Well winter has finally arrived here in Paraguya, and it arrived a month earlier than it did last year. But it has been so cold lately, i am just so glad that i have some good winter stuff to protect me, so thanks for the head band grandma summers, and the sweater McCarthy family, they do alot in this cold weather. The problem is that it is so cold here because it is a humid cold, so although it might be like 50 degrees, it is freezing hahaha. So we have to sleep with alot of blankets and socks, and pajama pants and sweaters to stay warm in the night.
But the work here is going great. We have alot of great investigators including Walter who is still trying to find more work, and is struggling with his testimony because his catholic buddies are giving him crap. We have a young kid named Virgilio that is the most golden investigator in the world he is 19 and will get baptized the 19 of may, we just got to help him find his testimony, but he has real intent. WE have an investigator named luis nuñez that could get baptized here in a couple weeks but his wife doesnt want to get married, and he cant get baptized without getting married first. ASnd we have an investigator named fabian who is a baptist but is studying our church with real intent and he will get baptized here soon. So if you can pray for these guys, it would be truly apreciated.
So this week we were walking down the street late at night and we were close to a little dance place and when we got close we heard the music to happy birthday, and when we got closer i heard words i didnt recognize, and then after listening a little more closely, i realized they were singing in english hahaha it was pretty funny that i couldnt really recognize my own language, and it was funny that they were speaking english hahaha.
So also i dont know if you guys have heard, but here in paraguay in the Chaco, where it usually is really really dry, they are experiencing flooding, and here in Natalio 10 where it usually is konow for its wetness, it is pretty dry. So kind of funny huh. But it would be very appreciated if you could pray for the people in the chaco, they are experiencing some rough times right now.
So how is rigby? Anything new? How about rexburg, and idaho falls and Utah? Whats new? We got a mcdonalsds in rigby yet? haha jk
So everything is great here in natalio 10, just kind of cold but excited to keep working.
Love Elder Chase Coy Stewart
p.s. i would greatly apreciate if you guys could send me pictures through the mail or through the internet of everything that is happening with you guys thanks
Monday, April 30, 2012
Hold to the Rod
Wow, what a week, very very tiring but still good. It is nice to be able to come home everyday and plan for the next day, and then fall straight to sleep. Literally, i get sooooo tired in the nights it isnt even funny. The sun now sets at around 530 or 6, and being in a little paraguayan town is kind of scary because there are hardly any lights. The town is small so there ar¡ent that many lights and when 6 o clock rolls around EVERYTHING IS DARK, AND THen the people go to sleep around 7 or 8, so if we dont have appointments set in the night, it is kind of hard to find people to teach. When it starts getting dark, it is kind of depressing and I just get tired fast haha. But the work is still going great.
We are starting to go to a little village 5 km away twice every week. There are like 30 or so members out there so we are starting to work with them and references from them. We arent seeing the fruit of labors yet out there, but we are seeing alot of fruit. There are tons of orange and mandarine and lemon and lime and tons of trees. So when we are walking we usually just feel our pockets full of fruit and continue on our way. But ya the fruit of our labors will come here in a few weeks.
This little pueblo is called Paloma. And it is just a bunch of houses out in the jungle. So it takes about an hour to walk there on dirt/rock roads (if we are lucky, and trucks pass us, we can hitch hike there), then once we get to the 4 bocas, we have to walk anotehr kilometro to some members and even more to others. So it is pretty long, but good. We decide that we are going to start working there 2 times a week, for the whole day. But this last friday we were walking back home, and it was SOOOO SCARY. Imagine being in complete jungle with absolutely no light except for a little flashlight. There are drunk people all around and dogs, alot of them wild, and spooky feelings. So i dont think that we will be doing that again in the night atleast. hahaha. Specially because it is 1 hour and a half to walk it all.
So we saw a sweet miracle this week with an investigator named walter. He is around 22 years old and he lives alone and works all day everyday in a bakery. Well sunday he only works halfday. But still, he works a ton. Anyways, when he was littler in his teens, he studied to be a catholic priest, so he is VERY CATHOLIC. But we started visiting him and he like the book of mormon and everything, and thought that our church was just like his church. But he didnt see the neccesity to be baptized again. But then he started visiting with an awesome member, and started going there often at night after work. Then he came to general conference. But he still didnt have interest. But we stopped visiting him because he stopped progressing, but he still continued to go to this members house to talk. Well to make a long story short, we went to this members house the other day to get references, and walter was there. We started talking to walter and out of nowhere he told us that he is ready to be baptized in our church and becoem a member. And this all started because of the influence of a member. Wow, how awesome is that.
The only problem with this story is that Walter works every sunday, so he isnt able to attend church. But we are looking for a new job for him. So if you can keep him in ur prayers it would be awesome. As soon as he finds a new job, he will be baptized. Cool huh??
Well love you guys, stay strong, and never let go of the iron rod
Elder Chase Coy Stewart
We are starting to go to a little village 5 km away twice every week. There are like 30 or so members out there so we are starting to work with them and references from them. We arent seeing the fruit of labors yet out there, but we are seeing alot of fruit. There are tons of orange and mandarine and lemon and lime and tons of trees. So when we are walking we usually just feel our pockets full of fruit and continue on our way. But ya the fruit of our labors will come here in a few weeks.
