A Great Week!

   Hello Family!  (And yes, all you guys on the mish are my family!)  I hope that you all had a great week this week!  

     This week, well, it started out a bit rough!  Haha we had our investigator Isabel, who`s baptismal date fell last week, talk to us again saying that she does in fact want to get baptized!  We were super stoked!  The only thing that she had to do is tell her husband, because he is sort of against us Mormons...  Well, bad news is the next day, she had changed her mind, because she was too afraid to talk to her husband.  It was a bit rough at first to know that someone isn`t going to get baptized soon because of that little reason, but that`s how life goes!  We are still going to keep in contact with her, but I don`t think that much will happen with her for a while.

     My companion and I set a goal for finding 10 new investigators this week, which is stretching a little bit for here in Chinique, where there aren`t that many people.  But we busted our butts, (can I say that as a missionary?  Meh, who cares!) and we reached it!  We found a lot of new people to teach this week, and we are going to be super busy these next weeks with all of them.  (Hopefully!)

     I felt like this week Elder Aguilar and I worked the hardest that we have as a companionship. And our hard work payed off!  This Sunday, we were sitting in Sacrament Meeting, a little sad because all of our investigators bailed on us (because it was "raining..."  What an excuse!)  As the meeting was about halfway done, we saw a family of four walk in that we didn`t really recognize.  They looked a little familiar to me, but not much.  Well, of course, after the meeting ended, I went over to talk to them.  And they totally recognized me!  They introduced themselves, and I realized that they were a family that I had contacted when I first came to Chinique!  I had given them a Restoration pamphlet, but they said that they didn`t really want much with us.  So we left it with them and left.  But whaddayaknow?  They ended up coming to church ON THEIR OWN about 4 months later!  So we are definitely going to hit that up.  

     Seriously, that was such a miracle that happened, but I really think that it was a result of our hard work this week.  Hark work pays off kids!

     So this week ended on a real Spiritual high, and I loved it!  It really made me appreciate the mission a ton, because I really am changing for the better!  I love this work, and it`s crazy to think that I`m almost halfway done!  What happened with my time?  But I`m loving every minute of it!

     I love you all so so much, thank you all for the support!  Keep up the work!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Read D+C 79.  Amazing section for missionaries!

     P.P.S. America`s Birthday is this week!  Make it proud! 

Quite the Week!

    Hello Family!  Well, I can say that this week has definitely been a very interesting week, not to mention a little bit frustruating, but that`s how life is!  Haha but I`m still loving the work here, and it`s going great!

     Sooo..  First things first, Isabel.  Well, bad news is that she wasn`t totally prepared to be baptized this week, so that didn`t happen.  We were really discouraged after the lesson that we had with her, and we were about to give up hope...  BUT!  We had a ward baptism this Saturday, and Isabel said that she would love to come to it, and she did!  So she isn`t completely a lost cause, because she is still interested, but we are going to have to work a bit more with her so that she can gain a stronger testimony.

     Other than her, really we don`t have anyone that really wants to keep their commitments...  We have been trying really hard this week to find some new investigators, whether by knocking doors, contacting references, or who knows!  We have been focusing on that a lot, and it seems to be working a little bit.  But it`s just not the same as teaching a lesson to someone that is progressing.  But you have to start somewhere, right?  I guess that`s why this week wasn`t that exciting, but the next coming weeks should be promising!

     I`m loving the Conference Editon of the Ensign that you sent to me, thank you so much for that!

     On Sunday, we watched that Worldwide Leadership Training Transmission, which was awesome!  I learned a lot from it, and of course, it made me just that much more excited to work in the greatest work there is, preaching the gospel!  I also saw a couple of my friends in the choir which was awesome!

     Just sitting here in a public internet place, where it is playing nonstop Lil Wayne.  Gotta love it.. ;)

     I GET TO GO TO THE TEMPLE TOMORROW!  WOO HOO!  Since I`m nearing a year in the mission, I have the chance to go to the temple here in Quetzaltenango!  We have to get on a bus tomorrow at 3:30 in the morning, but it is going to be worth it!  So glad that I have a temple in my mission!  (Sorry to those who don`t...)

     Well, that`s about all for this week!  Love you all so much!  Until Next Time!

     ¡Nojim K`ishb`ek!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  D+C 100:5-6

Happy Father's Day!

     Hello Family!  And Happy Father´s Day to all you fathers out there!  Especially to you Dad!

