Photos!

Last week we went to Salcajá to buy corte, which is basically the typical clothing here in Guatemala for women.  And we make ties out of it.  They are so SICK!  You can see all the different types that we bought, and from this I´m gonna get about FIFTY ties!  I´m so stoked!

This is just a bunch of wood waiting to be burned.  And that´s a LOT of wood.  

We made cookies for a member´s little girl for a FHE.  And after mixing the dough with my hands (I´m definitely in Guatemala!) we just had to eat it off my hands.  And Elder Telford, an Elder in my same area, started eating it off of my hands!  It was pretty funny.

Great Week!

Hello Family!  Well, gonna come out and say it now, this week was pretty good.  We had a lot of success this week, and we got a lot done.  One of the best weeks this change by far!

     I´m probably going to start on Sunday and work backwards.  This Sunday was our Waqrd Conference, and man did we have a turnout!  We usually are floating around 120-140 attendence every week, but this week we ended up with 200!  Wow, the room was so packed, it was so special to see.  So many people doing what they should be doing on Sunday!  AND!  We had three investigators come to church, so that was awesome!  It was a really good day on Sunday.

     So now I want to talk about Carla.  We found her last week having a FHE with a member.  She was kind of hesitant at first, but we passed by another day, and as we invted her to come to church with us this week, she was really set on going!  So we passed by on Sunday to take her to church.  But there was a problem.  The water had been out in that sector of town since Friday (So everyone stunk... that was just awful...) and she told us that she wasn´t going to be able to come with us, because she needed to get a lot of things done.  Well, disheartened, we were trying to see if there was any way possible for her to come.  Then, all of a sudden, her dad that happened to be visiting her that day said, "Just go, I´ll take care of the house while you are gone."  Uh, thanks!  Haha we had never seen the man before, but he totally helped us out!  So she came, and LOVED IT!  YES!  Thank you random stranger!  

     We were also on fire on putting baptismal dates this week.  We put FIVE!  Most of them set for the 19th of October.  They all accepted it, but if they don´t come to church, they can´t get baptized.  So we need to work on having them come.  But it was just awesome every time we put a fecha!  Love being a missionary!

     Guys, the BoM is really something else.  What a power it has.  Two really cool experiences this week with it.  First, we have an investigator that for a while has been mas o menos for a while.  We didn´t really know what to do with her, but then we decided to teach the BoM again.  Turns out she hasn´t put it as too much importance (That is awful English, sorry...) We just had such a powerful spirit, and she was really excited to read it.  In fact, as we left, she pulled out the book and started reading!  Yes!

     The second experience was really simple, but amazing.  Carla brought her two year old daughter to church, and she started getting pretty restless, like all kids do.  So I looked through my backback for something to calm her down, but she jsut reached in my bag and pulled out a BoM.  And she was quiet the rest of the meeting.  Just looking through the pages.  Wow, what a experience.

     But yeah, this week was a good week.  Really proud of how things turned out.  It has been a really good week being a missionary, and I´m so glad that I´m out here serving the Lord.  Sacrifice brings a bunch of blessings!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     - P.S. John 8:28 This is a great scripture for sacrifice, and I love it.  But, even better, if you have time to study it, think about it deep doctrine wise, together with John 5:19-20

Photos!

Just my regular daily language study.  With a BoM in K´iche´!  I love trying to learn that language!

One of the missionaries completed his 6 months in the mission, so I decided to make breakfast for him!  And this is what I made!  I was fairly proud of how it came out!

Just the view of the Volcano in our mission!

So right in the middle of our area, this dirt road turns into a river everytime that it rains.  (Which is basically every day.)  So one day we were so sick of trying to figure out how to cross it, that we just waded through it!

We hiked up to a lookout of all of Xela, so I took a "O Jerusalem" photo!  Just like Jesus!   And you can kind of see the temple in the background, in the upper middle left part.

There is this sick monument in our Zone, and we went up there last P-Day.  It´s a tribute to some Mayan warrior.  So I´m being all cool right next to it. (Rockin my Kirby shirt, as always!)

This is a members house, that was somewhat damaged by the earthquake last Friday.  There was just a crack in the wall, but they took that as an advantage, and are now going to redo the wall.  It really sucks, because most of the houses here are made of adobe, and it´s not the strongest thing ever...

Amor desde Guatemala!

