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]