A Week of Learning

    Hello Family!  After a really busy week, here we are again!  Sorry about emailing so late, but we pretty much just got back from Xela today for P-Day this late!  Can you believe it?  But it was a fun day today, we went and played soccer in some nice turf fields in Xela, bought a ton of food for the whole month, and basically just enjoyed being in an actual city!  Haha it definitely is a lot different from Pancá, that´s for sure!  I´m sure that this week was a really gruelling week for you guys too, well, mainly Mom and Ryan, because The Little Mermaid opened up this week!  I hope that everything went somewhat according to plan (because I know that there still are going to be some things that went wrong, as it always does!)  But I really hope that all your hard work payed off this week, and you will be able to enjoy the play now!

     I say that this week was really busy, mainly because this Thrusday, we went down to Xela to have a mission conference with President Martino of the Second Quorum of the Seventy, who is the Area President of all of Central America!  So that was way cool!  He really spoke with a lot of confidence, and he wasn´t afraid to bring the hammer down when he needed to!  I learned so much from him just from one day, and he really motivated me (and I´m pretty sure all of us) to really work our butts off and serve the mission like it should be served!  One of my favorite parts of his advice for us was this line.  It is ten words, but every word has only two letters.  It is:  "If it is to be, it is up to me."  Powerful stuff.  Really puts it into perspective, that if we want something, we should work for it, because it is up to us if we want something!  Of course we will have the Lord´s help, but he can´t help steer our direction if we aren´t moving forward!  SO...  we should always be "anxiously engaged in a good cause,"  and the Lord will bless us!

     So in Pancá this week, we had some interesting things go on!  First off, on a good but surprising note, we figured out for the first time this week that a 10 year old girl, who has been coming to church almost every week since I´ve been here, hasn´t actually been baptized!  Apparently she flew right under the radar!  I think it was becaue her Mom was a less active member when I arrived, and we reactivated her like the second week I was here.  Ever since then, the little girl has been attending church, but hasn´t been baptized!  So we are going to jump on that right quick!  Also, we had a menos activo family come with us to church this week!  It was so cool to see them, because they (By the way, Elder Tejero says hi right now!) live about 2 hours and 15 minutes away, and about an hour away from the nearest member.  And yet they came to church!  How cool is that?  They have almost nothing, but still they came to chruch by walking for so long!  It really was so amazing to see them there this week.

     But really, I have learned so much about the mission this week, and in so doing so, about myslef.  The mission really does change lives, and I am so grateful to be here right now.  I really am learning so much, and I still have about a year and a half left!  So here´s to learning so much more!  Thank you all so much for your emails this week, and I will talk to you all next week!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart