December 31, 2012

Dear Family,

This past week was pretty exciting he had Christmas and today is new years.  So sunday we baptized 2 teenagers 18 year old Fernando and 16 year old Erick, that we have been teaching since I got here to Coatepec.  They are great people and come from a great family.  The family has so much imperfections and hard times but we love the family and they are good people.  They love us so much that once Erick prayed that (because they are moving to Veracruz soon) the missionaries over there had the same faces as us.  They are funny and so nice I think we have eaten there 5 or 6 times other than our normal meals.  But anyways we baptized them sunday and the younger brother was motivated to want to be baptized next sunday if they are still here.

So today is the last day of the year and its going pretty crazy or different I should say.  Kids walk all over the place playing drums and begging for money and the boys dress as women and the girls dress as old men and they carry around a doll that represents the year.  A minute ago a group came in the internet place and a guy dressed as a girl danced by me a little to close while asking for money so that was a little weird.  I got pictures with a couple of lifesize old men dolls that they are going to burn later tonight so that was different.

So I got my camera I bought it on my birthday as a surprise present to me.  Its a nikon coolpix and yeah I know I bought one of those and returned it because I didnt like it but this one was the same price as the last one but is touch screen and is white  so it will be easy to distinguish with other cameras.  The bad thing is that I am really critical about the things I buy so I am going to look at another camera and maybe trade the one I have but if there isnt another camera oh well it will be alright.

Ok I need to go now the computer is being really slow and its making me want to be done.  Thanks so much for the letters and pictures and I will keep up the work and try to be good.  I love you guys and be safe.

                                              Love, Jake

December 24, 2012

Dear family,

Ok so I am officially in my new area and I have a week here in beautiful Coatepec.  It reminds me a lot of park city because compared to papantla everyone goes around in fancy clothes and theres  a lot more nice cars here.  Also another thing that I really like here is that, because its cold and also that they mostly grow coffee beans here, it smells like coffee almost everywhere you go.  I like it because it reminds me of chocolate.  Also I am liking that its mostly flat but the taxis are a little bit more expensive.  So yeah its really cold here and  gets really cold in the nights but thats alright we have lots of blankets.

 

My companion is Elder Villaseñor which in english doesnt make sense but villa means town and señor means lord.  He is great, he has 4 months here and is relatively obedient and is fun to talk to.  Oh yeah more about coatepec is that its like utah but with catholics.  There are so many catholic churches its crazy but  its alright because they are neat.

 Oh yeah, sorry my letter is all over the place, but when I came I went alone but that was weird but the fun part was I finished the movie "under the tuscan sun" which is cheezy and I wouldnt recomend, and I watched Rio about birds in Brazil and then watched Fast Five about cars in  Brazil so it was a good movie time for me on the 4 hour bus ride to xalapa.

  Also we had friday a ward Christmas dinner and we did a play that I think was based in catholic beliefs because it involved satan and "saint Joseph" but it was good I was the angel gabrial.  My part was 2 long paragraphs so I wrote a part on my right arm and had my companion write the other part on my left arm.  The funny part was that he got done writing all of it when I realized that he wrote the part that I had already written on my right arm so he had to do it again.

 Then we had a baptism on saturday of a wife of a returned missionary that the missionaries have been teaching for forever.  I guess I was lucky that she got baptized when I was here but I didnt feel the way I usually do for my investigators that get baptized.  It was good though.  Ok yeah another thing there is a family here that speaks english and that was weird and really hard at first to talk to a mexican in english so I just decided to talk in spanish.  They are from Blackfoot Idaho of all places so thats cool.  Ok well I need to go its getting late and time is about over so I will talk to you guys tomorrow on skype and yeah so thats all.  I love you guys!

