New P-Day, Monday...

We had a chance to Skype with Jake yesterday. We told him about how we post his e-mails here and was happy about that so you will see a comment to everyone in his e-mail to all who read about him. We recorded his Skype conversation. Anyway here is his post. The exchange rate is 20 Pesos to one US Dollar.

hola mi familia! como estan? yo etoy calor. muy calor. all i said was that im hot very hot. its alwa ys hot here except for the time in the morning when we have to study. oh well. how was christmas? i want an extensive list of events and gifts. what did you tell people about me? how did they responde? that call made me trunkie but im glad i got ot use skype. i dont know how often i will get to use it so i might have top call in the future. so i just bought a fan for our apartment to cool it off. it cost 1300$. thats alot you know how much food i could buy with that. but my companion said i could get rembersed from the chourch. i hope he is right. and i also pulled out the christmas money. it was 4000 pesos.thank you so much. my companion was asking me for some, but i said no. i want to buy a sachel. like the movie tangled. there are so cool. and also i want to say ¨where is my sachel?¨ like the movie. and i also want to but a mate cup. its this nasty green herby drink stuff. it does horrible things to your bhodyy like acid reflux and stuff. but everybody here drinks it and its funny too because you see people with their mate cups and its full of this green herb and they have a thermous full of hot water and they just continually pour it in the cup. its a real social drink. so like an entire party of people would use the same cup. i have no desire to drink it but i wanted something that will represednt the country. so what better way than a mate cup. and if you see like 100 to 200 dolras go out its because i will purchase some scripture cases. they have some freaking awesome ones. no one in this ward makes them but hopefully in my next transfer they do. you can ask for any puicture you want and they do leasther work and its really good. and today for p day we got to watch kung fu panda 2. i loved it, probably so much because i havent seen a movie in 2.5 months. and we made 3 pizzas in the kitchen of the chapel and they were so delicious. but here the idea of pizza is jut sauce and bread. you have to ask for cheese and toppings. which is wierd. now time for the spiritual thought. i have found my new favorite scripture. its in isiah 41:10. it says fear not for i god am with the, and i will support you in your works. its something along those lines. i dont have my bible with me. but that helps me because if you are doing someything in a rightous cause the lord will help you and you need not fear. so alot of things in life are sacry. a new jon, a mission, money troubles, or whatever. but if it is a rightous act the lord will help no matter what is is. so have no fear. and for anyone who does have a fear about something. i say dont. instead focus more on the task at hand and the lord will help. and also have happy holidays or in spanish feliz fiestas! i love you all. and for you all on the blog, i say to you that you all thanks for the support.

con amor, jake or el guapo

Dec 19th Surprise e-mail...

hola hola. suprize. we got to email today to tell you that i am leaving tomorow at 4:30 in the morning. and will be in uruguay tomoorow morning. crazy stuff. i cant beleive i have been out for 2 months. thats gone by so fast. today has been kind of boring because its all orientaions and suff. and i am also packing. which is always fun huh! well i only have 10 minuets so i got to make this fast. i dont know what my address is in uruguay but you do because you have my call packet. so look i t up and would you tell me please. gracias. i dont feel ready to leave but i need too. i have been here long enough and want to get out of here. so how are things back home? you excited for christmas? just dont forget the true meaning of it or else... im so excited to be in the field and have all of the cool stories that you here about. and i want to learn more español. oh before i forget. dad how did you mark your scriptures for your mission. because i had to buy some here and need a good way of organizing and catorgerizing my scriptures and topics...that would be helpful if you remember. but if you dont then i understand because it was like 50 years ago. just kidding. well my time is almost up. i love you all and make sure you tell me all about christmas and send some pictures, por favor. that would be sweet. tell the family thatr i said hola!!!

con amor, jake or in other words MÁS GRANDE

Jake about to leave the MTC...

