Dreams come true?

Wow what a week. Well i guess I wont keep you guys waiting for the news of the changes. I did get changed, and now I am in an area called Natalio 10, it is kind of close to Encarnacion. My comp stayed, and Elder Dexter my zone leader went to Ciudad Del Este, and Elder Clark went to be the finance guy in the Offices. So that was a big change haha o well I love it.

So tuesday I spent the day saying the goodbyes. It was a sad day, but at the same time, I think I was ready to leave, sadly I didnt have that much left in me in that area. But I left alot of long time friends, and it is always special when you hear what the people say, It makes me feel good that I touched their lives a little, and helped them come unto christ. Man, it was so hard to say goodbye, and especially with the fact that I might never see them again, but the Lord will bless them, I just know it. Saying goodbye to Luis Jara was hard, but he gave me one of his ties, and he also gave me his soccer Jersey of when he played as a younger man, it was something very special to him, and I felt very touched when he gave it to me. Can I just say again that I absolutely hate goodbyes, they are so tearful, and especially when the other people start crying also.

But on the good note, I just looked today and found out that Sabrina Calderon, our golden investigator from Ybate, was baptized and confirmed. It was sad that I wasnt there to see it, but now I will be able to see her again in the Celestial Kingdom. Wow she was a miracle baptism, we started with her a couple weeks ago and she didnt even believe in Jesucristo, but now, she followed him into the waters of baptism!!!!!!!!! I cant be happier than I am now. Also, last week we found out that we are getting a new President of Mission in June or July. He is from Argentina, and he is 43 (pretty young) but he will bring his 5 kids in with him, so that will be awesome.Well to get to the point, before I found out the changes I remember telling the Lord that I loved the area that I was in, and I loved the companion I was with, but I was dead in that area, (sadly enough) and I kept saying, ok I know i want to do the Lords will, but I came to Paraguay, and I want to experience every part, I am sick of the city, I aint a city boy, and i want to go to the jungle.

And also I want to go far... Well I recieved the call from the zone leaders telling me the changes, and they told me I was going to Natalio 10, which is campo yte (alot of jungle and fields) and they also told me that it is the farthest area from the mission home. Hahaha, wow, talk about dreams come true. Hahaha. I went from the closest area to the asuncion terminal (bus station) to the farthest. hahaha

So anyways wednesday in the morning we went to the asuncion terminal (which is in the area Ybate, and a five minute taxi ride from the house), and there were all the missionaries that were being changed. Well to make a long story short, we had to wait for 5 hours, until 12:30 when are bus left. So finally at 1230 our bus left and 5 of us missionaries were off to encarnacion. We went for about 30 minutes and then the bus stopped to pick more people up from a place, a man that worked on the bus came and asked 3 of us missionaries to get off the bus, because he had to talk to us. When we got off, he told us that the tickets that we had were expired. THE OFFICE ELDERS BOUGHT US EXPIRED TICKETS. So we had to scrample every penny we had to buy us 3 more tickets, so now i dont have any money for the whole month. But we were able to get back on, but we lost our front row awesome seats.

Anyways, we continued on the 6 hour bus ride to encarnacion. We finally got there at 630 where we met with other elders, and I met my companion. The other elders left to their areas, but me and my companion had to wait until our bus came (at 12:30 at night). We waited for 6 hours just sitting on benches, beacuse we couldnt leave my suitcases. We taught a 14 year old argentinan kid who is a huge christian, we gave him a book of mormon, and he is excited to read it. Then we had the unfortunate oppurtunity to teach a 35 year old homeless drunk man. It was funny, but very sad to see how his life was. Well at 1230 we finally took off for Natalio 10. At 3 o clock in the morning we finally got there, and as tired as we were we had to drag my heavy suitcase for 2 and a half blocks across empadrada( the rock roads that they have here).

Well we finally went to sleep at 330 and then woke up at 630 to start the day.Well Natalio 10 in incredible, it is a small small town with alot of jungle and house surrounding it. Natalio 10 is probably 1/8 the size of rigby, and then it just has trees and fields and hill surrounding it. I FEEL LIKE I AM AT HOME. Honestly, if i had to describe it as anything, I would say it is a mix between ashton and Island park, just without the mountains, but when I am walking down the streets, i feel like I am hunting, with my hiking backpack instead of my proseliting one, i feel like I have a bow in my hand instead of a Book of Mormon. I am at home.

My companions name is Elder Coggins, he has like 4 or 5 months here in Paraguay, and he can speek spanish very well. He is a huge help for me, because he is very obedient, and fun, so I can start being more obedient and still have fun. He is from southern California. But we are working our tails off, and I have never loved the work more than I do now.The problems that we have here though, is that there is not that much civilization. There is one place to use internet, with 3 computers, and alot of times it isnt open.

