TMM Blog 1.7.2020
Were those fireworks or gunshots? You never really know if you live in a border town! Last Wednesday, New Year’s Day, we were in San Antonio putting Cameron on the plane to come home. The night before we were safely tucked into our hotel room, snoozing the old year out and 2020 in. The next morning as we checked out, we met a couple in the elevator who assured us that we made a wise choice as even in San Antonio things were WILD, crowded, and dangerous this New Year’s Eve. Our ride back to Laredo was uneventful—very light traffic that early in the day. As we drove, we listened to Gerald Lund’s book FISHERS OF MEN—a great way to cap our study of the New Testament. Our holiday was quiet and enjoyable despite the usual sirens (we live right near the main highway). A day or two later we learned, through the missionaries, that the “celebrations” got out-of-hand in Nuevo Laredo and spilled even across the border. The cartels were battling it out, and it definitely was not fireworks. The missionaries, especially the sisters who live a half-block from the Rio, were urged to take refuge elsewhere. They stayed with church leaders in northern Laredo until it was declared safe. We found out later from one of our YSAs who is a border-control agent that gun battles erupted all over Nuevo Laredo and surrounding areas. This included hospitals, churches, streets, and homes. We were pretty oblivious.
Yesterday we watched “Lara Logan Has No Agenda: The Border Crisis” on Fox Nation. It is all so much scarier than the worst we could imagine. Watch it. The cartels are not referred to as “drug cartels” anymore because they control crime—drugs, gangs, human trafficking, smuggling, (even the avocado trade) et al—in over 50 countries. They are in your neighborhood and mine. It seems so overwhelming, unresolvable, impenetrable. And then I read the Book of Mormon and remember that God is in-charge. That Jesus Christ will win the war against evil. That there is a happy ending. But in the meantime, evil is everywhere. No wonder President Nelson speaks with such urgency for the gathering of Israel and preparation for the Second Coming of the Lord.
We finished the Book of Mormon twice in 2019, studying it with Cameron twice a day. We are thrilled to have started it again! What a tender mercy it is to have this sacred record to guide and sustain us in these chaotic times. We are truly blessed. We challenge all of you to read the Book of Mormon this year and find the treasures God preserved for us. Happy New Year!
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