Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Necessito mas confianza


We got to do some sightseeing today!


Our Christmas Tree! Yes, it's time... they're already playing Christmas music in the stores here.

This was the day that we got locked out of our apartment.

Me and Hermana Manzana just playing around.

A hotel here... take a look at the name. No, it has nothing to do with my mission. My mom saw this hotel advertised online and says it looks way nicer in the advertisement! (Notice the grass growing in the crevices on the wall?)

Today during our sightseeing trip we stopped at Dairy Queen! My first "real" ice cream since I've been here. It was much needed!

I finally got the birthday box from my family, sent the first of October. I was pretty freaked out by the picture! My mom said she put it on the box to inspire the Mexican postal and customs people to respect the package. It must have worked because I'm pretty sure everything sent was there in the box!
Hospital... Round Two.

Everything is Okay! I just wanted to go the pharmacy, but the mission president's wife wanted us to go to the hospital instead. So we did. Allergic to mosquito bites.
















So, for starters I still haven’t received any candy corn...that’s a problem. I still love you, but I’d love you more if I had some candy corn in my hand right about now... ha-ha! Today I got my birthday package and I was super excited about that! The picture on the front freaked me out but it was necessary. Ha-ha, I’m pretty sure everything was there. I loved all of the pictures the kids drew and your letters! The pictures you sent, on the other hand, should never be publicized! We have a beautiful family but we looked...different ha-ha, but I loved them! The one with us on the hill I think is the worst! Ha-ha, the bad thing is when I showed my companion she thought they were serious family pictures and she just said oh...how nice...ha-ha but I explained our family the best that I could ha-ha. 

So, sad story; we didn’t get to go have an early Thanksgiving with the members because we were assigned a different family, so this Wednesday we will be eating with them. I don’t know what but I’ll let you know if we get the turkey or not? But on Monday we had a really cool experience. We were looking for a reference of a person we contacted in the streets a couple of weeks ago and we thought it was the right house, so we yelled, they came out and it was a different person. His name is Lewis. He was saying how he was so glad that we were there and that he knew the Lord sent us to his home because he had been wanting something like this in his life. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he was soooo excited to start reading it! It was funny because at first I thought he was drunk or on drugs because people don’t usually act this was about the Book of Mormon. Ha-ha, but he wasn’t; he was just excited. He has two little boys and a wife. We went back later in the week and talked with his wife and we are going back and teaching him tomorrow! It should be really good! 

So the exciting time this week: we went and hung out at the hospital again for a while. On Monday I woke up and had about over 35 Grande red bumps on my legs. I knew it was a bite of some sort but I didn’t know what. So long story short, we went to the hospital and he just looked at my leg and said it was mosquito bites and I was allergic to them. So I got a shot in my butt and for the past 5 days I’ve had to go the pharmacy for 5 other shots in my butt so it’s been pretty fun. I got really tight with the doctor there. She’s seen my butt probably more than I have so therefore, we are pretty close. 

On I believe it was Friday we got a call from a member in a different area that is close to ours and she had a cousin she wanted us to teach. We met her at the house and talked with her. She is really cool, she served a mission in the visitor’s center in Mexico City. We met her cousin and taught him about the Book of Mormon and he had lots and lots of questions. Which was good because it showed that he was really interested in knowing about the church. We get to teach him again today so I’m hoping for the best with him. I’m pretty sure he will progress really fast because he wants to learn so much and his cousin is a great example for him and helps him a lot. 

Sorry this letter is kind of short, but for the last thing I want to share what I learned this week. Yesterday we had dinner with some members. Some members I get really nervous around. I don’t know why but I do. So when I get nervous I don’t talk much to them. So at the end of the meal I shared a short message and read a scripture with them. After I was done the nephew that is a returned missionary told me good job, but I need more confianza (trust?). Confianza en yo y en la poder de dios. Which is true. After hearing that it really made me realize that I can’t be nervous around anyone and I just need to speak as much as I can. And if I make mistakes it’s okay because that’s how you lean. If others look at me like I’m crazy that’s okay too because I’m learning. It’s only been 2 months here and it’s amazing how much I have already learned. Not just about the language, but myself and this gospel. The knowledge in this gospel is endless. We can learn so so so much, but we need to have the want, drive, patience and faith. Most of all faith. I know if I didn’t have the faith in the Lord I would not be where I am in this language. I have come far and I’m not even close to being done with learning everything that I need and want to know. Always stay close to the Lord and he will bless you so much. I love you all and loved hearing from you! Always look and notice the blessings in your life because they are always there, big or small.

