Finding the Prepared - October 24, 2016

So this week was a pretty good one as far as numbers go for us, our zone as a whole had a pretty bad week honestly but for our companionship it was a good one. On Monday we had a funny meal appointment. We were going to a members home and as it happened the wife got caught up at work so the husband ran to little ceasars and bought 3 pizzas and that was that. It was just so funny because he was a little upset but it was just so funny. The members here in Brandon are THE BEST! I honestly just don't want to leave. It is too good here! 

We did an exchange with one of our district leaders again this week. I was with Elder Bloammart who is from Edmonton and was actually in my district when I was in Thompson. He is a very good District leader. We had the opportunity to do many many hours of finding. We are striving to be more creative with our finding but what we have found is that aside from using members and the rescue initiative lists the best way to find is to tract so... we tract... a lot. It is fun though especially when you get to go with other missionaries. THat is one reason I love being a zone leader, exchanges every week! On the exchange we found and taught a man named Drew who has lost many friends and family members recently and his faith is a little iffy. We taught him on his doorstep about the Book of Mormon and briefly about the Plan of Salvation. It was really good. We agreed to go back on Sunday after church but he called us to reschedule because he got called into work. I don't know if anyone understands the significance of this but when someone calls instead of just leaving us out to dry like an old towel you know they are solid. We are excited to teach Drew.

We went to our recent convert Mickaela's house for dinner one day and it was great. She said she could not decide what to make so she made 8 different appetizers.It was amazing!! She is such a good cook. She is doing well but it is honestly amazing and terrible how hard Satan works on converts. It is hard to watch. 

We had stake conference this week and it was super uplifting. Elder gay from the 70 was there and gave some good talks. It was almost all missionary work! That was good to see because members are VITALLY important to the work. President Craig spoke so that was amazing as well! 

Update on Joseph, so sorry for the confusion there was no trial, there was simply a court date but he did not make a plea of guilty or not guilty so he was just remanded. he goes back to court Monday Nov 7th. I also got a guge thing in the mail updating me on everything. He is no longer in custody but has a bvunch of conditions of not contacting me or coming near our apartment, church, or workplace. He also can't have any type of weapon or a bunch of other stuff. He is not allowed illegal drugs (I thought that would be implied because they are... Illegal). I feel safe and and really hoping to stay. If he pleas not-guilty on the 7th then he will most likely have a trial in Brandon and I will be called to testify. That would be soooooooo neat. That is what I am hoping for but I will not be mad if he just pleas guilty and gets deported. 

Anyways love you all

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and some unnamed Elders.

Elder Stewart

Elder Blommaert and Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart

A very creative pumpkin!

Zone Training and Exchanges - October 17, 2016

This week was a fun  one but we are STRUGGLING with the new investigators! We have only found one in the last two weeks and we find for 7 hours a day at least. But hey after tribulation cometh the blessings. Monday Night we taught a lesson with a member present and set 3 new baptismal dates BUT they did not come to church so those dates are no longer standing. We also had the opportunity to go finding. I actually really enjoy meeting everyone and I don't mind getting yelled at or doors slammed. I would have that happen 100 times over if it meant finding someone prepared but we find that most people do neither, they just don't give a care about whether or not God is Real. Super sad.. On Monday we also spent longer than I care to admit at staples printing a bunch of talks for ZTM. We had to print 18 talks for 22 missionaries. It was give or take 2000 pieces of paper. 10 cents per piece really adds up! So mom if you are wondering why I used my home card for this week because my allotment is gone! It will come back from the mission but for now I am broke. 

Tuesday morning we went back to staples to print the remaining 8 talks at 8:00 when they opened and from there headed to the church. We had our Zone training meeting at 10:30 that morning. We did not feel that we were overly prepared for our portion so we continued preparing that morning as we set up tables and chairs. The Sister Training Leaders Sisters Bevans and Harris came in from Winnipeg to help train. There were 4 portions given, so we gave two and they gave two. Before any of the portions we showed a funny video from Safety.lds.org called Rhonda Rhino-virous. Go check it out, It is not technically a missionary video but because EVERYONE in our zone has been sick we showed it to help them lout and break the ice for the training. The Sisters trained first on the 12 Weeks booklet. It bis a booklet that the trainers use when they are training a new missionary. (I know that book like the back of my hand at this point haha). Anyways the whole mission is going back to it because the most important thing in anything is the fundamentals. President Craig is a genious! We then gave a portion on Remembering the mission wide fast that we did. We started with an exponential graph. For some people the mission veil is so thick that they could not remember what exponential means. Thank goodness for the greenies that just graduated. we labeled the Y-axis miracles and the x-axis unity to show that through fasting as an individual we can see miracles but as we unite together like we did as a mission we can see exponentially (there's that word again) more miracles. We then had a discussion and shared miracle stories. We concluded that portion with the story of Namaan. He was asked to do something so simple that he thought that it was pointless but when he did wash himself he was clean. That same principle is truwe with the fast. We need miracles in missionary work and often times we look beyond the mark. President Craig prayed about what we needed to do and so we did it. Miracles will follow. Next was the Sister training leaders portion on families. It was really good, we have been training on families since I became a Zone Leader so it is getting really familiar but that is ok because learning is spaced repetition. We then had the portion that I was most nervous for out of any training I had ever given. We trained on the Atonement. We started with a discussion and listed a bunch of words describing what the Atonement can do for us. We also showed the "None Were With Him" mormon message. It was super good and again we are going back to the basics, it is so easy to take the atonement for granted but when we really appreciate it then the charity follows.  It was a super spiritual portion and everyone contributed. We did cook soup this time because some people were whining last time so we all just went out to eat instead. 

We had exchanges with the Thompson Elders that day. I was with Elder Gee who is a brand new missionary and he is the most curious person ever. "What is it like being Canadian?" "What is is like being a zone leader? Do you like it? Do you just rebuke people all day??" It was pretty funny. He is super good and it makes me miss training a little bit! We taught a few lessons.  Wednesday we found and thursday was our exchange with the assistants. I exchanged with the new assistant Elder Griffin. He actually came into the mission at the same time as me. It makes me feel old that someone who came out with me is already an assistant. I am so old. we tracted for 8 hours and got nothing from it except cold hands and a good feeling because of didligence. No investigators though haha. Saturday I skyped into a baptism in Thompson for Nyssa and Franky Merasty who Elder Low and I had taught up there, they finally got baptized. The neepawa Elder Baptized the Yambao family as well and they are moving to Lethy this week. (that is Manitoba Mormons biggest pet peeve, They all move to Alberta so the church here does not grow.) They will be on the North side apparently. Make sure they connect with someone so they don't get lost in the transition. 

Church was good this week! LLove you all! Pray for new investigators.

Elder Stewart

Ps Joseph is in court today! Hopefully they don't screw this up!

Remember the Fast and One Month since Ookarudu - October 10, 2016

This week was one of the fastest weeks of my entire mission. I swear every week goes by faster than the last especially when you are enjoying yourself! This week was a really good one but we struggled with the actual missionary side of things. 

