Ve, Tu Fe Te Ha Salvado

Hey everyone!!

Hope everyone enjoyed their week! We are hanging in here with the summer heat of Iguala. I'll start with some great news we recieved this past week. Brother David Ruiz, he is the young man that would go with us to appointments and that would chill with us on pdays, finally got his mission call and he is headed to Cali, Columbia mission. He is super stoked an we are super proud of him. He reminds me a lot of myself before the mission when I always wanted to go with the elders to their lessons. If you guys remember a couple weeks back Kareli got baptized and it reactivated her family in the church. Her brother just turned 12 and despite some mental illnesses he has, he was able to recieve the Aaronic priesthood on Sunday and passed the sacrament! He did a great job and he looked so happy while doing it. We actually went to Karelis house during the week to give her pictures from her baptism. She made a comment that really moved me. She looked at the photo and said, 'wow, you guys are glowing with light in this picture. I am going to draw some wings on you guys because you are our family´s angels.' We laughed about it but it really made me feel good inside to know that we are helping families come closer to Christ, be more united, and be happier for all eternity. We continue to work a ton with the members here in the ward. We are trying to do multiple family home evenings every day so we can meet the members friends and help them help their friends come unto Christ. We know that by doing this, more people will be able to be baptized and those people will have a better chance to stay active because they will already have great friends in the church. We worked a lot with a couple this past week that is going to get married this week and the wife will get baptized. We have helped them developed faith in Jesus Christ to make the decision. They had a ton of doubts at first but then after finally praying together, they were able to get an answer that it is the right decision. I know that the majority of people will always have doubts when it comes to big and righteous choices. Many people listen to those voices of the world and then think its impossible to do what is right in this moment. But those who have faith in Christ, do things immediately. They act on their faith and trust in the Lord. That is the difference between the righteous and the wicked in these days, faith. We can either wait to do what is right (procrastination) or we can make a decision and act, knowing that the Lord will provide the way. Those that act with faith, will be much happier than those that do not. I have seen it countless times here in Mexico and know it is true. Hope everyone has a great week! Destroy all your doubts with faith!!!!!!

Love

Elder Stutz

No Está Aquí, Sino Que Ha Resucitado

Hey Guys

Happy Easter yesterday! Hope everyone is doing good and enjoyed spring break! We had quite a busy week last week. We continue to work a lot with the less actives. We had a great experience with a return missionary that went through a lot of trials after the mission. We had a great lesson with him on repentance and forgiveness and he cried uncontrolably as we testified of the healing power of the Atonement. He is one of my best friends in Mexico already and he will be back to church in no time. Most of our efforts were focused on our baptisms and confirmations. On Saturday, we had the baptism of Sara and also another baptism of a 12 year old girl named Itzani. Her family is an inactive family that stopped going to church when her single mother got really sick. They never came back in those 6 years but when we found them this week, they felt the need to return. We worked with them all week to prepare Itzani for baptism on Saturday and she chose to do so with so much faith. Sara also showed great faith throughout the week. She is very smart so she always had a lot of really good doubts when we were teaching her. She would always express the doubts to us and act really unsure about everything but then, suddenly, she would remember her faith in Jesus Christ and follow what her heart was feeling. This actually happened minutes before her baptism. Her best member friend, who lives in another ward, actually told her the night before not to get baptized if she had doubts. So she wasnt planning on doing it and her freind figured she wouldnt do it. But a really awesome miracle happened when the time of her baptism arrived. She showed up at the church in her white clothes. She didnt feel good at all and started to express her doubts to us again. After she did so, we asked her 'So if you dont think you are ready to be baptized, why did you show up in all white clothes?' With that question she began to cry a little and we asked her what her heart felt about her decision to be baptized. With tears in her eyes she told us that her heart felt like she needed to be baptized and that she was going to it. We were so excited! We slapped some high fives then said a prayer and started the service. In that service, we also had 3 kids from the other ward get baptized. So it was a service of 5 people getting baptized and a lot of people went. It was a very happy occasion, especially with the kids that had beaming smiles, so excited to get baptized. I was so happy during the service and afterward when ate some cake to celebrate. Even after we had left to continue working I continued to feel a strong burning in my heart after seeing all those people get baptized. I know it was the Spirit testifying to me that those people made the right decision and that I too made the right decision to serve a mission and help others come unto Christ. Sunday was a great day as well as we witnessed the confirmations of Sara, Itzani, and Kareli (that got baptized last week).

