December 5th, 2016

We had the Messiah Sing along this week! It was so much fun! Elder Lloyd and I sang in the choir and it was a really awesome experience! We had a great time and it was a great experience for everyone!

Also don't know if this will send at all the library's internet is not working all across pueblo so this might be an email you all get later if not then that will be good. Everyone at the library is kind of going crazy haha I feel really bad for the people working here. The people are angry and confused at the lack of internet. It has been a great day!

We have been doing the #lighttheworld Christmas initiative, it has been a super awesome project! There has been a really wonderful spirit about it and I know it will be a great Christmas!

I will have to write more later, the computers are not working :/ sorry everyone!

Hope you get this Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

November 28th, 2016

https://www.mormon.org/christmas/light-the-world

Everyone go watch this video! It is super good and I know that if we all can do just our little part where we are it will be a wonderful year for everyone. Let’s work and make this a wonderful Christmas!

We have had a fun week, I am was sad to see Elder Hagman leave the Pueblo Ward but it has also been super fun to work with Elder Lloyd. It will be a great experience working with him as well.

We had a great lesson Tuesday night and we were able to set a baptismal date with two of our investigators, they both really want to be baptized and come closer to our Savior and Father in Heaven. We taught about the Restoration and how much we gain from the knowledge that Jesus is our Savior and that He still calls prophets in our day! What a wonderful blessing this has been in my life!

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanks Giving! It was so much fun here in Pueblo we went over and visited with several families and on Christmas and Thanks Giving we are allowed to watch a G or PG movie! We got to watch Finding Dory with our Ward Mission Leader, it was good and resolved many of my childhood concerns with Finding Nemo.

I hope that as we continue throughout the year that the spirit of Gratitude will say with you and you will keep looking for the things that our Father in Heaven has blessed you with. "When upon life billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done" When we are getting down about things, look up and see the Grace of our God :) it will help every time!

 The Pueblo Stake is having a sing along of the Messiah Saturday and we showed up to the practice and we are in the Choir now! I love the Messiah by Handel, I think it is a wonderful opportunity to reflect on our savior and all that he has done for us and the Gift that his life is to us.

Look for the Good in the World and when you find it go and share it to the people that you love.

Elder Stewart

 

November 21st (Week of Turkey Day!)

This week has been super awesome! We had the baptism, and we were able to work and find a ton of new people to teach!

For service we were down by a river and I tried to cross it but there was not away to cross it... so we skipped rocks instead, it was a good day!

We had a super weird lesson this week, we were trying to go see one of our investigators and we went to his house and his brother was there and pretty intoxicated but we got in and were able to teach them about the Restoration! Our investigator's brother was not really too interested but the spirit was so strong and we are going over to meet with them again this week!

We had s super cool experience last Monday as well, we were at the Church playing sports and this guy walked in and said he needed to have God in His life again, we gave him a Book of Mormon and He is planning on meeting with us again this week! He just walked up and wanted to learn about our church! It was awesome!

We had a Baptism for Dustin on Saturday! His wife was baptized about 6 months ago! Dustin was baptized when He was about 9 and his records were never put in! They are setting a date to be sealed! Elder Hagman and I are super excited for them! They are a really awesome family!

Elder Hagman is getting transferred tomorrow, and I am going to be with Elder Lloyd. It has been a strange transfer a bunch of people are moving around right before Thanksgiving. But it is guided by Our Heavenly Father so it will all work out!

Happy late Birthday Uncle Shad! I hope that you had a great day!

I love you guys! I hope you know how grateful I am for all of you thoughts and prayers!

Elder Stewart

November 14th, 2016

Peoples!!

I hope you are all super excited for this upcoming week! I know that I am! Every week is a good week! Something my Mom has always told me is that being happy is a choice. I like to think and apply that to everyday. We have very little control of the people around us and what they do. However we are in control of ourselves and how we react to the things they might do or say, I have come to find for myself I am much happier when I keep this in mind! I hope that it helps some of you as well!

This week we volunteered with Parks and Rec here in Pueblo, we were painting over graffiti and it was so much fun! Then the next day we went to the Zoo and were raking leaves and I climbed a tree, all in all it has been a good week :)

We have been working on finding new people to teach and so we went tracking and we found 2 people that were super receptive! They both took a copy of The Book of Mormon, and asked us to come back this week! I am so excited to see what happens with them!

It is so crazy how fast time goes by, it feels like just a few weeks ago that I had just started my mission off in Del Norte! I have come to have a great love for the people here in Colorado and I now truly know that we are really all children of God, He has a wonderful plan for all of us, and we are designed to be great! I love this Gospel, I know that Christ lives and I hope and pray that you know that He loves you!

Be grateful for what is available to us, don't focus on the doors that are closed but on the beautiful day ahead of you.

Elder Stewart

November 7, 2016

This week has been so busy!

The first week of the Month is meetings pretty much every day, however we were still able to do a ton of work here in Pueblo!

We were able to find a ton of new families to work with! It has been really awesome to see Heavenly Fathers helping hand this week.

We were out heading to an appointment and one by one everything canceled and fell through. Then we got a text from Mormon.org with a referral and we went by and we were able to invite them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and then we also started to teach His roommate and we are going to invite them to be baptized this week! Elder Hagman and I are so excited they are so prepared to receive the Gospel.

We went on exchanges with the Elders down in Walsenburg and it was a ton of fun! We were worked and trimmed trees at the towns cemetery and then we went a visited a bunch of people and invited them to come to church Sunday for an Area Broadcast.

We were able to hear from Elder Rasband, Devin G. Durant of the Sunday school Presidency and Ulysses Soares of the 70. It was wonderful!

Elder Rasband talked about how the Gospel is One by One, there is not time when we are not known one by one. That is how the Gospel works one by one. It was really awesome to see how personal the Gospel is for us.