Here is Jake's latest from this week...

hola. im almost out of here. i am leaving in 4 days and im sooooo excited. sorry if i dont answer all of your questions. free time is the suff of myth here. so i will hand write all of your answers if i have time. so i finally got my futbol jersey and it is freaking sweet. the only bad thing is that its super snug so i have more motivation to loose wieght. it seems like thaty nothing really happens during the week. im playing volleyball each day and i suck but thats ok. i think i will be able to call on christmas but im still not sure. i let you know as soon as i know. that cool about all of the bigfoot stuff. im jealous. i wish i could have been there. you should have had steven hold up a picture of me while he was being interviewed. that would have been sweet. that does bum me out that one of our spots is going to be ruined, but oh well mabey in two years it will be good again. this is my last p day in the ccm and its sad but i cant wait to get into the field. im so ready except for the spanish thing. one thing i have realized here is that people are really attached to the world. for example some elders are dependent on their emails to find out whats happening in the world of sports and its become their weekly fix. and people are always saying "i want to watch that movie or listen to this song". sorry to say but i really dont miss it that much. its weird because its hard for me to remember any movies or songs before my mission. i dont know. but im glad you guys raised me to be less attaached to wordly possesions. and i also had to give a talk in sunday too. and it was in spaish about humility, but im the best at that stuff...just kidding. but i learned something. whnever you here god talking about jesus his son you always here of whom i am well pleased and not who i am proud of. just something to think about. and i have devastating news...i was about to eat one of my alfajores and i opened it up and it was moldy. i almost cried. well thqats all i have time for today...

con amor jake...

Jake has questions...

Well this e-mail is little late getting posted... my bad. Jake has some questions so if anyone wants to send him some answers feel free. I already know the one on bigfoot. It was David Patten who had the account. Anyway here is the e-mail...

hows it going? fyi the thing with hermana flakes sister is just a joke...dont worry. i cant beleive im almost out of here its kinda of wierd. i dont feel ready, but thats what every one has said. and this morning we had this guy come in, i will get his name later, but he taught us about the apostacy. it was as a 4 and a half hour class. it was all in spanish but i learned so much. we preatty much covered why all of the churches got corrupt and why. it really put my brain to thinking of how satan does whatever he can to break down all that is good. incredible. and i understood most of it and barley even listedned to the translator we had. not much has really happened in the last little bit. its been the same old thing as usuall. its getting so hot here. im used to haveing christmas when its cold not when its 80 degrees with 70 percent humidity. and thanks for the letter with the stamps in it. i havent recived anything else. the mail system here is preatty unstable. and a thought just popped into my head. the driving here is so crazy. like when dad describes the driving in boston. like they have no space and go really fast. its about 10 times worse here. it can be quite an adreanaline rush. for example our first day of prosyliting we got hit by a car. we were stopped and the car in front of us went backwards and hit us. and our driver didnt even flinch. he just waved. crazy stuff. and when your next to some one your only about 5 inches away from them. i could literally reach out and poke some one. which remindes me. an elder from the last transfer before me stuck his body out the window on the bus and he was giving a pamphlet to the person in the car next to them. crazy stuff here. and they are all cars that i have never seen before. and also i have some rules here in the CCM. like enjoy the little things and cardio. stuff like that. and something for dad here...i have been having a tough time here with hermana collins. she is in my district. shes really negative and has a problems. she has alreaddy been talked to by the president 4 times and its not getting better. and every one is feeling the negative efects in the district. there was a lot of complaining. and i just thought of it as a trial and why are we complaing? we need to love her and help her. and one day i volenteered to give a spiritual thought about loveing one another and how it helps us. theres acouple of scriptures that i want to share with you. in section 123 the very last verse states we must do all things cheerfully and a scripture in section 88 about we must love on another. so i challenge my family back home to be cheerfull in all things and love one another. no mattwer hard it is and how much it suck. it blesses our lives in ways we dont comprehend. i have been following these two scriptures and it helps. i dont complain as often and i think more about others thatn how much something bugs me. also oi got new companions too. i guess its my first transfer. my two new comanions are elder duke and elder minter. i had to change rooms and evrything. and its going all good. and elder minter was made our new district leader. so its fun stuff here. i cant wait to hear back from ya'll. oh and also, dad can you find a buch of stuff on porter rockwell. like stories and a biography. they were talking about him and iwant to know more. and also can you share some info on scriptures are good to use on investagators and why. and also do you hjave any good deep doctrine you could share with me. and if i can ask one more thing. could i get some some beeks on gospel stuff. for example grandpas book and a book about modern daay prophets profecies and revelations. i heard some cool stories on that kind of stuff and i would be nice to have a book about it. and people here say that a prophet talked with bigfoot and said he was cain. could you do some reasearch on that too. thanks

con amor...jake

Jake's Challenge to everyone...

