Feliz dia de las brujas

Happy Halloween everyone, or here they call it day of the witches.

Here, for haloween, they do absolutely nothing. But me and my comp decided to dress up today as mormon missionaries.

But this week has been great. We had a baptism, and that was great, but then she had some stomach problems sunday, and had to go to the hospital. So she wasnt able to get confirmed on sunday, but o well. Next week, i hope she is feeling better.

But this saturday we are planning for between 1 to 3 baptisms, and 1 to 3 baptisms the next week. This week we are planning for Alcides, he lives nexty to some members, and he has permission from his parents to get baptized, he is 12. And then there is his nephews who are 12 and 8, but with them we are still needingf permission from their parents. And the next week we have Daniel, a 40 year old man. He is the most golden of an investigator as I have ever seen. He is accepting all of our teachings, and is coming to church everyweek that he can ( he has to work everyother week on sunday.) But he is excited for his baptism.

This week was pretty crazy, but awesome to. The story of the week was when it was just after lunch and we were walking down the street, there was a guy who stopped us and asked if we needed anything to drink, we said we were ok, then he asked if we wanted anywatermelon, we said we were ok, but he ended up giving each of us a watermelon (not that huge). But anyways we eneded up carrying the watermelons for a long time, and it kind of stunk, after he gave us the watermelons, my comp decided to go tho the farthest part of our area to go to a house. So we were carrying the watermelons forever, and we were getting so many laughs and stares, in one second it appeared as if we went from missionaries, to watermelon salesman, a couple people offered to buy them, but i was going to let them take my watermelon. But then i finally decided to just take a bus to get back t our house, cuz we were so far away, and when we were by our house, we pushed the button that usually makes a sopund for the bus driver to stop, but the button didnt work, so the bus driver finally stopped like 10 or so blocks after our house, and we had to walk another while to get home, hahahahha, those watermelons caused alot of trouble, but they were sure good.

But the work is going great, we are finally starting to see the fruit of our labors.

Love you guys

Ro Hi Hoo

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

p.s. the pictures are of a dead frog, the watermelons, and the baptism hope you enjoy

PHOTOS

here are some pics of my district, my comp and a caterpillar, and my shoes that are finally dead and unwearable

Ahhhh finally

Well just to let you guys know, changes came and past, and I finally stayed in the same area for more than one change. I stayed with my same comp elder Edwards. The zone leaders in the district stayed together, the other two elders in the district stayed together, and the sisters in the district were changed. One of the hermanas went to Encarnacion to open a new area, and the other hermana stayed to be a trainer.

Right now, the work is starting to go great. We will be baptizing this week, (my comps first baptism), and then after this we have 2 the next week, and then one the next week. So we are finally getting baptisms!!!!! We have a 9 year old girl named Violeta, whose mom and dad are members(inactive), and her uncles aunts and grandma are all active. She has her baptismal date for the 28th of octobre. So we are excited for that. We have a few more things to teach her and then baptize her this friday.

We have an Investigator named Daniel, that we found just clapping houses. He is incredible. He has come to church one time, but last week he had to work. He works every other sunday, but he said he is going to try to find new work, because he wants to come to church every week. But anyway, he is accepting everything we are teaching him, and he is excited to get baptized. The only problem that we are having with him, is that he is surrounded by influences from other churches. He is catholic, but doesnt like that church, nor believe its teachings, his neighbors and sister are from the Iglesia Pentacostal, La Iglesia de Belen. They are crazy and their teachings are weird. His sister is out working in the chaco right now, but she sends people to come to his house to teach him. They are there until like 1 in the morning. He got pretty mad when they told him that he couldnt have kids because he was too wicked. And also he has a neighbor from a church I have never heard of, called the Alimento para el alma. Or somehting like that. But he has crazy ideas about everything (taking the book revelations pretty seriously). So he is always there talking with Daniel, and plus there us is from the true church of Christ. Haha, it is kind of funny to see how hard satan is working with this guy, but it will all be ok, HE WILL GET BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We had 4 baptisms in the district this week, so that was awesome, and we have many more in the coming weeks. But everything else is just going fantastic right now. I love this area, I love this district, this mission, my comp, but there is one thing that I absolutely HATE

THE HEAT AND THE HUMIDITY HERE

The heat and the humidity are killing me, talk about going to suffer. I aint lookin forward to this summer. Everyday I just get home just soaked. It is kind of gross, and not fun. But what can you do. I totally chose to come tto this mission before this life, so I knew what I was getting myself into. I love this mission, I love these people. But I dont love the hotness, and sweat, It will definently be a refreshing and saaadddd day when I leave the 115 degree weather of paraguay and return to the negative 20 degree weather of IDAHO

Well, I love you guys and I am looking forward to hearing from you guys again.

Stay sweet

Con Amor de Paraguay
Elder Chase Coy Stewart

More Pictures!

well here are pics of me and a bridge and my comp and my zone leader

Howdy Ya all

Well this week has been great. I dont know what to write, and dont really have time, but i will send pictures yayayaya

picture 1 a hill by the church where we have district meeting
2 picture of the city of asuncion from the top of the hill at night
and the rest of the picturs are me with a statue at the top of the hill

Hola!

Well, just another great week in Paraguay.

