He made it

Hey everybody! I'm in Mexico! I've been here for about a week now. It has definitely been a big culture shock, and it turns out I don't know Spanish very well ha. I am in a city called Techeacan about two hours away from the city of Puebla. The first couple days, I'm not going to lie, I didn't like it. First, because my bags got lost on the way here, so i couldn't really get moved in  until  couple days after I got here. I felt all out of place and plus I couldn't understand anyone! I was feeling that same homesick feeling I first felt when I left on my mission. I started to get more comfortable after a couple days though. I just had to keep praying for peace and comfort, and let myself just relax. It turns out this place isn't that different from home after all. People are just speaking a different language! There are things that are pretty different of course, but for the most part people live normal everyday lives and do normal everyday things!

 

My companion is awesome, and I really admire him for what he has to put up with. This is his first time training, or even as a senior companion. He speaks a  little English so we can communicate around the apartment, but if we have to go do anything or teach, he's pretty much on his own because I can't speak the language yet! And to make it worse, we're opening a  new area. So he hasn't been here before and neither have I. I would say we get lost at least once day ha. The other night our one investigator didn't show up for our lesson,which was pretty disappointing. We came home and I could tell he was super frustrated, and so was I. So I busted out a  mini ping pong table Eli had sent me, turned on some music, and we just blew off some steam for a  bit. Oh ya, his name is elder Betts

 

I did have one cool experience last night. Usually in lessons I can't understand much, and  i saw very little if anything. Well last night we visited one of our investigators, just to drop something off. Well he invited us in and elder Betts started talking to him. As usual i couldn't understand anything. I sat in silence for a good 40 minutes trying not zone out, and at least try to comprehend something so I could give input I could tell something was wrong, but I didn't know what. Then I caught one phrase. Something along the lines of "i want to change, but its not possible." I intervened. i had his attention, and my heart was pounding. He was looking right t me, waiting for me to say something. I said (or at least tried in my broken Spanish) "I don't exactly know what's going on, but I know that Jesus Christ lives and through him we can do anything."I then shared a scripture from ether in the book of Mormon on faith, and continued to testify that God loves us and can work miracles in our lives if we have faith. Than my companion took over again. Later, we showed him how to pray, and he offered the closing prayer for us. It was awesome. I don't know if he understood what I was trying to say, but I know he felt and understood  the spirit, and that's all that matters. His name is Romario, hopefully things workout so that we can continue to help him.

 

Here is my address for Mexico.

 

Mexico Puebla South Mission

31 Poniente #109 Int. 201

Col. Chul Vista

72420 Puebla, Puebla

Mexico

 

Hope everybody has a good week!

Finally on his way to MEXICO

Tara posted:
 
Just talked to Jake and he is at the airport. He gets into Puebla at 9:30 pm, he is flying first class. He will email the mission home address when he has access to a computer. He sounds good...

Christmas 2012!

Jacob was able to Face Time with the family on Christmas day. Only problem was we couldn't see Jacob, it was not working on his end. He was able to see us though, which probably is more important! He says he that he is doing great but is ready to go to Mexico.

Updated Mission Address

 The updated mission address Jake sent me today is: 3975 McLaughlin ave suite A San Jose, Ca 95121.

Visa Issues....

Jake is calling me tomorrow. He is going stateside until his visa gets in. Don't know what time he is calling but I will post where he is going! 

 

 

He Called.....

 

Just talked to Jake he sounds great. I only got 5 minutes yet he is going to San Jose, ca Spanish speaking. Leaves wed Dec 5th at 5am. He gets to email on Tuesday Dec 4th. He is not sure how long he will be in CA, yet thinks no longer than 6 weeks. Elder Rugg is going to Chicago, ( all visa's to Mexico are slow right now). He loves everyone! 

 

 

 

 

Some Things Never Change :)

When he was home, I received random requests because I was the "capable" one. It appears some things never change!! It's good to know he is doing well though!


Sam! Sorry I didn't email last week, Don't know why! That's great that you've finally got a date for getting married! Spanish is pretty good:) It's gonna be rough for a month or two, but I got it!I miss you and love you guys! Let everyone know!
Jacob.

P.s. Because I know you have certain capabilities others don't in the family, do you think you could do me a favor. Could you send me some type of cd player that doesn't use headphones? I'm not allowed to have headphones. Could you burn me a CD too?

Here's a couple songs (They have to be church or at least good spirited)
-"Seasons of time" From the play rent. The Stevie wonder addition if you can.
-"Be a man" Mulan soundtrack
-"Army of heleman/sisters in zion melody" Church song
-"Poor wayfaring man of grief" another church song, don't really care what artist.
-"I won't say I'm in love" Hercules soundtrack
-"If you could hie to kolob" church song
-"The spirit of god" Church song.

And idk whatever else you can find. If you can't I can understand! I'm only here for 12 more days! Okay, love you! thanks!

Hi everybody! How is everybody doing? (I don't fully know who "everybody" encompasses, because I don't know who all reads the blog) But every week I think I'm going to start sending group messages to be posted on there. They're going to be relatively short for the next couple weeks while I'm in the MTC because I have limited email time here, but once I'm actually out in the field they will be longer. My time here in the MTC has been very interesting to say the least, and it continues to be more and more interesting. I have basically no connection to the outside world, I sit in the same classroom for hours every day, and the only books I have to read are the scriptures. Sounds pretty boring right? Well, and I think the rest of the kids in my district would attest to this, I have never been this happy! I don't have bad days in the MTC, ever! Theres bad moments from time to time sure, but those are almost immediately replaced with an amazing moment. Even the first 4-5 days when I was like super depressed, I was super happy! I would say that I can't explain it , but I can. The spirit here is unlike anywhere I have ever been. Every one here is constantly, everyday trying to become more like Christ. I've seen elders in here that I thought were the biggest jokes that really had no business being on missions, completely change in these last six weeks into full blown missionaries. The spirit has that type of power, that it can completely change a man. I've never felt this close to my heavenly father before, and I know that that connection is only going to increase. If you don't have a connection with your Heavenly Father right now, or you know it should be stronger, go ahead and kneel down tonight and make that connection. It doesn't have to be very long or profound, just make it sincere. God wants to hear from us, he wants us to talk to him. I can testify that when we earnestly and sincerely pray, we truly are connecting with heaven. I've felt and seen it over and over again in my life, especially here in the MTC. I love you guys, and hope that You're all doing well. Until next week!