 

                                                  Love, Jake

December 17, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this week had lots of stuff go on I will start with tuesday. So on the 12th was day of the virgin guadalupe (dont ask me why everyone calls her guadalupe when they should say maría or mary) but they started celebrating on the 11th. It was pretty crazy all the schools had their marching bands (playing the official virgin guadalupe song which I memorized and was singing all day to help celebrate) in the streets and people marching behind with candles and statues and pictures. Some had cars in the parade with big virgins and flowers. When it got darker the fireworks came and they arent like ours most are all rockets that shoot in the air and make a super loud noise like a cannon. So that was the most of it but poor guys that night was so so cold and windy but they still were our doing their thing until 4 or 5 in the morning.

 

Ok that was the first highlight of the week and the second one was that on the 12th we had our mission Christmas party. It was just the north part of the mission but that was alright because my whole generation of missionaries is in the north so we had a really fun time talking and joking around and laughing at eachother. We had a talent show thing and my zone did a missinary version of scrooge or in spanish "escrooge". I was the ghost from the past and it was fun. I really liked another zones act that was called the 3 irrisponsable angels that showed what wouldve happened if the angels didnt do their jobs when abraham was going to sacrifice isaac, when nephis brothers were beating him, and when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnent. But it was fun and there was lots of pictures.

Lets see then we had our ward Christmas party. That was fun because I got to deliver the tortillas to all the members that were eating and I put a nice 4 tortilla limit. It was fun and a member in our ward sang a lot and he sings really good so it was fun because he was going crazy dancing so I was chanting suelo suelo suelo.

Ok the 3rd thing that happened this week is that Im leaving. They called saturday night and we are both leaving and new missionaries arent going to my ward for a while. My companion is going close by but I am going to a little city called Coatapec which is by Xalapa. I have been there once and saw lots of pictures and its really beautiful there, maybe even more than papantla. So in church the next day we went one by one and said good by to the members and got pictures then visited our favorite families and converts. Thats crazy and sad but President Lopez knows what hes doing and I will be able to help people there and also eat at burger king and buy my groceries at walmart.

Ok thats about it for news I hope you guys are doing good and I will be able to go to the offices any monday so feel free to write letters and stuff like that because I miss hearing from a lot of people that I was writing. Ok well have a good Christmas and in mexico we will be celebrating more holidays in december and january that I will have to tell you about. Ok I love you all and Merry Christmas!!!

Love, Jake

December 10, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Woah you guys went on vacation. Was it like a spur of the moment thing because you didnt mention anything about it? Youll have to send pictures so I can see what I missed and see if the bahamas is like mexico. Also Im happy to hear that you guys are thinking about going to alaska when I get home. So its been another fast week and not much going on. We are doing good with the work and most of the people that we are teaching are slowly progressing. Its kindof hard because theres so much things working against people but we are still working and having fun so I know things will turn out eventually.

Oh yeah another holiday passed here on thursday. In english its called "day of the lost boy". From what I hear it was started by a highschool about 10 years ago and the catholic church here has adopted it as a catholic holiday. Its about when Jesus was a boy and his parents lost him and everyone puts candles on the sidewalk and theres a parade and the kids walk around with little wooden cars with candles. Its only in papantla and I love it how everyone participated and everything.

Ooh another thing since I dont have more to say I will tell about the phrases and how they are different here and I will do it in a list!

-whenever you enter a room where people are eating you have to say "enjoy"

-when someone says thankyou you say "of nothing"

-the funniest one, and we had an experience with a half drunk guy who wanted to practice english with me. So he was talking to us and telling us he was going home but whenever he said it he said it like "and Im going to your house so I can eat, take a bath and party more". So when people talk or welcome you to their home, to be polite, they say "welcome to your home" and we automatically say thankyou. Its funny I will have to discribe it better when we talk on christmas. So hey about that Im wondering what day would be better to talk, the 24th (which would be a monday night and we would be talking around 6 or 7pm or christmas day when we would be talking at noon or 1pm or 3:30pm. So yeah the bishop already offered his computer to skype so we are good there.

