January 27, 2014

Hi everyone!

First of all, I'm glad that Jess has been several days "without incident". Sometimes it sounds like taking care of kids is more akin to monitoring a nuclear power plant than anything else. That would probably make Jess Chernobyl.

Thanks for liking all of my Facebook posts Mom ;)  Yes I wrote it. Honestly I don't think what we put on Facebook reaches as many people as we'd like, but it gives me something to do. Thankfully though, mission life doesn't leave a whole lot of time to be bored. That's the good thing.

I didn't think I would ever really love sports like some people do, but I think it's safe to say that I have a budding obsession with fútbal. That's what I do every P day, and most mornings. I can rainbow the ball now :)  Someday I'm going to go see a game overseas, too. Just for the experience.

This week was interesting. I feel like our area is starting to pick up in terms of work and new people to teach - kind of sad since this is probably my last transfer here. But oh well. We've been knocking more doors than before, and I think that's helped. I've sure gotten a lot better at it. Yesterday Elder Huamán told me that my Spanish is perfect, now I just need to work on my intonation so I can sound like a native. That was a pretty great compliment to get especially after working all week to build my vocabulary and grammar skills.

Yesterday we had three lessons, all of which went through. That was kind of a miracle because a lot of our planned lessons have fallen through this week. We have two new investigators though, one of whom committed to be baptized as of last night. We couldn't meet with our other investigator because he's had the flu.

I recently heard that some of the northern counties of California are trying to form a new state out of North Cali. called "Jefferson" because they're sick of all the stupid things the Southern Californians are doing without their consent (I guess the conservative Californians are a minority. Who knew?). Apparently three counties have already voted to leave and several more will be voting on it in the near future. I don't think I'll finish my mission in the state of Jefferson, but it's just kind of interesting. I'd definitely be in favor of it if I lived here.

So I was out skiing in spirit, even though I wasn't there physically. That's ok with me though, because it sounds like the snow is just as terrible this year as it was last year. We're supposed to be fasting and praying for rain here in California (Jefferson?) because we're really going to need it in the next few months.

Send me some pictures of your trip to Peru! When are you going to be leaving?

Love,

Jake

Llamas, tequila and drugs

Dear Family,

Well this I learned that the word in Spanish for Llama and flame are the same: "llama". I'm wondering if that's ever caused any confusion. 

In other interesting news we have a new investigator who lives in a place that I can only really describe as far away from the long arm of the law. He makes moonshine out of cactus juice using a makeshift still in his free time. He says it's twice as "good" as the best tequila. 

I'll take his word for it. 

In other news I saw my first drug deal go down a few days ago. Some shady guy pulling white envelopes out of a bush in the semidarkness that another shady guy had been loitering by just a few minutes before.  Needless to say it was interesting. Another thing you notice is the shoes strung up on telephone wires. It's basically an advertisement for drugs being sold in the neighborhood. Different shoe colors = different products. 

As for my gospel knowledge, that increases daily as well. Right now we've been challenged to read the entire Book of Mormon in 85 days - the amount of time it took Joseph Smith to translate it. We're going to be finishing up in March. That works out to 6 pages daily. So that's been fun. It's pushed my reading of the Libro de Mormón into language study time though. If you want to speed up your Spanish learning by the way, read the Book of Mormon in Spanish. And whatever else you can find to read. It helps a lot. 

This week we also found a really friendly family that we've started to teach.  We ran into them while trying to contact a former who used to live in their apartment. They seem very open to learning. So I'm excited about that even though it's looking more and more likely that I'll be transferred soon. 

I've been praying this week to try to find out why I ended up in CA instead of Mexico and I think I've figured out at least one of the reasons. To work on my self-discipline. I think that's something I could improve a lot, and I think I'm challenged more that way here in California. It's pretty easy to break mission rules in the U.S., and I was surprised by how many missionaries don't have a problem with buying movies at Wal Mart and watching them on the DVD players we're supposed to use to show the Restoration video, for example. Things like that (music, magazines, etc). There's really not a whole lot standing in your way with all of that available. It's been a challenge to try to stay obedient, and I hope that by the end of my mission my self discipline will have improved a lot. 

Todavía estoy trabajando. Casi no puedo creer que éste traslado ya se acaba tan pronto. Dile a mama que tenemos que ir a  Perú juntos cuando regreso de la misión. Tal vez a España también. 

