HEY!

    What’s up family? Like Dad said it was really good getting to talk to you guys the other week and I really enjoyed it. It was also good getting to hear every ones voice and like you said it had been awhile since I had spoken to josh so it was really good to finally get to talk to him after two years. It sounds like you all have some pretty fun plans for this upcoming year so that’s good! I can’t believe this year has already come and gone. It went by really fast! 

    Well to be honest this week was a little slower than normal. A lot of our investigators were out of town for the holidays so we had a lot of down time but we made the best of it. We were able to find a couple families to teach, a family of 4 and another family of six, five of which can be baptized so we’re seeing some blessings. We have actually talked to the family a couple times and the dad seems pretty interested which is sweet because it’s usually the other way around in which the dad never wants anything so it’s a blessing. He also told us that his son loves the folleto we left with them to read and that he almost has it memorized! I really hope all goes well for them and that they will continue progressing. You’ll have to pray for them.  

   I do have some great news, we have been teaching a person named Lalo (not sure if I have ever told you about him or not) but this last Saturday he was baptized! Lalo is 18 years old and we met him through his brother Pedro who is a recent convert. There both really good people and we have been working with them a lot these past few months. Lalo likes the church and has a good testimony that its true but his mom is very catholic and didn’t support him at all in his decision to be baptized (little does she know we’re going to baptize her next!) jk ha-ha but it really would be cool if she would listen to us and join her sons in the true church. The baptism went smooth without any problems so that was also a big blessing. It was a really good experience and I’m glad I was a part of it. 

   Also Like I said this Sunday well have changes so well have to wait to see what happens. I think I will stay here for another change which is alright but I’ll be ready to go after ha-ha but who knows well see what happens. Well for the most part that’s what happened. For new year’s its about 100% sure we`ll just keep working, we might get to go home early because people here like to shot their guns in the air and a lot of members have told us to go home early so we will also see what happens this week ha but I just want to let you all know how much I love you guys. Thanks so much for the support and I hope you have a great week!

Love Elder Hope!

Congrats!

   Well congrats Jeff and Becky! Dad told me the good news! thats sweet that the Hope family is growing. Well before I forget I had better pass you the number to the church here in Pino, 019545435354 Im not sure if that includes the extension or not but Im going to be calling home on the 25th so i hope that works for you all. I was thinking about calling you guys 5 o'clock MY time, I dont remember if your an hour ahead of me or behind but keep that in mind 5 PM MY TIME. I should be able to write you a small little letter monday to let you know if the plans change. FYI there going to be really strict on the 40 min time limit this year so have the questions ready and I will do my best to answer them all. Also I got the other package that you sent me so Im really excited to see whats in them! The Dyer Family also sent me a package which was really nice of them so if you see them tell them thanks.

  Also Josh I didnt forget about you but I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! man, your really getting OLD jk bro love you. Dad I hope thats you in the santa clause uniform or I'm gonna have to kick santas but for kissing my mom! ha-ha  I also got the pic of Josh and all of his old friends back together, they all still look like the same punks I knew in high school ha-ha. 

   Thats good to hear that Jim is doing better and that he was able to go to Church, I hope he keeps improving. I would tell you all what I have been up to but I thought I would wait until I can tell you over the Phone. Today we did play a little soccer which was pretty fun. Also the Christmas "party" that we had was pretty fun and I was pretty surprised! it was really good to see a pic of all the family together and I got a pretty good laugh at the pic you sent of the family a while back. For the most part thats about all I have, Im really excited to be able to talk to you all this Christmas and I hope you all have a good week and that you all travel safely throughout the week. If I forgot anything that you need to know about calling let me know and I will answer next monday. I love you and and Ill talk to you soon!!!!

Love Jake!

Hey!