Dad - don’t cheat in rummy cub anymore...

Love you all,
Alma 32
Hermana Velasquez

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Fresh, FRESH Turkey for (early) Thanksgiving!


We were trying to cross the highway. My companion wanted me to stand in the middle of the road for a picture. This is as far as I would go... personally, I think she was just hoping I'd get hit by a truck! (Ha-ha!)

  




This past week was pretty slow and kind of sad, but it was still a good week none the less. For starters, our investigator Patty is progressing so well! She is ready for her baptism in December! She is getting baptized right before exchanges so I’m really hoping she continues to progress so we can both be there for her baptism! She came with us to church on Sunday, it was stake conference. We had the Area Seventy speak and the Mission and Temple President speak so it was really good. They talked a lot of how members need to start helping missionaries; more it was great! Another cool thing they did was have the recent converts come and bare their testimonies and it was great for our investigators that were there. We had our other investigator there too. I don’t think I’ve told you about him yet but we’ve been teaching him for a while. He is from Cuba and is a boxer. His girlfriend is a member but is a less active member who hasn’t gone to church for a long, long time, but she wants it back in her life. She’s a stripper (but currently looking for a new job) and she wants to change her life back to how it once was. They are getting married at the end of this month I believe, so that will be fun to see! They are really fun to teach and just fun people! They always offer us coke (the drink not the drug, don’t worry mom) and we aren’t allowed to drink it and they think it’s so funny, I don’t know why, ha-ha.

On the sad note of the week; I wrote you about an investigator last week Abril -- Claudia’s daughter, that has the little girl. While in the week we showed her the video of the restoration with Joseph Smith. She loved it and talked about how excited she was for church on Sunday. While when Sunday came she wasn’t at church, we tried calling her mom, Claudia, and she just said they had things to do and to not show up to their house unless they called us first. Later that night we went to go teach her friend with the baby and she was there. She told us that her mom won’t let her take the lessons anymore and she can’t go to church with us. I was super sad for her because she wants this so bad and to be baptized, but we can’t teach her without her mom’s permission because she’s not 18. So yeah, that was really hard for her and I felt so bad because she needs this gospel in her life. I know that one day she will be able to have it again in her life and she will be baptized in the church. She’s a great girl and she knows what she wants in her life and she'll go back for it and find it. 

So to end with a good thing today we are going to a member’s house and killing a turkey!!!!! Aaannddd Eating it! I am so excited! They have turkeys in their backyard that they raise for food and they invited us for an early dinner with them and I told them about Thanksgiving that’s on Thursday in the states. They were signed up to feed us on Wednesday so they said we can have turkey again then with other Thanksgiving food -- so I am so excited ha-ha-ha! I get to have a Thanksgiving! It should be interesting to eat a really, really fresh turkey, ha-ha, but I’m sure it’s better this way! Ha-ha! Sorry this letter’s kind of short! I don’t have too many exciting things about this week, but let’s hope for next week! I love you all and hope all is well with all of you! I would love to hear from you all next week! And how your families are doing and also cute pictures of my nieces and nephews! Ha-ha, and I have a strong instinct that one of you is pregnant. I don’t know which one of you but its there and its happening and you’re not telling me.... well good luck if you are whichever sister it is! 

One thing I learned during stake conference that you can apply that is important is 4 main things the Area Seventy told us is: Always read your scriptures and feast on the word, Read personally and with your family. Be the example to your children; make them excited to read the scriptures! Next pray always. Pray about what you read and the questions you have, pray to come closer to Christ. Always, Always have Family Home Evening. It always helps us come closer as a family and helps us to invite the spirit into our homes, and the last he talked about was attending the temple as much as possible. The temple is a place where we can go and feel so close to the lord, because it is his house. We can feel the peace and love that he provides for us every time we go! I love you all and have a great week! And a Happy Thanksgiving! Eat tell you die! 

Love Hermana Velasquez

Monday, November 10, 2014

3 Months!


These pictures were when we went to the Immigration Office in Centro and we found this really pretty park!





Mmmm... we went and got ice cream thingies at this little ice cream shop -- it was super good!


