Even more Changes

Zot,

So I have nearly no time - sorry about that, I was working on sending pictures...and then it didn't happen but not tons to report this week.

So as you all know/remember some pretty big changes happened at the beginning of this week. Sr Hurst flew home Tuesday and I officially moved back up to St Denis again. Yep, that's right, I am going to be spending over half of my mission in this city - crazy right? Good thing I love the ward. It was really hard for me to say goodbye to St Paul. Not only was I growing to love the ward but I felt like I was just getting started at working on so many of the new possibilities and potentials that there are in that area. Above all I feel like I learned some really important life lessons in St Paul - I learned how to be happy. Even though the situation was tough, for one of the first times in my life I chose not to let the situation determine my overrall attitude and outlook. I decided that everyday was going to be a good day and that I was going to be happy and make happy memories. And you know it really worked. When I look back at my time in St Paul and just think of the happy moments I made or the things I took time to appreciate and I don't really think about some of the sadder lonely moments. So it feels sad to say goodbye to that "era" of my mission. But it might not be goodbye forever!

Now I am in St Denis again. With Sr Gardiner. And we are both Sister Training Leaders for the Island of Reunion and Maurice. Whoo hoo! We are NOT going to be taking care of the sector of St Paul. We are still just occupying our same old area. Sr Gardiner and I have a lot of hopes for our area right now. It feels like this is the right time and the right place for miracles. After all the moving around that has been done, Sr Gardiner and I are together - we are the most senior sisters on the island and we are in our original sector of St Denis. And we are ready to use faith to let the Lord work miracles through us. We have quite a few amis that have lots of potential and I know that great things are coming IF we will work hard enough for them.

This week was pretty crazy since we were running down to St Paul a couple of times to help show the elders around the area and clean up the apt. Saturday night there was a huge "festival" to celebrate Madagascar's independence day (because there are so many Malagasys who live here) that we went to to try to contact people. It was too loud to really talk but we were able to hand out flyers for English class and see a little bit of traditional Malagache culture which was cool. This week a general 70 Elder Hamilton, is coming to the island to participate in our district conference for the whole island. Sr Gardiner and I and Sr Isham will be doing a musical number for that. Sr Gardiner and I will also be teaching a bit at the zone conference with all the missionaries and our mission President Adams on Thursday. I'm a little nervous for that! But this week is going to go great. I will let you know about all the miracles!

Much Love,

Sr Stewart

Some Trauma

Jun 16

Alright folks,

This week was crazy so I'm just going to get right into it. First of all, this week was a little traumatic. So this week for the most part was a week much like the others. We still don't have any amis and unfortunately last week quite a few of our lessons fell through with less actives or recent converts. Here are the stories for the week...

One day this week we were porting (tracting) in a neighbor hood when all of a sudden I heard a noise like a champagne bottle being popped open and then we see this bird drop out of the sky onto the road. At first I thought some kid had shot at it with a beebee gun but in fact my companion had been watching and saw it run into the lamp post. At first we were all sad because we thought it had killed itself but then as we approached it, it began blinking and then hopped up on its legs. It was still clearly not well though because it was wobbling back and forth and probably had a little birdie concussion. So Sr Hurst and I are standing there debating if we should do anything - specifically like move it over to the grass instead of in the middle of the road. But I was afraid we would scare it more into hurting itself if we tried to move it with paper and just observed that we were in a pretty tranquil neighborhood and maybe it would be fine after a couple of hours of recouperation. It was just as I finished that remark that a car rolled around the corner. Sr Hurst and I looked at each other panicked because we were in the middle of the street standing over the bird. But we had no choice but to step to the side of the road as the car approached - we couldn't make the car stop and then drive on the wrong side of the road because of a fallen bird. Especially since he would probably fly away as the car approached. I figured at worst the car would roll above the bird and then we could go move him over - after all the car was really large and the wheels only made up a small surface area. Imagine to my horror as the car began to approach and the bird didn't move, didn't lift up it's wings and fly away. And then worst of all that small surface area of tire rolled right over the same spot that the bird occupied. And I watched it all. And I screamed. But it was too late. The rest of the afternoon was a little more solemn after that.

