Come Unto Christ

Dear Everyone!!

I hope you all had as wonderful Christmas as i had!  So perfect!  Wow skyping with you all was so so great!!  I just love all your faces so much!  Good laughs, and I'm sure your all glad to see that I'm still my same goofy self that doesn't know how to function, the mission has just amplified that haha!

So this week was just so wonderful!  We did a lot of caroling as a District, and that was seriously so much fun!!  The first day we went to houses in a neighbor hood and not very many people answered but the people that did loved the caroling and it was really fun!  it was kind of funny at this one house before we ding donged we decided (well so i thought) to sing "Joy to the World" but somehow i didn't get the memo that we were actually singing "Silent night."  So anyway the people opened the door and we started singing, so everyone except me started singing "silent night" and then dorky Hermana Stewart at like the top of my lungs was like "JOY TO THE WORLD!".....  haha ya pretty embarrassing but a great laugh!  

We had a pretty cool miracle happen to us while we were at the gas station we had to go into to get our gas receipt because it didn't print out and then i went to use the bathroom.  and when i walked out my comps were just smiling at me so big and telling me to hurry and come over there.  I thought they saw like a movie star or something.  but then they told me that this family came up to them and was like "hermanas wheres your church?" and they wanted to know where our church was so we hurry and ran out to our car and gave them a card with the direction and our phone number, and then they said they were gonna come and then drove off.  That does not happen everyday!  it was pretty cool that someone just came up to us and asked us for our address to our church!  Hopefully we will see that family at church one day! :)

So Christmas Eve was so wonderful!  We were able to meet up as a district again and go caroling from like 7-9 in some apartments right next to where we lived.  They were mixed apartments since half my district is Spanish and half English missionaries so we just knocked on doors and if they were English we sang in English and Spanish we would sing in Spanish!  That was really fun!  we were able to hand out a lot of pass along cards and met some really great people!  there was also quite a bit of our less actives and investigators and the English missionaries had some investigators in those apartments to so we went and sang to all of them!  The whole time we were caroling it was just pouring rain and we were all just drenched, yet i just felt so so happy to be a missionary in that moment!  I loved being able to go caroling!

And then for Christmas we were able to go to three of the member families in our branch and it was so great to be with them all!  They are all like my family too and it was so wonderful that they allowed us to spend Christmas with them!  We ate so much food but it was so delish!!  

Well I just want you all to know how much i love this Gospel.  I love my Savior and I'm thankful for his Atoning Sacrifice everyday!  What a wonderful example he is to each of us!  "Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God. 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot." Moroni 10:32-33  I love this invitation for all of us to come unto Christ.  It is only through him that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father.  We have a purpose.  We have a hope.  We have our Savior Jesus Christ.  

I love you all so much!  I hope you had and have an amazing week!!  Happy New Year!!!  Talk to yall next year!

Love,

Hermana Stewart

Christmas Pictures!

                                                                   Caroling 

and after caroling. A little wet but so happy :)

Christmas Morning

and my stocking stuff!!  thanks parentals!

Christmas Crack thanks steph!!

​awesome knitted socks! thanks parentals and lady from the ward

grey sweater wahoo!  thanks mommy and daddy

awesome sign from TY TY!  i love it!

​another sweater!  thanks parents!

apron and potato masher from Bringhurst family

thanks Peterson's for the cute shirt, pics, candy, fudge, mug and aweome drawings!! 

​really cute sweater from Liddiard's!!  thanks!! :)

and cute new outfit from the parentals! :)

and letters from the fam!!!!  what a cool gift!! :) i cant wait to open them!

​homemade necklace from Momma!  thanks!!!

skpe selfie with the fam!!!! :)

Happy P-Day!

Pictures!!

I rearranged a bit

​Last district pic of last transfer on Tuesday

​One of our less actives has this creepy yet awesome skeleton in her house haha

​Decorating Christmas cookies with the Mata familiy!

                   ​pro decoraters!

Decorating Christmas cookies with the Mata familiy!

