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

Homeboys, Ibo Town & Krio Proverbs

Hello family!
 
Hey there, I don't know how I felt about that little line about my
crazy African accent! Haha, sometimes when I'm sitting there I find
myself thinking about things in Krio. It's kind of weird. Glad the
Relief Society enjoyed the little bit about me teaching it. Lets just
say I never want to teach Relief Society again! Haha. There are no
pictures attached of Savannah from prom and I'm a little upset about
that. Not gonna lie. But it's her birthday today and HOLY COW I CAN'T
BELIEVE SHE'S 17. WHAT THE HECK IS THAT. Doesn't she still have her
braces? Sometimes when I show people a picture of all you guys they
ask what's on her teeth in the picture. I tell them it's her grill. No
not really. I just say she fell down and they had to use iron bars to
get her teeth to stay in her mouth. Okay so usually no one ever asks.
Anyway, happy birthday Savannah! Sorry I can't send you a present but,
I'll do my best to find something cool for you. Speaking of those
kinds of souvenir things- what are you guys wanting me to find for
you? Any ideas? There's this big trend that has caught on with the
missionaries and that's to "make homeboys." A homeboy is what they
call hoodies here. But what we do is we buy some sweet looking african
material and bring it to a tailor and have him make a hoodie out of
it. There's this expensive hand woven cloth called country cloth that
my companion and I are going to make some out of. Everything together
costs about 100,000 leones to make one. So around $23 or so. They have
other cheaper African looking material to make it out of though. We'll
see. So I can make those, or any other kind of clothes out of african
looking material. Kind of cool. Then they have like other handwoven
bags like purses and lots of football jerseys for cheap and I guess
right before they take missionaries home from their missions they take
them to a wood market where there's lots of hand carved statues and
stuff. So yeah. Just keep some things in mind and if you think of
anything I can try and find it for you. They have all that cliche
African stuff here too. So just let me know! Maybe you can tell me
when I call home.
 
Anyway, so this week was flipping sweet because we had our first ever
meeting inside our new building inside Waterloo! It was great. There
were 3 pairs of senior couples there so it was kind of exciting. We
had a successful meeting and there was no problem there. We also had
this one investigator come who is the mother and the boss of this one
household. 3 of the people in her household are interested in the
church and want to be baptized, but she keeps telling them they need
to wait first. She came to church for the first time and she had a
really good experience. She's a super smart lady and went to
university in England. Which is close to impossible for someone from
here to do. When she had first met the missionaries teaching her
family I guess she was kind of rude and totally uninterested in them
but something has changed and she's agreed to start taking the
lessons. We've been having some sweet lessons with her and we're
really looking forward to seeing what happens with her. All I know is
she would make a great Relief Society President (so that way Elder
Stewart wouldn't have to teach!). Anyway, the church is sweet. My area
is sweet. My companion is sweet. The district is sweet. No problem. I
just want to work hard and finish everything strong! Oh and I don't
think I told you but the name of my area is officially called "Ibo
Town." Anyway, I love all of you and will talk to you all next week!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart
 
P.S. I haven't seen anything too wild other than the mammoth moth that
attacked out apartment (about the size of my open palm), and the crazy
people who dress up as "debuls." Nothing too crazy!

 Here are some Krio proverbs
GכD Nכ DE GI YU LOD WE YU Nכ GO EBUL TOT.
God won't give you a load you can't carry.
 
WE DεN TOT YU NA BAK, YU Nכ NO SE ROD LANGGA.
If they carry you on their back, you won't know that the road is long.

First Meeting, New Teaching & Back in the River

Hellooooo
 
Well, first off the whole Boston Marathon thing is terrifying. I'm
just glad all of our family members are okay. Definitely could have
been a lot worse. If they ever find out why the people did that I
would be interested to know. Anyway, the world can definitely be
pretty sick and twisted at some points, trust me.
 
Anyway, on a happier note, something you could put inside a package
would be some Slap Ya Mama and Tony's. Ohhhh yeaaaahh. The thing here
is that there's just no flavor. Also some propel drink mixes and
toothpaste would be nice.
 
