Family,
Wow, this week has gone by pretty fast. Thanks everyone for answering my questions and all that. I better start off by answering the questions you had. Dad it is a little humid and sometimes it feels like you could cut it with a knife, but for the most part its ok. The weather here this week has actually reminded me a lot of the summers back at home. The mornings are starting to get a little chilly but by midday it’s pretty hot! I’m starting to get a pretty good tan it’s the worst when we have to hike the hill mid day it’s pretty hot and then you’re climbing a mountain. I sent a pic of the stairs we climb, that’s just one set that leads to the next street. There are 4 in total so it’s tiring but I’ll survive.
The work here is going good! We have 9 progressing investigators and a couple with baptism dates so that’s cool. One of our investigators name is Erick. We met him the first week I got here in the mission field. He was with a group of friends who were drinking (he wasn’t drinking) and they called us over. I was still new at the time, I think it was my second day and when they called us over I thought we were going to get jumped. So in all honesty, I was scared. But we started talking and it turned out good. (At least for him, the other 5 left.) But he’s doing well and I hope we will baptize him.
The other day we went to visit a less-active member named Eddie. He lives about midway up the hill. All the houses on the mountain are basically built into it, so most of them build a dirt ramp to get into their houses. Long story short the ramps aren’t big, you have to walk single file to get to the house. It’s hard to explain so sorry if this doesn’t make since. El M. walked up first so I kind of stood at the bottom while he talked with Eddie. Next to me was a decent dirt pile and as I was looking at it I noticed some pretty decent holes that looked familiar. So I looked a little closer and noticed some webs in them. I then remembered seeing a special on the Discovery Channel about spiders and how they are sensitive to vibration so I got this smart idea to poke it with a stick and mimic a bug..... bad idea. Next thing I knew a freaking huge tarantula came shooting out! It scared the crap out of me! The stick I was using was only a foot long but I did get a pic. of it. Turns out there are a lot of them here. I found another one the next day but this one got away.
I haven’t eaten anymore Grasshoppers but I did eat Cactus which was different... not sure if I liked it or not. Before I forget I would like some peanut butter. They don’t sell it here and I kind of miss it. Right now I can’t think of anything else I need but I’ll think throughout the week and let you all know. Thanks so much for the pics of the family. Everyone looks like there are doing great. I want to try to send one more pic so I better, go but I love you all! Take care and be safe!
Con Amor, El Hope
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Grasshoppers
Family,
What’s up my family, how has everyone been? First I better give mom Sisters Andersons address before I forget so mom here it is; her e-mail is Kari.Anderson@myldsmail.net. and her address is 50N W. temple ST RM BSUC Salt Lake City, UT 84150. I’m not sure if she is still in Utah or if she got her visa but you can try whatever one you want.
As you know today was my P-day. I have a lot to say so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail but here I go. Last Monday right after I wrote you and went home we discovered that we didn’t have any running water or anything so we called and tied to get it fixed. Long story short we didn’t have running water until late Friday night. So when we had to shower or wash dishes, flush the toilet, brush our teeth and all that we would have to go down a couple flight of stairs and fill up some buckets to get water. It wasn’t very fun because they weren’t very big buckets so when we ran out we would have to make the trip again and again. Showering was also pretty awesome for the most part all the showers I have taken here are cold showers. We have a water heater but it takes forever to warm up the water so we just take cold ones. I still don’t know if this is a good idea or not but the other day (when we didn’t have running water) Elder Martinez must of been sick of cold showers because he decided to throw a iron in the bucket of water.... as crazy as it sounds it worked!! So I did the same thing haha. It was super sweet to have a warm shower :)
P-days here aren’t as fun as the P-days in the MTC. Here we actually have to do some work. Such as wash our cloths (by hand and it’s actually a lot harder than I thought it would be) clean the house, and buy food. Joshes house sounds a lot like mine in the way that it was sick! It was super dirty. I’m not sure if I told you in the last e-mail or not but our house is infested with ants and cockroaches. Last night I went on a killing spree and killed 7 pretty big ones in 10 minutes. The house looks ALOT better now that I cleaned it. I’m hoping that it will help with the bug problem.
I never got Joshes letter when I was in the MTC about his scary story so I want to know what went down. Someone tell me I feel left out.
