A Busy Week!

     Hello Family!  Well, this week was a busy one, that´s for sure!  We had a lot of things to do, but that made the week just that much better!  Really, there is nothing like working hard during the mission.  You don´t really have to worry about real life, just the short time that you have to serve the Lord!  And, I always work better when I´m not stressing about home or family, so when I work hard, I work more effectivley.  Like President Hinckley´s dad said, "Forget yourself, and go to work!"  So yeah, it´s been a really good week of work!

     First things first, which I bet all of you are looking forward to, is what happened with the baptism!  Althought everything didn´t really go according to plan, I still feel really good about what is going on!  What happened is the baptism didn´t go through...  But I´m not feeling to down!  So, I´m gonna be honest, we had the baptism planned for Jimmy and his parents, but honestly we didn´t think that the parents were going to be baptized, and just Jimmy was going to be.  But, while we were teaching them throughout the week, we found that the parents are really changing, and really want to learn more.  But, they say that they still have a ways to go before they take the step to be baptized.  And honestly, I don´t blame them!  I´d rather wait a little bit to baptize someone, and let them develop a testimony, rather than baptizing them right now, and having them fall away a few months down the road.  So yeah, we are still going to put baptismal dates with them, so they have something to work to, but I really think that, given some time, they will be baptized!  So even though they didn´t get baptized this week, they are really growing in their testimony, and that is what really is important!

     We had an open house this week for the church on Saturday!  But I´m going to explain a little bit about it, because some people were confused on what I meant.  Here in Guatemala, you´d be surprised to find what some people think that we do during our reunions. so what we did is let people come in the chapel (even though they are always invited!) and have the different organizations explain what they do during chruch!  We had a bunch of investigators and new people come, so that gives us a lot to do this coming week!  Amazingly, the thing people liked most is, believe it or not, NURSERY!  So yeah, go figure!  But it really makes sense!  I hope this makes us realize how important every function of the church really is, and how much they really are inspired!  

     Last Thursday, we had a Multi-Zone Conference in Huehuetenango, which was awesome!  It was my first time being to Huehue, and I´ve heard a lot of good things about Huehue!  So hopefully I´ll be able to go there soon as one of my areas!  But we had the chance to listen to President Bautista, and also President Gutierrez, the Stake President in Huehue.  I really learned a lot, and would like to share some things with you guys!  What I really liked a lot is what President Gutierrez said.  He told us what our main goal as a missionary should be.  What my ultimate goal should be, is to make sure that I have established a personal relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is like something that Dad always told me, the most important convert in your mission should be yourself!  I really took that to heart, and I really hope that I will be able to say that I have become closer to my Savior by the end of my misison!  Also, President Bautista told us about what really counts with our actions.  He told us that maybe we could get away with being disobient with him, but the Lord sees all, so we should be aware of that.  When we put on the nametag, we show that we are representatives of the Lord, and we act in his name.  We should ask ourselves, am I doing what the Lord would do if He was here?  I just have to say that I really enjoyed the conference, and can´t wait for the next one!

     One last thing, we went to Chichicastenango for P-Day this week!  A fun fact for you all, the market in Chichi that comes twice a week is the biggest market in all of Central America!  How cool is that?  Even though we didn´t go on a market day, it was fun to roam the streets and look at the sights!

     So yeah, it has been a fun filled week!  I guess that is why I feel so exhausted today!  But here´s to another week in the books!  Next week, here I come!  Love you all so so so much, and thank you always for writing me!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  Scripture!  Joshua 1:9, a great scripture!

A Preparation Week!

     Hello family!  Sorry I`m late this week, but it is because we have a multi-zone conference in Huehuetenango tomorrow, so we have to be here in Quichè to spend the night.  So that we wouldn`t lose so much time traveling and being out of our areas, the Zone Leaders decided to change P-Day until today, so that we could have more time to work in our areas.  And for that I was really grateful!

     First things first, about our most positive investigator, Jimmy.  He was all ready to get baptized this past Saturday, but as we were teaching him during the week, we noticed a change in his parents.  They started listening more and participating more in the lessons, so we decided to postpone the baptism until this Saturday, where it would be possible for Jimmy and his parents to be baptized on the same day.  The only problem is, is that his parents, Miguel and Stefany, aren`t "married", so it causes a problem.  (Believe it or not, this happens a lot in Guatemala...)  People can`t be baptized if they are living with a partner, so we have to work on getting them married this week (which we have talked about with them), and hopefully we can have a wedding this Friday at the chapel, and the next day have a baptism!  It`s a bit of a long shot, but it is possible!  

