February 1, 2010 - Transferring to Independencia

I started out with one of my favorite lines too, from how firm a foundation. I´m downloading the General Conferences music from this last session onto those USB drives you sent me. I´m upset again. I woke up, eh-eh, but then, cheered up as ELder Nichols and I went to go write at the ciber. We were there for ... 1 and something and the computer froze on me twice, I got really upset after all that. The good thing is that it didn´t erase all my photos, I was uploading photos and it could have formatted the memory but in the end it didn´t happen. Then I had already written you a great letter, when the computer froze. I´m doing alot at once right now too... uploading photos, downloading music and writing. I have eight windows open right now, lol. I don´t remember what I wrote then, I was really happy too.. We got our changes yesterday. I´m going back to Guadalajara. It´s an interesting story. The assistents called and informed that I would be returning to Bellenes, with Elder Oakes. Same zone, same area, same campanion. I was devastated. I didn´t know how I was going to do it. A few hours later the assistants called back and informed me that I had changes and that I was going to Independencia. It´s all good. I´m sattisfied with Independencia, I don´t have any reason to not want to be there, so I´m content. It´s really close to several converts I have there too, but I´ll have to see if Presidente Saucedo gives me permission to go in to the old mission boundaries. My old area Jardines got moved to the other mission, so it´s now out of boundaries. Today we got back to the house I read a little bit in the BOok of Mormon and then we headed to the branch ´camp day´ we went to a little grove of trees on the outskirts of the city and played games had some snacks, football(soccer). It was entertaining but we were there for a little while. It´s now 3:42... whole day gone already. Anyway, here´s the good news. This week was really hard. But we have our fruits. We baptized Irma Bernal. She´s a sweet little woman. She really is tiny, that´s why I said little. Lol. SHe´s 26 ...and single... lol and has a testimony. Elder Perez actually went to a little pueblo that day and couldn´t come to the baptism. I manned up on the details. I´m so sick of, but used to, doing whatever Elder Perez says, so it´s awkward for me to make decisions again, especially when I don´t know what´s planned or in store, but I got the job done, and it´s the first baptism that you could really feel the Spirit of God in the room. That was our ward mission leader's sister. Now our ward mission leaders wife is going to have her entire family over for a family home evening tonight, so we should hvae some fun there! Well they´ll have the rewards right. Oh, yeah... guess who THEY will be. Elder Perez stays here and gets elder Harding! HAHA! but that´s ok, i know I have a loving famiyl and great friends waiting for me at home and great converts and families here that I´m looking forward to visit again with Daniel when I come back. .I look forward to the blessings of home and family and friends and a new changes and atmosphere for now. ELder Huerta will be my new campanion, I know the kid...he´s not bad, I´m not to familiarized with him, but that´s ok. I´m just ready to leave. I´m going to go pack right now...See´s candy eh?? THANKS! Lol, it wasn´t easy to pass them out, but fater what they had done for me, it was worth it. Boots, chocolate bars, food skarf. They´ve been a real blessing. We´re going to eat with them tomorrow, right before I leave! YEAHH!!!! He´s inactive now though, I´m sad... he´s got 4 weeks without going to church and I don´t know why. I want to love more people in a more loving way. That´s my desire, now i have to make it a goal...see how that goes. Pray that Elder Huerta will strive to get along with me, that he´ll be humble and allow me to take part and that we will thrive as companions, that´s my plee for you all. Packages are cool, but don´t worry so much, i¨m good for now! In this flippin´ zone we just spend a lot of money, that´s been my problem, that and I´m VERY generous when I share...lol. I end up loosing alot of money really fast. Lol. Tomorrow we´re going to baptize Lorena just before i go! I´m so excited! AND I GET TO BAPTIZE HER!!! OH MAN I¨M SOOOOOOOO HAPPY TO THINK ABOUT THAT! I´m going to start planning that baptism right now! I need to go pray about the little details, so that the Lord will help me with those things...alright well I¨m out of here, and I can´t wait to see those pictures! Say hi to the guys for me, a special shout out to Ben if you could, it´s been a while since I heard from him. Love, Jake

