You know you are a missionary when...

GOOOOOOOD MORNING SUNSHINES!

I am so excited to tell you all about my week! It has been so exciting! well-it was actually a pretty typical week, but what is not exciting about sharing the gospel full time?? You are right- there is nothing that is not exciting!!! So I am going to tell you all about it - and hope you feel the same excitememnt that I do! and then when you do feel the excitement- SHARE IT! not my letter - but the gospel!

Let me start by telling you the neat thing I learned from my scripture study this week - well it was another thing that I was taught by a member during a lesson.. we are reading the Book of Mormon with our dear investigator Helen and we just finished ! Nephi with her. how exciting! So what did I learn? well the 22nd chapter of 1 Nephi is all about the scattering and gathering of israel- neat! and what is even more neat is that we are all part of that right now! the most interesting part to me, is that there are members of the ten tribes who were scattered and lost among us now- AND THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHO THEY ARE ! That is why it is so important we share the gospel to help them know who they are! to thelp them know they are part of the abrahamic covenant and are entitled to the blessings of such- ahem.. ETERNAL LIFE WITH YOUR FAMILY AND WITH GOD! what could be better? and another tremendously important part of the gathering is family history. I have learned to absolutely love that since being on my mission. I think my dream calling in the church would be to be a family history consultant. wouldn't that be neat? I sure think so. then maybe I could solve the dilemma of great great great grandpa john stuart. and gather him into Israel! yahoo! the other thing I learned about the gethering of Israel - it is part of Ephraim's birthright and one of the blessings of beinga descendant of Ephraim to be able to recognize the truth and the gospel when it is heard - that is why so many right now are from the tribe of ephraim - the others don't know the truth yet. don't worry - they will soon.

Also in this week we were able to pull more weeds! yahoo! and I found a frog! also- I found a herd of carpenter ants. those things are nasty! and one of them bit me! and it hurt so bad. a dinky little ant. and it kept stinging for over 4 hours! watch out for those things. they are not nice. also in the service realm this week- we were helping a member prepare a huge amount of freezer meals - taco meat, meatloafs, shepherds pie, chicken - all kinds.. my job was to cut onions and I was really crying.. then I remembered my brillliant dad! and of course they all have goggles here- that is a summer must! only- i didn't have a camera.. so sorry missed the photo opportunity. but it worked! Dad is brilliant.

REmember Renee- who we contacted in two minutes and were able to set a return appointment with? actually I didn't tell you her name last week- but she was the one we talked to in that awkward space of ten minutes before we met with our WML - anyway, we were a little worried she was not going to keep her appointment, it was way too easy to contact her! but she did!! and we had a reallly good lesson with her! at least the first part of it was really good- and she was very open and very acceptinag and we were just having really good converssations... then in came her father in law. whoa. things went down hill pretty quick. when we left, our member asked if we thought it was a ploy to get us out of there.. hmmm... things are going really well- these missionaries think I am really interested - I don't want to be mean and tell them I really am not - so I will just call my crazy father in law to come scare them away! hmmm... well- if that was indeed her ploy- it didn't work! becasue we are going back! and sister brown and I both felt really good about it! so renee will most likely be introducing the gospel to her fatherinlaw in no time.

Another neat experience we had teaching this week was feeling the influence of the spirit. We were inj a lesson with LC - she is a little rough around the edges but is so prepared for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ (tribe of Ephraim maybe??). She is a pretty heavy smoker and drinker and she loves to party! anyway- we were having a real good lesson on the plan of salvation and we were talking about families being together forever and such and such and talking about kids and she says that she does want to have kids - but becasue of health problems with her and her husband - it will be very hard for them to have children of her own. They tried for a few years at the beginning of their marriage to no avail. Both sister Brown and I felt very prompted to promise her that she would be able to have children if she were to stop drinking and smoking. We haven't even taught her the word of wisdom yet! It was pretty neat. She didn't take immediately to it though... saying she would quit when she was ready to have kids and that she is not now.. but a little bit later in the lesson she dumped 3/4 of the beer she was drinking out on the tree we were sitting next to with no encouragement on our part. It was awesome!

and of course - being a missionary - you always have awkward moments - and most of the time, we create them ourselves! let me tell you about the one from this week.. First though- let me explain to you the awesome zone we have! Every day we pray for a companionship in the zone to see miracles that day. They tell us what specifically they are looking for that day and we all pray for it. last week we had a miracle day! and we asked the zone to pray that we would be able to find out Louie's concerns - what was preventing him from following the example of jesus christ and his wife and kids by being baptized. We had dinner scheduled with them for that night and were going to have a lesson afterward so it was perfect! back story done. So we show up for dinner and it is serenity's birthday! so they invited a neighbor family over (LA/PM family who we are also teaching which is a huge miracle in and of itself - Stephanie was baptized 3 years ago- Isaac was not all that supportive of it, she quit going. now she is going we are teaching Isaac and their families are fellowhipping eachother! It is so awesome. miracles. neat) ao anyway- back to dinner. It was a grand old time and a lot of fun.. but after we had been there for far too long already we decided we needed to go. So we left. We didn't even share a scripture or anything! what were we thinking? That was our chance to find out Louie's concern! and possibly Isaac's too! I mean the whole zone was praying for it and we just blew it! so what did we do? we went back! yep. awkward. We planned to share a couple scriptures that would have been so awesome! we only got through one.. then the kids went crazy and there was no more spirit.. but we were able to individually talk to Louie and the grandma and have a really good chat with each of them- so it worked out! and we found out- Louie hasn't been praying. yay! concern found! and then we left. you might think this would have been the very most awkward thing ever- but let me tell you the neatest thing- I DIDN"T EVEN FEEL AWKWARD!!! that is how you know you are a missionary. Love it. I love this work.

The Lord willhasten His work in HIs time - the time is now. I am so blessed to be part of it. So are you- so get out there!

I love you all

SIster Stuart

caught napping.. oops. good thing it was p-day!

and I found a frog!! I can catch it- but still no lizard... one day I will get that one