I loved Devin G. Durant’s talk as well! He gave a shout out to his nephew who is on his mission in Missouri and was just super funny! He talked about how we can serve in our callings and teach in the Saviors way, seeking to understand the people we serve every day.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Stewart 

October 31st, 2016

I hope that you all have a great week, and I hope you have a safe Halloween! Be careful tonight!

This has been a fun week! Carved Pumpkins on Monday and I roasted pumpkins seeds and they are fantastic! I followed a recipe that I got off of the food network website ahah it was great!

We had a Zone Conference this week as well and I really liked something that the assistants talked about, they taught on the Plan of Salvation, and how it applies to our lives and how we can change because of it. Think about it, we can Change because God has given us the power to do so! I really like that! I know that there are lots of thinks I need to do to change and I can do that with the help of Christ!

We went on exchanges with the AP's as well and it was a ton of fun! We were able to go tracking and we found a new investigator and we are going back this week! It was really fun, we were doing service at the Pueblo Zoo hanging up Christmas lights! We put up like 60 candy cane lights it was really fun!

I had the chance to speak on Sunday and I talked about Elder Bednar's talk from last conference, "If ye had known me" It was I really liked his talk! There are a lot of things that we "know" but how much of what we know do we believe? It caused me to reflect a lot about what I know, believe and apply to my life. It was wonderful to study the words of Prophets. I love reading over conference talks and gaining new in sites about life!

Thank you Brother Andrews for your letters! I love getting them every week and they always help!

I hope you have a great day and know how grateful I am for your friendship!

Love you guys! I hope you have a great week!

Elder Stewart

October 24th, 2016

This week has been so much fun!

Tuesday night we went on exchanges with the missionaries in La Junta, I was down in La Junta and had a blast! I really like going on exchanges it is a ton of fun to just go and meet new people and get to know the other Elders in the Zone. I was able to perform a baptismal interview for one of their investigators and it was just a really great experience!

There was a fireside Saturday evening and the speaker was Sally DeFord, she is a composer and one of the songs she wrote is "If the Savior stood beside me" It was so awesome to hear from her!

She told a few stories and one was about when she was young and was first taking piano lessons she learned a song that the teacher had not gotten to yet and of course the teacher was not mad even though at the time Sally DeFord thought that she would be, and the teach gave her a Ducky sticker, She then talked about how important it is to encourage each other weather we are young or old we have to "give each other ducky stickers"

She also talked about being grateful!

She said something that I really like! "God does not ask us to pray or be thankful because he wants us to thank him, but because He knows how to be happy"

Our Father in Heaven knows what true joy is! He wants us to have that! If we are more grateful then we will be happier, I know that is true. If you don't know that I would invite you to test it :) and I know you will be happier!

I love the Gospel it is the best! This is where families can be seal together forever and where joy is found. I know that our Father in Heaven still speaks to us today :)

Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

October 16th, 2016

The Fort Collins Colorado Temple was dedicated Sunday and the cultural celebration on Saturday we were able to watch it at a member’s home, I loved it! The main theme was "A Fortress of Faith" that is a message that we all need to keep in mind. We have to have safe places spiritually where we can go when the attacks of the adversary come. We know they will come but we do not know how sometimes and so we must be prepared now to stand against whatever comes. President Uchtdorf said that one way to build and maintain our personal Fortress of Faith is First: get and keep a current Temple recommend no matter where we are in life young or not so young make the changes necessary to hold one and then keep it with you. Second: Follow the guidelines in the booklet "for the Strength of Youth" and something I loved that President Uchtdorf said was if you are not a Youth change it to "For the Strength of Me" The principals taught in it will keep us safe a happy for our whole life! I loved that! It was great advice!

The past several weeks have gone my so fast! We volunteer with JustServe.org with the Pueblo Zoo and Pueblo Parks and Rec and this week we were raking leaves at a grass area right next to the Lions and this one lion was watching us the whole time! It would have been scary if we didn't have the fence between us and him, and then for Parks and Rec we were cleaning up a skate park and there was one guy who was super good! And so we watch him for a bit and talked to him about Church and that was super awesome! Service is the best!

I love being on a mission! It is so much fun to go around and meet so many people and help them feel as happy as I am! I have come to find that lasting joy comes through following the Savior! He give us the tools to find joy and peace and in a crazy world we all need to feel more peace.

Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

October 10th 2016

This past week has gone by so fast! We had meetings every day from Tuesday to Friday! And then Sunday was my Favorite Sunday of the Year the Primary program! As always filled with little kids trying eat the chapel microphone to making faces at parents and siblings. But somehow still bring in a peaceful and joyful spirit, and showing me how much I need to work on. It is wonderful.

The first week of the month is always pretty crazy for us because we have Mission Leader ship council Wednesday, Stake correlation Thursday and Zone training Friday, it makes the week fly by but it is still really productive. We set goals, make plans and then go and do. That is the thing that I had a hard time with at the start of my mission is following a plan but I am getting better and I am more able to be confident with a plan and confident when a plan does not work as well. Everything I am coming to learn can be taken in stride.

We were walking one day and this guy stopped us and asked us where we were from and then broke down, he is going through a really hard time and has no idea what to do, so we talked with him about how God loves him and how our Heavenly Father helps us when we turn to him and are willing to take his help, he was pretty intoxicated so we were not sure how much he understood but we met with him later in the week and he remembered and he said he felt he should talk to us! It was really awesome to see just how much Heavenly Father guides our lives.

We had a baptism this week! Elder Hagman baptized him Friday night and I was able to confirm him Sunday at church. He is really excited to go to the temple and to be sealed to his wife! They are a really awesome family!

It has hit me this week in a new way just how much God trusts us, He has given us the freedom to choose and asks us to do things to keep us safe and happy. But if we don't listen he doesn't come down and force us to do anything He lets us keep going and the natural consequences humble us. It is totally and completely up to us though, we can follow our Savior and the commandments of our Father in Heaven and be happy or we cannot do that and hope for the best. It is up to no but ourselves. I am glad that My Father in Heaven has given me the power to decide for myself. He Trusts me and so I am able to learn to trust in Him.

