No preocupe - yo estoy aqui!

They drive these little motor-taxi’s around EVERYWHERE and they are the scariest things I have ever been on! They have some newer ones around that feel a little bit safer, but I thought I’d send a pic of one so you would know that they truly exist and people use them to go everywhere! 

This is me and Hermana Bailey with the Family Lopez! Their son just left to go on his mission to Mexico City!

Hermano Vicente and me.

Hermana Manzano and me at the conference.

Hermana Bailey’s birthday was this week! 

I got the package!!! Thanks so much -- it was perfect! 

This week was full of a lot of goodies! First things first: the reason for me not writing yesterday is because we got to go to the temple today! I got to go in and do the endowments for one of our family members. I had a little bit of stress about it all because everything was in Spanish, but it all turned out okay and I made it through! It really was such a beautiful experience to be able to go through! The temple here is so beautiful and so peaceful! I forgot how amazing it is! I really did take it for granted being so close to the temple in Rexburg! My companion was able to go and do baptisms for her family so we were both able to do a little something while we were there. The rule is that you can only go in if you have your own family names to do and you have to go on your p-day. 

This week we had a 5 zone conference with the president and it’s just where we practice teaching and learn new ways to do everything; it was very helpful. We also got to watch “Conozco Los Mormones”! This was a fun surprise for us! We watched it there in the church and it was really, really good. It was the first time I’ve watched a movie with the voice overs in Spanish so it was a little hard to understand in some parts but it was really, really good! The members here are going to be able to see it in theaters this Friday so that should be really good! Also something pretty cool that our ward did on Sunday was an activity where everyone went out and found the menos activos. Everyone had a partner and went out and found them. We had really good success with this and everyone found who they were looking for! The hard thing is with this ward is that there are a TON of menos activos and most of them got baptised then just became inactive like two months later. It’s pretty sad actually that happens. But the ward is doing better with reactivating everyone and actually going out and visiting people. When I first got here the ward wasn’t doing too much, but they have really changed around and I know this is a blessing for us! I don’t know if I told you but we haven’t had a ward mission leader for about 7 weeks and this is just unheard of for missionaries to tell you the truth. We have been meeting with the bishop and he's been helping us a lot and we’ve built a pretty good relationship with him too. But this Sunday we got a ward mission leader so all is well now! 

This week on Martes was the birthday of Hermana Bailey and oh, my-lanta! did we eat! She told a lot of the members that it was her birthday this week and about every member wanted us to come and eat with them. On Tuesday we went to eat at a members house and they always feed us like cows and I’m pretty sure I gain 5 pounds every time, so we don’t go often. But they made her two cakes, then after that we went to a house of a different member and they made us eat panuchos which are super good but not when you are stuffed full! Then they had a cake for her. Then the Obispo gave us 6 donates, then the next day a different member gave her another cake and I felt like I wanted to die! Then the next day we had two meal appointments back to back and I felt like I was going to roll over and die right then. We didn’t mean for that to happen like that but it did. Then another member gave her another cake. So yeah there’s my food story for ya this week. Safe to say we´ve run every morning in the burning heat, so it should be sweating off pretty good!  

For lessons and contacting people we are using the family history. The mision has started enforcing us to focus on that in the lessons. At first it was hard and kind of all over the place ‘cuz how do you just go up to someone and start telling them that they can get baptized for their dead family? But to be honest, we’ve seen a lot of amazing things happen with this. We are using it in the street and in the busses to talk to people. I have my own little family history book with pictures of all of the family and of our grandparents and great grandparents and little stories about them. It’s really amazing some of the stories you can hear about people’s families. This one lady - her mom was sick for a long time and she passed away, then 12 hours later her dad passed away and he wasn’t sick, nor had anything wrong with him. This was really hard for her and she fell into a depression. She’s one of our investigators now and she has really turned around and is a lot more hopeful now she knows that she can see them again and help them get to the celestial kingdom. There are a lot more stories like this that we have come across and family history really applies to just about every one! 

Next week we have combios and I’m pretty sure I’m leaving this area and I’m actually really sad about it! I’ve been here for about 6 months and I really do love the members here and our investigators! They are all so great! It’s weird when you want to leave you stay and when you want to stay you have to leave. I decided every time I leave an area I want to leave it wanting to stay! This area here really has helped me so much and I love it so much and my companion! Who knows - it’s possible that I could stay another transfer here! VERY POSSIBLE! But I’ve got the feeling, and everyone says here you will really feel it when you’re about to change areas! I have seen a lot of amazing things happen here with the ward and our investigators. It’s been a successful week for us too! We’ve found lots of new people and our investigators are progressing really well! I love you all and have a great week! Happy birthday Halle, Shauna, and Andrew! Love ya!

Con amor, Hermana Velasquez