** Sorry everyone, I am 2 letters behind. Wedding plans have taken over my life haha! Enjoy his letters. He is so awesome!**
2/13/2012
Hello Everyone!
How is everyone doing today? I'm doing pretty good, It started to snow here last night but the weather for the rest of the week is supposed to be in the 50's so this snow will not last long at all! It's really not that cold right now and people are dressing up in thick thick layers, I guess that I'm just used to it from home. I think that is great that you have the missionaries over about once a week! It is a real blessing to do that, seeing that missionaries are broke for the most part, people that feed them really help out. Here, we have families that feed us on a certain day of the week every week. One of them is the Vivians, they are so awesome!!! They are a younger people in the ward and I have a lot in common with them, I can defiantly see myself hanging out with them when I come back to visit! Brother Vivians wife is investigating the church as well, she really likes it! Geez, that is really awesome news for home, I hope that Lauren has a good time out there. Also, I've heard of missionaries not telling you how long they have been out so they don't sound trunky, or so members don't make fun of the new missionaries by saying that they have a long way to go, but I didn't know that they would make it as a rule? That is a dumb rule if you ask me, but obedience is a must! and it's not a rule I have to follow thankfully. Yeah, be sure to follow up on who that missionary knows in this mission please, I'd like to know!! Oh, and if Peyton goes to Arizona, I'll flip out... in a bad way...
We had a pretty good week. We had to move our investigators baptism date to the 9th of March, Nothing bad happened, Just stuff has come up, they are not married yet and they want to be married before they get baptized, but they still love the gospel a lot! They have such a strong testimony of it, It literally radiates off of them! They are so ready! What I'm really excited for is in a year, they get to go to the temple and be sealed for all time and eternity and I will be there when that happens! Baptisms are great, but the real reward is when that happens! So I went on exchanges again this week to another missionaries area, and the missionary is brand new so his companion, the district leader, planned the whole day for us. Something that he planned for was tracting, when I heard that word, my eyes got really big. I haven't tracted for a long time, It wasn't because of a me being lazy or anything like that, its just because I've found more use full things to do other than that. I'd rather not tell you how long its been since I've gone tracting tho. Members still think that missionary work is all about tracting and it's really not! More effective ways are working with members and so forth.
There really isn't a whole lot to report this week. Its really just the usual stuff. We had to give a member in the ward a blessing, he is in a lot of pain and isn't doing too good, he asked me to give it and I don't tend to brag what so ever when I say this, but, it was probably one of the best blessing that I have ever given in my life, being in tuned with the spirit that much really helps. When It was done, he was in tears and I don't think it was because of the pain he was in. He has such a strong testimony of the gospel is so gung ho about missionary work. He told us that without the truthfulness of the gospel, he wouldn't be a member anymore. I am defiantly going to visit him when I come back also! I love this Gospel and for all that it has done for me. My testimony of it and of Jesus Christ has grown tremendously since I've decided to serve the Lord for the time that I have been given. I don't see how people could hate us or disagree with our beliefs so much, but notice how happy we really are as a family and as a person. I've met countless people who are strong in there own church but are really miserable. The church is true, and Jesus is the Christ. Joseph Smith was a true Prophet and he really did see the Father and the Son, all because he had the faith to know the truth. I Know how much of a blessing that this Gospel has played in my life and I will never leave it, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week! I'll be looking out for that package!
Love,
Elder Stuart
2/21/2012
Hey,
Wow, that was a pretty short letter lol it's all good. Before I begin the letter, don't send my package off until next week, I'm getting transferred and I don't know the address yet. But I will know it by the next time I talk to you. If you have already sent it, Elder Payne should be able to forward it.
Not much has happened here this week, I'm a bit ticked that I have to leave this area when things are starting to pick up and we have a baptism in a few weeks.... I've been telling everyone and no one is happy about it at all... I told the investigators that will be baptized in a few weeks and they are really sad about me leaving. I was even going to baptize one of them, but, what can you do? they threatened to kidnap me and hide me in there house. I told them I'd be fine with that. Oh well, I'm going to keep in contact with them through out my mission. In church on Sunday, Bishop got up and told the congregation that I'm leaving and asked if I could give a departing testimony, I was more than happy to do it. Mountain Home is a fantastic place to serve in, I love the people here and the work and it saddens me that I have to leave. It feels like I'm leaving my family. I'm coming back here to visit for sure when I get off my mission. Hopefully sooner than later tho, as long as I can save my pennies up! But, I'm going to go into my area with a positive attitude and hopefully this will be my last area ha ha! I'm going to Lebanon, Missouri they pronounce it "Lebanen" Not to be confused with the Middle East. My companion is going to be Elder Young and I will be split training him. So he is very green. You are trained for 12 weeks and followed up trained for 6 weeks and I'll be training him for the last 6 of the 12 weeks. I don't know a whole lot about this place, other then it's about 100 miles from Mountain Home. I guess that you get what you ask for. I asked President Merkley if I can train someone in the near future. He said it would be possible but he wants me to focus on what I am doing know. So, in a way, I am training! I'll be Elder Young's step-dad. President Merkley told me that has a lot of confidence with me being in the next area a split training. It's funny, I've been telling a lot of non members and less-actives that I am leaving and they are way more upset about me leaving then the members are. I've worked a lot with them. One non member wanted to pray for my before I left her house, I let her do so and she gave probably one of the sweetest prayers that I have ever heard before. She had so much love into it.
