April 11 in Orizaba

Soooooooo this week has been crazy. I feel like every week now for me is super crazy. Orizaba is WAYYYY different than any other area that I've ever been in, and it is nothing like the Mexico that I know. It's a completely different world. It's not hot here, it's consistently between 65-75 degrees, with its worst days getting up to 80-85. That's pretty cool for me after living in 100 or more heat for almost 2 years. 

It's a very wealthy area. In other places, the people struggle just to stay above the water. They worry about what they're going to eat tomorrow, etc.They often can't find fixed work and they aren't very educated. Here most people have good jobs and there actually is lots of work. Most people are pretty well off. (We're not talking like, USA-level well off, but they have enough. There are lots of nice houses and stuff like that. It's like a different world.)

This makes proselyting way different. There are different needs, different times to find people, everything is different. 

This city is also very dangerous. There is crime everywhere in Mexico, and nowhere is really truly safe, but here in Orizaba it's much more dangerous than any other place in the mission. We have to be inside at 8:30 every night and there are many places we can't be in after 6 (even though it's still light out), because it's so dangerous. This makes proselyting hard, because everyone has work here, and they don't start getting home til 7ish. We still haven't quite figured out how to have success here cause it's so different, but we'll get there. 

There's loads of cool stuff to see here in Orizaba. I will be sending pictures in the next 4 weeks (for me that feels like 2 or 3 days, sorry if it seems like a long time. ) 

As I come to the close of my mission ( I have 11 weeks left), I come to recognize more and more every day the truth and the importance of this gospel, and the emptiness of life if you don't have it with you. I'm so grateful for my Saviour and Redeemer, Jesus Christ, and for all the blessings that I have received because He has again stretched forth His hand to restore the gospel with all of it's perfect principles and ordinances. It's a perfect gospel, and a perfect plan, made by a perfect and loving God, to help us, the fallen and the imperfect, become redeemed and born again of the Spirit, thanks to the marvelous sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Salvation comes by Him and through Him, and by no other means. However, He does not save us  "in" our sins, but rather, "from" our sins, having payed the price for them, and having prepared the way for us to live completely free of them, through the gospel of repentance, and faith on His name, and the redeeming ordinances performed by the power of the priesthood. I am so grateful that I have a hope in this life, and a reason to live, and a reason to be happy, and a perfect motivation to follow Christ, because of a hope of redemption from death, through the resurrection of Christ. 

I'll write more next week. I hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Thompson