   Hello Family!  I hope that you all had a good week this week.  We had a pretty crazy week, because of two big things that are passing by in Xela this month.  Yesterday was Independece Day here in Guatemala, so all the Chapines here are celebrating like crazy.  Also, an annual fair in Xela has been here all month, so that´s been crazy also.  All in all, almost everyone is gone to the fair when we try to pass by, and we didn´t have as many lessons as we wanted, but it still went fairly good!

     Our most positive investigators is an older couple named Lorenzo y María.  They are always willing to listen to us, and they have been progressing nicely.  The only problem is that they have recieved some help from the church they are in right now, so they aren´t really ready to change religions... yet.  We´ve put baptismal dates with them for the 12 of October, so if they recieve an answer by then, they said they will be baptized.  So that´s awesome!

     We´ve also found this guy named Ricardo this week.  When we first passed by his house, he was SO prepared by the Lord ot recieve us.  He was listening, and I mean actually listening to us, and when we went by two days later, he had remembered everything that we had taught (Even to the year of the First Vison!), and had thought a lot about the message.  Unfortunately, he couldn´t come to church because of the stupid fair (curse you Satan...) but he is looking really positive.

     With Wendy, a granddaughter of a recent convert who has a fecha bautismal set up, we have been working a little bit with her.  But, seeing as she is a teenager (That sounds so weird to say, now that I´m not one... HA) she´s been at the fair everyday this week, so we haven´t had any lessons recently.  But now that the fair is dying down, we´ll get back on teaching her.

     We also found the sweetest lady on Saturday.  She has never spoken with missionaries before, but she has always seen us in the streets, helping people out, and just being good people.  She told us that she has always admired that, and she said we are welcome to pass by her house any time.  EXAMPLES ARE SO IMPORTANT!  Be an example to everyone, and they will be so much more willing to listen to the fulness of the Gospel.  

     But, this week wasn´t all fine and dandy.  We did have some crazy rejections this week that make for some very good stories.  For example, we were going to visit this one investigator from a while back, and when we got there, her husband answered the door and basically told us to get lost.  When we explained what we do, he took out his phone, took a picture of us, and told us he was going to report us for being in his house... (Even though we were standing outside...)  Well, long story short, we left.  But it´s sad that people are so misguided that they have to do stuff like that.  But that´s life.  We move on, and don´t get discouraged!

     I have had a really fun time working with legos teaching about the apostasy of the chruch and how through Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored the Gospel.  You build up the church, from the time of Jesus Christ, and then you take it all apart through the Great Apostasy. And then you bring it back together through Joseph Smith.  A great object lesson, and it keeps the kids entertained.  Just thought I´d share that with you!

     But yeah, this was kind of a longer letter, but it was a good week to write about.  We just always have to press on in the work of the Lord, and we will be blessed.  Maybe not now, but eventually, the blessings come.  They do come.  I am a witness of it.  I love this work, and I love this Gospel.  And I love each of you!  Keep up the good work wherever you are, and Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 5:14

Earthquake

   Hello Family!  How y´all doin?  I hope that you all had a good week this week!  Things went pretty good here in Chiquilajá, so I´ll tell you a bit about it now!  ;)

     Basically, the month of September is absolutely horrible here in Xela.  There are really two huge events going on this month:  Independece (Which they celebrate all month) and the yearly fair for Xela.  Almost everyone is going to visit family out of the area, and those who are here go to the fair all day.  It´s historically been a slow month for missionary work, so we are trying to make it better.

     So we have two baptismal dates for the 21st, but they aren´t really that sure now.  Wendy, one of them, we haven´t talked to in about a week, because she´s been in Retauleu all week for the fair, visiting her family.  She wasn´t able to come to church this week, which is a bummer, but we have a cita with her on Tuesday, so we will see how that goes.  

     And with Brando, we had passed by their house all week, not finding anyone home.  Thank goodness, yesterday we went to pass by again, and some kid came up to us and told us that no one lives there anymore.  Turns out they straight-up moved.  And the problem is we have no contact with them.  People have told us they don´t live far, but we NEED to find their place quick so we can get going again with Brando.

