WOW!

   It sounds like a ton of stuff has been going on back at home! I hope that everyone is doing good and being safe. I did hear that Pres Obama won again so that's interesting...... ha. 

   Well this was a pretty good week. Like I said last week I went to Oaxaca and the trip went well. I was pretty tired when I got home but it was worth it and let me tell you why. When we were in Oaxaca we went and filled out all the papers and then we had some extra time before we had to get on another bus to head "home". we talked to president a little bit and he gave me Elder Graves permission to go to the temple and attend a session so we went. You wouldn't believe who I saw there..... As I was walking out I say EDDI my first convert!! It was super cool and really exciting. I had no idea that he was going to be there. IT WAS SUPER COOL TO GET TO TALK TO HIM A LITTLE BIT. He seemed a little nervous; it was his last week before he leaves on his mission. I was able to give him my email so that we will be able to keep in touch. When I got back to the offices I told President what happened and he was super happy for me. I love President Leyva he’s such a good guy and I can really tell that he loves each and every one of the missionary's like his own child. All in all it was a pretty sweet trip and I was super excited to talk to Eddie once before he left and congratulate. I will never forget it.

   On the other hand there have been a lot of little earthquakes here the past few weeks. The other day we were in the church and everything started to shake pretty well. Everyone here says that the world is going to end. What are the people saying back at home?

   My comp has been teaching piano classes every Saturday here in the church. In fact he was asked to play yesterday in another ward so that they could do their primary program. He really likes to play and I could tell he has a good time teaching piano. Oh I also got the package you sent me and that was awesome! I have loved eating the candy, drinks (I love the drinks they send me on a memory trip back home of me eating breakfast on the couch upstairs before I would go to school so I love it ha-ha)  I have to fight the other three elders that I live with to keep them away from the peanut butter ha-ha its worth more that gold here. 

   So many things have gone on that I would love to tell you all about but I just don’t have time! I’m keeping a pretty good journal so that when I get home I can share more stories with you all. I had better get going once again but thanks so much for all the support! I love hearing from you all every about what’s going on back at home. I hope that everything will go good for you all throughout the week and that you will all be safe! I pray for you nightly,

Con Amor, ELDER HOPE

YO!

   What’s up family sounds like it has been a pretty eventful week back at home, I hope that Jim is doing well and that he will be able to recover, tell grandma and them I say hi. That’s sweet that Madison is winning, it sounds like they have had some pretty good games so far. 

   This week was pretty sweet like I said I got to go back to Puerto this week where we had a multi zone meeting. It was super cool because we got to hear from Jose Alonzo, a 70. It was a super cool meeting and I learned a ton! The way Elder Alonzo taught was really cool. He’s a funny guy and is really good at motivating people. He spoke a lot on asking people for references and inviting them to be baptized. He also shared a lot of cool scriptures with us from the Book of Mormon and from the Bible. I wish I had time to share them with you but I don’t ha. I only hope that one day I will be able to know as much as he does when it comes to the scriptures. I wake up every morning and read from the book of Mormon on a little balcony that we have (we live in an apartment about 4 stories up) I love it because it looks over the city. It really is a pretty place here in Pinotepa. There have been a couple of little earth quakes here, I don’t have a bed frame and I sleep on the floor so I always feel the little movements of the building. 

   Hey so what’s going on over there in the states? I heard that there was a really bad hurricane that hit New York and that a lot of people have died is that true? Maybe you can send a little clipping and ill print it off next week to read. 

   I just found out that tomorrow I will be heading back to Oaxaca tomorrow night at 8 to fill out some more papers for my visa. So it looks like it will be another long night on the bus ha-ha but oh well. I’ll stay there for the day and then head back home wed night at 9pm.  I still haven’t got the package that you sent me but I’ll keep an eye out for it. Maybe when I go to the offices wed it will be there. 

   Well once again I’m pretty much out of time so I better get going, Once again I love you all so much and I hope everyone is having a good day. I’ll let you know how my trip to Oaxaca goes next week. Love you all have a good week!

Elder Hope!    

Family,

What’s up family? Wow this has been another crazy day and week. I and my comp are still working pretty hard to find some new people to teach here in Pino, we have found a couple of pretty cool people. Tomorrow I’m going to be going to a different state!!! Turns out our mission goes a little into the next state over, Guerrero so tomorrow I’m going on divisions with the elders in the area of cuaji so ill be chilling outside of Oaxaca for a day crazy huh! 

