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