January 18, 2010

Well, first things first. I already have 2 and a half hours on this dang computer. Therefore I thought I´d send you a copy of what I was doing. One thursday I was waiting/studying in the study room waiting passively for ELder PErez to come in so we could plan. Reluctantly and resisntantly I got up to see what they were doing. I walked in the other room to see them pondering over my Pokémon poster that a member here had given me picking names for the 10 elders and 12 other members of the branch... therefore attached above is the result of this fatal incident...the Ciudad Guzman Zone T-Shirt. Lol Enjoy.Well to answer the questions there are 174 elders currently in the mission. Elder Wahlquist arrived 4 weeks here in Guadalajara. Stewart also, but I don´t know him. The other elders you mentioned, I know them all. Lol. Elder Wahlquist is having a HARD time thoug.. H...A:....R....D....time. When I met him at least, he´s currently in Colima, with Zone Leaders Elder McGowen and ELder Anaya. Good, good elders. They should have been able to help him by now. It´s already week four, but it´s only week four...funny how that works. There´s a book mark here in the house from Elder Guevara that talks about ´Altos y Bajos´ de la misión. (Ups and Downs) It goes on to talk about how great you feel in the mission but how horrible you feel, how much you want to go home, but how you wish it´d last forever. How you´ve never had more friends, but never felt so alone. It´s a perfect description. I´ll see if I can copy it down and send it to you (in English) next week. Thanks for writing ELder Record, you sent him an E-Mail huh?? If he got it that fast and replied it had to be an e-mail. He called and told me you wrote him and his slightly confused voice told me I had to talk to president Saucedo for that kind of permission. I told the elder, yeah...so could you like ... translate the letter and give it to him please?? That´s why she wrote it...for President Saucedo not you. Lol, I didn´t say it so frank, but you get the jist of the message. This week we´ve been having fun and games. I´m just kinding of popping along. Still talking to the social worker guy. It´s going good. I´ve learned so much about life, and the functions of everything. Why things are why they happen. I´ve learned so much doctrine and am seeing so much more! The only problem is I can´t express it... in Spanish or English, I just can´t get he words out. I´ve learned alot about pride...and have recognized that that´s been one of my greatest obstacles. Probably THE greatest. I made brownies for the elders last night, I´m ASSUMING they ate them all. Which translated from ELDERic language to Enlglish, I haven´t seen the plate in over 14 hours, but it´s a house of missionaries I can´t IMAGINE that they didn´t. I have a few more pictures, but I´m going to wait til theyré a few more til I stick´em all on. It was Elder Perez´s birthday yesterday, I got him a t-shirt and a wallet. I hope he liked it, he´s not very expressive, and he´s very humble, you could give him a pencil and he´d SAY thank you, he´d thank you generously, but in a sort of....monotone sort of voice. Am I explaining that very well? Bueno, point of the case is that I think he liked it. Today we´re going to have a H U G E carne asada atthe church we have 7 kilos (4 poundish??) of carne asada and we´ve invited about 20 people. Everyones bringing someting. We´re teaching our new ward mission leaders sister AND his sister in law and they´re both doing VERY well...so I´m hoping that we can help them here still. Juan and Lorena are getting married here and if not this Saturday the next we´ll baptize Lorena. That´ll be awesome. We just met her parents too this ... yesterday, and they should be going to church this week! So we´ll see. We´ll have to contact them and see how they feel, get someone to go escort them or accompany them to the church, or go ourselves. Fernando our Convert Erika´s husband is ... mas o menos. He knows it´s true now, but he works in a carnicería (butcher) on Sunday for a small and measly 900 PESOS. It´s all down to that now, he doesn´t ... need... the money, but that´s the challenge, money or God. We´re fasting and praying and helping him on that descision. Awesome on the buggies, hop on getting the casino business. make sure that´s in place. That´s the first thing we need. That and permission to ride out there in the desert. I don´t know how long you´re looking on making each excursion but the national saguaro forest, the petrified forest, monument valley, and the Grand Canyon are all PERFECT spots. They´re not going to be seeing any animals with us going through there, so that´s not important, but something with a pretty view. Well I´m pooped so I´m going to roll. I have not gotten the packages yet, I mentioned before we don´t know if we´ll have interviews or not, so if not, I won´t get them until February... 10th or so... the 14th. I hope we have interviews, lol. Alright, I love you so much and appreciate everything you do! I hope you get to hear from me soon, if you get the drift...lol. One favor, could you update me on David´s book of mormon reading. And see how he feels on it...like his testimony. That´ll obviously be a private call. Alright, talk to you next week!-Jake

