11/12/12
Everything here is going well. It was pretty cold and rainy for a while, but now it's hot again. I'm pretty sure I'm going to die when I get home to AZ because it doesn't get near as hot here as it is there but I still feel the heat. We baptized two people this week, and got two different couples married. It was really cool, but we were pretty busy. There are a few judges here that are friendly with the missionaries and always help us out to get people married. Instead of charging the 1500 or so pesos they only charge us 500 and they don't ask for as many documents which are sometimes hard to get. The guy we went with only asks for birth certificates and the 500 pesos. I'm pretty sure there are some under the tables dealings that he does to get the marriage certificate and everything in the system, but the important thing is that the people can get married and baptized haha. I can't believe Obama won. Peña Nieto, the guy that won the elections here is rather corrupt as well. I'm sure they are signs of the last days. As well as the hurricane or whatever it was in NY and the fact that there has been more earthquakes lately. The second coming is definitely getting closer. We had stake conference as well this past week. The stake conferences here they do by satellite transmission just like the general conferences, so we got to listen to Elder Scott and a few other general authorities. It was cool being able to listen to Elder Scott speak Spanish. They talked about the importance of the sacrament and the importance of families. I sent Dad an email last week about where my area is. It's in the state of Mexico in a city called Nezahualcoyotl. My companion is Elder Ortega from Guaymas, Sonora.  Well, I'm glad to hear everything is going well. Hopefully it all continues well. I love you so much. You are the best! Love, Elder Janda
11/5/12
 I know, it's crazy that it's already November. It's starting to get cold here. The last few days we've had some Utah weather. It's just been cloudy cold and half sprinkling haha. This week we didn't baptise anyone, but for this next week we have at least 2 people that can get baptized. We just have to get them married first haha.Well I'm glad to hear everything is going well for you guys back home. haha this week I ate fish just like that again. The fish is good, but it's frustrating because it has a ton of little bones that have to be picked out haha. I got your package this week. Thank you so much. It was awesome. I started reading that family history book you sent me and it is really cool, it's really getting me excited to go to family history work when I get home. The house looks really cool and I'm pretty sure it's going to be in a great ward. I'm pretty sure Jase Warner and Thomas Whitlock's families are in that ward. Well, I hope you have a great week. I love you and am grateful for the great help and example you have always been for me. You are the best! Love, Elder Janda
10/29/12
Sounds like you had a good week. This week has been pretty good. We baptized four people yesterday. The daughter of the lady we baptized last week as well as her three kids. It was pretty cool. We're not sure who we're gong to baptize this week, but we've got a few people that could do it. This week, I ate fish twice. It was great. On Wednesday, a member took us too a seafood restaurant and I ordered a fish and then they just brought out this huge fish with head bones and everything. It was really good. Then, on Friday, another member gave us fish to eat, and it was basically the same, the fish was just a bit smaller. Haha It was really good though. Other than that, this week has been pretty average. As soon as we get done on the internet, we're going to go with a sister in the ward that is going to teach us how to make chilaquiles and flan. I'll try to think of some things that I could use and I'll let you know next week. I love you and am so grateful for everything that you do for me and the support that you have always given me. You are the best mom ever! :) I love you and I hope you have a great week. Love, Elder Janda
10/22/12
Elder Wyman is from San Francisco, but just before he came on his mission, his family moved to Idaho. Thanks for sending the package, I'll let you know when it gets here. It'll probably be in about a month. Maybe a little less. I'm glad to hear everything is going well. That's crazy that you're going to move this month. I'm sure it'll be good though. Where's the new house at? Haha well we'll just have to make another cool backyard and use it this time. haha That's awesome that they got first in their tournament. Especially after not doing so well the last few weeks. This week for me was pretty good. Transfers were this week. We didn't get transferred, but we went to the meeting to bring the missionaries that were going to go to Elder Ottaway and Elder Wyman's area. It was cool because I got to see a lot of people that I haven't seen in a while. Like Elder Zufelt, my companion from the MTC. I also met a few missionaries from Arizona. One of them it turns out is the cousin of Thomas Whitlock. It was pretty cool. On Friday, we went and cleaned the cistern of one of our investigators, Olga. Almost all the houses here have a cistern. It's basically just a water reservoir that fills up and stores water because a lot of times there's no water. The problem is that the water that comes from the city is super dirty, so the cistern gets really dirty and has to get cleaned. It was really tiring cleaning it. Usually they would empty it out before we get there to clean it, but for some reason they didn't so we had to empty the whole thing out with buckets. It was really tiring because it's probably about 5 ft tall and between 7 and 10 ft wide and 3 or 4 ft long and it was almost completely full haha. it took us about 2 and a half hours to get it all clean and everything. Then, on Saturday, we had a stake activity where the young men came and they got paired up with two missionaries and we went out and contacted people. It was pretty cool. I got paired up with a new missionary from Peru who just barely got here this week and with a kid named Antonio who just turned 14 and just barely got baptized 3 months ago. It was fun though. After the activity, there were 5 people that got baptized from various areas in the zone. Then yesterday, we baptized Olga. It was really cool. And she told us that she has 3 grand kids that want to get baptized as well, so we're going to visit them this week and probably baptize them the next week. Well that's about all the interesting things that have been happening here. I hope everything keeps going well and that you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda
10/15/12
This week was pretty interesting. One of the missionaries in our district, Elder Ottaway, has been having some health issues and this week he went home. It seems like he has a blocked artery so he went home to go get some more tests done and then surgery to fix it. It was pretty lame, cuz he's a really cool guy. Then, his companion, Elder Wyman, finished his two years so he's going home on Wednesday, so he's been with us since Elder Ottaway went home. It's been pretty cool having him with us, but it's weird being in a trio haha. That's awesome that Tyler got baptized this week. Tell him I say congratulations! I don't remember where the practice pad is, but it's ok you can just send me the drumsticks. I've been trying to think of other things that I would like, but I couldn't think of any more stuff haha. It's alright though you can just send me whatever you want and I'll be happy :) haha. Yeah it's cool being around USA folk haha. Today we all went to KFC in honor of Elder Ottaway because he's from Kentucky and then we went to Plaza Jardín, which is a little mall that's close to me area, so that we could look for some cool ties haha. I found two ones I like one blue paisley and another gray striped one. We've started teaching English classes every week and it's really cool because we always have a lot of people show up. One time we had 40 people, but usually there's only about 20. We're going to start trying to teach it more fun though so that more people will show up. We're going to start trying to teach the pronunciation instead of focusing on grammar and all that stuff. It's fun teaching it though haha. Haha well try not to have too much fun packing and cleaning and all that fun stuff haha. I'll try my best not to be jealous :) When you pack up all my stuff, if you want, you can just leave it all in boxes and I'll unpack it when I get home. Well, I hope everything goes well and you enjoy your break. I love you so much and am so grateful that you are my mom! I love you! Elder Janda

