The Beginning of a New Mission

     Hello Family!  Well, here we are...  I really can´t believe that I´m already done.  Time has gone by way too fast.  I don´t even know where to start.  I have so many emotions going through my mind right now, I couldn´t even try to explain everything over email.  I will tell you all one thing though, ending the mission is really hard.  After being so close to the Spirit, having so many spiritual experiences, having the chance to share the Gospel every moment of every day, getting to know the great people here in Guatemala...  It´s hard.  But it happens to every one of us, así que I´ve got to do it.

    Don´t get me wrong, I´m really excited to see everyone of you guys again!  But after being two years straight as a missionary, if I take a while to get a little readjusted to real life, you´ll probably realize why.   

     The mission overall has been amazing.  It wasn´t exactly like I expected, but it was so much better.  I have learned so much about how to be a better man in life, and that is experience that is invaluable for me.  Humility, knowledge, love, and so much more.  All these things I have learned in the mission, and I am ready to put it all into practice when I get home.

     One thing that I will really miss about this place are the people here.  I would have never guessed how much these people would have affected me before the mission.  But they have.  I love them so much, and have learned so much from them.  These people that sacrifice so much will always hold a place in my heart, and if I ever have the chance, I will do everything I can to make their lives better!  I feel great that I have been doing it for the last two years, and I hope that the people that have touched my life will always remember that. 

    There are so many habits that I have gained in the mission that I want to take home with me, especially my time in the morning.  Preparation, study, exercise, and all that I hope to keep up after the mission.  Things just go so much better when you start off your day on the right foot, and from what I´ve seen here, that is the way to do it.

     Also, just doing the little things while going about my business is something that I want to keep up.  Stuff like helping a man collect wood on the side of the road, washing dishes after eating, giving a helping hand, just stuff like that.  Little acts of service, little acts of love is what I´m getting at.  If we can all just follow the example of Christ, where He didn´t mind getting held back a little bit just to help someone, we will be better people.  Love the world, and the world will love you back.

     But more than everything, the thing I´ve most gained from the mission is my personal relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is something that I really can´t explain with words, but I know with all my soul.  He is my Redeemer, and has made everything that I ever have done, everything that I am doing, and everything that I ever will do possible.  I will be forever grateful for His sacrifice.  It only makes sense in my mind to give everything that I have in order to thank Him for everything.

     I had my final interview with President Smith on Thursday, and man was that great.  We talked a lot about my goals after my mission, and what I should do to get going as soon as possible.  But at the end, we started talking about knowing for sure in the Lord has accepted our sacrifice.  And in a way only the Spirit can work, and with the help of President Smith, I knew that the Lord accepted my work.  And I am so grateful for that confirmation.  Of course, I wasn´t perfect, but I know that I gave it my all, and better yet, I know that the Lord is pleased.  That final interview has been one of the highlights of my mission.

     Whew...  I really don´t know what to think right now.  My thoughts have just been going crazy, so if this email seems really jumbled, that´s why.

     Being here in Guatemala, sharing my testimonio daily, has strengthened my testimony is ways that I can´t even explain.  I´ve always had a testimony about this church, but now I know without a doubt that what I have been doing the last two years is in the Lord´s hands.  This is His church.  There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever.  It just makes sense to me.  Jesus is the Christ, and He is at the head of this church.  Now, that´s not everything I need.  I need to act on the knowledge I´ve gained.  It means nothing to me to know all this, and do nothing about it.  Now is the time in my life to act, and I´m ready to do it.  

     I can´t thank all of you enough for all the support you have all given me throughout my mission.  It really has meant so much to me.  Thank you all so much.  For those of you out on the mission, don´t worry, I´ll write.  I promise, because I know how it is.  Thank you all for getting me here to where I am now.  I love you all so much.  

    "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day:  and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."  2 Timothy 4:7-8.  Until next time!  (On Thursday!)

     - Elder Stuart

Photos!

Just you´re classic view in San Francisco el Alto.  Someone working on the mountain side taking care of their corn fields, with a waterfall in the mountain on the other side of the valley.  So beautiful.

We helped Luis and Marleni make a drawing of some ruins for their kids.  So Elder Jerez and I drew this up in about 20 minutes.  And I really like how it turned out!

This is what happens when the World Cup is going on.  Almost everyone inside their houses watching soccer, and the people that are in the street watching it as they pass by.  I´m going to make a collage of pictures that I have of "Things people do because of the World Cup."

Cooking dinner on a fire stove (what do you call these things?  It´s plancha in spanish...  But I don´t know what it is in english...)  while repping my american flag tie.

As we were cooking dinner, this bugger just crawls out of the stove.  No big deal.

Walking home at night.  That´s what I love about this place, is you can have roads in the middle of a bunch of trees, basically in the middle of nowhere!

Working in the corn fields with a less active member!

