February 2, 2016

This week was really good but it was a bit slower than usual! We tried to contact one of our new investigators to teach him again. (he was in the hospital) We were unable to tech him because apparently he got the hospital on lock down for some reason. Needless to say, he isn't there anymore. We did however follow up and teach Tony and his kids again and we shared the teabag lesson with them. It is where you take all of the tea out of the bag and then stand the empty bag up. You then light the bag on fire and as it burns until it looks like it will burn the plate but it goes up in the air right before it burn to the bottom. There are a bunch of analogies you can use but we used the "You receive no witness until after the trial of you faith". Tony and his kids love it! I would bet that there are no more teabags left in that household by now. He felt like there was more to it and that God was trying to tell him something so he videoed it and watches it all of the time in an attempt to learn what other message it contains. After our lesson he said "we are going to lunch and we want you to come" his kids got all excited and even though we had eaten lunch right before we went to his house we went with them! They are such a great family! They came to basketball night again so they are building relationships with other missionaries and members as well.

Our area is about the size of all of Lethbridge so we have a hard time getting from where we live (a 40 minute walk from our area) to the far side of our area. The one day we decide we would go to part of the area neither of us had ever been so we started busing over but for some reason the bus we were supposed to transfer onto was an hour and twenty seven minutes late sop instead of waiting we just walked! We walked over 12 miles that day haha. I actually really like walking and that day was so warm I had my coat on but I regretted it! 

Last night we met with Anthony who is getting baptized this Saturday! We are so excited for his decision and so is his Grandma. We planned out the baptism with his and he asked me to baptize him! We are going to be very busy this week with preparation for that so we are really excited. Sorry this is so short, we have no time today because our ward mission leader agreed for us to meet with a family 45 minutes out of towm today at 3:30 which is supposed to be P-day. It makes for a fun (short) P-day.

Love you 

Elder Stewart

January 25, 2016

This week was crazy! We had the opportunity to go through the area book more thoroughly. The area book is like the map of all the areas and it has records of those who have met with people in the past and their contact info so that when new missionaries come in they can continue to teach people. The area book here was in the form of 500 papers all over the floor instead of a neatly organized binder. It made for a lot of organizing and finding addresses on the street. I have spent so much time looking at the Regina map I could probably draw the whole thing haha. It was worth all of the time though because we were able to stop by a bunch of the people on these papers who had had contact with missionaries in the past and because of it we were able to find 10 new people to teach! That is way more than I had ever found in the past in one week!

On Monday we had a Family Home Evening with Anthony and his family (Anthony is getting baptized on February 6th). We got fed by some members this week as well which adds a major bonus! We were also able to teach some members of the ward who recently have been unable to make it to Sacrament meeting so it is very good to teach and get to know them. 

On Wednesday there was a worldwide missionary training session broadcasted from Utah. Elders Niel L Anderson, David A Bednar and Dallin H Oaks all spoke and gave training. The meeting was so good and uplifting and it really worked because this week we were able to teach so many people! On Saturday we taught a guy named Tony and his kids. We taught an object lesson with a soup can where the scriptures are the protectors. Tony took my bible after and very literally made the scriptures the "armour against evil". He slapped his daughter on the arm and asked if it hurt and she said "Yeah" Then the took the scriptures and put them against her arm and slapped the scriptures and asked again"now did it hurt?". She said "no" and then he started preaching about how with the scriptures as our Armour nothing can hurt us! It was so funny but so good to have him teach his kids! He really likes us and our church and he even came to Saturday night basketball at the church where we host a game and have investigators of the church and less active members come play with us! He brought his whole fam and they loved it! He was a highlight of the week.

 Elder Kiriaka and I are getting along great and we are working so hard. One of the things we learned on Wednesday is that many return missionaries regret not working their very hardest and as a companionship we set a goal that at the end of the transfer we would not have to regret not wrking hard so we are working as hard as possible. 

Regina is starting to feel more like home so that is nice!

Love you all

Elder Stewart

First full Week in Regina - Jan 18, 2016

Week 1 was super good! It has been a huge adjustment from Thompson but I feel like I am adjusting well. I am really excited for the work that is happening here with us and the other missionaries. It is interesting how close we are with two other elders that live close by because in Thompson we don't really have that with other missionaries. 

On Tuesday we were knocking some doors and no one was home! We just kept knocking and right as we were about to leave we saw a family walk into a house that we had previously knocked. Elder Kiriaka said that we should go there aother day because they "looked Promising". I told him that since we are in the area we may as well just go right then. We did and we taught a lesson and committed them to strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ by being baptized. It is a very interesting situation that i am in because i am to be training Elder Kiriaka but he is the one who knows the area so when he doesn't know what we should do I can help him but I can't really tell him where we should go. It is a challenge but we are working through it well as i become more aquainted with the area and he becomes more comfortable with the mission itself. 

