first baptisms ... and a Happy New Year

aright, so christmas. wow. snowless. quite odd.

first, tomorrow are changes! I am gonna stay in the same area with an Elder merendez or something like that, I think he is from argentina.

I am listening to alex's solo over and over again in the video mom sent me! voice of an angel that one. We gotta make a barber shop quartet with alex and mckay and mom, you gotta have another kid, we aren't complete yet! and we all know kevin can't sing. he will be the pretty face for the album cover.

for christmas from the mission we got a book of the history of the church in paraguay, I can't wait to read it.

I also got a christmas card from the first presidency. Hah. Eat that.

for christmas we did the normal schedule in the morning, then ate lunch in our house so we had time to open my presents (Herreras haven't come yet, poor guy). Then we called our families! so short. Too short. It was just like saying goodbye again sorta. It was great though.

We also did a choir as our zone and sung christmas songs in a park for a bunch of people. It was fun!

christmas eve was the real party. It was like the whole world was right in the middle of the biggest loudest firework show ever. THings blowing up everywhere. Hardly not of them had lights however. just the noise. all night. They don't sleep the night of christmas eve. almost everyone is drunk however. That must be how santa comes in to give them presents, because they won't remember.

We had special permission to be out til 11 30 christmas eve and new years eve we will be able to as well. super cool. we were and will be in houses of members however.

a few days ago we were in a bus crash! just a nice fender bender, no injuries other than the vehicles. But the poor driver of the bus that wasn't at fault still had to reimberse everyone on the bus for their fare. Poor guy.

OH, my christmas presents were being able to talk to me fam, ipod and speakers!!! pjs which I loved, my evergrowing pez collection, candy, and shoe insoles that will help my feet be more beautiful upon the dirt. Thank you family!

so we were preparing cleto and nelida for their baptism saturday and we thought they needed paperwork that they actually didn't need, but they went in all the way to asuncion and spent almost all their money to be able to get it. We felt horrible!!

Ok so now is their baptism!! They got married and baptized saturday!!

They walked 8 kilometers to get to their baptism. They didn't have enough money to pay the bus ride to get to the church. And we had no idea. They are soooo cool like that.

so before all this we filled the font, but it was super nasty, super yellow. lemonade. We tried to drain it all be the drain didn't work. so we got all the missionaries there to help us bail out this font with trash cans. and poor Elder Horrocks. What a guy. He was filling it and splash!! He falls in!!! soaked head to toe! Good thing he didn't have the phone on him! He stayed in there and helped us out a ton from in there. What a stud! Haha sooo funny.

I was able to baptize cleto and nelida! my firsts ever! It was great. We are going to baptize marcelo next week btw, if yall are keeping up on the whats up.

I also had made some delicious sugar cookies and brownies from my moms recipies! They all loved them, they couldn't stop eating them. They would come back and say, I need 3 cookies one for me, one for my wife, and one for me hahahaha super funny.

Haha hermana nelida told me that I could baptize a hippo hahahahahaha I thought that was sooooo funny even though I assured her that she isn't fat hahahaha.

so I have found out that the mission nurse found my blog! she told me how great my letters were home, how proud she was of me for my good letters! Haha! love her, she's so funny. We are good friends. Her name is Hermana fuller. she's the best! I am not only saying that because she might read this... hahaha

Oh another interesting story, my comp had to get a shot for something, and a member who was trained and fully qualified to do all this was going to give him it. Well halfway through he passed out. I here from the other room, simpson! simpson!! so I run in to see the member amalio holding my Elder Herrera, so I helped him put him in the chair, and thats where he woke up. only like 10 seconds max he was out. He thought he was out for 20 minutes! haha he felt like he was in the spirit world, he said he saw a bunch of youth, and thats it. Haha he was alright, just scared, and the shot was strong. Needless to say we got pills for him instead. 

But the really funny part is that when he fell, he hit his head on the very thick area book, and not the desk corner! I now have a testimony of the area book hahaha!

Haha well thats all, I wish you all a happy new year! crazy week this week.

mom, I enjoy reading the clips of grandpas mission journal! keep sending those.

love you all, happy 2014!

love elder jake simpson

Yesterday already passed, tomorrow will never arrive. Our life is full of TODAYs, so live each day alive!

quote from me

These are Nelida and cleto. This is their wedding!

 

 This is their baptism! I got to do it! my first and hopefully not last! Haha

 she's wet

 he's wet too

 

 Poor Elder Horrocks. What a trooper. He fell in helping bail out the font when the drain failed.

  

Us bailing out the font.

 

me and my presents by the tree!

 Us with our stockings!

 (we sent a stocking to Elder Herrera as well)

 This is a sick dragon someone made out of a bunch of tires. and yes that is my elbow. don't ask me how it got in the picture.

 This is the basic nativity scene. This one is pretty big. I saw bigger. But everyone at least has one.

Feliz Navidad

Skyping with Jake on Christmas Day!

2013 - 1st Christmas in Paraguay

Family Time - Priceless!

