Photos!

Jeffrey's camera has been broken, and after a few attempts of getting a new one to him, he finally just went and bought his own, so we now have pictures again!

Our Christmas party as a District...  In one of those pictures you can find Elder Gomez.  But yeah that is it...  

2 of the houses that we visited and there are some of the pictures of the food we ate.. and those are the people that we ate with... that man is and Investigator... 

And the other group is basilio, Erika, and Luki (our baptism from 3 weeks ago)...  and also where the picture is with Basilio is where we have church!  so that is the capital!

Christmas night at a members house!  We opened presents and everything!

Us walking out to the baptism.. and we walked a long way... and all those people walking are the members from Cubulco!  We walked about 1 hour into the mountains... to find this river looking thing to baptize her!  There is me her, and my companion!  

Another week without snow...

Well family this week was pretty great!  We were able to have Christmas and a baptism!  We were a pretty happy pair of missionaries...  This letter is going to be pretty short.. first off because we talked on Christmas... but also because not much happened this week... Everytçbody was celebrating Christmas and they didnt really leave time for us... but we still had a good week.

As for the work part, all was great... because we were able to have the baptism of Lucia this saturday... she was actually going to get baptized the next week, but for two reasons she got baptized this week... first her husband is going to the states this week and so she did it on saturday so that he could be there... and the second reason was because she said, "I am sick of going to your church without being a member.  I just want to be a member already!"  So we were pretty happy to hear that.  

Now as for the other part...  the Christmas part.  Well here in Guatemala they all make tomales for Christmas and well we were able to take part in all that!  Usually a person eats about 3 or 4 if they are hungry... well on Christmas eve we ate 8... so that was pretty great!!!  They are super good!  So we were super excited for that...

Sorry for the short letter... but now I will send the pictures... FINALLY!!!!!

Love Elder Stuart

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! VERY IMPORTANT!!! READ ALL OF IT!!!!!!!

HELLO MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!  Well we have entered into the Christmas week!!!  I hope that everyone is enjoying their Christmas season!  Things here in Guatemala are going great!  We have some good things going on here in Guate!  Especially in Cubulco!  This week we sadly had to go to church in Rabinal which is like 30 minutes in bus, but we were able to get 17 people to church including one of the investigator families that came and that we are hoping are going to be baptized on the 3rd!!!!  They are super awesome!!  They have been to church every single week since we got to know them which was like 5 weeks ago... but sadly it has now been confirmed that the dad (Marcos) is leaving for the United States on the 1st of January... which is really sad for us and his family... and honestly we dont really know why he is going because he is going to miss his family a ton, because unlike many guatemalan men, he actually cares and loves his family a lot!!!!  So we are super sad to see him go... but we are hoping that he will be able to continue listening to the gospel there and that he will be baptized!!!!  But as for his family... they are super great!  His wife is named Lucia and his son misael who is 6 and his daughter maibely who is 3.  So they are super great and also Lucia has a sister named maria elena who is also going to get baptized with Lucia!  So we are super excited for all of them!!!!!

For the other parts of Cubulco all is well and we are having a lot of success these past weeks, although it has been the Christmas season and all the people are leaving on vacation.. we have been able really strenghten the members that are here... so that after the Christmas season they will be able to strengthen the members who didnt really come to chruch during this season... so we are a little bit excited for the month of January!  And the whole next year!!!!  

As for me in this year and a half (not quite but on my way there) in the mission I have really come to love my Savior a lot more and this really have been the best 16 months of my life... I just want to share with you guys my feelings, (I know it isnt common from me but we are at a special time of the year) about the gospel.  Recently I have been studying a little bit about the difference between the flesh and the spirit.... and how we need to put of the flesh of our body (not literally but theoretically) and let the spirit take control of the things that we do... this includes when we do something good that we dont really want to do we have officially put to one side our wants and let the spirit take over...  Or in other words if you want up sunday morning at 8 and you dont have the desire to go to church YOU GO...  Because that is officially when you have put off the flesh and are following the spirit, which always will tell you to go to church it doesnt matter what the circumstances are.  So when I came into the mission I came for many reasons of the flesh... ex. to learn a new language, to get to know a different place, to figure out how to talk to people and many reasons more... and my reasons of the spirit were few... Obviously I wanted to serve Christ or I wouldnt have come... but I have come to realize that to be successful in the mission it takes a lot more than just a desire of your heart... it takes a desire from your spirit.  For those that are going to serve a mission learn that, now!  And I promise that your mission will be 29387 million times better!  

