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!

A Week of Miracles, Las Cruses, NM

My dear family -

Happy Tuesday! I hope you are all having a splendid week- I know I surely have had one! This week, I made it a point to write in my journal every night and write down one miracle that I saw or one thing that strengthened my testimony and i tell you what - it has done a number on my attitude! I couldn't tell you anything that went wrong this week! okay that is a lie.. I could do that. But I won't because what good will that do? none.So instead - let me tell you the highlights.

Last Friday - we had a lesson with a less active member of the ward and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ (I just love that lesson so very much! it is the best! it is bad to have a favorite lesson? just like is it bad to have a favorite child? I learned in my studying this week that it is not! Do you want to know why? becasue Heavenly Father does. and that is Jesus Christ. He is always calling Him His Well Beloved.. so it is okay mum and dad to admit I am your favorite.. sorry about that side note..) and we taught it straight out of the Book of Mormon and the lesson morphed into a lesson on that Book and the power that comes from reading it - something she has not been doing. So we committed her to do so and it was just a very positive lesson! but that is not where it ends - a few hours later - this same less active came to an investigator lesson with us that ended up being on the Book of Mormon as well - which is not what we planned for! but Eva, the member who is less active currently, bore a very powerful testimony on the Book of Mormon and the power it has in our lives and it brought the spirit so strong that we committed our investigator to baptism! it was so neat! oh the power of the Book of Mormon. if you aren't reading it right now.. I suggest you start.

Another miracle of this week would have to be the miracle of the priesthood! but first - in FHE on sunday night, the lesson was on faith and how faith is the power behind the priesthood - so while only worthy males can hold the priesthood the POWER of the priesthood lies within all of us - man woman and child. It was a really cool insight! Back to the miracle though.. last tuesday, sister M and I bought us some barbecue potato chips - moms favorite! and we emptied 3/4 of the bag that day! they are just so good! and then on Wednesday - I was not feeling so hot - and by the afternoon, I was crippled over in pain! why? I hadn't eaten anything bad - or so I thought! While I was in bed - Sister M pulls the bag out of the garbage and exlaims "aha! Barley flour! in the potato chips!" dang lays. why do you put barley in your chips?? so my dear companion humbled me by calling the elders over to give me a priesthood blessing - and in the blessing, he blessed that I would be able to have a restful night where my body would be able to heal itself and repair any damage that had been made. how cool is that? and it worked! by the next morning I was ready to go! and it was a good thing I was becasue we had some wonderful lessons that day with a recent convert and a less active and an investigator. I love the priesthood. Thank you dad for holding it and so willingly giving blessings to your daughters when we needed them.

I will now be perfectly honest - this last week was probably one of the harder ones of my mission, but I know becasue I took the time and the effort to look for the little miracles each day - I found them! and boy they make the week look so good! so I encourage all of you to do the same. and I would ask you to let me know how it goes.. but no one ever does so I won't ask for feedback - just do it! and know that I love you!

Love Sister Stuart

The Stupor Returned...., Las Cruses, NM

It has been a good week here in the Land of Enchantment! I had the opportunity to serve in Hatch New Mexico for just 24 hours and in Spanish! and it was so exciting! I learned so much and was told that my Spanish actually sounds good and I have a good accent! now I just need to learn the words... maybe one day.

But our area is thriving! We are getting all kinds of new investigators from members and their friends and their is just a whole lot of exciting things happening- but sitting here at the computer, i couldn't tell you of a one ha! Writers block. it is a real thing. maybe it is more like a stupor of thought though. or maybe it is just paranoia becasue my companion is done emailing and is just sitting next to me waiting for me to be done.. yep that could be it too.

Despite the crummy email - I am well, the work is hastening and whom the Lord loves He is chastening. So I am getting my rear in gear! and not beeing apostate and not being lazy so we can convert like crazy!

I love you all!

it had a lot of potential, Las Cruses NM

i don't know if I sent these pictures to you already- so you may be enjoying them again! 

- This explains elder sister relations in my mission perfectly!

- The second is the crew at the mission home for MLC in December

This is how Sister Montini and I study! not really - usually my desk is very clean.. this was the day we reaaranged out entire apartment- moving our beds into the living room and our desks into the bedroom and we created new planners this day- so full of movement and creativity! but I promise - I am quite tidy now - we actually had cleaning inspections yesterday and they were very impressed at Sister M and I - actually making our apartment liveable now ha! I guess that is what happens when you take over an elders apartment..

And I saw my dear mother/trainer at transfer meeting last week. i love Sister Brown.

 My dear family - and those of you reading this who aren't family- remember that you actually are! for we are all children of the same divine parentage. is that a real word? i don't think so.. but I will use it anyway - our assistant ward mission leader likes to make up his own words (importancy, clarificating, etc..) and I guess it is really rubbing off on me - ooh forget it!

Here we are into another transfer and this one is monumental! Wondering why? It is the first one that has not included a change for me! Yahoo! My first second third and fourth transfers included new companions, my fourth and fifth included new areas and now sister montini and i are still together in the university ward- and school starts this week so we really are pumped! and they start on a thursday - weird.

I have again changed my mind on a career path for the future. I have decided I should become a firefighter. Sister M and I have been extinguishing fires all week long. Maybe more in the figurative sense than the literal sense - but it is still exhausting!

As missionaries- we keep what is called the area book and it has all the information in it that any missionary should ever need about the area(that is if they are maintained- but that is another story in and of itself!), who is being taught, what they have been taught, who could be potentially being taught, who the members are, and so forth. The section that contains the information on who could potentially be taught can be a real gold mine or a real flop- it has been somewhat of a flop for us recently.. it is a whole bunch of people who missionaries contacted in the street once - maybe knocked on their door once and weren't immediately rejected - so their name and information gets jotted for some later missionaries to attempt to bring to their attention this wonderful gospel that could be theirs! It is not always as successful as one would hope - rarely is it actually... but not this week! We took a member out teaching with us to an appointment who bailed - blah. But that is why we set backups! who also weren't there. blah. so we pull out the area book! and go to a potential Josue. Now mind you- we have tried him before. He would stick his head out the door and say- oh not right now- I am busy maybe another time but will he set another time.. no no. that would be preposterous. So as you may understand, i was not to hopeful. but we went with faith anyway! and we caught him when he was just stepping outside. We talked to him for a little while asked how he was and how he was introduced to the missionaries in the past and he told us they gave hima book of mormon and he is reading it!! what?? He is almost done with Mosiah. what?? So we were able to bear testimony on the truthfullness of the book and set a return appointment. oh my word it was a miracle! and there you have it.. a sister stuart story. they are still alive and well! 
and I think I will end on that note.. I even baffled myself with that one..

 The work is alive and well and will really be thriving in a few weeks- I'll be sure to keep you posted!

I love you all!

Sister Stuart

and parentage is a real word! speaking of - if anyone feels inclined to send me a dictionary - I would love them forever!