Rain!

We were so excited to hear Jake on the radio this week. But, it looks as though it was canceled. We aren't sure why yet, guess it is because of the storms in the area. We will update more when we know. I'm also going to post Hannah's Missionary Man books to the Blog soon. She writes them about her imagined adventures of Jake and his companions. They are super funny, and seem to help them both in the missing each other ;)

Here is Monday's email. Enjoy :)

Hello all!

My radio interview will be Wednesday at 7pm your time don't change the time cuz its 8 here. The website is impactoradioFM.mex.tl 

Tell Hannah I want a new missionary man!!! This second one didn't have enough action and the name was totally misleading to how awesome it was going to be!!! The first is still the best, just like every series ;)

Tell her thank you!

I'm still healthy and used to the food now, so that's good :P

On Monday I got my haircut to a number one. I'm keeping it that way cuz its so much nicer with all this heat. We got a baptism commitment on Monday. Her name is Fatima.  We will baptize her this Saturday the 21st. That is the same day as the All American breakfast.

We have been dropping investigators like crazy!  If they aren't progressing or trying, then its not their time, and we need to find those whose time it is. My Mission President feels very strongly about that. On  Tuesday I was at a member's house, and they wanted to show us a video on YouTube of temple endowment. Someone went into the temple and filmed it from a hidden camera and posted it on you tube it showed EVERYTHING.

It destroyed me. For two days I was sick, wondering who in the world would do such a thing, and why?? Then I finally realized (thanks to the scriptures) that if the church wasn't true, people wouldn't be trying to destroy it.

So, to that idiot, I say "You broke covenants, God doesn't like that, stop being dumb, or God is going to punish you."  We also saw another video, with someone talking about Pres.Holland. They were trying to say he lied on film. He didn't. They were taking things out of context, and apparently there is an entire YouTube page that is devoted to bashing on the church. I can't believe this stuff! 

Wednesday, we had our district meeting and we got two new Sister Missionaries, but they went to the next town over, Chauites. Our zone leaders are also in that town. Our District also got cut, so there's only two Companion-ships in our District. Fun. I hope that you all remembered 9/11 was Wednesday!! I did, and we sang the Star Spangled Banner for all of our appointments that day.

Thursday it started raining. Not just raining, it was a HUGE storm. It rained, non-stop, for 3 days straight. All throughout the night, all day long, non stop. The river here flooded over it's banks and widened the river banks by 100 yards! Yep, that's right, the river was about 125 yards across. The rushing water brought down a huge tree on top of the bridge, and it was nuts!  EVERYTHING is wet! It sucked!!!!!!! But, today it's finally stopped, and i'm happy for it, because we've already walked about 8 miles in the rain today.

Friday was pretty slow because everyone was hiding out from the rain.

Saturday it rained some more!!! Walked 8 miles in the rain, and it sucked again!!

On Sunday the rain stopped in the afternoon, so that was good. We had church and a couple lessons, but not much else. We spent some time getting ready for our radio interview and our big American Breakfast.

I'm doing good here.  I'm hanging int here through the trials and tough times, and I increase in my faith everyday. I love you all very much!!!

My Spanish is good. I'm still learning, but I can pretty much speak fluently! I only have problems with commands and preterit sometimes, but especially in subjunctive. It totally blows, but I am getting the hang of it!!!

The elders here get there packages from US mail, and they are done by weight. I'm pretty sure that that's the cheaper way. They said its the fastest way too. 

You should read 1 Nephi 13 this week, and 14 as well. It talks about the Revolution, Christopher Columbus, the Indians and everything! It also speaks of the Restoration and everything needed for Joseph Smith to restore the Gospel to the earth.

Until this same time next week,  know that I love you all VERY MUCH!

Para siempre dios este con vos, tengan fé en cristo y algo es posiblé, 

nuestro padre celestial nos ama MUCHISIMO! y qiere eschucharnos, por esa reson tenemos oracion.

"God be with you till we meet again. If you all have faith in Christ and anything is possible. Our Heavenly Father loves us sooooooooooo much!!! and wants to hear from us. This is why we have prayer."

