10-4-13 I didn't get Kyle's email. I'm glad he's doing well, even though I'm sure it must be difficult. Hopefully he's got a good trainer that will help him. Everything here is going well. That's crazy that everyone is going on missions haha. Things are going well with my new companion. Sometimes he makes me laugh because he doesn't really know what is going on yet. Sometimes he asks questions that to me seem obvious. I'm sure I'll be the same way when I get back home haha. And he's still trying to learn Spanish, but he actually speaks pretty well and understands well considering he only has two weeks here. We found some new investigators this week, but I'm still not sure if they are going to progress or not. Yesterday at church it was both good and bad. We didn't have any investigators go, which was pretty lame. We did have about 12 less active members go however, which was pretty cool. Hopefully they'll keep going. I'm really excited for conference this weekend. It's going to be awesome. I also can't believe that it's going to be my last conference in the mission. It's crazy how fast time is flying. Well, I hope you have a great week. I love you :) Love, Elder Janda

NEW ADDRESS Calle Porvenir #8 Col. Centro Chalco de díaz Covarrubias c.p. 56600 Estado de México, México

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

8/26/13 I'm glad to everything is going well. Have you received any news about Kyle's visa? That's great that Grandma and Grandpa came but too bad that Grandpa Dale's kind of losing his mind. This week was really good. The two kids that got baptized last week both got confirmed and recieved the priesthood yesterday. It was awesome. Also Jorge got baptized on Saturday and confirmed and received the priesthood yesterday. Jorge is a 60 year old man who used to be an alcoholic and has also had several other difficult times in his life. He almost didn't get baptized this week because he needed a special interview, but the mission president talked to him on the phone and talked to the missionary that interviewed him and decided that he could get baptized. Our mission president also came to our ward yesterday, which was really cool. After church, he, with his assistants, came with us to eat. It was funny because all 5 of us are from the US, which nearly never happens. After eating, the sister that we ate with told us that she had had a dream the night before where she was serving food to 5 americans, but she didn't know who they were or why she was serving them or anything. And then we all showed up to eat haha. And her dream became true haha. It was pretty funny. Everything continues well in my area with my companion. I don't know the new address for the offices, but I'll get it or you for next week. I love you, and I hope you have a fantastic week. Love, Elder Janda 8/19/13 That's too bad about the weather. I'm pretty sure I'm going to either die or never leave the house once I'm back in the heat haha. I can't believe August is already more than half gone. Time is flying by way too fast. This week was pretty good. Fernando and Mauricio got baptized. They were both really excited. Fernando is 20 and Mauricio is 14. The baptism service was awesome. The room was completely full. There were probably a good 30 people there including a few people who weren't members. Other than that it was a pretty average week. I've been downloading and studying a lot of general conference talks lately. It's really cool. This week I was studying a talk by President Monson from back when he was Elder Monson in 1971. It's a great talk. It's called Lost Battalions. I've also been reading Jesus the Christ again. The other day, my companion and I were walking down the street and we saw some kids playing, and you'll never guess what they were playing. They were playing marbles. I thought it was so funny and completely random. Normally kids are playing video games or watching tv or just doing dumb stuff. But this time they were playing marbles haha. Anyway. I hope you have a fantastic week. I love you. Love, Elder Janda

August 5, 2013

Hola! Everything here is going pretty well. Tomorrow is changes, and I'm getting changed again haha. I'm going to stay in the same zone though. Elder Stevens is going to train. This week went pretty well. We worked really hard and taught pretty well and found some new people. The only bad part was Sunday. We had 22 people commited to going to church. On Sunday morning we passed by for several people and called some people the night before to remind them, but only 2 people went. It was pretty frustrating, but we'll keep working and seeing what else we can do tp help people go to church. Other than that the week went really well. This morning we got up early and washed our clothes and then we went to Walmart to buy groceries and to KFC to eat lunch. It was pretty fun. I'm really not looking forward to packing again though haha. Tell Kyle to take advantage of the time that he has left to study the scriptures and prepare to go out in the field. Tell him to study Preach My Gospel as well. The more prepared he is, the better he will be able to serve the Lord. I'm looking right now at the admission requirements for the Music Education major, and I need 3 letters of recommendation. Could you please get them for me. Lately, I've been studying Jesus the Christ. It is an amazing book that really has helped me to comprehend the ministry of the Lord. I've been realizing that almost all of the problems that he had teaching the people of in Isreal are the same problems that we face as missionaries today. Also I've realized that I still have a lot of improving that I have to do before I can become as my Father is. I know that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior and that only through him and his atonement can I become better. I am so grateful for the blessings that I recieve every day, even though I don't deserve them and I know that God loves me and each of His children. I wish that everyone could feel and understand that simple fact, and my job here is to help them to do that haha. I hope you have a fantastic week. I love you. :) Elder Janda

