Answers to Random Questions Part 2

These are the random questions I asked Hunter:

1-Pirates or Ninjas? Why?
2-Have you eaten any rice in the last week? If so, what flavor?
3-Where did you catch that snake in the pot? and what kind was it? It looked pretty wimpy compared to the snakes in the Shed of Horrors!
4-Have you seen any other creepy creatures lurking about?
5-Do you have any requests for the package I am sending you next week? Let me know!!!!!

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

What is Cold?, Football & Nothing Absolutely Insane

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

Moroni 10:3-5

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!

Transfer News, Living in the 1800's & A Crazy Australian Lady

Hellooooooo family,
 
Africa is here. No worries. We did finally get transfer news and I'm
still in Lewabu with Elder Burton. That's super sweet though because
it's exactly what I wanted! I'm a pretty happy camper here. I'm
guessing that I'll be out of here at the end of this next transfer but
we'll see what happens, still plenty of work to do before then. It'll
definitely be exciting to see all the changes in the house. I'll bet
it looks pretty sweet. A family trip to Nauvoo would be pretty
stinking nice... I want to see all those church history places! Also,
I just want to tell the Nielsen's that I miss them! And Big Black.....
WRITE ME BACK MAN! There's a bucketful of noonas I'll be wanting to
hear from you. So send me all the juicy ones.
 
I was thinking about some stuff the other day and I realized that the
culture here is like people living in the 1800s but then there's cell
phones and modern cars. But in many ways it's similar. Women spend
their entire lives in the house washing clothes on washboards, cutting
wood, cooking over an open fire, taking care of children, etc. The men
usually have hard labor jobs and are busy with that all the time. The
houses are made out of mudblocks and sticks, or this combination of
sand, rocks. and small cement. The roofs are all with thin pieces of
zinc. It's kind of a weird mix of modern and old. No problem though.
The work here is sweet and I'm definitely blessed to have been called
to this mission. One missionary just got an update about his friend
who is serving in Korea- the guy has been out for 6 months and
yesterday was the first time they've had an investigator come to
church. I think my first Sunday there were 10 investigators in church.
Definitely spoiled to be here. We're even supposed to be having a
baptism this weekend. Speaking of being spoiled, this last week
something really crazy happened. Last Tuesday we went to Kenema to do
interviews and trainings. The next day, Wednesday, we were standing in
this big car park where you get in vans to travel between Kenema and
Bo. Basically it's a big dirt field and people are walking around
selling things and there are cars everywhere and people trying to get
you to get in the car whether you want to go to where they're going or
not. Anyway, we went to the place that the vans are going to Bo and
the one they were filling up had only one space so we were standing to
the side waiting for the next van to come. While we were standing
there this guy looked at us and asked us what country we were coming
from. We told him we were from the US and he just looked at us for a
second. Then he said "You guys should just get out of this country
because you're not doing anything to help it." Then he went and sat in
the van. We were super confused and a little offended so we walked
over to him and asked him what his name was. He got out and told us
that he wasn't going to tell us his name and he wanted us to get out
of his way and go away. While he was saying all this, a white lady
stuck her head out of the passenger seat of the van and said "You
people just want money! Money, money, money! You divide families and
ruin lives!" Then she stuck her head in the van and the guy sat inside
the van again. At this point we were just incredibly confused and
didn't really know what was going on so we just stood there and left
it because we didn't want to make a scene. One more person finally
came and the van started closing all the doors and getting ready to
depart. Just before leaving the white lady gets out and walked up to
us. Before we could say anything she told us we were terrible people
and needed to get out of Africa because we're just taking money and
dividing families (again). She also said that we needed to leave her
own people alone and stop ruining everyone's lives. We asked her where
she was from and she said Australia and started walking away. We asked
her if she knew what church we were from and she was just like, "Oh, I
KNOW your church." Then she slammed the door and they drove away....
what?? We were so taken aback and confused. I guess she didn't know
that we have to pay for ourselves to come out and that one of the
biggest doctrines in our church is that families can be together
forever. It was just so rude and as we were on our way back I just
couldn't see how people can serve missions in places like England
where everyone is just rude to you and won't even let you get a word
in. That was the first time anyone has been super rude like that for
no reason and it was just really weird. I don't know what happened
that filled those people with so much hate, but I hope one day they
can understand who we are and what we're REALLY doing. It kind of
messed up our morning but later we had a massive group of children run
up to us cheering and greeting us so that was always a plus. The work
here is sweet though, don't worry. I'm still happy and no crazy
Australian ladies are going to change that! I love all of you and will
talk to you next week! Mission is weird sometimes!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart
 
PS we had to go to a new internet cafe because the other one was
closed... this one won't let me send pictures. Sorry!

 I (Jill) found this new pic of Hunter meeting Elder Curtis and his wife on 

the Mission President's blog so I thought I'd include it since Hunter 

couldn't send any pictures this week!