Monday we began our exchange with the Elders in neepawa. I actually got the chance to exchange with Elder Santos, He is from the Philippines and is like 24. He is very mature but has only been on his mission for like 6 months. A bit of a neat connection that we have is that when he came in the mission I was his first district leader over in Regina. He was trained by Elder Bennett so he is very diligent! We had the opportunity to do a bunch of route tracting. This is an idea that Elder Olcott and I had. We were thinking about how we do SO MUCH tracting and we meet thousands of people but and sometimes people even say they may be slightly interested but it is easy to glaze over those people and focus on the "golden family". While that is important it is also important to not look past the small tender mercies of the Lord. So to put it briefly we decided to go through all of the old tracting books (most of which are from Elder Moojalsky I believe) and write down all of the potential people from those books and organize the city into 5 areas and make routs of people to stop by who at one time for one reason or another were interested in the restored gospel and stop by them all. Sadly Elder Olcott got transferred so he will never see the fruits of our organization efforts. To be brutally honest I haven't seen any fruit from it yet either but we will eventually I know it! Elder Santos and I did a bunch of those stop by's and that was good. We also taught a less active guy named Brad and listened to J.Devn Cornish' talk. Straight fire that one was! We also exchanged all day tuesday and taught a few good lessons. One of the best was with a part member families where we read the story of the brother of Jared with them. It is a personal favorite because there are so many applicable principles for everyone. Wednesday was going to be finding all day! Not a single lesson planned or really even looking possible at first but then something crazy happened. Elder Morales (One of the spanish elders) Busted his knee and had to stay in on wednesday so Elder Wintle myself and Elder De Leon had to take shifts with him inside. I hate staying inside... (nothing has changed there). ANyways Elder Morales lived and I got to know him better so that is nice. Probably the biggest struggle of the week has been the weather. It is cold here and all of my winter stuff is in Alberta because I sent it home... Rookie mistake. I am just wearing a sweater and a rain coat and going for it. Don't be surprised if you hear a report of a frozen Elder in Brandon! But Hey the work must go on! I will note though it is 100% my fault because I had all the intent in the world to ask for my stuff to be sent back last week but did not because I am forgetful. 

Friday was MLC and that is always a blast! We had to skype in which isn't as good but it is still good to counsel together as mission leaders. President Craig is so inspired. I am not sure if I mentioned it or not but last week we did a mission wide fast for baptisms in every area this transfer. We are now focussing on remembering the fast and uniting faith as a principle of power with faith as a principle of action to see baptisms. It is working. Two people I taught in Thompson are finally getting baptized this weekend and I got to interview 3 people from Neepawa for baptism too! Maybe Brandon is next?!?!? We are giving a zone training meeting tomorrow on the Atonement. Can you say overwhelming?? We are asked to train on the most sacred and the most important thing in all the church... In all the world sorry. Thank goodness for Russel M nelson and David A bednar in past conference talks. They are clutch. Our baptismal dates did not come to curch so right now we are back to having 0. More to come though! Have a great week and whatever you do make sure you are warmer than I am! ;)

Love Elder Stewart

Eating Balut. He said it wasn't that bad! :)

Week One of Transfer - October 3, 2016

This week was a pretty good one as far as teaching goes. We have been really putting a focus in the mission recently on finding families! We are really striving to find a family to teach. I was talking to one of the members we take to lessons all the time. He is preparing for a mission and has worked with a bunch of missionaries. He made a comment that really struck me. He said "Elders in all of my time teaching with you and other Elders I have never taught a proper family unit" I examined my mission and in all of my time I have only taught two proper family units. I believe that Satan works hard to break down family units within and without the church but I have obviously noticed that the families in the church are much stronger. I also feel that Satan works on proper family units outside the church and puts pride in their hearts to think they have it all. It is so sad when families reject the restored truths because they are not in a crisis. 

This week we experienced miracles though, we were able to teach a family from Nigeria, there is no father but there is a mother and two children age 15 and 10. They are very religious and faithful and seemed very excited about the Book of Mormon. Definitely the biggest struggle is the language barrier. We are teaching the mother through her 15 year old daughter. The mom Abosede can speak English but not 100%. We were able to set a baptismal date but we will really need to work with them to help them understand the covenant. It is one of the biggest struggles of Brandon, it is so diverse and there are so many people that don't speak english. We were also able find a family of 8!!! A single mother with 7 children between the ages of 1 and 13. She is so solid and 4 of those kids are baptismal age. The hardest part is teaching them because the range is so big. We taught them once, the father passed away 6 months ago and that is obviously hard. We are praying for them big time!

We again did a ton of finding! We street contact and tract at least 6 hours a day! It's a grind but it is fun sometimes. SOmething I have learned is that you need to make things fun otherwise they just stink. At the beginning of my mission I did not enjoy finding at all. It was just not fun but as you learn to love it you get batter at it and then you do less of it because people will actually listen to you. It is pretty neat. 

General conference was super exciting. It goes by super fast on the mission. Those days are tiring though, spiritual marathons. I think one of my favourite talks was President Eyrings in Priesthood and Elder Nattress' in the last session. Elder nattress' son went home from this mission the day I got into the field so I met him once. Crazy how small the mormon community is. 

Love you all

Elder Stewart

I Am A Giant! - September 26, 2016

So as the title shows I am getting huge... Actually I am not but I am 2 inches taller than my new companion! I am loving Brandon still! I think there is a good chance that I will be able to stay here for a very long time but we will see. It was very hard to say bye to Elder Olcott but I am glad he left for his sake because Post-kidnapping Brandon was hard on him. I talked to him last night and he LOVES the the reserve and Elder Quinton despite being from Cardston. (Jk don't put that on the blog). Elder Quinton and I have had 4 of the same companions, it is kind of wild! 

Elder Wintle and I have been working very hard and are determined to draw on the powers of Heaven and Baptize this transfer. We are praying for it in every prayer and are really striving to find the prepared because honestly I feel like the Brandon Area is kind of becoming stagnant. We are tracting so much and we walk around the university so much. It is weird because lots of university students are a year younger than me. Many of them are from out of town or even out of country so a bunch of them have never seen missionaries before. 90% of them still are not interested but hey there is lots of potential. 

We were able to find a bunch of people and set lessons with them for this week so pray for us that we will be able to actually teach them. I am very happy to report that the Lords tender mercies are real and we are still teaching JohnKennedy who is a Nigerian with the same build as OOkarudu. It is just a testimony to me of the Lords care for each of us. Missionaries could have met JohnKennedy at any time but the Lord Knew that I needed it now to protect myself from racism so we met him less than a week after the incident. Miracles have not ceased. Thursday was transfer day and being the Zone Leaders in Brandon we were in charge of the Brandon drop off and pickup on the way east and on the way west. It is amazing how efficient it is. The whole transfer is done in 1 day with a few exceptions but it travels from Saskatoon to Winnipeg and back in like 1 day. It is amazing and we have to be like Nascar pit workers as we unload and reload the luggage. It was crazy because Elder Wilson (Elder Birchalls trainer) went home. It is starting to get real and I am legitimately an old missionary now. Scary stuff. Elder Wintle is enjoying being zone leader. He got a little baptism by fire as we received a text friday night from the Assistants saying "All of the Elders in your zone need to be in Winnipeg at 5:00". But there is a twist... No one has km's to drive in so we need to find everyone a ride in. That was fun but we did it. We had a meeting with all of the priesthood leaders from all of the wards on reworking member missionary home teaching. It is going to be so good. We should get like 4 route assignments each (cross your fingers). 

