Week 17, Flash Back to MTC in the Park

Hello Family!

Here’s a couple of pictures the MTC president’s wife printed out.  Somebody would always take a camera to the park, and she would print out the pictures.  The really, really good pictures got framed.  These two both are Elder Semenyuk and I.  he’s the Russin park comp. that I had once.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned him in an email. 

This is us contacting an Egyptian woman who spoke English!  My companion spoke Russian and Ukrainian, so this was as good as it was gonna get.   We caught her because she was taking a selfie, and we offered to take it for her to make life easier. Afterwards, I told her about why we were missionaries and what we do.  And, she took the Book of Mormon and promised to read!  She also gave us her number so we could put her in contact with the missionaries in Egypt – bummer, HUGE bummer that I’m pretty sure there aren’t any.

In one of the pictures there’s a lady in blue looking at us.  I don’t know what happened with the Egyptian, nor the lady, but I do know this – 1) People saw us doing missionary work 2) We were giving a good impression of the church – we didn’t bother anything or anyone.  Sometimes that’s all we hope for, that we give good impressions to both those we contact and those randomly looking.

Same thing at home.  People can just see you living the gospel and know that it is good.  One of my goals is to NEVER do anything that might hurt other missionaries’ work here.  Always be a good example, and nothing but good will happen.

Love,

Elder Stew

Proselyting in the park

Week 17, Thanksgiving Pictures

Phase 10

Dinner at the home of Brother and Sister Larsen

Week 17, Dec 1

I am proud to announce my new culinary creation. It doesn´t have a name yet. But you lightly fry potatoes with salt, pepper, onion powder and cinnamon (yeah, I was just messing around). And then you fry two eggs so the yolks are nice and gooey. And then you cook a really, REALLY good sausage (not allowed to be pre-cooked) and you eat it all together, and also raspberry jam toast and orange juice. I´ve gotten it down to a science, so that I can cook all that in 15 minutes and eat it in another 15. Breakfast is a good time in Telde. 

I had another intercambio with Elder Sarango this week (The Zone Leader - He´s companions with the District Leader) He´s from Ecuador. We´ll just say that you learn more Spanish in 24 hours living with a native than 6 months with a book. It was so awesome! Unlike last time, we were totally able to communicate. We gave a blessing to an older nonmember man headed for surgery this week. That makes the fourth health blessing I´ve given while being here - it feels good to be able to use the priesthood to bless the lives of others. One thing we always say when we teach about the priesthood is that it´s only here for other people - you can´t put your hands on your own head and give you a blessing. I am so grateful to have had Dad around all the time to give me blessings - for AP tests, for school, for the Page life. I think I´m going to ask my trainer for a comfort blessing when he leaves. 

We have an investigator named Fran. He is very, very invested in getting an answer for himself, and he told me that he would be willing to change his life when that answer came. What made him particularly interesting this week was that we had a lesson with the Stake president. We taught about the plan of salvation - what Christ did for us, how families can be together forever, that we are children of God - all the important stuff (lightly treading over the Fall - it is definitely easy to teach TOO much about the Fall, haha.) And then Presidente Déniz bore a sweet testimony about this church and this plan, and Fran closed with a prayer. We´ve been working on getting the investigators on their knees for the prayers - and the Spirit was so strong - I KNOW that he was affected somehow. He´ll get his answer. That lesson single-handedly pumped me up for the next week! Missionary life is so rewarding and fulfilling - it makes me happier than pretty much everything. 

We just finished up with week five of this transfer. We set a goal at the beginning of the week that to work harder than we ever had to make our goal of 50 people at church. We worked very, very hard. And didn´t make the goal. To our credit, before we got here the asistencia never broke 40 - And it´s broken forty every week now, save one. But it reminded me of something that President Lovell liked to say - that you set goals so that you have to reach and stretch and work and work more, so that the goal is almost just out of reach. It´s definitely the hardest way to set goals - because you set it with faith, with the intention to get it, but knowing it will be very difficult, and then when it doesn´t happen you can get down on yourself and do worse. But when you set the goal right, with faith and an attitude that whatever happens, you worked your hardest, and you did your best and the Lord was on your side -  then setting goals becomes rewarding, and you relish the opportunity to set goals again. There´s the spiritual thought! Maren told me the Plan says she´ll get a 33 on the ACT. And she´ll aim higher! Stretch as high as you possibly can and God will help finish it off. Or your goal won´t happen but you know you worked super duper hard. 

To the kids - How goes school?

To Mom - Nope, didn´t get any thanksgiving pictures.

Much love from the eternal spring (seriously, it either shines or just barely rains - what kind of paradise is this?).

