Conference, Perfect Investigator & Harry Potter

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.

Waterloo, Tons of Missionaries & And the Gospel on the Radio?

Where we baptize

         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
 

Camera Trouble, Super Busy & The Greatest Thing about a Mission

Hello family!

Well, sounds like you guys are pretty much enjoying. But yeah, to answer your
questions, yeah I'm having camera trouble. I think it might be messed
up. I kind of talked about it to dad in his email though. I have no
idea where to buy a camera here and a lot of the times the electronics
here are cheap and are made to look like original ones that are
actually just cheap chinese knock offs. I'll look around all the same
though. I'm in a new area now and I'm with a new companion. His name
is Elder Wootton and he's from Utah. I tried to attach some pictures
but the internet wasn't working too well. We had a baptism this past
weekend and I'm back in the river! Yes! It's sweet. I didn't baptize
the people this time though. I don't know them super well. Haha. As
far as the whole family we're trying to teach goes, the guy is only
available on weekends and on this last weekend he had to travel
somewhere far for a funeral. It's not sweet though because people will
feel the Spirit and then after they haven't seen us for a long time
they forget about it or they hear things and then they never let us
come see them again. It's crappy. So he's a work in project. One
pretty crazy thing happened this week that you guys probably won't
believe. I think I said in the last email how I'm in my first branch
again and so I'll get to see a bunch of people that I knew from the
beginning of my mission including converts. One thing that they always
do in the branches here is that any time a new missionary gets
transferred into their branch they always have him bear his testimony.
So although I had been there before, they had me bear my testimony
again. The thing that was crazy was that as I had started to talk I
said something like "it seems like just yesterday I stood at this same
pulpit and bore my first testimony on mission..." I felt like I wanted
to cry! What??? It kind of just hit me how fast the time goes I guess.
I have kind of been in denial (and really I think I still am) that
mission will eventually end but it kind of all hit me right there. It
just really made me want to be sure that I put everything I can into
these last few transfers because I don't want to look back and think
about what I could have done better. We're super busy and I'm just
trying to work hard to handle all the responsibilities. I love these
people like crazy though! I realized that the most frustrating thing
and the greatest thing about serving a mission is the people. They're
the ones that make you feel happy and the ones that make you vexed!
Haha. Speaking of sweet people though, there's this one lady we're
teaching who is just super sweet and loves the gospel but she really
wants to be baptized with her husband. The husband is a pretty good
guy, he just really likes to focus on this little shop his owns. We
focused on him more this past few days and on Sunday he came to
church! It was sweet! He's a really great guy and so we're hoping
he'll continue to progress. Anyway, we had a really great week and I'm
looking forward to another great one this week. I love all of you and
I'll talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart

P.S. Post my email address on the blog so that everyone knows they can
email me! THanks! (hunter.stewart@myldsmail.net)

Emails!, Poda Podas & Family

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) 

Transfer News & Learning More Than Possibly Imagined

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

Zone Conference, Super P-day & Egg Hunt

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 16th!

Baptism from the 23rd!

 

Kids wearing sweet clothes.

 My MTC Elder Wuthrich on our 18th month mark!

 Guinea pigs from Guinea.

 Can you identify this snake for me?

 Baptism from this past weekend, the 2nd.

 I've been wanting to take a picture like this for a long time. I

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!
 

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