Chapter Four: The 8th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

"Touchdown for Joseph Smith!!!" -a man on the street =)

              

               Ok thanks for all the e-mails; I really enjoyed hearing from the Shirley’s, J.D. and Stacey, Sara, J, and everyone else!  How was your birthday Abby? What did you end up doing anything fun/exciting?  And pioneer day? Did you do anything?  I'm glad the weather is better now so that you can all enjoy the summer.  Thankfully here, the temp finally got a little cooler so it's kind of bearable to be outside. =P

That's interesting what you told me that Grandpa Stewart said to you at my baptism.  I didn't realize it.  However, that's very interesting and inspiring. Thanks for telling me, I really like things like that.

I can't believe the Havrenne’s are having another baby!  That’s exciting, how are they doing? 

Dad, I really liked what you said about the "ripe fruit" that's something that is really hard to get to that in an area.  There are many people who are surprisingly willing to meet with us but it's hard to remember that we need to keep looking for those that are REALLY prepared.  In fact, the bigger the teaching pool the higher the chance of having a baptism.  It comes down to widening our influence.

Also, about Scotland, that sounds like a blast!! I'm excited for the chance to go.  Also, I was thinking to take a quick Ryanair flight down to Italy before I went to BYU if it's possible.

Anziano Errante is now here.  He is so great!  He's hilarious.  He’s in love with Quaker Oats, Degree deodorant, and Ranch dressing. =) He's already made pancakes... We are really good together in three.

Today, we did a quick tour in Reggio with Federico.  He needs to become a tour guide; he loves history and that kind of stuff.  Living here and knowing all the mythology and history really makes it interesting and alive.  If you have time, look up "the bronzes" from Reggio.  That’s what we saw today.

A really great miracle this week was that we had 6 people in church!! Granted 4 of them were African and don't speak Italian.... =/ but it was a great tender mercy. 

Tamara is having a lot of difficulty staying strong.  Peer pressure with her friends and just being 17 makes things really hard.  Hopefully we can get her out of this rut.

Well, I'm headed out I love you all, keep strong, read the scriptures, keep praying, keep growing your charity for others and I’ll hear from you next week. =)

              

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Mai a rendersi,

Anziano Stewart

Chapter Four: The 7th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

Reflections on the last 535,600 minutes of my life

In front of the Stake Center in Kaiserslautern

So this may be a bit short, I was hoping to have a bit of time to write but things happen.  I'm doing well, it's not too hot or at least not like it was last week.  Oh, by the way, I’m up to 43 liters of water that I've drunk since July 1st. =)

Anyways, I wanted to share with you 4 of the biggest lessons that I've learned in the last year of my life (on the 20th I complete a year as a missionary.)  

The first thing is the importance of being diligent.  It’s easy to decide that you're going to start doing something but we all have many failed New Year’s resolution stories that show how hard it really is to endure.  C.S. Lewis said, "you find out the strength of a wind by walking against it."  If we lie down or even stop walking we will not only never know how strong the wind is but we'll never know how far we could have gone or accomplished if we had kept walking or even began to run.  Diligence really is the key to getting things done and doing things with lasting effects.  It's also important to not run faster than you have strength, so that you can finish the WHOLE race, not just 100 meters of the 5K.  Brigham Young said, "the men and women who desire to obtain seats in the Celestial Kingdom will find that they must battle every day."  Without diligence we cannot make it.

The second thing is the importance of time.  There are 2 ways to think of the day.  Simply how to fill the 24 hours, or to think all of the opportunities that we will/can have and how we can take advantage of them.  The work goes much better when I ask myself "what's the most important thing to do right now?" instead of just "what could we do?"  Focusing on what matters most helps everything fall into place, like that FHE activity with the jar and the rocks, pebbles, and sand.  Sorella Kelly said something in this last Zone Conference that has helped me a lot.  She encouraged us to ask ourselves "if Christ had my opportunities what would he do?"

In Latin there's the saying "carpe diem" that means seize the day but literally it means make every moment count. Doing that really helps ensure the things you're doing are the very best things that you could possibly be doing.

The third thing is that I'm the only one who controls my happiness.  President Kelly once said, “we need to free ourselves from the weather.” (Many Italians let the weather decide how they feel.)  We choose if we are obedient, if we act (or are acted upon), or if we have charity.  If we choose to have/do these things we'll be happy. Punto.

Finally, we must put our trust in the Lord. (Isaiah 40:31)  When we complain it shows that we don't accept the trials or difficulties that the Lord feels we need. He has things in store for us that we can even imagine, far better than what we may have left behind. It is also empowering, when we put our trust in him, it connects us to his power. (3 Nephi 7:18) Gene R. Cook said, "I bear witness that we live far below our possibilities in living with the Lord.  We are too quick to turn to our own strength and not rely on him."  I know that if we exercise faith in him and throw ourselves in his arms not only will he catch us but he'll carry us to heights that we've never dreamed of.

I'm sorry, that's all the time that I have for today.  Thank you all for your e-mails and pictures, I love you all so very much!!  Stay safe. =)

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Mai a rendersi,

Anziano Stewart

P.S. I forgot something that I wanted to add at the end it's a quote from David O McKay "I’m not what I want to be, I'm not what I should be, but I'm not what I was", that’s exactly how I feel right now.

