Photos!

Last week, two missionaries from the branch that I am working in got back from their missions!  And we just happened to pass by when they got to Chinique!  So of course I took a photo with them!

We celebrated both the birthday of Elder Berrios´ Girlfriend and Cinco de Mayo this day!  We baked a cake and everything in the church, it was fun!

It was absolutely DOWNPOURING this day, so of course I had to take a picture, enjoying the rain!  (At least it wasn´t snowing...)

We were helping out a member in the forest when we saw something on the ground.  We got closer, and we found it was a baby owl!  How crazy is that???  So now the member family is taking care of it.  But still, crazy!

We bought some tortillas for the Mother´s Day Activity that we had in the church, and I was the one who had to carry it to the church.  So I decided to carry it like a pure Guatemalan!  (They all carry baskets and all sorts of things on their heads like this!)

Part of the Mother´s Day Activity!  The Elders of the Elders Quorum made a bunch of food on the BBQ, and it was way good!

The actividad!  All the material that you can see the majority of the ladies wearing is the "corte" that I was telling you guys about.

Hey!  It´s you guys!  Haha  (Ignore the big fat forehead in the corner...)

Enjoying Being A Missionary!

     Hello Family!  Hope that you all had a great week!  With Dinner Theater opening up and all, I`m sure that it has been a really busy week for you guys, especially Ryan and Mom!  But that`s what makes it fun, right?  I hope that you are really enjoying what you all are doing!

     This week was just another week in the mission.  Although I have been thinking a lot about what I am doing as a missionary.  I feel like I have gotten into a routine, and that I am not being as effective as I can be.  So I really took time to think about new ways to share the gospel, be a great missionary, and still have fun in the meantime!  Because really, this gospel is all about happiness, joy, and love.  So I should be feeling those feelings every time that I share the gospel.  So I`m going to try harder this coming week to really enjoy the work in a new and unique way!

     Something really sad this week.  This past Thursday, a member of our branch passed away from cancer.  She had been in the hospital the whole time I`ve been here, so I really didn`t know her, but still, it is a really sad thing to happen here.  Although she had really lived a good life (She`s pretty old), she and her husband had a goal to go to the temple to be sealed this year.  So hopefully that can still happen as long as he proves to be faithful.  We went to go support him, but we could see that he is really having a hard time, so that just means that he needs the gospel more than ever.

     Something special that I want to share with you guys.  We have been focusing a lot on one of our investigators this week, who is Milset, the investigator that I told you about a couple weeks back who watched the video about Joseph Smith.  We have really been trying to challenge her to be baptized, because we feel like she wants to.  We have really focused on her getting to pray, because she has yet to pray about the BoM and about what we are teaching her.  We really stressed the importance of prayer, and during it, I really felt my testimony of prayer grow as well.  I really thought about it, and prayer is a really powerful tool that our loving Heavenly Father has given us, so we should really take advantage of it!

     Also, something else really cool, is while Milset and her 7 year old son came to church with us. (YESS!!)  It was testimony meeting, so we felt that would be a really good meeting for them as their first time, but little did we know how good it would be!  As we were hearing the testimonies, we saw the Branch President`s son get up to bear his testimony.  He is friends with Milsets son, Victor, and when Victor saw Carlos (The President`s son) get up, Victor got up too!  Apparently he wanted to bear his testimony on his first visit to church!  How cool is that?  So Carlos bore his testimony, and then he whispered into the ear of Victor what he should say!  Carlos is a champion!  Victor was so happy when he finished, but I don`t think that he was as happy as I was!  A really neat experience for sure!

     So yeah, there you all go!  My past week!  I don`t know though, I feel a little down for some reason.  But I don`t think it is much, and when I talk to you guys this week, that will really help!  I love to know that you guys are always here for me, and I can`t thank you all enough!

     Just want to leave you with my short testimony.  This gospel is the source of all happiness in the world, I am 100% sure about it.  I have seen so many lives being blessed because of  this gospel, and it just makes me so happy to be part of a force that is bringing all this happiness to all the world!  There is always a reason to smile, because we have a knowledge about the truth!  I love this gospel so much, and I am so stoked to be a missionary!  

     Thank you all for your letters and everything!  I love you all so much!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  The scripture for you is Romans 1:16.  A classic, but I really love it as a missionary!

     Also, remember that the Plan of our Heavenly Father is also called the Plan of Happiness!!! :)

A Busy Week!

