HEYO!!!!!

Well this week has been a pretty good one!!!!!!  I just love this area of cubulco!!!!  The members are awesome... the investigators are awesome... the climate is awesome...  IT IS JUST GREAT!!!!!!!

But anyways... this week was full of stuff so I am going to go by day by day...

Monday:  We went to coban to get rid of Elder Tello... he was a good companion, so I am going to miss him... but that was kind of a boring day...

Tuesday:  I got my new companion... His name is Elder Gomez!!  He is from the Domincan Republic, and well lets just say that he is still getting used to the mission... he is new.. .this is his first week, and he is a little bit weird, but he remind me of me... He doesnt talk AT ALL!!!  I have had like 4 or 5 people ask me this week if he knows spanish... and well of course he does, but he just doesnt talk... so we are just getting used to that!

Wednesday:  We got to cubulco and had the first day of work with elder Gomez and it was a pretty great day!  We were able to meet with luki and prepare her for her baptism on friday... and all was well and we put the plan to have the interview on thursday!

Thursday:  Luki had her interview and she passed with flying colors!!!  She knos a ton about the gospel, and now she hardly has friends, because she accepted the church, but she loves life now better than before, because she recognized what is the correct thing to do!  So she is great!

Friday:  In the morning we had the baptism of Luki and I baptized her!  And well all is well with her she is doing good... and we did it in a waterfall!!  It was pretty cool!  Then after we baptized her we went to the District Christmas party for all of Baja Verapaz... which is like the stake here where I am at but its not a stake it is a District, and we were able to take 11 investigators to that... and it was in Salama which is 2 hours away!!!!!  So that was just fantastic!!!!  All the people loved it!!!

Saturday:  Saturday was just a day to prepare for sunday.. .so we just visited some people and we taught them a little bit to get them to go to church on sunday...

Sunday:  This was probably the biggest week!  We were able to have church in the morning and we confirmed Luki and I did it again because my companion didnt want to.. because he was scared to do it in front of the people... so yeah got to work on that, but yeah church was good...  Although sunday was a very long day... I have to direct and preside the church meetings... then I had to talk because the people that were going to talk didnt show up... and then I had to give the sunday school class, because we still dont have a teacher for that... then after church from we went to go visit one of our investigators named Edwin and he decided that he is going to get baptized the 17th of January which is good... then after him we had to go to our house to do tithing settlement from like 2:30 until 9:00... so that was kind of a bummer because we couldnt work but it was kind of fun to do interviews with the members!  So today I am super tired... because last week was just full of stuff, and this week we are going to have even more things!!!!

Cant wait until next week!

Love you All

Elder Stuart

Hello my family and friends...

Well this week was an interesting week... not really anything crazy happened this week as for the stories go... but we did have quite a bit of success...  First off we were able to Confirm the date for baptism for luki, and she will be getting baptized this friday!  It was a pretty cool story how that all worked out so that is pretty exciting!  Also we were able to have 7 investigators in church, 5 of which have dates to get baptized in January, and the other one just showed up so we still havent taught him, and the last one is leaving for the states on wednesday or he would be getting baptized... so we have got some good things going on!  

 

Also another cool experience that happened was that with one of our investigators (marcos, the one going to the states) his daughter that is like 3 would keep waking up in the middle of the night and start screaming and basically having seizures.. and he said that he wanted us to bless her.  We still hadnt taught him much about the preisthood, but he did have a general knowledge of it and he believed that if we were to bless her it would stop... so we did give the blessing... and while Elder Tello was giving it we both felt as if something left her body... it wasnt a strong feeling, like it shows on t.v. in exorcisms and all that crap, but we just felt as though she was cleaned from something, and we both felt it leave her body... then after the blessing, we looked at marcos... and he was crying!!!!!  so we just sat in silence for like 3 minutes and then he began to explain what was going on... He said that while we were giving the blessing he got the goosebumps... super strong, and the shivers, but not from cold... but he felt at peace... he felt a peace come upon his body.  And so that was super great!!!!  He truly got a testimony of the church in that moment.. but sadly he is going to the states this wednesday so we wont be able to baptism him... but we are going to baptize his wife, and sister in law!

 

So that is about all that I have to share with you guys!

Love you All

 

Elder Stuart

Hello... and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well my family and friends, this week was a good week here in cubulco!  We had some interesting things happen during the transcourse of this week!  Starting off with the weirdest experience of this week was that we were just in the street walking, when we saw one of the young men (member) in the street with his friends... so we started talking to them and well long story short this member is very less active, and a little bit strange... and well we were talking to him and he snuck something to Elder tello... and he told him to put it in his pocket and not open it until we got home... so when we turned the corner out of curiosity (pardon my spelling).. opened the bag... and it was full of weed...  Yup the weed that you smoke..so we just threw it in the garbage can and walked away... oops...

Next story is that we have this one investigator named luki which is very smart... and yesterday in church Elder Tello was teaching Gospel Principles, and he mentioned something about his study journal for the scriptures.. and after the class she asked us if we could give her some scriptures to study so that she could start a study journal.. and so after church when one of the members left to work with us he commented to us that he passed by her house (theyre friends) and he saw her study journal full!!!! and she told him that she is for sure going to get baptized that there is no doubt in her mind!  So that was pretty cool!

Also lastly I am just thankful for thanksgiving... we were able to eat thanksgiving dinner in a members house and we had turkey with rice!  So it wasnt quite the usual turkey with mashed potatoes, but it was still pretty good!

Well that is about all folks!