Recently, Sr Hurst and I have been having difficulty with men hitting on us and just bothering us in general. We needed to find a computer to use for emailing during the middle of the week so she could write to a mission counselor. So we went to the same place that we go on Monday. It's a little sketchy. It's a little shop that sells cigarrettes, drinks, chips and conveniently offers computer access. A typical little cyber store. Unfortunately the clients are usually rough men who start drinking much to early in the day. On this particular day there were a couple of these men sitting at the table watching horse races when we took our positions at computers near the table. We then passed the next hour being whispered at and brokenly spoken to in English. At one point, one of the men tapped on the window nearest us to motion that he wanted us to come out and talk to him. No way in the world. It was crazy. There were like 4 men all trying to engage us in conversation by yelling "Miss! Miss! Mademoiselle! Ello! Bonjour!" It was not the friendliest environment in the world but we got what we needed to done and then booked it out of here.

The worst story... So this saturday there was another missionary activity at the church. We have one once a month and the members come out for part of their day to do missionary work with us whether that be porting or contacting in the streets. We went out for the morning session and came back to close the activity when tragedy struck. There were two youth brothers who were messing around playing in the bathrooms and all of a sudden we heard one of them screaming and I began to make out his words as "He cut his finger! He cut his finger!" All the ward members ran into the hall and we stayed in the room but could tell something super serious had happened. We could hear the boy crying and yelling and I imagined that somehow he must have cut himself to the bone. My companion and another woman in the ward didn't dare go out in the hall because they were squeamish and might faint but I realized that we had a very small very basic first aid kit in our car. I asked the woman of the branch if they already had supplies like that in the church and she told us she didn't think so. I decided I could at least go get it and then offer it to whoever to see if it could help. When I went out in the hall it was even worse than I had thought. The 16 year old boy was laying on the ground, his head cradled by another brother in the church, while the boy clutched at his hand. There was a pool of blood about 4 diameters in size on the ground and it was evident why. On the boy's right hand, the fingernail and first knuckle of his index finger had been severed completely. I ran to get the first aid kit - offered it blindly to someone and then tried to calm his younger 14 year old brother who was nearly in hysterics. The two had been playing in the doors and the older brother had gotten his finger caught in the door jamb and it had been instantly and violently severed. We waited nearly half an hour for the ambulance to arrive and for the brothren to clear up the mess before we left. I learned I wasn't squeamish from blood but the amount of suffering that I had seen had made my heart sick. The boy had been in such anguish and it was hard not to leave feeling chocked and a little traumatized.

Ok So I'm sorry I only had awful stories this week but I have one really positive one to leave everyone with. This week little Ledivine told us that she wanted to give a gift to Heavenly Father because it was Father's day. She said for her gift she was going to pray a lot and recite a poem she had made for him. I thought that was the cutest thing in the world. I hope you all think about what gift you can give to your Heavenly Father.

Happy Belated Father's Day!

I'm out of time but everything is going alright - even if this week was filled with hard stuff

Love yall

Sr Stewart

Ups and Downs

Salut Zot!

So like the title says this week was full of ups and downs. I am going to try and keep the email a lot shorter and just focus on sending pictures. That's right, I'm taking a risk in this sketchy cyber cafe so if my camera gets a virus - no more pictures...But on a positive note a picture is worth a thousand words right - so this week I'll be speaking through pictures.

So the awesome thing about being on a new island in my new area is that the BEACH is part of our area! Which means we can go there during PDays! Sr Hurst and I decided to start exploring a little bit last week but it decided to rain heavily all day so today we want to go and check out the beach and pretend to be tourists for a day. Unfortunately the beginning of the week was a little rough, there were some companion worries but we talked to the senior couple on Tuesday and now President and others are going to help with some of the concerns. I don't want to share personal details of my companion but she's had a lot of intense stress since being on the mission and now I feel like she is getting the help she needs. So that made the rest of the week good because now it's not like she is all alone - or like I'm the only one aware of the problem and I'm all alone in trying to help solve it. So yeah, I'm so grateful for everyone on the mission and all the support we get. Our leaders out here really care about us, as missionaries, not just our numbers or if we are baptizing people. They are out here to help us and care for us and children of God, just like we are out here to do that for our amis and less actives. 

This week was filled with a lot of porting and contacting (no surprise) We were able to have rendez-vous with our two only amis. But unfortunately it made us realize that one of our amis isn't progressing and isn't keeping his commitments and doesn't have the desire to know if the church has been restored. Disapointing. So now we only have one ami but she can't get baptized because she is not yet 18 and her mother is against it. So that's a bummer. But that is pushing Sr Hurt and I to really step it up and do EVERYTHING we can to find new amis and find the people who are prepared. In fact the highlight of my week was when we placed 3 book of mormons in 1 day! That is huge! And I feel like we gave them to people who truly had potential. I just have this feeling that I know that soon we are going to find people who are prepared. The Lord just wants us to work our hardest so we can see blessings that come from faith and hard work. So this week we are focusing on contacting contacting contacting. 

