And to think I Saw it on Mulberry Street

The first thing seen was good ole Socorro, New Mexico! Which is 2.5 hours north of Las Cruces. We drove up there last Wednesday night to drop off a sister who went home this last friday because she has been sick and the doctors can't figure it out - so she is going home to get better! So we took that 5 hour adventure in the car, missed the exit to get some icecream on the way home so we did an 8 mile loop (all for ice cream!! I am my mothers daughter!) and we gained a new companion! yay for being in a trio! Sister Field was serving in a family ward in the stake - well she still is, and so are we! we now get to cover two wards and it is crazy! but so wonderful! - anyway, she is from Garland Utah and is just the cutest little thing ever! She laughs all the time and it is little high pitched squeal that is just so wonderful! so with the three of us now covering two wards - we are living in two apartments kind of - Sister Fields apartment, which is right next door to my first apartemtn in Las Cruces on Venus Street and still the apartment on Espina - and at the end of the month we are moving yet again to another apartment on Wyoming Street becasue out lease is up on espina - it is wild! but we are making the most of it!

The next thing seen- was actually something not seen - and that was Carlos's baptism. We are bummed. But he wasn't baptized because he doesn't want to be - he still most definitely does -But let me tell you the story of what happened. We were supposed to see Carlos last Saturday night and then again on Sunday night to teach him the last lesson he needed and then to plan his baptism. Well he canceled on both of those. and I was a little bit tense - but everything would work out right?? But I really wasn't feeling too great about the situation.. So what did I do? Well I prayed of course! and I asked Heavenly Father if Carlos was not supposed to be baptized on Saturday to let us know in a way that we could not misunderstand! And the week went on. Thursday night came around and Sister Yenchik and I had a training to prepare for the next morning to present to themissionaries in Las Cruces and we definitely stayed up later than we should have.. and the night before we didn't get back to Las Cruces from Socorro until 11:25pm so that was a late night too- and it is somewhat tricky to handle stressful situations when you are lacking on sleep! but - President Miller taught us a few weeks ago that when we are on the Lord's errand, He will sustain us! there is some scripture that says that - but I don't remember it.. sorry! anyway -back to my story - only I need to back track a little bit- We were able to see Carlos on Thursday morning at 8:00 (definitely were supposed to be studying at that time- but extrememe situations call for extremem measures) and finish teaching him what we needed to- but still nothing for the baptism program. We still didn't know who he wanted to baptize him! Gaaa! (that is something you really have to worry about as a sister missionary who doesn't hold the priesthood..) We finally got that later that day and went and got him some baptism clothes and for the person baptizing himn and we figured that we would just take care of the program!  no need to stress him out with that stuff. and he still hasn't had his interview!! And all this time I am about to lose it! I still didn't feel all that good about the situation - but it wasn't anything that I couldn't misunderstand - so we kept moving forward! 

Then Friday morning rolls around - Sister Yenchik packs up to go to Alamogordo for an exchange and we head to Zone training. Our training went well in case you were wondering. After a wonderful lunch and a leadership training, where we had another trio of sisters in the zone call us about 17 times wanting to borrow Sister Field so they could go on splits for the afternoon adding to the stress of the day but we didn't answer becasue we were in a meeting, we switch companions and Sister Yenchik heads out to alamogordo 1.5 hours away until Saturday afternoon. Then we get a text from Carlos that says "Hi sistas! I got serious injury during physical conditioning on the A mountain." Theres your sign. Sorry Carlos that I prayed you to wreck your knee so you couldn't babaptized on saturday... I didn't mean it that way! But that was something I could not misunderstand. He got three deep cuts in his knee that have stitches and staples and a knee that can't bend. oops. But he is still great and still wants to be baptized. Thank goodness!

There you have the snapshot of Mulberry Street in Las Cruces New Mexico! I love hearing about what you see- so keep that coming!

I love you all!

