Romans 1:15

So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
Romans 1:15

19 October 2011

The 4th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Neopolitans


“If you love scampia, you'll find a sea of love''

Ok, first, this week was awesome!!!!! I’m so excited to be a missionary! =) and yes that construction site was the temple and now I hear they’ve poured the foundation for the temple which is pretty cool.  The debit card should be sorted out I just need to wait to get a new one...  our investigators are making a lot of progress.  Sadly, we have to move Emi's date back to the 1st weekend in November but that’s just to be sure she’s ready.  
 Anziano Miller, Emi, and Anziano Stewart

Yesterday me and Anziano Meldrum got to teach Ashley about the Law of Chastity which was fun.  Ha ha, it was the 1st time for both of us.  It went well.  Anziano Miller was sick... =(  about Fratello Leonardo.... we don’t know why he’s under house arrest, he should be out soon but he’s meeting a lot with attorneys and magistrates so hopefully its almost over but well see... thanks so much for the package!! I cant wait!!!! this is so exciting. =)  We actually have an appointment tonight with Vincenzo and his family and they’ll all be new investigators, we’re really hopeful for them.  He wants his sons to know more about the gospel and Jesus so we’re the guys for the job. =P 
About the moleskin journals, if you just want to put the money in my account I can get them here so you don’t have to send them.  I wouldn’t worry about that for a little while, there’s no rush for those. Thank you for everything!!!!!!
Now a little about Napoli (in response to uncle Ben’s e-mail.)  It’s crazy that Centrale was its own zone when you were here.  Now they have closed Natzionale and merged it with Centrale. So there’s only one branch in Centrale, this is the area the 2 Napoli copias cover.  Then there’s Caserta where there’s 2 other missionaries, them plus 4 of us is a district. Then there’s Pozzuoli, Battipaglia, and Castelamare.  These are the cities in the Napoli zone.
The mission home is still on via Cimone but they recommend sending the packages to the office (Rome 2 ward building).

Yeah we have the same problem still, once people decide to change their lives and come closer to Christ, they realize that there are better places to live so they move to Como up north... Ha ha ha yes, we still call such groups the mickey mouse club. =)  it really is completely different here for people to live the gospel, it requires 100% dedication all the time.  that’s why i admire the youth so much here.  I cant imagine growing up in a city like this. 

Dont worry about me eating enough buffalo mozerella or margherita pizza, I can do that!  Ha ha!!  yes, the Napolitani have taught me quite a bit of the dialect... some words not so good.  there’s a man on the end of our street who always tries to get us to say stuff... ha ha  but my favorite is wheyyy guiygiun (pretty sure I spelled it wrong..)  But it just means something like hey dude. 

Last week was my 1st scambia (change companions) and I went around Caserta with Anziano Lemmon (I think I sent a picture home...) it was pretty fun but there was no one on the street, it wasn’t like Napoli at all!!! 
Oh and here’s a little miracle from the week.  We had a great week planned out last week but it kind of fell through so we were pretty bummed out, and we had worked really hard which didn’t help.  But we were sitting down for the 1st hour of church and an ex investigator (Marco) walked in out of the blue! Which was a miracle!  We were talking with him and he wants to be baptized, so were working towards that with him.  Then as we were getting ready for sacrament meeting (last hour)  we were all sitting down.  I was next to Emi and Marco and Anziano Miller was next to Ashley and Ciro (a less active were working with)  and then someone we had stopped a couple weeks ago walks into the church and sits down next to Anziano Miller.  So we ended up with 4 investigators in church which was double what we were expecting.  It was so great! =)

Ok well its been good, I need to go but I hope all is well and the Lord's hand can be seen in all aspects of your life. Until next week. =)
--
Vi Voglio Bene e Distinti Saluti,
Anziano Stewart

Anziani Stewart and Miller with Marco

16 October 2011

The 3rd Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Neopolitans

Soooo how about that new temple in Provo eh!?!?!? who's excited???!!! Okay, first some requests for items in packages (since it's free and there's no tax) (also these aren't needed but what ever you can send would be really appreciated) iPod (w/ Mindy Gledhil on it), PEANUT BUTTER (at least 1 crunchy), brownie mix, hot sauce, q tips, umbrella (a pretty decent one because I'd like it to last, otherwise, i'd buy one from an African here...), deodorant, cake mix (not as important as brownies!), whey (maybe just in a bag to save weight and space?), and my collega and the other coppia in the house have requested cereal, so if its possible they'd be very grateful if you could send just something like the big, cheap malt-o-meal bags of fruity pebbles, and 2 Captain Crunch w berries now don't feel like you have to send it all of this, this is just meant as something to use as a guide. :P

