[This was Jeffrey's final letter... for more information about his homecoming, see the post "Elder Stuart is Coming Home"]
we will see you in the airport at 7:30! I dont have much time but well see you soon!
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Thursday, July 16, 2015
the last week
Well we got some good news... yesterday we were talking with Wendy and her mom and she is going to get baptized on friday! So that was a good little note to end on! So we are super excited for that and preparing to have our last baptism in the mission!
Well I am honestly a little bit tired of writing and we are going to see you soon so I am just going to leave it at that until next week. Byee!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, July 12, 2015
Elder Stuart is Coming Home!
Elder Jeffrey Stuart is returning from his mission next week! For those interested in hearing him speak at Church, he will be speaking on Sunday 26 July at 9:00 am! (He also gets to speak with his younger brother, Elder Ryan Stuart* who will be leaving for his LDS mission to the Argentina Neuquén mission!)
The address for the LDS Church Building is:
4275 S Bountiful Blvd.
Bountiful, UT 84010
(It is kind of a yellowish church!)
You are welcome to come visit with Jeffrey afterwards at his home! Hope to see you there!
*To Follow Elder Ryan Stuart's mission, go to: http://elderryanstuart.blogspot.com
Hello
Well this week was a pretty good week... I dont really have a lot of time because we had to travel again today.. so we didnt really get a lot of time in the internet... but that is ok... All is well here... we are doing good.. Wendy still isnt baptized but we think that she is close... so we are doing good... just enjoying the last weeks out here in the mission!
Love Elder stuart
Monday, July 6, 2015
My life in Guate
Well another week has passed in Guatemala for Elder Stuart... I am just loving the mission right now... itis pretty great.. We celebrated my birthday today by going to a members house to eat lunch.. which made me sick... welcome to guatemala... but also in the morning my comp and my neighbors... woke me up with firecrakers... like 100 of them at 530... so that was pretty interesting... but that was cool.. so yeah it has been a pretty good day..
As for the week... it was also a pretty good week.. we were able to continue with wendy.... we have now taught her everything... she just needs to ask her mom for permission... she still hasnt done it! So that is getting me impatient...but we will let her take her time.... it is her baptism.. so yeah we are geting close on that...
Other than that it has been just a normal week..
Love Elder Stuart
(29 Jun 2015)
Sunday, June 28, 2015
Hello
Well I dont have a ton of time today to write... because i had to travel today to coban... which is 7 hours in bus... one bus that is 2 hours long, and the next which is 5... so I am just now getting time to write you guys... and well at the same time I have to go... so just some quick updates....
This week Wendy came to church!!!!!! So that was super good.. but the only bummer is that her mom is trying to tell her that she cant get baptized because she is too young... (she is 17) so not really understanding that part... but she will be turning 18 in september... so she says that she is going to be baptized anyway... but the only thing is that I might not have the opportunity to see her get baptized... but we are going to talk to her mom this week to see what we can do.. but we will see how that goes...
Also this week we were planning a lot about how to find new investigators that we can teach, and we had a really cool experience... a family was going to do a 1 year anniversary of the death of their 17 year old son... on tuesday... and they had plans to invite quite a few people to the activity... And they wanted Elder Morillo to be there to talk and share some things... because he was there last year when the kid died... so we were hoping that it would be a good opportunity to find a lot of people and to teach them about the plan of salvation... So we went with that in mind to go to this activity not just to support this family, but also to find opportunities to teach about the plan of salvation... because something that they have taught me in the mission is that if you have ideas/plans to to something and you put your mind and strength to it you can do it. So we did.. and we were able to find like 40 people there that werent member, that listened to the message... now obviously not all of them were interested to listen to us consistently we were able to findquite a few that we are going to be able to teach more about the gospel!!! So that was pretty great! So I am pretty excited about that!
So yeah I guess that is about all im going to write today...
Love Elder Stuart
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Photos!
A big dog!!!!!!!!! IT is 3 months old... and its dad is taller than me, and weighs 160... this thing scares me... so i tried kissing it...
today we went to a hill that looks over poptun... and well these are the pics...
today we went to a hill that looks over poptun... and well these are the pics...
