A Great Time in Roca!

Buen Dia Familia!!!

This week was super great! i had the chance this week to go to Roca for a few days to be able to work with some of the Elders that are there and it was great! i had a lot of great experiences this week, one of the greatest experiences that i had this week was with an investigator named Aimara. She is super prepared! she has been reading a lot of the book of mormon and i swear she knows more than i do. but she said that she hasnt felt yet that she needs to be baptized, she knew it was the right thing to do but said that she just didnt feel it. we were able to have a very spiritual lesson with her where we bore our testimonies and taught her the doctrine that she needed to know. at the end she couldnt stop saying thankyou because she said that she felt the same way that she did when the missionaries first taught her! (that was Elder Lloyd!! ) and she said she would prya to know when she needs to be baptized! i then got a call last night from the Elders and she is going to get baptized this friday! it was a great time there in Roca! i am back here in Nequeun so we will see what happens this week! Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Stuart

Ps. my next pday will be on saturday due to transfers!

Transfers!

Hello everyone!! So today is my pday because of transfers this week, and i am going to stay here for one more trasfer! im greatful for my time i have here to do what i can to help the Lord in this great work! Things are crazy, there are a lot of changes so i dont have much time today. but all is well! The mission is doing great! we might have the most baptisms in one weekend this weekend so that is pretty cool!! Also we have the visit of Elder Maynes this next week, one of the Presidents of the Quorum of the Seventy, so we are super excited for that too! Love you all! have a great week!

Elder Stuart :)

Special Experiences!

Buen dia familia!

This week was great!! we headed down to the south to help a matrimony (senior couple) move from Junin to Villa la Angostura! so that was fun, and while we were down there we took advantage of doing exchanges with the elders that are there in Junin and we had an amazing experience!! We went to go visit one of their investigators, Veronica, who is the wife of a less active member. She had assited the church the past few weeks and was thinking about getting  baptized but she still wasnt sure so we went in and we had a wonderful lesson with her! in the middle of the lesson we decided to have her pray right there to ask God if she needed to be baptized this saturday, she said she was scared to do it, so we had her husband pray first and right after she said she would do it. In the middle of her prayer she just went silent and you could hear her crying a little, she finished her prayer and said that she had never felt something like that, she explained that it was like someone there hugging her. We explained that that was the spirit, and she recieved her answer and was eventually baptized this past saturday by her husband Sergio who is reactivating :) It was such a special experience that we are so lucky that we were a part of! Things are going great! I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Stuart!

ps. my next pday will be saturday because of transfers!

Transfers!

Hey Family!!

Well it is transfers week again so my pday is today instead of monday. All is going well!!! .... So i am staying here for a 7th transfer! hahah things are going well and we are super excited. This weekend we have quite a few baptisms planned in the mission, and if they all get confirmed then we will have more baptisms in one month than we ever have had, and by a long way! we are super excited for that because we can see that the Lord really is advancing His work and we are able to see more of our brothers and sisters making covenants with Him :) Things are great, im excited for another transfer here to be able to do what i can to help the Lord in this great work. All is well!!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

ps. Pablo and Claudia are doing super good!!! They are amazing :)

Mom Note: Here is a little excerpt Ryan wrote to me:

I'm super excited to stay for another one (transfer). The mission is going great and it is making me stretch myself everyday. I learn so much with President and it is such a great experience to be here with him. I wont lie, it gets stressful sometimes with all the responsibility and tyring. but it is all worth it. It gives me a bigger chance to serve my Lord and have a bigger influence in his work. and I love that ☺   I doubt I will finish here, but I didnt think I would stay this transfer so you never know! I'm super excited and happy mom ☺   We are baptizing in our area, the mission is baptizing. It took a big trial of faith, and going through the refiners fire these past few months, but it has made me into who I need to be and I am greatful every day for that. I am seeing so many blessings and miracles and I love it.     

Photos!

1-3 Birthday Lunch last Pday :)

4 Got my package from mom and her card :)

5 Elder Ortiz, President Nelson, President Casariego, and ME!!

Photos!

1-3 PIng pong on pday! getting ready to destroy mom ;) 

4 - Dante came to say hi!

5-6 Melo got married!!!

7 - Benita got baptized! 

Photos!

We made wings last P-day and they were delicious!!

Transfers!

Buen día familia!!!

Well today is my pday because this next week is transfers again! I cant believe i have already been here two transfers. Time goes by so fast! My next comp will be Elder LeBaron from Arizona!!! Im so stoked! Its going to be a lot of fun, and we are going to try and push the mission even more.

This week was just super crazy with transfers, and trying to get everything figured out and ready for that. It was fun becasue we have been going with President to talk with the missionaries as he does the interviews. We are helping them with our purpose of talking with everyone, especially in this Christmas season. And it has been really cool to see all the missionaries and be able to give advise and help them with their contacts, and also to learn something new from each and everyone of them to be able to apply in my own area!

Well its been a crazy week! Hope all is well back home! Love you all! :)

Love,

Elder Stuart

Photos!

Last p-day

We went to a city named Roca for a zone training!

Me and Lloyd with the argentina jerseys!

Me, Elder Clemens, Elder Lloyd, and Elder Ortiz!  

Photos!

1 - Well if anyone knows me, sometimes I just random bloody noses when the seasons change... so yeah that happened! luckily my comp has allergies and had tissues! good way to start talking with people! ;) 

2 - MTC group back together again! Elder Lloyd and Elder Bliss!

3 - freaking huge Rubix cube that Elder Lloyd taught me to solve last pday. dope

Photos!

