Week 1 In Brandon, MB

This week was a pretty crazy one! We learned last Monday about my assignment to come to Brandon to serve with Elder Timms. So that meant that I had to pack up my whole life from the past 4.5 months in 2 days. It wasn't that bad though. I got all packed up and stopped by a ton of people! I really think that the last day or two in an area can make a huge impact on the people there because that is likely the last time some of these people will ever see you so you can leave a very good final impression by bearing powerful testimony and extending commitments! We actually set a baptismal date with a man named Greg. He is the one who made the feather for me! I was actually really sad to leave sunrise but I feel like I was getting comfortable and there is no growth in a comfort zone so it is probably a good thing that I was transferred. Elder Grant got to sunrise Wednesday night so he, elder Romeril and I got to spend that night together. It was pretty fun and i have full confidence that they will continue to improve that area and to baptize people! I was especially sad to leave Devon and Anthony!

When I got to Brandon Thursday morning we wasted no time because we had a bunch of lessons planned! We don't teach nearly as much here as we did in Sunrise but I admire Elder Timms and Elder Griffin (who I replaced) because they focused on the elect and on those ready to be baptized and did not waste time! We have three people on date to be baptized, one of them is for June 4th! She may be the most prepared person I have ever met! We also have a guy for june 11 and one lady for June 25th. Elder timms and i set that date in our first day together! I love Brandon! Yesterday was my first Sunday but since it is May long weekend there are a ton of visitors so it was hard to get to know more people but the ward is friendly. There were a few different families visiting from southern AB. Elder Timms and I get along nicely and he has done well at showing me the ropes of being a ZL. It isn't that different though! Brandon is nice. I am quite surprised though, I thought because it is a little bigger that it would be very diverse but the majority of people are still Native. There are so many good people! Elder Timms is great, he reminds me of Seth Beck so we get along. I am honestly not really overwhelmed too much. It is nice being a zone leader because there are two of you but when you are district leader you are district leader and your comp is not. It sounds like we may not get back to Thompson at all, but hopefully. The Fawns's are in my zone and so they will definitely be at Zone training meeting when Elder Timms and I give the training. Dauphin is like 2-2.5 hours but we don't have a District leader there so I won't go there probably.  First Sunday was good. No one can play the piano though so that is too bad. We have like 70 people there and no pianist. A visitor played yesterday. Guess I should have practiced! 

Love you all have a great week!

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and the Lonechilds

Elder Stewart and Tony

Elder Stewart and Garrett. He is preparing to serve a mission.

Elder Stewart and the Orrs.

Transfer Call Week

The weeks fly by way too fast these days and so do the transfers. Quite frankly so does the mission! This week we did a lot of teaching and that was great. In preparation for the possibility of Elder Romeril taking over the area I decided that we needed to help him to be super familiar with the area so we stopped by some older investigators and also saw other parts of our area. We did a ton of tracting (knocking on doors this week as well). I felt like we were super busy all the time. One thing that was very special and successful that we did was brought forward in an attempt to be more worthy and more prepared to hear from Elder Wilford W Andersen this past weekend. The zone leaders asked each companionship to only listen to talks by general authorities and MOTAB for a week and a half leading up to it. Man that was n ice, it is like extra study every time you get in the car. Also some of those old general authorities like Bruce R Mcconkie spit some major fire! It is wonderful! On wednesday we had a zone training meeting. It went really well and we focussed on relying on the spirit as we teach. Elder Fuentes and Elder Peterson (our zone leaders) did a great job presenting the training. After the meeting instead of going out to eat as a zone we decided to use the church kitchen and make a ton of french toast! It was lovely! On Saturday I got to conduct an exchange with Elder Santos who is from Olangapo Phillipines and has been in Canada for a week and a half. He speaks fairly good english and the exchange went well! We found a new investigator! It was actually quite miraculous, I had been praying to be abler to find people to teach because I wanted to leave this area better than I found it and my parents said they were also praying for it and lo and behold we found 8 new investigators this week! that is the second most in a week in my whole mission. I found some with Elder Romeril during the week, 1 with Elder Santos and 2 with Elder Maciel after the training on Saturday because they were stuck in Regina for stake conference with Elder Andersen. Elder Romeril also found 1 that night with another missionary. The Lord provides for our righteous desires if we are obedient! On Saturday as well we had a 2 hour training from Elder Andersen. He seemed like he didn't have anything prepared because he just went off stuff others said but it was some of the best training I have ever received. If I ever know my scriptures as well as that man then I will be very happy. He literally had a scripture to answer every question and the crazy thing was they weren't mainstream scriptures. Most o which were not even marked in my scriptures! I guess that means I have some studying to do. It was Amazing! Also At the Elder Andersen Training President Noblet (stake president here) talked about having the ZL's over for dinner. He said they asked him a question. "President Noblet, If you were to invite someone to learn about the gospel and that led to a baptism would you be in a better position to invite members of your stake to do the same?" obviously the answer is yes. So he did and ended up being prompted to pick up a hitchhiker (which he had not done in over 20 years). He did it and the man now has a baptismal date. That is my question to you! 

