Great Week in the Land of the Lamanites!

    Hello Family!  How y´all doin?!?  (I don´t know why, but I always like typing with a country feel to it.)  Man, did we have a good week this week.  It just made me love the mission that much more!  It is absolutely incredible being a missionary.  Really thinking about it, who else would spend two years of their lives, right in the middle of everything, just to go talk to some random people in a faraway country about God?  Mormon Missionaries, that´s who!  Yeah boi.

     It is amazing seeing the energy of the ward here change recently.  I am seeing a lot more members taking the initiative recently.  For example, yesterday, we had FIVE member present lessons.  I don´t know about the other missions, but for here, that is really good.  Members were willing to go with us to citas, do divisions with us, and just help us out.  Man, the missionary work really changes when members help out.  (Hint Hint for those at home...)

     We were really blessed this week with something I would call a miracle.  On Saturday, we had been working hard all week, and we had some really good lessons, but we had yet to feel something really special.  So we went to this one guy we found this week named German.  We gave him the first lesson like usual on Tuesday, and we came back on Saturday.  

     We asked him the usual questions about his commitments, like if he had read the BoM, and prayed.  Well, he told us that he read what we left for him, and then wanted to read some more, so he did.  At this point, I was feeling really excited, but trying to keep it cool, I asked him if he had the chance to pray about it.  He said yes, so I asked him what he felt.  And the answer is the answer every missionary wants to hear.  "I just feel chills, you know?  Like I had a fire going on in my chest."  Is that perfect or what?  Wow...  WE were seriously so blessed to find him.  He came to church yesterday and everything, and even said yes to being baptized on the 23 of November.  It really was just amazing to live it.  What an experience.  So we will be definitely following up with him to make sure he gets baptized!  

     That story just goes to show you about the power of the BoM.  We should all try to use it more in our teachings, and in our lifes.  It really is the word of God.

     Just to talk more about Guatemala, Jeffrey has been saying that some spooky things have been going down.  It´s true.  Guatemala, and my mission in particular, is famous for it´s "black magic."  For example.  Yesterday we were going to visit someone at their house.  But when we got closer, we heard a bunch of shouting and people yelling "Get out!  Get out!"  So we were like what the heck?  But we knocked anyways.  A 12 year old boy answered and said, "Now isn´t a good time, we are casting out a demon!"  And shut the door.  So yeah, we just walking in on a group of people (including a evangelical pastor) casting out a demon.  Yeah, Guatemala´s weird.

      But yeah, it´s been a really good week, and I´m planning for an even better one this week!  Man do I love being a missionary!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Read 2 Nefi 22.  It´s a great chapter.  Also 2 Nefi 25:23,26

Guatemala!

Hello Family!  Here we are, yet another week in the mission!  And man do I love being here.  Guatemala is absolutely incredible.  Where else are you able to say that you are working among the Lamanites?  Not very many other places.  Guatemala is amazing, I love it here.  The place is just straight up beautiful.  The people have really touched me, and I have developed a love for everyone here.  Which is good as a missionary, right?  Right.  

     As for this week, well, it had it´s up and downs, but when doesn´t it?  But it just made me really appreciate missionary work that much more.  Especially because our ward is being revamped.  Our ward didn´t really like helping us that often before, but in the past two weeks, we´ve got a new bishopbric, and they are super pilas.  Also we´ve got a new Ward Mission Leader, who has always helped us out, but now that´s his calling!  This Sunday, you could just feel the excitement in the air about missionary work, and I love it!

     We had an AMAZING day on Friday, no joke.  We put some really high goals for the day, and we did our best to fulfill every one.  We started off the day fasting, really wanting to be in tune with the Spirit.  And it worked!  We just felt guided to go where we should go, and we hit every one of our goals.  It was amazing, we would find people that would say "Good thing you came now, because I´m going to leave in a couple of minutes."  Or "When can you guys come back?"  Or like this one kid said, "I don´t want you guys to leave yet."  (Man I love little kids here.  So darn cute.)  But what an incredible day.  Just so satisfying getting in my bed at night and feeling like I did all I could that day.  Now, it´s just a matter of getting every day to be like that! ;)

     We are still struggling on getting our investigators to church.  I really feel like Satan tries his best on Sunday Mornings.  One thing comes up after another, and we are just really bummed.  We have awesome investigators, but we just need them to come to church, and we have yet to find the "click" we are looking for.  But it will come!

