Dear lovely Family and friends

The good news is I took notes on things I needed to write about so It should be a better letter this week. first off

Mom I just want to thank you so much for all the time you spend sending me all these stories and fotos of people on facebook and who is going on a mission and to where no ones mom does that for sure you are the best. Not gonna lie that foto of jordan and tyson making a movie makes me trunky but I´ll be there soon enough.

We had another strong week. I have never returned to the house as tired as I have this week. With our area so huge it is so extremely difficult to get to every investigator we have and we spend hours walking from place to place. I wish I had something to count the miles that we walk because it would amaze you. My kid is awesome and has yet to complain. The thing is we have so many that we are working with that are really good investigators that we have to organize our time so that we can be in the different zones of our area to visit them all around the same time but the problem is we have somedays that we have to be in an area at the last hour of the day and so we cross our entire area to get there and have to go all the way home. But we work like dogs and still had a really good number of lessons with all the walking we had to do as well.

Anyway lets go through the week shall we. First off we found a super amazing young adult called Charaline and we had an amazing first lesson with her about the restouracion. The thing is she speaks completely and utterly in only portugues because yes she is brazilian and also talks a billion miles an hour but God blesses us and I was able to understand almost everything and share with her our message. My poor son had lots of troubles with the portugues but he too recognized that she felt the spirit. As we shared the first vision her eyes watered and tears fell. I dont think she even understood why but we sure did. She is married and we hope to meet her spouse soon. Brazilians are way nicer... Ben and Matt have it easy.. jk jk hahah

This week me and my comp had to step in and play with the kid in nursery that consisted of him destroying everything and calling us muchachos(boys) it was funny

I wanted to tell you about the first day I brought Elder Diotaiuti to Rivera on his first real full day on a mission. so we go to a park. Well it is the dividing plaza between Uruguay and Brazil and we always go there to eat after district meeting and of course on that day it was colder and for some reason there was a drunk sleeping in the middle of the grass under a tree and when he saw us pass by he stumbled up and ran up to us. (it was a group of 4 of us) and he began to tell us how we werent better than him and how what did we ever do for anyone. He was completely drunk. I´m thinking this never happens its like the drunk knew it was him and this other kids first day. Anyway then out of drunken rage to show us he was so poor he tore his jacket off to show us he did not have a shirt underneath. The sad part was he destroyed his zipper and we all thought to ourselves he is going to be cold later. poor guy. anyway he did not do much after that he would come and say a little more when we were eating but nothing more. the funny thing is that never happens.

We have been having amazing experiences together for sure and me and my companion get along super well he is a stud.

On a more spiritual note I recieved a piece of in-depth revalacion the other week. We watched a video showing the atonement of the savior. I thought [to myself] Christ bled from every pore yet it never talks about the apostles or the soldiers or judas who betrays him with a kiss noticing even a hint of blood or the smell on his cothes or beard or hair. I wept as I envisioned the savior washing his blood that he shed for us, FOR ME cleaning himeslf before being taken to die. Where did he find the strength to clean himself off after all he had suffered, I realized it talks about him being only a stone throw away from peter james and john yet they slept The saviour struggled in silence every pain I have screamed out loud when I felt. I cannot fathom what the saviour did for me and grateful that God opened my eyes just a little bit more.

I plan to think of the saviour more during the Easter holiday there is too much to be grateful for. I love my saviour and I am grateful for the testimony I have that I know he Lives and that he Died and bled for me that I can have the hope of returning to live with our father in heaven. He lives! ask God

Elder Stewart-Chester

He loves his "son"

Well this email is going to be all sorts of spread out because I want to send all these pictures. 

Where do you begin on a week such as this?

Well my son... 

His name is Elder  Diotaiuti

and I know what your thinking...no he is not Tongan.  His father is Italian, but he is very American.  He is from West Jordan Utah. Can I just say that He is one of the best companions I have ever had. I have never been so exited to work as I am now. My Son is full of faith and a desire to work and I love it!! WE have already begun to see miracles in our area and we know more are coming. The lord has blessed me with a son who will far surpass anything I do here and I am so grateful to be his trainer. Get this we are so similar as well.  He dominates in futbol we played today and we killed it. We look somewhat similar and well he is going to become one of my best friends I can already tell. Our area is huge now so huge and it just fills us both full of exitement to know that there are people prepared in our area. 

Here i will write more dont worry.

Well anyway so I spent all wednesday down in Montevideo picking up my son and then when we had had a lot of capacitations from presidente and the assistants and hermana Heaton we took off to the temple to go and pick up my son he was standing in a line with his back facing me with all the other people in his group.   The tradition is the trainers go behind and sing called to serve and then after the first verse they turn around. Those are the pictures you see. 

