Happy New Year!

I took this majestic photo for you all on New Year's Eve. So many things just scream Mexico in this picture. The beaming hot sun....the green house...and the dog standing on the roof. You can't get more authentic than this.

The next is of these little guys they all make for New Year's and they all write letters and stuff them in this little guy and blow him up for New Year's. It has a good meaning, but its super weird. And the next day we just saw a TON of these guys splatted on the streets...

We had a happy 9 months party for my companion and had a little bubbly! sparkling cider...

Half way through the mission for Hermana Bailey!

Me and my companion before we went out tracting.

Hermano Vicente: He wanted to wear my glasses and it was a great photo opportunity!

Hola mi familia! Feliz Ano!

First things first; New Year’s is super crazy here and I really mean crazy! We thought that this week would get a little better than the last because we had a ton of appointments with new potential investigators, but with New Year’s comes crazy parties and nobody in their homes. We did a lot of extra walking on the 31st and 1st. We thought it was going to get a lot better on the first de enero but it was really worse. The whole town was so shut down, every store and every house. Even the little alcohol stores were closed down and that’s saying something! It was another long day for us and we were getting kind of discouraged, but we kept strong, good attitudes about it all! We actually made a little game of it. We had brought cookies for one of our investigators that wasn’t home, so we decided to eat a cookie for every time we got shut down. Safe to say, we ate a whole bag of mini cookies. But it was still fun, ha-ha. 

New Year’s night was crazy! On New Year’s night I thought about setting the alarm for 12 but it really wasn’t necessary. At 12 on the dot probably 20 fireworks went off at the same time, and it didn’t stop for about an hour. They were going off all around our house. We both freaked out in our hammocks! It sounded like world war 3! I swear our house was going to light on fire. I was too scared to get out of my hammock! Ha-ha, it was quite the experience! And during the day everyone was having there little parties and they all LOVE karaoke! As we were walking down the streets we just kept hearing different drunk people trying to sing Michael Jackson songs and others that we couldn’t really understand. It was quite the night. 

In the midst of those three long days we had the Saturday and Sunday really pick up for us! On Saturday everything really started getting back to normal! We had more lessons with people like we normally did before Christmas! And Friday we found 4 new investigators. One was a family and they are pretty great! I just know that you have to go through the hard things to really appreciate the good things in life. There really is opposition in all things. I really do appreciate all of the blessings we received this week. It was a really hard dead week, but when we were struggling the most that’s when he blessed us the most and it was better for us to recognize these blessing because we needed them so badly. I know the Lord knows how we feel when we are going through the hard times, and he always knows what we need and when we need it! I love you all oh so much and hope you can always recognize the blessings that we get every day, even if it’s a hard day. We can always get through it all with the love and help of the Lord. I love you all and hope you have a great New Year and hope that you make the goal to bring the gospel into your life a little bit more this year, and truly recognize how much you have been blessed in your life! 

Read 2 nefi 2:11!

Con Amor, Hermana Velasquez