Here is Jake's latest e-mail... He sent in two e-mails by mistake...

holy cow!!!! jake is going to the philipines!!!! thats crazy. and he reports on march 14. thats cool. tell him good luck and to study preach my gospel like crazy. our district figured out that we will be leaving this mtc on december 20. so thats when i think im leaving. and i might not be able to call home on christmas. theres been some confusion on that. but im so excited to be leaving. i want to get into the field. i just want out. and we learned that they are going to switch our teachers and i was so mad. like ticked. why would you switch our teachers right before we leave. so we went to go talk to gomaz paz the head guy here and he said he would switch it back. by the way hes the leader of the buenos aires mofia. and so we should be keeping our teachers. and we got more misionaries here. a cool thing is that Elder kohl, my companion, his little brother is here and going to the same mission. how crazy is that. and the christmas thing....you coulg get me ties, candy, a merriem webster pocket dictionary that goes to spanish to english and english to spanish, an mp3 player with speackers (with like church music, and by a bunch of diffrent artists and disney songs in spaish and english and movie soundtracks), a cool gadget or clothes. i dont know just some ideas. oh and will you ask seth to see if there was an elder cruz in his mission, because thats ny teacher and he went to the same mission as seth and his mission president was changed to president shakespear. just curious if he knew him. so hows life back home? have you ben getting my letters? i really need to know?

sorry for this second letter but i accidently hit send. its kind of crazy the change you have while here, and ive only been out for a month and a half. i have a desire to read my sciptures more than anytime in my life and i actually remeber scriptures and stories within. and i already finished the book of mormon about 2 weeks ago. and i prayed just like moroni told us and for the first time in my life i got a true and undistinguishable feeling that this is the word of the Lord and that its true! i can testify to anyone that if they read the book of mormon and pray you will get a definate answer. and that missionary work is the work of God and he delights in seeing his beloved children coming near to him. im glad that i can be apart of it and i know that it will bless me and you all for the rest of our lives. and whenever im having a bad day i look upon the scriptures and just realize i have it easy compared to the people of old. including the people who wanted this generation to have this book. they died for us. they died for us to have the fullness of this gospel and to know of the lords will so we can return to him as a family and live as a family for eternity. they wanted us to have another testimony of jesus christ so badly they died for it. i just wanted to express that this church is true and that i know the aposles are called of god and serve the lord. i have felt it. when i shook the hand of the apostle its something new. you recieve this feeling of great joy. so i challenge yuo all and who ever you share this with to read the book of mormmon and pray. but dont just pray, pray with real intent and a broken heart. cry to the lord to know if these things are true. and i promise you that you will get an answer. i testify that the lord is our redeemer and he died for each and everyone of us. so that we may have joy and hope. that we may have hope that we can return to him and be like him. i know tht jesus suffered for each and everyone of us. he felt all our pains and afflictions. and i challenge you to remember that every day of your life. in this life and the next. to think everyday "jusus died for me, i want to be the best i can so he didnt suffer in vain" i bear these things so that everyone would know that this is the truth and that this is the will of the lord. i pray everyday to know even though i do. i pray so that i will never lose that truth and faith within me. i pray every day for my friends and family thast may feel comfort and that you may never forget why im out here. i love you all and i want you to share this message to everyone who you feel impressed to give it to. i want to leave you with my love for the lord and for my friends and my family.

con amor....your son jake

Jake trained by Mercenaries...