Ok well Id better go time is almost up and Im hungry. Thanks for the news and the pictures and I will try to be safe because yeah. Ok I love you all and will write next week and talk in a couple weeks on skype.

Love, Jake

December 3, 2012

Dear family,

You went to the Bahamas? Im confused... But oh well thats alright I had a vacation too so dont feel bad.  Today we went to the beach. It was nice and warm, not too hot and I got a nice sunburn. We played soccer and uno and had a fun time. Then we went to a members house and ate fish. It was so good and so different but now we dont have time to do hardly anything so we will be rushing through our last hour of p-day.

 Later that week we painted a room in a recent converts house in my ward. I guess we didnt paint it we white washed it with powdery like fine cement type of stuff. Im not sure but it was really hard to do and it took a really long time but it was fun.

 Last monday after I emailed we went to a nonmembers house and made donuts with him and it was fun. I made sure to write down all the ingrediants (but they are in grams so that might be tricky) and I took videos of the important parts. They were pretty good but I ate too much but we will definately make some when I get back.

Hmm not too much to talk about but this past week went good we had ups and downs but mostly all ups and the work is progressing. I had a good experience with fasting last sunday I fasted for the chance to find and get new investigators. During church a really good sister came up to us and said that she had also fasted and one of her aunts wants her granddaughter to be mormon to turn her life around. So that was a big blessing and we will make sure to take care of the blessings that we get so that we can be trusted with more blessings.

 Well thats about all Ive got to say I hope you like the pictures and I will try to write a longer letter next week. Take care and be safe and know that I love you all even though I dont think too much about stuff. I love you guys.

LOVE, Jake

November 26, 2012

Dear Family,

Hey happy Thanksgiving! For thanksgiving I had Tamarindo chicken, potato salad thing, green beans, spatetti, jello and maracuya juice so it was a pretty good meal even though there was no turkey or stuffing. I think people here have the wrong idea about thanksgiving I asked one member lady if she knew what thanksgiving was and she said its when all the stores put everything on sale. That was funny to hear that answer.

So the week went by way too fast again before I know it I will be talking to you guys. Its close because my bishop already invited me to use his computer to skype. Hmm what happened that was exciting this week?...Well not too much we have been teaching too many inactive members Ive decided so we are going to try to avoid the "Juan Lopez" lessons (who knows why they are called Juan Lopez lessons) and focus more on teaching nonmembers, but we need to find them first. Oh yeah something neat and different that happened this week was we were talking to my bishops wife and she told us about a sister in law who was "acting strange". I will spare you guys all the details but afterwards I said to myself that I hope I never run into a person like that. Just my luck a couple days later the bishop called us to help with a blessing so it turns out we went to see that lady. I was scared and worried on the ride over there but nothing happened except a great blessing and a good talk afterwards.

This morning we visited the stores so I could see the technology and buy a little usb player thing that is like a 2 inch by 2 inch box. It was $189 and has a 15 day warrentee so I hope it lasts a year. After we write we are going with a funny nonmember guy to make donuts. Hes funny because he is from mexico city and has a funny accent that I will have to show you guys when I get back. Elder Rosalino and I have been practicing it a lot so I hope I can imitate it perfectly. Oh yeah another funny thing this week was we walked past this one place where people sell stuff (usually towels and blankets) and there was a huge virgin mary blanket. I called the zone leaders to make them laugh and asked if it would be bad if I bought it. They said yes but when I returned they were gone but Im sure there will be more virgin mary blankets because the 12th of December is dia de la virgin guadalupe or day of the virgin guadalupe. Yeah Im not sure why people call her guadalupe when they know her name is mary but who knows maybe its a nickname. Jesus is a common name here and the nickname for Jesus is Chuchu or Chuchito so its really funny to say. I love spanish.

