Address

Hello!!

My new address is 4327 N. Chestnut St apt 21 Colorado Springs CO 80907

Love you guys I am also super close to the mission office so if you send anything there I will be able to get it.

March 27th 2017

 2000 more feet up: 

This morning we did a hike in Manitou called the Incline it is only about a mile long to the top from the base of the hike but in that mile you go up 2,000 feet! It was so much fun! It was so much fun! We thought it was going to be really cold so we were all bundled up and that was a really bad idea because it ended up not being cold at all. Our legs feel like jello now as well, it was well worth the hike though! I really love being up in the mountains.

We had a really awesome week! The guy with the amazing red beard his name is Seamus and was ordained to the priesthood yesterday! It was so great to be able to stand in the circle and help with that ordinance. He is such a great man! I have learned so much from working with him. 

Elder Jones is getting transferred tomorrow, I am going to be with a guy named Elder Rodela, and I am really excited to be working with him! I will miss Elder Jones though as well, it has been really awesome to get to know him and serve with him! I have learned so much here!

I love you guys sorry the email is shorter this week we are really tired from the hike.

Elder Stewart

March 20th 2017

Happy 0th birthday to Emery Mae Wilcoxson!

And congratulations to Mychal and Scott! You will be great parents and already have a beautiful family! I love you guys and I am so excited for you both! Go parent it up!

It has been a really fun  week, The time just seems to be flying by we have been  running around our area like crazy we are working with a lot of the priests to help  them get ready for missions and we took on with us to go see an older man in the  ward it was so much fun! It was awesome to go and get to know him better we got him a flower tie to celebrate because flower ties are the best!

We had a really amazing experience we got a call on Wednesday to go to the ICU at one of the Hospitals in the area, a young man was there in a comma. We went and had to wait a little while because they were stabilizing him. We went in and gave him a blessing and after we closed He woke up! He couldn't talk because of the machines he was hooked up to but he was awake! It was so amazing. I will never forget the feeling of the spirit in his room, it was so strong. It taught me a lesson in the power of God. We went in and his heart rate was so low but after we left it was at normal level. God lives and His power is real!

Elder Jones and I also went and found some pretty awesome Hawaiian shirts this past week so we were sporting them on P-day. Elder Jones is such an awesome comp! It has been a blast working with him them past few week!

Love you guys! 

Elder Stewart

March 13th 2017

Hard weeks and spring water

So we have Manitou Springs in our area so we walked around a bit last Monday and they have Natural springs everywhere and so of course I had to drink from them because why not. Manitou is very much like Sedona AZ for any that have been there but it also is its own type of strange. However we were lucky enough to see the Manitou Kylo Rhen. So that was an adventure in and of itself. He has put on a few pounds but I mean who hasn't... 

It was a very strange week for us here, we had so much set up and almost all of it cancelled and so that was a bummer but we were able to get in with on man His name is Dar turned 86 this week and has traveled so much of the World when he was younger. It was amazing sitting and talking with him. He lost his wife last year but is still so happy and knows that he will see her again! It was so sweet to hear him talk about his wife and children. He is also so motivated to do family history work! It was awesome to hear his story! He is such a great man! 

I am so grateful for my mission! It has been kind of hard week but I really am so grateful for that. It has taught me that if I lean on the Savior in the Hard and easy times that no matter what I will be much happier, and that no matter what I can make it through! We have seen some amazing great things happen here and great things will always happen because God love all his Children he wants to bless us and so He will! 

I love you guys! I hope you know how much God loves you as well if you ever don't feel his love turn to the Scriptures and learn that he does! 

Elder Stewart

March 6th 2017

 Week of stuff!

It has been a really fun week! We had a Zone Conference where we realized that we had all the gingers in the mission in one room so we couldn't miss the change to get a picture and then we were taught to take Asian pictures by sister Pongyan. All in all I have learned a lot this week. In our Zone conference we were trained on using Technology safely and effectively, I really liked the principals that were taught of going in with a plan and just staying away from things that are bad. It is so simple but if people followed it there would be so much more peace in the world and family’s would be stronger.  

We have been running around all week seeing as many people as we could, and one guy that we started to meet with was telling us about this competition he does and I want to do it after the mission, it is called Team Spartan Race. It looks so awesome! So I need to get a team together just feel free to email me if you are interested and we will talk. It will be fun.

