A Phone Call, Missionary Mode & Pure Sacrifices

Hellooooooo

Well, it was definitely nice getting to talk to everyone last night! One hour was definitely too short. Its all good though. The work goes on. I decided this morning that I've officially gone into that missionary mode. Like where all I think about is missionary work and if anything else comes up that distracts from it I get annoyed. Haha. I really am loving everything though. I think a big thing about everything is because I came on mission not wanting to come back the same person. More than anything I wanted to learn lots of things about growing up. I feel like that's happening. So naturally I'm very excited about everything. Man. All of those guys in our ward that got their mission calls- Congrats! You'll all do great and learn so much. And Alexander- Welcome to Africa! Man I'm so excited for you.

So I have some bad news. I got the wrong cord for my camera so I'm not able to send any pictures today. Sorry! I'll do better next week. Oh, yes! If you can send that flashdrive back that would be great. Im glad you enjoyed all the videos and pictures! I'm going to try and take better pictures. I feel like I'm not doing a very good job with that.  Payton Nelson, continue to look out for my worrying mother. I appreciate that. But yeah, I'm glad everything is going well back home.

Alright so quick story that I didn't tell last night. Remember that lady who lives in the one room shack? This past Sunday her little boy walked into Church and tried to hand me some money. I was like "woah what is this?" He said it was his mom's tithing money. This is the second week in a row she has payed her tithing. She has nothing but still always pays her tithing. Man, that alone made my heart do about 19 flips. People can be so crazy sometimes, but when they make those pure sacrifices to serve the Lord, it makes them seem a little more humble. Or maybe just more crazy because it's so strange to see people keeping the commandments in the world today. Either way it's sweet.

So anyway, I wish you all a great week and all that stuff. I hope everyone else is doing well back home as well! I miss and love you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

This is a picture from the Mission President's Blog of all the missionaries in the Freetown East & West Zones. Our missionary is holding the H :)

An apology, a strong impression & "football"

Hello again my sweet sweet family.

I'm sorry but before I say anything I have to give a HUGE apology to my dear friend Clayton Bridge. I want you to know I did not forget your birthday. I wrote it in my planner and I even talked about it in my journal. But I only have a picture of my planner which I've sent home so you know that I'm serious. I hope you had a really good birthday and I'm apologize that I won't be able to meet up with you this new years. Something has come up. Book a time for me in a couple years though. I plan on being there to have a crazy Noonafest. Yes sir. I'll try and write you a letter, things have been a bit crazy lately though.

So yes, it is so strange that I will get to talk to all of you in a week. I'm thinking I will call around 8:00 PM my time. Maybe a little earlier. I'm not 100% sure. But if all else fails, plan for that time. I'll be sure to speak some Krio for you guys. Haha. That language is so funny. But before I do that I definitely want to hear your version of it.

So this week was a good one. It's very different being on the flip side of missionary work. Now I'm in charge of sooooo much more. Before I pretty much would just follow my companion around and sit down and help teach the lessons. There are so many more things to think about now though. I enjoy the challenge. Trust me, there have been challenges with different things that have come up, but I'm learning from all of them for sure. At the end of the day I'm always so insanely tired though. I'm enjoying though. I've realized there are a lot of things that happen around here that I totally don't even think twice about anymore- things that would sound so crazy back to you people in America. Like the other day this crazy guy that was super high on jamba (weed) stopped us and was demanding us to teach him. That happens every now and again so I'm kind of just used to it now. Oh, and just in case you're wondering, yes, I totally laugh at the fact that the smoothie place is called "Jamba Juice." I understand why so many people like going there now.

There are these two guys we are teaching and they want all of their families to be baptized so we have like a baptism of like 8 people planned for one day. The man has a smoking problem though. It was a small spiritual experience how it came up though. We were planning on teaching the man something completely different, but as we were nearing his house I just had a really strong impression that we should teach him the Word of Wisdom. I even wanted to just teach what we had planned, but it was definitely clear to me that we should teach the Word of Wisdom. We did and the smoking problem came out. It's good that we taught it now because it gives him plenty of time before his baptism to try and quit. It's not easy though. We helped him make plans and we're hoping that he will take them serious. He seems really sincere about baptism so we will continue to work with him and see what will happen.

