Amor desde Guatemala!

   Hello Family!  I hope that you all had a good week this week.  We had a pretty crazy week, because of two big things that are passing by in Xela this month.  Yesterday was Independece Day here in Guatemala, so all the Chapines here are celebrating like crazy.  Also, an annual fair in Xela has been here all month, so that´s been crazy also.  All in all, almost everyone is gone to the fair when we try to pass by, and we didn´t have as many lessons as we wanted, but it still went fairly good!

     Our most positive investigators is an older couple named Lorenzo y María.  They are always willing to listen to us, and they have been progressing nicely.  The only problem is that they have recieved some help from the church they are in right now, so they aren´t really ready to change religions... yet.  We´ve put baptismal dates with them for the 12 of October, so if they recieve an answer by then, they said they will be baptized.  So that´s awesome!

     We´ve also found this guy named Ricardo this week.  When we first passed by his house, he was SO prepared by the Lord ot recieve us.  He was listening, and I mean actually listening to us, and when we went by two days later, he had remembered everything that we had taught (Even to the year of the First Vison!), and had thought a lot about the message.  Unfortunately, he couldn´t come to church because of the stupid fair (curse you Satan...) but he is looking really positive.

     With Wendy, a granddaughter of a recent convert who has a fecha bautismal set up, we have been working a little bit with her.  But, seeing as she is a teenager (That sounds so weird to say, now that I´m not one... HA) she´s been at the fair everyday this week, so we haven´t had any lessons recently.  But now that the fair is dying down, we´ll get back on teaching her.

     We also found the sweetest lady on Saturday.  She has never spoken with missionaries before, but she has always seen us in the streets, helping people out, and just being good people.  She told us that she has always admired that, and she said we are welcome to pass by her house any time.  EXAMPLES ARE SO IMPORTANT!  Be an example to everyone, and they will be so much more willing to listen to the fulness of the Gospel.  

     But, this week wasn´t all fine and dandy.  We did have some crazy rejections this week that make for some very good stories.  For example, we were going to visit this one investigator from a while back, and when we got there, her husband answered the door and basically told us to get lost.  When we explained what we do, he took out his phone, took a picture of us, and told us he was going to report us for being in his house... (Even though we were standing outside...)  Well, long story short, we left.  But it´s sad that people are so misguided that they have to do stuff like that.  But that´s life.  We move on, and don´t get discouraged!

     I have had a really fun time working with legos teaching about the apostasy of the chruch and how through Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ restored the Gospel.  You build up the church, from the time of Jesus Christ, and then you take it all apart through the Great Apostasy. And then you bring it back together through Joseph Smith.  A great object lesson, and it keeps the kids entertained.  Just thought I´d share that with you!

     But yeah, this was kind of a longer letter, but it was a good week to write about.  We just always have to press on in the work of the Lord, and we will be blessed.  Maybe not now, but eventually, the blessings come.  They do come.  I am a witness of it.  I love this work, and I love this Gospel.  And I love each of you!  Keep up the good work wherever you are, and Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Alma 5:14

Earthquake

   Hello Family!  How y´all doin?  I hope that you all had a good week this week!  Things went pretty good here in Chiquilajá, so I´ll tell you a bit about it now!  ;)

     Basically, the month of September is absolutely horrible here in Xela.  There are really two huge events going on this month:  Independece (Which they celebrate all month) and the yearly fair for Xela.  Almost everyone is going to visit family out of the area, and those who are here go to the fair all day.  It´s historically been a slow month for missionary work, so we are trying to make it better.

     So we have two baptismal dates for the 21st, but they aren´t really that sure now.  Wendy, one of them, we haven´t talked to in about a week, because she´s been in Retauleu all week for the fair, visiting her family.  She wasn´t able to come to church this week, which is a bummer, but we have a cita with her on Tuesday, so we will see how that goes.  

     And with Brando, we had passed by their house all week, not finding anyone home.  Thank goodness, yesterday we went to pass by again, and some kid came up to us and told us that no one lives there anymore.  Turns out they straight-up moved.  And the problem is we have no contact with them.  People have told us they don´t live far, but we NEED to find their place quick so we can get going again with Brando.

     Also, something crazy for you guys to hear.  We had ANOTHER earthquake happen here on Friday.  Earthquakes are really rare here, and I´ve been in two during my mission.   Sweet.  But is was crazy, a 6.2 on the Richter Scale, with the Epicenter not to far away from us.  But it freaked everyone out.  The good thing was that we didn´t have any major damage in our area.  Although a member´s house got pretty rocked, so we spent about two hours on Saturday helping secure his walls, so they don´t fall down.  It was a good scare for a lot of people, but nothing really happened, so that´s good.

     Do you know what is sad?  When people don´t even give the opportunity to listen to the message of the plenitud of the Gospel.  We ran into this one guy one day, and he totally bashed on us, not because of the doctrine, but because of some members actions.  He said that he would probably give this Gospel a chance, if it wasn´t for the members.  And he just slammed the door in our face.  It really made me sad, because he isn´t even giving us the chance, just because of something that happened in the past.  It´s rough, but people have their agency.  We just have to help them the most we can, and the God do the rest.

     We went up to this one lookout place in Xela today, and it was absolutely beautiful up there.  I looked over the city, and the thought just came to my mind, that there are about 80 missionaries working in this city alone, working for one cause:  To bring ALL of these souls unto Christ.  It was really cool to think about, and it just made me so glad to be out here helping out with the work!

     I love you guys so much.  Thank you all for writing me!  It always means a lot to me!  Love you!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S. Scripture!  DyC 62:3

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... ;)