March 16, 2015

Your 4 minutes

So this week FLEW by! I know I probably say that its flying by every week but really this week was a blink of an eye! Things here are just great! Im loving my time with my companion hermana jara. She is alot like me and we get along really really well. I feel blessed! I think thats why time is going by so fast! She also likes to bake and cook! So im learning to cook alot of food from chile and all sorts of things from her! we made apple crisp this week and let me just tell you it was heaven! Im so glad she likes to cook because when we are stressed it helps us feel better! We are in our 4th week together so we really only have 2 more! I think I will get transfered this next transfer which makes me super sad! Right when we have lots of people to baptize I have to leave haha but who knows maybe ill get lucky and get to stay in Guemes one more transfer.

So the only thing I really remember from this week is we had an activity that turned out to be so fun! I had the idea a while ago to do an activity like minute to win it. Well when we got talking about it, we decided it needed to have a propose so we decided to use the talk from last years conference, "your 4 minutes." it was ALOT of work, but really worth it. We were going to have it outside but its been SUPER hot this month and decided to have it inside, which turned out to be good because it ended up storming right at 7 when the activity was supposed to start. haha the weather is NOT our friend here. Anyways we started the activity showing the video from conference. It talks about how we have to use this time to prepare for the eternity and its really not that long. After we broke into 4 groups and we played 4 different games. One of them was they had to dress a missionary. It was super funny. They had to look through our luggage and find the things that missionaries use and dress one of the people in their group. They really liked that one. But the best one was at the very end. It was like a rely race. The first station was you had to find a piece of candy in a plate of flour without using your hands then you had to go to the next station and bob for an apple. Then you had to eat the whole apple and blow up a balloon and sit on it. Well I got roped into doing it! and unfortunately was last! so I got all the germs of the others in my group....haha I now understand why mom never let us bob for apples because now Im super sick. But it was a really fun activity and we had alot of investigators and inactives that showed up so that was really good.

Oh also this week I saw a girl fight! that was pretty interesting! we were in the terminal waiting for my companion because we were in divisions with the sister training leaders and all the sudden these two girls started fighting on the group. Hair pulling and all! the worst part was no one was trying to stop it. There was a ton of guys and they just sat there and watched it! I couldnt believe it. so that was pretty interesting. Also we got more waterballoons thrown at us this week. that was fun haha. people can be so nice sometimes. 

Well those are some of my adventures from this week. We are still working with some of our investigators to get baptized, but 2 of them their parents wont give them permision so we are working on one of our investigators named Fabiana. She has gone to church 2 times and really likes it. She already looks like a member of the church! she just needs one more time in church and then she can get baptized! 

Well I love you all! thanks for everything you do, for the prayers, letters and kind encouraging emails! 

 

hermana stewart 

 

March 9, 2015

Hello family and friends!

So another week has come and gone! and this week is the most exciting of them all because FINALLY my brother will be here in argentina with me to experience all these crazy adventures! Im so excited for him to get here! 

This week has been really good...it went by super fast. We had alot of success as far as investigators coming to church. We ended up having 5 in church yesterday! which is a big deal! Sundays in the mission are a huge stress. I always say to my companion that the day of rest doesnt exist for missionaries. We are so worried about our investigators that its hard to enjoy church. But its so worth it to see our investigators in church. 

So this week we started visiting an elderly lady,  she reminds me alot of grandma murray haha. shes hilarious. Anyways her house is always filled with family so we go in her room and teach her. Well shes never read the bible, but shes catholic and believes and worships the Virgen Mary. Here in Argentina, the catholics all have huge virgen statues that are like dolls in fancy dresses. So she has one in her house and she says that she just cant get rid of it. Its like an addiction! One day we knelt down at the side of her bed with her and prayed and she said the prayer to ask if joseph smith was a prophet and if the book of mormon is true and during her prayer she starts to say that she knows its true she just cant stop praying to the virgen. so that was an interesting expierience. I asked her if she believed in the 10 commandments and she said of course. so when I read to her from the bible where it says to not have graven images or to worship other gods she said that we have different commandments haha. So my companion asked her to bring us her bible. so she walks out and comes back in with this HUGE bible. it was seriously the biggest book ive ever seen. it reminded me of the old books in the disney movies like shrek. Anyways we found the 10 commandments in her bible and she was surprised. So we will see if we can get some progress with her and get her to get rid of her virgens. 

