Yo Que onda?
   Hey what’s happen family? Well I better start off by thanking you all for your prayers for Angel because they were answered! That's right this week Angel entered into the waters of baptism and it was awesome. I’ll tell you his story here in a bit. Today has been a busy day. We actually woke up early today and headed over to Angels house to help him out a little more building some fences around his corn fields to keep the deer out. Afterwards he gave us some breakfast. We ate Mino-tacos (I think that's how you spell Minos). It was pretty sweet I wish I would have taken you all some pics. But it was basically fried little Minos that he caught in the river. To be honest they weren't too bad. 

   Alright I better tell you all about Angel. I think I have told you all about him before but I’ll tell a little more. So about a couple months ago Angel was walking out to his house late one night (he lives about 30 mins away from the city on foot) when he was jumped, and then beaten. He was stabbed slash cut with a nail. I know it sounds weird but I guess these people put basically welded a nail to a little piece of pipe and stabbed him with it. It’s a pretty popular weapon here. And to make things worse they usually dip the tip in poison. Angel was cut from the front part of his waist all the way across his body to his back (I have seen it and its crazy long and ugly). Somehow he survived all that and a couple days later some members brought my comp over to his house to give him a blessing. Afterwards they started to teach him. When I got her he had listened to a couple of the lessons and had gone to church my first week here. Long story short we keep teaching him and teaching him until one day he said something pretty interesting. He told us he knew the blessing had made him heal faster than normal and even the doctors were surprised on how fast he was healing. He then told us "I know if I get baptized I will heal even faster". We then taught him about baptism and he accepted a date. Well as you all know he was baptized and yesterday was confirmed. He’s a really cool guy and has been through a lot with what happened. They could give him stitches because he’s diabetic or something like that so his cut has healed all by its self. When I saw his cut I was really surprised on how it had healed so fast. It has also been a testimony to me about the priesthood blessings. 

   We have had quite a bit of success here in Ixtepec. I know that we have relieved a lot of help in doing so. There is no way we could have done it without the spirit. I also have leaned that god really does prepare his children to receive the gospel and that the people here in Ixtepec are ready. I have really enjoyed working her in this area. It’s a little hard living with two other elders at times, the house is pretty messy and its super hard to keep clean from everyone walking in and out. We also have a cat that is always trying to sneak in and eat our food. I’m told that the other elders used to feed it. They also let it give birth to its kittens in our house...... I have pretty mixed feelings about that ha-ha. So Becky if you want another cat you can totally have this one because I don’t want it. 

 Well once again I have to go but I want you all to know how much I love you all and how grateful I am to have you as my family and Friends.

Love E. Hope

Hola!

 

   Alright I have some really sweet news for you guys. The other day we had a multi-zone conference here in Juchitan for all the areas and zones. It was really sweet not going to lie, I loved it. I learned a ton! President did a really good job and he basically let us ask a bunch of questions about rules and a whole lot of other things. It really got me excited again about the work. The other cool part about it was that I was able to see a lot of my friends I have made here in the mish and also some of my old comps, actually like 5 of them haha it was really fun to get to talk with them a bit and see how they have been doing. Actually one of my comps E. Juarez is going to be going home here in a couple more weeks so thats super weird to me but he seems happy and excited. 

   But here comes the best part about it, there was an elder there at the conference that was in my first area Cosijueza. He came up to my and we started to talk a bit. I asked him how things went back there for him and asked if he had seen Eddi (my first convert). He then told me thats hes doing great and IS GOING ON A MISSION! It pretty sweet and i was really really excited for him. Hes heading to Chilli and leaves in November. Hes going to make for a sweet missionary and once again Im super excited for him. I just thought it was super cool when I heard that and its cool to think how many people he will teach and the lives he will change as he teaches the people in Chilli. Im grateful that I was able to be a part of that process.