Sister Stuart

Our Trio!

hard at work.. (totsally staged! I love it! but this was during our weekly planning that lasted waaaaay too long! I guess that is what happens when you have to plan for two wards)

Moving Forward, Las Cruses

Hello Family!

“Around here, however, we don't look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we're curious...and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”  Walt Disney

I am really feeling that this is applicable to me right now as I have officially crossed the threshold of the first half of my mission. One can get very caught up in looking back at everything accomplished and feel complacent knowing they have done good- whatmore is there to do? Or one can look back with regret, knowing they did not do enough. Or one can take the advice from Walt - LOOK FORWARD! look back to the past to learn but then be curious in your future! what does it hold for you? There are doors waiting to be open and paths waiting to be hiked (speaking of - we went on an awesome hike this morning to an old hotel and sanitorium that was so neat! I was blown away! and it was so pretty too! and when I went to take out my camera to take a picture - it was dead.yay. ) and there are new things to do? What will you do new this week? Who will you talk to and make a day brighter? What door will you open? 

Here is to moving forward! Each and every day. Don't look back for very long - BE CURIOUS! add that to President Hinckley's list of Be's.. Is that blaspheme? no. Be curious. it is good for you - and Be interested. not interesting. that'll do great things for you too. sorry I really don't have much to say this week - but all is well inthe paradise of Las Cruces! and Carlos is getting baptized this weekend! yay! 

I love you all! and know that I love this work and I love the Lord.

SIster Stuart

Oh I had a question to ask that I forgot to - 

If Mary spent time in France and they didn't have the 'ew' there still must have been a way to pronouce Stuart. Carlos is French. He cannot seem to say it - it always comes out something like Schuwart - how do the French say it?

Mucho Gusto, Las Cruses

There is just so much to ramble about this week that I really have absolutely no idea where to start! How about last tuesday - I left y'all hanging about our lesson with Carlos - well just so you know - it was amazing! He just loved the movie so much and so naturally we talked about baptism.. again. but this time was different! because he said he wanted to be a member and wants to be baptized! yahoo! but then he has a question... He asks us "How will it work though? I am catholic. I was baptized Catholic. So can I still be baptized Mormon?" oh yes Carlos!! and then he was all for it! So we extended the date for 22 March 2014 for him.. but he will be out of town - so then he asks - how about this week? can i do it this week? Oh it was so wonderful!! but becasue we hadn't finished teaching him, he was not baptized last Saturday - but he is going to be on 15 March! and we are so excited!

and then after that wonderful day of miracles - I went and spoke Spanish for a day! well-I really just pretended I spoke Spanish for the day.. But the Hermanas and their investigators say I am getting pretty good! Yahoo! maybe by the end of my mission I will be able to hold a real conversation instead of just saying buenos dias, bien bien, eigualmente, mucho gusto, eeoohsted, (I may be able to say these words - but that does not mean, obviously, that i know how to spell them) and then Joseph's prediction for my mission will have been all the way right! way to go! 

Another exciting thing that happened- Siter Yenchik and i pushed a 3 ton truck. yep. we did that. A lady's huge truck died at a stop light and when the light turned green she was waving everyone to go around her - we didn't! we stopped and turned on our flashers and jusmped out to offer what assistance we could! well her truck was dead and in the middle of the road- so we did what I had been raised to do - help! So sister Yenchik and - in our dresses - pushed this truck around the corner and up the road - thankfully another gentleman caught eye on this odd scene and decided to help. It was crazy! but we did it. adn we helped her. thansk dad for teaching me to always stop if someone is stopped on the side (or the middle) of the road awaiting help. 

