Stew's Winterpeg Adventures!: Realization of Reality

This week we dropped all 6 of the baptismal dates from last week. When i was with Elder Wright we did a portion on maintaining baptismal dates and I did some calculations. I should get the actual numbers but something like 70% of baptismal dates that we set drop within the first 14 days. It was insane... anyways, I guess we are contributing to that. Fortunately we were able to contribute 3 new dates this week and one of them is SO SOLID!!

Monday we played beach volleyball and ultimate Frisbee for P-Day and then for FHE we delivered flyers for Winnipeg Harvest which is similar to target hunger. They do it every year and the way it works is that The bishops storehouse in Lethbridge provides x amount of food, we collect food from the community and people can make food donation at Winnipeg harvests location. The amount of food provided by that is then matched by Safeway and Peak of the Market. It sounds like i should raise a ton of food but I collected food from probably 60 blocks of houses. 1 donation... I shouldn't judge but people are the worst sometimes. We were even in a well off part of town. Here is a challenge, if something like this goes on in your town, I challenge you to donate even just 1 can of something to those who need it! If every house on those 60 blocks donated 1 can, assuming there are like 15 houses on each block on either side of the road that would be 1800 cans of food! It was fun to deliver flyers though, that goes a lot faster than tracting because you don't get caught up talking to people who are not interested.

Tuesday was one of those days that just seems to slip through your fingers. (those happen a lot as you near the end of your mission because you want to do so much that no matter how much you do you wish you could have accomplished more). Its like being in the fourth quarter down 2 points. I had to work on My Plan that morning and then we had some time to street contact at the U of M. It is nice because when we go to "african alley" you can talk to 1000000 people a minute and many of them want to learn more. I have kind of made it a point to not limit my sights to only immigrants and ignore white people but typically only the immigrants want anything to do with us. Tuesday was different though, we were walking down this street and there is literally 1 white guy. He calls us over and I was like "this is a miracle!". It may have been but he was already a member who served a mission and was just in town for a conference. It is nice seeing members when out finding though.

Wednesday was Zone Conference. It was weird to go to Zone Conference and not have a couple portions assigned to me and not have to go early to wrestle with bad technology and stuff. It was way relaxed but honestly I missed it. I was able to enjoy the training though. The Assistants trained on something that we decided on before I left and that was applying past training. I worry that so often we train on things and it is great but then we leave and just do the exact same thing we were doing before. It's like a new years resolution that lasts until the 3rd of January. So they gave a good portion on how to apply it as a zone, as a district, as a companionship, and as an individual. Sister Craig gave a portion as well on Mission Unity. This was like the last word i got before i left the office. I feel that the mission like any organization would run smoother and more successfully if there was increased communication and unity. That was mostly just a comment but Sister Craig took it and ran with it and did SO WELL. She talked about how when we baptize that is the mission baptizing so feeling envy, spite or jealousy is not right. She did it in very sweet terms but I loved it. I wish that training could have been given at the beginning of my mission because with the right mindset I think motives become more pure. I told Elder Gee, "I think we keep people out of the church by not turning them over". Meaning if the Sisters investigator would benefit more from the elders or visa versa, turn them over and let them fly! It applies to life too, if your girlfriend is more suited for your best friend.. just kidding. Anyways, President Craig stole the show a little bit with his training portion. He talked about studies. I have been a good student on my mission but I have really stepped my game up recently. I have learned that instead of just trying to gain knowledge by reading, it is way better to go in with a question and use a few different materials. When I just read the Book of Mormon all personal study I don't get as much out of it. So recently I have been planning my studies and having more resources in my studies. If I could go back i would spend more time in Preach my Gospel and less time everywhere else. At he conclusion of Zone Conference President Craig was kind enough to point out that I was the only one in my last Zone Conference. SO he called on me to share my talk with the zone. The topic i was asked to speak on was What think ye of Christ". Now that is a nice topic. I started by telling the story of my first day in the field where I almost missed the greyhound to Thompson and then upon arrival there was no-one there. I don't know i I ever did write home about that but it was a story that got everyone laughing. I related how I felt more alone than ever being deserted in Thompson Manitoba with no companion, no car, no phone and no phone number to call if I did have a phone. Except home which may have been who I called if my companion had not showed up 2 minutes later. I felt very alone. I then testified of Jesus Christ and His love. It was really hot in there and I started sweating... out of my eyeballs. That was the end of that. I was SO sad that it was my last Zone Conference. I just want to get shipped back up to Thompson and get this party started all over again.

Thursday was some more My Plan, a lesson with a recent convert and a new investigator that was not that solid. We found a guy named Prince though and set a lesson with him. Apparently he is the best player on U of W's soccer team but right now is injured. He is from Sierra Leon, same place as Sheku was from.

Friday Morning we taught Prince and it was great. i think he could be really really good. He is a less active Christian but has recently made steps towards becoming more diligent in his faith. the lesson went very well and we set a baptismal date for the 15th of July. the day after I go home...

Saturday we helped with the harvest and like I said the results were a little disappointing. We also found a new investigator whose uncle is William tanui, Gold medalsist in the 92 Olympics in Barcelona in the 800m!

Sunday was great!

Love you all.

Elder Stewart