Dish soap? Shampoo? Whatever!!!

Ok so I forgot my book that I write everything down to write to yall, so I will try to remember everything.

I am very excited to talk to my family on wednesday! I got my skype account set up before I saw the email from mom and lauren, dad has it. so no worries.

I will call about 10 in the morning your time.

Yeah kevin told me he was going to korea! super cool.

I love all the pics of snow. looks so fun!! cool sculptures as well!

I was emailed by shannons girls this week! Thanks to all them who wrote me! I loved the letters!

I got a few letters this week. One from a little girl in our ward who I honestly didn't even know! IT was fun. One from my best sister ever, the most faithful in handwritten letters than any other sister before! love those. One from rachel Uryan! cool to hear from her, laurie, you will have to get me her email.

Thanks to grandma and grandpa simpson for the money for christmas! It will also go towards my super cool scripture cases I am getting, I can't wait to show you all.

Thanks to alex for putting in my bowl game guesses, lemme know when I win.

mom, don't worry, I will hog the airheads.

To answer a question, yes we eat food off the street a lot, an empanada is super cheap, like 75 cents. maybe a mayanesa sandwich, which is like a thin fried chicken breast. I have eaten burger king a time or two, haven't gotten to the pizza hut yet.

I held a baby duck. It was cute.

there is a gatorade here that is apple flavored. Its actually pretty good.

I did a division for a day with the zone leader elder phippen and it was great, it really strengthened my confidence in my ability as a missionary.

We ran out of dish soap, so we used shampoo. It worked just fine! Hahaha

I tried to make frosting, but I don't have shortning, it doesn't exist here, so it wasn't very good. send me a nice big can of shortning will ya? never thought I would be asking for that...

I saw the christmas devotional in spanish yesterday, super cool! reminded me of last year when I was actually there with laurie! Good times...

so with the couple who was going to get married, they weren't quite ready but it for sure will happen this saturday! and marcelo came to church again and brought his little brother bruno, so we are planning to baptize marcelo saturday too! 3 in one day! and we have a bunch more that are progressing for the following weeks. Its super exciting to see the fruits of these last two months! Glad to see these people finally taking that first step.

Well I don't remember any more. But hey, I love you all, have a very merry christmas. Remember, don't be one of the "inn" crowd, but be one of the "stable" few!

can't wait to talk to my family! for everyone else, enjoy it! I hope it snows a boatload.

love you all, remember the ultimate gift of christmas, that God gave His own Son so that we all can live together for eternity, with inexplicable happiness with no end. What better gift could you ask this christmas?

love you all, thank you for all your support as always.

Your less than freezing missionary, Elder jake

 

 Our Christmas lights - they are purple.

 This is exactly what my mom wanted to see. This little guy that has been living with us. a good 2 inch long cockroach! We found it after we sprayed down our stuff good with the crazy bug killing stuff. It works good.

This is us and a member on the left, Hma fatima, and two investigators, Hma adelaida and carina. We discovered carina when she came home from argentina, she is the sister of marcelo, lujan, and bruno. she is super interested. This is after the christmas devotional.

 

 

We thought this was cool.

Merry Christmas!

Dreaming of a white Christmas!

I'm dreaming of a white christmas, just like the ones I used to know. Please send snow, and investigators, and presents under the treeeeeee.

Haha hey everyone! sup?

Ok I am gonna tell you all about my week, REady??

I was sick.

and that's all.

I really was sick all week, I got a stomach flu that has been going around I suppose, so I came to know the bathroom wall and the ceiling above my bed quite well. We are now good friends.

I am getting better now. No worries. It's quite ironic, we had the most investigators in church that we have ever had, 4! and the highest attendance, 104! and a bunch of less actives. super ironic that the week we don't work we have the most success....

The family alvarenga, (the family of marcelo) I don't know what happened. They haven't been to church in weeks. They were soo good!! We gotta get marcelo baptized, then his siblings, then their mom. just one more attendance for marcelo!!

Our 4 investigators that did come are cleto and his wife nelida, a couple about 45 years old, their 16 year old son and his cousin. The couple have 3 attendances, and they are incredible. We are going to teach them every day this week, get them married on saturday and baptize them right after. They are great. We have hardly taught them anything, because of being sick and such, so we go work to do with them! But they are solid. Reference from a less active brother we are working with, hopefully they can boost each other and both get to the temple! solid!!

Skype this christmas!! I am pretty sure we are going to call on christmas day, but I am not sure what time yet. so email me what skype account or whatever I need to do to be able to call for christmas. Thanks, can't wait! Btw, I sent a letter home for christmas, I hope you all will get it by then.

Ok, so I realize that the bowl games are coming up soon, so here are my picks.

for me, pick the team whose campus is the closest to the location of the actual bowl game. But all teams from utah trump, I vote for Utah, Byu, utah state, and team from utah who makes it.

Thank you.