     Also, we have been preparing for an activity that will happen this Saturday in the morning.  We are going to have an "open house" at the chapel, so that people all over Chinique can come to the chapel and spend about 15 minutes figuring out what we do during our reunions, and if they want to learn more.  This week we have been handing out invintations like crazy, so that hopefully the whole town can come!  It should be a really good way to find new people to teach, so here`s to it all going according to plan!  

     This week in my studies, I have been focusing a lot on some of the questions that are most asked by our investigators, and trying to find the best way to find them in the scriptures.  It has really been a huge help for me to have a basic knowledge of the scriptures, but it makes me wish that I would have studied them more before my mission.  So for all those that are preparing to go on a mission, really strive to study the scriptures and PMG [Preach My Gospel] every day, so that you will be that much prepared when you enter the mission.  Granted, you still are going to learn a TON, but it can`t hurt to learn more, right?

     In our district meetings, they have been focusing a lot on bringing our investigators to church with us.  One time I was talking with President Bautista about it, and he said that apart from baptisms, our most important statistic that we should focus on is investigators that come to church.  The reason is that if people come to church every week to learn more about the gospel, they will have a firm foundation, friends, and all sorts of good things.  That is why we have been really trying to bring people to church with us, and inviting members to help us out.  It really is a joint effort;  working missionaries with members, and I love it!

     That is just about all that I have to say for now, but this next week should be huge, with a multi-zone conference, an open house activity, and a baptism!  So I hope that you all have a great week, like I am bound to have!  I am so stoked always to be a servant of the Lord, and I have a really good feeling that this week will just strengthen my testimony even more!  

     I love you all so much, and thank you so much for writing me every week!  The Chruch is True!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  We have been talking a lot about friendship this week with our investigators, so I figured I`d share John 15:13 with you guys, one of the best scriptures about friendship.  It just shows how much the Lord loves us and wants the best for us! 

A Special Week!

  Hello Family!  Well, here we are again, on a transfer week!  Good thing is that I`m not going anywhere this change!  Actually, all of us in Chinique, Elder Riera and I, and Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, are going to stay here for this change, which is really rare..  But we have been working really well together, so I feel like it is a good thing!  I hope that we are going to have the same success that we had this change and then some.  I know that it all depends on the way that we work, so we are going to work hard to bring as many souls unto Christ as we can!

     I`ll start off this week with the highlight of this week:  We had two baptisms on Saturday!  Woo Hoo!  Okay, even though they are technically investigators of Elder Cruz and Elder Berrios, I still feel really happy for them.  The ceremony was so special for me, because it was my first baptism here in Chinique, and really my first in way too long!  It was so great, because they are youth of a family that we are teaching, and the whole family (of about 15 people) came to see them be baptized!  It was so great to see!  The only bad thing about it was that it could have been three...  I`m talking about Jimmy.  Earlier this week we really sat down with Jimmy and asked if he wanted to be baptized, and he said yes!  So we said he could be baptized on this Saturday, but he had plans to go to Quichè and visit his Grandma for the weekend, so we couldn`t do it this week.  But yesterday, we talked to him, and he said that he still wants to be baptized, so we are planning for this Saturday, so wish us luck!

     We had a really powerful spiritual experience this week that I want to share with you guys.  We have an investigator that we met this week named Milset.  Our first lesson with her wasn`t the best, mainly because the first things that she wanted to know were little things about our church, like about coffee, about dancing, and whether girls can wear pants or not...  So yeah, we spent too long talking about that, and at the end, I finally said something along the lines of "We don`t really know every single reason for the commandments that we have, but what we do know is that they are given of God through our Prophets, namely Joseph Smith, so the thing that really matters is whether or not Joseph Smith was a prophet."  She then said that she wanted to know more about Joseph Smith, so we planned to watch a video with her for our next lesson.  The video is "Joseph Smith:  Prophet of the Restoration," which talks about the life of Joseph Smith and what he did.  We went back on Friday to watch it, and I was hoping for something really special to happen.  And it did happen!  We started the video, and from the get go Milset was really interested! She had her 8 year old son watching also, and about half way through he started getting restless, but Milset didn`t let that bother her.  She told him to try and be quiet, and went right back to watching the film.  After it was done, we asked her how she felt about it.  She said that she had met with missionaries before, and they had told her about Joseph Smith, but she kind of just ingored it.  But this time, when she actually got to "see" the life of Joseph Smith, she said that there would be no other reason that he would do all that he did, unless that it was for a reason.  I just felt the Spirit so strong when she was talking, and I started to see in my mind`s eye her entering the waters of baptism.  It made me so happy, and I really gained so much testimony for Joseph Smith, and all that he did.  I really feel good about her now, because she went the very next day to see the baptism that we had!  I have a really good feeling that in about 3 weeks or so, she could be baptized!  But what a powerful experience for me!  (And I really hope that I explained it so you all can understand!)

     One cool thing really quick, we were playing soccer this week (which I am completely awful at compared to all these Latinos...), and I had the coolest goal I have had during the mission!  We were running up on a "fastbreak", because my teammate had the ball, and I was running down the field with him, and there was only one defender.  My teammate passed it to me, but it was a little to hard, and started to head out of bounds.  Now, the field that we are playing on is pretty much and indoor turf field, so there are concrete walls all around the out of bounds.  Anyways, the ball was headed out of bounds, so I ran as fast as I could, and attempted to stop it.  I ran, stopped it with my foot, and ran right into the wall!  I heard everyone gasp, and I was a little dazed, but I didn`t fall down.  I looked for the ball, and it happened to stop right before the out of bounds line, right next to the goal.  Everyone was still shocked about what happened, so I hurried and kicked it in for a goal!  I started to run down the field, but I realized that my left knee was completely bleeding!  Haha I guess after the adreneline left me, I realized that I was in a lot of pain!  BUT IT WAS WORTH IT!  YES!!!  So yeah, reading it again, I think that you had to be there to fully appreciate it, but I hope that you can imagine what it was like!  Haha just thought I`d share it with you guys!

     So yeah, it was a really good week this week, and I feel like the next coming weeks can be just as special.  I know that the Lord is really blessing us out here in Chinique, and I am so grateful for it.  I know that without His help, I would be nothing, but I know that I can accomplish something great with the hands of the Lord helping me out!  I love you all so much, and thank you all for your support!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture:  D+C 135:5  Talks a lot about what Joseph Smith did, and how great of a man he was!

General Conference Weekend!

     Hello Family!   Well, what a good General Conference weekend that we had!  This one was definitely a lot better than the last one, not because the messages were better or worse, but because I actually understood it this time...  Haha but seriously, I hope that you all had a great weekend, and enjoyed the conferences so much! 

     I just want to talk a little bit about what I learned this weekend during Conference.  First off, what an amazing time for missionaries!  65,634 missionaries in the field, 20,000 or so with their calls waiting to go, and about 6,000 working on filling out their papers...  How incredible is that?!?  What a time to take advantage of the chance that we have to be missionaries.  Even for those who aren`t full time missionaies, I hope that this spirit of excitement is working on everybody!  I really liked Elder Cook`s talk on Satuday afternoon about peace.  What greater feeling can we feel than constant peace from our Savior?  Also, President Uchtdorf`s talk during Priesthood session was incredible.  He talked about titles that we have in the church, and how important they can be to us.  He named "Children of God", "Diciples of Christ," "Healer of Souls," and "Those who inherit all that the Father hath," just to name a few.  Also, President Monson`s talk on Sunday morning about odedience was really good, especially for me in the mission!  I hope that when the Ensign comes out you can all read it and study the talks again!  (And if you could, send me a copy of the Conference Issue of the Ensign!  Thank you!)

     Not only were the talks during conference great, but we were so blessed with how many investigators that came to conference this week!  We had 8!  We had Jimmy, the boy who hopefully will be baptized this week (We are going to make sure tonight!), a new family that we have an appointment with on Tuesday, and a couple of others.  What a blessing for us that we had eight people come to the best Church weekend!  I really hope that they learned something, and it makes them want to learn more!

     Not much else, just an amazing weekend full of General Conference!  Just a couple of things before I close:  I finally got the valetine`s day package this week, so don`t worry, I got it and I am enjoying all my United States junk food!  So it took about a month and a half based on the letter that was inside, so it takes a while, but I did end up getting it.  Also, I`m so glad that you all had a great time in St. George!  I can`t wait until I can come with you guys again!  And lastly, I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!  Thank you all so much for everything that you have given me.  Thank you for you support and you prayers, I can definitely feel them helping me be a better missionary!  I love you all!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. The scipture this week isn`t really a scripture, but a saying.  I heard it from a letter from James Rudd, and then Elaine S. Dalton said it again during Conference.  It says. "What e`er thou art, act well thy part."  Something to really think about.

     P.P.S.  How about Elder Christofferson quoting Les Mis in his talk!!  Awesome!

What A Week!

  Hello Family!  Well, seems like we all had crazy weeks this week!  I seriously can`t believe what happened back home...  As I was reading your letter Mom, I was so scared, becuase I could see it all happening in my mind, because I know exactly where in the stage that is happening.  But as I kept reading, I knew that Ryan was going to be okay, and I am so grateful for the way that it happened.  (Not that he fell or anything...)  It really makes me so grateful for a family that is really close, and cares for one another, and knows what matters most in this life.  Also, I am so grateful for the friends that I have, and that we all have.  Without them, and them being ready at any moment to act in the Lord`s name, who knows what would have happened...  I don`t even want to think about it, but thankfully I don`t have to!  Thank you all so much for letting me know what happened at home, and I am so happy that Ryan is okay!

    Well, I had a somewhat crazy week here also, but not nearly as crazy as you guys!  So this week, all the people here in Guatemala (and I`m pretty sure all of Central America also) celebrate a Catholic holiday that is called "Semana Santa," or "Holy Week." It lasts from Thursday to Saturday, and basically what happens is that all the people commemorate the death of Christ.  Everyone gets together as families, and cook a lot of bread, and I mean a LOT!  I have eaten so much bread this week it isn`t even funny...  But it is just a tradition that everyone has grown to love.  The thing about it is, is that everyone is with their families, so they really don`t make time for us, which I totally understand.  Everyone was "busy" these past couple of days, so the work really slowed down this week.  But when we did get into a house to share something, it was really amazing and really spiritual.  We talked a lot about the ressurection about Christ, and how it blesses us.

    One thing that I came to realize this week, like REALLY realize, is how important the ressurection is for us.  One thing I love is that while all the Christian world wear crosses to commemorate the death of Christ (which is really important), we, as Latter Day Saints, really focus on the ressurection of Christ, and that He still lives!  How great it is to know that we have our Savior still living, so why shouldn`t we celebrate that?  It brings so much more meaning to me in my life, especially as a missionary, to know that my Savior still lives, and that he is continually watching over us!  

     We have a baptismal date!!!  Whoo Hoo!  And I am really excited about this one, because I know that it is going to follow through.  His name is Jimmy, and he is the 9 year old son of our investigator family we are teaching.  He has come to church twice now, and he seems really excited about being baptized!  The coolest thing though, is that he wants to be a missionary when he gets older, just like us!  When he said that, it really made me realize that this work is totally worth it!  All the hard times, the rejections, and all that bad things that happen don`t even come close to the blessings that we recieve, and the knowledge that we are helping the lives of the people here!  I love this work!!!

     That`s all for this week!  I hope that we can all enjoy General Conference this week, because I know that it is going to be great!  I love you all!!!!!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture for this week is John 20:31.  The reason that we celebrate Easter is to celebrate the ressurection of Christ, and all that He did and gave to us.  He made it possible to have "life through his name," and for that we should be eternally grateful!

Photos!

We went contacting this day, and found this guys passed out on the street.  (Which you pretty much see every day... Sad.)  I gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet, so that when he wakes up, hopefully he can read it!  And if you think that this is a bit cruel, one of the members of the Elders Quorum Presidency in Chinique was converted like this, so miracles do happen!  

This day it was raining really hard, and we had to run and go to the store to buy something.  It was really fun, so we decided to take a picture!  This is Elder Berrios, who is in the other companionship in the city.

All the bread that we helped make with a family for Semana Santa!  It was really fun, because we started from scratch with everything, and got to see it all happen!  Way fun!

We did service early one morning, helping an investigator get his field ready to plant corn, beans, and all sorts of things!  Hard work, but fun nonetheless!

We celebrated the birthday of one of our investigators this night, which was way fun!  We did some activities with the whole family related to the Gospel also, so it was all in all a good night!  

This is Jimmy, and his birthday was yesterday, so we went to celebrate!  He is the kid with whom we have a baptismal date!