Hi Family! Sorry about the lateness, but we had to go unexpectedly yesterday, so I only have a little time today. Not much to report, just the usual. We do have a date for the 9 of November for a sister named Victoriana, who is a family friend of the Pu Mejia Family. I`ll be sure to tell you more about it when I can. Sorry this is so short, but I don`t have to much time. Next week will be better! Thanks always for the support! Until Next Time!
- Elder Stuart
Showing posts with label Pu Mejia Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pu Mejia Family. Show all posts
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Just Another Week!
Hello Family! Well, it is this time of week again, so that means another letter home! I have to apologize in advance though, because this week wasn`t very exciting, so there isn`t going to be very much to write about!
While most everyone else had changes, nothing changed for me! I`m still in Pancà with Elder Maldonado, working hard! This week has been a little rough though, because not much really happened. We visited a lot of less active members, and some our investigator family, and they are doing good, just not moving very fast. But moving slow is a whole lot better than not moving at all! I keep telling myself that whenever I get a little bit discouraged. I hope that every little thing that I do will have just a little impact for them!
We found another investigator this week! A really good friend of the Pu Mejia family (my first converts) has been attending church for the past two weeks, and even attended the baptism of the Pu Imul kids! We just had Family Home Evening with the Pu Mejia family on Thrusday, and she was there for it. So she seems really interested in the Church, so hopefully that will lead to something big!
For this sunday, Elder Maldonado and I went to Xepòn (another area close to us) because the missionaries there asked us to come and participate in the Choir there! The real reason is that they needed Elder Maldonado to play the piano, so I just tagged along, and ended up singing in the choir with them! It was way fun and such a neat experience, (even if the Latinos here aren`t the best singers, but don`t tell them that I said that.. haha)
So yeah... not much going on, just continuing in the work of the Lord! I love it a lot, and hope it keeps going as well has it has! I love you guys! My scripture for this week is D+C 20:37. This is the scripture that the baptismal interview is based off of. It is a nice to review it every once in a while, and know what we should be doing! Once again, I love you guys!
Until Next Time
- Elder Stuart
Sunday, October 28, 2012
My First Six Weeks!
Hello Family! Well, I have officially reached my first transfer period in the mission field, even though I`m not going to transfer. It still feels good to have reached this point though! I seem to have had a lot of success recently, I hope that it continues to be this way!
Well, first things first, our baptisms went through! On the 18, four of the Pu Imul kids get baptized, and we also had one kid from the Pu Mejia family that got baptized. He didn`t get baptized when the rest of his family did, because he didn`t have enough attendences to church, but he did now, so he got baptized! So that`s FIVE baptisms! That is five souls that have come closer to Christ. It feels so good having helped with it also! It was so cool to see them so happy and filled with the spirit! Usually, the Pu Imul kids are so serious and hardly look you in the eye, but at the baptism, they were so happy and laughing and just having a good time! That just shows how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ can do for you! That is why I love being a missionary so much! I have to opportunity to spend two years doing this work, seeing the gospel change lives, and just being closer to my Savior!
Other than that though, not much has happened. We have just been visiting other less active members, active members, doing service, and such. We do have a family that we are still working with to get the kids baptized. The mom is not active at all, but the Dad is. He actually just called to be the second counselor in the Branch Presidency this week, so hopefully that will help the kids realize how important the Gospel is to their Dad, and will make them want to participate more!
We just got here to Momos for P-Day, and just got back from helping all the new missionaries to this area carry their bags to wait at the Zone Leader`s house until they can get to their respective areas. So we are going to have some new faces here in the Zone of Momostenango! I`m still in the same area, so not much will change, just the missionaries in their respective areas.
Well, I`m still doing great, continuing doing the work of the Lord! I love it here, and am ready for another week! Until Next Time!
- Elder Stuart
Photos!
This is a waterfall that we pass by everytime we go to our Ward Mission Leader´s house. (He is the one in the pictures that I sent last time. He translates for us into Quiche.) We finally to time to find a good spot to take a picture.
I found Paper Mario in Momos. No big deal. Of course, knowing me, I had to take a picture! Yay for nerds!
Monday, October 1, 2012
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
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!
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