HAPPY 8 MONTHS!!

Hola familia. ¿Que tal?

Well, I know that I say it every single week, but I am loving my mission so much. This has definently been the hardest time of my mission so far, but it aint work if it is easy. This mission hardly is a proselyting mission. In my last three areas(wow i cant believe i have four areas already), but anyways, in the other areas, we never really had to clap houses. Maybe like one hour a week. But here in Ybate, it is alot different. We clap houses for atleast 2 hours each day. So that is fun and different. I used to be sooo scared of clapping houses, but now, I really enjoy it. I feel like I can really express myself now in spanish, so I like talking with everyone. (I only argue with some of them) hahaha. But it was hard getting here and having 0 investigators, but right now we are finding some really awesome investigators. So we will have some baptism here in a few weeks!!!

I just figured something out too, not only have been changing areas faster than none other, but also I figured out that everytime I have changed areas, I have replaced an Elder that went home. When i went to Presidente Franco, I replaced a Columbian that went home, in Barcequillo an american, and here, a mexican/ american. So ya just some random information for u guys.

Well anyways, to tell you about my new companion. His name is Elder Edwards from New Mexico. He is 23 years old. So even though I have alot more time in the mission than him, he is alot older. So we work good together because I can help him with spanish or things of the mission, and he can help me with his wisdom and intelligence. He is actually a convert to the church. He was baptized when he was 18 years old, and sadly, his parents kicked him out of the house when he got baptized. But he inherited his great grandmas house because he was the only grandkid that wasnt into drugs, and was doing something with his life. But before his mission, he got his bachelors degree in Mathematics. After his mission he has a job line up in Maine to be a High School Math teacher. (My dream job). He was going to get his masters degree in Math, but he didnt get accepted because of his social skills. So he decided a mission would be perfect. So yes, at times, it might be a little socially awkward, but the truth is that he is a stud, and has so much faith, and a strong strong testimony of the Gospel. He is here for the right reason, and is a hard worker. I am so excited to have the chance to work with a convert, because they always have the strongest testimonies. So although our spanish might be lacking a little, we have the spirit with us which is the most important part.

So the responsibilities are going good. I was totally scared out of my mind to teach district meeting this last tuesday. And it really didnt help when one of our zone leaders walked in with an assistant to the president. Ya they were doing splits, so i got to teach my first lesson with an assistent there. Pretty darn scary. But honestly, I love my district so much. They are all so awesome. I still feel over my head alot, having to translate for my companion, and talk for him at times, but it is a growing and a learning experience for both of us so that will be great.

This last saturday, we went and did service( for the worldwide church service thingy). But as a stake, we went to a school to clean, sand, and paint all the walls. They really dont have any discipline here, so there was literally grafiti all over the walls. It was sad, but we took care of it. So we did service from 7 in the morning til 12. But there was probably 30 or so missionaries, and 100 or so members. So it was pretty cool to work a little and talk with other missionaries.

Well i hope everything is going great there in los estados.

I would like to share with you guys 2 things that i learned this week

1. We went over to some members to share a scripture, and there was another member there, so we all shared a scripture. One thing one of the hermanas said was that "One day, God is going to ask us the same Question that he asked Cain ¿Where is your brother?" So really our job in this earth, isnt just to gain our personal salvation, but to bring our brothers too.

2. "When Jesus suffered, he was thinking about his brothers and sisters, not our sins." This really made me see the love he has for us to suffer for us, not just our sins.

Love ya guys

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

P.S. this week i have mastered learning how to pray in Guarani, so when ever i pray now, it is in Guarani!!!!!!!

The Exorcism of Elder Stewart

Well first off, we were contactin this week, and we met with this lady, when we were leaving, she asked us to pray for her. I offered to pray and in the middle of my prayer she started yelling at me because I was praying to God, not to the Virgin Mary. And then at the end of my prayer she started yelling and praying that the evil spirits would leave my body. I dont know what i could of done with out her. I need someone to curse the evil spirits out of me every once and a while. SO that was why I said the Excorcism of Elder Stewart.

Well I thought long and hard about how I was going to write this email this week. I wanted to make it a suprise and interesting just like it was for me. But, actually I am just going to say it straight forward.