Poptun
This week was a pretty good week... not as good as the last one... but it was still pretty good. Wendy didnt come to church this week which was a bummer.. but we are planning on this next week... but she is progressing pretty good in her life...
Also this week we did a lot of service and had some activities that were pretty good and we are just chuggin along here in Poptun...
One thing that was cool is that our Elders quorum president, his wife is a little inactive, and she was sick with a lot of pain... and we just felt like we should pass by his house to see him... (although we didnt know she was sick) and well it turns out that we gave her a blessing and she got better and she came to church. So that was pretty great!
But to be honest there wasnt anything else that was spectacular this week... so we will see how it goesthis week!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, June 14, 2015
Changes
Well it is official now.. I am into mylast change. Me and Elder Morillo stayed together for the last change and we are still in Poptun! So we will see how that goes becuase he is also going home the same day that I do... so that will be interesting!
But as for this week here in poptun we are doing good. We were able to have 105 people in church! We are super excited to see this branch progress! It is super cool to see the fruits of your labors... so yeah things are going pretty good here. And also the person that we are teaching... wendy... also came to church again... so that is super good she is on her way to getting baptized... So we are planning on baptizing here withing these next few weeks... The only problem that we have here is that we cant seem to get mario and carlos to church but we are working hard for that!
We also had the opportunity to have a meeting with the leaders (kind of like ward council) but we cooked them lunch and talked to them a little about what we want from them... that is kind of the trick to tell someone what you want and not having them feel bad you just gotta give them a little bit of food... so that was pretty great.... that was on saturday... then on sunday as a branch they had 15 visits... when the normal was 0... so they got that going a little bit better! So we are just kind of enjoying our time here.... because now we both have finally gotten used to knowing what to do that we have a lot of ideas of how to get things going... it is pretty nice... so yeah we are just pretty content here in Poptun and hoping that this week can be twice as good.
Love Elder Stuart
Hello
Well this week was a pretty interesting week! It was a pretty good week. We had a really cool experience this week. So we got a call from one of the sister missionaries telling us that they have an investigator that wanted a blessing, but it was the mom of the investigator and they didnt know where she lived... so they just kind of gave us the general direction and told us to go find them... so we finally found the house and we started talking to the mom and we came to find out that she is a less active member. But that she is the only one in her family that is member. So we started chatting a little about that and well it turns out that she has been waiting for like 3 years to find the desire to go back to church, but just never got the "push" to do it... so when we showed up to give the blessing to themshe explained to us that that was the push that she needed. So that was on thursday, and on sunday her, along with her husband, son, daughter in law, and 2 grandchildren showed up to church! So that was just a fantastic story for this week!
Also me and Elder Morillo have been working a lot with the people that we are teaching.... especially mario carlos and wendy... and it turns out that Wendy came to church yesterday and that she says that she is ready to get baptized! It is always so great to hear that! I sure am going to miss that. But yeah so we are going to work super hard with her so that she can get baptized and so that she can continue on living the good life! So yeah it has been a pretty decent week this week for us!
Also another good thing that happened this week is that church was actually pretty decent this week. We were able to have a lot of people there... 80-90 people... which is much better than the 47 that we had like 3 weeks ago... so we are pretty excited for that because the Branch President is working super hard to get things rolling here in Poptun again! So that is pretty great also!
My scripture that I want to share with you guys this week is D and C 82:10.
Love Elder Stuart
[1 Jun 2015]
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Another week
Well this week was a pretty decent week. We were able to get things going a little bit better here again... so all is well here. We are getting better and better each day. We have three investigators that are progressing pretty well here... Named Mario Wendy and Carlos. They are all pretty cool people that we were able to find these past few weeks.. and they all said this week that they want to get baptized... so we are working with them to get them baptized within this month of June! So we are pretty excited for that! Also we are hoping to get this area going strong!
Other than that all is well here in poptun...
Love Elder Stuart
Wednesday, May 27, 2015
Photos
Here is a pic of me and my comp... I forgot to take one during the week, so I just barely took one and there you go...
