Got Fleas - September 24, 2012

Thanks for the awesome letter Mom. No packages yet but I was told they have my package from Guatemala and is just receiving it now. The movie night was changed because of scheduling conflicts so we have it this Wednesday and I think it will go very well. The weather is cold but with a sweater it is really nice. These last days have been very sunny so kinda hot. The morning is a little cold when I get out of bed and worse because right now the hot water is not working again so it’s back to cold showers. Sounds like the pool days are coming to an end this year. That is cool that you went to David’s presentation. I will listen when I get home. I think I will use the products and even work with David. I love his parents they are amazing and always treat everyone with so much love and respect. They are my other parents. I feel I have a lot of those. That’s crazy that your blood sugars are so crazy. That would not be fun sitting in a meeting with the sweat chills and wanting to vomit. Really amazing though that you made it and felt better. I wish I could have seen the dedication. I’m very excited to go to the temple and see Nana and Grandpa. I can imagine the power of listening to Elder Packer. My little Hailee turns 8! Wow! I can’t believe it. I wish I could see her baptism. You will have to send me pics. I think they liked my bday cards. A member here had her sister visit from Utah. Guess where she is from? Layton! Really close to us. I talked with her and she asked if I wanted to send anything. So I sent some letters. There is some for you and the family, Nana and Grandpa, Great Grandma. Hopefully you get those this week. Last week we had an amazing conference with Pres. I thought of so many things I can improve. It was really inspiring. Hermana Maravilla gave my comp and I a package for baptizing a family. We got some cookies, old spice deo, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo, hand sanitizer and some other stuff. It was very thoughtful and I loved it. So I was thinking the other day and something makes me kinda upset and sad. I can remember tons of movie quotes and knowledge and other things that aren’t really important but I struggle remembering important things like lots of scriptures and talks. I have learned where are lots of scriptures in the Book of Mormon and the Bible but it is not as easy as movies. I need to learn how to improve that. The week was hard but I know lots I can improve and we are going to keep pressing forward. I have a question. I remember you wrote me about this when I was in the coast but I don’t remember. We have fleas in our house. We got spray and sprayed but we still find them. I don’t know if there is something I can use so that they don’t bite me. What will keep them off my body? Yep fleas are lame. Thanks to the other elders before us. I love you Mom and love your letter. Thank you for your prayers and support. I hope you feel better and your blood sugar is normal again. I pray that you will be healthy, happy, and continue to be my amazing mom.

Love your Baby Boy

Independence Day - September 17, 2012

We did not have any changes in all of our district. That is very nice. I want to stay here till I end. My week was good. I finished the New Testament a couple weeks ago and that was awesome reading it in Spanish. I also finished reading a book called Believing Christ. That book is so good. It talks about the atonement and really made me think of it in a better way and learn more about grace. I highly suggest reading it. We were in a store this week and I saw a jar of peanut butter hidden on the counter. I asked the lady if she sells it or where she bought it. She said it was from family but they don’t really eat it. So she gave the 2lb jar with only less than a third used, for FREE! I could not believe her kindness. What a nice lady. I love the peanut butter. I had another strange experience. We were walking home one night and this car was headed right for us. It stopped and it was a guy we knew that is not a member. He said he needed help and wanted us to get in his pickup with his wife and kid. We got in to help him. He said they had locked their dog up in their barn to protect the cows but they found the dog free outside their door. They feared that they have a cow thief. We went and the wife and guy carried machetes and we carried lights. Turns out the dog had got free from the rope and everything was fine thank goodness. It was a strange adventure once again. On Saturday it was the Independence Day here. We saw a couple parades of the marching bands of all the schools here. Then we played basketball with a couple members. Well I was wide open and ran to the basket and decided to slam dunk it. Well I dunked it and hung on for a minute not really thinking about it much. Turns out the hoop is old and I bent the whole basketball frame. I felt super bad and stood on some chairs to bend it back. Had no idea about my own strength haha. I was told that they got one of my packages from Guatemala. I think it is David’s but not sure yet. Have no idea where Nana’s is yet. Hope it gets here soon. Yesterday we taught an investigator that has read the Book of Mormon once and is now in 2 Nephi 24 for the 2nd time. Yet she still will not get baptized. It is fear of her family. They are giving her a hard time for investigating. Her son crashed his bike pretty bad a couple weeks ago and the family said that is a punishment for investigating. It is really sad and I hope she feels the Spirit and has the courage to do what is right. We are having a hard time getting new investigators and having people progress right now. I know we can do it though. Our activity movie night is this week and I hope it is good. Elder Jacobson is funny. I know him a little bit. That is a great scripture. I will think about Christmas things. I’m so happy you are going to the temple dedication. I want to hear all about it. I know it will be amazing. I am so excited for General Conference in a couple weeks. I am getting ready. Shortly after conference Elder Escobedo my comp goes home. That is sad. I want to meet my twin haha. That is crazy. I bet that was kinda hard for you. I would talk in your ward. I want to talk in the Syracuse ward also cause I love all them. I was also thinking that I would go to your ward. I really love everyone in Syracuse and I will go see them often but yours is closer and that would be nice. That food sounds amazing that Crispin is cooking. I want to cook more when I get home. I want Grandpa to teach me about gardening and Nana to teach me to make some amazing things. I bet you are very dark. You have to send me a pic. I still can’t get over how dark you are in the pic of you and I on the 4 wheeler years ago. I bet you are very dark though even if you don’t think so. All you can eat shrimp sounds so good. Get as much pool time in as you can. I can’t wait to go swimming with everyone. I’m sure I will lose track of a lot of time. Mom I love you and really love your letters. You are the best and I’m glad you are doing great right now. I am honored to be your son and love you with all my heart. I have so much respect for all you did for our family and all you have been through. You are truly amazing. I love you!