Congratulations Taylor and Anthony! I am so happy for both of you! I wish I could have been at the wedding but I look forward to seeing you both when i get home in a year!

Elder Stewart

Oct 3rd, 2016 (Weddings and Puppies)

It has been a great week! One of our investigators got married this week and is getting baptized this week! We are super excited for their family!

This week has gone by so fast! We were at City park Monday and there was this super cute puppy and they were giving them away for free just out of town and it was really hard to not go get one! But alas I am still puppy-less it was super cute though! We were able to talk to the owner a bit as well and it was awesome! It was a really fun family they were there for tennis practice and we had a good discussion with them about the Church.

General Conference was fantastic! I hope that if you were not able to watch it this past weekend you get a chance to go and watch it soon! It was wonderful hearing from modern day living Prophets and Apostles, I am grateful for the messages they shared. It seemed to me that a common topic was about loving each other and being more kind to our fellow man. In my mind I think if we were able to do that it would greatly improve the world around us. The greatest force for lasting change is not fear but love. A loving parent will have a greater effect for good. I hope that this week you will all try and show a little more love to people it can be as simple as just smiling and saying Hi to a stranger :)

We went on exchanges this week with the AP's and it was a lot of fun! We were going to deliver a bible to someone and this guy came up to us and just asked if we could come over and teach him about Christ! It was so awesome! There are a lot of people that want to learn about the Savior and just don't know where to go. I am so grateful that we have two witnesses of him, and that I know that The Bible and Book of Mormon will teach me about my Savior and answer my questions whenever they arise.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I love you all and pray for you often :)

 

September 26th, 2016 (Been one of those weeks...)

This has been a hard week. I have been super sick! But I am a lot better now :) so that is fantastic!

We went out to a town named Westcliffe and went on a hike, it was really pretty and made me miss my old areas down in the San Luis Valley. It was a lot of fun to be out in the woods again as well, we didn't see any one while we were out there and it was just a beautiful day!

We were on Exchanges Tuesday and we helped an older man in our ward build a shed for a little while and went out tracking for a few hours! Knocking on doors is fun! You never know who is on the other side and it is always an adventure!

Then things changed I stated to get what I though was a cold and just was not feeling well at all. So we exchanged back and I got a blessing from my Elder Hagman and our Bishop, and I am sure kept me from really bad things happening.

Went to the Temple on Thursday! I got a really bad fever while I was there but even through all of that I could feel the spirit and I know that God loves me! :) It was a conflicting day and between peace of the Spirit and thinking I could cook and egg on my head right now...

I feel much better now :) Anyone who says modern day medical technology is not a miracle is wrong.

I hope that you all stay healthy and safe out there! Wash your hands and I pray you don't get sick!

Sorry for the short email this week.

Elder Stewart

September 19th, 2016

So this has been a fantastic week! It was really hard at the same time but I have learned a lot from it! We had our interview with President Rehm as well and it is always really awesome to meet and talk with him for a bit about life and mission stuff!

So there are a ton of really awesome family's here in the Pueblo ward, one of them, the Steels, have 4 little kids two girls and twin boys. Before dinner with them this week they wanted us to read a book to them and so it was super fun to read them a book! Little kids are so stink'in cute!

We have a JustServe project with the parks and Rec department and so we helped them go and clean up a camp site and it was interesting... people leave very strange things sometimes at camp sites there was just about everything you could think of, it was pretty neat though working with the other volunteers and getting to know them a bit better!

On Sunday in Elders quorum, there was a really good discussion about being dedicated to the Gospel and not just comfortable being there, the difference that we came to was that to be dedicated means we are actively taking part in things we are going out and people can see we love the savior because of what we are doing. On the other hand being comfortable in the Gospel we are there we show up but we are not acting upon what the Spirit tells us unless it is something easy. But we were challenged by the teacher to become more dedicated to the Savior and find the ways to full fill our promises to him.

Happy Birthday Mychal! Love you and I know that you will be a great Mom! You are already a great Sister!

I know that God answers our Prayers He really does listen to us and care about us!

Elder Stewart

September 12th, 2016 (Ice skating and such mischief)

It has been a fun week! Our Preparation day was moved to Tuesday last week so we went ice skating as a zone and that was so much fun! This is my zone they are so much fun!

So I have found that I am an okay ice skater, I mean no I cannot stop at all without the help of a wall... and I don't have the best balance but I only fell twice. So I call that a win! I did crash into the wall pretty much any time I would stop so that was a new experience. It was a lot of fun though!

On Wednesday Elder Hagman and I drove to the Springs for a meeting with the other mission leadership and we had JustServe training after that. If you haven't heard of Just Serve then go to justserve.org and look for stuff to do around you every day. It is something that as missionaries we do every week and it is a blast! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone!

One of our just serve projects is at the Pueblo zoo and we went to that on Thursday and it was wonderful! We helped clean out an old shed and a picnic area in the zoo! It was a ton of fun!

So in my studies this week I started the Book of Mormon over again and it stood out to me more than normal the very first verse in the Book of Mormon "I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents, therefore I was taught somewhat in all the learning of my father; and having seen many afflictions in the course of my days, nevertheless, having been highly favored of the Lord in all my days; yea, having had a great knowledge of the goodness and the mysteries of God, therefore I make a record of my proceedings in my days."

The very first thing talked about is the family, it is something so important to God that he reminds us and teaches us of it over and over again. If it is important to God our Father in Heaven, then it really should be important to us as well.

I am very grateful for my family and all that they have taught me, I know that I can always rely on them to tell me how it is, and they have helped me learn of these things for myself. I am so grateful for them!

I love you all and I keep you in my prayers.

Elder Stewart

September 6th, 2016 (First week in Pueblo)

Such a crazy week! State fairs, transfers and other such things!