We got our weekly e-mail from Jake. First off we would like to thanks the Erickson's, Moss's and others who have supported Jake and thought of him. Now to give a little back ground on Jake's comment about being trained by Mercenaries. He has actually been trained by Mercenaries. A few years ago we flew some Professional Trackers in to teach some of us how to Man/Bigfoot track. Two of them are Special Ops Tracker/Counter Trackers among many other qualifications. Well one of them has also done Mercenary work all over the world. So that is why Jake always make that comment that we were trained by Mercenaries. Anyway here is his e-mail. Thanks again to everyone for your support it is greatly appreciated!! John...

hola ya'll! this wewek has been like all of the others. it seems like there all the same now. but this week something wierd happened. one of the cooks told me that i got a package and i was super pumped and i was so excited to open it on p day. but then later that day he hands me the package. it was a plastic bag with a box of alfajores, a box of bons bons, a t shirt and some wristbands. i was so confused. the chef said he found it out on the basketball court and it was just sitting there in the rain. when i looked closer i found a not that said " hope these goodies help" or something like that and at the bottom was signed the erickson family. how the heck did they get it here? if you can give me details that would be way nice. how is your thanksgiving today? mines going pretty good. tell all of the cousins and stuff i said hi and that i miss them all. have you told anyone the apostle story yet? oh and before i forget. in uruguay its the opposite. they dont recieve padded envelopes ONLY BOXES. i dont know why but hermana george told me. and it has to be less than $40. so just incase you want to send me stuff while im there (wink wink). and also todqay im supost to be getting a argentina fútbol jersy from my teacher. i hope he comes thru on it. it costs about 90 pesos. which is 20 bucks in american money. im excited. i wonder if i would get shot in uruguay for wearing it? and did i ever tell you the story of Elder Mcdaniels and Eldwer De hoyos? well they were in the last transfer and the very first time the went out proseylting they got off the bus and there was a big group of poeple and there was a dead body 20 feet in front of them. scary huh? good thing ive been trained by mercenaries.....they have some rules down here like never waer your back pack with both staps on your shoulders because it takes longer to take off during a robbery. fun stuff. and also we got a new area in prosyliting. its alot less busier than our last one but we still got 12 contacts and two men with their shirst off offered us some weed. great!!!! too bad i had to turn it down...just kidding. but it is a cool story though. and we almost died too because we were walking and we passed this dumpster full of bricks. but right as we passed some bricks were tossed out from above and missed my head by about a foot. that why the dumpster was there. i almost peed my pants. but it got my adrenaline going so i could be more energized. and also we invented a new verb in the spanish language. its "fiestar" it means to party. its so funny because it makes all of the teachers mad because its not a real word, but we think it is now. and we also conjugated it in all tenses and even in command form. its pretty much the best word ever. also thank the mosses for me because he gave me a letter and it was nice. did i also tell you that hermana flake told me to write her sister? im gonna marry her!!!! her name is crystal flake ;) ....well bye

Yo amo ustedes, jake........ or in other words ¡El Guapo!

Jake and Elder Christoferson...

I am a late but here is Jake's e-mail he sent on Thursday...