1 We went out to eat on P-day for Elder Madrug´s birthday! 

2 Then we got tired... haha!

3 Guess who is in the office now!  (Elder Thomas Lloyd, MTC Companion. He is now an Office Elder)

Following the Spirit

Buen dia familia!

So this next week is transfers so monday we will be sending off misionaries and getting new ones so our P-day is today! haha its kinda weird having it on a friday, but its still good!

We had a pretty cool experience this week, President has a new focus that we just need to talk with everyone, as long as the spirit guides us to them. And me and Elder Clemens decided to do just that. We went out and started heading to an appointment that we had, and on the way we just talked to those that we felt impressed to talk with. We ended up finding 4 new families/investigators that we are going to start teaching! So that was pretty cool to see that following the guidance of our President we were able to find new people! I hope we can go find them again and help them learn more about the gospel! 

That is all for this week! Love you all! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Photos!

We went for a hike last Pday :)

Service

Almost Christmas!

hola familia y amigos :)

It is almost christmas!! It really doesn´t feel like it though... haha because it is hot, there is no snow, and just different. But the feeling is still there!! haha I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season this year, and remember the importance of our Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. :) 

 

This week was a little difficult, we didn´t have any investigators show up to church... again. So that is the fifth week in a row... it is hard because a lot of them have desires to be baptized, but can´t because they dont come. Especially Samantha, she has such a strong testimony and is in Alma already in the Book of Mormon, but she doesn´t come, so she can´t be baptized. :/ Also Brian and Guadalupe like disappeared this week and we don´t know what happened so they weren´t baptized. That was hard. But we will keep working with them and press forward with faith, because if we keep working at it with faith, eventually they will come unto Christ :) It is hard knowing what is waiting for them, and them not taking it! But we aren´t going to give up! We have contacted a lot of people this week, and hopefully some will turn into some good new investigators. 

 

Saturday was fun, because we did this activity in the plaza, and had a big screen and showed videos of christ and christmas, and sang songs, and found a lot of people to teach! it was awesome! Then yesterday we had a big nativity scene with our two wards, and we got to watch them do that! So that was fun. Things are great and I am learning a lot. I am learning a lot about our faith, and how after the trial of our faith is when the blessings come, i really have seen that while I am here in the mission. Faith is so important, and we will be blessed for our faith. Love you all. Have a great week. And keep the Savior in your heart and what he did for us. I am praying for all of you! Love you!

 

Love,

Elder Stuart

[I asked Elder Stuart a few questions and here were his answers:]

1 Yes i do   (Do you do your own laundry?)

 

2 Everyday for lunch, because they dont eat dinner here really (How often, if at all, do you eat with members?)

 

3 We usually get some milenesa from a members polleria and cook it, or go buy something  (What do you eat if you don’t eat with members?  Do you guys cook or go out?)

 

4 There really only is the indio here, and i sent pics of that, we usually just write, buy, and play soccer! (On P-Day, do you have a chance to visit any sites?  Are there sites in your area?)

 

5 I think I am healthy ;)  (How is your health?)

 

6 Everything is holding up well  (How are your shoes and clothes holding up?  Your towels?)

First Week in The Field!!

Hola familia y amigos!

Hi mom:)

Well it is my p-day today, time goes so fast out here!! I got to Houston safe and it has been an amazing experience so far! I can't wait for all the adventures that are to come! My mission president here is President Mortensen and he is amazing!! He grew up in Bountiful so that is pretty crazy! He really is an amazing president, and this mission is going so well because of Him and his leadership. I met my trainer on Thursday, Elder Jorquera!! He is an amazing trainer and I know that he is definitely one of the reasons that I was sent here to Houston. I have already learned so much from Him. He is so smart and knows a lot about the gospel, and teaching and I really am going to learn a lot. He is originally from Chile but now is from Colorado Springs. So it is awesome because I have a native companion and I feel like my Spanish is going to grow a lot because of it!!

After i got my trainer we got our area's, mine is Katy, Texas!! However, our apartment wasn't ready yet so we had to go room with two other elders. We spent two days there waiting for our apartment, staying in their little apartment and sleeping on the floor. hahah! I was a little upset because I wanted to get to my area. But it turned out to be a miracle! So many great experience happened while we were staying with those Elders. One was, the first day me and Elder Jorquera didn't have much to do because it wasn't our area, so we just went knocking. And the first door I knocked on in Spanish, they let us in and we taught them and set up an appointment for two days from then to teach them more! Elder Jorquera said that never happens to Greenies!!! I was so pumped and we continued to have success that day and so many miracles happened. We had to turn over our little Cuban family to the Elders in the area when we left, so that kinda sucked. But it was still awesome!

On Saturday afternoon we finally got to move into our apartment. It is so nice! However, we have no furniture so we are still studying, eating, and sleeping on the floor! Preparing me for Argentina!! haha so lets just say i haven't slept in a bed for about a week. But the floor is way comfy! I feel like patcha... :) We got all settled in and planned the rest of the day. Then we had church the next day, and it was my first day all in spanish! It was so cool, even though i didn't understand it all i still felt the spirit like crazy. I love the ward here. They are all so nice and ready to help the missionaries. As members that is our job, to help the missionaries, whether it is going out teaching with them or feeding them, that is how we do our missionary work, and they are really good at it!

It has been an amazing week, and I can't wait to learn more about this work and this area. Keep up the good work back home, and find ways to help the missionaries and be a missionary! There is nothing like the joy you get from it! Love you all!!

-Elder Ryan Stuart

Oh!! Dad is going to love this so add it to the email!

We went and ate with members, the Rocha family, on Sunday and they made us fish! and I actually really liked it... So we will see if I like fish now! haha! 

I love and miss you all so much. Got to go now. Talk to you next week :)