How BIG is the Winnipeg Mission???

This week was great! We taught quite a few lessons this week! We had a really neat experience on Tuesday. We were just street contacting over to the church which is like a 20 minute walk. On the way there we started talking to this guy and he seemed super interested. When we asked when it would be best to meet with him again he said "Let's just walk and talk". We did this and when we got to the church we invited him in and taught him about prayer because that is something that he really wanted to know about. At the end of the lesson he said a great prayer and we have met with him a couple times since then! He even attended church with us yesterday. Once a week we make the hour drive out to Nelson House and meet with some people out there. The road there is made up of patches of pavement and gravel. It is such a wet area though that the road doesn't really survive so it becomes somewhat of a trail instead of a road at places. There are pot holes everywhere but it makes for a super fun drive. Anyway we went there on Wednesday and met with a recent convert who has a super strong testimony. We made that drive safely but that wasn't the end of our dirt road drives this week. On Friday we went out to Gillam which is 4 hours NE of Thompson. There is a family that lives there that are super nice and the "tune in" to church every week because they are just too far away. It was really fun to visit them and get to know them better. We taught their kids a lesson on the Sabbath day. It is called "Not on a Sundae". What we did was had two bowls of ice cream and we asked the kids what their favourite things to do were. Each time they say something not appropriate for the Sabbath you say "not on a Sunday(sundae)" and put ketchup, mustard or BBQ sauce on the one bowl of ice cream. After you have put their delicious sauces on the top you offer them their sundae. They usually don't eat it and I'm not sure why. After that you ask them what good things to do on Sunday would be. Each time they say Pray, Church or something like that you put chocolate, caramel, or sprinkles on the top and offer them the good "Sunday". Then we had sundaes and it was a really good lesson that the kids actually enjoyed. We stayed the night at their house and drove back the following day but the road between Thompson and Gillam is famous for being the worst road in Manitoba. It makes the one to Nelson House look like the I-90. Just under halfway back we notice that the car is starting to pull to the right side so we stop and I open my door to hear air running from a tire. Our front right tire had popped and we were in the middle of no where. We had to change the tire on this muddy road and it was so funny because there we are in our shirts and ties underneath the care getting the spare. We made a successful change and made it back to Thompson safely and we were late for our lesson so we went even though we were a mess because we knew the person we were teaching wouldn't be offended. She just laughed at us but we had a good lesson so it all worked out. Our poor truck thou, it took a beating on that road.  

Have a great week and don't drive to Gillam if it is rainy!

Love Elder Stewart

The truck after the trip to Gillam

We're guessing that not many people have seen this sign!

Mission Conference in Winnipeg

This week was a really good week. We were out of Thompson for most of it but were still able to teach quite a few lessons. we are teaching quite a few people and have been able to find even more people that show genuine interest in the Gospel which is wonderful. We have been working so hard to help people come to church and decide to get baptised. our hard work is starting to have its effects. We taught a lesson to one of our investigators named Y'vonne on Saturday and have committed her to be baptised on October 10th. this is very exciting for us as well as the members of this small but wonderful branch here in Thompson. 

We had the opportunity to drive down to Winnipeg this week to hear Elder Dale G Renlund speak to us. It is about an 8-9 hour drive and since we carpool with the Flin Flon Elders we are crammed in a little car because it gets better gas mileage than our truck. It makes the drive really "fun". When we got to Winnipeg we went to a restaurant called Mongos. It is a Mongolian grill like Hu Hot in Kalisbell but it isn't buffet style. You get one bowl and however much you can fit in it you get to eat. As missionaries we have it down to a science. By the time we were done dishing up our bowls were about 9-10 inches tall. I could barely even eat half of the food so it was a great meal!! 

Elder Renlund spoke in last general conference about Latter Day Saints doing our best to not be Latter Day Sinners. It was a really great talk. Anyways, while we were in Winnipeg he gave us great training on how to be better missionaries. He focussed on having a good attitude and also a good effort. One without the other makes us incomplete missionaries. He explained that all of us have natural tendencies to either have a good effort with a bad attitude or visa versa. When we can overcome this natural habit of negativity is when we will truly become the best missionaries we can be. He also talked about Alma and Amulek. Alma was the missionary and he did lots of great things but he was much more successful when he found the Member (Amulek) and brought him to lessons as well. This is something our mission is really working on. It can be tough here in Thompson with so few members but we are working very hard to be able to get members in lessons with us. He also gave a really interesting quote that he heard from his sister but really liked so he shared it with us. It is "The church is just an Atonement delivery system." I thought that was a really neat way of looking at it. Sister Renlund also spoke about how to be an effective missionary and how to better plan for our lessons so that we are not wasting time and also so that we don't have to scramble during lessons. 