Love, Jake

Baby Iguana

Marks of a Man-

Jake- knowing that you won't read this until after you get home, I wanted to post this story that Gayla sent to me the other day. She is such a good friend to me, and she truly is one of the few people on this earth that really knows my heart. I am blessed that she followed the prompting to send me this story, because it is just what I needed to hear right now.

It has been really tough letting you go. I've always known that I was going to have to send you off one day,. I've always felt that you are meant to do great and wonderful things in this life. And, as you WELL  know, the road to where you are now has been a tough one a lot of the time. Deep down, I really just wanted to be selfish, and keep you home with me.

In all of the craziness of the months leading up to your mission, with the accident, and so many changes and twists and turns, I never had time to anticipate how difficult it was going to be for me after you left. I miss you terribly sometimes. But, I am SO PROUD, and SO SURE of the man that you are today, and the man than you are growing to be. I love you buddy.


Marks of a Man-

As I jumped on board my flight from Miami to Salt Lake City, I paused for a
moment to catch my breath. Seated near the front of the plane was an
excited young man, probably 19, sitting with his parents. His hair was
short, his clothes new and sharp. His suit was fitted perfectly; his black
shoes still retained that store bought shine. His body was in good shape,
his face and hands were clean. In his eyes, I could see a nervous look; his
movements were that of an actor on opening night.

He was obviously flying to Utah to become a missionary for the LDS church.
I smiled as I walked by, and took pride in belonging to the same church
where these young men and women voluntarily serve the Savior for two years.
With this special feeling, I continued back to where my seat was located.

As I sat down in my seat, I looked to the right and to my surprise saw
another missionary, sleeping in the window seat. His hair was also short,
but that was the only similarity between the two. This one was obviously
returning home, and I could tell at a glance what type of missionary he had
been.

The fact that he was already asleep told me a lot. His entire body seemed
to let out a big sigh. It looked as if this was the first time in two years
that he had even slept, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

As I looked at his face I could see the heavy bags under his eyes, the
chapped lips, the scarred and sunburned face caused by the fierce Florida
sun.

 His suit was tattered and worn. A few of the seams were coming apart, and
I noticed that there were a couple of tears that had been hand sewn with a
very sloppy stitch. I saw the name tag, crooked, scratched, and bearing the
name of the church he represented, the engraving of which was almost all
worn away. I saw the knee of his pants, worn, and white, the result of many
hours of humble prayer. A tear came to my eye as I saw the things that
really told me what kind of missionary he had been. I saw the marks that
made this boy a man.

His feet, the two that had carried him from house to house now lay there
swollen and tired. They were covered by a pair of worn out shoes. Many of
the large scrapes and gouges had been filled in by countless polishing.

His books, laying across his lap, were his scriptures-the word of God. Once
new these books which testify of Jesus Christ and his mission were now
torn, bent, and ragged from use.

His hands, those big, strong hands which had been used to bless and teach,
were now scarred and cut from knocking on doors.

Those were indeed the marks of a man. And, as I looked at him, I saw the
marks of another man, the Savior, as he was hanging on the cross for the
sins of the world.

His feet, those that had once carried him throughout the land during his
ministry, were now nailed to the cross.

His side, now pierced with a spear, sealing his testimony with his life.

His hands, the hands that had been used to ordain his servants and to bless
the sick were also scarred with the nails that were pounded to hang him on
the cross.

Those were the marks of a great man.

As my mind returned to the missionary, my whole body seemed to swell with
pride and joy because I knew, by looking at him, that he had served his
Master well.

My joy was so great that I felt like running to the front of the plane,
grabbing the new missionary, and bringing him back to see what he could
become, what he could do.

But, would he see the things I saw? Could anyone? Or, would he see just the
outward appearance of that mighty elder, tired and worn out, almost dead?

As we landed, I reached over and tapped the returning missionary to wake
him up. As he awoke, it seemed like new life poured into his body. His
whole frame seemed to fill as he stood up, tall and proud. As he turned his
face toward mine, I saw a light that I had never seen before. I looked into
his eyes. Those eyes. I will never forget those eyes. They were the eyes of
a prophet, a leader, a follower, a servant. They were the eyes of the
Savior. No words were spoken. No words were needed.

As we unloaded, I stepped aside to let him go first. I watched as he
walked, slow but steady, tired but strong. I followed him, and found myself
walking the way he did.