hola! there is a couple of things this letter is going to be about. one thing is that Elder Christoferson came here to the CCM. an actual apostle came here and talked with us. that day started out great but then at about 12 every body was cleaning and organizing. and everyone had the nervousness of an apostle comming here. and so we had to be in siuits all day and go up and down a certain flight of stairs just wierd stuff like that. but then dinner came and the missionaries had to eat outside because the dinning room was all fancied up. and it was yummy food. it was papas fritas and chicken. then the chef came out with ice cream. it was foodgasmic. so we had to be in the conference room at 5:45 and we just sat there and waited for the apostle and president jensen to come in. and the north americans had translators because they both speack perfect spanish. well when they came in everybady stood and he greated us and wanted everyone to come forward and shake his ahd and tell him where your from and where your going. so i was in line being all nervous when suddenly it was my turn. i went up and shook his had and elder Christoferson said "elder sa... sa..." and i responded "salmond like the fish" and it was probably the stupidest thing i could have ever said to a living apostle. then i said im from clearfield utah and what my mission was. the positive side is that he will never forget the kid who said "like the fish". so if you ever hear him say something like that in one of talks just to let you know its me. anyways they talked about missions of corse. but Elder Christoferson´s talk was amazing he talked about the Book of Mormon and how we should use it in teaching. it was in spanish but i still undertood what he was saying. after he was done we stood up and he left. and hermana aponte, who is my teacher and a translator that night, really wanted to shake the apostels hand but she didnnt get the chace. she was really devestated. so she went out in the hall and right as she did Elder christoferson came out of the office right next to her and he said hello and shook her hand. she was smiling and came back and told our district. she was as giddy as a school girl. i think she even cried a little too. and i told her never to wash that hand agian. it made me feel so good that she was able to meet an apostle . she deserved it. then we were preparing for our movie that night, which was the testimant movie and i think you should buy it, the apostle shouwed up with a present and gave it to hermana flake, a missionary in my district. when she opended it it was 3 boxes full of fancy alfajores!!!!!!!!! they were delicious. so that my cool story for this week. it was such an amazing and spiritual experience. just shakling his hand strengthened my tesimony. the other cool thing that i wanted to tell you is that i used the bidet as couple of weeks ago! it was scary at first but now im not going back to toilet paper ever agian. i wish i had more time to write my email so i could tell you about my prosltyting experience but i dont. cho...

Con amor, Jake =)

p.s. i need some u.s. stamps for the MTC and iternational ones for my actual mission. thanks and i also got 3 letters from you all. and bishop tompson sent me one too. tell him thanks for me. bye

Jake... a little rough but still doing well...

This is par for the course so we need to step up our prayers for Jake to make it easier when he has those tough days. We are going to send another package soon so that should hopefully help. So here is his update....

hola! im doing great. it sems that everyone here is dying of allergies and im not. and thank you for the packeage. i got the dice and all of the goddies inside of it too. it was all gone in a matter of days too. but being nice guy that i am i shared it too. your lucky it started to snow. because here it gets to be like 80 degrees and really humid. yesturday it said it was at 81% humidity. it sucked really bad. especially with the salmond sweat geans. and you wont believe this but im losing a ton of wieght. my watch and belt are alot losser and the white coller around my neck is too. and i can tell that im loosing wieght around my belly and my peck areas. and i really havent been doing much. i think ive been sweating it all out. and we got a new load of missionaries today!! its so funny to see their scared faces. and we only got 4 north americans and one of them is hispanic and already speacks spanish. so she dosent count. and they are putting the other 3 in our district which dosent make sence because we are 3 weeks in. i guess we will find out tomorrow. something cool happened yesturday. Brother Allen came in and talked with us missionaries. he is in charge of the whole missionary thing in the world. and hes also part of the area of the seventy. he gave a short 10 minuet talk about missionary work and his experiences. it was fantastic. it also made it so we could miss 3 hours of class too. he was really late so we waited for him in the sacrament room. this week though has been supwer tough though. i lost it about twice this week. because our teacher hermano cruz told my companion ship that we werent very good at spanish and he is so sad because he thinks he is a bad teacher. and for some reason i took it very personally. but im doing better now. but thats life here in the CCM. thats what its called here. you pronounce it like ce ce eme. thaqts how the spanish alphabet is. and right now in class we are learning how to do past tense conjegations and regular and irregular forms. its all cofusing. and last saturday we went out proyseliting again and we had better succsses. we contacted 5 people and we have 2 return apointmens. one appointment was from the guy in the store. he gave us his number too but told us that he was only free during saturday. so i think other missionaries might have to take that one. and the other appointment was odd. this lady stopped us ont the street and told us that we needed to follow her back to her casa. and along the way there she told use she had a pamphlet about joseph smith that she eanted to give back so we were puzzled. when we reached the end of our zone we stopped and she went and got the pamphlet and from what im guessing is that she thought of it like a library book. so she returned it and told us that she would like to meet us next week at that smae spot. wierd huh? and another story is that we went up to this guy and started a conversations and he ended up sayind "you guys have poor spanish, is there a pamphlet i can read". so we gave him it and he seemed really happy. so we did our job. and my companion Elder Webster, and yes hes the guy from st. george that you know, anyways he went up to a guy and started to talk to him and then he asked for his name and the guy said por que? which means why? and Elder webstet thought that was his name. so he continued and said " thats a good name" "por que would you like to hear more about eternal families". the guy just walked away. and elder webster could nt figure it out be i was laughing so hard. he also called our teacher fat once too. that was also hilarious. well i wish i had more time but i gotta go!!

con amor!...jake

Jake's first letter...