     The scriptures are amazing.  Just leave it at that.

     I think I have more to say, but my mind always goes blank when I sit down on the computer....  But I´ll just leave you guys with that!  Love you all!  Until next time!

      - Elder Stuart

     P.S. 2 Nefi 1:6  I feel more humbled about my call here to Guatemala every day!

An Awesome Week!

 Hello Family!  I can`t wait to tell you all about the week that I have had!  It has been just a really good example of how the mission life is!  The mission definitely does have it`s ups and downs, but that`s all part of life, right?  We just need to push through the challenges and strive to do our best in everything!  

     This week started out a little rough.  We didn`t get back to our house in Pancà until late Tuesday night, because of the Visa thing I had to figure out on Monday.  So we lost about a day and a half of work that we could have done.  So on Wednesday, we went out to go and find some people to teach and Less Active members to go see.  But on that day, either no one was home (which meant we pretty much walked about 45 minutes for nothing!), or they didn`t have much time to visit with us, because they were about to leave (which meant we couldn`t teach them a lesson!)  Not to mention that we got lost on our way back, which sucked, because we forgot our flashlight, and there are no lights anywhere in Pancà, so we struggled over dirt paths through the woods for a while before we finally got home.  So it was a rough day!

     Thankfully, the next day was a whole lot better!  We started off the next day helping the Garcia family (a really nice family really strong in the Gospel) with various jobs around the house.  It felt good to do service for them, because when we do service, we are in the service of God.  Then, they gave us the absolute best lunch I have had in Pancà!  Lydia, the Mom, worked on a huge dish of Chow Mein for us, and after working for so long and so hard, it was much appreciated!  Not to mention it was a nice break from the usual Beans and Rice and Tortillas I have had for the past couple weeks!  It was just a good morning with a nice member family!  Afterwards, our District Leader came all the way to Pancà, because we had some Baptism interviews to take care of!  So we headed out to the Pu Mejia family, and we had the chance to interview Estevana, (the Mom) Erlinda, and Diego (The two kids)!  They all "passed" if you will, and we were all so excited!

     Their date was Friday, the 28 of September, the very next day!  I was looking forward to their baptism the whole day!  It finally came around, and Elder Maldonado and I started setting up for it!  The Pu Mejia family came around, and I can`t even explain how much excitement I had for each of them!  Plus, they surprised me when the two kids asked if I could baptize them!  I was shocked!  I thought for sure that Antonio, the Dad, would do it, but he didn`t want to, and the kids wanted me to!  I was so surprised, but so humbled at the same time!  I was so honored!  So we started the service, and all during the service I was memorizing their names, because these Native names are long and hard, and I didn`t want to mess up!   But the time finally came, and I baptized the two kids!  I felt the spirit so strong, I wasn`t even thinking about what had happened at the beginning of the week.  All I could feel was the Spirit so strong, and the glow from these three new members!  It really made my mission so far!  I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to take part in bringing some of these souls here in Guatemala to the truth.  I love that they will be able to feel what I feel when I am in tune with the Spirit now!  I can`t wait to get back to work and find some others that I can help out with!  

    Not to mention this P-Day has been awesome!  Since it is the beginning of the month, we get our funds for the month, so the Zone of Momostenango went to Xela and spent the day there.  We played soccer with another Zone, went around the city (which was weird after being in Pancà for so long!), and bought a lot of food that we can only get in Xela.  All in all a really good day!

     A side note really quick, I am so happy that I have the opportunity to be in Momos.  I heard today that this city especially has a lot of Lamanite blood in it, and is one of the most direct lines there is to them!  Also, I heard that 6 different Apostles have visited this city.  No, no Xela or even Guate, but Momostenango of all places!  It is such a cool place to be, and I love it here!  I am having a blast here, and I wouldn`t rather be anywhere else!  I hope I was able to share my excitement with you all through this email!  I love you all, and can`t wait until next week!  Until Next Time!!!

     - Elder Stuart

     Mosiah 28:3