23 March 2014
Hey everyone!
Well, I went and got myself a little
wireless keyboard for my iPad
since I was finding it almost impossible to write a decent email on
the tiny-touch screen. So now I can write some longer emails for you
guys and update them as the week goes on. Just something new to try. A
ver si les gusta.
I know I'm a geek, but I love it. We went to Fry's Electronics to find
the keyboards. Fry's is basically the mothership of all geekery. Think
Best-Buy but on a Costco-scale. If Fry's doesn't have it, it doesn't
exist. Period.
Being missionaries we told a lot of "great and spacious building"
jokes while there, but that's another matter.
Well, right after P Day we went over to visit an investigator and his kids
and it was great. I don't know if I told you already but they're kind
of going through a rough time right now. His wife just up and left
them, and he's been left alone without stable work to take care of
three Elementary-school age kids. He's a good father to them. On
Monday he was just starting to cook them dinner when we showed up.
It's cool because he recognized the importance of the gospel for him
and his family right now while they're going through such a difficult
time. I got a really strong impression while we were talking with him
that this is why I'm here - to help people like him.
Some guy came up to us awhile ago in the 99 Cent store and started off
by saying how much he wished Mitt Romney had won the elections. Things
went downhill when went on to tell us that he was "more Tea Party than
the Tea Party". I thought about asking him why he wasn't wearing his
tinfoil hat, but decided against it.
Moral of the story: I hate politics. Somehow politicians have gone
from writing documents like the Declaration of Independence to making
clever bumper stickers in order to get their point across. It's all
just a bunch of posturing - and not even against the British which
makes all of it a lot less interestingJ
Tuesday and Wednesday both passed by really fast. Unfortunately we had
a lot of lessons fall through, but we've been knocking doors and
talking to people, so I still feel productive. We'll see what happens
in these next few weeks here. I've been trying to be very direct with
all of our investigators about our purpose as missionaries/invitations
and commitments. I've also noticed that my Spanish is getting a lot
better. I feel about 80% fluent right now. So yeah. Lots of good
things are happening.
Libby:
¡Recibí su carta ayer! ¡Muchas gracias! ¡Me alegra que tú eres
aprendiendo tanto Español! Me imagino que estás animada a tener su
propio cuarto. Pero creo que vas a echar de menos a Jess cuando te
mudes al otro cuarto. ¿Quien te va a molestar si no está ninguno de
nosotros?
Pero bueno. ¡Te quiero, y te echo de menos! ¡Diviértete en la escuela!
I don't know if I told you this, but here's a cool Spanish fact: the
reason they always put upside-down punctuation at the beginning of the
sentence is because in Spanish run-on sentences are grammatically
correct. Therefore if you're reading a really long sentence, you need
to know the intonation well before it ends so that you don't end up
sounding like a robot while reading.
On Thursday we knocked more doors in a sketchy part of Roseville and
got two return appointments - both for Saturday! So that was really
cool. It already feels like Summer here, and I've heard it'll get up
to around 120 degrees in July. Not fun. Also not fun is having to slay
Shelob multiple times per week, by which I mean that I keep finding
giant spiders in our apartment no matter how clean we keep it. You
know all of those signs in California that warn you about objects that
can give you cancer? i.e. "This doorknob is known to the State of
California to contain materials that can cause cancer or other
reproductive harm. Use it to enter your home at your own risk."
I think that all of those dangerous materials are mutating the local
wildlife. Either that or the signs are part of a plan initiated by
ex-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (actually a Terminator) to waste so
much taxpayer money on excessive signage that our economy collapses,
paving the way for SKYNET to take over.
Ok here's the serious part of my letter: something came to me on
Sunday that I've been thinking about a lot, and that's how important
our testimonies are. I feel like my testimony is something that has
grown so much since I came on my mission. I also feel like "testimony"
is a word we throw around a lot in the church without really thinking
about the meaning. I'm not entirely sure I even had a testimony before
coming on my mission, and if I did it was severely underdeveloped. I
think a testimony goes a lot deeper than a few words spoken at a
pulpit. It's a conviction that you get from personal experience and
effort. Sure it helps other people to hear it, but I think that it
helps us when we bear it and rely on it even more than it helps others
because it's uniquely ours. So my challenge to all of you is to read
and then pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's true - no
matter how many times you have before.
Sam, don't leave on your mission like I did. Start getting ready now.
You're going to be spending two years inviting hundreds of people to
read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. You'll
have those two steps ingrained in your mind within a few months of
your mission. Fair to be said that before any missionary does that
they have to have done it a few times themselves.
