Awesome Week!

     Hello Family!  This week was so awesome!  We had a lot of things go on this week, so I´m gonna try and tell you all what happened!

     So the biggest thing:  THE MUÑOZ FAMILY WAS BAPTIZED!  YES!!!  I´m so freakin happy right now I can´t even explain it.  They were baptized on Saturday morning.  It was very cloudy and a little rainy, just like any other Guatemalan day!  Haha but that didn´t stop the amazing feeling that we all felt that day.  Angelica, Henry, and Amary were all baptized, and I was so happy!  Haha I just can´t stop saying how happy I am!  All the frustrations of the past couple months, and the discouragement, and all that junk doesn´t even come close to the amazing feeling of hard work paying off!  You just have to keep up the work, and it pays off!

     They really are a very special family.  Like last week, they were already talking as if they were members!  We are trying now to get them excited to go to the temple as soon as possible!  That really is the best way to keep them really strong in the Gospel.  The spirit that is at the temple is unlike any other.  So we are going to try and get them to go next week!  (So that we´ll be able to go also!)  They have already talked about going, so now we just need to give them the push to do it!

     Just to show that this week was so crazy, we still have some crazy news coming up:  I had EMERGENCY CHANGES again!  Less than two weeks, and Elder Tufiño already is gone!  How quick was that?  So what they did is they took the two companionships in Chinique, took out Elder Tufiño, and now we are in a trio, with me and the other companionship!  So now Elder Glass (from North Carolina) and Elder Vasquez (from Perú) are my comps!  

     Poor Elder Tufiño...  He had changes on Friday, and the baptism was on Saturday... He missed it by one day!   And freaking Elder Glass and Vasquez, they got three baptisms just handed to them!  Lucky ducks!  Haha

     But it´s been awesome so far being in a trio with them.  We basically have all of our investigators, plus all of theirs, so we are really busy!  We have a BUNCH of progressing investigators now, so we have a lot of work to do!  But I love it!

     I moved all my stuff to their house, so now I´m living there.  (Which means I have hot water to bathe in again!  About time...)

     So yeah, a lot happened this week, and it was so awesome!  But now we just have to get back to work and find the next family to be baptized!  I love this feeling, I´m on just such a big spiritual high, and I never want to come down!  

     I love you all so much, and I hope that you all had great weeks!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 42:31

An Awesome Week!

     Hello Family!  Sounds like everyone had exciting weeks, so I´m happy to put my name on the list also!  It´s been a great week for us, and I´m super stoked for the weeks ahead here in Chinique!

     First off, the Muñoz family.  They are so awesome, I´m so proud of them!  They are already talking like they are members!  So we had a tentative baptismal date with them for the 27th (which would have been cool for being Jace´s birthday), but they were a little hesitant.  So we pulled out a calendar and looked at dates to be baptized.  We said that the 27th was this Saturday, so then we looked at the next coming Saturdays.  We said something about the 3rd, and Henry, the one who was the most hesitant, said that he´d be baptized on that date...  I was stunned!  Haha but it was a good thing!  Amary said that she was good for the 3rd also, so then Angelica just said "If my kids are willing, I´ll do it on that date also."  How cool is that?  It has been so cool to see them grow and progress!  So they are ready for this Saturday!  I´m so stoked!

     We found an awesome little family this week.  A young couple with a 2 year old girl.  We knocked on their door, and they let us come back the next day to talk to them.  The wife has many family members that are members, and the husband has listened to missionaries before.  The cool thing was that they were really excited to listen to our message!  They were participating and everything, it was a really great lesson!  

     We´ve also experienced many blessings this weeks with our other investigators.  Many have been making progress, and others are working on the steps to be progressing.  It has been so great to see, and I love it!

     I don´t know why, but I´ve found yet another new love for the work.  Even though there are many people that reject us, the few that accept to listen to us, and the even fewer that are baptized really make up for all of it.  I guess by really struggling for a couple of months has really put it into perspective for me.  I only have this short time to be a missionary, and there is not going to be another time in my life that is the same.  That´s why I love it!