This change has honestly flown by, and I cant believe I only have 1 more week until changes again. It is going by crazy fast. Week by week, slowly by slowly, our numbers and the districts numbers are starting to look better. In a couple weeks, we are going to be baptizing everyweek like the mission president wants us to.

But the weather here in Paraguay has been absolutely crazy LIKE ALWAYS. Cold and rainy one day, and then like 100 degrees the next day, and then cold and rainy again. Haha.

So we have been working pretty hard, and the truth is that I HATE THIS HEAT. I am going to die in it. I have been sweating like none other and losing weight, but my comp is used to it being from New Mexico. Haha. And the people say it is only keep getting worse until january or febuary. The intersting part is when i come home in like a year and a half. I will come home in January, or in other words, I will leave 115 degree weather here, and come home to -25 degree weather, in one day. Haha

Well sorry this email is so short. My comp is just sitting here waiting for me. But that is ok. There was that much to write this week. But I will be sending out a bunch of letters this week. So ya

Love you guys

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

"There can be miracles when you believe"-Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston

Wow, what an incredibly amazing week. This change has been incredible. This change has been a faith builder too. The success has been very small, but my faith has never been higher. We spent all week preparing for conference. We found some new investigators, and invited everyone to be baptized, and to come to conference. We had 7 or so that had a baptismal date, but sadly we couldnt get any of them to come to conference. They were either gone, or passed out drunk.

This week had been so hot. It is barely the first of spring, and on friday it hit 100 degrees. AND THIS IS ONLY IN THE SPRING!!!!! But when we were preparing for conference, we heard that it was supposed to rain all day on saturday and sunday. The rain is always a party killer. But we were going to try to get investigators to conference, in rain or snow, heat or cold. For conference, it was in a nearbye chapel that we have aour district meeting in. So we had alot of investigators that said they would come in the sunday or saturday aftrnoon session. So we went to bed friday night with a lot of hope for the next days.

We woke up on saturday with the sky black. The day before we heard it was going to rain all day saturday, but we had conference that day. Once 8 o clock rolled around, so did all the rain and storms.It started raining harder than I have ever seen (just imagine a gigantic shower, ya it was that bad). It came down and down, and never stopped. We finally left our house at 10:55 ( the first sessiuon started at 12), but anyway, we walked a little bit to catch our bus. After waiting for the bus for 30 minutes, we got on realitively dry. Although the bus was leaking pretty badly, we still managed to stay dry. Then, we got off the bus. This is when the real problem really began. We got dropped off on the opposite side of the road as the church. Where there had once been 2 roads seperating us from the church, there was now 2 2 feet deep rivers.Well after scoping out the scene for a couple of minutes, we couldnt find a way around. Mean while, the sister missionaries of our district joined us, and before we knew it, they were crossing the snake and salmon rivers. Haha. Not wanting to lose our pride, we rolled up our suit pants and practiacally swam across. When we arrived to the other side, the only thing that was dry was from my belt up. We then entered the chapel to find 10 or so completely dry missionaries. We got dried off in the bathroom and then joined all of them in the chapel. (I actually went through the whole first session without shoes, because the shoes I was wearing have so many holes in them, that it literally just traps mud in it, so every time I took a step, there would be a mud footprint left, so i just took my shoes off and left them outside.)

So finally we got in the chapel at 12:15 and the weather was so bad that they couldnt get a signal to watch conferece. So for 45 minutes or so, we just sat there catching up on old times with other missionaries. There was 14 elders there 2 sisters, and 10 or so members that came that braved the storm. After a while, some guys came with another satelite dish to try to get a signal, but the weather was just that bad. It stunk, here conferece is gold, I needed my conference. And then came a changing point in that day, in my mission, and even my life. Once 1;05 rolled around, the Zone leaders stood up and told us of a story in the Liahona, where the same thing was happening to another group of Elders. They told us that the Elders got together and prayed, and when they returned to the chapel, conference was working. I thought, one of those Liahona stories again. But then they invited all of us to do the same. All 14 elders and 2 hermanas went into a small room in the church. We got on our knees and pleaded with our Heavenly Father to permith that the skies open and that we could watch conference. After the prayer, I remember one of the zone leaders saying VAMOS A VER CONFERENCIA( lets go watch conference. I just remember getting off my knees and waiting for all the Elders to leave the room, and I walked quitely behind them. I remember walking towards the chapel and looking at the faces of the Elders as they looked at the screen. I remember seeing their faces turn from anxious, to saddened. My heart almost fell. I remember entering the room and looking at the screen and seeing a blank screen still, and there was no signal. But then as the last Elder entered the chapel, no more than 5 seconds after I had entered, I remember that all of a sudden there appeared a general Authorities face on the screen talking to us. After an hour and more of waiting for conference, and with weather only as bad as you see in a movie, Our Heavenly Father heard the humble prayer of 16 of his servants!!! We were just so desperate to just see the face of the prophet, and the Lord permited it. That day, 16 young kids, including myself gained an unbreakable testimony on 3 things.

1. God loves us so much
2. God hears our prayers
3.As whitney houston and mariah carey sang " There will be miracles, when u believe."

Never ever have I been that emotional before. I spent alot of that session with my head bowed, and many tears, as I thanked my Heavenly Father for this miracle he had given us.

I know God lives, I know he loves me and you guys too, and I know that he will work miracles according to our faith in him. I love him so much

I love you guys so much, and am so thankful for your support

Love Elder Chase Coy Stewart