love and war 💗🗡🛡

Week 36

WOW. This week was a roller-coaster. So much went down and I feel like time is slipping out from under me. Transfers happened and mi hija and I got to stay together to finish her training here in Montoya! I was so relieved honestly. Hermana Grande is the best and we've been on a roll here so I'm excited to keep our momentum and be even more diligent and focused this transfer 👩‍👦🤩

What you (maybe) want to know:

- got caught it a random rain/hailstorm and got DRENCHED. It was super unexpected because it hasn't rained here for like 3 months. Super funny because the massive hail piece were just pelting us in the street. I could not stop laughing. Poor thing Mayte (one of the recient converts) decided to go on visits with us that day and definitely got the full missionary experience hahah. Check the vid in my Google photos ⛈️🚫☂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️ 

- recently life has been feeling like a video game here. In our area there is a chain of random stores that are all owned by the same guy and are all called "la fe", but each one has its own number. It's such a side quest but we've been trying to hunt down the 4 different stores as we work through the week. We have officially found 2 of them, so only got two left to go 🔍🕵‍♀️

- saw a guy get in a motorcycle accident right in front of us: -5/10 experience

- helped teach mission prep!

- visited our recient convert/homeboy Bryan on Valentines Day and he bought us pink cookies and strawberry milk to share. Shoutout Bryan for being a real one 🗣😎

Now to the real story of the week: Luz's baptism! Now don't get me wrong, I was absolutely thrilled for her and for the straight up miracle this girl has been for us. But to be completely real with you guys, it was a tough day. For context, in this area we've had quite a few issues with our ward mission leader. Between offending our friends in teaching and making constant inappropriate comments directed at me, the situation has never been great. The day of the baptism I about hit my limit with him. He didn't want to do anything to help us or this amazing girl who needed a lot of support for her baptism. We basically lugged him into helping us--him dragging his feet the whole time--us doing all the work. But the worst part is that no one showed up to Luz's baptism. And I mean no one. Not the ward members, not the young women's president, not even Luz's own parents came to support her, and it absolutely broke my heart. She is the happiest, brightest, most dedicated 11 year old I have ever met and she deserved so much more love and support than she recieved that day. Honestly, I was pretty dang frustrated with the local leaders for absolutely dropping the ball. I was on the verge of crying or yelling at someone for like 2 days. The contention that I was feeling made it really hard for me to feel and be sensitive to Spirit--something that is super important as a missionary. The absence of the Spirit was palpable, and I felt terrible because I was just stewing on what had happened. But then 2 scriptures came to my mind from the  Doctrine and Covenants:

"I [the Lord] will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men"

 - D&C 64:10

"Inasmuch as you have forgiven one another your trespasses, even so I, the Lord, forgive you"

- D&C 82:1

God's commandment is clear. We MUST forgive others, because at the end of the day who am I to say whether someone is worthy of my forgivness or not? The Spirit of contention is of the devil, and it does us approximately zero good in this life. This is a lesson I have learned over and over again in my life: that it is always, ALWAYS better to forgive. Doesn't mean that whatever boy did you wrong, or whatever ward mission leader that gets on your nerves has to be your best friend, but it does mean that you can move on without pain and anger constantly tying you to the past. I read a great BYU devotional this week called "Remember Lot's Wife" by Jeffrey R Holland (which I totally recommend) and he said something very profound that stuck with me and I think sums up this novel of an email pretty well:

"Faith is for the future. Faith builds on the past but never longs to stay there. Faith trusts that God has great things in store for each of us and that Christ truly is the “high priest of good things to come."

FORGIVE ALWAYS. LOOK TOWARD THE FUTURE, THERE YOU WILL FIND CHRIST. ‼️‼️

That's all! 

👋👋

- Hermana Stephenson