Hola everybody. This week has been pretty great. I explained a little bit about the Velazquez Guzman family in the last letter. They were confirmed last Sunday. We went to their house on Wednesday for another lesson. We were going to teach them about the temple and prepare the dad and the 12 year old son to receive the priesthood. We had it all planned out and when we all sat down and were ready to give the lesson they gave us a nice surprise. They said "so yesterday we went to the church for the young men's activity and the bishop ended up giving us the priesthood. Also Aldahir (the 12 year old) is going to go the temple tomorrow. He even has the information to be baptized for his grandpa.". It was a pretty cool surprise, I'll be honest. They had already taken the initiative of meeting with the bishop and doing their family history.

The next day, Aldahir went to the temple with the young men and he loved it. He actually went by himself. His parents asked us if we could walk him to the church so he didn't have to walk through there by himself. Funny story though... You'd think we'd be responsible and keep him safe as we were walking to the church right? Well I have walked those roads to the church about a thousand times so I was just kind of going through the motions and not paying attention to the things around me. We were walking past this parking lot in an apartment complex and out of nowhere my comp and Aldahir just stopped. I didn't pay much attention and kept walking. Well they stopped because a car was coming and I didn't see it. The car didn't see me either... So I got hit by my first car on Thursday. It wasn't going fast at all and I just kind of rolled off the hood. It was an old lady too and she was freaking out. I just gave her a thumbs up and a smile a kept walking. 


We have been working with another family as well. The Belmont family. The mom is a less active who found us in the street and asked us to come by and teach her family. We went by that same day and had a good lesson with all of them. Her husband's name is Carlos and they have two little girls ages 9 and 8 named Fernanda and Naomi. We taught them a couple times in the week and they came to church yesterday! They had to leave after sacrament meeting because the house of Carlos' sister collapsed in the earthquake last month and they have been spending a lot of time helping her get resettled and back to normal. We are really excited about this family, they have so much potential.

Have a great week!

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Elder May

Hello everybody!

I am sorry that I have been slacking a little bit lately with the emails. I need to do better at writing them.

These past few weeks have been amazing, like always. The highlight of these last two weeks would have to be the baptism of the Velazquez family. We found them by going through the area book. We saw that the missionaries had been visiting them about 2 years ago but didn't have much success with them. My comp and I felt that we should go visit them one day and since then we have seen miracle after miracle. The mom was able to change her work schedule to be able to come to church. She works from 7:00 am on monday until 10:00 pm. She sacrifices a lot for her family. The dad stopped smoking and drinking to be able to be baptized with his family. They all read the scriptures and say their prayers as a family now every day and are progressing so well. They have the goal to be an eternal family. They have to be members for one year before they can be sealed as a family. They were baptized on October 14, and want to be sealed next october hopefully before I go home from my mission. That would be the greatest experience i can imagine to have in my mission.

We have also been working with a lot of other families and couples. We have a lot of people who need to get married and with my wedding planning experience, we are ready to go.

We had transfer calls last saturday and I will be staying here in Hidalgo for another transfer to finish Elder Vargas' training. I am super okay with that. He is probably my favorite companion and we have been getting a lot done here. I love this area and love my mission! Time is going by way too fast. Each transfer goes by faster than the last and it is starting to freak me out.

I love you all, have a great week!




--
Elder May

Sorry, this email isn't going to be very long, I am a little short on time today.

Highlight of the week, Yael was baptized! I know I haven't mentioned him much in my emails, but he has been awesome. His baptism was really special. He is 13 years old and is the only member of the church in his family. He bore his testimony after his baptism about how the church has changed him. He wants to be a missionary one day to be able to teach more niños like Elder Vargas and I have been teaching him. After the baptism he invited his mom to say the closing prayer. She is not a member and had never offered a prayer in her life. He walked her through it and whispered in her ear what to say. Usually it is the other way around when parents teach their kids how to pray, but it was a very spiritual experience to be able to see him teach his mom how to pray.

We also went on a tour of the estadio Azteca. It was pretty cool.

have a great week!
--
Elder May