Well, Sorry that this letter is so short, Not much has happened this week. Expect a package in the near future with all of my winter clothes in it and some of my books. It is really tough to drag that around with me he he. Anyways, I love you all and wish me luck in my new area. Have a great week!
I Love you always,
Elder Daniel Stuart
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
2/6/2012
Hello!
So yeah, I heard that the Giants won! That is fantastic news! I kept telling my companion that the Super bowl is on and It's driving me nuts. He doesn't like football so he just doesn't understand how much of football freaks we are... When I heard that they were in the lead 20-17 in the 4th quarter, I just pictured you freaking out and having a major asthma attack again. Oh good times! I'm happy to hear that the primary made me some pictures. I'll be looking forward to them! can you please send me pictures of the family, house, and so forth as well? I never get any mail anymore, except for Grandma Halls letter once a week (which I love!) and It literally seems like my companion averages a letter every other day. I'm not jealous tho. :) But the letter will be much appreciated!
So this week was quite, ummm.... interesting. We were not able to teach the normal amount as we usually do, due to the Super Bowl and we had a Zone Conference all the way in Springfield on Thursday. We had to wake up at 5:00 and leave at 6:30 AM and drove the two hours out there. The meeting went really well, I was able to see some Missionaries that I haven't seen for a while, I also saw Elder Denton again! that was good catching up with him. The Mountain Home ward misses him and he misses them also. There is also a Sister missionary that I got to know and get this, she is from Page, Arizona! Nuts huh!?!? Her last name is Boone, I cannot remember her first name but let me know if Grandma and Grandpa know that last name. Turns out that we went to the same Elementary and Middle school. She remembers the Thatchers and we talked about RD's restaurant and there delicious food haha. Also, her companion is from Las Vegas and she swears that she knows me from there. Turns out that she and I had the same Spanish class together. I vaguely remember her. If she didn't say anything, then I wouldn't of even noticed.
The person that is in charge of over seeing the mission vehicles has been given orders from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City to install these small black boxes in our car named Telesystem International Wireless Incorporated. Or for short, TIWI. It is a GPS type of a device that lets the mission department and the Fleet Coordinator for our mission know where we are at all times, how fast we are going, if we accelerate too quickly, stop too quickly, go over huge bumps or pot holes, it even knows if we don't have our seat belts buckled we have also been given a card with our name on it so we can swipe it against the box so we can log on so it knows who is driving, and if we are doing any of these things that we are not supposed to do, TIWI talks and tells us something. For example "You are driving too fast, please slow down." And if it does that, TIWI will instantly notify our Mission President and the Fleet Coordinator and we have so many warnings before we are not allowed to drive for a certain period of time and its not for a day or two, it's like a few months or more. Of course, there are certain circumstances where you need to slam on your brakes or something like that, and they will understand. The Mission department is doing this to save money, apparently it is a great way to save money on insurance and so forth. I can see this being here for a good reason, these vehicles are a fantastic equipment to help us with the Lords work and they are very expensive, especially if there are 19 to 21 year or older kids handling them. There have been missionaries in different missions that were racing each other in the triple digits and then crashing. But then again, I can see a lot of missionaries getting really irritated with this thing going off all the time. It's literally a Big Brother. I'm just thankful that this I'm just not getting this towards the end of my mission instead of the beginning.
Other than that, the week was good. We were able to teach a few people, and the people that we taught went really well. We have a baptism date for two people for the 18th of this month. It may be changed but they still really want to be baptized. President Merkley keeps telling me that Elder Payne and I make a great team. So we are doing a fantastic job! But we really couldn't of done any of this without the Lords hand in it. So you can leave this in part in the blog or not, Mom, But I'm glad that you and Lauren are helping Dwight and continuing to be that influence on him, But, you both are right, don't push but you need to be bold with him, but not over bearing. You know what I mean? It's like a recipe, you need to have the exact amount of stuff to make a delicious cookie. If you add to much ingredient, or push him too much, the cookie will get ruined and he will run away. If you add too little or hardly mention the importance of the gospel, then the cookie will not turn our right and he will not even be fazed or even about what you have to say. Yes, it takes time, and lots of it, but continue to Bear testimony On how important this is to our life's. When the time is right, ask what is holding him back, what he disagrees about the church. It's a hard thing to do, but that is why I asked you to fast for Dwight. You also need to really pray about this as well. You can plant as many seeds as you want, but nothing is going to grow unless you actually get out there and water the seed and give it proper sunlight. Be the example and don't lower yourself to things that he may want to do that isn't what THE LORD wants you to do. Just remember to share this with Lauren and also know that I'm not saying this, Spirit is directing me to say this.