Ok well anyways Im glad to here that thanksgiving went well and oh yeah another mexican fun fact that youd like to know is that after halloween or day of the dead they start singing Christmas songs so yeah we already have a month singing christmas songs in every companion study when its my turn to choose I think I like them better in spanish. Ok well thats about all I have thanks for the pictures and the letter and thanks for being safe. Ok Im going to go make donuts so you guys have fun too. I love you guys.

LOve, Jake

November 19, 2012

Dear family,

 

Well this week is another week that went by too fast. Weve been visiting lots of less active members in our ward and some have come back so our bishop is happy. We are still working with some people that are on the edge of saying yes to baptism but have various problems or concerns that always stop them.

We had a big meeting of leaders in a city near by called Poza Rica and President Lopez talked about tons of stuff. One of the things that he really talked about was getting back to the basics. He started out with the example of when he interviewed 30 recently returned missionaries and most werent doing good with reading scriptures, praying, fasting, or tithing. He said it happens like that when people lose focus on the basic doctrines like faith, repentance, etc...So we are reviewing all the lessons and practicing a lot so that we can perfect them and do better with the people we teach. Another plus for the leaders conference was the ride. I loved going on rides at home and riding on a bus is so relaxing and watching the movie Tron was a bonus also.

Oh speaking about movies we were in a food one day and a movie came on that Id never seen before. Its called Fast Five and it was so crazy and it was a fight the whole time we ate not to watch it, I think I need to get my courage up and tell them how much I love cars so I cant watch it.

Something else that happened this weekend is called "buen fin" or "good ending". Its the mexican version of black friday and it started a couple of years ago. It started friday really early in the morning and ends today so we might go to a couple stores. It reminded me so much of getting up early with dad to go buy cheap headphones and socks.

Sorry guys theres just not too much to talk about but yeah Oh yeah I guess I could make a list of the things that are different from back home:

1. Not walking on the floor barefoot for more than 6 months

2. Not being able to drink the water I brush my teeth with because it will make me sick

3. Microwaving my cereal often so that it gets soggy faster

4. Seeing dead naked chickens hanging everywhere

5. Having a random drunk guy drive by and asking me (jokingly) to teach him about Jon Smith

6. Eating my big meal (like dinner) everyday at 2:00

7. ok I cant think of anymore right now but I will try to make a list because there are lots of neat new things...

Ok well anyways thats about all Ive got I hope you are doing good and are enjoying life like I am. I am so happy here and happy with the life I have and the family and friends back home that I have to return to. I am convinced that my life is just going to get better with every step I take and I love it. Thanks for all your support and for all the things you do.

Love, Jake

November 12, 2012

Dear family,

Well this week went by really really fast and I cant remember too much of what happened so I will try my best to make this letter not too short.

Our ward had the yearly primary program this past sunday. It was just about exactly as the ones I did as a kid...kids reciting memorized scriptures then a song, repeat. It was really neat there was a little kid about 9 or 10 years old who played every song on the piano without any mistakes and lots of people came. We had a good turnout as far as people we are teaching we had 5 of them come. A family of 3, a teenager, and a blind guy. It was great and funny the family of 3 got there right after the sacrament song was sung and they shut the doors so I made them wait about 30 seconds to say the prayer so the family could get in.

Before we came we washed out windows and its cool the windows in our house you can easily take them out and clean them so we did that and cut up a giant banana and with giant oranges that out neighbor gave us we made banana/orange juice and it tasted really good. Also with the other 2 giant bananas we got we fried them and put them in an old yogurt bottle with nesquick and oats and shook it really good and ate that. They looked really bad but tasted pretty good.

Also a member here who was the 3rd missionary from papantla and served his mission in 1971 lent us a book that the church gave missionaries called "scripture references" and its basically a guide to bible bash. So we dropped it off at a papeleria and got copies of it. Crazy that a 115 page book costs $23 pesos to copy a whole new book. Thats like $1.50, but anyways dad you will have to see if you have it I will send a picture.

