Valentin & Juniors Baptisms

Hola!!! 

This week went super well!! Valentin and Junior had their baptisms on Saturday and it was so amazing to see!! They are such great examples!! Their testimonies are super strong. It is so crazy that I met them my first day here and just to see how much they have grown!! Also we bought them the ties they are wearing in the pic!! We love them so much they are awesome!!

We put down a date for baptism with our awesome investigator Claudia. She is the sweetest! She is super open and willing to learn everything. She is awesome. Satan obviously does not want her to be baptized and learn about the gospel. When we were teaching the First Vision, a giant rock flew out of nowhere and almost hit me and then Hermana DeGolyer in the head. We watched it come from the roof of Claudias house which was super weird. It was in a straight line towards us and then it was as if someone hit it a different direction so it would not hit us. It was so wild!! I know that we are protected here as representatives of Jesus Christ. Super crazy experience though!

I gave my first talk yesterday in front of the whole congregation at church. I was way nervous but everyone said my Castellaño was perfect. I mostly read off what I had written the whole time but hey, at least I did it! It was a really awesome experience. 

I just want to thank everyone for all your support! Love you lots!! I invite you all to go on mormon.org if you have questions about what I am doing all the way out here in Argentina. You can also email me whenever! I also invite you to read the Book of Mormon. It is truly the word of God here on the Earth to be used together with the Bible. It is how we know where we were before this earth, why we are on the Earth, and where we are going. I am super blessed to have this knowledge in my life and I am so so happy to be able to bring this knowledge to the people of Argentina!! Love you all so much!!

Hermana Stewart

Valentin & Junior's baptism 2/25/17

Congratulations Valentin & Junior!

Hola!!!

Hey everyone!

    This week was really awesome! Valentin and Junior passed their baptismal interviews yesterday!! We are so excited for them to get baptized this Saturday!! They've been waiting for this day for a long time! I feel so blessed that they picked us to teach them. They are so awesome. 

    In other news, we were walking down the street the other day and this lady right in front of us started yelling. This guy was attacking her and we thought it was a boyfriend and girlfriend having problems. Then he started hitting her and he grabbed her phone and ran. She was screaming way loud and ran after him and they both ran right in front of us. But he got caught by a cop and like 10 other people running after him. It was also the middle of a day on a busy street. Not very smart of him if you ask me. 

    We also had a spider named Franco that appeared this week. He was as big as my hand!!!! The biggest spider I've ever seen. Sadly we killed him. Poor guy. But he was scary.

    Anyways, I hope you guys are doing well! I love getting your emails! I´m sorry I don´t always respond. I have like a super limited amount of time here. 

Love you all!!

-Hermana Stewart

Franco!

Our first Kinder Eggs because they are illegal in the U.S.

Valentin, Hermana Degolyer and I

The Costanera

P-day at the River

Rio Uruguay

**This is Maren's mom** 

I asked Maren a few questions:

Her favorite food so far is helado. (Which is ice cream). 

She eats a lot of bread and meat. 

There is a sister that cooks for them occasionally and she makes awesome food. Her name is Hermana Walingre. She makes awesome fruit salad and she made them amazing gnocchi last week.

They mostly walk or take the Collectivo (bus).

It takes 20 minutes to get to church walking.

She washes all of her clothes by hand.

She says there are stray dogs and cats everywhere! 

Their branch has on average around 30 people but last week it rained so only 15 people were there. 

She is loving it! She said the river was beautiful but she got a little too much sun. 

Her apartment just got an AC unit installed right before she got there. (This is very lucky seeing that the temperatures have been in the 80's & 90's with 80-100% humidity)! 

She emails us from a Cyber cafe. She said "it's like a dirty Chuck E. Cheese, you can feel yourself breathing in the spores." Haha!

Vamos Argentina!!

Hola amigos!

    I am in Argentina!! I love it here! I am in a city called Concordia. My companion is Hermana Degolyer. She is from Colorado and she´s way cool. She has had 3 months here and she is an awesome trainer. 

     Argentina is beautiful! Concordia is right next to Uruguay and I can see Uruguay from my window! It´s hot here because it is the middle of summer. There are lots of mosquitos so I wear pants every day! It is way awesome that we get to do that here! So every day it will just randomly start dumping the hardest rain I´ve ever seen. We walked to church in the pouring rain yesterday it was awesome! We were the only people outside because the people of Argentina don´t like rain. 

     So this week I have been called Hermana Starwars because no one can pronounce my name here. I have also been told I look like Angelina Jolie haha (I wish). I can´t understand a lot of what the people say but I think it will come with time. The Castellano accent is hard to understand but I learn more and more each day. I gave my testimony yesterday at church and the members could understand me and said it was good. So that´s awesome! It´s a missionary´s job to testify through the spirit, so if I can only do that, I´m set! 

     The people here are amazing! I love them so much. They are so nice and loving. Everyone stares at me because I am blonde and because I am a "Yankee" or "Shankee" with the Castellano accent.        Something different from the U.S. is that everyone besos when they see each other. If you remember me from about 7 weeks ago, it was hard to get a hug out of me! Now I beso every lady I meet! Its way cool. 

     I am so happy to be out here teaching the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We have 2 baptisms on the same day of best friends Junior and Valentin. They are 15 and 16 years old and they have some of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard. They are so excited to be baptized and we are so excited for them! It is amazing to see how much joy and light comes from the gospel! 