When I came through the doors, I saw the returning missionary in the arms
of his parents, and I couldn't hold it any longer. With tears streaming
down my face, I watched these loving parents greet their son, who had been
away for such a long time, and I wondered if our parents in heaven would
greet us in the same manner. Will they wrap their arms around us and
welcome us home from our journey on earth? I believe they will. I just hope
that I will be worthy enough to receive such praise, as I'm sure this
missionary will. I said a silent prayer, thanking the Lord for missionaries
like this young man. I don't think I will ever forget the joy and happiness
he brought to me that day.

Poison Frogs and the Cartel

Can we say how much we miss this kid?! One of the things that we love about Jake the most is that he has always made every day an adventure. We miss hearing his daily report each night about all the crazy things that happened during his day.

He's always been this way! Every new experience and every new opportunity look like an adventure through his eyes. Even though we get the feeling that things have been a little hard and scary these last few weeks, he still seems to find the excitement and adventure in it all.

Hey! I love you all and thanks for the emails.Here's what happened this week even though its not much!

I'm attaching the pictures of Leandro my first baptism.

We think this is a pretty big deal! Even though he thinks he didn't do much this week.

Monday not much happened, we found out this week that the God Parents of Lexmmy were involved in either drugs, or with this group of people that smuggle people into the states illegally. If you don't pay them, they kill you. His God Parents were drug out of there house, tortured by cutting their fingers off, beat very brutally and then shot in the head. They leave behind a 2 year old daughter and a 8 month old son. Shocking and sad.

We also found out that there are some small colonies outside of Tapana that speak other Indian dialects as well as Spanish. They are the Cartel essentially. There is about 5 different places like this around us, and it's crazy to think about. But don't worry, i'm safe.

I know that I have the power of the Lord.  I know that I walk in his footsteps and do the same things that Christ did while he was on the earth. So, i'll just call an angel to protect us if we get into trouble ;) I kid, but I really do have that much faith in the power of the Lord and the work that I am doing. 

Anyway, Tuesday nada happened. I have been writing in my journal though.

Wednesday, we had bacon cheeseburgers at Rosa Arouras house, the rich member, because she loves me and asked what my favorite food was. Elders Beardsly, Nickerel and Reyes were super happy that I asked for burgers! ;)

Thursday nothing again, really, and Friday nothing again. except the girl we just baptized, Valentina, she gets mad every time we come by to visit her sister now so IDK whats up with that. Also, Lucero, her sister, is doing better. I think we will be able to baptize her this next week. We found out her God Mother doesn't want her to get baptized, so that has been holding her back., Her god mother is Catholic, but doesn't even practice. She never goes to church, but doesn't want Lucero to go to the Mormon church. She seems like a hypocrite! I guess she just had a miscarriage about a month ago, and she was 5 months pregnant. So, were going to teach the God Mother about eternal families. We hope that helps.

I've been studying the crap out of my Book of Mormon! I'm making what I call, "The Omnipotent BOM" It has every note from the BOM made easier books that I got from grandpa as well as notes from Jesus the Christ and notes from elder Beardsly's BOM. I've added notes from some other good church books as well. 

It's awesome.

Anyway, Saturday nothing happened again. We just worked. Sunday we taught the Sunday school class for the teenagers, SUPER FUNNY!!

No more scorpions to report this week, because it has been raining a ton! But, I've almost caught an iguana a couple of times, and this week I'M GONNA GET HIM!! He hangs out in all the same places so its easy gonna be EASY!

The other night, it was raining, and we were inside doing our planning, and we saw a frog in the road! So I ran out into the rain, and caught him! It turns out, he had bright yellow stripes and a blue belly, not your normal frog. I think it was probably poisonous. I guess it's a good thing I didn't eat him ;) I haven't felt sick, so I think i'm OK.

Well, the whole poison frog thing got me thinking, and talking with Elder Beardsly. So, we know if we die in the mission field, doing to the Lord's work, we gain the Kingdom of God. Unless of course, we're being stupid and doing dumb things. So I wondered, does that count as stupid?

I can just see me up in Heaven, and some guy is like "Hey" and i'm like "Hey. How'd you die?" and he's like "oh I was murdered, what about you?" an i'm like Oh...umm.... well I touched a frog...... pretty dumb way to die" ;)

Hopefully this coming week will be more interesting, and I will have more to report.