We saw some more people and did some more missionary things and spread the gospel and you know all of that good stuff.. oh but I do have to tell you about this lesson we had last night! Incredible!! We have been really working to find people to teach through our own efforts and opening our mouths and inviting people to hear more and the like -but nothing seems to be coming from it.. but that is okay! do you want to know why? If you said no - stop reading.. becasue I am going to tell you!! The Lord recognizes out efforts and He will bless us accordingly! He has probably been laughing at Sister Yenchik and I over this last week as we have been trying to creatively talk to people and He is just shaking His head at us.. but He does notice that we have been trying - and we have been working hard and so yesterday- He just gave us the most prepared person to teach! Another set of sisters called us with a referral- a girl whose cousin just got baptized into their ward. The referral. Kearen, was just baptized a baptist in October but has been asking a lot of questions about the LDS faith - so the sisters told her about the university ward and gave us her information- so we called yesterday after church and she told us we could come over at 4- so we did! and It was incredible! The spirit was so strong! She is so ready for this - she has just felt lost and so confused and just doesn't know where she fits and where she belongs and where God wants her to be. Well I will tell you what - she belongs here! and I think, no, I know she felt that last night! otherwise, why would there be so many tears from all of us?? But the coolest part of that whole lesson was that the restoration and the story of Joseph Smith related so perfectly to her! She has a question that needs asking - and she will ask and get her answer and be so happy! oh I am just so excited for her!

I think that is all I have for you now.. actually there is heaps and bundles more.. but I will leave it at that - else what would I have to talk to you about in 10 months??

Here is a picture of Sister Yenchik and I at the library this morning - notice my scarf and coat?? it was 59 degrees this morning and I was cold!!! Utah in December is going to be a rude awakening for me!

 And all the flowers are out in blooms - In February!!!

 and a lot of the trees!!

Deviations from the Ordinary, Las Cruses, NM

Happy new transfer! And what an exciting one it is so far! Sister Yenchik is my new comapanion- she came out the transfer after me and this is her second area and she is all kinds of pumped and fired up for this work and it is so exciting! and we surely had an exciting week this week! 

We went contacting quite a bit on campus this last week- becasue that is totally and 100% allowed! and we are taking advantage of it! and through that - we were able to teach and testify to a lot of people and found 6 new investigators in three days! Oh the power and the miracles that come through opening one's mouth! It is all very exciting. I have used that word way too much...

This last week we also planned out what we are going to focus on in exchanges with the sisters in the zone (there was another companionship added to the zone this last transfer so now we are over 6 companionships! how honored am I!) and we really wanted to look for and focus on the miracles we see as missionaries - and I tell you what- they are everywhere!!! Like this last week for example- not only did we find 6 new investigators - we also were able to make contact with investigators who we haven't been able to find since before Christmas! Like Carlos! Do y'all remember Carlos? well we haven't seen him for a month now - and we had a lesson with him last night! and it was most definitely needed. Carlos is one of those people who can just put asmile on your face in an instant - and he did! and it was a lesson chuck full of tender mercies too - I have been feeling a little discouraged about my teaching lately and my ability to clarify gospel principles and last night in the introducing of a new missionary to him and he to her - Sister Yenchik asked a lot of questions that checked for his understanding about what has been taught so far and whta his thoughts and feelings have been - and I was scared! What if I was such an awful teacher and he didn't know anything! but silly me - I shouldn't have been scared becasue the spirit is the real teacher- and Carlos remembered and understood all of it! and Joseph Smith? He loves that guy! so we are going to go back tonight to watch "Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration" with him tonight. Tender Mercy right there. Sorry about that long tangent.. just thought you might want to know what is going on in the head of Sister STuart.. oh and one other quick side note.. remember the "Taylor Stories"? well, they are quickly disappearing! My companion has been in clutches (that is not the right word... there is a word that I am looking for that describes laughing uncontrollable for extended periods of time.. sorry my vocabulary is failing me) for the last week and told me last night that I was so good at telling stories! oh and sistermontini would ask me every night to tell her a story becaseu she just loved them so much! so y'all better look forward to hearing my mission stories! you won't know what hit you! back to exchanges.. So focusing on the miracles - and what bring miracles?? It is the faith. faith is not produced by seeing miracles - otherwise, Laman and lemuel would not have been such terrors. They saw more miracles than i can count! But miracles are grown through righteous living and obedience to God's commandments - then faith grows -them miracles are produced! and the coolest thing about miracles - that I learned in my study - is that they "should not be regarded as deviations from the ordinary course of nature so much as manifestations of divine or spiritual power" (BD miracles). How cool is that! miracles should be part of our ordinary lives - our every day experiences! but only if we have faith. and we develop that faith by obedience. So wake up on time people, exercise for 30 minutes, be to your study desk at 0800 and be there for two hours and then be out your door at 1000 and don't come back until 2100 - oh wait - that is just what I need to do. I will do it. and then I will tell you of the miracles I see because of it. What miracles are part of your daily lives? What extraordinary thing have you seen that is, in all actuality, ordinary?