Well we got our first letter from Jake. Here you go. He keeps asking us in his letters to send more news. I think he misses the everyday conversations we use to have with just the everyday stuff. So we are going to just start including more of that. Well here is the letter...

Jake out in the town...

The latest update from Jake...

yes i have been getting the emails but i havent figured how to do it all yet. so sorry if im confusing. alright so i told you last time that i went prosyliting an saturday and it was amazing. me and our district went to the middle of bunos aries and it was diffrent. it was half city and half resident. and some of the houses were really nice even compared to the standards of the US. but it would be 4 ghetto houses then a nice one and then 4 more ghetto ones. anyways we went and we talked to this little old lady and she went off in spanish and the only part that i understood was that "we sucked at spanish and no one will understand us" so that was amazing. then see said "me gusta" and pointed at her dog then she left. so in total we talked to 4 people and two were in english and one of them invited us to go back on saturday. we go prosyling form11:30 to 5. it was so cool. argentina is beautiful. i cant believe were are going back out in 2 days. and the food situation is diffrent here. its not all you can eat except the fruit. but they give you enough food. and its alot diffrent too. its alot more bland so i use salt and pepper alot. and im getting used to the heat. so halloween was really good then? thats great. the oldest group of misionaries are going out tomorrow and there is only going be 13 poeple here. lonely huh? any new news latetly? im starting to get cabin fever here too. and its only been 2 weeks. im starting to understand even more spanish. its amazing if the lord is involved with something how great things happen. oh and by the wqy i traded my english hymn book to one of my latino companions and he gave me his spanish one with a sweet cover on it. and we also traded a tie with each other. hes like a little child. thats how small he is. all my classes are in spanish now. the teachers are refusing to speak english anymore. well hermana aponte is a little more flexable but hermano cruz is all spanish with mabey 2 sentences of english. it makes it so i have to learn spanish even faster now. they just handed me a package and its dated the 22 of october so it takes about 20 days to get here. so thats good to know. oh and if i may ask you to send me some ear plugs that would be awesome. because i snore soooooooo loud that my companions cant sleep and they are getting mad at me (in a joking way). so that would be great if you could but if you dont then i understand. oh and hermana flake, a missionary in our district, told me to write her sister and i think i will. it will be funny. ill probably creep her out. it will be hilarious. well until next thursday. cho...

Jake learning Spanish...

Well we just received another e-mail from Jake after he has been in the Argentina MTC for a week. I was personally (John) stressed about my son and if he was going to be home sick and so forth. It was a very long, tough week because we wanted Jake to get right into the work, so everyone was affected in their own way. This e-mail was a big relief for everyone because you can tell Jake has jumped right in and is making friends and doing what he needs to do. Before I post this I just want to touch on what the rest of the family is doing. Ethan is hanging with his friends watching Transformers outside at the Arnolds. Shay, Luke and myself just got back from our neighborhood Trunk or Treat and I did not dress appropriately and I am still frozen. Amanda is enjoying a lovely night working and stressing about all of her tests she has to take. Anyway here is Jakes e-mail and again thanks to all of you who are supporting us and care about our son.