Thanks for all you do, and I love you all very much! Thank you for the prayers and the support! I feel them.

If you all have time, you should read chap 22 of 2 Nephi. I'ts awesome and short. Love you all and be safe and have a great week!!!

Para siempre dios este con vos!

Love,

Jake (Elder Dansie)

Beware of Scorpions in the shower

Hey Moma and Papa Bear!!

Sad, I didn't get any emails today, but i'm sure ya'll were busy! ;)

Wow this week has been crazy!!! I forgot to tell you that we had the babtism of Lucero last week in the river!!! It was fun!!!

As of right now, we have 0 progressing investigators, and 0 baptismal dates and the members are being baby's about helping us and supporting the activity were going to have. The activity where we have an open house and tour of the church with a American breakfast, french toast and hash browns!!! Thanks Dad!!!

Also, on Friday we had an interview on the radio for our activity, and to tell who the Mormons are with Hermano Joel, he's awesome!! He knows like 5 languages and is a pilot and writes and plays music and teaches kids how to do all that stuff and he does service for kids with cancer in the hospital every weekend. He's great!!! We also have another radio interview on the 18th!!!

The website where you can listen to it is impactoradioFM.mex.tl

Then you can hear my Spanish!!! Tell everyone!! It will be at 8 pm here so IDK what that is there.

Monday we went to Arriage and played soccer with the Latinos.

We were coming back from Arriaga and we got stopped by the solders! The other Elders were like.. "oh its only the customs officers who check immigration you're fine" ( cuz i was illegal for about 3 days) then a customs officer got on the bus!!! I was freaking out and thinking oh shiz.. So I said two little prayers that I would be kept safe and kept from being arrested and deported! It's probably the most ironic thing ever, an american worrying about being deported to the States from Mexico..........

So I was standing in the isle, and as the officer got close I just knew he was gonna pick me cuz I was standing and didn't have a seat. And he walked right up to me and then turned to Elder Jenson who was sitting right next to me!! He asked him for his identification, and the he left!!! He only checked Elder Jenson!

Tuesday we just walked. Wednesday we went to Tuxtla at freaking 5 in the morning for immigration. I got up and showered and left the bathroom. Then Elder Beardsly went in and was like "Elder ther'es a huge scorpion!!" and I was like "where?" I had just showered and didn't see anything!

It was in this hole between the tile and wall about 6 feet up where the tile stopped. We touched it with this big kitchen knife, and it came out!! and then we went to get his shoes to knock it down and stab it, and when we came back and it was gone! 

So he threw water down the hole and sprayed some of my deet in the hole and nothing happend. So then he's like, "ok i'm gonna shower". Now, mind you, its like 4:30 AM... when I hear him yell " ELDER!!" the scorpion had came back out of the hole and attacked him while he was pooping! So then Elder Beardsly yells the famous quote that he will never live down...  " This isn't cool! It's 4:30AM I have a poop in the toilet, I have to shower and catch a bus and there's a giant scorpion trapping me in my bathroom!!!" LOL

I laughed so hard, then i knocked it down and killed the sucker! I have him in a bow with my other 3. (Yes I have a collection)

We went to Tuxtla and when we go  to Arriaga we were going to be late for the bus, so Elder Beardsly prayed that we could make it on time. When got there, we found out that our bus had already left but it had broken down about 100 yards outside of the gate! We made it!!! So then we went to Tuxtla and had McDonald's and came back home. The evil scorpion did not ruin our day.

Friday we had the radio interview and 1000's of people were listening! It was epic and we got 100's of comments and questions!! It was awesome!!!

But, we still have no progressing investigators or baptismal dates. Were gonna keep working though!!!

I love you all and thanks so much for your support!! Until next week, remember that everything is possible with the Lord, and he does protect his children. He is always there for us, and the atonement and priesthood always will work for us. We just have to have faith.

I love you all,

Jake

Oh P.S. I forgot to tell you 2 more cool things!!

A member when know  Hermano Lexxmy, his godmother and godfather were murdered, shot in the head!  And since the day it happened, he has been seeing angels at night! So... that's crazy.

