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

Last Week in Chinique!

   Hello Family!  What´s up guys?  I hope you all had a good week this week!  Well, I just spent my last week here in Chinique.  I´m currently in Chinique still, but later tonight I´ll head to Quiché, and in the morning I´ll go to Xela where they will tell me where I´m going!  So I don´t know yet where I´m going, but there´s a lot of options for me now!  We´ll see where I go!

     This week was a good week for us.  Of course, it wasn´t perfect, but I´ll take what God gives me... Which just happened to be two baptisms this Saturday!!!  A recent convert, Marta, and her oldest son were baptized like 3 weeks ago.  But she had two other sons, 11 and 9, who weren´t baptized because 1. They weren´t really ready yet, and 2. Because the dad wasn´t really gung ho about the whole thing.  But we spent a lot of time with them these last two weeks, and we succeeded in helping them gain a testimony (you should hear them sing the primary songs!) and helping the dad out with letting them get baptized.  So Saturday they were baptized!  It was very special and just a great experience for me.

     After the baptism, we had a branch activity!  It was a talent show type of thing, where we saw a bunch of skits, and some people singing.  It was way fun, way funny, and just a good way to spend time getting the branch more unified.  Us missionaries did a skit about David and Goliath, and I was Goliath.  (Apparently according to Jeffery I´m 6´3 and 200 lbs.  I not quite there yet!)  It was way funny, and I got pegged in the mouth with a paper ball. When I get home I´ll show you guys the video!

     But not everything was all fine and dandy with the activity.  While we were getting it planned and everything, the branch kind of separated and got mad at each other.  People everywhere, just love the people in your ward/branch and everything will be so much better.  We had to deal with that for this week, which was not fun.  But we just all need to learn how to be more unified and how to love each other.  Which went along great with the class I gave in Elder´s Quorum this week in the Lorenzo Snow book.  Chapter 16, read it when you have the chance!

     Not much else happened during the week, just going around doing what we do best!  It´s been a good time here working with Elder Glass and Vasquez, but I´m ready to go to a normal two person companionship.  Ya feel me?  Maybe not, but trust me on this one, trios are weird...

     I hope you are all doing well, in whatever part of the world you are in.  We can all make a difference wherever we are, we just have to put in our part.  So just do work!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 42:15

Photos!

This is the India Quiche factory.  (Jeffrey hopefully you´ll be seeing a lot of this!)  India Quiche is the biggest soft drink factory in Guatemala.  And this is the center of it.  Basically it´s like walking down the street and seeing the Coke factory.  And we just happen to pass by it every P-Day!

We helped some investigators decorate a car for a parade!  It was fun, but very time consuming!  (So yes, Dad, I´m ready to help you out next year!)

Another photo with me and the parade car!

Saying goodbye to the Muñoz family for Elder Aguilar.

My last photo with Elder Aguilar, which just happens to be at about 4:30 in the morning!

We passed by an investigators house, and they had just gotten back from redneck hunting.  And something tells me that they ate that this week...  Well, that´s Guatemala for you!  (Get ready Jeffrey!)

Just walking down the street when something caught my eye.  I found a freakin Utah lisence plate all the way here in Chinique!

Elder Tufiño and I!