Photos!

found trix in the store so obviously I bought myself a Christmas Present! haha but it was super expensive!

With Samantha and her family, Me, Elder Barrios, Samantha, Her mom, Sister, and her daughter Abigail :)

All of the Elders at a members house for Christmas Eve to eat! It was so much fun!

Skyping the Fam :) Got to talk with all of them! 

Christmas Miracles!

Hola familia y amigos!

This week was such a good week!!! First off it was Christmas and that was way fun, we were able to meet up as a zone in the chapel and we made tacos and played sports for a long time! It was a lot of fun. Also got to talk with the fam so that was pretty great! So Christmas was a pretty great time :) Also I loved it because it was a time that we could really focus on our Savior and really have Him more in our lives. It is a wonderful time of year.

Also... Samantha came to church!!!!! We woke up really early sunday morning and went out to Godoy to look for her to bring her to church and she came!!! She said she loved every second of it and really felt something different there. She especially loved the sacrament. It is amazing what this gospel can do to the lives of every person. Especially the importance of the sacrament. It is something that we can do every week to become clean again and start over. It is a promise we can make to always remember our Savior, and if we do so, we can ALWAYS have the spirit with us to lead us, to guide us, and to help us along the way. WHAT A PROMISE!! And I know that when God makes a promise He always comes through with it, we just have to put in our part. We really have seen that here in Godoy the past couple of weeks. All of our work, fasting, and prayers have finally payed off and Samantha told us she wants to be baptized this saturday so ¨start filling the faunt!¨hahah that is what she told us! It was amazing :)

I know that the time we spend on our knees asking our father in heaven for help is never wasted. He is always there listening. And when the timing is right, he will bless us with all that we need. ¨when life gets too hard to stand, kneel. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas full of the love and spirit of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you all know how much you all impact my life. Have a great week and always remember to keep praying!!

Love Elder Stuart

Photos!

We found swings... so obviously it was picture time....

 

Me and Elder Barrios

Our zone with Santa :)

 

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?)

Photos!

Us with Hermano Slagado! He and his family are so cool! I love them! and their Christmas decorations!

This is Danilo´s little brother, i loved his shirt and had to take a pic!

Our zone today when everyone left me Elder Rose, Gallegos (ZL), Bezerra (Zl), Alonzo, Silva, Batres, Pacheco, Hermana Braithweight, Dandaluz, Himle, Perez. 

Us at Subway with some office missionaries

Transfers...again!

Hola familia y amigos!!!

This week was a really good week! We are finding some really good investigators, and I really am growing to love the people here :) We still are having a problem with our investigators coming to church... so we are trying to find out how to help them come to church. We also had transfers this week. Elder Rose left, and now I am with Elder Barrios from Panama! It was hard to leave another comp but I am excited to be with my sixth comp... hahah! But me and Elder Barrios already get along great and i can tell that we are going to work really hard and have a lot of success. I am excited to also be with a Latino again because it will help my spanish a lot!

So it was kinda hard this week because Brian and Guadalupe had to go to Roca on short notice and they werent able to be baptized this week... so hopefully this next coming week! It was hard because I just want them to receive those blessings but it keeps getting pushed back, but we are going to baptize them this week! We also are working on a couple others, who just need to assist to be baptized.

Things are great here and I am loving the work here. South America is amazing and I love the people here in Argentina and in Godoy. They are so loving and humble and i am so lucky to be a missionary here in this time. There are always rough patches but at the end of the day we can all look back and see the many blessings that we have recieved. Thanks for all your love and support! I love and miss you all! Until next week :) 

Elder Stuart

We also had a really funny experience! I had to go to Neuquen thursday to do paper work to be legal... haha! And we had Subway there!!! It was so good :) Then we got back to Godoy at 5:40 and had a appointment in the chapel at 7 and the chaple is 20 minutes away. We had three families to visit in that time. So we straight up ran from house to house and taught everyone in time. It was crazy!! We were able to get to everyone though... and wasn´t the first time we ran house to house! haha it was fun!

Baptisms!

Hola familia y amigos!

