will happen on the last Saturday on mission! I am also just praying that I don’t get transferred for my last three weeks because I will seriously be depressed. Another pretty sweet thing is we taught a pastor and his brother, and committed them both to be baptized. They were so excited by the end of the lesson and the pastor just kept telling us how our “preaching just moved him.” It was a pretty sweet lesson though and we really felt the Spirit and I know that they will know our message is true if they just take the time to seek and to ask God! We also hiked up to this waterfall in the middle of the bush and it was raining but it was super SWEET! Anyway, I’ll also put some details Clayton sent me about his wedding and about him coming to visit me after I get back so I want to know what you guys think of it. I love you all and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello! First off, I haven't gotten the package yet. Hopefully it will be here by next Friday or so. Things are going pretty good here though. Everything is always good. We didn't have a thousand people at church but we're working towards it. We're finally getting a nice little group established and so now we're just trying to teach them and really focus on them and helping them to understand everything we're teaching them. It's weird for me too that the time is so close but at the same time it's not weird because I don't really feel like I'm going anywhere. I don't even want to leave my area. I love all of these people so much and I'm thinking maybe I'll just move back here! Just kidding. The people are pretty stinking sweet though. My cool story for the week comes from the life of one of my recent converts! Yesterday at church she told us that after church she wanted to bring us to some guys house so that we could teach him. So after church we went with her and started walking to the man's house. We started asking her about who we were going to see and she shared with us a little story on how she met the guy. She said she was walking down the road and this guy was sitting on his porch. He called to her to come talk to him and she walked over to him. To cut it short he asked her to break some commandments with him. The sweet part of the story is that she told him that in her church they don't believe in doing those kinds of things and that she was not going to do that. Then she continued to say that she thinks that he needs to know about these things and told him she would come back with the missionaries from her church to come and to teach him. I guess the guy must have really liked her because for some reason he agreed. Haha. So we reached the guy's house and taught him and 2 of his roommates about the Restoration. It was pretty sweet lesson and we'll see what happens. We didn't want to slap their face with the "hard commandments" at first; give them a reason to live them first. It was nice anyway and it was a pretty funny when we heard the story and were like "what??? That's the person we're going to teach right now?" It was all good though. But what I really admired was the faith and courage she had to stand up for what she believed in. I guess that's really what they mean when they talk about "at all times, in all things, in all places." She was just baptized this last month and last Sunday she was asking the branch president what she needs to do to serve a mission. I go glady tay we she de go fo mission! i go fen bin! Seriously it'll be sweet. Anyway, I love all of you and encourage everyone to stand up for what they believe in and keep the commandments! I'll talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Helloooo, Yeah, the picture of the snake was stinking HUGE. I was blown away. That's pretty sweet that Savannah is at EFY again. EFY is super fun. Weird that she's up there alone now though. It's weird because I've heard about all the changes, like Breeann being in Louisiana and Aunt Jen being in California but they're not really real because I haven't experienced them yet. That car looks super nice. Super blessed. I can't believe Dad is going to be 50 on Tuesday! You guys aren't old, don't worry. Oh, something exciting that happened this week was I got Grandma Sem's package! THANK YOU. I've almost finished a whole pack of Oreos and it's only been two days. My companion and I will also be living off that spaghetti for the next two days so that's nice. As far as money goes, if you wanted to send me more you can send it through something called western union. I don't know exactly how the whole process works but that's what all the missionaries can do to get money from home so I can ask someone and do it no problem. Let me check how much I have and come up with the list of souvenirs and everything I need to buy and tell you how much I might need. I've been locating all the sweet souvenir places. Anyway, this last week was a pretty interesting one. We spent the whole week seeing all these people we found and getting them really excited about church and when Sunday came not a single person showed up... what? This is the first time on my whole mission that I've had no investigators at church. It was pretty frustrating because we were expecting like 8 people or so and they ALL didn't come. We went to see everyone and some of them actually had some pretty crazy things happen to them. Some of them were just lazy so we'll probably drop them. But I guess it just showed me that I still have lots of work to do and if I get lazy in anyway I'll have to suffer for it! Not that I really feel that I've been lazy but it was a good little learning experience anyway. One sweet thing that happened this week was that we had a baptism! We found this new spot in the river and the place has nice clear water and it's seriously just like a gorgeous place to baptize someone. We baptized this older like 55 year old lady that I think I talked about before. She had been praying to know which of all the many churches to join and one day she felt that she should come to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she has come over since! Pretty sweet. Another sweet thing is that the district leader in our zone is in Kossoh Town (My first area) so when we do interviews for them I get to go there and sometimes I run into people that I taught or baptized. It's pretty cool. This last Sunday though I ran into the first person I ever baptized on my mission. It was pretty cool because she was excited to see me and I was excited because I could finally understand what she was saying and I was confused that I was ever not able to understand her Krio because it was super clear. But seriously, I couldn't understand a single word she said. At all. Guess it shows that I've finally learned the language. Haha. The week was nice and this next week will be sweet because we'll have 1000 people at church and 2456 people converted. No problem. I love you all and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. Send me any more ideas for souvenirs that you might want! Pictures -I learned some cool poses here. Also, I'm wearing my super sweet homeboys. Yeaaaaaaahhh.