 If I ever decide to live in San Francisco el Alto, this will be the place where I put my house.

 After church with some members.  Luis is the one right next to me. (Man, I look really fat in this picutre... nevermind that...)

Just some more of the beauty of Guatemala.

Photos!

This is a way the people here grind up corn.  Just crushing it on a good old rock.  So of course I had to try it out!

A cake we made for some investigators!  It turned out really well!

We went to the temple this week!  We reached our goal as a Zone to go, and it was so great.  So needed.  I can´t wait to go to the temple as often as I want!

The little baby of Margarita when we went to go make dinner for them.  So cute!  

Some of the cutest Guatemalan kids ever.  Seriously.  I want my kids to be just like them!

We made hamburgers for the 1st counselor in the Stake, and he loved it!  He was so happy, and it was really special for us to see him like that.

Just more of Guatemala!  Man I love this country so much!

The family of Becker and Alvin!

Oh my goodness, this was so funny.  So it was a less actives birthday on Sunday, so we made a cake for her.  Well, the tradition here is that after they blow out the candles, the take a bite, and someone shoves their face into the cake.  Not too much, just to cover up the mouth.  The thing is, this member was being dificult, and didn´t want us to push her into the cake!  So we all tried shoving her head in, me using my both hands, and this is what happened....  JAJAJAJAJA!  We were all laughing so hard!

This Week in San Francisco el Alto!

     Hello Family!  And here we are, yet another wonderful week having passed by.  I hope that you all enjoyed your week!  Recently I´ve just been realizing that we really need to pay attention to all the blessings that we have daily.  Even when times are hard, God is still there blessing us always.  We just need to open our eyes and know that He is there.  Go look for Him if you guys are feeling down! :)

     Things are going good here in San Francisco.  We are still working with Paloma, and now my goal is just to make sure that she gets baptized before I leave.  She´s amazing, probably more pilas than some of the members here.  It´s just hard for her to take a decision, and that´s why we are here.  She´s been thinking about being baptized on the 12th, so we are going to work with that, and make sure that it happens.  But the good is that when she does get baptized, she will stay strong in the Gospel, which is exactly what this ward needs.

     Alejandrina is still going strong too.  She couldn´t come to church this week because of work issues, but she´s still positive, and we are planning to put a fecha with her.  She´s accepting the Gospel very well, so that´s really good.  We just need to have a really spiritual lesson with her, and we should be good.

    Something really cool about Alejandrina is that she lives in a little village outside of San Fran called Tierra Colorada.  Well, the first counselor of the Relief Society lives out there, named Margarita.  Without us even knowing, she went to go look for Alejandrina to take her to church!  How awesome is that?  She is just so willing to help us out, and she did it without us needing to tell her! I love the humble people of Guatemala, because they are just so personable, and love everyone!

     We have been visiting a family for a while, and they have had some problems recently..  But, on Saturday, we felt really impressed to go with them, even though we didn´t have it planned.  So we went, and as soon as we got there, the husband came to the door with a backpack on.  He basically said that he wasn´t going to be home, and then left.  So then Margarita, the wife, came to the door.  We asked her what happened, and if there was something we could do.  She just started to cry and said, "Come in."  Turns out that they got in a fight, and he left her now.  We don´t know how long, but he´s still not back...  But they had a really big need, because they had no food.  So we went to our house, got some beans and eggs, and cooked dinner for her and her two little boys.  But imagine what would have happened if we didn´t get there right at that time.  She needed some help, and we were there for her.  Many times while we were there, she kept saying, "You both are just angels."  It was really special.

     Also on Saturday, I got to go back to Colonia, my last area!  Remember Becker and Alvin?  We had put fechas with them right before I left the area.  But on Saturday they were baptized, and Becker wanted me to go and baptize him!  I really didn´t expect that, until the assistants called me on Friday and let me know!  Man it was really special.  I just loved going back to good old Colonia, and seeing everyone there.  But more important, I just was so touched that a 15-year-old boy in Guatemala wanted me to do something so special for him.  Wow, it was pretty amazing.

     Guys, the Spirit is so important in this work.  I´ve realized that so much recently.  Now that I have a lot of time in the mission, I know how to teach with good examples and all that.  But sometimes that makes me fall into the trap of trying to rely too much on my own abilities.  But we cannot do that!  The Spirit is the real teacher in this work, and if we impede that, we are lost.  At all points in our lives, we need to rely on the Spirit.

     We just got a new mission president this week!  President Smith is my new mission president.  We just had a leaders meeting with him today, and he is really cool.  Really spiritual too.  Too bad that I won´t be here to see some of his new ideas come into play, but I know that he will be a great addition to the mission.  

    I learned a lot from President Bautista too, and I can´t thank him enough for everything that he did for me.  He really helped me in the mission to get to where I am right now.  I´m so grateful for the opportunity that I had to serve with him!