This week was a really great week! We had a training with the assistants at the biggining of this week and we talked a lot about living baptism. Because if we go into lessons and the investigators don´t know that we are there to help bring them closer to Christ, but to just to chat, then they aren´t going to progress. But if they know why we are there, then they will start to progress more. We have really seen this in this week!! We have three people set up to be baptized this week and we have two others that can be prepared if they work really hard! It is so cool to see the gospel change their life and bring them so much joy. I love helping people come closer to Christ :) Brian and Guadalupe, the two miracle investigators we have, are such Capos!!! They are so cool and progressing so well, they tell us how much more joy and happiness they have in their life since they have been meeting with us. They are going to get baptized this saturday! I am so excited for them :) 

 

This week we had a fun experience! We were on the way back from a lesson and on to another investigator, Matias, and on the way to his house we found him on the side of the road and his car broke down. We ended up pushing his car for half a mile up a dirt road to his house! Hahahah it was so tiring but it was so much fun and a great way to do service!! I loved it! He is progressing pretty well, but he is 18 and doesn´t like some of the things about the gospel because he feels restricted... but we are working with him. But i think i got my exercise in for about the next month!! 

This week i really have been studying 3 Nephi 18:19-21 about prayer and how important it is to pray ALWAYS and with our families, and when we do this we will receive so many blessings. I really have such a strong testimony that prayer is the best thing we can do to come closer to our heavenly Father because we are communicating with Him. And when we pray in our families so many miracles come from that. We have seen some many non active member families start to come back just by sharing this with them. I love it.

This was a great week. Thanks for all your love and support! I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Photos!

Sweater Weather, so obviously we had to take some pictures ;)

Hair cuts with Hermano Blanco from our ward. He is amazing!!!

Today we hiked up to the ¨indio¨. It is the little Indian that watches over Villa Regina. These are a few pictures of that. 

 

Godoy

Hola famila y amigos!!!

Everything is great here in Argentina! I love it down here, I hope that you all are doing well. This week we had a really cool experience. Me and Elder Rose were out contacting, and we weren´t really finding anyone that was interested, so we said a little prayer, and then after we looked down the street and there was absolutely no one in sight. So we decided the next person we saw we were going to set a baptism date. hahaha the next second a couple turned the corner, and we were like... really a couple, this is going to be fun! haha so we went up and started talking to them. They are so amazing!!!! They are 19 and 18, and she had been taking the lessons a couple months ago (her name is Guadalupe) and he came to church a couple times a few years ago (Brian). And they both said that this is what they have been looking for and they have been praying for! We set a baptism date with them, and they are preparing to be baptized in the next couple of weeks! He just has to work on somethings with work so he doesn´t have to work on sundays, and then they are going to be baptized! It was so amazing! The Lord really blesses us when at the last moment when we are about to give up, if we push forward with faith, He will bless us. Never give up. Right as we think we are beat and cant push anymore, that is when we will start seeing blessings, if we push through it. It was such an amazing experience! 

I am learning so much here in Argentina and i love it down here. Things are going good and we are working with a lot of great investigators. Just dificult for them to come to church because it is so far away, but we are slowly progressing, and trying to do all we can to help them. We have this one investigator, Samantha, she is so amazing. We have been meeting with her for about a month, she is already half way through the book of mormon, and loves this gospel so much. She wants to be baptized so bad, we just have problems getting her to church. So once we start getting them to come, this area is going to boom!! I love it here. The mission is an amazing place. Thank you for all your love and support. I love you all!!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Mom Note:  When I asked Ryan about his Thanksgiving Dinner a week before Thanksgiving, this was his reply:

"Oh yeah, and we have no idea when holidays are anymore, so i am just counting that as my thanksgiving dinner!! hahah yup. then end. haha. love you!"

Photos!

1-2 Baptisms of Aron and Hugo

3-4 Elder Stuart cooking his favorite lunch - Milenesa.  Looks like he is eating a lot!! 

5 Tie Trading with Elder Rose

6 Elder Stuart & Elder Rose in area of Godoy, Argentina

7-8 Elder Stuart's home in Godoy, Argentina

 

Baptisms and Godoy!

Hey family and friends!

This week was such a good week! We had the baptisms of two of the kids that I was teaching over in Villa Regina this week!! It was such a cool experience, i felt the spirit so strongly and I was so proud of the decision that Aron and Hugo made to be baptized and come closer to their savior Jesus Christ. It was so amazing and I am so glad that I was able to be there to watch their change and them making that special covenant with our Heavenly Father.

