Photos!

I am kind of slacking on my pictures lately... so yeah these are the best ive got... This is our district meeting that we had outside.... so that was pretty fun... and also there is a picture of me and my companion... and lastly a picture of the mall that is in coban... but it isnt too big...  

Another week in Guate...

This week was an interesting week.. We had some things happen that were super interesting..  We were teaching an investigator (honestly Im not even sure how to spell that word anymore in english...) named Diana... and she had been thinking about the church for quite some time.. and well this week when we were teaching her she finally decided that she wanted to get baptized in the church, because she said that she liked the way that she felt was in the church and that it was much better than the way that she felt when she was in her church from before... so she is now preparing to get baptized in a couple weeks, but the only problem is that her mom isnt too happy about it so we are going to have to talk with her mom a little bit... even though Diana is like 20 she still wants permission from her mom so that is a bummer...

Also this week we have been focusing on the members and the references that they give to us.. and things are soaring here... Like I said the week before (I think but I honestly cant remember.) but we want to split the ward here into two.. and to do that we need 200 people going to church consistently... and we were at like 130... and well this week in church we were able to get 182 people to church!!!!  so that was something that was great for all the people!  We were able to have a lot of satisfaction in the church...

Also one thing is that my companion is a dancer.. and well I had talked to him about how jonny and ryan dance and things like that so... yeah it is pretty interesting to talk with him about these things....  

So yeah that is about it...

Love Elder Stuart

Oh and my scripture is jacob 5:72

Photos

Me and Elder Lomeu in the rain, Im not sure how well you can see the rain, but it was raining that hard since thursday until last night, with only like 3 or 4 breaks of 1 or 2 hours...  It Was GREAT!

Me using a corte dress...  and the first picture is the typical guatemalan pose... NO ONE SMILES IN PICTURES HERE...  Im sure it is the same over where jonny is but yeah Im sure that If you put a picture of a guatemalan next to mine you wouldnt see the difference, other than Im white with blue eyes and they are brown with brown eyes...  

me on top of a water tank at the church

Members are missionaries!

This week was a pretty good week...  Well to start off, as missionaries, especially here in Guatemala or places that arent Utah, we have to focus a lot on the members,and less actives, and recent converts....  It is something super important here...  For example there hardly is a member family that doesnt have the missionaries visiting them every couple of weeks...  In Utah I remember the missionaries visiting our house 2 times, and I cant even remember their names... here people have pictures of missionaries that served in that area like 1000 years ago.. It is crazy...  But anyways, what Im trying to say by this is that I learned a big lesson about visiting the members this week...  It is something that I had done before, but I wanted to focus a ton on it this week, becasue we kind of had a  lull in the missionary work in my area... And we passed by everysingle members house, and taught them a little bit, and then asked them for references... and well we were able to get references of 12 different families...  and we were able to activate 3 less active families, and have 4 investigators in church...  and of those 4 investigators us as the missionaries didnt have to pass by to remind them about church, the members did...   So yeah that doesnt really mean a lot to those who arent missionaries, but it means that we were able to have a lot of success... and also one of the plans of the Stake President here is to divide the ward that we are in... so we need to get the attendance of the church up to 200 people at church each week and well before this last week we were at 130 and this past week we had 145... so things are going pretty good here...  

But the reason I am sharing this with you is because, the Elders arent the most Important part of missionary work.. the members are!  Without the help of the members this week we would hardly have any investigators right now, no investigators in church, and well not that many people in church...  this experience just added to my testimony that every member is a missionary...  It is a goal that I have put for myself  for after my mission is that I never stop being a missionary.. That I can visit people that arent going to church, that I can talk to all who arent members and Invite them to church with me... and things like that...  

And one last thing that I learned this week that was interesting was about the atonement of Jesus Christ... we had Interviews with president Curtiss.... and Sister Curtiss invited us to study a topic of the gospel that can help us and our investigators for three months, so that after these three months of studying, that we know more about this subject that any other person... Well I want to invite you guys to do the same...  That during this summer season, when we have a lot of free time, that you can study a suject of the gospel really well...  Also Hermana Curtiss said that yes reading the Book of Mormon, or the Bible cover to cover is good but you wont learn as much as if you study it topic by topic...  So that was something that I learned also this week that I wanted to share with you guys...  

