Survived Another Week!

Hey everyone! 

I have survived another week here in Tizayuca! This week had its ups and downs, but Elder Ramirez and I are improving! The last two weeks we have been looking for a new house. Not sure if I talked about this last week but our house kinda stinks. There's only signal in the window, so we make all of our contacts and lessons from the window. That is really annoying. (*I asked Spencer about this and what he means is that they don’t have WIFI, so they have to use a cell signal to make their phone calls and zoom calls. The signal only works by the window so they have moved their couch next to the window so their calls don’t fail. Just a little clarification) 

So we found a really great place we are going to move into, but we can’t move until the 15th of November because we already paid the rent in our house for the month. But I'm excited to move! The new place has super good signal, and its way closer to all our investigators and all the members. Which brings me to my next point. We finally have permission to eat with members in their houses and have lessons with them! We just need to make a list of all the members that are vaccinated and send it to President, and he just needs to approve the list and then we can eat with anyone on the list and we don't have to ask permission from the assistants! But when they first announced that we could eat with members they didn't tell us all the rules. So that day that we found out, we ate with Nuevadelhi and her family and had an in-person lesson with them. Turns out that definitely wasn't allowed. So we got set straight by the Zone Leaders. That was a fun discussion haha. But soon when we have the list we can work better with the members! And also eat better haha. Excited for that! 

We have some really awesome investigators right now. And two of them are going to be baptized on the 30th! Oliver, the son of Nuevadelhi, and Adriana, who is our awesome investigator who has continued to just be excited about everything with the church. We had a lesson with her and her daughter and her mom this week! We are hoping we can continue to work with them too. So we are really hoping these baptisms go through, and I really think they will! The problem is we have had a hard time finding new people to teach lately. But hopefully when we can work with the members better, we can improve that. 

 Sunday was a bit rough as none of our investigators came to church, and I wasn't feeling super motivated that morning for whatever reason, but I said a prayer that I would feel better and have a better attitude and sure enough, by the evening I was feeling much happier and ready to work. 

 Today in the morning we left for Pachuca so Elder Ramirez could get his second dose of the vaccine. We met up with Elders Espinoza, Sanchez, Garibaldi, and Velasquez so elders Sanchez and Garibaldi could get their vaccines too. Though their names don't sound like it, Elder Espinoza and Velasquez are both very American. So I got to hang out with them for awhile while our companions were getting their vaccines. That was really fun. They are both super solid guys and it was awesome to talk with some guys that I have a bit more in common with. 

But it was super cool because I finally got to see more of Pachuca! The mission offices are kinda on the outskirts, but where the elders were getting their vaccines is really close to downtown. It was super cool to see the city better, and I wish we could have visited the actual downtown area because there are some really cool plazas that I want to see. But the assistants said we couldn't:( but I saw from a distance the famous part of Pachuca where there’s a whole neighborhood on a hill where all the houses are painted cool. Look up Pachuca, Mexico and it'll probably be the first thing you see. Unfortunately, I'm dumb and didn't take any pictures of this cool part of Pachuca because we were in a hurry :( but hopefully at some point in the mission I will serve there and have more pictures 

This week I have definitely improved lots and speaking Spanish is becoming more of a habit! And I think I've been able to help Elder Ramirez improve in his confidence in lessons and his motivation to work. 

This week I have been listening to the new podcast from the church about the Nauvoo temple in the mornings while I exercise and make breakfast, and I've really liked it! I still have to finish the last episode, but it's been a good way to continue learning about church history. It's super cool to learn more about the dedication and sacrifice that the saints in Illinois put into the temple, even when they knew they wouldn't be able to stay long. They knew the importance of this temple and the blessings it would bring into their lives, and they gave so much of their lives and possessions to make it happen. It's always a good check to ask myself "if I lived in that time, would I have done all that?" It would have been much harder to be a member of the church back then, with constant persecution and trials. 

 My favorite scripture from the week is 2 Nephi 27:35 which says "They also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that murmured shall learn doctrine." Which I really liked for 2 reasons. The first is that I actually understood something from the Isiah chapters! In Spanish!!! And reason number two is that everyone will have a chance to hear and accept this message. If not in this life, then in the next. Everyone will have as many chances as they need to accept the gospel, and they will always be able to, no matter their decisions while on the earth. 

 Sorry for the really long email but these are my thoughts for the week!! Also, my only picture is a really bad one of a mountain far away but it's a really cool mountain, way taller than any in Utah. If you know me you know I love mountains, and I can only see this one like 1 in 10 days when the air is clean enough. So it's a good day when I can see it. The big one on the left is called Popocatapétl and the one on the right is called Iztaccíhuatl. Cool names, right?? 

Love you all!! Animooooo!! 

 

 Elder Stevenson