Feliz Año Nuevo!

  Hello Family!  And Happy New Year!  We have officially entered 2014, the year that a Prophet of God called Elder Stuart to come back home...  How weird is that?  Can you believe how fast the time has gone?  Incredible.  Now it`s just time for us to make the best of a whole new year!

     New Year´s was just like how it was for my family:  Quiet.  New Year´s Eve was just a normal day for us, and then we had to be in our apartments at 9:00.  So Elder Josec and I played some games for a little bit, until midnight, and then went up to our roof to watch the fireworks. And then I went to sleep.  Fun right?  Honestly, for me it was.  I was dead tired, so I just wanted to rest.  So yeah...

     Actually, thinking about it, that´s how our week went for us.  This week was really slow.  We had a really low number of lessons taught, and some things just didn`t go our way.  It definitely was a week of really thinking about the mission, and how it has blessed my life.  I know I`ve said it before, but I know I was sent here in Quetzaltenango not just for the people here, but for myself.  And it`s been great.

      Anyways, we have had some problems with Cruz and Sharon.  Sharon ran away from home to go live with her boyfriend...  So we haven`t seen here for about a week.  And Cruz isn`t feeling that good about his fecha.  So we pushed it back to the 18th.  But we really need to work with him to have him gain a testimony about the Gospel.  Without a testimony, we aren`t getting anywhere.  So we are really working on that.

       Wosvelí has been in Momos all week, so we haven`t seen him yet.  But we`ve started the process to divorce him.  We haven`t been informed on how long it is going to take, but we are shooting for about 3 weeks.  But we`ll see how that goes.

     Because a bunch of people didn`t want to follow through with their citas, we had the opportunity to find 15 new investigators this week, one of the highest I`ve ever had.  Now we just need to make sure that we follow through with them so that they can all progress.

      I just want to tell you guys a really cool experience that happened yesterday.  We were having one of those days, where no one comes to church, and every single thing that we had planned fell through.  It was 7:30, and we were so tired.  We had just walked through a bunch of guys making fun of us, and went so far as to kick a soccer ball that hit me in the back.  Needless to say I was really frustruated.  I was thinking, "Let`s just go home, nothing good is coming out of today."  But we decided to go visit one more person.  We decided to keep on going.  

     When we got to the house that we had planned to go, some little kid answered and informed us that the person we were looking for wasn`t there.  But then some older lady came to the door, and started talking to us.  We presented ourselves, and she almost sent us away.  But then something changed.  It was like the whole atmosphere got calmer.  She suddenly just said to come in, and she gave us some leftover tostadas from their dinner.  We chatted, and figured out that she is really in need of the Gospel.  We left her house with plans to stop by this Wednesday.  I left that house thanking God for giving me the strength to keep going.  If I would`ve just given up and gone home, we never would have found that lady.  But we did.  God works in mysterious ways, and I am just now starting to see that.

     (That ended up being longer than I thought...)

     So yeah, Happy New Year´s to all.  Here`s to 2014!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. John 15:2 and 4

Photos!

Most of us Elders on New Year`s Eve!  Some of them bought fireworks, so we woke back up at midnight, and watched the fireworks for about 20 minutes!  It was way cool! 

We celebrated new years with a family here!  We made a bonfire with them, roasted marshmellows, and set off little fireworks.  It was way fun!

So we were looking for a truck to Pancà when this cement truck passed by, asking us the way to Pancà.  He was headed there for the construction on the chapel.  We told him we knew the way, and he offered to take us there if we showed him the way!  So we got to ride all the way to Pancà in a cement truck!

   We found this little water source (What do you call this?) on our way to a member`s house.  It looked pretty clean, so I figured why not?  (But not really..)

This is a little baby who was born here not to long ago.  Her family is Less Active, but they ended up coming to chruch for a baby blessing for her!  So everything turned out perfect!

I don`t remember if I had sent you guys a picture of the waterfalls here, but I went to go show them to Elder Mar, so we took some more pictures!

A Week of Celebration!

Hello Family! I don`t know why, but it seems like it has been forever since I`ve talked to you guys! I guess talking on the phone does that to you! It just seemed so normal, but now we are back to just emailing, which is just okay, not the same though! But I should tell you guys that this week has been really great!

So we didn`t get to get back to Pancà until Wednesday morning, so the 25th was actually kind of boring. We did go contact a bit in Momos, but it isn`t the same as being in your area. So yeah, it kind of sucked. But on Wednesday, we went to a members house to celebrate Christmas, and we bought fireworks to set off! It was way fun! And to top it all off, I finally got to open my presents, about a day and a half later than I wanted. But better late then never! I loved the presents! I have been craving American candy for a long time, because the candy here just isn`t the same. But one of the best things you sent was the Conference Edition of the Ensign. Thank you so much for it!! I`ve already read it cover to cover twice now, that just shows how much I have been looking forward to it! Thank you all so much for the presents!

But after that, it was time to get back to work. This week, we still focused a lot on the birth of Jesus Christ, because it is still the Christmas season, and we thought it would still work! It is so amazing to talk about the birth of Christ with the people here. Because even if they are members, less actives, investigators, or just random people on the street, almost every person here is willing to talk about Christ, especially the birth of Christ. So it has been a really successful week, and spiritual too!

We have been working a lot with a family a member reffered to us. They are a mom and two kids, with the Dad in the States. But they are really open to us, and we even mentioned baptism this week, and they weren`t totally off guard! So we have a goal for a date on the 26 of January, so hopefully that will work out!

This week was a little rough at the beginning, because after talking to you guys, and Christmas and everything, I was a little homesick. But like President Hinckley`s Dad said, "Forget yourself and go to work." That really helped me out, and I got through the week fine! It really has been a great week here, and I am ready for a new year here! Happy New Years everybody! Until Next Time!

- Elder Stuart

P.S. The scripture for this week is Ezra 10:4. I thought I should throw you guys some Old Testament goodies!