As a mission we are really focusing on Hastening the work of the Lord and Elder Kiriaka and i are really taking that to heart and working as hard as we possible can. This week we were also able to commit an 11 year old young man named Anthony to be baptised as well. He is being baptized on February 6th. He also came to church and he loves primary. his grandma is a member and she said he can get baptized if he prays every day and reads the Book Of Mormon picture book. She is so great! We have been doping a ton of walking which definitely slows down the work a bit compared to Thompson where we had a car all the time. I was able to get a bus pass but even then we have to wait for the bus. I have spent a couple hours total waiting outside at a bus stop for a bus this week. (thanks for the coat Mom). It isn't even bad though because if you are waiting at the bus stop with someone and not talking it is just awkward so we have been able to find people who are genuinely interested and taught them lessons at the bus stop. It is the best. Cars are for the weak. On Saturday we were instructedthat we were not to proselyte or go outside because it was -42. We were only allowed to go anywhere if we had a set lesson. We had one at 11:00am. We took the bus, walked 8 blocks to their house, knocked, they didn't answer and I just wanted to cry haha. We didn't want to walk all the way to the bus stop right there so we went to the hospital that was really close by and stopped by a member who is ill. She was sleeping but at least we got "warm". then we walked 8 blocks to the bus stop again and waited 20 minutes for the bus. We decided that the rule about not going out in -40 is inspired because that was possibly the coldest I have ever been. It was so worth it though because later that day is when we met with nthony and he commited to baptism. When we couldn't go out for the rest of that day we played a card game with some other Elders for a bit and also did some studying, cleaning, and stuff like that. i thought that a day like that would be a nice break but it's not. It is painfully boring and we just wanted to do missionary work. Pray for -39 so it is warm enough that we are allowed outside but cold enough that people feel bad and let us in!

Love you all!

Elder stewart 

Looks a little chilly!

Elder Kiriaka and Elder Stewart

Regina - Jan 11, 2016

So, here I am in Regina, Saskatchewan. I am finishing training Elder Kiriaka. He actually left from Stirling although his family lives in spokane now. Dad set him apart. Crazy.

This week felt like it took forever and a day because we did so much stuff.

Last Monday I found out that I was being transferred and that I had to leave Tuesday morning at 8:00. We did that and drove all day. (literally). !0 hours to Brandon for a Zone Training Meeting. We had a great meeting on Wednesday and then I did a mini exchange with one of the Zone Leaders. We did some knocking on doors and were able to teach 3 lessons! That was pretty sweet. On thursday we drove to Winnipeg so Elder Low could connect with Elder Quinton and I could get in the mission van en route to Regina. The mission van goes through Brandon on the way to Regina so that was a bit pointless. We got to Regina on Thursday night. To my pleasant surprise I learned that we don't have a car in this area, and we are a 40 minute walk from our area because we live in a different set of missionaries area. It makes it fun! I need to find out how to get a bus pass but it is hard to get downtown to get one without a cart or a bus! We plan on figuring that out today. Here in regina we have a couple people investigating the church. I am super excited to meet some more people and get to know the area. We had a great time at church today, it felt a little different than Thompson because there was like 100 people there. Elder Kiriaka is great! We are quite similar and we will get along so well. We both don't really mind the fact that we have to walk everywhere so that makes it way easier. I don't really know what else to say because I don't know the area that well. The area is about the size of lethbridge because it is 1/3 of Regina and I think Regina is about 250 000 people! hopefully we don't freeze! Have a great week! I love all of you.

Elder Stewart

This is the scroll from our Moroni's Quest 2012. Both of their names are in the right column.

January 4, 2016 - Transfers!

Well this week was full of excitement! We were supposed to go to do an exchange with Flin Flon but our truck was still in the shop so we didn't do an exchange then. On Tuesday we went to Nelson House because our truck was "fixed". I think it is only working because it isn't cold any more but who knows. Then we spontaneously decided to do our exchange that night. We hustled out to Ponton and then Elder Bloemart and I went to Flin FLon and Elder Timms came here with Elder Low. The exchange was really good! The work in Flin FLon is on fire! They actually just brought in a second set of missionaries because there is so much going on! The rest of the week was really good! We were preparing for transfer calls so I said "goodbye" to a lot of people with the probable chance that I am leaving. That was really sad! New years eve was great! We went to Boston Pizza with a sister in the ward and then had a fondue! It was super fun and almost like home! New years day was also pretty good as it was Elder Low's birthday. His Mom had ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut here and called Sister Hinds who called us and had us go pick it up for free. That was super nice! Just one of the benefits of serving in Canada. We were supposed to get our transfer call on Saturday but I guess they wanted to delay it a bit and build the suspense so instead we got an email today! More to come on that later. Church was really good but we still don't have a branch President! I believe the Stake President is coming up next week to call one but the question is will I be here?? I bore my testimony yesterday because I thought that there was a good chance it would be my last Sunday. We had a really good day and saw a lot of people. We also went to the Basallos for a feast again! I love it there. Today we got the news on transfers! I am going to be ___________. I'll tell you later ;)

Love you all

Elder Stewart

Christmas

This week was pretty fun! We had a super different week with it being Christmas and all! On Monday we went snow shoeing for our P-day activity and It was super fun. There are a ton of snowmobile paths here so we just explore those. We taught a ton of lessons on the first couple days of the week and we also did a fair bit of knocking on doors. It was cold. It was super hard to find people though because everyone and their dog is in Winnipeg. People here go to Winnipeg like every weekend. they treat it like a trip to Calgary for us from Lethbridge. Only Problem is that it is 8 hours both ways. I seriously know people who have gone to Winnipeg for a haircut. They are crazy!

