New Challenge: Finish the Book of Mormon in 6 Days

pictures:

*Kristine's Baptism

*"Sister Rose- LOVE HER!! We extended a baptismal invitation the first time we taught her."

*"Tatay Rufino- THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND!!!! Finished the Book of Mormon in 6 days!!!!!!"

*Hangin' with the Elders

*Workin' hard

email: sydney.stewart@missionary.org 

WOW I have big news. One of the biggest miracles of my whole mission happened this week!! Tatay Rufino finished the whole Book of Mormon... IN SIX DAYS!!!!!! And he understood it! He told us very specific stories about what he read. We were blown away! I have never had anyone that I've taught finish the Book of Mormon, let alone in 6 days!! I think we can all give a little more time to the Book of Mormon, what do you think? We just met him last week. It's crazy to see how perfect Heavenly Father's plan is. We weren't able to find who we were looking for, we turned down a random street, he was sitting outside at that random time, my companion saw him out of the corner of her eye and said hi, his eyesight is still good enough to read... all these things worked out! There are no coincidences. Heavenly Father really does know all things!

On the bad side, we have a rat terrorizing our home. Rats are like 10x bigger here in the Philippines. I am very scared to see it. We set up a sticky trap to catch it, but my companion and I are the ones who have gotten trapped. Twice. Our apartment is too small to avoid stepping on the trap. I'll keep you updated if we catch it.

Many many miracles are happening! Stay in tune. I love you all!

Sister Stewart

MIRACLES and the Juice Thief

pictures:

*Teaching in one of the factories (who knew someone would take a picture of them praying 🤣)

*Temple visit yesterday

*They arrived at the temple at 4:45am, waking up at 3am

*A few of the factory friends

*The face of a missionary hoping to find a Jeepney with some open seats on a busy morning

email: sydney.stewart@missionary.org

Family and Friends,

Magandang hapon po sa ating lahat! Taytay 2 Ward is doing fantastic. We have so many miracles happening here. We have been doing a ton of finding. I'm going to tell you about two amazing people we found this week...

Brother Rufino: We were trying to find this person that had been taught back in the day but after looking for quite a while, we decided we would just try to teach a new person right when we meet them. We saw this tatay right away just sitting and staring at the wall in front of him. My companion called out to him and asked if he was ok. He immediately smiled and said that he was doing great. As we kept talking to him, he invited us to sit down and told us that he was excited to have visitors. We asked if we could share and he said, "of course!". As we started to introduce our message and our purpose, we both felt prompted to share about temples which I don't think I've ever done on the first lesson. We felt the Spirit strongly and left him with a Book of Mormon and an invitation to read it. He said he was available everyday and to come back anytime. Two days later, we walked up to his house and there he was reading the Book of Mormon, already in 1 Nephi 5. We taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We came back the next day to follow up with him about going to church and he was now in chapter 11! Although he was not able to go to church this week, he was excited to make it the next week. Brother Rufino will be a strong member of the Church, I know it. The Book of Mormon is powerful!

Sister Rose: I LOVE Sister Rose! She is a beautiful, sweet girl who works at a small store with a member that we know. We went by their store and the member introduced us to her and helped us set an appointment. When we went back on Valentine's day, which also happened to be her birthday, she was so excited to hear what we had to say! Right away, we felt the Spirit so strongly and Sister Tampis and I both got a really strong impression to talk about baptism. The Spirit whispered to me and told me that we should extend the invitation to be baptized (even though this was the first time teaching her!) but then a distracting old man came in and wouldn't stop talking. He seemed to be very interested in me and my American heritage, so I kept talking to him and with telepathy that Sister Tampis and I have mastered, I told her to keep teaching. So, as I talked to him, I was praying that my companion would receive the same prompting that I had and extend the invitation to be baptized. I was only able to join them for the closing prayer and was able to see her excitedness about the Book of Mormon. She got tears in her eyes and explained how excited she was to be able to have a gift on her birthday, which she doesn't get very often. She held the book tight and told us that she would take good care of it. After leaving I asked my companion how it was. When she told me, "I extended the invitation for baptism and she said yes," my eyes couldn't help but tear up! My prayer had been answered and my companion was in tune with the Spirit. I knew she would be. We were so overwhelmingly happy!

 

Funny story para masaya: We had just been given juice by our friend and were walking up this hill. I downed my juice really fast, but my companion and Sister Angel, the member that was working with us, were slowly sipping. A man coming down the hill walked straight to my companion, took her juice, then took Angel's juice, and said "akin na iyan" which pretty much means "that's mine now." He walked away and we watched him drink both of the juices in two big gulps. We laughed for a good half hour and I said a silent prayer in my heart that that man enjoyed their juice:)

Dang sorry that was a long email! Just so many things to tell! I love you all! Ingat po, always!

Sister Stewart

BIG CITY

pictures:

*Sydney with her new companion Sister Tampis

*Huge grocery stores in the big city (not nearly as fresh of produce as in the province, though)

*Glamour Shots, Filipino style

email: sydney.stewart@missionary.org

*I didn't edit a thing in her email 😂

OH MY STARS I'm like a country girl who's never traveled anywhere in her whole life who's been dropped in the middle of New York City. I am in the real world. It's excitingly scary! I'm loving it so far. I do feel a little homesick (Siniloan homesick) but my area and my companion are amazing! So our area is huge and there's a lot of work to do which is AWESOME!! I love having a lot of work to do. There was supposed to be an added companionship here but it's just us two. But we can do it:)

The thing I am most excited about is FOOD!! Haha there's McDo!! And malls with a million restaurants!!!!!! WOW I'm like a kid in a GIANT candy store. A giant candy store that I am very prone to getting lost in... Luckily my companion knows where she's going. 

WE ARE TEACHING A WHOLE FACTORY!!! I didn't know that Taytay is the sewing center of the Philippines. There's this big factory where they make polos and we are teaching almost all of the employees! 6 of them already have a date to be baptized. Our goal is to bring all of them into the fold!! It's excited.

I love this work. Missionary work is the best thing in the world. Don't just take my word for it, find out for yourself!!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Sister Stewart

ps. mother please fix all of my grammar mistakes. I'm forgetting English...

Farewell, Siniloan

Sister Stewart got the call that she was getting transferred to Taytay yesterday.  She has been in Siniloan for 7 months...that's a long time in the mission world.  It was hard for her to say goodbye to the many friends she has made there, but she looks forward to more adventures.  She is leaving the beautiful countryside for a big city and even more heat.  I'm sure she will love it there, though.  Her address and email stay the same.  Drop her a Valentine note if you get a chance.

sydney.stewart@missionary.org

Sister Sydney Stewart

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Antipolo Mission Office

Ligtasan St., Brgy San Roque

Antipolo City 1870, Philippines