     I know that we are all children of God and he has a plan for all of us. He knows each of us individually. He wants us to find joy in this life and to complete all the steps necessary to return back to live with him. Pray for anything you need and I know he will answer you! I love this gospel so much and I love sharing it with all the people here in Concordia! 

Thank you for all your love and support! 

-Hermana Stewart

Buenos Aires Temple

Inside my apartment

My room

My view

Concordia, Argentina

President & Sister Pérez & Hermana Degolyer

Argentina Bound!

Hola amigos!

     This week flew by!! I am leaving to Argentina in 2 days!! Pretty crazy! I don´t really feel ready at all but I don´t think any of us would be unless they just threw us right in! 9 of the 12 in my district are going on the same plane to Georgia and then Buenos Aires. The other 3 are going to Spain and Bolivia. Elder Beus and Elder Arnett both broke their feet this week but they are still being allowed to leave on Monday which is pretty sick. We are all way nervous but excited to share our message with all the people we come in contact with! Hermana Lindsley and I were chosen to do the People and My Purpose Meeting on Wednesday. The newbie missionaries have it their first night here. Its a huge group and one investigator. They have 2 missionaries come in and start off the lesson with getting to know the investigator. It was way cool that we were chosen to be the example to all the new missionaries! It was also way weird to do it in English. So that gives me hope for Spanish then right? I´m pretty nervous to leave on Monday, but I know it´s where I am supposed to be. I am sad to leave my district here at the MTC but I am so glad to have met all of them. 5 of us are going to Santa Fe and it´s going to be so awesome!! I love you guys a lot! Thank you so much for all your support! The next time you hear from me I´ll be in Argentina!! I can´t wait to see what happens in the next 17 months!

Hermana Stewart

Sunny day at the temple

My district

Argentina bound!

Flight plans!

Hola!

     We got our flight plans last night!!! We are flying from here to Georgia on February 6th! That flight is 6 hours, and then a 12 hour flight to Buenos Aires and then we must be taking a bus after that. So crazy! I can't believe it's actually happening! I'm pretty worried because I don't know any Spanish!! I can talk a little bit about church things but other than that I feel like I can't say anything at all. So that's pretty nerve-racking. I am nervous about that and also about the actual flight. Also I've never been out of the country before so this should be an adventure!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated! It literally makes my day to get all your emails and pictures! My district is so excited to leave!! We all get to fly on the same flight except for one elder that is going to Madrid! We are actually pretty hyped to leave and teach real people! (and eat real food). But yeah, I just love being out here and learning and serving! I am so happy to be a part of the same church that Jesus Christ established. I am so blessed to have the opportunity to serve him and the people of Argentina!! 

Love you all! 

-Hermana Stewart

Hermana Seely and I in front of the Provo temple

We got matching shirts! 

All smiles!

Argentina!

The Elders in my district

Book of Mormon

     This week has been really good. I have come to realize how amazing the Book of Mormon is. It is the most correct of any book on Earth. I know that if any of you will read it, and pray to know that it is true, you will have it revealed to you. The Book of Mormon answers all my questions I ever have. It is amazing how every time I need something, I am able to read it and find my answer!! It has been so much easier for me to understand recently and I have a greater testimony. I have learned so much more about the gospel and what it means to me. I want to share it with everyone! I am not learning Spanish as well as I was at the beginning. We are going to try to work on it more as a companionship this week. I am getting more and more anxious to leave the CCM and go out into the field! We have been doing so well with teaching our investigator. The gift of tongues is real!! I have been thinking a lot lately about how hard it was for me to get out here on my mission and how many trials I had to go through to get here. I know for a fact that I am supposed to be here, in this district with these elders and hermanas. Most of all, I know that I am called by God to teach the people of Santa Fe, Argentina at this specific time. I am so grateful to be a missionary serving Jesus Christ and that I get to bring his restored gospel and message of happiness to those who don't have it. I want to challenge you all to read the Book of Mormon and to pray to know of its truthfulness! Love you and miss you all so much! I love looking at your emails and pics throughout the week on my ipad!! Hope you all have an amazing week!

Hermana Stewart

at the Provo, Utah Temple

The Hermanas

Packages are awesome!

New Missionary Host

Krispy Kreme Package!

Visiting the Provo Temple

Hola everyone! 
     This week flew by sooo fast! I am loving being here and getting to teach real investigators lessons completely in Spanish!! It is so crazy that I am able to understand most of what is said in Spanish and then I can reply!! 2 weeks ago all I could say was hola and that I like cats. We went to the temple last Saturday and it was so amazing. We get to go again today and I am so excited! I love my companion so much! Hermana Lindsley is definitely 10/10 and I love teaching lessons with her. We got to teach an investigator this whole week at TRC named Maribel. She is literally the sweetest, funniest human on the planet. We taught her how to pray. We also taught her about the restoration of the gospel and how it blesses families. We have taught her 3 times and its so amazing to see how much closer she is coming to Christ. Neil L. Anderson came and spoke to us at a devotional this week and it was the coolest!! He taught us that only with time can we see the full benefits of missionary service. He also taught us that if you don't know what to say, speak of the Savior. I learned this week so much about Christ by reading and studying the scriptures. He is the perfect example and brings so much happiness. I love how much happiness the simple truths of the gospel can bring. I love being a missionary and I am so grateful to be here! Thank you guys so much for your support! I miss you all and I love hearing from you and seeing pictures!! I love you all so much and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love- Hermana Stewart

Provo, Temple

The Nativity