Bueno bueno
Alright well here we go again! So this week was pretty great!!!!! We were finally getting going again.. These 3 weeks have been some of the most stressful weeks of my whole life... I usually dont get stressed out so this is kind of new for me.. but I think we are now getting things rolling here. So basically what has been happening is that we have had so many problems in the district with obedience that I have basically been babysitting 14 missionaries for the past 3 weeks... It has really just been stressing me out.. but this week we had the conference with Elder Alonso from the 70! So he basically just called out the 4 Elders that have been causing the most problems in front of everyone and told them that they need to change and be more obedient... So that was pretty great... so for right now things are going pretty decent again bu I guess that we will see how long that lasts.. But yeah so I hope that now It wont be so stressful
Now for the work in Poptun we were also having a ton of problems here... one of which is the attendance of sacrament meeting, another are the leaders, another is that the missionaries that always come here always get their area cleaned out... and I could go on for days about all the problems here.. but Basically yesterday we got everything figured out... because we finally got to talk to the to the Branch President who was super depressed about everything... and we finally got to talk to him to figure out his problems to help him get back into everything and by the end he was feeling super good about everything.. and he was back in the game... so that is going to solve just about all the problems that are going on with the branch.. So that was just fantastic.
So yeah this was kind of the ending of a really stressful three weeks, but now everything is better and we are going to be doing much better these weeks.... Hallelujah!!!!!!!!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, May 17, 2015
Photos
Well I dont have much to say this week because we talked last night.. but it has been a pretty good week this week and we were excited to be able to work this week.. our big focus here in Poptun are the youth... so these pictures are pictures of an activity that we did for the youth here in poptun.. it was fun... we had trivial questions divided into teams and then we did relay races and many other types of games to get the youth more spiritually and physically excited to go to church... So that was the highlight of the week. Also we are working on getting some of our investigators to church but it hasnt really been working so we are trying to figure out what we can do to get that rolling.. Me and my companion are doing good getting along and what not... so that is good.. but yeah that is about all...
Love elder Stuart
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Photos!
We went to a waterfall today for pday as a district... It was pretty sweet!
pictures of my new house... which is the best house by far in the mission... It is just incredible!
pictures of my new house... which is the best house by far in the mission... It is just incredible!
Poptun!
Well my new area is poptun... and it is a pretty great area! It doesnt come even close to Cubulco... but it is still a great area.. so it is pretty exciting... the only problem is that here was one of the 6 branches that we have here in peten to become wards... and so that Peten will become a stake and not just a district... but the only problem is that the attendance here was about 120... and then it just dropped like 8 months ago.. so it was ready to become a ward.. .but now it isnt.. so that is our goal here... to get the attendance back up to 120 because now it is at like 48 last week.. so we have got a lot of work to do.. Because this is now the last branch that we need to get ready for Peten to become a stake.. or in other words if we get the attendance back up and everything else stays good... we are going to have our second stake in the mission... so we are super excited for that!
So we have got a lot to do.. and the biggest problem that we have is that all six of the missionaries here (me and my companion and 4 sisters) are all new to the area... or in other words nobody knows anything about Poptun here other than the fact that it is in a hole... so we have a lot to do... and my companion is Elder Morillo.. he is from the Dominican Republic.. so he is now my second companion from there and he is super funny so we are going to see how this all goes with him..
So this week was just a lot of walking around and trying to get to know the people here and looking for people who want to hear the gospel... but next week is going to be much better!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Photos!
Just my goodbye lunch here in Cubulco. There is a picture of Elder Nombrado and Elder Gomez... Elder nombrado is going to peten with me but he is going to a different area... and Elder Gomez is staying here in Cubulco....
Changes!
