Loving every minute of it!!

Hola Everyone.

Things here are going great. Ya, that pretty much explains it. I love
hearing from you guys and it always makes my days. We kind of have a
competition in our district about how many letters, packages, and DearElders
we get. My companion Elder Hair usually gets three or four letters a day,
and like 5 DearElders. It is Insane. But I am proud to say that I am in the
lead with four packages. Hahahaha. So just keep sending me letters and
DearElders, and I will be sure to write back.

I just wanted to tell you guys a little about my companion, and district,
and my zone. They are all awesome. My companion knows the gospel very well,
and when it comes to teaching the discussions, he knows just what to say. I
am really struggling with teaching because I just can't say what my mind is
thinking. My mind is moving a million miles an hour, and my mouth just can't
keep up. But when it comes to the spanish, I know my stuff, and when I have
to speak in Spanish, I am as comfortable as grandpa's sofa. :) Haha. Jk. But
really. Anyways, my companion is funny because he is a genius, yet there are
multiple times where I have to remind him to get his suit coat, or to put on
a tie. He is kind of forgetful. Hahaha. But he is going to be a great
missionary. Right now I am the senior companion, but I think we switch
halfway through the 9 weeks here. My district is awesome like I have said
many many times. we are all so different and so diverse that it makes the
experience here great. Elder Gleason is our district leader and he is
awesome. He is the one that reminds me of Ty Poston. Like everything about
him. All of our district are such good friends. I love it. Elder Kirchner
from Dayton Ohio is hilarious. He is one of those guys that is not a class
clown, but not to be rude, he is kind or a nerd so just everything he says
is so funny. This might not make sense to all of you, but he has a joke
where there is a word in spanish called Holar. Holar means to say hello. So
when he says hello to one person it is hola, but multiple people it is
holan. Ya that probably doesnt make sense but it is pretty funny. My zone is
awesome too. When we got there, there was a district that was just about
ready to leave. Half of them left to Bolivia, including our zone leaders.
They were awesome guys. But the other half of that district are still here.
They are going to Mexico and they are having Visa Problems. But they finally
get to leave on monday. But make sure you tell ty to start working on his
Visa. Our new zone leaders are even more awesome, elder Ward and Elder
Anderson. But they say that I am their favorite elder. They say that when
ever they are having a bad day, and need cheering up, they just look at me
because I am always smiling. They came and got pictures of me, and with me
today because they always want to remember me. Hahaha. That is what they say
atleast. I dont think I am that great of a guy, but o well. They cheer me
up.

well I will continue to write you guys, I dont have that much time to email
so i will try to answer your questions through mail. If i dont mail or email
you right back, it is because I am super busy here. So sorry for that.

I love you all, and I continue to pray for ya'll

Love Elder Stewart

First Email!

Howdy Ya'll

How are you guys doing? How was grandpas funeral? I wanna know everything
about it?

Life here at the MTC is awesome. The food is incredibly good, and it is nice
to have a bowl of cereal with every meal ;) I thought that I was gaining ton
of weight, but I have only put on one pound. It is only the first week
though. I will probably put on alot more.

I love my district so much. My companions name is Elder Hair. He is from
Alpine Utah. He is a very smart kid, and is going to make an awesome
missionary. Our two roommates are Elder Geary and Elder Gearings. I think
his name is Elder Gearings atleast.......... My mind just went blank. But
anyways, he is our district leader, and he reminds me so so much of Ty
Poston. He is an awesome kid, he knows alot about the gospel, he is pretty
short, he is a cross county runner, and a track runner, and he is the stake
presidents son. Ya, alot like ty. Elder Geary is from Burley, and has
actually played ball with Cory. Cory talked to him about his mission, so
tell Cory that the kid from Burley that went to BYU and played basketball
and is going to Paraguay, is my roommate. The other Elders names are Elder
Obrey and Elder........... I dont remember again. The there is Elder
Vauderhaus and Elder Flam. Like I said, they are all super cool guys, and I
am excited to grow closer to them, and get to know the gospel better.
Studying here is going so well. I have learned so so much so far. Both
personal study, and companion study are awesome. I learn so much from these,
and it is helping me grow tremendously. We also have two teachers, Brother
Memmet, and Brother Heaps. They are incredible, and i am excited to learn
from these guys. They both have just recently got off their missions, so
they know what is up. One served in Mexico, and one in California. So
overall all of my class times are incredible.

The first two days, we had gym at 6:35 a.m., which was an experience. It was
hard, but very fun. The only problem with gym, is that there are hundreds of
missionaries, and you have to shoot free throws to play. So there can only
be 6 players at once and there is about 20 missionaries shooting. So you
dont get to play often, but I guess it is enough.

But my first couple of days have been awesome. But it is good to start to
get into the hang of things. Starting next week, we are going to start the
schedule that we will have for the rest of the time here. Our P-Day is going
to be on fridays.

Bur like I said we are learning so much. We have mostly been learning about
people, and how to think like they are thinking. We also have been focusing
on our purpose as a missionary which is "To help others to receive the
restored gospel by faith in Jesus Christ, and his Atonement, Repentance,
Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end." The
spanish is also going, awesome, we have learned alot of words and learned
how to bear our testimony and say a prayer in spanish.

I love it here guys. Everything is going to be awesome.

I love you guys, and make sure you let grandma know how much I love her, and
I know that grandpa is here with me.
Have a great week guys, and God be with you til we meet again!!!!!!!

Chase is a missionary!!

Chase is a missionary!!! He got set apart Tuesday at 9:30. It was a very spiritual experience and one of the hardest days Chase has ever had. We lost our Grandpa unexpectedly that day to a heart attack. Chase and Grandpa Durfee were best friends. They were very close and It was extremly hard to get this news late Tuesday night. We are going to miss Grandpa! But we know that he will be with Chase every step of the way on his mission! So Wednesday morning we made our way to Utah. Once we got to the MTC Chase was smiling from ear to ear. He was so excited and ready to get in there. We "dropped" him off and there were told that 350 other missionaries were going in that day as well and 400 the next week. The Lord's work is truly progressing and this Church is so true. Heavenly Father has prepared these young men to go out into the world and preach his gospel! Well Chase was ready and extremely ecstatic to finally start this journey and next chapter of his life... It is going to be an eventful and new week for him. But he will do great. =]

Elder Stewart

Dear Elder Stewart... You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ..You are assigned to labor in the Paraguay Asuncion Mission.. It is anticipated that you serve for a period of 24 months... You should report to the Provo MTC January 19th 2011..

YAY! Chase is going on a mission! He is so excited to serve the Lord and be a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We all know that he will be such a great missionary. It really will be the most rewarding 2 years of his life! This blog is to keep his family and friends updated on how he is doing. I will be posting his weekly emails when we recieve them!

Good Luck Elder Stewart! We love you!!