Good Start for December

Hello Family!  How y´all doin? (That one´s for you Matt)  Hope you all are feeling the Christmas Spirit!  And some of you are gonna have a really white Chirstmas from what I hear!  Well, not here in the Land of the Eternal Spring!  Although the weather here´s not that great nowadays.  It´s just cold, without the snow.  Joy.  But what can you do, right?  Right.

     After a bunch of time together, I´m finally saying goodbye to Elder Calero.  He´s been a really good comp, one of my favorites.  He´s really chill, and has a good heart.  He just needs a push here and there to get going, but when he does, he´s awesome.  It´s been really fun with him, but I´m excited to see who I´m going to be with for the next little while tomorrow!

     (Just a side note, if you don´t know yet.  This change was changed to only have four weeks, because if it was normal, changes would have been on Chirstmas Eve, which would´ve sucked for everyone.  So they made some switches, and this next change is going to have eight weeks to make up for the lost two weeks.  Just so you know.)

     We had an awesome week this week.  It all came together on Saturday, where we had a BAPTISM of a daughter of a family we recently reactivated.  Her name was Hanny.  It was really simple, they didn´t want very many people at the service, which we respected.  But their 16 year old daughter who still hasn´t come back to church yet came, so that was way special.  It was simple and sweet.  There really is nothing like a baptismal service to get your spirits up again.

     Something really cool real quick.  We had a priest that we know baptize Hanny just as an afterthought, because we figured that would be better for him to do it and not us.  We didn´t really think much of it until Sunday, where he bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting.  At the end he said, "I also am very grateful to my Heavenly Father for the chance I had to baptize Hanny yesterday.  I will be forever grateful to the Missionaries for this opportunity they gave me."  When he said that last part, he looked right at me.  I just felt so good inside, and the scripture of "small things make great things" came to mind.  I thought it was just an afterthought, but it was really a prompting from the Spirit to strengthen his testimony.  That was a really cool experience.

     We are still working with Wosvelí.  We are planning for his baptism this Saturday, the 14th of December.  He´s starting to get nervous, and in the last lesson we had he said he wants more preparation, but honestly he doesn´t need it.  He knows it´s something that he has to do, and we are going to make sure that he follows through with it.  His family is helping a lot, coming to the ward every week.  He just needs a little push, and he´s good.

     The Christmas Devotional was this Sunday.  The only thing was we got pushed back in a cita, and ended up seeing only the last half.  But it still gets me, especially the music.  (Christmas music is one of the only things that makes me baggy...)  It´s good to take a step back every once in a while and realize what the true meaning of Christmas is.  And we have the chance to devote all our time to help others realize that.

     Once again, we´ve seen some miracles by seeing some things go wrong only to lead us to a very good thing.  For example, we´ve been teaching this lady for a while now, and we had planned to not go anymore.  But one night in our planning sessions, we had the impression to go with her.  Well, we went, but she made up some lame excuse and said she didn´t have time.  So, when she shut the door, we decided to knock the next door because we had some extra time.  The man opened the door and was hesitant at first, but accepted to hear our message.  And he is basically the perfect example of someone who is prepared to accept this message.  (Not going to any church, but looking for one.  Knows a lot about the scriptures.  Etc.)  When we told him about the Restoration, he basically said "That makes sense."  A really neat experience.

     At this point I think I´m just rambling on.  So I´ll just stop now.  But I´m super stoked to be working here, because things are really starting to pick up.  I love being a missionary, and I´m scared about how fast time is going.  But I´ve just got to make the best of what I have left!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. 1 Peter 3:15

Loving Guatemala!

   Hello Family!  Well, I just spent another week of my life in a foreign country.  I love thinking of that every now and then.  Why else would I come to Guatemala if it weren´t for this Gospel?  That´s why I love it so much, being able to learn more about myself and at the same time helping others come unto Christ.  There really is no better combination.

     First things first, we had changes this week... Well, kind of.  The mission had changes, and we didn´t.  It was really weird, because we were expecting Elder Calero to go, because he has four changes here.  But nope!  We are still together.  Apparently he still has something to do here that he hasn´t done yet.  So we´re on it!

