Week 12 in Chihuahua - February 26, 2018

New companion (the one from Honduras!!! I'm stoked.  He is awesome!!! ) Still no gas. 3 baptisimal dates. Still cold showers. Gave a talk.  That just about sums up what has gone on this week haha.

 

My new comps a beast. He is from Honduras and there's like a war going on in Honduras right now and he's like huh what else is new hahah classic.  

 

But yeah we have 3 baptisms coming up. 2 are for sure. There are two kids that their parents want us to prepare them and they are super accepting. The other baptismal date is a heroin addict and all he wants is to stop to be a good father to his kid. So if he can stop we can baptize him. I really hope he can do it. He's way nervous about trying to stop because he says it's really hard. I shared a scripture with him in 1Nephi. I can't remember exactly where it is at but it talks about the fruit of the tree of life and how it is more precious and desirable than any other fruit. The fruit represents the love of God and I explained that to him and that its gonna be hard but he will feel the love of God meanwhile and he will learn that it's more desirable than drugs. I said something like that. I don't really remember too good but I made sure not to make it sound offensive or harsh haha.

 

But yeah all is good. I'm feeling good about Spanish. I can talk and everything and I can tell stories and stuff. Sometimes understanding is a pain but with my comp I've gotten used to how he talks and his accent so we can just talk normal and now it's not too hard.

 

But that's all for this week.

 

Love you all! 

Week 10 and Week 11 in Chihuahua - February 12th and February 19th, 2018

On February 12th Jacob didn't do a group email because he said that his week had been pretty uneventful.  He was having a little difficulty with his companion and was just feeling a little homesick.  By the time we finished emailing each , he was feeling better and was excited to go hard in studying the Book of Mormon during the week.  He asked me to write a summary of each chapter of the Book of Mormon this week and he would do the same and we would compare notes today, which we did.  I actually learned some things I didn't know so it was a great exercise for me too.

 

 

February 19, 2018. 

 

What a week. We have been pretty busy with a lot of random stuff. We had to move our house because it was just too horrible. Our mission President saw it and told us that we have to move haha. I was the one who had to tell the owner of our house that we were moving and it was actually pretty hard and he seemed really sad. But it's all good.

 

We have also been doing a lot of splits lately, where we switch companions,  which is fun. I have gotten to know a lot of the guys in our disctrict better. 

 

I was actually on splits when a bunch of missionaries were helping us move and we arrived home and they were like half way done. I was really grateful at first until I noticed that one of my flip flops was missing and the other one was in the corner of our neighbor's garage and my pillow fell in the dirt and another missionary tried to snag my bottle of Advil haha. Gotta love the help of missionaries lol.

 

The good thing is the new house is actually waayyy nice. It just smells like a house which is what Ii love.

 

The hard part is that we haven't had gas for quite some time so I can't cook my eggs and I have had some preeetty darn cold showers in the morning haha. But yeah all is well.

 

We were walking and found this one guy had some questions for us. My comp had to take an important cell phone call so it was up to me to answer what he needed. He started out just by saying that he has a problem with drinking and he can't stop. He has been doing it everyday for the past 17 years or somthing like that. I challenged him to a goal to not drink just for one day tomorrow. He agreed. I also asked if he believes God has to the power to help him leave this problem. He said yes and I explained to him that God does and he will do his part but we gotta do our part as well. So I invited him to church this week and he said he's going to come which is cool. I really hope we can help him out.

 

My Spanish is coming along. I can get my point across even if it's ugly haha. It's just somtimes people say weird things and its like ummmm what??  Like I know all the words you said buttttttt what? lol   Or when people are drunk that's like a whole different language!! Like the guy I was telling you about was really drunk so I had to put a lot of attention haha but yeah that's all for this week.

 

When we did splits, I was with a missionary from Honduras.  He is so nice and loves to work hard and loves to teach me. He has been here for 21 months.  I'm hoping I get him for my next companion.  He made me a big breakfast the other day without me even asking him. 

 

Love ya all!

 

Okay, something very crazy happened to Jacob today.  He emailed us again at 8:30 p.m. tonight because when he and 5 other missionaries went to an internet café today to email their parents, there were only 4 computers so Jacob and another missionary (not his companion) went to another internet café and this was the first time that Jacob wasn't with his companion on pday.  So his companion and the other missionaries were robbed.  A guy came up to them and demanded all their money and then had them go to the bank and take out all the money in their accounts, which they did.  No one was hurt and his companion got pushed once by the guy who robbed them so that is the only physical thing that happened, but Jacob was really shocked about it and the fact that he wasn't there by just crazy luck. He was afraid to tell us for fear that we would really worry but I'm glad he did and we are so glad that his companion and the other missionaries are all fine.  Thank you for keeping Jacob in your prayers.

 

                                 The Elder From Honduras that I hope is my next companion!

 

 

Week 9 in Chihuahua - February 5, 2018

Okay,  so this week started out hard but it's all good because it's finishing on a good note.

 

So I can't remember what day but I was just having a hard time. Me and my companion were fighting  and I don't want to get into that, but just know that I'm right and he's crazy lol. But anyways I was just feeling sad and dumb and overwhelmed with Spanish and teaching and learning in a different language and yeah. I didn't really know what to do so I said a prayer and I just asked for help.

 

I didn't know how or when or what I needed, just straight up help. When we had a contacting activity that same day in one of the areas in our zone. I was with this other white kid and we were contacting together. He told me that there was a 50 peso reward for whomever got the most contacts so I was like hey that would be funny if the 2 white kids beat all of the latinos haha.

 

So I was super motivated to get a bunch. And I was contacting and I got to this one house and there was music playing. I knocked a couple times and no one answered and I don't know why but I was determind to get someone to answer the door. So I knocked again and to my suprise a guy came through the gate next to me and we began to talk.

 

Always when I contact I say something like, "would it be alright if we visited you later when your not busy" or something like that. But with this guy I don't know why but for the first time I just asked if he had some time to talk right now about what we believe. It kinda felt like a dumb choice because 1. we were in a hurry to get a bunch of contacts and 2. I don't have a latino next to me to save me if he says something that I don't understand lol.

 

But I did it anyway. To my suprise he said yes and so I began to teach him lesson one. He seemed interested and he asked some questions about like where are we are going and why are we here and stuff like that. I think I did alright answerng him. I talked about Joseph Smith and how he was reading in the Bible and read James 1:5 and how it says that if anyone lacks wisdom let him ask of God.

 

He told me that he has doubts about all the religions because he has been asking God which church was true and he feels like he hasn't gotten a response. And so I told him that maybe we are the answer to his question and he looked at us for a second and said "hmmm probably". haha it was awesome!

After that I was alot happier. 

We definitely didn't win the prize money because I spent half the time with that guy but I didn't care haha. Anyways thats the highlight of this week.

 

And the message behind it is sometimes we feel sad, dumb, lost and we just feel overwhelmed and don't know what to do and sometimes all we need to do is pray for help because Christ knows all our pains all our afflicions in the past and in the future so he definitely knows the best way to help us.

 

Love you all!

 

P.S. We went paintballing today it was funish. It was so ghetto my gun didn't really work. It cost 5 dollars American money haha. My gun broke so I had to throw my bullets with my hand. lol  They told me that we were allowed to play paintball, but I didn't really believe them so  I double checked with the president haha and I guess we can. So don't worry it's not breaking rules.

 

Two typical boys in this video having a little fun (until the dog actually catches his shoe one of these times) You can hear Jacob laughing in the background.

When he says, "Otra Vez", it means "again" in Spanish.