Happy Independence Day!!!

     Hello Family!  And Happy Birthday America!  What a beautiful place we have to live!  After being in Guatemala for just about 2 years (I love the place, don´t get me wrong...), I´ve really come to appreciate how much I love the good old United States of America.  There really is no other place like it.  We have so much to be grateful for, all the rights that we have, and we really need to realize how much that really affects us.  ´Murica.

     Alright, things are going smoothly in San Francisco el Alto.  First things first, with Paloma.  Man she is just so great.  We were thinking of the best way to put a fecha with her.  Now, it´s some scary business to just let an investigator choose their baptismal date, but when we thought about doing it, we felt the confirmation that it was the right thing to do.  So we went with her, and she had told us a little bit about being baptized on the 12th.  When we asked her to choose a date, she said, "I know that the 12th is the date for me!"  Wow, we were so relieved that she didn´t put a fecha for like months in the future!  She is so ready, so we are going to make the 12th a really special day for her.

     I want to tell you guys a little bit about an investigator named Luis.  He is the husband of a less active member in the ward.  He has visited with the missionaries for so long now, no one even knows when they started to go with him.  But, we´ve lograred some really good progress with him!  We´ve got a different kind of confidence with him.  With all the other missionaries, they told us they were really good friends, but just that.  But I feel like we´ve established a relationship with them that shows that although we are really good friends with the family, we are there because we want to help them progress spiritually.  And it´s working!  They came to church this week in who knows how long!  It really was a miracle.  All the members were excited to see Marleni (The less active wife), and even more stunned to see Luis come to church!

     And that´s not all!  Wow, I still really can´t believe it!  In Gospel Principles class, we were learning about the scriptures.  (We were teaching the class)  So we divided the class into groups, and had them explain about the scriptures.  Luis, Marleni, and another member we assigned to teach about the BoM.  When it was their turn to talk, Marleni gave a powerful testimony about the BoM, regardless of not having gone to church in years.  And then Luis stood up, and invited the whole class to read the BoM, because it is really important for all of us.  Elder Jerez and I were just sitting there with our jaws on the floor listening to him.  We are progressing with them really well. :)

     This week we had a Multi-Zone conference in Momos; basically the get-to-know-you for President Smith and the missionaries.  But it was a great conference.  In the mission, Momos and San Francisco are generally accepted as the hardest zones in the mission.  But when President Smith talked to us, he said something really awesome.  Something along the lines of: "When we are in the most dificult moments of our lives, that is the time where we really learn to grow and depend on the Lord.  Don´t ever lose hope, even when everything looks to be going wrong.  That will happen, especially here in these Zones.  But if you always look to the Lord, and search for ways to grow, you will leave these areas as better, more mature, and more confident missionaries.  I guarentee it."  And I know that it is true, because I´ve seen it in my mission.

     I´ve decided to really deep study PMG before I get back, and I´m learning so much, even with almost 2 years in the mission.  Which just reminds me always that there is never a point where we are going to know everything, where we are going to be perfect in something.  There will ALWAYS be something to better.  There will always be room for some improvement.  But if we just think, "I doing it good enough, I´m good,"  we´re done.  But if we always think that there is something better we can do, we will do it.  There is always room for improvement.

     Something that I´ve realized as of late.  Dad has been talking about this recently, but I like it a lot.  We never have to feel like we don´t belong, or that people around us are better than us. Each one of us has something special, and we can always do something the Lord has called us to do.  Dad shared with me this quote from Tiger Woods: "There may be a lot of players out there that are more talented than I, but none will out work me."  And it´s true.  In a missionary´s eyes, maybe there are other missionaries that are better than teaching, or better at making people love them, or better at organizing things, etc.  But if we work our hardest, and give it our all, we are the best in the Lord´s eyes.  We have to give it our all.  Omni 1:26 (our whole souls).

     If you have made it this far, I commend you.  I just have a lot to write recently... ;)

     Guys, I´m learning so much.  This last change has taught me so much, I can´t even believe it.  The decision to bring me here to San Francisco was really an inspired one.  I could have ended my mission in Huehue fine, probably with more baptisms, but the Lord wanted me to come here to San Fran to learn so much about how to be a man, and advance in life.

     On Friday, I walked around with an american flag tie.  Without shame or anything.  I love my country.  All the people were looking at my tie, and some even commented on it!  Wearing those stripes and bars with pride!

     We came down to Xela today, so I aprovechared my tiempo buying some souveniers for home!  The best part of buying stuff here for me is definitely bartering to lower the price.  I just find it as a game, to see who can best sweet talk the other.  It´s so much fun, and I´m super bummed that I won´t be able to do that in the States... Could you imagine?  Going to Costco or something, and when I go to the cashier, I start saying, "Can I get this for 3 dollars instead of 5?"  I just thought about it, and it made me laugh!  

