Finally a Real Missionary!

Hello Family!!!  I am writing you my first letter as an actual missionary!  It is so exciting!  I am so excited that I am finally in the field now, I can`t even describe it!  Well first things first, we had to get to Quetzaltenango, or Xela as they all call it here. So all of us going to Quetzaltenango got on a shuttle bus at around 8 in the morning, and said goodbye to the CCM in Guatemala City!  

We took a 4 1/2 hour bus drive to Quetzaltenango, and it was such a beautiful drive!  While going down the roads, I kept thinking of the Nepali Coast in Italy, except without the water.  It was a bunch of winding roads, and straight countryside.  It was so beautiful, and it really showed me the beauty of the Guatemalan countryside.  Well, we finally got to Xela, and it was awesome!  It looked a lot like Guatemala City, but it was a little smaller and had a little more of a country feel to it.  Unfortunately, we didn`t get to drive past the brand new temple here, that would have been cool, but you can`t have everything, right?  

We got to the mission home pretty quickly.  Little did I know that I was saying goodbye to what I knew as transportation, you`ll see in a little bit.  Waiting out front were President and Sister Bautista, and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met!  They took our luggage and everything, and took us into their little fenced off area.  The house was really nice!  They had a lawn, which is really rare here, a nice basketball hoop, and just a really clean looking house.  It was a nice break from the dirtiness and the filthiness from the rest of the city.  They sat us down on some picnic tables out front, and they ordered us pizza from pizza hut, so it turns out that my first meal in Quetzaltenango was Pizza Hut.  Go figure, right?  And another strange thing about the meal, we had to drink water out of a bag, so that we knew it was pure.  They said to get used to it, because that is what we are going to be drinking out of for the next two years!!  

So while we ate, they gave their little welcome speech, and all that jazz.  They really just made us feel really comfortable here, and really said how great this mission really is.  And I believe them!!  It is awesome here!  After they were done introducing themselves and making us feel welcome, they put on a slideshow video showing all of the areas of the mission.  During it, they did the President`s interviews, which didn`t take that long.  I was really grateful for it though, because it really made me feel like they want to know each and every one of us and want us all to succeed.  

When we were all done with that, all of our trainers arrived!  We talked with them for a little bit, but then President Bautista sat us down and started to give us our trainers.  My trainer and first companion in the mission field is Elder Maldonado.  He is from Mexico, and is a really funny and talkative guy.  He really knows what he is doing, and we are doing great!  

So after all that, they sent us out on our way.  We are assigned to the Pancà area in the Momostenango area.  I am fairly certain that Pancà will not appear on Google Maps, but the City of Momostenango will.  So me and my companion started walking in the city of Quetzaltenango to a place they call the "Terminal."  I was a little confused at first, but when I got there, I could completely see why.  It was a little square just packed full of buses going every which way.  So we, or I should say my companion, found a bus headed to Momos, and we got on with our luggage and everything.  

Now this is the bus that Dad was talking to me about in his letter to me.  Lucky for us, we got on fairly early, so we got window seats.  But as we went along we kept picking up people, and before I knew it, the bus was full.  Now when I say full, I don`t mean two to a seat full, I mean three to a seat, with people as squished as they could get in the aisle.  I felt like I was riding a fire hazard all the way from Xela to Momos.  And to add to it all, it was a three hour bus ride.  Best I get used to it as soon as I can!  

When we got to Momos, it was about 8 at night, so it was too dark to get exactly to our area, so we stayed the night at our Zone Leader`s house in the city.  So on Wednesday morning, we got up at 6 and took all of our luggage to a truck, like a regular Toyota truck.  We put all of our stuff in the back, jumped in the back, and prepared for an hour and a half drive to our area of Pancà.  It was probably one of the best ways I could think of to get to my first area in the mission.  So we drove through the middle of nowhere for about an hour, and then all of a sudden, we saw a LDS chapel, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  They stopped, and we got off there.  And when I say the middle of nowhere, I really mean it.  

We had to haul our luggage up a hill, and we happened upon a little shack that I have now learned to call my home.  It is about as little and as dirty as you can call a home, but I have learned to do just that.  After we got inside and done unpacking and everything, we met with the branch president and he showed us around the chapel, and then we walked to his house and talked for a while.  We got a couple of references and names of people that we could go visit, so we did just that.  We went around the first day, just trying to find members and references that we could get.  Here, it really feels like I am out on a camping trip, because all the roads are dirt, and we have to take little paths to get to other houses.  We did that for most of the day, and little did we know that it gets dark here really fast, and to add to it, there are no street lights in Pancà, so the first night, we had to travel through dirt roads and paths in pitch black darkness.  It took us a while, but we finally got back to our house.  It was a really tiring first day!  