     Also, something crazy for you guys to hear.  We had ANOTHER earthquake happen here on Friday.  Earthquakes are really rare here, and I´ve been in two during my mission.   Sweet.  But is was crazy, a 6.2 on the Richter Scale, with the Epicenter not to far away from us.  But it freaked everyone out.  The good thing was that we didn´t have any major damage in our area.  Although a member´s house got pretty rocked, so we spent about two hours on Saturday helping secure his walls, so they don´t fall down.  It was a good scare for a lot of people, but nothing really happened, so that´s good.

     Do you know what is sad?  When people don´t even give the opportunity to listen to the message of the plenitud of the Gospel.  We ran into this one guy one day, and he totally bashed on us, not because of the doctrine, but because of some members actions.  He said that he would probably give this Gospel a chance, if it wasn´t for the members.  And he just slammed the door in our face.  It really made me sad, because he isn´t even giving us the chance, just because of something that happened in the past.  It´s rough, but people have their agency.  We just have to help them the most we can, and the God do the rest.

     We went up to this one lookout place in Xela today, and it was absolutely beautiful up there.  I looked over the city, and the thought just came to my mind, that there are about 80 missionaries working in this city alone, working for one cause:  To bring ALL of these souls unto Christ.  It was really cool to think about, and it just made me so glad to be out here helping out with the work!

     I love you guys so much.  Thank you all for writing me!  It always means a lot to me!  Love you!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Scripture!  DyC 62:3

Photos!

From left to right:  Me, Elder García, and Elder Calero

Just thought you´d all like to see all the ties that I´ve accumulated on my mission.  I started out with 7 ties, and now I´m up to 46!  Haha but that´s what happens when you can buy two ties here for less than $1!  It´s crazy!

So just walking down Xela for P-Day, and I see this, which is the walkway to cross the street.  What happened here?  Good Question!

Another week in Chiquilajá!‏

     Hello Family!  I hope that you all had a good week this week!  We had a fairly interesting week this week, so I´ll try and let you all know about what happened.

     Well, first things first, I´m finally out of a trio.  Elder García is leaving for his mission tomorrow.  So now it is just going to be Elder Calero and I.  Which is going to be nice, because working with three people on the mission is just weird.  Also, Elder García had kind of lost his desire to serve, because he wasn´t in his own mission.  But now he´s excited to go, and I´m happy for him.  I hope that he will find that desire again in is own mission!  But now I´m just back to a regular, two-person companionship.  (Thank goodness...)

     Well, here in Guatemala, especially here in Xela, September is by far the hardest month in the mission, because it´s independence month here.  (Independence day is September 15 here.)  Also, there is this huge fair that comes to Xela for about 3 weeks.  So basically everyone is partying, celebrateing, waking up in the streets, and all that fun stuff.  So our leaders have really stressed on starting now so that we can baptize in September.

     Which we have been taking to heart!  We have two sure dates for the 21 of September.  One of them is Wendy, the granddaughter of Martha, the recent convert.  Another one is a young man named Brando.  They are both willing to be baptized, so that´s good.  The only thing we need them to do now is to come to church continually.  They both weren´t able to come to church this week, because Wendy´s great-grandma got really sick, so they went to go visit them, and Brando´s mom didn´t give him permission to go...  So that sucked, but we have talked to both of them, and they said that they are planning on coming next week for sure.  

     I haven´t really realized the importance of member work until I got here.  In Momos and in Quiché, there really weren´t enough members to work with us, and even less who were willing to help us.  But here there are a lot more to help us out.  And we have really been trying to stress member lessons, because there really is nothing else like them.  You can have two strange people, one of them a Gringo, and the people don´t want to hear anything from us.  But when we bring someone who lives walking distance from them, it makes them think that we are actually normal!  It´s great working with them!

     On wednesday we had a Multi-Zone Conference with all the zones from Xela.  President Bautista talked to us, and I don´t know what it is, but I always feel so pumped when he talks!  It´s always good for us missionaries to reclaim the excitement that we had at the beginning.

     Not much else, happened this week.  Just keeping on working for the Lord!  I love this work, and we just need to work hard to make us all happy!  Haha I love you all so much, and thanks for all the support!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Abraham 2:16.  Think about it a little bit... ;)

Photos!

The two boys that we baptized last Saturday in Chinique!

 Elder Glass, Elder Vasquez, and I at changes.

The view of Chiquilajá from our house!  Beautiful.

Elder Calero and I.  The thing in the background is called the Minerva Temple.