Transferred

10/1/12
My new area is actually not very far from where I was before, but it's in the other stake. I'm in Neza and the area isn't very big, but it's bigger than Pantitlan was. My new companion is pretty cool. His name is Elder Ortega. He's the district leader. He's from Guaymas, Sonora. He's pretty cool, and we get along pretty well. In this ward there are also two other missionaries. They're both pretty cool. One is from Las Vegas and I get along with him really well. His name is Elder Holley. The other is Elder Valenzuela. We get along well, but he doesn't really talk much. I didn't get to visit a lot of people before I left last Monday, but I got to visit the people that are more important to me which was good. Today, we had a zone activity. We went and played soccer and volleyball and everything at the stake center and then after some people came and made us tacos. The only bad thing was that the people with the tacos got there late and were taking a long time, so we didn't get to eat as much as we would've liked to. We still ate a ton though. Supposedly they brought meat and everything for between 800 and 1000 tacos, and when I left it was all just about gone. There are 30 missionaries in the zone and I think a few weren't there. I'm glad to hear everything is going well at home.  I'm excited for conference this next week. Here in the mission, conference is way better. For some reason I can just focus better and get way more out of it than I could at home. Well I hope everything continues going well. I love you and I hope you have a great week. Love, Elder Janda
 9/26/12
This morning, they called me and told me that today I'm going to get transfered to another area. I don't know exactly where the area is, but it's not too far from here, it's in Nezahuacoyotl, in the Polanco ward. My ne companion is going to be Elder Ortega, I don't really know him, I've just seen him at zone meeting and such. I'm kinda sad and dissapointed because I'm going to miss the people here and because since Elder Yañez got here we've basically just been searching for new people and finally this last week we found a few, but oh well, there's not really anything I can do about it. Today we've basically just been going around saying goodbye to people. Basically for zone conferences, the whole zone, about 30 missionaries, meet in the stake center and the president and the assistants come and they all teach us how to teach better and stuff like that, the zone leaders teach too. We're usually there about 4 or 5 hours. My mission president is President Morales. He's from Tabasco which is in the south of mexico on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Well I'm sure I'll have more to tell you next week about my new companion and my new area and everything.
Saturday, we were knocking doors, and a teenager answered the door and when we asked if anyone else was home he said no, there all sleeping, the funny part was that as he was saying that, his mom walked right behind him haha. Usually the people who reject us here just lie to us or don't answer the door haha, but that's missionary work I guess haha.
I love you and am so grateful for everything that you do for me. I hope you have a great week. Love, Elder Janda
9/17/12  
I'm glad to hear everything is going well. This week was pretty much the same as the past 
week except we didn't have as much time to work. On friday and saturday we didn't really get to do much of anything. On Friday we had a zone conference, and then after that we took some investigators to a stake party because some other missionaries were going to baptize and we wanted them to see a baptism. Then Saturday was the Mexican Independence day, so we had to be home at 6. We didn't really do anything special to celebrate, except that just about everyone wanted us to go eat pozole with them. It's a type of soup that is basically what everyone here makes for special occasions. That's basically all that's going on here. Hopefully everything works out well. Tell everyone hi and that I love them. I love you. Elder Janda

I know, it's crazy how time flies. I've already been in this ward for more than 7 months. Tomorrow is the transfer, so tomorrow I get my new companion, and on Wednesday in the morning is my companion's flight. I think I'll probably be the senior companion, but we'll see tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I'll only be here one more transfer and then I'll get moved somewhere else. This week, we baptized Arturo and Andrea, which was awesome. Other than that, there's not much new going on here. Haha that's too bad that you did all that work just to have to take the truck in somewhere, but on the bright side, sounds like you got some good exercise in haha. (Mitch has truck issues, Eric and him spent all Saturday working on it with no luck. Sad day)
Oh and yesterday, I got some letters that you guys sent from the family reunion, and some letters from Brian's family. It was great reading the letters. Brian's letter was really funny. I couldn't help but laugh when I read it. It was full of sarcasm and goobiness haha. 

I hope you have a great week.  I'm gonna send some photos as soon as I finish writing everyone. Not much else is new though haha. Last week, in the district meeting, they told us that in about 4 or 5 months, we're not going to be allowed to knock doors or contact people in the street anymore. All of the work has to be done by references from members. Haha tell Kyle not to worry about what his friends think or say. Just keep the commandments and follow the Holy Ghost. Often members of the church are extreme with obeying the rules that they end up like the pharisees. Making all kinds of their own rules and not obeying ''the spirit of the law'' at all. (I love my boy, he always seems to say things in just the right way and say just what we need to hear.)  What we should always do is try to always be able to distinguish between the laws that God has given us and the rules that the members of the church make up.

Here are three pictures from Saturday. One is of us with Arturo and Andrea before their baptism. The other two are from the lunch that Hermano Juan made since Elder Serrato is going home. One is of the food that he was making, tacos of suadero and longaniza. The other is of us with Hno. Juan and the Guerrero family. I love you. Elder Janda

5/20/12

Everything here is going pretty well. My companion is getting a bit more lazy which gets frustrating at times, but oh well. Today, we had a district activity. We went and played soccer and volleyball and basketball like we usually do just about every week, and then we asked Hermano Juan, the member that we rent from, if he could go and make us some carne asada. It was super good. His son also went with us and played which is great because his dad is trying to get him to go on his mission. He's 20, but he doesn't really want to do anything. He just spends all his time hanging out with his friends, but he seems like he's getting more excited to go on his mission. Today he said he was going to send his papers in in January. That's awesome that Court's team is doing so great. Hopefully they continue like they are and get even better. Tell Court I said hi and good job on her games and that I love her too. That's cool that Brandon is going on his mission. Where is he going? I forgot haha. . There's not really much new going on here. We're just trying to find more people to teach. Oh and I've been thinking about trying to do drumline again when I get home, so next time you send me a package or something, if you could send me my drumsticks and my practice pad I would really appreciate it. I love you, and I hope you have a great week. Love, Elder Janda

Hola,
Everything here is going pretty good. Elsa finally got confirmed this week. She hasn't been able to go to the church the past two weeks because the first week she got sick and then the next week her boyfriend lost her phone and so she didn't wake up on time. Yesterday, we started teaching these two kids, one is 8 and the other just turned 10. I was teaching them before, when they were staying with their grandma, but then their mom decided to take them and that she didn't want them to go to the church, but then the other day, she saw us in the street and stopped us and asked us to give her a blessing. We're going to start preparing the kids for baptism. They're are the cousins of the two girls that I baptized in April. Right now we don't really have a whole lot of people that we're teaching but we're searching for more and hopefully this next week we can find some people who are interested. This last week, we had an activity where we went and played basketball and soccer and stuff with the ward and we brought some investigators and some less actives. It was really fun. The only problem was that it was raining haha, but we played anyway. I was really surprised, usually the people down here try to evade the rain like the plague, but we actually had a good turnout. Then on Saturday morning, we had to go to the Perla stake center which is about an hour away for a meeting that we had with Elder Alonzo of the seventy. It was really cool. We were really tired though. We had to get up at 5 am to be able to get there on time. At 6 we had to meet at another Elder's house and then a member from his ward took us. When we showed up at the member's house, it became apparent that the Elder hadn't told the member that there were going to be 10 of us. He had only told her 6. She took us all though. She had a little Volkswagon truck with  a shell on it and so there were 8 of us in the bed of the truck and 2 up front with the member. It was not very comfortable at all haha. This morning, we went and played basketball and football with the district, they told us we were going to play volleyball, but they didn't bring the net. It was really fun though. Well that's about all that's happening here. The next transfers are in 3 weeks, so I'm still going to be here until then with Elder Serrato. It's weird thinking that I've already been here 8 months and I'm still in my first area haha. It doesn't feel like I've been here that long. Well, tell everyone that I say hi. And tell Aunt Lisa and her family thanks for her message and that I miss and love them too. Have a great week! I love you, Elder Janda