I am now living in Pueblo, we made the Drive up from Sanford last Tuesday and I was pretty sad to leave the San Luis Valley again. But I know that the Lord watches over his Flock no matter where it is so I don't need to worry about it. On the drive up it was such a pretty day! So that was awesome! It is always fun to have those days where is just pretty.

The Colorado State Fair was this past week and our mission had a booth there so we helped organize is and set shifts for the other Sisters and Elders in the Zone to work it. It was so much fun! we talked to so many people we gave out 2-3 boxes of Book of Mormons and like 1,500 pass along cards as well as other material. It was really awesome! Elder Hagman and I worked the fair all day yesterday from 9:30 to 10 and we talked to over 1000 people! It was so much fun and we found like 3 new families that want to take the discussions! It was a ton of fun!

So I think I say this every time that I am transferred but I really don't like packing or unpacking, because it is just well packing and unpacking. But packing is the worst. Anyways I am all unpacked now and moved into the new apartment, so that is nice!

I have been going through the New Testament in my Personal Studies and it has been super fun! I love the scriptures and on my mission over the past year they have truly come to life for me! I have not been thrown in prison or stoned or any of that that the early followers of Christ have had to go through, they paved a road for all of us to walk on and we are living in days where that road needs to be walked on it is there but so many of us chose to walk on much more dangerous paths. We can go looking for problems that we never needed however that doesn't sound very fun to me. But it is up to us individually so we can all chose.

 Love you all and I hope that even on hard days you will look for the small things that make life even better.

Elder Stewart

August 29th 2016 (Transfers!)

We have had a super busy week! We found 2 new investigators which is super awesome and we set a baptism date for this upcoming Saturday! The family is planning on going and getting sealed the week after because their last child is getting baptized now and they wanted to go together!

We had a lot of service as well! We have been finding a lot and it has been super awesome!

I got a call Saturday night from out Zone Leaders and I found out I am going to be leaving Sanford, I have been here in Sanford for 3 months and I have served in the San Luis Valley for 9 of the past 12 months of the mission. It is really hard to leave but I know that Heavenly Father has great plans to get the work moving here! So I am not going to be finishing Training Elder Williams our Mission president is going to try a new thing here in the Valley with all the new missionaries. We are really excited to get it going!

I am going to be going up to Pueblo Tuesday morning and meeting my new companion! I am really looking forward to the new adventure!

I also learned how to make apple Cider this past week! I think I said in an earlier letter that we made apple sauce. So we looked up some recipes and we made apple cider! Everyone here has apple trees and so we picked a bag full and after our lessons ended one day we boiled the apples for a while and then we strained it and had really good fresh apple cider! I have come to find I really like cooking new things on the mission!

I hope that you all have a great day and week!

Pray and read scriptures whenever you have questions, Heavenly Father wants to tell us these great and wonderful things but we have to be ready to listen.

Elder Stewart

August 22, 2016

This has been a really great week! We had our Mission tour and Elder and Sister Anderson of the 70 and Elder and Sister Nattress of the 70 came and spoke to us and taught us. It was so awesome to see and hear from them.

We drove up to Pueblo Thursday night and drove back to the Valley Friday after Mission tour was over. From this trip I learned a lot about myself, I like road trips, I like to drive during road trips. We drove up with the Elders serving in La Jara, Elders Soller and Tillman. We are a small 4 man district but it is so much fun!

One of the things from Mission tour really stuck out to me, Elder Nattress said it. "Any man can do the work of ten men, However it takes a great man to get ten men to work." In life we can work really hard and that is a really good thing we must work hard and learn as much as we can, but just as we must work hard there are many times in life when we need to help others work hard and we can if we choose to not do that. However when we help others work as hard as we work then things that seemed impossible become possible.

So pretty much everyone in Sanford has at least one apple tree, and apples cost more than I want to spend money on so for our lunch day we went and picked 2 huge bags of apples and then we realized that we picked a lot of apples. So we were trying to figure out what to do with them all and we came up with the idea of making apple sauce. so after all our lessons Saturday night we started the process of making apple sauce and we did not fully understand how much we would get we had 4 pots boiling constantly for about an hour and a half and we were mashing the apples and the end result was about 2-3 gallons of apple sauce! So if anyone has recipes that us applesauce send them my why, we could us them.

Also it has to be said. Congratulations Taylor and Anthony! I am so excited for you!

I love you all and I hope and pray you look and take the time to recognize that our Father in Heaven loves you as well!

Elder Stewart

 

 

 

August 15th, 2016

It has been a great week! Last Monday we went hiking to some waterfalls again so that we could show Elder Williams and the other new missionaries in the Zone. It was a tone of fun! We had a lesson with the Konig family and the two young daughters wanted to show us their puppies after the lesson! I love puppies just in case any of you were wondering about that they are the best.

We have been helping on and off build a log work shop for another member of the Wards here in Sanford, it has been great to work with my hands again! And it is a really good sized shop. The logs are super big and it takes like 4 of us to lift some of them!

We also helped a new friend of ours hang a super super old tapestry in his house! It is from the 15th century I think. We have to drive through like 3 fields of cows to get to his house! You can see for miles!

Yesterday Elder Williams and I spoke in Sacrament meeting, we taught about the How and Why missionary work is so important. I quoted from the Hymn "Because I have been Given Much."  We have been given a lot by our Father in Heaven and He asks us to do some things to show that we are grateful to him for that. He wants us to do well to all and to stand as Disciples of Christ, at all times in all things and in all places. So to sum it all up always. The place to start if you don't know where to start is in the Home; with your family and closest friends. Talk about the good things that you have seen in your life, and what you learned from the bad.

Happy Birthday Taylor! Love you and hope that things go well for you! Thank you for always being there for me when I needed to talk to someone!

I hope you all have a great week and know that I love you all!

Elder Stewart

August 8th 2016

This has been a really exciting week! I took a lot of pictures and then I forgot my backpack at the house... so I will get them to you this week I hope.

