Discípulos en la Familia

Wow!  What a great conference week!  We sent off the sister missionaries from Centro ward this past monday and went to clean out their house and pay the rent.  After these activities we went to Cuernavaca for our council with President Kusch and the other zone leaders.  We talked about priesthood keys and how we can build Zion in the Cuernavaca mission.  We are excited to teach the elders later today about how we can build up Zion in this part of the world as missionaries so that they can be more successful and happy in and after the mission.  Upon or return to Chilpancingo we started teaching a man that had recieved a few of the lessons from other elders.  His name is Antonio and he was so prepared by the Lord before we met him.  He lives in the Centro ward and after just a couple meetings with him, we found he was ready to be baptized that saturday.  We held the service after the first session of conference and the Spirit was so strong.  Since all the elders were there in the stake center watching conference, about 16 of us were in the service and we sang a special musical number for Antonio.  He was so happy that day and I know he will become a great leader in the church because he has made so many changes in his life to obey the commandments.  He is truly converted.  We were happy to hear that the minimum missionary age was lowered because that means that so many more young men and women will be joining the ranks in the near future.  We will certainly need more missionaries in the field with the Gospel spreading so much and with large countries that I assume will soon be opened up to proselyting soon.  I encourage all the women especially to make that decision a matter of prayer so that the Lord can let you know by the Spirit if He would have you serve in that way in your life or no.  I know that Heavenly Father always answers our prayers.  I had a fun experience at the beginning of the priesthood session.  We got to the church to watch it and learned that the satelite was not working and we were not getting the feed.  The stake president asked me to call Salt Lake to figure out what was going on.  While I was on hold, the elders in the zone offered up a prayer in one of the rooms that we would be able to fix the problem and that the feed would start going through in 5 minutes.  After the prayer, the call went through and I was able to work with a tech guy and translate to the stake leaders to fix the problem.  Within 5 minutes, the feed came back and we watched the rest of the session.  Sometimes, we are scared to pray for very specific blessings, but its only through specific prayers that we can receive the most important blessings in our life.  I felt so inspired by the talks given this weekend.  The two themes that stuck in my mind were the importance of spending time with the family doing wholesome things and being a true disciple of Christ forever.  I know that I must become a dedicated disciple of Christ during these two years so that I will never leave His side for the rest of eternity.  Love you all and wish everyone a great week.

Elder Stutz       

El Enseñar es la Esencia de Liderazgo

Hey everyone!

Well i apologize again for not sending more pictures, I have so many to send still but I have yet to find a good computer to be able to send them haha.  We got our soccer jerseys that we custom made for the zone and they turned out awesome!!!!  The elders really liked them and we are going to go play soccer today in them.  We continue to visit the members very frequently and currently, we are eating with a lot of sisters from the ward that we had eaten with before.  So we are getting to know the members better everyday.  We were able to meet the last bishop better when we ate and his house last week.  He is a great guy and we learned that his wife got baptized right before they got married.  She is the only member in her family of several brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces.  We are working with them to start teaching them.  We also went with the second conselor of the elders quorom this past week to visit some inactives.  It went really well and we found two families to teach while we were out visiting with him.  Both families are in really tough economic situations and live in very humble conditions.  We will see if they put their trust in the Lord by making sacrifices to recieve blessings.  One family has already accepted a baptismal date for the end of the month so we are excited for them.  They have the cutest kids too that want to learn more about Jesus Christ.  We continue to teach Ariana and Ignacio, the couple that is planning on getting married soon so that Ariana can get baptized.  She continues to progress well and we are excited for her.  They are planning out their wedding right now so we should be able to have the baptism in a couple weeks.  Dulce and Laura, the two college girls we are teaching are also progressing toward baptism for either this week or the next.  We also had more special changes in the zone this past week.  One elder got here to be in a trio and the sister missionaries are getting changed out today.  So Elder Quinnelly and I are going to help the investigators that they had get baptized.  It sounds like there will be like 4 or 5 from that ward in the next couple weeks.  So we are excited for all these people and the changes they are making in their lives for the better.  We had the opportunity to go with some priesthood leaders to eat corn on the cob in a little cabin that is basically a man hang out for the priesthood leaders here haha.  It was good to get to know the leaders better and get more of their confidence.  And the corn was super delicious!!!  I was feeling pretty mexican eating the corn with the mayonnaise and cheese on it, talking and making jokes with all the guys haha.  We had interviews this past week with President Kusch and I really enjoyed mine.  He complimented on my work, sacrifice, and dedication.  I talked to him about how I could become a better leader.  He told me that the essence of leadership is being a great teacher.  He said that the greatest leaders he has ever met are amazing teachers.  So right now I am working on becoming a better teacher and I know the things I am learning and applying now will help me for the rest of my life in my family, work, and in the church.  The work is going well and I have been able to see, especially in this area, that those who obey the commandments are blessed in every way of their lives.  Those that obey some of the commandments lose many blessings for them and for their family.  I invite all to obey ALL the commandments of God, for they are for our physical and spiritual well being.  Love you all