Tear Gas - September 10, 2012

This was a very interesting week. I can now say that I ran through TEAR GAS! That’s right tear gas. We went to the temple on Friday because a family that Elder Escobedo baptized in another area was getting sealed. We got in a bus at 4am and when we were in Xela we got stopped because a road was closed. There were so many people in the streets. As we were walking this long street we heard a small bang and everyone started running towards us. We kept walking and one area was very smokey. Well that smoke was tear gas. I walked through tear gas and it started to burn my throat. As we were walking we saw about 40 police in formation in complete riot gear with shields and smoke guns. It was crazy and I have never been in anything like that. Well we made it to the temple. The session was amazing and I learned some new things. It was good to remember my covenants again. After the session we went to the sealing and I think that is the first actual sealing I have seen. It was so great. I really loved when the little girl came in with her little baby brother. The little girl looked so great in her white dress. I was feeling great and very happy to be a part of that. After we went to lunch at a place called San Martine. I had a delicious Monte Cristo sandwich, a Santa Fe salad, and tortilla soup. It was so amazing I stuffed myself. Then I treated myself with Tortuga brownies, brownies covered in vanilla ice cream and caramel and nuts. I was in heaven and really thought about food from home. I got a cardigan and a purple and gray striped sweater last week and everyone here really loves them. I will have to send a pic. Still no card yet? I still have neither of the packages. Lame! Wednesday is changes and tonight they let people know. I hope I don’t have changes. I want to finish here in Rio Blanco or at least the mountains. That’s kinda crazy what sis heard from Jennifer. I like Jennifer and want to visit her and her family when I get home. Crazy things happening but I know what I have to do for these last six months. It will go by so fast I can’t let it escape me. Thank you for always being there. Peach Days sounds so amazing. I miss the family and the Dutch oven dinner. I’m really happy that Connie's kids fit right in place. That is not fun that you got sick. I hope you are feeling better. David wrote me and told me that he went to a convention for USANA and they gave all 9000 people a free Ipad. Crazy! I think when I’m home I want to use some of the USANA health stuff. I love you and am glad you are enjoying the pool. Get as much time in as you can before the weather goes bad. I really look forward to swimming everyday and playing in the pool. I love you Mom and I’m sending a letter to Corinne. I hope you have a wonderful week. I keep you in my prayers and I’m so grateful for your love and support. It really makes me feel like the luckiest son in the world and helps strengthen me. I look forward to writing you next week. You have my hugs and kisses all the way from Guatemala. LOVE YOU MOM!
Your baby boy