My new area is Godoy, it is a small town just outside of Villa Regina. We live on the edge of Villa Regina, and take a bus out to Godoy, and also have a little town that we work at as well, that is about a 20 minute walk away. I love my area! It is such a good area and the people are all so loving and friendly! The members are the best, and we have some really good investigators that we are working with. They just need to come to church and they will be able to be baptized! We have a lot of dates set up for December, but they have to come to church if they want to fulfill those dates!

My new comp Elder Rose is the best! We get along really well and he is teaching me a lot and helping me become the missionary that the Lord needs me to be. He is really helping me with my spanish. It is coming slowly, but it is coming. And it is nice being able to ask him questions about the language. He is doing a great job in helping me be the best that i can be. 

This week, our ¨thanksgiving¨ Dinner, was mashed potatoes and cut up hotdogs.... hahaha very American! I loved it! It was with an amazing member family, the Blanco Family. We didn´t even remember it was thanksgiving until that night... but it was fun!

Something I have been studying a lot is Charity and how important it really is in our lives. I love 1 Corinthians 13. That chapter is amazing. Without charity we are nothing. We should all strive to have the same love that our Lord has, we never will but he will bless us for trying.

All is great and thank you for all your love and support! I love you all so much and I am so greatful for your examples. Have a great week!!

Elder Stuart

Writing to Elder Stuart

To write to Elder Stuart, a stamp is $1.20.

Elder Ryan Stuart

Argentina Neuquén Mission

Casilla de Correo 321

8300 Neuquén

Neuquén, Argentina

email: ryan.stuart@myldsmail.net

blog: www.elderryanstuart.blogspot.com

I found a guy in North Salt Lake that sends packages to Argentina!  His website is:

www.mymissionarypackagesarg.com

When I spoke to him, he told me he has family in Argentina and goes there every so often and can send your package from the website with no customs, which means missionaries DO NOT have to pay to receive their package!!  I'm definitely going to try it for Christmas!!

Thanks for all your support to Elder Ryan Stuart!!

Photos!

These are from his first transfer in Villa Regina with the Trio and 2 other Elders in his apartment.

Elder Batres, Elder Pacheco, and me

Making cookies with our investigators Elder Batres, me, Matias, Elder Pacheco, Hugo, (then in front with me) Aron, and Danilo

This is our home, on the other side of the room we have a bunk bed, and Elder Pacheco's is under the bed and he pulls it out at night, we have three in our room, then another room for the other two. and then our kitchen and we have a tiny bathroom too! But I get my new apartment today, so pics of that next week.

 

 

These are photos of his new area with his new companion, Elder Rose.

Elder Stuart and his new companion from Missouri, Elder Rose

Elder Stuart working on the farm planting tomatoes

A look at Villa Regina!!

Transfered

Dear family and friend,

So today I got transfered! hahah I am now with Elder Rose from Missiouri, He has been out one trasfer longer than me. His companion finished his mission today and went home and since I was in a trio I got transfered to be with Him! I am still in Villa Regina, just on the opposite side of the city and in a different ward. It is sad to leave the ward and especially the people that we were teaching but I am excited for this opportunity and I know that God knows where I need to be. 

This week was kinda sad because the baptism dates that we had for Aron, Hugo, Danilo, and Marcos had to get switched to this next week (21) Because of some family problems, so that was kind of upsetting, but I am excited and hope they stay on track for this next week. I still get to go because we are so close so that makes me happy!!! Our investigators really are amazing, and I am excited to meet my new investigators in my new area.

The food here is so good!! Lots of meat, pasta, and fruit! Unfortunatley the pasta is usually spaghetti.... hahah but it still tastes great! And my favorite thing is called milanese and it is kind of like huge chicken nuggets, but not really. haha but they are so good! Everything is like italian influenced and I love the food here.