- Jake

feliz ano nuevo

Hi Dad and Mom,

¡Feliz año nuevo!

Well, on New Year's Day the highlight was getting to go eat with the Whitings and the Mannings and learning to use a bullwhip Indiana Jones style while there - hat and everything. It's all in the stance. I also learned the origin of the word "cracker" with its racist connotation.  Apparently cowboys were called crackers because they used whips to move cattle along. I'm learning so much on my mission.

On Thursday we had a cool experience - I was let into a house on the spot for the first time on my mission. We went to see a former investigator and we had a lesson with her. Her and her husband have been attending the "salon de reino" of the Jehovah's Witnesses for a while now, so teaching them is going to be interesting.

2014 has started well. There's probably about a 50/50 chance que voy a ser traslado at the end of week 6. Honestly I'd be happy either way. If I get transferred, I'll get to see a new area. If I'm not, no tendré que hacer mis maletas.

I did exchanges this week, and went to a bike area with the English elders. It was pretty fun. I'm getting better at talking to people about the gospel. Plus I enjoyed being on bikes. I hate having a car.

I'm sorry for not keeping up with all the physical letters I get from home. I just don't have the energy to write back. I hope grandmas don't hate me. Will you send me both their emails so I can just do that?

If you have time, you should look up "The Disciplined Edge". It's an article about Dallin H. Oaks from an old issue of the Ensign. I enjoyed it a lot.

Thanks a ton for writing.

Love,

Jake

Dec 30th

December 30, 2013

Dear family,

I loved talking to you all on Christmas!  It was the highlight of the past few months for me.

Before I forget, if anyone is ever going to send me cash in the future beware - I've realized that someone has been making tiny slits in the bottom of all of our letters to try to get the money out of the card/whatever it's in. We're pretty sure that Edwards got robbed that way once or twice. So if you're sending something with money in it, tape up the card or something.

Second item of business: Elder Huaman has recently discovered a love for chocolate raspberry sticks that he didn't know he had, and thanks you for introducing him.

I think that free season passes are probably how they get you hooked at Park City. It's good to hear that Jess is going to start skiing.

Also, thanks for telling me about Sam's first date. I don't know if I would have heard about it otherwise.

I can't say I'm surprised that BYU is stinking it up. At this point I can really only muster a vague feeling of resignation.

This week has been fairly uneventful. We do have a new investigator now. His name is Alejandro. He's a former investigator and the father of three children. He's a really friendly guy, so we're excited to see where it goes. We invited our other family to be baptized and they said they would when they know that the gospel is true. It was a great lesson. 

We got dropped a while ago by one of our other investigators. Pretty sad. He wasn't ready to live what he was learning though. But maybe later. I like to think that even though I’m not having a ton of baptisms, what I'm doing will affect people in a good way in the future.

I spent Saturday morning preparing for my future career as a Lumberjack. We went way up into the "mountains" to cut wood at Brother Ramirez' house.  He's a member of the 4th ward from Mexico. We spent a pretty long time there splitting and stacking wood in front of his house. At one point I split a round of wood about the size of a stop sign. It took me a few good swings with the axe, but I defeated it just in time to see Brother Ramirez rolling out a pneumatic wood-splitting machine.  Now I know the pain that John Henry felt.

We're going to be having a New Year’s Eve dinner with the Mannings this Wednesday, so that will be fun.

By the way, Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!  We'd better be making a trip to Texas de Brazil soon after I get home.  I hear it’s goodJ

Love,
Jake

 

Christmas Skype Call!!!

December 23, 2013

Hey!

We'll, I'm writing this email from an iPad right now. Getting the

thing was about as interesting as watching paint dry, in case you were

wondering. We went to a 3 hour training meeting where we were informed

about all of the things that, as missionaries, we can't do with it.

Then we downloaded a few church-approved apps and went on our way. So

now I have an expensive piece of glass and metal in my backpack that I

have to worry about breaking every time I jump a fence to get away

from an angry Mexican pit bull.

But I digress.