I went to Del Norte and was on Exchanges with the Elders there all day Wednesday and it was so cool to see so many old faces and talk with so many wonderful people again! We were able to show them about 8 families that they had not met before and were able to start teaching them again! It was really fun to work in my old area again! It was my home for 6months and it was my home again for a day!

This week it has been raining a lot not like the monsoons but still pretty hard and the rain doesn't go away, it just sits in huge puddles all the time because of the thick clay layer under the top soil, but every night this week it has rained and stormed at least a bit. So there is now a lake in front of our house! It is like 8inchs to a foot deep and huge! I am very grateful to have a truck to drive here in Sanford!

So as we were driving to the Library today we say a truck in a ditch so we pulled over and got out and no one was there but the truck had taken out a fence so we called a guy in town and turns out there were stolen plates on the Truck! It has been a weird day!

This Sunday in one of our Sacrament meetings our Ward mission leader got up to bear his testimony and talked a lot about why it is so important to remember. To remember where we came from and to remember our Father in Heaven. There is a lot of things that will get in our way and try and get us to forget but when we remember we will be alright. I have come to that this is true. It is easy to forget. But it takes effort to remember.

Congratulations Austin and Chelsie! I wish and pray for you both!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Elder Stewart

August 1st 2016

This has been a really awesome week! It started off with last Preparation day we went on a district trip to Creede part of my first area and we went mountain biking in bachelor loop! It was so much fun! One elder did crash and got a bit cut up but we bandaged him up and cleaned everything up and then drove home in time for a lesson.

We are teaching these two little girls that a member is adopting and they are so funny one LOVES glitter and sparkles, the other really likes riding horses. It is such fun lessons. We talked about the Plan of salvation last week and it was really awesome!

We went up to Pueblo Thursday for a Zone conference they were updating the TIWI device in all of the mission cars so we were there for a really long time. The TIWI devices are the driving monitors for the mission cars.

At the Zone conference we talked about how we measure if we are doing well or not. It was really good to hear and talk about what we view as a good work.

Saturday night we helped a family install a new well in there house there old one collapsed and so we drove pipe down and we were pumping sand and dirty water out of the well of a couple hours trying to get it going, and we finally did! It was a really neat experience installing a well. It was fun!

I realized I have not really said very much about my new companion, His name is Elder Williams he is from Lehi Utah, He is a really awesome missionary, we have been working on finding and teaching together, this will be his 3rd week in the mission! We have been doing a lot of serve and it has been really awesome working and helping the people we have been meeting!

I am trying to take more pictures every week but I forget most of the time, I will do better this upcoming week! Love you all and I hope you will remember we are all children of God and He loves us!

Elder Stewart

July 27th 2016

This has been the strangest week of my mission it has been super fun, and just so different from everything I have done.

It started off with driving up to springs on Tuesday and picking up a brand new missionary. I was able to say good bye to Elder Bennett my Trainer and take a "3 generation" picture. We drove home and got to our house at about 8:30 at night. Made dinner and then went to bed. We drove a lot that day it was a long day.

Wednesday was a normal day of missionary work we contacted people and taught lessons. It was really a good day.

Then Thursday happened. It was the first day of what is known as "Mormon Christmas" it is one of the few really really big thing that happens in Valley and so we had a really awesome week we contacted like 300 people easy and just walked around and gave out Book of Mormons to people visiting.

We were in 3 Parades! We drove a truck full of missionaries singing Hymns in 2 of them and walked in a 3rd. I will try and find pictures of it to send next week.

We went to a rodeo and a derby, we were asked to help with the ticket sells and then we were able to watch it! So much fun!

Then Saturday Morning our entire zone ran in the Manassa days 5K Run I don't think I had a very good time but it was still really fun there is like no air up here at all! I think I want to get more into running though after the mission it was super fun!

On Sunday we had a really awesome opportunity to teach the Primary in Sanford 2nd ward about Captain Moroni. We talked about what he did to help the people in there wars against their enemy’s. He fortified the cities and he taught the people to trust in God and obey his commands. In our lives we might not have to fight in battles however we still must always be fighting a different kind of battle. We have to fight against the tricks of the Devil. He wants us to be miserable and turn away from God. If we stand tall and turn to God we will be alright. I know that He cares about us and wants the very best for us.

I love you all and pray for your safety

Elder Stewart

July 18th 2016

I am going to be Training a new missionary for the next 12 weeks! I got the call from President Rehm, my mission president, and I am going to be driving up to Colorado Springs to get my new companion. I am really excited to find out who he is and work with him and learn from him as we work together the next 3 months.

This upcoming week we have what the people in the Valley very fervently call "Mormon Christmas" it is the Pioneer celebration the entire valley comes and visitors from everywhere come and take part in the Parade, and other festival type stuff! Our mission is hosting a Family history both! I have come to find I really love Family history. It is so much fun and you can learn so much about where you came from! Love it!

This week we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and while I was in Alamosa I somehow committed to do an interpretive dance of a scripture next time I see the family. I am really not sure how... but that is a thing that happened this week and I thought I would share. I will send a video if it is a good dance. So there will probably not be a video.

We have been working like crazy this past week and we are so excited for the upcoming weeks we have a lot of investigators that have been coming to church and so many have been prepared by our heavenly father to hear our message about the Gospel of the Savior. I have come to see just how much the Lord is in this work as well. This one woman we work with recently moved and she has a lot more free time to talk with us and she has read through 2 Nephi! In only like 2 weeks. She has really loved the message of the Gospel and came to church yesterday!

At the end of this Transfer I have been reflecting on the missionary work in the Sanford area and it has really taken off the past 6 weeks. I know that the reason for that is because the members have been helping us out so much. I am going to giving a talk in about 3 weeks about missionary work and I wanted some for your stories about working with missionaries. What have you seen work and what have sort of things do you like to see Elders and sisters doing? Look forward to reading your stories!

Love you all and Hope that you are having a wonderful summer!

