Exception Week!

     Hello Family!  How are you all doing?  I hope that you are all doing exceptional.  Not just good, not even great, but exceptional.  We have the greatest joy ever in our lives, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There really is no reason ever to not be just bursting with joy!  We have the great Plan of Happiness!  How great is that?  Just making sure that you all remember to be happy!  ;)

     This week was kind of hard for us in San Fran.  Just so you all know, San Francisco is a really famous market place, and people come over here to work and buy all the time.  The hardest thing about this pueblo is that a lot of people come here to work and sell during the week, but they don´t even live here, so it´s hard to find people to teach that actually live here.  So that´s been a challenge for us here.

     We are working really hard with Paloma.  She was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but when she went to her sister to ask for permission (She´s 17 and her sister is her guardian), the sister took her to go talk with a pastor... Great.  So she backed off for this Saturday.  We were really bummed when that happened.  So we went to go talk to her to see what happened.

     She basically told us that she wasn´t so sure about being baptized, because she wasn´t sure that she had recieved an answer.  (Just so you know, she comes to church every week, goes to early-morning seminary, and is even doing her personal progress.  She´s that pilas.)  But we talked to her about her answer, and how the Holy Ghost answers our prayers.  Well, she has told us that she feels great talking to us, and knows that she needs to be baptized.  And when she talked with her sister, she felt doubt, confusion, and such.  So I asked her, "Where do those feelings of happiness and joy come from?"  She said God.  Then I asked her, "Where do feelings of doubt and confusion come from?"  She said from the devil.  I then asked her, "Now, Paloma, what does that tell you?"  She just sat there and smiled.  She told us that she was going to talk to her sister and tell her for sure that she has recieved an answer, and that she wants to be baptized.  That was quite the exerience for me.  Words just came out without even thinking about them, and I know that the Spirit helped me with her.  So now we just need to wait how she feels, but it´s very probable that she will be baptized this Saturday.

     We´ve found a new investigator this week named Alejandrina.  She works her in San Fran, but lives in an aldea about 40 minutes away called Tierra Colorada.  The good thing is that it is still part of our area!  Jaja we taught her the restoration, and she loved it!  She understood everything, and more importantly, she understood what it means for her.  She even came to church this week!  We have really high hopes for her, so we just need to keep teaching her.

     I´ve learned something really important about teaching here in San Francisco.  A lot of the people here can´t read (which happens a lot in this mission...), so we need to find the best way to teach those people.  And something that we do wrong sometimes is giving them all the answers.  In all teaching situations, we need to let people figure it out for themselves, or they will never really retain anything.  So many times we go visit someone, and they say, "I don´t really remember what you guys taught me last time..."  And that just shows us that we need to really focus on not just teaching the lesson, but making sure that they really understand it.

     I´m learning so much here, and with so little time left, I really need to make sure that I am doing all that I can to take advantage of the time that I have left.  I that´s what I´m going to do!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Jacob 7:5

Great Mother's Day Weekend!

    Hello Family!  Well, here we are talking again since yesterday!  Although it isn`t the same, we will just have to wait until Christmas for that again!  But for now, here is just a regular email for you all!  But seriously, I can`t tell you how awesome it was to see you guys and to be able to talk to you guys!  I love you guys so much, and it really meant a lot to me that you talked to me the whole time!  You really made me excited about this work all over again, and now I just want to work really hard!  Thank you for that!

     (Now, I`ve basically told you all that has happened to me, but I`ll just put it in writing for you guys!)

     So first things first, something really cool that happened this week.  It was an amazing experience!  We have been teaching a man that owns a little store for a while now, but he hasn`t been progressing, and he doesn`t seem too interested, so we were thinking about dropping him.  But we decided to go one last time to see him, and good thing we did!  We were introducing the BoM, but he didn`t want anything to do with it.  We were going to leave, but a man who was in the store, listening to us, stopped us from leaving and wanted to know more about the BoM.  We were shocked, but we recovered to be able to say that of course we could tell him more!  We have been teaching him ever since, and he even came to chruch this Sunday!  Miracles do exist, but we need to put in the work to be able to be in the right place!

     We celebrated Mother`s Day on Saturday with the whole Brach, which was way fun!  The Elder`s Quorum made a huge lunch for all the mom`s so that they could enjoy a day off, and still have a good meal!  And it was a REALLY good meal that we made!  (I should have taken a picture of the final result...  Dang it!  Haha)  Afterwards, we had all the mom`s play games with us, like musical chairs, races, and stuff like that!  And no mom was excluded!  We had the newest mom racing along the 80 year old mom, and it was awesome!  We even had some investigators that came!  But, who wouldn`t want a free lunch and to play some games?!?  A successful day for us! 

     Remember the man I told you about whose wife died last week?  We have been working really hard with him, becuase he is really struggling.  He hasn`t come to church for the past two weeks, which really worries me.  I keep thinking about a phrase that I heard in General Conference.  (But I can`t remember which one... I think it was Elder Andersen that said it)  He said: "During a hard time, the last thing you should do is leave the protection of the church.  It`s like leaving the storm cellar as a tornado is approaching!"  (Or something like that..)  That is really good advice, and I hope that you all remember that saying!

     Not much else...  We are working really hard to have our investigators come to church, which is one of the most important things for them.  Because if they come to church, that shows that they are willing to make commitments, and that they will progress.  I never really realized before my mission how important our meetings are, but now I really do!  This is one of the biggest reasons why I love being a missionary, because I am really appreciating a lot more of my life back home!  

     I need to thank you guys again for talking to me yesterday!  I really love this work, and although I am away from you guys, I know that I am doing the right thing!  This is the most important thing that I could be doing with my life right now, and I love it!  I it so amazing to see people change for the better, and even more amazing to know that I was a part of helping them!  There is a lot of hard work in being a missionary, but the satisfaction that comes from it is DEFINITELY worth it!  I`m so grateful for the chance I have to be here!

     So yeah, just another week passing by!  I hope that you will all have a good week this week!  I know that I will, so I hope that you guys have one too!  Love you all so much, and thank you always for your support!  Love you all!   Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture for this week is Alma 10:11  (I like substituting where he talks about Alma for the gospel.)  It talks a lot about family, and  I really am grateful for my family!!!  :)

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