January 25, 2010 - Still in Guzman

WElll.....this week was very full...Monday, I forgot what I wrote you, but we went and played football and had a carne asada to which we played basketball afterwards...and I got really really pissed...lol. I wasn´t playing very well, and I missed a lot of easy shots. I didn´t care that we were losing so much. But ... ok we lost 10 to 1, I was playing with a good teammate too.... I just lost it, end of story. lol. It´s all good now. We went home and just chilled for a bit and then headed out as normal.. I ´ll tell you what though. I´m a little bit lazier now. I don´t really talk to a whole lot of peole in the streats and stuff. Alot of it has to do with circunstaces and I´m affected ALOT by those who are around me. Personality and attitude. Anyway, I´m still in the race, I just feel a little lazy. As much as I love Guzman and surrounding pueblos, I´m kind of waiting for a change... I´m human, I´m sorry! Haha. Friday was interviews and I was reproved by President for my lack of patience with companion, zone and self. So my goal for the rest of this year is to have more patience. I DID get my packages!!!! YAAAAAAAY!!!!! Of the which were probaby some of the finest packages I´ve ever received. I´ve noticed the missionary and his family seem to grow simultaneously. He Missionary grows in Christ-like attributes, knowledge of the gospel and teaching skills...while the family grows significantly in reading and writing skills, patience with their distanced family member and package arranging skills as time goes by. Lol. Thank you very much for the packages, they were great! I liked the chili...and beans...and see´s. Speaking of the see´s candy. There is a member of the ward who recently moved to the ward again from another area of the mission titled Tepic. Since his arrival, 1 month ago, he has given me a pàir of combat boots (that fit me!), a scarf and assorted candies and food items (from the United States, such as barbeque sauce, balogne and butterfingers). I enjoy his presence beyond description and imagination. Now for having been so kind to me I gave him the see´s candy...even though I did eat about three before giivng them away. Lol. I gave the peppermints to our relief society president and the paydays I distributed amongst the elders. I have already devoured the rest. Thanks for the pants and ties! I´m going to give the red tie to Elder Nichols as a special little gift with an American Dollar. Lol, I keep challenging him to ridiculous things for U.S. Dollars and he keeps doing them... he just never manges to do it..lol so I keep the dollar. Yesterday was fast, we helped a member put up a lamina (I don´t know what that is in English) roof for the young women´s president, but it took ... from 4 to 9. Saturday was fast too, I don´t even remember what we did...so anyway.... now I get to talk about ... Today! Last night I get home to see ELder Nichols, we talked and complained about life for 3 hours as we made chili, chili´s rellenos (left over from the day before) and brownies! We pulled out the brownies took´em upstairs to the balcony where we conveniently located the couch and enjoyed the night sky as we continued grunmbing about all the nonsense we ceaslessly deal with, lol. It´s rather entertaining. Went to bed and woke up. Had our district meeting at 7:30 and left for MAZAMITLA! Elder Nichols and I went solos, but we headed out about 9 and got there about 12ish. Mazamitla is known as one of Mexico´s ´magic towns´(pueblos magicos). We took a bus from Guzman to Tamazula and from tamazula hitched a ride with a guy from the Jalisco FBI to Mazamitla, the guy has studied Theology for 20 years and was happy to tell us how much he ´knows´ about our father in heaven and other such things. I was touching his automatic rifle with my knee as he drove with a gloc pistol in between his legs. We passed around in Mazmitla for a few hours saw what there was to see bought what there was to buy and headed out. It´s prettyy... it´s REALLY pretty. I´ll take you there and we´ll stay in a cabaña later. for Christmas. We hoped on a bus to Tamazula and got a ride from there to Guzman with some nice ladies, we sat in the bed of the truck. Well... we kneeled. There wasnt anyroom but we made it happen! The Lord blessed us incredibly today. Lot´s of miracles! It was sooooooo COOL! My testimony of the Lord increased by exponents (exponentionally). Just a good set of results, I just got to get my mouth open and talk. So that´s the jist of my week. Irma´s getting baptized this Saturday and we´re still waiting on Lorena´s wedding. We found another cool reference and we hope to help them too. Then there's Paty and her Sister Leti with their combined 5 children... We´ll see if they come to church. LOVE YOU SO MUCH, I can't stop thinking about you two and how wonderfully fantasmically amazing it will be to be with and hang out and do stuff with ya´ll in a few months. Pray for me... that I stay sane. I´ll talk to you later!Tell Josh he has a testimony of the church I can see it, and David that he´s awesome.-Jake