Week 61: We Rise and We Fall

Well, hello there!

Ready to meet the public.

Welcome to another week in the life of Hermana Mary Newton. As per usual, it was very busy, and I had a grand old time with it. We had zone council, went on exchanges, visited the temple grounds with an investigator, did a service project in the middle of nowhere, and had interviews with President Roden! All in all, a pretty good time.

The view was absolutely gorgeous from up on the mountain!

We saw some amazing miracles this week! On Tuesday, we got home after a long day of being in the offices and going to meetings, and had a dinner appointment with the Relief Society president, Hermana Vilma. Only when we got to her house, we saw the Biggest Pot in the World on her stove. We were like, “Whom else did she invite?” But it turned out the contents of the pot were punch for a neighborhood party that Hermana Vilma invited us to so we could contact her neighbors!!! We got to watch kids absolutely destroy a piñata, received a take-home basket of goodies (and tamales!), and contacted 18 people in like half an hour! It was so cool!!! 

A cool geographical feature up in Zunil.

But this week was really hard, too. When I was on exchanges, everyone we contacted seemed to already have a church they regularly attended or were a member (which also means they already have a particular church jaja). Our teaching appointments kept on falling through, and I took a spill walking in front of the mission home. My knees are scraped up in classic child-on-playground fashion. However. Things being hard or stressful does not mean that there is not joy, or laughter, or good experiences that are just as meaningful (if not more so).

The farming techniques are so cool!

Isaiah 54:7 reads:

7 For a small moment have I foresaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

Shakespeare says it best in “Henry IV, Part 1”:

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

If you don’t speak Shakespeare, the long and short of these lines is that variety is the spice of life! We endure the bad because we know it gets better, and we treasure the good because we know it’s not forever. And through all of it, the good times and the bad ones, we can still find joy, and we can still value the things that we have. We just have to be willing to see it.

—Wait for it,

Hermana Newton