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