    I´m doing everything that I can to finish strong!  I´m so close, so that just means I just need to work that much harder!  Let´s to this!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. 2 Nefi 2:21

Exception Week!

     Hello Family!  How are you all doing?  I hope that you are all doing exceptional.  Not just good, not even great, but exceptional.  We have the greatest joy ever in our lives, which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  There really is no reason ever to not be just bursting with joy!  We have the great Plan of Happiness!  How great is that?  Just making sure that you all remember to be happy!  ;)

     This week was kind of hard for us in San Fran.  Just so you all know, San Francisco is a really famous market place, and people come over here to work and buy all the time.  The hardest thing about this pueblo is that a lot of people come here to work and sell during the week, but they don´t even live here, so it´s hard to find people to teach that actually live here.  So that´s been a challenge for us here.

     We are working really hard with Paloma.  She was supposed to be baptized last Saturday, but when she went to her sister to ask for permission (She´s 17 and her sister is her guardian), the sister took her to go talk with a pastor... Great.  So she backed off for this Saturday.  We were really bummed when that happened.  So we went to go talk to her to see what happened.

     She basically told us that she wasn´t so sure about being baptized, because she wasn´t sure that she had recieved an answer.  (Just so you know, she comes to church every week, goes to early-morning seminary, and is even doing her personal progress.  She´s that pilas.)  But we talked to her about her answer, and how the Holy Ghost answers our prayers.  Well, she has told us that she feels great talking to us, and knows that she needs to be baptized.  And when she talked with her sister, she felt doubt, confusion, and such.  So I asked her, "Where do those feelings of happiness and joy come from?"  She said God.  Then I asked her, "Where do feelings of doubt and confusion come from?"  She said from the devil.  I then asked her, "Now, Paloma, what does that tell you?"  She just sat there and smiled.  She told us that she was going to talk to her sister and tell her for sure that she has recieved an answer, and that she wants to be baptized.  That was quite the exerience for me.  Words just came out without even thinking about them, and I know that the Spirit helped me with her.  So now we just need to wait how she feels, but it´s very probable that she will be baptized this Saturday.

     We´ve found a new investigator this week named Alejandrina.  She works her in San Fran, but lives in an aldea about 40 minutes away called Tierra Colorada.  The good thing is that it is still part of our area!  Jaja we taught her the restoration, and she loved it!  She understood everything, and more importantly, she understood what it means for her.  She even came to church this week!  We have really high hopes for her, so we just need to keep teaching her.

     I´ve learned something really important about teaching here in San Francisco.  A lot of the people here can´t read (which happens a lot in this mission...), so we need to find the best way to teach those people.  And something that we do wrong sometimes is giving them all the answers.  In all teaching situations, we need to let people figure it out for themselves, or they will never really retain anything.  So many times we go visit someone, and they say, "I don´t really remember what you guys taught me last time..."  And that just shows us that we need to really focus on not just teaching the lesson, but making sure that they really understand it.

     I´m learning so much here, and with so little time left, I really need to make sure that I am doing all that I can to take advantage of the time that I have left.  I that´s what I´m going to do!  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Jacob 7:5

Photos!

Celebrating my birthday with the Paz family!

Just a normal road here in Huehue.  After the rain, the streets were just horrible...

The Zaculeu Zone!  (Without the Hermanas...)

This family is so great.  Luis and Esvin are on my right and left respectively.  We worked so hard with this family, and they were pretty active when I left.  I´m so happy to see them in the church!

The Paz family, probably the family that helped us out the most in Colonia.

 Part of my area in San Francisco.  We are crossing a bridge over a river, and I just had to take a picture.

San Francisco is called "El Alto" (tall in spanish, but I think of it as "on high") for a reason.  The lights you see is Xela clear back there.  San Fran is the area with the highest altitude in the mission!

The ward going to plant trees as a service project.  And how did we get there?  Riding on the back of a pickup truck.  That´s my white hand holing on to the bar, and I´m standing on the bumper.  One of the many reasons I love this country, because this was completely legal.

While doing service, we just found this little river next to the road.  That´s the beauty of Guatemala for you guys.

Planting Trees!

A view of San Francisco, and the amazing view that we have.  But I´ll look for a better picture of San Fran to send to you all next week!

Photos!

A good ole Mexican Torta.  Aka lunch every monday.


This is the normal rainstorm in Guatemala.  I hope that you can see it, but it was absolutely pouring!!!


 We cut this tree down just for some random lady.  And no, we did not use a chain saw.  Not even an axe.  We used a machete.


Huehuetenango at night.


We just saw this on the side of the road one day.  Do you know the weird thing about it?  It´s still there after about a week...  Just like nothing had happened.


This was at the cultural night I was telling you guys about last week.  We had a really good turnout too!


