bashed (?) 🗣📖

 Week 31

HOLA!

WELCOME BACK!

This week was so good! Mi hija and I have become friends very quickly and she has rocked her first 2 weeks in the mission field (wayyy better than I did, but to be fair the adjustment period is a lot shorter when your not learning a language hahah). I've got some random, not connected at all stories to tell, so we're gonna go bullet points again!

- TANIA SE BAUTIZÓ WOOOO 🎉🌊 Tania is the mom of 2 recent converts and it was so awesome to see their family come together be more unified through sacred covenants. She broke her leg really badly about a month ago and had to postpone her baptism. She got her doctor's approval this week to get her leg wet so everything worked out!! I LOVE TANIA 🥰

- Something super classic in south/Latin America is people like to leave their dogs on their roofs. They don't have yards or anywhere else to put them, so the roof is the best option I guess. Anyways I've seen countless dogs on the verge of falling off these tin roofs, but never actually seen it happen until yesterday. We were knocking this woman’s door and all the sudden this dog just appears and crashes into the road next to us. Not sure if he jumped or fell on accident but it was insane. I was so taken aback for like 10 minutes after that. Good thing is I don't think he sustained any serious injuries.🐕 ↘️

The dog in question

- hna grande tried root beer for the first time 🇲🇽➡️🇺🇲

- heard a lot more people than normal tell us stories about dreaming prophecies and brujería (witchery). If you have strong opinions about either topic send me an email. I would be interested to hear 🧙

- got into what some would consider my first "bashes" this week. A "bash" is basically when someone doesn't actually want to talk to us, they just want to argue and debate about the Bible and how it is proof that our religion is a sham. Now I say that they were bashes, but both men that we had this experience with were actually pretty respectful and had some interest in what we had to say. But they were both very stressful occasions for me, someone who 1. admittedly is not super well versed in the Bible 2. training a new missionary and 3. speaking a language that is not native in a very complicated context. But, I actually felt pretty good in both interactions. The Spirit brought to my remembrance Bible passages and doctrine points that helped me explain our point of view with very few language slip ups (which was crazy cause it was like a 2 hour conversation hahah). Even though I engaged more than I probably should have and wasted some of our time, they were learning experience that grew my testimony that the Spirit works SO CLOSELY with missionaries and is always there to help us out in a tough spot when we need it 📖👻

This week I listened to an AMAZING BYU devotional called "Lessons on Enduarance" by J Ty Hopkins. Here are 3 quotes that stood out to me:

"Endurance is not the process of passively waiting something out..."

"It is the process, not the product, will allow us to find joy on our way to the finish."

"If we can humble ourselves enough—holding nothing back, bearing our soul to the person who already knows us—I promise that we can feel His presence and love in a real way"

Being on a mission sometimes feels like a giant marathon and when the clock hits 18 months or 2 years, your prize is that you cross the finish line and get to go home. Every missionary dreams about the day that they walk through that door in the airport and return with honor to their family. It is so easy for this to become the goal, to become passive in the work and just wait for the clock to run out, at least it has been for me. But something I have realized recently as I approach the halfway mark was brought more to my mind as I listened to this devotional: THE GOAL IS THE PROCESS. We go on missions to be humbled sometimes to the lowest degree so that we can come unto Christ and become a disciple in the truest way. And that doesn't come through getting to hug your mom after a year and a half or meeting your nieces for the first time. It comes from the tears, the long days, the feet that always hurt, and finding Christ in those moments. And He has promised us if we "endure it well, God shall exalt [us] on high" (D&C 121:8)🤍

Sorry for the novel, had a lot to say this week I guess. LES AMO UN BUEN 💥

La güera, 

-Hermana Stephenson 🧍‍♀️