Hey Momma, Yeah those problems with the pool sound really serious... When you're trying to know if it's okay to swim you should just throw Charlie in. No problem. Oh, and talking about speaking in church the first Sunday I get back- YES. Man I definitely want to speak. Of course! I have to bear my testimony in Krio. Haha. Well, I have a pretty interesting story but it's not about anyone I'm teaching. It's a pretty good story though. There's this one guy these Elders are teaching who used to be a pastor in a church. The guy is super smart has traveled all over the place, is fluent in French and Arabic. and knows the Bible super well. One day he was sitting in a chop shop (these little huts that you can buy rice at) and he said he heard a voice call out to him. When he turned his head to look at the voice that called him he saw the Book of Mormon sitting on the shelf. The guy who owned the chop shop was being taught by the missionaries and the man asked him where he got the book. He told him where and the next time the missionaries came to see the chop shop guy, he called the man and he came. He was taught by them once, prayed, and knew that the message was true. He made up his mind to join the church. The thing that happened now is that the church he was attending before didn't like that. The head pastor and a bunch of their church members came to his house and told him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints didn't believe in Christ and that we were worshiping the devil. The head pastor told him that he needed to leave and that everything he was saying was wrong. THe man told him that he knew the church was true and could not deny it. The head pastor told him he was possessed with the devil and needed to burn everything that the missionaries had given him, especially the Book of Mormon. He still held firm and fought for what he knew was right. The thing that really impressed me was that he had only known about the church for a couple weeks and he already had such a strong testimony of it. He lives super far away but he sacrifices and was able to come to church last Sunday. He's one of those people that the Lord has prepared for this time to help build this new branch. Pretty sweet miracle. Anyway, we're still working hard and we're seeing some cool things in our area. Just thought that guy was a pretty sweet story. I love all of you and we'll talk next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello family! Well, I have to say that there was a mighty a marvelous miracle that occured this week. I got the Easter Package!!!!! Yeah. Can you believe that? I couldn't. I thought the thing was lost into the dark abyss. So needless to say, the nutella and pack of oreos were definitely appreciated. And of course that 8gb memory card. I'll definitely be doing my best to fill that thing up. Some other crazy news for the week is that last Sunday we got transfer news. Sadly, my dear companion Elder Wootton will be leaving me and is actually going to Lewabu in Bo (my last area before this one). And the name of my new companion is.... Elder Burton! Wait what? Did that name sound familiar? Oh. I guess it's because I served with him for 3 months in Lewabu. The good news though is that he was definitely one of if not my favorite companion so I'm all giddy at the idea of us working together again. It's definitely going to be lots of fun. Still no return date. This last week was pretty nuts and we were busy going to town running different errands and such so there wasn't too much excitement that happened. One sweet thing though is just that we have this super awesome guy getting ready to baptize this Saturday. He's a social studies teacher and he's just one of those people that is just so excited about everything we teach him. He never misses church and he's been telling all his friends about it and we're hoping that he can find some more people like himself for us to teach. One thing that has been so amazing to me is the kind of people the Lord has been preparing to help build up the branch here. Our branch president will tell us about a calling that they need to fill and suddenly someone will fall out of the sky and just be so prepared and ready to build the church. We're thinking this teacher guy we're teaching will be a branch mission leader, but we'll see what happens after the branch president prays about it and seeks revelation. It's definitely been fun to watch the growth of this branch and being able to be so directly involved in their growth. We're playing them in soccer this evening so we'll see how that goes. Hopefully everyone will come with boku referrals for us. I definitely love the heck out of that sport. I tell you. Anyway, I'm still keeping my journal up almost every day so there are lots of stories to share there! I don't have too much time this week but I love all of you and can't wait to hear from you next week! Have fun at girls camp! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. Happy Anniversary!!
