Another great week!

Just thought I'd let everyone know we have had another great week here in Montgomery! One of the highlights was the zone conference we attended. Lots of great speakers. Bruce Porter from BYU (Ancient History Proff) and an archeologist, Brother May. They were talking about the Book of Mormon, all the references to this land being the promised land. This land being here in America! The archeologist was an expert on the Hopewell Indians( algonquin, Iroquios) all the Indians on the east coast and in the mid west. Scientist have found DNA markers to link them to Mid-east ancestry(Israel) They have also found relics of Egyptian nature throughout all the mounds they have excavated. It was very interesting. The church has no official stand on this. But all the facts these two presented were very convincing that Lehi landed probably in the Gulf of Mexico and came up through, Alabama, Mississippi area, and moved north. The Mulekites and Jaredites probably came in through the St Lawrence and moved south and west through Missouri. They both stated it doesn't really matter. The Book of Mormon is true where ever it took place but it sure seemed right, that it would have taken place right here! In the United states of America. This was the promised Land!!!! By all indications! We will still need to build our testimonies on faith not facts!

We also had a recent convert speak to us. He was about 45-50. He had been raised in a good baptist home and even attended a bible college after high school. He head down the wrong path after a while and ended up involved in the KKK and The Aryan Nation. He was the Grand Dragon of KKK in Alabama. He was arrested several times and in Federal prison a few times(Firearms). He was also one of the Skin heads on the Geraldo Rivera show a few years ago when they threw a chair at him and busted his nose. (Some of you may remember this incident) He said he almost starved to death in solitary confinement in Alabama prison, but a little hispanic guard (LDS) would sneak him a little extra food which saved him. He remembered the kindness and that he was a mormon. Last year he was going around the country attracting Aryan brothers through heavy metal band concerts. He realized his life was going nowhere. He was tired of going to jail or prison every few months. He prayed that God would show him how to turn his life around. He said about 10 minutes later two elders knocked on his door. He let them in and made all the other young men at his house sit down and listen to them. He said he felt the spirit which he had not felt in a long time. He decided to have the Elders back. They invited him to church after the next visit. He went and hasn't missed a Sunday yet. He was baptzed after an interview with President Tate. He has had a total change of heart! That is what the gospel can do in our lives if we just let it. He remembers the Elders telling him to read about the iron rod. He did and he continues to hold to it! He has been given the Aaronic Priesthood and serves and blesses the Sacrament each Sunday with a young black priest. He has learned to love him and they are helping each other to prepare for the next step in the priesthood. The gospel is truly amazing. The Atonement is magnificent! It can change anyones Heart.(Alma 5:12,26).

As you can tell we are so blessed to be here at this time doing this mission. There are literally thousands just like the man above. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only answer! Please pray that we will be able to go out and share this message with everyone we meet! People are looking! New neighbor just moved in and we met him in the parking lot. He said the other neighbor had told him we were missionaires. He said "I would like to talk to you about your church!"

We said great. Pray for us to have the spirit to teach him. He is looking!



Bye for now. Thank you all for your prayers. We can feel them. We love you all.



Elder and Sister Stewart

Here is a quick update :

These last two weeks have been busy. Three classes graduated so we had to say good bye to a lot of new friends. Rich was able to commission two of the guys.(One was Chris!!!) We met their wives & Moms & Dads. Attended the pin on"s and the parades.

Really great to see.

New classes start this week so we will start to get to know the new students and then send them off in a few weeks.

We continue to work with the ward here too.

We Have 3 investigators we are teaching. And two more we hope to put into the pool(teaching first, baptism second) One is a student who called us and asked for help on a class project she was working on. We met with her and three other students and answered their questions about the church. This was for a class in spirituality for a social work class. She is a single Mom with three kids. She is from New York and knew some LDS people there. We plan to meet with her again and talk to her more. She was very interested in the family aspect of our church.

Two spiritual experiences we had this past week or so.

When we were talking with Chris(Student who needed the blessings) at one of our family home evenings he said when did you start thinking about coming here on this Military mission? We told him we started looking into it in April of last year. We knew we wanted to do the military mission and we talked to Tim who knew President Tate here in Birmingham. We talked with him and he needed a military person here. Chris said I would like to think you are an answer to my prayers. The end of April I found out I was coming here to Montgomery for this training. I started praying someone would be here that could help me. He said" when I met Elder Stewart that first night in the Chaplains office I knew my prayers were answered!" How can anyone think there is no GOD?? He answers our prayers! he puts us in places at the right time! He knows each and everyone of us!

One of the other guys here told us about his first week here at training:

He said as he was marching around he would see a guy in the upper class and he seemed familiar. He was not allowed to talk to them or even really look at them that first week. But the first Sunday when he was allowed to go to church, he walked to the area to meet the bus and there were the four or five guys he thought he knew. He talked with them and he didn't really know them from any where . But he seemed to know them through the spirit. He had unknowingly picked out all the LDS guys in the upper class. They were kindred spirits. These guys here are great. CREAM of The CROP! Our military leadership will one day be in great hands again!!!

Got to go. We love our mission and feel really blessed to be here. Thanks to all of you for your support.

Love Elder and Sister Stewart