Christmas!

Bune Día familia!

This week was super good :) we had a great week leading up to Christmas and it was a great time to give our testimonies about the Savior. We had a great conference with Presidente where he talked about how we need to change the paradigms(yes this is an english word :)) of the work and believe that we can achieve more and we will do it! It is so true on how we judge so quickly at first and that becomes stuck in our head and we dont see things or others how God intends for them to be seen. But if we can see with the Eye of Faith like it talks about in Ether 12:19 :) May we see things how God intends for them to be seen!

Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas and remembered the true meaning of this special day! Hope you all enjoyed your time with your families! Thanks for all your support for me. I love you all! :)

Elder Stuart

Faith Gives Us Power TO DO!

Buen día familia!

This week was super good! we had the leadership council this week and it was amazing! We talked a lot about the faith. The thing that stuck out most to me this week about the faith is in Moroni 7:33 "And Christ hath said: If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

The part that i like the most is when the Lord says that we shall have the power TO DO! Faith is directly connected with our acciones. That is something that i have learned so much in the mission, that faith does not come from one event but from continuously living the gospel with obedience every day. Because as we do that, we grow in our knowledge and trust in the Savior, which leads us to have faith that He will help us in all things.

This week we were able to put that into practice. There was an investigator that the Elderes had left a few months ago, that was progressing really well, but then they couldnt find him for the longest time so they dropped him. We felt like we needed to go by there this week so we did. And he was so happy to see us! He has been wanting to start reading and praying again, but just didnt know how to start. So We were able to help him with that, and now he is preparing to be baptized! We were able to use our faith and trust in those promptings of the spirit, and God lead us to where we needed to be!

On the funny side, it was raining a lot this week. I mean a lot. Hahaha i have never ran so much in the rain in my whole life! We had to run home one night or we were going to be late, and it was just funny to think that we are two teenagers running through the rain in suits. hahaha it was great :)

Love you all!!!

Elder Stuart

Stand as a Witness!

Buen Dia Familia!

This week was crazy just like the last one! we went down to the south again to do zone conferences this week! We first went to Bariloche and then to Esquel. In the conferences we have been focused on our responsibility as misionaries to raise the faith of all of those around us, and i would say that that is our responsibility as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At baptism everyone of us has made a covenant or a two way promise that we will take upon us the name of Christ and be witnesses of him in every moment, every, word, and every action. That means that every week as we participate of the sacraments we make the promise to our Heavenly Parents that we will try to become more like our older brother Jesus Christ in the way that we act.Those daily actions that we make every week in the service of others is how we can help raise the faith of those around us! Also that means that in every moment we should be ready to testify and bear witness of Christ. In other words, as we partake of the sacrament we make the promise to be missionaries!!!! My invitation this week is to look for at least one oportunity to stand as a witness in Christ in something you do and say for someone in your life. :)

I love this work and this gospel with all my heart. I am learning so much about the importance of always having the Lord on our mind as we go through our daily life. Also this week i have had the chance to work with many misionaries and i am amazed at the testimonies that have been born of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. :)

Christ lives and loves each and everyone of us. :)

Love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Miracles

This week we saw a lot of miracles happen. We have had quite a bit of problems in the zone this last transfer and we had to fight through it, but we saw that it was really a trial of our faith and at the end of the transfer we got to see that almost every companionship in our zone had at least one baptism! It was awesome to see the miracles that come when we keep going strong! Bruma and Eluney got baptized in our area, the two girls of the part member family and it was really cool to see because their family started to come and are more active now! It was amazing :)

We had transfers yesterday! and i will be staying here in Cipo!!!! Elder McCook is going to stay with me for the last two weeks of his mission, because he extended, and we are going to be in a trio with Elder Nochreiner from California! We are excited to see these new changes and see what we will be able to do this transfer! 

(Note from Mom: Now they have 5 Elders living in their little pension! They hope to be back to just the trio by the end of the week. Ryan will be training his new companion to be a zone leader with him!)