Hello family, Well some good news for the week is that I have some pictures! I borrowed my companion's camera and tried to switch some pictures onto my SD card but my camera is crazy so I couldn't get them to go on it. But I'll try and buy something else and I should at least be able to come home with the pictures. So just wait small yeah? Anyway, this past week was pretty sweet because we had a super sweet baptism! When I first came to this area we met this girl and at first she seemed like she was totally not serious about God at all. But we went and sat down with her the first time and just asked her tons of questions and listened to what she had to say. We could see that she wasn't happy with the way that she had been living her life and so we started teaching her. We had first given her a baptismal date for May 4th but when that day came near we just felt like she wasn't ready yet. We wanted to be sure that she had fully repented of all her sins and so we told her that she was going to have to wait a little bit before she was baptized. She had been coming to church and everything but we just didn't feel like she was quite ready. We pushed it back for two weeks. We noticed the change in those weeks but there was still some time needed before she was really ready. During this time she kept telling us she wanted to be baptized and was ready but we knew that she needed more time. While she waited for the time to be baptized I could tell that it gave her that more motivation to change and work harder. When her date came near again we told her she needed to wait another week. When we told her she looked really upset and was like "What happened? Why?" I don't know what made us keep pushing it back but it was definitely the right thing. When the day finally came for her baptism she showed up super early and was all ready. Although it was raining, we still went out in the rain and did the baptism. While I was waiting for my companion to change I noticed her standing off to the side being really quiet. Then I noticed that she was crying to herself. I asked her how she was feeling and she just smiled and said "I feel SWEET!" It was pretty sweet indeed. After that we all treked back up the little hill and made our way back to the church to close the baptism. Even though the day was super gloomy it was definitely a great day full of happiness. The next day she got to church and I was able to confirm her. The whole day she was just smiling and so happy. I can tell you, the first time she ever came to church she was bored and wanted to leave. But there was a big change and now she looks like a super different person. The gospel has been restored indeed! It's pretty cool to see all these changes in people. Anyway, the week was good and I'm still happy as ever to be here! I'll talk to you all next week though! Love you! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. For the package you can just put the things I said to Dad... I can't really think of anything else. THANK YOU. YOU PEOPLE ARE AWESOME.
Baptism in the river! My face looks sweet.
Walking around. That's a mosque in the distance.
Walking back from a baptism. That's Sis. Kanzler.
This is our chapel! The compound is pretty nice.
This is the chapel where we hold sacrament meeting. Things start off pretty small.
The baptism for last Saturday. It was pouring rain so we had ran
under this unfinished house. All the members ditched us and ran away.
Hello people, That's funny that you didn't know the Bridges moved to Oklahoma city because I did! Haha. I thought I would never be able to hear something first but hey what do you know. It's funny that you mentioned Savannah maybe not wanting to speak in New Iberia because I remember me never wanting to go and do that. It's funny because now I would jump at the opportunity, haha. I've done a lot of on the fly speaking here. I spoke at a funeral once, I don't know if I ever told you that. They told me about 2 minutes before they started and about 5 minutes after they started I was speaking. So that was interesting. Haha. I've also given talks at about half of the baptismal services I've been to. I don't know how I'm going to stay under the time for my homecoming talk! Funny how that works. Speaking of baptismal services we had a baptism this past Saturday for this sweet girl. I think I might have spoken small about her before and basically she lives on her own because her parents are dead and she's just trying to support herself and her little sister. This past week her sister had an operation and she was wanting to go travel to her (her sister lives in Guinea currently). But when she saw that it would mean she would miss her baptism she moved her plans around so that she could still go and be baptized. We moved her baptism up a week earlier too. That Saturday we were planning for the service to start at 11 but I guess she was so excited that when she woke up she got changed and all ready so fast that she didn't even check the time. We got a call from her at 8:30 asking us why no one was at the church. Haha. Later, at 11, after we had walked down to the river and done the baptism, we were walking back and she was just like "Elder Stewart, I feel so good right now. Like I just feel so happy. There's just like this good feeling." We explained to her that that was the Holy Ghost and that the next day she would be able to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and that he would be her constant companion. The next day she was at church an hour early and already got a calling in the Young Women's. So that was pretty sweet. Another thing that was sweet is that at her baptism she bore her testimony and you could just feel the Spirit and see the joy in her face. It was pretty stinking sweet. There's a senior couple that just got here about a month ago who came to our baptism and the man was just like "Oh, that was beautiful." Haha. It was pretty cool though. Anyway, everything is just going sweet and I wouldn't change a thing! I love all of you and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Helloooo! So since we just talked the other day this one will be nice and short. In case you were wondering if I died and that's why I didn't email you on Monday, don't worry I didn't die. My companion did. Okay no, he just was super sick and we couldn't go anywhere. He's fine now though.I've got nothing to hook up to this computer so no pictures again... I'll do my best to work something out though. I don't know where the actual Napoleon Dynamite CD is but I know that all the music should be on the computer in the kitchen. Unless that thing has been sold and replaced as well. And I'm almost positive that the Vote for Pedro shirt went into the quilt... I miss that thing! Anyway, I love all of you and I'll talk to you next week!
Love, Elder Stewart
Here's a picture of Hunter's zone that I got from his mission president's
blog. We had a great phone call from Hunter for Mother's Day! Definitely
the highlight of the day :)
Hello! Wow, sounds like a pretty crazy week. Saw the picture of the car from Savannah. Looked pretty great. Probably it would still drive better than the little vans we take to get into the town. Just let me know what the verdict on that is. Moving right along, Charlie looked like a fool with his conehead. I hope he was just running around smacking his head on stuff. Glad to hear about the dejunking of the house going on before, we Americans like junk too much.