Happy Birthday Aunt Holly - September 3, 2012

I have gotten the dearelders completely. Sometimes I don’t get half of one cause it was not brought with the other mail but I get them. I love your endings every time. The Brigham City Temple open house sounds so amazing. I wish I could see it. But I will go when I get home and it will be even better because I will see Nana and Grandpa as workers. It always amazes me how many people they expect at the open houses. It truly is a great opportunity for the church. I’m really happy for Connie and that is so wonderful that the kids fit right in. I pray that she gets to keep them. I am going to bring them a little surprise when I get home. My goodness this pool keeps getting better and better. I am so excited for the time when I get to just relax by the pool and listen to music and swim laps to get looking super fit. haha. The Zigich family pool party sounds like a true success. I’m glad they all loved the pool and more the company. That is a great thing about the pool, that the family can come together and have fun. That is scary how low your blood sugar got. However, the good side is that you got to enjoy all the food. Crazy that your levels got so low though. Thank you for sending the pics for Great Grandma and Nana. I wanted to send some pics in my last letter I wrote them but I was not able to do it in time. I have some pics to send though. You sending them for me is much easier and faster though. I can’t believe you have not got the card yet. That really bothers me. I hope you get it soon. We worked hard on the things inside. Still no word on David's or Nana's package. I am talking with the office about sending someone to Guat to pick up one of my packages there. Not sure if it is David’s or Nana’s. I keep asking them to keep an eye out for my packages. I don’t know if I told you but when we had interviews last week Hermana Maravilla told us because we baptized a family she had promised to send a little gift package for us so I’m excited and honored to get that from her. This last Monday I had an interesting adventure. About ten of us missionaries have bought little dart guns and on Mondays we are nerds and have dart wars in a members house playing with the 20 year old son. It is funny and we all really enjoy it. Well last Monday someone was running into a room and the door was closed. As he pushed on the door trying to open it he did not see the class window on the door and his hand went through it cutting his hand. Well my comp and I went to the hospital with him to get stitches. Well I had an interesting experience in the hospital that worried me. We were there and I was watching the Dr lift up the huge flap of skin and clean it and put a needle in it to numb it. Things started getting really hot. Next thing I know the room started to get fuzzy dark. I knew what was happening so I decided to sit down and kinda slid down the wall to a sitting position. I got super pale and sweaty for a few mins. My comp and the other guy were laughing with me after I felt normal again. I have no idea why I passed out. I have not had that problem before in my classes and work. It really scared me because this is my career field. I started to second guess myself. What if I can’t do it? I know I cannot think of it now and that when I get home I will work it out.  However, all that day I was really disappointed and sad. In other news I don’t have Holly's address so I need you to tell her from me with much love HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I wanted to write her a letter and send her a pic but I don’t have the address. So please tell her from me I didn’t forget and I wish her a happy day and lots of love. In the mission we have a thing called the Successful zone. Well this last month we were almost the successful zone, but we are only a district so that was really cool to hear. I really love the members here. We have been putting our area goal of baptisms in the houses of all the members to say that this is not our goal as missionaries but our goal as the Rio Blanco Branch. I hope it helps us work with them more. It's been kinda a hard week. I can truly see the difference in working with members. Contacting for our own methods is not successful at all. I have hope that we will find more people to teach cause we need them and that they will keep their commitments. Another good thing is that our church attendance has gone up every week since we have been here. There were a few members that were not able to come this week, otherwise we would have broke 50. Our goal for attendance is 75. I’m starting to get the mountain cheeks. That is a thing that is very common here. Your cheeks are red from all the sun. But I love the mountains here and it is so pretty. We are planning another activity in 2 weeks. It is a movie night for our branch. We are going to watch How Rare a Possession. Have you seen it? I bought it. It is so good. It is about Parley p Pratt and an Italian that finds a Book of Mormon and it changes his life. We will watch it together. Well Mom I want to tell you that I’m doing great. I love the mission and I’m trying to learn so much and really improve myself. I love you with all my heart and the mission has really confirmed my gratitude for you. I thank you for all that you do for me and especially your love. I love the family and want them all to know that they are special to me and I plan on giving a big hug and kiss to each of them when I get back. Until next week. It will come around so fast again. 

Love your baby boy, J