Elder Jake Simpson: 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!