One Year Mark & The Best Sunday Yet

Dear family,

So glad to hear the news! I guess Lafayette will just have to get used to us! I'm pretty grateful and can definitely see the hand of the Lord in it. The timing is pretty interesting! I can't believe the wedding is this Saturday! So soon. Hopefully the hurricane won't mess anything up. I'm definitely going to be expecting lots of pictures! I haven't gotten the tie yet and won't get it until September 12th because I'm so far away (sidenote- all you people who have been writing me letters, I promise I've been writing you back, it just takes an insanely long time for them to actually get sent out because I'm in the middle of nowhere). But I'll wear it and take a picture next to a calendar and just pretend. I'll even shine my shoes and wear my tailored shirt and pants (yup, I did that). It'll be sweet. Be safe in the hurricane! Don't let any runaway trampolines come and UFO themselves into the house. I'll be happy to hear how everything goes though!

This last week has been pretty good for me. We had another baptism and are pretty much just enjoying the work and having all kinds of sweet adventures (like killing that chicken). Tomorrow we planned a celebration for my one year so that'll be pretty nice. This last Sunday was pretty much the best Sunday I've had on mission because one, our candidate from baptism showed up on time (the sense of time here is pretty much nonexistent. When we plan to start our baptisms at 11 we tell everyone to be there by 10. Sometimes they're still late. So when church starts at 9 we usually have about 15 people in the building, 60+ by the end of sacrament meeting), and two, EIGHT people we recently started teaching showed up to church for the first time. It was pretty exciting. I mean we usually have around eight investigators at church, but they have usually been coming already and come like one at a time. But it was crazy! So many new faces, I was pretty excited. I definitely felt good because working so hard all week to see none of the people come to church stinks. So it was a nice one year gift. Sounds like this weekend was a pretty great one for everyone! I'm excited for all of you and can't wait to talk next week! Love you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

  Our neighbor boy who likes to speak mende and be annoying. But we like him for it.

  A members fat little kid. But he's pretty sweet.

 Baptism!

Binaway! (Sorry, yeah?)

Birthdays, Service Projects & T-shirts from Home

Hello Family!

Glad to hear everything is going along smoothly! I've never been to the Games of Acadiana... people always talked about it but I never went. Sounds pretty cool though! Too bad I couldn't be there to see Ms. Hebert though. She was a nice lady. Haha. That 17 points of the true church thing I'll write it down and take a picture of it. Speaking of pictures, I'm on a computer that works so I'll just talk about a bunch of pictures! The week was pretty sweet and we've been meeting tons of cool people and have pretty much just been enjoying like nothing. Anyway, here are some pictures!

  We played football at the nice big district center in Bo. I scored lots of goals and our team never lost. It was pretty nice.

 The baptism from a couple weeks ago! Those people are super sweet and the guy standing next to me got to baptize his wife! Pretty cool.

 We had two birthdays, Elder Otubu from Ghana and Elder Richards turned 26 and 20. So I whipped out those plates and things you gave me and we had a big party for them

 As you can see we pretty much enjoyed like crazy and bought some cheap ice cream and little sweet debbie cake thing. You have no idea how much fun all that ice cream was for my stomach the next day (it's been awhile with the dairy products).

  Yup, that shirt is exactly what you think it is. A university of Louisiana shirt. And in tiny letters underneath the word "Louisiana" it says "Lafayette." I freaked out when I saw that shirt. So shout out to all my friends at UL. Africa knows you're there. This is the third picture of sweet shirts I've taken, and they've all been at the same house. I should just go through the guys dresser.

 All-African Service project! We "brushed" (did yardwork) for the local prison.

  Kenema District!

 Simbeck branch!

 This is what happens when you don't wash your hair.

Dinner! (but seriously. We'll kill it after we've fattened it up small.)

So everything has pretty much been going great here! Time is flying by and this week I'll hit one year! I miss and love you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Praying in a Loudspeaker, Walking to Church & Mowing the Lawn

Hello family!

