I LOVE THE MISSION

     Hello Family!  I´m going to try to reiterate what I´ve been feeling recently:  I LOVE THE MISSION.  Every single part of it.  This is an experience like none other, and I´m so happy being a missionary.  I´ve never been in a situation like this where I have been able to learn so much in such a short amount of time.  It´s absolutley incredible.

     Things here are going great.  This week in all of Central America there was a whole week focusing on the family.  Every night, there were actividades in the church, talks about how to strengthen the family, and just opportunities to spend time together as a family.  And we had a lot of success!  A bunch of the members brought their family members that aren´t members, and they all loved it.  We got a bunch of new investigators from it, and it was all just from members talking to their family members about the gospel.  

      That just makes me realize how easy missionary work can be, with all the success that we had.  It can be so easy as to just talk with your family and close friends on how the church really focuses on the family.  A lot of families loved this week, and we are hoping to bring together more families because of the Gospel.

     By the way, on Saturday, there was a Cultural Night, where a bunch of members put together talents.  And what did Elder Pagán and I do?  Comedy skits....  booya.  Everyone loved us, and I just loved acting again.  I´ll show you all the videos when I get home!

     Our most positive investigator right now is Aura.  On Tuesday we had a really important lesson with her about baptism.  She had a fecha for the 17th of May, this last Saturday, but in that lesson, she said that she wanted to pray to figure out when she should be baptized.  We were kind of worried at first, because we should be the ones to put the fechas, but then we just felt like we should let her have two days to pray about it.  When we went back on Thursday, we were really anxious to know what she was going to say, and if she was going to say a fecha super far away.  But when we asked her, she said very confidently, "I need to be baptized on the 24th of May.  Is that alright?"  Nice!  That´s a for sure fecha that´s not too far away, just this next Saturday!  I know that the Lord knew He was going to give her that confirmation, and that´s why He told us to let it go.  The Lord really is in charge of this work.

     Just to end off, I want to stress with you guys the importance of the BoM again.  It really is the key to this work.  In PMG, it talks about how we need to be creative with the way that we handle the BoM, and especially here, where about half of our investigators can´t read.  But it really is the key to success here, and we need to always make sure that we are focusing on the BoM.  Read the last paragraph of the introduction of the BoM, and you´ll see why this book is so important in missionary work.

     I love you all so much, and I wish  the best for you all!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Moroni 9:31

Mother´s Day!

     Hello Family!  And happy Mother´s Day to all you mothers out there.  You all are such a blessing in my life, thanks for everything that you guys do!  Things here in Colonia are so great.  We´ve been experiencing so many blessings here, and I feel so blessed to be able to finish off my mission here.  

     This week, I´ve realized that when we work hard, blessings always come.  Sometimes they aren´t immediate, and sometimes they aren´t in the way were were thinking of.  But they always come.  I´ll tell you guys why I´ve realized that.  We are working a lot with Elena and her family, and things have been interesting with them.  They´re coming to church, but are having a hard time accepting the Gospel.  BUT!  Because of them, we have been led to their families, friends, and who knows what.

     One of those people is Aura, who I told you all about last week.  She´s so pilas.  She´s coming to church, reading the BoM, and even giving us references.  There´s a possibility that she could be baptized this week, on the 17th, but if not, it will be next week.  She literaly just fell out of nowhere to come find us, and now look at what is going to happen.  

     Another one of those people is Rut.  She´s a friend on Elena, who has a lot of problems in her house.  She always tells us, "When you both come to teach Elena, call me so I can come over."  And one of the best things about her is that she understands everything so well.  With a little more time, I´m sure that she is going to love the church, and be baptized one day.

     I think one of the most important aspects of missionary work is talking to everyone that you can.  You never know when someone is looking for the truth, or just ready to hear the Gospel.  But if we never talk to anyone, we´ll never know.  Maybe the majority of the people won´t accept it right away, but some seeds can be planted for future missionary work.  This Gospel has to get to all four corners of the earth one way or another, and it´s our job to do it.

     Lastly, something else that I feel like talking about this week is how key the BoM is in this church.  The mission is really stressing that we make sure that every member of the church (recent converts too) is reading the BoM.  They have challenged us to ask every time that we see someone, "What part of the BoM are you at?"  When someone really has a testimony of the BoM, they almost never fall away.  And that´s something that we need to focus on here in Guatemala.

     I absolutely loved talking to you guys yesterday.  I loved seeing you guys, and talking just like good old times.  (That makes me sound like I´ve been away fo sooooo long...)  But I can´t wait to be able to do that every day in about two months.  You guys are really special to me, and I´m so grateful that we are able to spend all of eternity together.  You guys are the best.  I love you all so much.