President and Sister Craig also gave a portion on how to better use members in our teaching and how to use ward council. We definitely learned a lot and are trying to apply as much of it as possible here in Thompson. They also encouraged us to focus more on inviting people because people need to be invited in order to progress in the Gospel. It was a great meeting and it was super fun to see all of the other missionaries there. it was only for the eastern half of the mission so i didn't see my MTC companions but i was able to meet so many missionaries and see my grandpa (my trainers trainer)

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

The famous rock frog in Thompson.

The District en route to Winnipeg - Elder Birchall and Elder Stewart in back,  Elder Blommaert and Elder Moore - the Flin Flon elders.

Working Hard to Find Investigators

This week was really great! On Monday evening we did a ton of tracting because at times we feel like we are running out of people to teach. We decided that this week we would put a special focus on finding new investigators. We did a ton of tracting on Tuesday as well and we were having little to no success. Many of the people would just crack the door open and say "no thanks". some were not as nice but we just kept knocking. Occasionally we would talk to someone and they would be very nice. Me met some people that said we could come visit later so that was really good. When we went back to visit them almost all of them weren't there. I said a prayer that we would be able to get in and teach a lesson. We continued to knock and two doors later we get invited in and teach lesson 1! The Lord answers prayers. We even set a return appointment with this person! We were so excited! Finding one new investigator may not seem like a big deal but for us here in Thompson it was huge! Finding a new investigator is not something we have been able to do every week. The lesson we had with here was really good but at the end when we invited her to say the closing prayer she agreed to. She began to pray in tongues. It was definitely like nothing I had ever heard before. Elder Birchall could hardly control himself because he was trying not to laugh. It was a really different way of praying but it was a neat experience any ways. The person Elder Birchall reminds me most of is Parker (Stewart). It is actually freaky how much they are alike. Pretty much every day he does or says something that reminds me of Parker. It is pretty neat and kind of feels like home. We had quite a few other lessons this week as well. We don't yet have anyone with a baptismal date but I know that as we keep working we can get one. Something else exciting that happened this week was Sister Burkman (A senior missionary here in Thompson) wrote the spiritual thought that was put in the weekly newspaper. It was really great publicity for our church! We are seriously hoping that it will open up some more teaching opportunities. This Sunday was fast Sunday which has always been my least favourite Sunday of the month but I haven't gotten as hangry since being on my mission. It has been a real blessing. Thanks for everything! I Know i said "don't send too many packages" but I was wrong, I love getting them. :) 

Love you! 

Elder Stewart

Elder Birchall with a really cool wolf tie!

Elder Birchall and Elder Stewart (Nice apartment!!)

Finally some Pics! Lots of Service.

This week was full of service! On Tuesday we went out to one of Elder Burkmans friends house to serve him. He has a lake house on a lake called Setting lake. I'm really jealous because it is perfect water skiing and it was hot that day. He offered to take us out on his boat to do some fishing but we aren't allowed so we didn't. It was sad. Any ways he had 15000 lbs of gravel that needed to be hauled and spread out throughout the yard. We were at it all day and finally finished. That is where the picture that President Craig posted is from. It was 50 trips with a 300 pound wheelbarrow. On the way back we took a trip to Pisew Falls and got some crazy pics there but while we were getting the pics I got soaked because of the spray that comes off of the falls. They are super neat falls! You should Google them. We both slept well that night. 

The rest of the week we taught some great lessons and that was really great! We have a couple progressing investigators and they are both really coming close to being ready for baptism. I have become a lot more comfortable with teaching as well as finding activities. 

We cut a lot of grass here but that shouldn't last too long because it should snow soon enough. When that happens I'm not sure when we will teach because the snow should keep us busy. On Friday we were mowing one of the members of the branches lawn. She is in a wheelchair so she can't do it and the people who she hired haven't been there in more than two months. when we got there to do it the grass was super thick and 18 inches long, no joke. We started mowing but the poor lawn mower couldn't make it 3 feet without dying. We had to take the bag off the back so that the grass wouldn't clog the blade. It worked well but we also had to raise the lawnmower to the tallest setting. We had to do some more creative adjustments to the lawnmower but after mowing the whole lawn 3 times we finished. It only took 4 hours! At the end we were covered in grass because the bag wasn't there to catch the grass. 

