Crazy: The New Normal!!!

Buenas tardes, todos!

 

First off, I'd like to apologize for not writing yesterday. Apparently it was Día Nacional del Trabajo (National Work Day; México seems to have a lot of national holidays, because we also celebrated Día Nacional de los Niños, or National Children's Day) and so all the Internet cafés were closed. We received permission from the mission president to write today. So that's what I'm going to do.

I've just come to the conclusion that all weeks are going to be tiring, stressful, and dramatic to some degree. We just need to find the good in each week and embrace it, because there is more of it than we may realize. It is so easy to focus on the negative in life that we miss the many subtle reminders that God loves us and is watching out for us. I'll detail why in a little bit but that's basically the main theme I got out of this week.

First, this whole week has been rather warm. It's been extremely sunny and the temperatures have all been in the high 90s or 100. Yay. I'm starting to regret all those pictures of palm trees I sent in December. But that's okay, because I heard that Utah got a bunch of snow this last week, so I guess I can still laugh at the weather I've been getting.

We have had some of the coolest miracles this week, too. We had more investigators in church this last Sunday than since I started in the field. We've also met some of the best investigators these last two weeks. We have Daniel, whose legs were amputated because of diabetes about 8 years ago, so he is confined to a wheelchair. He has come to church these last two Sundays because a member has a van! He is super interested, and really wants to get baptized. Every time we visit, he asks some question about the protocol, like if he has to bring his own white clothing, where it will be, etc. We're super excited for him. Also, we met Martha, who works in the Internet café we go to each week. She knows the elder's quorum president from university, and she is really diligent about reading everything we leave her. She always has lots of questions. The only setback with her is that she has super Catholic parents who have denied her permission to go to church these last two Sundays, so we've also been meeting with them and trying to warm up to them. I've been teaching piano lessons to their other daughter, and I think the mom especially really like that. We're going to try to ask permission for Martha to go to church again this week.

Anyway, the biggest thing I learned this week is that despite all the troubles life throws at us, God blesses us whenever we try to seek and follow Him. We just need to do our part by striving to live the commandments, and God will make everything work out for the best.

Keep being awesome, everyone! Les quiero mucho!!

 

Elder Jakob Schramm