Elder Jacob Stiles: If There is No Devil Within, The Devil Outside Can Do Us No Harm

Hey Everyone,

Another amazing week as missionaries! To start off for P-Day we went to Xunantunich or "Stone Lady". I have no idea why it's named Stone Lady but it was way cool. This Mayan Ruin was a lot bigger than the last one we went to. This one was 13 stories tall! We were able to climb over it all! So there is some photos of a box with nothing in it. We found it in the visitor's center and we started taking a bunch of pictures and acting like something really cool was inside it. Everyone started coming over to see what was inside but there was nothing, so we made up some story about what it was and why they couldn't see it. Everyone thought it was funny when they figured it out. While we were up at the top of the one ruin we talked to some backpackers from England that were very interested in the missionaries. This ruin is one of the more well known ones that we can go to.

We had a very cool missionary devotional that was for all the missionaries in all the world. One of my favorite things they talked about was that as missionaries it is our job to bring the Holy Ghost unto the hearts of our investigators but it is their job to let the Holy Ghost into their heart. So Elder Freeman and I have been trying to put that into practice for our lesson and helping them understand the Spirit. I have also been studying the 12 Step Program and one of the quotes they use is "If there is no devil within, the devil outside can do us no harm".

We were able to bring two people to church and they seemed to like it. We had some more that were planning on coming but couldn't make it. We met two people this week who we are teaching and one is named "Mirium of God" and the other "Smll" (and yes, his name contains no vowels). The work has been good lately and we have met many very cool people. We went to an investigators house and we were able to make Pupusas. My first one in the picture looks like a two year old made it but the other ones were actually nice and round. We have an investigator that speaks a language called Gibbrige which is just a made up language. We've learned a little bit and it's pretty cool.

Elder Freeman also hit his six month mark and burnt his tie; and no I never burned one.

Mucho Love, Elder Stiles

QUESTIONS:

Do you live in a house or an apartment? We live in a pretty big house.

Has it been hard to adjust to the hot weather again? It has actually been really cold so its been quite easy. (He's talking 70's & 80s' - sounds rough)

Do you get to speak Spanish sometimes? Yeah, sometimes we get to speak Spanish!

Does Elder Tejeda speak English? Elder Tejeda speaks pretty good English. He studies pretty hard.

What is your Bishop like? Our Branch President is cool. We haven't seen him around much but he does a lot of work in the branch!

Do you have any people that you are teaching? We have a couple that we are teaching that are progressing towards baptism but we will see later how it all works out!

Do you still have a lot of work to do on Sundays, like teaching, blessing the Sacrament, etc? No, this branch is actually pretty good. We had 118 in church last week.

How were the ruins you went to last Monday? The ruins were super cool! We were able to go to one that was 13 stories tall!

How was the Missionary Conference? The Missionary Conference was cool! I explained it in my letter.

Did your Branch Mission Leader close his bar after he was baptized? Yeah, he decided that he didn't want to drink anymore and that he wanted to change his life! We are actually going over there today to go have a BBQ.

When you got back to El Salvador did President Hintze say anything to you about whether or not your mission would be extended because you were home for two months? I'm not sure because I haven't been able to talk to him since! I'll talk to him tomorrow! Tomorrow Elder Cook is coming to speak to us missionaries and to the country of Belize!

(Click on Photos To Enlarge)

Xunantunich