I can't believe it's already Mother's Day and I'm calling home again! Feels like I just talked to you guys at Christmas. I'll probably call you guys and you can answer just so I can say "Hello, call me back" and then you can feel free to do that. Also be thinking of souvenirs or anything you guys might want! Well this week was interesting, we had met this crazy guy on the road a few weeks ago and gave him a pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation. It turns out he had read the whole thing and had underlined and marked a bunch of stuff so we were thinking maybe he had some questions and actually wasn't completely insane. We swung by his house the other day and went up to his door mouth. Oh, something you might think sounds funny about the mission here is that everyone here leaves their doors open when they're home because it allows the breeze to blow through the house. So when we walk up to someone's door we don't knock on it but instead we shout into the house "knock, knock!" Hahaha. Anyway, after we said that we heard a voice come from the inside saying, "Ohhhhhhh! Is it the whiiiiiittteee peoplllleee?? Then the guy came out wearing nothing but these tiny little shorts and some basketball shoes. He pulled some chairs up and we sat down. We started to discuss with him and he told us that he wanted happiness because he used to not drink but now he drinks and likes drinking but didn't want to but to stop from drinking he would smoke cigarettes but only on Wednesdays because the wind blew harder on those days so it wasn't as stressful. Something like that. So we tried to talk about happiness and the plan God made for us. When we brought up baptism he asked us how we baptized. When we said by immersion he started flipping out and telling us he was too scared of water and figured God would understand if he just said a prayer and poured a cup of water on his head. Then he started telling us how he used to wear boxers but just didn't feel like it anymore and that he likes women too much.So we figured it was probably okay at this point so we closed and took off. Not sure what will happen with him but I don't think he'll be someone we focus on. The thing is that last Sunday he came to church. Anyway, it was kind of weird. Okay well, I can't wait to talk to you all on Sunday! Love you! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello family! Hey there, I don't know how I felt about that little line about my crazy African accent! Haha, sometimes when I'm sitting there I find myself thinking about things in Krio. It's kind of weird. Glad the Relief Society enjoyed the little bit about me teaching it. Lets just say I never want to teach Relief Society again! Haha. There are no pictures attached of Savannah from prom and I'm a little upset about that. Not gonna lie. But it's her birthday today and HOLY COW I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S 17. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT. Doesn't she still have her braces? Sometimes when I show people a picture of all you guys they ask what's on her teeth in the picture. I tell them it's her grill. No not really. I just say she fell down and they had to use iron bars to get her teeth to stay in her mouth. Okay so usually no one ever asks. Anyway, happy birthday Savannah! Sorry I can't send you a present but, I'll do my best to find something cool for you. Speaking of those kinds of souvenir things- what are you guys wanting me to find for you? Any ideas? There's this big trend that has caught on with the missionaries and that's to "make homeboys." A homeboy is what they call hoodies here. But what we do is we buy some sweet looking african material and bring it to a tailor and have him make a hoodie out of it. There's this expensive hand woven cloth called country cloth that my companion and I are going to make some out of. Everything together costs about 100,000 leones to make one. So around $23 or so. They have other cheaper African looking material to make it out of though. We'll see. So I can make those, or any other kind of clothes out of african looking material. Kind of cool. Then they have like other handwoven bags like purses and lots of football jerseys for cheap and I guess right before they take missionaries home from their missions they take them to a wood market where there's lots of hand carved statues and stuff. So yeah. Just keep some things in mind and if you think of anything I can try and find it for you. They have all that cliche African stuff here too. So just let me know! Maybe you can tell me when I call home. Anyway, so this week was flipping sweet because we had our first ever meeting inside our new building inside Waterloo! It was great. There were 3 pairs of senior couples there so it was kind of exciting. We had a successful meeting and there was no problem there. We also had this one investigator come who is the mother and the boss of this one household. 3 of the people in her household are interested in the church and want to be baptized, but she keeps telling them they need to wait first. She came to church for the first time and she had a really good experience. She's a super smart lady and went to university in England. Which is close to impossible for someone from here to do. When she had first met the missionaries teaching her family I guess she was kind of rude and totally uninterested in them but something has changed and she's agreed to start taking the lessons. We've been having some sweet lessons with her and we're really looking forward to seeing what happens with her. All I know is she would make a great Relief Society President (so that way Elder Stewart wouldn't have to teach!). Anyway, the church is sweet. My area is sweet. My companion is sweet. The district is sweet. No problem. I just want to work hard and finish everything strong! Oh and I don't think I told you but the name of my area is officially called "Ibo Town." Anyway, I love all of you and will talk to you all next week! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. I haven't seen anything too wild other than the mammoth moth that attacked out apartment (about the size of my open palm), and the crazy people who dress up as "debuls." Nothing too crazy!
Here are some Krio proverbs GכD Nכ DE GI YU LOD WE YU Nכ GO EBUL TOT. God won't give you a load you can't carry. WE DεN TOT YU NA BAK, YU Nכ NO SE ROD LANGGA. If they carry you on their back, you won't know that the road is long.
