9/18/2012 LAST LETTER!!!

Hey Everyone! Well, this is weird... It's hard to believe that this will be the last time I will email everyone on my mission. Let me start off by saying that serving a mission is the best decision that I have ever made in my life! I have loved every second of it! I have never been so physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually drained in my whole life until I have been on a mission! But, I have loved it all, because I know that through it all, I have been blessed tremendously. I am so grateful for this! College can wait. My week was pretty good, the weather here has been really helpful, It's been raining a lot here. If not raining, then it's just been really cloudy, so that knocks the temperature down by like 20 or 30 degrees. This week, we had the zone leaders come to town to go on exchanges with us, well I went with Elder Urban again, I figured that it was a nice day that day, that we just walked around town. Well we had some pretty good success! We street contacted a man named Kyle who was getting some stuff out of his truck. We just said hello and started talking to him about random stuff, well turns out that we were out there talking to him for about a hour and he had a few questions about why there are so many churches all over the place ( By the way, there are 132 churches in this area, not just in Lebanon alone ) and he also asked what happened to the church that Christ made while he was on the earth. That was a excellent set of questions! We gladly answered them without any hesitation. We asked him if we could come back and talk to him more about our beliefs and he said that he never knows when he is home because of work, but he agreed!! It was really weird when we were out and when we saw him, because when we left the apartment, a member who lives right down the road from us was also leaving and he offered to drive us to where we needed to go, which was about a mile away. When he dropped us off, we stopped by a investigator and talked with him for about 20 minutes, then we started to walk up the road to see another investigator and as we were walking, that is when we saw Kyle, when we saw him, he just walked out of his house to grab a pack of cigarettes and a bag of melted gummy bears. So doing all of that stuff before literally bought us a 30 second window to talk to him. If we denied the ride to go a mile up the road, or if we talked to the investigator a little bit longer, we wouldn't of seen him!! Pretty cool huh?!?! It's amazing how the Lord sets people in our path at a specific time. He defiantly works in amazing ways. Well, 6 plus miles later, my feet were super sore!!! That was a great day. Elder Ashby and I are doing pretty good, we get along really well, I'm going to be sad when I leave, turns out that his new companion that is coming in is Elder Chriss. If you remember when I was in Owasso, I served with Elder Chriss so that's pretty cool that I know him. This will make Elder Ashby's second companion that I have already served with, and I am his second!! His first was Elder Denton, He's awesome!!! I miss serving with him. Our talks Yesterday went really well, I spoke on the Atonement and Elder Ashby told a story that he read one day. It was about not giving up, it was really good!! It was really weird that that was my last Sunday on my mission. But it was a good one. Well, I thought that this day would never come. Not because I thought I would go home early, but because I didn't want it to come. As my mission is coming to a close, I have learned a lot! I have changed a lot too, in many good ways tho. I know that this church is true and I will never change that. I know that Christ once walked that earth and set up His church with Apostles and Prophets to run it under his direction! I know that after a long period of apostasy, it was restored through Joseph Smith and it will never leave again. I know how important missionary work is and how it needs to continue for the work to spread and I am so grateful that I have been able to go on in this cause. I love you all and I will see you in a few days!! Love always, Elder Daniel Stuart

