Letter 10

August 22, 2011

Hola mi amoroso familia y amigos

Wow who knew that my family was so lame without me? You need me on those vacations haha. Just kidding it sounds like you all had a really good time there.. just weird without fun kid... which is me... Jordan.  Oh and Chase your mustache is phenomenal... just so dirty... I love it. Madi your smile is pretty too. Thanks so much for the pictures.

Anyway... this week has been pretty good. My bike keeps getting freaking flat tires and I’ve spent like $25 on bike tubes. My tires are like European skinny tires by the way haha and everybody here throws beer bottles on the ground like it’s their birthday so they're not really the best thing. I need some tubes that are solid rubber so I think I’ll get some of those today. Other than that my bike is great. I still haven’t named it.. I was thinking about lil' shiz be cause it gives me so much grief... but its a work in progress.

Mom's Questions:1. Yes I did get the box, but I already have sheets and stuff... did we buy two pairs or something? 2. Yeah you can send me an extra suitcase but fill it with goodies please 3. President Trayner is super cool I love him. He’s really funny; all of his kids are older and one of his sons lives with them (he just got back from his mission), but none of that stuff is important so I don’t know why you wanted to know haha 4.Elder Wood hasn’t been to 9 different places he’s just been through 9 transfers... which is a 6 week period. 5. Yep the members feed us occasionally here. In fact yesterday I had sushi at a member's house. They are part Japanese. 6. Yes it is really hot but I’m getting used to it. 7. Send my friends letters in the mail because I don’t have enough time to read them. I can’t print here so... yeah please send them.

Elder Wood and I found some really good people to teach; but it wasn’t easy. My bike has got a flat tire almost every day, which really hinders the work. One day we didn’t have bikes so a member drove us up to the most northern part of our area and we started there and walked all the way back down to our apartment in the southern part. Needless to say I am very thankful for bikes. The northern part of our area is a richer part of town, and it was really hard to find people that would listen. Apparently they have "everything" they need. So I was depressed. I said a silent prayer to myself... Please Father, lead us to somebody who will listen. 30 minutes later we knocked on a door of a former investigator, Eric, in the area. The guy who answered the door was Eric's cousin, and said he was sleeping, so we told him that we would try back later. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but we were tired and we didn’t ask. We left and started down the street. Then Eric's mom yelled to us to come back "we'll wake him up." she said. So we went inside. Eric didn’t want to get up, but his cousin, Alex, the guy who opened the door, turned out to be a former investigator too. He was SO prepared to hear the message. Everything made sense to him he said, and so we committed him to baptism. It was definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. It turned the whole day around. I didn’t care that I didn’t have my bike, or even that I was rejected all morning. The scary thing is that we almost missed that opportunity because we were lazy and didn’t talk to him at the door. I learned that day that even if you’re tired, even if your bike is broken, even if everyone rejects you, you can’t let up, because you'll miss opportunities. I’m so grateful for the Lord and his tender mercies and for the knowledge I have that He loves me and is looking out for me.

I love you guys so much and I appreciate everything that you do for me. Try to have some fun without me though alright? Tell my friends to write me ok? Just the ones that haven’t... like Sheree, Elisa, etc. List of friends that OWE ME LETTERS: FREAKING TANNER BROWN, CARMEN, SHAYLA, CHRISTIAN... I love you! see ya!

-Elder Stewart