Hellooooo Well, first off the whole Boston Marathon thing is terrifying. I'm just glad all of our family members are okay. Definitely could have been a lot worse. If they ever find out why the people did that I would be interested to know. Anyway, the world can definitely be pretty sick and twisted at some points, trust me. Anyway, on a happier note, something you could put inside a package would be some Slap Ya Mama and Tony's. Ohhhh yeaaaahh. The thing here is that there's just no flavor. Also some propel drink mixes and toothpaste would be nice. Well, on my side of the pond things have been a little crazy. Yesterday was the first meeting of the new branch and because of that, there are no people called into any leadership positions. Haha. Which might not be a big problem if 90% of the branch wasn't baptized in the last year. So it meant that the missionaries were doing a lot of teaching for the day. And you'll never guess which class I taught.... Relief Society! Haha. And guess what I taught them about? Marriage! Hahaha. It was pretty lame not gonna lie. It's just hard because we only have about 3 manuals for the class and most of the women don't know how to read anyway. So I just tried to bring up a lot of discussion questions. Definitely an interesting experience. We're supposed to be getting a building this week inside the town of Waterloo itself (right now we're a 20 minute drive down the highway to the next town), so hopefully this guy we've been trying to meet with will answer his phone so we can seal the deal! It's definitely an adventure working with a new branch but I really like it and just want to do all I can to get everyone off to a good start. We have transfer news next Sunday as well... I'm thinking I won't be going anywhere or getting a new companion, but it's almost impossible to tell for sure. We had a baptism last Saturday and it was back in the river! It was a nice service even though the only people that were able to go were the 6 missionaries and the lady. Since the branch was new everyone was involved with this other activity and weren't able to go to the baptism. It'll be better in the future though. Anyway, everything is great here! Just waiting for General Conference to arrive! First weekend in May. I love all of you though and can't wait to talk to you on Mother's day! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello family! Well, I guess I'll start with the bad news first. I haven't gotten any packages... I talked to a couple of other guys and they both said they've been waiting on packages since like January... looks like there was a big thiefing festival at the post office in January or so. I was pretty depressed to see people walking in with lots of packages and letters on Sunday and not having a single one be for me! It's alright though I guess. I could definitely go for some Oreos right now, but I guess I'll just have to bear it. Good to hear about the housing situation though! It's pretty weird to have almost everything set in place now. Just have to find out when I'll be getting home. I guess that one is pretty important. I thought it was pretty funny that Charlie came back on his own. That old fart. Wow, so this last week was pretty crazy. The biggest thing that happened was this last Sunday. Like I said before, I'm serving in Kossoh Town branch again. When I was in Kossoh Town the last time, about 3 months after I had been on mission the branch split because of the growth in the area. This last Sunday I was priviledged to see the branch split again and see the creation of the Waterloo branch. So I'm no longer serving in the Kossoh Town branch but the Waterloo branch. It's pretty sweet because we got a new branch president, new everything. It's all people from Waterloo running the show now. The proselyting area of Waterloo was opened up a while ago but missionaries didn't really start focusing on it until around August 2011, right when I came. It just goes to show the rapid growth of the Church here. It also means that all of our converts are going to be the big leaders in the branch! Pretty sweet. It also means that we're going to have to be doing lots of helping to make sure there's correct doctrine being taught! Haha. It'll be nice though. One neat experience happened this week. There's this one man we're teaching who is around 30, lives alone, works construction every day, and has a pretty bad smoking problem. We're were talking to him about his smoking problem and discussing what he can do to help him quit. He's kind of one of those guys that has like a really rugged appearance, gravely voice, and is always wearing dirty clothes. We told him what he has to do to quit smoking and he agreed to do it. As we were winding up the lesson we asked him if he had any questions. He kind of thought about it for a minute and said, "If I quit drinking and smoking....." We were expecting him to ask about some material benefit or something, and then he said "...will God love me?" Man! See our hearts melt like a girl watching The Notebook. We were so shocked that my companion even muttered a quiet "Wow..." after he said it. I told him he said that later and he said he didn't even remember saying that. So that was kind of funny, haha. Anyway, We told him that God loves him even though he does those things, but because of that love He has for him, He wants him to quit those things so he can bless him more. It was pretty sweet. The guy came to church Sunday too. Things are going pretty good, we just need more investigators. Small small. Anyway, Thank you for everything and I'll talk to you all next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello Momma! Sounds like everything was a success! I'm glad to hear about all the adventures though. Haha. I've been doing pretty good though. I haven't seen conference yet. We always get it and watch it the first weekend in May. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to teach over the radio but man! Those guys are doing super good. Well, one of them. The other one is still excited but he's been traveling tons so we haven't been able to see him at all. The other guy is literally the most perfect investigator I've ever met. We met him on a Saturday, he came to this family home evening group we do that evening. Then he came to church Sunday. A member invited him to begin attending institute, he went on Wednesday and Friday. We invited him to the read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon, he read it. We invited him to watch a baptism, he came. He also came to church yesterday. Man. It's crazy. He's definitely like the most prepared person I've ever met. Haha. Oh, and yeah, we had a baptism this past Saturday. One of the guys we baptized is super super smart and he's actually read all 7 of the Harry Potter books! I know that might not sound very weird to you but here, half the people can't read at all, half of those people who can read, don't. And the ones left read simple books that they're forced to read. And then there's this kid who loves reading novels. It's crazy because he said he heard about Harry Potter because he got a hold of the 7th book. He read the whole thing and decided that he had to track down the other 6. He started getting them slowly and would track when shipments of books would come in so he could be the first one to search through it and try to claim the books for himself. After a year or so he finally got all seven and said he's read them over and over since. He's also read all the Narnia books. Pretty sweet kid. It's crazy how hard he had to fight to get books though. We just drive down the road and can get the book the day it comes out. He said something about a book that just came out, and then said "so probably I'll be able to read it in about 10 years." It was funny but I guess really it's not that funny. Haha. Anyway, about that camera business, I'll try and find a cheap one to buy here. Also, the package hasn't come yet, but we haven't gotten mail delivered in about a month. So.... who knows. Haha. Okay, well I'm so happy to be here and I can't wait to talk to you next week! Love you! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. Momma HAPPY BIRTHDAY! again. The big 2-9! Man you're getting old! Haha. Love you! P.S.S. Ryan Nielsen- happy late birthday to you too! P.S.S.S Can you send me Clayton and Big Black's email addresses? Thanks.