Todo bien here in Cipo! I love the mission, this ward, the people, everything! i am so happy and things are going great :) I know the Lord is always on our side and is there to help us right after we learn the lesson that we need. Keep going strong in what ever challenge you face in life because the Lord will help you if you let him! Love you all! have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Leap of Faith

This week was really good! We learned a great lesson this week... sometimes you have to jump out of an airplane without a parachute and trust that God will catch you. Or... take a leap of faith ;) haha! In our area we have seen a lot of progression but nobody is making it to baptism for this reason or that. and so this week we decided to take a leap of faith and be direct with the people that we are teaching and their families and trust that God is going to give us the authority to do so. And it works! when we do what Jacob says in chapter 4 and we tell them how it is, then just like moroni teaches us, that authority and pure love of Christ will touch the hearts of the children of men. One of the many experiences that we had, was we went to a house of a part member family and we are teaching the grandaughters of this grandma, but their dad isnt a member and didnt give us permission to baptize them even though it is something that they want to do. But for some reason we went there yesterday and he basically told us to baptize them this saturday and he doesnt have a problem now that saturday we started to think about it and changed his mind and thought it would be good for his daughters :) IT WAS AMAZING!!! when we trust in God and we act in our faith he is so wiling to bless us!! I invite all of you to try it! jump out of the airplane!!! .... well not literally... but act in your faith and God will bless you! 

haha and now the funny part! The elders here in cipo are moving pensiones and so they are staying with us for a couple days while everything gets moved in. Lets just say we have four elders living in a penison that is small and it gets interesting at times! it has been fun to get to know them better!

I love you all and i am glad to hear that all is well :) have a wonderful week everyone!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Baptism!

Hola everyone!!

 This week was so good! SO many miracles this week! Idont have much time so it will be short. But Claudia got baptized this week!! It was so amazing to see the change that she made and to see the joy that she had when she could finally be baptized! also, funny story... so the night before the baptism we filled up the plastic pool thingy that we use to baptize, and we didnt turn off the wtaer all the way... so we got to the church and it was flooded with water! hahah we got it all cleaned up and luckyily nothing got damaged, and still made it in time for the baptism! It was awesome :) Also norma got married!!! So she will be getting baptized this upcoming week as well! The Lord really does give us miracles after the trial of our faith! Things are great! I hope all is well! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Faith and Miracles

Well.. i talked with you guys yesterday so not much to say! I loved seeing you guys and knowing that all is well :)

This week i learned a lot about the trial of our faith just like it is taught to us in Ether 12. We all know that miracles dont come until after the trial of our faith. simple rihgt? but not that simple when you are in the middle of the trial. Here in CHos Malal i have felt like i have tried even harder to be the best that i can be. And we havent really seen to much success, BUT here is the trial of our faith. Me and my comp tried to stay positive like always and work harder and give even more, and we recieved an even greater testimony of this principle that the miracles do come, once we have become what the Lord needs us to be in that moment. This week we were working with the mother in law of our group leader who is a leader in another church and for eight months missionaries have been trying to talk with her, but she just fights and tells us we are wrong. But this week it all changed we were able to ask her for just thirty seconds to talk, after that short time the spirit touched her heart and she just started to cry and told us she knew the church is true and she is just tscared to leave her church after being a leader for twenty years. She is going to be baptized this saturday :) It truly is an amazing concept that after the trial of faith comes the miracle. ¨THE MIRACLES WILL COME ONCE WE HAVE BECOME WHAT THE LORD NEEDS US TO BE IN THAT MOMENT. Always remember that and keep moving forward :)

I love you all and cant thank you enough for your support to me while i am in the service of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know He lives and is here to bless us with miracles as long as we have faith in his name. Faith is an amazing concept that we should all study more! Ether 12 :) Love you all!

love,

Elder Stuart

Photos are taking a long time to send so I will try to send them later.

"Faith Leads to Power"

