Pictures from Panca

Mission Home of the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Mission

Elder Maldonado and Elder Stuart

LDS Church

Elder Maldonado

Jonny's Home

Kitchen

Bedroom (Jonny's is the Red Bed)

Desk

Closet

Elder Maldonado

Scorpion

Spider

Elder Maldonado 

Elder Maldonado 

Elder Stuart

Elder Stuart

Elder Stuart

Guatemalan Family

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!

Finally a Real Missionary!

Hello Family!!!  I am writing you my first letter as an actual missionary!  It is so exciting!  I am so excited that I am finally in the field now, I can`t even describe it!  Well first things first, we had to get to Quetzaltenango, or Xela as they all call it here. So all of us going to Quetzaltenango got on a shuttle bus at around 8 in the morning, and said goodbye to the CCM in Guatemala City!  

We took a 4 1/2 hour bus drive to Quetzaltenango, and it was such a beautiful drive!  While going down the roads, I kept thinking of the Nepali Coast in Italy, except without the water.  It was a bunch of winding roads, and straight countryside.  It was so beautiful, and it really showed me the beauty of the Guatemalan countryside.  Well, we finally got to Xela, and it was awesome!  It looked a lot like Guatemala City, but it was a little smaller and had a little more of a country feel to it.  Unfortunately, we didn`t get to drive past the brand new temple here, that would have been cool, but you can`t have everything, right?  

We got to the mission home pretty quickly.  Little did I know that I was saying goodbye to what I knew as transportation, you`ll see in a little bit.  Waiting out front were President and Sister Bautista, and they are some of the nicest people I have ever met!  They took our luggage and everything, and took us into their little fenced off area.  The house was really nice!  They had a lawn, which is really rare here, a nice basketball hoop, and just a really clean looking house.  It was a nice break from the dirtiness and the filthiness from the rest of the city.  They sat us down on some picnic tables out front, and they ordered us pizza from pizza hut, so it turns out that my first meal in Quetzaltenango was Pizza Hut.  Go figure, right?  And another strange thing about the meal, we had to drink water out of a bag, so that we knew it was pure.  They said to get used to it, because that is what we are going to be drinking out of for the next two years!!  

So while we ate, they gave their little welcome speech, and all that jazz.  They really just made us feel really comfortable here, and really said how great this mission really is.  And I believe them!!  It is awesome here!  After they were done introducing themselves and making us feel welcome, they put on a slideshow video showing all of the areas of the mission.  During it, they did the President`s interviews, which didn`t take that long.  I was really grateful for it though, because it really made me feel like they want to know each and every one of us and want us all to succeed.  

When we were all done with that, all of our trainers arrived!  We talked with them for a little bit, but then President Bautista sat us down and started to give us our trainers.  My trainer and first companion in the mission field is Elder Maldonado.  He is from Mexico, and is a really funny and talkative guy.  He really knows what he is doing, and we are doing great!  

So after all that, they sent us out on our way.  We are assigned to the Pancà area in the Momostenango area.  I am fairly certain that Pancà will not appear on Google Maps, but the City of Momostenango will.  So me and my companion started walking in the city of Quetzaltenango to a place they call the "Terminal."  I was a little confused at first, but when I got there, I could completely see why.  It was a little square just packed full of buses going every which way.  So we, or I should say my companion, found a bus headed to Momos, and we got on with our luggage and everything.  

Now this is the bus that Dad was talking to me about in his letter to me.  Lucky for us, we got on fairly early, so we got window seats.  But as we went along we kept picking up people, and before I knew it, the bus was full.  Now when I say full, I don`t mean two to a seat full, I mean three to a seat, with people as squished as they could get in the aisle.  I felt like I was riding a fire hazard all the way from Xela to Momos.  And to add to it all, it was a three hour bus ride.  Best I get used to it as soon as I can!  

When we got to Momos, it was about 8 at night, so it was too dark to get exactly to our area, so we stayed the night at our Zone Leader`s house in the city.  So on Wednesday morning, we got up at 6 and took all of our luggage to a truck, like a regular Toyota truck.  We put all of our stuff in the back, jumped in the back, and prepared for an hour and a half drive to our area of Pancà.  It was probably one of the best ways I could think of to get to my first area in the mission.  So we drove through the middle of nowhere for about an hour, and then all of a sudden, we saw a LDS chapel, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.  They stopped, and we got off there.  And when I say the middle of nowhere, I really mean it.  

We had to haul our luggage up a hill, and we happened upon a little shack that I have now learned to call my home.  It is about as little and as dirty as you can call a home, but I have learned to do just that.  After we got inside and done unpacking and everything, we met with the branch president and he showed us around the chapel, and then we walked to his house and talked for a while.  We got a couple of references and names of people that we could go visit, so we did just that.  We went around the first day, just trying to find members and references that we could get.  Here, it really feels like I am out on a camping trip, because all the roads are dirt, and we have to take little paths to get to other houses.  We did that for most of the day, and little did we know that it gets dark here really fast, and to add to it, there are no street lights in Pancà, so the first night, we had to travel through dirt roads and paths in pitch black darkness.  It took us a while, but we finally got back to our house.  It was a really tiring first day!  

Little did I know the next day was going to be even harder!  We woke up and everything, got all prepared for the day, and headed out.  We decided to go visit this family that the branch president had told us about first thing.  Good thing we did it first thing, because it took about the whole day!  It was a good hour and a half hike (yes hike, not walk) to get to the house.  Luckily we had a member show us the way to get there.  And it turns out that we needed him a lot more than we thought. When we got to the house, much to our surprise, not one of the 8 family members spoke Spanish, they all spoke Quiche!  The member that we brought with us could speak both Spanish and Quiche, so we had to use him as a translator.  Needless to say, it was a very interesting first lesson that I got to teach!  It was so cool, because I could bear my testimony about the church in Spanish, and I could feel them understand me, not because of the words I was saying, but because of the spirit. I was so grateful for the experience!  

I am going to have to stop my email here, because we have to go get ready for our multi-zone conference tomorrow, but I will finish up the rest of my week in my next email.  I wasn`t too prepared for this P day, because I forgot to bring my camera cords, so no pictures this week.  But next week I will be sure to send all the pictures that I can!  I love each and every one of you, and I hope that you are doing all that you guys can to have the time of your lives!  Sounds like all of you are busy living your lives, just like I am.  I love what I am doing right now, and I can`t wait to do it for the next two years!  I have a great testimony of this church, and I know that this work is so important to everyone.  Thank you all for your support, and I will talk to you all next week!  

Until Next Time!!!  

Elder Stuart.