Funfetti Pancake Cake!

Hey everyone! 

 

Really good first week with Elder Beltran, and we are getting along super well. A little about him first. He served in the Kennewick, Washington mission for the first year of his mission, so he only has about 6 months here in Mexico. But he’s a great missionary, really obedient and has lots of good ideas on how we can improve. I’m super excited to be with him for this transfer, we get along really well! He also ran cross country in high school for Corner Canyon, so we have been running every day this week. We ran 20 miles last week and I’m improving a lot. So Elder Beltran has only 4 months left on the mission, and he has gained some weight so were trying to be healthy, which is really hard to do when there’s so much good food to eat. And I got my birthday package last week, which was like half candy, so we kept saying "only a little bit each day" but we actually ate it so fast. And we gave some to some other elders in the district. But the candy we kept we ate in like 3 days hahaha. But it’s gone now so we only get better from here .  

 

My family also sent funfetti cake mix and frosting, but we aren’t allowed to use ovens (president’s rule) BUT we have a griddle, so we just made half of the cake mix and did 3 big pancakes and then made a little layer cake. Hence the name of this email. Honestly pretty good. And we still have half of the mix that we’re going to make later. But since it got here late, we had a little late birthday party with the cake and candles.  

 

One night Elder Beltran was telling me he used to be super skinny and has gotten fat on the mission and he said "The only person I would get fat for is the Lord" which I thought was so funny.  

 

So last transfer we were in the areas of Saucillo and Real de Minas, but this transfer we are only in Saucillo so we’ve got a lot less work, so we spend a lot of time finding, knocking doors etc. but it actually works here. My parents always told me about their missions in Europe where they would knock doors all day and nobody would let them in, but honestly the people here are pretty receptive, and we’ve found some really cool people knocking doors.  

 

But this week really was super great. Except for the first 2 days because Elder Beltran got the covid booster shot and it made him so sick for those two days so that was rough, but now we’re in the swing of things and working hard. Today we ran 6 miles and then played soccer with the zone leaders and another companionship in the district. That was really fun.  

 

The highlight of the week was the baptism of Rafael. We were also supposed to baptize Eleazar this week, but we had to push it back a week, but that guy is so stoked to get baptized I love it. And his mom has been coming to church and loves learning about the gospel, but it’s a little hard to find time with both of them.  

 

Anyway, back to Rafael’s baptism. It was awesome. The service was so full of the spirit, and then he bore his testimony in the sacrament meeting the next day. One of the best parts was talking to his dad after. His dad wants to get baptized really badly but has to get divorced and married to his current girlfriend. But he just came up to us after and just said thanks, and that there’s no words for him to explain it. He is so cool. I hope he can get everything figured out soon so he can get baptized too.  

 

Rafael’s mom has really never been that interested, and we actually met her for the first time this week. She was in a few of the lessons with Rafael, and she came to the baptism and sacrament meeting and really liked it and hit it off with some of the members. It just made me so happy to see a family coming together like that, making big, important changes in their lives. The mission is awesome.  

 

I also finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish this week. It took a long time, a lot of personal studies where I was just fighting to not fall asleep, a lot of words and verses I couldn’t understand, but I feel like my testimony and faith have grown so much. It’s hard to read a whole book in another language, and that in itself is a miracle, but it just strengthened my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true! It is scripture, it testifies of Christ, it tells us what we need to do in this life to gain eternal life, it helps us grow our faith. I know it’s true, and  I would like to invite anyone who has read this far to read it and to pray about it. 

 

We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. 

 

I love this part of the introduction of the Book of Mormon. It’s very clear. Read, ponder, pray. And it PROMISES us that we will receive an answer if we ask in faith. I know it’s true.

Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Sorry this week was long, and I probably forgot something, but if I did it probably wasn’t that important. I love you all and hope you’re doing awesome!  

 

Say your prayers! 

Elder Stevenson