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?)

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

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!"