Little did I know the next day was going to be even harder!  We woke up and everything, got all prepared for the day, and headed out.  We decided to go visit this family that the branch president had told us about first thing.  Good thing we did it first thing, because it took about the whole day!  It was a good hour and a half hike (yes hike, not walk) to get to the house.  Luckily we had a member show us the way to get there.  And it turns out that we needed him a lot more than we thought. When we got to the house, much to our surprise, not one of the 8 family members spoke Spanish, they all spoke Quiche!  The member that we brought with us could speak both Spanish and Quiche, so we had to use him as a translator.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting first lesson that I got to teach!  It was so cool, because I could bear my testimony about the church in Spanish, and I could feel them understand me, not because of the words I was saying, but because of the spirit. I was so grateful for the experience!  

I am going to have to stop my email here, because we have to go get ready for our multi-zone conference tomorrow, but I will finish up the rest of my week in my next email.  I wasn`t too prepared for this P day, because I forgot to bring my camera cords, so no pictures this week.  But next week I will be sure to send all the pictures that I can!  I love each and every one of you, and I hope that you are doing all that you guys can to have the time of your lives!  Sounds like all of you are busy living your lives, just like I am.  I love what I am doing right now, and I can`t wait to do it for the next two years!  I have a great testimony of this church, and I know that this work is so important to everyone.  Thank you all for your support, and I will talk to you all next week!  

Until Next Time!!!  

Elder Stuart.  

Last Week! (in the MTC!)

September 1, 2012

First off, Happy Birthday Mom!!  How awesome is it that I had the chance to write you on your birthday!!  I hope you have the best birthday ever, and that you have so much fun!  I heard that you are going to have a BBQ at our house for it, so that should be a lot of fun!  I´m bummed that I have to miss it, but know that I am always there with you guys in Spirit!  

This week has been pretty uneventful.  The only really big thing that we did is we went proselyting again!  It was way fun this time!  I´m not going to lie, I was a little frustrated last time, because I didn´t understand what the people were saying most of the time.  But this time went a lot better.  It is amazing what a difference three weeks makes in helping me learn the language.  It would have been just me and Elder Welker, but he got really sick that morning, so I went with another two American elders, and we went as a threesome.  To me, it was really good, because I felt like I could control the pace of the conversation.  When we had a Latino companion with us, he would talk really fast, and the investigator would talk really fast, because they knew that the Latino would understand.  But when it was just us Gringos, it felt like they had a little bit of mercy on us and talked a little slower.  Plus, we gave away two BoMs to people who were really interested.  We gave a lot of pamphlets away, and got a lot of people’s info, but these two that we gave the BoMs to were so interested in what we had to say!  It felt so nice to share what I know with these people, actual real people, because we have just been practicing with our teachers.  It is a little sad that we wont get to continue talking to these people.  Especially because the two that we talked to, they both said that we could return in a couple days and talk about their experience!  It was such a great experience!  And it is so amazing to me that I was able to do this all in Spanish pretty well!  I know that I couldn´t do it without some help from the Lord, well, a lot of help!  But I can´t thank him enough for giving me that opportunity to share the gospel with these people.  So we got their contact information and gave it to the MTC here, and they will contact missionaries in that area and have them visit them again.  But it was such a great experience, something that I really needed to have, because it just got me really ready to go out into the field!  

Speaking of which, we only have 3 more days here, and then I will be out in the real world!  That is so crazy to think about, but I am so excited!  I’m not gonna lie, I am a little nervous, but that is to be expected.  I’m sure it will all go away once I get there and get to work!  I can’t wait to get there and actually start my mission for real, because I know it is going to be some of the best years of my life!  

We have been preparing for it this week, especially yesterday, where all we did is have in field orientation.  They told us a lot about what to expect and do while we are out in the field.  I can´t say it enough how excited I am to get out there!  I feel like I really am prepared to get out there, not perfectly of course, but I feel like I could hold my own out there!  Of course I have been studying the language, but that really is a secondary thing behind the gospel.  I finished Jesus the Christ this week, and I can´t even explain how much I have learned from it.  I feel so much closer to my savior now than I ever have before in my life!  I love having his constant spirit with me at all times, and whenever I get frustrated or discouraged, I know that I can always turn to him and he will make everything feel that much better!  I LOVE THIS WORK!  I just can’t say it enough.  And I know that I am going to love it so much more once I actually get into the field!  

