Working Hard, Cleaning Up, & Becoming Disciples of Christ

 

Our English lessons have begun!

A member with Hermana Hoggan and me.

We went into a the primary class yesterday and they all had drawn these pictures for us. It was the cutest thing ever! They had all written on them "el senor ayuda las misioneras"! The Lord helps the missionaries.

There is this girl who is obsessed with this band in the United States called Big Time Rush or something like that. But she has this book of facts about them and she spelled out "Rook Poop" trying to spell "rock pop". I had a pretty good laugh with that one!

We went to the market today and I bought some rain shoes, because it's getting crazy here in Mexico with the rainy season starting! Most missionaries just buy jelly shoes for their rain shoes. But this is the part of the market with all of the fruit!

So this week was a lot like last week. On Tuesday we went to the doctor for a checkup for Hermana Hoggan and he said that she couldn’t leave the house to work 'til Friday, and I just had this big boom of stress set right on me and I think Hermana Hoggan too! I felt bad because I know she didn’t want to stay in the house all day. So Tuesday we didn’t have anyone to leave with me so we were in the house all day, sooo I cleaned, and boy did I clean! I couldn’t just sit still or anything so I cleaned for like 3 hours or longer and it looked pretty dang good to me! We had some guys come in to put in the things in the windows to help with the mosquitos. In their efforts of doing that they were drilling the walls and other things and after they left there was mud all over the floor and cement chipped off the wall all over so I just gave up and didn’t want to clean ever again! Ha-ha.

The next few days I was able to leave with two other missionaries and go see people, and some young women went with me too! It was a really great learning experience for me too! It helped push me a lot! I really liked it actually, because it helps me realize I know more than I think I do! On Friday I got my companion back and it was great! She is doing a lot better and is 100 percent now! I was very lucky I didn’t get dengue too because they said that if a mosquito bit her then bit me then I would get it too, but we were all clear! 

I want to share with you all a talk that I read for my studies the other day! It’s super good! It’s a talk from Elder Holland. (see link below) It’s talking about being Disciples of Christ! I really liked it at the end and I’m sure you’ll know why when you watch it! I would recommend watching it just to hear the voice of Elder Holland. It has really become one of my favorite talks. We really are all Disciples of Christ and we can show him that through our works. If we love him we keep his commandments, we stay right along with him through any and every hard time. It shouldn’t matter if the hardest thing passes, He is always with us. I know that is true. It’s easier to live with the gospel in your life than to live without it. I love you all and hope you can apply this talk into your lives somehow! Have a great week and plan your family home evenings and have a great time just being together as an eternal family! 

Love, 

Hermana Velasquez

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng#watch=video

Dengue fever, 10 dogs...and 7 investigators!

Here's the SHARK dish that we ate last week!

I gave my companion a HAIRCUT!

We had a great time together in the hospital!

I ate my companion's hospital food.  It was the most Mexican ever!

Poor Hermana Hoggan has Dengue.

Here I am with one of the other Hermana's we're staying with right now, Hermana Ellgen!

BUNKBED HAMMOCKS!!!

Okay, just to get right into it all -- this week my poor companion got Dengue and was sick this week. On Thursday we went to the hospital and then we were in the back ER room for a long time, and then we got put into a room to stay in overnight. We just hung out there that day on Thursday and I slept on this little couch bed next to her and boy, did I miss my hammock! I really do love that thing! I really hate hospital beds. Anyway, so on Friday, while she was still in the hospital, I left with other members to go teach our lessons, and I just felt so bad for Hermana Hoggan the whole time!  But it was a good experience to go out with other Hermanas from the ward that are preparing for the mission! We went and had a really good lesson with a member’s mom. Hermana Arely was with me that day and she shared her story about her family of how they were inactive for a long time and she had to go to church all alone, but she did it because it was important to her. It really hit the mom, because her son was the only member in the family and was going to church all alone. He has 19 years and he wants to go on a mission too! 

On Saturday night Hermana Arely and I went to go see Daniel and his mom. We got to the house and they weren’t there yet so we waited. It was almost 8:30 so we decided to go up the hill to go see someone else. As we were walking up the dogs just started barking like crazy at us and as we kept walking they started coming out of the houses. We went to turn around and there were 5 right in front of us, then about 5 others came out and they were just barking SUPER loud! So she had my hand and we were just laughing/screaming as we were trying to get away. She started to run a little and that freaked the dogs out so I yelled at her to walk! Then she got bit and they had to cut some of her leg skin off...okay not really… we got away by walking really slow. When we got down we just started laughing really hard! Ha-ha! But to be honest, it was a really cool experience, because we were 100 percent Protected and you could just feel it. They all stayed just far enough away that we could get away. It was like we were in this little bubble that they couldn’t enter. It was really cool and I know we were getting help at that point! He really does protect his missionaries! 