Well they finally kicked me out of Cubulco... It is super sad for me to leave this place... I really grew to love it! I had been here in this branch for a total of like 11 months.... That is a super long time... and it was so hard for me to say goodbye to the people here yesterday... That is one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do... But I am going back to the Petén which is kind of exciting but also a kind of sad because it is super hot there right now.. but I guess that I will get used to it. I am going to a place called Poptun. Luckily it is the coldest part in the peten, but it isnt cold... It is probably like summer temperatures in utah.. so yeah it will be fun though! Also I think that it will be my last area in the mission.. (that is so weird to say).
But anyway about this week in Cubulco... we were able to help it progress here a little bit this week. The biggest problem that we had while I was here is that I was the only leader here in Cubulco... there were no callings for the members here... because we couldnt give callings to the Group especifically... but we finally got permission to give some callings out to the members here in Cubulco and they were super excited to get their callings.. so hopefully for the new group leader here it will be a little bit easier for him because there are now callings here. So that was probably the biggest this that we did this week, is that we had to teach these people what is their calling and how to complete it and all that to prepare the way for the new Elder that is going to come to Cubulco.
Also I am a little bit sad to leave here.. because we finally got the people to start to progress here, and the baptism of Tereso (who got baptized last week) was a big step here in Cubulco.. and there are about 10 more people that will be baptized here in Cubulco in May and June... so I am a little bit sad to not be here for that, but I will be excited to hear about their baptisms in the future!
So that is about all for this week...Love you all!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Fotos and the week summary...
Well This week was good and a little bit stressful... We were able to have a pretty good week... mainly because all the baptizms went through successfully. We baptized a guy named tereso and his family.. it was a pretty great experience. He is such a great guy and will be a great member here in Cubulco.. Maybe he will be the person to get this place going strong... So we are super happy about that.
Also as shown is these photos we also helped a less active member to chop down a tree.. so that he would go to church.. so that was pretty great also! We are just going along pretty smoothly here. 
Wedding and the baptism!!!!!
Sunday, April 19, 2015
Photos!
An Activity for church...
And then today we hiked up to a creepy looking house on top of a hill.. and it turns out that they do/did sacrifices there.
Alright...
Alright... well here I am again.... this week was a a good week.... We are going little by little to help Cubulco to keep going strong! Although this week my companion got sick.. seems to be the going thing for the new missionaries... they always get sick, but I guess he will get over it soon. But he had to go to coban today to go to the doctor... so I stayed here in Rabinal with Elder Vargas and Elder brito ended up going to coban with Elder Barahona because he also had a doctors appt. in coban... so I am here in Rabinal until tomorrow night.
But this week for work was a pretty good week! We are preparing a family to be baptized this weekend.. so we are praying a lot for him that he and his family can get baptized! He is doing good, and he is super ready... but he just needs to keep strong because he used to drink and since we found him he hasnt drunk, but we are just hoping that he can keep strong until his baptism... and for his whole life! So yeah that is about all that is happening with us for this week!Sunday, April 5, 2015
Good week!
So this week was a good week! First off we had to change the place where we were having church which is now coing to be in my house. So that is going to be a little bit interesting. We are super excitied for that we are hoping that that will help us a little bit now that the church is going to be in a place a little bit more stable. So we are super excited. And it showed success because we were able to have 10 investigators in church. So that was super good. We had a family of a guy that is named Juan Carlos... I dont know if I already explained his situation or not.. but We found him, me and Elder Gomez, like 3 weeks ago and he had told us that he had been healed by the Elders like 3 years ago... He had some sort of sleeping disease and he hadnt slept in like two weeks, when his mom went to go find the pastor of the Catholic church so that he could give him a blessing.. but it didnt work.. .so the mom went to go find the leader of the Nazareth Church... but it also didnt work... so she was talking to her neighbor (which just so happened to be the only member in Cubulco at the time...) and the neighbor told his mom that the Elders could give him a blessing... so they did, and he was healed!! How great it is to have the power! So long story short the Elders had a change after they healed him, and he couldnt go to Rabinal to go to church... so now that we have found him we are excited for him and he is super excited to get baptized with his family!! We are hoping that they will be baptized the 18th of April! So that was super great!
Also me and my companion are getting along suprer well so that is good! I am just hoping to be able to finish strong! (30 Mar 2015)
Going strong in Guate...