Elder Stutz

La Caridad: El Amor Puro de Cristo

Another eventful week here in Chilpancingo.  Today, we spent the WHOLE day in a bus going to and from Cuernavaca.  Elder Cangahaula got special changes to Cuernavaca so now its just Elder Quinnelly and I again.  We had a lot of fun with Elder Cangahuala and I think he learned a lot from us.  He brought a new energy into the companionship that we are going to try to keep up. We did divisions to start the week with Zumpango.  I went to Zumpango with Elder Jimenez and we had a lot of success.  A bunch of people accepted baptismal date and we were feeling the Spirit strong in the lessons.  Afterwards, we had another conference with President Kusch here in Chilpancingo.  He and the assistants taught us about spiritual planning and being worthy to have the Spirit with us always.  After the conference, we did divisions with the assistants.  I stayed in our area with Elder Forrest and Elder Cangahuala.  Elder Forrest was in my leadership class at BYU first semester so we know each other pretty well.  He was also in the MTC when I had just got there and we had fun dueling it out in bball there.  So it was fun to catch up with him and to also get some tips from him on how we can improve our teaching skills.  On Saturday, we had our bbq with the young men and young single adults.  None of the leaders showed up so we had to go buy everything for it but it turned out pretty well.  Not many of the young men showed up but a few young single adults did and we were able to talk to them a little bit about the blessings of going on a mission.  There are a few in the ward right now that are trying to decide to go or not.  We are trying to motivate them by having them come with us to appointments and baptisms.  That is something that helped me a bunch when I would go with the elders like Elder Burton, Elder White, Elder Rasmussen, Elder Da Silva, etc.  I love those guys so much and I hope to be a similar example for the young men here.  We have 2 possible baptisms this next week.  Dulce and Laura are two young girls that are studying college here in Chilpo but are from other cities or villages here in Guerrero.  They have shown a lot of desires to be baptized, we just need to teach them a little more and they will be ready.  We did a special fast with Laura last week so that she could get accepted into a school.  Things didnt work out exactly how she wanted but she was able to enter into a course that, if she passes, she can get into the university.  We are going to help them this week so that they can get baptized soon.  Also, we are teaching a part member couple that is really nice.  They are both like 23 years old, the guy is a member that is just getting active again and the girl is not a member but wants to get baptized.  She has loved coming to church and she loves the emphasis we put on eternal families because she is 6 months pregnant.  They are planning on getting married soon so that she can get baptized and so that they can later be sealed as an eternal family in the temple.  She has been pretty sick because of the pregnancy so on Sunday in church we gave her a blessing and she enjoyed that and felt a little better leaving the church.  After being in this country so many months, working so much with the Mexican people, I have come to develop such a love for them.  It is sad a lot of the time to see the terrible poverty, wickedness, etc. that is so common in this culture and also in so many cultures in the whole world.  But I love this people so much and the gift of charity that I have been blessed with motivates me everyday to go out in the hot sun, climb a mountain, and do everything I can to help these people find true joy and happiness through Christ and His healing power.  This work is my joy!