Things here are going pretty good. Its way different then home like I said. I have a pretty good story. The other day we went to a food market type thing to buy some fruit. (The food markets here are crazy!) you can barely walk because there are so many people and it stinks really badly from all the meat sitting out and all the spices not to mention all the drunk people. While walking to the store a drunk guy ran over to us and started talking to us. I couldn’t really understand everything that was said but after awhile he said he wanted to change his life. (Perfect opportunity to talk about the gospel no?) so I started to teach him, for some reason he didn’t like Elder Martinez he said he had a bad spirit. Anyways I taught him for a bit and after awhile he asked where I was from. I told him (mistake number one) after I told him he told me to give him money... long story short I didn’t give him any money but I gave him a pamphlet about the plan of salvation with our names and number on it. It’s kind of trippy, just about every time I go shopping or even contacting, all the drunk people run up to me and start asking for money. They think I’m rich because I’m from America. I feel bad for them but I don’t give them money for a couple reasons. One if they saw me again they would just want money and two they don’t really give us that much money so I have to use it wisely. Oh and I guess the people here really believe in black magic. We’re teaching an inactive member and the other night while at her house she said she found some skulls in here attic or something. It’s pretty wack. I guess her husband left her after 20 years because some other girl did black magic on her or something like that. So that’s pretty crazy.
Sorry this letter is so late; we went and ate with a returned missionary who is inactive. He’s super cool and nice. He bought me and my comp a ton of food, and showed us around down town which was super cool because we went to some old old churches. But once again I didn’t have my camera so I didn’t get any sweet pics. Today I also ate grasshoppers.... and they were nasty haha. At first I ate them plane and after a couple I decided there not really my type of food. But Elder M. and the member convinced me there better on tacos so I tried them again. But they weren’t. I ended up eating a lot because they were all up in my taco so it was interesting haha.
That’s all I got for this week, tell everyone I said hi and send me some pics of all the family together! I love you all and your all in my prayers! Love El Hope.
What’s up my family, how has everyone been? First I better give mom Sisters Andersons address before I forget so mom here it is; her e-mail is Kari.Anderson@myldsmail.net. and her address is 50N W. temple ST RM BSUC Salt Lake City, UT 84150. I’m not sure if she is still in Utah or if she got her visa but you can try whatever one you want.
As you know today was my P-day. I have a lot to say so I’m not going to go into a lot of detail but here I go. Last Monday right after I wrote you and went home we discovered that we didn’t have any running water or anything so we called and tied to get it fixed. Long story short we didn’t have running water until late Friday night. So when we had to shower or wash dishes, flush the toilet, brush our teeth and all that we would have to go down a couple flight of stairs and fill up some buckets to get water. It wasn’t very fun because they weren’t very big buckets so when we ran out we would have to make the trip again and again. Showering was also pretty awesome for the most part all the showers I have taken here are cold showers. We have a water heater but it takes forever to warm up the water so we just take cold ones. I still don’t know if this is a good idea or not but the other day (when we didn’t have running water) Elder Martinez must of been sick of cold showers because he decided to throw a iron in the bucket of water.... as crazy as it sounds it worked!! So I did the same thing haha. It was super sweet to have a warm shower :)
P-days here aren’t as fun as the P-days in the MTC. Here we actually have to do some work. Such as wash our cloths (by hand and it’s actually a lot harder than I thought it would be) clean the house, and buy food. Joshes house sounds a lot like mine in the way that it was sick! It was super dirty. I’m not sure if I told you in the last e-mail or not but our house is infested with ants and cockroaches. Last night I went on a killing spree and killed 7 pretty big ones in 10 minutes. The house looks ALOT better now that I cleaned it. I’m hoping that it will help with the bug problem.
I never got Joshes letter when I was in the MTC about his scary story so I want to know what went down. Someone tell me I feel left out.
