A Week of Many Blessings!

We got to got to the temple this week and give a lesson to our investigators.

Me and my companion, Hermana Bailey at the Merida Temple!

A beautiful temple, yes?!

It was our last zone meeting for this transfer so we had muffins.

This week we received a lot of blessings, and I’m pretty sure it came from waking up at 5:15 every morning this week. Last Monday we found out that we lost one of our hours of study time, the hour for language study. Me and my companion were not too happy about that at all actually, because we are both two Americans that still can’t fully communicate with people. I was too upset about it all to write about it last week. So they said that if we wanted language study that we had to wake up an hour early to have language study. They did it because a lot of people were just wasting the hour of language study in the house. So this past week we were waking up at 5:15 in the morning every day and going out and running while the moon was at full bloom. We have been pretty much dead this whole week, but BLESSINGS! I get hit with being tired in the mornings and she gets tired at the end of the day so we really even each other out, ha-ha! I really am grateful that I have her as my companion right now because she wants to get up with me so we can study more. Well every week we write president about our weeks and everything. Well, I don’t know if he didn’t expect people to get up an hour earlier or something but he wrote us both back today and told us that we got our hour of language study back so that was really exciting! So now we can function in the days better! 

So this week wasn’t too exciting. Sorry... but we did find a few great people though. We got this reference from some other missionaries the other day for this guy that they found. He wanted to change religions because he didn’t like his anymore and he said he was just going to go to the one closest to his house, and it just so happened to be our church! Ha-ha, coincidence? I THINK NOT! So we went and contacted him Saturday and talked with him for a while. He is only has 17 years and he has a girlfriend that has 17 years as well as him, that wants to come to church too! They were both there talking to the missionaries the first time. So as we were talking to him he was like “so, how does this whole baptism thing work, I think me and my girlfriend want to get baptized in your church.” Then we explained a little more, then he asked “so, how does this whole mission thing work that you two are on?” We explained it all and he was like “yeah, I think I’d like to do that too.” And we were both just standing there with our mouths wide open in awe that this 17 year old has this desire with his girlfriend. Oh by the way...his name is Jesus. I think that’s why, now that I think of it. 

So not too much else has happened. One last funny for you before I get to the good spiritual part of the message that I know you all like. So, the other day we went to go eat at a member’s house. As we walked in she said something to my companion that I didn’t understand  and my companion just looked super sad after she said it and so therefore, I was just super curious of what it was, so I asked her real quick and she turns to me real fast and tells me "her dog got robbed." I just stood there for a second and realized what she said and I don’t know why I thought it was so funny, but we sat down and started talking to the lady and I was just trying SO hard to hold in my laughter and the lady was sitting right in front of me telling how sad she was that someone stole her dog, but the way my comp said it wrong was just so funny to me. So she’s got tears in her eyes and I’m over here starting to crack a laugh and ended up pretending to cough but then it turned into this weird laugh-fake-cough thing. I don’t really know but it was bad! Then I told my companion that she told me her dog got robbed not her dog got stolen. Then she just started laughing really hard, and yah, it might be a "had to be there" kind of funny, but it was pretty great!  

So something I learned this week that really helped me out a lot was that we have so many potential blessings we can receive in this life. Really all we have to do is just keep being diligent and keep having the faith and asking for what we need with a heart sincere and faith that we can receive these things that we need in our life. I know that the Lord truly gives us what we want, but mostly what we need. A scripture that I used for a lesson we had at the temple this week with our investigators was in Moroni 10:4-5. We were there with Jacky and Yasmir. They are still deciding if they are supposed to be together. We’ve been trying to help them and we decided the temple was the best place for it. I had them read in this scripture. It talks about praying with real intent and with a sincere heart and that we can receive our answers through the Spirit. We had them break off from each other and just sit in front of the temple to think about it all. It worked pretty well and for me too. I do invite you to read in these verses and truly pray for what you truly need in your life at this moment and I promise that if you pray in this form you ALWAYS can receive your answers! I love you all and hope you have the best week ever! 

Love, Hermana Velasquez!