Elder Stutz   

¡Viva México!

Hey Guys

Everything is good here in Mexico!  We continue to work and we continue to see the blessings of our labors.  Last Monday we organized volleyball for the zone and almost all the missionaries came.  It was a blast and we were able to bond as a zone.  It reminded me of fun times with friends and family playing volleyball outside on the baseball field´s grass.  We also had the opportunity to visit Alma, the convert, again in her home and talk with her about her progress in the Gospel.  She commented to us that she had read Lehi´s dream in the Book of Mormon and was deeply touched by its message of enduring to the end and sharing the Gospel with others.  She talked about the desire that Lehi had to share the fruit with his family but Laman and Lemuel did not accept.  She compared this story to her own life because she continues to invite her family to come to church with her and get baptized but up till now, they have not accepted.  But the good thing is that she understands that it will come with time and patience.  She has such a strong testimony of the Gospel and she continues to hold fast to the iron rod.  Roberto, our recently activated friend, came to do divisions with us this past week.  He and I went to go visit some of his friends to invite them to listen to our message.  It was a sad but also special experience to see him invite several family members and friends that he has to listen to our message and to hear all of them decline the offer.  The special part about it was that he never got discouraged, we continue to invite.  His testimony has been strengthened so much and he is learning to overcome the bad examples of friends and family in his lfie.  He is a great guy and I am so grateful to have been part of his recent conversion.  We also had a baptism this past week!!!  Zuley, a nine year old girl from the primary, wasnt baptized because her mom is inactive.  We went with them this past week and Zuley told us she wanted to be baptized.  We taught her all week and on Sunday she was baptized and I confirmed her a few minutes later in sacrament meeting.  She is such an example, like many young kids, of willingness to follow Christ and do everything to keep His commandments.  I think the baptism got the ward pretty excited so we are pumped for the following weeks to receive references and continue to work with these great members.  We also had a great activity on Saturday to celebrate the independence of Mexico.  A ton of people came and we received a few references from it.  Us three did a special number as we sung a tradicional song from Acapulco.  We totally butchered it but it gave the people a good laugh!  Right now we are teaching a 19 year old girl named Laura who is progressing really well.  She has gone to church twice and is living with members right now.  I will have an update next week on her but she is planning on getting baptized in 2 weeks!  I love this work and know its the Lords work!  Hope everyone enjoys their week!

Elder Stutz

La Tristeza Produce Arrepentimiento Para Salvación

Hey!!!