After Friday afternoon they let us leave the hospital so the family Perez let us hang out there, because we can’t go into our house, because we might have dengue in our house and someone is going to spray it. So Hermana Hoggan went to her house during the day while I was out with different members and we sleep with other missionaries that live close to us during the night. We have been doing all that since Thursday and still can’t go into our house yet. We are still figuring it all out. The members have all been so great! And the family Perez is really like our parents here!  Ha-ha -- it’s pretty fun with them! They have helped a TON with the house stuff! 

Through it all we had a great turn out at church. About 7 investigators came to church and that NEVER happens for us. They all came and they liked it a lot. We got Daniel’s dad to come and that was a HUGE step for him. They are living together and aren’t married so we are working on them with that! It was really great to see that blessing after the week we had! I know that was a blessing straight from God for us! I KNOW He protects us whenever we need it and I KNOW He answers prayers. I am so grateful for my mission and all of the good and bad experiences we get to have here. Well, there really aren’t bad ones, because they always turn out to be good ones in the end! I love you all so much and thanks for all the pics and videos this week I LOVED them all! I don’t have time to write back to you all because the computer is really, really slow but thanks for remembering me and writing or just sending a pic! You are all the best and I am so grateful for you all! Read your Book of Mormon, Pray because he WILL listen to every jumbled word, and have your noche de hogar tonight! (FHE!) (Family Home Evening).

Love, Hermana Velasquez

Shark tastes like chicken...

I absolutely am in love with all of the little children here!

UGLY dog!

This is one of our 80-year-old investigators, playing the piano for us!

These are the hermanas in our district... minus my companion and one other who went to the restroom at the wrong time!

Okay - so first off, this week I got to eat shark! It really did just taste like chicken...They made it like this cake-looking thing. It had tortillas with beans layered with the shark. I’ll send you a picture of it all. 

On Wednesday we had a Seventy come and talk with our zone and two others. It was really cool because we were able to talk with him and participate. And this time I got up a couple of times and asked questions and commented. It was Elder Valenzuela. We were with him for about 4 hours and we really did learn so much from him and I really was able to apply a lot of it to our area and all. 

This week we found this menus activo who has this son that is 9 years old and she really wants him to get baptized and he really wants to too, so we started working with him this week. He is this crazy, spazzy boy that is just all over the place but he is super great! He is getting baptized on the 20th. They came to church this Sunday and they both really liked it too! The mom is really wanting to come back too! 

So this week we got this reference to go see this family that we have passed by probably every day, but have never gone to talk to. They have 5 children ages 6, 5, 4, 3, and 9 months. They are always running in the streets and their house smells like an unclean bathroom. Their mom has mental problems and the dad is usually drunk. The best way I have found to describe them is the family from “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever”. It’s that exactly how they act and how they look. We went to go see them and we had a lesson with them and the kids were just running all around wrestling with each other. I said to the mom, “so you have 5 boys and no girls yet?” and she said, “no. I have 2 girls and 3 boys”. I looked at them and she pointed out who her girls were and I could only tell that they were little girls by their little cheeks and their eyelashes.  I had to sit there for a second to look at them. The oldest is a little girl and was just on the ground wrestling in the mud with her little brother.  I was just shocked when she said that. We then sang with them, and I crouched down and got at eye level with them and we sang “soy un hijo de dios”. I just started to tear up a little bit because this little boy was just piercing my soul with his little eyes and I just felt so much love for him. He is only 3 and his smile was just so big while we were singing! That family is super great and we are going back tonight for another lesson! 

I have really learned so much this week. I really keep getting put back into reality when I see families like them. There are so many more that are just the same as them and we have just found such a love for these kids here. I love giving the kids those little things you have sent me mom and the little bracelets that Brooklynn sent me to give to the little girls! They always love it! Even if it’s just a little piece of candy. This area here in Campeche has really changed me so much. It really changed the outlook on a lot of things in my life. I really can’t even explain it. I know it sounds dramatic, but I really won’t ever be the same after I leave this area. It’s sad sometimes, but I really love it here so much! The people are so great and the kids are just the cutest! 

I love you all so much! Always be grateful and so humble for everything you have! 

Love Hermana Velasquez