Going Private

Hi Friends and Family...
Unfortunately there are lots of strange people looking at Jake's mission blog and it makes me nervous that we might get some nasty content on there or some strange virus might infect our computers...I am going to have to make the blog private for the rest of Jake's mission (luckily that is only 2 months!!)  If you are diehard and are in it till the end please email me and I will add you to the blog or give you the password!
THANKS!!

October 14, 2013

Dear Family,

Well to start off about the letter last week, I actually forgot to write one.  I realized that I forgot when pday was just about over so I couldnt write one, sorry.  Dont worry though because everything is OK.  I did love General Conference last week and I loved that I could even watch the Priesthood session in english.  I love how they talked a lot against "new morality" and those who attack motherhood.  Something funny that happened was that, during the first hymn, I looked on the regular lds website at the stories.  I looked at a story about returned missionaries and I see a big picture of a sign that said "Welcome home Jake!"  When I read it I yelled "Noo, thats my name!!"  It was funny everyone laughed.  

We have started to teach a family that is really special.  We went walking past where they lived to contact a reference but their son and another kid were sitting outside and we talked to them.  Later we learned that when we contacted their son they had only 2 days living there.  We have been teaching them ever since and its gone by a little slower because the husband is finishing his thesis to be a lawyer.  They have a really special story and have been on the fence about being baptized or not because those annoying catholic instincts kick in a lot.

We have also started teaching a 7 year old girl.  She is going to turn 8 on the 25th so we are going to baptize her on the 27th.  Im excited about being able to teach her because she is the daughter of a lady that me and my other companion tried to companion but we couldnt get her seperated or married.

The week has gone pretty good and we are looking for more people to teach.  I can see here how the work is speeding up and that more miracles are happening.  I am loving my time here and trying to enjoy every day that I have left.  I love you guys and have a great week!

Love, Jake

October 7, 2013

No letter this week but we did get a few pictures!

September 30, 2013

Dear Family,

Well this week has been pretty busy with all kinds of surprises but most all were great.  First of all it turns out that the guy who told us a week ago sunday that he wanted to be baptized has been going to church for the last 5 years more or less active and who knows how many pairs of missionaries have visited him but he finally chose on his own to be baptized.  So last week we had been visiting mario just about every day to teach him everything and get him ready for his baptism.  We had his baptism Sunday right before a huge meeting and the baptism was great.  He got baptized with his 8 year old son and the bishop baptized them both and the baptismal service was very spiritual.  I felt like I was just a normal member helping Mario with his baptism because we didnt really have to resolve any problems or find him, all we had to do was visit him but I felt a lot of love and gratitud from his wife and mother in law.

Other things that happened this week.  Hmmm sicknesses.  There were tons of missionaries in the zone who got sick but most of them resolved.  Our house has been crazy though with 4 missionaries living there and sometimes 6, it was a surprise that our water didnt run out.  The funnest sick experience (for everyone but the sick one) was when he "got" to go to the hospital.  I took a turn from 10pm-12 sitting with him in the 5 bed emergency room where he had been since 9am.  It was pretty fun seeing the 2 doctors there that were the perfect examples of tv doctors one being big and nerdish with his hair slicked back with tons of gel and the other a young guy with a beard and longer hair, hipster glasses and in all white down to his pants belt and shoes (except for his black skinny tie and black mini ipad).  In my stay there we played a round of pokemon.  Its really weird that I collected pokemon way too much when I was little but I had never ever played the game.  So a missionary who is living in the house has the cards and game so I have learned how to play and its pretty fun compared to uno.

The other other things that have been going on are that President Lopez came up for the usual interviews that happen every 3 months so that took some time to organize the apointments but it went smoothly.  Last Sunday we had the Stake Mission Coorelation and my companion and I had to talk the whole time and teach some stuff but also it went well.  

Today at 5:55 we are going to Xalapa for the zone leader council and Im so excited for everything.  I am even more excited for the general conference next saturday!  It will be the last one of my mission and I will be watching it in the same stake center.  I hope to get lots of pictures with members and converts from a year ago.   I think I will stay here in Papantla until I go home, I also hope the same thing.  Well you guys take care and the time in really flying by but oh well it has to happen.  I love you guys take care and know that I love you all!

Love, Jake

September 23, 2013

Dear Family,

Well this week was transfer week so that was fun.  I got my new companion and his name is Elder Reyes (in english, Kings).  Ive known him most of the mission and he is a great missionary and really easy to get along with.  We are excited about the zone because we really got lucky in getting great missionaries.

Since the transfers happened tuesday weve had 4 missionaries in the house and its a little crazy.  It was neat though weve had some great experiences together.  One of the best ones that we are still talking about is the night we ordered pizza.  The pizza guy got to the house on his motorcycle and I went out alone and payed for it.  Although I wasnt in missionary clothes he recognized me as a missionary and asked me in what we believed in.  I knew that he worked for a pentecostal pizzaria so I told him that we believed that there was only one true church and the rest were false.  He asked me why and thats when a companion came out.  I think thats the only time Ive been in a real bible bash type situation but it was so fun.  It was fun because we all kept our cool except for the pizza guy.  We just listened to his rant and only talked when he said something wrong.  I will have to write it down in my journal because it would take too long to explain it in this letter.

