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!

Churched Out, Baptisms & "Latter Days"

Dearest family,

How art thou? Yup, I'm all churched out now. Elder Burton always talk about how we weren't like those crazy churchy people back home and that we don't think we are now but then we realize that we totally are and we're just fooling ourselves. But it's all good I guess. No problem. Speaking of being churchy, we had a baptism last Saturday! Yay. We had a mother and her daughter, one lady that was a referral from a return missionary (coughhisgirlfriendcough), and another little girl who was a referral from the branch presidency. It was nice and they're all wonderful people! As far as transfer news goes, it got delayed again so we probably won't know anything until next week. We'll see what happens though.

Anyway, like I said the people baptized this week were pretty sweet. The lady that got baptized with her daughter first heard about the church about 4 years ago. She was taught by missionaries but for whatever reason she didn't get baptized and I guess they just stopped teaching her. A little over a month ago, two missionaries were walking by her house and she suddenly called out to them "Latter Days!" Oh, and just a sidenote- no one in this country calls us Mormons. I've been called a Mormon maybe once my whole mission so far. Everyone here calls the church "Latter Days Church." Anyway, she called that out and the two missionaries stopped and asked her if she knew that church. She said she had talked to them many years ago but it has been a while. They invited her to come to church and asked for her phone number so they could contact her. She said she didn't have a phone. They tried to give her a small pamphlet but she couldn't read. That Sunday she didn't go. Within that week those two missionaries showed up at her house and they had a nice discussion called the Restoration of the gospel. She finally understood why there were so many different churches all teaching different things. She came to church for the next 3 weeks and is now baptized and confirmed! I wish I knew more about what actually was going on in her head, but I guess it went something like that. She was super sweet though and you could tell that she really understood the message we were sharing. Now we're teaching almost all her neighbors and they should all be baptized in the next month or so. It's kind of crazy how those things can work. It was a great week though. Sierra Leone is an amazing place, that's for sure! Anyway, I'm out of time so I'll talk to you all next week. Love you!

Love,
Elder Stewart


P.S. Clayton I got your latest noona.... YEAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Just a sweet poster I saw hanging up that I wouldn't mind putting in my room.

  Baptism!

  The only standard church building in the country! Running water not included.

Dusty Trails, Fishing with Palm Fronds & Everyone Loves Us!

Hellooooooooo family!
 
First off, you'll be surprised to hear this but you can actually buy
nutella here and I've bought it before. But it's INSANELY expensive so
I'll be more than happy to receive it! Haha. I was also pretty pumped
to see the letter from Carson! I'll be excited to see that guy again!
I guess you should try to get his mom's email so that he and I can
communicate a little faster about all this BYU housing business. Can't
wait for that! Also can't wait to sleep in my bed on your old
mattress... I have a feeling it feels a little softer than the ones
here. Just maybe. Savannah's wanting to go to EFY again? So sweet. One
thing I think I'm going to try and do when I get back is be a
counselor for EFY. I think that would just be crazy fun. We'll see
what happens with that. For now my life is full of dusty trails and
boku rice.
 
This past week was a super good one (of course), but mainly because we
had a sweet baptism for that man I talked about before! His picture is
below. There was another 19 year old guy we baptized but he got there
right as the thing was starting so he couldn't get in the picture.
I'll see if I can remember to get a picture with him. The other
picture there is me fishing! Yeah, we got some palm fronds and some
string and hooks, dug up some worms from the ground and went fishing
as a district. The fishing wasn't very good because the fish were
super tiny and couldn't put their mouths over the hook, but it was
still good and some people were able to catch something. The week
otherwise has just been crazy busy. We have been finding tons of new
people to teach and it seems like everyone is just begging for us to
come teach them! The Lord is definitely helping us to find people. I
wish more people could really understand what exactly it is we're
doing every day. Most people back home are so rude to the missionaries
and don't even give them a chance to talk. If there's anyone who
always reads the blog and likes to slam the door in the missionaries
faces or give them trouble should just write me a letter telling me
they hate me because I'm doing the EXACT same thing. I just happen to
be on the other side of the world. But anyway, being rude to the
missionaries is just lame and everyone should just at least hear what
they have to say. Like we will teach people sometimes and afterwards
maybe try to see them a couple other times. If they avoid us or give
us excuses, we don't spend all of our time trying to come and see
them- we go and find people who are ready to receive us. Those we saw
know that they need to pray and ask God about the message we shared
with them, and if in the future they want to talk, we're always there.
The most important thing is that everyone has the opportunity to hear
the message we have to share and then choose for themselves. So I
don't see why people in America have to be so rude to the
missionaries. It's pretty lame. I'm pretty happy that everyone here
loves us though, it makes things pretty sweet. The other day we were
walking down the road and there was a man wearing a full on muslim
attire including the little hat that they wear. We talked to him and
he gave us his number and said we could come see him. So crazy! Haha.
Anyway, the work is going great and I'm loving my area right now!
Transfer news is on Sunday! We'll see what happens. I'll talk to you
guys next week though! Love you!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart

Making blocks, Trapping Cats & Choosing the Right

Hello people,

Well, another week has gone by and you'll never guess how I feel about it... the week was stinking sweet! Surprise. First of all you should know that I bought new flip flops. They're bright green. I bought some like them when I was in Kossoh Town. They have Arabic writing on them so that's kind of exciting. Or maybe it's Chinese. Anyway, I can't read either so I don't really care too much. I'm glad to hear you guys had a pretty successful week though! Sounds like Slavster was just a little hot shot out there on the field. Everyone I've talked to has all said such good things! Yeah, EVERYONE. Today I played tennis which was kind of sweet. Turns out I'm not naturally talented at it but with a little practice I could play all right I think. Maybe not to the level of Clayton, but you know, not everyone can smack those noonas around like he can.

Anyway, the week was super sweet. In one of the pictures I'm sending home you can see we're standing next to some sort of contraption to make blocks. One day we were walking down this little path in the middle of nowhere trying to find this old man we started teaching the other day, but couldn't remember if we were supposed to go left or right when the path split (before someone says"Choose the Right!" the correct way was actually to the left. So... sorry.). As we were standing there, we saw this group of kids consisting of a 10, a 12, a 15, an 18 and a 22 year old making some mud bricks to build a house. The young one of the group then called out to us, "come help us!" So, obviously, we turned immediately and walked over to them. They were using this little contraption where you shovel wet mud into the block mould, pack it down, pack it down again with the machine, and then pull it back to raise the block up and out of the machine. So naturally Elder Burton and I took positions on either side and helped them to make mud blocks for the next hour. We contacted all of them and found out that they are all brothers and sisters and they lived just up the hill (the path to the right... okay you "choose the right" people would have still been right, but missionaries can never really go down the wrong path can they?) with their mom. Their dad had died so it was just them and their mom. A few days later we passed by to try and see them and met the mom and a couple of their other siblings. We haven't gotten a chance to really sit down and teach them but they were all super excited when we helped them and kept telling us to come to their house so that their mom could give some food to us for helping them. It was just kind of a cool little story to see how far a little bit of service can go. This last Sunday was also super sweet because we had FOURTEEN investigators come to church. So crazy. They filled up like two full rows. It was so sweet. This coming Saturday is also the baptism for that one super crazy guy that was converted from reading the Book of Mormon so that'll be a nice one. Anyway, things are going super great right now! But I'll talk to you all again next week! Love you!

Love,
Elder Stewart

P.S. Cody Guilbeau- Happy Birthday!

  The new Christmas tree

 Making blocks

 We had a cat breaking into our kitchen at night so we set a trap for him... then we ate him. JUST KIDDING. We let him go. Then we caught another one yesterday. So we just reinforced the kitchen and now it's golden.

  Just thought this picture looks kind of funny. Is that wicked?

Just Do It, Bigger Miracles & Bigger Faith

Family!

Well, before I forget to answer again, President and Sister Roggia came on 1 July 2010. Soooo they'll be due to go fairly soon. So it means that I won't get to finish with them. Which is kind of a bummer because I would rather him do my exit interview other than someone I've only known for about a month or so. Oh, and that guy who I talked about last week, his baptism is set for the 19th. But everything is looking pretty good so I'm sure it will be all good. Last week in our investigators class we passed around a paper to write your name, address, phone number, and if you were a baptized member or not. And under the baptism column he wrote "Not yet." So I thought that was kind of funny/sweet. But this last weekend we did have a baptism for a boy that stays with some members while he goes to school. So that was nice. He's a super smart kid and was really excited to be baptized.

So this week was sweet, mainly because we had a really great zone meeting! We baked the elders a cake and did a bunch of little activites to try and help them get inspired about the work for this new year. It was nice. Elder Burton and I were really excited about it and went crazy and decorated our apartment with Nike checks and the phrase "Just Do It." Remember the big Christmas tree you sent to me? Yeah well, it's now a massive check mark. I'll send a picture next week. We also put on our wall "Bigger Miracles, Bigger Faith." We've been really trying to have more faith. We've also been trying to focus on contacting fathers of families. It's kind of sweet because these old guys are all educated and we also have super sweet lessons with them. The church is soooooo new here it's ridiculous. Anyway, the work is still going well and going forward. I love all of you and can't wait to talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart

 Missionaries in Njagboima!

