Tuesday, November 13, 2012

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