We later ate talked a lot then went to the gaint terminal where we found out that we did not leave until 6 that night so we went and put his bags in a bag carrying place and then went and contacted for a lot of hours. We had some really good contacts aswell. Elder Diotaiuti does extremely well in spanish he understands a heck of a lot more than I did when I got here and he has already given out his first baptism date to this super prepared lady we found. The lord is already blessing us in our weakness and we had the most number of investigators i have ever had in church. WE are working super hard and I love it. 

I dont want to write too much today becuase I need to leave. But I am just super happy everyone I cannot believe how great it is to be on a mission. I love it how blessed I am. Mom I love you you know that I just felt impressed to write to you about that. I know you already know it I have just wanted to share with you that god will bless us even faster we need those blessings so just remeber to love the journey pay and then trust. I love you so much you know you taught me everything i know. Keep loving the lord

What else not much I have much to say but mostly my son is the best and will be one heck of a missionary his dad is from Italy so me and his we dominate in Futbol. 

Oh I am not DL just training. Im grateful because with ewverything there is to do in this area being so big it would be hard with having to do divisions and everything else aswell. 

I love you all Trust in the lord with all thine heart Enjoy my pictures.

A side note from Brady's mum about Tithing

Side note from Brady's mom!  I received a nice reminder from Brady about tithing after I sent him this:  

""WEll, Dad is still working like crazy. He has yet to get a deal to drop but when they do it will be like rain.....in one month...we dont' know what we'll do, get out of debt first...pay tithing first then debt then botox!!:)  ha ha"

I was correcting myself!  Tithing always comes 1st! I added the underline and bold for emphasis.  I can see where he thought I might have said get out of debt first, but then I said tithing 1st.  I love my valiant son!!! Well anyway a good reminder of a great talk! 

 Talk from elder:  joe j Christensen 

“I remember vividly an experience I had near the end of my mission. …

“At that time I was working in the mission home with the president of the Mexico and Central America Mission. He called my companion and me into his office one day and told us that he was sending us to Oaxaca. He handed us a list of the names of all the people who had joined the Church during the brief time missionaries had served there; they had been withdrawn some months previously. Our assignment was to look up everyone on the list, see how they were getting along, and, if possible, arrange for a sacrament meeting so that the members could meet together and partake of the sacrament. Then we were to bring back a report.

“We made the overnight trip on the little narrow railway, arriving very early the next morning. As soon as we got off the train, we began tracking down addresses.

“The first place we went to was a street lined with long adobe walls with doorways in them. When we found the address we were looking for and walked through the doorway, we found a whole group of homes inside. Tucked back in one corner was the home of the woman we were seeking. She lived there with her eight-year-old son and infant daughter.

“Moments later she returned, carrying a small clay jar. She reached into the jar and pulled out some pesos and centavos (Mexican money). She told us that her family had saved ten percent of what they had earned. Most of that tithing had come from her son, who worked at the plaza in the center of the city, shining shoes. When he returned each day, he immediately put his tithing into the little jar so that the money could be turned in to the missionaries whenever they returned.

“I can remember my feelings as that woman handed me the money. She was standing there in threadbare clothes and no shoes, and her children were in the same circumstances. I knew that there were things she would have loved to buy her children. I knew that there were many things that they desperately needed money for.

“At first I wanted to give the money back to her and to encourage her to spend it where it was most needed. But then I realized that that was not my right. She and her son had saved that money carefully, knowing that it belonged to the Lord and wanting Him to have it. I realized, too, that they would be blessed for it.

“I learned a great lesson that day about the importance of paying tithing and the blessings it can bring. I also learned a lesson about faith. That little boy and his mother had not known if missionaries would ever return to their home, but they were committed to the gospel principles, and they had faith that, if they were obedient, the Lord would bless them” (quoted by Kellene Ricks, in “Friend to Friend,” Friend, Jan. 1991, 6).

It is always still a good reminder so thank you!

Continued.....

Dad, Christina and Tanner I only have one foto of tanner that I show to everyone I need pictures of you both aswell. I miss you and am jealous of the snow. 

Dad what exactly do you do in dealer socket what does the company of dealer socket actually do? 

Mom, I have been thinking about you a lot this last week and I read a talk that was perfect for you called Of REgrets &Resolutions by Elder Uchdorf, It talks as you will see about being happy now and letting ourselves be happy we should never think to ourselves Finally when money isnt tight then we can settle down and things will be happy. Other trials will come and we will say wait until we get over that moutain than we can be happy. Learn to Love the Journey look for the pieces of Gold mom in every day. Life is Wonderful. I have been thinking about what you have been telling me about tithing and frankly It wasnt something I liked. Like it says in D&C we recieve blessings only in acordance to our obedience to the laws of God if we have troubles financially and we are not immediately paying our tithing how can we expect the help we need finacially. God Cannot bless us unless we obey what he asks of us. I know that you would do it as fast as you could if you felt the ability to do so but just remember all the wastes we have in our lives all the things that we claim have importance and take away from the little we have to buy. I am here in south america with people that often have so very little we could live comfortably with so much less. I love you so much We have been blessed so very much never forget to give god what is his. I love the law of tithing it is perfect. God Always blesses us but only when we obey.    