Chapter Four: The 6th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

Reggio Calabria Week 2

This week was once again very hot.  It's like 35-40 degrees Celsius (95-104) and around 90% humidity.  Fun.  =) Now that I've said that, last Wednesday we went to Bova Marina to take the sacrament to a member who is 93 years old and can no longer make it to church.  It was such a great experience to get to know him and the things that he's done, they've served like 5 missions either in the Swiss temple or other various assignments throughout Italy. The opportunity to do the ordinance was wonderful as the spirit was very strong!

Looking down to the lungo mare

Anziano Malan and me are getting along great.  We get up at 6 and run down to the lungo mare and workout.  He really got into crossfit before he came out and has a sweet packet of killer bodyweight workouts. We are very similar and we are both driven and want to get work done.  So, about the spicy food here in Calabria.  Honestly it's not very spicy but it's REALLY good.  There's this paste kinda stuff called  'nduja that is sooo good. The base is made of pig salami and then they add all kinds of spicy things and you put it on pizza, bread, pasta, really anything you want.  Oh, and I forgot last week about the address of our apartment, it is "Via Filipini 85/c  /  89125 Reggio Calabria, Italia" 

Tamara is doing great, sadly she wasn't able to come to church but she was talking with her priest (orthodox) and he basically told her that our church is the only church that she could change to and he'd be okay with it. So that's amazing she does feel a little guilty because she dances (since she was like 4) and she was reading "for the strength of the youth" pamphlet and now she feels like every time she dances and it's not classical dance she's sinning. She is very prepared.

This week during my study I followed up on a commitment I made to a missionary who went home a couple transfers ago, to read 2 talks in the April 2011 conference, “To Do, To Be” and “What Manner of Men Ought You To Be”,  both were very good talks that I’d actually like to read over a second time.  Oh, also I heard a quote this week from 2 people.  It’s from the Lion King (my favorite childhood movie. = D )  It's when Mufasa tells Simba "Look inside yourself Simba, you're more than what you've become.  Remember who you are."  

I think our Heavenly Father corrects us in much the same way. At times we forget our divine potential and need a soft, gentle reminder to get us back on course.

Well, I don't have much more time. I hope that you all have a great week, enjoy the summer, make some sweet goals and have a lot of fun!

--

Mai a rendersi,

Anziano Stewart

Chapter Four: The 5th Epistle of Anziano Stewart to the Calabrians/Messinites

AMERICA! Eat a hamburger for me

Week 1 in Reggio Calabria!

So, I made it safely to Reggio with Anziano Malan.  He's from Morgan Utah.  He's a really good missionary.  I'm excited to be serving with him.  The members here are a pochi ma buoni.  There's Presidente and Sorella Pipolo (Geatano and Sabrina)  They are both amazing!! They might be the most solid members that I’ve seen in Italy, especially Sabrina.  They are really involved in missionary work and ready to get work done! Yeah!! Then there are the other members that really need help strengthening their testimonies and progressing in the gospel. 

Our investigators (so far) are all teenagers! Cool huh? There's Tamara.  She's 17 and from Georgia.  She is orthodox, she has read the whole book of Mormon in Italian, it took her 2 months and now has started to read it in Russian.  She said the first time that she read Alma 32, she cried.  Then there's her friend Ahlam who's 16, she's Muslim and from Morocco.  She hasn't quite finished the Book of Mormon yet.  She doesn't believe that Christ was our Savior, so the Book of Mormon has had less of an impact on her but she still really enjoys it.

President has asked us to try for a baptism during July and I really think that Tamara can do it.  She just needs to come to church, which right now is a big obstacle due to family things.  Then there's Frederico, he's an 18 year old Italian who is interested in the history of the church.  He's Italian and speaks English really well.. Next pday, we're going to go on a tour of Reggio with him. =)

Reggio is Beautiful!! The Lungo Mare is amazing.   There’s a huge castle that is on the block next to ours and there are a lot of churches, museums and other cool stuff like that. But the big attraction is the beach, everyone goes to the beach except us because there's better things to do. =)

Because Reggio is on the coast, it's kind of a long city and the church is about 50 minutes on foot from our house.  So that's a big difference from what it was like in Messina with a car. Kind of a bummer, mainly because it's very hot and humid, walking outside for 50 minutes leaves you very sweaty but the weatherman said that this week is supposed to be the hottest week of the summer.  Personally I'm skeptical, but we'll see. 

Oh, I found a note from a couple months ago about a man who is from Bitonto but lives in Provo who might have been one of the companions of James. His name is Franco Lepore and his email is leporefranco at yahoo.com.  He wasn't sure if it was James (it was a long time ago) but you never know.

Well, that's all I have for now.  I hope that you all are enjoying your trip in Paris! I loved all the photos.  Sara, don't be a party Pooper!! 

Have a great 4th of July!!

Transfer calls are this Saturday, we'll see what happens!!! =P we both are going to stay FOR SURE! 

Ciao!

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Mai a rendersi,

Anziano Stewart