   Hey family how’s everything going? It seems like this week has flown by! I guess I’ll give you a little run down on what been going on. This week I went to Cuaji to do divisions with the elders over there in Guerreo. It went really well and I was able to learn a lot from Elder Gomez. He’s from Chiapas and is a really humble guy, he’s the only member in his family and no one in his family has email accounts so he hasn’t spoke with them since mother’s day. He’s given up a lot to serve on a mission and like I said I learned a lot from him. It was a little bit of a problem to get to his area because there were some people that were on riot and tried to close off the roads but after waiting for a while we were able to get there. After we got home we cracked open a couple coconuts and drank some agua de coco. I’ll try to send you a pic. 

   The other day I and my comp had a pretty interesting experience. We went to talk with a new member and while we were talking to him some guy came up and tried to contend with us. Long story short he was a preacher from a church called testigos de Jesus and he was not a very nice guy. We talked to him for a little bit but he didn’t really want to learn so we just sat there and listed to him read a couple Scriptures from the bible. He’s really confused and I hope one day he will find the truth or at least understand what he’s reading. Actually this week has been really weird, a lot of people have been asking us a lot of weird questions and trying to argue with us. Just last night someone asked us if Adam and Eve had belly buttons and then tried to argue with us about evaluation. But oh well.

   This week on Wed we will be going to Puerto Escondido’s again for our Christmas party. It should be pretty fun all I know is that President is going to talk a little and then were going to eat and play games so it sound be pretty fun. I’ll let you know how it goes. Also I’m working on a place of where I will be calling this Christmas. Probably in our church. They say we can call home the 23 24 25 so I’m not sure what day you want to talk, I was thinking the 24 but let me know what day is best for you guys. I’ll try to get the number to you as soon as possible. Well I know this is a super lame letter but my mind is blank right now so I’m sorry. I also feel like this letter doesn’t make any sense so forgive me but I’ll talk to you all soon.

You’re in my prayers daily, love Jake. 

Family,

   What up family? How’s everyone doing? To answer your question I am doing a lot better than I was last week. I pretty sure what I had was a stomach infection and also an intestine infection which is caused by the food so I’m not too sure what I ate that made me so sick but I’m glad that it is over. 

    This has been a pretty good week. The zone leaders and I had divisions and it went really good. I was able to learn a lot and I hope I will be able to apply all that I learned so that I can become a better missionary. Also speaking of divisions tomorrow I will be heading to Cuajiniwilapa again to do divisions with the elders over there. So once again I Will be leaving Oaxaca to go to a different state for a day. The good thing about it is that it’s only an hour bus ride away from Pino.... ha. 

   Oh and before I forget, I got the package you guys sent me. It’s been hard not to open it but I’m going to wait until Christmas that way I will have at least some presents ha-ha. I did open the rain deer that you sent though and that was sweet the only bad thing is that I live with 4 other elders and they ate all the "deer poop" so now it’s just on my desk helping me get into the Christmas mood (it doesn’t feel like Christmas when it’s hot outside). 

   That’s sweet that you guys went to dills reception I’m sure it was pretty neat. I’m pretty sure the kid that sat and talked to you was a kid named Chris and yes we used to go lift at sugar together. That’s crazy that he’s getting married also. I also can’t believe that JC went snowboarding. I think I’m really starting to miss the snow but it’s all good I’m sure it will be there next year. 

   This week we were able to find a pretty cool investigator named Mario. He was a contact and right off the bat he seemed like a really nice guy. The other day we taught his a lesson and we asked him what he thought about baptism. He then told us that he was baptized twice before. After explaining to him about the priesthood and the importance of being baptized in the true church he told us he was willing to be baptized again! He’s a really good guy and I look forward to working with him some more. 

Well I know this is a boring letter but I’m going to try to send you some pics so I hope you get them. About Christmas I’ll be looking for a place in which we can call you guys and I’ll try to let you know what will work 

Well I hope you all have a good week, I love each and every one of you so much!  You’re always in my prayers!

Con Amor Elder Hope!