I have learned so much over these months.. but the thing that I believe that I learned that is the most important thing... is how to be happy... DOESN`T MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCE OR WHATEVER IS GOING ON IN OUR LIVES WE NEED TO BE HAPPY AND FOLLOW CHRIST!  The scriptures teach us that we cannot have happiness if we are men of the flesh.. or as they put it ¨the natural man¨ cannot be a happy man...  We must be completely enveloped in the spirit to have joy... but it also tells us that to have a perfect joy we must have a body... and so in other words our spirit must be so strong that the flesh doesnt interfere with our spirit but it is still present.  Or like the common phrase we must be in the world, and not of the world... the same goes for our body/flesh... we must be in our body but not of our body...  To obtain joy!!  

So in this Christmas season dont look for other things that are of the flesh to make you happy or to bring you joy... let your spirit take over and bring you this joy...  To finish this long email... I want you guys to look at the difference in matthew 5:48 and 3 nephi 12:48... basically these 2 chapters are word for word the same... basically.  BUT there is an important difference in these two scriptures that explains a little bit of what I was saying... it has to do with the resurrection of Christ and the difference between him before the death and after the death... I hope you can figure out this difference and what it really takes to have a true joy this christmas season... and how important it is that Christ died, AND RESURRECTED for us...  so that one day we might be able to have a perfect joy like him....  I am a joyful person these days... but not for the success in the mission, not for the christmas season... but because I have understood the true meaning of having joy and learned how I can have this joy!  

I love you all and this is my testimony of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints.. I know that it is the true church and that through this church we can have joy... and I share this with you guys in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love Elder Stuart

P.S. Sorry for the long letter.

Christmas!

This week was fantastic!  We had a ton of fun and we worked super hard!  It was super fun to talk to you guys on christmas, that definately was the best part of all of it!  It was so great!  And that package was just the best thing I have ever gotten, and there was more stuff in there than I usually get for christmas so that was a bonus...  It was a fantastic Christmas!  It was so great to be able to the work of the lord on his birthday, for me it was kind of like a birthday present from me to him...  So I was happy about that!

The work here in Rabinal was a little bit slow though, because it is such a small town that everybody always goes to the bigger towns for Christmas with their family, and the people that were there had family from somewhere else, so not many people wanted to hear our message, but it was great for me to be doing the work of the lord on his birthday!  It was great to be able to do that!

Things are going good though right now, we are teaching a family of all women, which is pretty common, because the dads are a lot of the times in the US working.  But we are teaching the mom and her three daughters so that is going pretty great!  Also we are teaching this kid named Jose, which is great because he wants to learn more english, he already knows a little, and so that is good because my comp can teach him a little bit more because he knows english.  So that is great for my comp, and this kid because they can both practice the language!

New Years is going to be crazy here, and it sounds like it wont be quite as crazy there, but that is kind of a good thing...  There are going to be so many people out partying for new years here, it will be crazy!  But im excited to see it!

Thanks for all the support!  My scripture this week is Helaman 5 12.  I know that if Christ is our foundation we cannot fall!  I love that scripture!

Love Elder Stuart

Photos!

My professional omelete(who knows if I spelt that right...)  making skills!

My packing waiting...

A huge fire that we made in our house... It ended up destroying that pipe... oops....

Our District christmas party for the three branches in our zone!

Our zone party for Christmas today.  We did kind of a white elephant thing and it was GREAT!

CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!!!!!!

IT IS CHRISTMAS TIME!!!!!  I honestly cant believe it!  Time has literally flown by!  And it doesnt really feel like christmas with out snow, but It is great here to see all the traditions of the Guatemalans!  So it is great here, we are going to have little activities tomorrow and wednesday with members and some of our investigators, so that will be fantastic!

