10 November 2015 - ATONEMENT

So this week has been kinda crazy. We went to the temple last week, had zone conference, and had interviews with Presdiente Markham and then this morning we had zone training. So we have been kinda all over the place. But the leaders in this mission are truly called of God. I have learned so much in the last week about how we need to be better. And especially today about how we really need to just love everyone and have charity. It has been amazing to just watch how this Gospel is changing my life but also the lives of others. And the other thing that really hit me is the power of the Atonement. We will never fully understand the Atonement in this life. But I know without a doubt that Jesus Christ loves us so much. And He will carry us through this life if we let him. We just need to seek and find Him in every single day. And with Him we will be able to do all things. We just need to make the Atonement personal. Each and every day. Just seek Christ in your life and you will find Him. His invitation is Come unto me. In Christ we can find peace and help with all things in this life. That has just really hit me this week. And it is something that I am really trying to work on. We did not have a baptism this last week... Juan Jose (our investigator) drank coffee last week but we are planning to baptism him this Sunday! And on Sunday in church we found another miracle. A member has a granddaughter that comes to church every week and she is 9 and has not been baptized! But she has the desire to be baptized! Her name is Kimberly and we have been working with her and are teaching her so that she can be baptized this Sunday too!!! What a miracle! Seriously we have seen so many the last couple of weeks and we can truly see the hand of the Lord in this work. Every single day. God lives and loves us. He helps us in all things. Just seek to find Him. That is my challenge for the week for each of you. Find Christ and Heavenly Father in your lives. It is amazing to see what they do. I love you all so much! And you are in my thoughts and prayers every day. Thank you so much for your support and prayers! Les amo mucho!!! Hermana Stewart

2 November 2015 - 2 Months

So today makes 2 months in the mission. Crazy! But it has just flown by. I am writing today because we get to go to the temple tomorrow for a zone pday!!! YAY!!! I am super excited... It will be a little different going to a session in Spanish but it should be really good. We have seen lots of miracles the last couple of weeks and we have found lots of new investigators that are going to be so good. We just need to make sure that we go back and have second visits because sometimes we struggle with that in trying to make all of our other goals for the week. But life is good. The fiambre that I wrote about in my big letter was gross and my stomach today is still a little quise and unsettled because of it but just got to continue on in the work. So next year I think that I will do whatever I can to avoid it. Because it was gross. But hey gotta try new things right??? My Spanish continues to improve every day and I am starting to understand a little more. Its difficult to have to pay so much attention to everything that is said every single day all day but thats what you have to do. We are going to have a baptism on Sunday!!! YAY!!! I wrote dad more about it but his name is Juan Jose and he is 9 and he is so excited. It is awesome. So ask dad for more details becuase I do not have a lot more time to write but I wanted to send you a letter. Hope that all is going really well and that you are enjoying the fall. I miss fall... it is still really hot here. So I feel like it is summer but it really is not it is November... kinda weird not being around for all of the holidays and festivites of home around this time of year. But its all good because I am where I need to be right now. Hopefully soon I will be able to more effectively communicate in Spanish and to really be able to teach because right now I feel like I am really inadeuqate and I repeat myself a lot. But it will come over time right? It is hard to though because we have so much going on that I almost never have language study so I can not really learn more through study because we do not have time. Like this week we had district meeting this morning. Tomorrow we are going to the temple, Wednesday we have zone conference and Friday we have interviews with Presidente so I do not get language study on those days and last weekk I only had it 2 times. But I will learn eventually... it is just going to take time and I just need to have patience and trust in the Lord. All things are possible with Him. Just need to remember that. Miss you and love you so so so much! Hermana Stewart

Pequeño milagros

Hola todos! This week has been good... hard but good. I feel super inadequate with the language but I know that it will come over time. I just need to keep working. We have seen some miracles this week. First off the last 2 Mondays we have visited members just out of promptings and being in the area and both times we have found new investigators in their houses! It is so crazy. One is the grandson of a member... his name is Juan Jose and the other is the grandpa of a recent convert and with this man he never comes out when we visit but he did yesterday. And he watched a video about the Restoration with us and he had lots of questions and comments and he commited to a baptism date! We hope that we will have atleast one baptism this week. We have an investigator named Carlos who is so ready and I know that he knows it is true but he is so hesitant to get baptized so hopefully this week it will happen! Just got to have faith and pray right? But yeah it has been so cool to see these things happen and to experience changes in peoples lives... Hopefully we can continue to find success and find lots more people to teach that are ready. This last week it has been hot here.... I feel like I am always sweating and I am so thankful that I am not in the Coast because it is so much warmer there... But apparently we are heading into the cold season here so we shall see. Fun fact about people in Guatemala... lots of people already have their Christmas trees up! And we think that anything before Thanksgiving is early.... but they do not have Thanksgiving here so its a little different. But it cracks me up and Hermana Wong is already singing Christmas hymns all the time so that is funny to me too. This Sunday is day of the dead here in Guatemala so it will be different to see what exactly they do for that holiday and to see if we can find and teach people... The food here is really good but I really can not eat big portions here... most meals consist of tortillas, beans and or rice, some kind of vegetable, and usually meat... mostly chicken because we are not really allowed to eat anything else. So its so funny because every meal I always have to ask for a little but Hermana Wong eats a lot so the members are always worried about me not eating enough but I really can not eat much. My ponderizing scripture for this week is 2 Nephi 25:26. And it reminds me a lot that all things we do should point to Christ and that on the mission we are doing his work and always always talking about Him and we need to center our lives in Him. So that is my focus for the week. Other then that I do not really have much more to say... Thank you for all your prayers and emails! Con amor, Hermana Stewart

