Wow, well what do i say?? To quote Elder Kelly, I really am out of words. Ciudad Guzman, is pretty unique. It´s an entire district and there´s only 4 elders here, there were only two. So we cover about 5 branches the 4 of us. Unfortunately, the branch presidency is trying to enforce boundaries on us, so we´ll see how that goes. Now really quick, I´d like you to tell David a big Thank you and take him to T.C. Eggington´s again. I can´t believe it... Brickway closed... (leaves table *crying heard in background*). He´s such an awesome kid. I pray every week that he´ll accept the gospel. Ask him how he´s doing on his Book of Mormon reading, I know he´s a busy kid, but have him read it. It will help him keep his head on straight. Now, right now, sitting at the computer I need you to get up go to your cell phone. I imagine it´s in one of three places, charging in the bathroom, in your car or in your purse which is sitting on the kitchen sink. Call Ben and tell him that Jake is going to kick him in the ____. Yes that is singular. Call Daniel and tell him I´ll forgive him his absurd debt, if he writes me a letter. Wow... Lol, I´m approaching a year, 9 days from today and I´ll have a year. No letter from Daniel, 3 or 4 from Ben, several from David, none from Nick, 2 from Joel, 2 from Jon, maybe three. Did you ever see what R.J.´s up too? Really if you could stop by there it´d be awesome. See how Joel´s doing and have him send me a note! I miss my buddy Joel(ine) Lol. We´ll have to go to Starbucks again! Speaking of, I don´t really like going to Starbucks as a missionary or as a member. Even though I know I´m not drinking coffee, many think that we´re buying coffee and leave it with that impression. Anyway...
So we´re teaching a few people here. We don´t know what´s going to happen with Elder Nichols next Monday the day of REAL changes. So I need to learn the area. It´s a pretty big place too, Ciudad Guzman. Nice though too. We went to a few places and it´s wild. We went to a pueblo about 2 hours away called Talpalpa that´s wicked amazing. It´s all brick and wood houses and reminded me devilishly of Mammoth, California, it´s way up on a mountain and everything looks like lodges. It´s incredible. There´s ONE family of members there, and their son was baptized by the other two elders there. I´m trying to enjoy the time then with Elder Nichols and Elder Danielson. Elder Danielson is from Chandler, lives off of Elliot and Alma School. Lol. I forgot exactly where. But it´s all good. Went to Dobson. Well he´s almost guaranteed to go this change but that´s ok. We´ll miss him. We´re hoping Elder Nichols and I stay together. He´s from Brush, Colorado. A little town outside of Denver. State Champions in Football usually though. Lol
He´s very chill. We talk about all sorts of stuff while we´re walking. Which is very therapeutic because I hadn´t talked for over a month. Now it all came out though, lol. I´ll explain that here in a second. He´s a big football guy but lost a lot of weight and overall I just love the kid. He has ... 8 months, about, in the mission and is coming along. His Spanish is good, and I love when he teaches, when we´re on a specific subject he teaches from the heart and says some wonderful things; there´s a few kinks I´d like to fix, but that´s all good. Certain teaching habits. The only problem we had was Thursday morning planning. I have a very unique way of planning, i like to discuss alot the person. How they´re receiving the message. Discuss more about what needs to be done. I don´t know, it´ll all work out. It worked out right there though. Finished planning and yeah, good. Today we went to a members house at 7and helped her cut her grass. About 2 feet tall or so, to give it to the cows.... with machete. A curious experience, let´s put it at that. Now we´re writing, we went to a store to look at Tie´s and clothes, it was pretty cool and then Soriana, their equivalent to Fry´s Marketplace. Bought milk and donuts.. tehehe. *blush,blush* 5 bucks. 50 pesos, for a gallon of milk and 2 donuts. Ouch. I still have peanut butter and jelly and bread and the stuff you sent me in the boxes to munch on so I´m going to use that. We went up on Saturday for that baptism like I told you about a little earlier and just when I woke up on Saturday I felt... disgusting. I was going to throw up. I couldn´t... lol. So I went downstairs, ran in a circle for a few short seconds and then HUUAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH. lol. Then I felt fine and we left. Lol. I still haven´t had huge desire to eat. 2 days later. Lol. Friday night I had eaten a little cake thing that we bought, a half pack of graham crackers covered in peanut butter, toast covered in peanut butter and then a sandwich of peanut butter. I think the peanut butter made me sick, and now i really don´t want to eat a whole lot. lol. Well there goes the hour, let alone half hour. Lol.
