Nuestras Aflicciones Fueron Consumidas en el Gozo de Cristo

Hey Everyone!!!!!

So we started this new change by giving a capacitation in the zone about purifying ourselves.  We mentioned three important points that must exist in our missionary work in order for miracles to happen:  1. Exact Obedience  2. Pure Love  3. Diligent Work.   We are going to be focusing on these three principles this change in order to improve our efforts so that the Lord can work His miracles in each one of our areas.  This past week, we were blessed for following those 3 principles when we found a family contacting in the street.  It is a family that was listening to the missionaries many years ago but moved when they were about to get baptized and lost contact with the missionaries.  We taught them and they accepted a baptismal date for this coming month!  Only three of them were there for the lesson but apparently it is a family of 6.  During the week, we also had the opportunity to do some service for the first counselor of the ward.  We didnt know him too well up until this service project so it was great to be able to talk with him and gain more of his trust.  We dug out some land for him outside his house so that he could park his car a little closer and we were able to complete it and have a great coversation.  We are going to continue to look for service opportunities in the ward this week to get to know the members better and gain more of their trust.  On Friday, we went to Zumpango, a village that has a small branch and that doesnt have missionaries in it right now.  President Kusch and his wife came with us to get to know the members and the village.  It went really well and it sounds like the mission is finally going to get a bunch more missionaries this coming change so that we can open up Zumpango and other areas in the mission.  We also spent the day Saturday helping the sister missionaries from our zone move houses and later we found a lot of success contacting a street that we had always wanted to contact.  We are finding a lot fo families right now so we have a lot of work lined up for this next month.  I recently started reading the Book of Mormon again and have faound so much comfort and faith in the example of Nephi.  He was always so obedient but that obedience never excluded him from the trials and afflictions that he had.  His greatest afflictions were the wickedness and hard hearts of his brothers who would not follow the commandments of the Lord.  Sometimes I feel like Nephi when people dont come to church or when people lie to us about a second appointments or even when the members refuse to work and help out.  It can be frustrating at times but I have also recently found a lot of joy and comfort in the Atonement of Christ and in the knowledge that God has a plan and nothing will stop that perfect plan that He has.  With these weeks without baptizing, my companion and I have had to rely full on the merits of Christ to improve and have more faith.  Our afflictions, like the afflictions of Alma and the sons of Mosiah, have been consumed in the joy of the Redemption of Christ.  We are excited for this next week which we will spend in Cuernavaca doing a few capacitations with President Kusch.  Even though we wont be able to work to much in our area, I know its for our benefit and spiritual progress so that we can invite others to come unto Christ for our whole spiritual lives.  Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Elder Stutz

Hey Everyone!!!!!

So we started this new change by giving a capacitation in the zone about purifying ourselves.  We mentioned three important points that must exist in our missionary work in order for miracles to happen:  1. Exact Obedience  2. Pure Love  3. Diligent Work.   We are going to be focusing on these three principles this change in order to improve our efforts so that the Lord can work His miracles in each one of our areas.  This past week, we were blessed for following those 3 principles when we found a family contacting in the street.  It is a family that was listening to the missionaries many years ago but moved when they were about to get baptized and lost contact with the missionaries.  We taught them and they accepted a baptismal date for this coming month!  Only three of them were there for the lesson but apparently it is a family of 6.  During the week, we also had the opportunity to do some service for the first counselor of the ward.  We didnt know him too well up until this service project so it was great to be able to talk with him and gain more of his trust.  We dug out some land for him outside his house so that he could park his car a little closer and we were able to complete it and have a great coversation.  We are going to continue to look for service opportunities in the ward this week to get to know the members better and gain more of their trust.  On Friday, we went to Zumpango, a village that has a small branch and that doesnt have missionaries in it right now.  President Kusch and his wife came with us to get to know the members and the village.  It went really well and it sounds like the mission is finally going to get a bunch more missionaries this coming change so that we can open up Zumpango and other areas in the mission.  We also spent the day Saturday helping the sister missionaries from our zone move houses and later we found a lot of success contacting a street that we had always wanted to contact.  We are finding a lot fo families right now so we have a lot of work lined up for this next month.  I recently started reading the Book of Mormon again and have faound so much comfort and faith in the example of Nephi.  He was always so obedient but that obedience never excluded him from the trials and afflictions that he had.  His greatest afflictions were the wickedness and hard hearts of his brothers who would not follow the commandments of the Lord.  Sometimes I feel like Nephi when people dont come to church or when people lie to us about a second appointments or even when the members refuse to work and help out.  It can be frustrating at times but I have also recently found a lot of joy and comfort in the Atonement of Christ and in the knowledge that God has a plan and nothing will stop that perfect plan that He has.  With these weeks without baptizing, my companion and I have had to rely full on the merits of Christ to improve and have more faith.  Our afflictions, like the afflictions of Alma and the sons of Mosiah, have been consumed in the joy of the Redemption of Christ.  We are excited for this next week which we will spend in Cuernavaca doing a few capacitations with President Kusch.  Even though we wont be able to work to much in our area, I know its for our benefit and spiritual progress so that we can invite others to come unto Christ for our whole spiritual lives.  Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!!