The title of my email this week focuses in on the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ. That so simple phrase has changed many lives that have followed the example of Jesus Christ. That phrase tells us that Christ has power over death, both spiritual and physical. That phrase reminds us that He has made a promise with us that if we follow His teachings, we too will be able to live forever in His presence with our families. That phrase teaches us that all things are possible when we have faith in Him and act on that faith. As one of His representatives, I testify that He lives. I testify that His church along with its saving ordinances are on the earth today. I testify that each person that reads this email can feel of the love the Savior has for each one of you personally and that He can heal you and fix the negative things in your life through living His Gospel. I know these things for myself because I have lived it. I have prayed to know that they are true. I have recieved answers from those prayers. I have also felt the relieving feeling that comes from being baptized and living a life of obedience, which makes us happier. I love each one of you and appreciate you for your thoughts, letters, and prayers.

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Stutz

¿Qué Piensa Cristo de mi?

Hey Guys!!!

WOW!! Crazy, crazy week! If you thought getting special changes twice was impossible, you were wrong. I just found out that President has a special assignment for me. Apparently there is an island off the coast of Acapulco that has very few people on it. The church isnt there yet but me and another elder (not sure who yet) are going to start preaching there and start up a branch!! I leave tomorrow and have no idea what to think. I am going to miss this area so much and I am super nervous for this assignment!!

Alright, the april fools joke is over. We had a pretty great week this week! We are still teaching this lady named Sara and she is progressing well. She told us during the week that when she went to church she was feeling super stressed because of her financial situaion and other things. she said she was not enjoying church at all and had a huge headache due to these stresses. But she said that when they started passing around the sacrament that she felt a small feeling of peace and that when she took the bread, her headache left and she felt the Spirit. She also went to conference this weekend and is getting ready to be baptized this saturday. She is such a nice lady and will be a great member of the church! We also had a batism this week!! Very unexpected but miracles happen. We visited a less-active family on Thursday. We got to know them and realized that their 9 year old daughter hadnt gotten baptized. So we taught her and she accepted to be baptized. We set up the baptism for Saturday and planned everything real fast. The real miracle was that her baptism has brought her family back together. The parents had been separated for awhile and had a rough relationship between them two. The dad is in the other ward and is an active member. We set it up so that he did the baptism and at the beginning of the service, tension seemed pretty high between the two. They hadnt talked in months but there we were, having the baptismal service. By the end, the family was leaving the chapel while the parents shared a few words. The next day, we saw the family sitting all together, watching general conference and learning from so many talks about the family. We are going to continue to work with the family so they can get back together and enjoy the blessings of an eternal family. I LOVED general conference. More than anything, it strengthened my faith and reminded me of my duties and responsibilities as a missionary. I felt like most of the talks were about repentance and the family. I loved the question that Elder Andersen brought up in his talk: What does Christ think of me? We can all ask ourselves that question so that we can find the straight and narrow path again that leads to Him. I really enjoy helping people find that path. To be honest, most people are not willing to make the sacrifice to find that path. But as we read in the hymn, Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven. I am grateful for the opportunity to sacrifice 2 years of my life so that others can make sacrifices as well to the Lord and recieve the promised blessings. Love you all and HAPPY APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