9/10/2012

**CHECK OUT 2 LETTERS I POSTED** Hey Everyone!! Thanks for writing me again, it's weird to think that I only have one more full week to serve and only one more preparation day left until I head home. It's starting to finally sink in that I am going home, and I am okay with that. I think what really made it happen is when I saw that letter in the mail from the mission office that had my flight plans on it. I read it all carefully and it finally hit me, "This is it, I'm going home. No sense on complaining and wishing I could of done better, because I can't change the past, I minus well keep going forward and not look back". I also got a letter from President Shumway, he told me about how proud he is of me and my dedication to serve the Lord, it was a great letter. Tell President Nicoles that I said hello and I can't wait to talk to him again. It's weird that I will be released, I'm not looking forward to that! Do you know when I will give my welcome home talk? I'm looking forward to Kaelyn's birthday party coming up!! Especially the fire juggling!! I think that it would be awesome if Joey and Lauren or you could score some tickets to General Conference!!!! I've been wanting to go for a long time now! especially since I have served a mission. I hope they can get some!!! I think it would also be a great idea to see my Dad then, I really want to be there when Garrett comes home and when he and Adam give their talks on the 14th. That member has not sent off my bike yet, he is actually going to give me my bike and the box today so I can break it down and put it in and anything else that I may want to put in, then he will pick it up and ship it off. I sent off a box on Tuesday, so you may get it today, don't bother opening it, I'll deal with it when I get home. I was wondering if you could do me a favor?! Could you please send me some money for when I go to the airport? The Mission Office is already going to give each returning missionary $70.00 for their luggage, but we are responsible for anything that costs more. So, I was wondering if you send me maybe $50.00? Just in case, I'll be sure to give you whatever money I have left over. I don't think I will need it, but since my card no longer works, it would be great if I could have that money. That's why I'm sending so many heavy boxes home, I want to travel as light as possible. So my week went pretty well, on Wednesday, we had Elder Yoon Hwan Choi of the Seventy come and speak to us. He spoke on a lot of things, mainly the Atonement and obedience. He is a really great guy and is funny. Also very spiritual and positive. In case you were wondering, (because I know you are) He is Korean. It was great being there, I was able to see a LOT of missionaries that I haven't seen in a long time. There were two that I haven't seen since they were in my district in Owasso!! One of them was a Sister Missionary and we became good friends when I was on Oklahoma, so when I saw her, she looked up at me and flipped out!! It was hysterical!! I even saw a few missionaries there that I don't even know and they came up to me as if they knew me. They were like, "Hey Elder Stuart!! How's it going?! I've heard so much about you! It's good to meet you!" Hopefully it's all good stuff! That was the main highlight of my week tho. Oh, one other thing that happened is that we were walking home from a appointment on Friday and it started to rain, well when we got home, it rained harder and harder, then it poured really hard and the wind blew insanely!!! Then all of the sudden, the tornado alarm went off... We didn't really go anywhere for safety, but maybe 20 minutes later, it stopped and a few hours later, the rain stopped. Very weird, but the rain was needed. Well, I better get going, I love you all and I hope you have a great week!! Love, Elder Daniel Stuart

9/4/2012

Hey Everyone!! That's great to hear that fall is coming... for you!!! It's still pretty warm here. All tho, we did have a awesome rainfall for a few days last week. Elder Ashby is doing better, I think he can bike for a little bit. The member that lent me his bike needed it for this weekend, but I found a spare back tire for my bike and I gave it to him. I told him that he can give me my bike back now, so I can send it home, he said "Don't worry about it, I'll send it home for you, think if it as a going away present" Score!!! Ah man, that took a lot of stress off of my shoulders... So I just sent a package out right before I got here, it's just a lot of stuff that I bought while serving. Don't worry about opening it when I go home, I'll deal with it when I get back. Thanks!! It should be there by next week sometime. That's a awesome testimony that Kaelyn said! So, to answer your question again about my flight plans, no, I haven't gotten the, yet, but I did call the mission office and asked when I would get them and she said that she was actually looking at them right now! So you should get a copy and I should get the real deal soon. She told me that I will be flying from Tulsa, to Dallas, to Seattle, to Spokane. So I'll be in the air a lot that day! My guess is that I won't get home until late, but I guess we will officially know it all soon. Tell Dwight that I am really excited to go hunting with him! And fishing too. I plan on finding a job as soon as possible when I get home. I got a busy life ahead!! My week was okay, we were able to see a few people this week, but it wasn't a very effective week. Tomorrow, we get to go to Springfield for most of the day, we are going to be having a mission tour and Elder Yoon Hwan Choi of the Seventy will be there, I'm so pumped!!! I'm really curious on what he will be instructing on. I love it when we have these. It's a real honor to be in the presence of a General Authority, even if it is a Seventy, but I don't care!! So, how is everyone? How are Tyler and Tysen doing? Be sure to tell everyone I said hello. I got to get going, but I hope that you all have a great week! Love, Elder Daniel Stuart