Whew, now on to the good stuff!! So this week was District Conference and Zone Conference. both of which were incredible but it did cut out 2 days of missionary work... :/  anyways after Zone Conf, our goal as a Zone is to find as many families as we can I really like this because families is what this work is all about! The problem we have is when you meet with a family, they can all be on board and usually are, except for the Capo della Famiglia or the husband and as soon as he's had enough its game over.  So we have to think of a way to fix this problem, and if you have any sugestions please over them. :)

Emi is doing great, she's really making progress but I'm not sure she'll be ready by the 22nd to be baptized.  Ashley declined the 22nd as her baptisimal date (even though she would be ready) because she wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before she decides so were trying to work with her to keep her moving forward.  Oh and then there's Damien, he's from the Ivory Coast and works at the awesome pizzaria down the street and is inches from the baptismal font but the only problem is his testimony of Joseph Smith...it should be firmer.  We're also working with 2 part member families and they are on the edge,  they are so close to keeping commitments and coming to church, its so frustrating!!!!  But things will move forward.

I have to tell you, we met with a man who is a member and he knows soooo much about the doctrine of the church and his testimony is rock solid and getting stronger BUT he's under house arrest!  Yeah, how in the world does that happen.... we're not sure but he swears he was set up and didn't do it.  I hope things end up well with him.  (his name is Fratello Leonardo)

My companion is from Salt Lake City and before his mission he was kind of less active, but he has so much to share and the people here just love him.  He likes to dirt bike and so does his mom.  We wake up at 0600 and work out for an hour then we do companionship and individual study and are out of the house by 10. Then we usually find investigators... and then come back at 1300 for lunch and language study.  Basically that's when riposo starts then after riposo we go out and teach.  We shoot for 3-4 lessons a day.  We then are back in our humble casa by 2200 and get ready for bed. 

I can't wait for Halloween!! We're actually having a Branch Halloween party and we hope it turns out well.

Abby,  American heritage was a blast!! Just make sure you do everything you can!! (like the service and such) you'll need it.  The tests usually are curved so hopefully it gets a little better...isnt it fun!?! :P  About plasma, its fine to donate but you need an appointment and the 1st time it takes like 3 hours... just so you can plan for it.  That's good to hear about BYU's football team, what's their record?

That's great about Maren and Julianna and homeschooling; it sounds like they are just having the best time!!  (MAKE SURE YOU'RE SENDING PICTURES ALSO!!)   Mom, it would be nice if you fasted but the Missionary Handbook says we shouldn't ask people back home to do that...but thanks for the prayers!!  Things here are just wonderful, like f.llo del core (il dirigente del lavoro missionario del ramo) (Branch Mission Leader) says, "we're about to have an explosion of baptisms!"  Ha ha he's great!! I'll make sure to include a picture of him next week!

Before I go I just want to ask that each of you do missionary work with your missionaries because it's so important to have awesome members.  Anything like splits, giving them a referral, teaching someone with them, even temple or genealogy work if not anything else. Doctrine and Covenants 19:10 (i think that's the one...)

I love you all and pray for you daily!!

Anziano Stewart

13 October 2011

The 2nd Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Neopolitans


Okay this is going to be kind of fast, but there'll be pictures!!!  I'm glad about the package, sorry about the confusion, but it was possible to send it for free so thats what I did and about the money withdrawal it was just so I could have money for some food but now things are good and I won't need to pull any out.  Sorry for the confusion. 

My address is:
via g. Jannelli, 23
80128 Napoli,Italia

Send all packages to the mission home and only letters to napoli!!  If there's a request on facebook from someone named Kumar add him, he's an investigator.  What's your address in Germany??
Thats some good news about BYU. :) (beat Utah State) and yes conference was incredible!!! Sadly, only one of our investigators could come but thankfully that meant I could watch in English for which I'm so grateful.  Many things were said that I was looking for and that we can use for our investigators!

We haven't had a baptism yet, we only set a date and we haven't met with Ashley yet to see what she says but hopefully its a resounding yes.  Emi, is kind of a slow learner so it can be frustrating when you teach a principle and find out she didn't understand anything from the past 10 minutes.... but were working with her and the progress is forward. Right now there's a sister (a member, not missionary) from Russia who needs work and a place to live so it's been a hard and frustrating couple days hopefully we can find something that works for her.... here the branch is about 50 strong BUT there are 500 inactive; thats a lot of work.

