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.