Letter 9

August 15, 2011

Hola mi familia y mis amigos! Estoy viviendo! I am alive haha.

SO sorry it’s taken me so long to write you guys this week.  I have been working hard here in Laredo, Texas.  My very first area.  So it used to be a sister area and we're going to be the very first Elders that have been here in like 2 years.  Its called "white washing" I found out from my new companion Elder Wood.  He’s really nice and he is from Virginia. He's been out about a year or so and I think this is his 9th transfer... not too sure.  But he’s cool. I've heard good things. We get a long great and I can tell we are going to do some work here in Laredo. 

My first day was nuts! We touched down in McAllen and I stepped off the plane and was immediately blasted by a wall of heat and humidity hahaha... I was like... you gotta be kiddin’ me! AND the airport smelled like bananas, which I liked.  We met the mission president and his wife and headed to the chapel to get some things and brief about the mission and then we headed to the mission home.  When we got there we just relaxed and got to know each other a little bit better. There were 19 of us fresh out the MTC, so it was pretty packed.  We had dinner and by the way Texas BBQ is the best thing ever... Sister Trayner is a saint.    Then we had interviews I believe... then we went to bed. There weren’t enough beds at the mission home for 19 of us so like 1 or two stayed there, like 5 others went to the Assistant’s place, and me and 5 others went to another apartment.  My numbers might be off... but you get the idea.  The next day we went to the Chapel, met our new companions, and then we were shipped out to our areas. It was pretty crazy! haha but I love it.  Oh yeah and all of this was on 8 hours of sleep! haha but its ok I slept on the way to Laredo. It’s like 3ish hours from McAllen.

Oh our area is all bikes! haha so... I get to ride all day long and get super sweaty! I love it haha my thighs are going to be soooo ripped! The good thing is Laredo is dry kinda like Utah.

My first day was a little different than everyone elses. I thought I was going to be tracting or contacting right when I got out, but we didn’t.  We had have a planning meeting with the Sisters leaving our area and they gave us a bunch of stuff on the area like potential investigators, cool people to talk to, bad people to talk to haha it was really helpful (Sisters take good notes).  So we did that and then the Zone Leaders needed us to help them move their stuff out of their apartment and into their new apartment because us and another companionship were moving into theirs.  and that was pretty much my whole day.  I live with another companionship Elder Hunt from PG Utah, and Elder Peterson from AF Utah. Both of them are really cool and funny. I love Elder Hunt haha he reminds me of Matt Decker.  So that’s good.  Our apartment is pretty good. There is absolutely no food in it haha but that’s ok I'm buying some stuff today. It makes me feel like an adult.... ew....

Elder Wood and I have a lot of pretty cool investigators already so that’s cool.  Fernado is a guy we met who has a small family with kids and had never been baptized. We told him that he needed to be baptized because that was part of the Doctrine of Christ and he said he would... in like 8 minutes of talking... who knew it was that easy some times. We still need to teach him more and his family and there is still a lot of work but... still... we'll see how that goes.  Then the other day we were walking because my bike got a flat... haha don’t worry I’ll fix it.  We were walking to an appointment and it turned out she wasn’t there, so we just walked around the area and Elder Wood and I both just started heading for this house. The lady that opened the door was totally prepared and had a friend that needed to hear our message too. The Spirit.... yeah... its awesome.

ANY WAY... I need to go and I’m really sorry I can’t reply to all of your letters this week, but have fun at the beach and maybe I’ll catch you next week! I love you!!

Your little boy,

Elder Stewart