A Preparation Week!

     Hello family!  Sorry I`m late this week, but it is because we have a multi-zone conference in Huehuetenango tomorrow, so we have to be here in Quichè to spend the night.  So that we wouldn`t lose so much time traveling and being out of our areas, the Zone Leaders decided to change P-Day until today, so that we could have more time to work in our areas.  And for that I was really grateful!

     First things first, about our most positive investigator, Jimmy.  He was all ready to get baptized this past Saturday, but as we were teaching him during the week, we noticed a change in his parents.  They started listening more and participating more in the lessons, so we decided to postpone the baptism until this Saturday, where it would be possible for Jimmy and his parents to be baptized on the same day.  The only problem is, is that his parents, Miguel and Stefany, aren`t "married", so it causes a problem.  (Believe it or not, this happens a lot in Guatemala...)  People can`t be baptized if they are living with a partner, so we have to work on getting them married this week (which we have talked about with them), and hopefully we can have a wedding this Friday at the chapel, and the next day have a baptism!  It`s a bit of a long shot, but it is possible!  

     Also, we have been preparing for an activity that will happen this Saturday in the morning.  We are going to have an "open house" at the chapel, so that people all over Chinique can come to the chapel and spend about 15 minutes figuring out what we do during our reunions, and if they want to learn more.  This week we have been handing out invintations like crazy, so that hopefully the whole town can come!  It should be a really good way to find new people to teach, so here`s to it all going according to plan!  

     This week in my studies, I have been focusing a lot on some of the questions that are most asked by our investigators, and trying to find the best way to find them in the scriptures.  It has really been a huge help for me to have a basic knowledge of the scriptures, but it makes me wish that I would have studied them more before my mission.  So for all those that are preparing to go on a mission, really strive to study the scriptures and PMG [Preach My Gospel] every day, so that you will be that much prepared when you enter the mission.  Granted, you still are going to learn a TON, but it can`t hurt to learn more, right?

     In our district meetings, they have been focusing a lot on bringing our investigators to church with us.  One time I was talking with President Bautista about it, and he said that apart from baptisms, our most important statistic that we should focus on is investigators that come to church.  The reason is that if people come to church every week to learn more about the gospel, they will have a firm foundation, friends, and all sorts of good things.  That is why we have been really trying to bring people to church with us, and inviting members to help us out.  It really is a joint effort;  working missionaries with members, and I love it!

     That is just about all that I have to say for now, but this next week should be huge, with a multi-zone conference, an open house activity, and a baptism!  So I hope that you all have a great week, like I am bound to have!  I am so stoked always to be a servant of the Lord, and I have a really good feeling that this week will just strengthen my testimony even more!  

     I love you all so much, and thank you so much for writing me every week!  The Chruch is True!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  We have been talking a lot about friendship this week with our investigators, so I figured I`d share John 15:13 with you guys, one of the best scriptures about friendship.  It just shows how much the Lord loves us and wants the best for us! 

Photos!

The way we get from Quichè to Chinique is by a mini bus.  This time, this was the last bus out, and it was jam packed, so we had to ride on top!  It was way fun!  And we met a new person who we have started teaching!  (The person to my right)  How awesome is that?

This is our chapel!  We had to take a picture of it for the invintations for the activity this Saturday, so I figured you guys would like to see it!  

This is in Chichicastenango, one of the areas in our zone.  We went here this P-Day for a change, and it was awesome!  One cool thing is that on every thursday, the biggest market in Central America opens here.  So hopefully I can come here on a thursday some day!  Also, the streets remind me of streets in Italy, so I had to take a photo!

A Special Week!

  Hello Family!  Well, here we are again, on a transfer week!  Good thing is that I`m not going anywhere this change!  Actually, all of us in Chinique, Elder Riera and I, and Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, are going to stay here for this change, which is really rare..  But we have been working really well together, so I feel like it is a good thing!  I hope that we are going to have the same success that we had this change and then some.  I know that it all depends on the way that we work, so we are going to work hard to bring as many souls unto Christ as we can!

     I`ll start off this week with the highlight of this week:  We had two baptisms on Saturday!  Woo Hoo!  Okay, even though they are technically investigators of Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, I still feel really happy for them.  The ceremony was so special for me, because it was my first baptism here in Chinique, and really my first in way too long!  It was so great, because they are youth of a family that we are teaching, and the whole family (of about 15 people) came to see them be baptized!  It was so great to see!  The only bad thing about it was that it could have been three...  I`m talking about Jimmy.  Earlier this week we really sat down with Jimmy and asked if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes!  So we said he could be baptized on this Saturday, but he had plans to go to Quichè and visit his Grandma for the weekend, so we couldn`t do it this week.  But yesterday, we talked to him, and he said that he still wants to be baptized, so we are planning for this Saturday, so wish us luck!