RESULTS OF CHANGE- I stay in Barcequillo with the same comp

Hahahahhahahahahha

Ya, just to let you guys know, I now know that God has a sense of humor, and that I can never know what to expect for changes now.

We went to district meeting and there they told me that I am actually leaving to go to an area called Ybate, in Asuncion. Hahaha. But anyways, later that day we painted the Ibarras house, and said goodbye to all my amazing converts and members there. The next morning I went to the terminal to meet my new comp and go to my new area.

REAL RESULTS OF THE CHANGE- I go to Ybate with Elder Edwards. Ya, but that is not all, the reason that I say that God has a sense of humor, is because he decided to make me senior companion.

Hahah, a young enexperienced missionary like me a senior companion hahah. Ya, but that is not all, Elder Edwards has a total of 6 weeks here in Paraguay. What is significant about that is that the training Program here is 12 weeks. His trainer went home( because he finished his mission.) So, I now have a step son, and I am a trainer.

Hahaha, a young inexperienced missionary like me can be a trainer and a senior companion. Ya, but that is not all, it reallly made me laugh when I found out that the Lord has called me as a district leader. HAHAHAHHA.

Isnt that the funniest thing ever. A young inexperienced missionary like me as a Senior Companion, A Trainer(daddy), and a District Leader.

Hahahaha So ya this is now my resume as a missionary. I have been here in Paraguay for almost 6 months, I have been on my mission for almost 8 months. I am starting my fifth change, and this is my 4th area(Tres Bocas, Presidente Franco, Barcequillo, and now Ybate), and my fourth comp (Faas(california), Hewitt(Washington/Utah), Martinez (comlumbia), and now Elder Edwards (new Mexico)). And now, I am a Senior Comp, Trainer, and a District leader.

I am really running out of time, but i promise i will send pictures next week, and tell you about the area, my new comp, and me. I just dont have time sorry. We are really excited to get to work. When I got here last Wednesday, we had a total of 2 investigators that arent progressing. So we have ALOT OF WORK, but we are going to baptize alot and ya.

Sorry I couldnt feel you all in on the details, but next week. There is so much more to tell you, but my hour has already passed.

Love you guys

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

CHANGES!!!!!

So ya this is changes week, but of course we wont find out til tomorrow, which means you guys wont find out until the next week. Sorry about that. And also, I really dont think there will be changes for me. I think that I will stay here with my companion for atleast another change.

So it has been a good week. We did 2 day long divisions on thursday til saturday. That was definently an experience and a half. My comp stayed in this area, and our district leader came here. I went to Villa Ellisa con Elder Whaley. Elder Whaley is from Colarado, and he has a total of 5 and a half weeks in Paraguay. So that was definently a hoot. I got to go into an unfamiliar area and had to speak 95 percent of the time because Elder Whaley is a nuevito and still doesnt speak or understand very well. But it will come, just like it did for me and for all the Americanos.

I finally got back to my area at noon on saturday. And we prepared the whole day getting ready for our 1 baptism. But heres the news, we didnt have 1 baptism, WE HAD 4!!!!!!! The familia Ibarra (well atleast their kids got baptized). So we had the baptism of Patricia (18), Laura (13), Nestor(9) and Pedro(11). I got to baptize Pedro. But it was sweet. Right now we are working with their mom. She is living with her boyfriend right now, so she cant be baptized YET. But she said she is only with him because he is the dad of her kids, but she doesnt really like him. Yesterday she gave us some news, she said that she was seperating with him tomorrow. So we put a baptismal date with her, she wants to be baptized, and knows that this church is true.

The baptismal service was amazing. Usually we have 20 to 30 people at church, and for the baptism we had like 50 or so. It was amazing to see the support of the members, investigators and friends. It was awesome. It was something very very special for Patricia because all of her family is catholic, and she keeps saying now. I am a member, I am a mormon now. So she is awesome, and has lots of support in the church (ALOT, almost all of her friends are members). So that is great.

But ya, changes are this week, so we will see what happens. I dont think anything will happen. But you never know, my last 2 changes were crazy, so we never know. But it was a great week. I am so excited for the future.

Sorry the Email was short

Con Amor de Paraguay

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

P.s. PHOTOS

1 my companion me and the 4 that were baptized2 Patricia and I3 NEstor Pedro Laura and I4 Us and almost all of the Ibarra Family5 we tried to put on a babys shirt but it didnt fit to well, so we ripped it a little (they didnt like the shirt anyways, it was like a Lakers jersey for a Miami Heat fan hahaha)

Ha koo y te shurah

August 29th!

Well I dont know how to spell words in Guarani, only say them. And ha koo y te shura, means it is pretty freakin hot my friends. The weather here is crazy, but it is starting to get pretty hot, and it is still winter here. But that is ok.

So i am just going to do a rundown on my week

Monday (PDAY) we went and played soccer, and I got my but kicked by a bunch of latins, and then we played basketball, and I kicked the trash out of a bunch of latins HAHA

Tuesday-

normal day

Wednesday- we had an awesome zone conference with three different zones and ELDER Arnold from the 70. It was super good. And all the Elders thought he was going to drop the cane, and add a bunch of new rules, but there was none of that at all. He only told us to lock our hearts, and not have any kind of relationships with the girls here, and he also showed us how we are doing compared to the other missions in this area. The other missions in this area have 1 baptism for every 20 investigators, and our mission has 1 baptism for eevry 50 investigators. So we aint doin to well as a mission, but he told us that we have been improving, so that is good. The highlight of the zone conference was when he said " If you want baptisms, you have to do what the other missions are doing". So ya, that was a memorable quote, we need to start being like the other missions, I´ll remember that. Also, it was nice to see all the old elders from this zone, and my old district. I also talked to the elders in tres bocas, and they told me how my converts are doing, so that was good.

Thursday- we spent 2 or 3 hours doing service for a freakin awesome investigator family. We had a weed wacker and macheties ( i dont know how to spell macheties) but anyways, we had to (mow) like one acre of grass as tall as cocoa. We only got like one fourth of the way done, but it was fun still.

Friday- we returned in the morning to continue the service, and this day, we spent like 6 hours cutting grass. Well 6 hours, 3 blisters, and sunburned neck and arms later, we finally fishished!!! Ok I lied, we only finishe like half of it. But it looks alot better. But my neck now looks like neopalitin ice cream, with my back being white like vanilla, a little further up, red ( like strawberry), from wearing a normal shirt to do service, and a little further up brown (/like choclate) from the sweet tan i have from being out in the sun all day with a collared shirt. >My arms have some sweet farmers tans tambien.

Saturday- we went over to an investigator (Patricia, that is going to be baptized the 3rd of september) We watched a movie with her about John Tanner I think. He was a super saint at the beginning of chuch history, but in it, he has an infected leg, and all the doctors say that he needs to amputate it, but he refuses, and then later on he gets healed and so forth and so forth. But Patricia asked us if it was a sin to amputate your leg. Haha, she is so funny with the questions she has (and she has tons).

We then went to this super awesome investigaotr family for the night. The highlights there, was one of the kidsx prayers. Their prayers here are so small, and short, but so powerful. I am going to restate his prayer he gave in English He Said " Father in Heaven we thank thee for this day, I ask thee to bless all of the kids in the streets without parents, thay they can have food, Amen." So short, but sooooo powerful, it really hit me hard. Then we taught a little. We then taught another family that lives with the awesome investigator family. After we taught the first vision and Joseph Smith, we asked if the Mom would pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prphet. She flat out refused. And after further questioning, she said, I am not going to Pray and ask God if Joseph Smith is a prophet, when I already know that he is. WHAT!!!! It was sweet. Haha.

And to end the day off, I had a dance off in front of the 2 families against the drunk uncle. He totally kicked my trash, but it was still fun. We took some sweet videos.
HAHA And i also found out today, that i can no longer hoola hoop

Sunday- Church was good today, we had 40 people in church, including 6 investigators (Patricia, and the awesome investigator family( la familia Ivara)) After church we ate with President Aquino (our branch President). He actually lives in adifferent area but is our branch President (we hardly have any wothy priesthood holders in our branch). But there was alot of different countries represented at this dinner. Paraguay (them), Brazil(an exchange student that was visiting fo dinner no mas), Columbia (my comp), Honduras(one of the sister missionaries) and the United states (me from Idaho, and the other sister Missionary from Georgia). But the food was good, and the rest of the day was good too

So this was my week, and I cant believe changes are in a week already. CRAZY!!!!!!!

Con Amor De Paraguay

Elder Chase Coy Stewart