Elder Stewart

July 11th, 2016

This week we have been very fortunate to meet a lot of people!

We have started to do service at a retirement home and that is super fun! We pushed them around Walmart and we play bingo with them! They might not be "all there" but they are very kind people.

We have been working a lot with members to talk with their friend and family! It is so wonderful to see people talking with people they care about, about what matters most. If you are happy then you will want to share that joy with others. This life is a time for people to learn and to "prepare to meet God" I know that it can be really hard to talk to people about Religion. But if we don't talk about things then it becomes that much easier to forget them.

I hope that you will all talk with those people that you care about and tell them what matters the most to you.

It has been about 10months now that i have been home I didn't realize how fast the time has gone! I have learned so much in the past months and I have felt the guiding light of the savior in my life. I have come to know that every day is a gift, and if we don't use a gift it is wasted. The way that we use the gift of this life is we learn. While I was talking to a good man a few months ago he said something that really struck me. "A day we don't learn something new is a day wasted" I hope that everyone will be able to take the time to go explore something new every day. I know that as you do things will begin to become clearer in life.

I will work to make next week’s email more in depth into what is going on I can't really remember what has happened this week. It has gone by so fast...

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

July 4th, 2016

 

Happy 4th of July! I hope that you all had wonderful BBQ and firework displays, I was so much fun here in Colorado!

This past week was fantastic! We have been going out with a lot of the Young men who are leaving on missions in the next couple of weeks we have said good bye to a few of them so far I wish the best to them all they are going to be fantastic Elders of the Lord.

To be completely honest, I am pulling a blank on this past week. The past like 9months are all running together and I am not sure what week I have done what. So I will talk about this past P-day because it was a really fun P-day.

First off we went to this really beautiful hike to a water fall, it is called Zepata falls, we hiked up into the cave where the water fall is and we took a pretty sweet district picture! And I was able to set up my hammock for the first time in about 4 months! So it was already a really fun day! After that we went to the Great sand dunes and we went sand boarding for like 3 hours I was not very good but I only crashed like twice, it was so much fun! Then last night we were able to watch the Fireworks and it was a pretty good show!

I was reading through this past conference and Elder Hollands talk stood out to me again, and I was thinking about what "tomorrow" brings, it can be really scary we really do not have any solid evidence of "tomorrow" however we hope that it will come and that it will be better than today. That got me thinking about what control we have over tomorrow, I think that we have more than we realize. We cannot control what happens to us but we can control where we go and what we do when we get there. Tomorrow will come even if we don't want it to. We will always be able to control if we will be happy with tomorrow though.

I hope that we can all choose to have a happy tomorrow even if unhappy things happen.

I love you all and I know that God loves you and will look out for you, Have a wonderful today and a happy tomorrow,

Elder Stewart

 

June 27th, 2016

This week we had our car in the repair shop and so we were biking! I did not realize how much I liked biking! The bugs are awful but it was still really fun! Just have to keep your mouth closed or be ready of a lot of protein...

We have been working with a lot of the future Missionaries leaving from the wards we are working in and taking them to lessons with us, it has been so awesome! They are such awesome young men! They have been able to share a lot if insights that have really helped out our investigators and Less actives that we work with!

The Youth of the church and really the world are very very special children of God they will face things that we have never seen before, if we do not do all we can to help them they will be that much more disadvantaged. Always seek to be an example to the little ones of the church even Christ took time to bless and pray for them individually. I know that He still do that for each of us.

We are going to be in two parades at the end of next month! We are not sure how we are going to decorate our truck or if we are going to use a float yet but I think we have time.

I got chased by a dog for like almost a mile one day on our bikes I might have also crashed once but I am fine haha it was a fun week sometimes when we think we look really cool doing something we are just being very silly and should stop before we get knocked over..

Love you all sorry the letter is so short today. Thank you sister Jones for you letter I loved the pictures of the Tucson Temple!

Elder Stewart

June 20th, 2016

Happy Father’s day! I have been thinking a lot this week about the blessing and gift that fathers are, and it has struck me just how wonderful that work is. To be a father, to have helped bring life into the world and to teach and raise that child. We have the perfect example set by a Father in Heaven, He loves us enough to let us make out own choices. I am so grateful that my Dad in this life has let me make mistakes and has let me learn he has always been there to help break my fall for all of my many foolish mistakes but has never let me down. I am greatful to him for his example and his testimony of the Savior it has shaped my life and the life of my family my Parents are not perfect but to me they are a perfect team.

Love you Mom and Dad Happy Father’s day to everyone out there I hope it was wonderful!

This week was my Companion Elder Thompson's year mark! So he had the chance to go to the Denver temple. While he was up in Denver I was with one of our Zone leaders for about a day and a half. It was wonderful working with him I learned a pretty cool card trick that he turned in to a pretty awesome object lesson. And from it I have learned a few things. 1st just because we don't see our card at the time does not mean that it is missing but that someone who knows us better will be able to point it out to us. The second is that if we become lax even for a second we will miss what is happening in front of us. If we ever stop making progress we will lose the progress we have made. follow the advice of a very wise fish and "just keep swimming" at times it will be against the tide but if we move we will not sink.

We are helping an older couple put in a garden pyramid thing and as we were digging for sand to fill some of the layers we found the weirdest looking bug ever it was like a spider and scorpion had a baby. It was running around battling ants as we were working and we removed it to an ant hill in the front of the member’s home. This creature battled long and hard and in the end was victorious in its mighty struggle against the ants. Now I tell this story for more than reason (surprise surprise) firstly this battle was epic. And secondly I learned from it. My friends we are at times put up against a wall and we don't see a way out. We have to fight our way out. we have all been given tools to use and just like this spider we sometimes are put into an unfair fight however if we use the tools given to us we will have the upper hand and we will come out on top. We have been given the greatest tools ever we have the Lord with us if we chose to fight on his side we will never fail.