We also had a miracle at the end of the week. Saturday I prayed before we left the apartment to have a miracle. And we were working all day long and no one was letting us in. I was getting super frustrated. We even had a member that came with us and no one was letting us in. Well about a week ago we were walking and 2 ladies were in front of us carrying grocery bags and we decided to talk to them and help them with their bags. So we get to talking and introducing ourselves and one of them says "yeah shes a member" and pointed to her friend. So I asked her what happened why she wasnt going to church anymore and she told us to stop by another day and we could talk. So fast forward. We decided to stop by her house saturday night. And her granddaughter comes out and said her grandma wasnt home but she let us in. We got to talking to her and she said that when she was 16 she wanted to be baptized but her dad wouldnt give her permission. She really liked the church when she was going. Well miracle- shes now 18! she doesnt need permission! She accepted a baptism date! This gave me alot of hope for the teenagers and kids that we are teaching that dont have permission to be baptized. I have hope that one day other missionaries will stop by their house and they will remember the things we taught them and can be baptized in the future! 

So theres a couple of stories for ya. I realized I havent shared alot of things about argentina so I wanted to share some random crazy things that happen in Argentina.

1) In the stores, if they dont have change, they give you little candies (I dont want candy, I want my money!) the worst part is sometimes they give us cough drops...they think its candy.

2) I am starting to make a list of crazy things Ive seen people carrying while driving their motorcyles. Besides trying to fit about 6 people on one motorbike, Ive seen people trying to balance fans, baby strollers (I always pray that there isnt a baby inside), weed wackers...thats a scary one....its just crazy what people try to carry while driving. 

3) After lunch, sometimes they ask us if we want dessert and they give us a banana haha we definately arent in the US where dessert is like cake or ice cream. I would lose weight, but they serve pop or juice. we dont drink water. im sooo sick of drinking pop. But I dont really have a choice because we cant drink their water.

4) We are living in a house FULL of cockroaches! they are everywhere. Ive learned to just get used to it. also we had mold in our house because its super humid right now! I think ive forgotten what a clean house is like.

5) The milk here is in a plastic bag, it takes about 10 minutes to try to get it to stand up in the fridge without spilling.

6) We have to hand wash our clothes and hang them dry outside. Its takes about an hour out of our pday and then the next day it rains and our clothes are wet again! Its like washing your car and the next day it rains. we have the worst luck.

Why the mission is so great:

1) we invite our taxi driver to church and he actually showed up when we really werent expecting it! I love little suprises like that!

2) when we teach a recient convert about family history and we walk into the computer lad today and hes there working on his family history! Ah makes my heart so happy!

3) when an investigator raises their hand in sunday school and shares their experiences they had the night before in our lesson. 

and sooo much more! I am just loving it!!!! Its crazy because im to that point in my mission where I feel like ive always been doing this and its never going to end. There is sooo many things I miss back home, but so many things I love here. Its just a weird feeling that I cant explain. Time is flying by and I dont know if I like it or not. 

 

Well I love you!

 

hermana stewart 

 

March 2, 2015

 

well this is gonna be a super short one! I really dont have tons to write about this week. I had a really good week but nothing super awesome really happened. I will say that I am loving my new companion! she is such a hard worker...exactly what i have needed after 6 months of struggles with companions! so Im just excited and happy to be with her. She is a great missionary. We work really well together and we found 14 new investigators this week and set 4 baptism dates. We arent afraid to talk to anyone!

