8/22/12 and 8/13/2012 Letters

I HAVE POSTED TWO LETTERS FROM DANIEL, THE FIRST LETTER IS THE MOST RECENT. PLEASE CHECK THEM BOTH OUT. 29 DAYS LEFT!!!! Hey Everyone!! Sorry that I haven't emailed you back yet, I couldn't on Monday and yesterday the Internet was down! Thanks for all the Birthday wishes, it is much appreciated!! I had a great birthday! It started off this morning that we had a zone conf

erence to go to. The entire zone made it out to Lebanon for it, it started at about 8:00 and it went to 11:00. After that, some of the Relief Society sisters made us lunch! So that was really nice of them. When lunch was over we sang "Called to Serve" to them as we always do to those who make us lunch at meetings, then Elder Urban, put his arm over me and we walked to the front of the crowd and he said today is someones birthday, and we are going to sing to him, them he sprinted to the crowd before I could grab him, so everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to me, it was pretty cool!! When the conference was over, we all got dressed and we went to the park and played capture the flag and had flower balls, just like last year in Tulsa! It was such a blast!! We lost by a point, but that wasn't the point, we all had fun and I was able to capture the flag for out team too!! I feel bad for Elder Ashby, he twisted his knee and dislocated it. He put it back into place by himself, but now he is limping around, I think we are going to go to the doctors so he can get it checked out. After the game, we went home and about a hour later, the Ellis' picked us up and we went to the DeWitts for my birthday party! We had a few families there and we all had a great time!! we had some really good cake that Sister Ellis made and Sister DeWitt made some really good enchiladas! They gave me a few gifts, Brother DeWitt bought me a pink tie because "Real men wear pink!" I liked his tie that he wore on Sunday, it had a little bit of pink in it and he said that to me. I think what I liked most is just being around with all of my friends that I have made here. I have become really close with the people that were at the party and I hope that I will be friends with them forever!! I know that I have said this before, but I'm going to say it again, I am going to try to come back here as soon as possible and visit everyone in my mission before I have to start school. I'm thinking about coming in November. Dad was telling me that one of the kids are getting baptised in late October I think and he asked me if it is possible that I could be there, so that would work out great!! I better start saving my pennies now!! What are your thoughts on this? This week went pretty good, not a whole lot has happened. On Thursday, it was really cloudy, like super dark clouds and we decided to go over to one of our investigators house and mow her lawn for her, well she wasn't home but her shed was unlocked so we pulled out her lawn mower and I started to mow her lawn, well when I started, it began to lightly sprinkle, then when I got to me third strip of cutting, the rain just dumped on me, hard!! I couldn't help but to just laugh, it felt great!! I didn't care! but I did put her mower back, I didn't want to ruin it. On Friday, we had interviews with President Shumway. This was a last minute thing, so it wasn't really expected, we found out about it about three weeks ago. It was also a combined District Meeting with the other district, So the other District Leader and I had to instruct! I instructed on companionship inventory and he instructed on companionship unity, I personally felt like it went really well, I took up about 45 minutes by myself and the other missionary did the same. When President Shumway finally pulled me into a room to interview me, we talked about the area and Elder Ashby. He told me that he is so proud of me and he thanked me for all of my hard work and effort that I have put into Lebanon. He also really thinks that Elder Ashby and I make a great team, I think so too! He told me that while he was praying about transfers, he prayed really hard about the two of us, he was planning on transferring one of us out, but The Spirit strongly told him that we both need to stay here. He is upset that I am leaving so soon, he really loves me, he's a great guy! There is no doubt in my mind that he has been called by God to serve here. I'm going to miss him and his family when I leave. On Saturday, the ward had a huge Barbecue event at a members place, this event is a yearly thing, it's like a holiday for them here, I'm happy that I am able to be here for it, it went really good! a lot of people showed up and we all had a good time!! Brother DeWitt picked us up a few hours before it started so we could help set up. That was some good food too!! We have a Mission tour coming up in a few weeks, it is actually the week before I go home, (Yikes) and someone from the General Authority from the seventy is coming in, it's Elder Yoon Hwan Choi, I'm so thankful that I will be here for it!! Well, I got to get going, but I love you all and I thank you for you do, also thank you for the package that you sent me I loved it. See you soon! Love, Elder Daniel Stuart AUGUST 13,2012 Hey Everyone! This letter may be relatively short, in some ways, not a lot happened this week. But first off, Yes, the weather has been a little warm BUT! it has been cooling off! for the past few days with some rain in the night and a lot of cloud coverage through out the day. We try to be effective during the afternoon, but it can be challenging. This area is really hit and miss in a few ways. I'll be sure to let you know when I send my bike home, I may or may not send more stuff home, it's doubtful, but you never know. Man, It's so weird to know when all of my friends are coming home!! It literally feels like we all just left! I clearly remember being at the airport with you guys and Garrett! I also remember seeing Kelton in the MTC! I write in my journal everyday and I flipped back to a year exactly just to see what happened and I was shocked! That defiantly doesn't seem like a year!! Did you know that a year ago, I was in Owasso?!? Nuts... Our week was... interesting. On Monday we had dinner with our Ward Mission Leader and The Burns came ( They are the investigators getting baptised ) and we were going to teach them about temples and Celestial Marriages. Well as we were eating, Brian mentioned that he is on probation. When I heard that, my stomach dropped, investigators cannot be baptised if they are on probation, it's part of the repentance process. So we explained to him about it and he seemed pretty cool about it and is willing to wait. He told us that it makes sense. We told his wife that she can still get baptised if she wants to but we strongly recommend if she waits for her husband, she said that she can wait too. So we then continued on with the lesson. I asked President Shumway about it and he said that if he still wants to get baptised within 6 months, he will consider coming out to interview him. So I told Brian that when I found out and he was cool with it. Well Yesterday afternoon, they call and Brian tells me that they don't believe anymore. I asked what the problem was, he said that he doesn't like the fact that he cannot get baptised while on probation. So that really crushed me. I'm not upset that I'm losing a baptism, I'm upset that they are missing out on such a wonderful blessing... So yesterday I talked to the Bishop here and we talked about it for a while and said that it's not our fault, we did our part. I just hope that come 2014 when his probation is over, they will come back! Other than that, nothing else is really going on. We are trying to work with our investigators, mainly to come to church. It seems like that is the biggest challenge. Man I sure do a lot of praying for them. Thanks for feeding the missionaries out there, are they still not being fed a lot? It sure doesn't feel like my birthday is coming up next week. Oh that reminds me, I won't be able to email next Monday. but I will Tuesday. We have a Zone instruction meeting in the morning then after that we get to play capture the flag!!! It's going to rock!!! A family here is feeding us that day too and has invited some other members that I have become close friends with!! One of the members keeps telling me how he is going to take me out for my birthday for a few drinks and he will buy, so I'm really excited for that to! lol ;) Well, that's about it for me here. I hope that everyone is doing good out there in good ol' Idaho! I'll talk to you all later, have a great week!! Love always,