Saturday was exciting because we received transfer calls! One of the AP's called to inform us that I will be finishing my training here in Thompson with Elder Birchall! that was exciting!! It is almost guaranteed though that in 6 weeks one of us will be out of Thompson. 

On Sunday, Neither of the speakers were able to make it to church so both Elder Birchall and I spoke. I spoke for about 15 minutes on obedience and the blessings it brings. Elder Birchall spoke on "The Big Three"! Faith Hope and Charity. He killed it!

Love you all and have a great week!

Elder Stewart

Minute to Win It - Primary Party last week.

Huge shovelling job!

Setting Lake. Wow!!

Elder Birchall and Elder Stewart

Elder Birchall and Elder Stewart on Day 1 in Thompson.

After mowing!

At the lake house at Setting Lake holding moose antlers. They are HUGE!

Pisew Falls. We discovered that it's a provincial park.

The inside of his apartment. What more do you need besides an iron, ironing board,weights and a Bosu? :)

Lots of Lessons to Teach!

This week was a really good week! We were very busy and that is  not something that we can say every week so it was very exciting. We were able to teach so many lessons this week that it became very hard to plan for them all and I had never experienced this problem before because it is usually the other way around. 

On Monday we did our shopping and laundry and it makes me miss home because I never did much of that kind of stuff before the mission. Monday evening we had a really good lesson about the Plan of Salvation with a lady who has no religious background which makes The Plan of Salvation quite mind blowing for her. She seems really interested and enjoys the Book of Mormon so we are very excited for her. 

On Tuesday we went out to dinner with a family that just moved here from Churchill! It was neat to meet them and hear all about Churchill. It's really too bad we never get to go there but it is understandable because you cant drive there, you have to either take a plane or the train but the train ride is 16 hours. We almost got to go visit this family but then they moved here so there was no need to go to Churchill. Also on Tuesday we were just walking back home from the church and we met a lady on the street, we did the whole "we are missionaries" and all that, eventually we asked if there was a time to meet with her and share our message. She said "right now" so we taught the Restoration of the Gospel on the side of the road. That was the first time that had ever happened to me. 

On Wednesday one of the lessons we taught was to a less active member at the church but she was late so Elder Birchall and I got bored and ran over to the park across the road and went on the swings. I decided to try doing a back flip off of the swing while swinging but it didn't really work out , I landed right on my back and got my white shirt covered with sand. It was a bad idea but  decided to try again... Same result. I was in a bit of pain during that lesson but it was totally worth it! 

Thursday we went out to Nelson House again and Stopped by the lady who we taught on the side of the roads house. She wasn't there but another lady (we think her sister but not sure) opened the door. we talked to her and she invited us to have a lesson with her. That was the first time something like that has happened to me as well. We also had the opportunity to teach a less active member out in Nelson House. She had been reading the Book of Mormon and we actually read the last couple chapters with her to finish off the book. We were excited to hear her say after "well I guess I start over now". 

Friday was a good day too but Saturday was a big day for the branch because we had a primary party. It was a weird idea because since being here we haven't had more than 5 primary age kids at church. I wasn't too sure how the party would turn out but it went great. Elder Birchall and I led the kids in minute to win it games. There were like 15 kids! I didn't even know half of them but it was still good and a free meal for us!!

At church we got to listen to Brother Hinds give a talk! He is like a 75 year old guy from Scotland and if you don't know him you cant understand him through his accent. He is hilarious though and he talked a lot about letting God lead us and trusting in Him. His wife was supposed to teach Sunday school but she wasn't feeling well so guess who got assigned to teach Sunday school. We taught on Ether 12:6 and showed the video "the refiners fire" and read the story of Abraham and Isaac. it was actually kind of fun to be put on the spot like that and have to make it up as we went. Sunday night we went to the Hinds for dinner and it was amazing! He is actually quite the chef!

Thanks for all the love and support!

Elder Stewart

A LOT of Travelling!

This week was pretty crazy! We spent the rest of P-day playing tennis and shopping. On Tuesday we had a great lesson with one of our investigators. We had like four lessons fall through on Tuesday as well but at least we got one taught. That is one of the hardest things here on the mission because it's easy to get down when you have five lessons scheduled and four of them end up falling through but we are in good spirits anyway!

The rest of the week went by at 110km/h. Literally. On Wednesday morning we drove 3.5 hours to Flin Flon and did exchanges with them. I was with Elder Owens from Alaska and we taught some really great lessons. We then went and played soccer that night because they have some investigators they play with every Wednesday but for some reason no one else showed up but it was still fun just the four of us. Thursday morning we got in their car and began our eight hour driven to Brandon with them. We stopped in Neepawa and met up with our ZL's in Dauphin and the Neepawa missionaries and went to a members house for dinner. They fed all eight of us a delicious lasagna with Caesar salad and a pasta salad. We then left and finished our trip on to Brandon where we stayed with the Brandon Spanish elders. They are super great missionaries. 

