Final Interview, Temple Trip, and... So Cold at 68 Degrees!

I got to attend the temple today!

Hermana Hoggan, Hermana Velasquez, Hermana Cockerham

While waiting for interviews last night.

It was a late night!

Our zone activity

It was a pretty great moment to eat hot chocolate chip cookies!

This lady was making a hammock.

Hello beautiful family! I don’t have much time to write at all, but all is well in the mission. This week went by really, really fast! On Tuesday it was really cold and it made me really not want to go home! I was dying and I think it was only like 68 or higher but I was so cold. I am not going to complain about the heat anymore.  

On Monday night we had an activity with our Zone and it was a lot of fun! We had a Piñata and it was really fun and nice to get some stress out on that thing! Also one of our zone leaders bought one of those lanterns off of Tangled that light up and fly away. So he had us say the deseos that we have and then he wrote them down on it. Well it was all a very bad idea because that thing exploded up in flames and an elder had it in his hands. And well, good thing I know a good one or two things about fires because I grabbed this big jug of water that was sitting on the steps and like a fountain I put that fire out. It was all pretty funny actually!   

So on 7 of enero was the Day of the Kings and they have this bread that is a circle and there are little plastic baby Jesuses in it. They have parties with this bread and everyone that is there has to cut a part and see if they got one of the little Jesuses and if they did on 2 of Feb you have to buy everyone tamales. They were pretty good. Also this day is like #2 Christmas for them. The 3 kings come down and give the kids MORE gifts. It’s pretty weird, but hey. So yesterday I was going to have my last interview with president. Early, I know! Well I got there at 11 and Hermana Hoggan was there waiting too. Well long story short, all the dying people went out to eat and our companions went and worked, it was kinda sad. Hermana Hoggan’s comp is with mine as of yesterday. I’m not really sure how that’s going right now because they are both in their training... So yesterday we went to president’s house and waited to have interviews and while we were waiting I made chocolate chip cookies and they were soooo good! 

Then I ended up going to sleep in Garcia Gineres with some other sisters and we got to the house at like 10 at night and then we ended up not having keys, so we went to the office to go and find some keys to the house and we finally got home sleeping at like 12 in the morning. It was quite the show. Then this morning we got to go to the temple with everyone and it was really great. I loved it there so much. I really felt the spirit there very strongly. I forgot how beautiful it is to be there. And how strong the spirit is in the Temple. I have a long time since I have had the chance to go in. Not being able to go in a lot has really made me want to go a lot when I get home.  It’s been kind of a weird two days. I still have 3 weeks and I think that’s helping me not feel sad yet. Usually they take us to the temple the last few days, but they are closing it for awhile so we went early. 

So one really cool and also sad experience we had this week was in a lesson we had. We were teaching an investigator about baptism and how it’s really important to follow the example of Christ exactly. To have your whole body in the water, at an age that is old enough and with someone who has the power and authority of god to do it. She understood everything we said and she believed us too but she was so stuck with her traditions that she has and said that she was good with her baptism and all. It was just really sad because she knew that what we were saying was very correct, and she felt the spirit. We were with a boy that is preparing for his mission and we all really testified with power that it was something very important to do to follow him exactly. We all felt the spirit there, she just didn’t want to act on what she was feeling. I still love her and I have faith that maybe not now, but another time she will accept this gospel and apply it to her life. I do love this gospel so much and I love being able to hear and feel the spirit strongly like we felt in that lesson. I love you all so much and hope you all have a great and happy week! 

Con amor, 

Hermana Velasquez

Happy 2016!

A member gave me a Costco size bag of globitos! I was soooooo excited! I LOVE these things; they don’t have them at home I believe, so I’m just going to love & cherish them while I’m here.

Raul’s baptism!

We cooked on Christmas.

I made Hermana Cabrera wear these all day on Christmas while we were in the house. She clearly loved it!

Me and my companion on Christmas.

Hello family! Happy 2016! How weird is that!? This year went by so fast! 