Elder Stutz

La Vida Eterna: Un Esfuerzo Diario

Hey Guys!
Well I will start off with the news everyone supposedly is waiting for. We did have a pretty cool earthquake on Tuesday morning. We were actually in a district meeting in the church with six other elders and Elder Russell was teaching us. He is a very funny and intense teacher so we didnt get too surprised when the ground started shaking haha. We booked it out of the church and felt like we were surfing on the tectonic plates because instead of oving up and down it seemed to move side to side. So it wasnt too bad, actually kind of fun! I didnt see any damage anywhere, expect for our house!!! In our house we already had a cracked window and about two days after the earthquake, the window fell down and shattered! Luckiloy nobody was downstairs because we live on the second floor. We think it came loose during the earthquake and then fell later. But ya, everyone is fine! Supposedly we havehad a ton of small earthquakes since but we havent felt any of them. We had a pretty crazy week as far as the work goes. We were preparing a family to get baptized all week. We also used about two full days planning a wedding for the parents because they werent married. (I am never going to work for a wedding business or anything related after that experience) Unfortunately, something came up with the law and long story short, they were not able to get married nor baptized. The two teenagers were ready as well to get baptized but chose to wait until their parents get baptized for them to get baptized as well. The bad news is that the proccess will take 6 months at least and it costs a lot of money (and this family has nothing). But I know that someday they will get the opportunity to be baptized because they are ready to do it and Heavenly Father gives everyone a chance to accept the Gospel, whether in this life or the next. We are preparing a few people right now to get baptized in April so we are excited about that. I am also excited to recieve some modern day scripture this weekend from our beloved prophet and apostles in General Conference. I would like to share something that I have learned throughout the mission through the scriptures, prayers, leaders, and other experiences. As missionaries, we use goals a lot. We have monthly, weekly, and daily goals. When we make these goals, we promise to Heavenly Father that we will do all we can and focus completely on our goals in order to achieve them. Sometimes, the monthly goals look hard to complete. Sometimes we lack faith or action. I have learned that when we do our very best and focus on the DAILY goals, the goals are met. Heavenly Father sees our DAILY efforts and rewards us within weekly and monthly results. In this life we have a purpose (or a goal). That purpose is to return back to our Heavenly Father to live in perfect glory and majesty forever with Him and with our families, or in other words, eternal life. How is eternal life achieved? What can we do to secure that amazing gift for us and our families? I have come to realize that eternal life is something we gain on a daily basis, decision by decision. As our investigaters are preparing to be baptized (the first step to achieve eternal life), they need to read the scriptures and pray daily. They also need to go to church every Sunday. By doing those things, a change of heart occurs within them and that desire to follow Jesus Christ grows and grows. That journey to eternal life continues after baptism and we must continue on that path to make it to the presence of our Father. As I have seen missionaries come and go, I realize that many of them quit doing the daily things before or after they leave the mission. I know that if we are to achieve eternal life, we must continue reading the scriptures and praying with faith everyday so that we can grow and progress; so that that change of heart can continue to occur in our hearts. When suddenly, one day, we look back at all we have done and more importantly, what we have BECOME. I feel my heart changing on a daily basis and I continue to feel a strong desire to obey the commandments and keep the covenants I have made with Heavenly Father so that I can arrive at that day sometime in the future. Remember, the choice of eternal life is a daily one, and if we make that choice everyday, we will be just fine! Love you all lots!!!!
Elder Stutz

El Estandarte de Libertad

Buenas Tardes!

