Week 49: The Hermana Mary Newton Film Festival

Good morning, everyone!

L-A-N, C-E-R, LANCERS!*

I know a good number of you might be surprised at how early this email is coming. I wouldn’t say I procrastinate it, but this is normally my right-before-lunch P-Day activity. But I had to be speedy and write this in advance because …

(pause for effect)

I’m going to the big city!!!

That’s right, I’ll be driving down to la capital so that I can do some paperwork and remain in Guatemala legally as a missionary. Should be pretty fun. And by fun, I mean exhausting and that I will miss Hermana González, but I guess this is a practice run for when she goes home in October (super sad boi hours).

Anyway, this has been a wonderful week, on all accounts. Wednesday was the bicentennial celebration of Guatemala’s independence, and members fed us very well.

Exhibit A: This fettuccine was, and I cannot stress this enough, delicious.

Exhibit B: The Mena family’s submission for the Great British Bake-Off

I don’t know why we were eating all of this food from other countries while celebrating a national holiday. I’m definitely not complaining about being fed, though.

We got to go on exchanges (see the outtakes from our video introductions above), and this was my first time actually leaving my apartment overnight! I technically left my area back in Columbia, Tenn., but since I lived with the STLs, it was not a crazy trip. But this time I got to get packed, and during our exchange, Hermana De Leon and I discovered that day was exactly 100 days before Christmas. To say I was shook cannot stress this enough. And I had the nurse phone that entire 24-hour exchange without Hermana González to consult, and no one died! I’m pretty proud of myself, I gotta say.

I’ve been studying in the New Testament this week, and the Sermon on the Mount has this one part in chapter 5 that I absolutely adore. It says:

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

…

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

I think that approximately a million different things can be said about these verses, but the point the Savior is making here is really similar to this sentiment in James 2:

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

No matter how you slice it, the difference between a disciple of Jesus Christ and someone who is not is their actions. If you have true faith in Christ, you will do something about it. It’s not so much a measure of getting it right every time. Like anything in the Gospel, it’s about becoming. We are made to be more. We shouldn’t just settle for a bare minimum because, at the very least, we can be better. And if we can, then we absolutely should try.

— Lots of love!

Hermana Newton

* A Lancer (the knight, not the car) is the mascot of Hermana Newton’s high school.