This week we got to do service in a farm and we planted tomatoes! It was so much fun and it reminded me of Grandpa´s farm, and so that was a lot of fun to be able to do that. We then were able to teach the man that owns the farm and he is now meeting with us! Also another miracle we had this week was that we wanted to find two more investigators before the end of the week, and we got to saturday night and we still were short two of our goal. We said a prayer and then we went to one of our investigators house and they had two friends over! We taught them and they came to church the next day!! It was so cool! We really are blessed to be working here in Regina. The Lord is hastening His work here. When I got here there were 50 people who attended sacrament regularly and now we are up to 65!!! Things are great. I love you all so much, thanks for all the support!

Love, Elder Stuart

Photos!

Bowling with Andres in Katy, Texas

This is my new area in Villa Regina!! It looks so much like st. george that sometimes i feel like i am back home! haha

How I got to Neuquen

 

Villa Regina!!!!

Well I finally made it to Argentina and I finally have my area! I am in a town east of Neuquen called Villa Regina! It is such a beautiful area and I love it here! I live on the edge of the city and we are in charge of the outskirts so everywhere is dirt floors and little shacks for homes! But the all have direct tv... hahah! Also they love sweeping their dirt floors and they water their dirt outside! it is awesome! The people here are amazing!!

I am in a trio right now with Elder Pacheco (He is from Ecuador and has 23 months in the mission and is the trainer.) and Elder Batres who got here when I did and he is from Costa Rica. And we also live with Elder SIlva (Brazil) y Elder Alonzo (Paraguay). And so basically I am in a house with all spanish speakers!! It is difficult but it is helping out a lot.

We have a lot of great investigators down here! We have a couple getting baptized this week!!! We are working with a lot of the youth and that is a lot of fun! I had to teach Primary yesterday so that was intersting!

Things are great here!! Thanks for all your love and support!! I love you all!

Love, Elder Stuart

Photos!

Katy Zone Training Meeting

President Mortensen & Elder Stuart

The Katy Zone

Finally here

Hola familia!!

Well after three planes and a long car ride I finally made it to Neuquen! We got lucky and when we got to Argentina we were able to take another plane down to Neuquen so we didn't have to take a bus! That was nice. Argentina is so cool! It is a lot different than I thought it would be, haha probably because I didn't know what to expect. My Spanish is alright and I can actually get by alright, until they start speaking really fast. But it's good! And there are so many dogs every where! I get my trainer and area tomorrow so that is super exciting, can't wait for that! But all is great and I made it safely here! I don't have much time so I will write more on Monday! Love you all! Have a great week!!!

Oh and they told me that they can get letters here and it takes about two weeks, and packages take about three. But I should be able to get them!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Argentina Time!

Hey Family and Friends,

Well it is finally here! I am leaving for Argentina this afternoon! I am way stoked! I leave at about 3:30 and got a long flight ahead of me, but I am way excited! Things were great here in Katy Texas and I learned a lot here! This past week was really good, one of the really fun things was Andres wanted to take me and Jorquera bowling and have a lesson there and so we did that and it was a lot of fun! He is like professional and taught us a few tips! It was awesome! He is progressing well and we hope to baptize him in November! Things are great and I can't wait to get to Argentina! I don't have much time, but know how much I love you all! Have a great week everyone!

Love Elder Stuart

Holy Crap!!!

Dear Family and Friends,

Holy crap! I leave for Argentina in a week from today!! It came so fast! I am so excited to go, but it will be sad to leave all the amazing people that I have met here. It has been amazing and I can't wait to see what Argentina brings me! 

Another holy crap, the rain we have gotten in the past two days is ridiculous. With the Hurricane we have had down pour rain here for about the last two days straight. Lots of the streets were flooded, and there has been a lot of damage here in Houston. Luckily pretty much everything in my area is ok, we didn't flood too bad, but it was a little flooded in some of our area. But the rain has been crazy! So crazy that church was almost cancelled... so that was weird! But this week in church was the Primary Program. The Hispanics go all out for these things! They all had matching outfits, it was kinda weird for me haha. Oh. and it went for almost two hours... church starts at 11 and we got out of sacrament meeting at 12:50.... it was soooo long. But it was good since it was the Primary Program and they are all so cute. But still way too long. The other ward almost busted in to take over!! haha! 

This week has been really good. Things are great here, Everything is well. I hope all is well back home and thank you for all your love and support. I love you all!!

Forgot a huge part of my week!!