Hey look!  I have my own store here in Xela!

In Chiquilajá!

     Hello Family!  What´s up everybody?  I hope that you all are having a great week so far, and that you all had a good week last week!  

     Well, this Tuesday were changes, so I´m out of Chinique, and now I´m in Chiquilajá!  It´s part of Xela, so it´s somewhat city (Which is weird for me...) but it´s still the outskirts of Xela, so it´s still pretty small.  I´ve liked my time here so far, and I´m looking forward to serve here longer!  Also weird, I´m working in a ward for the first time.  I´ve been in branches my whole mission, so this should be nice.  About 140 members come to church every sunday, so hopefully that means a lot of people who are willing to help us out.  Also, we get lunch and dinner about 4-5 times a week, so I´m gonna get good food!  haha I might reach the 6´3, 200 lb frame that Jeffrey claims me to be after all!  But more than anything, I like it here.

     Get this, you know how I was so stoked to leave my trio and be in a regular companionship?...  Well, not quite...  I´m in a trio here!  I´m with Elder Calero, from Nicaragua, who just finished off his training, and Elder García, who´s from the capital here.  Elder García is just a temporary missionary waiting for his visa so that he can go to his actual mission in Venezuela.  So we might not be much time with him, but who knows.  So yeah, back in a trio...  Joy.

     Last Monday was absolutely hectic, let me tell you now.  When I left internet, the secretaries of the mission called us and told us that we needed to help them load up some stuff they were going to take from Chinique all the way to Xela.  Well, they wasted so much time, that I missed the last bus that goes from Chinique to Quiché.  So we had to ask a ride from a member at 8:00 at night, and thank goodness he said yes.  But that meant riding in the back of a pickup at night to Quiché with all my suitcases.  It was crazy.  Kind of too stressful of a P-Day for me.  But we are all good now.

     Things are going good here in Chiquilajá.  The elders baptized four people the week before I came, but for family reasons, two of them weren´t able to come to church to be confirmed... So we ended up confirming them this Sunday, which was cool.  Even better, Martha, the mom of the family who got baptized, brought two granddaughters with her to church.  She wanted them to know about the church, so now we are going to teach them!  Awesome!

     Also, speaking of pilas members, Silvia, a 60 something year old recent convert of about a half a year, has been going out to contact on her own to find people for us to teach.  Can you say AWESOME?!?  Wow, she´s absolutely amazing for us.  There are some amazing people in the world, you know that?

     The only problem here is that the missionaries before were focusing so much on baptizing Martha and her family (which is great, don´t get me wrong) that we basically have nothing now.  So we´ve been searching out for the next people to be baptized!  

     I don´t know why, but I feel so excited to be out here in a new area.  I just feel so stoked to share this gospel with all the people here.  With the help of the Lord, I feel like I should be having success here.  I hope that this feeling continues for a long time!

     I´ve been reading a lot about the missionaries at the beginning of this dispensation.  They were so willing to sacrifice everything that they had, go through so many struggles, just to share the Gospel.  And now I´m doing the same thing.  I know for a fact that I don´t have the same urge as they did, but I´m working on it!

     If you want something that will blow your mind, let me share with you guys something I learned in personal study.  I was reading Elder Hollands General Conference talk from April "I Believe."  In the last paragraph, he says that he declares the words with the "More sure word of profecy."  I wasn´t sure what that was, so I looked it up.  Man, search that up, and it will blow your mind.

     About 30 minutes ago I had the chance to talk to some Gringas!  Well, kind of...  One was from Massechusetts, and the other was from London!  I saw them when we were buying food for the week, and I heard them talking in english.  I figured I didn´t want to miss this chance to talk to them, so I started talking to them.  And it´s not all because they were somewhat cute or anything... ;)  But long story short, the girl from London has heard a lot about missionaries before, so I ended up placing two BoM´s in the store!  It was weird talking about us in English, becasue I´m so used to it in Spanish.  But it was a cool experience!

     I ate McDonalds for the first time in the mission today for lunch.  Man, it might just be a lack of good ole American food for so long, but it was SO GOOD!  Man, Xela is a lot different than Quiché or Momos!

     So yeah, I ended up writing a lot this week, but it was worth it.  All in all, I´m enjoying my new area, and I´m ready to work here!  Wish me luck!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. D+C 1:4