What can I say I know this church is true I love my Saviour He never did anything for himself he always was doing things for others. I love you all I cannot believe how fast flies how my baby brother is 1 and I miss all of you tons and tons. Lets all be happy now huh:) even through the dark days. I love the people here They have helped change my life forever. I hope to say at the end of my mission like Elder holland says "my mission was everything for me"

I love you all be safe read Preach my Gospel chapter 4 about the holy ghost could be my favourite things I have read here in the mission. 

Elder Stewart-Chester

ps. Next weeek I´ll send fotos

I'm going to be a DAD!!

Yes it's true I almost ran around the neighborhood screaming that I was a father but then I realized that people would think that I had broken the law of chastity... WE could not have that now could we:) hahah 

But It´s true tonight at 12:30 I will be getting on a bus to go down to montevideo to go and find me my child. Not sure who it is yet but I already love the guy. I am super stoked. Every missionary if you ask him will tell you the same thing they do not want leadership posotions or nothing like that all they want is to train. (They call trainers dads for those of you who don't know:) I am very blessed by the lord. Also both of the other elders that were on the side of our area have both left and so with my kid we have the entire area to cover and work in until they open it again. Basically we are a little bit outside of the city and so our area now is bigger than the entire city of Rivera..... yay I have a lot of ground to cover I am going to talk to president tomorrow about bikes.. Its just too big. But i like it like that new people and now I can get to know all the members better and we are just going to work so hard. 

I have a couple of highlights from the week one is we knocked the house of an old guy and he went off and told us he was going to sick his dog on us if we ever went by his house again. He hated America Told us how we should be teaching obama about Christ because  he killed Hugo Chavez etc.. etc... I just tried to be so kind and so loving to pierce his heart but wow the thing was a rock. Wont be going there again. 

Something else I saw the other day was a horse eating trash... I know right. Well our baptisms fell through there is a lot of work to do here we are teaching a ton of people and the girls we are teaching just need to find out when they can be baptised now. We have a bunch of people in our area now who are reading and I love it. Honestly there is such a difference you can see in a person when they are reading what we leave and more and more every day. I love it. It shows me the need that we all have to read every day. We have had people come out of the woodworks and I am bummed that Elder Nilsson wont be able to teach more here but he is still in my same zone so they´ll come to the baptisms. I Love it here I am so happy to stay in an area longer than 3 months I should be here for like 6 months now and it makes me happy. 

Another week bites the dust. I cannot believe how fast the time is going there is just too much to do!!! 

We decided to go to the cyber early today so that we could go to the zoo and then chillax in our house and write some letters.

I hope I can convey all the things I would like to in this letter it´s tough when you have so little time and my mind races forgive me of my weakness. 

Well first off I petted a carpinchu ( i think it is called a capabura in english) They are super cool they have crazy fur. hopefully i will take a picture of one today. They eat them here it is suppose to be a really healthy thing to eat. I hope to try it at one piont while I am here.

The work is going a lot better here in my area even with all the time we spent this week in zone conference and doing more baptismal interviews we still had the most lessons becuase we just worked really hard. And it is really paying off. WE should have two baptisms  next sundayafter church!!!! should be awesome!! they are both two teenage girls but an awesome thing happened this last week. OUr zone conference was all about the holy ghost how to teach with the holy ghost how to find by the holy ghost and it was amazing I felt the spirit extremely strong often. It was powerful we were taught to testify and explain more often how it feels to feel the spirit after you get your answer. we had taught these girls a number of times how to get an answer but we had not focussed on how it would feel so we had a lesson like that and then the next lesson we had with them Daniela the youngest she is 12 told us how she had prayed asking really wanting to know if the Book of Mormon was true and then she looked up and she felt something and a tear fell and then she began to cry and did not know why and could not stop.... WE were over the moon God touches the humble heart that is why we need to be more like children. So ya now her best friends need answers and i think this experience of Daniela will help Lelia also recieve her answer. If only more people would just read and ask wanting to know with a sincere heart Everyone would know. 

My 2nd Reunión de Distrito went a lot better than the first I need to learn better how to manage the time but the spirit was there I have begun to realize more and more my role and how I need to bring the spirit so that we all leave edified. and uplifted. Tomorrow I will have my last reunión de distrito and I am hoping to bring the spirit super strong. I hope it goes well. I have lots of plans for my next reunions after to if the lord deems me worthy. I just try and serve thats all I can do. 

