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.

June 6, 2016 MICKAELA GOT BAPTIZED!!!!

So this week was quite the crazy one. We were out of our area for a large part of it but we still were able to get some good stuff done. Monday we met with Mickaela and prepped her for the baptismal interview and had a recent convert there to teach it with us! It is the best when you get members and missionaries involved together to hasten the work of Salvation.Tuesday we taught a couple good lessons and Mickaela's interview with our District Leader went great! His name is Elder Lewis and he came out with Elder Low. The work is still kind of slow here numbers wise but the quality of lessons is a lot better and the people want to progress a lot more. On Wednesday we had a fantastic lesson that we found through an anonymous online referral that told us to go share the gospel with her. We brought a member and taught her about the Restoration. She loved it and we invited her to Mickaela's baptism. To make things even better we also got fed that night by a super solid member who invited us, a less active and Mickaela over for dinner. We watched the restoration and talked about it. We then ate a delicious meal. We had to rush out to drive to Winnipeg that night. Thursday we exchanged with the spanish Elders in Winnipeg. Elder De Leon is the District Leader in the Spanish district which is in our zone even though it spans all the way from Saskatoon to Brandon to Winnipeg. I went with Elder De Leon and we taught a few good lessons (apparently). I don't actually speak much Spanish so the companionship unity was difficult because they only teach Spanish people. I did however learn how to pray in Spanish. It was weird to be his leader because when I cm in the mission he was a Zone Leader in Winnipeg so he is older and very experienced but I was able to see their area and help out there. We did something very fun that night. We taught an English class that is produced by the church. They use it in Winnipeg twice a week. We had 3 students who have moved here recently. The church is so sneaky. All of the pictures in the booklet have something to do with the church. One of the things is "how to hold a family home evening in English" Apparently it works though because they have a baptism this weekend from it. 

On Friday we had an in person Mission Leadership Council. In our mission since it is so big we only have in person 3 times a year but lucky for me my first one was in person. We discussed a bunch of stuff about the mission and I saw Elder Birchall which was fun. Usually the MLC lasts for like 4 hours but this one went for 7! It flew by though. I loved it. I was like the rookie but I just acted like I belonged and it went well. So many great missionaries here! We drove back for some lessons that night.

Saturday was the big day and we started it out with a bang, we had a lesson with a guy name Clifford who brought two friends and we taught them. We invited all of them to the baptism! Our afternoon and evening was filled with the baptism. So many people came and Mickaela's non-member parents came!! We also had 4 investigators there which was great. Elder Griffin who I replaced here in Brandon came back to see the baptism with president Craig and Elder Randall. Always good to see President Craig twice in one week, especially when we have a baptism and 4 investigators show up!

On Sunday Elder Timms gave her the Holy Ghost! I have no doubt that she will be a great member. To but all the pieces of the week together, on Sunday night we brought Mickaela who had been a member for like 6 hours to a lesson with Clifford and his friend Sloan who he introduced to us on Saturday and we set a date with Sloan to be baptized. It was a great week!!!

Love Elder Stewart

May 30/16 Week 2 in Brandon

This week went really well, and we were able to have a good amount of success. Monday was fun, i got to know some more members and some less active members so that was good. i have become a lot more comfortable talking to random people so i feel like I already know like the whole ward here which is nice. On Tuesday we had district meeting and it was really good. It is fun to be on the other side of a district meeting again and receive the training. Elder Lewis is our district leader, He came out with Elder Low and i actually got to exchange with him on his first day in thee mission. He gives really good training and makes it pretty fun. We also saw Mickaela on Tuesday. her baptism is this Saturday and i am so excited!!! She is seriously like the most prepared person I have ever met. She is amazing. For example she was out of town this weekend but felt it important to attend church so we said she could Skype into the meeting in Thompson Manitoba. She said that sounded great but changed her mind Sunday morning and drove 45 minutes from where she was staying at her uncles house to Minot north Dakota to attend an 8:00am ward in Minot! She isn't even baptized yet and is probably a better member of the church than me haha. We are very excited for it this weekend. She also set up the whole baptism and chose members of the ward to give talks, Prayers, baptize her, and stuff like that. She makes our job easy. 

Elder Timms is great, he is showing me the zone leader ropes well and I am learning. He is also very loving towards our stewardship and that is something i am trying to exemplify and learn from. it rained like crazy here this week. My shoes got soaked the one day so i decided to take the souls out on Tuesday and let them dry. Well as an Alberta boy you would expect them to be dry by like Wednesday morning. Wrong, Manitoba is soooooo humid. they are finally dry today. 6 days later! It is the worst. We had a ward BBQ on Saturday which went well. it is interesting her that about half of the ward here in Brandon is Spanish. Like don't speak English Spanish so I am learning a little bit! there are Spanish missionaries that translate the meetings. All in all the week was really good and I love Brandon and I love having the opportunity to be a zone leader and help the missionaries in the stewardship. 

Love Elder Stewart

PS Sadly, Elder Kiriaka had to go home this week for health reasons. That was hard.