 My new comp is elder Lopez; he’s from Sonora and has about two months in the mish so I’m just finishing up the training. He’s a pretty good kid and is a really good teacher. It’s been really fun to be with someone straight from the MTC because he’s ready to work and wants to talk to everyone. We live with the Zone Leaders and there both pretty cool guys, one is named E Hollis he’s from Arizona and we get along really well. He’s also kind of teaching me how to play the guitar in our spare time. 

We found a pretty cool family this week. It actually just started off contacting. We met a lady who was really nice and let us in her house to teach a little bit. We taught about Joseph smith and the book of Mormon she accepted the lesson really well and we placed a date to come back. When we went back her husband was hanging out in this hammock reading the book of Mormon! He told us he has never seen it before and he was really excited to learn more about the church. There both really cool people and I can defiantly see them progressing in the church. 

That’s crazy how much it has snowed over there, right now I’m sweating! I wanted to go snowboarding pretty bad the other day but I know that can wait. I can’t believe that Thor is a dad of 7 ha-ha you’ll have to send me a pic of that also. As for the shoes everything is ok there still holding p pretty good. But I could use a nice razor and some extra blades. Also our mish just banned iPod touches and guess what I have an iPod touch so I’m thinking that I’ll send it home the next time I send a package. I still haven't got the last one you sent me but this week we are going back to Puerto Escondido's for a zone conference. The area president is coming to talk to us so if the package is in the office I should get it there. Thanks for keeping me informed on what’s going on at home I like to hear the news. I love you all so much but I had better get going. I hope you all have a good week and ill write again soon! 

Love Jake  

Wow these have been a crazy last two weeks, sorry about not writing last week Josh was right we had transfers and I totally forgot to tell you guys because one I was about 100 percent sure I was going to stay but Nope! Right now I’m sitting in the coast in a place called Pinotepa. It’s about 12 hours away from where I used to be. I left Sunday right after we got the calls and stayed the night in Juchitan with the L.Z. then I woke up left Juchitan at 7 and headed to my new area. I was lucky and got to stop at the coolest place here in Oaxaca it’s called Puerto Escondido I took some pics and if I have time I’ll try to send them off to you, but if not look it up on the computer it’s amazing! I was only there for a couple hours while I went and ate with some other elders. I got there about 2 pm and then I got on another bus and took a three hour ride from Puerto to Pinotepa. I found out this week that president is one of those guys that like to rip the bandage off fast because he moved me up to district leader. I’m also training my new comp E Lopez, and were re-opening our area so it’s quite a big load but I’m excited and I know that I will learn a lot here.

I’m living with 2 other elders, our LZ so that’s pretty cool. One of them is named E. Hollis. He was in etla before I was and one of his converts that I worked a lot with got sealed this week in the Temple and we both got to go! So me and E. Hollis rode on a bus from Pino to Oaxaca (WHICH IS LIKE ANOTHER 11 HOURS) over night. That day we went to the sealing and it was awesome. I actually was teaching the sister of the lady that got sealed and she told me that her sister is now baptized and with the new change in age limit for missions she is wants to go on a mission. Her name was Epifania. It was super cool because I got to see a lot of the members from Etla and talk to them a little bit. That night we got on another bus at 9pm to go back to Pino. So these last couple weeks I have been on a bus for a really long time and I have been all over Oaxaca! But I loved it.

It’s hot here in Pino, not as hot as Ixtepec but the problem is our area is all HILLS so I’m sweating like crazy here. Were about 40 mins away from the coast so it’s also a little humid. I’m still just getting used to the change. Our branch here is tinny! This Sunday there was like 35 members there in total so we hope we will be able to add a few numbers to that. I’m sorry that this letter is all over the place and I hope it all makes sense but I have better go so I can try to send some pics. I love you all so much and I love hearing what’s going on around the house and with the local sports so keep that up. I hope all is well and I hope you all have a great week. Take care and be safe.

Love Elder Hope  

Hey!

