Welcome to Gunnison!

Hello there mom and dad!! Writing you is a considerable more rested, more peaceful, and COLDER Elder Stewart. I am sitting in the city hall of Gunnison watching coal trucks rumble up and down Main Street. The coal trucks never stop up here!  I bet that’s a good thing economically, I’ve heard that the SUFCO mine is really good for this area. 

Oh Gunnison!  It’s a great place. Serving up here in the fall/winter reminds me of when I was in Richfield last year. Crisp air, fall leaves, and beautiful stone and brick chapels. All of our buildings are older. I'm with a Mexican companion too.  We cover 9 family wards (6 in Gunnison/Center field, 1 in Mayfield, Fayette, and Axtell each) and we also have a Spanish branch and a YSA branch. Our area is more or less on a straight line up highway 89. We cover all the Spanish work south to Salina and maybe soon to Richfield and Monroe. There is so much to do here! 

My companion is great! Elder Becerra was born in Puebla, Mexico and has been living in Salt Lake since he was 10. He is one month older than I am and he has been out for 4.5 months, serving in Gunnison the whole time. He is very humble and willing to work. He is pretty buff and people say we are an intimidating companionship.

This week we felt prompted to meet with all the Bishops to coordinate the work with them. We have gotten many referrals from those meetings. If there is one thing I have learned about how to do missionary work it is to work with the members. This week we are going to invite everyone that we found last week. If even half of them accept our invitations we will have a teaching pool of over 10 people. 

We are working with a young couple right now named the M. They are both nonmembers and just had a baby. He works on a farm so his work is slowing down this week and hopefully he will be able to have more consistent lessons. There is also a family from Guatemala, one from Mexico, and several Part-Member families that we are working with. There should be lots of baptismal dates soon!  

Well this will be my home for the next 4 months.  I want to do the best I can right up to the end of my mission. I am so grateful that whenever I need strength to keep going that I can just ask and I feel that the Savior is right there with me. Elder Stewart doesn’t really have the strength to do this work, but I know that the Savior can work through me. This church is true and I love to invite people to learn about it and live its doctrines every day.  

I love you so much! 

Con amorcito,

Elder Stewart