Ok so here are my guesses for what my presents are based on the scriptures that I was given as a hint.

matt 4 19 swedish fish

2 ne 17 20 razor

d and c 1 38 new era

d and c 29 39 candy

d and c 82 14 through 15 duct tape

dand c 84 109 slippers or socks

matt 25 35 food or candy

2 ne 13 6 clothes

That is all. Wow I am done early this week... I didn't have very much to write I suppose. 

I am emailing matt fletcher! I guess he is getting rained on and doesn't speak laotian very much. shame. my homecoming testimony is gonna sound cooler than his!! haha just kidding, but serious, I want to be able to bear my testimony in Guarani. and pray at least. That would be the bees knees.

Next transfer will be in 2 weeks, and I most likely will get a new companion. I might even have to train, which will be scary if that happens! But hey, I decided that if I train I am gonna great my kid (missionary I will train) and convince him that I am from scotland. I just wanna convince someone that I am from scotland. What's the capital of scotland? I gotta know these facts to pull it off. I can't just keep saying homeland. But yeah, maybe I will just only speak in a scottish accent whenever I speak in English from now on. That'd be fun. We'll see.

Well yall are just great, thanks for all your support! love you all!

Until next time, christmas eves eve. I hope it snows enough for you all to make a snowmissionary. just an idea kevin, mckay, and alex.

love elder jake

 

Jake is in the upper left corner of these photo's

 

 

100 days and counting!

Wow I have been out here for longer than I thought. It goes fast.

mom, that's soo funny that you have been stalking Hermana Hunt, what does she say thats more descriptive? Y'all know that I ain't no good talker of this here language merican.

alex. I would like rachel sandorfs email please. Thank you.

We got a little christmas tree and lights and stuff! We also got a ceiling fan in our room. The little things that makes life so wonderful.

mom, I took out about 20 bucks today from the christmas gift of grandma, I am gonna buy some sweet scripture covers. Thanks Grandma k!

my belt started to break the other day, so I bought electric tape and wrapped it completely. super cool, and pretty resourceful I thought.

I bought "horse carrots" and thought of my fam, cuz there aren't baby carrots here. but no worries, they taste the same haha

some guy told me to say hi to obama. so when yall see him, give him my best regards.

I got my christmas packages! I look forward to opening my presents and guessing with the scriptures on them!

THank you for the tree, I have a pic that yall need to see on the blog of it. It made me quite a happy missionary.

Thank you for pictures, I always love pictures!

Pretzals were deliciously salty, and the chocolate pretzals equally sublime.

my comp says thanks for the stocking for him too!

thanks for the recipies, I am gonna make cookies someday if I ever have time.

I loved the gingerbread ornament, it really did smell and remind me of home.

Thank you to everyone for the letters as well, its amazing how much more it touches me out here to get a letter from my grandma or sister or cousins. Thank you all, I cherish every one.

mom, yes we got a conference liahona in English to read.

you bet I popped all the bubble wrap in my package.

Weird tradition here, everyone for a few days walk to this city a ways away. like overnight many of them. hoard the street. They walk for the cause to help heal someone or something of that effect. I respect their faith, even if it isn't in the right Person.

Incredible experience the other day. We were gonna go build a house of this lady. There was a big storm and this poor lady basically had her house collapse on her. she has to be 70 or 80. anyways she is living with neighbors and is ok, just mentally scarred a little. But we had this planned activity to go and do this project. so that morning we woke up early and I had a terrible feeling about it. I couldn't explain it. I expressed my concern with my comp who did not feel the same way. so we called president to ask what to do, because I could see no logical reason not to go. It was going to help immensely. He basically told us to pray together and figure it out. we decided after prayer to go, and just be cautious. We get there and get a phone call from President, he says, are you guys building? I told him yes, he said, good, I know why you felt to call me this morning. I have been wanting to do service with my family, can we come and help for a few hours?

Now you have to understand, being a president of over 400 missionaries, as well as an hour and a half distance between us and his family, this is quite a unique circumstance. His whole family came, I got to know them better which was great. To be honest we probably didn't help the guy who was building the house too much because of our inexperience, but it was nice to be a part of it.

after however, we invited them to meet a family that we had just activated, the familia acosta. The hermano acosta had written a letter for the president about a week before telling him how the missionaries had helped him and his family and President had read this letter to every one of the missionaries in the mission, to help boost them to work with inactive and less active members. so of course he said yes, and we went with president and his family all of us in work clothes to meet them. You should have seen their faces. It helped strengthen them soo much. Ever since this family has been so much more spiritually inclined before temporally. They only had great things to say about us as their missionaries (thank goodness) and it was an incredible visit. It's incredible how God can link all these things together and make things work out how they need to.

Well I love you all, especially my family. I have realized the incredible love I have for my family. I apologize to the rest of my friends who read this, yall are great and I love you all very much and appreciate your support, but I have realized how important the family is. I love you all. let me leave you with this quote.

You can count the seeds in a single apple, but you can't count the apples in a single seed.

This is soo true of missionary work.

I love you all, tune in next week.

from your ever sweating elder, Elder jake simpson

 

 This is what our bedroom looks like! and that fan is all we had to keep cool at night until we got got an overhead fan this week! some missionaries have air conditioning. we have mosquitoes and  hot air blowing around. living the life!

