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