Party Week for the Birthday Girl!

We had a little party for my birthday!

Thanks for the flowers! The people in the offices called and told me that I had a strange package in the offices and all I was thinking when I was walking there was "what did Adam send?" Then we got there and there were flowers there on the table and they said they were for me and some guy came and dropped them off for me, and all I was thinking was “oh crap, what guy here sent me flowers? This is so inappropriate!” Then I saw the card and I calmed down! Thanks so mucho! I got them on my birthday too! 

My birthday pie; it was super good!

With the family Allendes. They have a weird song they sing for your birthday and then after they make you bite the cake and then they push your face in it... I only got it a little.

My birthday gifts: the notebook is from Hermana Hoggan and the coin purse is from our investigator!

At the ward party they brought a Mexican minion.

We went to Costco today and it looked just like the one in Pocatello!!!!! I was really freaking out! We bought pizza; a member bought us cookies and Costco rolls! We also found real milk and we almost bought it, but then we decided against it. But it was the BEST TIME OF MY LIFE. It was like going to Disney!

This week was just quite the party! We had great success this week and we worked really hard to keep up our hard work and try and do a little better than we did last week and we reached our metas and then some! We contacted 65 people this week and that was actually really good for us. We were just talking to everyone. We made an effort to make sure we invited EVERYONE to church and two of those people that we talked with on the street came! It was so great! It was two different guys we talked with but not together. Well, ends up that they’re friends and they got talking and wanted to go together! They’re both in their late 60’s and are quite the social butterflies. When we walked in the church they were both sitting in the front row just chattin’ away with other members. They both want to come back and one of them was like “well I’m gonna go find me a white shirt and my tie and I’ll see you two next Sunday”! We’re gonna go visit him on Thursday. It was pretty funny, but such a great blessing that they were there. A couple of our other investigators were there too. It was just really nice to see our hard work pay off! 

On Thursday we just had a good time. We went and ate with the family Allendes. They’re the ones that just got married, and the wife is going to get baptized in the end of the month. Well, we ate a TON of food. We went and worked and had some good lessons. Hermana Hoggan made people sing to me and it was really awkward, but it’s okay. That night we went back to the familia Allendes’ house and ate my pie and it was super good! They tried to push my face in it, but I won, I only got a little bit on my face. Hermana Prescilla bought me this little coin purse and its really cool and she wrote on the back of it. 

On Friday we went to a ward activity that they had. It was their noche Mexicana. We ate good food and people were singing karaoke and it didn’t sound so good, but that’s what makes it all so great! The members here are really fun although there are few. They partied pretty late that night! 

So cool thing; our stake center is right over the wall from the temple and it’s so great because we get to see it every Tuesday when we go to zone meeting. This Tuesday we went a little early and walked around the temple and I saw someone from my first area! It was so great to see him. It was weird because it’s been like 6 months since I’ve been in Mérida, but it was really cool and he told me that Vicente is doing really great and is loving church still! Vicente wrote me a letter the other day and it was really cool to get that! 

This week I really learned a lot about repentance. We talked a lot about it in our zone meeting. How we can be cleansed completely from our wrong doings thanks to Christ. We may be people pure and clean from lots of big sins, but we can always become more pure every time we get the chance to show our faith through repentance. Repentance doesn’t mean we are bad people at all. It just shows our willingness to become like Christ. I love you all so much and thanks again for the flowers you sent me! You’re all the best family ever! Les quiero muchísimo! 

Hermana Velasquez