howdy partners! every latino thinks were cowboys. its pretty funny. this week has been crazy, everything is in spanish. the very first day wasent even english. well part of it was but evverything they give you like your agenda and schedule is all spanish. but this is the lords work because im understanding spanish just not speaking it just yet. and my teachers are the best ones here. they are hermana aponte and hermano cruz. both are excellent teachers. hermana aponte is our progessive investagator. thats were she plays the role of an investagator and me and my two companions teach her the lessons. and yes i have two companions mine didnt show. i think it was something medical but im not sure. but anyways when shes doing the ivestagator she is playing a native who dosent speak english. so its been all in spanish and that alone makes me want to learn spanish even faster. well were getting close to getting her baptized me and elder webster and elder kohl have to deal with her "smoking problem". she dosent make it easy. and she can speak english but she wont becasuse she gets too emabrassed to teach in english. hermano cruz is a guy i would want to hang out with if i wasnt a missionary. the land here is amazing. its so much diffrent than utah. its humid, but its not too bad now. its not as hot as i first thought and the people are way nice. hows mom dealing with it? is it quiet around the house now? ugh its so hard to spell and write in english i keep on wanting to use spanish and spelling in english is hard because in spanish it spells just how it sounds. every dorm room has a north american and a latino pair in them. and they are always praying that the north americans will learn spanish. and there always quizzing us on what we learned that day too. one of our roomates is like four foot nothing and he laughes like a little boy. he is the best. last night he tried to tell us a scary story in spanish, but we didnt understand most of it so we played along. i even did a little scream at the "scary" part. oh and by the way ive drinken the hot chocolate and have had no problems YAY!! do you have any questions? i know mom will. she always has the wierd and random questions. im looking forward to your next email. until next thursday... cho!!

love jake =)

Just before Jake left he gave us instructions that he wanted us to keep track of several things for him such as movies, songs, major family events and so on. These two movies he never got to see in the theater so I am starting with them.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) -- Rotten Tomatoes 33%

It is a pirates movie so I am throwing it in there.

Green Lantern (2011) -- Rotten Tomatoes 27%

Because it is a super hero movie.

This song by Nickelback came out just as he left so I added that because of the newness.

I am just throwing this song in because it now reminds me of Jake whenever I hear it. I had just purchased it before he left and he did not like it so now it reminds me of him for some reason.

First Week...

Since we are going to print this off when Jake comes home and make it a book I thought I would make some entries that we are not going to send to him so he can see what was going on here. We don't want to send him everything because we don't want to make him home sick.

I let Jake know that he beat out Yoda for my phone wallpaper. I replaced Yoda with his picture when he was at the SLC gate waiting for his plane.

Because we try to be fair around here Luke voiced his concern about the family being an odd number now and how are we going to make things even when Jake is gone. Sunday dinner was the first real test because we had Turkey Steaks and with six people it just works with everyone getting one and a half. I solved that and took two up front. It was weird though seeing one seat empty at the table for Sunday dinner.

Amanda said it hits her when she comes home late from working and Jake is not up watching TV.

Shay said it hits home when she walks by Jake's room and it is clean and empty and I think Amanda said that too.

I just use to talk to Jake all of the time and I miss that. I don't know if there is any one thing for me, I just notice he is not around.

We are all glad he is doing the Lords work and is on his mission however and we are doing everything we can to support him.

John...

Jake's MTC Information...

Jakes MTC address……..

Elder Jake Salmond

Uruguay Montevideo West Mission

Argentina Missionary Training Center

Autopista Ricchieri y Puente 13

1778 Ciudad Evita

Buenos Aires

Argentina

E-mail

Urugoest.@gmail.com

-Missionaries can receive e-mail from anyone on this account

-This is our version of “Dear Elder”. We print e-mails sent out to this address once a week and send the hard copy to the respective missionary

-Put your missionary’s name on the subject line, so we know where to send it

-E-mail is a great privelege. We cannot deliver forwarded mail, jokes, stories, sports updates, talks etc.

Jake Leaving and first e-mail...

