Week 56: 13: The Musical

What is up, party people?!

Me officially entering the teens (at the age of 20)

Yesterday, your favorite sister missionary in the Guatemala Quetzaltenango Mission completed a milestone. She crossed the threshold from simply being a run-of-the-mill missionary with 12 months on her plate. She has been elevated and has reached the next chapter in her life. That’s right.

I finally got my bangs trimmed and people can look into my eyes!

I’m a teenager again.

A Guatemalan delicacy for November 1st that I’m still totally obsessed with.

Thirteen months have come and gone, and what a week to have that happen. First of all, I got to try the typical Guatemalan dish, fiambre. Let me just say, what a treat! It is the craziest concoction of all kinds of different vegetables, sausages, and whatever else happens to be hanging out in the garden during this time of year. Fiambre started in Xela, so it’s a pretty significant part of the culture. I ate it for practically three days straight, and let me just say: I was living.

This member hooked us up with the biggest meatballs I’ve ever seen (except for that one time in Vegas)

The members in Baul have been going hard on referrals, which I am super happy about! Every couple of days, someone is just calling us up and letting us know about who needs to get baptized around these parts! Hopefully that will happen soon. Veryyyyy soon.

Duolingo is blessing me for unknown reasons.

There were a ton of birthdays this week! Members, investigators, tons of missionaries. I will just point out that February is nine months before November and leave it at that.

Just taking a screenshot while Elder Gong was speaking so I could remember this moment forever.

But the granddaddy of everything that happened this week had to be getting to be part of a devotional with ELDER GERRIT W. GONG! That's right! The man himself! One of my favorite apostles and one of the quorum advisers for Saints, which automatically gives him a special place in my heart (everyone go read Saints, by the way). Elder Gong and his absolute legend of a wife, Susan, spoke to us about missionary work, and Elder Gong gave us one of the greatest quotes of all time:

"El Señor está diciendo, 'Mi casa es su casa'."

Along with that iconic moment, we focused on the invitations we make as missionaries. To pray, to read the scriptures, to attend church. While we talked, I realized that when someone commits to any of these things, they aren’t promising us. We might be the ones voicing that invitation, but it’s not really about the investigator doing something for me, Hermana Mary Newton, at that moment. It’s a commitment to God. 

The invitations we make as missionaries are calls to change, and therefore are calls to repentance. Surprisingly enough, I am not the one pardoning previous errors. I’m in no position to pass judgment. I’m just a conduit so that these people can follow the example of Jesus Christ. As it says in Doctrine and Covenants 1:

38 What I the Lord have spoken, I have spoken, and I excuse not myself; and though the heavens and the earth pass away, my word shall not pass away, but shall all be fulfilled, whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same.

Why is my hair turning red?? Is it just the lighting in this apartment? I don’t feel like I’m making this up.*

Thirteen months have come and gone, and there is still so much more to learn. Within and after my mission. But I hope one thing I’ll always be able to do is offer myself as an instrument in Heavenly Father’s hands. Purely helping people is a purpose without price. I hope I’ll value it, and that you’ll make room to do that, too.

—Same as always,

Hermana Newton

* Matthew Phelps Fifield (1830–1920), Hermana Newton’s great-great-great-grandfather, had auburn hair.