Our new comp Hermana Web on the right she has been out 2 transfers longer than me. shes cool

 Hermana Bringhurst and I on giant chairs!!!  Look we totally match with our polka dot skirts and white shirts, we are pretty cool! :)

​I have been upgraded to back seat!! wahoo so much space i love it! :) 

Las Tres Gringas

Wahooooo its almost Christmas!  I never thought i would see Christmas, but here it is!  I love this time of year!  I love being a missionary!  I love my wonderful family and friends there back home! And i love my Georgia Family here!!! :) This week has been fantastic!  Me and Hermana Brinhurst enjoyed our 2 days of being in not a trio, but actually it was rather awkward.  When she was in the shower or in the bathroom and i was all alone i felt so weird because there wasn't anyone there with me.  ahh it felt weird and like something was missing haha. We got a new companion her name is Hermana Webb and she has been out for 9 ish months i think.  She is white.  She awesome and we are glad to have her with us in the Chamblee area!

Ok so this email is probably going to be a little bit shorter, but i just want to share the coolest miracle that we saw this week.  So we were teaching our investigator that is on date for the 26th (which by the way he is now on date for 2 of January because no one from the branch presidency can be there to preside, but that's ok because he is still progressing great!) so we were teaching him word of wisdom and he told us that 2 years ago he already quite everything, and now he knows why he went through that so he is even more prepared to enter into the gates of this wonderful gospel.  Anyway so towards the end of the lesson we asked him to pray and he is such a shy guy and he is always so nervous to pray in front of people so the mom of the member family that we were teaching with said the prayer, then afterwards Hermana Bringhurst promised with such great boldness and said, "hermano someday in gospel principles class the teacher is going to ask for volunteers and i promise that you are going to raise your hand and say the prayer in front of the whole class."

Anyway so then yesterday during gospel principles class and it was the Elders turn to teach so Elders Cruz asked if there were any volunteers but no one raised their hand so then he just called on one of the members and then all of the sudden our investigator stood up, and said "voy a ententar" "im going to try" he is the shyest guy ever!!  HE SAID THE PRAYER!!! in front of the whole entire class!!!!  what a cool experience!!  It is cool to see that my companion was so in tune and was able to promise that blessing and we got to see it fulfilled the very next day!  The spirit is cool!!  

So this week was amazing and i cant wait for this week and for Christmas!  I'm so excited to skype yall and see your cute faces and hear your cute voices!!  We have like 3 meal appointments already for Christmas, so we are going to be stuffed stuffed stuffed!!!    I love this time of year.  I love being able to spread a little Christmas cheer to the folks here in Georgia.  The other day we were sitting in the Walmart parking lot eating a 5 dollar lil ceasers pizza really fast before our next appointment and a lady knocks on our door and in the thickest southern accent says "hi yall, my aunt has to give me a jump do yall think yall could move parking spots." so we hurried and drove to a different spot and hurry and get out of the car (it was about 30 degrees and like almost 7 at night but we knew we had to help these sweet Georgia ladies) We popped both hoods and i hooked the jumper cables up to the battery, and got it jumped for them.  They just gave us the biggest hugs and thanked us.  There is nothing that makes me more happy than helping others.  I'm so grateful that i have learned to serve on my mission and i have learned to love it!  It is so much fun!  we find ourselves looking for opportunities to serve because it fills us with so much happiness.  

Now i just want to talk for just a second on how much i love my Georgia family!  I really do.  I the people here, i love our branch i love our investigators i love the random people we meet in Walmart parking lots, i love them all.  They make being away from my eternal family easier.  I love it here.  I love being a missionary.  I love Jesus Christ.  And i know that God and Jesus Christ love me and love each and every one of us.  I love Christmas time. 