Things here are going pretty good. Its way different then home like I said. I have a pretty good story. The other day we went to a food market type thing to buy some fruit. (The food markets here are crazy!) you can barely walk because there are so many people and it stinks really badly from all the meat sitting out and all the spices not to mention all the drunk people. While walking to the store a drunk guy ran over to us and started talking to us. I couldn’t really understand everything that was said but after awhile he said he wanted to change his life. (Perfect opportunity to talk about the gospel no?) so I started to teach him, for some reason he didn’t like Elder Martinez he said he had a bad spirit. Anyways I taught him for a bit and after awhile he asked where I was from. I told him (mistake number one) after I told him he told me to give him money... long story short I didn’t give him any money but I gave him a pamphlet about the plan of salvation with our names and number on it. It’s kind of trippy, just about every time I go shopping or even contacting, all the drunk people run up to me and start asking for money. They think I’m rich because I’m from America. I feel bad for them but I don’t give them money for a couple reasons. One if they saw me again they would just want money and two they don’t really give us that much money so I have to use it wisely. Oh and I guess the people here really believe in black magic. We’re teaching an inactive member and the other night while at her house she said she found some skulls in here attic or something. It’s pretty wack. I guess her husband left her after 20 years because some other girl did black magic on her or something like that. So that’s pretty crazy.
Sorry this letter is so late; we went and ate with a returned missionary who is inactive. He’s super cool and nice. He bought me and my comp a ton of food, and showed us around down town which was super cool because we went to some old old churches. But once again I didn’t have my camera so I didn’t get any sweet pics. Today I also ate grasshoppers.... and they were nasty haha. At first I ate them plane and after a couple I decided there not really my type of food. But Elder M. and the member convinced me there better on tacos so I tried them again. But they weren’t. I ended up eating a lot because they were all up in my taco so it was interesting haha.
That’s all I got for this week, tell everyone I said hi and send me some pics of all the family together! I love you all and your all in my prayers! Love El Hope.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Elder Martinez
WOW this is nothing like the MTC just thought i would say that haha
but before I forget let me answer some of your questions. Dad I got the
dear elder on Saturday so it worked! My comps name is E. Martinez.
He was born somewhere in mexico, I think by mexico city. He lived
in Utah for nine years so he speaks english but with a pretty heavy
accent. My area is called Cosijueza and the street i live on is
Mission de Sla Cruz so you’ll have to see if it’s on google. It’s pretty
crazy, I’m definitely not use to living in a big city. There are a lot of
drunk and homeless people here. The other day i saw a pretty
good fight between two little Oaxaca’s. One dude took a punch right to
the face! It was pretty intense because I thought he was going to pull
a gun out. I have no idea what he was saying but you could tell he was
pretty upset.
I wrote a letter and sent it on Saturday so look out for that. It cost
about a dollar to send.
I took some pics when I was flying-landing in Mexico City so let me
tell you, it’s a pretty big city! There were houses as far as you could
see. So it makes since why there are so many missions there.
The people here don’t really know how to drive... I guess the only rule
here is not talking on the cell phone. They don’t have very many stop
lights, mainly speed bumps, but after they go over that it’s like a
contest to see who can get from 0-60 the fastest haha it’s kind of funny
but scary at the same time. I took a taxi the other day and it was..
well let’s just say interesting.
After we got here we stayed the night in the mission home which was
pretty nice except the spiders, in the MTC i only killed one spider
the whole time i was there. Here i killed a spider within an hour of
being here so I’ll have to get used to that. The next day we meet
our comps and went to our areas. My house is alright. I’m told its one
of the nicer ones. We have had a lot of water problems the whole time I’ve
been here. We don’t have hot water so we take cold showers but its ok
I’m just glad we have running water, well short of the water runs out
pretty fast when you’re taking a shower it randomly runs out so
you have to wait a couple min. before you get more.
There are stray dogs everywhere here. I mean EVERYWHERE! I don’t touch
them but my comp does, I’m pretty sure they have flees and some of
them look like their all but dead so it’s a little sad. I just hope
they stay on the street and not my plate.... I’ve already been asked if
i like grasshoppers and not knowing what they asked i said yes. Then
my comp told me what they just asked, next time i eat at that
members house they said i could have some. The houses here are super
small and made of tin but i wrote about them in the letter so i won’t
talk about them in this e-mail right now.
I’m starting to realize the MTC wasn’t too bad. I already miss the food.
There have been a couple things i have eaten that weren’t very good but i
ate it so they wouldn’t feel bad. I just take a bite and then hurry and
drink water so i can’t taste it. I also miss the hot showers and good
water but oh well.
Elder M and i have been pretty busy here. I was told that the
missionaries that were here before E Martinez were lazy and didn’t do
anything so were starting from scratch. We did challenge a lady to
baptism last night so that was awesome! And we have contacted some
others who are interested so it’s cool.