The work is picking up little by little we had an activity in my area where most of the zone came in and worked for 2 hours. It helped us out a bunch and we are getting a list of 50 less active families in our ward that we can visit. So thats going good and its still the best time of my life. Well ok thats as long as I can make my letter and Ive got to go so know that I love you guys and I hope you are all recieving blessings like I am oh it just started raining YES. Ok love you guys be safe and dont forget to write because Im going on a trip this thursday so I will have time to write and stuff.

Love, Jake

October 15, 2012

Dear Family,

Hey guess what? Im going to have a son! Yep Im getting a baby and Im so excited that I get to train a new missionary for many reasons. First reason is I think (and hope) I can train him to be a good missionary and I will get lots more study time so thats good. Also I will get a little portable dvd player to watch preach my gospel stuff on so thats a huge pluss. Also I know almost for sure that I will be staying in Papantla for 12 more weeks so that means past Christmas and into january. So yeah that was fun to hint to the ward when I bore my testimony last week I liked the looks on their faces. My companion is getting transfered but its not bad because he is only moving a couple blocks because he got transfered to another area in our zone. Yeah weird I know. So we will still see eachother often.

So thats the big news from this week thats happened I cant really think of anything as big as that. We have worked more relaxed I think, spending more time talking to members about the work so we have built up our reference list again so there will be a lot of work for me and my new companion.

Oh speaking of studying I am loving reading Jesus the Christ. Its hard because there is so much new stuff but that why I like it. It takes every little thing that Christ did or said and takes it apart and puts in tons of background information and explains it a lot. So I like it and I will thank dad for having so much church books because I want to come home and read them all because thats what I feel like I should do.

Remember the grandpa that we baptized 2 weeks ago? We confirmed him last week so now he can progress so much faster and have such an easier life with the gift of the Holy Ghost. He is so dedicated for example we had a family home evening for new converts friday in the stake center and we invited him thursday because we forgot to invite him sooner. Sure enough he was there early and it was great. This sunday we went to his house before 12:30 so we could walk to church with him and he had already left so we walked the route he walks hoping to catch up to him and he was already in the church when we got there. I love Donato now we are going to get his whole family (at least those in the spirit world) baptized.

Today we went to the volador or in english flyer. It was neat and we looked at the statue for 5 minutes, took pictures, and left. This day has been good and I had a good 5 minute nap in a rocking chair on the big porch of the member we wash our clothes with.

Ok I will answer your questions now. I get letters from Uncle Mark and I got one from a friend but that it in the 2 months of Papantla but Im going to xalapa tomorrow to pick up my son so maybe I will get one there. My dog bits are mas o menos. I was hoping there would be a cool scar but sadly they are going away but you can see them so there is still hope. No I havent written any email for the christmas one and I dont see anytime writing it because with the 8 hours of riding on the bus I have to be focused on watching and enjoying the worldly movies so if I dont send one to you by next week just cut random parts out of past emails and call it good.

Ok so thats about it for this week I will hope for pictures next week of the barn and the other barn and the cars dog and house or stuff like that. Be safe and remember to help the work progress by helping more people be happy and have the gospel in their lives.

LOVE, Jake

October 8, 2012

Dear Family,

 I love conference! Ok I will get to the rest of that later but I will start in chronilogical order because thats what I do. Ok first off I think it happened tuesday. Ive always had an idea in my mind of playing a game where I jump or walk over the sleeping dogs in the streets (because there are literally billions of dogs in the streets so if you are a dog person stay away or you will be sad). So anyways we were walking up a steep road (aka normal road in papantla) and there was a sleeping dog so I walked close to it and was going to take a big step over it but it decided that its nap was over. It was scared that I was so close so it bit me twice. Once in the right leg and once in the left but the only cool part was in the left leg so I got a picture and we went on our way. We visited some members and they were really concerned so we wasted the rest of the day finding the stake president and having him look at my leg for 2 seconds and saying its ok but that if the dog dies in 10 days Im done for. Dont worry the pants are ok.