Just to let you know another 153 photos are online. So go take a look! Plenty of choices for hte next calendar! Lol. Choose wisely, make it good, lol!
Dad, your story was awesome. I´d like you to write a longer more detailed relation of the story and send it to me. I´m going to go read it again really quick. That makes me feel all bubbly inside. Lol. Well I´ll talk to you later! Love love love,
Say hi to the friends, if you could get in contact wit them that´d be great!
-Elder Taylor
Thanks for the packages and the one on its way!!!!!!!
-Also Elder Taylor
Monday, September 21, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
September 14, 2009 Ciudad Guzman
Hey Family! WEll Mom and Dad...
Well.........do I have a few things to tell you... Tuesday was zone confeence and does it feel like an eternity away. I went o bed at ... 1:30 or so last night so I´m... well vamos a say very very tired. Lol. I´ll explain why later. THe backspace is broken on this keyboard too, well it sticks, lol. So if there´s a few mistakes, sorry, = P
I went to zone conference and actually gave a presentation on the ´area book´ the book we use as missionaries to write down investigator information and stuff like that. It went very well, but the rest of the meeting as spiritually edifying as it was, and it was fantastic I could feel the spirit of the Lord so evidently. THe presentaitons were wonderful the testimonies, what president had to say, the comments it was all wonderful, many ideas to be a better missionary. The week followed with few few lessons, unfortunatley for a variety of reasons, traveling, service projects and other such situations. Cihuatlán, or the rama of Barra de Navidad is going to receive an excellent replacement and with Elder Perez, is going to change the current situation alla. We were teaching wonderful families and ther were wonderful people waiting to hear the gospel. A family of 7-9 and several other individuals. The church will grow and they have WONDERFUL ideas to help the branch. I´m very excited to hear in the next few months what happens there. However, it was not for me to do, I did my work. I would have liked to do much more, but I feel I left at least something. The members there are much more bonded to the missionaries. THey play such an important role in the life of each ward and much heavier in the branches. THe branch president commented to me as we talked about he branch that when they pulled the misionaries out more than a year ago (it was recently opened up again just before we arrived), he didn´t know what he wsa going to do. He felt he branch would die that it was going to fall. Fortunately it did not. This week they´re going to have a wonderful activity for the misionaries that has to do with he plan of salvation. A plane for Hawaii crash lands in the ocean, there are no survivors. THey are all now spirits and go the spirit world and then view the 3 degrees of glory. It´s going to be wonderful. I can´t wait to go back after the mission! ANd hitchhike!!! Lol! Well, now I am currently writing from Ciudad Guzman. With elder Nichols, hehe. I know what you´re thinking. It´s going to be so much fun, we´re going to do alot to help eachother out here. I don´t know a whole lot about it here, just that we went to Sorianna and now we´re in a ciber and it´s 9:20 so I´m going to go. But it´s BEAUTIFUL here, it´s totally black cloud covered and cool COOL weather. I can´t believe. That and as I feel like I´m going to fall myself asleep here, I´m going to role. THere´s alot to say, but I´have to include it later... WAIT!
I do have a little present for you. Lol, check out Walmart.com again I just loaded 150 photos. Enjoy!
Love Love Love,
Jake
P.S. I LOVE CINDY AND CARRIE AND MOMMY! WOOOOOOOOW I just got he FOUR packages and am enjoying myself thoroughly right now, even though termites already begun eating the towel you sent, lol. Talk to you sooN!