Mickaela is doing well but is still having some struggles. Keep her in your prayers. Satan is the worst (like you didn't know that already) but he comes from places you never see coming. We did teach a guy named RJ from Mauritius. He came to church and that was great, he is reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We barely ever teach white people, they are so incredibly prideful, it makes me sad.  It's like "I don't need Jesus, I have money". I am not sure how well that works but people from literally every other part of the world are great and very open. Anyways have a great week. Love you

Elder Stewart

September 19, 2016

This week was an interesting one but compared to last week it was like running around in Wonderland. First things first we did not get kidnapped this week. Second there are a lot more juicy details than there were last week. 

Monday we volunteered at a funeral for a long time member who was the first convert ever in the Brandon ward I believe. Tons of support! So much that it doubled our sacrament meeting attendance. It was good to see lots of less active members in the church even if it is for a funeral. I exchanged with Elder Little that night and that was fun. Stewart-Little hahahahah. Best part is that he is 5'4. We taught a man named Sunil who is Hindu but he is interested. We will see what happens there. One crazy thing that happened was that we set a lesson with our recent convert Mickaela and she shows up with... a 6'2 Nigerian man! I am not racist but it caught me by surprise after last week. It is a good thing the Lord knows better than us because that was a definite tender mercy. The guys name is John and he and Mickaela are friends. He is a GREAT guy and helped us realize that there were two bad people that happened to be Nigerian but that Nigerians are not bad. 

Speaking of last weeks encounter though we got to go do the photo lineup. It is not like the movies, the cop even said so. It was neat though, they took us in a room one by one and had 10 pictures on paper like the size of recipe cards. It was done by an officer who knew nothing about the case and had no clue who did the crime. He shows you one picture at a time and you say either it is or is not the man. You can see the picture as many times as you want but you cannot see two pictures at the same time. I was able to identify both of the suspects. I later learned that the police only had the two suspects. So they had a picture of Joseph and 9 distractors and a picture of Ookarudu and 9 distractors. After identifying them they said thanks without telling us if we were correct or if they believed that they had the right guy. Later that day we got called back in to see Constable Johnson who has been with us every step of the way. The craziest part of the whole thing is that we found out their names. It turns out "Joseph" who ended up standing up for us a very little bit at the end is actually named Ookarudu and that the unnamed man is Joseph. No clue why they changed names. They have the real Joseph in Prison and likely we will be back in Brandon to testify in court next summer. Crazy stuff!

Transfers are this week and the craziest thing is happening, Elder Olcott is leaving Brandon and I am staying. He has really loved Brandon but the whole kidnapping is scary and I guess the Lord needs him Elsewhere. I am sad but I an=m going to train Elder Wintle to be a new Zone Leader. Elder Wintle came ouyt with me and was trained by Elder Olcott. Elder Olcott is going to serve with Elder Quinton on the CTK First nation reservation. He is really sad but he will do great!

Love you all

Elder Stewart

What a Week!

So this week we had the opportunity to have all of the missionaries in the whole zone here with us for a ZTM. That is where we as the Zone Leaders give training as well as the Sister training leaders. So on Monday everyone drove into town from near and far (mostly far). We had a ward corn roast because it was labor day so that was fun and we had lots of missionaries there. Elder Coleman and I split for that night and did a ton of tracting. That was fun. 

ZTM was a great experience, President Craig missed a large part of it because of a medical appointment and terrible construction on the road between here and Winnipeg. We started by training on a talk by Tad R Callister called "becoming a consecrated missionary". It is super good! I loved it, we just had a big discussion about it. I used an analogy that I was honestly pretty proud of (righteously of course). The whole talk really talked about how we could not do it alone. In the talk he makes short reference to Roger Bannister but does not really do the story justice. So I drew a diagram on the board and did some inspired math. I explained that his goal was to run a sub 4 minute mile. I said a mile is 1600m (it is 1609 but that would have made my inspired math more difficult so i left that out). I drew a track that is 400m. If you divide 1600 by 400 we get 4 so he had to run 4 laps. If he had to run 4 laps in under 4 minutes then he had to run each lap in less than 1 minute on average. If he did this then he would be sub 4 if he did not then he would not. Simple as that. Then we posed the question, Do you think he knew this? Did he know what his splits had to be? Obviously he did. We compared running the 3 minute mile to being a consecrated missionary. He had to study and he knew what he had to do. That is why 8-10 am is so vital. He also had to actually go and do those plans. But wait it gets better!! We then wrote two names on the board. Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. "Why are these names important?". We asked. No one knew so we explained that these men were his pace makers. They knew their splits and they hit them. Bannister knew that if he stayed with those men he would break the record but if he did not then he would not. We opened it up for discussion and a lot of people believed that these men could represent our companions. That was something I had not thought of. But it is true, we cannot become consecrated missionaries without our companions. If for no other reason than obedience to the white handbook. My idea for the analogy of the two Chris' was that they are like the spirit. The spirit will not slow down for us or adapt to our stupid behavior but it is that constant that if we stay with we will become consecrated. We can always catch up if we fall behind but without our personal effort the spirit will not dwell with us. It turned out really well and President Craig was listening in over the phone. The sisters then trained and we gave some more training. We had planned to surprise President Craig by asking him to demonstrate a 30 second street approach. He was not there yet so we were having to either do it our self or ask someone else. Right on cue President walked in so I asked him and he complied. No rest for the wicked haha. He is a great man. After ZTM Elder Olcott and I went to the kitchen and got the soup we made and the bread bowls and fed everyone! Delicious and Cheap. Like 40 bucks total to feed 22 people. 

I then exchanged with Elder Maciel and had my quarterly interview with President Craig. I love him. The rest of the week was pretty average until Saturday. 

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

With Pres Craig's encouragement, tis is what he sent for everyone regarding his experience on Saturday night. Pres Craig called Dave on Sunday morning to let him know that Matt was okay, had experienced a terrible experience and had spent the night in the police station. Pres Craig had been at a Stake Conference in Saskatoon. He had to be pulled off the stand to take the call from MAtt and Elder Olcott. We were able to skype with Matt on Sunday night which was awesome. He said, "The good part of this is that Christmas came in September!" It was great to see him smile and to see his eyes.