Hey well this week has been a very interesting week! We had to go to coban (5 hours in bus) to pick up my new companion on monday... that is why i didnt have a ton of time... But his name is Elder Barahona... He is from Honduras and 20 years old. He is new so we are having a good time helping him get used to the mission! Then after that we got to Cubulco on Wednesday at like 9:00 A.M. And we started to work... It was a pretty good day and then thursday we had to go back to coban for a meeting on friday... so in other words we werent in Cubulco for basically the whole week... so that was a little bit frustrating but we did have a pretty good time working for the 2 days that we were there. We had a lesson with a person named Lorena and her family the other day.. and it was a super powerful lesson! We taught her the importance of going to the Church that Jesus Christ has established and not to any other church... because the people here all have the belief that it doesnt matter which church you go to they all teach "the word of god" so it was a pretty good lesson becuase she finally could understand the importance of going to the church of Jesus Christ... So that was a pretty good lesson that we had this week.
Other than that I am just excited to still be in Cublco! Taking advantage of the last few months!!!!!!
Love Elder Stuart
Another change!
Well this week I dont have a ton of time... but I guess that I will just send you guys a little message. So this week we had changes, and it turns out that Elder Gomez wont be my companion anymore... but we will still be in Cubulco! They opened up a new area in Cubulco! So that is pretty cool we are going to see a branch pretty quickly there now... with 4 missionaries there. So we are pretty excited for that! So I will be getting a new companion this week so I am super excited for that! We are just super excited to see the change here in cubulco with four misisonaries! So yeah I guess that is all for this week, but I promise to write more next week!
Love elder Stuart
(16 Mar 2015)
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Photos!
Eating food after doing a service project with a member.
Also riding on the back of a bus from Cubulco to Rabinal
Stressful week!
Well this week was kind of a full week... but a week that turned out to be a pretty good week. It was all going pretty smoothly until friday. We were planning a movie night here in cubulco for saturday and all the preparations were going good... And then on friday we got some news that one of our investigators that is going super well in his progress started to drink. So that was kind of a bummer so we spent a little bit of time with him on friday night so that we could help him to get undrunk. Also it is in his house where we have church so that was kind of a bummer because now we had to stress about how we were going to have church in a drunk guys house. So then we just decided that we were going to not worry about that and continue planning for the movie night. We had everything well planned and then at 5:20 it started to rain and our movie was going to be at 6 in the park, or in other words, outside. So at that moment we were just a little bit stressed... we had plans for about 300 people that arent members to go to this activity and if it were raining nobody would go. So we were just kind of bummed. But we continued with faith... and everything just so happened to work out. The rain stopped at 5:55 and then everyone started to come! By 6:20 there were about 150 investigators sitting down in the park watching the movies about Jesus and The Restoration! It was a huge success! So that was all super good! We are excited to see how the results are from this actividad and to see if we can get a little more excitement here in cubulco! Then for church on sunday it was super weird. The investigator was still drunk saturday night but we just felt like that we should go to his house at like 8 in the morning sunday to see if he was ok... Andwell we got there and he wasnt drunk! So that was super good! But then a weird thing happened... after all the members left church we decided that we were just going to talk to him for a little bit to see what was happening... and the minute after all the people left church it was as if he were drunk again... he started saying dumb things and all that crap, which was kind of sad to see.. .but at least he was good for church, so that was kind of a blessing! But we are going to have to see what we can do about that to help him to change that. But that is all that happened this week! All is well here!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Photos!
The funeral
Eating a churasco...(grilled meat, rice and beans)
Eating a churasco...(grilled meat, rice and beans)
And the farewell of marcos.. we ate fried rice!
Another week gone...
Wow... well we had some interesting things happen this week, but nothing that is too unordinary... But first one of the funny things. We have to go to Rabinal every week to do meetings and stuff like that in the church... but in the morning after church got over Elder Brito left the keys in the office and locked them inside... and well that was the only pair of keys... so when I got there we spent like 20 minutes trying to open the window and door by picking the locks (we really didnt think that it was going to work but we didnt want to have to break the door) but it didnt work... so I finally decided that I was just going to kick the door open... Remembering that we are in guatemala and everything here is built weakly... so I just kicked the doorknob and... It opened! So I have officially kicked open a door now.. the only problem is that we kind of ruined the door knob, so we bought a new one today and replaced it... so that was pretty fun...