We got our transfer assignments today and I am being transferred. I am going to brandon to be a Zone Leader with Elder Timms. He is from Vancouver. I am excited. Elder Grant, my MTC companion,

is coming to replace me here as District Leader. I think so far training has been my favourite thing! One of the best parts is that guess who is in the Brandon Zone! Thompson Manitoba!!!!!!!!!. Elder Quinton is there right now as DL so I may get to go there for exchanges unless Elder Timms does instead!

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and Brother Dong, the Ward Mission Leader in Sunrise Ward.

19th Birthday and Mother's Day

I don't have much to say because we talked like 24 hours ago but I don't know if i ever officially said happy Mothers day so i am like the worst person on the planet but Happy mothers day! Parker Seemed hesitant about answering my question about Brooklyn. Are they gonna get married? 

This week was a pretty exciting one! I am now officially an old man both in life and the mission, which is depressing. On Wednesday I turned 19 and i thin I have some gray hair and on Sunday i hit my 10 months in the mission mark. I would say the first 19 years of my life have gone by fast but i would nothing to compare it to but believe me, the first 10 months of my mission have flown by!

Last Monday we got word that Elder Peck who is in our district is being transferred to Winnipeg even though it is the middle of the transfer because Elder Bennett is receiving a Tagalog speaking Trainee. Because of this we decided to be nice and make a delicious meal for him. We made pork chops perogies and peas. I think I will apply for iron chef america the season after i get home because it was delicious. that night we had the wonderful opportunity to go and give a blessing to a less active member with a member of our ward. It is really amazing how the lord provides opportunities when we are obedient. If not for the blessing we may not have been able to meet that less active member. We taught quite a few lessons this week but we have been focus sing more on teaching members that haven't been at church in a long time and meeting them is great because it is clear that at one point these people knew that the church is true, and that deep down they still have that flame burning no matter how small. It is easier to see these people as Christ would because their potential is so clear! Tuesday was a good day, we taught a few lessons and actually found a new investigator that wants to be baptized. We are hoping and praying that she does decide to continue on that path! Wednesday was my birthday so that was nice, what wasn't nice was how many people cancelled on us out of the blue. That night we had the chance to go outr for some amazing Mexican food with the Orrs! They are great! After the mexican food we went and got ice cream at DQ and at the request of Parks (their 4 year old son) they sang me Happy birthday! It was great! that night we had the chance to go and teach the Moores the message of the restoration. they are a young family and it was so good to teach them. they are totally active in the church but I have learned that the best way to build relations and testimonies is to study the Gospel. If you haven't had the chance to do this then go tell the missionaries to come teach you one of the lesson. It is great! The rest of the week was filled with all sorts of missionary work! We did get to do some service for a single mom. We went and fixed her lawnmower, rototiller, chainsaw, window and did a bunch of yard work. i don't know if this is false doctrine or not but I think the Holy ghost can help you fix things for others because i had no clue what i was doing haha. On Sunday I got to talk to my family for like 35 minutes! It was fun and good to hear from them! I also got to give a talk in church but they said to only speak for 7 minutes which is th opposite of usual missionary talks where they say "take up the rest of the time" and there are like 30 minutes left. Speaking for only 7 was tough. 

Love you all! 

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart, Elder Bennett, Elder Romeril and Elder Peck

Elder Stewart and Elder Peck

DQ ice cream for his 19th birthday courtesy of the Orrs.

Elder Stewart and the Orr's son

Our family pic on Mother's Day.

Elder Stewart, Elder Romeril and the Orrs

April is Over?!?!?

This week was a really great week! It started out pretty interesting though! After emails on Monday we decided that all of the missionaries in the city (6 sets) would go to a trampoline park for P-day activity. It was a really good idea but we were all cautioned to be safe and not get hurt. Guess what happened 5 minutes in?? Elder Klatt broke his foot. It was just like it was bound to happen after the lecture the zone leaders had given us about being safe! We continued to jump and it was super fun! I kind of miss trampolines but I got my fix so I should be alright! On Tuesday we got tom turn one of our most solid investigators Vivek over to the YSA Zone Leaders because he is a YSA man. We had taught Vivek a few times and he is really interested. So to turn him over Elder Romeril and Elder Fuentes went to teach him and get fed lunch and Elder Peterson and i went to another lesson we had set up. It is always good to teach with older zone leaders because there is so much I can learn from them. I just hope I can be as helpful to others as they are to me. Anyways since they had lunch wih Vivek Elder Peterson and I were going to take lunch but we got called by one of our investigators who used to be a member of the church and she told us her Grandson was in the hospital and that she wanted us to give him a blessing. A huge step for her in her faith! Elder Peterson and i went and did that and it was miraculous! He had not been able to do anything all day and had not smiled at all. After Elder Peterson anointed with the oil he calmed down and sat still and after the blessing he was laughing and asked to go for a car ride and challenged Elder Peterson and I to a race in the cars. It was amazing how much comfort he was brought. He is still in the Hospital but the spirits are better and the doctors are doing all they can. On Thursday we had a zone wide find off, the zone leaders drew up a scoring system and it was district vs district. It isn't confirmed yet but I think the Sunrise district won!! That is us BTW. We also are doing this thing now where we as missionaries are assigned to be home teachers so we went home teaching to this family who is from Kenya and they had not been to church since I have been here but came on Sunday! That was exciting. Elder Romeril and I get along great and we are working very hard and being obedient. That is one thing i have gained such an appreciation for on my mission! Everything is so dependent on obedience. On Saturday I got to exhange with Elder Bennett which is still weird because he is from Taber but it was really good. We taught quite a few lessons and found some new potential investigators. We also had 2 meal appointments which has got to be a record for me at least! The absolute highlight of the week was this Sunday as it was fast Sunday was testimonies as well. Anthony Nahbexie got up and bore hist testimony! It made me think of When Lucas Noel did for the first time. I was so excited. 

