1st Baptism Santa Cruz

We baptized this week for the first time in Santa Cruz. His name is Franklin and he´s 10! 3 weeks ago he showed up in church with his grandpa, who is a member, and told us that he wanted to get baptized! We taught him the lessons and he got baptized by his grandpa! The lord had really prepared him and now we are working with his grandma! We don´t have many investigators here but the ones we do have they are progressing! I´m starting to really figure out what the mission is and why I´m here. I love the people here and I love you all!

Love,

Elder Stewart

Semana Santa

I hope all of you had a great Easter! The work was a lil hard this week. Everyone leaves for the week and leave all the rest of the drunk people here haha. I hope all of you had a good general conference. It was a lil hard for me because I got to watch la Conferencia general haha. I felt the spirit a lot but didn´t understand everything. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Stewart

6 Months!

This week was a pretty good week. Sorry I won´t be sending pics again because of how bad the computers are here. This week we went to the temple and that was awesome! We put baptismal dates all over in the month of April so we should be seeing some baptisms coming up soon. I´m working really hard to love my area and it´s working! I love the members here and now it´s raining references! We aren´t even contacting haha. Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

Santa Cruz (Moving Part 2)

This week has been my first week in my new area, Santa Cruz! It´s a lot more city like than Los 3 Brazos. The members here are awesome! My companion is Elder Rosales. He´s from El Salvador and he´s a funny sarcastic dude. He doesn´t know any English but for some reason, that hasn´t been much of a problem. The Lord provides! Something that is new is that is not so new to me here is I´m moving house again... Yay! We found an awesome house but we´ll see if we can get it. Right now the house we are in is infested with cockroaches and everything´s broken. Not fun. But I can´t wait to get things started here in Santa Cruz!

Love,

Elder Stewart

Good bye Los Tres Brazos

This week we finally got our baptism! We worked so hard this whole transfer planting seeds planting seeds. We made over 130 contacts and we baptized a boy named Jose Miguel. We met him back in the beginning of the transfer and he was always so interested in the book of mormon. He always told us what he had just read and was always so excited. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he felt the spirit very strong and started to cry a lil. We baptized him yesterday and was honestly my favorite baptismal service yet because everything went perfect. I got news on Saturday that I'm heading out and going to Santa Cruz and I'm going to be blanking the area! My companion will be Elder Rosales from El Salvador so my Spanish hopefully will get a lot better. Anyway I love you guys and see ya next week!

Jose Miguel's baptism

**Comments from other emails:

-I'm heading out tomorrow morning to Santa Cruz. It's across the river from Los Tres Brazos. My comp is from El Salvador he's been out for awhile, I think. The zone is called Villa Mella.

-I saved a bunch of baby kittens this week! I was on exchanges with our Hondurian zone leader and we couldn't find they lady we were looking for for an hour and a half. So, we were lost and I saw this plastic bag tied up on the side walk and I saw a kitten trying to get out and so I ran over and ripped open the bag and there ended up being 5 baby kittens in there still alive. We put them in a box and we gave them to the Segura family 3 miles away. They named one Stewart haha.

- You know how I told you Dominicans have giant speakers…here's one of the bigger ones haha!

That's our landlords who lives right underneath us.

Another Miracle

These past couple of weeks have been pretty hard but we finally got a miracle! We found a boy named Zion... Literally, his name is Zion and he´s a golden investigator. We are teaching him and know that he´s going to be baptized, he´s awesome. We have another baptism this coming Sunday so I´ll send pics next week. Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

**Comments from other emails:

-We have a baptism coming up this Sunday, Jose Miguel. He's super prepared.

-We are fed by the members a lot. They are so nice. Most of them are RM's. The bishop is 26. He's so awesome. It's the Los Tres Brazos Ward in the Ozama Stake. Our apartment is on the 2nd floor Of Street B house Number 3. 

- I bought a pineapple hat and made a soccer jersey. It kind of looks like a Man U jersey.

The jersey I drew and designed

My new jersey & pineapple hat

Awesome Caves

Before heading out to the caves today

Me, Elder Horsley & Elder Esserine cave exploring

This week the work was very slow. A lot of our investigators aren't progressing so we are going to have to move on. This P-Day we had an awesome trip to these hidden caves. I met back up with my old district and we dove down into the Dominican caves. The caves included: crystal clear ponds, huge drops, a trash mountain, and prehistoric spiders... The spider was bigger than my head haha. The DR has some amazing people out there and I can't wait to teach the people prepared by the Lord and bring them into His church. I finished the Book of Mormon again this week and I know it's true! The book has super good advice for any situation. So if you have a question, read and pray. Love you all!

Elder Stewart

Spider the size of my head and it had fangs! Those things were prehistoric! haha

Trash Mountain

Comp shaved my sides

We made Flautas!