Elder Stutz

Trabajaremos Mientras Dure Lo Que Es Llamado Hoy

Hey Everyone!

So it looks I will have a couple minutes to write in between all the changes that are going on in the zone.  My companion and I are staying for another change and there were only a few changes in the whole zone.  We are excited for them because we now have a great group of elders and sisters.  Last week I was able to do divisions with my district leader in his area.  His name is Elder Boyack and he is going home in 2 days.  So I was able to work with him in his last week of the mission.  I learned a lot from him, we talked quite a bit about the mission and our thoughts toward it.  He served an excellent two years and he actually reminds me a lot fo myself.  But we did have a great experience while contacting in his area.  We werent having much success but we came to a door and decided to knock it.  A man came out and told us that he didnt have time to listen to us.  We explained the importance of our message and he told us that his 20 year old nephew had just been shot in Cuernavaca the day before.  The family was there in the house mourning and beginning to plan out the funeral and police investigations.  We shared brief testimonies of the plan of salvation there at their doorstep and he decided to let us in to talk to the whole family.  We were able to share a scripture about where their loved one is right now and talk a little of that marvelous plan that God has for us.  The spirit was so strong and the family loved the message and how they felt during it. I sure do appreciate the knowledge we have that we lived before this life, that we have a specific purpose in this life, and that their is a better life waiting for us after death.  Even though terrible things happen in todays world that dont seem fair, God is a just God and He has perfect purposes for the things that happen in these days.  My companion and I also had a successful contact when I was looking for a shoe repair man to fix my scriptures with some strong glue.  We went to a place near our house and started talking to the repair man and he did the job for free and asked us to come back to teach him.  When we taught him he shared a lot of things that have happened in his past that were very unfair to him.  At the end of the lesson, he prayed and began to cry and offered up such a sweet prayer.  He wants to better his relationship with God and we are going to help him out.  We also had the chance to go to one of the closed areas in our zone and teach a couple references of the members.  The cool part about it was that we got there and the whole branch council was waiting for us and all of them came to the appointments with us.  Each of them bore their simple but strong testimonies in those lessons and it was so powerful.  I think that if every ward council did things like that, the church would grow so much faster in the whole world.  We have one investigator progressing really well right now.  Her name is Diana and she is 17.  She lives with her boyfriend and they now have a date to be married.  Diana, and her boyfriend, are going to get married in a little more than a month.  But she is so ready and has come so far.  As she has read the Book of Mormon, prayed, and come to church, she has developed such a strong faith in Jesus Christ and now she wants to follow his example by being baptized.  We are really excited for her!  Sunday was a very busy day for us as well.  We both had the opportunity to speak in sacrament meeting, teach the gospel principles class and teach the elders quorom.  That has happened a lot on the mission because a lot of the leadership here in Mexico is made up of recent converts that are still learning.  So they often ask us to train them and help them out with the lessons.  We do it so willingly and I am just so grateful for the things I lerarned about the priesthood in my wards before the mission that have certainly prepared me to help these men fulfill and magnify their callings.  Elder Quinnelly talked about charity in sacrament meeting and I talked on the joy of rescuing.  One thing I shared is the vision of the tree of life that Lehi saw.  In that story in the Book of Mormon, Lehi sees many different groups of people.  One group gets to the tree, tastes of the fruit, then gets embarrased because of the world and gets lost in forbidden paths.  The other group gets to the tree and STAYS there to the end.  It is written of this group that they heeded not the mockings of the world.  In order for us to not pay attention to the mockings of the world, we need to be busy working!!!!  If we do nothing, eventually we will heed to that great and spacious building and be lost.  That is why service is such a huge part in enduring to the end.  We must work everyday rescuing our brothers and sisters that have lost their way or who have not yet come to know of the sweet taste of the fruit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We will find so much joy by doing so and I know that our happiness with those souls will be much greater than the sacrifice we put forth.  Love you all and hope everyone has a great week!!   