Family,

 Well week has gone by fast. We also had changes and well I’m staying here with my comp Elder Lopez again. I’m pretty excited and I’m sure I will learn a lot from him. This was a pretty good week with a lot of ups and downs. I guess I’ll start off with the good news first. Saturday we had a baptism! His name is Emanuel and he’s a young  kind about 7 years old.... jk ha-ha he’s 11 almost 12. Just about everyone in Emanuel’s family are members but were in active. When I and my comp got here we found their names on a paper and decided to go over and see what’s up. So we did and we found Emanuel in the process. We have worked a lot with the family to get the reactivated in the church and they have been coming faithfully for several weeks. Emanuel is a really smart kid and had a lot of questions that we were able to answer. He was really excited for his baptism. The baptism service went smooth without any problems so that was a huge blessing from above. 

 On the other hand I felt horribly sick this week! I still don’t feel too good right now but I’m getting better. It all started Friday afternoon. Long story short it got to the point where I had to go home and have my comp give me a blessing. I had a really bad fever, head ach, and body aches. It wasn’t fun at all. After my comp gave me the blessing I laid in bed for a couple hours with a wet towel on my head to try to keep cool. We went to the doc Friday night but they turned me away from a checkup because they said it was too late. Luckily they did give me some pills to take which helped a lot. Friday night I threw up a couple times and didn’t sleep at all. Saturday I spent all day I’m my bed resting until 630 when we went to our baptism. But it’s all good I’m just glad that the baptism went well and that Emanuel was happy. It was also my comps first baptism so I’m happy for him. 

   Thanks so much for all the pics that you sent me I really enjoyed seeing all of them. Also you’ll have to tell Dillon congrats for me! I know that this letter is going to be short and probably boring but I have to send some things to the office so I had better go. But don’t worry I’m doing well and I’m enjoying the mission also I will get to talk to you all soon since Christmas is only a few weeks away!!! But until next week,

Love E. Hope 

Que Onda?

   Yo what’s up family! Wow what a good week. It’s good to hear that Jim is doing better and I hope that everyone has a good Thanksgiving, I’m about 100 % sure we will just work that day like we did last year so everyone eat a little for me! That’s sweet to hear that the football team took state! good for them and tell CJ congrats! Tell josh I want to see the deer that Jody shot this year and also to be careful hunting, I just heard the other day that an elder in our zones brother died in a hunting accident so BE CAREFULL! 

   So much went down and I would like to tell you everything I did but I’ll probably forget something cool or won’t have time but I’ll try anyways. Saturday I went to Puerto Escondido’s again for a meeting with all the DLS AND ZLS with Pres the assistants. All I have to say is that the mission is changing like CRAZY! The short version is that they basically don't want us to have to knock doors anymore! Actually there are nine missions here in Mexico where they don’t ever knock doors and they have more success then us ha-ha! the plan for the mission is that we will work more with the members and that the members will step up and support the missionary program here in Mexico so all we will have to do as missionaries is teach. It’s going to include a lot of work but I’m supper excited to be a part of all the changes. So Saturday we spent just about all day there. On the way back president gave us a ride back to Pinotepa which is a 3 hour drive from Puerto. I learned that pres is a crazy driver that day, we made the drive in trip in less than 3 hours, hit a couple topes (random speed bumps they have in the roads here) and almost took out a huge Iguana that was crossing the road. It was a sweet trip and I learned a ton.

   Sunday was sweet also because we had a district conference with all the little branches here including Cuajiniuilapa, Huaxsolo and Huaxaltepec. We filled the building with 27 investigators! It was awesome; Pres Leyva and all the other members gave a super sweet talk and filled the building with the spirit. Pres Leyva spoke about tithing and fast offerings and did a fantastic job. He’s such a smart guy and I love listing to him speak. We had a sweet Investigator come named Susana come even though so was so sick she could barely walk. She said she felt horrible but really enjoyed the talks and even though she was sick she knew she had to go to church. Also ever since I got here we have been visiting with a less active member named Marilena, I must say I was pretty happy when she walked in and sat behind us. She too also loved the talks that were given. It was a supper good week and It went by way to fast, this is also the last week of the change so we will have changes this week but I’m sure I will stay here... at least I think so! But I had better go once again I love you all so much and I hope you all have a good week! Take care and know that you are all in my prayers!

Con Amor ELDER HOPE!

AKA Buscavidas!

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