= D
Well.........do I have a few things to tell you... Tuesday was zone confeence and does it feel like an eternity away. I went o bed at ... 1:30 or so last night so I´m... well vamos a say very very tired. Lol. I´ll explain why later. THe backspace is broken on this keyboard too, well it sticks, lol. So if there´s a few mistakes, sorry, = P
I went to zone conference and actually gave a presentation on the ´area book´ the book we use as missionaries to write down investigator information and stuff like that. It went very well, but the rest of the meeting as spiritually edifying as it was, and it was fantastic I could feel the spirit of the Lord so evidently. THe presentaitons were wonderful the testimonies, what president had to say, the comments it was all wonderful, many ideas to be a better missionary. The week followed with few few lessons, unfortunatley for a variety of reasons, traveling, service projects and other such situations. Cihuatlán, or the rama of Barra de Navidad is going to receive an excellent replacement and with Elder Perez, is going to change the current situation alla. We were teaching wonderful families and ther were wonderful people waiting to hear the gospel. A family of 7-9 and several other individuals. The church will grow and they have WONDERFUL ideas to help the branch. I´m very excited to hear in the next few months what happens there. However, it was not for me to do, I did my work. I would have liked to do much more, but I feel I left at least something. The members there are much more bonded to the missionaries. THey play such an important role in the life of each ward and much heavier in the branches. THe branch president commented to me as we talked about he branch that when they pulled the misionaries out more than a year ago (it was recently opened up again just before we arrived), he didn´t know what he wsa going to do. He felt he branch would die that it was going to fall. Fortunately it did not. This week they´re going to have a wonderful activity for the misionaries that has to do with he plan of salvation. A plane for Hawaii crash lands in the ocean, there are no survivors. THey are all now spirits and go the spirit world and then view the 3 degrees of glory. It´s going to be wonderful. I can´t wait to go back after the mission! ANd hitchhike!!! Lol! Well, now I am currently writing from Ciudad Guzman. With elder Nichols, hehe. I know what you´re thinking. It´s going to be so much fun, we´re going to do alot to help eachother out here. I don´t know a whole lot about it here, just that we went to Sorianna and now we´re in a ciber and it´s 9:20 so I´m going to go. But it´s BEAUTIFUL here, it´s totally black cloud covered and cool COOL weather. I can´t believe. That and as I feel like I´m going to fall myself asleep here, I´m going to role. THere´s alot to say, but I´have to include it later... WAIT!
I do have a little present for you. Lol, check out Walmart.com again I just loaded 150 photos. Enjoy!
Love Love Love,
Jake
P.S. I LOVE CINDY AND CARRIE AND MOMMY! WOOOOOOOOW I just got he FOUR packages and am enjoying myself thoroughly right now, even though termites already begun eating the towel you sent, lol. Talk to you sooN!
= D
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Septembe 1, 2009
Hey Mom and Dad! Sorry to concern you like that...lol, but here I am. Yesterday was weird. We went to a ciber to write but my comp only read he didnt write. Elders Feik Mendoza and myself went together and Elders perez (my companion), Elder Romero and Elder Saenz went together, two groups of three. We just happened to meet up in the same ciber though and Perez told me he read but didn´t respond so I said well I´m not going to respond, so I don´t have to wait on him went we go to the ciber in Cihuatán (our area). We went into Manzanillo Sunday night. They were going to have the usual district class on Monday so we made plans to go. Then at about 7:30 or so they called us and said no class, because zone conference is on Wednesday, we´ll just do the class afterwards. We went anyway, we both wanted to go. So we´re there and we should have returned at 12 or... 1 ish, but we left at 5:30...got here at 6 something and started washing and then left for our appointment who wasn´t home and decided to visit Jorge and Maricsa our golden couple whose not married nor divorced with former conyugent (is that a word??) Anyway, I just put my colored clothes in the chugga-chugga. Chugga-chugga is a type of washing machine here, it looks like a giant soda can and is the basic spinning washing machine motion only. But because its fun to say AND write the word Chugga-chugga I keep saying chugga-chugga. Anyway, the Prado family lets us borrow their chugga-chugga every Monday now. It´s awesome! So that´s why we didn´t write yesterday and we´re writing during our companionship study. Unfortunately, neither of us mind using this time for other things. We´re already sick of each other. Well I´ll explain later my new mind set that I took on yesterday, which is a blessing from our Heavenly Father.