Hey so since everyone is asking I will just clear up the details and eliminate any rumors. We did not get killed so that is nice! On Wednesday Elder Olcott was exchanging with a missionary in our zone and they were street contacting and met this big black Nigerian guy. He is named Joseph and said he was interested. We called and set up an appointment for Saturday at 6. On Saturday we got there and he invited us in and we sat at his table in the corner. Another black guy came in and started getting aggressive. They trapped us in the corner and assaulted us a little bit. We are not physically injured though. They cut up our stuff and stole my watch off of my wrist. They also rubbed oil all over us which was scary because they had a lighter. After yelling at us and threatening us the one guy took my companions camera and took a picture of each of us and then threw it at the ground and it shattered. Finally one of them got in the other ones face and said chill. They took their eyes off of us for about one second and we took off and ran at the door. For whatever reason they just yelled at us but did not pursue out onto the street. We got in the car and went to the police station and were there until 2 am. It made me really appreciate the spirit. It really constrained us from fighting back. I firmly believe if we would have fought back we would have been seriously injured or even killed because they had scissors and likely more weapons concealed. We learned that night at the police station that after we left these men strangled a young women so they could have very well done that to us! I am also grateful for the spirit confusing their minds as they took their eye off of us for long enough for us to escape and the also left one door open. Miracles have definitely not ceased. The Lord protects his missionaries. We will be going to identify the criminals on Wednesday and they will either have substantial jail time or will be deported back to Nigeria. Hope you all have a great week without any stories. Love you all. 

Elder Stewart 

Brandon Olympics Results

This week we had the Brandon Olympics. It is a find off that Elder Olcott drew up wih different things being worth different amounts. Last Sunday was the Opening ceremonies and every night we would have the companionships in our zone text us their total points for the week to date. We would then send out the top 3. It was a huge success. We felt that our effort was there in the zone but that we needed to increase our attitude so we did this. Here are some numbers to explain how it went. Last week we had 8 new investigators among the zone, this week we had 37. Last week we had 3 total baptismal dates, this week we have 7. Every single key indicator was up significantly except for less actives at sacrament meeting. I honestly am so glad we did it! We did have some heartbreaks though with the girl from last week who had met missionaies in the past. She is like 22 but is living at home and her mom told us that she is not allowed to get baptized so she is currently not meeting with us. Clifford who is supposed to get baptized next weekend is out of town because his brother got murdered. It makes me super sad but maybe it will help Clifford see again why he needs so badly to change his life! 

With the olympics on we were all going very hard. Elder Olcott and I had the chance to exchange in Winkler. I went with Elder Barney and we found 6 new investigators. Winkler is typically the slowest area so no one expected them to take the early lead that they did but good for them. Ultimately They ended up in second, Thompson won it and we got third. It was a great week. We have a ward corn roast soon so sorry for the pathetic email but I love you all. Elder Stewart

August 29, 2016

Just look at the name of this weeks email, it has been a good one! So Monday and Tuesday we did a ton of finding and at this time of the year especially during the day tracting is a joke so we just walk and talk to people and it is SO much more effective. It has worn my shoes out like crazy, we are taking like 25000 steps a day. Wednesday we had a few great lessons and believe it or not did.... (drum roll please) street contacting! At the beginning of my mission I really dreaded finding because it is boring and hard and awkward and talking to people is uncomfortable but believe me once you see someone change from your efforts your perspective changes. I like it now, the fact that it is not -40 may contribute but I think my perspective has too. I will let you know during the winter if I am delusional or not. 

There is a lot to say this week so I will just break it up.

Sleep Walking has been a real thing lately, ever since Elder Olcott got here actually. Not for me but for him and it affects me haha. He has not slept walked since he was a kid but on like his second day here he woke up at 1:00 am turned on the lights and went to go exercise. I woke up because of the lights and made him come back to bed. 2 days later the same ting happened at 4:00 am. A few days later he asked me when i got up to pee about the asian missionary that served in our mission in the year 2000. We still have no clue what that was about. The best one yet though is still a few nights ago while we were billetting in Winnipeg we were sleeping on these missionaries couches and I guess Elder Olcott was sleep walking. He eventually decided that he wanted to go back to bed but he walked to my couch instead of his and reached for his blanket but instead he got a fistful of my face. I must say it woke me up real fast. He then proceeded back to his couch but walked into a barbell and destroyed his shin. It was so funny. moral of the story; don't sleep walk. 

MLC- We left to go to MLC on Thursday but we left early so Elder Olcott could go to court and fight a $400 ticket he got a week before he came to brandon. He got it down to $250. MLC was with Elder Von Keetch of the 70. He is a very interesting man, He is a lawyer for the firm that the church uses in Salt Lake City and he had worked with President Craig on many law things in the past. We received great training and then he opened it up to questions. Elder Lee who is now serving with Elder Timms was serving with Elder Kiriaka when he went home. Elder Lee Asked how we can best help those missionaries in our zone or even our companionship who are struggling. I really appreciated it and in 4 letters the answer he gave was pretty much love. Love them enough to help them, love them enough to seek help from President Craig and love them enough to stay in touch with them after you are not together anymore. After MLC we all got our picture taken with them and sent to our Parents S'cute. It is kind of a secret because only MLC members got that opportunity so keep i on the down low. 

Zone conference was great as well, I got to billet with Elder Birchall and Elder Timms and their companions so that was fun. The training was amazing and something neat was that he said President Craig was straight up the best mission President in the world. No just like he would say it to every mission but he had 3 members of the quorum of the 12 approach him before he came to say that Elder Keetch was not coming to fix anything because it was not broken so "Don't mess it up".  President Craig really is the man.

Miracles- We had two, we have this guy named Clifford who we are teaching who kept coming to church reading and praying but kept wanting a dream to finally make him commit. On Wednesday we committed him to accept the answer even if it came as a thought and feeling. he committed to that and two days later he had a dream that made him say "I KNOW that I need to be baptized". The next day a man approached him who he had never seen and said "the dream is true" Clifford has not seen him since. He is now on date for September 17 for baptism.

The second miracle is that we were tracting and we felt that we should go one specific way so we did and we met someone who said we could come back. We did not think much of it but now we do. We went back, she has been to church 4 times and has read a large part of the Book of Mormon and the reason she didn't get baptised is because she got admitted to the hospital and lost contact. The Lord has been blessing us big time! 

Brandon Olympics- This week is the Brandon Olympics. Last night was the opening ceremonies. We had a conference call with all 10 companionships and we sang the national anthems (Star Spangled Banner, Oh Canada, and God Save the King) so everyone in the zone was accounted for. We also had an opening prayer. The Brandon Olympics happen every year... this is just the first year haha. It was an idea I had to help motivate our zone so we have some prizes and We drew up a scoresheet so different things are worth different amounts of points and it will last 7 days. I am excited and the whole zone is riled up and ready to go. I am excited to see the end result of our labours this week. My only question is "who will come second, who will come third??" haha jk. 

Oh also we put a fake turbo on our Nissan Rogue so it sounds like we drive a Camaro. It is fun, I don't get road rage when we hit a red light anymore haha

Love you all, have a great week!! 

Elder Stewart

A Little Healthy Competition!

So as I mentioned this past week we had a little friendly competition with our past companions. They are in Wanuskewin ward in Saskatoon which is where Elder Olcott just came from! It is crazy to talk about that ward because quite literally I know about half of the people from back home. That ward is 95% southern albertans no joke! Everyone in the mission raves about that ward because "Albertans just know how to do missionary work". I think i missed that memo before my mission but I am getting better now. needless to say we went so hard this week because we had the obvious disadvantage. We called them Sunday night to compare our numbers and see who is getting a free Big Mac and who is not. We had the win but out of nowhere a former investigator called them 20 minutes before us and they talked and she said she wanted to be baptized and THEY SET A BAPTISMAL DATE OVER THE PHONE TO TIE UP THE COMPETITION! In an extremely anticlimactic ending we tied. Miracles happen in the CANada WINnipeg mission for sure. 