My companion and I have been finding new people and its been going great.  One of the new people that we found is an 11 year old bling boy.  He is so smart and humble I will be so happy to see him be baptized.  He told us that one of the biggest events in his life was going to church which happened about 5 years ago.  Of course it was the catholic church but I loved that he has a lot of faith and faith enough to admit that he needed to be baptized again in the correct manner.

Another neat thing is that on sunday, although almost none of the people went to church that we wanted to, we had a lot of miracles that went to church without us knowing who they were.  We will have to work well with them so that they can get baptized.  Ok well thats about all that happened this week so I have to go now but take care and I hope to hear from you guys next week because I didnt get to this week.  I love you guys.

Love, Jake

September 16, 2013

Dear Family,

Well the transfer is over and it really is crazy how fast it went.  I will be getting a new companion which stinks but my new companion is a great missionary too.  Theres also a lot of changes in the zone so we will have a fun time helping the missionaries arrive and leave.  

The week started out really calm with normal work then on thursday I got sick.  It was just from eating something but the usual quick solution didnt work out because I had a stomach infection so the Presidents wife had me get me some antibiotics and I got better the next day.  It was kindof a lucky coincidence that I got sick becuase the day I couldnt leave much the big rainstorm hit.  In Papantla it didnt do too much damage just lots of water but in other places it took out bridges and people so we got lucky.

Sunday we baptized a guy who my companion Elder Jarman had been teaching for a long long time so it was a really special baptism.  We loved that he thanked in his prayer for such a special experience and for all the feelings he had.  We loved that because he is pretty shy and usually doesnt show much emotion.

So sunday night was el grito (the yell) but we only heard the fireworks we didnt bother looking outside because we were thinking about the changes in the zone.  Today we went early to the park to see the paraides because Jordan and Kevin (who got baptized last week) invited us to watch them march with their school.  It was really neat we were in a huge crowd and they sang the mexican national anthem and the state song then a little girl gave a 5 minute long speech that she memorized so that was cool too.  I took video of most of it so there will be tons of fun videos to watch at home (I cant send them right now because they are too big). Also a big thing that is going on here is lots of teachers protests becuase of some law change so I got a picture of a big protest march thing they did today.

Ok well we have to go right now to eat so Id better end my letter.  Be safe and know that I love you guys. 

 

Love, Jake

September 9, 2013

Dear Family,

This week started out very well with the monthly zone leader council.  It was great and I like riding from Papantla to Xalapa because all the zone leaders from Poza Rica were on the bus that we got on.  We watched the second half of John Carter and it was pretty good with lots of action.  On the ADO buses the bus driver cant pick the movie off a list but he can heep pressing next.  We were sitting on the first 2 rows of seats so we ask him to change the movie if its one that we dont like.  This time crappy movies kept coming on and we kept asking him to change them.  After 20 minutes of going through tons of movies it was getting embarrasing but we finally won Puss in Boots.  I loved it!  I loved it maybe even more than I loved Shrek but it was so funny and great.  I loved whenever the cat jumped that he would spin in circles and look like an x.  After that we watched an hour of the 4th mission impossible and it was pretty good but it kept throwing me off seeing Tom Cruse acting way cool when in real life I know that hes crazy.  Anyways we had a great council and had a big surprise about who was the new assistant.  It was a great missionary but he was american.  So now President will have 2 american assistants when usually its one american and one mexican.  We learned lots of stuff there and are really excited because the mission is progressing a lot.  On the way back we (choosing the movie) watched Rise of the Guardians) which was pretty good then we watched War Horse.  That movie was so so good. It was a little bit slow at first but great at the end I loved the part at the very end.

Ok anyways the rest of the week was great too.  We finished teaching Jordan and Kevin who are the kids of the sister who we thought wasnt a member but really was.  We also finished teaching Rosendo (Chendo) who is awesome and we hope goes on a mission.  This last sunday was their baptism and I got to baptize Kevin and Chendo.  I liked that they both had big smiles after as they were leaving the font.  It was a great baptismal service and afterwards the brother that introduced us to Chendo took us to eat lamb (that later gave us huge stomach aches at 3am the next day.

Today we left to the beach at 7am and had a nice day at the beach playing soccer and uno.  It was cloudy most of the time so it was perfect and really fun.  On the way back we passed by the ADO bus station hoping that a bus would be there and there was one.  It was neat because it was almost brand new and completely empty.  So we bought tickets and got on and like we always do we made friends with the driver so he would let us choose the movie.  It was called Pura Verdad which means Pure Truth but it had Bruce Willis and action so we think that it might have been a Die Hard movie (which would translate to spanish and sound good) but who knows.

Well the time is going by fast but we are looking for lots of people to teach and baptize so they can have a happy eternity.  Next week we should baptize a guy and we are teaching another teenager that will be baptized too.  I love the mission its the best type of work.  I hope you guys have a great week.  I love you guys!

Love, Jake