EL CAMPO

Hola todos!!!! The last 2 weeks have been a little crazy. It is so hard to believe that I have already been in my first area for a whole week! My area is called Petapas and the people here are amazing. The people of Guatemala are so ready to hear the gospel and its crazy because we will just be street contacting and invite people to church and they always say yes. We have found lots of new investigadors (our mission has a goal of 16 per companionship every week) so that has been awesome and we will see where they all go. Spanish is super hard... I understand most lessons because I thats what we learned in the CCM but I no absolutley zero conversational Spanish so it is really hard to be able to get to know people. Also the people here speak really fast so it is hard to be able to follow since I do not know everything. My trainer aka my mom is Hermana Wong. She is from Costa Rica and she knows a lot of English which is so helpful for me to be able to ask her in English when I do not understand something. Presidente and Hermana Markham (our mission president and his wife) are amazing. I love them so much already and I know that they are called of God. Our mission is a no fear mission which means that we literally do all things to bring people unto Christ... and that includes bus contacting. That is quite the experiences standing up in front of a bus full of people and yelling a message and then going around and talking to them to get address to share messages another day. I understand almost nothing that they say to me so that is really hard but it is good. And I never would have imagined myself doing something like that before the mission. But as President Markham says contacting is a game. So we just have to play the game and talk to all people. Our district only has 4 people in it (2 companionships) and it is super funny because one of them is Elder Maw who was in my district in the CCM. I absolutely love it here. Yesterday it rained all day... and I mean all day... it never stopped so that was interesting... But it was super good. And it makes me so thankful for sun shine. The members here in Petapa are amazing. The ward missionaries or a member go out with us almost every single day and it has been so good to see them so involved in the work. Fun fact about Guatemala... all houses here have tile. So on Saturday we were doing service for a convert who is moving and we helped clean his house and what we did was we threw bleach and cleaner all over the floor and then dumped water everywhere and then swept all the water out of the house. It was super weird but also super fun... The food here is really good but people feed us HUGE portions and it is really hard for me to eat all of it but we have to otherwise people will get offended so that has been an adventure for me... All is going so well right now and I am so happy. I love you all and am so grateful for all of your prayers. I am truly in the work of the Lord and I am so happy. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live and love us more then we can ever imagine. I know that this Gospel is true with all of my heart and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and this Gospel is the way back to our Heavenly Father. I am so thankful for this knowledge in my life and I will be eternally grateful to all of those who have gone before me and done so much because they know that this gospel is true. Heavenly Father lives and loves us and he watches over us in all things. I can absolutely testify of that. Hope you all have an amazing week!!! Les amo mucho!!! Hermana Stewart

19 Oct 2015 Guatemala Guatemala City Central Mission

13 Oct 2015 Vamos al campos

We have made it to presidentes house. And tomorrow we will meet our trainers!!! I am so excited!!! This week is going to be tough but I am so ready to see all that will happen!!! Hope you all have an amazing week. Love you all! And I will write again next Tuesday! Con amor, Hermana Stewart

Last week in CCM

So in just one short week we will be heading our for the mission field! Seems so crazy but I am beyond excited about it!!! Because of leaving next week I may or may not actually write so don't panic if you don't hear anything from me next week. Conference this week was amazing!! I loved hearing from the prophets and apostles and just learning everything. The new apostles are amazing! I loved that 2 of them said that the gospel is proclaimed by the weak and simple because that is definitely me here. And I loved in Women's conference when Elder Uchtdorf said that "faith can turn your entire life around. Faith leads to hope and faith and hope give confidence that one day all will turn out how it is supposed to." That just really hit home to me. And on Sunday night we watched a devotional with Elder Holland and then had a devotional with Presidente Cox about it and it made me so excited to be heading out into the field next week. One of the things I loved from Elder Holland was that he said "Don't you dare turn tail and run, don't you dare abondon Him, Don't you dare run even when it is hard stand and defend and be true and let the Lord count on you. Don't you dare go home with a regret" It was just so powerful to hear and to just rededicate myself to the work and to make sure that I truly do everything that I can in the next year and a half to bring others unto Christ. And some of the things I loved from Presidente Cox were "There is no turning back! Never EVER turn back the Lord will not turn on us. Going home is not an option we came to finish. And you quit now you quit forever." They were all just so powerful and I know that there is so much more for me to do to be the best missionary possible and I am trying to be that with all my heart. 

So fun fact for the week... I learned some Kekchi yesterday. Kekchi is a Guatemalan language that is spoken here in Guatemala... mostly in the Cobon mission. So we learned yes which is eehe' and no which is inka'. And this language is so hard to understand and speak... but it is so cool to here. There are 7 elders here in the CCM that are learning Kekchi and they have to be here for 8 week which is crazy!!! I would not want to be here for that long! 

So I totally forgot about our experience last week and I totally would have forgotten about it if people hadn't asked me about it. But it was a super cool experience. We got to go into a market and it was super weird but also really cool to be out among people and the culture. I am definitely going to have a little bit of a culture shock next week but it will be good. And we did place a Book of Mormon to a mother and daughter and it was cool. The daughter wasn't really intrested so we didn't get any more information from them to send missionaries to them. But when we were leaving the mother hugged us and said that she hopes that wouldn't be the last time she saw us in this life so that was super interesting. But I am so excited for next week to be out among the people and to really be able to help them!!! Thats all for this week! Hope that all is going well with everyone! I love reading about how everyone is doing and what all is happening! Thank you so much for your prayers!!! 

Con amor,

Hermana Stewart