8/6/12
This week was good. Finally the Guerrero family got baptized. The oldest
son, Luis Mario, was kind of doubting on Friday night when he had the
interview, but he passed, and so we gave him some scriptures to read and
told him to pray and said we would pass by the next day to see how he felt.
Then we passed by, he said he felt good when he prayed and everything and
that he wanted to get baptized. It was funny though, because his parents
wanted them all to get baptized as a family, so we were a little worried
they were going to pressure him to get baptized, but then when we passed by
we could tell that he actually meant what he said and wasn't just saying it
to please his parents. Jesus didn't get baptized, we didn't really have a
chance to really talk to him this week, but he told us he wanted to wait
still. I'm hoping that we can find him this week so that we can really talk
to him and find out what's up. That's so cool that you guys are going to go
to Puerto Rico. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun, and I'm sure it'll be great
for Uncle Brian to see some of the people that he knew on his mission. I
hadn't heard about Grandma, but I'm glad everything went well. Well, I hope
you have a great week. I love you, and am grateful for all the support you
give me. Love, Elder Janda

7/16/12

Hi to everyone,
This week was pretty good. We ended up only baptizing Noemí, because Elsa had a family emergency and hasn´t been home since saturday, and Jesús wants to get baptized with his friend. We're going to try and get his friend more excited to get baptized or get Jesús to decide to get baptized without his friend this coming week. We're still teaching the family that came to church and they are all still really interested. We went and taught them on Saturday night and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and we were still teaching and they were still asking questions haha. On Saturday morning, the young woman had an activity where they went to an orphanage and played with the kids, and the daughter from that family went with them and said she really liked it. And then on sunday night we took a recent convert to the stake family history center, and there was a priesthood devotional or something going on and while we were there we saw the father and the the older son at the devotional. It was great. We didn't even tell them anything about it. They just heard about it at church and went. This next week is transfers. I´m pretty sure I'm gonna get changed. I've been in this area already for 6 months and my companion goes home after the next transfer. I'm kind of excited to go somewhere else, but at the same time, it will be hard leaving all the people I know here and all the people I've been working with toward baptism.
It's so weird thinking that Courtney is in high school already. Did Mitch move back yet?
This morning I was watching 17 Miracles. I love that movie. Everytime I watch it it makes me want to do family history. On Sunday when we went to the stake family history center with hermana Jessika, I logged into the family search website so we could show her how it all works. We were looking and seeing how far back the names went and we finally gave up because there were too many names. On The Janda side, it only went back 6 or 7 generations though, so I guess that's where I get to start working when I get home haha.
Well, I hope you have a great week and everything goes great in your interview.
I love you. Elder Janda

7/9/12

This week was pretty good. We had 8 investigators come to the church. Way more than we've ever had before, and I'm pretty sure they'll all get baptized in these next two weeks. Other than that, there's not really anything new going on. I sent the email with the pictures, but I'll try to send it again. It sounds like you all had a great week at the reunion. Haha Mitch told me that the beach boys were going to be there. (Stadium of Fire in Provo)  I'm sure it was cool to see them. Haha I'm surprised Grandpa Dale stayed out there and watched it with you guys haha. (We watched "How to Train your Dragon on the lawn, Grandpa Dale joined, 90 years old)  That's cool that he did though. Well I hope you all have a great week. Tell everyone I say hi. I love you. Elder Janda

7/2/12

This week was good. We have a new family that we're going to start teaching. There are three kids and the two parents. They seems really interested. The whole reason they got interested in the church was because of the youth programs. They want a church that will help they're kids grow up right, which is basically the whole purpose of all of our youth programs and everything haha, so I think they'll probably get baptized. I hope you all have fun up in Utah. Tell everyone I say hi and that I love them all. That's too bad about the forest fires. Especially since you can't have fireworks. haha Yeah they watch the world cup down here, but I haven't heard much about it. My companion won't be happy that Spain won. He said he wanted anyone to win but them haha. Yesterday was the elections here for president and everything. We've heard that Peña Nieto won, but we're not sure. My companion doesn't think the whole count has gone in yet. He didn't want Peña to win. Apparently he's really corrupt. That's about all that's going on here. I found in our apartment a bag with a ton of Liahonas in it, so I've been reading those. Every once in a while they have really good talks from past prophets or apostles. There was one by Heber J. Grant, and another by Bruce R. McConkie. Those are always cool to read. I read a really good talk from Bruce R. McConkie about the Atonement. It's called ''the Purifying Power of Gethsemane''. I hope you have a great week and have fun in Utah with everyone. I´m going to send another email with some pictures in it. I love you. Elder Janda

6/18/12

6/18/12
Happy Father's day! This week went alright. We need to find more people to
teach, but when it comes to knocking doors and contacting, my companion
always get lazy. I'm glad you had fun in Portland. That's great that you
are all going to go out with the missionaries. It's going to be a great
experience. I wish the bishop here would help us out some more. He's always
busy though. He doesn't get home til 8 or later every night from work, and
by then we usually are already teaching our last lesson of the day. Sounds
like everyone is doing great. Hopefully you and Mom can find some fun
things to do this week so you don't get too bored haha. This week, we went
to go visit one of the less actives in our ward, and usually when we go
teach, his wife isn't there, but this time she was. So we were talking to
her and she said that a lady that lives in the apartment across the hall
wanted us to go visit her, because she's been having trouble with alcohol
and wants to quit, but alcoholics anonymous didn't help her. So the next
day, we went and talked with her. It went really well. I think she'll
progress, and she said the guy she lives with is interested too. And that's
not even the best part. She's from Prague in the Czech Republic. It was
funny when we went and were teaching her, because we taught her in Spanish,
but you can tell that even though she speaks Spanish really well, it's not
her native language, but since neither of us speak Czech it was the best we
could do. Haha She has two little kids. A 7-year old boy and a 5-year old
girl. We didn't see her son, he was in the other room watching tv, but we
saw her daughter. She reminded me of a younger Courtney haha. She had the
similar facial characteristics and the same hair haha. It was weird. Well,
I hope you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda

6/16/12

Finally I got the package you sent me haha. It was great, I've already read about all of the stories twice haha. Which grandma was it that we used to go visit in Blanding that always had those really good cookies that she kept in the freezer? I think it was Grandma Black, but I'm not sure. I love reading all their stories and everything. (Morgan asked for family history's so I made copies of what I had, if anyone has more he would love them.) Every time it makes me more excited to meet them someday. Haha
Good job killing the scorpion haha.  (I killed my first scorpion this week-YUCK!!!)
I can't wait to go up to Utah after my mission and get to visit everyone again. I decided that after my mission I'm going to go up and live with Grandma for a few weeks so she can teach me all about family history and everything.
Don't worry about Courtney, I'm sure she'll be fine. It'll be good for her to go to camp by herself, it'll help her to become more independent, and probably to make even more friends. (Court's first girl's camp without Mom, you all know she doesn't sleep anywhere without me.  That all ends this week., Pray for her and her leaders.)
This past week, the weather has been really cloudy and rainy. It was nice. It rained Friday a lot, then it sprinkled all day Saturday and on and off Sunday. It was a nice change, and it hasn't been as hot. 
We need to find more people to teach, but when it comes to knocking doors and contacting, my companion always get lazy.
That's great that you are all going to go out with the missionaries. (Eric and the bishopric)  It's going to be a great experience. I wish the bishop here would help us out some more. He's always busy though. He doesn't get home til 8 or later every night from work, and by then we usually are already teaching out last lesson of the day.
Sounds like everyone is doing great. Hopefully you and Mom can find some fun things to do this week so you don't get too bored haha.   (Kyle at EFY Court at girl's camp)
This week, we went to go visit one of the less actives in our ward, and usually when we go teach, his wife isn't there, but this time she was. So we were talking to her and she said that a lady that lives in the apartment across the hall wanted us to go visit her, because she's been having trouble with alcohol and wants to quit, but alcoholics anonymous didn't help her. So the next day, we went and talked with her. It went really well. I think she'll progress, and she said the guy she lives with is interested too. And that's not even the best part. She's from Prague in the Czech Republic. It was funny when we went and were teaching her, because we taught her in Spanish, but you can tell that even though she speaks Spanish really well, it's not her native language, but since neither of us speak Czech it was the best we could do. Haha She has two little kids. A 7-year old boy and a 5-year old girl. We didn't see her son, he was in the other room watching tv, but we saw her daughter. She reminded me of a younger courtney haha. She had the similar facial characteristics and the same hair haha. It was weird. (Eric's grandfather was born in Czech)
Well, I hope you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda

Hola, this week was pretty good. We finally had the baptisms. We baptized two people, Fernando and Gloria, who have a little girl who is about 5 years old. They're pretty cool. My companion and I each baptized one of them. I baptized Fernando which was good because his name was a lot shorter that Gloria's haha. Tomorrow is the transfers, but we don't have changes, so they don't affect us. I haven't gotten the package yet, but I assume it's probably just at the offices. I'll have to ask someone who is going to the transfer meeting to check and bring it for me. I wish I could go travel around haha. It's kinda lame being stuck in the same square mile for 4 and a half months haha but oh well. After my mission I'll have plenty of time to travel and go on vacations. We were going to go to the centro again today as a district, but we didn't get permission. It's alright though, apparently Justin Beiber is having some free concert tonight in el zocalo which is the main part of el centro and there a ton of people there that have been waiting since yesterday haha. I think it's even funnier because I'm pretty sure Justin Beiber doesn't speak Spanish and none of them speak English. They don't even know what his songs say haha. Well, sounds like you had a great week. Good luck with Courtney's Ipod. If you come to el centro you could buy a stolen one super cheap haha. Well I love you and hope you have a great week. Elder Janda

6/3/12
This week was a little better. We have four people that could possibly get baptized this next week. I'm pretty sure two of them will, the other two will probably be the next week, but we'll see. Three of them have their interviews set for tomorrow, and and we're going to try to talk to the other to set up an interview tomorrow as well. Today, we went to the Centro. It was cool. My companion's brother is serving in the Mexico City East mission, so we met him there, and someone from one of his old wards went as well. She goes to there all the time, so she knew where everything was and how to get around and stuff. It was cool. We went to a bunch of used book stores. They had so many books it was crazy. My companion found all the volumes of Doctrine of Salvation for only 90 pesos. I found a really old Spanish hymnal from 1942 which has a bunch of hymns that aren't in the Spanish hymnal anymore. I also bought a new backpack for only 40 pesos. Those popscicle things that you bought that are made with fruit are just the popscicles that they make here. They're super good. If you found a Michoacana, they will have them. I think there's one on Arizona Ave somewhere haha. That's crazy that everyone is getting there mission calls. It'll be interesting to see where everyone goes. Good luck with Courtney's ipod haha. I love you, and I hope you have a great week. Elder Janda

5/27/12
Sounds like you're all doing really well. I wish I could go camping haha. This week we ate with the relief society president. She gave us first this sea food soup which was basically just shrimp and clams and some fish in broth. It was interesting, but good. The shrimp were still whole with the heads and the exoskeletons and everything, and the fish still had all the bones and some of the skin on it haha. Then she gave us some more shrimp that she cooked with peppers and cheese and some sauce and we made tacos out of it. It was good, but it made me want to go fishing haha. It's so weird to think that Courtney is going into high school. Selene, the older of the two girls that we baptized about a month and a half ago reminds me of her, but she's only 11 haha. It's going to be weird when I get home and she's 16 haha. I haven't gotten the package yet, but I assume it's probably just in the offices. I haven't had an excuse to go there in a while, so I haven't been able to check. This week, we had an open house at the chapel. It went alright. It was frustrating though, because nobody helped us plan it at all except the relief society president, and then we wanted to have a little refreshment or something after, so we were trying to figure out how we would do it so that the ward would pay for it, because apparently the system for getting money wasn't working or something, so we were talking with the bishop and the ward mission leader and everyone trying to figure it out and nobody had a resolution. We talked to the ward mission leader, and he told us the bishop said he would figure it out, so we called the bishop, and he said his counselor, Roman, would buy all the stuff, so we called him, and he said the ward mission leader was going to buy everything. In the end, one of the members ended up paying for everything. His family and the relief society president are really the only people that help us out when we have problems. Even though he doesn't have a job, and his car broke down twice this week. I hope after my mission that I can be as good of a member of the church as he is. The rest of the week was pretty frustrating as well, it seemed like nobody was home or everyone was busy all week. We taught about half as many lessons as we normally do. I hope this next week goes better. Well, I hope you have a great week. I love you. Elder Janda

5/21/12

This week was pretty good. We went to the temple on Tuesday morning. We didn't get to go inside, we just went to the distribution center because my companion needed more garments. It was cool getting to go see it and everything though. Other than that, this week was pretty average. Tell everyone I said hi. It's going to be weird when I get home, and Cameron and David and everyone are gonna be two years older, and Courtney and Marlise will be driving and dating and everything. Weird haha.
My area is most of my ward. The secretaries are also in my ward. The ward boundaries are the two of our areas together, but my area is about twice the size of theirs. Sounds like you're going to have a busy summer like always haha. I'm sure it'll be fun though. Well sounds like you all had a great week.
Haha you know me too well. Haha I didn't hardly tell anyone about my birthday. The only people that knew were those that asked. And most of them forgot haha. It was basically just a normal day, which was totally fine with me. haha
I emailed Katie last week too haha, I hadn't heard from her since probably a week or so after she told me she was dating someone else.
She emailed me back, but I haven't opened it yet to see what she said. I always email all of you guys first and then, if I have time, I email other people haha. 
I'm excited to come back and visit after too haha. Good thing Mitch's mission and my mission are so close to each other haha. I'm interested to see what his mission is like. Even though I'm only about 2 hours from Puebla I'm sure there are a lot of differences haha. Well I hope
you have a great week.
I love you. Elder Janda

