60 - Baptism!

 

haha Okay first off, yes the little girl is a gringo! Her parents are from Texas! They speak English with a little bit of Spanish.. so yeah! haha  Selling a house doesn’t sound fun. At least you are learning patience! Someone will realize that the house is the bomb .com!

But Brooke hasn’t emailed me! You should ground her! haha no I’m just kidding. 

But this week was a little crazy. And by little I mean a lot! There were a million things happening all at the same time...

Okay to start, on Tuesday we had district meeting, and it was really good. I taught about patience and love. And especially how I need to try harder at it. And then Tuesday we had to clean and everything because the assistants said they would check houses when they came to visit. But they didn’t. And then we went to go have some lessons.  Just normal ones really, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then Wednesday was the Zone Conference where I saw a few old friends and ate some good pizza. The whole zone conference was on miracles and spiritual experiences. It was pretty good. Then Friday we felt sick, so we did the baptismal interview with L. a few lessons and then went home. Then Saturday we had the baptism for L! It was awesome! Sadly not many people came, but it was a good experience. I could tell that he felt something really special. Then Sunday he got confirmed. Then we went out and did some visits. And that was kind of it. It was a slow normal week. But L. got baptized! So it’s all good!

I hope you like the pics on the mission blog! I think I looked cute at the conference ;) haha just kidding. I love you mom! Have a good week! Tell Marcus I said hi. He doesn’t like to email me anymore.

53 - Conference

 

  

Well this week was a little better. It was a rough one, but good. I am in charge of a lot of stuff. It seems like because I have a year in the mission everyone thinks that I have all the answers, so that’s kinda hard for me. I seem to be in charge of everything so it is kind of stressful. I have to translate interviews and they always ask me what to do. It’s like I have no clue!! But it’s good, it is a learning experience for me.

But today we went to an abandoned castle as you can see. So that was really fun! But this week I’m hoping is better. We honestly just did a lot of walking this week, so that was super hard. And I feel like we are wasting too much time. I’ll talk to my companion about it. But there wasn’t really much happening this week. It was really slow. 

But now onto conference. So we had a good time, but during the morning session on Sunday, the power went out. So we didn’t get to see hardly any of it. That kind of stunk. But there were a ton of good talks. I really liked Pres. Uchtdorf’s. when he was talking about being a true disciple of Christ, that this isn’t just a one time thing. We can’t make it to the tree of life by repenting and just kind of fall asleep, we need to do the things every day that can change how we are. And change how we act. I realized that a lot of things are like that in life, in marriage and everything, you can’t make it to a point and just take a nap. You gotta keep trying, keep working hard every day. 

I also loved the talk where that guy was talking about how the laws of the land might change, but the laws of God will never change. He kind of threw a machete at some people! It was so cool!

But other than that, things are going good. Our investigator is progressing, which is super awesome! But there aren’t many people to teach out here so it’s kind of hard. But I’m feeling better, working harder, and praying a lot more. So we will see how this week goes! 

But I love you. Thank you for your help! 

46 - Carnival!!

Why is Jake always spotted shoving food in his mouth???? (Top of pic in light blue tie)

Sorry I couldn't email on Monday because of Carnival. I'm glad you guys are all doing good! That's super funny that you and grandma and grandpa were checking pics of me. The album will be fun to see.

Yes I really do like my comp, yes I am still DL. There are two ways to get released, subir or bajar. Subir would be to go to ZL or AP, bajar would be comp mayor or menor. Ask dad about that. Most of the time they don't bajar you but I don't know when I'll be changed. But things are going good here! Next p day I'm going to go buy my cleats and maybe a pair of socks and shorts. I'm running low on stuff! But I'll let you know. 

So now on to my update. So last week a few crazy things happened. First, you know, I got food poisoning. I'm not sure what from, but it sucked. But gladly I survived. Then comes p day. I still went to play soccer, because it's fun! I scored another 5 goals and assisted for about 6 more so I am starting to play a lot better. Then we went to Colon Centro where every single internet place and the zona libre was closed because of Carnival! So I couldn't go buy new shoes. But we did get some good pizza. 