I hope that you guys have a fantastic week! How is the weather out there? Is there a lot of snow? Have a good one and I'll talk to you next week!
Love always,
Elder Daniel Stuart
So yeah, I heard that the Giants won! That is fantastic news! I kept telling my companion that the Super bowl is on and It's driving me nuts. He doesn't like football so he just doesn't understand how much of football freaks we are... When I heard that they were in the lead 20-17 in the 4th quarter, I just pictured you freaking out and having a major asthma attack again. Oh good times! I'm happy to hear that the primary made me some pictures. I'll be looking forward to them! can you please send me pictures of the family, house, and so forth as well? I never get any mail anymore, except for Grandma Halls letter once a week (which I love!) and It literally seems like my companion averages a letter every other day. I'm not jealous tho. :) But the letter will be much appreciated!
So this week was quite, ummm.... interesting. We were not able to teach the normal amount as we usually do, due to the Super Bowl and we had a Zone Conference all the way in Springfield on Thursday. We had to wake up at 5:00 and leave at 6:30 AM and drove the two hours out there. The meeting went really well, I was able to see some Missionaries that I haven't seen for a while, I also saw Elder Denton again! that was good catching up with him. The Mountain Home ward misses him and he misses them also. There is also a Sister missionary that I got to know and get this, she is from Page, Arizona! Nuts huh!?!? Her last name is Boone, I cannot remember her first name but let me know if Grandma and Grandpa know that last name. Turns out that we went to the same Elementary and Middle school. She remembers the Thatchers and we talked about RD's restaurant and there delicious food haha. Also, her companion is from Las Vegas and she swears that she knows me from there. Turns out that she and I had the same Spanish class together. I vaguely remember her. If she didn't say anything, then I wouldn't of even noticed.
The person that is in charge of over seeing the mission vehicles has been given orders from the Missionary Department in Salt Lake City to install these small black boxes in our car named Telesystem International Wireless Incorporated. Or for short, TIWI. It is a GPS type of a device that lets the mission department and the Fleet Coordinator for our mission know where we are at all times, how fast we are going, if we accelerate too quickly, stop too quickly, go over huge bumps or pot holes, it even knows if we don't have our seat belts buckled we have also been given a card with our name on it so we can swipe it against the box so we can log on so it knows who is driving, and if we are doing any of these things that we are not supposed to do, TIWI talks and tells us something. For example "You are driving too fast, please slow down." And if it does that, TIWI will instantly notify our Mission President and the Fleet Coordinator and we have so many warnings before we are not allowed to drive for a certain period of time and its not for a day or two, it's like a few months or more. Of course, there are certain circumstances where you need to slam on your brakes or something like that, and they will understand. The Mission department is doing this to save money, apparently it is a great way to save money on insurance and so forth. I can see this being here for a good reason, these vehicles are a fantastic equipment to help us with the Lords work and they are very expensive, especially if there are 19 to 21 year or older kids handling them. There have been missionaries in different missions that were racing each other in the triple digits and then crashing. But then again, I can see a lot of missionaries getting really irritated with this thing going off all the time. It's literally a Big Brother. I'm just thankful that this I'm just not getting this towards the end of my mission instead of the beginning.
Other than that, the week was good. We were able to teach a few people, and the people that we taught went really well. We have a baptism date for two people for the 18th of this month. It may be changed but they still really want to be baptized. President Merkley keeps telling me that Elder Payne and I make a great team. So we are doing a fantastic job! But we really couldn't of done any of this without the Lords hand in it. So you can leave this in part in the blog or not, Mom, But I'm glad that you and Lauren are helping Dwight and continuing to be that influence on him, But, you both are right, don't push but you need to be bold with him, but not over bearing. You know what I mean? It's like a recipe, you need to have the exact amount of stuff to make a delicious cookie. If you add to much ingredient, or push him too much, the cookie will get ruined and he will run away. If you add too little or hardly mention the importance of the gospel, then the cookie will not turn our right and he will not even be fazed or even about what you have to say. Yes, it takes time, and lots of it, but continue to Bear testimony On how important this is to our life's. When the time is right, ask what is holding him back, what he disagrees about the church. It's a hard thing to do, but that is why I asked you to fast for Dwight. You also need to really pray about this as well. You can plant as many seeds as you want, but nothing is going to grow unless you actually get out there and water the seed and give it proper sunlight. Be the example and don't lower yourself to things that he may want to do that isn't what THE LORD wants you to do. Just remember to share this with Lauren and also know that I'm not saying this, Spirit is directing me to say this.