The first week was the first week. No problems there. The first week everyone starts off without the finest clue what´s going to happen. Tuesday of the next week was a little more interesting.
Actually let me get through a few good things. The first good thing is they're cooking tacos in here right now and it smells really good seriously only in Mexico do they do some of these things. Hop on a charter bus and some guy comes back to sell you a ticket, cook some tacos in a cyber cafe. Have a table in the middle of a dirt road in the middle of an suburb street selling tacos. Hitchhiking between pueblos. There´s alot of unique Mexico only stuff I take for granted and it´s really beautiful right now. It´s been raining the last 2 days and we´ll see about today, it´s cloudy again, occasional sprinkle (sprinkle has a funny term here in Spanish, Serenando means sprinkling but a common term is chispeando which literally translated means to chip as in chocolate chips, little chips of rain!, = D I love it!). Literally the mission is an awesome experience. There are so many things that with a positive mind should be just awesome! Like all of what I just said. That and this area is wicked cool. I love the members, I love our little casa de oracion. A lot of change needs to be made and we need to start finding more people, but it´s a cool area! They say paisaje, which is like...wow, what is the word in English?? Ok, Cihuatlán has a beautiful paisaje, which means like the trees and rivers and (well kind of the climate) and ocean and all that jazz! It´s gorgeous, seriously and I plan to backpack it here with a buddy sometime! Lol! That´s an idea I've had actually for about a month now, but my mind as you know has been preoccupied with other things...I want to first return here to Guadalajara with one buddy, like Ben or someone, they need to speak basic Spanish, and we just backpack it, one backpack with a few changes of clothes and our wallet. We go around all the areas here in bus, pidiendo ride, etc. Jiji. (Hehe) Then luego luego, you two and I and Josh and Erin or whoever and my buddies we come and do the whole ´hotel´thing stay in Grand Bay! WOOHOO! Lol. With a few more bags of clothes and stuff, right?! Well moving on, here´s the conflict, I´m trying to be positive, but I´ve been uniquely concerned. I´m still stale, I think differently still. I don´t know if it´s good or bad.
I´m fine right now, I´m ´happy´, or my current equivilant to it. That´s why I put ´´s, lol. Just kind of weird. I don´t know if it´s good or bad, I´ve been wracking my this week on what´s good or bad, for example. This condition, is it just some kind of preparation that God is giving me, allowing me to padecer (go through). Just part of the process, wait it out with a positive attitude, just keep working. Or is it a problem? Is it something that shouldn´t be there. I don´t know what is right or wrong. I get so caught up here in the mission on what is right, what should I do at any given moment, what do I say what do I do. There´s a good better best here. I have confused myself more than anything. Oh wow it smells good in here. I thought yesterday though not to worry about that so much, do your best, that´s what´s required, were not going to be perfect and craps going to happen we´re going to make mistakes. Repent and do my best. See how that works out this week, if I can remember = P that´s a problem, lol, forgetting alot of times.
I´m sorry, here´s a quick interjection. I am CURRENTLY staring at a seven year old dropping his 9 year old sister off at school DRIVING A MOTORCYCLE. not a scooter...not a little toy motorcycle. A MO-TOR-CY-CLE! That happens so much here, the youngest I saw was like 5 years old. Anyway. I didn´t have the power headache I had 2/3 weeks ago! That´s good and Im grateful for that. I keep forgetting the second o in good. It comes out funny without that second o.