     Wow, I think I´m done.  I hit two years this week on Friday.  July 11th, 2014.  That date seemed so far away when I started, and now we are here.  It´s crazy how fast the time crept up on us.  But that life I guess.  We´ve got a limited amount of time to do what we need to do, and when the time is up, we´ve got to be happy with what we did.  If we gave it our all, there will be no regrets...

     I love you all so much.  Thank you for always writing me, supporting me, loving me, and all that jazz.  I know I couldn´t have gotten here without all of you.  I love each and every one of you so much.  But, even more than that, I love this Gospel.  It has brought a wonderful change in my life, and I hope that it will never go away.  Jesus Christ is my Savior, and He loves me so much.  He is always there for me, and for everyone who looks for him.  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. DyC 20:31

Amor desde Guatemala!

   Hello Family!  I hope that you all had a good week this week.  We had a pretty crazy week, because of two big things that are passing by in Xela this month.  Yesterday was Independece Day here in Guatemala, so all the Chapines here are celebrating like crazy.  Also, an annual fair in Xela has been here all month, so that´s been crazy also.  All in all, almost everyone is gone to the fair when we try to pass by, and we didn´t have as many lessons as we wanted, but it still went fairly good!

     Our most positive investigators is an older couple named Lorenzo y María.  They are always willing to listen to us, and they have been progressing nicely.  The only problem is that they have recieved some help from the church they are in right now, so they aren´t really ready to change religions... yet.  We´ve put baptismal dates with them for the 12 of October, so if they recieve an answer by then, they said they will be baptized.  So that´s awesome!

     We´ve also found this guy named Ricardo this week.  When we first passed by his house, he was SO prepared by the Lord ot recieve us.  He was listening, and I mean actually listening to us, and when we went by two days later, he had remembered everything that we had taught (Even to the year of the First Vison!), and had thought a lot about the message.  Unfortunately, he couldn´t come to church because of the stupid fair (curse you Satan...) but he is looking really positive.

     With Wendy, a granddaughter of a recent convert who has a fecha bautismal set up, we have been working a little bit with her.  But, seeing as she is a teenager (That sounds so weird to say, now that I´m not one... HA) she´s been at the fair everyday this week, so we haven´t had any lessons recently.  But now that the fair is dying down, we´ll get back on teaching her.

     We also found the sweetest lady on Saturday.  She has never spoken with missionaries before, but she has always seen us in the streets, helping people out, and just being good people.  She told us that she has always admired that, and she said we are welcome to pass by her house any time.  EXAMPLES ARE SO IMPORTANT!  Be an example to everyone, and they will be so much more willing to listen to the fulness of the Gospel.  

     But, this week wasn´t all fine and dandy.  We did have some crazy rejections this week that make for some very good stories.  For example, we were going to visit this one investigator from a while back, and when we got there, her husband answered the door and basically told us to get lost.  When we explained what we do, he took out his phone, took a picture of us, and told us he was going to report us for being in his house... (Even though we were standing outside...)  Well, long story short, we left.  But it´s sad that people are so misguided that they have to do stuff like that.  But that´s life.  We move on, and don´t get discouraged!

     I have had a really fun time working with legos teaching about the apostasy of the chruch and how through Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored the Gospel.  You build up the church, from the time of Jesus Christ, and then you take it all apart through the Great Apostasy. And then you bring it back together through Joseph Smith.  A great object lesson, and it keeps the kids entertained.  Just thought I´d share that with you!

     But yeah, this was kind of a longer letter, but it was a good week to write about.  We just always have to press on in the work of the Lord, and we will be blessed.  Maybe not now, but eventually, the blessings come.  They do come.  I am a witness of it.  I love this work, and I love this Gospel.  And I love each of you!  Keep up the good work wherever you are, and Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 5:14

Earthquake

   Hello Family!  How y´all doin?  I hope that you all had a good week this week!  Things went pretty good here in Chiquilajá, so I´ll tell you a bit about it now!  ;)

     Basically, the month of September is absolutely horrible here in Xela.  There are really two huge events going on this month:  Independece (Which they celebrate all month) and the yearly fair for Xela.  Almost everyone is going to visit family out of the area, and those who are here go to the fair all day.  It´s historically been a slow month for missionary work, so we are trying to make it better.

     So we have two baptismal dates for the 21st, but they aren´t really that sure now.  Wendy, one of them, we haven´t talked to in about a week, because she´s been in Retauleu all week for the fair, visiting her family.  She wasn´t able to come to church this week, which is a bummer, but we have a cita with her on Tuesday, so we will see how that goes.  