We are so blessed to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  "Away in a manger, no crib for his bed, The little Lord Jesus laid down his sweet head; The stars in the heavens looked down where he lay,The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay.  Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask thee to stay Close by me forever, and love me, I pray. Bless all the dear children in thy tender care, And fit us for heaven, to live with thee there.  The cattle are lowing, the poor baby wakes; But little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. I love thee, Lord Jesus; look down from the sky And stay by my cradle till morning is nigh."  I love my Savior.  I love you all so much!  i Cant wait to talk to yall in just 4 days on skpe!!  What a blessing that is to us all!  Stay close to Jesus and he will always stay close to us.  till Friday!!  

all my love and prayers always,

Hermana Stewart

It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!

Awesome Sister'! P-Day!

Hi family!!

Transfer news!!!  are you ready?!....well today Hermana Meneses (our greeny) is flying out to Ecuador to her mission (Our mission President and his wife are taking us out to lunch and then taking her to the airport)..... and we got a call from the APs saying that me and Hermana Bringhurst are staying here in Chamblee!!!!!!!....but wait there's more...and we are getting Hermana Webb(one of the other spanish sisters).  yay for trios!!! haha!  After this next transfer i will have spent half my mission in a trio.  Haha its so funny!  The Lord must really like trios, or i just havent learned what im supposed to learn yet!  We are excited though!  Hermana Webb will be welcoming greatly here in Chamblee!  The work continues, 3X3!! :) Hey the Godhead is one powerful trio, so we will be too!

This week has been a wonderful week!!!!  Something really awesome that happened is that Elder Holland came and did our mission conference on Saturday and we all got to shake his hand!!!!!  SO! awesome!!!!!!  That was definitely quite a privelidge and man is he BOLD!  It was great!!!

MIracles!!! 

1.Tuesday: so on tuesday morning we left the house at 10 am which is really rare for us cus we usually do Language study 10-11 and training for Hermana Meneses 11-12 but we really felt like we should go and try and contact some referals in the morning. sWitching things up!  so parked and got out of the car and we walking and trying to find this one appartment in this huge appartment complex and we saw this guy getting into his van like maybe 20ft ahead of us.  and instantly the spirit told me we needed to go talk to him.  But instantly i got scared....oh Hermana Stewart is such a scardy cat sometimes!  But i knew we had too, but he was unlocking his car and i started walking faster because i didnt want him to get in his car.  But for somereason he was having such a hard time getting his door unlocked (totally the Lord helped his key be sticky or something haha) so finally we made it to him and i just went over and my comps got the Q and we started talking to him.  He was really nice and we only talked to him for just a second cus he said he had to go to work but we gave him a card and he said he would call us....they all say that hah!  anyways so after that happened we were talking as a companionship and Hermana Bringhurst was like, oh i had the same feeling as you, and we were all so glad we went and talked to him.  The cool thing is that we as a companionship were all in tune and thinking the same thing!!  anyway so right after that happened there was two ladies and a little girl walking behind us and we just started talking to them.  We asked them if they were excited for christmas and asking them what they eat on christmas, and threw in a few "how to begin teaching points" from preach my gospel.  And before we knew it we were all the way across the appartment complex and had been walking for about 10 minutes!  Then we asked if we could come and visit her sometime and she said she would love that.  She recieved us so well!!  By now we can tell real good who likes us and who doesnt ha!  so we are meeting with her tomorrow so that was a really good miracle to have!!  We know that we were supposed to leave the appartment at that time and change the order of when we did those other 2 hours of study for a reason!  We really needed to meet these wonderful ladies!  and the Lord definitely puts people in our paths that are ready and prepared to hear about the restored gospel!!

2.A family!!!