This week was great! Elder Olcott are more alike than different and much more similar than Elder Timms and I were. He likes Fords... but other than that he is ok haha. Our main finding technique has been walking around in the downtown area and near the university. Both are extremely hit or miss but the whole tracting during the summer thing just does not work out. We did have one experience tracting though where a young mom with some little kids screamed some unkind words at us. I hadn't had a sober person yell those at me since high school football, but then again back then i probably deserved it. it was sad to hear her do it in front of her young kids. I was surprised that i didn't say anything back. i feel like that was a real realization for me. Before my mission i certainly would have made a smart remark back but I didn't. I think I am starting to understand charity a little better. (I still thought of the smart remark though, I don't know if that is a good or a bad thing). 

We are still meeting with Clifford and h is still on date to be baptized next weekend. We don't necessarily feel like the ward is totally supportive because he is a YSA native guy. It is sad to me that that stereotype exists. Granted if we look at the list there are a ton of names ysa people who are less active but ofttimes these are the people that need it the most and when properly nurtured by the members can become contributing members of the ward. We have some members really on board and i admire them for that! We also had a miracle happen when w stopped by a less active family that we work with and the family was not there except from an older brother that has never sat in on a lesson. I asked if we could teach him and he said yes! We started salivating as we prepared to extend the baptismal commitment. Apparently he was 8 when his mom converted so he too is baptized. But hey reactivation is important too! 

Micakela (our recent Convert) is still killing it! She probably reads more of the book of Mormon a day than I do! I did finish it again today though! that was exciting. This week Elder von keetch is coming and we have a mission leadership council with him as well as a zone conference! It is going to be great! Thats all for now! 

Have a great week! 

Elder Stewart

Moccasins that Elder Stewart had a lady in Thompson make for him. He just received them in the mail. He says he is in love!!

Elder Stewart and Elder Olcott with their recent convert, Mickaela.

Aug 15/16 - Elder Olcott

So this week was transfers and things finally began to pick up a little bit which is great! Elder Timms and I were able to teach a few good lessons before he left but he was pretty excited to get to Saskatoon. Elder Olcott got here on Thursday and we hit the ground running! We were able to teach more that usual, I think it was great to have a fresh look at Brandon. Elder Olcott and I are pretty similar in a lot of ways. He is from Pocatello Idaho and has been out for 17 months which sounds old but is actually not that much longer than me. Freaky stuff. 

We did not have any exchanges this week. I really love exchanges but It is super nice to stay in your area and just find! We found 4 new investigators this week which we are pretty happy with! We did SO MUCH street contacting and tracting! I am salivating because University starts up soon and that provides an easy finding opportunity apparently. We will see what happens! I cannott believe that summer is almost over, like this summer has been the fastest of my life and I did not think that was possible because my high school summers ended so fast that this has to be a record!

Since Elder timms and Elder Olcott just switched places we have a pretty good relationship with the Saskatoon Zone Leaders. We have determined that since we will see them in Winnipeg next week for Elder Von Keetch's training to the leaders in the mission that we will have a friendly competition. Whoever achieves the better indicators this week will win! I am so excited to find and teach! Sometimes a little added competition is all you need to achieve greatness! Just ask Rudy!

On Sunday we had an investigator come to church. His name is Clifford. He walked an hour walk to get there. We don't know why because we had a ride set up! He is on date for baptism on the 3rd of September and he is progressing! Pray for Clifford!

Honestly this is probable the lamest email yet but this week was pretty typical! In My book of Mormon reading O have been reading in Mormon. I really have come to understand better why we have the book of Mormon. It wan't just them keeping history that luckily fell into our hands. The primary purpose is for us in these days. Check out Mormon 8:35!

It seriously blows my mind that summer is coming to an end. Every time I look at my watch it is like crazy what the date is. It goes by way too fast. 

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Aug 8/16 - A Fence and a Baptismal Interview for Thompson!

It was quite the week here in Brandon. I set a personal record for... least lessons taught in a week! It was slow to say the least. We were out of our area for a little bit because we had an exchange with the assistants to the President. I got to exchange with Elder Omer who was my Zone Leader in Regina. It was super fun but... his companion Elder Nicholes was sick so he had to stay in all day and Elder Timms and I ended up spending half a day each proselyting and half a day in their house with Elder Nicholes. That was a crying shame but I got to talk to them a lot and gain a fair bit of knowledge. They are some of the best missionaries in this mission (obviously). i did get to teach one lesson while there and did some finding! I was really hoping to get the chance to serve with Elder Omer but my chances are quite slim. My only chance to at this point would be to be the next assistant but I don't see it so I guess exchanges will have to do. We got back on wednesday and went to finish the fence we built for an investigator. It honestly looks soo good. It took way longer than expected but it worked out well. We are now just hoping and praying that she will be touched by the spirit and act on it. I am really learning that being happy is a choice, so is discouragement. Choose to smile!  :) 

After finishing the fence we did almost exclusively finding because nothing happens in missionary work until you find someone to teach. We didn't have much teaching happening but our spirits are high! I have honestly loved serving with Elder Timms so much. Our first few weeks were pretty tough but I would say he may be my favorite companion now (at least top 5 haha). Elder Timms will be moving to Saskatoon to be a zone Leader there with another Canadian named Elder Lee. He is from Calgary. The Spanish Elders here are getting whitewashed meaning they are both leaving and two new missionaries are coming in. The sisters are pretty much getting whitewashed because Sister Miller is done so she is going home. Sister Morin is a visa waiter so she will be gone within a few weeks. For all intents and purposes I am the only missionary staying in Brandon. I am getting Elder Olcott here in Brandon to serve with me. He has been a zone Leader in Saskatoon for the past 7.5 months. I have heard good things about him. 

I sent this to President Craig to get his thoughts but you can answer too!

This week we were having a discussion with someone about eternal families and I had a very inspiring thought of how great that miracle really is! I also had the thought of how sad it would be to miss out on that blessing because of unrighteousness. My thoughts/studies turned to a favorite scripture of mine, Alma 5:27 where it invites us to ponder if we would consider ourselves sufficiently humble if we were to die at this moment. I thought that this was a pretty interesting scripture and it helped me do a sort of personal evaluation. I have written in my column of my Book of Mormon to ask myself this every day to keep myself accountable and worthy. I thought a lot about this and I was just wondering if you had any thoughts on how to effectively consider this within ones self on a daily basis and really receive an answer! I feel that this will really help me with my personal consecration as a servant of the Lord and really just as a person trying to be his very best! Any thoughts or advice would be much appreciated! Thanks. It is kind of a scary thought but also a very exciting one that makes me grateful for the gospel. 

One exciting thing that did happen this week was I got to interview someone for baptism! THe best part is that he was from Thompson and I actually found him with Elder Maciel on exchanges when I was up there last month! He got confirmed yesterday so in the past 3 weeks Thompson has had 2 baptisms after 19 months of 0. They are doing work up there!

