Letter 50

June 17, 2012

Hola Mis Amados

I'm glad to hear that everything with the house is going well. haha the Stewart family finally has a "Firm Foundation"...... hahaha.... looks like we've built our "House upon a Rock"..... haaaaha.... booooooo haha just thought you would like some corny jokes with the email. You’re Welcome! Enjoy knocking down the kitchen wall and having to eat at McDonald's every meal for a while haha. That reminds me of that time our old house was getting fumigated and we couldn’t go in there for a while... I think that’s what happened... I was like 10 or 11. Am I making that up? I specifically remember a weird smell and not being able to go inside....(we had our floors refinished – not fumigated)

Happy Anniversary to the two best parents in the world; it’s awesome to know that I have parents that love each other so much that they want to be together forever. 28 years in a pretty great accomplishment! Especially when you’re married to Gary Stewart! hahaha jk I love you Dad! Happy Fathers Day! XOXOXO

Turns out Maxine didn’t go to Utah OR Washington and she totally lied! We talked to Krystal and she said that Maxine came and visited earlier and I was like,"Isn’t she in Washington?" and Krystal said, "No. She told me not to tell you guys...."Bla bla bla yada yada yada. So I don’t know what that’s all about. Oh well... Oh and Krystal and her daughters loved those HLJ (CTR) Rings you sent! They say thanks. Jolynne, her daughter, always wears it. I would give you a high five mom if I could.

The PM family didn’t come to church... Their car keeps breaking down. Elder Curletti are going to go by today to drop them; at least until they can get a new car. We'll still visit them every once in a while but we can’t keep focusing on them if they aren’t progressing.

Elder Curletti and I found some people this week that we will be trying to work with but no one super solid. Lots of crazy people too. I'm going to buy a notebook today where I will write all my crazy people stories. We also were blessed to find like 3 PM families. So we'll see how that goes. We have a meeting with one tonight.

I killed a giant spider that landed on my leg in our bathroom with RAID... and a scorpion at church with my foot!

This last week was a little poor on numbers but very rich in lessons learned. I have been hearing all about my potential to be a leader in the mission since I've come out here and I think that I let it get to my head and it made me lose sight of what I really need to be doing. This last week I have been trying to take a personal inventory of the kind of missionary that I need to be to have success.
I realized that I have been striving to be somebody that I'm not. I know now that The Lord called ME to be here. Not someone else. So I shouldn’t be trying so hard to be someone that isn’t me. The Lord called me because I have special attributes and talents that I need to share with others and I need to work to develop a way that works for me. Obviously that doesn’t mean I'm not going to strive to be better or to develop other attributes, but that I should do it in a way that I can work with. I shouldn’t compare myself. I didn’t even know that that is what I was doing! But I was! It specifically says in Preach My Gospel NOT to do that haha and I even told Elder Curletti not to do it and here am I doing it myself! Haha golly... It was a slap in the face to say the least. So... this week Elder Duke gave Elder Curletti and I the commitment to write down a list of 10 attributes of the missionaries we need to be and to make specific goals to achieve them, even if they're just things that I've forgotten about myself. So that’s what I'm going to do. Gee wiz being a missionary is tough haha. But it sure is worth it. Donna is proving to be my refiner's fire. I know that I'm here for a reason.

Tomorrow we have our Zone Conference and I'm super stoked! I don’t know what's going to happen with transfers... its up in the air. I have a feeling that I'll get the boot though.

I hope everything goes well for all of you this week! I love you all and pray for you always. Keep up the great work my missionary friends!

-Elder Jordan Stewart