So after elder Holland we decided we wanted to go tracking!  We prayed about this one appartment complex if it was the right place and imedietely we all looked at each other and didnt feel good about it.  we prayed really hard on where we needed to go and so we were driving down Buford Hwy and we felt really good about these one appartment complexes.  So we pulled in and went a knocking.  We got a few return appointments with some people and taught the Restoration to this awesome guy and got a return appointment.  And the whole time we were knocking these appartments there was a family in the middle grounds playing soccor a dad and 3 kids.  They kind of kept watching us and the kids would kept saying hola to us.  and then finally when we exhausted the 2 hours of knocking doors we went up to this dad and started talking to him!  He was so nice!!  the kids were so cute!!  so we asked if we could come teach them sometime and he invited us back for the next day (sunday).  So yesterday we went and they were actaully there!!!  We taught the whole family, except the mom(she was cooking, but she was listening :) ) We taught the Restoration, and i know ive said this before but its so true, i never get sick of teaching the Restoration!!  Its such a powerful message!  then we invited the dad to pray after we taught them how to pray and we knelt with them in their little living room as a family and he prayed a good prayer!!  it was the first time he ever prayed and it was so cute and funny because the oldest girl she is 9, in the prayer the dad got really nervous and she started laughing and she like slapped her (not hard haha) and was like dont laugh.  They are the cutest family!!  We are excited to teach them next sunday again!!!!! :) yay for families!!

3.We made it through the Chastity lesson!

We taught our investigotor that is on date for the 26th in the home of one of the families in our branch and the lesson went so great!!!  He accepted to followow the law and he is progressing soo much!!!!!!  He is so excited to get baptized because he knows that this is correct and that Heavenly Father is so proud of him!

Some Funny's:

1. So the other day we went over to a newly married couple in our ward's house to visit them and get to know them and see how they were doing.  The appointment was at 8 in the night and we hadnt planned on eating at their house, and we hadnt eaten like all day so we were so hungry but thats the norm for a missionary, food becomes last prioraty!  there are lives to be saved!!  We were talking to the wife for a few minutes and then her husband gets home off work and walks in with a big ol pizza and it looked and spelt sooo good.  Let me remind you all, We dont get your average jo food you would eat in america.  Rice, bean and tortillas is where it is at here haha.  So we did a little lesson with them and visited with them for a little bit.  And then the wife was like "quieren pizza?" "do you want pizza?" and i guess without a second of hesitation i was like "OK!!" and then they all laughed and i didnt mean to be so quick to answer haha.  We are very polite, and go about this situation in a much better way.  But i havent eaten pizza in ages!!  I just couldnt help myself!  We sat down and me and Hermana Bringhurst just couldnt even hold our excitment in!  it tasted sooo goood!!!  

2.So yall know how me and Dad like our pankakes.  Go big or go home right!  2 Pancakes, penut butter smothered on both.  With two dunky eggs on top and syrup everywhere!  mmmm yummy in my tummy!  so Hermana Bringhurst has always thought i have had weird concoctions (most of which i have learned from you dad...you never lead me astray, sure luv ya! ) grill cheese sandwhitch with hot dogs in it, raman noodles with hot dogs in it (most include hot dogs... gotta love the mission life, mission budget, and hot dogs serve for great nutritional value ;) ) and many other including the pancakes with eggs.  Well i have you know that Hermana Bringhurst has officially tried every single one of my "weird concations" always doubting before, but loving it after wardds!!!  So yeah we ate the pankake thing yesterday so that just reminded me haha.

Anyway what a week!  Life is going quite superb!  There is now officially 11 days til Christmas!!  oh my goodness im so excited to see yalls cute faces!!!!  I love this time of the year!  I love learning more about Jesus Christ as i remeber him and testify each and every day that he lives!  He is Jesus the Christ.  He is the light and the life of the world.  In my personal study this morning i was reading in 3 nephi, one of my most favorite books in the Book of Mormon.  He is such an example to each of us and i wanted to share just a few things of what i learned today of his teachings. 

1. "Let your light so shine before this people, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven." 3 nephi 12:16 We are all lights, we need not hide it under a bushel like he teaches us but shine forth unto all people.  I love this invitation the Savior gives to us. 

 2."love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you." i have learned and am still continuing to love those that maybe on a daily bases wrong us.  I have found that instead of letting "our hearts get stir up in anger, one against the other" because that is not "his doctrine" 3 nephi 11:30 but to just say a simple prayer for those people and the Lord will bless you and you will find yourself loving your enemies.  What an amazing principle the Savior gives to us to love one another, as he has loved us.

