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!!!

Fwd: El Espíritu Nunca Nos Falla

Hey Guys

We had a pretty great week in Tamarindos this past week. We had zone conference with President and his wife on Thursday and learned quite a bit. About half of our zone consists of elders that are finishing the mission in the following months so I have many great examples around me right now. We continue to go to that English class to give service every week and we love talking to the kids in their broken english. It actually helps me be more talkative with my spanish because I can see that the kids that talk more in the class every week are the ones that are learning faster whereas the ones that are more shy arent talking as well. They are all great kids and we actually sang an english hymn 'Love at Home' with them this past week. They loved the hymn and a couple of them have even come to church and are getting interested. We had one baptism this past week of the young single mom, Elizabeth. Her cousin, that got baptized 2 months ago, baptized her so it was a really special event. Reina also came to the baptism and loved it. She told me after the service that the next baptism is going to be hers!! So we are preparing her for this week. Yemir and her family also got back from Mexico City this week and we found out that after doing many tests and going to multiple doctors, they did not go through with the surgery to remove the cancerous tumors because she has a lot of infection in that area of her body and they dont want it to spread to her whole body. So she takes some injections right now to clean that up so she can go into surgery at the end of March. Her mom shared with us a cool story though when they were in the hospital. It had been a really tough and painful week for Yemir and she was crying often. Her mom had forgotten to bring the hymn book with her and Yemir really wanted to sing a hymn to feel at least a little bit better. She had remembered all the hymns we would sing to her in the lessons and really wanted to sing. Suddenly she saw an older couple walking around with a hymnal of the church in their hands. Her mom asked them if they could borrow it and the old couple came over and sang to and with Yemir. They talked with her, shared their testimonies with her (the older lady was also a cancer survior) and stayed with her the rest of the day. The hymns of the church really do bring a special spirit and they sure set the tone for every lesson that we teach during the week. I loved something that Sister Veronica (super member missionary) told us this week. We were going to go visit a bunch of inactive families with her and she was trying to decide where we would go because we only had an hour before our next appointment. I remember directly asking her, 'Herman, Quién nos necesita HOY?' or 'sister, who needs us TODAY?' She immediately knew who we needed to see so we left. We got to the house after traveling aways and found a lady laying down on her bed, super sick. This lady is not a member of the church but her family is. She told Veronica that she had been calling her all week to come pick her up from her little tiny house (more like a shack) and take her to the hospital because she had a fever for that whole week and was really suffering. We offered to give her a blessing of health and afterwards, Veronica took her to the hospítal. The sister is now back at her house recovering and told us on Saturday that she wants to get baptized!! Veronica said something that really struck me after that experience 'El Espíritu nunca nos falla!' 'or the Spirit never fails us'. She recieved that idea or revelation, whatever you want to call it, so that we could go see her and help her get to the hospital. Who knows, she could have died if she didnt get that medical help in time. That is exactly what we get to do everyday here in the mission, save those who are sick spiritually. Most of the people dont realize they are 'one of the sick ones', but after their baptism, their life changes and they are so much happier. That is what separates us from all the rest of the missionaries out there in the world, reprensenting various churches. We have the Spirit with us, testifying that what we say and teach is true. We dont have to convince anyone, the Spirit speaks to them through feelings and those who have faith, act and get baptized. These particular individuals are blessed beyond measure and I have seen it often here in Mexico. Love you all