 This is what our kitchen/study room looks like!

 me and my sweet olimpia shirt!! and new watch! side note, sorry that I didn't make my bed mom...

 This is my wall, lots of quotes, and not in this picture now includes more quotes and christmas cards from fam and cousins! If you look close at the map in the middle far right of the pic, its upside down. don't ask my why he did it that way

 These things are everywhere and as big as a softball

This is our little christmas tree, this was before I got the object in the next photo...

The christmas tree my fam sent!! Thank you mom for being so creative.

**comments from Mom - I came across a sister missionary's blog who turned out to be Hermana Hunt who is serving in the same city as Jake. It is fun to read his version of events and then hers. She is in the pink and Jake is behind her. They were in the MTC together. She said, "Elder Simps is a big nerd, but he is cool and watching out for me since we are the only two Americans in our area right now." She said the two of them try to play piano for the branch on Sundays.

 Ultimate Frisbee with District - Photo from Hermana Hunt

Elder Jake, his Companion Elder Herrera and Hermana Hunt with the other sisters from their area. (Itagua) Photo by Hermana Hunt

 

Taylor Swift and Tropical Storms

These Mondays come so fast.

No pics today, bad computer.

A lot of the work right now is with less active and new converts. There are less active members everywhere that havent been to church in years, arent ever sure what church they were baptized into.

People accept us quite easily, anyone in fact. They just say at the end of the lesson, I am Catholic, it's my culture and my family, we respect you but we don't want to join your church. You have your church, we have ours. This is the rejection we get. Super soft. But we have a lot that sincerely want to follow Christ, just most don't want to do anyhting about it. There is some bias against the USA, I had a guy ask me where I was from, and I said US, and he said, Boom boom. Like a bomb. It wasn't me I say. I was also shown a video of a song making fun of the attack of the twin towers. A lot of people down here were quite pleased when that happened aparently. There is a strong bias that the US thinks its better than everyone and goes and starts wars with everyone, and enters any country they want with their stores and stuff. It's hard to defer these biases, but I try to avoid them.

Those are some sweet gingerbread houses, ships, and horses you all made! But I will be quite clear. The Reign of the Gingerbread Castle has not been overthrown.

All the Thanksgiving festivities and such sound so fun! I am sad to have missed them, however I will gladly sacrifice. 

So a little tender mercy this week, we fell upon a nice brownie recipe, and so we made them with members like 3 different times. MMMmmmm good. And no, I did not put too much salt in them this time. 

Here are some more English words that they use here. Super, extra, and one that is quite funny because they think it is Guarani, Grapefruit. Super random.

WEll I did my weigh in that I am gonna do every transfer cycle, and I have now gained 15 lbs since I left. And it has absolutly nothing to do with the following story.

It was Elder Herrera's Birthday yesterday, and he wasn't shy about letting everyone know. So in the last few days I am sure I have eaten half a cake all by myself. They are actually quite good down here.

I would like to announce the End of the 5 day reign of Dirty Socks. I got all my clothes back, although I think I am missing a few pairs of pants, but I am ok for now.

So no, there is no thanksgiving here, however, there is black friday. Super odd.

I have now discovered that the mustache shirts have made it to paraguay. Super funny.

WE finally got 100 people in our sacrament meeting! We are growing!

Funny thing about sacrament meeting here is that the parents let the children roam free. 10 kids running around the aisles, jumping off pews, it's always quite exciting with investigators in church.

So usually when I show people the pictures of all my family and friends, they always pick someone that they are convinced is my girlfriend. Every missionary has a girlfriend I guess to them. So I have come up with a solution. Instead of telling them that I don't have one, I tell them that I do have one, her name is Taylor Swift. The kids laugh cuz they know her, so I tell them that she doesn't know yet. and the adults just believe me. It settles their minds and they don't ask anymore.

So yesterday was a fun storm, reminded me half of the other side of heaven, and half of the windstorm in Bountiful a year or two ago. A bunch of trees down, our power has been off and on, mostly off. Exciting stuff. But the road was full of water, I would have taken pics, but my camera was dead and I couldn't charge it cuz the power was out.

Well that's all I really have for this week. I have been sorta sick, so my comp has been stressed because our numbers aren't good. But I got meds from the nurse, which really just reversed the symptoms for a day then finally got better. I am all good now. Just hot. I pretty much sweat all the time. Super humid. Super hot. But hey, this is Paraguay! 

Love you all, study the scriptures by topics, you can learn soooo much.

From the heat to the snow, Love Elder Jake

ok, now 3 months

I realized that I was a little hasty last week in saying 3 months. Now its 3 months.

so I don't know if thanksgiving is this week or the last, but they don't celebrate it here. In fact, when I tried to explain it to someone they didn't understand why we stuffed ourselves and watch football to give thanks. shes got a point.

To answer questions. last week I went into the office, so when I was there I plugged in my pendrive to the computer to download the 1000 songs they have. I am just using my comps speakers.