I did two more baptismal interviews that went really well two more prepared people my district is killing it. we get lots of praise from the zls hahah. 

The one thing you could send me mom more than anything else I miss ranch dressing send me packets por favor. lots...Oh and you can get ramin noodles here it is what I live off of so you dont need to mail them. 

The last thing was I watched that climbing mountains vid and I felt the spirit so strong. The church is so true I think of the quote that you sent me mom when Frodo asks sam "what are we holding on to?" or in other words ( what are we doing here what are we fighting for its so hard) and then sam says" that theres still some good in this world mr Frodo and its worth fighting for" that is what we should do every day hold onto the good things I love you all be safe love the lorde and help others on there journy. the best way to feel better yourself is by lifting someone else up.

I love you 

Elder S-C

Dec 25: another missed letter "mas"

Well here are some fotos of our house aswell. our dirty dirty house. I have cleaned a ton and it looks better my comp is a slob.

 

 

I also went on a very long divissions with Elder Montes once again for almost 2 days and it was really product I really enjoy working with him becuase he is more obedient and we feel the spirit more. We actually found a reference and he turned out to be a super awesome kid who has been going to another ward for like 2 months and he bought a suite to go to church. It was really good and it was good to see there area really improve this last week they had a lot more going on. My area suffered however but hey we need to work harder to find those that are waiting for us.

 

 

 

 

Wow we also had zone conference and it was super great about the saviour and becoming a true deciple of christ. I have made the dission that what the lord whats of me this christmas is to think of others and to serve as he would washing the feet of those around me. I catch myself often and say what would jesus do and then I change my thought process and serve.

Jan 28 late addition: Well lets see how this goes

old mail dated:  January 28, 2013
thought that I had put this on but I just realized that I did not! 

Well Bad news I forgot my planner and so I do not have the notes on what I did this past week forgive me if my letter does not sufice. I am sendeing a bunch of pictures so you better all love me for that in the least.

Lets explain some pictures shall we...Well lets start with the Lake that you see in the picture with me and my comp that is part of our area we decided to visit a little touristy town that is part of our area but is a bus ride away and there are no active members there just 1 or 2 inactives. so we went to go check it out to see of we should begin to work there. this is us stopping to eat the pack lunches we made. its beautiful and the cool thing is they actually had pine trees here so we were in heaven with all the smells of the moutains. It was not too good for the work lots of abandoned houses and women in baithing suites I dont think we will go back anytime soon.

 

 

 

today as you will see we went with a buch of other elderes and sisters to to lake park this and took some pictures threw a frisbee and so forth I also bought knew shoes and gave my old pair who had been with me through many a soccer game and many adventures a propper burial as you will see from the photos.

 

 

 

The picture the Elder in the shower is a new idea from other elder that washing your cloths with you in the shower is more effecient. Washing clothes by hand does take a long time but builds character right? I have been doing it now for a while so I am really use to it.

 

 Bracelets from home....The grey is for Fletcher who has type I diabetes....the green/blue is for our dear friend and Brady's Priest Quorum advisor who passed away from Cancer September 2011.  It says "Hope for Hegewald!"

 Brady's watch tan:)  Always has to wear sunscreen!

Elder Minter..Coca Cola is everywhere:)

 

anyway this wierd picture of the house with snow white and the 7 dwarves os on the small town Lagos del Norte aswell.

 

This week was a good one it went by crazy fast I love my companion such a good guy we get along really well. (Woth travelong out to that small town and everywhere else we went ot just shot by.)  I have no idea what that was mean to say....We have an investigator I do not know If I told you about her name is Juanita and she is the wonderful mother of a recent convert from monetivdeo who came back to visit her mom and brought her to church. Well we have been teaching her now and it is going very well. She did not go to church last week but she is good.  She needs to change some habbits but we´ll get there. WE actually cooked Tacos in her house Saturday night and it was super fun and super yummy they really liked them which was good. We are working with her to be baptised next month should be good.

Oh something I forgot to mention is I got Moms package and also from Grandma and Grandad thank you so much I need all those things and yes I need to write more letters i´m on it.

All I can say is I love you I love you all. Tate I may have promised your hand in marriage but dont worry he is a goodlooking stud who walks to church by himself every week the only member of his famoly lives with his older siblings and does everything for himself. 15 years old His name is sebastian such a worthy awesome guy. It os crazy to me the opposition this kid faces and how great of a kid he really is. REmeber him when thigs are tough. remeber that every one of out family atleast have another memeber of it to help on the path.

I love you all so so much I pray for you all I will write letters

I am keeping a great journal

I love you all

Elder Steawrt-Chester

ps. Elder Brigham Jenkins you stud see you in a year