This little pueblo is called Paloma. And it is just a bunch of houses out in the jungle. So it takes about an hour to walk there on dirt/rock roads (if we are lucky, and trucks pass us, we can hitch hike there), then once we get to the 4 bocas, we have to walk anotehr kilometro to some members and even more to others. So it is pretty long, but good. We decide that we are going to start working there 2 times a week, for the whole day. But this last friday we were walking back home, and it was SOOOO SCARY. Imagine being in complete jungle with absolutely no light except for a little flashlight. There are drunk people all around and dogs, alot of them wild, and spooky feelings. So i dont think that we will be doing that again in the night atleast. hahaha. Specially because it is 1 hour and a half to walk it all.
So we saw a sweet miracle this week with an investigator named walter. He is around 22 years old and he lives alone and works all day everyday in a bakery. Well sunday he only works halfday. But still, he works a ton. Anyways, when he was littler in his teens, he studied to be a catholic priest, so he is VERY CATHOLIC. But we started visiting him and he like the book of mormon and everything, and thought that our church was just like his church. But he didnt see the neccesity to be baptized again. But then he started visiting with an awesome member, and started going there often at night after work. Then he came to general conference. But he still didnt have interest. But we stopped visiting him because he stopped progressing, but he still continued to go to this members house to talk. Well to make a long story short, we went to this members house the other day to get references, and walter was there. We started talking to walter and out of nowhere he told us that he is ready to be baptized in our church and becoem a member. And this all started because of the influence of a member. Wow, how awesome is that.
The only problem with this story is that Walter works every sunday, so he isnt able to attend church. But we are looking for a new job for him. So if you can keep him in ur prayers it would be awesome. As soon as he finds a new job, he will be baptized. Cool huh??
Well love you guys, stay strong, and never let go of the iron rod
Elder Chase Coy Stewart
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
10th Change already
So my tenth change has just started, and I am still here in Natalio 10 with the same companion Elder Coggins. Our District leader went home, so we got a new elder that replaced him there. The new elder is named Elder Olson, he is a stud. But I got made district leader again, so that will be fun.
This week has been an insane week. But we did have a wedding a baptism, and a confirmation.
So on thursday we were planning on having the interview from the zone leaders, and the wedding. They said they were going to be at our area at about 1230, but they didnt show up until about 330. Their area is in Encarnacion, a three hour bus ride away, so ya that stinks, but o well. We got the interview done, and they went to wait for their bus that was supposed to come at 6, the wedding started at 6 and got done at 630ish, and when we were done cleaning up, the zone leaders called us and told us that their bus never came, and the next bus wasnt going to come until one oclock the next days afternoon, so they just chilled in our area that night doing divisions with us, then slept in our house on the floor (i felt to bad for them), and then did divisiones for half a day on friday and then left at 1.
Then we were planning on having the baptism on friday at 5, but when we got there to fill up the baptismal font, some of the power(electricity) wasnt working, and it didnt have any power to pump water from the street up to a big tank in the church and then back down to the baptismal font. Well after alot of praying and asking God, nothing happened. But we ended up having to wait for saturday night to do the baptism. Although we dont know why the Lord didnt answer our prayers on Friday, we dont need to. It is the Lords will and we accepted it. Maybe there was reason that the baptism needed to be on Saturday, or maybe there was a reason that it shouldnt of been on Friday, I dont knoe. All i do know is that we had the baptism (she asked me to baptize her, because her husband wasnt able to), and the confirmation, and now they are planning on being sealed in the temple for time and all eternity the next April. Yesterday we talked to them alot about that, and i flat out asked them "Will you guys prepare yourselves to enter the temple of the lord the next April" and they told me yes. Then I told them that I wouldnt be here in Paraguay on my mission, but I would come back down for it. And then the dad said ya, so if he comes and you guys dont get sealed in the temple, then he would of come for no reason, so when he comes and if you guys dont go through the temple, you will have to pay for his plane ticket. Then i said ya, so you can either recieve tons of blessings and go through the temple, or lose alot of money, hahahha. We will see, but ya.
So this next week we are planning on just working normaly again, without tons of distractions, but ya I am excited.
Funny story of the week- we clapped a house where an investigator lives, and the dogs started barking at us, then he came out and we started talking to him, and I noticed that a dog came up toi sniff my shoe, then i talked to him a little more, and i looked down again and noticed that the dog was really close to me, but then i didnt think anything of it and kept talking again, then i looked down again, and not only was the dog really glose to my leg, he was marking his territory, or in other words, urinating on my leg, hahahah, stupid dog.
Love you guys
Elder Chase Coy Stewart
Change week already????
Wow, isnt it crazy how fast time goes by. I cant believe that i have already been in this area for 1 change, wow time goes by too fast. So we will figure out changes tomorrow, and my guess is that me and my comp will be staying together to work more miracles together here in Natalio 10. Wow it is so nice to get along great with your companions, I have been lucky enough to have gotten along great with all my companions, but with me and Elder Coggins, it is just great!!!