Well, on my side of the pond things have been a little crazy.
Yesterday was the first meeting of the new branch and because of that,
there are no people called into any leadership positions. Haha. Which
might not be a big problem if 90% of the branch wasn't baptized in the
last year. So it meant that the missionaries were doing a lot of
teaching for the day. And you'll never guess which class I taught....
Relief Society! Haha. And guess what I taught them about? Marriage!
Hahaha. It was pretty lame not gonna lie. It's just hard because we
only have about 3 manuals for the class and most of the women don't
know how to read anyway. So I just tried to bring up a lot of
discussion questions. Definitely an interesting experience. We're
supposed to be getting a building this week inside the town of
Waterloo itself (right now we're a 20 minute drive down the highway to
the next town), so hopefully this guy we've been trying to meet with
will answer his phone so we can seal the deal! It's definitely an
adventure working with a new branch but I really like it and just want
to do all I can to get everyone off to a good start. We have transfer
news next Sunday as well... I'm thinking I won't be going anywhere or
getting a new companion, but it's almost impossible to tell for sure.
We had a baptism last Saturday and it was back in the river! It was a
nice service even though the only people that were able to go were the
6 missionaries and the lady. Since the branch was new everyone was
involved with this other activity and weren't able to go to the
baptism. It'll be better in the future though. Anyway, everything is
great here! Just waiting for General Conference to arrive! First
weekend in May. I love all of you though and can't wait to talk to you
on Mother's day!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart

No Packages, New Branch & God loves you no matter what

Hello family!
 
Well, I guess I'll start with the bad news first. I haven't gotten any
packages... I talked to a couple of other guys and they both said
they've been waiting on packages since like January... looks like
there was a big thiefing festival at the post office in January or so.
I was pretty depressed to see people walking in with lots of packages
and letters on Sunday and not having a single one be for me! It's
alright though I guess. I could definitely go for some Oreos right
now, but I guess I'll just have to bear it.
 
Good to hear about the housing situation though! It's pretty weird to
have almost everything set in place now. Just have to find out when
I'll be getting home. I guess that one is pretty important. I thought
it was pretty funny that Charlie came back on his own. That old fart.
 
Wow, so this last week was pretty crazy. The biggest thing that
happened was this last Sunday. Like I said before, I'm serving in
Kossoh Town branch again. When I was in Kossoh Town the last time,
about 3 months after I had been on mission the branch split because of
the growth in the area. This last Sunday I was priviledged to see the
branch split again and see the creation of the Waterloo branch. So I'm
no longer serving in the Kossoh Town branch but the Waterloo branch.
It's pretty sweet because we got a new branch president, new
everything. It's all people from Waterloo running the show now. The
proselyting area of Waterloo was opened up a while ago but
missionaries didn't really start focusing on it until around August
2011, right when I came. It just goes to show the rapid growth of the
Church here. It also means that all of our converts are going to be
the big leaders in the branch! Pretty sweet. It also means that we're
going to have to be doing lots of helping to make sure there's correct
doctrine being taught! Haha. It'll be nice though. One neat experience
happened this week. There's this one man we're teaching who is around
30, lives alone, works construction every day, and has a pretty bad
smoking problem. We're were talking to him about his smoking problem
and discussing what he can do to help him quit. He's kind of one of
those guys that has like a really rugged appearance, gravely voice,
and is always wearing dirty clothes. We told him what he has to do to
quit smoking and he agreed to do it. As we were winding up the lesson
we asked him if he had any questions. He kind of thought about it for
a minute and said, "If I quit drinking and smoking....." We were
expecting him to ask about some material benefit or something, and
then he said "...will God love me?" Man! See our hearts melt like a
girl watching The Notebook. We were so shocked that my companion even
muttered a quiet "Wow..." after he said it. I told him he said that
later and he said he didn't even remember saying that. So that was
kind of funny, haha. Anyway, We told him that God loves him even
though he does those things, but because of that love He has for him,
He wants him to quit those things so he can bless him more. It was
pretty sweet. The guy came to church Sunday too. Things are going
pretty good, we just need more investigators. Small small. Anyway,
Thank you for everything and I'll talk to you all next week!
 
Love,
Elder Stewart