One other thing, today we played football! Man it was so fun. The 4 missionaries from Wellington District came to Grafton and we played a bunch of recent converts and investigators from the Grafton Branch. As missionaries we aren't supposed to let things get competitive so we don't keep score. But I feel like if I just had to throw out a score I would say we won 4-2. But we didn't keep score. It was really fun though. The field we played on was a dirt, not grass. As you can see in the picture. That's dirt, not a spray tan. Anyway, I can't wait to talk to you guys next week! I love you all and I will TALK to you soon!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Getting Flashed, New Companion & My Best Two Years

Helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
fambo,

I sent Dad an email in Krio. I felt so bilingual when I sent it. I also felt like I just had really bad grammar because that is a huge part of speaking it. Anyway, sorry for that abrupt ending. Haha, I went back and read it and kind of laughed too. That was pretty much the end of the story though. I dunno. It was interesting. Oh before I forget, what you read is true. ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, I was pretty excited when I found out about it. I've been meaning to tell you guys for a couple weeks but I kept forgetting when I came to email. Man. That guy is so great. And the good news is that I probably will still be in Sierra Leone when that time comes. Cause if I was in Liberia, it would mean no Elder Holland for me. He is supposed to be coming in February, so as long as I don't get transferred at the end of this transfer I'll be okay. Because seriously, if I couldn't go I would probably go stand on the back of a big 18 wheeler not holding onto anything. Or well I guess that's not that dangerous because I see people doing that here all the time. Anyway, yeah I'm excited.

So to respond to your email from last week, we are indeed planning on having better food. We have a couple days of fun with the mission so I'm hoping we will get food there, but we are definitely going to try and have better food in our district. For the Christmas call, we just call home from the cell phones we carry around with us. So there's two ways we can do this thing. I feel like the most hassle free way is like this though- I flash home and then you guys call me back. Oh, and when I say flash I mean call the house and then hang up when it starts to ring so you guys will have a missed call. Here you don't have to pay for the phone call if someone calls you, only if you call them. So us missionaries get flashed all the time. I'm witty. Anyway, I'm thinking I'll do that. I'll also have that card thing we bought, just in case. I have to take a moment to say to everyone who has done so, THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGES! Man, you guys are amazing. I have gotten so many packages. All the other missionaries are extremely jealous. I hope you guys aren't going broke sending me all these packages though. I got one from Grandpa and Stephanie, as well as another one from the Pattersons (you guys are able to send me packages without even being here, it blew my mind! Haha, just kidding). I've also been stinking enjoying the 25 days to Christmas. I've been keeping a list of my guesses each day as the time goes. Some of those scriptures y'all chose are so witty. I'm enjoying. Haha. So cushe for that.

Savannah, I'm expecting a picture without your braces. No excuses. Also, keep up the sweet soccer playing. I'm so happy I'll be back in time to see you play before you graduate! Keep up the good work. I'm proud of you!

Man, I wish we could watch the Christmas Devotional. I've definitely developed a very different feel and love for modern day leaders. Man, I cannot express how much of a blessing it is and how true the church is. It's times like these where I feel like Alma in Alma Chapter 29 sometimes. Pretty sweet scripture when it comes to the gospel.

So, now the moment you've all been waiting for... my new companion has come! And his name is Elder Osei-Kissi! He is from England. He has an African name because his Dad is from Ghana, and his mom is from England. He lived in England all his life so yes, it means he has a sweet British accent. I had an idea of a very short video clip I want to send home for Christmas, so we'll see if it's small enough to email. I think Harry Potter fans would enjoy. Hopefully I can get him to do it. He's a super cool guy and is really excited about missionary work. Being a trainer is already a big turn around from being trained because I find myself extremely thirsty all the time. The reason being is because I talk SO MUCH. I feel like I'm really annoying but he says it's okay because he doesn't understand anything their saying. We'll slowly work out and work more in unity as we go, but for now, man it's hard work. I'm definitely a lot more tired at the end of the day. Haha. I also started cooking for myself. I cooked some super delicious rice and beans (not really) but it was pretty sweet. I like it though because when I come home I'll be able to cook some stuff and I won't have to eat all the microwave meals all the time. Even though they're super easy and delicious... we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I love my mission though because it's such a good preparation to deal with things that come up in life. Sometimes I stop and think about the fact that I'm a 19 year old kid walking around Africa, speaking a crazy language, asking crazy people to give me rides on their motorcycles, going into fly and mud covered marketplaces to buy random things, hauling buckets from a well, handwashing my clothes- and then I realize that it doesn't matter who I am but where I let the Lord take me. I see miracles happening every day and I am loving every experience that comes by. I can see why they call this the best two years and I hope that anyone who reads this and is able to serve a mission will do it. I know this is the right thing and I know that everything will work out the way it's supposed to as long as we keep the commandments. It's that simple. Keep the commandments and prosper. I am doing great and everyone around me is doing great as well. I love you all, and I will talk to you in a few weeks!