I hope that you guys have a fantastic week! How is the weather out there? Is there a lot of snow? Have a good one and I'll talk to you next week!
Love always,
Elder Daniel Stuart
1/30/2012
Hey Everyone!
So this week wasn't as crazy as last week but it was pretty odd. But first off, Mom, that story that you told me is really bizarre! I have no clue what I would do if one of my investigators did that, I could be just plain blunt with him or some how sweet talk my way around it but I just hope that doesn't happen here ever!! Gross... But that cowboy bible study thing that I go to is not ran by our church what so ever but it is a pretty cool place, everyone is nice, the preacher dude used to not really like us and would try to avoid us, but he is now, slowly but surely, lightening up to us. He will now talk to us a little bit, shake my hand, smile and wave at us. The weirdest thing that happens there in my opinion is that all they play is country type of gospel music. Well you know me, I hate country. I'd prefer rock but I have no say in it. :P We actually have two baptisms coming up on February 18th. We have been working with them for a few weeks now, it's the couple with the child, remember me telling you about that the other week? Well things there are going well. They love every minute of it!
So I had a interesting week, I had to go on two exchanges, one with one of the Zone Leaders and the other with the District leader, So I was out of my area for two days this week, I am so burnt out with exchanges. I had too many on my first year of my mission lol. Oh well... On my exchange, I met a lady that has breast cancer, she just went through another phase of chemotherapy so she doesn't have a single hair on her, literally, not even her eye brows. I felt really bad for her but she seemed to be in a somewhat positive attitude with it. When I finally got back to my area, we continued to work hard and harder. We have started to finally see the blessing come through our hard working efforts! I really hope that I continue to see the blessings. We picked up a investigator that the missionaries in the past used to teach, he is really cool, we taught him the plan of salvation the other day and he loved it! We gave him a soft commitment to be baptized and he accepted it.
Well to be honest, nothing else really happened this week, we are just working a lot here! Oh! I got a letter from Garrett! it was great hearing from him again, He sound like he is doing a great job out there! He mentioned the old days when we did crazy stuff, It almost brought a tear to my eye because we may not do some of that stuff when we go home. I was really happy to get a letter from him tho. I'll see if I can give that stuffed monkey away, I'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures tho. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Daniel Stuart
So this week wasn't as crazy as last week but it was pretty odd. But first off, Mom, that story that you told me is really bizarre! I have no clue what I would do if one of my investigators did that, I could be just plain blunt with him or some how sweet talk my way around it but I just hope that doesn't happen here ever!! Gross... But that cowboy bible study thing that I go to is not ran by our church what so ever but it is a pretty cool place, everyone is nice, the preacher dude used to not really like us and would try to avoid us, but he is now, slowly but surely, lightening up to us. He will now talk to us a little bit, shake my hand, smile and wave at us. The weirdest thing that happens there in my opinion is that all they play is country type of gospel music. Well you know me, I hate country. I'd prefer rock but I have no say in it. :P We actually have two baptisms coming up on February 18th. We have been working with them for a few weeks now, it's the couple with the child, remember me telling you about that the other week? Well things there are going well. They love every minute of it!
So I had a interesting week, I had to go on two exchanges, one with one of the Zone Leaders and the other with the District leader, So I was out of my area for two days this week, I am so burnt out with exchanges. I had too many on my first year of my mission lol. Oh well... On my exchange, I met a lady that has breast cancer, she just went through another phase of chemotherapy so she doesn't have a single hair on her, literally, not even her eye brows. I felt really bad for her but she seemed to be in a somewhat positive attitude with it. When I finally got back to my area, we continued to work hard and harder. We have started to finally see the blessing come through our hard working efforts! I really hope that I continue to see the blessings. We picked up a investigator that the missionaries in the past used to teach, he is really cool, we taught him the plan of salvation the other day and he loved it! We gave him a soft commitment to be baptized and he accepted it.
Well to be honest, nothing else really happened this week, we are just working a lot here! Oh! I got a letter from Garrett! it was great hearing from him again, He sound like he is doing a great job out there! He mentioned the old days when we did crazy stuff, It almost brought a tear to my eye because we may not do some of that stuff when we go home. I was really happy to get a letter from him tho. I'll see if I can give that stuffed monkey away, I'm glad that you enjoyed the pictures tho. I love you all and I hope you have a great week!
Love, Elder Daniel Stuart
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