Elder Jorge Velazquez: Letter 49

Because Juarez is a Border state, daylight savings time doesn't end until tomorrow. That means that this whole last week, half of the mission was an hour ahead, and the other half actually got to fall back into the new time schedule. This has caused some pretty crazy confusion.

We had 18 new missionaries arrive on Monday. We did all of the usual meetings with the new missionaries on Monday, and ran around getting everything ready for Tuesday. We started the transfers at around 7 am and ended at around 2 pm. As you all know, I am in charge of making sure everyone arrives at the Mission Offices and departs to their new areas. This cycle's changes weren't too bad, and everything went (for the most part) according to plan.

President Derbez reunited all of the missionaries serving in Juarez on Friday for a special reunion. The meeting started at 10 am and ended at 5 pm. In the meeting President Derbez addressed some important points on safety, health, self-reliance, and a special Christmas program we are having in December (more on that later). We also got a speciel visit from the mission doctor, Elder Payan. He is the assigned doctor/specialist for many missions here in the North.

We had a great experience with our recent convert, Luz Elena this last week. During the Ward night on Thursday, We had some of our recent converts come to the church to set up their Familysearch account. As we helped these new members get started on their family history, we explained to them of its importance and the blessings it would bring to them as they discovered their ancestors. We all got hooked on Family History! Working on your geneology is actually pretty addicting! Later that night we got a call from Luz Elena. She was so happy and excited about all she had learned doing her Family History, that she over to her friends house after the activity and talked to her friend about the joy she felt in the Church, then she had her friend (Lupe) call us and set an appointment for us to visit her! Lupe, was so amazed to see Luz Elena so happy that she wanted to have the same happiness she saw in Luz. Lupe told us that she was eager to come to our Church on Sunday and see what it is all about!

Everyone have a great week

Elder Velazquez