Letter 85

February 25, 2013

Hey Howdy Hey!

Yeah I heard through the grapevine that they were opening up a lot more missions! The Lord is definitely hastening his work. I'm so blessed to be a part of it. I absolutely love it more than anything that I've done in my life and I will be forever grateful to my Heavenly Father for the lessons I've learned here in South Texas. And gosh dangit mom quit reminding me of how little time I have left! hahaha You're right though, I need to cherish each moment and work hard.

At the end of this week Elder Hobbs and I are a little frustrated that our investigators didn’t come to church. Michael, the 10 year old part member less active we are teaching, couldn’t come for some reason or another. His dad was sick this week so maybe that’s why. But yes mom everyone in his family are members except him. We also found 4 other investigators this week that were committed to come didn’t come either. Its a small family that are going through a rough time. Elder Hobbs and I are going to go by this week to really make sure they have desires to progress... other than that family we didn’t find anyone this week. We have some really awesome things set up for this week with some Part Member Families and Fomer Invesites, but we'll have to wait and see what happens.

Sometimes its frustrating being a missionary and having to deal with others agency but like it says in PMG pg 10 that as long as we are doing the very best we can and helping our investigators realize what they are doing by not keeping commitments we can trust God is pleased with our efforts. Elder Hobbs and I talked a lot this morning about what we can do to help our investigators. I appreciated the email our APs sent today about URGENCY. I think that’s exactly the attitude our district needs right now.

The Brownsville Zone consists of 3 districts mom - with 3 to 4 companionships in each. There are 3 buildings that the Church has here in the Brownsville area and my district just goes to one. The other 2 districts occupy the other 2 chapels. Esta bien? Weno.

I have lots of plans for the district this week. I’m going to have a comp study with each companionship of Sisters and I'll be going on an exchange with the Elders in Cameron Park. Really, everyone in the district just needs a little faith boosting and training on how we can do better, because right now we aren’t living up to our potential. I know the Lord will bless us as we try our best, but I don’t believe that the district is doing all that it can and using ALL of the tools we've been given. So that’s what I'll be focusing a lot on this week.

Funny story for ya'll. We were talking with our new Ward Mission Leader in Spanish Ward and he has some really great desires to help the missionary work here in Brownsville. I'm so excited to work with him. He and his wife offered to do anything in their power to help and it just made my day to see members so committed to the gospel. He shared with us his conversion and reactivation story and I can tell the fire that he has in him will help us missionaries a lot down here. The funny part of the story is when his daughter from Laredo stopped by with her husband. Elder Hobbs and I stood up when they walked in (just like Sister Trayner taught us) and we went to shake the daughter's hand. She took Elder Hobbs by the hand and then proceeded to grab him by the shoulder and lay a little kiss on his cheek, as Mexicans do hahaha! His face was SO red the whole time and our mission leader's wife was laughing and apologizing quietly haha while I was trying not to bust out laughing. Elder Hobbs was pretty embarrassed. Unfortunately the table was in my way and I didn’t get a kiss :( hahaha.

I just want to close and tell you all how much I love you all. I know this church is true. It absolutely has to be true. Yesterday Elder Hobbs and I talked with an old man that had "researched" things about the church for years. He didn’t want to fight with us but he did bring up some issues he had with past leaders of the church and a few points of doctrine. He had obviously gotten into a little "anti" material and assumed the things he read were correct. I asked him if he had ever prayed and asked God if any of the things he was denying were true. He said that he had not. He let the "wisdom of the world" blind him from the simple and beautiful wisdom of our Father in Heaven, the source of all truth. I am grateful for the testimony given me by the power of the Holy Ghost to know these things I have been taught are true. I know it without a doubt. It is the foundation of my life and because I know it comes from God Himself, no one else’s opinion matters. May we all seek that knowledge from our Father so we may stand strong against those that would destroy our peace.

I love you all. Have a great week!

-Elder Jordan Stewart