I will say that I had an answer to one of my prayers this week but not in the way that I thought it would be answered. At the begining of the week, I said a sincere prayer that I could have an experience that would strength my testimony. Well this week has been one big bible bash with our investigators. we got into some really deep doctrine with some people and it was ROUGH. but I realized that it really strengthend my testimony in the book of mormon and in the restored gospel. Also I got my heart completely broken this week. We went to visit America one night, and she wouldnt come out. her daughter said that there was problems with her boyfriend and she wouldnt be able to attend us that night. I had no idea what happened. The next day we went to visit her daughter and america came out and told us herself that she wont be able to follow through with this decision. I think it has alot to do with her boyfriend who doesnt want her to be baptized. I could tell it wasnt what she wanted. She was not the same person when she told us. And then she went out back and didnt come back. I struggled to focus in the lesson with her daughters. I teared up when I started to think about it all. So after the lesson, I walked out back where she was and all I did was give her the biggest hug, and I just bawled. I literally havent cried that hard in a long time. And the only words I said was "I know its all true" and we left. My heart was broken. I know that people have their agency I just dont understand how someone can feel the spirit so strongly and still choose not to follow through. So I fasted for her yesterday and who knows what will happen, but I know that my testimony was strengthed through this experience. And about an hour ago I recieved a text message from her brother samuel who is a convert of almost a year. He is just amazing and now is the secretary in the bishopbic. Well anyways, he sent us a text saying that he just found out about his sisters decision and he is going to go talk to her tonight. And after that he sent us another message and said "something that you have taught me is to not loose hope, I am convinced that I have found the truth in this gospel, and that gives me the faith to know that one day my family will accept this gospel" It really gave me alot of strength and in a way was an answer to my fast. I too, know that our prayers will be answered one day and that America will be baptized. I will pray for the rest of my life until it happens. we have to trust in gods plan and in his timing. I am learning that here in the mission.

well dont have much time the power went out and wasted all of our writing time! haha only in argentina. 

I love you all thanks for the support and love these past 7 months! I continue to need your prayers and letters and support! 

 

hermana stewart 

I made my agenda for this transfer with the picture of Dallin and I. I just love that we are both going to be in Argentina together this month! I love it!! 

 

February 23, 2015

That one time I made everyone sin

So I had one of the best weeks of my life! I just love the mission! I dont have a ton of time to give lots of details because today was transfers and I got a new companion! Shes from chile her name is Hermana Jara. I am so happy to say that Im still here in Guemes! So yeah we are running short on time. but I will tell you a few of the miracles this week.

First of all. I had one of the coolest experiences with the holy ghost this week. About 2 saturdays ago, my companion and I both felt like we should just pass by one of our investigators house just to see how she was. We had just barely visited her the night before so it was weird to feel like we should visit her so soon afterwards. We didnt have plans to visit her and we werent even close to her house, but we both felt strongly that we should pass by. Well she let us in and we just sat and visited with her while she was cooking. I shared a scripture with her and it was just like a normal visit. Well this week she told us that that saturday, she was reading in the book of mormon and she decided to go out back and pray. She said she asked heavenly father if these things are true. and right after that we showed up! I cant even tell you the sensation I felt when she told us that! I started to cry and told her that we hadnt planned on passing by but that the spirit told us we needed to. I am without doubt that the spirit guides us...we just have to be receptive to act upon it. 

So I had the BEST birthday EVER! Seriously ever! The bishop invited us over to have a BBQ and it was so good! and our district leader and his companion bought me an ice cream cake friday night to celebrate after he interviewed our investigator. And the best part is we had our baptism!!! we reached our goal! and it was the best present i could have asked for to see one of gods children enter the waters of baptism! she is amazing. she showed up 2 hours early! all by herself. and the greatest part....she used all the money she had to come to her baptism. that is true sacrifice. no one can have an excuse now! she was so excited and it was a beautiful baptism. the other hermanas had a baptism too so it turned out really well. 

now for the funny part....So i bought a cake to share after the baptism. it was a beautiful cake and everyone was so excited to eat it. So I opened it and it smelled a little funny but my companion said it was ok. So everyone is eating it right....all the little kids were just loving it. I tasted it and it tasted a little funny. Right after that the bishop came up to me and said that the cake had alcohol in it! and then all the members were dying laughing and they asked me where I bought the cake and they said that all the cakes there are made with alcohol. So yeah I made everyone sin! My convert thought it was so funny she said you teach me not to drink and then you give me a cake made with alcohol. haha no one will let it go! the worst part was they all knew and still ate it! so yeah im probably gonna get sent home or something haha

well thats about all i have time to write today but just know im doing great and just loving everything about the mission!! 