They closed down one zone and made a second zone in Winnipeg so Now Elder Birchall is in Winnipeg. Elder Low is still in Winkler. Elder Romeril is going to where Elder Birchall was just whitewashed out of in Fort Francis Ontario. I think that is all!

I Promise that I will have more to report next week! 

Love Elder Stewart

The Fence!! Who knew he was a builder???

Aug 1/16 - Still Trying Hard in Brandon

Bit of a tough week here in Brandon but we will live to see another week! We have been working so hard and finding a ton of people but we have really struggled to get return appointments. It is one of the saddest things when we teach someone and it goes well and they feel the spirit then they just decide that that was enough. I think one of the biggest problems with people is indifference. So many people are a little curious but they get lazy and they "stop caring". 

Monday was a great day though, we had a good P-day. We went to a little bonfire that th sisters set up with this creepy old guy. We didn't want to go but it would not have been a good idea to let the sisters go alone so we went. The sisters have a knack for "finding" people... Hopefully AnneE doesn't have that same skill. Anyways there was no food because he expected us to bring food. It was awkward but we haven't seen him since so that is probably for the best! That night though we had two set lessons (which may not seem like a big deal but it was) and we had members set up to come to both of them. The first one was with a lady from the Bahamas named Melissa. Let's just say my testimony goal in life is to have black-lady faith! I love talking to black women because they just LOVE Jesus so much and they will let you know! We brought a member of the bishopric with us and it was great. She did not agree to baptism yet but she said that if the spirit tells her to be baptized then she can't say "no". So we are letting the Spirit work on her and we are working on her and hopefully her and her family can get baptized. It is pretty neat how perspectives change on the mission. At the beginning of the mission I felt like it was get a baptism so that you can have a baptism and I almost feel like that was the mission culture but I feel like it has changed/is changing to have a baptism so someone can be baptized. I love that distinction! After Melissa we sped over to a guy named Drew. I loved that lesson because we brought Brother Beaumont with us ad that was great. Drew is a young guy with a wife and two kids age 3 and 2 months. His three ear old asked why they don't go to church and lo and behold who knocks on the door that next day..... Mormons! We are like the thief in the night, we come when you least expect it. Something nice about Drew in the nicest way possible is that he is rich and reliable. I feel like as missionaries especially in this mission we get caught up trying to help people prepare for baptism who are completely unreliable and lunch us to every lesson and usually they have a hard time with commitment. But Drew has a phone and a car and he was home for the appointment. I am super excited for what will happen with him. He and Brother Beaumont clicked and he also did not agree to baptism but said he would talk to his wife. Good things ahead in Brandon. 

On Tuesday we had an exchange and District meeting. I can't remember if I mentioned it but we arranged with President Craig and President Gruninger (stake President) to have a young man serve a mini mission with one of the District Leader companionship's in the zone in Neepawa. Neepawa is like 70% Filipino and both Elders are white buy Elder Gasmanya ( the mini missionary) is from the Phillipines. It sounds like it is going well. On exchange I went with Elder Lewis who is the District Leader and Elder Gasmanya. Elder Timms went with Elder Little. We had a good exchange and taught a few good lessons but they turned out not great because the people enjoyed the spirit i their home and then when we left they were fine again and did not need us anymore. I feel like we are just tools for some people sometimes but for others we are friends and helpers which makes it all worth it. At district meeting we did the food challenge thing again and all of the Elders Except for me forgot the scripture so they had to eat the punishment. This week the punishment was lucky charms and ketchup. The funniest part was that Brother Torres(the old Spanish guy that randomly comes) liked lucky charms and ketchup. It was hilarious. 

This weekend we had a big project on the way. This former investigator asked us help build her fence which changed to can we build her fence which then became building two fences. It is a good thing to do but it is certainly a larger project than we bargained for and it is super fun but we are feeling a little bad because it is taking a lot of proselyting time. I am excited to finish it. We are going finish it today during P-day so we can proselyte more tonight and this week. 

Sunday was interesting. Elder Timms was talking in church and the Beaumonts were having a family reunion so his whole girlfriends family was here. They were so excited to see him but his heartbeat was almost audible when he started his talk in front of his "inlaws to-be"

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

July 25/16 - Brandon Woes

Brandon was pretty good this week. Last Monday was quite the adventure! I don't know if I have ever mentioned it but Elder Timms has a girlfriend named Emma Beaumont. Sh is from BC and is serving in Montreal right now. The trick is, all of her family lives in Manitoba and they all know about him! He started in Winnipeg in her uncles ward and here in Brandon are two of her cousins an their families. He just loves it because they all love him. They ma as well be engaged so he uses it to our advantage and we went out to Ian Beaumonts house for dinner last Monday. It is so funny because it is like I am the one friend because he may as well be part of the family. It is a really funny dynamic honestly. They are really nice though so i don't feel like a third wheel. I had to almost pull teeth to get Elder Timms o leave their house. It was a good time.

On a more spiritual note we had a zone training meeting on Tuesday which was super fun!  It is where the whole zone gets together for a meeting and receive training. It differs from a zone conference because the assistants and President and Sister Craig don't come. So Elder Timms and i were in charge of it and I think it went really well. We had the sister training leaders give a portion on finding and families. It was quite well done. they used a talk given by Elder Anderson at the seminar for new mission presidents as a resource. Finding is a massive struggle in our mission. We do a TON of finding and we have a special emphasis on finding families. It is interesting how when you focus on it you notice things like mini-vans and toys a lot more. We also had the districts separate into their district and talk about and discuss the inspired plan to increase baptisms in the CAN-WIN mission. We concluded by Elder Timms and i giving about 75 minutes of training on the Book Of Mormon and we also used a talk from the new mission presidents seminar. the one we used was by President Nelson. It was really enjoyable and we feel that it was a major success!

After the meeting we exchanged with Winkler Elders and i went with my first-born son! Elder Low!! I was so excited for the exchange and it was pretty good! He is a lot more confident now than he was 7 months ago when i met him in Thompson. We did almost only finding because you can't teach if you don't have investigators. Elder Timms and i have dropped a lot of investigators that are not currently prepared or willing to progress. Elder low and i found some good potential investigators and reminisced about our glory days up in Thompson! 

Honestly I don't have much to report in but I am certainly developing a clisters on my knuckles! hopefully we will have more lessons next week. We did find a really nice little black family though an they are really good. They do not have a baptismal date but hopefully soon. One thing that was fun was i got to interview someone for baptism again. She was baptized on Saturday in....... Thompson! First one there since 2014. no one currently in the mission up until this weekend had ever had a baptism there. I am so happy for them. 

Church was good this week, i saw Shannon Francis! I knew who she was but i was not 100% sure it was her but it was. Once i got over the fact that i am so close to home that seeing people i know is inevitable i have started to enjoy it! It happens all the time!

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and Shannon Francis and her little guy. :)

July 18/16 - Back to...Thompson!!