 Baptism!

 My flip flop broke so I fixed all up nice using a series of rubber bands. Also I haven't developed a weird style of wearing socks with flip flops, it was just SO COLD this morning. So I put on socks. In case you're wondering what I consider to be super cold now, it would be a whopping 73 degrees... yeah, I don't know if I'll be able to survive at BYU again.

African Accent, Huge Miracle & Goat Burgers

Hellooooo

Well the week was sweet. I still don't think I have an accent like you guys say I do, but it's all good. I liked hearing that missionary work is still going on back there. As far as getting people to sit down and talk with the missionaries back home goes, it's definitely a lot bigger challenge than here. But the problem here is finding people who are serious about wanting to stay committed for the whole lives and not wanting to just talk to some white guys. I'm pretty jealous of the holiday season you guys got to spend, but it's okay with having to give up two of those to serve the Lord. Elder Burton and I are throwing our own party this evening to celebrate the new year. We'll drink some super cheap sparkling lemonade and talk about setting goals for the future. oooooooo be jealous. But we won't be staying up until midnight, that would just be crazy! I wouldn't be able to walk the next day. One day is pretty filled and exhausting.

The week was pretty good. There's this one guy we've been teaching who is a pretty crazy guy... I think I might have talked about him in the past. Some guy that was trying to cut in on one of our lessons and justify getting drunk. I think I talked about him before. Anyway, We went to see him on like Thursday and see how he was doing. We've been continuing to see him and had taught him just about everything, and he's even come to church a few times. When we'd go and see him he'd always write these page long summaries of what he read in the pamphlets we gave him and would usually find scriptures in the Bible to oppose what we were trying to teach. But even with that he never was really convinced about anything we were teaching and said that he was really strong and had a high position in his church, so he would pretty much wouldn't leave it. The last time we had seen him we told him that he needed to be reading from the Book of Mormon and not worry about the pamphlets so much since that's what we had just discussed with him. He said no problem and we gave him an assignment to continue reading where he left off (for him to start reading in 1 Nephi 3). The next time we came we asked him how the reading went and he was just super excited. He said he had learning so much about faith and he saw that Nephi really had a desire to do what's right and that he too needed to show more faith in God. We talked about it with him and testified that we knew the message we were sharing was true and we invited him to be baptized again. He accepted but said he didn't know how he would be able to because of his position in his church. We talked with him some more and said that his baptism was in about two weeks so he could pray and make his decision. Well, Sunday came and he told us that he had submitted his resignation to his church and knew that the Book of Mormon was true and that he wanted to be baptized. WHAT?? I wish I could tell the entire history of us meeting with this guy but WHAT?? I honestly thought he would never be baptized. But he left everything behind and said he wanted to do it, and I know it's because of the things he learned by reading the Book of Mormon. The book is true! Simple as that. I know it could sound weird to other people but if you just take a small amount of time to listen to missionaries and understand why this strange book is here now it makes a lot of sense. Anyway, it was a huge miracle for sure and I can't wait for the day of his baptism! Everything here is going good! I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Stewart

P.S. Big Black- Happy Birthday! Nothing but a peanut.. or noona. Keep working out, you've got a long ways to go to catch up to me.

 

 

 SAB'S! It sells something like American food and its pretty great (and expensive-so we don't eat there often). It's always a good day when we can go there. It's not as good as it looks, the meat inside is goat meat.

 Some crazy kids of this lady we're teaching. I told them I wanted to take a picture and they all attacked that dog. Poor guy. Haha.

A Pretty Good Week

Hellooooooooooo

So first of all tomorrow I'll be calling around 5PM our time. I don't know what that is back home because you American people (minus Arizona) have your crazy daylight savings and I always get confused. So yeah. Around then.  So look out for that. Anyway, I can't wait to talk to all of you! The program we put on was interesting... tell you more about that tomorrow. Sounds like Savannah's team is doing well though. We had a pretty good week this past week. Elder Dyngee and I baptized all the investigators so Elder Burton and I have been contacting people like CRAZY. Its so funny how missionary work here is though. We've talked to lots of random people and every single one of them agreed to give us their number and allow us to come see them. Seriously. Every. Single. One. People here love God so much and are always wanting to hear his word. So sitting down with people is super easy. It's just getting them to get up and act! Anyway, we're finding lots of people so it should be pretty exciting. Anyway, We'll talk more tomorrow. I love you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart