Photos!

This is just a huge pot of corn that they cook and then crush to make tortillas here.

Me in the house of Luis and Edwin

This was on the way to the baptism.  There were a total of 24 people in this truck, 17 of which are not members of the church.  And this was completely legal.  Gotta love Guatemala.

Luis and Edwin!

 Luis, Edwin, and I.  MNOMN crew, I had the tie on for the service, but you can`t see it here.  

The baptismal service

The truck leaving the baptism

These are Elena and Aroldo`s kids, and I love them to death!

Elder Berríos and I in the conference.  This guy helped me out a bunch in Quiché, and it was good to see him again.

Another week in Chiquilajá!‏

     Hello Family!  I hope that you all had a good week this week!  We had a fairly interesting week this week, so I´ll try and let you all know about what happened.

     Well, first things first, I´m finally out of a trio.  Elder García is leaving for his mission tomorrow.  So now it is just going to be Elder Calero and I.  Which is going to be nice, because working with three people on the mission is just weird.  Also, Elder García had kind of lost his desire to serve, because he wasn´t in his own mission.  But now he´s excited to go, and I´m happy for him.  I hope that he will find that desire again in is own mission!  But now I´m just back to a regular, two-person companionship.  (Thank goodness...)

     Well, here in Guatemala, especially here in Xela, September is by far the hardest month in the mission, because it´s independence month here.  (Independence day is September 15 here.)  Also, there is this huge fair that comes to Xela for about 3 weeks.  So basically everyone is partying, celebrateing, waking up in the streets, and all that fun stuff.  So our leaders have really stressed on starting now so that we can baptize in September.

     Which we have been taking to heart!  We have two sure dates for the 21 of September.  One of them is Wendy, the granddaughter of Martha, the recent convert.  Another one is a young man named Brando.  They are both willing to be baptized, so that´s good.  The only thing we need them to do now is to come to church continually.  They both weren´t able to come to church this week, because Wendy´s great-grandma got really sick, so they went to go visit them, and Brando´s mom didn´t give him permission to go...  So that sucked, but we have talked to both of them, and they said that they are planning on coming next week for sure.  

     I haven´t really realized the importance of member work until I got here.  In Momos and in Quiché, there really weren´t enough members to work with us, and even less who were willing to help us.  But here there are a lot more to help us out.  And we have really been trying to stress member lessons, because there really is nothing else like them.  You can have two strange people, one of them a Gringo, and the people don´t want to hear anything from us.  But when we bring someone who lives walking distance from them, it makes them think that we are actually normal!  It´s great working with them!

     On wednesday we had a Multi-Zone Conference with all the zones from Xela.  President Bautista talked to us, and I don´t know what it is, but I always feel so pumped when he talks!  It´s always good for us missionaries to reclaim the excitement that we had at the beginning.

     Not much else, happened this week.  Just keeping on working for the Lord!  I love this work, and we just need to work hard to make us all happy!  Haha I love you all so much, and thanks for all the support!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Abraham 2:16.  Think about it a little bit... ;)

In Chiquilajá!

     Hello Family!  What´s up everybody?  I hope that you all are having a great week so far, and that you all had a good week last week!  

     Well, this Tuesday were changes, so I´m out of Chinique, and now I´m in Chiquilajá!  It´s part of Xela, so it´s somewhat city (Which is weird for me...) but it´s still the outskirts of Xela, so it´s still pretty small.  I´ve liked my time here so far, and I´m looking forward to serve here longer!  Also weird, I´m working in a ward for the first time.  I´ve been in branches my whole mission, so this should be nice.  About 140 members come to church every sunday, so hopefully that means a lot of people who are willing to help us out.  Also, we get lunch and dinner about 4-5 times a week, so I´m gonna get good food!  haha I might reach the 6´3, 200 lb frame that Jeffrey claims me to be after all!  But more than anything, I like it here.