Hello my beautiful family! I hope you are all doing so great and living it up in the snow!!!! I’m not gonna lie; I miss the snow so much! It was really cool, the other day while we were walking it started to mist AND it felt exactly like snow when it snows really lightly and touches you. It was like snow, but a humid hot snow! Ha-ha! On Tuesday we got to go to Centro to the immigration office for me. I got to see all of the people that were in my district in the MTC! It was so fun seeing how everyone was! One of the elders went home. I was really sad about that, but everyone else I think is doing great! I finally got to see Hermana Hoggan and I cried I was so excited, and so did she, ha-ha! It was our nice little movie moment! We got to go see these really pretty gardens that were close to the immigration office. The pictures I sent you...It was a really fun time. While we were taking the pictures there was this guy in the background working out and grunting really, really loud every time he did a sit-up; it was really awkward, ha-ha! I think he is probably in one of the photos in the background with the big fountain. 

So this week went by so crazy fast! It’s crazy! It started off slow in the beginning but now it’s so crazy how fast the weeks go! The months are slow still but I don’t mind that one bit! It kinda freaks me out how fast the weeks go! Ha-ha, so this week a lot of crazy good things happened and we met a lot of great people. The beginning of this week was slow with teaching people but it picked up really well. First things first. I know that the Lord prepares people to hear the gospel and puts them in situations for them to meet us or have experiences with others that are members. So I think last week I told you about a family where we would look for them, but a different family member would be home. Well this week we went looking for the son, Roman, and found the dad this time! He was the one that we met about a month ago. He is so great and we talked with him for about 15 minutes outside his house. We found him and he is so great! He talked about how it was really hard to have a relationship with his children because he works for weeks and months at a time on a ship and isn’t home a lot. We can’t teach him again because the next morning he had to leave for work for about a month. He is so prepared to receive the gospel and so is his family. We are planning on teaching his family and getting to know them better. But this guy is like a future bishop! He is really amazing. I don’t know if we will ever get a chance to teach him because of exchanges, but I know one day he will be a member of the church with his family. 

I think I told you about a lady named Claudia and I’m pretty sure I sent you a picture of her and her daughters. Well, she is struggling and we haven’t taught her for a while, but Saturday night we went looking for her and found her daughter alone in the house with her 2 year old daughter. We just started chatting with her and taught her the beginning lessons, and invited her to church. She was asking a lot of questions like why it was so important that she should go to church? We explained and she really wanted peace in her life and we told her that she could feel that in church. The next day we went and picked her up, along with her daughter, and they came to church with us! She loved it so much and just kept talking about how beautiful it all was! It was so great. She’s coming to an activity with us on Thursday with her daughter. Later after church we went and found a reference. Her name is Paula and she is 17 and has a little 2 month old baby. When we started teaching her, during the prayer someone walked in and it was Abril -- the girl that came to church with her 2 year old daughter. They are both friends and we taught them both. It was really good that she was there in the lesson, because she was helping explain how she loved going to church and how beautiful it was! It was really, really cool how the timing worked with that and she was able to be friends with her and come and help us teach her about the church! 

I know that the Lord prepares us for situations we need to be in. I know that the Lord has prepared the people we are teaching now, and is preparing the people we are going to teach in the future. We all have a plan in our lives, we all are unique and all have a purpose. We can all live God’s plan of happiness and return to live with him again. Something I really like to think of is we have so little time here on this earth and eternity after this life. We are preparing now for eternity, what we want our eternity to be like. We don’t have much time to prepare now, so what are you going to do to have your eternity be amazing and how you want it? It really all depends on how we live our life now. It’s important to read in the scriptures and gain a relationship with the words of God. It’s important to pray and feel the love he has for you, so you can also build a relationship with him. I know this church is true without a doubt and I am so grateful every day for the trials I have in my mission because I know I can overcome them with the help of the Lord and his guidance and that applies for everyone else on this earth. I love this gospel and I love all of you so much! Pray, read, and love your family so much! I love you all and hope you have a great week full of blessings! 

Love Hermana Velasquez

Ether 12:27 READ IT! Please....

Monday, November 3, 2014

Halloween!

The new Hermanas in our zone!



For Halloween they have this traditional bread, so we bought some and tried it out. It's pretty good, but nothing too amazing! They really rant and rave about it here!



A kiss for my mama!