There is always so much to do and so much to learn. I have heard it said this way. "If we ever come to the end of a day and learn nothing, we have wasted so much more than that one day"

Thank you Brother Andrews for your weekly cards every week you say something that I have needed to hear. Thank you so very much!

Always seek to do those things that are good and be looking to serve and learn always!

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

June 13th, 2016

Happy Birthday Cayleb!!! You are getting so old!! That is crazy! Stay awesome little buddy!

Kiamama Happy birthday! I don't remember being 6 but I don't think you will too much earthier stay awesome!

It has been an eventful week! We have had many wonderful lessons and it has been great!

last Monday we had a huge Zone BBQ some people gave my comps and I a bunch of beef and so I made Burgers for about 24 missionaries (for all those who feed us I am so sorry I did not really realize how much we eat) It was really fun we had about 3 elders getting transferred so we had a really fun Zone activity! Everyone was like 40 mins late though. Then we played flag football for a while it was really fun!

On Tuesday morning we loaded up our truck and because no one was transferring into the SanLuis Valley Zone I had the great pleasure of driving all the way up to Colorado Springs to drop of the 3 transferring Elders and then drove back down, it was a 4 hour drive one way so Elder Thompson and I had a about and 8 hours of driving, it was an eventful day we got back in time for our appointments in the afternoon as well and so that was wonderful!

President Rehm set us this quote and I really love it and want to share it with all of you. Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” The Gospel teaches us that we should always be learning, growing and changing. I know from my own 19 years of life that this is so very very true. If you try and flip a switch with out there being any power the light no matter how hard you try it will never come on unless you do something different. The commandments of God are not changing, they allow us to chose our own path and figure things out. If in life you come up to a problem, try and gain a new perspective and change the way you go about life so that that problem will one day go away.

Things are going wonderfully here on the mission the work is really hard but it is the best work I can be doing right now with my time. The Lord gives trails to those who he loves, when the hard times come as they always will trust that God is with you, the Savior is always walking beside you.

I love you all and hope that you feel the lord’s arms around you always

Elder Stewart

June 6th, 2016

So this week has been pretty eventful, I am back in the San Luis Valley in a tiny town named Sanford there are two wards and only about 870 people in the town.

I really like it here the people are very kind and we have been doing a lot of service!

Today we are having a BBQ for the zone and I am going to be grilling for that and so that will be fun!

We had a lesson yesterday with a man who used to be very active in the church and then he fell away and started to look at the falsehoods online as if they were facts. It has lead me to ponder what it takes to keep a testimony of the Gospel and what chips away at it.

If we are not making progress towards something we are only moving away from it, the things that matter in this life take a constant effort to keep, if we stop even for a little bit it will only mean we have to work that much harder in the end to get it all back.

Thank you Grandma and grandpa Brown for the letter!

Love you all!

Elder Stewart

May 30th, 2016

Happy Birthday Sister Strachan! I love you and your husband, you both are awesome!

Elle! Happy Birthday! I hope that you are having a great week!

So it has been a crazy week! I have loved it but it has been really hard as well.

We had a zone conference and it was wonderful we had a great discussion that was led by Sister Rehm, she talked about the different motivators that we as people have the physical and spiritual. We were able to talk about different ways to help each other out all in all it was a great meeting!

However President Rehm told us that we had a special meeting with him Saturday and that was all he said, so needless to say we all started to panic a bit. Then a lot.

Finally on Saturday we all gather together at the stake center and president Rehm tells us that the mission boundaries are being changed!! The entire Parker South Stake is going to be handed over to the Denver mission starting this Wednesday, so we have been packing up everything the past few days and getting ready for the great exodus of the Parker south stake. It has been really hard to say bye to everyone but I know it is the will of God so I will do what he wants me to do.

I am being transferred back down to the San Luis Valley, I am going to a little town named Sanford! I am looking forward to it, I think it will be a great experience!

I have been thinking a lot this week about different choices that we make and what they will lead to and how we can change. First every day we make at least one very important choice, we can either do something or not. the choice is up to you every day, that choice will lead you to one grow or two drift if you grow you will be able to control that growth if you drift you will not be in control you give that up.

second how we can change, first we have to have so idea of who we already are, then we have to make a goal of who we want to become, then every day we have to make a choice to change and not look back. It is not a fast process but it is one that everyone has to go through to make steps forward.

I love you all and hope that things are going well!

Elder Stewart

May 16th, 2016

Happy Birthday Uncle Roger!

This week has been interesting, we have spent probably 40+ hours in service. We have moved people, cleans things and built stalls. All while teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 It is the time of the year when there are moves and so we have been going around helping people move in or out and just helping get people situated in life and what not.

On I think Thursday night we were told that a guy we hadn't finished moving that morning would be finishing up at 8pm so we went after to help out how ever we could. We show up at 8 and no one but the elderly gentlemen is there and he can't move any of the big stuff. The U-Haul is still filled! No one is there and it getting late and he live on the 3rd floor and the stairs are small and the hallway is even smaller, so my companion and I get to work. We move his huge bed, desk and dresser and then we have to leave and then we go back with our district the next day and finish up, it was really fun to see how grateful he is and it was great to see how we were able to help him out.

I have recently gotten in to tie trading and so Family I need you to send me all of my ties... I do not have enough... Lot of love :)

We spent a couple hours Saturday building a horse stalls and ripping posts out of the ground with a jeep. It was great!

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Stewart for the Birthday Card! And thank you Brother Andrews for your card as well!

I love you all and I prayer for you all often,

Elder Stewart

May 9th, 2016

Happy Mother’s Day! I hope that you all felt loved yesterday! You Mothers and pretty much all women are just awesome! You are great people and wonderful examples to me!

It has been a wonderful week! Sunday I got to Skype for a little while my fantastic family and it was great to hear and talk to them!

We had a pretty eventful week, we helped chase horses down, passed out burritos, move boxes and met lots of new people!