     As for now, it´s just time to keep pushing forward, diligently and inteligently, in the Lord´s Vineyard.  Everyone that has time, go to LDS.org, find the spanish hymnbook, and put hymn #88 in Google Translate.  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     

     P.S. The scripture for this week is kind of long.  Read Alma 60 and 61, and think about how we should act when someone complains against us when it´s not justified.  Especially Alma 61:9

¡Xbe´ij watchalal!

¡Hola Familia!  Man oh man what a good time it is to be a missionary now.  I´ve been doing a lot of reflexion this week, and it´s incredible for me to realize that I´m a missionary.  I´ve been remembering all the times when I was little where I thought "Man, those missionaries are so old and so great."  And now I´m one of those missionaries!  We are in the time that we need to hasten this work, and I am a part of it!  The Lord is asking us to do all that we can to spread this gospel to all nations, and I´m in the heart of the work.  What a blessing.

     Well, after that paragraph, it´s kind of rough talking about this week.  It wasn´t the best week in the world; more than anything everything just went by really slow.  We had been spending so much time on Cruz that we kind of neglected the other parts of the work, so we are suffering from that now.  Not gonna lie, it´s been kind of frustruating for me spending most of the week trying to pick this area up again, and not watching it happen.  But I feel like that is one of the biggest reasons that I came to this mission.  To work on my patience.  And I feel like I am doing a lot better.  Tht doesn´t mean that I´m perfect yet, but I´ll get there!

     We do have one really good prospect.  Antonio, Cindy´s husband, is now listening to us.  Cindy has been baptized for about a month now, but she´s on fire!  She wants to do everything possible for us to baptize Antonio.  And she´s super pilas too!  Jaja for example, this Friday we went to teach Antonio about the BoM, and basically she taught the whole lesson.  She´s got a super strong testimony, and she´s gonna be the key factor for us to baptize her husband.  If we keep going at it, I feel like I could baptize him before I leave this area.

     This week was Stake Conference, and of the four hours that I went to, about 3 of them were all focused on missionary work.  I don´t remember that happening when I was back home, but now missionary work seems to be sneaking up in every church meeting that I go to.  The Lord really is wanting us to pick up the pace.

     This week, I´ve been focusing a lot on my BoM study, and I´ve slowly been realizing more and more how important this book really is.  I know for a fact that it is true, and it is the word of God.  This week during a lesson, we had one investigator tell us that he wanted a dream telling him the BoM is true.  And before I knew it, I was testifying to him that in my 20 years of being a member, I´ve never had any manifestation, dream, voice, or anything of the sort telling me that it was true.  It´s just been year after year of studying it,  and I know that it is true.  There is no doubt of any sort in my mind.  

     Well, that´s about it for this week.  We are going to be working hard this week to get a lot more investigators to teach, so that we can pick up the work here.  I just want you all to know how much I love being out here.  The trials, the work, the culture, the language, the Spirit, and so much more.  There is nothing like it.  Until next time!

    - Elder Stuart

     P.S. 1 Nefi 6:5,  and try replacing the word "write" for "do".

Time Flies!

 Hello Family!  Well, I don´t know what it is, but time is going by WAY to fast!  I have already been here in Chiquilajá for a change already!  Changes are tomorrow, but neither I nor Elder Calero are leaving.  So we are going to be together for another 6 weeks.  I´m stoked for it, because he´s a good guy, and I feel like we can both learn some things more from each other.  That´s what the mission is for, right?  Right.  

     So yeah, we had a pretty unexciting week this week.  Just another week of being a missionary!  So see you guys next week!...  Not.  Jaja but really, nothing really happened thinking right now, but I´ll find something to write about, don´t worry!

     I´ll tell you guys about our best lesson this week.  It was with a 25 year old lady named Esperanza.  We taught her about the Restoration last week, so we decided to follow up on the BoM.  And she loved it.  I felt so good during the lesson, and I felt the Spirit working through me to tell her what she needed.  Wow, there just aren´t words to really express the feeling you feel when the Spirit works through you.  But it is really something else.  So we ended the lesson, and she seemed really excited to read it.  But the thing is, we have a lot of people that say that.  But it was true!  We left, but my comp forgot something in the house.  So we went back, and the door was open and we saw her reading!  YES!  KEEP ON READING!  I loved it!  So we will see how that goes.

     We kind of had a rough week with Carla, who came to church last week.  She was out of town the beginning of the week, and when we passed by on Friday for a cita that we set up, she ended up having to leave.  So we ended up passing Sunday morning to take her to church, and the problems continued.  The light and water went out for all of our part of Xela, so they had been without light/water since Saturday afternoon.  And she basically told us that she wouldn´t go with us because the light was out...  Curse you Satan!  Dang it, that was a hard blow to us, but it happens, and we just have to keep going strong.  We´ll go back with her to see how things go.