I didn't have a conversation with Elder Rigby, so I have not told him about how my mother stalked him. Yes I talked to Elder mcswain about the bangerters! I was like, yeah they are in my ward! me and emily are friends! He was like, isn't she like 13? Haha funny stuff. 

so mom, about that time our for women thing, how in the world did you get grandma to hold up that fake mustache???? hahahahahahahahahaha sooooooo funny!!!

so I tried my home debit card this week, and it worked. I withdrew about 25 bucks. so lemme know if someone is coming down to arrest me for fraud or anything.

so we have been having problems with getting our clothes back from the people who wash them. let's just say I have been wearing the same pair of socks for 4 days now. Yeah. haha

There is a word here that they use to mean child, creatura. literal translation means creature. so like, the creatures are playing outside. super funny.

lauren, thank you for the letters! I got a bunch more this week! Including the Rm application which made me and many other people laugh very hard.

so mom, I am sorry, I don't wear my seatbelt here. That's only because there is never anything to clip it into. None work. I apologize.

Ok, so there was a wedding and baptism of the other missionaries in our ward this week! super cool! Only like 35 people were there, it was in the church gym, and the only decorations were some boquets and a heart made out of balloons. It was really more of a formality, seeing as they already have kids who are adults. The wedding favors included hotdogs, and sprite. Elegance at its finest.

so I had a cool experience this week. I was sitting in a lesson teaching the Restoration, and whenever we teach this lesson satan always sends a distraction, a crying baby, anything. This time it was in the form of a barking dog. for half of the lesson this dog was barking and making noise. finally I thought to myself to do something, and I knew that it was good, so I had the faith, probably not fully, to do it. I turned and said to the dog, in English, Be still. That's all I said. and you know what? That dog did not bark nor make one noise for the rest of the lesson. Incredible. I am just grateful to my Father in Heaven for showing me that I do have the power and authority to act in the name of christ, and I grew such a greater respect for this divine calling I am on. Truly, even though no one saw, this was a miracle for me.

Happy anniversary on the 30th mom and dad! Whatre you at, 25?

Here is a lot like West Bountiful. Everyone is related somehow. super funny.

so I had a good trade this week. I traded this guy named jose my watch that he really wanted for his classic, 50 dollar Olimpia jersey. Then I went and bought a cool white watch for 5 bucks. Haha good trade right? Its a super cool jersey, I took a pic, I will send it later.

I had a lesson in English! This guy is a less active member and he teaches English and studies it. His english is probably as good as my spanish. But he wanted to speak in English! so we talked about the tree of life, and it was fun to be the lead companion for once, and to be able to say what I want to say! It was super weird at first, I kept wanting to go into spanish!! funny.

so in spanish there are words that they just use in English, and some are random.

chance (pronounced wrong, but still English)

look (as in my look is a white shirt and tie)

break, as in lets take a break for a while

fetch, among members this is popular because of north american missionaries

okay. everyone says ok.

so on the buses, the collectivos, there are people that try to sell you stuff. candy, food, magazines, beer (which they call leche, or milk), jewlery, coloring books, you name it. some even pass out the candy, then you have to wait til they return so you can give them it back, because if you eat it, you pay for it. Haha it should be illegal. But hey, its funny.

Well I love you all, thanks for all the support you all give me! I pray for your safety and happiness. 

Remember how powerful the Book of mormon is. If this book is true, our whole church is true. If this book is true, everything we say and do is true. This is fundemental to everything we teach. Without a testimony of the Book of mormon we just cannot gain a testimony of anything else. It's important.

Yall are great, hope you enjoyed the show, until next time...

Elder jake

 

 

This was the district for the first change.

from left to right, Elder hathaway, Breton, me, funk, Herrera being dumb, and wing, who is home now.

Hermana willis, alania, sanchez, tomco, santos, puac, linares, hunt, and villanueva above hunt.

 

 This is such a great picture.

 

 

 my Halloween package!! oh the joy! It was all gone in like 3 days.

Cows in the street and watermelon on heads

Wow. 3 months. Unreal. It has not been that long.

So great about Zayah!! I am super proud of him. That made me so happy!

Well I don't have many questions to answer, which is ok, I have stuff to write. Always. Sorry for no pics again.

First of all, random cows roam the street. We try to avoid them because some have some nice horns.

I spitshined my shoes the other day real quick on the way out the door and my comp was super confused. I had to explain to him what spitshining was. He asked me if I do the same thing with my hair. Haha super funny, I never thought it would be so weird. He also has all these presumptuous thoughts about the USA from movies and reality tv, that all kids spit at their parents and all rebel all crazy and stuff. I try to tell him that reality tv is really the crazies, but he assures me that he "knows what the US is like" and that Utah is probably just different. Silly him.

I got music!! Oh how is sooths my soul. I love it.

We saw a lady walking with a watermelon balancing on her head. Super cool.

The culture here is very Catholic, and they believe in a bunch of Virgins and the Child Jesus mostly. It's hard cuz its their culture, so when we ask them to change, we are asking them to shirk their culture. Its hard.