On Friday we had a ward Halloween party! and when we showed up they had a DJ and were playing all the songs from back home, "Whip", "Wobble", etc!! Hahaha it was so cool and threw me back! Then lets just say I was pushed in and showed them how we white people (and Brookie ;)) Did it back at Woods Cross!! It was so sick, and it was so good to dance again just for a few seconds. But i loved it. I needed my "musical theater crew" though!! I miss you guys! 

Love,

Elder Stuart

Photos!

Me and Elder Jorquera with one of the kids of a family in our ward! He is so cute!

 

Investigator GOLD MINES!! hahah! and me and Elder Jorquera knocking doors!

Howdy Y'all!!

Howdy Y'all!! (Yup. Thought I might as well throw a little southerness(is that a word??) into my letter!) haha

This week has been really good! On wednesday we had a exchange with our zone leaders and I was with Elder Sirstins for the day, (and english Elder). I was excited for this exchange until I remembered that we had our lesson that night with our new family, the Avila family.So basically it was me and an English Elder going to teach a new Spanish family for the first time... Elder Sirstins speaks absolutely no english. Luckily I found a young man to come with us who spoke spanish, but didn't really know the lessons or the gospel that well, so I told him that the game plan was that if they said something and I didn't understand that I would look at him and he would tell me what they said and then I would answer unless he felt confident answering, which he kept telling me that he didn't want to talk. hahaha so we went into the lesson and it went so well!!! I was able to understand almost everything and only had to use Pedro once for help with what they were saying!! We have a return appointment with them this week and they were supposed to come to church but they got caught up with family stuff so they didn't come :/ but they were way excited to meet again and to read the Book of Mormon!! So that was an awesome experience, and I know that I couldn't have done it without the help of the Lord, and the preparation that Elder Jorquera and I have done.

Another cool thing that we have been doing is that we really having been working hard with the Young men! We have been getting to the know them, taking them out with us, and inviting them to play basketball with us on P-days! Things have been going really well, and we now have three of the 19 year old young men who weren't planning on serving missions, working on their papers!!!! We are working with one more and we hope to get him started on his papers before I leave. It is amazing what love and actually showing an interest in people will do. Elder Jorquera has really taught me that, and as we have done that, we have helped young men get excited to serve missions.

Those are just a few cool experiences I had this week! I hope all is well with all of you. Everything is great here! Thanks for all your love and support!! I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Stuart

Oh!!! And I forgot to say this!! We found Andres at English Class on thursday!!!!!!! He has just been really busy with work, and He broke his phone so he hasn't been able to contact us, but we are meeting with him this week and hope that goes well! Esteban is still nowhere to be found.. so that sucks.

Photos!

Study time! Me and Jorquera Studying.

Our zone

back: Elder Parkinson, Corn, Jorquera, Mariner, Sirstins, Fa'a, Jones, Pace, Tidwell, Sister Reese, Bohn, Bussell, Ita

Front: Me, Pigott, Boulinger

Food Trucks!!

Hola familia!!

It was another great week here in Katy!! We had a great opportunity this week to do some service at our favorite food truck! Oh and by the way we eat at these ghetto Mexican food trucks all the time and they are so good! They are just in random parking lots! This one is called "La Cabana" and it is so good! They are members, and so we go and do service for them and we get to eat there for free!! And the food is so good! This week we got a call from two other Elder's in our zone to come help them with service at the food truck. So we went over there and we had to paint the top of the truck with a sealant because it was leaking. So just picture four missionaries on top of this food truck (while it is in business) painting the top! It was really fun, and way funny! hahah so that was awesome!

Our two investigators, Esteban and Andres, both have gone missing! Esteban was sick and just texted us back so hopefully we can meet up with him this week. However Andres hasn't replied or answered to anything from anybody for the past week. Nobody knows where he is. So that kinda sucks, and we hope he is ok! We are hoping to hear back from him and find him soon.

We found a little family of four last week that we are going to meet again with this week and start teaching, so hopefully that goes well! Things are great here in Katy and we are doing our best to bring people to the Gospel. 

I hope you all know how much you mean to me and how much all your support means. Keep up the good work at home, and know that I love you all. Have a great week Everyone!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Photos!

First time shopping by myself haha!

So many long horns here. 

Pretty cool sunset here.