Letter 55

July 23, 2012

Hello Family and Amigos!

Wow I’m pretty dang jealous that you all lit lanterns the place in Oregon where the Goonies was filmed.... Like... REALLY jealous. I'm angry. Did you not know that that is my favorite part in Tangled!? and that I have wanted to do that since I saw that movie! AND I LOVE THE GOONIES! I hate you guys.... I'm never coming home. haha jk. but I'm really disappointed in you all. Thanks for nothin. haha.

I'm glad to hear Grandma Stewart is still alive and kickin! What a woman! I'm gonna give her a big ‘ol hug and kiss when I get home! And Sister Johnson too! What a sweet lady she is. Tell her hi for me. Oh and also Brother Bushnell and tell him he was the best YM leader in the world!

That’s crazy that ELISA IS ENGAGGED! The first of them.... I can’t even believe it. She told me she would wait for me!! haha jk Congratulations Elisa!
Also mom you should definitely read that Stephen Covey book. It’s great. I can’t believed he died at 79 in a bike accident. What’s a guy that old doing riding a bike? What a champ. I shook his hand when he came to our class!

Rio Grande is basically Mexico. At least that’s why Elder Montiel told me, and he's actually been to Mexico so... yeah. We are just a few miles from the border and we speak lots of Spanish. I'm just realizing that my Spanish is lacking as well so I appreciate the practice.

I know that when I first learned that I was coming to Las Lomas I sounded really upbeat and positive, but I didn’t fully understand the challenge that was before me. It really is a mountain I need to climb, but I need to get that gosh dang rock out of my gosh dang shoe! I have been thinking a lot about that this last week. Lately I have been doubting my abilities as a missionary. The Adversary kept pokin’ me and pokin’ me. Telling me that I wasn’t good enough... I don’t know why we listen to him sometimes. It really isn’t the best thing to do because you start into a vicious cycle of getting down on yourself and losing the Spirit and then not doing well and then doubting yourself even more! haha its pretty counter productive... and as I look back on the last week that Elder Montiel and I had it looks pretty counter productive as well. But help is always there. President Trayner sent a letter to us this week with a quote from the Divine Companionship, a talk by Jeffrey R Holland. It talks about how God can bear His witness of us as missionaries. I never really thought about the concept that we don’t just bear witness of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but They can bear witness of us. We just need to live worthy of that witness. I'm going to be honest, I wasn’t living up to those expectations. I wasn’t studying with all my heart and I wasn’t working with all my heart. I wasn’t focused on my purpose of bearing witness of the Father and Son so HOW IN THE WORLD could I expect Them to bear witness of me? I couldn’t. I can’t! I need to be doing EVERYTHING I can to be worthy of that witness. I need to help Elder Montiel do everything to be worthy of that witness. That’s what a good Senior Companion does. That’s what the Holy Ghost tries to do with us. I need to have that witness so others will know that I am a representative of Christ. That’s what a real representative is. Someone that has the witness of the person they are representing. I'm committed this week to have the Spirit be the Senior Companion. I know that I'm not good enough, but with His help I can be. He will show me what to do with this area. I hate the Pride Cycle hahaha I've lost count how many times I've had this experience... the good thing is that I'm starting to learn.

Anyway... I've been going on for a while now. I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Pray for the people here in Las Lomas to open their hearts to the Gospel!

Con Mucho Amor,
Elder Jordan Stewart