I also made gnocchi

 **Photos received in an email from Discaurys Cruz 

Another week in the DR

This week we worked super hard! We contacted a ton, we worked with the members a lot and got them all excited about missionary work, and we did all we could in every minute this week. We went out and taught a bunch of lessons with members and we had a family history activity in the church yesterday and it was awesome! I love you guys and keep on praying!

Elder Stewart

Happy Valentine´s day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hey everybody! This week was awesome! I got to meet Elder Renlund and shake his hand! He´s such a chill guy and can really bring the spirit into the room. We also finished the move from house to house finally haha. We are working super hard here and contacting a ton! It´s getting a lil harder to baptize here but we´re working harder and walking farther. Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

Elder Renlund

Elder Alquicira & Elder Stewart
(This picture was taken on Friday and sent to me by someone in the DR.)-Noah's mom

I built a fire and cooked chicken on the roof of my new apartment because we don't have gas yet.

***Comments from other emails....

-We had a face to face with Elder Renlund on Saturday and that was cool. It was held at the mission office church building. The whole mission was there in one room for the first time in 8 months. 

-We contacted 25 new people this week and that was cool. We are shooting for more next week. Not this Saturday but the next Saturday we are trying for a baptism.

Transfers!

Discauri threw Elder Esserine and I a party before he left

Sorry for not emailing last week everybody! Super busy week! We had transfers and I said bye to Elder Esserine. But I'm out of my training now! I'm still in Los 3 Brazos but I have a new companion Elder Alquicira! He's an awesome dude from Atlanta, Georgia. He loves soccer and his favorite team is Barcelona so it's perfect! He's the District leader and has 7 months in the mission. We are working super hard out here and are trying to bring the ward to do more missionary work. Plus we are moving houses today so today's crazy! Here's a pic of me washing a member's car. Haha Love you guys!

Elder Stewart

Washing Discauri's car

My boys Charlis and Alan repping

My new companion Elder Alquicira & tacos

Fisher's of Men!... And Fish!

This week was another awesome week! We got another baptism! His name is Charli and he's an awesome lil dude! He's full of energy and accepted the gospel super quick! We also got permission to fish this week! We went with our investigators today fishing and it was fun! Elder Esserine and I didn't catch anything but our investigators caught a catfish haha. Loving the people, the work and you guys!

Elder Stewart

Ready to go fishing

The poles I made

Here's us making Chili at Ricardo's house in the rain over a fire. Those are his parents who we took fishing and they are investigators.

Here's Ermeilio the 90 year old man that wants to get married to his wife & baptized and we taught him to throw up gang signs. haha!

Found this gem at La Sirena. It's Grandma and Grandpas dart board thing!

Caught a pigeon. I caught it inside their house.  I grabbed it and it's their pet now. His name is Jeff. haha!

*Nacho Libre voice* BAPTIZE!

Alan and Adrian

Hey everybody! This week has been flipping crazy! From some of our investigators running away from home because they wanted to get baptized to giving counseling to a drunk investigator for 4 hours! Then an hour later baptizing his children... HAHA. So his kids have been wanting to get baptized for awhile now but we didn't have a baptismal date set with them. On Saturday, out of nowhere they said they wanted to get baptized that day so we taught them all the lessons they had interviews and baptized em haha. Their cousin was supposed to be baptized that day but his parents said no an hour before he was supposed to be baptized. He ran away crying and no one knew where he went for awhile. He has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and knows that it is true. I realized that reading the Book of Mormon with the intent to help others helps your understanding of the book so much! I've understood so much of it and feel the spirit every time I read. Love you guys have a great week!

Alan and Adrians baptism day last Saturday

Comments and photos from additional emails:

-It's raining off and on all the time even though this is the dry season. 

-I'm making a fishing pole out of pvc pipe and line. That's how the Dominicans fish. There are tarpon and grouper in the river.

-We haven't moved yet. We are waiting for the office elders to finish the paperwork before we can move.

Working out in the DR.
Made this shirt in Los Minas.

The boys after we played soccer today

Moving

Hey guys! So this week we found out a lady bought our house from under our feet and that we had to move. We went through a lot of house shopping but we finally think we have found the one haha. This week has been crazy looking for housing and the crazy lady kicking us out and preaching at the same time haha. But anyways happy new years everybody! Love you guys!

Happy New Year!

This past week consisted of a lot of drunk Dominicans in the streets haha. We weren’t allowed to go out into the streets very much because it was dangerous. Some kids thought it was a good idea to throw firecrackers in our house. So we got our water guns and shot them out our window and they got mad haha. We keep on finding new areas that the missionaries have never been too. Also, the Book of Mormon really is the most powerful tool in conversion and in just feeling the spirit. If you want to feel the spirit, turn to the Book of Mormon. It's got everything haha. Love you guys!

Love, 

Elder Stewart