Letter 45: Trips and Conference

Hello familia!

Well, this week we are not having a real P-Day, so we have this little bit of time between Conference Sessions to write a lil' bit.

So this week was another one of those famous travel weeks.

On Monday and Tuesday, we had splits with 2 of the areas in our Zones. Elder Webster went to Villahumada to work with Elder Gonzalez and his companion, and I headed down to Ejido Benito Juarez to work alongside Elder Martinez and Elder Chigüila.

This was the first time I actually got to do some proselyting work down in Benito, it was pretty fun. The town is really small, and almost everyone knows each other. We contacted a TON of people, and talked to (what felt like) the whole town. Most of the people who live in Benito have lived there their whole life, and have never really left. The town is quiet, and the only things you can really hear are trailers cruising by the nearby highway. The biggest challenge that the missionaries are facing in Benito is teaching lessons during the day. Almost the whole pueblo works in what's called the "Pisca". The "Pisca" is when the people go and work in the nearby chile, pepper, and alfalfa fields. Most of the fields are chiles though, and as a result, almost everyone dries them and sells them alongside the roadside. 

After 2 days of good ol' fashioned proselyting, we headed back to Juarez.

On Wednesday, we took a lil' trip down to Casas Grandes to take care of some secretary business. We were there almost all day, and returned back to Juarez late.

And that brings us to these last couple days.

Well, we have been teaching a couple (Luz Elena and her husband, Alberto) for the last few weeks, and they are awesome! They found the Church through their daughter and her husband, who got baptized about 3 years ago. Luz Elena and Alberto saw a huge change in their daughter's life, and this sparked a great flame of curiosity in their hearts. Well, Luz Elena has been coming to church ever since we found her 3 weeks ago, and her husband has been reading the Book Of Mormon and the Gospel Principals book like crazy (he's already on lesson 18!) We are amazed on how fast they have been progressing, and Luz Elena even came to both of the General Conf. sessions today! 

Well, I don't have much more time, time for Priesthood Session!

Elder Velazquez

Letter 44

Hey familia!

Another hectic week in the life of Elder Velazquez!

Elder Webster and I got to go on a trip alongside President Derbez this week. We left early morning Thursday, and headed to Janos, Chihuahua where I did a bunch of immigration forms for all of the new missionaries that arrived a few weeks ago. After Janos, we accompanied President to Buenaventura, Chihuahua to the LeBaron Colonies. 

The LeBaron colony is actually a polygamist colony that is not associated with the Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. The Church does, however, have a small branch a few minutes away, in Buenaventura. President went to go do some interviews, and we got to meet a few interesting people. We met the Jones family, who are Latter Day Saints. Their family line is all over the place, and rather confusing since a long long time ago someone in their family was part of the polygamist Lebaron family. The current Jones family isn't though, but some of their step cousins are...or something like that. Anyway, it was weird seeing so many blue-eyed blondies ALL over the place. Everyone speaks English. After meeting the Jones family, sister Jones gave us some fresh Pecan pie. Most of the people in that little town work with nogales which are pecan trees. I'm not much of a sweet tooth, or a pie guy, but that pecan pie was delicioso.

After Lebaron, we went to Casas Grandes. We met with a few missionaries and tied up some loose ends. We spent the night at the Hacienda Spa Resort...just keeding, it's just a regular hotel. We visited Colonia Juarez the next day, and a little town called Mata Ortiz. Mata Ortiz is famous for their pots. After a short trip back to Janos, we headed back home.

We just got finished with our baptism service. Connie and Dasha Dominguez were baptized today! Ever since we started teaching Connie and Dasha, they have had many many trials. They have overcome those trials with such great faith, and they are now on the path that will lead them to eternal happiness.

Well, that's about all the time we have today folks. Join us next week for more adventures.

Elder Velazquez

Hotel Chillin'

 

Me, Jennifer (a friend of Dasha), Dasha, Connie, Elder Webster

 The Chapel in LeBaron

Letter 41,42,43: Ketchup Week

For the sake of keeping the numbering solid, I have numbered this letter thrice (3 times).

Hello familia it's been a little while since I've written and I have a lot to catch everyone up on!

So lets go back to the big events from these past few weeks.

Elder Robbins (one of President's assistants) finished his mission and returned home. We had a provisinal "assistant" for 2 weeks, up until the cycle ended. When an Assistant is released, everyone is on their heels to see who the new Assistant is going to be. President is so secretive, that he doesn't tell ANYONE (not even the other assistant) who the new one is going to be. He then tells the whole mission the very day of the new Transfer Cycle. And well, the new Assistant is Elder Leifson. Elder Leifson was in a trio with Elder Webster and I way back in January, and now he's back in the area with us!

Both of the sisters who were in this ward had changes and we have 2 new sisters here in the Pradera Ward, Sister Jimenez and Sister Ostos. They are both from Veracruz.

On Monday, the Mission received the most new missionaries it had ever received. We received 28 new missionaries. They come from all around the world, it is exciting to see how the Lord is hastening his Work.