I will be done rambling now.. I love you all! 

Sister Stuart

Oh and by the way- P-Day will again be on Monday next week due to a conference on Tuesday. So expect another ramble then..

and the news is..., Las Cruses, NM

Another transfer has come and gone - and I am staying in Las Cruces! and my companion is leaving.. She will be transferred out tomorrow morning at11:30. It will be good for her seeing as she has been here in this area since we came out almost 9 months ago (can you believe that???? that is halfway!). We have had a real good go for this last 4.5 months - I have learned a lot from her and I will miss her - but she is on to bigger and better things! there are actually a lot of changes happening here in Las Cruces - we will be getting a new Zone Leader and my district will have a new District Leader and one of the companionships of Sisters is getting a third - so there will be a trio of sisters and then they are moving elders out of an area and putting sisters in! So that will add three more sisters to the zone - which is exciting! We are taking over! yahoo! okay- not quite that far... but close! 

Thank you all for the wonderful responses to my last email! I loved hearing all the stories and all the rich history that is so prevalent in our family! still waiting on that Stuart information though....

not too much to report on this week - but we did have an awesome day today! We went on a hike- sort of.. I don't know if it was a real hike but it was fun! and of course - I was reading the signs before we went and everyone was getting upset becasue I was taking too long... but it was interesting! only don't ask me what I read about.. becasue I don't remember.. But it was so good to be outside in nature! and I took more pictures today than I probably have in the last 7 months! and then after that- we went to our bishop's house and rode his tandem bicycle and I tell you what - that thing is a lot harder to control when you aren't just riding behind dad just sitting there pretending to help! we definitely almost crashed... but we lived! and it is a good thing too - we have companions who would be really missing out if we weren't around anymore. 

Here is to a new trnasfer! the very middle one.. weird.
I love you all!
Sister Stuart

Pictures- district Pre Transfer

 Statue contest! yes - I brought that to NM
And I still have to crawl in all the little cracks and crannies when we hike

 The group on the hike and the destination we hiked to
Me and my sweet companion

 and the tandem bicycling

What's In a Name?, Las Cruses, NM

It was snowing in Albuquerque this week as we traveled north for a full day of meetings and boy am I happy to be in Las Cruces still! My prediction is that it will hit 75 degrees on Friday- Sister Montini's guess is for Thursday. Winner gets a milkshake- so everyone pray for cooler weather until Friday! yesterday we got close - 73 - so needless to say, it is warm here and I don't think I am ready for it.. I can be here in the south for one more transfer and then send me north to Sante Fe for the summer! Now becasue I said that- I will go to El Paso.. I will go wherever the Lord has need for me. Even if I stay here in Las Cruces for 9 months like my companion has! So next week- I expect she will be leaving here and I will get a new companion. Training calls come tomorrow- I don't think either of us will be training though - then transfer news comes Saturday night and I will let you know where I will be on Monday - well I guess I won't be able to tell you where - unless I stay. Otherwise I will just tell you I am leaving. But I guess I will stay. But we all know predicting can get you into trouble so I will just keep my mouth shut.