Hola, no worries about last week. This past week was pretty good. I don't know any details about the volcano or anything, in fact you probably know more about it than I do haha. It hasn't effected us at all. We're pretty far away from it. Well, I had some very interesting things happen this week. On Friday, we went to go to an appointment with a lady that we had set up an appointment with while knocking doors. We got to her house and right away we knew something was up. When we got there before we even knocked or anything some guy outside working on a car told us to just go in and then we walk in and in her living room, there were about 8 or 9 people sitting in there with their Bibles and there were a bunch of chair set up in the room. It was weird haha, I thought she must have either invited some friends to come listen to us, or (more likely) she invited a bunch of people to come and listen to us get told off by some preacher. It ended up being neither. Apparently, on Fridays at 5, a bunch of people meet and this preacher comes and basically gives a sermon and they have a little Bible study class. It was actually pretty cool. We only stayed for a little bit because we had another appointment after, but we before we left we gave them all pamphlets. There ended up being 13 people there all from various Christian churches. We're going to go back this next week and hopefully the preacher will let us share a little message or at least some of the people read the pamphlets and will be interested in letting us come teach them. I guess we'll have to wait and see. We also had an interesting experience knocking doors. I don't remember which day it was, I want to say Wednesday, but who knows. Anyway, we were early for our lunch appointment, so we decided to just knock doors around the member's house that was going to feed us. We knocked this one door, and this old guy and his wife come out, so we start talking to them, trying to set up an appointment with them to come back sometime this week, but they just kept talking and not listening or accepting an appointment or anything. So then we decided to just give them a pamphlet and leave, so we gave the guy the restoration pamphlet, and on the cover, is a picture of Jesus carrying a lamb. When we gave the guy the pamphlet, apparently it reminded him of a song that he likes, so he decided to sing it to us. It was actually a pretty cool song, it was about the parable of the shepherd who left the 99 and went to go look for the 1 lost sheep. It was pretty funny. The song was 3 verses or so, luckily, he actually sang decently compared to most of the people here, I don't know why, but hardly anyone here can sing very well. The Zavala kids finally got baptized this week. Only the older two though, the mother of the other two came last week and decided that she didn't want their grandmother taking care of them anymore and took the kids. I got to baptized the older of the two, it was pretty funny, we ended up having to use cold water, because apparently nobody has keys to the boiler, and when I baptized her, she kind of freaked out and kicked her legs and so I had to baptize her again. Manuel finally found his daughter, but she still hasn't come home. She staying with some other lady, and apparently the kid's lawyers are trying to get the kid to be able to go free, so Manuel has been super busy fighting that and dealing with everything. We finally found him and got to teach him though. He's doing super well, considering everything he is going through, and we're going to try to baptize him this Sunday. I know he's ready, we just need to teach him a bit more. I got the package that you sent yesterday. It's great having the secretaries' in my ward. We have lunch appointments together, so I get to see them everyday, and whenever I get mail or anything they bring it to me that day instead of making me wait until I go to the areas or there is a big meeting or something like the elders in all the other areas. The package was perfect. I was cracking up reading some of the letters I got. Especially the comics from Canaan and Tyler, and hearing about Tyler's Easter Bunny Conspiracy Theory haha. Oh another funny thing that happened this week. On Saturday, we went to an appointment with some members, and after we taught a little message and were just about the leave, the brother made us help him learn about how to emigrate to Canada. For some reason, everyone here wants to go to Canada. He said they want to go because he doesn't like Mexico and he wants to experience the cold haha. The only problem was that the website was all in English, so he could read it, so he basically made us sit down and translate everything for him and help him learn how to emigrate to Canada haha. It was hilarious. Apparently his son wants to go to some music school in Toronto, Ontario and so he made us help him look up how to get a student visa to go study there haha. At one point, we told him it looked like it would be pretty difficult to emigrate because he would have to learn English or French, so then he was like well if I can't go to Canada, then Germany, and then started trying to look up information to go to Germany haha. Well, I hope you have a great week. Thank you for the package, and please convey my appreciation to all those who contributed as well. I love you, Elder Janda

4/16/12

Hola, I hope you all had a great week. My week was alright. We had 2 day exchanges at the beginning of the week on Tuesday and Wednesday, and for some reason they decided to do it between three companionship's, so I was with my district leader, his companion went with one of the zone leaders, and the other zone leader was with my companion. It was pretty fun. I like my district leader a lot. He's really cool. He's from Utah, I don't remember which city, but one of those cities right up by Provo. The first day, we taught some pretty interesting lessons. We taught one lesson to a Hindu guy, and we taught it in his bedroom, but instead of having a door to his room, he just had a mattress leaning in the doorway haha and then his room was really small, he just had a mattress on the ground for his bed and then he had a table. So he and Elder Anderson, my district leader, sat on the mattress, and I sat on a bucket. On one of the walls, he had a big tapestry type thing hanging that had a picture on it of Vishnu, one of the Hindu gods, and he was burning incense made of cow poop the whole time during our lesson. His room smelled super weird, it was like a mix of cow poop incense and marijuana haha, but the lesson went really well he seemed really interested in everything we had to say and it seemed like he understood. I don't know if they've taught him again since then though, but it will be interesting to see what happens. After the exchanges we all just met at the chapel in my district leaders area and then went back to our areas. The rest of the week was kinda lame. We had nearly all of our lessons fall through it seemed like, and ended up doing a ton of knocking doors. Every one is still on vacation though, so not a lot of people were home, so we didn't really find anyone new to teach. We did find this one old guy, and taught him once, but then when we went back for our next appointment, he wasn't there. We haven't gotten to teach Manuel Vera since Tuesday when my companion and Elder Cox, one of the zone leaders, taught him. Every time we pass by, he isn't home. I think his work schedule changed, and apparently, he got a message from his daughter on Friday or Saturday and so went to go look for her. I still haven't heard what happened with all that though, whether he has found her yet or not. Yesterday, we were supposed to baptize two of the Zavala kids. Originally, we were going to baptize four kids, but then at the last minute, the mother of the other two came and decided she didn't want their grandmother taking care of them and took the kids, so we were only left with the two older ones. Then, yesterday, we passed by on the way to church to make sure they were coming and everything, and apparently the younger of the two was super nervous and didn't sleep well and got sick or something, so they didn't go. It was pretty lame. We're hoping that they'll get baptized this next Sunday, but we'll see. Manuel Vera is also supposed to get baptized this next Sunday, but since we haven't been able to teach him all the lessons yet, I'm not sure what is going to happen. Hopefully we can find him this next week. Today, we had a zone activity. We went to the stake center, and played football, then we went to a buffet, then, we were going to watch a movie, but they didn't really plan it out, so we didn't have a movie to watch haha. It was still fun though. Well, I hope you all have a great week. I love you and can't wait to hear back from you. Love, Elder Janda