     And with Brando, we had passed by their house all week, not finding anyone home.  Thank goodness, yesterday we went to pass by again, and some kid came up to us and told us that no one lives there anymore.  Turns out they straight-up moved.  And the problem is we have no contact with them.  People have told us they don´t live far, but we NEED to find their place quick so we can get going again with Brando.

     Also, something crazy for you guys to hear.  We had ANOTHER earthquake happen here on Friday.  Earthquakes are really rare here, and I´ve been in two during my mission.   Sweet.  But is was crazy, a 6.2 on the Richter Scale, with the Epicenter not to far away from us.  But it freaked everyone out.  The good thing was that we didn´t have any major damage in our area.  Although a member´s house got pretty rocked, so we spent about two hours on Saturday helping secure his walls, so they don´t fall down.  It was a good scare for a lot of people, but nothing really happened, so that´s good.

     Do you know what is sad?  When people don´t even give the opportunity to listen to the message of the plenitud of the Gospel.  We ran into this one guy one day, and he totally bashed on us, not because of the doctrine, but because of some members actions.  He said that he would probably give this Gospel a chance, if it wasn´t for the members.  And he just slammed the door in our face.  It really made me sad, because he isn´t even giving us the chance, just because of something that happened in the past.  It´s rough, but people have their agency.  We just have to help them the most we can, and the God do the rest.

     We went up to this one lookout place in Xela today, and it was absolutely beautiful up there.  I looked over the city, and the thought just came to my mind, that there are about 80 missionaries working in this city alone, working for one cause:  To bring ALL of these souls unto Christ.  It was really cool to think about, and it just made me so glad to be out here helping out with the work!

     I love you guys so much.  Thank you all for writing me!  It always means a lot to me!  Love you!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Scripture!  DyC 62:3

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... ;)

Week Two!

Hello Family!!!  

     Sorry I am sending this a day later than usual, I had to run to Guatemala City yesterday for some visa stuff, and that took the whole day, so they are letting me use email today!  Thank goodness!  But I don`t even know where to start, or what to start talking about!  It has been such a great week and a half, I just want to let you all experience it also!  But, the best I can do is send it to you guys through email, so here we go!  

     I`ll start with my first Sunday!  It was such a great day!  First things first, we went down to the chapel at 8:00, even though our meetings start at 9:00.  Because the Branch President wanted to do something special.  The reason is because the day before, the 15 of September, was Independence Day here in Guatemala, and he wanted to talk about Independence and relate it back to the church.  So we had a flag raising ceremony, and sang the Guatemalan National Anthem (which I was completely lost on!)  We also read Articles of Faith 1:12, because it shows that we as a church still believe in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law of the land.  So that was the first thing we did.  Then we got to start Sacrament Meeting.  There aren`t that many people there, so me and Elder Maldonado had to help as much as we could!  Elder Maldonado played the piano, and I helped bless the sacrament.  Helping as much as we can, that is what we do as missionaries!  But I really like what Dad said in his email to me, no matter where you are in the world, you can still feel the same spirit no matter where you are, and it was so true!  Even though the meeting was in Spanish and I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, I still felt the spirit!  Plus, even more, the Branch President called on us Elders to give our testimonies, which I totally expected, so I wasn`t caught that much off guard!  It was such a neat experience, and while I was bearing my testimony, it finally hit me: I really am a missionary!  Here I am, In the middle of the wilderness in Guatemala, probably the only Gringo around for miles, and I`m giving my testimony of the church to others in a whole other part of the world who believe the same things I do!  It was such a humbling experience, and I loved it!  A good thing was also, was that we had an Investigator family that we went and visited the day before come to church!  So that was awesome!  This was their second time coming to church, and the rule is that an investigator has to come to church three times before they can be baptized, so they are one their way!  One of the best parts of the day was after the meeting though.  I just hung out with all the little kids there and played with them for like 30 minutes.  I bet it was so weird for them to see a white boy like me around them!  They are so nice though!

    Which leads me to my next part.  I absolutely love my area.  End of story!  It is one of the poorest areas in our mission, and for that I am so grateful!  You know why?  Because the members here don`t have that much, that are so humble that it blows my mind!  We can stop by one of the member’s houses and they will drop everything that they are doing and give all of their attention to us!  They are so willing to help us find others we can teach, and they want to help us with everything they can.  Plus they are more than happy to feed us whenever we stop by during a meal, which is awesome!!!  I was thinking about it the other day, and I came to the realization that they are richer than most of the people here in Guatemala.  The reason is because they have the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the greatest thing we can have in this life.  They will be the ones who inherit the Kingdom of God, and they will be Kings and Queens of their own children in heaven, which you can`t buy with any worldly possession.  Others might have the things of the world, but the people here have the things of the heavens, which cannot be compared to or bought!  