I bought a hymnbook! then lost it... Rats.

We had the meeting with Christofferson! He spoke in perfect Spanish! Wow. I got to shake his hand! I also asked him a question, I asked him how the Gospel had helped him in his life. It was weird cuz everyone else asked about investigators or how to teach, but I just wanted to know that!

I met Elders McSwain and Rigby! Super cool guys.

Its funny in the mornings when its like 60 degrees and everyone has beanies and coats. Haha silly Paraguayans think its cold.

Super cool member Baptism this week. We filled the font, but the water looked like lemonade. So we cleaned it out and filled it again, grabbing buckets and filling in sinks to hurry it up. Super funny and fun! She will have a great story to tell.

Well I gotta go, it is short this week, I didn't have my full 2 hours. 

WEll remember everyone that Jesus Christ suffered for us one by one. One by one he felt our pains, one by one he suffered our guilts, one by one he thought of us in the Garden. He loves us. 

With all my imperfect yet sincere love for you all, Elder Jake

In the groove now

so I feel like I just was here! Wow so fast. I feel like I just left the airport. Boy how much more confident I feel however.

I always forget what I have already said in these letters, sorry if I repeat anything ever.

so I see it is snowing! I miss snow. I wanna go sledding. Oh good times. I remember all my extreme sledding injuries. Oh those were the days.

more packages!! Yay! I like those. They make me happy.

I am talking to Noah a touch more now, he had told me stuff about it. Its fun to talk to him super shortly.

Its fun to here about all these things! jackie getting home.. crazy sauce. cassi in china? wow. Thats super cool, I can't wait to see the list of the missions of people. How is casey doing on his mission stuff?

so the guy who had ants crawl on his feet is named vidal. super cool guy. We asked him what is the book of mormon? he said, True! haha he just has a problem getting to church. But he knows so much, he has read more in the Book of mormon than most of the members here.

laurie clark, happy birthday this week, I am sorry I forgot what day exactly, but I am pretty sure its this week.

I got a letter from one rachel sandorf this week! If this one rachel sandorf would kindly email me we could talk much more easily. Thanks Rach!

mom, in my bucket of stuff in the bottom I belief I have my prayer rug from forever ago. The next time you send something, could you send that? That'd be lovely. I would love that.

my comp is a convert since 10, but really he says he was a punk and not active good member til 18. he is 20 now, a year into his mission. He is from a more rich part of columbia, I think his family is quite wealthy actually. I havent seen his letters or packages if he has gotten them. His fam are all members I think.

I will send pictures slowly, I gotta do it in order so I don't miss any I wanted to send. I am slowly catching up. I have taken pics of the apartment and stuff, but I havent sent them. also, we don't take cameras out proselyting cuz well, a tall well dressed american with a camera is a big target for people who lack sufficient funds.

so to tell you all how it is here, I will be quite plain and clear. It has been the hardest 5 weeks of my life. But I have grown so much more confident. I know the lord works for the best, and sometimes I feel like I am being put through the ringer. But hey, I have a ways to go right? Insert winky face here.

The truth is, most of the stress relief I had at home isn't here. I have had to learn new ways. I can't go talk to alex, I can't shoot hoops with mckay, I can't sit and play guitar, I can't listen to kevins comedianisms, I can't text friends, I can't even just stop to rest in my bed most of the time. That is the hardest part about out here. learning new ways of relieving stress. like working harder. Oh the faith that I lack still sometimes. my God knows me. He knows my lazy tendencies. It's for the best. 

come what may, and love it.

Whats it like at home without me? less stress? are you saving tons of money on cheesesticks and pretzals and frosting?

may I touch on the subject of the incredible strength of my mother.

let me just say, that I have not seen a stronger woman in the world than my mother. When she got called to be the Relief society Pres and then a few weeks later got diagnosed with cancer, I wasn't sure how she was going to take it. When surgeries followed and she couldn't do very much for a while, she still made cards for the people who gave us food and snacks and treats. she still talked to sis mckenzie and helped her. she came to soccer games, climbed hills, all these things she did to support her family and friends when really she was the one who needed the support. along with other experiences that she has been through with different things, I am so proud of my mom. she is an incredible woman. sorry mom, I am sure you cannot read this far because your vision is going blurry, if I know you at all. my mom really is my hero. I never really have had a hero until now, but I look back and see all that she and so many other people have done for me and I am just incredibly grateful. 

You all are the reason I am here. You helped me to get here. Now I am here and I get to do the same for others. What a blessing it is.

sidenote, whats Bishop salmons email? thanks.

Ok, back to life in Paraguay.

dogs. there are like 5 per household. crazy. they breed like no other.

I created an Excel sheet for references the other day. Who knew computer tech would come in handy?

modesty is a huge issue here. The men don't wear shirts a lot, the women really arent modest either. You can tell who the mormons are in the street.

can you send some magic korean no itch stuff? Is there any? Idk thatd be grand.

a lot of times there is juice that people handmake. The problem is there is always pulp. and its hard for me to drink stuff with pulp. They also all share cups. Exciting.

