A Thankful Heart!

Temple! Me and Hermana Bringhurst and Hermana Meneses

Buenos Dias!!!!  

Wow i litterally cant believe its monday already and its thanksgiving this week!!  yay what an amazing time of the year.  There is so much to be thankful for!  I am thankful for my wonderful family!  I love you all so much!  I am so thakful to be a missionary in Atlanta Georgia!!  I am thankful for coats and heaters and sweaters and sunshine!  It is freazing here!!!  After living in Idaho for 19 years and living through hard cold winters, i have officially lost all rights of making fun of people who would think it was freazing cold at tempatures in the 40's.  brrrrrrrrr!!!  

We went to the temple this week and that was so so nice!  i never want to leave that sacred place.  What a way to get out of this crazy world for a few hours.  Just wonderfuly.  I am so thankful for temples! 

 us with President and Sister Foote

We had exchanges this week with the sister training leaders.  So Hermana Bringurst went english speaking with sister Alofipo and sister creech came here with me and Hermana Meneses.  That was pretty fun!  Sister Creech is Asian and EVERYONE was soo facinated in her haha!  they all thought she was so adorable!  We had so many amazing miracles happen during exchanges.  Here is one of them.  So we had 3 refferals that we went to contact in these one appartmenet complexes and after we tried contacting them i decided that while we were in that complex we might as well go and try and contact some potential investigators we have.  So we went to this lady Maria's house and kknocked on her door but then she didnt answer.  then i saw a door near by that had a bunch of plants by the door and i told them we should go knock on that door.  We always knock on doors with lots of plants because that just screams hispanic.  You get real good at telling the difference between a spanish house and a english house.  So we walked over and Sister Creech was in front and she stops at the door next to the plant door.  She just stood in front of that door, and then all of the sudden we heard a little voice speaking spanish and we got so excited!!  so we hurried and knocked the door and it was a little family that just had moved from venesuala.  They invited us in and we were able to get to know her and teach her a short version of the Restoration.  So long story short they have been investigating churches and now they want to start investigating our church.  We were so so happy after we got out of that house.  The little girls just loved us and they are so adorable.  We imedietely drove like a mile down the road to the Elders recent convert family that just got baptized because they are venesualen and they both have two girls and live soo close!!  Ledif, the new member mom, just was soo happy and she wanted her number so she could call her and she wants to come over with us when we go back and teach her!  Such a cool miracle!!  Heavenly Father will litterally place people that are ready right in front of our face!  I can testify that perfect obedience and diligence brings miracle!!!!  Just like Dory the fish says, "just keep swimming, swimming, swimming, what do we do, we swim!!"  I am so thankful for obedience!  I am so thankful for awesome members that have so much fire to do missionary work!!  Just so thankful!

​Me and Hermana Bringhurst

So another miracle this week is that this week we have gotten so many refferals its crazy!!!  We have been praying so hard to find people to teach that are ready to accept this gospel!!  Now we are finding and getting refferals of all these people we dont even know what to do we are just busy and happy!!!  There really are people with ready hearts and ready ears to hear this message!  One refferal we got from church head quarters her name is Leticia and she is from Mexico but she has lived here for 26 years.  but 26 years ago missionary were teaching her in Mexico, but just recently she wants to start going to church and taking the missioanry discussions again so she reffered herself to us!  and she has a huge family!  when we knocked on her door and told her we were misisoanryies she said "que milagro, pasan adelante," (what a miracle, come in).  She receieved us very well and she is now reading the book of mormon with her daughter.  We also got another referal of a part member family!  Just so much is happening its insane!  Theres no time to rest, i love it!  I've never slept so good in my life haha!  