We enjoyed a pretty good week this past week. We had our stake conference and witnessed the release of the stake presidency. Most of the members were really surprised by the choice of the new stake president but it seems like he is going to do a great job. Elder Tenorio, the same authority that came to our mission conference a couple weeks ago, spoke at the conference and the members loved his talk. Lidia and Olga, the mom and daughter of the family we are teaching right now, went to the conference and loved it. Lidia said she was so surprised by how many members there are of the church in Iguala and recieved a few answers to doubts she had about baptism. We are going to be working with that family all week so they can get baptized this weekend and sealed as a family in the temple in a year. They really are a great family and are so humble with the little money they have and in the little tiny shack they live in. They are growing so much spiritually by reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and going to church and we have noticed a new light in their eyes and a more positive outlook on life. We continue to work a lot with the members, especially with the less-actives. A lot of people are starting to go to church again so we are excited about that! We also worked throughout the week with Eliseo. He got baptized and confirmed on Friday and is ready to head back to the US next week to return to his family and marry his future wife. The service was great and I have developed a great friednship with him in our time here. He showed a lot of faith by getting baptized and is so excited for life now. He also has a new look about him and seems a lot happier now. I loved studying this past week about Capitan Moroni in the Book of Mormon. He is one of my heros and I have learned so much from his words and example. In fact, I made my own title of liberty this past week to ensure that I will neverstop fight against the enemy of all righteousness. I love being on the front lines of God´s army here in Mexico and it is a daily fight. Sometimes when we dont have success in the mission, we think our efforts are not worth it. But I have learned that the things we do on a daily basis (our daily decisions) determine our eternal destiny and can even help the eternal destiny of others. We can either not fight today and wait for tomorrow to come, or we can make the choice TODAY to fight and experience all the blessings that our Heavenly Father has for us. I testify that the Lord is involved in His work and that He can help us as we ask Him for SPECIFIC help. I encourage everyone to plan what they can do individually TODAY to fight for what´s right and for the right side which will win in the end. Love you guys a ton! I appreciate the prayers!! Love

Elder Stutz

Nuestra Fuente de la Esperanza

Hey Guys!!!

Pretty crazy week this week! A little bit of getting sick, but no worries everything is good now! We also had a special conference in Chilpancingo with one of the 70, Elder Tenorio (see attached pic). Him and his wife taught us so many great things. His wife talked about Christ and she shared a quote that I loved 'a smile is a powerful weapon' And it really is. We can change someones day around with a smile, we can reflect the light of the joy of the Gospel that we receive from living it. Elder Tenorio taught me a few things. He taught me a lot about specific prayers. He reminded us that a prayer with faith is a prayer of thanks, a plan, and then a petition for a blessing. At the end of each prayer we should know what blessings we need and exactly what we need to do to receive that blessing and have the sure faith that we will receive that blessing. He also taught me that through hard work, concentration, prayer, and a joyful attitude we can accomplish anything we need to. And we can enjoy it as we do it.

This past week was a decent week for the work, due to the conference and a little sickness, we didnt have too much success but we did have some amazing experiences with a few investigators. We met with Eliseo again, I cant remember if I talked about him when we first got here but we were teaching him before because he was about to get baptized in the US but got sent back here to Mexico. He was waiting on divorce papers to get baptized and a miracle occurred. He had to pay thousands of dollars to get the papers completed and he has no money. But he had faith and suddenly, his ex wife paid it all and now the papers are ready for the divorce. So we met with him again this week and he told us he is getting baptized this week. He also asked me to give him a blessing of health because he has been having troubles lately. I felt the Spirit so strong when I gave him that blessing and we are really excited for his baptism this week. We also met with the Sanchez family a couple more times and they are progressing well. Olga, the 12 year old daughter, has read more than anyone in her family (and she is the youngest) and even wrote down all the questions she had from reading 1 Nephi. Her questions were so profound!! One of them was: How can we obtain peace in this life and eternal life in the life to come? We were too amazed for a second so we werent able to answer, but then we said, well you start by getting baptized. So she and her brother are preparing to get baptized in a week and hopefully their parents too. We also had a wonderful baptism of a 77 year old lady, Lina. She was the only one in her family not a member of the church but all her family members are inactive. This is the woman we gave that blessing to and she got better super quick. So she got baptized on Saturday and the service was amazing. On Sunday she recieved the Holy Ghost and I asked her how she felt and she told me she felt something in her body she had never felt before. She is a great example of faith considering her circumstances of not knowing how to read or write and being a little older, but still being able to recognize the feelings of the Holy Ghost in her heart. On Sunday, we spóke again in the ward and it went really well. Elder Pearson talked about compassion and told a lot of great stories and I spoke on Hope. When we live the Gospel of Jesus Christ we are filled with a perfect hope in our lives. In spite of the troubled world that surrounds us, we are able to be happy and enjoy living a righteous life. We have that sure hope because we know that we have the authority of God, which distinguishes us from all the other churches and religions. We know that by getting baptized by someone with the authority of God, that we can recieve a remission of our sins and feel the alleviating feeling of no regrets or doubts. I testify that Jesus Christ is our best source of sure hope, He is the light in our lives. Love you all and miss you guys a bunch!!!

