Heyo

[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!

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

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

Photos

here are some pics...

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)

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

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... 

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

Photos!

The missionaries of poptun!

me

2 little kids in the street

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]

Photos!

jsut taking pictureds with a family... sorry for the spelling..s.akflsja

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

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

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

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!

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

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....