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Where we baptize
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From the top of this big hotel overlooking a place just outside my area
called Rokel.
Hellooooooooo! Sounds like a pretty great trip! The only problem is that (and you guys do this a lot) sometimes you'll mention something and say Dad will send me pictures or talk more about that, and then I'll read his and he'll say the same thing about you. Haha. So next week send me some pictures of the trip! Anyway, I really liked that bit about the missionaries there in Hawaii and the old church building. I've been trying to teach a chief my whole mission but I haven't been so lucky to do that yet. Haha. I met one and took his contact in my last area but he was always busy so we never saw him. I haven't gotten your package yet... but mail hasn't really come in a long time now. I'm hoping and praying though. Haha I want those packages bad! Well this week was super sweet. The best part was definitely on this last Saturday. This one guy that I saw get baptized when I was in Kossoh Town has become just this solid rock to the church here and is really a big example to me of how much the gospel can bless people's lives. Side note about the area- Waterloo is still super new, so new that there's not even a branch in the town. We have to take a 15/20 minute ride to reach the chapel on Sundays. They're hoping we'll have the first branch out here opened before the end of April, but we'll see. With the change in mission age, tons and tons of people have been getting poured into the mission so we've been able to put heavy focus on areas such as this. There's 6 elders in Waterloo and 10 total in our branch. That's quite a bit! Haha. So in short, we're literally building the church from ground up, because when the branch finally opens, who will be all the leaders inside of it? All of our brand new converts. Anyway, we were talking to him and told him we were looking for people to teach and on Saturday he told us he had set an appointment for us. We went and met two men at the radio station where they worked. We sat down and taught them the Restoration. We helped them to see and understand why there are so many churches today and about the priesthood and how everything as it was before is the way it is today! The member we had brought with us just started bearing his testimony about how much his life has changed. When I met him a year ago he literally had nothing. He was having problems with his marriage, he was going to get evicted from his house, and just a lot of other problems. It was pretty sweet. The two guys we were teaching were just really touched and said that they had actually had it on their minds for a long time that they needed to join the Church. And guess what, they came on Sunday! It was pretty cool. But are you ready for the coolest part? They were so excited they asked us that, if they chose to do so, would it be possible for us to come once a week for an hour and have discussions with them over the radio so that thousands of people can hear? We don't know if we're allowed to do that so we said we'd have to ask first, but wouldn't that be crazy? It was pretty sweet. Anyway, the week was great! I'm really loving this area and really hope that this is where it will end. There's so many great people and I don't want to leave this place. Anyway, I love all of you so much and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello,
Wow, it sure sounds like an interesting week. Poor Spearmint... I'll
definitely miss her. She was quite a classy lady. The big news for the
week this week is that now we're able to email ANYONE. So all you
friends that abandoned writing me but take glory reading my blog each
week, send me an email. (hunter.stewart@myldsmail.net) I don't care if
it's short! Just tell me about your life and what you're doing with it.