7-29-13 My week was pretty good. The work was kinda slow this week. I'm not sure why. There were less people home and then hardly anybody went to church. It was weird. Also, the people that were going to get baptized, ended up getting a new job where they have to work on Sundays, and the husband started drinking again. We were pretty sad when they told us. Hopefully we will be able to get some people prepared soon. We have a lot of investigators that want to get baptized and go to church every week and everything, but the problem is that they aren't married and thay don't really do anything to get married. It's really frustrating. The good part is that this last week, we found some new investigators that appear to be interested. They were listening to the missionareis before, but never got baptized. And the best part is that the couple is already married, so that won't be a problem. That's really cool that more missionaries are arriving there as well. I'm really interested to see how the work is there. When I get home I'll have to go work with the missionaries. That's awesome that Marisa got her mission call to Queretaro. I've met several missionaries from there and they all say that it has awesome weather, and that it is really beautiful. I'm sure she will love it. For your sunday school class, I think the thing that will help them most will be helping them understand the purpose of families and marriage, which is to help us reach our divine potential as children of God. Maybe you could all read ''The Family a proclamation to the world'' together and analize what it means or something. Just study the doctrine, and allow the spirit to guide you and you will know what to do. I love you. And I hopeyou have a fantastic week :) Love, Elder Janda When they divided the missions, there weren't a whole lot of sister missionaries. I think there were 5 or 6, and they were all Latins. However, by the time she gets there, there will be more sister missionaries. As far as advice, just tell her not to worry. She is going to love it. The people are awesome. The weather is really calm. The only thing is that it rains pretty often during the rainy season. But it's not really a problem. (answer to ? about sister getting call to your mission) 7-22-13 That's cool that you found the chapel. (Eric googled and found on line) Today we went and played soccer in the morning. It was pretty fun. My companion and I get along really well and we work really well together. This week we had 9 investigators in church. And this Saturday, we're going to baptize 4 people hopefully. I can't believe that your vacations are already over. Time is going by so fast. It's ridiculous! haha Work here in my new area is going well. The area is a lot like when I was in Neza and the people are really similar as well, they have to same style of living, the same way of thinking and everything, so I'm already really used to it. That's cool that you saw Carlos. It's weird thinking that most of my friends that went on missions are already home. Only Wesley and I are left haha. Well, I hope you have a fantastic week. I love you and am so grateful for everything that you always do for me. I love you! Love, Elder Janda Here is a picture taken walking down the hill in my area in Chimaluacan. My companion, Elder Austin, and I decided to do some exercise on Monday and run up the hill. We were hoping to be able to get some cool pictures from the top, but it ended up being a rather cloudy day, so you can't see much. The second picture is taken from the top of the same hill. Here in Mexico, for some reason, they put big crosses on top of all of the hills. So here you can see the cross and some of the city down below. Again, it was a cloudy day, so you can't see much haha. Here is a picture of me with President Morales from the Southeast mission. The other picture is of the volcano, Popocateptl, taken from the roof of the house where I lived in Ozumba. 7-15-13 Hello! So this week, President decided to make some changes. I'm not in Ozumba anymore haha. Now I'm in a ward called Buena Vista in the Meyehualco stake. I still don't really know where it is since I just got here Saturday afternoon haha. All I know is that it is in Iztapalapa in the Federal District. It's a lot like Neza, just a bit more safe. My new companion is really cool. He's from Spanish Fork, but his mom is Debbie Redd from Monticello. I'm interested to see if you know her or not, because I remember having heard that last name before and he remembers hearing his mom talk about Blacks that she used to know haha. What a small world it can be haha. Anyway. Everything here is going well. We have lots of work in this area. We have several people that want to get baptized but have to get married first, and a few have to get divorced first so that they can get married to who they are living with now haha. Situations like that are frustrating at times, but it's all part of the work haha. I was going to send some pictures today, but I forgot to bring my memory again. I'm going to have to write myself a note or something so that I don't forget next week. That's crazy that Evan is getting married. Do you know who he is getting married to? Tell him congratulations for me. I love you and am so grateful for your great example and for everything that you do for me. You are AWESOME! :) Love, Elder Janda

7/15/13 Hello! So this week, president decided to make some changes. I'm not in Ozumba anymore haha. Now I'm in a ward called buena vista in the meyehualco stake. I still don't really know where it is since I just got here Saturday afternoon haha. All I know is that it is in Iztapalapa in the Federal District. It's a lot like Neza, just a bit more safe. My new companion is really cool. He's from Spanish Fork, but his mom is Debbie Redd from Monticello. I'm interested to see if you know her or not, because I remember having heard that last name before and he remembers hearing his mom talk about Blacks that she used to know haha. What a small world it can be haha. Anyway. Everything here is going well. We have lots of work in this area. We have several people that want to get baptized but have to get married first, and a few have to get divorced first so that they can get married to who they are living with now haha. Situations like that are frustrating at times, but it's all part of the work haha. I was going to send some pictures today, but I forgot to bring my memory again. I'm going to have to write myself a note or something so that I don't forget next week. That's crazy that Evan is getting married. Do you know who he is getting married to? Tell him congratulations for me. I love you and am so grateful for your great example and for everything that you do for me. You are AWESOME! :) Love, Elder Janda