Elder Stutz

Seáis como Niños

Hey Guys!
We had a pretty great week here in Iguala, the sun is slowly getting more and more blazing and we continue working with several people so that they can come unto Christ and be baptized by someone holding the authority of God. We have a few baptisms planned for this week. One of them is Elizabeth. She is 18 years old and has a 4 year old daughter. She is a single mom and lives in the middle of nowhere very far away. Her family members live in another ward in the stake and they got baptized about a month ago. So she started going to Church with them and loved it. We started teaching her this week, she prayed to recieve an answer if this Church is the true church of Jesus Christ and got an answer. She has amazing faith and will be a great member of the church. She is going to be baptized by her brother in law (that just got baptized himself) on Friday. We are also preparing Reina to be baptized this week, I think I have talked about her in past emails but she continues to love church and is struggling with a couple things emotionally but improves every time she comes to church or everytime we meet with her. Her member friends are a huge support for her throughout the week and on Sundays when they pick her up. we are also searching for many miracles and praying so that a few other people can make that life changing decision of being baptized this week. We had a great ward activity this past week, a very successful Talent Night. There were a few people that sang and danced. We sang a song we made up about our Sheperd Poster that was to the tune of Called to Serve that turned out pretty funny and also we sang a hymn in spanish to the tune of If You Could Hie to Kolob. Elder Pearson is teaching we a ton about singing and music so I am slowly getting a better singing voice haha. We are also working a lot with a family in the ward. The parents are members but have been inactive for about 15 years. None of the kids are members still because they hadnt gone to church in a long time. The dad served a mission but afterwards fell away from the church. We started visiting them about a month ago and they have been coming to church ever since. Some of the kids are teenagers and a little rebellious so they dont really want to come to church still but we are working with them so that they can learn and get baptized. We had a Family Night with them this past week adn afterwards the dad started talking to us about his mission. He started telling us stories from his mission that he was just barely remembering since he was a missionary. We could see how happy he was, thinking about the families he baptized and the companions he had and it was great to see that. Elder Pearson and I continue to teach very well together, he is very good at using examples in his teaching so that people can understand better and I can usually listen well to the people and figure out their doubst so that they can overcome them and be baptized. We had one baptism this last week, a 9 year old kid in the ward that hadnt been baptized because his parents are inactive. He is awesome and I learned quite a bit from him this past week. We taught him just as we teach everyone, very simply and with examples, and he understood better than most of the people we teach. Just like most kids, he is very humble and a great example for us. We must follow the Saviors commandment to be like the children. We must be humble as they are and willing to do the things that our Heavenly Father asks us to do. Miguel was willingly to do what his Father in Heaven wanted and he got baptized by someone having the authority of God. He is a great kid and in his baptism, I imagined him as a missionary, helping people and families come unto Christ like we are doing now. I really hope he does serve a mission someday because he would be a great one.
I know that we have a purpose in being here on this earth. I know that our Father in heaven sent us here to experience the joys and pains of this life. We are here to follow the example of Jesus Christ so we can return to live with Him, our Father in Heaven, and our families forever. the first thing we can do to follow our Savior is to be baptized by domeone having the authority of God, then we continue living our best so we can stay in the path of the Savior, have peace and happiness in this life, and eternal life in the life to come. Hope everyone has a great week and I would love to hear how people are doing back home with school, work, marriages, all that good stuff!!! Love you all!!!
Elder Stutz

Somos Los Pastores

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

We had a great week here in Tamarindos. To start off, we baptized one of my favorite converts, Otilia, on Saturday and was confirmed on Sunday. We met her 4 days before her baptism! She is the mom of Brother Oscar in our ward who is the dad of Yemir, the girl that got baptized last week. She was living in Mexico City and just barely came to live with Oscars family here in Iguala. She had been to church a few times before and had read the Book of Mormon 3 times in the last few months!!!!!! She is also 77 years old!!!! She is amazing to say the least. Our lessons with her during the week were the funniest and most enjoyable lessons of my whole mission. We actually challenged her to be baptized on Feburary 18th and she accepted, but when we visited her the next day she told us she couldnt wait and that she needed to be baptized this saturday!!! I was amazed by her faith and determination to follow her Savior. She really likes to talk so she would always crack funny jokes in the middle of the lessons about the Book of Mormon or her family members so it really was a great joy to send a lot of the week working with her. She also has a huge testimony of us being authorized servants of the Lord. She would always check and make sure if it was okay if she made a comment or asked a question and would always call us 'the authorized ones'. I could not believe the faith and the humility of this old woman, she has changed my life for the better. Her baptism service went perfect. We sung her her favorite song, Más Cerca Dios de Ti, during the service and tears were streaming down her face as she tried to hold in the great emotions she was feeling at her baptism. Her son baptized her (thats two baptisms for someone who has been a member for 2 months!!!) and she came out of the water so happy. She was beaming the next day at her confirmation and thanked us from the bottom of her heart for allowing her to be baptized by someone having the authority of God. Her son continues to try to spread the Gospel to his 8 other brothers and sisters that live in various parts of the country and we have felt the Spirit so strong in the home of that family. Yemir, our baptism from two weeks ago, acutally left to Mexico City yesterday with her mom to go through some surgeries. They found out a day before Otilias baptism that the tumores that Yemir has in her body are cancerous. With that news recieved, this young girl, recently baptized and given the gift of the Holy Ghost, has kept a smile on her face ever since her baptism. She told us that everything will turn out fine because she has changed her life around to follow Christ and is on the road to eternal life. We are going to be praying for her all week as she goes through those surgeries.