So I was reading in this letter I wrote to myself last year and it was really funny. In the letter it said “well, I hope you’ve got the language down by now because you know nothing right now of Spanish” ha-ha. It also talked about how hard it was a year ago and how I hope I’m happy with all that happened this past year and how I hope I’m happy with where I am now. And I really liked reading that. I really do feel so happy and blessed with the year that I have had here in Mexico! I have NEVER learned so much in one year like I have in 2015. I really hope I can keep that up for this year. I don’t know if that’s possible, but I’m going to try! 

This week was a little hard for us because NOBODY was home for the appointments that we had planned for this week. So we walked a lot and talked with lots of people in the streets. New Year’s in this area was a lot calmer than last year! Everyone was shut in their house having their parties rather than last year all in the streets yelling and lighting off fireworks! It really didn’t feel like it was New Year’s, but all went well and it was LOTS better than last year. It really does depend on your attitude on how you want things to go. We may have not found everyone that we had planned on this week but we did have some great experiences! 

On Saturday we were looking for this part member family and we went to the house that we thought was them, but it wasn’t and they didn’t really help us to find her house either. We were about to turn and head back but then my companion saw her house number so we ran over, yelled at her house, and then she came out all surprised to see us. It was this young girl; she’s like 24 and she is a less active member. She invited us in and at first it was a little uncomfortable because she didn’t know what to say and it was just weird. When we started with the lesson it all got better. We taught her about the Santa Cena and the atonement and it was pretty perfect for her. She told us that she hasn’t gone to church for a while and that she had felt that Heavenly Father had left her and forgotten about her, and when she needed him the most we showed up. It was really cool to hear that and to see that the Lord once again put us in the right path to find her. She is really great just a little lost, and just needs a little guidance to get back. She is excited to get back to church. We also have this other less active family that we found that came to church this week and we were soooo excited to see them there and the members were too! I really have learned a lot this week. First the Lord is NEVER going to forget about us. He is aware of us and all of our needs. He wants us to be happy and he wants us to come back and live with him. So therefore he WILL put people in our path to help bring us back, or to help give us answers or guidance. We just need to be willing to accept his help and act on it. The other thing I learned this week in my studies about the charity and love was really how to love people like the Lord loved us and everyone else, even those people that hated him and crucified him. People will do us wrong or offend us, we just have to love them and if we don’t we’ve just got to pretend we do until we actually love them. I love you all very much and hope that you have a great year and make great goals for this year to come! I love you all! Have a great week! 

Con Amor, Hermana Velasquez

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our 4-way Skype screen-shot!

Hello everyone! I just had a delight talking with you all this week! It was so fun to see all your faces! The kids look so big! Kyson looks about the same though, just taller I think. You all look great! And congrats on all the babies! Sorry you didn’t fool me. I guess I could have just let you all believe I didn’t know anything! Tia - good job on hiding it! Ha-ha, I’m excited to get to know all of these cute little girls! I hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed remembering the Savior.

This week I studied about humility. Something I liked from this was the opuesto of humility is pride and when we aren’t humble it means that we put more trust in ourselves than in God. He has really given us everything and thanks to him we can have happiness. Humility isn’t just for the people that are really cocky and know it all’s, but it’s for everyone. When we think we are really humble we’ve still got a long way to go! I really liked studying about that this week. I know that everything that I have done here is thanks to Heavenly Father. And I know that I wasn’t sent here to help them, but I was mostly sent here for them to help me. I love these people and I have learned so much of how to be humble by their examples to me. 

So Saturday I got to go back to Garcia Gineres to go to Raul’s baptism and it was SO GOOD. He accidently showed up at 7 in the morning because he got the time of day mixed up, ha-ha, but he was excited to get going a good 12 hours later and get in the water. After he was baptized he did this little dance in the water with his arms, it was pretty cute! Ha-ha, I just love this guy so much! He is a funny one. Thanks for chatting with me on Christmas. I LOVED seeing all of your faces and I forgot to remind you all about the 7 weeks of change. If you’re not doing it, well just repent now and start! Love you all so much!  Have a happy new year! 

Con Mucho amor,

Hermana Velasquez