So we leave on Tuesday, September 11, exactly two months after I entered the MTC.  It is so crazy to think that I am already 1/12 of the way done with this.  Kind of puts it into perspective.  But I know that I am going to make the rest of the time I have here count with all my heart, and I am going to regret nothing!!  

It sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun back home, with work, school starting, Jace, and such.  I hope that you guys continue to have as much fun and enjoy life as much as you can, because I know for sure that I am!  I´m sorry mom, I don´t have the address here, because I would have to run all the way down to my class to get it, but I will find a way to get it to you!  It is crazy to think that the next time that I write you guys, I´ll be out in the field!  Crazy, but I´m ready to go into it full force!  

Until next time!  I love you all, and happy birthday again Mom!!!!!!      

Elder Stuart

Nearing the End (of the MTC that is!)

September 1, 2012

Hello Family!  It has been so great reading all of your emails and hearing all about your lives!  It seems like Jace has been the center of attention for the past week!  I can´t believe that he is already a month old!  It seems like just yesterday I got a letter with a picture of him saying that I am an uncle!  Crazy how time flies!  

Speaking of which, I´m out of here in a week and a half.  I am pretty sure we leave on Sept. 11, but I´m not 100% sure, so we will see!  Things here have kind of been slowing down.  We have gotten into a routine full of study, teaching, learning, and such.  It can get a bit boring at times, because we are in the same classroom for the greater part of the day, but when I step back and look at the bigger picture, I realize that it isn´t boring at all, because it is the most important thing that I can be doing at this point in my life!  I really need to be ready once I go out into the field, so all this study time is a great thing for me!  

Nothing big has really happened this week, just the usual:  going to the temple, p-day, and a whole lot of studying! Those are basically the highlights of this week!  We have been continuing teaching our two investigators, who are our teachers, and I feel like we have been doing really well!  Elder Welker and I have been told by both of our teachers that we have really good unity together, and that we can really work well to deliver the message together.  I´m glad they have said that, because I feel so far behind on my Spanish compared to him.  I haven´t taken a Spanish class since Jr. High, and he took Spanish classes all the way from 9th grade up until he came here, so all the way through college.  So he is definitely ahead of me in Spanish, and I sometimes look for help with the language from him, but I feel like I am holding my own and am actually doing really well!  Not only have I been studying the language, I really have studied more about the doctrine than I ever have.  

I don´t know if I told you, but I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time all by myself here.  It really was so cool to read it because I wanted to!  Now I am reading dad´s favorite, Jesus the Christ, and I am so mad at myself for not picking up this book earlier!  I have learned so much about Christ and his ministry.  I really feel like I get closer and closer to him every day!  I have also been studying a lot out of preach my gospel too.  There are so many useful things in there, even if you aren’t a missionary!  I love reading so much about what I am really here for, and it really helps raise my spirits.  Like I said, not much has happened here this week, but next week will be a lot different.  Next week we go proselyting again, but this time without a Latino companion, so it will just be me and Elder Welker going out into the real world.  I´m definitely still nervous, but I feel a whole lot better going out this time then I did 3 weeks ago.  I feel like I know what I am doing (sort of) and feel really confident to share my testimony with others!  

On a funnier note, some crazy things have happened in our district this week.  Really funny, but crazy.  So us as a district are really close, so we joke around a lot and aren't really afraid to be ourselves.  So on Wednesday, the whole day was pretty much studying and more studying.  One of the Elders in our district, Elder Oveson, doesn´t really do well with studying for such a long period of time, so when we got to around 7 at night, we were all pretty much worn out, especially him.  We were talking and joking around about how we could get rid of our stress.  Elder Oveson just out of the blue said jokingly that he wanted to flip a table over with all the stuff on it and clean up the resulting mess.  Or we thought he was joking...  We all were telling him to do it, because we didn´t really think that he would.  But wouldn´t you know, one thing leads to another, and a table is flipped over with a huge mess all around it.  We were all laughing so hard and couldn´t really believe that he did it!  It sure was a great laugh and great to relieve some of our stress.  Plus the table he flipped over had a chance to be organized, so it was a win win!  

Haha but I really am having a blast here and I love everything about it here!  I can´t wait to go out into the field and such, but I still have a lot to learn!  I love this work and I love the gospel, and I wouldn´t rather be doing anything else here at this point in my life!  Thank you all for your support and love, and I´ll be back next week!!!  