Then comes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. It included doing some service, going to a waterfall, having some good lessons and just having a good time. Then Friday we went to do service again, and right after that we had divisions with the ZLs, and I was in charge of our area. We taught the law of chastity to some teenage girls and it was actually super good. We brought up everything from finding a husband who will love you for the rest of your life, to dressing modestly, to the reasons behind all of it. It  turned into like an hour and 5 minute lesson. But it was a super good one. They answered a lot of questions and I could feel the spirit super strong. Then we went and contacted for a while. It was pretty fun. 

Then the next day we were on a bus, and 2 guys started fighting in the front. I didst really pay attention, but one of them called the other a bad name. He started to get up, and said 'Come here' to the other guy, and the other guy jumped out of the bus! He fell because he didn't think ahead and kind of slid a few feet. Then he got up and ran away.  I'm about 99 percent sure he was going to get stabbed by the other guy. So that was pretty stinking insane! Other than that it was pretty good. haha

During the week, we had a service the other day in which we used a machete to cut down a full size stinking palm tree! It was awesome! But so hard! It was Carnivales this whole week so everything was closed until today. It kinda stunk! But now it's all back to normal so it's good!

Then yesterday we had a Zone Conference and Elder Duncan talked to us, and I got 3 big things from it. 

1 my wife will always be better than me

2 I need to think of my ward as being big enough to be a stake

3 I need to come back in 10 years to see how well the people I met are doing

Those are the main three points I learned. Number 1 may be the most important, though! haha But I love you mom. I miss you! But I'm glad things are going good! Thanks for being awesome and allowing me to buy the shoes I want ;) 

43 - Traveling and Working

Haha, thanks for the little input about my eyes matching with the tie mom! This week was good. I'll start with p day first. So last night we got on a bus and went and stayed at the house of some other missionaries that was like an hour away. It's a super cool house! It was actually owned by a gringo, but it got broken into and they tried to kidnap his daughter, so they left back to the states a few years back. But the house is so nice! Like really nice! They have a garden in the back yard, with a full size pool! It is so dang cool! And we had 12 missionaries there last night. It was awesome! We played monopoly cards. 

Then today we woke up at like 7, we went over to the soccer field (it is astro turf) and played soccer for like 3 or 4 hours. It was awesome! But I kinda got hurt. I got kicked in the shin, in the ankles and in the knee, so it was awesome! And we had the last game go to penalties. It was actually super fun! We did gringos against latinos, and sadly we lost. But it's okay. We did 7 on 7 and there were only about 3 on our team that could actually play pretty well, so it was hard! But we had a good time. The  kids in my zone are pretty cool, we get along pretty well. 

I loved the remote control in the Christmas package, it was a great idea! And it was super fun. I loved the letters. 

Now on to the rest of the week. So it was super hard, it's really hard to get the members to work with us. It's hard because they are all busy and they don't have time. But we are still trying. We had this one kid and we have taught him a few times. He was like I don't like when people aren't honest with me. So I just kind of got serious with him and told him why we were there and how we could help him. It actually turned out super super good. Then we also found a new family to start teaching, a mom and her 3 kids. The oldest one is 8 and me and my comp both feel really really good about them. We taught them the plan of salvation, and it wasn't the best lesson I have given, but we both felt really really good about it. I could feel the spirit was there, and she had some super good questions and some really good thoughts. She had a good time and she seemed receptive, and we have another lesson with her next Sunday. I really hope things work out. It would be really nice to get a family to work with, and it would be really nice to help a family kind of grow up in the church. It would really mean a lot to me! 

Other than that things are good. We had a meeting at Cardenas this last week with the assistants and president. It was actually pretty fun. That's where the pictures from Sis. Carmack's blog were from. We learned a lot and had a good time. And the food was seriously good! There is some good barbecue here! So I'm happy! I have a few places I'll take you guys too. Don't worry!!! I love you! Have a good week!