4/9/12

Hola,
This week was alright. It was pretty good at the beginning, but as the week went on, there were fewer and fewer people home. This week was semana santa, or holy week. Which is basically just a celebration of the last week of the life of Christ. I think it's just a Catholic thing to celebrate it, and maybe it's just a Mexico thing I don't know. They celebrate it hardcore here though. I'm not sure the details or anything, but I know that they basically act out the last week of Christ's life on Friday and in the end they crucify the person who is acting Christ. Not until they die, but they hang them on a cross for a while and whip him and everything. It's ridiculous.
Also, this week is when everyone has school vacations, and so a lot of people go to the beach and stuff. So hardly anyone was home. It was kind of annoying, but oh well.
For Easter, we didn't really do anything special.
As far as the people that we're teaching, the 4 Zabala kids are supposed to get baptized this coming Sunday. We've already taught them all the lessons, but their grandma wants us to come by every day this week, so we'll probably just end up reading scriptures with them or watching some church videos. They're really cool, I like teaching them. Manuel is supposed to get baptized the following Sunday. He's been having lots of problems in his life lately. I feel bad for him. Right after we met him, I believe it was about two weeks ago, his daughter got raped. Then, this last Thursday or Friday, that same daughter ran away from home, and he hasn't heard from her or anything.
José dropped us last Sunday after conference, and we haven't had a chance to see him again. We also have a few other people who we're working with, but we've only taught them once, so I don't really know if they'll progress or not.
Today we went to the pyramids at Teotihuacan. They were so cool. I want to go visit them again after my mission.
Well I have to go so we aren't late to district meeting, but I think we're going to get back on a little later because we didn't have much time to write or anything.
I love you and will talk to you later. Love Elder Janda

4/2/12

So this week was pretty good. We had a lot of meetings with conference and everything, so we didn't teach as many lessons, but it was still good. We just watched conference at our stake center. They had a projector and everything set up in Spanish, and we had a gringo party in one of the other rooms watching it in English. For some reason, the satellite connection on the channel they broadcast it in English wouldn't come through very well, so we ended up just watching it on a computer over the internet. We got to watch all of the sessions in English except for the first talk and a half of the first Saturday session, and the Priesthood session. Apparently they don't broadcast it over the Internet. It wasn't too bad though, I understood most of it, I just had to concentrate more.

As far as investigators, we still have Manuel. He's the one that came to church last Sunday that we contacted on the street. He's really cool. We taught him a couple times this week, and have another lesson planned for tomorrow. He was going to come to conference Sunday, but ended up having to work a double shift at the airport and didn't get to come. We also had José. We've been teaching him for a while. His mom got baptized the first or second week I was here. He's been really difficult to find sometimes though, so we haven't taught him much. He came to conference on Saturday, but not on Sunday. Then, on Sunday, when we stopped by that night to see how he was doing and try to teach him a lesson, he told us that he decided that he didn't want us to come teach him anymore. It was pretty lame. He was supposed to get baptized this coming Sunday. I think we'll still try to pass by with him sometime later this week or maybe next weekend and just see how he's doing. We're also teaching a less active part member family. The grandmother is a member and one of her sons, and we're teaching her grandchildren. There are four of them ranging from 8 to 11 years old. They're fun to teach. We also were teaching a husband and wife who are basically Bible scholars. We taught them twice and the first time, with everything that we shared, they had a scripture that they wanted to share to make sure that they understood what we were saying. This week, we taught them the restoration. I was surprised when we got over there, because they had really studied the pamphlet. They had highlighted passages and written scriptures in the margins that supported or refuted things. It was cool. The only problem was that they had so many doubts and questions, that we didn't end up getting to really teach anything. In the end we just told them that we weren't going to get anywhere like this and that the only way for them to know if what we were teaching and what we believed was true was to read the Book of Mormon, so we left them two Books of Mormon, and they promised to read it within a month. I'm excited to see what will happen with that. I feel like she is more interested in finding the truth than he is, and he is more interested in proving us wrong, but we'll see. This Tuesday, we had a meeting with all of the missionaries who came in with me and their trainers. It was cool getting to see everyone again. This morning, a bunch of missionaries from my zone met at one of the stake centers, and we played basketball and rugby. It was a lot of fun. While we were there, I was talking to my zone leader, Elder Cox, he's from Mesa, he's pretty cool. He goes home in the April. Anyway, I don't remember what we were talking about, but I found out that he worked at AMC, and I think he quit just before I started working there. It was pretty funny. It's a small world (but I'd hate to have to paint it). I'm not sure what we'll do for Easter. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Well I'm glad to hear that everything is going well.

Hopefully you guys can get everything figured out and fixed with Mitch's car. How is his collarbone doing?

Dang, that's crazy about the bees. I remember one time we were at Chase Tarwater's house, and while we were there, some bees starting forming a hive on Wesley's jeep. It was crazy. Chase had just gotten his wisdom teeth out and decided to put on a few extra layers of clothes, and try and get the bees to leave. It was hilarious.

I can't really think of anything that I need. If you were going to send me anything, the only things I can think of that I would want are a dictionary in Spanish, or a book with road maps of the US. Ha ha I know they are really random things. The dictionary that I have is just a Spanish-English dictionary, and so I can't really look up definitions of words, just the closest word in English, but sometimes, it isn't entirely accurate, and as for the book of road maps, after my mission, I would like to go travel and visit places in the US where I've never been. I think it would be really cool to go visit church history sites back east, like Nauvoo and Palmyra. Both of those things I can find down here though, and I don't really have any need for them.

Oh and as for the bucket with the iron in it, when we run out of gas for the water heater, that's how we heat up water to shower in the morning, and then I just use a cup to pour the water on myself haha.

Well I hope you all have a great week.

I love you. Elder Janda

3/26/12

Hola.

This week has been pretty good. We've found a few more people to teach, and we even got a reference from a member, and Valentín finally got baptized. It was great. It was pretty funny, we were trying to fill the font so that we could have the baptism, but first, we couldn't get keys to get to the boiler to turn it on. Apparently our bishop doesn't have the key, and the other bishop left them in his car at home, so we had to wait for his family to get there. Then once we got the boiler on and the water heated up, for some reason, the hot water wouldn't come out of the spout to fill the font. So in the end Valentín just ended up getting baptized in cold water haha. This week, I was super surprised, we had a guy come to church who we met on Saturday afternoon knocking doors who told us that he would come to church, but wouldn't let us set up an appointment to go to his house and teach him, which actually happens quite a bit, but usually, people just say that so we'll go away and they don't actually come, but he showed up. I was really surprised. Especially since he said he works at the airport, and he gets off work at 7am, and the ward starts at 9:30. It was really cool.

Our transfers are every six weeks, and last week was the transfer. I think the next one is the first week of May, but I'm not sure.

It was pretty funny when the earthquake happened. We were in a lesson with a less active's son who isn't a member. And we were sitting there talking and then it felt like I was just rocking side to side slowly. It was super weird. At first I thought I was just going crazy, but then someone said they felt it too haha. The kid we were teaching lives in the second story of an apartment complex, and so we went and looked out the window and a bunch of people had gone outside and were all freaking out and crying and hugging each other like it was a big deal haha it was funny. I saw on a newspaper I think it said it was a 7.8, but I'm not sure if that was what it was here or at the epicenter. Then the whole rest of the week, in almost every lesson, they asked us where we were and if we felt the earthquake and such. It was funny.