Elder Stutz

Enséñame a Andar en la Luz

Buenas Tardes,

Hey hope everyone enjoyed their week. We had a pretty successful week this week of teaching and finding. Our two possible baptisms fell through but we are hoping for this next week they will be ready to make that life-changing decision. This past week, we focused a lot on families. We searched for families, we visited a lot of less-active families, and we prayed and fasted to find families and teach them. We found a very humble man this week that went to a baptism service of a family member in another ward. He was really touched by the experience and ask us to go to his house. We began talking with him and I have never talked to such an honest man. Within 5 minutes he told us his current life circumstances. His 16 year old daughter died a year ago in a car crash, his wife just got diagnosed with cancer and he got laid off of his job last week. This man was practically pleading for spiritual help because he felt so empty inside with all these trials. I could see the desperate feelings he had in his eyes and I know that only the gospel of Jesus Christ can help him regain his strength and find happiness amidst all these tribulations. So we are just starting to teach him and hopefully we can find the rest of his family this coming week. We are also teaching an awesome family right now that we found through a reference of our english class. They also have somewhat of a sad story. The mom has two kids of 15 and 12 years old and their dad left them about 11 years ago. She got together with another man named Juan and he has helped raise the kids and they just had a kid of their own that was born a week ago! They love what we teach, especially about eternal families and are preparing to be baptized at the end of the month. We also started teaching one of our neighbours and found out his wife is a member but hadnt gone to church for about 10 years. They got married about 2 years ago and have a little baby thats 1 years old. They are a great young couple and the husband is really interested in what his wife never wanted to share with him in the last couple years. He cooks us something every time we go visit him and also gives us rides when we need them in his car. He even took us and his family to church on Sunday and he really enjoyed it and has a lot of questions. His name is Hector and he is super cool, I feel like we would have been friends in high school or something haha.

In our fast on Sunday, we were praying that our investigators could make it to church because we had invited all of them and assigned a member to give them rides or send them taxis. As my companion was playing the prelude on piano and I was outside greeting everyone, our prayer was answered. One by one, in walked 11 of the people that we are teaching and preparing to be baptized. Also a lot of the less actives that we had visited during the week made it to church and the Cultural Hall was almost full in sacrament meeting when it is usually only about half full. So that was a huge belssing and a lot of the members bore strong testimonies of the Savior and missionary work. We teach the Gospel Principles class every week and we had all 11 investigators there and the Spirit was so strong as they learned by asking questions and making comments. It looks like we will have quite a few baptisms this month and we are expecting 3-4 this week. So the work is moving right along here in Iguala and I am loving it. With all this work with the families, I have been thinking a lot about eternal families and the temple. Although we focus a lot on helping people be bapitzed, I realized that my ultimate goal out here should be to help families get to the temple so that they can be sealed for time and all eternity. As we find these families, they are in darkness with all the trials they have. We first teach them about the love of the Savior and our Heavenly Father and teach them how to pray to Him. As we do that and they accept, a new light enters into their lives and in their home. As they are baptized and recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost, the light of the Gospel shines in their eyes. But the real miracle occurs when they make that trip to the temple in Mexico City to be sealed as an eternal family. And as they make that step, their home becomes a celestial home and they can overcome any trial or problem that enters into their lives and live together happily forever and ever. As I have missed my family these past months, I have been frequently comforted by the knowledge and testimony that my family is sealed by the Holy Priesthood of God in His holy house, the temple. I know that we will live together as a family forever, even after death and that only through the true church of Jesus Christ it is possible. Love you lots and I love my family so much!!! Have a great week everyone!!!