This past week has been a little crazy.  My comp got a little sick on wednesday and he had such a high fever so we stayed in the house for that day... but it was great because we practiced our spanish, and studied a ton so that was great, and kind of bad for him at the same time...  But we had some good lessons this week with a girl that we are going to baptize this saturday! So we are super excited for that, because we thought that her mom wasnt going to give her permission, because her mom had said for like the past month, that her daughter cant get baptized, but after a lot of fasting and praying she finally has permission so that is fantastic!  It really does show the power of Fasting and prayer!  It is so AWESOME!

Also In church yesterday we had the primary program, but the only problem is that we only have two kids in primary in our branch... so we had to bring kids from the Branch in Salama.  But it was still fantastic to see all the kids there.  I felt the spirit so strong to here the testimonies of little kids.  Because they may not know everything about the church but the had faith to get baptized.  I just wish that our Investigators could see this, because there are a ton of people who say that they need to know everything about the gospel before they get baptized, even though they know it is the right thing to do. Children are such good examples!!!

Not much else happened last week, but Im so excited for this week, It will be fantastic!  There is so much love going on around here, so I think that it will be a good time to teach new people!  Also Im super excited to talk to you guys!  CANT WAIT!

My scripture this week is 3rd nephi, 9 22.  This talks about becoming as a little child and being baptized!  How great right!!!!!

Love Elder Stuart!

Changes!!!!!!!

This week has been a little bit crazy with changes and everything!  But my new companion is Elder Dibb.  He is from Pleasant Grove!!  It is crazy!!  We hardly ever have gringo comps in the mission, but I do, and the other part is he is new!!!  So now I have to teach him spanish too, because he doesnt know any... So yeah it is pretty crazy right now!  But it is the best!!  Also with the changes and everything, we had a Christmas conference for all the missionaries in the zones closest to Coban the past thursday.  So from the Saturday, like 8 days ago, until last friday, I didnt sleep in my house in Rabinal.  It was crazy!  But this Christmas conference was the best.  We had a spiritual thought from Pres. Curtiss and his wife, then after we got to watch Monsters University!  It was great!  

So yeah like I said I didnt sleep in my house for like 6 days, so this week was a little bit slow, because we didnt have time to work very much, but the times that we had to work were great!  We have been working really hard as a companionship to first of all teach my comp spanish, and also to follow through on the dates for baptism that we have had.  So it has been pretty great!  

I cant believe that Christmas is next week!!!  Im so excited!!!  we have Activites and stuff planned for our ward, and so Im hoping that we will be able to strengthen our ward a ton through these activities, by showing the true meaning of Christmas!  It is all about Christ.  So my scripture for this week is in Luke 2.  I like this, because it is all about the birth of Christ!

Things are going great here!  Glad to hear things are going good back at home!  

Love Elder Stuart

Winter

Sounds like it is winter back at home, everyone is getting sick.  I guess that you could call it winter here, but it still is pretty warm.  I miss the cold from home.  It never gets cold here...  but its hilarious here because the people here are freezing right now.  Im not exactly sure how cold it is but I dont feel cold at all here, but we will pass people here that are wearing like 2 dresses 5 shirts, 2 coats, and of course the usual basket on top of their head.  So yeah they dont like the cold...

This week was thanksgiving!!!  Our zone went to a members house for thanksgiving and we were expecting something like chicken, with rice or something like that.  But on the tables there was dominoes pizza, which we eat a ton here, so we werent too excited for that.  But we ate the pizzas, but then after the pizzas she brought out turkey, and mashed potatoes.  It was the best.  So we actually had a turkey thanksgiving!  It was not that great but it was awesome at the same time!

Also this week we had a multizone conference in Coban, where a person from the area 70, President Amado.  And it was pretty great, but it was a little long.  It started at 9 in the morning and went until 4 in the afternoon, but it was pretty great.  This was the day after Thanksgiving so we slept over at the ZLs house and we woke up at 4 to leave because it is like a 2 and a half hour bus ride.  But the other sucky part is we stayed up until 2 the night before talking to our ZLs about random crap, so we went to a 7 hour zone conference on two hours of sleep.  Ooops, guess we arent that smart.  But we did all stay awake, so that was good...  

Not much else has passed in my area this week, but Christmas is near!!!  My scripture Ether 12:27.  It is really great...

Love Elder Stuart