If we can start to get some progress with the in-actives I think it will be really good. Our area is pretty big, I was wrong about the number of people, there's about 3,100,000 people here!! We're right in it, in the heart of Napoli. I'll get better at taking more pictures, there's just too much work!! :) our days are mostly appointments which is pretty surprising,  but I looove tracting (going door to door), Italians are so great! Most likely I'll be here for 2 transfers (about 12 weeks) but I hope I can make it 4 or even more, also I hope I can finish here :)

I don't have to worry about suits for a while or at least I hope... I'll find out next Tuesday at zone conference but the clothes are fine, they work... :) and the shoes are so worth it!! I'm in love :) and no my bag hasn't been stolen yet. It's really interesting, when they see you're a missionary, leave you 100% alone its really cool. Money is good, we have enough and I set up a budget to keep track of it :) peanut butter would be kind of nice though. Maybe we can go to the base here and pick some up, that way you won't have to send it. If you want to pay for it you could just put money on my card and then i'll buy it, ok?

Its so nice to hear about all the girls, I'm glad they are doing so well, its good to hear. How is Abby? How do the girls like their teachers? Any news about a job for dad? Well I'm going to head out but I love you all and hope things are good. Gotta go do work!

Ciao

04 October 2011

The 1st Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Neopolitans

Ciao family!!
ok I know all those people, you can add them all to facebook. I don’t have my address here in Napoli with me but next week I’ll send it.  real quick about packages, try to not send packages, but if needed send all packages to the mission home. and try to not lie but at the same time on the customs form if anything is valued at over 40 euro or dollars they charge an arm and a leg to pick it up so try to avoid that...  letters are fine to send to me here in Napoli but towards the end of the transfer you might want to send them to the mission home just in case. 

I sent a package to Abby that had a couple things I couldn’t fit in my suitcases.  and also the SD card.  can she just put it in a dropbox account that you have access to and that way you can get them too?
it's great to hear that everyone is ok, I’m so happy you’re all good. 

the pizza in Napoli is the best pizza in Italia which is good and bad... I get to enjoy it but every pizza i eat after Napoli won’t be as good... and about the water here don’t worry I’m only drinking bottled water.

its good to hear BYU won this week, they can next week also.  but I heard USU played nicely against Auburn.  that’s admirable! =P  Sara’s tearing it up huh?! that’s sweet!! what position is she playing? how are the other girls?

its too bad to hear about a member losing their testimony.  it really is soooooo simple all that’s needed is to read the scriptures, pray and go to church. basta. and Satan knows all he needs to do is get someone to stop doing one of those things and he’s got them. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the story of your experience with the other side, I’d love to though if you have time.

Ok, so about Napoli.  it’s awesome. honestly I feel like it’s the true heart of Italy.  the dialect (Napolitano) is really hard to deal with, I think uncle Ben understands what I’m talking about. and the city is kinda dirty, but it’s part of the experience, I LOVE IT! the branch were in is Napoli central and there’s another couple of missionaries in the branch with us.  my trainer is Anziano Miller.  the other coppia is Anziani Meldrum (I was in the MTC  for a while he was in there) and weeks. 

all 3 of them are amazing.  Napoli has a reputation of being one of the hardest zones in the mission but I don’t believe it. (and honestly don’t see why, there's 2 million people here and only 4 missionaries, that means there's plenty of people to teach!!!)  we have so much good work going on right now.  we have a ton of people coming to general conference which is sooo great. there's an investigator we have, Ashley.  she’s golden!! she’s from Peru, 17, and more than ideal. we don’t have a baptismal date... yet.  we’re going to ask her on Friday to set a date. but she was asking about church and we were explaining about general conference and she stopped us and said.  "wait, am i allowed to come? Because I would really like to." and we just stopped and didn’t know what to say. ha-ha. 

also, my first night here, right after English class, we taught a lesson and set a baptismal date for Emi.  she's been investigating for a while but she’s kind of a slow learner so Ii think it’s  finally clicking.  her faith is incredible.  I forgot how much I really love the Italians and their culture, especially Napoli, I’m already dreading the day I have to leave this incredible city .I’m glad all is well.

vi amo
Anziano Stewart

P.S.  if you could just pray for those were teaching, but most importantly pray for those in Napoli that are ready to hear that we can find them and bring them closer to Christ.  i love you!