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