 

i love you all! 

 

hermana stewart 

 

February 16, 2015

feliz dia de amor para el senor!

This week was absolutely amazing and I just cant believe all the tender mercies my heavenly father blessed me with this week. I learned the importance of obedience this week, but not just to obey because its a rule or a commandment, but to obey because of our love for the savior. This week I wanted to see miracles in our area, and I remember the quote "obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles" so I really tried hard this week to look for the things I was doing so-so and to change. Well I saw miracles!

First of all I think Heavenly Father thinks hes funny. He likes to wait until the last minute to bless us but without fail he does it. So a less active women in the ward has brought her mom to church the last couple of week, and we had talked to her and all this time I thought she was visiting or lived in another area. But last sunday I got to talking to her and asking how she liked church and she said she loved it and wanted to change her life. Well I found out she lives in our area!! well ok its really like 20 minutes away and in the middle of no where but its our area! so we started to visit her. Monday night we went with the bishop to their farm and she was waiting for us! she said she was scared we werent going to show up! she has such a desire to learn and even though she cant read she has so much faith. The lesson was so powerful. In the end she asked us to teach her to pray and when she prayed for the first time, she cried. Obviously we invited this golden investigator to be baptized and she accepted! the best part is she has gone to church 3 times so she can be baptized as soon as she has all the lessons! so happy birthday to me! IM GOING TO HAVE A BAPTISM! the tender mercy is Hermana Despain and I set the goal to have a baptism this transfer and when our other fell through we thought that was the end because we didnt have other investigators with church attendence, but Heavenly Father is so nice and put catolina in our path. And shes just great! the problem is we have to pay a fortune to go to her house but its so worth it! shes always waiting for us with a burning desire to learn. and yesterday she came to church all by herself! all of her family who are less active were partying the night before and she said she knew she had to come to church even if it was alone. I love it! oh but funny story, when we got there for the first time with the bishop, a woman walked out and gretted us with a kiss but when she opened her mouth to talk, I realized it wasnt a woman!  I got kissed by a man! oh my satan is working eveywhere even in the middle of no where! the funny part is I think we were more worried that a man kissed us than the fact that he was a she. Look what being a missionary has done to me!

This valentines day was one of the most special Ive had (not that Ive had many special ones haha) as I was relecting back on the last 6 months of my mission I was brought to tears. This valentines day, I realized that out here I have learned what true love is. I have such a love for the people I have met, love that I cant explain. Ive learned to love people I never thought I could. Ive learned to love my savior. Ive gained a stronger love for my family, more than I thought was possible. I thought I knew what love was before, and I was so wrong. This is the kind of love a boyfriend cant satisfy haha. I remember when I got set apart the stake president said I would come to love the people, and then I got here 5 months ago and remember thinking to myself how could I love people so different than me? I really struggled with loveing the people at first. And now I cant even think about them without being brought to tears. I dont know how Ill ever say goodbye. My only hope is knowing that one day we will be reunited in the presence of our loving heavenly father.

Biggest miracle of the week! AMERICA PRAYED! I dont know if I told you but when we first started teaching her she was terrifed to pray. terrified! she said she just couldnt do it. Well this week after one of our lessons we asked her who she wanted to say the prayer and she said she wanted to! I about died! I was crying throughout the entire prayer. She was crying too and afterwards she said with tears in her eyes that it was her first prayer. I just couldnt help but give her a big hug. That moment honestly topped them all! I dont have a doubt in my mind that she will be baptized.

So funny story of the week, we went to a memebers house to eat and I thought she had asked us if we liked olives on our pizza but she really said sardines! Yeah dad, I know I used to like sardines but something about pizza and cheese and sardines just doesnt go well! I think thats about the worst thing I have eaten so far.