     Get this, you know how I was so stoked to leave my trio and be in a regular companionship?...  Well, not quite...  I´m in a trio here!  I´m with Elder Calero, from Nicaragua, who just finished off his training, and Elder García, who´s from the capital here.  Elder García is just a temporary missionary waiting for his visa so that he can go to his actual mission in Venezuela.  So we might not be much time with him, but who knows.  So yeah, back in a trio...  Joy.

     Last Monday was absolutely hectic, let me tell you now.  When I left internet, the secretaries of the mission called us and told us that we needed to help them load up some stuff they were going to take from Chinique all the way to Xela.  Well, they wasted so much time, that I missed the last bus that goes from Chinique to Quiché.  So we had to ask a ride from a member at 8:00 at night, and thank goodness he said yes.  But that meant riding in the back of a pickup at night to Quiché with all my suitcases.  It was crazy.  Kind of too stressful of a P-Day for me.  But we are all good now.

     Things are going good here in Chiquilajá.  The elders baptized four people the week before I came, but for family reasons, two of them weren´t able to come to church to be confirmed... So we ended up confirming them this Sunday, which was cool.  Even better, Martha, the mom of the family who got baptized, brought two granddaughters with her to church.  She wanted them to know about the church, so now we are going to teach them!  Awesome!

     Also, speaking of pilas members, Silvia, a 60 something year old recent convert of about a half a year, has been going out to contact on her own to find people for us to teach.  Can you say AWESOME?!?  Wow, she´s absolutely amazing for us.  There are some amazing people in the world, you know that?

     The only problem here is that the missionaries before were focusing so much on baptizing Martha and her family (which is great, don´t get me wrong) that we basically have nothing now.  So we´ve been searching out for the next people to be baptized!  

     I don´t know why, but I feel so excited to be out here in a new area.  I just feel so stoked to share this gospel with all the people here.  With the help of the Lord, I feel like I should be having success here.  I hope that this feeling continues for a long time!

     I´ve been reading a lot about the missionaries at the beginning of this dispensation.  They were so willing to sacrifice everything that they had, go through so many struggles, just to share the Gospel.  And now I´m doing the same thing.  I know for a fact that I don´t have the same urge as they did, but I´m working on it!

     If you want something that will blow your mind, let me share with you guys something I learned in personal study.  I was reading Elder Hollands General Conference talk from April "I Believe."  In the last paragraph, he says that he declares the words with the "More sure word of profecy."  I wasn´t sure what that was, so I looked it up.  Man, search that up, and it will blow your mind.

     About 30 minutes ago I had the chance to talk to some Gringas!  Well, kind of...  One was from Massechusetts, and the other was from London!  I saw them when we were buying food for the week, and I heard them talking in english.  I figured I didn´t want to miss this chance to talk to them, so I started talking to them.  And it´s not all because they were somewhat cute or anything... ;)  But long story short, the girl from London has heard a lot about missionaries before, so I ended up placing two BoM´s in the store!  It was weird talking about us in English, becasue I´m so used to it in Spanish.  But it was a cool experience!

     I ate McDonalds for the first time in the mission today for lunch.  Man, it might just be a lack of good ole American food for so long, but it was SO GOOD!  Man, Xela is a lot different than Quiché or Momos!

     So yeah, I ended up writing a lot this week, but it was worth it.  All in all, I´m enjoying my new area, and I´m ready to work here!  Wish me luck!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. D+C 1:4

Last Week in Chinique!

   Hello Family!  What´s up guys?  I hope you all had a good week this week!  Well, I just spent my last week here in Chinique.  I´m currently in Chinique still, but later tonight I´ll head to Quiché, and in the morning I´ll go to Xela where they will tell me where I´m going!  So I don´t know yet where I´m going, but there´s a lot of options for me now!  We´ll see where I go!

