Monday, September 23, 2013

9/23/13 Everything here is going well. My new companion is Elder Parker from Orem Utah. He's a great guy. He's still learning Spanish and everything though. It reminds me a lot of when I first got here haha. It seems like a long time ago, yet time has gone by really fast. It's weird all the things that are different between here and the US that I don't even notice anymore. I hadn't even noticed how many differences there were until this week with my new companion. Haha for example he keeps asking me if things are safe to eat and stuff like that. Also the last few weeks we haven't had any running water, until just the other day we finally had water again. So in the meanwhile, we had to just heat up water in a bucket and then use a cup to pour the water on ourselves. I didn't even think twice about it, but he had never had to shower like that before. It's going to be crazy when I get home. Everything is going to be different. I still can't believe that Courtney is going to be 16 this week. I bet Luke will have changed the most, but I guess we'll see when I get home haha. I'm really excited for the general conference in two weeks. We also should have a baptism that same Saturday. The mom of the two guys that got baptized about a months ago, Fernando and Mauricio, has a date set for the 5th. Hopefully she keeps progressing so that she will be ready. How's Kyle doing in Africa? Where is his area at? As far as my application goes. I think I've almost finished it. I just need to know the date of my high school graduation and my high school GPA. Do you have that information? Other than that, everything is going well for school. I just need to record an audition and upload it, but I'll probably do that next Monday with my camera. Well, I hope everything continues going well and that you have a fantastic week. I love you :) Love, Elder Janda 9/16/13 It's been raining a lot here too. It's crazy. Everything here is going well though. Today is the Mexican Independence day, so this whole weekend we have had to be at 5 pm instead of 9. It's been nice getting to rest a bit, but it get's boring in the house haha. I had to write an essay as part of the music application though, so I took advantage of my time and got that out of the way haha. Other than that, everything continues fairly normal. We have a few great investigators that I'm sure will be getting baptized soon. The only bad thing is that now that they have to go to church 5 times, it takes longer to get someone baptized. haha this past week we had some trouble finding people to teach. Partly it was because all of our good investigators were in the church every day with the members preparing a dance for the stake party last Saturday. haha I'm glad they got to participate and get to know the members though. That is really going to help them stay active after their baptisms. I haven't received my new companion yet. Tomorrow is the changes meeting, but last Tuesday when we had the trainer's meeting, President showed us the pictures of all the new missionaries that are going to arrive. Three are from Mexico, one from the Dominican Republic, one from Spain, and bunch from the US, so the most likely is that he is going to be a white guy. haha It's crazy to think that I have less than 3 months left. Time goes by so fast. The other day my bishop told me that his daughter and her family just moved from Utah to either Chandler or Gilbert, apparently they're still looking for a house or something. It'll be interesting if they end up in our stake haha. Anyway, next week I'll have more interesting news about who my new companion is and such. I love you :) Have a fantastic week! Love, Elder Janda 9/9/13 I have the address, but it's in another email, so as soon as I send this one, I'll search it and send it to you. I'm sure it's been super quiet at home, but don't worry in three months I'll be there to make some noise :) Today we went to Teotihuacan. It was really fun. We went with the whole zone, between 20 and 30 missionaries. But a couple missionaries ended up separating from the pack and so at the end we had to go search for them, so we got back late. It was fun though :) I still can't believe that Kyle is already in Africa. That's so cool. I can't wait until he gets to his area, so that I can hear about how the work is over there. It's been raining a lot here too. Almost every day. In fact it's raining right now haha. I enjoy the rain, but I hate having to walk around in it haha. This week the work, was a bit slow. We had trouble finding people at home, which is always frustrating. Also, a lot of people with whom we had appointments were home. But it's alright the work continues. Last night they told me that I'm going to be training a new missionary starting next week. I'm really excited. It's going to be fun, I just hope he doesn't have too much difficulty adjusting to missionary life. I can't believe that in 3 months, I'll be back home. Time goes by way too fast. Well, hope you have a great week and I love you so much. :) Love, Elder Janda