November 24, 2008 - 4th week in the field - First Baptism!!

Laundry Facilities

Sofa Decor - Each missionary has his own sofa - this is "mine":)

Hey!!!! I´m surprised that you had to bust through the door to get me an email! Usually you write immediately following mine, or early in the week. lol, but I´ll forgive you. I still can´t help but cry when I recevie anything from you...it´s just good to hear you, the other day I was thinking and I read D & C 121 about the Prophet Joseph Smith´s afflictions in Liberty Jail, and it notes ¨Your Family and Friends still by you and wait with open arms to receive you¨ ... after reading that, everytime I get down, or most of them, the thought pops in my head, without me even trying. ¨My parents love me sooo much, and my friends are just waiting for me to return, wishing me success and joy.¨ It´s about time I heard from them by the way... but anyway, I can visualize every square inch of our home, to see you bounding through to get to the computer. The garage to the front door, through the laundry and kitchen through the little arch into our living room past the lamp and dictionary down the 7 feet to the computer room and around the corner to fly into your little red chair, slide it up and pull out the key board with the other hand slapping the desk searching for the mouse. Scrambling onto your email.a..a =´( Well, the first thing I´m sure you´re waiting to hear is things are better. My companion and I, we´re not chumbs or buddies, friends or amigos but we´re working. We don´t talk that much, usually after a few hours, one of us (or the other) will ask a question. So Whats´your favorite movie, what do you want to do when you get back, how was your first area??? I don´t know, I don´t know if I mentioned I was having problems with Elder Gonzalez, Elder Hoffman´s companion, too. It´s better also, but I am having such a hard time letting things go, I´m trying to forgive´... I´ll kneel down and pray that I can forgive but ... I think I just need to try more often, to push the thoughts out of my head. Continuously, I just think he´s going to do something mean, or that he´s a jerk, usually everythings perfectly fine at that moment to. I don´t know, I know that everything´s getting better. I don´t know how long I´m going to be with him, but I have to say, I didn´t know Josh could pull out such words of wisdom. ¨The Lord has a place for him and he´ll move you in his time.¨ Wow... Kid´s got a testimony still, he just doesn´t want to go back, too many memories. I know I¨m here to learn something, and I´m grateful for my challenges now, I can´t yet see the result, but I´m starting to think that I know what I´m learning, I think. Patience and long suffering, LOVE your companion, we´re friends and we have to be so that we can... so much. Not just companions or co-workers but friends. This keyboard drives me nuts, alot of the keys are in different places and it gets in the way alot. Lately I´ve been thinking about my Spanish, and I haven´t been studying much, always growing, but I´m not showing forth much effort I think. I want to read a minimum half hour in the BofM everyday, that´s so I can understand, then I also want to read a half hour of in Spanish (and if I need, English) so I can learn. The Mission President told Elder Winkfield that he´s not allowed to speak English to me, or at least that he should speak mostly Spanish. The grand majority. It´s better now. Hatred isn´t a benefactor... I´m hoping for a lot of improvement by the time we split though. Two weeks minimum. I don´t know if he´s transfering out, if I´ll transfer out or if we´ll stay the same. Well a few other things now. Last week was Elder G´s birthday and we went to play pool (billiard´s) and went out to pizza afterwards (thanks to you two my birthday´s going to be a little more eventful! Lol. We didn´t do quite much this week. First and foremost, forgive me, I can not bloody remember to bring my camera, por nada. Once again I forgot it and I´ll HAVE to send you the photos next week. I´ll just attach´m to the email and you can have some fun later! Lol Nevertheless, you´ll have to wait another week. I have to apologize again, because this week I blew about 100 pesos on a bunch of CRAP! Ok it wasn´t full blown crap, but it could have been spent with a little more wisdom. Unfortunately it was not on a nice dinner, lol. First I got a Halo 3 Shirt, lol. Much to your disfortune. It´s horrible, quite pathetic actually, it´s just a paper print more or less ironed onto to the shirt, you can see the edges where they cut. Only from up close though, and it´s a good little shirt for while I´m here, I didn´t bargain with him though, well. 20 pesos I got off, but I still had to pay $100, or 10 bucks. Too much for this t-shirt. it´s fun to wear though. Next I bought, and I´ll send you the picture next week, but my watch is more broken now then before, it doesn´t just stop every morning for an hour anymore. Rather, most of the day it doesn´t tick. So for 30 I bought a knock off Rolex at San Juan de Dios, the biggest black market i´ve ever heard of. I probably told you a little bit, but everythings pirated and everything´s fake, I´m sure, it can´t be any other way, but I got the watch, I´m not very happy about it though, it fits and it ticks, but I like my Fossil better, it just looks better. This ones almost too fancy, there can be fancy with a very casual luxury, but this is all silver. There was another that I REALLY wanted to get but it was 50 bucks, so maybe for my birthday or something I´ll just get a little money, lol. It´s an Omega, and it´s nice. lol. No, I´m happy for now. I bought a black one at first, but it didn´t work, so we ran back in and traded it out. I went on divisions with the district leader Wed. and it helped me so much, I´m so satisfied with that and just plain happy. Unfortuantely however in our area the camion (bus) is only 5 pesos, 50 cents. We spent 20 bucks on buses though in that one day, so it wasn´t exactly in our favor, lol. So today I reimbursed the District Leader Elder Del Angel for my half. We haven´t eaten lunch yet, and I just had some cereal at 7 this morning, as such I´m really hungry, lol. We got back to the house an hour and a half ago after visiting heaven again... Walmart. I bought Ritz crackers and oreos, which should last me the week, A BLANKET! Lol, for 25 bucks, or such...argh. And ... oh, lol, grass seed and fertilizer. Just like dad told me he wishes he had taken a before and after photograph