Stewart

Stewart is still serving in Lagunillas Chile and he is loving his mission. He was bummed to hear about the demise of WaMu since he worked there for 2 1/2 years and I'd like to thank Eric Jensen for pointing out that WaMu couldn't even go a few months without Stewart.

The Mission President's wife told Stewart he makes missionary work look easy. His response was, "i always have a smile, and am excited.... as you can tell in my e-mails and pictures..... my reponse to that was.... well i havnt had any hard days.... OH HOW THE LORD ANSWERS "PRAYERS" !!!"

Here is an excert from his latest e-mail. Please ignore the typos....

"about 3 weeks ago, elder cordova and i were walking down the street on our way to an appointment... there were about 10 punk teenagers in the street, and they were throwing rocks, pushing, hitting, yelling names at this one guy in the street.... the guy was yelling back and trying to fend off the kids but he has problems walking, so he couldn get away. i wanted to say somthing to the teenagers because its my nature to stand up for what is right, even if i am standing alone.... but i couldnt come up with any words, and the area we were in is kinda dangerous, so i didnt want us to get hurt also, or cause problems in the future.... so we contunied to walk. i listened to what was being said and felt bad that i couldnt do anything, especailly since we were walking RIGHT in the middle of it, kids on both sides of the street....... we were walking when i had this impression to talk to him, the guy being picked on, i didnt know what to say though and kept walking. about 2 steps more and this HUGE feeling came over me... GO HELP HIM!! i stopped right there...! elder cordova wondered what was goign on... i told him we needed to talk to this guy in the street. i turned around and walked about 5 steps and there he was... i told him we were missionaries and we were here to help him. at first he was scared and kept walking but i said i had a gift for him (a pass along card) he stopped and elder cordova and i surrounded him, protecting him from the kids throwing rocks.... which happened to fall just before our feet or flying over us, not one pentitrating our circle around this guy.... we talked and decided it would be better to go to his house... we went to his house, taught him a lesson and then set up another appointment.... we taught him all the lessons which he embrassed and understood, and in 3 weeks from meeting him in the street, Pedro was baptised this saturday!!
Pedro has some mild problems with is mind, and is physically impared with hands and legs, but none the less is such a sweet spirit.... sunday at church, he was there at 9 with a liahona, (ensign but in spanish), reading it... one hour before church even started... and was confirmed in that sacrament meeting.....

its a great story and i know that if i hadnt been prepared to listen to the words of the holy ghost we would of passed him and he wouldnt of been baptised. "

Here is a photo of Pedro at his baptism:



The boy is living proof that the apple doesnt fall far from the tree!!!


This is a photo of the entire Priesthood body of the Ward Stewart is currently serving in. 35 folks; way more than I thought it would be.

And finally, the phone rang today and by looking at caller ID it looked like a telemarketer. Ignored the call and a while later they called back. My interest was piqued so this time I answered.

The voice on the other end spoke broken English and at first i did not understand him. He repeated himself and I realized he was asking if I was Elder Ferrin's Dad. when I said I was, he told me he was walking down the street with Stewart as we spoke.

Next thing I knew, Stewart was on the phone wishing me a happy birthday. He was on splits with a kid in the ward who is leaving on his own mission to Argentina in three weeks and the kid needed to call SLC for something regarding his mission. I guess when he was able to use his cell phone to call Salt Lake, Stewart got the bright idea to call me.

We spoke for about three minutes as they walked along some street in Lagunillas. He was laughing and clearly is enjoying his mission. I dont like him breaking a mission rule but it was the best birthday present I could get.