This week was amazing! We got to watch a broadcast with Elder Bednar who came and talked with all the missions in the South America South area! It was so cool to see and I learned so much! He taught us a lot about the Faith and how we can better apply it in our mission and in our lives and the lives of our investigators. He emphazied how faith leads to power. He taught us that in our prayers we could pray for hours and never recieve what we want becuase we are not acting. We need to act to recieve the power, we dont recieve the power to act. I loved it!! I have also seen this in the life of my investigators. Our investigator Matias taught me this same thing. The other day we were with him and he was talking to us and told us that whenever he wants to smoke he prays and then something comes to his mind that he has to do and it takes his mind off of it. That really is an example of what Elder Bednar taught us. Matias showed his faith by praying and then acting and has recieved a huge blessing and that is the ability to stop smoking. He is progressing so well and came to church again! We have his baptism set up for this week so i should be here because this is the last week before transfers and i think i will go! I am glad that he has made this decision to come closer to Christ and that I will be here and have been here to see the change that it has made in him. I love this work and i love this gospel. It is amazing what it does to the lives of anyone who will acept it. I know that the power of Prayer can help us accomplish anything we set our mind to. Just like in Moroni where we learn that anything we ask in prayer with faith believing that we will recieve (and act on that) we will recieve. I love prayer. It can help us so much and bring us closer to our father in heaven. I have seen how just a few simple prayers daily can change the life of someone, because it has changed me and brought me closer to my Father and Saviour as well. I love you all and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Stuart

Get Your Feet Wet!

Hola familia y amigos!

 

Well yesterday was Carnaval, a big festival here in Argentina and so none of the shops were open to use computers, so we get to write today!

This week was a little rough. Me and my comp have been working so hard with some great investigators, but they still dont come to church.... that makes me so sad because they cant recieve the blessings that the Lord has prepared for them. I was getting pretty down on myself for not having success with this for some weeks now, things seem to be slowing and investigators are dropping, and nobody is opening the door. We even were contacting one day, and two hours of nobody even opening the door!! The just didnt come, or opened the blinds and shook their finger. It was rough. BUT then i was reading the Story of the brother of Jared again, and how he emphanzises (did i spell that right hahaha) how success and miracles always come AFTER the test of our faith, also in Joshua were it talks about the israelites that are carrying the ark of the covenant and have to cross a river, they decided to just start walking and right as they get their feet wet the water splits and they are able to cross on dry ground. Moral of these stories is sometimes we have to get our feet wet before the miracles come. I know the Lord will bless each and everyone of us if we pressforward with faith. We saw this literally becuase after that really rough day, the next day was raining and Godoy is all dirt roads so it was all mud. I thought, well nobody is going to answer, lets just do some studies until the storm passes or something. THen i remembered. "Get your feet wet" this time it was literal. hahah we went out and the first door we knocked let us in and now we have three new investigators we are teaching. It was such a miracle.  The Lord knows us better than we do, he has his timing, just keep going, get your feet wet and see miracles.

I love this work. I have seen the Lord change peoples lives. I love you all and hope you have a great week, and go get your feet wet! .)

Love,

Elder Stuart

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?)

MTC Life

Hello everyone! I love P-days because i get to start my day off by going to the temple and there is nothing like the spirit you are able to feel there, if you go in with a question I can testify that you will get more out of the experience and be able to focus and pay attention better! Pay attention to every word because every word is said for a reason and it is amazing to see what you get out of all of it!

So something crazy happened! We knew our investigators are usually members, but Jared, was actually our teacher! we walked into class on friday and he was just sitting there with his little teacher badge, and started teaching us. It was so weird trying to get somebody to gain a testimony about the gospel, and then having them teach you and he has such a strong testimony so that is amazing! He also was taught by us so he knows what we need to do to improve so that has really helped! We still teach him though and he committed to Baptism!! even though he isn't a real investigator it was such a cool feeling!!

We also did this thing called Member TRC this week, where we went into this room with a member and we just taught them more about the gospel. Our guy was amazing this week! He had such a strong testimony and I learned so much from him. We taught him more about Faith and what we can do to show our faith and increase our faith. He committed to try and attend the temple more often so that was really cool!!!

So yesterday was Christmasversary!!! (or the 25th of the month) Because we don't get to celebrate many holidays while in the mtc we made this one up and a bunch of guys from our zone brought random white elephant gifts from things we found around the mtc, put it under this tree and sang Christmas songs. It was so much fun!! Our zone is always so much fun to be around and we have a great time together. 

This week i have learned a lot about the atonement, and what it can do for us, not only take away the burden of sin, but it can comfort us whenever we are in need of his comfort. I know that where ever we are in life we need to just keep making corrections and make our way back to the Savior through faith and love. It has been such a good week and i love hearing from all of you, sorry if i don't get to writing you, we dont have much time to write. Love you all so much!!

Con Amor

Elder Stuart

ps. the scripture section this week is Alma 26, we should all strive to have faith like Ammon does and a knowledge of God.