of the Dana and Maricopa houses, I wish I had taken one period of ours. Elder G and I scrapped the first half of the front yard and we´re planting grass. I put the seed and fertilizer in just before this, and managed to wash 4 of my dress shirts and 1 garment top. The rest... I don´t know. Lol. Hopefully, we can fnish up the yard and I can start having fun with the rest. We need to wait for Elder G and Elder Wink leave though, so I can remodel the interior, they´re rather ´satisfied´ with their 1/4´s of the house. it could definately use some shifting around. Lately we´ve been able to see our blessings pretty good. A member gave us a box of ritz crackers, or the knock of mexican brand called crackets (exactly the same) and some Emperadors, a more or less cookie like oreos. However I bought the REAL version of both today, the others are still great, and point and case she bought us a box of both, and it was amazing. Both amazingly nice, helpful, and just plain delicious. Elder Hoffman and Garcia´s area has a member who gave us a Christmas Tree! Lol. Today I´m going to buy some lights cause a whole strand is only 20 pesos, 2 bucks! Lol. I have a lot to do though, organizing and cleaning, studying and practicing. And lately my mind has been plagued with confusion. I want to KNOW; So much I just want to know. How to use my moneym, exchange rates and economies, how to talk in Spanish, how to talk with people more effectively, how to act in such a way that´s more refined and definate. So much, how to build things and study things, to know how things work and why, math, science, English, Spanish. I want to draw I want to make music, paint use a computer to create anything I want. I want to know. I ´can´t expect too much as in ´what´s going to happen, what´s going to happen December 7th? (The date of the changes, where I might get a new companion) Will I stay? Go? What should I do, how/what can I do to create a companionship, to get along and succeed. How can I impliment everything I want to do in the mission? I´m glad to hear Elder Kelly´s around, it´d be kind of fun to hear from him too, lol! He´s a great man, all around. He had an odd liking to me, but it was fun, it´s too bad Elder Goddfrey got transferred out already, but I know that he was probably looking for somewhere new to go. It´s kind of old after a while. I wouldn´t mind sticking around this area. There´s just so much that could be done. I don´t know. Only a few minutes left.I just got dad´s pouch letters from the 11th and earlier. It took a nice while. I heard that about the pouch though. For you guys, it may take a while to get WHATEVER I send, then again you know I can send stuff too often. They wait for the pouch to get full, and then take it out. I just got that Dear ELder you sent me too! The one about my shoes. LOl, btw. The blisters are fantastic, by that I mean almost gone, the shoes are incredibly comfy, and I put on my old ones yesterday for church and after walking around all that day afterwards I could feel it heating up. The new shoes and socks help incredibly, lol thanks a billion! Well, I think I should share this. Before I got here, and for some time, Elder Winkfield and his former companion had been teaching a man named Joaquin (Wah-keen) and he was just baptized yesterday. He´s a rather big guy and thus I baptized him. It was great! Felt amazing. I asked him about it afterwards and he has his confirmation. We have another one this week, a woman named Merceditas, then we have one on the 7th, maybe. That one´s a Fechas Fija (or a fixed date) but isn´t necessarily permanant. We work for that date and try to achieve it, but it´s up to them. I think it´ll go through, 3 weeks. I think there are some other families too that are close. Last week, we finished an appointment and then Elder Wink decided we should knock doors... again. When he asked me where we should knock, I said ´Let´s pray´ I prayed and the thought popped into my head cluster 4, I continued thinking of clusters closer, cluster 4 came again. So I said it, Let´s go to cluster four. On the complete other side of the city, honestly though I wasn´t even thinking about distance. We knocked an entire side of a street and nothing, then he said we should start the other side of the street and to pick a house. I said we should just cross the street and head back up the way we came. 3rd house we hit a family who is Christian not Catholic, has a sick daughter a 6 month year old grandson and the whole family, minus one daughter is out of work. We´ve been three times, I have confidence because I believe we were led there. They didn´t come to church though. The wife seems to love reading the book of mormon. We assigned her a chapter and then she said yeah I read it but I hope you don´t mind I read the next X chapters too. Uh, no that´s great, urgh,umm fine.. yeah that´s fine. Later we´ll return and see how it´s going. A chunk of investigators are in the loop, but we´ll see. I need to go, it´s been an hour. I love you all so much, I´m pretty focused on food and other such stuff right now. But I love you so much, thank you Dad SOOO MUCH! For sending the letters, receiving letters still drives me insanely happy. And to think of your love to sit and do that. Thank you, I love hearing how things are going with the houes and Kyrene schools. 3 schools next summer. That´s insane. 51 other schools... man. Merry Christmas. It´s about time I heard from the guys again too... could you get ahold of ´em? It´s time I got a lettler or an email. David said he sent a letter here for me before I left the mtc and if it wásn´t here when I got here to let him know. I want a Christmas letter. Nice and long. Could you do that for a crying giant? I love them. I love you more, but my friends and family stand by my side and stand with open arms to receive me, that is pìece of my foundation, and I cannot let it fall. I know my Savior loves me, and I can feel his love. Thank you for everything. Thank you for the apoyar (support) y amor (love) Thank you thank you. You need to be broken down to know how much it means. I always wanted to know that too. But love is a foundation. It´s something that doesn´t need anything but a thought, but can save lives. Faith can move mountains, but love keeps them in one piece when you try to set it back down. There is seriously sad love music playing in the background, in friggin´English... jeez... what a time. LOVE BEYONd MEASURE, Jake Taylor, Elder P.S. Pictures next week. Christmas still applies