We also had our activity saturday and it turned out to be soo good! lots of members showed up and I think it really helped them to feel more comfortable to share the gospel. it was just a really good week!

and now we are going into our last week of this transfer and I think it will end really well. Im excited to see some changes by next week!

well I love you all! 

 

hermana stewart

 

p.s. if anyone is feeling really nice and wants to send me licorice to satisfy my craving you will be my favorite person in the world! I just need to eat something from the US! 

 

February 9, 2015

Well this week was a big bummer. It probably was one of the hardest weeks of my mission. Fatima didnt get baptized this week...and she dropped us real hard. She told us that she doesnt want us to come by and teach her and shes super cold to us now. We dont really know what happened but it just broke my heart. It kind of put a HUGE damper on the missionary work this week for me. I just have been super let down. One of the hardest things about missionary work is seeing people use their agency for the worst. And its even harder when I have this burning testimony and I know that this gospel changes lives but people dont accept it. I am excited to start a new week this week and try to push past this huge let down.

We did have a miracle with America (the one that is super close to my heart) The other day when we stopped by we asked her if she had read the chapter in the book of mormon that we had left and she said she had and not only that but she has started reading the book of mormon from the cover! she even read the publishing and everything! She said that she now has a routine to read the book of mormon in the morning and she has felt a huge difference. And the biggest miracle yet, she said that she is "praying in her heart" which is huge because she has a huge fear of praying and its something that we are fighting to help her do! but shes trying so hard and I know that she knows its true. She accepted a baptismal date finally and she came to church with us yesterday! we had to leave our apartment super early to walk a half hour to pick her up and walk a half hour to the church but it was so worth it. She didnt talk much during church but I could tell she was listening to every little word. Im excited to visit her to this and find out how she really felt about the church. I am really praying hard that my president doesnt transfer me in 2 weeks because I HAVE to be here for her baptism! there is rumors that they are going to close one of the 2 areas here and only have 2 hermanas so we will see what happens! I love guemes though so I really hope I can stay here longer! 

We are working really hard to try and work more with inactives and part member families to find investigators! weve found some really good inactive families and they are starting to come back to church so theres lots of progress there! 

We are also planning a huge activity this saturday for the members. Its a mini MTC theme and we are going to help the members learn how to share the gospel and we are going to do practices with them and so hopefully we will find success from this as well. The bishop here is a huge help. He really has a huge vision for this area and so I really think good things are going to happen here! I just wanna be a part of it! Tonight we are going with the bishop to the middle of nowhere to teach a new family! The mom of one of the members has been attending church and yesterday I asked her how she feels about the church and she said that she loves it because it changes her family. She even brought her son yesterday. So anyways I think we might be hitting a gold mind with this family tonight! They live super far away but luckily the bishop offered to take us out there so we will see how many people we can find out there! We still have hope to have a baptism this transfer! 

This week as I was feeling a little down, I found a letter from my dear friend savana (shout out to you my friend!) She told me about Joseph Fielding smith and how when he served his mission in England, he didnt have a single convert in 2 whole years! Now this is a future prophet we are talking about! well he talks about how he found comfort in knowing that he was planting seeds and that one day they would accept the gospel. It hit me real hard as well. I find comfort in knowing that I am doing whats right. I am where Im supposed to be, sharing a message that is true. I am giving it my ALL! I just love it! I just love the experiences I am having! And I know with all my heart that nothing will ever stop the work of the lord from spreading to all the world. Joseph fielding smith said "Our missionaries go forth. no power has been able to stay their hands. It has been tried. Great efforts were made in the very beginning when there was only a handful of missionaries, but the progress of the work could not be stopped. It cannot be stopped now. And these missionaries untrained in the ways of the world, go forth with this message of salvation and confound the great and the mighty because they have the truth." 

I just love that i am apart of this work!