3"but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all theses things shall be added unto you."  What an amazing reminder of what we should be seeking above all.  Where are our priorities?  I love this invitaion the Savior teaches us to seek to build up his kingdom and all other things will fall into place if we seek this first.  This could be reading our scriptures before doing some other worldly thing that is benefitting or building the kingdom of God.  i love this principle the Savior gives unto us.

4. "all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." 3 nephi 14:12.  We have been taught this since we were young.  Treat others how you want to be treated.  Say to others what we would want said to us.  I absolutely love this teaching of the Savior.  

I am so thankful for the Book of Mormon and that everyday when i open it, i find things that stick out to me that maybe i need to work on to be a little better and these are some of the things i learned this morning, i find guidence daily, and i recieve personal revelation for myself and for this area we are in.  being a represtative of the Savior in quite the privelege.  I have the responsablitly to represent him well, say what he would say if he were here, act as though he would act, do as what he would do, and say what he would say.  Im thankful for my Savior and the example he is to me.  I feel so blessed every day of my life.  He has given us all the greatest gift we could ever have, eternal life.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ so much.  I love you all so much.  have and amazing week and talk to you soon.  and remeber It is the Most Wonderful time of the year!!

Love

Hermana Stewart :)

Planning Last Night!

Best Comps Ever!!

Planning Last night!

Joy To The World!

Dear Family,

I hope you are all doing super great!  I am doing great like always, there isn't anything great i could be doing right now!  Wow i love this time of year.  This week has been great!  Not a lot happened, but still stuff happened!  We have been receiving referrals like crazy and we have been contacting them all so that has been super fun!  gotta love those referrals!!!  

My Awesome District! 

We had to move Hector's date back because of his work schedule, but that is ok because the important thing is that he will be more prepared and less rushed.  So his date is now for the 19th.  So we are excited for that!  Also Fermin is so cool!  We taught him again last night with the Mata family and he is just so prepared!  This gospel is amazing!!!  

Yesterday was such an amazing day!  Sundays are always so great.  I love being able to go to church and partake of the sacrament and recharge my battery.  And i loved hearing the testimonies like always.  We had a lady from Louisiana visit our Branch and she didn't know that it was in Spanish haha, but it was cool because me and my trainy Hermana Meneses took turns translating the testimonies for her.  Wow translating is super hard.  My brain does not think that fast. After one lady that spoke really fast, i left it to her to continue translating, it was fun to try though!  The cool thing is that at the end of sacrament meeting the lady was just in tears!  It was a testimony builder to us all of how the spirit is the same no matter what language!  It was cool!  then we went to primary like usual to help with the music and i think singing time is one of my most favorite things!  It always has been!  i love being able to sing to the little primary songs and do the little actions to the songs with those precious children of God in the Spanish language!  I think i cry every time we go to primary!  I just love hearing children sing!  They are so cute!  It just is such a testimony builder to me to see how much they know and hearing them sing these beautiful songs!  Even though they have alots of energy, the spirit is always so strong!  Then we had a stake Nativity activity yesterday and that was so beautiful!!  It was so much fun and we had lots of awesome people from our branch come and then we got to watch the Christmas devotional!  It was so good!

So we had a mission wide conference call on Saturday and the APs asked our companionship to sing the opening song on the mission call.  that was really scary!  That was definitely way out of my comfort zone, but this whole mission is teaching me to get out of my comfort zone!  It was good though!  

I want yall to know how much i love you.  i love my savior, and i love being a missionary!  I love this time of year!  I love the true meaning of Christmas!  I know that this chuch is true and that Christ gave us the greatest gift we could ever have!  We can return and live with him, our Father in Heaven and our familias for ever!  I know that the Book of Mormon is true and i love what it teaches us.  "and we talk of christ, we rejoice in Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." 2 nephi 25:26  I know my savior lives.  he lived a perfect life.  He is our perfect example.  He paid the ultimite price for our sins.  "Joy to the World, the Lord is come."  I love you all!  Spread a little joy to this world as we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Until next week

Love,

Hermana Stewart