To be honest, I thought Halloween was going to be so crazy and cool here, buuttt it was just another day where people had a party with loud music and hung around. But the food was really cool! I didn’t have my camera with me all week so I don’t have very many different photos of it all. But it was really cool what they ate for the traditional food for the day. It was called pibes. It’s like a Grande tamale, you can look it up for a picture. And this was really cool; I drank poison ivy!!! And it was sooo good! They have to boil it for a long time to make it and other things but it was so good! Yesterday we went to a member’s house and ate more of the same kind of food. They only cook this type of food for the holiday. 

So on Friday and Saturday we had interchanges (I think that’s what it’s called in English but I’m not totally sure) with the sister zone leaders and that’s when we change companions for 24 hours. I was with Hermana Williams; she’s from Utah and helped me so much in just 24 hours. We taught a lot of lessons and got a lot of new investigators! It was great being with her, but I did notice how people looked at us differently in the streets when I was with her because she has darkish blond hair and is really white, but it was just all different. I learned so much and feel a lot better with everything. I stayed in the area with her and my comp went to a different area and I was so scared because I didn’t think I knew the area very well and thought we were going to get lost because our area is really big, but we were golden! I actually knew where everything was and we didn’t get lost! I was pretty proud of myself, ha-ha!

While I was with her we went to go and find this girl that my companion and I gave a book to. We were first looking for her dad, but then found her. When Hermana Williams and I went looking for her we found her brother! He was the only one home but we sat outside and taught him a lesson, and it was so good. He is 18 and is seriously so amazing! I am super excited to teach him and see him progress in the lessons! It’s pretty funny that we went looking for the dad and found the daughter, went looking for the daughter, and taught the son! We are teaching him again tomorrow again so it should be good! 

So on Sunday it was a great fast and testimony meeting! We had one of our investigators there. Her name is Patty she’s about Annie’s age and has a little girl that looks just like Lucy, it’s crazy! But anyway, she was there and the testimonies were perfect for her to listen to! They were all about how families can live together for eternity and how the church is true and just testifying of everything she needed to hear! The cool thing that they do here for fast and testimony meeting is they go up as families to bear their testimonies. It’s really great! The parents and the children go up. I really liked that they did it like that. There is this one family, they have two children but the son died about 6 months ago. They all came up and bore their testimonies about families and how they know he is in a good place and know they can live with him again. They all had amazing testimonies! I loved it all! I was able to understand the testimonies this month so much better! It’s amazing how different it was to understand them and feel the spirit while listening. 

Yesterday we went and taught this guy we found on Saturday night with some members. They are great! They went on a mission together about 5 years ago in Mexico. So they came with us to teach him and we taught about the Trinidad.  Sorry, I don’t remember the word in English but its God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost (the Godhead). While we were teaching about that it was hard to really be able to say much during the lesson because the member was talking so much and my companion wasn’t able to talk much either. So during the lesson he used me as an example with the Holy Ghost. He said Hermana Velasquez doesn’t know Spanish, but when she needs help with the words and talking in the lessons the Espiritu Santo can help her with the gift of tongues. I just kind of laughed and started speaking in Spanish and telling him about one of my experiences I had in another lesson with the gift of gift of tongues and bore my testimony about it and other things. And it was so funny, the member says “oh my gosh, you spoke so well did you hear that Hermano - that was the example of the gift of tongues right there”. Ha-ha, it was so funny because I can speak and teach in the lessons, but I really believe he thought I couldn’t speak practically anything, but I can. Ha-ha! (But I wouldn’t be able to without the help of the Holy Ghost and the gift of tongues!)

But I know that the gift of tongues is a true thing and the gift of the Holy Ghost is an amazing thing. I know that if I didn’t have the Holy Ghost in my life that I would be so lost right now and I wouldn’t feel all of the comfort I need in my life. I love the Lord for all that he has given me and helped me with. I know that he always watches over me and directs me to the people that he needs me to find for him, and that he is preparing those people little by little. I know in my heart that the Lord loves each and every one of us and he listens to our prayer every time we pray. I know that Jesus Christ knows how we feel whenever we feel sad, depressed, happy, or feel like we can’t go anymore. He can relate to us, so pray to him and the Heavenly Father because they can help you; they love you because God is our father and Jesus Christ is our brother. I love this gospel and I am so grateful for it every day! I love you all and hope you all have a great week! Always be grateful with what you have and love your family and friends with all your heart and don’t be afraid to share the gospel with others you meet. I love you soooo much! 

Love Hermana Velasquez!