We had a pretty eventful week again.  Special changes have become more common than regular changes for me!  This past week we got a new companion!  Elder Quinnelly and I are now training a new elder that just got here from Peru.  His name is Elder Cangahuala and he served about 4 months in Peru waiting for his visa.  He is super cool and we like having him in the companionship.  He is a short little guy and he is funny and humble.  Ill send a pic next week!  Last Monday I had the opportunity to teach a little bit in another district meeting in our zone.  Elder Crook, the district leader, asked me to teach his district what I taught him in divisions about having our own sacred grove in the mornings.  The idea comes from a talk by Elder Kikuchi and I taught them that every morning they must follow the morning schedule and before they study, they should find a quiet, peaceful place to pour their soul out to the Lord.  The purpose of this daily habit is to develop a stronger relationship with God, resolve problems or worries we have daily, and to receive specific revelation to fix those problems and worries.  It is a principle that has changed my life completely since I started over a year ago.  I testified to those elders that if they made it a habit, that they would recieve more power in the priesthood and that their mission would become a springboard of spirtual progression for their lives.  I also invite all of you to do so as well every morning and I promise that you will be happier on a daily basis and that you will develop a stronger relationship with God.  At the beginning of the week, we found a drunk in the street that talk to us for a little bit, we learned that he is a member and that he is the patriarchs son.  Because of alcohol, his life has been destroyed but he wants to change.  We went to his house and met his girlfriend and her daughter.  She seems super interested in the Church and we have started to teach her.  She wants him to change as well because they do not have peace in their family.  We sang I am a Child of God to them and the brother cried.  The daughter loved the song and she is such a cute little girl.  We hope that they can come unto Christ as a family to experience healing and peace in their home.  This past week we also went to Cuernavaca for our council with President Kusch.  We talked about new rules of the mission and also about the way to do missionary work.  We are now not allowed to contact doors or contact people in the street.  Everything we do now has to be with the members.  President promised us with this new way to work and this new focus on the members that we will have more baptisms, more active members, more temple attendence of the members, and more overall growth in the church in Mexcio.  We are excited for it and we have already begun to see the fruits of it in our ward, Heroico.  We had ward council last night and we planned a bunch of activities and set goals so that the members give us work to do.  Their attitude will slowly start to change about the missionary work and I am confident that we will be able to work more alongside the members in this great work.  We also had the opportunity to meet with the stake president of Chilpancingo again, President Torres.  He is such a great man and a great leader.  We are working with him to get the stake excited about this new focus on member missionary work.  He has taught me how to be a Christ-like leader and how to do things the Lords way with a humble willingness to do His will.  We continue to work with a few investigators but none of them came to church this week.  We are struggling to help these people progress toward baptism and we will be looking for revelation this week to improve our efforts.  This morning I read a scripture that I liked a lot that talks about feelings that I have pretty often.  In 2 Corithians 7:10, it talks about how godly sorrow helps us repent and ultimately reach eternal life.  I have felt that godly sorrow often in the mission as I constantly see children of God choose the other path and choose to suffer instead of enjoy eternal blessings.  Every Sunday I experience feelings of sorrow for all the pèople that chose not to come and partake of the sacrament.  Those feelings have helped me come unto Christ.  Those feelings motivated me to make goals and plans for during and after the mission so that I always choose the right path, so that I do not have to suffer as these people suffer for their decisions.  I am grateful for the trials and experiences that Heavenly Father has given me because I have been able to grow in the Gospel.  I love Him and strive to please Him in my daily service.  I love all you guys as well and I am so grateful for all the Lord has taught me through loved ones in my life.  Have a great week!!!

Elder Stutz

       

photos

Rendiré Mi Corazón

Hey Guys!

The weeks are just flying by these days, I feel like I was just writing home yesterday.  We had a pretty productive week and we are being blessed right now in our area.  My companion and I learned on Saturday that we will be staying another 6 weeks in our area and  there were only 3 changes in the whole zone.  So we are excited to work with almost the same group of elders and sisters this change.  They are great missionaries and we are learning so much together about working with the members to have real growth in the church in Chilpancingo.  Elder Quinnelly and I were able to give service to some members this past week and visit quite a few less actives.  We are trying to help the ward activate those who have been lost and we have faith that we will find baptisms along the way.  Our elders quorum president, who is a recent convert from Feburary, gave us a reference of his best friend.  He is his neighbor and he has 7 kids!!!  So its a huge family!  I got to teach them when we did divisions with the brothers in the ward and I felt such a sweet spirit in their humble little home as I taught them of Joseph Smith, prophets and baptism.  They accepted baptismal date and are excited to prepare to be baptized.  I fasted for them this weekend and was disappointed when they didn't come to church on Sunday.  The elders quorum pres didn't come either so something must have happened but we were blessed in a different way at church.  None of our investigators showed up but a couple of the less actives that we visited did and also two friends of members showed up for the first time.  They seem interested and we are going to start to teach them this week.  Roberto, the taxi driver that we helped get active again, told us this week that he wants to go out preaching with us two times a week and he is preparing to receive the Melchizedek priesthood!  He wants to find an eternal companion at church to marry in the temple!!!!  He also bore his testimony on Sunday about tithing.  He said that when he started going to church 2 months ago he decided to give tithing a try because he was super poor.  He told us that the day he gave his first tithing, a person told him to take him all the way to Mexico City in his taxi!  He made bank and knew it was a blessing from the Lord.  I lvoe that guy and know he will be successful in his righteous goals and desires.  We are excited to continue to work here and we are going to baptize a family this change!!!  Lvoe you all and I know this work is true.  Thank you for all the constant thoughts and prayers.

Elder Stutz