What comes up must go down

 Week 33

hi there!

I've learned that the way the weeks pass here in the mission is by following the law of gravity: what comes up must go down. Last week was so great that this week was bound to be a little worse, and that's pretty much what happened. ⬆️⬇️

    (it's not a picture of méxico if there's no cables)

Lights (both high and low)

- ran into some issues with our ward mission leader that left me with some lingering contention in my heart which is super lame. It has kind of become a recurring issue in my areas. If you are someone with a missionary assignment in your ward or interact a lot with the friends of the missionaries, PLEASE be aware of the things you say and treat them with respect, leaving the teaching to the missionaries (that's our job)

- got randomly sick this week and lost out on a lot of working time, not fun 🤒

-found literally 8 new people knocking doors on saturday. We were so low on our goals for the week but the Lord decided to help us out my making everyone be in their houses that day🙏

- lost my temporary residence card (very bad) BUT was actually an insane story. Basically, I had the card on me because we went to the doctor and I needed it. But, silly me, as we were leaving I just slipped it into my pants pocket and we went on our merry way getting on the bus. We got to our stop, got off, and the rest of the day way normal until about 7pm when a lady called us that we had found knocking doors a few days prior. She said that a credencial had been found in her neighborhood by some random guy and that she was pretty sure it was mine. Sure enough, check the pockets and my ID's not there, and my white shining face is definitely the one in this group chat. Basically a huge miracle because we had just met this lady and had given her a card with our number, and the chances of this guy in her neighborhood finding it is so small. But there are no coincidences, so God just wasn't ready yet for me to get deported 🚫🛩

-Andrés wasn't able to make it to church this sunday, so we had to move his baptism back another week :( keep him in your prayers!! 

-ate the spicest ramen and felt like my insides were burning, but you can tell I'm becoming more Mexican by the day because I still enjoyed it and finished the whole thing 😋🌶

-discovered my new favorite pastime: having my companion explain completely to me the plots of her favorite telenovelas. Its so fun and always full of twists and turns, a great alternative when you cant watch TV. Highly recommend 👌 

This week I met a man who is a member of the church, but has been inactive for many years becuase he says the church is "just not the same as it used to be". He told us he misses being an active participant, that he knows the church is true and that he will die with that knowledge, but he won't ever go back because it is "different now". This man made me very sad, because he is missing out on SO MUCH, just because his focus is off. We don't go to church for the people, for the callings or the visits. We go to church because we love God and want to worship him. Because Jesus Christ is our center and we want to be more like him, even if some of the imperfect people that are there offend us or rub us the wrong way. We don't give up on the whole thing because that's not the point. 

"We come to experience the joy, refuge, forgiveness, thanksgiving, and belonging found through Jesus Christ" -Patrick Kearon

Find your center in Jesus Christ. Be kind to others. That's all we're asked to do! 

Thanks to everyone who reads these! Bonus points if your reading this out loud with your family. You guys are the reason I stay consistent writing so thanks!

👋👋

-hermana stephenson