The other day we ate undercooked scones essentially. and yall know how much I get sick with scones. so I tried to down it with juice, which tasted like cough syrup. That was not a happy day. we went home and ate something else.

fail of justin beiber in paraguay, he comes out for a concert and says, hola uruguay! People hate him now.

I heard the jonas brothers the other day! that was fun.

people here legitly play volleyball without hands. super cool.

my companion does P90x in the mornings, and it always reminds me of the Byutv studio c sketch about it. Haha I hate it, but I love it! seriously, he says that.

There is a soccer rivalry here, cerro and olimpia, they played yesterday and tied. no one is happy. but hey, no revolts or loud cheers last night.

saturday was a long day. We took this kid marcello who we haven't taught him anything, but he wanted to come with us to teach, so we brought him along! We walked all afternoon, probably 10 miles, and we couldn't find anyone to teach, all the appointments fell through, poor kid probably didn't know what he had gotten himself into. But hey he came to chruch this sunday!! I wasn't expecting that. He is a stud. He is gonna be my first baptism, I know it.

 

Well I will end with a good quote that I thought of a while ago

"Some things in life are so sweet that they change our perception of sweet altogether."  me!

love you all. Thanks for the support. You all are the reason I am here, and more. keep up the work.

With all the love my imperfect heart can muster, 

Elder Jake

 

 I thought that this selfy was shweet. me and templo buenos aires!

 

This is the other district in the ccm.         right to left, going on top

Elders white, boyer, dye (best missionary ever), bronson, teloma, ricci behind, I can't remember the names of the two shorter elders to the left, we called them timon and pumba. I will look that up later. The hermanas from left to right, dolan, buss, hunt. hma hunt is in my district now.

a month in Paraguay? get out..

so first of all, I apologize for my capitilization and such, this is a weird keyboard. The shift key only works sometimes.

You all are incredible. I quite enjoyed your pumpkin pictures!! alexs temple and pumpkin eating another pumpkin was grand, kevins minion was incredible, and all reminded me of home so much! Good stuffs!

I have talked to Noah a touch, but it sounds cold out there! as its getting to 100 and humid here! definitely gonna be thinking of him! We will bring the world his truth, surely.

mom, don't you remember, you sent me with 20 bottles of contact solution? If i need soap, meds, contact solution I am sure, anything I need I can get here. Besides frosting and pretzals and cheesesticks. and home. but hey, what are these 2 hours for? and no I have not found peanut butter, but then again I have not looked very hard. I usually just buy ham and cheese and bread and eggs. We always have lunches with people.

I am glad all is well there! You will have to get me matts email.

I got my halloween package on Halloween! What luck! I also got tons of letters from the last month. 5 from lauren, 1 from mallory, and 1 from grandma and grandpa simpson. someone help them figure out how to email me. Oh and the little newspaper snipit from Grm k!

so this package made me very happy. let me tell you why.

first thing I saw was my moms handwriting, and that made me very happy.

Then the pretzals. OHHHHH the joy!! always send pretzals!! I am slowly enjoying the greatness. The peeps I was like, ok I will just eat one. But no, you cannot just eat one peep. Before I could take another breath they were gone. Ohhhh goodness.

The hammer screwdriver thing is super cool! super funny how small it gets!

Perry the platypus Pez. I will keep this forever. forever being 2 years. I did a little patience experiment with the pez, because on my attributes test, patience was the lowest. I ate one pez and made myself wait for increasing increments of time to eat the next one. When it got too easy, I began to hold the pez in my hand for the whole hour I was studying. This whole experiment took two days. The hardest part was the next day, I was like, this is dumb, I just wanna eat it! But no, I made myself do one at a time. It was so hard! But hey, maybe it helped.

lauren, if you have written my every week then I am missing two letters that must be at the mtc from sep 10 and 17. I did not recieve the Rm application or those other things.

for all those wishing to send me a real letter, it takes 2 to 8 weeks to get here, so plan accordingly! Here is a funny thing I found about letter sending, it is kinda long, and a lot of you have written me emails which is the fastest and really easiest way to talk to me, because I will not write handwritten letters often, they cost 3 bucks each to send. so here is this, it may not apply, but its funny anyways.

The first epistle of Elder simpson to the dead letter writers.

chapter 1

IN the beginning was the mailbox and the mailbox was void of letters.

2 and the missionaries said, "let the mailbox be filled" and the box was not filled.

3 and the missionaries beheld the continuing void and were not pleased.

4 and lo, it was the first day of the first week and there was no mail delivered, but this was good.

5 But on the second day was the mail delivered, yet the box remained empty.

6 Yea, even from the second day unto the seventh was the mail delivered.

7 Even so, the box retained its void.

8 and yea, great mists of darkness spread forth from the void and enshrouded the missionaries. Yea, and did bring much sadness to their otherwise cheery days.