There isnt an atm here, so we have to travel by bus for an hour and a half to go to a city to take out money, the same place we go for district meeting. So that will be fun to travel for a hour and a half to district meeting, be there for an hour and a half, and then come back. Right now, the chapel here is being remodeled, so that is a nonsense, we just barely got a baptismal font, before they did it in the river (how awesome is that). We have a branch here of like 30 or 40 people, and then about one hour walk away there is a city called Paloma (it is in our area, and there is 30 members there), and then 10 in another area a little far away. But although they are in our area, and they belong to our ward, they just meet in their own cities in houses. But when the chapel is done(hopefully soon). They will start coming here.Well I guess its welcome to the jungel, where there are tons of bugs, and here there is red dirt everywhere. So your shirts get red from the red dust, or when there is rain, there is red mud, and your shoes and pants get red. Hahahaha i am loving my mission now, more than I ever have

Love you guys, and dont worry about me, I am in heaven

Love Elder Chase Coy Stewart

CHANGES!!!

Haha, well i still dont know anything about changes sadly enough, buti do know they are coming. I will find out tonight, and you guys willfind out next week. I dont know what will happen, i only know that ihave been in this area for 6 months, which is alot, but ya.

This week was going to be a great long weeek, full of lots of hardwork, and success. But as hard as we tried, we didnt have that muchsuccess. We worked hard, and right now we are working with SabrinaCalderon, an investigator, that is awesome. She has a baptismal datefor this saturday, she has a testimony on everything, right now shejust doesnt want to be rushed for her baptism. It is always hard whenwe hear that, because us as missionaries, we know that they are ready,but they just dont have that feeling yet. But it is all good, we willwork with her this week, so that she can get baptized this saturday. IKNOW SHE WILL!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week, i recieved a letter from Javier Martinez, my convert fromTres Bocas. He is part of the family with martha and Edith. He wastelling me of how faithful they are in the church, and how his dad gotbaptized a while ago. Now they are just waiting for a year to go tothe temple to get sealed as an eternal family. Man, i hope i am stillhere. If i am, i will be able to go through the temple with them. Howcool would that be!!!!!!!!!

Well, Javier, was also telling me that heis about ready to recieve the Melquesidic Priesthood!!!!!! That is socool. He was 17 when he was baptized, and was saying that he wasntready to recieve the aaronic priesthood, but now he is 18 and he willbe recieving the higher priesthood, and also is preparing himself fora mission!!!!!!!!! wow that makes me happywell, we are doing great here.

Time is flying by so fast, i cantbelieve that i have already been on my mission for 13 months, here inybate for 6 months, with elder allphin for 3 months. Wow that iscrazy. We actually have 3 elderes in the district that have been herefor 6 months, so i bet some of them will go. But whatever happenshappens right. It is all up to the Lord and where he needs us.

A dondeme mandes iré señor (I will go where you want me to go dear Lord)Love you guys, and enjoy the snow while you got it

Elder Chase Coy Stewart

Happy Valentines Day!!

Well family, everything is great here in Paraguay

Busy week this week, we had zone conference, where we learned tons of how to be better teachers. Also, we have an Elder in the District, (elder lund), that has been in pain for quite a while, and can barely walk. For quite a while we thought it was a hernia. But after many doctor visits they all said it was a bunch of different things. But after sending pics to a american doctor, they found out what it really is, a cyst. So now he is just resting and taking alot of medication. He should be better in no time at all.

But we had to go over there 3 or 4 times this past week, to help them out. One time we went to help them send pictures, because they didnt have the stuff to do it, another time we went and did divisions over there. Elder allphin and lund stayed in the house and did practices, and watched videos, and elder clark and I went and worked for a while, so that we could get some of their investigators ready for their batisms. We went another time so that i could do the baptismal interviews of a couple of their investigators, and then the assistentes came to help them all of saturday for their baptisms.

We are struggling with golden investigators right now. We are easily finding 20 news each week and 5 families, but none seem to be golden. SO we are trying to put what we learned at zone conference into action, and teach them alot better, so that they will more easily keep commitments. Also we are struggling with getting investigators to church urghhhh.

But our main man Luis Jara, blessed the sacrament yesterday, and it was awesome. Then today, we woke up at six and went to luis jaras house at 630 then we went to the paraguay river, we were going to fish a little, but we just ended up walking along the coast for miles and miles, and taking pictures guazu :). It was a great morning to be with the best convert ever. We ate a little empanadas, with water, i shared the story of nephi how he was commanded to build a ship, and instead of saying, HOW CAN I BUILD A SHIP, he said where can i get tools. He had such great faith, and it applies to us. Instead of always saying how can i go to church every week, or something like that, we can just say, sweet, what can i do to make my church experience better. GO THE EXTRA MILE.

Well we got changes a week from wednesday, and i aint gonna lie, i am pretty scared. But whatever happens, happens. It is the Lords will. But until then, I am going to work my tail off this week

Love you guys

Love Elder Chase Coy Stewart

Pictures

well here is a photo of when i let my self go a couple of months ago,and how i lost it all againjust kiddingthis is a foto from a iphone and how it made me look fat, and theother pics are of a sweet bench press we built in our house (in thekitchen) ya sweet