     Well, we had a pretty good week here this week!  Mainly, we are focusing a lot on Isabel, who we have been teaching for a while.  She has a baptismal date for this coming Saturday!  YES!!!  The only thing that worries me is that she isn´t 100% for the date.  But I´m not too worried, because we are going to be visiting her pretty much every day this week.  Also, she came to church totally on her own this week!  So all in all, I´m pretty sure that she goes through with it this week!  But that doesn´t mean that we can rest, we are going to make sure that it happens!

     One crazy thing.  This woman that we have been teaching is super loyal to her church.  We have taught her a lot, and she knows that her church that she attends isn´t the correct church.  But she isn´t willing to change, because she has "loyalty" where she is.  We even asked her is God himself came down and told her that it wasn´t the right church, she would probably still attend it...  Welcome to Guatemala folks!  

     We celebrated Father´s Day on Saturday (Even though it is today here, not yesterday).  We planned together with the Relief Society, and it was a success.  A lot of fun, and a lot of new people came!  It was awesome, because most of the new people that came are fathers, and have families, which are better for us!

     I´ve been studying a lot lately, and I love it!  (That´s one of the things I don´t like too much, not enough time to study...  haha)  I learn new things every day, which surprises me sometimes, seeing as I've been a member for 20 years!  But it is just so fun to mark up my Spanish Scriptures, and I love it!

     Not much else...  Just really focusing on Isabel!  Thank you all for your support, and I love you all!  Until Next Time!

     The Church is True!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Scripture!  D&C 100:1  A great scripture for a missionary!  I know my family is in good hands! :)

The Big 2-0!

     Hello Family!  Well, I´m officially a lot older than I was the last time I talked to you all!  (One year...  woop dee doo..)  Haha but seriously, it was a good birthday, one that we celebrated a little bit!  

     So first things first, I´ll talk about Tuesday, or basically the best day of the year in my opinion! ;) Elder Aguilar was wondering if I just wanted to go hang out with members, beause it was my birthday, but really I just wanted to get out and work!  I wanted to say that I worked hard on my birthday, and not that I was just lazy!  Also, because I was planning to make brownies at night, so that should be enough!  But the Trujillo Family (Branch Presidents family) "surprised" me with a cake after lunch, which was awesome!  But then we went out to work.  Honestly, the day kind of sucked work wise...  Because people weren´t home, people dropped us, and the like.  But, we did get some stuff done, so that was good.  At night, we went over to the chapel to make some brownies!  THey were awesome!..  Besides the fact that I burned a part of them...  Oops!  But they were good, and that was all I wanted.  It definitely wasn´t the same as Liz´s Chocolate cake, but hey, what can you really do in Guatemala?  Make the best of it!  

     By the way, I was reading the BoM one day, and read 2 Nephi 23:12.  I realized that the prophesy had been fufilled on June 4, 1993.  Hah ;)

     We have been working a lot with Isabel this week.  She works with the Branch President´s wife, so that´s awesome, because she can always be close to a member.  We have really been focusing a lot on her, and if she can be baptized on the 22nd of June.  She even came to church this week, so that´s AWESOME!  We just need to really help her feel commited to doing it.  She has the desire, but she lacks the confidence to make her own decision.  But I´m fairly sure that she will go through with it!  And more, she has told us that she wants her 2 kids to listen to us too!  How cool is that?  So now we are working to have them all be baptized this month, so that they can do it as a family!  

     Other than that though, the week has been fairly rough with the others that we were focusing on...

    

     Miguel Angel, who wants to read the BoM and the Bible before being baptized, is firm in his belief...  But he says that he will come to church this week, so if he does, we are going to continue with him, but if not, he just isn´t quite prepared yet, and we will leave him for other misisonaries to get.

     Milset... Puchigas...  She is still letting her fight with a member get in the way of her salvation.  She won´t even come to church, because that would mean being in the same room as the other member...  Well, we are really focusing on having her know that one person shouldn´t get in the way of her salvation, and the opportunidad to live with her family in the Celestial Kingdom forever.  So yeah...

     We have been finding a lot of new investigators this week, which makes for a lot of work.  One was really cool, and I want to tell you all about it.  We were looking at former investigators that missionaries had visited before, and we saw a name that stood out to us.  The problem was, it only had a telephone number, not an address.  So we called the number, but the man didn´t answer, so we left a message saying we were the missionaries, and all that jazz.  Well, a few days later, we got back to our apartment, and found that we had some missed calls.  They were from the man that we tryed to call!  He said that he would love to meet with us, and as soon as possible!  Elder Aguilar and I were stunned!  That definitely doesn´t happen every day!  So we called him back, and said that we would meet with him as soon as possible!  We already met with him yesterday, taught him the Restoration, and he loved it!  I feel like he is going to progress a lot!

     One crazy thing, on Wednesday night, I was reading, and Elder Aguilar was on the phone with our District Leader.  Then all of a sudden, and man walks into our room...  uh, WHAT?  He was completely drunk, and started talking to me in English... saying that I was his friend, and I should help him out...  Well, I helped him out alright!... out of our freaking apartment!  Geez, what a joke.  I hope that just shows how crazy it is here!  Haha

     So yeah, it´s been a pretty good birthday week!  Full of stuff to do, which is just the way I like it!  Thank you all for the birthday wishes, I appreciate them all!  :) Love you all so much, and talk to you all next week!  Until Next Time!

      ¡LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA!  (Chruch is true!)

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  Scripture is D+C 58:16  This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so make the best of it!  Love you!

Whoa... I`m almost 20!!!

     Hello Family!  Well, I`m about to be 20 this week!  It feels so weird, like it basically just creeped up on me...  Well, I`m about to be one year older and wiser too, so that helps! (Haha)  But other than me about to be older, it`s going to feel just like any other day.  I am thinking of going to the Branch Presidents house to cook brownies in their oven, (because we don`t have one...) so that could happen!  But thank you all for the birthday wishes, it really means a lot to me!  

     Well, this week has been really great for me!  I`ve got a new companion now, his name is Elder Aguilar.  He is from Honduras, and he entered the mission the same day as I did!  So we have the same exact time in the mission!  That`s pretty cool I guess..  But he has really made me find the excitement in the work again!  We are focusing all of our efforts and all of our time in Chinique to be able to baptize this month of June.  The city needs more members, so we are going to make that happen!  I feel really good about this month, so we are going to make it happen, instead of just hoping that it is going to happen!

     We have a couple of investigators that really are able to be baptized this month. The one that we are really focusing on is Isabel.  She works for the Branch President`s wife, so we have been teaching her there.  She wants to learn a lot from us, and I feel like she has the desire to be baptized, but her husband doesn`t really want her to, and she lacks the courage to make her own desicions...  So we are going to go and talk with the husband, and see if we can have him let her be baptized!  

     We also have Milset, who I have talked about before.  She really have obtained a testimony of the BoM, and the church in general, but there is a problem...  She got in a fight with a member her, and since both of them are really prideful, neither of them wants to apoligize...  So Milset wants to come to church, but not if it means that she has to be in the same room as the member.... Great.  Lesson for all of us: Don`t let your pride get in the way of someone`s salvation!  Geez...  So we are working so that when Milset gains a more powerful testimony, she will feel that desire to be less prideful, and ask for perdon.  So yeah..

     And then there is Miguel Angel.  We met him a while back, helping to carry a table to his house (which was about 40 minutes away... kill me) and he asked if he could get a BoM in English...  That was cool!  So we have been talking with him, because he has a testimony about the BoM.  He wants to be baptized, but there is a catch...  He wants to finish the BoM first, and then read the whole Bible, and THEN get baptized...  Well, that`s a problem...  We shared Mosiah 18:10 with him, and asked him why he wants to postpone all of the blessings that he could recieve. That was the last lesson that we had with him, and we are going to meet with him tomorrow, so we will see how that goes!

      Really, time has been flying by for me!  It`s just like a phrase that Ashley Lovell shared with me in the MTC:  The days feel like weeks, and the weeks feel like days.  Basically, the time seems normal during the day, but when I look back, Holy Cow!  I`ve already been out for almost 11 months!!  Where the heck did the time go?  I need it back!  Haha but seriously, I really need to make the best of it, because it is really short!  So that`s my goal from now on, to make the best of every moment!  I have two years to serve, and the rest of my life to think about it.  So why not?  

     I love that I have been able to be a lot more excited about the work this week.  I mean, it is the best work that I could be doing right now, so why not enjoy it?  Haha

      Thank you all always for all the support, especially this week with my birthday!  It really means a lot hearing from all of you.  I love you all so much!  Take care, and I`ll talk to you all next week!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  Well, I already shared a scripture (Mosiah 18:10) that I really liked, but I`ll give you all another one.  1 Nephi 20:10