     Elder Calero baptized a grandma and her daughter before I came.  So now we have been really trying to bring the whole family into the church.  And we made a lot of progress this week.  We ended up going 7 of us to see the sights of the temple!  There is a special spirit there, and we wanted them to feel it.  So on Saturday night, we made our way up there.  Well, we made a big mistake.  We didn´t take in account of the Relief Society meeting that same day, so when we got there, the gates were closed because of said meeting.  But we didn´t go all the way there for nothing!  So we sat down on the grass and just talked about the temple with them, with the temple all lit up in the background.  And man was that a good talk!  

     The temple really is a special place, and I feel really bad that I didn´t take full advantage of being in Utah, where according to the members here, "There are temples on every block!"  Which is somewhat true.  But I am going to really make the temple bigger in my life when I get back!  And all of you that can, go to the temple!  Always have it in your sights!

     Guatemala is weird, just saying it now.  I think that I´ve gotten so used to it though, because I don´t really see how it is weird.  But I had the sudden thought come to me one day.  I was standing in an old beat up school bus, jam packed with people, squished between an old man with about 4 teeth and a cowboy hat, and an old corte lady that only speaks K´iche´, with a chicken in her hand.  And then it hit me, wow, that´s just weird.  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it!  Classic.

     Guys, the scriptures are awesome.  Really make it an effort to read AND study them every day.  That is one thing that I love about the mission, the time to study.  There are so many words of comfort, happiness, excitement, it just has it all.  Especially the BoM.  Wow, what an amazing book.  I can´t get enough of it!

      GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!  WOO HOO!!!  Be stoked.  Prepare yourselves to be absolutely enlightened by living profets!  

     There y´all go, my week in a nutshell.  Not really the best week in the mission, but it´s a week in the mission, so it´s special.  Really though, I don´t think we realize how great of an opportunity this really is.  And sometimes I forget it too.  But there really is no greater work, and no other work that brings so much satisfaction.  Hope on.  Journey on.  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     D y C 30:6  I really am serving among the Lamanites!  

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

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!!!  :)

A Week to Remember

   Hello Family!  It´s monday, and you know what that means: email time!  I have been looking forward to this time, because this week was a really memorable one!  I saw some miracles pass by, I finally broke on a craving that I didn´t know that I had, and really, it was just a good week!

     So I´ll start with the coolest thing that passed by this week.  I´ll tell you about a little miracle that I experienced this week.  So we got back to our area after P-Day this week, and we saw our branch president talking to a man, so we went over to introduce ourselves.  Turns out the man was a less active member that hadn´t gone to church for a good 9 years, but now wants to return.  WHAT?  Just out of the blue, we didn´t even know him before!  And to add to it, his wife and six kids want to come too, and they haven´t been baptized, so we are going to work on that!  That goes to show that God is really a God of Miracles, and he never ceases to do his will!  It was so amazing to see it happen right before my eyes, so now we just need to act on it and make it happen!  I am so grateful that I was able to be part of it, and even more grateful that God trusts me enough to work on it!  

     I finally broke, I did it.  I did the unthinkable.  I bought a nice big jar of PEANUT BUTTER!  I saw it in Xela this week, and I just had the sudden urge to buy it... So I did!  Really, I didn´t even like peanut butter all that much before my mission, but what they all say came true, all missionaries will crave peanut butter at least once on the mission.  I bought some crackers to eat with it, and sat down on Saturday night, eating peanut butter and reading, and next thing I know all the crackers that I had bought were gone!  It was SO GOOD!  Who would´ve thought, right?

     Just a funny little thing that I noticed this week.  We are visiting 3 different men whose names are:  Manuel Lux Pu, Manuel Pu Lux, and Manuel Lux Uz.  Go figure..

     I have really been studying the Book of Mormon recently, like really studying it, and I have found so many things about the BoM that I probably wouldn´t have found if I was just reading it. For instance, one thing that really stuck out to me this week is something that I probably would have missed if I wasn´t thinking too much.   In Mormon 9:31, it says: Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father . . . but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been.  I thought a lot about this, and I realized that we shouldn´t let someone who says something bad about us ruin our testimony.  We should learn from it.

     Also, I taught preisthood this week, and there was a phrase that I really liked.  I talked about a phrase that talked about testimony, and how powerful it is.  And the most important thing about it is that "Lo sé por mi mismo."  Which roughly translates to "I know for myself."  It really is true though, because your testimony should be ingrained in your very being, and we can know for our own selves that it is ours. 

    So yeah, quite the week it was this week!  I hope all the good fortune continues!  And same to you guys!  Love you all!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. The scripture this week is going to be a little different.  I am going to write it in Quiche for you guys!  Have fun with it!  It is 3 Nephi 11: 39, and says:  Kastzij, Kastzij, quinbij chiwe chi are wa´ ri lok´alaj nu tijonem, y apachin ri cutac´aba´ rib puwi´ wa´, kas cutac´aba´ rib puwi´ ri nimalaj abäj wech, Y man cäch´ec taj rumal ri u k´ak´re xibalba.

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!