Also this week was kind of a sad week but also a good week. Marcos, who is the husband of Lucia, who got baptized in december, had been trying and trying to receive an answer for quite a bit of time... and finally this week he got his answer!!!!!!!! So that was super good... he had a dream that he was on a bus with me and Elder Gomez and his family and that we were all going to a place... and a guy came on the bus and asked for our tickets, and Marcos was seated behind all of us, and was watching us give our tickets to the collecter.... but he said that he couldnt find his ticket. And finally when the collector came to him told him that he had to have a ticket to continue on and that without a ticket he couldnt continue... so he got off the bus and was looking for a way to get a ticket, and a man dressed in white, with a white beard came to him and gave him his ticket to continue on... and so then he got back onto the bus and could go with us to our destination... So that was a pretty cool story to hear... But now here comes the sad part... Marcos left for the States today! So he couldnt get baptized before he left, and so we will see if he will follow through with the church there and if he will get baptized there... Luckily I have a way to contact him through email so we will keep in touch... but I hope that he can get baptized!
And well many other things have happened this week but those were the two experiences that I wanted to share this week!
Love Elder Stuart
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Funeral!
Well this week was a week full of firsts... First thing is that this week I had to direct a funeral... That was something that I was never expecting to do in my mission. One of the members died this week in a motorcycle accident... It was a pretty sad experience. He was 27 and he got baptized in 2011... but he was inactive for about 3 years... or in other words since his baptism.. But he died on sunday at like 1:00 am and so we had to prepare everything so at 5 we could do his viewing. It was a pretty cool experience... he was the only member of his family... but his wifes family was all member, but all of them were/are inactives but her brother... so it was a really good missionary experience to have the opportunity to talk with all these people that dont know about the plan of salvation. We sang some hymns (like 10) and me and the first counsellor talked in the funeral. I also had to direct the funeral. So that was just kind of a very interesting thing to do. I believe that this was the thing that had to happen so that cubulco could receive the last little bit of preparation to blossom. It is sad that not very many people repent until it is to late, or until something big has to happen to them or to a loved one... but the good thing is that at least they change. So that was a pretty sad sunday.
But on a good note... we also were able to work a little bit with Marcos (the husband of lucia) and help him a little bit more to progress. The problem is is that he drinks so we are helping him little by little so that he can get rid of this addiction. The future for him is looking a little bit better than it was 3 months ago. Also we are getting bigger and bigger as a group here in cubulco! I am just so excited to see the progress here. Sunday, February 22, 2015
Hello
Well this week was kind of a long week. ON wednesday we got a call saying that my comp had to go to the capital to sign his visa... so we were out of work wednesday thursday and friday... So that was kind of a bummer... but we are doing good.
On saturday we had a visit with Lucia, who got baptized like 2 months ago, and we were talking with her husband, who doesnt really want much... and we taught him about the preisthood, and it was just a great lesson so that he could recognize his potential, and he liked a lot thinking about how he could hold the preisthood to bless his family... but then he got a little disccuraged about how he doesnt feel worthy to hold a power so big... so we talked to him a little about repentance, and how he can become a better person... and we are hoping that he can take the steps necesary to be baptized soon.
Also we were able to talk to a guy named bacilio... who is living with a woman. They havent wanted to get married for a lot of time, but we have been teaching them a lot and focusing on them a lot so that they can get married and get baptized... and we are so close. She is now ok with ggetting marrried and him too... but the only thing stopping them is that she is pregnant and she doesnt want to be pregnant in her wedding picture... so that is kind of a bummer... but it is something little so we will see if we can convince them to get married within these couple of weeks..
But other than that all is well here in Cubulco! Love you All!
Elder Stuart
Monday, February 16, 2015
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