   Wow this has been a crazy week and so much has gone down so I will try to fill you in on all that has happened this week. First off I guess I will tell you about my trip to Oaxaca. Well the tables have been turned and Monday I found out that I was the illegal one! Right after I got done writing you last week I got a call from my leaders telling me that I had to go to Juchitan to catch a bus that was leaving for Oaxaca at 11 pm. so I headed to Oaxaca to sign some papers. It was pretty much just a day trip but it was cool because I got to hang out with all my old Friends for the day. We almost got to go to a Temple session but the temple was closed so president let all the elders from my generation to go out and eat together.

   Friday we had a little stake activity that went pretty well. It was pretty much an open house and inside there were members who would answer questions. It was a pretty good turnout and the elders that live with us had a baptism afterwards. It was good because a couple of our investigators were able to see how the baptism goes, Oh ya we also had interviews with president Friday morning and that went really good also.

   Saturday and Sunday we headed back over to JUCHITAN to watch Conference. We ended up staying over there for the night so that we wouldn’t spend so much money. Conference was great and I loved it! There are so many parts that I liked and I would share them with you but I just don’t have time. It was super cool because here all the wards from around Juchitan go to the stake center to watch Conference. Well it was awesome because I was able to see a lot of the members from my old area Xadani! It was super fun to get to talk to them and see how they all have been doing. I loved it. While talking to them a member came up to me and started telling me about an investigator that w were teaching when I was back in XADANI. His name was Radelio and he was an older guy that lives off fishing. He told me that the recently went over to visit with him and found out that he had fallen sick, death bed sick. They started talking and the member told me Radelio started talking about me. He said that I had told him something that he wouldn't ever forget I honestly don’t remember what I said to him but I’m sure it was something inspired by the Holy Ghost. Whatever it was I hope that he will get better.

 Well once again I had better go I’m about out of time. I just want you to all know I love you and look forward to hearing from you every Monday. I hope all is well and that you have a good week. Love Elder hope

yo!

   What up family?, wow this week has gone by really fast but at the same time it seems like it has been forever since I have written you guys. Dad when did you get the idea to put a heated cable on the roof and how does that work? I’m sure it will help though but you might not even need it if you have a winter like you did last year ha-ha. So is Thor a dad? I don't want to scare you but I had a bad dream last night that I took the Trams Am out and after almost crashing it a bunch of times it over heated on me. Hopefully that doesn't happen right. Sounds like Madison is doing rally good this year that’s awesome. That would be cool if they went to state. 

   Well this week was a little different than normal. We really didn't get a whole lot done because my comp was sick for a couple days. He had a little upset stomach with a slight fever. I kind of feel like a jerk because I made him work the first day then the second day when he passed out (he didn’t really pass out but we sat down on the side walk to take a little break and he laid down in the middle of it look at foto) Afterwards I decided to take him to the doctor because there has been an dengue epidemic breakout here and we weren't sure if he had it or not. W ended up sitting in the centro de salud (health center) for two hours which about killed me because it was hot and really uncomfortable packed into a hot room with sick people all around. I felt really bad for everyone in there also. Turns out that Pack didn’t have dengue which was good but he has a stomach infection which he probably got from something he ate. But he has some pills now and doing a lot better.

   We did however find a family of 9 the other day and I’m pretty excited to work with them some more. Also there is a little pueblo about 20 mins from here and we got permission from president to go out there and check it out so Tuesday were going to go out there with a member and see if we can’t baptize people. I hope everything goes well; we should be the first missionary's from the church to go out there so I'm excited. As for conference I am also excited. It is super cool to get to listen to a living day prophet. We’re going to be going to Juchitan which is about 45 mins away from Ixtepec to watch it. I really hope that some of our investigators will have the chance to go also a listen but it will be pretty hard for well all of them to go but we’ll keep praying for them. I’m not sure if you remember me telling you or not but right now there is a party going on here which has also made it hard to get work done. It’s been going now for like 3 weeks and there is still one more week to go. Everyone tells us to come teach them after the party's so it’s been hard to find a lot of people. We ended up contacting for a couple hours the other day. We were able to find a couple people but it was still a challenge ha-ha. Well I had better wrap this up but I just wanted to let you all know once again how much I love each and every one of you. Thanks so much for all the support and I hope everyone has a great week!

Con Amor, Elder Hope!

Ps if you haven’t already sent the package I would like a towel but one made of micro fiber. It’s just like the blanket I brought with me but smaller. If you happen to find one I would like it because it doesn’t take up any space and it’s twice as light but if not it’s ok. Thanks!

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