Oh and one last thing, like Jonny said the rain here is so strong!  Especially in Coban, that is the rainy part of my mission... and well Im here during the rainy season...  And here the rain isnt something that lasts for like 1 or 2 hours, or is a drizzle... It is pure downpours for days straight, and well since im Elder Stuart and I hate wearing sweaters, I dont use sweaters or jackets... and I finish the day completely soaked from head to toe...  But it is the BEST!!  Because it has taught me a lot about diligence...  I could have gone to my house, or a members house for the day to stay out of the rain, or work... and well I chose to work...  And we received many blessing for this as a companionship...  So yeah the rain here is great, because it is a warm rain, so I dont even get cold at all, but after the rain when I get back to the house I put my shoes on the fan to dry all night... and well Every night they have been so wet, that even when I put them on the fan at 9 at night, and take them off at 10 the next morning they are still wet... so yeah it is a great experience...

Sorry for the long letter....

Elder Stuart

oh and read moroni 9:6...

[9 June 2014]

Photos!

oops there are no photos this week...

 

Sorry

 

But here is an old one just so you guys have something interesting to see...

Changes

This week was changes, and I received my companion Elder Lomeu... and well it is a little weird having him as my companion, because he looks like a latino, but he isnt a native spanish speaker... so sometimes he doesnt understand spanish exactly perfect...  (for those who are confused, he is from Brazil, and they dont speak spanish in Brazil they speak portuguese)  So along with that I am learning portuguese, and it is a lot easier than it looks...  or sounds... im not sure which is more gramatically correct...  But anyways, I can basically understand everything he says now when he talks in portuguese, but I still have a lot of work to do before I can speak it...  So yeah that is pretty exciting!

Also this week we had some ups and downs...  some of the downs were that we walked a lot because a lot of our appointments fell through, but something good that happened, is that because we walked a lot we contacted a lot... so now we have a ton of investigators to teach so we are super excited for the next week...  But my legs are the most sore right now then they have been in all the mission...  I have walked so much this past week... but it is great..  Because I was able to talk a lot with Elder Lomeu and we have learned a lot about one another...

Also this week we had an investigator that we had been teaching for a little, named Alma, and she and her family had always said that they didnt want to come to our church, but they loved our message...  So that was a little bummer, but this week we were teaching her, and she said that she would like to come to church with us... So last week she was going to come to church, but she didnt end up coming because saturday night every person in her family got sick!  So that was a bummer, but she said that this week she would like to come with us if she is feeling better... So I am super excited for that!

A to finish my scripture is in Alma (i dont remember what chapter but it is 30, i think)  verses 15-18... This talks about the conversion of king Lamoni... It is a great story and his conversion is great... so yeah you guys should read it... 

Elder Stuart out...

Photos!

The district of missionaries...

A spider...

The first picture is what my comp eats for breakfast, trix with bread crushed up and then he puts it in the microwave... 

The others are eating at a members house

A flower in our yard that we then put in this anthill....

Changes!

Well we got our changes... and again I have no change!  But I will be getting a new companion named Elder Lomeu, and he is from Brazil... So I am pretty excited for that, especially because he is from Brazil and well they know portuguese, and well maybe I will learn a little...  But I am pretty excited for that!  I have heard some pretty good things about him!  So I will be in Los Campos 2 again for another 6 weeks!

But this week was a little slow but it was a good week... Because Elder Falcon was leaving a lot of the members had invited him over for lunches and dinners, so we ate free for both meals this whole week, when usually we paid for lunch and didnt eat dinner... so that was good, but it took up a lot of time, so we werent able to visit a ton of new people, but we did have a lesson with a family that we were teaching and they were super interested, so we are excited to follow up with them this next week...  So yeah this week didnt have a ton of things that happened...

But one other thing that happened that was pretty cool is that we were able to have a lesson with an investigator about the book of mormon and things like that... and we had an x missionary that left with us to teach this person about the book of mormon and why we focus on it, and stuff like that... and it was really cool to see the way that this member taught the investigator, and we had been teaching this investigator for some time, but he never understood the importance of the book of mormon, but after this lesson, that we had on sunday, he understood the significance of the book of mormon and the bible and using them together... So that was a pretty cool learning experience for me...  

So yeah that is about all for this week and my scripture is 2Nephi 9... again it is the whole chapter, so that you guys are reading more in the  book of mormon...

Love you all

Elder Stuart