 Chili Relleno, one of the best meals here.  Basically it´s Jalapeño peppers stuffed with meat and veggies.  So good!!!


Aura at her baptism!


 Elder Pagán and I playing the "Make a bunch of silly faces and see which one comes out!" game.


I love Guatemalan kids so freaking much!

Photos!

Look at all of this wood we chopped.  Took us a little over a half an hour with both of us going at it.  I´m definitley going to miss doing this when I`m not here anymore.

Us playing jump rope with some investigators.

Just some classic Guatemalan kids for you guys.

My main man Elder Keele hitting his two year mark.  So we celebrated!

These are about half of the corte ties that I`ve gotten during my mission.  I don`t think I`ll ever wear a normal tie ever again.

Loving the Mission!

Hello Family!  How you all doing?  We´ve had a really good week this week.  I´ve really been loving being a missionary recently, like more that usual.  I don´t know where it is coming from, but I love it!  There really is something special about the work that we can´t really describe, something that drives us from within.  Maybe it is the thought that we are all participating in the work of salvation, and we can see people´s lives change right before our eyes.  It really is amazing to think that we are helping people that we haven´t even thought existed before, and they are changing their lives competely by our help.  There really is nothing better.  Now that I´ve started this email, we can get down to business.

     First off, on Monday we had another amazing lesson with Antonia.  We went to see how she liked conference, because she was going to watch it in her house.  She said that she had watched it and everything.  But when we asked her what she most liked, she told us that something had happened.  The channel that we sent them too was conference, but it was all in English.  So they ended up watching the whole thing in English...  At first I was bummed but then she said something really important.  She said that it didn´t matter if she didn´t understand anything, because she had felt something really special (The Spirit) wathcing it.  And she said that when one man came up, she felt his authority.  So I whipped out a picture of Pres. Monson and she said "That´s the man."  Guys, this church is true.  Antonia didn´t understand a thing, but the Spirit told her that they were Prophets of God.  Amazing.

     On Wednesday WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!  Oh baby, it had been way too long.  Almost 10 months since the last time I went.  And man was it great.  Things had changed since the last time I went (cough movie cough...), and I loved the changes.  A lot more clear on what was needed to be done.  (Is this vague, or is it just me?)  As I sat in the Celestial Room, I was pondering on what was needed to be done for some investigators, and found some really great stuff/scriptures for them.  

     But what was most special about the tempe is that I went there planning to ask Heavenly Father if what I had been giving him for the last 21 months has been worth it.  If I´ve been really serving my God.  As I finished my prayer I didn´t really feel anything so I just sat there looking at the beauty of the Temple.  But as I looked up into the chandelier, shining in the light, it just hit me.  Like a lightning bolt down my whole body.  I was just consumed in my Heavenly Father´s love, and I never wanted it to stop.  Man, what a feeling.  Something really special that I´m going to remember for a long time.

     On Thursday I went to another area on divisions to see how the work was going in Zaculeu.  I stayed with Elder Perkins, another Elder in the Zone.  I´m not really the biggest fan of divisions, because I don´t like leaving my area, but we had a great time.  I learned a lot from him,, and we had some really great lessons.  It kind of just showed me how many of us there are in this work, all of us a little different, but all with the same purpose.  That was great for me to realize.

     We talked with Luis and Edwin, our two baptismal fechas, this week.  They were set for the 19th, but weren´t able to come to church this week... But they´ve already made plans to go this coming week, and when we pushed back the fechas for the 26th, they already started asking what time, what they should bring, and everything.  So they are pretty set, and we are stoked for them.

     We´ve also got this other guy named Ivan, a (boy)friend of a member here.  And he´s really interested.  He´s asked some of the best questions about the Gospel that I´ve heard in a while.  What I see from him is just a desire to become closer to God.  And we have the perfect thing for him:  The Restored Gospel.  We think that he´s going to progress really nicely, so that should be good.

     The work is progressing here nicely, and we think that the rest of April and May should be really good for us.  This was an area just waiting for good things to happen, and now we are here to see it happen.  Until next time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. DyC 100:1

Photos!

I want you all to try and guess what this is.  When I first saw it, I was like, "Nice, there´s a good looking hotel in my area!"  Nope.  This is a great big Evangelical Church.  Gotta love it.

My poor comp.  Got "dear johned" last week...  So here we are on the roof burning some photos. 

Doing service, and of course I just have to be a little weird.

This little dude was helping us out in the service project.  So freaking cute trying to help us sweep.

Helping make some bread for Semana Santa.

This is a funny story.  We were contacting some lady, and her two little boys come outside to play.  About 3 years old and 5 years old.  They started throwing rocks at the post in the picture, with the light meter on it.  The lady started to tell them not to do that, and as soon as she finished saying that, the three year old threw a rock and broke the light meter.  Nice one little kid.