Love Elder Stuart

Another week gone

Well this week was another adventurous week!  But I am super tired because we just got done playing tennis... and it was my first time playing a sport other than soccer in like 16 months and so I am super tired, but I will try my best to share with you guys what has happened this week!

So now we have two investigators that are sisters name Erika and Luki... they are wife and sister in law of a member in Cubulco and we are teaching them and they finally decided that they want to get baptized!  So we are just going to prepare them a little and then they will get baptized within a few weeks!  So we are pretty excited for that!

But this week we had a district conference on sunday (for those that live in utah and dont know what that is, but it is like stake conference but for the branches..)  and so we had to take the whole group of cubulco to salama, which is about 2 hours away... and well this week we only ended up with an attendance of 10 but that is ok... we are still super excited for this next week!

As for me and Elder tello we are doing good.. he is making his final preparations to go home in like 2 weeks so we are kind of sad to see him go...

And well I guess that that is all...

Good Luck! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elder Stuart

Cubulco

Well this week was a pretty good week!  We had church in Cubulco for the first time in like millions of years!  It was really exciting and it was probably my favorite sunday in my whole life!  So we had church at 9 like always and well the only sad part was that nobody showed up until like 9 15... but that is normal for guatemala... And we ended up having 21 people there!  It was great!  And the cool thing is that we have 5 different families there and so it was just them and some of their friends and it was really cool to see it all happen!  So I was just super excited and it was cool to see the dreams of these people finally come true!  They had been praying..  some members for like 10 years that there would be a church there in Cubulco!  And we were a part of the first meeting there!  So we were basically the pioneers of this area so we took pictures after church which is only 2 hours because we are a group not a stake or a branch, and so I will send those to you!  But the members are super excited to work here because they want this part of Guatemala to grow...  So that is all good!

Then other than that we received a little bit of bad news yesterday... because Lorenzo (who was one of the investigators that we were going to baptize) went to the house of one of his friends saturday, and they forced him to drink, and well he ended up getting drunk and sleeping over at his friends house and then didnt up going to church, so we have a little bit of a problem there... but we are going to see what happens with him this week.  So that was a little bit sad... and it showed us that not only God is advancing his work but Satan is also advancing his work... so yeah that was a wee bit sad..

But other than that we were able to have a pretty good week.  Me and Elder Tello had some good study sessions this week, probably some of my favorites in the mission... we learned some much because he has 23 months in the mission and also we just focused so hard on our area to see how we could progress it... and I really do know that the spirit was with us studying.. So that was great!  

That´s all folks...

Elder Stuart

Another week in paradise!!

Well this week was halloween!  I hope that you enjoyed it!  So I dont know if you guys remember, but Rabinal is a pretty crazy place... and well the go hard with traditions... So here for Halloween, they go to the graveyard and they clean it up and they put food on the graves... Dont ask me why, because not only do I not know why, but they also dont know why they just say ¨well it is tradition so we do it¨ and well the funny thing also is that in Rabinal there are a bunch of drunks, and we saw them in the graveyard along with the dogs eating all the food!  So I ust thought that I would share that with you guys...

As for the work... IT IS GOING GREAT!  So here in Cubulco... we have to travel 39 minutes to Rabinal to go to church, and well I guess that like 2 months ago... President Curtiss sent in a request that it could become a little group.... Which means that it isnt quite a branch but we are going to be able to have our meetings in Cubulco... and there are only going to be like 10 people there including us! But we now have like 3 families that say that they will now finally get baptized now that there is a group there in Cubulco...  So we are going to see how that goes next week, because it will start the first time next week!  The only sad thing is that I wont be able to see the people from Rabinal very much anymore... but every monday and wednesday we have to pass through there to go to salama... and so maybe Ill see some people!

So the work in Cubulco is fantastic! There are many good things that are going to be happening here... First off we do have a lot of people here to teach... the only problem is that before everyone said that they just couldnt pay the fare to get to Rabinal, but now that there will be a little group here... they would like to get to know the church!  So over about this past year there have been about 5 or 6 families that were prepared by the elders to get baptized but they all said that if there were a church in Cubulco they would get baptized... so now me and elder tello are going to see how sincere those sayings were... that if they really are going to continue going to church and maybe get baptized... so I am kind of excited to see if I can do the other half of the work now.. My whole mission I have prepared people to be baptized but never seen it, so lets see if now I can be the person that finishes the work!  But we will see how that goes...

So yeah I am super excited!

Love Elder Stuart

Changes

Well this week has been an adventure!  I got a change last night and I will be heading to a place named Cubulco.... which I dont know if you guys remember or not, but that is right next to Rabinal (my first area)  and I will be going to the same branch!  so I am going to see all the people that I taught and knew at the first of my mission, because these areas are like 30 minutes apart, and they go to the same building... so I am super excited for that!  And I at one time was working in that area for 3 weeks, and we were able to find some people that were baptized so I will be able to see them too... so I am just so excited!  And another great part is that my companion is Elder Tello and he is from Texas, so I will be having my third Gringo companion, and I am super excited for that!  

But here in La Libertad I am going to miss the people here... I got to know them and I think that I am going to miss it here... especially because we have got two more people that are going to be baptized in November here... so I am sad to not be here for that... But I guess the point of my mission was to see that hard work brings success... but many times I am not the person that receives this ¨success¨ all the time... which is fine by me.. So I am just so excited to hear them get baptized in a couple weeks... 

But just so you all know, I am just enjoying the mission, it is the best thing in the world... and I hope to be able to continue working diligently for the short time that I have got!

Love you All

Elder Stuart