Hola querida familia!
It has been a crazy week! (At least weather wise) It was really heating up and then all of the sudden this week has been pretty chilly. We had a tornado touch down right outside of the city of Rockford. It ran for 20 miles! But luckly just in rural farmland areas. So that was fun! The sirens were going off that night with lots of hail and lightning, I'll send a picture.
Some pretty great things have been happening this week! One highlight that I will share was meeting a woman named Maria Inez. We were out and about talking to everyone that we could, and got referred to knock on her door. The way that she responded to our message was definitely another one of those, "wow" moments on my mission of how prepared people are. She is a religious woman who has been seeking to come close to God all of her life. She has visited many different churches throughout the years but has never really found anything that she felt completely settled in. When we taught from the Book of Mormon and read passage about "other sheep" (John 10:14-16) Her eyes got a wide and she said, "I knew it! No one else at my church believes me, but I knew that there had to have been more prophets in the world than just those in the Bible." It was really impressive and we have already taught her twice! Pray that all goes well!
Another hilarious experience happened later in the week when I was on exchanges with Elder Western. We met a man walking on the street on his way to the liquor store and offered to replace his beer with a burger from McDonnalds. We sat down and talked with him and the poor man had quite the story. The funny part is that I pulled out my pen to write our phone number down and he said totally serious, "Put away your pen, man. I've got a pen fettish whenever I see nice pens." Hahaha He was going to steal my pen after my companion had bought him a burger. We laughed about it.
My title "Jambo" means hello in Swahili. I gave a baptismal interview to a lady yesterday who is from the African Congo. I had to have a translator in order to communicate. It just goes to show how many different cultures we come across here! It is so much fun. They are incredibly kind people!
I love my mission more than words can describe! I love the people of Illinois.
Los quiero mucho familia!
Con amor,
Elder Stewart-Chester
It has been a crazy week! (At least weather wise) It was really heating up and then all of the sudden this week has been pretty chilly. We had a tornado touch down right outside of the city of Rockford. It ran for 20 miles! But luckly just in rural farmland areas. So that was fun! The sirens were going off that night with lots of hail and lightning, I'll send a picture.
Some pretty great things have been happening this week! One highlight that I will share was meeting a woman named Maria Inez. We were out and about talking to everyone that we could, and got referred to knock on her door. The way that she responded to our message was definitely another one of those, "wow" moments on my mission of how prepared people are. She is a religious woman who has been seeking to come close to God all of her life. She has visited many different churches throughout the years but has never really found anything that she felt completely settled in. When we taught from the Book of Mormon and read passage about "other sheep" (John 10:14-16) Her eyes got a wide and she said, "I knew it! No one else at my church believes me, but I knew that there had to have been more prophets in the world than just those in the Bible." It was really impressive and we have already taught her twice! Pray that all goes well!
Another hilarious experience happened later in the week when I was on exchanges with Elder Western. We met a man walking on the street on his way to the liquor store and offered to replace his beer with a burger from McDonnalds. We sat down and talked with him and the poor man had quite the story. The funny part is that I pulled out my pen to write our phone number down and he said totally serious, "Put away your pen, man. I've got a pen fettish whenever I see nice pens." Hahaha He was going to steal my pen after my companion had bought him a burger. We laughed about it.
My title "Jambo" means hello in Swahili. I gave a baptismal interview to a lady yesterday who is from the African Congo. I had to have a translator in order to communicate. It just goes to show how many different cultures we come across here! It is so much fun. They are incredibly kind people!
I love my mission more than words can describe! I love the people of Illinois.
Los quiero mucho familia!
Con amor,
Elder Stewart-Chester