Love you all!

Elder Sterwart

Also I will call at 6pm on Mother's Day.

Week 1 with Elder Romeril

Elder Romeril and I have had a great week full of teaching. Elder Romeril is great, we are very similar in interests but he is just like 4 years ahead of me in life. It is kind of weird o be senior companion to someone who is Regan Evansons age but I mean we work hard and he is a super personable guy. Idk if I mentioned this or not but his little brother reported to the MTC the same day as Parker did (like Parker Stewart). He is really funny but has had some super tough areas so he is in the adapting process to a busy area. We had the opportunity to teach many many people this week and even find six new people to share the Gospel with. We have been making the most of the warm weather we are having by doing a lot of personal contacting outside on the streets. It is always fun to be able to teach people just standing there on the sidewalks. It is even better when they ask you to teach the next lesson in their home. That is just Golden!

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to have a zone conference meaning that President and Sister Craig came out as well as the Assistants to the president to give us some training on all aspects of missionary work. It was a great day and I learned so much. President Craig gave training on the how to use our online Proselyting privileges effectively and safely. He prefaced it with "now this is not an announcement of I-pads" but I think it may be to help us prepare if those ever do come. It would be very nice to have them because especially in certain areas most people don't have internet which means conference talks and Mormon messages are not a possibility but they are insanely helpful so i-pads would be nice. Online proselyting is a huge blessing! I get to do training on it in tomorrows District Meeting. The quorum of the twelve relate it to the Liahona and the Urim and Thummim because they hasten the lords work. In my studies I had the insights that they are also similar because these tools only work for good in righteousness. the Liahona stopped working when they rebelled and the Urim and Thummim stopped working for a season after they lost the 116 pages. I thought it was an interesting comparison. I also thought that was special because the Liahona and the Urim and Thummim both did such great things and if technology is actually on their level then this is gonna be great! The assistants trained on how to begin teaching. It was great training to help us seem like real people in lessons while still remembering our purpose of being there. The rest of the training was great too! Devon and Anthony are doing well but it is hard to teach them now with the warm weather and them always being outside hanging out with friends. Their Uncle Harris who is preparing to be baptized is doing well as well but is still working on being ready for baptism. We have been praying for a ton as well. We are going to again be working on finding new investigators this week which will be fun (especially now that it is not -40). Church on Sunday was pretty good, Devon even brought a friend to church! He is going to be a good missionary by the looks of it. To top off a good day at church we even got fed last night! That was elder Romerils first time in this area I believe hahah. If you know missionaries, feed them! 

Love you all

Elder Stewart

First Week of April 2016

This week was very eventful and exciting! We started the week by visiting the people that Elder Kiriaka had known while here. Transfers provide a wonderful opportunity for missionary work because that is the last and lasting impression you leave on people so it gives you the chance to bear powerful testimony and leave them with an inspired invitation to increase faith! We were very busy teaching to start off the week. On Wednesday we taught Tony and Elder Kiriaka said his goodbye. Tony was devastated but is still meeting with us and desiring to grow his faith. On Wednesday night the people being transferred from Saskatoon came down to Regina and I met up with Elder Romeril. He actually stayed with us for a night last transfer so I know him a bit. Another exciting thing that happened that night was Elder Truman Moore stayed at our apartment. He was my 6'8 MTC companion who I had not seen in about 9 months. It was fun to see him for sure! I feel bad though because he and Elder Grant (my other MTC companion) still haven't seen each other since the MTC. Elder Romeril and I are getting along great! He is a very hard worker. We know a lot of the same people from home but all of them are his age which means they graduated when I was in Grade 8! He is a great example to me because his younger brother is an RM and he still decided to come serve! I am impressed with him. We have had a lot of success since he got here and the ward loves him. Devon and Anthony did not take long to warm up to him so that is great! We are having to postpone Harris' baptism from the 23rd but I am sure he will still be baptized soon. It was somewhat crazy on Sunday at church because Devon and Anthony's little cousin came and was very noisy! It wasn't that bad but Sister Lonechild got concerned so hopefully that won't affect whether or not they come. Last night we had an interesting experience. We had to do the zone leaders job with the weekly report from the zone because they got asked to leave town to give a blessing. We had no clue what we were doing but it was fun anyways. Makes me appreciate them more for what they do haha! 

Hope everyone had a great week! 

Love you!

Elder Stewart