     Hello Family!  Well, this week was a busy one, that´s for sure!  We had a lot of things to do, but that made the week just that much better!  Really, there is nothing like working hard during the mission.  You don´t really have to worry about real life, just the short time that you have to serve the Lord!  And, I always work better when I´m not stressing about home or family, so when I work hard, I work more effectivley.  Like President Hinckley´s dad said, "Forget yourself, and go to work!"  So yeah, it´s been a really good week of work!

     First things first, which I bet all of you are looking forward to, is what happened with the baptism!  Althought everything didn´t really go according to plan, I still feel really good about what is going on!  What happened is the baptism didn´t go through...  But I´m not feeling to down!  So, I´m gonna be honest, we had the baptism planned for Jimmy and his parents, but honestly we didn´t think that the parents were going to be baptized, and just Jimmy was going to be.  But, while we were teaching them throughout the week, we found that the parents are really changing, and really want to learn more.  But, they say that they still have a ways to go before they take the step to be baptized.  And honestly, I don´t blame them!  I´d rather wait a little bit to baptize someone, and let them develop a testimony, rather than baptizing them right now, and having them fall away a few months down the road.  So yeah, we are still going to put baptismal dates with them, so they have something to work to, but I really think that, given some time, they will be baptized!  So even though they didn´t get baptized this week, they are really growing in their testimony, and that is what really is important!

     We had an open house this week for the church on Saturday!  But I´m going to explain a little bit about it, because some people were confused on what I meant.  Here in Guatemala, you´d be surprised to find what some people think that we do during our reunions. so what we did is let people come in the chapel (even though they are always invited!) and have the different organizations explain what they do during chruch!  We had a bunch of investigators and new people come, so that gives us a lot to do this coming week!  Amazingly, the thing people liked most is, believe it or not, NURSERY!  So yeah, go figure!  But it really makes sense!  I hope this makes us realize how important every function of the church really is, and how much they really are inspired!  

     Last Thursday, we had a Multi-Zone Conference in Huehuetenango, which was awesome!  It was my first time being to Huehue, and I´ve heard a lot of good things about Huehue!  So hopefully I´ll be able to go there soon as one of my areas!  But we had the chance to listen to President Bautista, and also President Gutierrez, the Stake President in Huehue.  I really learned a lot, and would like to share some things with you guys!  What I really liked a lot is what President Gutierrez said.  He told us what our main goal as a missionary should be.  What my ultimate goal should be, is to make sure that I have established a personal relationship with my Savior, Jesus Christ.  It is like something that Dad always told me, the most important convert in your mission should be yourself!  I really took that to heart, and I really hope that I will be able to say that I have become closer to my Savior by the end of my misison!  Also, President Bautista told us about what really counts with our actions.  He told us that maybe we could get away with being disobient with him, but the Lord sees all, so we should be aware of that.  When we put on the nametag, we show that we are representatives of the Lord, and we act in his name.  We should ask ourselves, am I doing what the Lord would do if He was here?  I just have to say that I really enjoyed the conference, and can´t wait for the next one!

     One last thing, we went to Chichicastenango for P-Day this week!  A fun fact for you all, the market in Chichi that comes twice a week is the biggest market in all of Central America!  How cool is that?  Even though we didn´t go on a market day, it was fun to roam the streets and look at the sights!

     So yeah, it has been a fun filled week!  I guess that is why I feel so exhausted today!  But here´s to another week in the books!  Next week, here I come!  Love you all so so so much, and thank you always for writing me!  Until Next Time!

     - Elder Stuart

     P.S.  Scripture!  Joshua 1:9, a great scripture!

Photos!

This is in Chichi (which I realized I told you guys about last week, but who cares?  haha)  These are a bunch of backpacks made of corte, a type of fabric that is here in Guatemala.  They were way cool looking, so I had to take a picture!

This is an investigator family with the cutest little girl!  She loves to play with us, so we have a lot of fun acting like kids with her!  Also, her dad is originally from Cobán, so Jeffrey, look out for any Cabrera families living in Cobán!

Our sign that we made to welcome people to the open house!  It says "Welcome to the Open House."  Fun activity!

This is one of my ties!  On the front, it says "6 months."  Apparently it is a tradition to burn a tie once you have 6 months in the mission.  Well I didn´t know about it, so I´m making up for it now!

The end result of burning my tie!  It was awesome!  I have a video of it, but you are going to have to wait until I get home to show it to you, because it takes up a lot of space, and I can´t send it over email.  So yeah, wait for that when I get home!