Happy New Years!

    Hello Family, and Happy 2013!  Time just seems to be flying, and look now, we are already in another year!  That sure was quick!  This past year was really crazy with everything that went on, but I have a feeling that this next year will be just as crazy!  Especially because I am going to be in the mission the whole year!  That is just crazy to think about!  But I hope that this year will be great for you guys, because I know that it is going to be great for me!  I hope that we can continue to feel the blessings of the Lord in our lives, and that we can remember him throughout the year!

    After we FINALLY got back to Pancà, we knew that we were going to have to work our butts off to make this week count.  So that is exactly what we did!  Even though everything didn`t turn out as we hoped, I felt good about it, because I knew that I did all that I could to make up for the time that we lost.  We ended up staying out until about 9:00 each night, which is really late for an Aldea (An area like Pancà)  We usually are supposed to come in at like 7:00, but we wanted to work more, so we stayed out later.  I hope that our extra work has payed off!  

     There aren`t really good stories for this week, because we missed a lot of the appointments that we had planed, so we really just went and visited a lot of the members and less actives here.  It was really cool, because one of the less actives that we have been visiting for pretty much the whole time finally came to church for the first time!  Even though it was to bless her baby girl, it still counts!  I was hoping that she would get up and bear her testimony about it all, but she didn`t unfortunately...  But we talked to her afterwards, and she seems really glad that she came to have her girl blessed.  So hopefully that means that she will come next week!  

     The President has issued a challenge for us as missionaries.  We are going to try and read the entire BoM before the next General Conference.  But not just read it, but to really study it.  We all have a notebook to but notes and feelings that we have.  I really like reading it and studying it this way.  I mean, I have read it before, but to really study it means that I am able to grasp more and more about the BoM, and I really like it!

     So this week wasn`t all that I hoped it was going to be, but hopefully this next week will!  Until Next Week!

      - Elder Stuart

     P.S. The scripture is 1 Nephi 8:30.  But it really is just better to read the whole chapter.  And if you can, look up Elder Bednar`s talk on the Tree of Life!