All is well in the village of Kenema. We had transfer news yesterday and the big news is that nothing changed. I'm still with Elder Richards and I'm still in Kenema. One of the elders in our apartment received an American and so it means that we know have 5 Americans and 1 Ghanian. It's pretty crazy. I feel bad for our lone African brother. Haha, he seems to be okay with it though. Savannah is starting school already? Seriously, the summer's going by so fast. The past year has gone by pretty fast! I'm glad that I'm done with all that early morning seminary. Even though I wake up at 6:30 every morning, 5:20 sounds ridiculous. Even though I actually do wake up at 5 every morning. The reason being because the mosque down the road always has their prayer at 5 in the morning and they pray in a big loudspeaker. Like insanely loud. It's really annoying. I think there's actually a video I sent home on that flashdrive when I was in freetown and I'm just like talking about how ridiculous it is. Anyway, the tie hasn't come yet. I'm guessing it will arrive in Sierra Leone this week but the question then is when someone will come out to Kenema to drop it off. So we'll see about that one.

This past week was good because we had a baptism! I have pictures but this computer I'm on is dumb and won't recognize the camera. Sorryyyy. It was good though and everyone was looking good in their whites. It's true what you said about people coming long distances to church. When I was in one of the other Elders areas on an exchange I definitely saw someone who went far. We took a bike from their chapel for about 7 minutes, got down and walked about twenty minutes down a muddy path, and finally we walked up to a house in the middle of nowhere. I asked the girl how long it took for her to get to church and she told me she walks for about an hour and a half. It pretty much blew my mind. People really sacrifice to do what they know is right. It was a pretty big testimony to me about how big of an impact the gospel can make in people's lives. I've seen a lot of people change and it really has shown me why everything I've known my whole life is as important as it is. I've seen people who pretty much didn't want to have anything to do with God completely change their lives and talk about how much happier they've become. I never really fully appreciated everything when I was at home because I didn't exactly realize the difference it can make. Even people that were content and happy with the way their lives were. People who didn't even see a reason to change anything. They have accepted the message we shared with them and found more joy in their lives than the joy they already had. I actually find it really funny that I was like "I'd never walk to church!" back home. Because we walk so far every day. Haha. The church is such a short walk from our house. Oh, side note, we mowed the lawn today. Mowing the lawn means we took machete's and hacked down these big monster weeds and cut the long grass down. Pretty great. Some people on the other side of our compound wall cut down some bushes and said they found like 3 black cobras in the weeds. Unfortunately we weren't lucky enough to find any in our own bushes. Looks like we won't be eating tonight. Haha just kidding. Anyway, the church is true and the restoration of the gospel is true! One of the other elders showed me this list called "The 17 points of the true church" which has like a bunch of scripture references from the bible talking about the church Jesus Christ built back in the day. It was kind of interesting. Anyway, Hopefully next week I can get pictures and hopefully that package will come! I love and miss you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Football, Mission Music & Miracle for the Week

Hello people,

Glad to hear everyone is doing well. I too am having a very good time here in Kenema. Well, right now we're actually in Bo. We had a super P-day and so all of us in Kenema met some of the Elders here in Bo, played some football, ate some rice, and just had a good time together. I scored lots of goals, it was pretty sweet. Sounds like that dance was pretty sweet. Too bad Savannah wasn't the DJ when I was going to those dances. As far as things I could need, I'm doing pretty good. Obviously, I could also go for some sweet junk food, but on the whole I'm doing really great. I actually was thinking of trying to get some music sent to me. I'll ponder on it and maybe like the next time I send my flash drive home you can put some on it and send it back. The appropriate for mission kind of music obviously. Haha. I'm thinking some Explosions in the Sky would be pretty sweet for mission. Anyway, we'll work on that one. Breeann you look like you're just enjoying like nothing. My companion and I definitely felt you guys were mean for sending that picture of all that food. We both cried a little bit. I guess that was the reply to my delicious picture of rice and cassava leaf though. No problem. I'm wanting to believe that the tie will make it in time though. We get transfer news next Sunday so it means people will be passing over our way soon. So hopefully the package will arrive in time. I'm sorry there's no pictures today, I took some at the Super P-day but I don't have the cord. So next week.