Christmas Eve was a super interesting day! We had a really good district meeting over Skype. It is always fun to "see" other missionaries because it doesn't happen much here in the North. After District meeting we spent like the whole day preparing for a community dinner. It is put on by some less active members of the branch. They put it on every year and they get over 200 people come. It has a bit of a bad rep for being just a "homeless dinner" but they are very clear that you don't need to be homeless to come. It is for anyone who doesn't have a Christmas dinner. they get a lot of single guys who work in the mine who couldn't go home for the Holidays. What we did on Christmas eve was shop. Missionaries always get the money jobs because I guess people don't think we will steal anything. We were given over $500 and a huge grocery list and we just went hard in Wal-Mart and Safeway. the turkeys, ham and potatoes were all donated but we had to buy like 35 pounds of carrots and a bunch of other stuff and every time we dropped off what we had they thought of something else they needed so we would go back to the store. It was really fun actually. That night we were told to stop Proselyting at 5:00 so we spent the evening at the Hinds house and had some fun! 

Christmas day was the highlight of the week (as it should be). We were told we could sleep in until 9:00 but I was up at 7:00 anyway. Not because of excitement just because my body is used to being up at 6:30 every single day. We opened the presents and all that! It was really fun! Thanks to all who wished me Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas to you too! (and happy new year which may be more appropriate now). We then hustled over to the church to talk to our families. We got a whopping 45 minutes to talk. It was way too short! It was really good to see them. A Christmas miracle happened too! I sent a package last week sometime and the guy at the post office said "don't expect it to be there until after Dec 29". It got there on Christmas eve. We talked for what felt like 5 minutes then hung up. After that we volunteered at the community dinner and I washed more dishes than I ever had before in my whole life. My hands were totally raw at the end. It was Great! That night we spent at the Basallos, a family in the branch and watched the movie "Home". It was a funny cartoon. (President Craig gave us permission to watch one G-rated Disney movie with a member. he specified further that Star wars at the theatre wasn't allowed. good thing there is no real theatre here so the temptation wasn't too strong). 

On boxing day our car wouldn't start because we didn't plug it in. We walked a lot that day and it was -35ish. Fun times. Our car still won't start but it isn't the battery so it is at a dealership right now. Our poor truck haha. On Sunday I talked in Sacrament and also ended up teaching adult Sunday School with no time to prepare. Thank goodness for members that will contribute to discussions and Mormon messages. Pam was able to make it even though it is freezing cold! transfer calls come on Saturday and I am possible out of Thompson but hopefully not! 

Love you all! Elder Stewart

Every missionary in the mission has been asked to make something like this as their profile picture on Facebook.  This is his new profile.

Winnipeg Trip

On Monday morning we headed out to Winnipeg and we drove down in caravan from Ponton which is where we met up with the Elders from Flin Flon. They too are both Canadian so that is super nice! We got down into Winnipeg around dinner time but we had to go wash the car because we had interviews with President Craig that night. Our truck was so dirty that you couldn't even see the license plate (keep that in mind). We washed the car and then started heading over to the mission office. I didn't know how to find it so I was following Elder Timms from Flin Flon because he served in Winnipeg. I didn't want to lose him but in the first intersection I went through I saw a big flash behind me (my license plate was visible at this point). Now I am just waiting for an awkward phone call from the mission office telling me I got a photo radar :(.  I had to not think about it because I had my interview which was great! President Craig is the best! 

On Tuesday we had a Christmas Zone conference where the Assistants, President Craig, Sister Craig, the Sister training Leaders and some Zone leaders all gave portions. It was so good. They also fed us twice! One meal was a pork and rice dish and the other was Lasagne. Something President had asked us to do was prepare a 5 minute talk just in case he happened to call us to give it on the spot. Lucky me I was one of the 7 people called! I knew it was coming, I could just feel it but it was alright because I am starting to like talking. That night we all watched "It's a Wonderful Life". I was so excited because I even told Elder low a couple days earlier how I was sad I couldn't watch it this year because I watched it every year. That was a pretty fantastic day. On wednesday morning I got a call from Elder Joncas who is one of the Assistants and he informed me that we weren't allowed to leave Winnipeg because of road conditions. He said call him at 10:00 to see if we could leave then. We were allowed to! Flin Flon had some things to do so they were going to leave around 11:30 but by then the conditions got bad again so they couldn't leave. We were the only missionaries to leave Winnipeg that day. Even the Brandon missionaries didn't get permission. We made it home safe and without any photo radars I think haha. 

It was a good week for the rest of the week and it sure flew by. We were sad to learn that Pam is out of town for a long time because her dad had a stroke and a heart attack on the same day. We had our branch Christmas dinner on Saturday and we had a Chinese family who is investigation attend. It was great! We got all the leftovers and I seriously don't think we can eat it all! 

I hope you all have a great week and a Merry Christmas!

I love you all

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart decorated for the Christmas party.