   Also Yodo and Harvy were confirmed this week which was really good. Like I said their family/parents are members but less active so it has been really fun to see them come back to the straight and narrow. Its also cool that they are now members and one day can go to the temple as a family. It has been fun to see their progression together as a family. This sunday I also gave another talk in church. My comp Elder Pack talked about the Book of Mormon and I talked about a talk that elder Anderson gave called What thinks Christ of me? I feel that it went well. This week has been pretty crazy here because the 15th was Independence day here in Mexico so there has been a lot of parties and a lot of drunks. Also there having their "fair" here for the next week so Im sure this week will be a little harder in the way that everyone will be out and about which will make it hard to find our invest. but i guess well get some contacts out of it. Its still pretty hot out here and we ended up buying a couple hats a while ago but we dont use they to much because it doesn't really help and they look ridiculous so we usually just leave them at the house. Were teaching a really cool guy named Angel right now who has a baptism date set for for this Saturday so pray for him! Hes had a pretty hard life.

   Well thats all i got for this week, once again I just wanted to let you all know how much I love you. Im also grateful now for the weather in Idaho haha and Right now i miss the snow but oh well. I know I have said this before ad Ill probably say it again but we are so lucky to live where we live and have what we have, especially the gospel. I know its true and i know it changes people lifes for the better. I love you all and until next week,

 Elder Hope!

Well what a good week! First I’ll start of by telling you all about the baptism that we had this week. Their names are Rolando and his son Jose, their mom was supposed to be baptized with them but she told us a couple days before that she didn’t feel ready to be baptized this week so were going to be working a little more with her. I really wanted them to all be baptized together but I know she will be sometime soon so I’m not too worried. The baptism went really good! We had to go to a church that isn’t too far away to do the service; we had a pretty good turnout member wise. The room was full and I know Rolando and Jose were able to feel the spirit and the support from the members. Sandra really likes the baptism and like I said I’m sure she will soon be baptized also. Jose is 9 years old and he’s a pretty funny kid ha-ha he told us a couple weeks ago that he wants to be a missionary like me and my comp one day. The first day I got here to Ixtepec we went and visited Rolando and his family. I think I have kind of told you the story about them but we taught them about baptism and after I felt like we should put a baptism date so we did! Rolando was pretty hesitant at first and wanted to wait a couple months but we kindly "planted" him in which we shared a Scripture with him about not postponing repentance. We also had a new convert with us who shared a pretty powerful testimony about the book of Mormon which helped a ton. After talking to him for a couple mins more he accepted. Rolando and his family are really good people and they will be good leaders and members of the church. 

   The other day we woke up at 6 and walked down a dirt road for 30mins in the dark to get to one of our investigators who lives out in the middle of nowhere to help him out a little bit in his corn field. His name is Angel. A couple months ago he was walking at night when he was jumped by some people who robbed him and then cut him pretty good. He needed help building a fence in his field to help keep cows and all that stuff from smashing his corn and since he’s still healing from his accident we went over to help. It actually turned out really well; we dug about 13 whole posts and then cut down trees with a machete for the post. The only bad this was that there was a ton of ants and thorns on these trees and I ended up getting bit a couple times. Not going to lie it HURT. I’m not sure what kind of ants they were but they sting like wasp so that wasn't to fun ha-ha but I survived. We also found some type of fish that lives in mud; I sent you a pic of it so you should see what I mean. Angel told me they taste really good but I’ll just take his word for it. He also invited me to go hunting Iguana and armadillo with him but I’ll have to see if president will let me first. It does sound fun though. 

   Well like I said last week today we had changes but I and elder pack are both going to be staying here again in Ixtepec. I’m pretty excited he’s a good kid and we work well together. I really like it because when I get food that I can’t eat he helps me out so it’s a pretty good blessing. Well I had better go but I’m doing alright. I just wanted to let you all know that I’m loving the mission. It is defiantly the best thing any young man can do in his life. I have learned so much and have grown to love the Gospel with all my heart. I know it’s true I know it changes peoples life’s and I know that through our savior Jesus Christ we call all return to live with our heavenly father again. That knowledge really does feel my heart with peace and hope. I love you all and I know that I have the best family ever! I hope you all have a good time at the fair and that everything goes well for you throughout the week. I’ll talk to you soon. 

Love your son,

           JAKE