Elder Stew.

Week 16 pictures

Doctor Mission President

Mickey Mouse and Subway

Coin Football

Week 16, Nov 24

Crossing the Seas

Well this transfer is moving quickly - Mostly due to three days we spent in a tri-panionship and two more days spent in Tenerife (the other island. We´re back now). You asked what transfers would be like - Well we´re starting week 5. Which means in about two weeks my companion will probably leave. Usually people stay in the islands for four transfers, and ususally after training either the trainer or the trainee leave - both of which will occur this upcoming transfer. So we´re thinking he´s going back to the peninsula and I´ll stay here to area-train somewhere. Our district leader is also up to leave, along with three other missionaries on this island. So things will be getting a little shake-up (we think - It´s still two weeks out.) 

Crossing the Seas

We´re planning a baptism for Monday the 8th, a 15-year old kid named Ezikiel. (from last letter). So more on that, obviously, when Monday the 8th comes. 

This week we´re headed to the Senior Couple´s home for Thanksgiving MedioDia. It won´t be like home... But this lady is a really, really good cook. And she´s promised pie and turkey. We should survive. 

The other sisters in the ward are great cooks too. Every week we have at least three home-cooked Spanish meals, two during a MedioDia and one later at night, served by Hermana Doli, Hermana Leon, and Mercedes (husband of William, the guy we baptized). 

Hermana Leon (more on her husband later) has six kids in a very small house and reminds me of Mom. In approximately 30 seconds she can make enough food to feed a small army.  But she doesn´t stop there - all of the food she makes is delicious and INCREDIBLY dense and in four bites you´re full but she demands that you eat seconds and have an extra piece of bread. It´s pretty stressful. Walking afterwords is difficult. We tried to ask what the word for "waddle" was (because that was the only way we could walk) and they told us "penguinar". Literally "to penguin". I´m not sure if it´s real. 

Hermano Leon teaches High Priests and loves to go out with the missionaries. That is not a good combination. Investigators need very simple explanations of things. We took Hermano Leon and his son, Danny, to teach Ezikiel and his dad, Cristo about tithing. My companion said, "Hermano [Leon], in simple terms, what for you is the law of tithing?" 

"Thank you for reminding me to be simple. *Chuckles* For me, paying tithing is a privilege because of the many blessing I receive because of it. Basically the law of tithing is giving 10% of our increases to the church. It´s a law that´s been around forever - Abraham paid tithes to Melchizidek. That´s the same Melchizidek like the Melchizidek priestood - they used to call it the priesthood after the order of the Son of God, but in their language they used the actual name of God and so they changed it to avoid repeating his name too often." His son stopped him there to say, "Dad they said not profundo!" To which he ptotested, "But I was just scratching the surface!" 

So we have a ward punster who likes to make word jokes. He got me one day because I missed the placement of an accent. If you say "presbítero" it means priest. BUT. If  you say "presbiterio" you mean Presbyterian. He also got me because the Canarians don´t say "para" (means "for"). They say, "pa". So the dish "Paella" could mean either a delicious rice and seafood dish or the phrase, "For Her." Spanish is coming along. Dad, you´ll have to explain these other puns to the kids who don´t speak Spanish (maybe Charles will get them) - 

"Como se dice ´ojo´ en inglés?"

"(Eye)"

"HAHA (maniacal laughter)! HAY que tenerlos para ver!"

"Yo vine. El vino. Yo whiskey. HAHAHA!"

During Zone Conference this last week, we had President and his wife in the islands. President used to be a surgeon and so he liked to tell surgery stories/parables to teach. He told us that, as a surgeon, he asks questions regarding the accident/issue, and focuses on the needs of the patient. He told us that background information makes about 80% of his diagnosis. One time, asking questions led him to discover that what seemed like growing pains exacerbated by lots of dancing was actually a very rare, agressive, and deadly cancer. Had he not asked questions and been receptive to the Spirit, she might have died. He told us to to focus on the investigator´s story and what the Spirit prompts us to do - and then we can save them from spiritual death. (Metaphors don´t get much better than that, now do they?)

President the Surgeon

Until next week, 

Elder Stew.

Week 15, Nov 17

Tomorrow we have zone conference, so today we´re in the neighboring island of Tenerife. We took a three hour boat ride, and the canadian sister missionary got sick. So now we´re on a greener island with the whole zone - about 30ish missionaries. 

Stewart and his companion on their way to Zone Conference

We played soccer today for P-day, which was a great time. Afterwords, I was sitting in the goal letting some other guys practice, when President Jackson came up and said he would like to take a coupld penalty kicks (he spent the whole P-day calling us over and interviewing us on the sidelines, gauging our comfort and generally seeing what´s up.) So he shot - and I blocked it. And he shot - and I blocked it again. Everyone yelled that I should let him score (because President seemed like he would keep shooting until he beat me), and then he scored. He said, "Remember, Elder Maxfield, I can send you anywhere in the mission". So if I end up in Parla next transfer (known as the pits of the mission) everyone knows why. Haha. 

Stewart Plays Goalie

Mission President Shoots

So my last email got cut off - I was talking about our ward mission leader. He´s awesome. A picture should have uploaded with him and all the primary kids, because that´s his second calling. We went to go catch frogs at the ward BBQ, the Elders, the kids, and the Ward mission leader. He put a indian feather in his head and said, "How." He definitely makes the work go faster. 

So my Spanish was going quite well - and it is, I can understand everyone pretty much all the time. But sometimes I mess up. The other day, instead of saying "Can we close this meeting with a prayer (despedir)?" I said, "Can we wake us up with a prayer (despertar)?" So that was fun. Down here in the Canaries, people eat the "s" in most words (or the z or the c, when those letters make the "s" sound"). The other day in church, someone was talking about fishers of men. BUT. If you take out the "s" sound from the word fisher (pescador) you end up with sinner (pecador). So I spent a good two minutes wondering why Jesus was asking his apostles to be sinners. So the Spanish is coming along, poco a poco. Really I can see every day that the Lord blesses His missionaries with the gift of tongues. Sometimes I´ll not have much to say, and Elder Dyer will start looking for a scripture - and then I have to open my mouth to bear my testimony. And EVERY TIME it has been filled with vocabulary and the subjunctive and not perfect things but good enough for the Lord´s purposes. Wow.

We´re going to baptize somebody else coming up soon - Ezikiel is his name. He´s 15 and his dad is a menos activo who called wanting us to reactivate him. He was very back and forth and they missed church for nigh on 12 weeks. (They met him before I came) Until one week when either they ran out of excuses or just felt like coming. They showed up, only for the first hour. Then Ezikiel came to the ward BBQ. Then they came to church again, and Ezikiel stayed the whole time! And then he decided to go to seminary the next morning. And he hasn´t missed seminary since - even though it starts super early in the morning. And then one time, he came to English class and one of the English class attendees said, "I haven´t seen you here before. Are you a member of this church?" And he just said, "Sí." His testimony is super strong and this 15 year old kid taught me that if you want the blessings of God in your life you need to DO something. What a stud. 

We have another investigator named Juan - keeps the cleanest house I´ve ever seen and made us meatballs the other day. He´s a brother of a menos activo, and he loves church. Baptism - very probable.

That´s all I got today - I love you guys!

Elder Stew

Week 14, Nov 10

In terms of eternal spring - it's really weird. It's hard to judge time because it's still the same temperature it was back in August. All it does is rain occasionally and then go back to sunny all the time. We got soaked last night in a freak rainstorm - it was awesome.

Oh yeah, the cookies - my oven is gas powered without a pilot light - we light it with a lighter and you can see the actual fire, hence a not very even heat distribution. I'll work out the kinks.

I had my first D&C bash the other day. We got back in contact with someone who (maybe) had been excommunicated. He had LOTS of weird questions about worship on Sunday. We answered them all from the Bible (because Sunday worship is a primitive church thing) and he said the following - "I don't believe the Bible. It's wrong and was translated too many times. What does Joseph Smith say?" We were dumbfounded. Nobody EVER cares what Joseph Smith says. We tried to help him out, but it was nearly a lost cause. 

Our Ward Mission Leader's name is Carlos Castro. He's from Uruguay, and he does work. He is very intense during our correlation meetings. We told him about the experience with Jesus (the excommunicated guy [ironic, right?]) and he told us, "Don't waste your time with that guy. All he's good for is to get information about his family and see if they're interested." And then, two days later, Jesus came to church AND he brought a new investigator for us. 

So there's not very many members in this rama, which means that everyone has several callings - and the ward pianist alternates between three of the young women. (Emma and Squid, take note).  Carlos' other calling is in the primary, and it's hilarious to see the change that comes over him between High Priests and the Obra Misional and hanging out with the Primary kids. He kinda reminds me of Grandpa Frazier, except for he speaks Spanish and I very rarely see his un-serious side. 

Well there was going to be a lot more to this email, but I've just been kicked off. Suffice it to say that Telde's had a great week, that I'm healthy, that the potato is God's gift to missionaries, and that next chance I have I'll fill you in on the Rama BBQ because there are some pictures I uploaded related to that. 

Love, Elder Stew.