Stuart - is it Stuart of Butte? or is it the Royal Stuart? What is the story of our name? I once heard - I don't know from who - maybe I dreamed it - that the spelling of Stuart changed a long time ago when Mary Queen of Scots was unhappy with the French and decided to change it from Stewart to Stuart. Am I making that up? or is that real? and how do we know that? From where did the Stuart name come? I tried to look up my Stuart ancestors of FamilySearch and it goes back to the father of David Marshall Stuart - John Stuart, who married Mary Anne Marshall, and his father was John Stuart who married Anne Marshall and his father was also John Stuart who also married Anne Marshall. My guess is that something is wrong there. So needless to say - I did not learn where our name originates. Dad, willl you help me out? and for the rest of you who no longer share with me the same name - where does your name hail? Ure? maybe Sweden. Wolcott? Denmark. Althouse? Germany. Yuo should find out. then you should find out where your coworkers names are from. and if they don't know - invite them to find out! Invite them to do family history with you! there is a family history center near you. find it! and invite someone! (although- as you can tell.. I don't know how to use it correctly yet becasue I can't even figure out my own name! let alone someone else's! so better luck to you than me...) and when you do this - let me know!

And I need to tell you - yesterday, we met with the Director of Activities on campus to find out what we can and cannot do to proselyte here on the NMSU campus and they have this clause called the Freedom of Movement and Expression Act (or something like that) which allows anyone to share their ideas on campus- we can set up tables we can hand out flyeres we can color on the sidewalk with chalk! we can do all kinds of fun things! the only thing that we really can't do is chase people down:( And now I am super excited! but I need your help- if you were walking around on campus and saw two girls in skirts - what could they be doing that would intrigue you enough to come talk to them? Ask your friends too.. and remember - we have quite a bit of liberty here.

Here is to a new week of finding!

Love Sister Stuart

The Law of the Harvest, Las Cruses, NM

Good Morning Family!!

I hope you have had such a wonderful week! I know mine has been! and to put the icing on the cake - yesterday I got my new scriptures! and I was so excited! One of our recent converts in the ward was sure to tell me that I was weird because of my excitement. You know you are a missionary when... I thought I would send you a picture of the exciting moment! and those are my new glasses too- good work momma! I love them!

As a missionary - we have to do hard things (duh! tell you something you don't know..) one of which is deciding when to stop teaching investigators. That is a hard thing. Someone recently explained the role of missionaries in relation to the Law of the Harvest (I wish I could remember who said it - let's say it was President Miller.. It probably was anyway). In a harvest, there is 2 weeks of planting, 3 months of growing and nurturing and then 3 weeks to harvest. As missionaries - we are not here to plant or nurture. We are here to harvest.Which sounds so wonderful right? It is! If that is how it worked all the time - but it doesn't - at least not yet.. and that is where sidelining investigators comes in to play - when they aren't progressing anymore and we are simply trying to nurture and instill in them a desire we need to move on and allow the members to do the nurturing and return when it is time to harvest- to teach them the things they need to know to prepare them to enter into a convenant with Heavenly Father. Last week during planning -Sister M and I realized we were trying to nurture a lot of our investigators and we realized it was not the most effective use of our time. That purge left us with 2 investigators who we are still working with and who are progressing yay! so we needed to refocus our efforts on the ward and building up the members we already have- and that led to heaps of less active work this last week which was so incredible! we have 5 that are really progressing now and a few more that are just on the verge of taking off! It is so exciting! and showing Heavenly Father that we really are working and trying to use our time effectively is really opening us up for miracles! In the last couple days we have gotten referrrals from other missionaries and from memebers who are quite solid and we are putting an investigator on date for baptism tonight and it is all just very exciting! I don't think I am explaining it at all very well right now.. but you know me! and that is what I have for you on this 4th day of February. 

I feel like this email is another one of my stories- it had a lot of potential with that analogy at the beginnning and then, what was the point? There was none. But I love this work! and I am so thankful to be part of it!

and my companion is designated driver right now and she is CRAZY! that is why our supply box looks the way it does.. our supplies are to be kept in the trunk - but what you might not know - they should be INSIDE the box. Who would have thought looking at that picture? But no worries. we stay safe. I am not scared for my life and neither should you!

and with that - I lvoe you!