Anyway, as I feel like I've said, everything has been going really great here. There was this one woman we contacted while we were at a recent converts house and she told us where she lived. The reason she had come to our recent converts house was to try and get him to give her some money that he owes her. So she wasn't exactly his friend. But we contacted her anyway. Haha. She ended up living CRAZY far away and we walked really far to find her house. She pretty much lives off in the middle of nowhere and we had to go down all these tiny little mud paths to lead to her house. When we got there we finally met her and sat down with her. She was doing a lady's hair when we came up so she only seemed to be half listening when we were there. Her brother showed up and started listening too. We taught them about the restoration of the gospel, invited them to church and left. We thought that she wasn't going to be serious because she didn't seem too interested. This past Sunday she was one of the first people to show up to church. Just as church was ending her brother came in and joined her. These people came SO FAR to get to church. I guess that something in what we said touched their hearts and gave them that desire to come and see what exactly we were talking about. We'll be trying to go and see them sometime this week, hopefully it will continue to go well! It just goes to show how we aren't the ones who do the sorting but the Lord is. It was definitely a miracle for the week.

Anyway, I'm glad to hear that the wedding craziness is going well and me too, I pray that the job hunting can cease! I love and miss you all! Talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Listen to the Spirit

Hello Family!

Another great week here in Kenema! The biggest great thing about it was that we had a baptism! They're two really great people and I got a really nice tan in the last week! The rain boots are supplied by the mission so that's definitely really nice. We would be pretty much dominated if we didn't have them in some areas. Going out with other missionaries definitely makes things interesting. I also get to see what the other areas are like so it's pretty sweet. Now I've seen all the areas in Kenema so I pretty much know the place like the back of my hand. Not really. The place is pretty small though. You should send me a picture of the bathroom you repainted. I also like that you still call is mine and Savannah's bathroom. Not the storage room and Savannah's bathroom. Haha. What events are the Sierra Leone people in? We were talking to one guy the other day asking what events they can qualify in and he said boxing, track, and basketball. Basketball kind of surprised me because everyone here is so tiny. Haha. Okay like they're my size but I'm definitely no basketball player, no matter what 5 year old me said at my pre school graduation. I'm pretty excited to receive this tie, not gonna lie. I'm going to bluff with it like crazy. Everyone will be so jealous. No problem though. Well my time for the computer is finished but a cool quick little spiritual thought is to always listen to the spirit! This past week we felt prompted to contact this man super randomly and so we just walked up to his house and he started asking us questions that he said he has had for his whole life. He said no one was ever able to give him an answer that really satisfied him. We were able to answer his questions to his satisfaction. The Lord is still wanting to bless us, we just have to listen! Anyway, I love all of you very much and will talk to you next week!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Rainy Season, Goat Burgers & Happy People

Hellooooo family

Man you people are enjoying! The trip sounds so freaking sweet though.
I'm really jealous. Those pictures were very good. I especially liked
the one with DAD WATER SKIING. Man so awesome. I almost jumped up and
cheered. That new tube looks pretty gnarly. I dig it. The whipped
cream hot chocolate looked nice but it really can't compare to my
diarrhea on rice. Mmmmmm. But seriously that diarrhea is the staple
food here. It's called cassava leaf. It's not like amazing but I've
definitely grown to like the stuff. I definitely don't prefer it over
a nice big hamburger though. Man... Anyway, I hope you told Bertha not
to worry, I'll come pay her a visit in the future!