Anyways, I love you guys and I'm so grateful for all of your support!
since I was finding it almost impossible to write a decent email on
the tiny-touch screen. So now I can write some longer emails for you
guys and update them as the week goes on. Just something new to try. A
ver si les gusta.
I know I'm a geek, but I love it. We went to Fry's Electronics to find
the keyboards. Fry's is basically the mothership of all geekery. Think
Best-Buy but on a Costco-scale. If Fry's doesn't have it, it doesn't
exist. Period.
Being missionaries we told a lot of "great and spacious building"
jokes while there, but that's another matter.
Well, right after P Day we went over to visit an investigator and his kids
and it was great. I don't know if I told you already but they're kind
of going through a rough time right now. His wife just up and left
them, and he's been left alone without stable work to take care of
three Elementary-school age kids. He's a good father to them. On
Monday he was just starting to cook them dinner when we showed up.
It's cool because he recognized the importance of the gospel for him
and his family right now while they're going through such a difficult
time. I got a really strong impression while we were talking with him
that this is why I'm here - to help people like him.
Some guy came up to us awhile ago in the 99 Cent store and started off
by saying how much he wished Mitt Romney had won the elections. Things
went downhill when went on to tell us that he was "more Tea Party than
the Tea Party". I thought about asking him why he wasn't wearing his
tinfoil hat, but decided against it.
Moral of the story: I hate politics. Somehow politicians have gone
from writing documents like the Declaration of Independence to making
clever bumper stickers in order to get their point across. It's all
just a bunch of posturing - and not even against the British which
makes all of it a lot less interestingJ
Tuesday and Wednesday both passed by really fast. Unfortunately we had
a lot of lessons fall through, but we've been knocking doors and
talking to people, so I still feel productive. We'll see what happens
in these next few weeks here. I've been trying to be very direct with
all of our investigators about our purpose as missionaries/invitations
and commitments. I've also noticed that my Spanish is getting a lot
better. I feel about 80% fluent right now. So yeah. Lots of good
things are happening.
Libby:
¡Recibí su carta ayer! ¡Muchas gracias! ¡Me alegra que tú eres
aprendiendo tanto Español! Me imagino que estás animada a tener su
propio cuarto. Pero creo que vas a echar de menos a Jess cuando te
mudes al otro cuarto. ¿Quien te va a molestar si no está ninguno de
nosotros?
Pero bueno. ¡Te quiero, y te echo de menos! ¡Diviértete en la escuela!
I don't know if I told you this, but here's a cool Spanish fact: the
reason they always put upside-down punctuation at the beginning of the
sentence is because in Spanish run-on sentences are grammatically
correct. Therefore if you're reading a really long sentence, you need
to know the intonation well before it ends so that you don't end up
sounding like a robot while reading.
On Thursday we knocked more doors in a sketchy part of Roseville and
got two return appointments - both for Saturday! So that was really
cool. It already feels like Summer here, and I've heard it'll get up
to around 120 degrees in July. Not fun. Also not fun is having to slay
Shelob multiple times per week, by which I mean that I keep finding
giant spiders in our apartment no matter how clean we keep it. You
know all of those signs in California that warn you about objects that
can give you cancer? i.e. "This doorknob is known to the State of
California to contain materials that can cause cancer or other
reproductive harm. Use it to enter your home at your own risk."
I think that all of those dangerous materials are mutating the local
wildlife. Either that or the signs are part of a plan initiated by
ex-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (actually a Terminator) to waste so
much taxpayer money on excessive signage that our economy collapses,
paving the way for SKYNET to take over.
Ok here's the serious part of my letter: something came to me on
Sunday that I've been thinking about a lot, and that's how important
our testimonies are. I feel like my testimony is something that has
grown so much since I came on my mission. I also feel like "testimony"
is a word we throw around a lot in the church without really thinking
about the meaning. I'm not entirely sure I even had a testimony before
coming on my mission, and if I did it was severely underdeveloped. I
think a testimony goes a lot deeper than a few words spoken at a
pulpit. It's a conviction that you get from personal experience and
effort. Sure it helps other people to hear it, but I think that it
helps us when we bear it and rely on it even more than it helps others
because it's uniquely ours. So my challenge to all of you is to read
and then pray about the Book of Mormon to know if it's true - no
matter how many times you have before.
Sam, don't leave on your mission like I did. Start getting ready now.
You're going to be spending two years inviting hundreds of people to
read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to know if it's true. You'll
have those two steps ingrained in your mind within a few months of
your mission. Fair to be said that before any missionary does that
they have to have done it a few times themselves.
Anyways, I love you guys and I'm so grateful for all of your support!
Jake
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