 

 

Hmm ok next event is ok I guess its conference. Its a long story of why we were late so I will just say we were late and missed Prophet Monsons whole first talk. I asked a member what happened and she told me the news. Thats crazy and in a good way We will have so much more missionaries now for so many reasons its just great. Elder Davis and I were discussing it and we were worried that the dating pool might be way down when we get back but then we deducted that a lot of returned 20 year old sisters will be home less than a year after we get back so that was comforting. I loved conference for so many reasons but mostly because there seemed to be so many inspiring little stories and experiences that everyone shared. I have lots of favorites but my favorite quote from conference was about faith and that if we have faith we will be blessed with difficulties and if we use our faith in these times we will get more faith. Its like a scripture that a sister in our ward has shared a lot in DyC 50:24 thats about if we have light (which we all do) and we use it then we will get more light. Its a process that happens until we are perfect and we have to keep going because faith is like a baloon its either going up or its going down it cant stay in the same spot for long so we are either progressing or falling.

Ok anyways the biggest miracle of the whole conference experience was Donato, the guy we baptized last week and will be confirming next week. He walked to all 5 sessions. It normally takes him 15-20 minutes to walk to the church where he watched 4 sessions but for the priesthood session he had to walk to the stake conference which took him almost an hour of walking. Thats a miracle that a guy who is 79 years old would do that so we love him and cant wait to confirm him. He is so great and dedicated. Also another convert we have, Manuel came to all I think. In a lesson this week he told us that people have to show their conversion so that their family joins with them. He is the only member in his family and he wants them to share his new found happiness and we are putting the goal of the temple in his mind. He knows stuff in that lesson he told us he wants to go to the temple in new york. When I told him ive been there and that its by the sacred grove he said "por eso!" which doesnt make sence in english but its like saying "duh thats why I want to go!". We are so blessed with the people that we have helped now we just need to find new people. Ok that all I have for this week thanks for the pictures and for the letter and everyone who wants to write a dear elder should write it to the veracruz mission. Or mom you should write one to the veracruz mission when you get this and see if they send it too me. Oh man I am going to miss the dear hunt oh well i missed it last year too. OK I got to go so be safe and make sure to not let anyone take my cell phone especially gracy because she wont treat it right.

 

Love, Jake

October 1, 2012

Dear Family,

Wow this week has gone by fast and weve had some pretty big events happen down here. First big event-new mattresses. Yeah our old ones were like burnt tortillas or something and there was no padding just springs that had died some time ago. So we went to the fanciest store called coppel and bought 2. Oh yeah I didnt like my camera so I traded it for a mattress and the mission payed me money that I got the mattress with so everybody won. So we bought our new $150dollar mattresses and carried them up to our house on our heads which was really fun but we were more soaked with sweat than usual. My picture with elder moreno with the church in the background is on the top of coppel we got special access because we were carrying our mattresses to our house (We didn't get the pictures...sad.) The first morning after we got our new beds we slept in all 3 of our alarms until 7 and I had a million dreams and I am having millions of dreams every night I should write them down they are cool and funny but mostly weird.

Second big event-no water. We lost water halfway through my shower thursday morning and didnt get it back till saturday morning so thursday night we took showers at a members house and we were up late because of it so that was new and exciting. In our work to start the water pump we jumped around some abandoned houses and took a cool picture of a cool view of papantla that I sent.

Third big event-Donato got baptized. So we got this reference about 10 days ago for a guy named Donato. We visited him that same day and taught him and invited him to be baptized for the 30th of september and he said yes. He didnt come to church but he had gone with his only member daughter and he really wanted to be baptized because about 35 years ago his mom wife and a brother died in the same year so he took to drinking. Since then he has changed and really loves how baptism brings forgiveness of sins. We called his daughter who is a member and she and her family came to his baptism and it was great that this 79 year old man chose to change and choose the right. Also it was great that for the 5th sunday meeting it was about family history so we will be talking to him about doing the work for his family.