It's been a while. Anyway, I'm now sitting in the East End of Freetown
having traveled out of Waterloo to come here. There's no internet cafes
in the town we live in so we have to catch a poda poda for about an hour
ride and go to a place there. No problem. I got to see our area quite a bit
and it's super sweet! We have a lot of great investigators and I get along really well with my companion. I'm pretty excited about it all. We're just starting to get the zone set up and we'll be having zone meeting on the 26th. Oh, side note I tried to email dad back but the internet cut out and don't think it sent. Anyway, we had a this lesson with this man this last Saturday. We taught him about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and he was so excited that he told us to come back the next week Sunday and to teach his entire family. He said that was the only time that they'll all be around. It was pretty sweet. My whole mission I've been wanting to see an entire family (Man, wife, children) get baptized together on the same day but it hasn't happened yet. The best thing about it all is being a part of it with your family! It definitely changes lives, that's for sure. To know everything about it and then to leave it all behind, I don't think I can ever understand it. I've met a lot of people who left the church because of some argument they had with a church leader, or something that happened that offended them. I just wish they could remember that although the organization is perfect, the place is filled with imperfect people. Everybody makes mistakes. Anyway, I'm definitely excited for everything and can't wait to see another week. I love you all and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart P.S. My camera has been having a problem- when I turn it on the screen is just this white flashing color... I'm afraid it might be kicking the dust too. But I'll see what I can do with it this week.
(I, Jill, got this picture from Hunter's Mission President's blog)
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Hello family! Well the week was a good one. I just looked at all those pictures of your room- what! So different. It looks super good though, I like it. You can tell Sister Wuertenberg I've gotten a letter from them in the last little while. Just one. I'm glad to hear the Latrini's haven't died yet, hopefully no one will break their hip this time (boom roasted). Maui sounds, well, extremely nice. Wouldn't mind to find myself there at some point in the future. Haha. Anyway, the big news for the week is that we got transfer news this past week and I'm getting transferred! My new area is called Rokel and I'm super super super excited to go there because that area meets in the Kossoh Town branch! In case you forgot, my first area on mission was Kossoh Town, so it means that my converts from the beginning of my mission, I'll be able to see them again! I was so stinking excited when I found out that I would be going there. That was actually my hope, that I would one day be able to go there. Another big surprise was that I'll be a zone leader still and that I'll be opening a new zone. It sounds a lot cooler than it actually is. Really all that happened is that the Freetown East Zone split in two and me and my companion will be the zone leaders for the new Waterloo zone. Rokel is between Kossoh Town and a small town known as Waterloo just outside of Freetown. Anyway, I'm really excited to be going there and see what will happen next. There's still a lot more work to do. This last week was pretty good, we had our zone meeting on Tuesday and focused a lot on the development of the individual and on becoming better people. I honestly don't know what I'd be like if I wouldn't have gotten this chance to come here. I'm definitely learning more things than I could have possibly imagined. One sweet thing that happened this week was that this nice little family we met (gotta get the parents married first), all came to church! They all are really happy and even the last time we saw the wife she said that she wanted to be baptized and beginning coming to church. I'm hoping to hear all about it. I'm sad to be leaving Lewabu but I know there's more people who I need to see in Rokel! My last Sunday there I was just looking around the chapel and saw all the people I had taught sitting in church and I just felt blessed to have been able to serve here as long as I did. Anyway, the work is sweet and next week I'll be back to the bustle of Freetown! I love all of you so much! Love, Elder Stewart
Hey family, Well this last week was absolutely crazy. On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference with President Roggia and Elder Burton and I gave a small instruction about enduring to the end. We pretty much just invited everyone to keep showing love to their recent converts and to continue teaching them even after baptism. We also invited them to write some of them letters. That's something I'm going to try and do before I go home- write all of my converts a letter. It's hard because we get so busy and its hard to even find time to write my friends letters sometimes! But I'll do my best. After the zone conference we had zone leader council with President Roggia which is basically just a meeting with him and he gives us some information about what's going on in the mission and what we need to be focusing on in our zone and things like that. He also gives us a topic of something to talk about at our next zone meeting which is always the following Tuesday (tomorrow). So we've been trying to work that one out. On Wednesday we went to Kenema and I got to go with the Simbeck Elders so I saw some of the people I taught and a couple of converts while I was there so that was pretty sweet. I would give anything to go back to Kenema, man that place is sweet! Thursday we traveled back to Bo and started to work on the Zone Meeting instruction and getting things in place to have a super p-day on Monday (today). Friday was a regular day and we got things prepared for a baptism the next day. Saturday we had a baptism for one of the SWEETEST people ever; I think I talked about him last week. The service was really nice and the next day, Sunday, everything went smoothly for his confirmation. Something sweet that happened was that on Sunday this family that we just started teaching came to church. Well, half of them anyway. The man is a muslim so he didn't come, but his wife and three of their kids came. So that was pretty sweet. It's kind of funny because the man told us he would come and the woman just kept avoiding the question and never really answered us. Maybe she just wasn't sure. Haha. We'll be trying to see them this week. Today was a pretty sweet day too because we had that Super P-day. All the Elders from Kenema came to Bo and will be here until tomorrow after Zone Meeting. For the super P-day we boiled some eggs and had everyone decorate them with markers and write their favorite scripture on it. Then while everyone left, Elder Burton and I hid them around the compound. Then we all went and played a nice game of football. It was pretty sweet and I scored a nice goal off a volley. So that was pretty exciting. Then we all went back to the compound and everyone found the eggs and everyone shared their scripture and shared their testimony. Then we all ended up by eating a nice big bowl of jollof rice. No problem. Its been a pretty successful day so far and we're looking to have a nice FHE this evening and a nice zone meeting tomorrow. So hopefully everything will go well! Anyway, I'm glad everything is going well at home and I'll be looking for those pictures! And a big thank you to aunt jen! I got the package this past week and I think all the candy is gone already. Haha. And don't worry, the tortillas didn't mold over. So THANK YOU. Oh, and if its not too late, if it would be possible to add some slap ya momma or tony's to the package that would be sweet. Anyway, thank you for everything! I love you and I'll talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Baptism from the 23rd!