By this time I hope the plague has passed from the household and that

you've found time to drag the bodies out to the corpse collectors and

burn everything that got contaminated. I've been dealing with a nasty

cold/sore throat that doesn't want to go away this week. Other than

that, things have been pretty good. I'll be calling from the Whiting's

house at around 10:30 A.M. On Christmas Day - which we've recently

found out is going to be a full-proselyting day. This announcement was

received with much murmuring by the California Roseville Mission. As

for me, I'm okay with it. I wasn't really sure what we were going to

do all Christmas anyways, and we might as well try to be obedient. On

the other hand, I'm not looking forward to the doors that will

inevitably be slammed in our faces that day if we try to tract, but

there you have it.

We recently started teaching a new investigator, Manuel, and

his wife. We had a great first lesson with them and will see where

things go.

 

Right now I feel good. I don't feel like I'm missing much back home,

which is good. And whatever I do miss will be fun catching up on when

I get home.  I'm excited to see you all on Wednesday! 

Love,

Jake

Guinea Pig...mmmm

December 16, 2013

Hey Family!

Thanks so much for the cookies! They were delicious. The lights were great too. I set them up next to our “Christmas tree” that we put up in our apartment.

Quick note before anything else: We're getting ipads in our mission, apparently. Training for them is going to be on the 17th. As of yet, I have no idea what we're going to be able to do with them, but I'm sure they'll be useful. We may be skyping you on them. Who knows? I guess we're just a guinea pig mission for all of these changes that the church is making.

Speaking of guinea pigs, yesterday my companion went to PetCo, bought a guinea pig, then brought it home, killed it in the backyard, and fried it on our stove with some rice and peppers. . .

It tasted like stringy chicken.  It’s not so weird.  They eat guinea pig in Peru, you know.

I'm excited to get that Christmas stuff. I'll save it for Christmas day if it's wrapped, but if it isn't, I can't make any promises. Unless you want me to not open the box until the 25th...? This Christmas Season has been okay so far. I'm looking forward to getting to talk to you all on Christmas. I can't believe a fourth of my mission is already gone. I've got to work harder! It's crazy to hear about how much everyone is doing. I know it hasn't been that long, but I feel like everyone has changed so much. It's great that everyone is doing so well.  

I like to hear about all of the missionary work and service that people do back home. It makes you seem closer to where I'm at right now.

This week has gone by quickly. My companion, Elder Huaman, is great. He's been helping my Spanish a lot. Dad has been relating his adventures at the Hablemos Espanol Academy to me, and it sounds like you're all continuing to learn. How cool would it be if we could speak Spanish to each other when I get home?

For us, this week has been pretty fast, as always. We were able to set up a return appointment with someone while tracting. We're going to meet with him and his wife on Wednesday. Funny thing is, I remember tracting into him before, and when it was just a couple of gueros (Edwards and I) El no queria nada que ver con nosotros...

Oh well. I'm glad we have the opportunity to teach him now.

Nothing else new happened. We had a branch Christmas Party, at which a lot of food was served. That's about all I can say about it. We have some interesting needs in our branch. They're good people though.

I'll try to send more pictures when I can.

xoxo

Jake

P.S.

I was just kidding about the guinea pig thing.

Hey Family,

So first things first: I'm staying in Chico. My new companion's name is Elder Huaman, he's a native of Peru. I'm super excited to improve my Spanish with him. I get to drive now too, since he doesn't have a U.S. license. I'll let you know how he is after I meet him. 

I got our family Christmas Card. It was sweet. Thanks! 

So I send Elder Edwards off today. He flies home tomorrow morning. It was pretty rough.  I'm excited to talk to you all for Christmas.

Haha it's great to hear that Disneyland is still a family tradition. I bet it was an absolute blast. I've been missing all of you too. Thankfully though, things are picking up here in Chico. We had a record turnout to church yesterday, and we got a less active who hasn't been in years to go. I hope we're able to reactivate her. We've started teaching a new investigator named Alejandro, and we're continuing to work with Clarisa and Manuel. They're both progressing well. 

I can't believe it's been so cold back in Utah. We saw a bit of snow on Friday, but it didn't stick at all. Pretty lame.

In order to avert a catastrophic crisis in the near future, I've decided that I need to know the dates of all of the family member's birthdays (minus Sam - already sent his letter ). Especially Mom's. So if you could email those to me, that would be great. Thanks. 

Honestly I don't really know what I want to do when I come home. I've got a while to decide though. Patent law may or may not be for me. I guess we'll find out. 

Time is continuing to fly by.  

Love,

Jake

P.S. Here are some pictures