Also I love the adventures we have as missionaries! this morning we got up super early and we rode a TRAIN to salta! it was the coolest thing Ive ever done! it was so pretty especially because the sun was rising! Argentina is super green right now and the mountains are breathtaking! It was so fun! and we just hung out in salta for the day! ive gotten used to the city and Im not scared to make my way around anymore. I was thinking today that i am definately coming back here after my mission because I just love it! 

well heres to another week!!! love you all and cant wait to hear from you next week! 

 

hermana stewart

 

February 2, 2015

I found "the one"

This week has been another life changing week and one I can never forget. I remember my MTC mission president told me in one of my interviews with him that there is someone waiting for me in Argentina, and until now I honestly doubted it. I knew my CALLING as a missionary was important, but it never really clicked that ME being a missionary was important. I knew that missionary work was important that everyone needs to share the gospel, but until now I never realized that I can do something that other missionaries couldnt and that there really was revelation from the prophet and apostales when they called ME to the Salta Argentina mission and when my mission president called me here to Guemes at this time. I found that person. That person that has been prepared for me. I am not saying that I have more power than other missionaries, because that is far from the truth, but I now know that our Heavenly FAther has given us certain talents so that we can bless the lives of certain people that other cant. Im not going to go into much details of what happened this week because its ver personal and I almost feel like I couldnt explain it if I tried, but this person has and will always have an extremely special place in my heart. In the middle of our lesson she said that lots of missionaries have entered her house to teach her daughter but she never wanted to listen, but now something is different and she knows its true. Yesterday she didnt show up to church and I was super bummed. But in the middle of sacrament meeting, the other hermanas came over to me to tell me that one of our investigators was outside crying. my companion plays the piano so I had to go out with one of the other sisters, and when I saw her outside the sacrament room doors, I lost it. I ran to her and just hugged her and she hugged me for the longest time. She said that she had wanted to come to church, and that something happened in her family and she lost her temper and that she was ashamed to enter the sacrament meeting, but she had walked all the way to the church to talk to me! i asked her what I could do and she asked me to just hug her, and I did. I have never felt such power and love in a hug. It was a very sacred experience for me.

I found a quote this week that I love! "by becoming the answer to someone elses prayer, we often find the answer to our own." How true it is! I cant begin to name all the answers to old prayers that are now being answered as I am serving a mission. Im starting to wonder why I didnt do this earlier ;) Six months of this mission thing has changed me completely. In ways I never thought possible and Im so glad that I have been led to this place. The experiences I had had and the people I have met are so extremely personal to me that sometimes I feel like I cant even explain it to you guys. The scriptures are so true that say that if we lose ourselves in the service to God, we find ourselves. I am definately finding myself here in Argentina.

Well heres a short overview of my adventures this week: 

1) we got caught in another huge tropical storm, this time hail the size of golfballs! It really does exist! this time we were super far from our apartment so we quickly found a members house! They gave us clothes to change into and when the storm calmed down we had to go to a meeting at the church and we showed up looking like MONKS! no joke! And the other hermanas were worse because the member that had given them clothes is alot older and bigger. We were dying laughing and the bishop asked us what the heck we were wearing haha

2) the sudden change in climate made me SUPER sick. And I was in bed all day thursday! It was the worst! I never want to be sick again on my mission because I felt so guilty and lazy as a missionary in my bed! And its even worse with a companion. I felt so guilty that she had to stay in the apartment with me all day. But lucky it was like the 24 hour flu so I was able to get back to work the next day and we made up for the day that we lost.

3) Fatima is still progressing and is looking forward to her baptism SATURDAY! I have never prayed so hard and am still praying that everything will work out because satan likes to work hard on our investigators that are progressing. Yesterday we went to pick her up for church and she was still asleep which was really weird and I spent 20 minutes trying to convince her why church is more important that sleeping haha and she finally came and at the end of church said it was worth it! 

4) have I mentioned that living next to the bishop is awesome?! hes the most amazing bishop ive ever met! one night he knocked on our door and handed us ice cream that he had bought for us just for the heck of it! We devoured it! ice cream in argentina is heavenly!!

Well thats my week! I hope that you are all doing well and doing your individual part in the missionary work. Remember to preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words.

 

love you!

hermana stewart