At a ranch that we volunteer for we went out to a pasture to get a horse and the Horse just was not going to have it. This horse proceeded to take four elders on a high-speed chase all around this field, we spent 20mins sprinting around and trying to corner the Horse so that we could move her to another field. It was really pretty to watch the horse run and all that however I only wish I had not warn my boots.

Then the next day we helped some people clean out a storage shed and we filled a dumpster all the way up with boxes of just stuff. It was taking a long time and was really boring so we figured out that we could just make a bucket brigade with the boxes and it worked out really well, it sped up the process a ton!

There was a 5K run that we helped out with as well we, got there at 7 and helped people in the Parking lot for a couple hours then we passed out breakfast burritos to everyone after the race finished. We also played in the park for a little while as well because why not.

We also found a new Part member family and we taught them the message of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson! We were able to invite them to draw closer to our Savior and learn more about him.

We got a copy of the May Ensign and I have been going through the Conference talks in it. It really struck me this week just how much and just how important we are to Heavenly father. He has done so very much to give us the choice to be happy if we want to be. That is why He sent his son, that is why he gives us prophets and leaders, family, friends, Trials and every other earthly experience. It is all done so that we can chose to be happy or to not be.

He loves us very much.

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week this week!

Elder Stewart

May 2nd, 2016

First off Happy Birthday Uncle David!! One year younger!

Also Happy Birthday Sayre! You are not a year younger but you are getting old now. Hope you have a great Birthday both of you!

It has been a pretty good week we have been filling a lot of our empty time with Service and Finding activities which has been really great!

We also went to the Parker South Stakes Family Discovery day! Which was so much fun. I learned about a bunch of really cool websites that you can do some really awesome stuff with. There was one where you can print out a family fan chart and you can see where the holes in your family are its called Treeseek.org I recommend it as well as Relitivefinder.org both are really great and super fun!

Genealogy is really important everyone it tell you where you came from and you can help them as much as they help you! Listen to the last word of Malachi and "turn your heart" to those that came before you.

I am very grateful for the chance that I have on a mission to study so much as well I have been reading the Book of Mormon and the New Testament a lot this week and it has been amazing to see the Life of Christ and the Prophecies of Christ!

I love you all!

Thank you Eliza for your letter! And thank you Sister Hurst for sending it! I loved it!

Elder Stewart

April 25th, 2016

So I forgot my camera again... I am really bad at taking pictures though so there really are not very many new ones... whoops

It is the week of transfers; both I and my companion are staying here in parker!

It is really awesome here now that i kind of know where things are at we have been able to get a lot more done!

We are trying to find more people to teach and it is starting to pick up. It has been really awesome to meet so many new people in the wards that we are working in!

This past Sunday at church the speakers were great in the YSA one Brother talked about how if you want to be happy then you have to follow the plan that leads to happiness and compared it to wearing a retainer after braces. If you don't wear it your teeth will become crooked again but if you do they won't just like in the gospel if you are doing the small things every day it will be much easier for you to make those good choices.

We have been doing a lot of service this past week we went to one horse ranch and shoveled snow for like 2 hours after the freak blizzard dropped like 20in of snow on us last weekend. Then we went to Goodwill the next day and helped them out going through the donations. (Weird stuff comes in to Good Will, like really weird) And then we helped out at another Horse ranch! I did not know how much I liked Horses until I came here to Parker. It is really awesome how many horses there are up here.

We had dinner last night with this really awesome family and they had 2 sets of twins! it was so much fun to talk with them they are super young and so we got some very interesting questions about our lives and they were very excited to hear that I like the color green it was something that they went back to very often to make sure that I wasn't making things up.

I have been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon this week and I have been reading about Ammon and his service to King Lamoni. Ammon came in and was taken all tied up before a man who could have killed him in a second if he chose to, and when he was invited to become a member of the Kings family he just said that he would be a servant to the king instead. He then risked his own life so that he could help safe the king’s flock. The king was in shock when he heard about all of this and he asked Ammon who he was. Then Ammon just taught him the plan of God to bring all of His children back home.

Let us all chose the better part and serve each other that is what leads to the most happiness in this life and the life to come.

Thank you Brother Andrews for your letter this week! I always love hearing from you!

I love you all and I hope and pray that you will know and feel how much our Father in Heaven loves you as well this week.

Elder Stewart

April 18th, 2016

This week I have learned a lot about myself. It has been really good though!

We had great weather up until Saturday and then it snowed for two days straight and it was not as fun anymore. We did get a chance to help one of our members plow and shovel off sidewalks. It was pretty fun to work in a snow plow. I would highly recommend it!

We had interviews with President Rehm as well! It is always so awesome to hear from him and talk with him.

We started doing service at a therapeutic horse ranch. It was like teaching swim lessons again only there was no crying at all! I have come to learn that Horses are super awesome as well. Like the sickest animal ever other than a turtle/tortoise.

One of the members of our Family ward opened a candy store last thanksgiving. He is living my childhood dream and we are going to be helping him out installing lights in his store. He has a pretty impressive selection of Root Beers as well so it will be a very great day!

We had dinner with His and our bishop’s families last night and it was so much fun there were so many kids everywhere and it was just like being home again with everything that was going on!

We taught them the restoration for our after meal lesson and it was awesome to see the spirit touch the little kids and just calm them down so fast! I love how the Lord Talks to all of us in a way we will hear and listen to him!

It has been a wonderful week as far as my study’s go. I have been reading in the Book of Mormon and Old Testament and I have been trying to tie the two stories together. In both there are righteous and very wicked rulers over the people and in both Heavenly Father works to try and teach correct doctrine and then after he has given the people a chance he humbles them in many different ways. But I have come to see that this pattern is no different in my own life. He sends others to teach me something and if I don't listen then he gives me a lesson in a less pleasant way. He does that to us all because he cares about us He wants the very best for us and we will have the best chance that we can to get that all we have to to is listen to it.

Thank you for all that you do to help others!

 I love you all!

Elder Stewart