Love,
Elder Stewart

 My new companion Elder Osei-Kissi from England!

 Elder Pabie cutting a kids hair using a razorblade and a comb. It was stinking hilarious.

 A baptism from a couple weeks ago. We combined with the Rokel Elders

 The people we baptized that same weekend

Someone's house that was near the waterside
 

 A super sweet picture I edited small while I was waiting for the internet to load

Don't worry I wasn't far from the edge. That place was super cool though

Family picture. Me with my dad and son (Yeah, things get kind of weird in missionary work sometimes)

Transfer News, Chubby Baby Blessing & Half of a Spiritual Story

Well. The internet decided to suck again. I was sitting for two hours before we got one to work. I don't have time to read any other emails people have sent me or to specifically reply to this email or to send any pictures. While I was waiting I was able to type a letter about transfer news and I started telling a story but couldn't finish. So... enjoy?

Well, transfer news came yesterday. I’m not sure why, but I think President likes to make the transfer news for our district exciting. I like it though. So here’s what happened. Elder Tawiah and Elder Walker are still together, as are Elder Taylor and Elder Essego. But, Elder Taylor is now our District Leader, which means that Elder Pabie is leaving. Elder Pabie is the new Zone Leader for Freetown East Zone (the zone I’m in now) which of course also means that I’m getting a new companion. And who is my new companion you ask? Well, if I knew his name I would tell you. How can they not have told me someone’s name that is moving to me from another district in the mission you ask? Well, it’s because my new companion isn’t in any of the districts; he’s coming fresh from the MTC. Yup. I’m training. Do you want to know when my last day of training was? Yesterday. For those of you who don’t know, on a mission a new missionary is trained by their first companion for 3 months, and most missionaries don’t train right after their training ends. I don’t really understand why I’ve been called to train a new missionary; there are so many older missionaries who know how to do everything way better than me. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. I was really blessed to have such a good trainer in Elder Pabie though; I have definitely learned a lot since I’ve first come. But still. It’s like, what do I have to teach this new missionary? I’m going to make a lot of mistakes but I feel that I’ll grow the most during this whole thing. We’ll see how everything goes. I’m excited for the challenge but I definitely realize that I’ll never be able to do it without the Lord’s help. Man. I’ll be able to tell y’all more about who he is next week.

Apart from the transfer news, everything has been going as normal. We had a baptism this past weekend. We had planned for four people but one of the candidate’s mother died and she was never able to get an interview in time. The three we had though were all there on time and showed up to be confirmed in Church the next day. We had combined our baptism with Elder Tawiah and Elder Walker, so we had 8 people baptized the same day. That also means that we had 8 confirmations in church the next day. Then after the baptisms they asked me and Elder Pabie to bless two babies. Remember that really chubby little baby I sent a picture of a few weeks ago? I think he might have been wearing a yellow shirt. Anyway, that’s the baby I blessed. That little fat kid is so cool. Haha.  Needless to say, we definitely exercised our priesthood yesterday.

Cool spiritual story- So yesterday Elder Pabie had to do a bunch of baptismal interviews so we only had time for one lesson at the end of the day. There was this one person we really wanted to go see but they lived super far away. We walked all the way to their house and when we got there the person had decided to leave and go do something else instead. So we walked alllllll the way back and stopped by one of our recent convert’s house to have a lesson with them. After that we had to go back to the apartment to send in our numbers for the week. I was fasting yesterday so I was insanely thirsty and was really tired from the far distance we had walked. The day before Elder Pabie had left his shoes with this guy to fix them, and so Elder Pabie said, “Hey let’s go pick up my shoes real quick before we go back.” I was super tired but I figured it would be quick so it was no problem; we just had to walk to the other side of the street. When we got to the guy he said that he thought the shoes were at his house (we know him well, his wife is a member and his son is that fat baby I blessed). I felt like I should have been annoyed because they live down the side of a cliff and we were going to have to greet all the people that lived down there, but I felt really calm about it and we went down to his house. We went down and talked to people and the guy went in and checked for the shoes. As we were waiting this muslim lady we know came out and greeted us. She looked very unhappy so we asked her what was wrong. She said she felt really sick and asked us for a blessing. We gave her one and left. I asked Elder Pabie how she knew about blessings and he said that one time him and his previous companion were called by the members around her and they gave her one. She said she wouldn't join the church because her family would kill her.