El Señor Nos Fortaleció

Hey Everyone,

Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer!  I miss you all so much!  Elder Quinnelly and I worked very hard this past week.  We are in our process of purifying ourselves by being exactly obedient and improving our teaching skills so that we can be better and more worthy instruments in the Lord´s hands.  It is going well and I know we will see the blessings soon.  We found quite a few new investigators this past week through contacting and family home evenings.  Unfortunately, Arturo´s baptism fell through and we are not sure right now if he will get baptized soon or not.  It is a little frustrating because he knows its true and likes everything about the church but I think he is just going through a tough time right now and needs some time to think and pray.  Hopefully he will get baptized this week!  Yesterday we had kind of a tough day.  Both my comp and I were sick to our stomachs and not very many people came to church.  One challenge of the mission for me has always been sacrament meeting.  Before the mission, sacrament meeting was always the break I needed after a full week of school and work.  I always felt like I could just breathe and enjoy that hour in my week, every week.  That hour is a little different in the mission.  After inviting about 50 people to church, every Sunday we are anxious to see who will show up.  A few show up sometimes but for me, sacrament meeting has always been a disappointing time as I have thought about all the people who were missing the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and receive blessings.  Yesterday was no exception.  We had just one investigator show up after having invited 50+ people.  I was feeling pretty down, especially because most of the members werent there either.  During the sacrament I prayed for comfort, I prayed for the Lord to accept the sacrifice I had given during the week even though it didnt bring about very many fruits.  I received an answer to that prayer and felt an overwhelming feeling of peace come over me.  I am grateful to be able to serve the Lord 24/7 right now during this time in my life.  I am learning so much.  I want these people to be baptized because I want to be with them in heaven after this life.  I know that we can make a difference in other people´s lives as we serve them.  As we serve others, we too will progress and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.  I know He lives and that He loves us.  I love all of you and hope that we can all come unto to Christ everyday thorugh prayer and scripture study.  Hope everyone has a great week!!!!

Love

Elder Stutz

Santificaos

Hey guys

We had quite the busy week last week, working mostly outside our area.  I started the week doing divisions with Elder Holmes, an elder I would play a lot of bball with in the MTC.  He is a district leader in the zone so I went to his area to teach and learn.  He has put together a cool member plan that deals with doing family home evenings with the members.  I have always wanted to create an effective plan like the one he has made up to help the members complete their responsibility of sharing the Gospel with everyone.  It is a competition within the ward that Elder Quinnelly and I started yesterday at church.  What happens is, we go to the members house and write down the names of everyone they know that arent members.  Then we set up a family home evening so that thwey can pray and invite 3 of the families to come.  They get points for having the family night, inviting the people, and taking them to church later on.  It is fun because the members get competitive and we get to teach a lot more people.  So our goal is to do a family night with each family in the ward every 3 weeks so that they can continue inviting all the people they know.  We are excited for it and think that we will have more success in the missionary work and the members will progress more spiritually at the same time. (family, you should try this program out in our home, I promise you tons of blessings if you do so!!!!!!)  We also did a lot of baptismal interviews throughout the week because the zone baptized quite a few.  I always love doing those interviews because I basically get to hear the testimony and the conversion story of the people.  They always express how grateful they are for the elders that taught them and it always gives me more energy to go out and work to find these people that are looking for the truth.  We also had a stake 4th of July party which was kind of funny.  The only people that went were the missionaries and the few members in the stake that speak english but it was so nice of the stake to do the party and program for us as american missionaries.  They read the declaration of independance and also did some special musical numbers while us missionaries sang the national anthem and my country tis of thee.  This week, we also had our multi zone conference with President Kusch and his wife.  We were there with Iguala so I got to see Elder Cornejo and Pearson and a lot of other elders I know so it was a cool reunion.  I loved the conference, especially when President told us about planning for the future.  He told us that we can never plan the callings we will recieve in the church or other things that happen in our life, but we can plan how we act today so that we can have the companionship of the Holy Ghost to guide us toward the future that the Lord has planned for us.  That comment gave me a lot of comfort and strength to continue to focus on the mission and try my best everyday to be guided by the Spirit.  After the conference, the asistants, Edler Quinnelly and I went out to lunch with President Kusch and his wife.  We talked about a lot of stuff and more than anything got to know eachother better.  I really love them both and look forward to working side by side with them in this great work.  We finished the week by spending the whole day Saturday traveling and doing interviews in a smal village in the mountains called Chacalapa.  It is about 3 hours from our area and we spent a lot of time waiting for the interviews.  But it was all worth it because the couple we interviewed was truly converted and they have the goal to go to the temple in a year.  Even though they didnt even have money to buy shoes for themselves or for their kids, they are willing to sacrifice money every Sunday to travel to the chapel 1 and a half hours aways from their house.  They are truly amazing.  We got blessed by the Lord as well for all the service we did outside our area.  We are going to baptize a 19 year old named Arturo this week who is excited about the church right now.  He has started coming to our house every morning to study english because he wants to learn.  We teach him english through the book of mormon and the Liahona magazines.  So we teach him english and the Gospel at the same time.  I really enjoy it and I hope he can go on a mission someday as well.  We also just started teaching his family and his english teacher too so there are a lot of possible baptisms from them.  They are a great family and Arturo, his dad, and english teacher came to church on Sunday.  Right now, I am in the process of sanctifying myself completely so that I am always worthy of the gift of the Holy Ghost because that is so crucial in the work.  I am eliminating everything in my life that would drive the Spirit away so I am looking forward to these next few weeks of being guided by the Spirit.  Love you all and hope all is well!!!! 

