Letter 89

April 2, 2013

Happy Late Easter!

Man I love being a missionary more than ANYTHING in the whole World. I feel like my good bud Elder Brown. He really says it best when he talks about his mission and I'm so happy to have him as a best bud. He's a great example to me. I would love to have his email address to get a chance to write him now that I can write my friends. I sent Elder Doxey an email but he's being a little bum and hasn’t written me back! I also sent him a package with the long awaited "Brotherhood of the Traveling Tie" tie in there.... so I hope it gets through the Brazilian post system ok. I forgot to put pictures of Jesus all over it so it’s going to be risky :/

I did indeed get your Easter Package. It was cute as a button just like all of your other packages mom. haha I've come to think that the reason you send me packages is just to try new ideas to be cute. I'm really excited to try those Trix Treats though... they look good. And thank you for explaining to me what a Kazookie is I would like to try that too:) But fyi chocolate definitely melts in the Texas heat. It might still be winter in Utah but here in Texas is different. The 4 seasons here are: Almost Summer, Summer, More Summer, and Christmas hahaha.

I forgot to tell you that I was Elder Merrill's District Leader! haha oops. I totally made the connection when we met because I remembered that you or Mark had mentioned something about that to me in a letter. He's a great missionary and is very dedicated to the work. I never was able to go on an exchange with him but Elder Hobbs tells me that he talks to EVERYONE he sees. But he was just transferred up to Beeville in the very tippy top of the mission! So.. I probably wont ever see him again :(

I'm so happy to hear that Krista got married! I'm really excited for her and hope you send her my best wishes. Man, everyone and their dog is either getting married or going on missions! Utah is going to be so different when I come home. That’s cool that I will be able to go to Shayla's reception. I still can't believe that she is getting married! haha She told me that she was dating someone in her last letter but that no wedding bells were in the air. And I even said if she was still single when I got home I would take her out on a date. I guess she'd rather get married than suffer through a date with Elder Stewart hahaha.... :( jk Congrats Shayla! Love ya!

This week our mission was able to hit the coveted 100 baptisms in a month, which has been our goal for almost a year now. This was something that we were doing quite regularly when I first entered the mission but ever since the start of 2012 we have been struggling with it. I believe it's because as missionaries we went through the "Pride Cycle" and now that we have been sufficiently humbled we are willing to work harder to reach our goals. We have a goal of 1200 baptisms in 2013 and even though I won’t be here to see us reach it I'm really excited for our mission. So... the focus that I have right now for myself and my missionaries is URGENCY! This last week of March our mission was only two baptisms away from hitting our goal and so the heat was on to find two miracle baptisms in the Zones. The Ap's called our Zone Leaders and the Zone Leaders called us District Leaders and we all put the pressure on our missionaries to try to find those two miracles. And WE DID IT! Two amazing children of God were able to go down into the waters of baptism at the last minute and we reached our goal. It was a testimony to me that URGENCY is the Spirit of this Work. There is a great talk by Elder Holland that talks about this being an Apostalic Work and that we need to have the urgency to call down miracles. That’s my focus for my district. The HEAT IT ON! Sorry... I just get pumped talking about it.

The Family is doing fine. We weren’t able to meet with them last week and they couldn’t come to church because they went out of town over the weekend. But we saw them last night and invited them to the activities at the church tonight. I'll keep you updated.

Well I was going to email some recent converts really quick so I'll talk to you next week! Listen to the Prophets and Apostles this week!

-Elder Jordan Stewart