Great week this week for Elder Timms and I but it was no doubt the worst possible week for the Brandon area. It started a little crazy with us emailing really early last week at about 8:00 am. We rushed through it so that we could hit the road. We were en route to Flin Flon by just before 10:00. (So much for our P-Day). We drove all day alternating between listening to The Joseph Smith lectures by Truman G Madson and "missionary music". It was fun but both of which get a little old after 8 hours. Needless to say we were excited to get to Flin Flon. I think Elder Timms was more excited than I was because he served there! I don't know if anyone remembers this but he was my district leader for my last transfer in Thompson. We exchanged with the Elders there. I went with Elder Coleman who is from Calgary. It was fun because he knows a bunch of the same people as me. We did a ton of tracting and it was POURING again. We got so wet it was just dumb. Every part of us was 100% wet. That was crazy. We stayed that night in Flin Flon and then did personal study there but after personal study we went to THOMPSON!!!!!!!!! I was so excited. It was pretty fun. I was there with Elder Maciel who came into the mission with me. He is the district Leader up there and it was possibly the best exchange I have been on. He had a lot of questions about all kind of things and we bounced ideas off of each other. I think it worked because we found 3 people that now have baptismal dates up there. That is like as many as I had my whole 6 months up there! I would say I am jealous but I am just so excited for Thompson to get a baptism that I am not jealous. I think President Craig has taken it as a personal challenge to get a baptism there. There has not been a baptism there since he got in the mission. Elder Quinton had 2 people cancel the day of there and Elder Birchall, Elder Low and I all struck out up there! It is way overdue for a baptism and I think they will have one soon. An added bonus of our exchange was that I got Elder Maciel to run with me. We ran like for like 20 minutes at a descent pace but when we got back he was dead. We were however locked out with no way of getting in the apartment. So we scaled up the side of the building over peoples balconies and entered in through our balcony. That about made Elder Maciel pass out but hey we lived. He then collapsed on the living room floor for like half an hour because of exhaustion but it was good for him :). We did a ton of finding which obviously payed off. Best part is Elder Timms and Wilcox found a new investigator too and he also has a date to be baptized. 4 new baptismal dates found in 1 day! It is great! They also had branch home evening so I saw the branch members like Brother Hinds and the Basallos. It was too short of a visit but oh well. I will most likely not go back again until after the mission. On Wednesday afternoon we hit the road again and we drove to the PEG! I spent quite a bit of time that day thinking about the day I hit the MTC because AnneE went in on that day. Petty Crazy to think that she is in there. I am excited for her. That drive was also very long but we traveled safe despite rain for ALL 8 HOURS! I love that drive though. It is gorgeous. Sadly we did not hit any cranes. On thursday we exchanged with Winnipeg Spanish Elders because the Spanish district is in the Brandon zone. We attended their District meeting and it was in SPanish. I thought it was a little pointless but it is what we do on exchanges I guess. Elder Helaman Hernandez from Scott and Cassandras ward was there via skype so I talked to him (in English). That exchange is always fun because compamnionship unity is tough when one person can't communicate but it gave me the chance to help him in other aspects of the work. Friday we had MLC in winnipeg with all of the ZL's and Sister Training Leaders. It was a good meeting and we recieved some great training. We actually listened to some talks from the new mission presidents seminar given By Elder Neil L Anderson and president Russell M Nelson. We got back here friday night but we still were able to get some good things done in our area on Saturday. Needless to say I had THE FUNNEST week of my mission but I am excited to be back on the grind in Brandon! We put over 2200 km's on Rougey-Bear this week! It was fun.

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

The bird they hit en route.

Elder Stewart with the statue of Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin. He founded Flin Flon. No joke.  Look it up!

That is North!!

Elder Stewart at Pisew Falls one year later.

Elder Stewart, Brother Hinds and an investigator in Thompson.

July 11/16 - One Year!!! Already?!?!

It has been a pretty good, pretty slow honestly but good nonetheless. On Tuesday though we had a district meeting that was very memorable. Our district leader is Elder Lewis and he is quite good at what he does. We have a portion of District meeting where we all have to recite a scripture that we were supposed to memorize during the week. Elder Timms and I and the rest of the Elders are slackers. I decided that I would just memorize it during companion study the day of. I completely spaced the fact that we have a mission leadership conference call during comp study on Tuesday so that didn't happen. The sisters did memorize it (and you will know why in a second) and this old Spanish member that comes to our district meetings because he is bored and wants to practice his English memorized it too. Like all things in life there are consequences for our actions or lack thereof and in this case it was in the form of food. The sisters had made banana bread as both the reward for memorizing it and the consequence for not. Here is the catch, in the one they put chocolate chips... the other curry powder. In the one they put sugar... the other salt. That salty curry banana bread was hands down the worst thing I have ever tasted. All 4 of us Elders were walking around the room with our nose plugged just gagging like there is no tomorrow. It was FUNNY! Needless to say the lesson of the week comes from my good friend Alma. Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance or in this case do not procrastinate the day of memorizing. Brother Torres ended up winning the grand prize. The sisters tried to give it to me because I ate the most of the bad banana bread the fastest without throwing up but I though he deserved it because he won. He was happy about that. 

We were able to go see a young couple from the ward this week. She was less active for a long time and he is a convert of about 14 months. They are great! He is from El Salvador and she is from Colombia. They leave next week to go to Colombia to be sealed! It is very exciting to see the joy in their faces as they talk about it. That really makes all the hard things in missionary work worth it. 

We have been doing a ton of finding recently because currently those we are working with are not too excited about progressing so we need to rest them for a time. We knock doors like 6 hours a day sometimes. If anyone looked at the weather on Saturday here then you would have seen that it was quite frankly raining cats and dogs! It may have been the hardest I have ever seen it rain. The only time that could maybe compare is when we had that huge hailstorm in 2013. We didn't have anything planned and street contacting would be the most useless thing since the Ford Pinto. So we went tracting because everyone would be home. They were but no one let us in. We got drenched!!! 

Oh BTW Friday was my 1 year mark as a missionary. Pretty weird to think. Honestly I still feel like a young missionary but I am now older than probably 65% of the mission as far as mission age goes. I don't feel any different but it is just weird to think that I have more of my mission to look back on that I have ahead of me. I feel that that must be what you feel like when you turn 50. I am not excited to have that happen. I like life too much. We celebrated my year mark with the Spanish elders at a sushi buffet. time well spent for sure. We currently don't have anyone on date for baptism so we are really praying to find someone! 

This week is a bit of a write off though because we are leaving in like an hour for flin flon then to Thompson then to Winnipeg and staying there for two days because of an exchange and MLC. We won't be back here until Friday night. Hope everyone has a great week!

Love Elder Stewart

Also a quick shout out to AnneE who enters the MTC this Wednesday! You will do great

Elder Stewart, Elder Timms and Brother Timms in the backseat. :)

Elder Stewart and Elder Shane Burdett. Elder Burdett was a basketball buddy from home and ended up in the Winnipeg Mission as a Visa waiter.

Bit of an Emergency...

First letter to come...