Ok so one other miracle i wanted to share with yall!  sorry i could just write miracles all day long!  So we had a Carna Sada (BBQ) for our Branch thanksgiving party and our investigator Abraham came!!  It was really fun!  so many of the members brought there friends and me and my comps were all just running around the gym meeting everyone and getting all their numbers of the nonmember friends.  It was amazing!  im thankful for member refferals! :) anyway so after we ate, we wanted to give Abraham a little church tour.  so we took him in the Chapel and sat down.  And we sang hymns with him.  We sang "there is sunshine in my soul today" "i know that my redeemer lives" and "families can be together forever".  Then we just sat there and the spirit took over.  Abraham was in tears because of the overwhelming spirit he was feeling.  We were all just crying because in that moment we could all just feel the love our Heavenly Father and Savior has for us and for his lost children.  These spiritual moments that i am experiencing on my mission are just indescribably priceless.  I have never felt so close to the spirt, so much love from my Savior, and so much love for his children.  There just isnt any other place i would rather be than right here serving the Lord and his children.  I have never been so happy in my life.  I am thankful for service.  I am thankful for the Holy Ghost that never ceases to fail and touching my heart and veryfying the trulthfulness of this Gospel every single day.  Of course there are hard moments, but some how those just are nothing to the wonderful moments.  I am thankful for the Atonement that when we are going through hard times or sad, our Savior is always there to take away our pain, lifts our hearts up, and encourages us to keep on going!  Just wonderful! :)

                              Zuniga Familia on Exchanges with Sister Creech!

Ok heres a lesson learned on my part this week, and maybe a good laugh for yall.  So we were in the car getting ready to pray and go teach a lesson.  So Hermana Bringhurst had just taken a big drink of water so her mouth was full of water.  Well i made the awful and terrible mistake of making her laugh before she got the chance to swallow.  Yep.  She spit it on me everywhere!  i was soaked with her germs haha.  My hair was soaked, my jacket, my face, everything!  haha so lesson learned Hermana Stewart, dont make Hermana Bringhurst laugh when she has water in her mouth.  Hey siblings, remember that water game we would play when we were younger when we would sit by the kitchen sink and fill our mouths with water and then another person would come in and do some kind of silly act to get the people at the sink to laugh and spit out their water??  Well Hermana Bringhurst would be really fun to play that with ;) oh how i love my companions so much!!  I am thankful for wonderful companions who share the same rightous desires and goals, who are always there for one another like sisters, and who know how to make missionary work so much fun (even if they beat me with a pillow ;)...thats a story for ya.).  

I am so thankful for this Gospel.  I am so thankful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for his Atonement, that through him, and only through him we can be perfected.  I am thankful for the Book of Mormon and the blessings we see in our lives as we read it daily.  I will never rest the Book of Mormon a day in my life.  Its just too good and gives us way too much daily guidence to ever not read it.  I am thankful for nature and leaves and trees that make the outside world so pretty even in the midst of all the craziness in this world.  I am thankful for our Church leaders and for our prophet Thomas S. Monson who leads and guides this church under the direction of Jesus Christ.  I am thankful for the Priestood and the blessings that come of it.  I am thankful for the Sacrament and that each and every week we have the opportunity to reflect and renew our covenants with our Heavenly Father.  I am thankful for libraries and computers so that i can write and hear from my family ever week.  I am thankful that "I have a fam’ly here on earth.  They are so good to me.  I want to share my life with them through all eternity. Fam’lies can be together forever, Through Heav’nly Father’s plan.  I always want to be with my own family, And the Lord has shown me how I can.  The Lord has shown me how I can."  What a wonderful season of thanksgiving that we get to Celebrate.  Blessing are all around us.  "that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessing which he doth bestow upon you." Alma 34:28  We have so much to be thankful for.  Our lives are wonderful.  We have this gospel.  We have each other.  We have the Savior.  We have it so good.  How blessed we are.  I hope you all enjoy your Thansgiving!  I will be thinking about you all and thinking about how blessed i am to have such a wonderful calling, have such a wonderful family,have such a wonderful life.  I cant wait to spend next Thankgiving with all yall eating Turkey and Mashed Potatoes, Homeade Rolls, and pie.  But this year the beans, rice, and tortillas will definetley be perfect enough!  Enjoy this season with a thankful heart.  I love you all so much!  Until next week.

Love,

Hermana Stewart

xoxoxo

                                 ​Carna Sada at a members home last night

Me just being Hermana Stewart