    I want to tell you a little bit about our investigators.  We have two main families that we are teaching as of now.  The first one is called the Pu Imul family.  They are the family that I told you about last week that only speak Quiche.  The Dad, Santiago, and the kids are all really interested in our message. The thing is, that they are really poor and live a far way away from the chapel, that it is really hard for them to come to church.  So that is the reason they aren`t coming to church.  Also another hard thing is the Wife.  Well, technically I can`t call them that, because they aren`t married.  That is a huge problem for us, because they can`t be baptized unless they get married, and it is going to be really hard for them to do that, because they would have to travel.  So as of now, we are working on getting them to come to church and really focusing on the children, because they have the chance to be baptized!  So that is the deal with them.

     The other family is the Pu Mejìa family.  They are a part member family, which means that the Dad, Antonio, is a new member, but the rest of the family aren`t members.  But!  We have dates for the Mom and one of the kids!  They are planning on being baptized on this Friday, so like in three days!  They are ready, and they came to church this week too, so they have all the qualifications for baptism!  I am so excited!  But, I am a little bummed, because we had a date planned for one more kid, but he got sick and didn`t make it to church, so he has to attend one more time before he can get baptized!  But we are really making progress on them!  I love this family so much, and I can`t wait for them to accept the gospel fully!

     Another big thing we had this week is we had like a neighborhood activity on Saturday, and it actually was a huge turnout!  We had about 80 people turn up, about 25 of which weren`t members!  So that is awesome!  We watched the movie "Joseph Smith:  The Prophet of the Restoration", and they were all interested in it!  To add to it, Santiago Pu Imul and one of his kids showed up too!  So that was really good news for us!  All the people there really enjoyed it, and I feel like it really helped this area a lot to do that!

     So yeah, these are the major points that have gone on so far!  So now I`ll answer some of the questions Mom asked me, so you all can know about where I am living! 

1.  My house, or shack as I call it.  It looked really bad at first, but I`ve grown to love it.  I don`t know how you all would do in it, but I`m loving it!  It is really small, but it has things we need, so Ï can`t complain!

2. Not dirt floors thank goodness!  They are straight concrete, because our house is a concrete slab with bricks around it and a tin roof.  So thankfully no dirt!

3.  We have running water, but it is so contaminated that we cant drink it.  We have a showerhead, so that’s nice, even if the water isn`t warm.  We also have this thing called a pila outside, where we wash our dishes and do all of our main things with water.

4.  Clothes are doing nice, we just washed them for the first time.  And it was so fun, because we did it in the pila with a washboard, so a lot different from a machine!  The shoes are holding up nice too.  I`m airing them out for sure, but I am mainly using my boots here, because it is a lot of hiking.  So I really am trying to take care of my things, because I need them for 2 years!

5.  The bandanna is so useful!  Now so much for the dirt, but for my sweat!  It is really humid here, so I start sweating pretty easily, so I can wipe it all off with the bandanna!  So grateful I brought it!

6.  It is rainy season for another month still, but we don`t have to worry about it much in my area.  It only rains at nights and very occasionally in the day.

7.  I`m making do with the food, it is a lot of tortillas, soup, rice and beans.  Crazy thing is, I actually am loving the refried beans here.  I know I said I would never eat them, but now I find myself craving them!  Weird!  Also, there are little tiendas all over, which are little family owned shops, and there we buy pure water, which is water in a bag.  So I have been drinking water out of a bag for two weeks now!

8.  The Spanish is definitely coming, I can hold my own in a conversation now, although there are still a few words that I don`t know.  But I still have to work hard at it, and really focus.  But when I put it into perspective and see that I have only been 2 weeks out in the field, I say I am doing pretty good.  That doesn`t mean I have to stop working though!  Plus, I’ve learned a few words in Quiche, which is fun!  I really want to learn it, but I have to focus on Spanish first, so no Quiche yet!

     Sounds like you all are having a blast back at home.  I`m not gonna lie, I miss you all like crazy, but whenever I start to feel homesick, I think of the families I am teaching, and I just want to devote as much time as I can to help them!  I really love hearing all about home, and all you are doing back in a normal life!  Thank you for continuing to send emails, I love looking forward to reading them each P-Day!  Keep having a blast, and I will let you know more about my life in the coming week!  Until Next Time! 

     Elder Stuart 

     P.S.  I am going to start sending a scripture home each week that I really like, so here is the first one!  D+C 128:22!  A really good one about missionary work!