Camping sounds like it was a lot of fun. I'm jealous. I miss going camping and stuff like that.

I'm not exactly sure what we do for conference. Our ward goes to one of the stake centers to watch it. I'm not sure if we'll go there to watch it, or if they'll have all the gringo missionaries go somewhere to watch it in English. I don't know.

So as for my house, I was going to email some pictures, but the computer isn't letting me, so I might just have to send them next week.

The food here is good. Missionaries from the states are always whining about wanting to eat food from the states like pizza and hamburgers, but I'd rather eat the food here. I think when I get home, I'll probably miss the food, more than I miss American food.

My ward is pretty cool. There are a lot of great members. They feed us every single day, and quite often, we end up getting fed twice because we'll go to a members house for a lesson and then they'll just make us food. Almost always, the gringo missionaries lose weight when they come to Mexico, but I don't feel like I'm losing any weight. I'm definitely eating more than before, but I'm also walking a lot more than I did before. So who knows?

I've been hearing a lot about the pope coming, we've even had people ask us what we think about him coming, and one person even asked us if we worship the pope haha, but he's farther north in Mexico, but a lot of people when we went over were watching his arrival on TV.

I do read a lot, but I don't need any more books or anything. I just started reading the Old Testament last week, because I've never actually read all of it before, and that'll probably take me a while, and then I have some more books to read.

Thanks. I love you and I hope you have a great week. Elder Janda

( I know I am over protective but does anyone else feel concern that the iron is plugged in setting in a bucket of water?)

3/12/12

(Letter to Mom)
Hey,
This week was basically the same as last week. We've been trying to find new investigators still, so we've been knocking a lot of doors and contacting people in the streets. A lot of people won't listen to us, and it seems like the people that do are always only here in our area working, and live somewhere else. It's also weird because a lot of people here won't just say that they aren't interested. They always just say that they're in a hurry, or they busy, or tell us to come back another day, but you can always tell that they are lying. We tried to contact this lady while we were walking to an appointment on Saturday, and she said she was busy, so we told her we could walk with her, but you could totally tell she wasn't in a hurry, she just wanted us to go away. A lot of times, when we knock doors, people will say ''not right now, come back another day'', so we ask them what day, and they say ''well the thing is, I work every day and I'm never home, so I can't really say a day'' or they just say again ''I'm busy right now come back another day''. I think since I've got here, I've only had three people straight up tell me they aren't interested.
I haven't got any letters yet, but they could just be sitting at the offices.
Did you talk to the missionaries or have them over for dinner or something? I hope so. So in my mission, the mission president has taught us a way to teach members how to share the gospel that is super simple. Basically, it consists of two visits. The first visit, you basically tell you friend or whoever about some of the blessings that you have received from the gospel and that you want them to be able to experience those blessings as well, then you give them the pamphlet or whatever you got from the missionaries to them and commit them to reading it and set up a time when you will be able to check up with them about. Then, the second visit, the one that you set up with them, you follow up with them, you see if they read it and if they had any questions or what they thought or whatever, and then you tell them that if they would like you could come over with the missionaries and they would be able to teach them more or answer any questions or whatever, and then set up an appointment that you can go by with the missionaries. It's super simple, and you don't even have to teach them anything. So that's what I want all of you to do this week. I know it will work and you'll be glad you did. And if you feel worried or scared of what your friend or whoever will think if you share the gospel with them, then don't worry. Even if they aren't interested or don't listen, they will still be your friend and they won't think anything bad about you. A lot of people here reject us, but tell us that they appreciate what we are doing as missionaries, and they respect us and think better of us even though they don't agree with what we are teaching.
Well, I hope you all take the opportunity to share the gospel with someone.
I hope you have a great week. I love you and am grateful for everything you do for me.
Elder Janda
(Letter to Dad)
Hey, I'm glad to hear you had a good week. I haven't really eaten many weird things, just intestines and stomach. At least that's all I know of haha. We eat at members houses every day, and most of the time I don't even know what I'm eating haha. I had sushi again this week. One of the members we ate with is a chef, and we ate with him three times this week. One day he made shrimp tacos, another sushi, and then another he was going to make pizza, but he didn't have time to get all the ingredients and everything, so he just made some tacos. The food was good, but the bad thing was that we were there for forever every time cuz he usually didn't even start making the food until we got there. I've had tacos al pastor a few times. They're always on the street selling it at taco stands. They're really good. The area I'm living in is pretty poor. It reminds me a lot of the poorer parts of Mesa only more poor haha. And it's pretty dirty, there are stray dogs all over and they just poop wherever they want, and no one cleans it up, so there's always poop on the sidewalks and there aren't really any people who clean up garbage in the street and stuff, so there's garbage everywhere. The most they do, is sweep it into piles on the side of the road.
Valentin didn't get baptized yet, but he's going to either this week or next week. He has to quit smoking, and he won't just quit straight up, he's doing it slowly, but he finally came to church this last week and he says he wants to get baptized and everything. With the Orozco Soto family, we haven't gotten to teach them this week. They haven't been home almost every time we've passed by.
And yeah Dulce means either sweet if it's an adjective, or if it's used as a noun it means candy. Her daughter's name is Dulce too haha. For our clothes, we usually take them to a laundromat that a less active owns, or ever once in a while, a member will offer to wash them for us. And for email, there is an Internet cafe like two or three doors down from our house, so we usually go there. There are Internet cafes all over though.
I haven't gotten to play any fútbol since I've gotten here yet which stinks, but I'm sure I'll get to play eventually haha.
Thanks. I love you and I hope you have a great week.
Elder Janda

So in my mission, we work a lot with the members trying to help them share the gospel, and so I decided to invite all of you to this week get to know the missionaries in your ward. Have them over for dinner, or talk to them at church or something, and ask them if you can have a pamphlet or something that you can give to one of your friends, then read the pamphlet, and then give it to your friend. We have a great, very simple way that we teach members to share the gospel with people, and I´ll have to tell you more about it next week, cuz I don´t have much time. But I want to invite all of you to talk to the missionaries this week. You won´t regret it.
I love you all. Elder Janda

