Letter 81

January 28, 2013

Hola Todos!

Wow it sounds like ya'll had a pretty terrible winter! haha ours is basically over and we're enjoying 80 degree weather now! JEALOUS?! haha AND we get to have spiritual experiences almost daily! Nothing beats being a missionary that’s for sure! I cant believe I only have like...4 months...... boooooo... :( That’s really scary that Madi and her friends got in an accident too! Don't do that Madi! I'm glad everyone is safe and that you all could understand the beautiful lyrics from Carrie Underwood more personally. Good song.

ANYWAY... it’s my birthday this week and I'll be turning 21! I can’t believe another year has FLOWN by and I'll officially be an adult. I'll most likely spend my birthday working and then have a dinner with the Harkriders! I love that family. Sis Harkrider told Elder Williams that she had a surprise or something... so... that’s awesome. OH! and Saul gave me a slingshot for my birthday!! I told him how Jordie had one in Brazil and he was like, “I have one! You can have it!" haha so now I have a slingshot to shoot those pesky dogs that chase me!

My bike is perfectly fine mom. Don’t worry your pretty little worrisome head. I'm still riding it every day.

Oh yeah and I definitely sent that darn package!! You should be getting it in the next few days. I'll let you wait to see what’s in it. It’s a surprise :)

This week has been pretty good. Elder Williams and I are really trying hard to set a good example for the other missionaries in the district. We found some new investigators this week and had some good lessons with the investigators that we do have. I think that the district is definitely improving in a lot of areas, and as we strive to fix the things that we aren’t doing well I know that we will see more success with our goals. The North Elders hit their baptismal goal of 2. So that's a plus :).  The Zone Leaders and I talked a lot on Saturday about how I can better help the District keep the commitments they've been given and while we talked I received a lot of great insights and raised my vision. I know that things will be looking up for February and March.

I went on exchanges this Saturday with Elder Hardin in my area. We had a good talk about where he is at right now and I can see that he's grown so much as a missionary, even in just these 2 transfers with him. I think he's a great Elder and has good desires, and he's become a really good friend of mine. He actually wants to live with us when we get back home haha. Can he mom?! Since he and I are both leaving the same time we talked a little bit about how we are going to finish strong. I think it helped both of us out a lot. I thought a lot about the 4th missionary goals that we have and I committed us both to follow through with those goals the best we can until that fateful day in June :(.

Our investigators are doing well.

Gustavo and Gus are still progressing and coming to church. We just need to get them reading! We had to change their date to the 17th of February because we have had such a hard time meeting with them. Gustavo is really busy with work and we can only meet 1 or 2 times a week. We have plans to help them to read and be prepared by their new date though.

Abraham and Ary are some new investigators that we are working with who were a referral from the McAllen ZLs. They are really prepared and have sincere desires to learn and grow. Except they gave us a little scare this Sunday haha. Sunday morning we called them to remind them about church and Ary answered the phone and told us that she and Abraham had been talking and they had some "concerns" and they would like to talk with us. Haha I was like,"No...... not again!" But anyway, we set up a time to come over that day, they didn’t end up coming to church and we went the appointment. They had some little questions about tithing, the temple, and tattoos and little things like that. Elder Williams and I both felt prompted to talk about the Spirit and how he confirms things to us. We explained that God doesn’t just give us all the answers at once, but that he gives them "line upon line". After they understood that the Spirit was felt and they realized that they still wanted to continue to learn. I'm so grateful for the Spirit and I know that when we follow it we are blessed.

We picked Mario back up as a new investigator. His health is still pretty sucky... but he still wants to be baptized. We'll see what happens.  We dropped Rosie.

So the work is progressing well here in Edinburg! Still now news of transfers so I don’t know if I'll be leaving this beautiful place or not but I guess we'll see. Thanks for your prayers and I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU!!!

-Elder Jordan Stewart

PS I got a letter from my Recent Convert in Donna Hno Rodriguez and he's doing amazing! He's been to the temple to do baptisms and he's preparing to get the Melchezekek Priesthood! I love that man. It warmed my heart to read that letter.