Well Jake is now at the MTC in Argentina learning Spanish. It was an emotional day taking him to the airport and sending him on his way. It was his first real time flying so he was indoctrinated really good. It was around 4 hours to Dallas with a 3 hour plus lay over. Then it was an 11 plus flight to the Argentina airport. We found Dan Winterbottom (Sheila's husband) just before reaching the counter. He was in his bright blue uniform looking all official. He is very willing to help us out so that was great. Both of his check in luggage was under 50 lbs so that luggage scale Shay purchased was a great investment. They didn't charge us for the second checked luggage so that was awesome and they really didn't look at the weight. There was no line at the check in so that was smooth and fast. When we gave his luggage to the TSA agents one of them served in the same mission as Jake so they chatted for a while and I think that helped. He told Jake it was the best time and he will love it. After that because everything went so smooth we had about an hour to hang out before he had to get in line. Not to long after sitting around another Elder showed up going to the same Mission. His name was Elder Duke from Eagle Mountain. His family was very large and he was their first missionary out of their family. They were very friendly and we took pictures together. I think that helped Jake too meeting someone who was going to the same mission. They told us there was a third missionary but she was having issues at check in because her luggage was to heavy. She was Tongan and her family was huge. They were all crying and she was crying through the first part of the line. We didn't chat with her nor her family because we barely had time to get a picture with all three before they got in line. The Duke family we had a while to chat with. Steve, Janeel and my Mother were also at the airport wishing Jake on his way. That was very nice of them. On a side note my Mother's eye surgery went very well and she can now see out of both eyes.

Just after checking his luggage...

Jake walking away to get in line...

Dan took this picture for us on his phone to let us know that Jake made it to the gate since we could not go back there. That is Elder Duke sitting in the back ground.

This is our first care package to him and we hope it makes it to him.

We were concerned that he made it okay and this is Jake's e-mail to us letting us know everything was okay. We can tell he is really tired when he wrote this. We would like to thank everyone for their support in the many ways they have shown it. Jake was also very thankful to everyone who gave their support and wished him well.

"hey! i found out that p day is on thursday so i can write you. i love you all! the plane ride waws so long it was like 3 hours to dallas then another 11 to argentina. and because im so big i was jammed in so tight. and its hot here too!i keep sweating and cant stop and it refuses to dry. one sister missionary lost all of her documents in the dallas airport, and she was about to be in for some trouble but at the lat moment someone came aboard the plane and gave it to her. its just been a long day. but they say missions are like toliet paper at first its slow but then it starts to go faster. how are things back home. have you cried yet? everything is so scary and strang here. i dont knoow what to do yet and everybody speaks spanish even the other misionaries who are from america. and bunos aires is beautiful. the capitol city is all tres and so green. it was beautiful. i forgot to take pictures though sorry. i just had my interview with the president and his wife. they just wanted to get to know me. did i mention i love you all. and i dont have a companion yet he was suppost to come with our group, which there were seven, but he didnt and i overheard one of the assistants say he had medical problems. oh and the presidents wife who is sister george said NO BOXES make it to the MTC but she said that padded envelopes do. so that is how you can send things if you want. and i think my 30 minuets are about to be up so keep me in your prayers. i love you all!!

love jake."

Been a while...

It has been a while. Just about forgot this existed.

Some news of late. Jake is getting ready to go on his mission. He just had re-constructive knee surgery a few weeks ago. Before that he had his wisdom teeth removed. He finally called a got his patriarchal blessing so now Shay is working on getting the last of the doctor and other paperwork lined up so he can send it all in.

Luke just had his 15th birthday and we are waiting a month before we get his learners permit. The joys of teaching another child how to drive. That is something that will age you quick.

We have also been without a computer for several months. My Mac died. My replacement is not a Mac because I could not afford one. But now with all the replacement software I have had to purchase maybe my choice could have been thought through a little more. Not really. My new computer is fast and software will come in time.

I am also getting ready for another Sqautching season. I am trying to lose weight and get in shape. There is a location I really want to go to this year but it requires back packing to it. So whatever motivates me right. All of my kids are getting excited for another Squatching season. Our goal we have this year that we think is obtainable is finding tracks. We have other goals but those depend on the Bigfoot working with us. We also have some other plans for recording devices. We just now have to save and get that all worked out.

I will also be glad when we can get the sickness out of the house. This last go around kicked my trash. It has been some time since I felt that bad. I am hoping by taking it easy today I can get back on the road and shake this muck.

My two youngest Luke and Ethan are doing great in school. Both 4.0 students. Jake is working saving money for his mission and Amanda is working and going to school.

Cheers,

John...