Sierra Leone is pretty naingo (sweet in Mende). It's currently pouring
rain outside as a constant reminder that rainy season is well
underway. I like rainy season though. The sun isn't out and the
weather is generally pretty cool. I've also whipped the rain boots
back out. So that's always exciting. I feel like it makes missionary
work just that much more hardcore. The week itself was pretty cool. I
gave a talk in church last Sunday about missionary work. It went well.
I think some people had no idea what I was saying (I always speak
English in church) but many of them did and we got some sweet
referrals. So that's always good. This last week we also got to travel
to Bo! We had a meeting with the missionaries there and so the 6 of us
piled into a taxi and took off to Bo. The meeting was insanely long
but afterwards we went to this restaurant where they sell amazing
American food! They have hamburgers (well, goat burgers) and they were
super big and delicious and MAN. So wonderful. I definitely enjoyed. I
should have taken a picture but I didn't think about it until after I
had eaten the whole thing. So I guess it just means I'll have to go
back. The last week in Kenema was exciting because I went on some
exchanges with the Elders in the district. Basically I just switched
companions for a day and so I got to see what the other two areas in
Kenema look like. It was super cool. Kenema is definitely my favorite
place I've been so far. It's a small town in the middle of nowhere and
the people are just happy and willing and we've been doing a lot of
good work here. I think that people are just a lot less stressed out
and happier here than in Freetown because they actually have room to
breathe and do their own thing. Anyway, I'm really pressed for time so
I have to go! I love all of you very much and will talk next week.
Enjoy the pictures!

Love,
Elder Stewart

Water Bills, Hot Drinks & Things Falling into Place

Hello family,

I'm glad to hear Wisconsin is doing so well! Needless to say I'm very jealous and can't wait to feast on some Al Johnson's again! I'll be excited to meet the new boat as well. I always seem to form such deep bonds with those things. It's hard to explain. Oh, real quick- Lexi Hayob, if you ever look at the blog for the mission you might see me holding up a package that looks mighty familiar. So yes, no worries. The package has arrived. THANK YOU. I already ate all the Oreos. Keep your eyes on the mail.

Anyway, my exciting highlight of the week was that I got to pay water bills! It was so wonderful. I hated it. Shouldn't water be free? I guess it's cool though. Teaching me how to manage money and be responsible and stuff. So I can't really complain about that. Also you know how the word of wisdom talks about hot drinks? One guy asked us if you waited for the drink to become cold if it was okay. That was pretty funny. So fun story for the week. Actually this happened on my birthday but I forgot to talk about it. So when I was in Hill Station, Elder Symons and I contacted a man and went and sat down with him one time. We had a crazy sweet lesson with him and he kept talking about how he was searching for the way to go to heaven. He had decided for the time being that the muslim religion was the way to go for now, but he wasn't convinced. He had such a great desire to learn and said he has been praying to find that direction. It was soon after that when he had first met us. As we were beginning to conclude our lesson he told us that he would be traveling for work and wouldn't be in Freetown anymore. He said he was going to Kailhun District, which is the district that borders Kenema District (they use "districts" instead of "states"). He said he would be going into Kenema every once and a while so we gave his number to the Elders in Kenema and gave him a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets about the restoration and left it at that. Then as we know, about a month later Elder Stewart was transferred to Kenema. About a week and a half or so ago, Elder Symons ran into him back in Freetown and let him know that I was now here. He gave him my number and on my birthday I met up with this man again. Where he is working currently the church is not there and there are no missionaries there at all. However, he said that there is a member of the church there who served a mission in Kenya and has been talking about the church. He told us he had been praying and reading from the Book of Mormon and had come to know for himself that the church is true. It's pretty remarkable how things fell into place so perfectly. He comes to Kenema every two weeks so I'll be able to see him one one time. We'll see how everything goes though. I know that the Lord definitely has his hand in all things. My time is up now so I have to go. I miss and love you all!

Love,
Elder Stewart

PS- Lauren Foley, Happy Birthday!

PSS- those people were eating a giant cat fish. I feel like it would be a nice picture for a family chirstmas card.