I also want to talk a little bit about a rockstar member missionary in our ward. It is this older lady who has more enthusiasm for missionary work than anyone that I have ever seen. Her name is Veronica and is taking us to meet many inactive members and their non member friends. She constantly has a smile on her face and challenges the people to be baptized before we can even enter into the house!!! Every Sunday, she goes and picks up some of our investigators so they can get to church. She is one of the happiest people I have ever met and I know it is becuase she constantly shares the Gospel, without any fear. She is an example for me!

On Sunday, we had the opportunity to speak in Chruch again. The Bishop told us late Saturday night so we didnt really prepare, just spoke. But the Holy Ghost worked through us and Elder Pearson spoke powerfully about service and I talked about Sheperds. I talked about how Christ is the Good Sheperd and that he has challenged us to join Him and be sheperds as well to find those lost sheep and bring them back to Christ. Elder Pearson and I came up with an idea to animate the members to continue working with us in this great work so that we can continue to find people to come unto Christ. Our project is called 'Somos Los Pastores' or We are the Sheperds. I sent a picture of it but it is something we made with one of the sisters in the ward. The sheep are our investgators and the sheperds are the members that are fellowshipping the investigators. When the people get baptized, we put their sheep next to Christ with a picture of their baptism. The point is to give recognition to those that have helped us, show which investigators still dont have sheperds to take care of them (come to the lessons, pick them up for church, etc.), and motivate the members to become sheperds and invite their family members and friends to learn more about the Gospel. We have high hopes for it and we think it will really unite this ward in this marvelous work. We also taught our usual Gospel Principles class and taught the Primary as well which was really fun and exciting to say the least. I love being able to help the Good Sheperd by being a sheperd myself and helping these people come unto Christ so they can find rest and peace in this life and the life to come. I know that as we share the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us, we will be happy and rejoice with those that chose to take that step of faith by being baptized by someone with the priesthood authority of God. I love this work and we are ready for another great week here in Iguala! Love you all!!

Elder Stutz

Los Poderes del Cielo

Hey Everyone!
We enjoyed a good, hot week here in Iguala. We taught a ton of lessons and have many people getting prepared to be baptized this month of February. We started teaching a lady who is a friend of one of the members. She came to church once and LOVED it. She said she has been to many churches and felt something in our church very distinct. She has been struggling with many problems in her life. She has a few health problems that cause her to always have a migraine. She told us this past week that when she went to church, her migraine left as soon as she entered. She has had a tough life since she was forced to be married at the age of 15 to someone 35 years older than her. So she has had a life without the opportunity to choose for herself. The only thing standing between her and the waters of baptism is her husband who doesnt like the church. But we are going to continue to pray and fast for her. She has such a sweet spirit and actually reminds me a lot of my mom for some reason. Our ward actually got together in a united fast yesterday for those that are sick physically or spiritually. One of these people we fasted for is the young lady that was baptized 2 weeks ago. She found out she has multiple tumors in her reproductive system and one of them has grown very big. It has been tough for her and her family but ever since she got baptized and recieved the gift of the Holy Ghost, she has always had a smile, despite all the health problems she has. We had the opportunity to visit quite a few less actives this week and sang hymns with them every time. It is amazing the kind of spirit hymns can invite into the houses we visit. On both occasions when we sang with less active, they began to cry in the hymns, realizing that they need to come back to church to fully use the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ in their lives. So my testimony of Hymns has grown a lot and I love singing with Elder Pearson because his voice makes up for my lack of talent.
Unfortunately, our baptism for this past week fell through because of a very long story with getting divorced and stuff so we are going to try to build his faith this week so he can be baptized this weekend. We have another baptism for this saturday we hope of a husband of an inactive member that is just getting active again. We were able to give their little baby a blessing for health yesterday night and I think it really touched both of them. We have had several opportunites this past week to use the Lord´s priesthood to bless others lives. We gave several people blessings for physical health, stress, or simply for comfort. I know that we do indeed hold the holy priesthood of God and it is only found in the true church of Jesus Christ. I know that this Priesthood is more powerful than anything in this world, if we are living worthy as it´s holders. I know that our Heavenly Father works miracles through His chosen servants on the earth today because I have witnessed it. I sure do love this work. If it ever does end, (Im trying to trick myself into thinking that it will never end) the mission will continue afterwards and I will continue helping the Lord bring souls unto Christ so they can be eternally happy. This is a Gospel of happiness, it is the Gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ, and I love it. Hope everyone has a great week!
Elder Stutz