Hey, sorry I´m writing so late. This week has been super busy, and today wasn´t any different. Today, we had a zone activity where we went to this place called funcentral. It was cool, but it was like all the way on the other side of the DF. It was fun though. We ice skated, bowled. did mini golf, and they had a couple little rides. And all for 70 pesos. It was fun. It took all day though. We left our house at about 8:30 this morning, and have only been home just long enough to grab some money. This week has been super busy. We had divisions for Wednesday and Thursday, so I was with the District leader´s companion and on Wednesday, we were in my area, and Thursday, we were in his. Then Thursday night I had to be at the offices at 8 because on Friday we went to the immigration place and got our visas. It was cool because all of the missionaries that came down with me were there, so I got to see all of them again. It was awesome. It's amazing how well you can bond with someone after only a few weeks out here. Also, on Thursday night, two of the secretaries took my companion and I to a sushi place by the offices. It was pretty good. I got two rolls. One of crab, and one of shrimp. And they only cost the equivalent of about 3.50 USD.
Saturday was just a regular day, and then Sunday was supposed to be really busy, but all of our appointments fell through except for one with a recent convert. That happens a lot here. People say they will be somewhere and they aren´t, but oh well. That´s their choice. Right now we have some pretty good investigators. There´s this one family where the wife was baptized earlier by my companion and his trainer, then the daughter was baptized my first week here, and now we´re working with the husband. His name is Valentín. He´s really cool except he hasn´t gone to church because he got in an accident at work a while ago and his back hurts him a lot, and he has to walk to church, but we´re supposed to baptize him this Sunday, so hopefully it goes through. We´re also teaching this other family, who we found knocking doors a little while ago. I´m pretty sure that they will get baptized and that I told you about them last week. They are the Orozco Soto family. They´re only problems are that they need to get married and that with their schedule, they are not home a lot of the time, and because of the fathers work, it´s difficult to plan with them, because their schedule is pretty unpredictable. They´re really cool they. They have a son, Lalo, who is nine and he is super interested. We passed by Saturday because they had some family in town and had to cancel our appointment, so we passed by to set a new one and invite them to church. But while we were waiting for Dulce, the mother, we were talking to Lalo and asking if he had read in the Book of Mormon, and he said no, but had us come inside and he went and got his book of Mormon and we started reading it together while we waited. It was awesome. It was totally his idea too. And then when his mom came, he was all sad, cuz it was his turn to read haha. They´re supposed to get baptized to 18th, but that depends on whether or not they get married first. We´re gonna go talk to them about that this week, probably tomorrow or Wednesday. My companion is alright. He´s starting to get on my nerves sometimes though. They are a lot of the missionaries in my mission from the states, that just don´t like Mexico for whatever reason. Sometimes he is like that. He´s also a little frito sometimes. (That´s when missionaries are a little lazy or just don´t follow all the rules) And it seems like he´s not very smart with his money. He´s always wanting to go buy tacos or a drink or something, and we don´t have money to do that all the time. But it´s ok. We teach well together I think, and he knows all the people in the ward and remembers names and faces well which is something I´ve been trying to work on, cuz I can never remember people haha, but oh well.
And about the whole Katie thing. It sucks, but there´s not really anything I can do about it. I knew when I came out that that would probably happen. I always hoped it wouldn´t, but it did. I just will have to go forward with faith, and know that God has a plan for me and in the end I will be in the Celestial Kingdom. It´s like either said as his final words. essentially, he said it doesn´t matter if I die or if I´m translated as long I end up in the Celestial Kingdom. It´s the same for us. It doesn´t matter what path the Lord has planned out for us. In the end we will be in the celestial kingdom and in the end we will be happy. I love you all and am grateful for all the support that you have all given me over the years. I love you. Elder Janda

2/27/12

Hola,
Tell everyone thanks for their messages and that I love them all. This week was alright, we did a lot of walking, and not a lot of teaching, but that´s ok, we´ve got some people we´re gonna work with this next week, and hopefully have a baptism. I´m glad to hear everything is going well at home.
That´s crazy about the guy in the drive through. I wonder what people think when they do stuff like that, it just doesn´t make sense. (Eric was hit by a drunk driver in the a drive thru but luckily all was good, no injuries.)
I´m glad to hear you had a good week. My week wasn´t as good as last week, but it was still good.
Last monday, we received a bunch of references, because the whole zone came and walked around and contacted people in our three of the areas up here including ours, so most of the week consisted of walking around and trying to find those references. In the end we only ended up contacting one, and we still have yet to teach her. She works at a hair salon and she works all the time. The two times that we have gone over to teach her, she either wasn´t there or she was cutting someone´s hair. It´s frustrating, but we have an appointment to meet with her later this week, so hopefully she´s their.
We also had one of our investigators decide that he wasn´t interested anymore, which was super weird, because at the last lesson we had with him, he was really interested. I´m not sure what happened there, but we have a member in our ward who had been working with him and going to the lessons with us and stuff, and he´s gonna keep passing by and checking up on him.
We also found a family while we were knocking doors about a week ago and finally got to teach them, they have 4 kids and are expecting another. They seemed interested and everything, the only problem is they aren´t married by the state, only by the catholic church. I think it´s crazy how many people are members of the catholic church down here even though most of the ones that we talk to say that they don´t believe the catholic church or that they know that it´s corrupt or that they know that there were doctrines lost or changed. We also found this old man knocking doors on saturday. He´s 82 and lives alone and apparently he gets super lonely, but he has really strong faith in Christ, the whole time we were talking with him he kept saying things like that he prays all the time and always is reading his bible and books about christ and stuff. It was cool. Except the Jehovahs witnesses apparently have been passing by and meeting with him and confusing him about stuff. I was surprised that the jehovah´s witnesses are so big down here. There´s churches for them all over. But yeah that guy was cool except he talked for forever, we were there for like about an hour and a half and he would´ve let us stay longer, but we were already late for our lunch appointment.
Other than that this week just consisted of a lot of walking. That map you´ve got of my area is right. I was wondering how big it actually is, That´s crazy that it´s only about 1/2 mile by 1/2 mile. Anyway, I love you, I hope all is well at home, and that you have a great week.
Love Elder Janda

2/20/12

Hola.
Yeah, my p-day is on Mondays.
Everything is going pretty well here. We had two baptisms this week, Ivonne and Elvira. I didn't do much of the teaching or preparing them or anything, but it was still cool.
I'm not sure what my address is, but it's in Distrito Federal, in the colony Pantitlan. I live on Calle Cinco between Calle Norte and Calle Zaragoza (I think that's how its spelled).
I live right across the street from a big Bimbo bread factory. Our area is pretty average I think for most of Mexico City, most people are pretty poor and work all the time. It's a pretty small area. If you find it on a map, it goes from Calle Uno to Calle Siete and from Calle Xochimilco to Calle Zaragoza. Our chapel is actually in a different area. It's on Calle seis and some other road I don't remember the name of. It's cool though.
We eat everyday with a different member for lunch, and every time they feed us, it's like they don't think we ever eat or something, cuz they always feed as way more than we could possibly eat. Every time, I leave feeling like I'm going to throw up just because I ate so much. The members are all really nice though.
The area here is pretty average for Mexico City, but it's a lot poorer than it is there. It's probably about the same as if you went into the poorest areas or downtown Chandler or Mesa. It's not too bad though.
We've had to walk a lot this last week. Since two of our investigators were getting baptized, we've been trying to find some new ones, so we've been doing a lot of knocking doors. We're also teaching a guy named Valentine Odiosola who is the father of Ivonne, one of the people that got baptized yesterday. His wife got baptized recently too, just a few weeks ago. Apparently he's never really been very interested in hearing the lessons, until last week. We were over there waiting for his daughter to come home from work, and he said he wanted to go to church and to hear more about our church and everything. Their whole family is really cool. We're also teaching a man named José Luis. He's supposed to get baptized this next Sunday, but he works a lot so it's tough to get all the lessons in and everything. We also are going to teach the son of Elvira I think. He's really interested in the church, but he has school, so we can only teach him on the weekends. I'm glad to hear everything there is going well.
I love you and am so grateful for everything that you do for me. Love, Elder Janda

Pictures of MTC life....