And another Hermano, Juan Diego, an investigator, we taught him about the BOM. Then a while after, he told us that he had a vison, like a dream!! The dream was of two guys on white horses who led him to another guy who had a big white beard.

He was standing in front of a huge door with crazy designs on it. Then the guy with the big white beard reached out and gave him (Juan Diego) a big hug. He said that he felt so warm! But, he went to work somewhere and hasn't been around for like a week. So we haven't taught him again.

Anyway, that's all. Love you!!!

Jake's First Baptism Lucero (on left)

Hey Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 5 -We are way behind on getting this posted. More fun stories from Jake! We are happy he is doing well!

Hey everyone!!!!!!

I'm glad you're all having a good week :) I'M GLAD THIS WEEK WENT BY FAST MOM!!! AND I'M SORRY MY PICTURES SCARE YOU!!! THERE ARE SOME THINGS HERE THAT SCARE ME BUT I JUST buck up and take it. Sorry about the caps lock I hit it accidentally, and now i'm too lazy to retype, so sorry :P

Thanks so much for you're support always.

Hannah, I haven't gotten the new missionary man yet, maybe in the next meeting I will because my mail goes to the office, and the secretaries are supposed to deliver it when they see us, which is never!!

How is Kenzie doing? How is school for you girls?Ii hope everything is doing good :)

How's Meeko and Maggie and Max??? Do we think Meeko is going to be around when i get home? I hope so!

It's ok about my camera, i'm gonna make Elder Beardsly take a bunch of pictures and steal some from him! 

Now i'm going to tell you the crazy things from this week :P

We've had lessons but not very many because Latinos are notorious for forgetting appointments. and were loosing investigators like crazy. Can I also say I hate Spanish keyboards? Dumb things.

Monday, nothing really happened, Tuesday pretty much the same, Wednesday we had our reunion de districo as always, and that was boring as always. Church meetings still put me to sleep, So I have to work at it to stay awake.:P 

After that, we had some friend chicken at the Sister member's house who owns the Micro and is rich, she feeds us and the zone leaders every Wednesday and this Sunday she asked me what I wanted to eat Wednesday, so were gonna have bacon cheeseburgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday just went by without much happening, and Friday kinda the  same. The days mix together when they're boring when nothing new happens. Saturday we invited Hermana Irisema to be baptized again, shes an amazing lady, her husband Oscer is a stud!!! We call him the Big O or Osc sauce, he's a recent convert and her two younger daughters have been members for years her third isn't. But, she said no because she wanted to get her own answer and wants to learn more even though she knows everything. Sadly she didn't come to church yesterday after going 3 weeks in a row.  

Sunday was alright, slow but alright. We announced our idea for an open house with an all american breakfast. We are going to have a tour of the church, and we're going to cook french toast and hash browns!!! It's gonna be sweet!!!! We're also going to have 3 legged races, bobbing for apples, the egg and spoon race, and musical chairs and horseshoes. The members are stoked, and we're getting it around. The breakfast was idea of Dad's from his mission and so it's what were doing!! ;)

Today we had a multi-zone activity where we got to play sports with everyone from 8 AM to 2 PM it was awesome!!! My first time playing soccer with Latinos and they're crazy!!! they can all do crazy tricks then there's the white guys in my zone and the other zone just tripping and missing the ball. It was super funny! then we played basketball and I wrecked ;) white man's sport ;) J/K. Elder Lopez is an elder in my zone who works in a place called Zapanatapec, no not Zanatapec, its different. and he always wants to wrestle me so today I showed him some stuff, since we cant wrestle :P Any way, now i'm staring at my email thinking , wow, did I bleed all over my computer screen?? Oh, no it's just spell check because my computer hates English. Oh well!! That's all.

I love ya'll very much!!! Thank you so much for you're support and thank you for everything you have ever done for me. My friends as well, I know that I have some great examples to me out there, and I know you've all done great things to help me in my life. I only have three more things to say.

Taylor Burke, get your FREAKING papers in!!

Lex Border, email me!

Sumner Grierson, email me!!! 

And finally, anyone else who wants to email me please do as well :)

I love you all!!!!

buenos suerte con todo en sus vidas y tienen seguridad y salud.

entonces, la proximo lunes,

para siempre dios este con vos!!

Missionaries in his District (with Mission President in the middle front row)