     Something really cool that my good friend Elder Cappellucci said this week that I really liked: "You can´t share a 3 week testimony."  You can´t really study the scriptures and pray really hard for a day, and then slack off for the rest of the week.  It doesn´t work like that.  It is continual work to be the best that you can be.

     We have really been focusing on members helping us out this week.  I don´t know why, but Chinique is one of the roughest areas in the mission to work with members.  So everyone at home, go watch the broadcast "Hastening the Work of Salvation," and find something that you can do to help out the missionaries at home!

     There are just times when I am walking down the road and just think to myself, "Wow, I really am in Guatemala."  It´s crazy ya know!

     I´m loving the Nashville Tribute Band´s CD "The Work."  If you haven´t listened to the songs, and I mean really listening to them, do it now!

     Well, that´s just about it for this week!  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here, and I love it!  I also love each and every one of you so much!  Thank you all for your support.  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. I´m gonna send you guys a quote from Joseph Smith.  It´s from the "Wentworth Letter," the letter that Joseph Smith wrote that contained the first appearance of the Articles of Faith.  Here it is: "The standard of truth has been erected;  No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing;  Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear;  TIll the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

Another week in Chinique!‏

    Hello Family!  Hope that you all had an awesome week this week!  Things are just going great here in Chinique.  I have really grown to really love this area now (I guess that`s what happens when you are in an area for just about 6 months... haha)  But seriously, I feel like I know just about every person here.  We walk down the street, and I`m just about saying hi to everyone!  And the best part is that most of them are investigators that we have dropped... ;) Haha but it`s been great!

     Well, the biggest thing for me this week was:  EMERGENCY CHANGES!  Yep, I`m no longer with Elder Aguilar.  He had to go to Xela to go finish training someone.  So now I`m with a new comp!  Elder Tufiño from Ecuador.  He only has three months in the mission, so he`s still pretty new, so I`ve had to adjust a little bit for that.  But he`s a great guy, and wants to work hard, so I feel like we are going to get along fine.  It was a bummer to see Elder Aguilar go, because he was a great teacher, and I learned a lot from him.  But he was needed somewhere else!  So I`m working on showing Elder Tufiño around!

     We have super pilas investigators in the Muñoz family.  Angelica (Mom), Henry (14), and Amary (11) are there names.  They are way awesome, and progressing so much!  We had a lesson with them on Saturday, where we invited them to baptism, and they accepted!!!..  They all want to be baptized, and since they are super prepared, we put a baptismal date for July 27, which is this Saturday.  Angelica and Amary accepted it, but Henry was a little hesitant.  We encouraged him to pray about it, and we are going to pass by today to see how it goes.  But how awesome are they?!?

     Something even more amazing about them.  The father/husband is super anti-mormon, and doesn`t like them accepting this church.  But they are still doing everything that they can to go to church and eventually be baptized.  They are so awesome in the face of that much adversity!  I really look up to them because of that.

     So, something really cool, remember about Milset? (Well, I`m going to call her Milady now, because she likes that name better...)  The investigator that fought with a member?  We had dropped her a little bit ago, but we saw her in the street this week, and she basically told us that she wanted to listen to us again!  So we had a FHE with a member family with her, and she confessed that she is really influenced by her dad, who is really evangelical.  So we are visiting her now, and trying to clear up some of the doubts that have been "shoved into her brain."  

     We helped an investigator decorate a float car for a parade in Chinique this week.  So Dad, I`m already practicing to help you out when I get home! ;)

     So since our shower is busted, I`ve taken a cold bucket shower every day for about a week and a half...  So count your blessings!  Haha but the weirdest thing?  I`ve actually come to like them a little bit!  Haha I`m turning into a Guatemalteco!  I`m gonna come home and be scared of hot water!  Haha

     So it`s been a preatty eventful week this week, (Seems like it was for everybody!) and I`m hoping that this next week will be just as eventful and very exciting!  This really is the best work that there is, and I love being a part of it!  

     Love you all, and Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 32:16.  A great scripture for those who feel the desire to be baptized, but don`t feel ready.  It was great for us this week!  (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for sending it to me so long ago!)