What a Week!

So this week we had the opportunity to have all of the missionaries in the whole zone here with us for a ZTM. That is where we as the Zone Leaders give training as well as the Sister training leaders. So on Monday everyone drove into town from near and far (mostly far). We had a ward corn roast because it was labor day so that was fun and we had lots of missionaries there. Elder Coleman and I split for that night and did a ton of tracting. That was fun. 

ZTM was a great experience, President Craig missed a large part of it because of a medical appointment and terrible construction on the road between here and Winnipeg. We started by training on a talk by Tad R Callister called "becoming a consecrated missionary". It is super good! I loved it, we just had a big discussion about it. I used an analogy that I was honestly pretty proud of (righteously of course). The whole talk really talked about how we could not do it alone. In the talk he makes short reference to Roger Bannister but does not really do the story justice. So I drew a diagram on the board and did some inspired math. I explained that his goal was to run a sub 4 minute mile. I said a mile is 1600m (it is 1609 but that would have made my inspired math more difficult so i left that out). I drew a track that is 400m. If you divide 1600 by 400 we get 4 so he had to run 4 laps. If he had to run 4 laps in under 4 minutes then he had to run each lap in less than 1 minute on average. If he did this then he would be sub 4 if he did not then he would not. Simple as that. Then we posed the question, Do you think he knew this? Did he know what his splits had to be? Obviously he did. We compared running the 3 minute mile to being a consecrated missionary. He had to study and he knew what he had to do. That is why 8-10 am is so vital. He also had to actually go and do those plans. But wait it gets better!! We then wrote two names on the board. Chris Brasher and Chris Chataway. "Why are these names important?". We asked. No one knew so we explained that these men were his pace makers. They knew their splits and they hit them. Bannister knew that if he stayed with those men he would break the record but if he did not then he would not. We opened it up for discussion and a lot of people believed that these men could represent our companions. That was something I had not thought of. But it is true, we cannot become consecrated missionaries without our companions. If for no other reason than obedience to the white handbook. My idea for the analogy of the two Chris' was that they are like the spirit. The spirit will not slow down for us or adapt to our stupid behavior but it is that constant that if we stay with we will become consecrated. We can always catch up if we fall behind but without our personal effort the spirit will not dwell with us. It turned out really well and President Craig was listening in over the phone. The sisters then trained and we gave some more training. We had planned to surprise President Craig by asking him to demonstrate a 30 second street approach. He was not there yet so we were having to either do it our self or ask someone else. Right on cue President walked in so I asked him and he complied. No rest for the wicked haha. He is a great man. After ZTM Elder Olcott and I went to the kitchen and got the soup we made and the bread bowls and fed everyone! Delicious and Cheap. Like 40 bucks total to feed 22 people. 

I then exchanged with Elder Maciel and had my quarterly interview with President Craig. I love him. The rest of the week was pretty average until Saturday. 

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

With Pres Craig's encouragement, tis is what he sent for everyone regarding his experience on Saturday night. Pres Craig called Dave on Sunday morning to let him know that Matt was okay, had experienced a terrible experience and had spent the night in the police station. Pres Craig had been at a Stake Conference in Saskatoon. He had to be pulled off the stand to take the call from MAtt and Elder Olcott. We were able to skype with Matt on Sunday night which was awesome. He said, "The good part of this is that Christmas came in September!" It was great to see him smile and to see his eyes.

Hey so since everyone is asking I will just clear up the details and eliminate any rumors. We did not get killed so that is nice! On Wednesday Elder Olcott was exchanging with a missionary in our zone and they were street contacting and met this big black Nigerian guy. He is named Joseph and said he was interested. We called and set up an appointment for Saturday at 6. On Saturday we got there and he invited us in and we sat at his table in the corner. Another black guy came in and started getting aggressive. They trapped us in the corner and assaulted us a little bit. We are not physically injured though. They cut up our stuff and stole my watch off of my wrist. They also rubbed oil all over us which was scary because they had a lighter. After yelling at us and threatening us the one guy took my companions camera and took a picture of each of us and then threw it at the ground and it shattered. Finally one of them got in the other ones face and said chill. They took their eyes off of us for about one second and we took off and ran at the door. For whatever reason they just yelled at us but did not pursue out onto the street. We got in the car and went to the police station and were there until 2 am. It made me really appreciate the spirit. It really constrained us from fighting back. I firmly believe if we would have fought back we would have been seriously injured or even killed because they had scissors and likely more weapons concealed. We learned that night at the police station that after we left these men strangled a young women so they could have very well done that to us! I am also grateful for the spirit confusing their minds as they took their eye off of us for long enough for us to escape and the also left one door open. Miracles have definitely not ceased. The Lord protects his missionaries. We will be going to identify the criminals on Wednesday and they will either have substantial jail time or will be deported back to Nigeria. Hope you all have a great week without any stories. Love you all. 

Elder Stewart