So last night Elder Timms and I were laying in bed and he snuck up on me and jumped on me. I flinched and my Elbow ended up glancing his eye. He had a cornea transplant december 2014 and it came out last night. We went to emerg at 10:30 and then eventually they sent us to Winnipeg so I drove and we arrived at the hospital there at 2:00am. We were there with President Craig seeing an opthamologist until 4:00 am. I then went and stayed at the assistants for a time until going back to the hospital where Elder Timms had stayed overnight. I went with President Craig to the airport where we picked up Elder Timms' dad. We got him to the hospital in time for him to see Elder Timms before the surgery. Elder timms went in for surgery today and is now in recovery. Tomorrow they will do a scan and we will see if he can stay out on his mission or not. I just returned to Brandon with Elder Velasquez who is my companion from anywhere from the next 4 hours to 4 days. Please keep Elder Timms in your prayers. The surgery he had and the two more he will probably have are very serious and some surgeons were not qualified or willing to try doing them. Sorry for the late emails but this is why. 

Elder Stewart 

Second letter to come...

They explained the surgery to me. So since his cornea roe from 10:00- 2:00 on the top of the eye there was a 1mm gap there causing all of the fluid to drain from his eye. The vitreous jelly was what started coming out next but with it being thicker it could not come out it got caught causing the leaking to stop but it also is pulling on the retina causing a very high rist of disconnecting the retina completely. They need to go in put the vitreous jelly back in place re-attach the cornea and check the retina. If the scan does not go well tomorrow then they will send him home and they will have to do 2 more even more major surgeries and remove the lesne completely apparently so they can fix the cornea or something. Super interesting but scary too. the jelly did not come out it was just fluid which according to the doctor the body remakes extremely fast so at least for the time being there will be no nitrogen in the eye. It has not lost shape to any considerable amount. The biggest concern is the retina becoming detached. It would cause a major risk of blindness at least temporarily. Yeah and the doctor was a resident and he was like only 30 so it makes me feel like it wouldn't take too too too long. We will see though.

Third letter to come...

This week was very full of activity and lots of fun! Monday we had a service project and that was good as usual. That night the assistants came in from Winnipeg and we had a good night with them. The reason they wame was for zone conference which was on Tuesday. The whole zone came down for it and it was really fun to see everyone! Zone conference itself was really a good experience!. President Craig presided obviously and Elder Timms conducted. There were many great portions given. They were very similar to the portions given at MLC. Elder Timms and I got the opportunity to give the main training portion and it was on finding new people to teach. We did a fun activity where each companionship is videod as they practice a tracting or street contacting approach. After videoing it we all gathered back together to watch and evaluate them. In preparation for it we were talking about how to make more people feel comfortable with it because it is not a very fun thing to do. I was trying to liken it to the lives of the zone members. What we came up with was that every member of the zone likes either sports or music. So we related this activity to watching film in sports and listening to a recording of yourself in music. All three of these activities have the same purpose. The purpose is to self evaluate and improve. The training went amazing. Wednesday we exchanged with Thompson Elders and I was with Elder Wilcox. We found a new family to teach, they are from India but are christian and are reading the Book of Mormon! The rest of the week was good up to Elder Timms little or not so little thing last night.

SOrry for the short letter but I need to get going. It is technically proselyting time but President Craig told me to get the things done that I need to do so I have to email!

Elder Stewart

June 20, 2016

Mighty fine week here in Brandon! We had a pretty busy week with lots of teaching and even more finding! Most missionaries despise finding because most people despise being found when we knock on their door or stop them on the street but that is all good. One thing i have learned that the hardest part abut finding is one of two things 1. it is -39 so no living creature deserves to be outside or 2. which is much more common this time of year, telling yourself it is worth it even if it is not fun. It is not that hard to convince myself to do it and lucky for me it is easy for Elder Timms as well. Exchanges throw an interesting twists into things. We were conducting an exchange with one of our District Leaders and his companion. I went to Neepawa with our district leaders companion and he doesn't love finding. We did a lot of good though and had the chance to do a ton of service and then at the end of the night when we had time we went finding inn a super fun way. We go on their bikes that i did not know they had and we went tracting on acreages and farm houses. It was honestly so much fun! I really do love exchanges, it is so much fun but also you get to see other styles of missionary work but if you don't love it who cares? It is only 24 hours. While I was in Neepawa Elder Timms and Elder Lewis were  here in Brandon and they taught 4 young adults that recently left their hutterite colonies. they are interested and are now reading the book of Mormon. 2 of them now have dates for baptism but 2 don't yet. We have continued to bring our recent Convert Mickaela to lessons. She is seriously so golden! She was in Saskatchewan where her parents live on Saturday but she drove back for church on Sunday only to turn right around after church to go back to Saskatchewan for fathers day dinner. She is amazing! After church we had a pot luck and t was pretty food. Typical Mormon food, Chilli, hot dogs and watermelon. No complaints though. Last night when we were collecting the weeks indicators from our zone to submit them to the assistants the power in Brandon went out. We almost cried haha and then After i had taken them by hand the power cam back on. It took forever but it was worth it.Tomorrow we have a zone conference with President and Sister Craig, the assistants and the whole zone. It will be fun and we are giving the training. No pressure right? 

Love Elder Stewart

June 13, 2016

This week we had a lot of good stuff going on! I an really enjoying Brandon and Elder Timms is really good to me. It was an interesting start to the week with one of the sisters having to go home for medical on Monday. That was really sad but it was what was best I guess. It threw a kink in the system though because Elder Timms and I were leaving Monday night to go to Portage la Prairie to stay the night and begin our exchange the next day meaning we would miss District meeting on Tuesday. Since we would not be there and the sisters would now be in Winnipeg that meant that only one set of missionaries would be at district meeting, Elder Lewis the district leader and his companion. We thought that would be pointless so we asked President Craig for permission for the Neepawa Elders to come with us to Portage. It was granted so we took a little road trip and stayed the night at the Prortage Elders apartment. There were 8  missionaries there! We stayed for District meeting in portage then Elder Timms took Elder Low (my son) back to Brandon and I went with Elder Brown to Winkler. We had a great exchange. In Mission Leadership Council we talked about the importance of finding and teaching families. Elder brown and I found like 4 families. Something hillarious that happened though was the day before Elder Brown called and tol me to bring running shoes so we could go on a run. I miss running so m uch because I am yet to have a companion that will run with me so I was ecstatic! The morning comes and Elder Brown says he has a loop for us to do. We start at their apartment on 15th street and ran to 9th street where he turned around and ran home. That was the loop. I held my breath so i didn't laugh but I would be shocked if it wass more that 800m. It was hilarious. We have been finding quite a bit this week as well as trying to teach lessons. We are taking Mickaela to lessons quite a bit but I felt so bad. One day we had 3 lessons she was planning to come to. Guess how many cancelled/lunched us. You got it..... All 3! So instead we taught her at a park because we did not have anyone to come with us to her house. All in all though it has been a great week. One thing I learned was that the ward mission leader here knew Jessica Keoglar very well on her mission because he is from El Salvador. Church this week was great. I really like the ward here, they are very missionary minded. Hope you all had a great week.

Love you

Elder Stewart

PS any word on Parker's engagement??

A disturbing sign in Carman MB. He said he may admit to having nightmares after seeing this one! :)

Elder Stewart and Elder Brown

Home made ping pong table thanks to Parker's cool Christmas present.