     Well, this week didn´t really go according to plan.  That´s the thing about the mission, learning what to do when things don´t go your way.  You can either be like "Dang, our cita with that investigator fell, now what are we going to do?"  Or, like I learned this week, we can say "Well, our cita fell, let´s go see what we can find out here!"  Two really different points of view that really make a difference.  And we tried to make the best of what we could.  And we did!  We found the most new investigators our of the whole zone by a long shot, and it came from not letting a few things go wrong get in the way!  If anything, the mission has taught me to look for the best in everything.

     We are still working with German, but the hard thing with him is that he is losing his desire to learn more, so he really isn´t putting in his part.  And we can only do so much without his help.  So we are praying for him and making sure that he will continue to fulfill our invintations!

     We have a really cool family that just needs this Gospel!  Antonio and his family of five are such a great family.  We are really working hard to resolve some dudas they have, but the biggest one we have now is that Antonio is working on Sundays, so he can´t come to church.  And the family doesn´t come without him...  But, he is going to finish up his project this week, so we are really hoping they can come next week!

     For all you guys who aren´t on the mission right now, the best thing you can do is go out with the missionaries.  It really doesn´t matter who you are!  There is nothing like a member testifying about what we are saying.  Most of the mindsets here are like "What do you Gringos have to say to me?"  But when someone who lives down the street from them tells them the same thing, they really start to believe it!  So help the missionaries out!

     I did a lot of thinking about why I was sent to Guatemala on my mission.  Like most other people, I have a lot of defects.  One of the biggest ones is having patience with others.  But thinking about it, the Lord really knows why I´m here.  With all the love in the world, the people here have a lot of issues.  And one of the biggest things we have to deal with as missionaries are the people here.  But I really feel like I´ve grown so much, I feel like I am a better man.  So the Lord knows why we are where we are, even when we don´t know as much.  It was a good reflexion time for me.

     That´s about it for this week.  It was pretty good, but there is room for improvement.  So here´s to it!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

      P.S. DyC 64:33

What A Week!

     Hello Family!  Wow, we had a really good week this week, and most of the good just came from one family!  Funny how that works...  

     First things first, changes are tomorrow.  We usually find out what the changes are on Sunday night, but something had happened in the mission home, so now the changes that we do know of aren´t sure, and there might be some more changes that we haven´t heard of.  The thing is, Elder Calero, who has 4 changes here and 2 with me, hasn´t been told he is leaving yet.  With almost every missionary, two changes is max with one companion, and having more than four changes is really rare.  But as of now, we haven´t been told he is leaving yet.  So we´ll see how that goes!  Either way, I´m fine with what happens.  (Although I´d like a change.  Three months with someone 24/7 is a TON for any person...)  But we´ll see what God has to say!

     But yeah, I´ve got to tell you about this family.  We had found them a while back, like a month ago.  But they weren´t progressing much, so we went to one last cita with them to see if we should continue with them or not.  So we went this Tuesday, and just out of nowhere, they told us that they had plans to go to church with us last Sunday.  But they didn´t end up coming, because it was late.  But we were super stoked that they wanted to come, so we talked about how going to church can help anyone feel the Spirit.  So we made sure they were coming to church.  The thing is, Antonio (The dad) got called on Saturday and was told that he had to come in to work on Sunday.  So long story short, they weren´t able to come.  But we talked to them, and they are already making plans to come next week!  So we are looking really good with them.

     German is coming along nicely.  We´ve found out a couple of his doubts, and we are working on getting them cleared up.  The thing is, it´s really hard for him to come to church with us, because he is only working here, and lives on the coast.  But we are working so that he can go through with his fecha on the 23rd of November!

     This week, I´ve really been able to tell when I have the Spirit with me and when I don´t.  The thing is, being a missionary absolutely sucks when you don´t have the Spirit.  But when you do, WOW, it is absolutely amazing!  There really is no way to explain it.  But I´ve really been trying to have the Spirit with me always, because there is no other option.  And when we have the spirit, everything just goes better.

     Not much else for this week.  I guess we´ll see how things go with changes tonight!  But whatever happens, I´m stoked to work more here in Chiquilajá!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. 2 Corithians 4:8,9 and 16.

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!  

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