We went to a fireside last night that our mission puts on every month it’s called "The Work of Salvation" we got to hear from several recent converts to the Church about their story. It is so amazing to see just how much Heavenly Father guides us and how long He is willing to wait until we are ready and have humbled ourselves to him. He is always working with us we just have to be willing to work with Him and only great things will come. I have come to know that is true by looking back on my life and having the chance to see others’ lives as well.

"Trust in the Lord thy God and lean not upon they own understanding"

Happy Birthday Mom! Thank you so much for everything that you have done to help me out! Without you and Dad I would not know what I know. I am so blessed to have you as an example in my life and for all of the times that you took the time to talk with me about life. Thank you so much for being as patient with me as I have grown up a tiny tiny bit it has changed so much for me! Love you Mom!

Keep the Faith and know that God lives!

Elder Stewart

February 27th 2017

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

I have learned this week once again that no matter what I must always eat breakfast before having 9 hours of church. Nor only that but Breakfast is as my mom always taught me. The most important meal of the day. Always have to start the day off right with food. Why? Because food is good. So if nothing else remember to always eat a good breakfast, and drink lots of water! 

Now just as important as breakfast is, the sacrament even more so! I forgot to eat breakfast Sunday and was just really tired and all that not so fun stuff and just kind of wanted to take a nap. So I was sitting and a young deacon came and like every week extend the bread and water to me. It gave me a chance to reflect on all that I have gone through these past 18 months I have seen so many people change and come closer to the Savior, I have seen family's regain hope for the future. I have grown closer to my Savior and built my testimony and knowledge of His Gospel, every week has been different. However every week I am given a chance to partake of the Sacrament. That one thing has changed everything. It reminds me that the Savior will always be there if I am willing to turn to him and Always remember him.

We have had a really crazy week! Elder Scholl is home now it was sad to see him go straight up such a great guy! And in 2 weeks taught me more about how to be a great missionary than many of my other companions. We are going to be making a huge push to find this week as well so I am really excited to see what new lessons the Lord has ready to teach Elder Jones and I.

Also Sunday night some one hit our car, so the back of it is kind of dented a bit which stinks but what is done is done, and now I have to do paper work which is always a fun thing to do :)

Love you guys! I hope you all have a safe week and know that we have a Father in Heaven that looks down and only wants to bless our live and take care of us. Look for His hand in your life this week and I can Promise you will find it.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Stewart Sorry it is so late! I hope and pray you have a great mission!

Also Happy Birthday Uncle Ron! I hope that you have a great day and are able to have some time to set goals for the next year ahead :)

Elder Stewart

February 22nd 2017

One of the fastest weeks of my life!

This has been such an amazing week! I have learned so much and have had a blast! I had a chance to see Sister Hurst from back home and it was really fun to visit with her for a little bit. It is also really weird to be in a city again, There are so many people here it is crazy! I forgot how many people there are here! 

We are in a trio until Friday we are going to miss Elder Scholl it has been such a blessing to work with him! He is so funny, and taught me so much about missionary work! He will be missed. I am excited to work with Elder Jones still! It has been such an amazing week working with them both they are amazing men!

I am still covering two wards, so that has been really fun we have church from 9-4. So it is a long Sunday still but both wards are really fun! Had kind of an interesting sacrament meeting as well. They youth speaker was talking and then suddenly the fire alarm went off... so we all walked outside and the Fire truck came and gave the building a look over and found that one of the alarms had been pulled. We have no idea who pulled it but it was just one of those things that you look back on and laugh. 

It really has been a great week! We have seen so many people and I am really bad with names so I am really not sure what their names are but it has been so amazing working and teaching them! I really love the wards here they are very supportive of missionary work and are always looking for people they can help out! 

Monday we went hiking into some caves and then went on another hike with the rest of the missionaries in the zone to what is called Pulpit Rock it was a blast! The weather was really nice and I only got a little bit sunburned! There are also 3 gingers in the Zone now we took a ginger picture, all in all a great P-day!

Love you guys! I Know that the Lord will always provide a way to allow you to change for the better. He will never leave you alone, but will standby you and will send others to stand with you as well. 

Elder Stewart

February 13th 2017

Last days in Pueblo

I am getting transferred, I am really sad to leave Pueblo I really have loved working here! There are really awesome people everywhere I have just been able to meet the great people here!

We went to Bishops Castle last Monday, It was so awesome! This old guy is building a castle by hand! It is the most makeshift thing I have seen in a long time it is really awesome I don't really do well with heights when I can see the ground under me or when the entire structure is shaking but I was still climbing around everywhere! :) It was so much fun!