Well, with 28 new missionaries, coordinating the changes was crazy! On Tuesday, we coordinated over 60 changes and it was so hectic. We finished changing everyone at around 1:30 PM, and had no delays! 

Well that about leads us to this week.

This week, I have been working hard in the office to get all the fun paper work done for all the new missionaries. Aside from that, Elder Webster and I are finishing preparing an investigator for baptism. Connie and Dasha will be getting baptized next weekend! Connie and her daughter have faced some pretty tough trials during the time we've been teaching them, but after a month and a half, they are just about ready for their baptism! 

During the past few weeks, we have really seen a huge growth here in the ward, not only because of the recent converts, but we have really been doing our best to bring the Pradera Ward closer together.

Well, I don't have much more time, so I'm off!

Elder Velazquez

Letter 40: Rain

Hello familia,

I hope that all the photos I'm about to send make up for the lack of letter I am going to write this week.

We had an awesome trun out at the baptism on Thursday! A lot of members went and showed their support and love for our investigators. We had a double baptizm. We baptised our investogator Edgar Dominguez, and the Assistants baptised their investigator, Carmen Chavez. We have had 6 batisms in the Zone so far, and will be having 3 more today in the other 2 areas. I am so happy and feel blessed to be able to have the opportunity to serve alongside these great hard working missionaries.

I'm just going to explain some of these pictures really quick. 

We went to Janos this last week. We hadn't been there in like 2 months, and to our surprise it was crazy green! I thought Janos was all dirt, all year! We asked some of the locals, how often it is green in Janos, and they told us that it's usually green for 2 months and then everything dries out again.

We went to Carl's Jr. on Monday. Sister Gladis's son, Izack, took all 4 of us. Izack just returned home from his mission a month ago, and he has been helping us out and coming with us to lessons. He also helped baptize the Assistant's investigator on Thursday.

Izack and his brother, Chapo (Fernando).

It rains here in Juarez, and then everything floods. That's me on the monkeybars, sink or swim.

When it rains it pours. Juarez floods pretty bad.

The Assistants, their investogator (Carmen), our investigator (Edgar), and us.

Us and Edgar

Our investigator's mom, our investigator (Edgar), and Elder Webster and I

Love you guys,

Elder Velazquez

Letter 39: Extra-Ordi​nary week.

Hola Familia,

Burritos are huge here in Juarez. People make burritos out of just about anything. They are very practical and (for the most part) delicious. But one bad burrito can really do some damage...even death. That was an actual headline in the newspaper last week (see photo), and I almost died from the laughter.

This week was one of our few "ordinary" weeks here in the mission. I say ordinary because it was one of the few weeks where we don't travel or have any big meetings or anything like that. Having said that, this week was still extra-ordinary.

We finished prepping our investigator, Edgar, for his baptism next Thursday (Aug. 28). Edgar Dominguez has been investigating the church for a long long long time (like 8+ years), and he is finally getting baptised. We started teaching about 2 months ago, and at first, he wasn't interested...at all. He had had all of the missionary talks, and had pretty much heard it all before. His mom, whose been a member since Edgar was a baby (he's 25, now), had tried everything to get his son baptised...but at the end of the day, the Gospel never really interested Edgar. Well, after 2 months of teaching Edgar, he is finally getting baptised! Teaching Edgar was tricky, because he already had a good amount of knowledge of the Gospel, and had TONS of questions. We built a real relationship with Edgar, and gave him time to learn and applied the Gospel to his needs. Edgar has had a big change in his life, but most importantly, in his heart. He has gone to church every week for the past month and half (except one week he got really sick), and we've gotten him involved with all sorts of Single Adult activities. Elder Webster and I have really witnessed an incredible change in him.

Aside from Edgar, we are also prepping a few more investigators for baptism this cycle. Amongst them is Jonathan Cabrera, a 19 year old young man who has made huge progress in the little time we've know him. His mother is an inactive member (she's been inactive for more than 20 years), and non of his 3 siblings are members either. We are currently teaching him and his sister, Evelyn. He loves coming to church and he even goes to Institute on Tuesdays and Thursdays!

We found a great new red tomato this week! Her name is Luz Elena, and she is so sweet and so ready to be made into ketchup. She is 55, and her youngest daughter and son-in-law just moved in with her this past week. And guess what? They're both members. It turns out that her daughter got baptised when she got married a few years ago, and Luz Elena has been super curious to learn about the Church. She told us that she wants to be baptised (as a missionary, hearing this gives you a mini heart attack of excitement) and learn more about the Gospel.

This week, I read an awesome article in the Liahona. It is in this month's issue, and it is titled "Why We Share The Gospel" by Elder D. Todd Christofferson. Elder Christofferson focuses on the main reason why we share the Gospel, and that is to "Invite others to come unto Christ". "Inviting others to come unto Christ" is our primary missionary purpose (Preach My Gospel, Chapter 1). Everything we do, it all points to this purpose. All of this great Work, has the sole purpose of bringing others to Christ. "Remember that our missionary purpose is not only to warn others but also to save them, not only to teach but also to baptize, not only to bring others unto Christ but also to make them steadfast in Christ to the end." If there is something I've learned here, it's that there is no greater joy as a missionary, than leading someone to Jesus Christ, and seeing His Gospel change them.