love,

Elder Stewart

Thanksgiving in Africa

Hello famboooo,

Your question about Thanksgiving... yeah we had a sweet feast to celebrate it. A picture is attached. So how money works for the mission is that every month on the 28th we go to the bank to pick up money for the 4 weeks. Meaning that around the end of those weeks we are very low on our money. Hence, our delicious thanksgiving dinner was a bowl of rice, baked beans, and chunks of Zowa (Spam) in it. Oh, in case you look at the picture and are wondering if the spam box is written in Arabic, yes, yes it is. Pretty much all the the food products here are labeled in Arabic on one side and English on the other. I'm assuming it's because of all the muslims here. It's kind of funny though. So that was a poor man feast. On the actually day of Thanksgiving it decided to rain (weird because we are in dry season, so I didn't have my umbrella) and so we walked back to the apartment through mud and rain. We get soaked a lot here. The rain isn't really an excuse to not go out. It's just nicer when I remember my umbrella. Anyway, our district decided that we didn't want to have Christmas be like Thanksgiving, so we're going to try and save money and buy a goat to slaughter and eat for Christmas dinner. We'll see how that one goes.

You're right, no one in Africa knows Thanksgiving.... in the way we know it. They have Thanksgiving here but basically what that version of Thanksgiving translates to is the pastors of the churches steal a bunch of money and food from people. In all the little churches around here the pastors teach the people that around this time all the people in the church are supposed to bring money, food, all kinds of things and give it to the pastor to pay him for doing God's work. Mannnnnnn so corrupt. I feel bad for those pastors when they die and meet God. Using the Bible to steal people's money. Yikes. There are places in the Bible where people try and offer the apostles money and they always tell the people no. There's nowhere in the Bible where people are paid to preach the gospel, the whole big thing is how Jesus was a servant to the people, not the people to him. So funny how that worked out in our day.

Yes, my shoe size is the same so if you wanted to send shoes to me I would be a happy boy. Oh and the Christmas package, I got it. Oh, and I got Grandma Semmerling's package. Thank you so much! I think there's only like 5 oreos left. Haha. But man, let me tell you how jealous everyone was of my sweet family when I opened that Christmas package and showed them. Elder Taylor was looking at it and was like "What? And they put scripture references as clues?? Your family is creative AND spiritual?!" Yeah, you guys are the stinking best family ever. As you can see by my extreme enthusiasm in the picture. Also, I don't know why I'm doing so many thumbs up. I guess I was just really excited about sweet packages and crappy Thanksgiving "feasts." Ah, either way the gospel is so true.

Man, you guys were on a beach. Whattttt. Supposedly there will come a time where on a P-day we will go to a beach here. No idea when that one will happen. I'll be sure to take pictures though, no worries.  Haha. They sent out a text to all of us the other day talking about calling home for Christmas. It's weird to think you guys have voices. I ate ice cream for the first time (since coming here...) today. And OH MY GOSH. It was amazing. It was like real ice cream. Man, thinking about it makes me feel like I'll go crazy. I can't even describe how good it tasted. I might have a new addiction when I go home. Transfer news is next Sunday, which is always super exciting. It's impossible to tell what will happen but I'm sure it will be interesting to see nonetheless. I'm going to send you guys a Christmas Present. Well, it's not really a present for you guys because it's all pictures of me... but anyway, I'm going to put all the pictures I have so far and put them on a flashdrive. And then this week we have to go to Belliar Park for an interview with President, so I'll give it to Sister Patterson to give to Grandma to send to y'all. And then you can see all the pictures and videos that I've taken since I've been here. Yay. Oh and I have to give a quick shout out to Lexi Hayob because she sent me a sweet letter and talked about shout outs. Yeah, my shout out is really that lame Lexi. Sorryo.