9 Even the long hours of fruitless tracting, being attacked by the fowls of the air, and being pursued by the beasts of the field were not as desheartening as the lack of blessed objects know as letters.

10 Yet they persisted.

chapter 2

AND, lo, on the second day of the second week the mists still encircled the mailbox.

2 and on the third day, from within the depths of the void was a single postcard.

3 and this postcard put forth a ray of light that pierced the darkness and overcame the mists.

4 and the missionaries were well pleased, and there was much rejoicing.

5 But, alas, their exclamations of joy were in vain. for the postcard was for someone else.

6 but if their joy was so exceedingly great over someone elses mail, how great would be their joy at partaking of their own mail?

chapter 3

BUT some will say, a letter, a letter, We have already written a letter. We have no need to write any more letters.

2 know ye not that there are more days than one, and more events tham one in a day? Why think ye that these events need no be reported?

3 Yea, and ye need not worry that your letters will go unanswered.

4 But you should say, I will go and write the letter tha a missionary requests. for I know that he giveth no requests except he be prepared to speedily respond.

5 and we give unto thee the parable of the self addressed envelopes.

6 When the missionary departed into the far off land he gave a certain number of self addressed stamped envelopes to his friends.

7 Unto one he gave five, unto another he gave two, and unto the third he gave one.

8 and while he was gone, he that was given the five envelopes wrote five letters, then in his zeal wrote five letters more.

9 The same with him that had two enveloples, He wrote two letters and the two letters more.

10 But he that was given the single self addressed envelope became slothful and careless. and he lost the envelope, even that which he was given.

11 and when the missionbary came home he went unto his friends. nd he that had written ten letters he warmly greeted.

12. The smae with him that had written four letters.

13 But he that had written none at all was given nothin more than a fishy, wimplike handshake.

chapter 4

AND the missionary said unto his friend, lovest thou me?

2 nd the friend said, of course I love thee. Then the missionary said, fill my mailbox.

3 He saith a second time, friend, lovest thou me? and the friend said, thou knowest that I love thee. He then said, fill my mailbox.

4 He then spake a third time saying, lovest thou me? nd the friend said, thou knowest that I love thee!

5 Then the missionary said, stuff my mailbox.

6 and the vision is become unto all as the words of a letter that is sealed in the envelope that men deliver to one who is not serving a mission saying, Read this, I pray thee, and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed and it is not mine.

7 and the letter is deliverd to him that is serving a mission saying, read this I pray thee, and he saith, why sure.

8 Therefore you should proceed to do a marvelous work for a missionary, even a marvelous work and a wonder by writing a letter.

That is all. Yeah I thought it was funny too.

One thing I could use, mom, is recipies. I cant find my book. can i get recipies for crepes, brownies, choco chip cookies, and sugar cookies? just in case i have some extra time on pday to have fun.

I laughed hard in one of laurens letters talking about mom. I guess mom asked 

with all this modern technology, why cant they make bandaids for black people?

and also

I am not playing!! (after a ball hit the window)

hahaha oh mom, I love you so.

Halloween, I saw a few trick or treaters with their parents, mostly dressed up like witches and stuff. there are a few clothes and stuff with halloween, but its not big here. people know it is all.

I finally saw a good sunset! Oh it was beautiful. I wanted to just sit and watch it and pull up a cowboy hat and play my guitar. This place is gonna make a hick out of me.

We taught this man who had bugs crawling all over his feet. like they lived in the wounds that were there. he didnt even seem to care. Ew. poor guy is getting eaten!

I finally weighed myself for the first time in the mission! I have gained 10 pounds! I was also wearing shoes, had my tag, planner, stuff in my pockets, tie, belt, BUT HEY! maybe i have gained 5 lbs.

lightning here is super cool. You can see it in the cloud coming. It lights up the sky. super cool! We have seen it a lot this week!

I went on a split this week with an Elder who is only 6 weeks more advanced than me. It was hard for us to talk to people and understand, but I feel like we had a successful day there! His apartment is super nice. air conditioning. end of story. We made pancakes. I bought stuff today to make pancakes.

I have learned something of obedience. How can we expect our investigators or friends to keep their commitments if we are not keeping ours? just ponder on that.

With an investigator Yeni, (jenny, pronunciation) we asked her to pray about the book of mormon and if it was true and just wait for a little bit and listen. Well we waited for no less than 5 whole minutes I am sure, but she was crying, and she could really feel the spirit of it! Then... she didnt come to church. But hey, its a work in progress.

It's fun to run into other missionaries or pastors from other religions. They all teach truth! They all teach good stuff! But its not everything! They are missing important things! Its sad.

No we do not have ensigns, and yes we have 4 other sister missionaries in our branch.

Well I am out of time. I have so much to say to you all! ahh,,, next week.

love you all, keep writing me!

Elder jake

This is my mtc district, the aaron district. 

Top, left to right.

Elders Reed, Eiker, Degn, me, worsham, baxter, miller

Holding our teacher Hermano fioramanti (love this guy)

Below, Hma sanders, elder page, and hma braunersrither.