Kids wearing sweet clothes.
always imagined it saying something inspirational at the bottom like "Dream Big"... haha don't worry I'm still thinking about all this cheesy artsy optimistic business.
Super P-day!
Hello family! Sounds like it was a great week. We had a nice baptism this past week and have just been focusing on finding sweet people. We're hoping for some super sweet miracles. This one guy we've been teaching got interviewed and will be baptizing this week. I think I talked about him last week. Basically he has a super strong testimony and just loves coming to church. It was too bad to hear about LHS. It's about time they bring a championship in. I don't have a lot of time so I'll answer your questions quick. Oh, but before I do we have zone conference tomorrow and it's all about enduring to the end. My companion and I have to give an instruction in it so we're hoping it will go well. I've gotten a lot more used to doing that kind of stuff now. It should hopefully help a lot when I go back! So the first question- Ninjas. Because I see them here all the time.
Second- I've eaten rice every single day. Not even kidding. I had fried rice last night, ground nut soup some other nights, and pumpkin! I've learned how to cook pumpkin and make a tasty little sauce to put on the rice. So I'll try and make it for you all one day. That snake was lurking inside the senior couples apartment. I cut its head off. We found a 2 foot one in our compound the other day. I'll send a picture next week. I've been having a small problem with the memory card but don't worry it's not serious. I can fix it. Fourth, any creepy creatures? Not that I can think of. They have some crazy looking lizards that are always around. They look like little dragons. Kind of cool. And finally, as far as a package goes, something that would be sweet would be another 8 gb memory card. The one I have is about to fill up and I think one more would be perfect. And of course, sweet stuff like Oreos and those kinds of things. Haha. Anyway, I love all you so much and will talk to you next week! Sorry this letter is so lame! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello again, Man I'm super jealous of the Nauvoo trip. I definitely want to go see all of those things when I get back. It was weird to hear about it being cold outside. I'm literally going to die. I don't know what cold is again! This week was pretty good. We had a baptism last Saturday. We also played football today! So that was fun. We don't keep score because we don't want the game to be competitive... but we totally won 6-4. Haha. Well, this week was pretty normal. Nothing absolutely insane happened. This one guy we're teaching has been really excited about everything we've been teaching him and knows its true, but he has missed church for the last two Sundays. He has a really crazy work schedule that has him working from 7pm-7am on Saturday evenings to Sunday mornings. The last time we saw him we taught him about the Law of Chastity which is something he has been struggling with. We helped him to see its importance and what he can do in his life to begin keeping the commandment. He said he would do it and this Sunday he came to church! He was super tired because church starts at 9, but he stayed for the whole thing and contributed a lot in class. It was pretty cool. I also found out that one of my converts has been going to institute every week and giving the teacher boku problems with his questions. So sweet! Haha. It's not easy trying to get the church working the way its supposed to. The church isn't even close to the way its supposed to be or like how it is back home. It just made me laugh when you said you had a stake council meeting because I'm pretty sure that one has never happened here. Anyway, everything is going good! We have a zone conference next week Tuesday so I'll be looking out for some of those packages people have said they sent me! I love all you and will talk to you next week! Love, Elder Stewart
Hello family, Well this last week was pretty much the worst week of my entire life. . . okay, not really. It was super sweet as always. One reason was because... we had a baptism! Woo. These people were super sweet too. Remember the convert that got married last December? His daughter got baptized and her cousin (who stays in the same house). Also a guy that started investigating the church over a year ago, and the best friend of one of the ladies we baptized on the 26th. It's pretty crazy how fast people's lives can change! Most of the last week was spent with us trying to find people to teach. Well, it's easy to find people to teach, it's hard to find to the people who are ready to change their lives. So that's what we spent the week looking for. We also spent a lot of time working on a zone meeting we have going on tomorrow. We're focusing a lot on trusting in the promises given to us by the Lord. Like the promise in Moroni 10:3-5. We need to have more faith that the Lord will answer people who are seeking for answers from him. We need to have more faith that when we invite someone to pray and ask Him about the things we teach them, that he will answer them and tell them they are true. We need to have faith that the Spirit can testify and teach them that what we are saying is right. We've been pretty busy but we're looking forward to the next week. Anyway, I hope you guys have a good time in Nauvoo! Tell me how it goes! Love, Elder Stewart PS- Aunt Jen- Happy Birthday!
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