Pictures!, Super Sweet Baptism & You People are Awesome

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.

Speaking in Church, Good Feeling & Beautiful Baptism

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

Nice and Short

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 :) 

American's Junk, Last Call Home & Door Mouths

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