Okay, so spiritual story time. So this one lady we have been teaching and is set to baptize on December 3rd had her interview this past Saturday. This lady is very very uneducated and cannot speak any English whatsoever. She can barely barely understand my Krio (most people can understand me completely now, it's pretty exciting) and sometimes doesn't understand Elder Pabie when he speaks Krio. Her original language is Mende, another dialect that doesn't sound anything like English, I've learned a couple little phrases of it but I don't understand anything. She lives in a one room house that is probably about the size of the shed we have. It's also made out of the same material but not quite as nice. She has two sons, a twelve year old and a 3 year old, and her husband was killed a few years ago in a mining accident. She doesn't know how old she is or when she was married. The point is, her life is not easy. We would teach her very slowly and very small, just enough so she could understand. I think she understood everything we told her, but it's tough to tell sometimes. The thing with this lady though is that she knows that getting baptized is the right thing to do. She has the desire to follow Christ and she knows that she can do that by the steps she's taking. She is so humble and is so willing to do what it takes to make it back to the kingdom of God. We were sitting with her waiting for the Zone Leaders to arrive to interview her and she was sitting very quietly talking to herself. I could hear her going over the interview questions like it was going to be a test. I could tell she was very nervous and told her that it wasn't a test and that everything would be okay. She seemed to calm down small and waited. What I was thinking about though is how there are people in this world that are super educated, have tons of money, nice cars, have so much going for them, but they completely overlook the eternal perspective. This lady who has nothing will feel more comfort because of the decisions she made on earth than any of those rich, educated people. Seeing this lady being nervous and waiting for her interview just made my heart do flip flops and punch my brain and tell me that this is what it means to truly be humble. Humility can be a tough thing sometimes but we all need to try our best to put ourselves aside and focus on the most important things in life (Like our families!).

Anyway, now that we're all crying, I'm going to go fight giant hordes of people all trying to get inside a hot and sweaty van and take the 30 minute drive back to our apartment in the outer villages of the mighty metropolis known as Freetown. Hopefully the tire doesn't blow up like the first poda poda (van) we got in this morning. Happy late Thanksgiving! I love you and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

P.S. Jordyn Ingram- Happy late late Birthday! Yes, I remembered it all by myself.

African food and Learning the gospel

Hello fambo,

Sounds like everything is going along nice and well over there. Savannah, I'm very proud of your soccer playing abilities. I'm excited to be able to be home to see you for your senior year... captain. It's also good to hear that my room has become a storage room. I hope you don't get too many rats in there. But I guess rats don't get inside our house quite as easily as they do into our apartment here. Hey it's all exciting.

In our branch here we actually started something new because we have so many recent converts and investigators that come to church. I'll talk about that one in a sec. But no, there's nothing like gumbo that we eat here. Or well, kind of. Let me explain how a lot of the food is made here.

Everywhere we go people make rice and put some kind of "plasace" on it. Which is just like the... topping? I guess. I'll describe it. It looks like that food I took a picture of in the MTC that was that green stuff on rice. But they have like different stuff they put on it. How they prepare it though is that they take a bunch of this certain kind of leaves and cut them into small pieces. Then they fry it in a pot in oil and put that on the rice. I'm pretty sure that's how it's done. I've gotten used to it now and it actually tastes good sometimes. I definitely miss hamburgers and chick fil a though. Man. That place doesn't even sound real anymore. My favorite plasace though is definitely pumpkin. Man pumpkin tastes so good! The pumpkins here are also green. The oranges are green too. So are the bananas. Like when they're green you're supposed to eat them. They never turn yellow. They're also all really small. The cucumbers here are really short and fat. I eat a lot of fried chicken and rice. I eat SO MUCH RICE. Rice is in everything. It's a good thing I like it then. Haha. I eat rice every day. That's what most people eat. It's good. The thing that's kind of like gumbo is this soup people make that is just like flavored broth with fish and onions and peppers in it. It's pretty good too.

Anyway, the work here is going forth as normal. The transfer ends on December 4th so we'll be getting transfer news that day. No idea what will happen but transfer news is always exciting! So that class we have in church- we call it investigator class. We put people who were baptized in the last 6 months and people who are not members in the same class during the Sunday School time slot and we learn basic basic things about the gospel. I think the people really like it and our investigators always comment on how much they love being able to actually learn and ask questions for themselves. Most of the churches here are just a pastor will preach for an hour, everyone says amen, and then they all go home. They aren't able to learn anything! A lot of the churches around here tell people that the only way they'll get blessings are if they pay money. Man it makes me so mad to hear about these pastors stealing people's money like that. We're doing what we can here. But man let me tell you, the most upsetting thing is when we walk under the hot sun for miles every day hearing all these people tell us they'll come to church, and then that Sunday they can't even give up time to go to the church and make good on their promise. Ah it can be so frustrating sometimes. Especially when they lie to us when we ask why they didn't go. We're doing our best though. Anyway, the work is sweet here and I'm enjoying every day! I'm out of time so I need to go. I love you and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

 DRUGS!