Por la Sangre del Cordero

Hey Guys!

We had quite an eventful week!  It started with us trying to have some fun in our district meetings and trying to excite our missionaries a little bit in the zone.  There were two areas that completed their baptism goal from last month.  So when they were at the chalkboard writing down there numbers from the past week, my comp and I whipped out some water guns and straight up soaked them!  It was pretty fun and the elders got a good laugh from it.  But now everyone is scared to complete their goals because we might soak them haha.  We also had our ward mission activity this past week.  We did a food competition of pozole and desserts.  About 50 people came that were members and investigators so it was an alright turn out.  We had a lot of fun though as the bishop and a few other brothers from the ward judged the food and we made prizes for the winners.  We bought a muffin and a bowl and spray painted them gold and gave them out at the competition.  The best part was definitely eating the pozole because I am a huge fan of it.  The sisters brought pozole of all varieties like white, green, chicken, pork, shrimp, etc.  SOOOOO GOOOD!!  So it turned out real fun and I think the ward liked it.  The next day we woke up at 2:00AM to go to Cuernavaca to recieve our new mission president.  His name is President Kusch and he is a great guy!!!  We had a counsel of zone leaders with him and we all felt the Spirit so strong and I know he was called of God to lead this mission at this time.  He and his wife have so much energy and both are ready to help us fulfill our purpose as missionaries of the Lord.  He is just barely getting back to speaking spanish after 40 years ago serving in Guatemala and his wife doesnt know any spanish.  But she will be given the gift of tongues as well!!  After spending these few hours with the president, I already feel like he is one of my best friends.  He is so humble and I feel like we will become great friends this next year.  That night we got back just in time to have Albertos baptism which turned out pretty good.  No members showed up apart from Alma and Andrea (the ones that got baptized a week ago), but luckily the other ward was having an activity so we invited a few of them to come in so they could support Alberto.  He asked me to baptize him and I am so excited for him and the future he has ahead of him.  I hope and pray that he will have the opportunity to serve a mission one day!  I really enjoyed one thing I studied this past week.  I have recently been studying a lot about the pre earth life.  I love the scripture in Revelations 12:11 which says that we won the war in heaven against Satan with the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.  That is how we kept our first estate as described in Abraham.  So how do we keep our second estate in order to make it back to the presence of our Heavenly Father??  We must gain OUR OWN testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and utilize the Atoning blood that Christ spilt for us on a daily basis.  We do so by being baptized and recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost (exactly what Alberto did this past week) and then continue repenting everyday through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  By the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, we can defeat Satan in the daily battles we have and one day, we will ultimately win the war and gain eternal life with our families.  I, like Alma in the Book of Mormon, glory in the work that God does through us here on the earth.  When one of His children, like Alberto, comes unto Christ and I have the opportunity to witness it, I remember my own conversion and the prayers that have been answered by my Heavenly Father (Alma 29:10).  I love this work and look forward to working hard this week to help these people change thier lives for the better.  Love you all, have a fantastic week!

Elder Stutz