Friday morning we went to specialized training at the Brandon building. Our whole zone was there as well as the assistants and President and Sister Craig. Our zone leaders taught a portion on how to teach, the assistants taught a portion on how to extend commitments and then President and Sister Craig taught a portion about on-line missionary work. It was really great to actually learn about on-line work because it can seem like a waste of time sometimes. After the meeting we had another great meal of... you guessed it Lasagna and Caesar salad. It was delicious though so I didn't even mind. We each also had an interview with President Craig and he is an amazing man. He has so many wise words of advise. There are quite a few Elders heading home in two weeks and most of them are extremely sad to leave.

After our interviews we got on the road again and drove to Dauphin to stay the night with the zone leaders. Let me tell you one thing, missionary apartments aren't big enough for six missionaries but we made do. On Saturday morning we got in the car and drove the six hours to Flin Flon where our truck was and then we drove the 3.5 hours to Thompson. I was so sick of driving when we got home I wanted to either go run a marathon or go to bed but I couldn't because we had a fireside with the stake leaders who came up here for branch conference. The three members of the stake presidency spoke to us and they were really great talks. Yesterday was Branch Conference and I was called as Branch Clerk and President Gruninger set me apart after the meetings. 

We had a delicious pot luck after our meetings as well. We ate chicken breasts, pasta salad, a different pasta salad, Kraft Dinner, rice, and cake and ice cream. It was a strange mix of food but I loved it! Free food is good food. We even got the leftovers! President Burkman is a great Branch President and he is showing me the ropes of being Clerk. 

We had another great lesson yesterday and it is exciting to see investigators progress! They better be ready to fill the font in Thompson!

Love you all! 

Elder Stewart

Elder Stewart and District at the Provo Temple before heading to Winnipeg.

Elder Stewart and Elder Birchall on their way to Flin Flon. (We aren't sure what happened to the bottom of this photo.)

Elder Owens and Elder Stewart. They happened to have matching "Black Sheep" ties!

Elder Stewart and Elder Evanson at the MTC. So cool that they were there together.

A Great Week in Thompson...and a couple pics!

This week was great! Right after I finished emailing last week Elder Birchall and I went and played tennis. We decided that whoever won 4 games first didn't have to shave their legs but the other one did. I won four straight games and that was that! He really didn't want to have to shave his legs so he said lets go double or nothing. I agreed but this time if he lost he had to eat 25 perogies for breakfast on Tuesday. Well I won four more straight so he had a big breakfast. It was one of the grossest things I've ever seen because perogies don't taste very good after about #5. That night we taught an FHE to a family via skype so that was very neat! On Tuesday we had a great lesson that we taught with the Burkmans to a lady who seems very interested in the church. That day we also went out to Nelson House and taught some great lessons there as well.I cant remember if I told you or not but last week on the way to Nelson House we hit a sand hill crane and cracked our wind shield so we got that fixed! This week on the drive we didn't hit anything so that was a plus. Later in the week we met some east Indian kids who play soccer near the church everyday so we may make that a tradition to play with them. They are super nice and have a bunch of questions regarding what we are doing way up here in Thompson. A lot of people ask us that because they don't get many visitors here. On Saturday night we had dinner with a guy who is interested in what we believe but not in joining the church, but he is still one of the nicest guys. He is very passionate about what he believes and believe me there are no dull moments when he is around! He fed us a delicious pork BBQ and it made me think of home! Church was nice, I think we had 14 people there and two of them were less actives! We then taught one of the boys from that family over skype again because he is getting baptised next month. We are quickly learning that a 30 minute lesson with an 8 year old is too long. Yesterday for dinner we had home-made Shepherds pie with the Hindes. It was amazing!!! A lot better than the stuff I usually eat at the apartment. It has been a great week and Elder Birchall and i have been getting along great! We have some fantastic investigators and its exciting to see them progress!

I don't feel in danger at all but it is an interesting place! I like it.

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Elder Moore and Elder Stewart- Companions at the MTC. Elder Moore is just a little bit taller than Elder Stewart...6'8"!

We mailed him a few pictures of the Saviour and he emailed and said  "I decorated!" We are not sure that word was in his repertoire before he left! It's pretty neat too...