OH my second day we were working Elder M. showed me something really cool! I
talk about it in the letter but ill we climb a hill every day and
after we taught some people he took me to the top and said turn
around, and on the next ridge over there were some pretty sweet
ruins! I wanted to take a picture so bad but E M. told me to leave my
camera that day because we were going to a pretty shady place but it
was super cool!
I’m about out of stuff to say but I’m doing well. It’s a little warm here
but its ok, my feet hurt from walking so much but I’ll get used to it
so it’s all good. I better go so i can send some pics.
love you all. You’re all in my prayers!
but before I forget let me answer some of your questions. Dad I got the
dear elder on Saturday so it worked! My comps name is E. Martinez.
He was born somewhere in mexico, I think by mexico city. He lived
in Utah for nine years so he speaks english but with a pretty heavy
accent. My area is called Cosijueza and the street i live on is
Mission de Sla Cruz so you’ll have to see if it’s on google. It’s pretty
crazy, I’m definitely not use to living in a big city. There are a lot of
drunk and homeless people here. The other day i saw a pretty
good fight between two little Oaxaca’s. One dude took a punch right to
the face! It was pretty intense because I thought he was going to pull
a gun out. I have no idea what he was saying but you could tell he was
pretty upset.
I wrote a letter and sent it on Saturday so look out for that. It cost
about a dollar to send.
I took some pics when I was flying-landing in Mexico City so let me
tell you, it’s a pretty big city! There were houses as far as you could
see. So it makes since why there are so many missions there.
The people here don’t really know how to drive... I guess the only rule
here is not talking on the cell phone. They don’t have very many stop
lights, mainly speed bumps, but after they go over that it’s like a
contest to see who can get from 0-60 the fastest haha it’s kind of funny
but scary at the same time. I took a taxi the other day and it was..
well let’s just say interesting.
After we got here we stayed the night in the mission home which was
pretty nice except the spiders, in the MTC i only killed one spider
the whole time i was there. Here i killed a spider within an hour of
being here so I’ll have to get used to that. The next day we meet
our comps and went to our areas. My house is alright. I’m told its one
of the nicer ones. We have had a lot of water problems the whole time I’ve
been here. We don’t have hot water so we take cold showers but its ok
I’m just glad we have running water, well short of the water runs out
pretty fast when you’re taking a shower it randomly runs out so
you have to wait a couple min. before you get more.
There are stray dogs everywhere here. I mean EVERYWHERE! I don’t touch
them but my comp does, I’m pretty sure they have flees and some of
them look like their all but dead so it’s a little sad. I just hope
they stay on the street and not my plate.... I’ve already been asked if
i like grasshoppers and not knowing what they asked i said yes. Then
my comp told me what they just asked, next time i eat at that
members house they said i could have some. The houses here are super
small and made of tin but i wrote about them in the letter so i won’t
talk about them in this e-mail right now.
I’m starting to realize the MTC wasn’t too bad. I already miss the food.
There have been a couple things i have eaten that weren’t very good but i
ate it so they wouldn’t feel bad. I just take a bite and then hurry and
drink water so i can’t taste it. I also miss the hot showers and good
water but oh well.
Elder M and i have been pretty busy here. I was told that the
missionaries that were here before E Martinez were lazy and didn’t do
anything so were starting from scratch. We did challenge a lady to
baptism last night so that was awesome! And we have contacted some
others who are interested so it’s cool.
OH my second day we were working Elder M. showed me something really cool! I
talk about it in the letter but ill we climb a hill every day and
after we taught some people he took me to the top and said turn
around, and on the next ridge over there were some pretty sweet
ruins! I wanted to take a picture so bad but E M. told me to leave my
camera that day because we were going to a pretty shady place but it
was super cool!
I’m about out of stuff to say but I’m doing well. It’s a little warm here
but its ok, my feet hurt from walking so much but I’ll get used to it
so it’s all good. I better go so i can send some pics.
love you all. You’re all in my prayers!