     We had a really powerful spiritual experience this week that I want to share with you guys.  We have an investigator that we met this week named Milset.  Our first lesson with her wasn`t the best, mainly because the first things that she wanted to know were little things about our church, like about coffee, about dancing, and whether girls can wear pants or not...  So yeah, we spent too long talking about that, and at the end, I finally said something along the lines of "We don`t really know every single reason for the commandments that we have, but what we do know is that they are given of God through our Prophets, namely Joseph Smith, so the thing that really matters is whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet."  She then said that she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith, so we planned to watch a video with her for our next lesson.  The video is "Joseph Smith:  Prophet of the Restoration," which talks about the life of Joseph Smith and what he did.  We went back on Friday to watch it, and I was hoping for something really special to happen.  And it did happen!  We started the video, and from the get go Milset was really interested! She had her 8 year old son watching also, and about half way through he started getting restless, but Milset didn`t let that bother her.  She told him to try and be quiet, and went right back to watching the film.  After it was done, we asked her how she felt about it.  She said that she had met with missionaries before, and they had told her about Joseph Smith, but she kind of just ingored it.  But this time, when she actually got to "see" the life of Joseph Smith, she said that there would be no other reason that he would do all that he did, unless that it was for a reason.  I just felt the Spirit so strong when she was talking, and I started to see in my mind`s eye her entering the waters of baptism.  It made me so happy, and I really gained so much testimony for Joseph Smith, and all that he did.  I really feel good about her now, because she went the very next day to see the baptism that we had!  I have a really good feeling that in about 3 weeks or so, she could be baptized!  But what a powerful experience for me!  (And I really hope that I explained it so you all can understand!)

     One cool thing really quick, we were playing soccer this week (which I am completely awful at compared to all these Latinos...), and I had the coolest goal I have had during the mission!  We were running up on a "fastbreak", because my teammate had the ball, and I was running down the field with him, and there was only one defender.  My teammate passed it to me, but it was a little to hard, and started to head out of bounds.  Now, the field that we are playing on is pretty much and indoor turf field, so there are concrete walls all around the out of bounds.  Anyways, the ball was headed out of bounds, so I ran as fast as I could, and attempted to stop it.  I ran, stopped it with my foot, and ran right into the wall!  I heard everyone gasp, and I was a little dazed, but I didn`t fall down.  I looked for the ball, and it happened to stop right before the out of bounds line, right next to the goal.  Everyone was still shocked about what happened, so I hurried and kicked it in for a goal!  I started to run down the field, but I realized that my left knee was completely bleeding!  Haha I guess after the adreneline left me, I realized that I was in a lot of pain!  BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!  YES!!!  So yeah, reading it again, I think that you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but I hope that you can imagine what it was like!  Haha just thought I`d share it with you guys!

     So yeah, it was a really good week this week, and I feel like the next coming weeks can be just as special.  I know that the Lord is really blessing us out here in Chinique, and I am so grateful for it.  I know that without His help, I would be nothing, but I know that I can accomplish something great with the hands of the Lord helping me out!  I love you all so much, and thank you all for your support!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture:  D+C 135:5  Talks a lot about what Joseph Smith did, and how great of a man he was!

Photos!

This is part of our area, a little aldea called Paquinaq.  (By the way, aldea means little village.)  That city that you can see way out in the distance is Chinique, and we walked all the way from there!  It was quite the hike!

Once again in Paquinaq, but with a better view of Chinique down below.  It takes about an hour and a half to get up there, and we have to go up there at least once a week, because our newly called Ward Mission Leader lives up there!  Awesome!  But the members up there, even though they don`t have much, are so strong in the Gospel, and I love it!

 We celebrated the birthday of Elder Berrios, and one of our investigators, Karen, because their birthdays are both on the 6th of April!  It was way fun, especially because they had come to conference earlier that day!  

Last week, during P-Day, we went and visited the ruins that are in Quichè!  There aren`t as great as some of the other ruins that are here in the mission (or so I`ve heard), but hey, they are still ruins!

Me on top of a hill, overlooking the ruins!

Our Zone of missionaries at the ruins!

 

Me and some other Elders checking out some caves that were close by to the ruins!

This is us at the ruins, and that is me on them doing my stunt pose!  You can`t really see it that well, but hey, I can say that I did it!

Us at the baptism!  The sign says "Welcome to our Baptism," and it was a great afternoon!

Everyone who came to the baptism on Saturday!  Woo hoo!!! Us