Other than that the week was slower. Another highlight was when we had a district (aka island) wide relief society activity on Saturday and were able to see the other sister missionaries but even better than that was being able to see the women from St Denis again! It was really like seeing old friends after a long time and they told me that St Denis missed me just as much as I missed it. The women and members from that ward really are great so seeing them again was like all this love again.

No funny stories about less actives this week. I will take better note to note the funny one liners that come my way. The funniest one was from our one (and only) amie named Marion who is 17 and has been an investigator for almost a year. When I came in to church and sat next to her she told me. "Today you are skinny!" And I said "Oh really?" she replied "Yesterday you were fat! But today you are skinnier" - Proof I suppose that fasting works at least as a form of dieting ;) I love love love you all! I am so proud of my little bro! Crazy to see you in that cap and gown! I am proud of you and want everyone to keep doing the little but significant things that bring us closer to our Father in Heaven! Pray and read your scriptures!

GROS BISOUS!

Sr Stewart

pictures

4. We did a lesson on the armor of God. The game was to find household objects to represent the different pieces of armor. That's Hasina, she is one of the Rakoto kids in the first picture. I don't think I'll dress like this after my mission...
5. Sooooo many spiders. And they are soooo big. "Follow the spiders, why couldn't it be follow the butterflies?!"
6. We have the most beautiful sunsets. Soo beautiful especially with the pier. And we get to see it every day. Very spoiled.
7. I'm in love with the nature of St Paul. It's so beautiful and there is so much green space everywhere. This is me rejoicing in the beauty in a field.

Salut!

Salut!

Whoops! Well you all know I'm awful about birthdays so I'm wishing a great belated one to DAD! Aparently in France it is bad luck to wish someone happy birthday before the actual day. One of our amis told us it was their birthday the next day and of course I responded with an enthusiastic "Happy Birthday" only to be informed that I had now wished bad luck on the person by doing it before the actual day. My Bad. So I wanted to avoid that with you Dad, thus the late wishes. On the other hand Kylee I know yours is coming up really quick and I think you are young enough to escape bad luck so I'm going to say an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY! now so I can't forget :)

Not much happened this week. My best story comes from a lesson with a less active. We see around 10 less actives or new converts a week. It's a pretty big part of our work especially since we have nearly 0 amis. It's always our meeting with the less actives that have the funniest moments. This week we went and saw one of the older members who is in a retirement home named Sr Pastey - she is soo funny! Seriously such a hoot! Because she is always sawing the funniest things in just such a manner-of-fact way, you know the way older people sort of say it like it is. Anyway this week when we were chatting at the beginning of her lesson we asked her about her family and childhood. Then I saw some old pictures on her wall and asked her if that was her. They were these old black and white beauty shots probably taken in the 40s of her looking so young and sort of serious - like a movie star. When she responded that it was her and told us how old she was (only 17) I remarked (sort of jokingly) "Wow Sr Pastey, you looked so mature! I'm already 19 and I don't look that mature yet!" In response she said "Don't despair yet, there is still time and hope for you" Hahaha I laughed so hard to myself after the lesson. I'm glad Sr Pastey still holds out hope for me ;)

The other cool thing that happened this week is that I got to do exchanges with one of my favorite sisters on the island - Sr Gardiner! She recieved a call from President about a week or so ago informing her that our mission is now going to have Sister Training Leaders (aka basically like a District Leader just for sisters) and she was going to be the first! So congrats to her! The best thing about her calling/title is that now I get to see her even more than normal because she does exchanges with all the sisters! So we sort of felt like we were having a little sleepover since she came down to St Paul for the night and slept over and then the next day I went to St Denis for half the day to be with Sr Isham. It was pretty great - although it was a little bittersweet being in St Denis again with my old companion. It brought back a lot of nostalgia because even though I LOVE St Paul and my new area, being back made me miss the way things were still. I still am a struggler with change on the inside of my heart.

Sr Hurst passed her year mark! Which is a huge thing for Sisters because that means she only has 6 months left! In missionary terms it's like you're a sitting duck! Especially for this island that is the time of only 1 more transfer (our transfers normally happen every 3-4 months). In the same line of news... guess which sister is hitting her half way NINE month mark?! Thats right - This Girl! Sister Stewart. I have no idea how I feel about that. It's crazy, but also I feel like I've been here for a year. But then at the same time it feels like only 4 or at most 6 months. It's weird. Missionary time definitely doesn't go the same speed as normal time. Especially since we practically have no seasons here so it's like always summer, always the same season, always the same time - time doesn't move. Luckily I still have 9 full months left (which still feels like a nice good amount of time since I don't even leave this year) I'm sure when I get to a year I'll start freaking out but I'll let you know then.

Other than that not too many big things are happening here, we had a pretty low number week so we are really trying to think of ways to find amis and get people to respond to our phone calls so we can set up and have more lessons! But hey, sometimes the work is slow and it's not our work so we don't really set the tempo, it's the Savior's and when it is time for things to come to pass they will. And we will work everyday to turn and turn and turn at the wheel and keep things going and keep on working - diligence! It's a Christlike attribute that we get a lot of chance to grow :)

! Please remember to always do the little things in our lives to keep us on the path, daily scripture study, daily prayer. Never let the "spiritual" things get pushed to the side in our lives. We have so many things we have to do but those are the things that really matter that really move us along the path toward our Heavenly Father in our lives. 

All my Love,

Sr Stewart

Loving St. Paul

Komé i lé?

I am actually starting to fall in love with St Paul. I never thought anything could replace St Denis - and I'm sure nothing ever will but St Paul sure is carving out it's own special little place. This week was filled with highs and lows. I don't have much time so I'll just talk about some of my favorite moments from this week. The musical number for the baptism went really well - I recruited the help of some of my old companions who came down and played violin and piano - people said they were touched which always makes me feel so happy because that's the point of all the work we put in and practising. One of the families from the branch invited us to eat Sunday lunch at their house and it was simply charming. The family is just so unified and united in love. It's amazing how they radiate the gospel. Being at their house for me is honestly such a treat, it just reminds me of being with my extended family. They are seriously so supportive of the missionaries, and they make us feel that way, special and importnant. It is something, an attitude, - a little rare in the branches here. It's not that people don't like the missionaries, it's just their aren't really families like that who "take care" of the missionaries or have them over often for meals. We played a game with them and all laughed, we talked about movies, they served us food - it honestly made me think of the song "Home can be a Heaven on Earth" That's how I want my future home to be. Last but maybe the most, all during Sacrament meeting on Sunday the little girl who was baptized wanted to sit right next to me. She's always had a strong affinity for the missionaries but during the meeting she wanted to share my chair and wrapped my arms around her. It reminded me of my little sisters and for an hour I got to cuddle and hold that little precious girl close to me. She, lke so many children, just wants to be loved and feel loved, and I tried my best to give her all the love I can and hold her close so she knew that I cared about her. It was a really special moment and touched my heart. For one second I felt like I understood a little bit about the love that Heavenly Father has for his children. Everyone just needs love. Everyone just wants to feel loved. I made a resolve to myself that as a representative of Christ I would strive harder to represent His LOVE for all his children. Just like holding that little girl tight, I want to find a way to express the love that the Lord has for each person I meet and above all the less active members we see and amis we teach.

I don't really have time to write more so I will suffice it with that. The fabric of the gospel is LOVE. I am just realizing that I could study and strive for nothing but that and still not succeed but luckily I have each day to be better and start again. The Lord loves each of us perfectly. And his grace is sufficient for all men. What a comforting knowledge.
Love;
Sr Stewart

Week 2

Koma é lé?

That's creole for "how's it going". And this week I would say "Le la, le la". "It's good, it's good". There are some things I really like about the area and some things that are still tricky. The nicest thing about St Paul is that we have a lot of recent converts and less actives that we are visiting, so we actually spend a good amount of time in lessons. Unfortunately, not tons of amis but it is definitely a nice and welcome change to not be contacting 24/7. 

This was my official "first sunday" in church because last week was general conference, so I introduced myself in church and had the opportunity to go to Relief Society and meet some more of the women. The only way to describe the branch of Le Port is that everyone is a character. 

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So this is a picture of a volcan that we went to see! It's still active!! We had to wake up incredibly early at 3 in the morning to drive for nearly 2 hours to get there before the sun was really high in the sky. 

After 8 months on the island - I finally touched the ocean for the first time!! Photographic proof is down below!

The best thing about the southern part of the island is that it is really really beautiful!

This Thursday was Labor's Day in France, so we had a branch picnique that was super fun. Our really solid ami Marion came and we were fed spicy creole food. All positive things. It made me realize how long it's been since I went picniquing! The weather was actually nice. Still hot but there was a breeze. It was nice to do an activity with the members.

Mi aime a zot!