Now .... likie I was going to say 30 minutes ago about my companion. Lol, this is going to shock you. Allow me to read several notes I took during the experience. ¨He´s honestly condemning everything I do¨ Tuesday Morning or Wednesday morning he DEDICATED his study time to condemn me. He studied and used scriptures to show me why I´m wrong. what I do wrong. How I pray wrong, how I study wrong. INCREDIBLE! Seriously I took what i could of worth and let the rest slip away. It was insane. We started our companionship study compartiendo(sharing) the things we learned with each other. I said something I learned to which he responds, maybe, kind of, I guess you could get that. And then unleashes fire and brimgstone fron the book of Genesis on my head with his ´apostolic doctrine´, he studied faith and came to the conclusion that no one in the entire world has faith, that´s it´s impossible to have faith and when someone questioned him he exploded fighting his position. Well, to put it in perspective, he can´t be wrong. He knows the scritures better than anyone else. Hno. (hermano = brother) Monroy was talking to us about some doctirne principal and while he´s talking Elder Perez is saying outloud no, that´s not true, no. Sighing, rolling his eyes. I´m sorry I shouldn´t be listing faults like this. Just some amazing stuff. Who I am I to judge, right? It´s hard for me because we get to the house and plan, and I'm pretty sure he hates planning I love planning, lol, instead of describing the situation I feel the spirit slink away and I´d much rather have it right now. Lol, I´ll just say there´s no support, instead of helping me just says whatever and then later critics me. Curious situation. That´s 55 minutes of pure writing! Lol, you have a nice epistle to read here, lol so I´m going to let you do that This Ciber´s expensive too I´m used to 10 pesos an hour, which is less than a buck actually, and this is 20. Wow, how can I complain, that´s like a 1.50... woooo....lol. It´s just cause I´m a missionary and have 700 pesos for the entire month. Lol. Well, I have 11 months, a year from the time I entered the MTC. = ) thank you for your prayers and your support. To answer a few questions, Dad honesty I forgot, that and I was really tired then, I have a few notes. It was interesting it was just a giant question and answer session and he´d take little side notes on the giants. But cool, did learn. He is an apostle of God by the way, served his mission in South America so he spoke Spanish, lol. And I haven´t gotten a package yet, but until zone conference I´m sure I´ll get it, lol. Oh by the way, when I said lost the pants and shoes I meant their just bien discompuesto (broke) lol, big rips were found in the pants and the shoes have hit rock bottom. Lol I had the pants fixed, i have big patches on my butt, lol. But the shoes are a lost cause! Well I love you mom and dad, more than anything.
-Jake Taylor
The first week was the first week. No problems there. The first week everyone starts off without the finest clue what´s going to happen. Tuesday of the next week was a little more interesting.
Actually let me get through a few good things. The first good thing is they're cooking tacos in here right now and it smells really good seriously only in Mexico do they do some of these things. Hop on a charter bus and some guy comes back to sell you a ticket, cook some tacos in a cyber cafe. Have a table in the middle of a dirt road in the middle of an suburb street selling tacos. Hitchhiking between pueblos. There´s alot of unique Mexico only stuff I take for granted and it´s really beautiful right now. It´s been raining the last 2 days and we´ll see about today, it´s cloudy again, occasional sprinkle (sprinkle has a funny term here in Spanish, Serenando means sprinkling but a common term is chispeando which literally translated means to chip as in chocolate chips, little chips of rain!, = D I love it!). Literally the mission is an awesome experience. There are so many things that with a positive mind should be just awesome! Like all of what I just said. That and this area is wicked cool. I love the members, I love our little casa de oracion. A lot of change needs to be made and we need to start finding more people, but it´s a cool area! They say paisaje, which is like...wow, what is the word in English?? Ok, Cihuatlán has a beautiful paisaje, which means like the trees and rivers and (well kind of the climate) and ocean and all that jazz! It´s gorgeous, seriously and I plan to backpack it here with a buddy sometime! Lol! That´s an idea I've had actually for about a month now, but my mind as you know has been preoccupied with other things...I want to first return here to Guadalajara with one buddy, like Ben or someone, they need to speak basic Spanish, and we just backpack it, one backpack with a few changes of clothes and our wallet. We go around all the areas here in bus, pidiendo ride, etc. Jiji. (Hehe) Then luego luego, you two and I and Josh and Erin or whoever and my buddies we come and do the whole ´hotel´thing stay in Grand Bay! WOOHOO! Lol. With a few more bags of clothes and stuff, right?! Well moving on, here´s the conflict, I´m trying to be positive, but I´ve been uniquely concerned. I´m still stale, I think differently still. I don´t know if it´s good or bad.