     This week was a good week for us.  Of course, it wasn´t perfect, but I´ll take what God gives me... Which just happened to be two baptisms this Saturday!!!  A recent convert, Marta, and her oldest son were baptized like 3 weeks ago.  But she had two other sons, 11 and 9, who weren´t baptized because 1. They weren´t really ready yet, and 2. Because the dad wasn´t really gung ho about the whole thing.  But we spent a lot of time with them these last two weeks, and we succeeded in helping them gain a testimony (you should hear them sing the primary songs!) and helping the dad out with letting them get baptized.  So Saturday they were baptized!  It was very special and just a great experience for me.

     After the baptism, we had a branch activity!  It was a talent show type of thing, where we saw a bunch of skits, and some people singing.  It was way fun, way funny, and just a good way to spend time getting the branch more unified.  Us missionaries did a skit about David and Goliath, and I was Goliath.  (Apparently according to Jeffery I´m 6´3 and 200 lbs.  I not quite there yet!)  It was way funny, and I got pegged in the mouth with a paper ball. When I get home I´ll show you guys the video!

     But not everything was all fine and dandy with the activity.  While we were getting it planned and everything, the branch kind of separated and got mad at each other.  People everywhere, just love the people in your ward/branch and everything will be so much better.  We had to deal with that for this week, which was not fun.  But we just all need to learn how to be more unified and how to love each other.  Which went along great with the class I gave in Elder´s Quorum this week in the Lorenzo Snow book.  Chapter 16, read it when you have the chance!

     Not much else happened during the week, just going around doing what we do best!  It´s been a good time here working with Elder Glass and Vasquez, but I´m ready to go to a normal two person companionship.  Ya feel me?  Maybe not, but trust me on this one, trios are weird...

     I hope you are all doing well, in whatever part of the world you are in.  We can all make a difference wherever we are, we just have to put in our part.  So just do work!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 42:15

Photos!

All the birthdays in June in our Zone!  We celebrated it all in one day just to save money...  haha!  (Sorry if it´s a little blurry..)

 I was in Chichi this week for divisions, and it rained like none other!  This is my comp jumping a "river" from the street to the sidewalk that all the rain made!  It sure does rain here, that´s for sure!

 In Chichi right after the storm.

 In Paquinac again!  I decided to take another picture in the same spot for the heck of it.  And way out there is good old Chinique!  Gotta love the hike!

We walked back from Paquinac with a guy that we knew.  He went up there just to do his job...  A.K.A. killing cows!  How cool is that?  He kills cows for a living!  About 3 cows a week he says!  And he is just carrying down the skin like a boss, with blood all over his clothes!  What a guy!

 I GOT THE PACKAGE!!!  WOO HOO!!!  I´ve seriously been reading the Ensign magazines non stop this week!  Thank you so so so so much!  

A really old church in Quiché, which I thought that I would take a picture of for the first time in my 3 1/2 months here...  ;)

Photos!

My house!  Finally for you guys to see!  The first three photos show the outside of my house, where we walk around and stuff.

The fourth is the pila where we store water and wash clothes and dishes

The fifth is my bathroom!  (A lot better than Pancá, huh?)

Numbers 6, 7, and 8 is my changing room, where we have all of our clothes.

Numbers 9 and 10 is our study room.

Numbers 11 and 12 is our kitchen.

Numbers 13 and 14 is our bedroom.

So we have two separate doors.  One leads to the changing room and the study room.  The other leads to the kitchen and the bedroom.  So there you have it!  My house!

It was Elder Cruz´s birthday on the 13th, and he was stuck in his house with Chicken Pox...  What a great birthday, right?  So at night, we bought him a cake and celebrated just us four missionaries!  I mean, he had to celebrate his 20th birthday!  So we made it happen!

Well...  We weren´t perfect in making popcorn...  We burned a couple pieces!  Haha

We had an activity in the church on Friday, where we had our own little "Movie Theater."  We supplied the popcorn, and it was way fun to make!  Especially because we made it the old fashioned way!  

The Zone of Quiché!

Me riding in a bus full of Mormons!  We had to rent a bus to take to Quiché, because we had our District Conference (which is like Stake Conference) this Sunday.  So we all piled in a bus and made the drive!  It was awesome to see the bus so piled up, and know that they were all members!