Elder Hunter Stewart: No Transfer, New Companions & Sweet Family

Hellooooo

Well, this last week was sweet. One of the sweetest things was I got the package you guys sent for my birthday! Pretty nice. I think the Oreos are gone. Definitely a nice thing to get right up to the end here. Man it's too bad that Joel is leaving that day. We'll see what happens though. No problem. Something else I was wondering about is if there was going to a topic given to me for my homecoming? Just let me know. Anyway, things are going pretty good on this side as well. We got transfer news this past weekend and I am getting to stay in Waterloo for my last two weeks! Oh, and that reminds me that I forgot to tell dad that our address is 8 Liddle Street, Waterloo. So that he could try and find it on Google Earth. Anyway, yes! I am staying. But my companion is changing. Elder Burton got room transferred to another area in Waterloo and I'm receiving two elders as companions. I'll just be showing them the area and our investigators for two weeks and then I'll leave them in the area when I go home. Elder Burton was pretty upset because we have just finally found tons of sweet people who are all progressing. But the good news is he's still in the same branch and he's still a zone leader so he'll see the people on Sundays, on exchanges, and at their baptisms. It's just too bad he won't be able to teach them. His new area is super sweet though. Something that's cool though is the two elders I'll be with are from sweet places. One is from Samoa and the other one is from the Ivory Coast. Pretty cool.

Some of these people we have found are so cool. One guy we met has already read all the way through 1 Nephi and was at church even before we were. For someone to read that far in the Book of Mormon is pretty crazy because a lot of people can't read, and if they can they can't read very well. A lot of people also just don't understand it even if they can read well. It's interesting still though because people like that have still received answers that it's true although they can't fully comprehend it's words. Anyway, he told us he has been searching for so long and felt that he has finally found the truth. His baptism is supposed to be on the 10th so I'll miss it just barely. I can remember I told you about a guy from another area who was taking serious persecution for his decision to join the church, like his old church telling him he's possessed of Satan and stuff and telling him to burn the Book of Mormon, right? Anyway, that guy has baptized since then and it turns out that he has a very well educated college graduate fiancee who lives in our area! She too said she has just been so confused about all the different churches and sometimes would get frustrated and just stay at home because she just couldn't find a church that has the right doctrine (sounds like Joseph Smith doesn't it?). Anyway, she came to church last Sunday and is already halfway through 1 Nephi. The sweetest person we're teaching right now is this one guy who just moved to Sierra Leone from Liberia. Him and his wife and their 12 kids. I guess when he was living in Liberia he stayed somewhere near the church and had talked to the missionaries very small, but he never visited or met with them too much because he was in the military and never had a chance. Now he is out of it and just spending all his time at home with his family. It's pretty weird because he and his family are like a real, everyone loves each other, family. It's pretty sweet. When we taught him the first time he had read the pamphlet and taught us about the Restoration. It was nice. He came to church Sunday and afterwards when I was talking to him, he said, "Okay, next week is my turn. I'll come with my family." SO SWEET. I'm sad because I've been wanting to see the conversion of a whole family in my mission but I'm happy that at least I was able to find and begin teaching them. We saw the wife later on Sunday and she said that she was coming next week. I really hope that it all works out. Anyway, I'm pounding the dirt (correct, not pavement. Haha.) for these two weeks very hard. I've been blessed like crazy and can't wait to see what happens this week. I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart