Is it time to go to Paraguay yet?

Hola mi familia.

I have 24 days until we leave for paraguay!!!!!!! Yay. We haven't heard anything on our visa's but we are not to worried about it. We recently got our blood checked for AIDS, in order to get into Paraguay, but I am pretty sure none of us have AIDS, so that is good.

The work here is great, and everything is in spanish. I have a stack of flash cards that I have memorized that is probably six inches thick, or around 500 words. Although that seems like alot of words, it really isn't, and I have a long way to go.

Being a district leader is pretty sweet, and I have alot of responsibilities, but as ya'll know, I love leadership and responsibility, but not in an evil way. I just appreciate it that my efforts and all my work, is being noticed. As a district leader, I get the mail, and it has been sweet, because I have gotten three packages in three days. I have enough junk food to last a while :)

Elder Zollinger, the Elder in our zone that has been here since November 17th, finally left to Mexico today. His doctors approved him last night and he left on a plane this morning. Crazy. It was hard to see such a good Elder leave, but I know he was ready to get out of here. All of us elders, are ready to get out of here. We are ready for Paraguay and Argentina.

Ya, so I see tons of people I know here. Just to name a few, Elder Brenan Robinson, Chris Boyce, Rusty Robinson, Cory Warner, Anthony McCabe, Andrew Allred, Aaron Johnson, and Austin Miller. Those are just the ones I see from my school. I also see Elder Josh Zamora, Nate Elmer, and Jared Campbell (both roommates). So it is so nice to see some familiar faces around.

Ya, some channel has been doing a special on Missionaries. I am guessing that is what Barb saw. I am in the choir here at the MTC, and they came and recorded us singing and stuff, but I am not sure if they showed that on the special. It sounds like Rigby Basketball is doing awesome. You should send me updates as much as possible. How did the girls team do in State?? I am also waiting for that sports update that dad has promised he for weeks hahahahahhahah.

All of my shots are finished, and I am not sick anymore. It is so nice to be able to focus on the work now. Everything in classes are awesome, we have an INCREDIBLE district, and through them the spirit can so easily dwell, and I learn so many things about the scripture etc.

I really dont think I need anything right now, I just have one question. Do I get a missionary plaque in our ward?? And if so, I want my scripture to be Alma 38: 14-15. This scripture talks about how humble we need to be, and we will be blessed from it. This scripture has been my FAVORITE for a couple of years, and it has so much meaning to me now.

Lastly, I just want to share an awesome spiritual experience I had this last week. So I was at choir with another elder from my district, we were on splits. The elder was elder gleason and he was our last district leader. So anyways, we were sitting in our places getting ready for the tuesday night devotional, where we were going to sing at, and we noticed that Elder Kearon of the seventy was speaking. Elder Kearon gave my favorite talk ever in the last General Conference Priesthood Meeting, about how Jesus Christ is our doctor, and we need to go to him to be saved, you guys should read it. But anyways Elder Gleason had an older brother that died on his mission in England, in a car accident, and Elder Kearon was the stake president over that stake where he died. So elder gleasons parents went over to england and met him. Anyways, after the devotional we were going back up to our room for district devotional overview, and elder gleason asked me if elder kearon was talking to people, I felt the spirit tell me that we better go and check. well to make a long story short, we went, and elder gleason talked to elder kearon for a while, and it was sooooo nice to hear a general authority tell us that we are going to be with our family forever, our grandpa, or our brother. ANYONE. We were late to our meeti8ng that i was supposed to conduct, but i am glad i got to expereince that, and now I know for a surety that we WILL be with our family forever, :) The spirit was so strong ghtat night and I spent that whole night crying when I was bearing my testimony because I was so happy.

The church is true everyone, and WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER AS FAMILIES.

Love ya all

Elder Stewart

1 Month!!

Hola Family

So today, we are officially half way done with our stay at the MTC. That is pretty sweet. Only four and a half weeks until I am on my first plane off to Paraguay!!!! This week has been great like usual. We are almost doing everything in spanish, and from this day onward, we are only teaching in spanish. wahoo!!!! I have been so greatful that I have been blessed with the ability to speak spanish pretty well. I have alot of other little struggles, but I love that spanish isn't one of them. It is awesome to be able to teach in spanish, and say most anything I want. :) I am slowly but surely getting better with the teaching. At first, it was awkward to teach in english. But when I teach in spanish, I feel like I can say and feel so much more. I need to keep practicing on being able to understand spanish better when the investigator is speaking it, but it will come.

So today is P-Day. We just got done with going through the temple, and that is AWESOME as usual. Later today me and mi compañero have haircuts. And then after lunch, we go and do laundry, and write all of our letters and stuff. I love Fridays, but tuesdays and sundays are the best because we have devotionals. Tuesdays are the best, because we hear from a general authority. We haven't had an apostle yet, just quorum of the 70. But don't get me wrong, they are incredible. And afterwards, we get to have a district overview, where we share our testimony, and parts of the devo we like.

My two favorite Elders EVER, left this week to New York. They were our Zone leaders, and I grew so close to them. They were studs. But now, our district is the second oldest district in our zone. We have a district that came in two weeks before us, then there is a district that came in the week after us, and then we just barely got a New District this last Wednesday. Like I said many many times, we have the best Zone ever. A coupl,e of days ago, my companion got made the Senior Companion, I guess every companionship changes senior companions halfway through. It was cool to be senior companion, even though I didnt really get to do much. But I just got made the District Leader for the rest of our stay at the MTC, so I am pretty syched for that, and I know it will be alot of work, but I am greatful for the oppurtunity.

I see Cory, I mean elder Warner about three times a day at our meals. He is doing great. He always has a big smile on his face, and I think he is enjoying his MTC experience so far. And by the way, it would be awesome if you forwarded these e-mails to Kris and Roger warner, they are second parents to me. And also it would be sweet if you forwarded them to President Poston, and Wanda Kay.

So it sounds like things with Grandma are going pretty good, so what are they doing with Grandpas horses and horse stuff? His camper? What about all of his tools?? He had alot of stuff. But I am continuing to pray for Grandma, and I know how strong of a heart she has, and I know that our Father, and our older Brother Jesus Christ are comforting her. I myself, have been so comforted. I have gained an unshakable testimony on how Families can be together forever. I am so blessed to recieve this witness through the Holy Ghost by going through the temple with grandpa, and speaking about him in my farewell talk, and even bearing my testimony in sacrament meeting here at the MTC. O how I miss him and i love him and eachone of you.

Laundry is going great MOM, don't worry. HAHAHAHAHA. Also i can print e-mails out so dont worry about sending them to me.

But, I will continue to write all of you letters, and it sounds like you guys are having a blast there at home. Keep having fun, and as long as you have the Lord on your side everything will be fine.

Love ya'll

-Elder Stewart

HOLA! 4 weeks already!

Hola everyone.

So this week has been super crazy. Our district litteraly does everything in spanish. We have been praying and bearing testimonies in spanish since the first week, but now we are talking, teaching, and everything in spanish. I have definently been one of the lucky ones in our district, when it comes to knowing spanish. I feel so comfortable when I am talking in spanish, and I feel so weird when I am speaking in english. We did a practice door contact the other day in english, and I didnt know what to say, because I am so used to speaking in spanish. Hahaha.

well MTC life is still going awesome. Ezra Taft Benson said that "the secret to missionary work, is WORK", and that is what I have been doing. It is funny to see that, all of us farm boys from Idaho in my district, are Super Hard Working. And all the Utah and other elders are geniuses when it comes to the gospel, but they haven't necessarily had the Hard working background that we have had. So I am hoping that I can be an example to these other elders, and make them start working a little harder.

I finally got to visit with Elder Warner Yesterday. I didnt see him at all on the first day, but it was awesome to talk with him, and to ask about how he is doing, and everything. So now I know where he sits in the cafateria, so I can just go and visit with him whenever. I have also seen Josh, or Elder Zamora, a bunch of times. I sat by him at one of the firesides, and I also got a picture taken with him at the Temple. speaking of pictures, I am going to the bookstore today to order a bunch, and that way, I will send ya'll some pictures next week. There is some great ones.

I am slowly doing better with my darn cough. I have had it for 3 weeks, so my roommates and I are starting to get kind of annoyed with it. maybe we can get some sleep at night though. haha. But anyways, my district finally persuaded me to go to the doctors last monday, and I got some pretty strong cough syrup. It has painkillers in it, so it is working pretty good. But, I did receive that package with the cold medicine in it. Thanks. And also thanks for all thoseinternet postings about grandpa. That was awesome. And if you guys noticed, it was $30 for the doctors visit and the medicine, and they just billed that to you guys. And also I had to get one more shot that cost $71, so that is why I am spending so much money. it isnt on anything worthless.

So how is grandma doing?? I guess I just want to know her plan, and when she is moving, and if she is staying at her house all by her self, and all the details? That would be nice.

and also, If you want, I would love for you just to send me a buch of junk food. I am going to miss all of that. Hailey sent me a package at the beginning of my MTC stay, but I already finished that junkfood. So I would love a bunch more. haha. That would be sweet. Also, I need Hailey address. I have a letter for her, but I dont know her address. so if you could just dear Elder me that, that would be sweet. And to answer your question mom, we dont get dearelders on saturday or sunday, it is kind of a bummer, but it is the truth.

And also, we finally got our teacher to admit that his brother does play for the Ravens. Crazy huh. well, you guys should keep me updated on the news around the world, I have heard there is some crazy things going on, and also keep me updated on all of the sports. especially heat scores and updates. I would really aprreciate it.

I am so thankful for all you guys, and I hope to continue to receive letters and dearelders and packages. I wont be able to appreciate these things as much when I am in paraguay.

Well God Bless, and I hope to hear from you all really soon, and I promise to write back.

-Elder Stewart

Football?

Hola everyone. First off, I just want to say that I am going to try to respond to ALL of your guys e-mails and letters in letters. I only have thirty minutes to e-mail, so I am just going to talk about what has been happening here, and then I will respond to your guys questions in letters. So first off I am going to describe my schedule to you guys. Everyday we have personal study for one hour. We also have language and companion study for an hour each, each day. We also have MDT for an hour. In MDT we can pretty much do whatever. We can study anything, or go and get stuff from the bookstore. It is great. Besides having four hours of those each day, we have about six hours each day that our teachers are here. We have two different teachers. One is Hermano Memmett. He served in california. He actually belongs to the worlds largest mormon family. He has 25 SIBLINGS!!!!!! Thirteen of them are step brothers and sisters, but still. So you guys should look him up in the mormon record book (it does exist). And also he has been in Ripleys Believe it or Not. CRAZY. And our other teacher is Hermano Heap. He served his mission in Mexico. Both teachers are between 22 and 25 years old, so pretty young. But Believe it or not, there is a cool story with Hermano Heap too. He has two brothers. One is playing football for BYU right now. And the other one, (WE THINK), is a tight end for the Baltimore Ravens. So you guys need to look up a Todd Heap in the NFL> If there is a todd Heap that plays for the Baltimore Ravens, and is from Arizona, then that is my Teachers Brother. And once you find out, Dear Elder Me and let me know. CRAZY. We have been too scared to ask our teacher, but he just says his favorite team is the Baltimore Ravens. When I asked him why he likes the Baltimore Ravens, he said because his brother lives there??? Hummm....... And us as a district know that there is a todd Heap in the NFL> We just havent been able to connect the dots quite yet. That is why we need you guys!!! Haha Well anyways, besides all those things, we have breakfast as 8:15, lunch at 1:00, and dinner at 6:00. We get our letters and packages after lunch and we get our DearElders after dinner. So keep sending me stuff, I love it. We have gym 5 times a week, at random times. They are just for 50 minutes, but it is still really fun. You can do volleyball, basketball, 4 square, run, lift weights, etc. All of my district plays 4 square all the time, except for me and elder Geary of course. we spend all our time playing b-ball. The district is trying to convert us, but it will never happen. Haha We also have devotionals every sunday and tuesday nights. The tuesday night ones are the best, because there is a general authority that talks. We have heard from Elder Evans and Elder Duncan of the seventy. I am pretty sure Elder Duncan spoke at the last General Conference. But I am not sure. Anyways, they are great. But I am kind of sad, because Elder Holland spoke like one or two weeks before I came in, so i dint get to hear from him, and he is my favorite apostle :( O well. But anyways, my time is running out (we only get 30 minutes before it kicks us off) But, i will try to write all of you guys in letters. And if i dont write you,I am sorry. If you want me to write you, then write me first and I will be sure to write you back. I love you guys, and I continue to pray for you. Love elder Stewart P.s give grandma my love