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!  

Elder Stuart

Officially a Veteran at the MTC!

August 25, 2012 [Sorry for the delay in posting!]

Hello family!  I hope you guys are all doing great!  I love reading your emails and hearing all about your lives and how they really are just going along normally.  It is weird that my life is kind of put on hold while you guys are still chugging along in this crazy thing we call life!  I love receiving letters from you guys too!  I don´t know how well the mail has been working for us, because I just barely got Liz´s letter dated on august 2 yesterday, so it took a good three weeks to get here.  That is the only handwritten letter I have got here, so sorry if you guys have sent more, I haven’t gotten them yet.  I don’t know why it took so long for that letter, because other elders have had their letters come in and it took about a week and a half, so I don’t know.  But I am still getting your emails, and they are great!

This week here was very interesting.  It really had its ups and its downs.  It started really good on Tuesday, because we got to go out of the MTC, right to the center of the city, and go to the market there to learn how to barter!  It was so fun, and I felt like I got along pretty well with my Spanish, so it was really good!  I ended up buying a keychain that says Guatemala, two hacky sacks, and a poncho that looks really cool!  And I did really well bartering for the poncho!  The rate here for Quetzals (the currency here) is about 8 to 1, so 8 quetzals is about 1 dollar.  The guy selling the poncho started it at about 120 quetzals, which is still pretty good.  But I worked my magic and ended up buying it for about 75 quetzals, or less than ten dollars!  It is a really nice poncho too!  

It was a great day to be out in the city!  We spent about a half an hour in the city plaza place, just talking to natives there.  We actually talked to this one guy on our own and got an address from him, because he wanted to know more about the gospel!  It was really cool!  It was so much fun just being out in the city and talking to the natives and everyone around you!  

But this is where the week kind of plummets.  I woke up on Wednesday with the worst fever and my stomach was killing me.  So I guess I was experiencing my first of many sicknesses here on the mish!  I trudged through the day up until about lunchtime, but then I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I went and talked to the doctor here, and she gave me some medicine and told me to go rest.  I really didn´t want to go rest, even though I really needed it, because I felt like it was a waste of time and I could really be doing something better with my time.  But eventually I went up to my room and went to sleep.

I had a plan to wake up at dinner to make sure I didn´t miss the whole day, but the next thing I remembered it was 9:30pm and all the elders were coming up for the end of the day.  I remember being really disappointed, but then I went right back to sleep and slept through the whole night.  

Needless to say that after about 15 straight hours of sleep, I was feeling a lot better!  It was just a really bad day on Wednesday, but I got over it.  I was still dealing with the residue of the sickness up until today, because today I really feel like I am totally fine finally!  I hate being sick!  But that’s why the week wasn’t the best.  It is because I was so sick on Wednesday and throughout the rest of the week, but I am finally feeling a lot better!  

We got the new batch of elders and sisters here this week, so I am officially a veteran here!  It feels weird being the old guy here, but I know it won’t last long because I will definitely be the new guy again once I get into the field!  To me, this group doesn’t seem as friendly as the old group, especially the Latinos.  The Latinos in the last group were especially friendly!  I don’t know though, I should give it some time to let us have the chance to get to know each other!  

I don’t remember if I told you this or not, but when we first got here, they took our cameras away, but this week, they gave them back so I have been taking a lot of pictures!  I probably am going to wait until I get into the field to send all of the pictures to you, because it is probably safer that way.  But know that I am taking a lot of pictures!  

Now talking about the more mundane things here (which I really am trying to do!), my teacher here is awesome!  He really can joke around and relate to us a lot, but he knows when he needs to teach us what we need to know.  He really is in tune with the spirit and knows how to teach with it.  My district here is really cool too!  Someone in our district, Elder Jacobsen, became the Assistant to the President here at the MTC, and I couldn’t think of a better guy for the job!  He is from Florida and he tells all sorts of stories about him wrestling alligators and all sorts of stuff, because his dad owns the LDS ranch in Florida.  

I wish I had more time to talk about my district, but I don’t really.  And I don´t really have as much time as I would like, and I wish I could talk about your lives, but know that I am reading your emails and am loving every minute of it.  I really wish I had more time, but I get what I get.  Just know I am caring for all of you and that I miss all of you!  Thank you all for your support here, it really means a lot to me!  I know that I am doing the right thing here and that the Lord will bless us in ways that we don’t even know!  I love this work, I love the lord with all my heart, and I love being here in Guatemala!

Until next week!  I love you guys!    

Elder Stuart