So this week has been good and this month has been good for the work now we just need to keep working hard and finding more people. Thanks for the pictures I like the new barn and Im sure the sheep will like it too in the winter. Hey what ever happened to my laptop I just had a worrying thought about all my pictures on it so I hope they are alright and not erased. Also stuff for christmas Im not sure. I will write a seperate letter and put the stuff I want on it. Ok well I need to write president and eat food so I oh yeah this week I heard that people are eating more chocolate than is being made so you guys should definately stock up on chocolate chips for pancakes and cookies. Ok well I will be going now and the zone leaders are going to xalapa tomorrow so if anyone wants to write a dear elder and hey I havent gotten any of those and I think no missionary here has gotten any of those for a while so mom you should write one when you get this email so it can be printed at the office and I can get it tomorrow. Thanks for being safe so I dont have to worry about anything ah well I dont think I would worry anyways because Im too busy. Ok thanks and take care temporaly and spiritualy but most importantly the second one.

LOVE, jake

September 24, 2012

Dear Family,

 

Well I looked to send last weeks letter again but its lost so thats too bad. Last week was good though we visited Tajin which is old pyramids and stuff and I took a picture in an anciant baptismal font. We also baptized Jorge and that was happy. This week was really good too.

We finally baptized an investigator that weve had for a while. Manuel set his date for this last sunday and almost missed it because he has smoked his whole life and almost couldnt quit. We had taught the word of wisdom last week and I assumed he knew that obeying this commandment was a requirement for baptism but it came to him as a surprise so last week we started working on quitting smoking. He left to Mexico City the day after that lesson so we didnt see him for almost a whole week then we taught him on thursday. He hadnt quit so I thought for a minute and started saying how we wouldnt be able to baptize him this week but next week. He was devistated (we found out later) and started throwing things at us like how hes already invited his family and his kids already got permission to leave school and things like that. Then my companion had an idea and said that if he quits now he could be baptized on sunday. It was amazing I dont know how to describe it like his hope was dying then when he heard he still had a chance he had a fire lit in him and he was very emotional.

So we worked and he worked harder to quit and then we taught tithing and had another huge obsticule, he didnt want to pay tithing right away. We solved that doubt by watching the movie about John Tanner who made his own fortune and gave it all to the church. So yeah Manuel was baptized on Sunday and him and Jorge were confirmed sunday. They asked me to confirm Manuel but I didnt know how so after listening to his confirmation I confirmed Jorge. I loved it and it was my first time and it was so great. I love Manuel its really a miracle how all the bad events and stuff in his life (that we found out from his member friend) led him to have interest to talk to us and eventually want to be baptized and now he is baptized and he will be a great leader because he loves reading and is hungry to learn more of the gospel and has had miracles in his life because of the gospel. Now he will surely convert his 3 kids and wife and that will be amazing. I love this stuff it makes me so happy.

Ok thats all I got because that was the highlight of the week and I cant think of or remember anything else. So thats good that everyone is good and that everyone is safe. Hey Jeffrey got a girlfriend thats good I hope he read the talk I told him to read. Hey I started thinking of stuff that I would like you to send but maybe you wont have to send all of it because a member discovered deseret book. Oh yeah have I told you about the movie Casa de Mi Padre? well anyways I am going to go to a movie place and buy a poster of that show because its will ferrel and the poster looks like an old western and its way cool. I also bought a camera today so thats good too. Ok I dont know what more to say I cant think too clearly because theres lots to think about so you guys just tell me all you know and I will try to tell you all I know. Thanks for the pictures and keep them coming and please mom take a picture of the barn thats being built and the new porch and whatever else you can take pictures of because pictures are better than letters because I dont have to think as much. Well anyways I had better go we are eating at a members house today and I need to eat a lot of food. Take care and if you dont get a letter from me please tell me as soon as possible. Ok I love you guys and please scratch gracy on the belly for me because she deserves it.

Love, Jake