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