Elder Velazquez

 

Ordinary Costco Tasks

Oridinary Newspaper Headlines

 

 

Letter 38: Cakes and Testimonies

There have been a bunch of birthdays this past week. Dad, yours was on the 6th, on the 8th was Elder Robbins (President's Assistant), and on the 12th was President Derbez's birthday. Needless to say, I've been eating a lot of cake lately.

On Tuesday, President Derbez invited us to go to his house and have a birthday lunch with him. All of  Secretaries and the Assistants went to President's house and he cooked a special lunch...Mole Poblano. President is quite the cook (I'm not kidding, he really knows his way around the kitchen). All of the Secretaries pitched in and we bought him a 3 leches chocolate cake. We shared some laughs, some stories, and then some burps.

I almost skipped over the events on Monday. 

Monday was our 2nd Zone Conference as Zone leaders. Since our Zone is super spread out (4 of the areas are about 2 hours away from the city), we usually have all of the missionaries come a day early and stay over night. But this time we decided it would be easier if have them come really early in the morning, give them the conference, and then have them go back to their little ranchos. This way, the missionaries don't waste 2 whole days of work, and we don't have to have them stay at our house and rummage through our fridge. We had a really good Zone Conference, and we feel really pumped for this up and coming cycle. Tangent: I just realized that we are about to start week 3 of the cycle, so we are already half way through it...I told you time goes by super quick.

The rest of this week was back to the normal routine. We had some solid lessons with our investigators this week, and we found 2 new great investigators.

While we were walking towards the office yesterday, a man (Mario Calvo) stopped us in the street and asked us the reason why we preached. These last few months I've been on the mission, I've seen that this is actually a pretty common question. A lot of people see us walking around, and they wonder what we do. As we started to answer this Mario's question, he stopped me and asked me, "I want to know why you missionaries preach with such conviction. How do you know what you preach is true." I quickly realized that this man wasn't looking for just another common answer, he really wanted to know. I was prompted to simply share my testimony and I told him that I preach because I sincerely know that our message is true. I didn't add anything else, I didn't make it fancy. Just a simple, straightforward testimony. Well, this man immediately opened his heart, and gave us his phone number. He asked us a bunch of questions, and we told him we would be more than happy to answer them in his home. He agreed, and we set an appointment to see him on Sunday. 

If there is something I've learned here in the mission, is that a simple and sincere testimony can be sufficient to penetrate even the hardest of hearts. 

Elder Velazquez

Jasmine & Anita's Baptism last week/ bad haircut #1

Birthday Bash

Letter 37

It has been raining a lot lately here in Juarez. It usually rains for about an hour in the mornings or mid afternoon, and then the sun comes up and rains havoc over the people in Juarez. It gets so ridiculously hot and humid after it rains. And then come the floods. The streets here have a horrible irrigation system (worse than Mexico City), and a little rain costs half the city to flood.

Here in Juarez, there is also a surprising amount of people who know people who have either died, or almost died getting struck by lightning. I always thought that being struck by lightning was a "one in a million" deal, but I guess not

This week was week 1 of a new cycle. A fresh new batch of missionaries arrived on Monday, On Tuesday, Elder Webster and I coordinated the changes for the whole mission. I broke my personal record for finishing the changes this cycle. We were able to move everyone around, and get them to their new area by 2:35 pm. The previous change we finished at 4:12 pm, and the one before that we finished at 6:30 pm. We finally got the hang of changes now, and I don't stress out too bad anymore.

 

Well, after changes, it was back to the daily grind for Elder Webster and I...almost. On Thursday and Friday we had our monthly "Mission Leadership Council" with President and all the other Zone leaders in the mission. To kick off Thursday's meeting, we had a mini work-out boot camp with all of the zone leaders and lead sister training leaders. Hermano Reyes (President's 1st councilor) taught us the correct way to work out in the mornings. Every morning we are supposed to work out for 30 minutes as soon as we wake up, and President wanted to see who really worked out in the mornings. Well, after an intense 30 min. session, we all realized that the exercises we all do in the mornings isn't even close to what we're supposed to be doing! The next day we all woke up crazy sore.

On Friday we had our regular meeting with President Derbez, and he announced a few changes we are going to apply to the mission. Most of it is pretty technical, and won't really effect everyone, so i will omit the details.

 

This brings us to today. Today we are having a baptism (in an hour actually). Jasmine and Anita Alanis are getting baptised this week. Jasmine and Anita were found by the sister missionaries here in Pradera and they have been coming to church regularly and have loved it. The sisters did most of the teaching (they live a couple blocks from their house), but Elder Webster and I helped teach them a bit as well. Jasmine is 20 years old and her sister, Anita is 11. Jasmine is cultivating a strong testimony in the Church, and has been a great influence for the rest of her family to start hearing about the Gospel. Elder Robbins and I will be baptising them.

 

Well, that about wraps up the week (and my time). I love you all!

Elder Velazquez

quick pic from Elder Velazquez