Conference was great this weekend wasnt it?? Man, it is nice to be able to understand spanish. I could actually understand all of conference in spanish, wow!!! And I loved every second of it. The talks seemed like they were prepared for me, the ward of Natalio and the investigators here. But to fill you guys in on some details, usually here in Paraguay, they watch conference in the stake building, but since natalio is 3 hours away from the stake building, we have a satelite dish here in natalio and we were able to watch all 5 sessions in our church building. But since the time is different here the sessions were at 1 in the afternoon, 5 in the afternoon, and the priesthood session started at 9 o clock at night. But it was great and we learned so much, I am just excited to put thes things into practice in my own life, and in the life of my investigators.
THis weekend we had the baptism of an 8 year old girl. She doesnt count as a convert for us because her parents are members, but for me, it doesnt matter, i dont like numbers anyway, I am just glad that another one of Heavenly Fathers daughters entered into the waters of baptism to recieve her salvation after all that she can do (endure to the end). It was an awesome expereince, like I said her parents are members, sealed in the temple actually, but they have been in active lately, but now they are active and excited to come to church. The baptism was wonderful, it got postponed for a couple of hours because the dad was still working, but we waited for the dad so that he could be there for the very special experience of his daughter. Diana actually asked me to baptize her, so that was cool, it would of been better that the dad did it, but with his fear of water, and other things, he wasnt able to do it. It was a great experience, and the ward really supported her.
This thursday we will be having a wedding and a baptism of a girl named Jennifer, her boyfriend is a member of the church, and she has been coming to church for 5 ort so weeks straight now. It is awesome. She is so prepared, and it will be a great experience for her. Then after that we need to find more people to teach, because the investigator pool is getting pretty low, and it seems like we have clapped every house here in Natalio, but starting this week we are going to start working in the towns around natalio.
yesterday when I was watching conference, i started thinking of a little. We always talk to people that say, o dont worry about me, I found Christ so and so years ago/ or I came to know christ so and so years ago. I also thought of a lesson we had on saturday wiht a guy who said wow, this mission you guys are doing is really great, then he asked us How many years ago did you guys come unto christ/find christ? And it wasnt til yesterday in conference that i noticed that really I have known christ always, for alot longer that this life. I am so glad that I have a Savior that loves me, and I am glad that I have known him forever, and will continue to know him forever.
I love you guys so much, and I continue praying for you all there in Idaho/Utah/Oregon/California/Korea/Mexico/Sierra Leone Africa, and whereever else you might be.
Elder Chase Coy Stewart
Conference was great this weekend wasnt it?? Man, it is nice to be able to understand spanish. I could actually understand all of conference in spanish, wow!!! And I loved every second of it. The talks seemed like they were prepared for me, the ward of Natalio and the investigators here. But to fill you guys in on some details, usually here in Paraguay, they watch conference in the stake building, but since natalio is 3 hours away from the stake building, we have a satelite dish here in natalio and we were able to watch all 5 sessions in our church building. But since the time is different here the sessions were at 1 in the afternoon, 5 in the afternoon, and the priesthood session started at 9 o clock at night. But it was great and we learned so much, I am just excited to put thes things into practice in my own life, and in the life of my investigators.
THis weekend we had the baptism of an 8 year old girl. She doesnt count as a convert for us because her parents are members, but for me, it doesnt matter, i dont like numbers anyway, I am just glad that another one of Heavenly Fathers daughters entered into the waters of baptism to recieve her salvation after all that she can do (endure to the end). It was an awesome expereince, like I said her parents are members, sealed in the temple actually, but they have been in active lately, but now they are active and excited to come to church. The baptism was wonderful, it got postponed for a couple of hours because the dad was still working, but we waited for the dad so that he could be there for the very special experience of his daughter. Diana actually asked me to baptize her, so that was cool, it would of been better that the dad did it, but with his fear of water, and other things, he wasnt able to do it. It was a great experience, and the ward really supported her.
This thursday we will be having a wedding and a baptism of a girl named Jennifer, her boyfriend is a member of the church, and she has been coming to church for 5 ort so weeks straight now. It is awesome. She is so prepared, and it will be a great experience for her. Then after that we need to find more people to teach, because the investigator pool is getting pretty low, and it seems like we have clapped every house here in Natalio, but starting this week we are going to start working in the towns around natalio.
yesterday when I was watching conference, i started thinking of a little. We always talk to people that say, o dont worry about me, I found Christ so and so years ago/ or I came to know christ so and so years ago. I also thought of a lesson we had on saturday wiht a guy who said wow, this mission you guys are doing is really great, then he asked us How many years ago did you guys come unto christ/find christ? And it wasnt til yesterday in conference that i noticed that really I have known christ always, for alot longer that this life. I am so glad that I have a Savior that loves me, and I am glad that I have known him forever, and will continue to know him forever.
I love you guys so much, and I continue praying for you all there in Idaho/Utah/Oregon/California/Korea/Mexico/Sierra Leone Africa, and whereever else you might be.
Elder Chase Coy Stewart
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