Letter 17

Hello familia,

This week I ate way too much. The food here in Juarez is a little different than the food back in Mexico City. I miss eating tacos al pastor, but I don't think I could live without Mennonite cheese and these handmade flour tortillas. I went to Janos, Chihuahua this week, and a member who lives around there bought us a bunch of Mennonite cheese and tortillas. Mennonite cheese is like no other. It´s called Mennonite cheese because it's made by...Mennonites. Mennonites are a group of christian people who live here in Chihuahua. They are of German descent (most of them only speak German and Spanish) and look like Amish white farmers. They have a BUNCH of land here in Chihuahua, because they also colonized here in Chihuahua after religious persecution (just like the Mormons). A lot of people think that some of the American missionaries are Mennonites because they kind of look like them too. It's a little weird because you'll walk into these little towns and you'll see all kinds of people; American Mormons, Mennonites, Missionaries, Tarahumaras (the indigenous Indians of this state), Mexican Cowboys, Lebarones (polygamist) and then just regular Mexican people. It's pretty funny stuff

This week, we started teaching a new investigator. His name is Jose Sierra. Jose is about 60 years old and is struggling with alcoholism. He is a very smart man, and has expressed to us how he wants to change. He lives with his mother (who we've also been teaching) and his sister (....who we've also been teaching) and they are very supportive. We've taught him about twice this week, and he is really starting to change. When we first met him, he was really drunk (and a little bummy). So we set a appointment with him to visit him some other time, when he hadn't been drinking. The next time we stopped by, he wasn't drunk, he had clean clothes on and he had even done his hair. We sat down with him and his family and taught lesson 1. He and his sister accepted a baptismal date! We really hope they can keep progressing, and seeing these changes the Gospel brings in their own lives.

Thanks for all of your letters family, I love reading about all of you. Have a great week!

Elder Velazquez