Week 41: How Ye Ought

Hello to all!

Customary missionary in front of a church sign.

Can you believe it? As of today, I’ve been in Guatemala for an entire month! Which unfortunately means that my lack of time spent in a Spanish-speaking country is becoming less and less of an excuse. Not to worry, though. One month as compared to 20 years is actually 1/240 of my entire life experience.

Parque Central has some good photo ops (also lots of vendors who think I’m basically the Prince of Wales, but I’m just a Pauper)

Such a good week, but such a hard one! We had a lot of emergencies coming in on the medical side of things. There are a plethora of reasons I can’t really go into it, but I’ll leave it at the fifth case of appendicitis the mission has had in the past year, an ingrown toenail, and very mean family members somehow finding the nurse number and calling us.

Because of that, there wasn’t terribly much in the way of proselytizing this week because we simply did not have time! But Cesar is continuing to be an absolute champ whom we most definitely do not deserve. He prayed about the Book of Mormon and said he got a witness that it was true, and that this was Christ’s Church on the Earth today! And he told us that when we were just doing a follow-up call to set up another lesson with him. Seriously, absolutely an absolute unit.

The chapel really just has funky architecture sometimes.

We also had zone conference! It was very different, and very fun! Let me tell you, the stress I felt when Hermana Gonzalez and I had to go up as the nurses and address all of those missionaries in Spanish was palpable. As my stress often is. But we got through it, and we had some killer pupusas for lunch!

We love a zone conference selfie

My spiritual thought comes from something Hermana Gonzalez did this week. At the end of the day, we went to the panadería (Xelapan) to buy some bread and a few other treats. When we left the shop, Hermana Gonzalez just handed her bag of pastries to this woman and her son who were standing outside the shop selling chocolates. It was such a good Christlike example to me. Because Hermana Gonzalez didn’t make a big deal out of it. She didn’t wrestle with the decision of what to do. She just saw a need and gladly gave. No hesitation, no selfishness. Just charity.

There’s a BYU Speech I adore called “Healing Racism Through Jesus Christ” that I feel adds a lot to my understanding of charity. In it, Ryan Gabriel, Brigham Young University assistant professor of sociology, says:

“Do you believe that the main reason economic poverty is higher in some racial and ethnic groups compared to others is because of the notion that economically poorer groups do not value hard work? If so, I humbly invite you to notice where that line of thinking takes you. It might lead you to feel that the poor in these groups are not worthy of service because you perceive that they solely brought their economic condition upon themselves. Will you find joy in that belief? Will it lead you to love your neighbor as yourself? Does that perspective embody the commandment of the Lord that we ‘love one another, as [He has] loved [us]’?”

As King Benjamin said in Mosiah 4:

19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

This could make up a whole other email, but the Gospel of Jesus Christ really is about humility. Recognizing the principle of not being better than others, but being truly equal to them, and living it. No one is perfect at it, but Hermana Gonzalez is impressively good at it. I hope to learn from and exemplify that powerful example she has given me.

—Thanks for all you give,

 Hermana Newton