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,

7/28/2012

Hey Everyone, That is so cool that you had a blast in Oregon camping. I miss camping a lot. Soon tho.... Well, I hope that you have learned your lesson, wear sunscreen next time so you don't fry. I sort of figured when I didn't see a package in the mail, you forgot to send it, or got to busy. I'll be looking for it this week. Thanks!! Are Grandma and Grandpa still up there? Have fun camping again this weekend! Geez, you're all crazy!! Just kidding. My week was incredible!! We have still been meeting with those investigator's that we picked up the week before, they are a younger couple, probably in there 30's. I don't really have the guts to ask them why they live where they are. Maybe they will tell me sometime, they came to church this week too and we have been teaching them a lot! We invited them to be baptised and they accepted!! We are going to shoot for the 25 of August, we were going to go for the 18th, but we have a huge ward event going on that day. We also picked up a new investigator this week! She also wants to be baptised!! We have done a lot of biking this week too, I gave CTR bikes a call and left a message, they still haven't called me back. But a member in the ward has lent me his bike and I have been using it, man that this is fast!! He has a speedometer on his bike and I clocked myself going 31 miles an hour!!! Down hill of course, I'm trying to go faster. When It's flat I can maybe go 20. I feel really bad for the missionaries in the ward back at home, It makes me really mad too because in a way, I know how they feel. Was that the wards decision or the mission presidents decision? Someone should really buy their groceries for them. I would do it in a heartbeat if I was home, if they liked it or not. Maybe I will when I get home!! Please take care of them. Things here as a District Leader are going well, I didn't hold a meeting last week because there was a district leader training meeting last week. President Shumway instructed us on some stuff and it went really good!!! I feel more prepared too, thank heavens!!! I haven't heard anything about my flight plans yet, but as you already know, I come home the 21st of September. My guess would probably be that I will leave early in the morning as the other missionaries in the past have done. I'll let you know when I get it tho. Can you all please pray for rain out here? We need it badly. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Thank you for your prayers!! Love, Elder Daniel Stuart

July 9th, 2012

Hey Everyone, Another week passes. It goes by too fast unfortunately, I've been looking back on my mission and thinking of all of the experiences that I have been through to make me stronger and learn more. What a blessing it has been! College can wait, I'm so grateful that I said "Yes" to my bishop to serve a mission. It's defiantly a adventure I will never forget. I've never been so stressed, so mad, so sad to the point I fall and cry, so happy, so confident, so exhausted, so excited, and so blessed in my whole life then right here while leaving my family and serving the Lord for two years of my life. I just wish I had the knowledge that I have now in the beginning of my mission. Anyways, we had a somewhat good week, it has been hot as usual, I remember one day, I was walking on the street and my feet were burning and I was wearing shoes!!! I looked in my closet the other day and noticed my hoodie jacket hanging up, it looks so lonely! It needs to be worn! Maybe I can crank my A/C to like 30 and then I'll wear it when I go to bed. We keep our A/C at like 68 all the time and when we come in from a hot days work, we open that door and wham! A cold front hitting me right in the face, all I can say is "Ahhhh....." Our investigators are doing well, we have had quite the challenge meeting some of them, some are super busy with finding jobs, some are having major a family crisis, and some are really sick but still puts forth the effort to come outside for at least 5 minutes to tell us that he is still reading and he prayed to know if it is true like we asked him to do and he told us that he knows it is, he's just really sorry that he can't see us as much as he wants to. He has some sort of a back disorder and is constantly seeing doctors, not to mention he is taking care of his wife who has M.S. Really badly. I pray for them and everyone else everyday and night. I also pray for my district and the missionaries I look over. Being a District Leader is quite interesting, I haven't yet held a meeting yet, we had Zone Conference on Saturday and we were able to see President and Sister Shumway for the first time, they are wonderful people! I hardly know them but I already know that he has been called by God to lead this mission in a very important cause. He's really funny and knows how to have a good time, he is also really obedient and blunt and bold but he does it in a very caring loving way. I'm kind of disappointed that I only get to serve under him for 2 1/2 months. Since that was my last Zone Conference, I was able to give my departing testimony, I'm the only one in this zone that is going home soon. Another person that gave his departing testimony was one of the Assistants who goes home at the end of this transfer. When President Shumway said that it's now time for departing testimonies, he looked right after me and said: "I don't know you, but I wish I would of gotten the opportunity to know you better" He was pretty bummed that I'm leaving and so am I. My 4th of July went pretty awesome, we are able to have a delicious BBQ with some members in the ward and watch them light off fireworks. It was much funner than last years 4th of July. I'm happy to hear that you guys had a great time watching them. How did the girls handle them this year? Still scared out of there minds? No, I'm not getting letters yet, I did get one from a kid from the singles ward name Chase but I haven't replied yet. Other than that, nope. I emailed Garrett and told him that I still haven't gotten his letter and he replied that it was actually sent back to him, so I think he will try again, or something like that, and he's like 3000 miles away!! At least he's putting forth the effort to write me and I have no doubt that he is busier than anyone back at home, yet he takes 2 hours out of his busy week to write me. What are best friends for, right? If you could try to get my college papers for NIC ready for me,then UofI, that would be great, Mom. Thanks! I don't think you really need to help me with a job, I feel that that is something I need to do on my own. I got the email with the info that you gave me, thanks! I got the rest of it on lds.org. It is needed so the mission office can notify them when I'm coming home. Thanks for all that you guys do, I really appreciate it and I love you all a lot, Have a great week! Love always, Elder Daniel Stuart