Nogales y Lluvia... Mucho Lluvia

Hello dear reader! Today marks the day of my first report from the city of Nogales, situated on the border of the United States and Mexico. Nogales has around 75K inhabitants, feels smaller than Logan UT, and is, as I've previously said, hilly and green. Because of the ongoing monsoon season, Nogales this time of year is exceptionally green, and I think it's rained all but one day of this week I've been here. With tall, bushy evergreen trees dominating rain-soaked streets lined with verdant grass, the city sometimes looks almost like Seattle. I have a car again, with a caveat: we share it with another companionship of elders who cover downtown Nogales by the border. We cover the northern section of Nogales and the southern part of its neighbor-to-the-north, Rio Rico. Two companionships of sister missionaries cover the rest of the area north of Rio Rico. If you look it up on Google/Apple Maps, the Nogales Ward (English) all eight of us cover extends up to a point just north of Amado. (For some reason Amado is covered by different missionaries who attend services to the north in Green Valley.) We also cover a Spanish ward, the Valle Verde Ward, which is over the same territory. One of the members told us that when they moved here in the 1970s, all of the members (of our Church) in this area numbered maybe 30, including both languages. (Wards generally have around ~150-300 members each, though this can vary depending on the activity rate of the area; my last ward, Central Ward, had about a thousand.) Everyone meets in a church building located about a block from our apartment, so my companion and I just walk over most days to study, eat, do work, meet with members, or (of course) attend church. My new companion, Elder West, is awesome! I'm very excited about our prospects for traveling to Spain. I've had many opportunites to both speak and listen to Spanish this week and have been trying to take the best advantage I can: after about 10-15 minutes of trying to understand what was said in church, however, my ears grew tired and that was about it. I have been able to speak to many people on the street and while teaching the Gospel, however, and hopefully my endurance will improve as I push through this little slump. I am surprised, however, that as much of my Spanish has survived as it has: it's not much diminished from when I was in the Missionary Training Center (MTC)! Today is the precise eleven-month anniversary of my entering into the MTC, by the way. (It is for Elder West as well.) I don't have too much today, but I do miss my MTC district and I hope y'all are doing well! I'm nearly halfway through my mission (that will be the 18th of next month) and will be returing home on the 9th (of August 2022). That's wild. From my reading in the Old Testament: "There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God." (1 Samuel 2:2) One of the greatest (arguably, the greatest) principle promoted in the scriptures regarding God is His being without peer. Thus is the principle of monotheism. The early Old Testament, and indeed early Israelite Judaism, heavily emphasized the power of the Lord compared to the power of the dumb idols the surrounding nations worshipped. The plagues set upon Egypt in response to the continued enslavement of the Israelites are taken as one of the greatest signs of the might of the God of Israel: and the impotence of dumb gods such as Baal, Ashtaroth, or Dagon is explicitly mocked throughout the Old Testament. In one such case in 1 Samuel, the ark of the Lord is stolen by the Philistines and set beside the idol of their god, Dagon, in his temple; in the morning, Dagon is found knocked to the ground but whole, laying before the ark almost as worshipping; the next, Dagon is found broken in pieces, the ark intact. It is subsequently returned to the Israelites. From the New Testament, Gospel of St. Matthew: "37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matthew 22:37-40) The myriad implications of these commandments (which I love to discuss) I will set aside for the moment: all I want to say for the moment is that the singleness of the Lord, the fact that He has no peer, that there is no god greater than Him, is the basic driving principle behind all of the Semitic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), though the nature of God is debated between them all. Just some thoughts based on my recent reading. I hope you are all doing well! Nogales is wonderful. Photos: 1) Elder West and I on the street. 2) Me very excited about Mexico being right behind me. 3) Also us on the street. I guess I give a lot of peace signs now. May God bless you all. Elder Brannon Arizona Tucson Mission Spain Barcelona Mission