 A huge millipede. This made me think of you Big Black. You know why.

This shirt just made me laugh a lot. I guess it was imagining the actual World Cup it's talking about. Is that bad?

Put your trust in the Lord

Hello fambo,

Well, it has been another week in Afraca. Savannah- man so sweet! By the time you're
a senior you'll probably be like the team captain. No joke. It's cool. You'll learn a lot. Just be patient. Trust me. Haha. That's so sweet though. Keep the good soccer name in the family, yeah? Good.

So this past week was pretty exciting. One of the big highlights had to have been this last Friday. The reason being because we went on exchanges! Exchanges are always exciting because we get to go out with other missionaries in our district. This last exchange was pretty different though. The reason being because this exchange was the first time I would have to lead someone in my area (Basically meaning I have to do everything without any help from my good ole trainer), and not only that, the person I was going with was Elder Walker- who is fresh from the MTC as of two weeks. He is still at that point where the Krio all  sounds like a bunch of jibberish. So it was pretty exciting because it meant I would get a small taste of being the "dad." I kind of saw it as a day to truly test how far I've come. Usually I can just let Elder Pabie answer the hard questions or interpret what people say if I missed it, but this time everything fell on me. Needless to say I was pretty excited about the challenge. So the day ended up being full of bounces. Seriously, like all of the appointments fell through. We only saw like 2 people we had planned for. So I had to find ways to manage the time. I dunno if the Lord wanted to really test me or something, but one of the ways that time management happened was by meeting all these crazy people that walked up to us. It was times like these where I really saw how much I learned from Elder Pabie. So there were three different people.

The first guy was this crazy drunk guy. He was telling us he had seen visions and had read, as he put it, "The Book of the Mormons." At first I thought he was just crazy but then he was like "mannnnn that book scares me!! Those Nephites and Lamanites fight too muchhhh! The sons of Ishmael are so crazyyyy!!" So I guess he really did read it. Ha. But then he was trying to tell us how he wanted to come to Jesus. Sidenote- you all should know that when crazy people start talking to the missionaries and start shouting at us, a small crowd of passerbys will ALWAYS stop and watch. Elder Pabie told me that when this happens we must always defend the truth. So that's what I did. This guy was saying all this crazy stuff and at some point I was crying him unto repentance and telling him he needed to follow God's commandments and I even gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and told him ways to get past drinking. Did it make any difference to him after we left? Probably not. But it was intense nonetheless.

The second person was some guy asking us for money and saying that we're supposed to give him money because of the Bible or something. The small crowd began to gather. This guy started drawing junk on a piece of paper and telling us we owed him money. I told him we didn't give people money, but we gave people something that was worth more than money and tried inviting him to Church. He said Jesus would never do that to people so I told him that if he could find a place in the Bible where Jesus went around handing out money I would give him some. It was great.

So this last guy was a pastor. He kept saying stuff about how he had been ordained of God by his vision through Jesus Christ and that's why he had the right to open his own church. I was able to open up the Bible and show him why he can't just do that, how you are supposed to properly baptize and how you are properly ordained of God. He went back and ate food with his friends.

My point of saying all of this isn't to say "look how good I am now" or anything like that. While it was exciting to meet all these crazy people and to show them the truthfulness of the way, the thing that I was able to learn is that when we go forth among these people, we don't go forth alone. I know for a fact I couldn't have done any of that alone and that the Holy Ghost was leading me and guiding me through all those various situations. The day was successful and we were able to do the work of the Lord. My training ends after the first week in December, and after that I'm going to have to know how to completely function as a missionary if I were going forth alone. I still have sooooooooo much learning and growing to do but I know that I never REALLY have to go through any of it alone. The Lord is there to help me and strengthen me, and I know that as long as I put my trust in him, I will be able to do anything he asks me to do. The same goes for everyone who reads this. Put your trust in the Lord and it will all work together for your good. Na true bing! (Krio)

Anyway, everything is going really good and I am loving every day. The baptisms were a success and everyone showed up on Sunday! Also baptizing in that river was like the coolest thing ever. Man, it was so cool. Anyway, my time is up so I'll explain the pictures then go. I love and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

I've officially become addicted to buying jerseys and I bought a Cameroon one (Cody Guilbeau you know why. Oh by the way, heard about the teeth. Cushe on that one) And that tie I have on is from Nigeria and freaking nice and amazing and cheap.

People we baptized.

River where we baptized.

 The meal I made because I had real milk. It was pretty satisfying. And mushy.