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Jake Arrives to Oaxaca Mexico Mission
Hey family I only have a couple min. to write to let you know I’m ok and that everything is ok. I’m in my area right now and it’s hot ha I have a lot to tell you but only a couple min. so it will have to wait until Monday which is my new p day. I’m ok. I tried calling at the airport in mexico but the phones only took special cards and that’s it, sorry but I have to go I guess were going to go meet someone but I don’t really know because I have no clue what people are saying …..jake
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
ohhhhhh man I don’t even know what to say right now.... dad your right it’s probably a good thing that me and Jeff weren’t there because I probably wouldn’t have been very nice to him.. I know, I know not what a missionary should say but I’m still bitter about the whole thing and I’m sure Jeff is to. Dad you are a great example, and I’m super glad Cory gave him a hard time ha-ha I’m laughing right now as I write because I can totally see Corey being funny and I’m trying to picture what he all said to him tell Cory thanks. I’m glad he told him who he was. That guy thinks he has WAY too much power in his little job. All I can say one day he’ll be judged for his works... ha-ha I’ll work on trying to forgive him. It’s tough to forgive someone who has dealt wrong with you when you honestly didn’t think or know you were doing something wrong and just takes advantage of his power. Kind of reminds me of something Satan would do... I know I need to forgive him and I know the savior wants me to forgive him also so I’ll try. Other than that form the pics it looks like it was way fun! I hope everyone liked it and tell Ray Ray to man up ha-ha. I also got the pic of cure and Gracie that was awesome! I wasn’t surprised when I saw cure with a band ‘aid on his head ha-ha must be the same crazy Crue. Also I got the pic of Jc and her date..... still crazy! I hope she had fun though have her tell me about it. And dad I’m soooo sorry about your back but I just want to say YOUR A MAN! I don’t know of anyone else who would put up with that pain as long as you have. I’ve been praying that it would get better so I’m glad that you’re going to get it fixed! and I hope that everything goes good in the surgery. I’m going to the temple in a little bit so ill make sure I put everyone’s names down again. I do it every week. It sounds like everything is going good at home. It’s still warm down here but it’s ok.
I do have some bad news... we still haven’t got out travel plans which means we don’t have our Visa either...... we went and talked to the travel people and they said that if there not here by Wed. That we would be staying here until we get them. NOT what I wanted to hear! I’m tempted to tell them to reassign me to SLC until it comes. IM GOING CRAZY IN THIS PLACE! I want to go to Mexico. I was talking to a kid whose grandpa lives in Oaxaca so he goes down there every summer and he was SO excited for us when we told him where we were going nothing but good news so I’m super excited. I just want you to all know how much I love you all. Every one of you is in my prayers at night. Jc and mom I miss "making" you make me food. Especily in the morning. I wish I could text mom and say "food" ha-ha but I’m soo happy I’m here right now. It’s made me want to learn as much as I can when I get home. I’m out of time but I hope all is well and I hope I get my VISIA, but if not it’s ok. Sometimes when things don’t go to plan we need to step back and ask ourselves "what is the lord trying to teach me?" I know that if my visa doesn’t come for a while that the lord wants me to learn something. I also know that he won’t give us any burdon that we can’t handle. I’m out of time but once again I love you all. Everyone be safe, and dad I hope your back will get better!
Until next time, EL Hope
I do have some bad news... we still haven’t got out travel plans which means we don’t have our Visa either...... we went and talked to the travel people and they said that if there not here by Wed. That we would be staying here until we get them. NOT what I wanted to hear! I’m tempted to tell them to reassign me to SLC until it comes. IM GOING CRAZY IN THIS PLACE! I want to go to Mexico. I was talking to a kid whose grandpa lives in Oaxaca so he goes down there every summer and he was SO excited for us when we told him where we were going nothing but good news so I’m super excited. I just want you to all know how much I love you all. Every one of you is in my prayers at night. Jc and mom I miss "making" you make me food. Especily in the morning. I wish I could text mom and say "food" ha-ha but I’m soo happy I’m here right now. It’s made me want to learn as much as I can when I get home. I’m out of time but I hope all is well and I hope I get my VISIA, but if not it’s ok. Sometimes when things don’t go to plan we need to step back and ask ourselves "what is the lord trying to teach me?" I know that if my visa doesn’t come for a while that the lord wants me to learn something. I also know that he won’t give us any burdon that we can’t handle. I’m out of time but once again I love you all. Everyone be safe, and dad I hope your back will get better!
Until next time, EL Hope
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