Elder Jacob Stiles: Deer Heads in a Bag

Hey Everyone,

In this letter of Bullet Tree Falls we will be talking about long walks, apostasy, and random deer heads.

This week we found a really cool man named Moses. He is pretty positive but he lives all the way out in the middle of nowhere. So we have to walk about 30 minutes on this road where his house is the very last house. We've only talked once but we'll see how receptive he is.

One of the things we do here in the mission is we kick rocks... but not just kick them... we try and get the rock to go in between the legs of our companion. If you make it through it's a goal! Kind of dumb but it passes the time on long walks.

My companion and I also watched a broadcast from 2014. It was a CES Fireside for Seminary and Institute. They talked about how Christ founded His church. One of my favorite parts was where it talked about Baptism for those who didn't have the opportunity. It gives 4 choices to choose from for those that didn't receive baptism. It really explains everything well, and I definitely recommend it.

God said EVERYONE needs to be baptized, so there are 4 options if someone has not had the opportunity to be baptized:
1. They go to hell even though God desires all to return to him.
2. God did not really mean what he said.
3. Baptism isn't necessary if you have faith. (However, there is NO doctrine that says that is true, or that says "unless a man be born of desire".)
4. God really meant what he said so therefore there must be a way for those that weren't baptized to have an opportunity (baptism for the dead). - YAY!

This week we made a point in trying to find all the less-active members around Bullet Tree to help them come back to church, but there are so many members in such a small place, and most of them are apostate and haven't been to church in many years, or go to other churches. One of the Elders in the church left and created his own church, and talks bad about the Mormons so that causes a problem... But we keep going!

Elder Tuchan and I bought little books, and we are filling them up with words and phrases from the words we hear. Then we have to figure out what the word or phrase means. Everyone here thinks that I'm from Guatemala for some reason. I've had people say that they think I'm Latino by the way I talk, and others say that they hardly understand me... One day I'll be fluent!

We go to San Ignacio twice a week. We take a 10 minute cab ride that costs us $4-Belize each way.

The other day we were over at a members house when all of a sudden somebody stopped by and gave us a bag, and inside the bag was the head of a deer... Sometimes the weirdest things happen to us!

We had a campfire at a member's house, and we found a giant, dead Tarantula.

We also had 38 people in church which was ten more than last week. Well this last Week we Spoke in Church (Spanish), and taught the young kids, and then the Third hour as well. The missionaries are needed a lot here.

Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you all next week.

Love, Elder Stiles

(click on photos to enlarge)

Screen Printing shop next to our house