I´m fine right now, I´m ´happy´, or my current equivilant to it. That´s why I put ´´s, lol. Just kind of weird. I don´t know if it´s good or bad, I´ve been wracking my this week on what´s good or bad, for example. This condition, is it just some kind of preparation that God is giving me, allowing me to padecer (go through). Just part of the process, wait it out with a positive attitude, just keep working. Or is it a problem? Is it something that shouldn´t be there. I don´t know what is right or wrong. I get so caught up here in the mission on what is right, what should I do at any given moment, what do I say what do I do. There´s a good better best here. I have confused myself more than anything. Oh wow it smells good in here. I thought yesterday though not to worry about that so much, do your best, that´s what´s required, were not going to be perfect and craps going to happen we´re going to make mistakes. Repent and do my best. See how that works out this week, if I can remember = P that´s a problem, lol, forgetting alot of times.
I´m sorry, here´s a quick interjection. I am CURRENTLY staring at a seven year old dropping his 9 year old sister off at school DRIVING A MOTORCYCLE. not a scooter...not a little toy motorcycle. A MO-TOR-CY-CLE! That happens so much here, the youngest I saw was like 5 years old. Anyway. I didn´t have the power headache I had 2/3 weeks ago! That´s good and Im grateful for that. I keep forgetting the second o in good. It comes out funny without that second o.
Now .... likie I was going to say 30 minutes ago about my companion. Lol, this is going to shock you. Allow me to read several notes I took during the experience. ¨He´s honestly condemning everything I do¨ Tuesday Morning or Wednesday morning he DEDICATED his study time to condemn me. He studied and used scriptures to show me why I´m wrong. what I do wrong. How I pray wrong, how I study wrong. INCREDIBLE! Seriously I took what i could of worth and let the rest slip away. It was insane. We started our companionship study compartiendo(sharing) the things we learned with each other. I said something I learned to which he responds, maybe, kind of, I guess you could get that. And then unleashes fire and brimgstone fron the book of Genesis on my head with his ´apostolic doctrine´, he studied faith and came to the conclusion that no one in the entire world has faith, that´s it´s impossible to have faith and when someone questioned him he exploded fighting his position. Well, to put it in perspective, he can´t be wrong. He knows the scritures better than anyone else. Hno. (hermano = brother) Monroy was talking to us about some doctirne principal and while he´s talking Elder Perez is saying outloud no, that´s not true, no. Sighing, rolling his eyes. I´m sorry I shouldn´t be listing faults like this. Just some amazing stuff. Who I am I to judge, right? It´s hard for me because we get to the house and plan, and I'm pretty sure he hates planning I love planning, lol, instead of describing the situation I feel the spirit slink away and I´d much rather have it right now. Lol, I´ll just say there´s no support, instead of helping me just says whatever and then later critics me. Curious situation. That´s 55 minutes of pure writing! Lol, you have a nice epistle to read here, lol so I´m going to let you do that This Ciber´s expensive too I´m used to 10 pesos an hour, which is less than a buck actually, and this is 20. Wow, how can I complain, that´s like a 1.50... woooo....lol. It´s just cause I´m a missionary and have 700 pesos for the entire month. Lol. Well, I have 11 months, a year from the time I entered the MTC. = ) thank you for your prayers and your support. To answer a few questions, Dad honesty I forgot, that and I was really tired then, I have a few notes. It was interesting it was just a giant question and answer session and he´d take little side notes on the giants. But cool, did learn. He is an apostle of God by the way, served his mission in South America so he spoke Spanish, lol. And I haven´t gotten a package yet, but until zone conference I´m sure I´ll get it, lol. Oh by the way, when I said lost the pants and shoes I meant their just bien discompuesto (broke) lol, big rips were found in the pants and the shoes have hit rock bottom. Lol I had the pants fixed, i have big patches on my butt, lol. But the shoes are a lost cause! Well I love you mom and dad, more than anything.
-Jake Taylor
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