At service with Pueblo Parks and rec we did a trash clean up at a skate park and "tested" some new playground equipment by climbing it and played tag! I kind of felt like a little kid again and it was so much fun! 

We took some priests from the Mesa ward out with us on visits and met a really awesome guy named Bruce. We were trying to find some people that had moved about 6 months ago and he had bought their house, it was really fun to meet him and we were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and he accepted a copy and said he would read it! We were also able to clear up some misconceptions that he had about "Mormons" and it was a really awesome experience! 

I was asked to speak in the Pueblo ward on yesterday as one of the speakers was sick, and I had a chance to talk about missionary work! I used the Hymn "have I done and good?" to start off and talked about how if we ever want to do more than just "dream" we have to "wake up" we are children of God and we have the power to act for ourselves and by so doing we can find peace in this life. But we have to "wake up" and act, we have to be looking around us and finding those people who are ready to hear what we have to say. 

I love you guys! Know that you are prayed for by so many!

Elder Stewart

February 6th 2017

 Testimony

This has been a fast week! We have been running around a lot and just been staying busy with the missionary work! It’s been great! We were on exchanges Tuesday and Saturday and had meetings Wednesday Thursday and Friday and between all of that things are going well! 

Tuesday we were going and talking to people at a river walk in downtown. We met some really fun people that were walking around with 2 of their snakes. They talked to us a bit and we taught them about the Book of Mormon! They were really fun people! 

We had Zone Training Friday and it went super well! We asked two Elders to talk to us about the Plan of Salvation and we trained on how to work with members to hasten the work. It was really good I am not a big fan of people getting up and preaching for 2 hours so the way we have been running the meeting is more of a council setting were everyone talks about what has worked or didn't work for them as they have been out in the Field working. It was a blast!

We had a super awesome Fast and Testimony meeting Sunday. It was really good! In the Pueblo ward a ton of the Youth got up and shared the experiences they had in school. One of our investigators got up and talked about how he has noticed how much happier he is reading the scriptures! 

All in all it has been a really fun week it seems to have flown by! 

Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

January 30th 2017

Week of changes and miracles

So as the subject line says it has been a week of lots of changes in the mission world and I have been able to witness many miracles as well! To start with the changes.

On Wednesday we had a broadcast from Salt Lake. They went through different training stuff and it was really awesome! Elder Bendar talked a lot about how in the Gospel we cannot separate different parts everything is "one in Christ" repentance is part of baptism and that is part of Enduring to the end. It is all different parts of the same puzzle and cannot be taken away from it. I liked that a lot so I wanted to share.

Now the changes we used to track how many lessons we teach in a week and that would be totaled and reported to the missionary department, we tracked 9 different Key indicators, we no longer do that. We only have 4! There is also a new missionary schedule, we still need to be awake by 6:30 and all that fun stuff but there is no longer the rigid schedule where everything has time blocked out. It is now we have from 6:30 to 10 to get everything done. It might sound like a really small change however it is so much easier to be flexible during the day and still be obedient to the rules I agreed to follow on the mission!

Now the Miracles! 

Tuesday we got a call from a family that wants to meet with us and join the Church, we ran into the wife at Walmart almost 5 months ago and gave her our number and she called us this week and we were able to meet with them. They are a super awesome family!

We also had a bit of a different experience as well we go and give blessings at the Hospitals here in Pueblo quite often a few every month. We got a call from our Bishop Saturday night, there was a man who was in ICU and he really wanted a blessing before he passed away. He requested to be "unplugged." We rushed over and met with the family and they took us back. We spoke with the man before we gave him a blessing. He was in a lot of pain and without the aid of the medications and machines he would have passed away about 3 days ago. They asked me to voice the blessing and the miracle I want to talk about is the power and peace that is available because of the Priesthood of God. The Priesthood is our Heavenly Fathers power on earth given to mankind to act in His name, it must be used righteously or it cannot be used. He passed away that night but I know because Elder Garton and I went that man’s family was able to have peace. They know that they will see their father and Grandfather again. I was sobbing by the time we left, watching a family lose a loved one is almost as harder than losing one yourself but I now have a stronger witness that God has laid a plan for his children to be happy and have peace and ultimately to return to him and live as a family. It is a miracle that I am so grateful to be a witness to.

I love you all and I pray for you all often. Know that you are loved!

Elder Stewart