The good news

Man this has been such a great week for me. I've just been super super happy this week. It's because of a series of things happened this week. Haha everything has just added up to being a great week for me!

So first thing first. You remember Nicanor and Reina right? They are a family that lives in Nueva Colombia that has been attending for the last month or so. Well I believe that I told you that Nueva Colombia is not in our mission, But Emboscada is the closest church for them. We have been working with President McMullin to get permision to enter to teach them. So for the past few weeks, President McMullin and the other mission president have been talking and this Tuesday they decided that we could enter to tech them! But we don't have permission to start tracting quite yet. But President McMullin is working on changing the boundries to include Nueva Colombia and an other district called Loma Grande. it might take a few more weeks but I'm super excited! It's always fun entering a new area! So exciting! So that made me really happy :)

In other good news, I don't know if I've told you about Familia Fleitas.. They are a part member family (2 kids are recent converts) Ceferino and Maria (The parents) would be baptized but there has been a huge confusion as to whether Ceferino is married to another woman or not. Honestly I don't understand but it has been a huge huge mess. They always go to church and really want to get baptized but can't because they aren't married. But supposedly by this Wednesday they will know for sure if Ceferino has to get divorced first, but its 90% probable that he doesn't! He just has to get married! They are supper supper excited for this. They have been waiting for nearly a year to get baptized. I am so excited for them! But we will see next week!!

So yea. Its been a really great week. :) We should have some baptisims coming up pretty soon now that we can teach Reina and Nicanor!

With all my love,
Elder Jared

Safe and sound

Hey everyone. I suppose your wondering why I am writing in a Tuesday instead of a Monday. It's really a long story so I'll summarize. But yesterday we had to go to Asuncion to pick up some stuff for the house and there is only one road that goes from Emboscada to Asuncion. We got to Asuncion just fine, did everything that we needed to do and were planning to go to a cyber in Limpio. But there was a strike and a protest and some people basically shut down the road. So we were stuck in Asuncion in a hot and sweaty bus for two hours. The worst part is we were next to a truck that was loading cows. Man it stunk so bad. But finally after two hours of waiting in the same spot we decided to walk. So we walked and walked for a long time until the road was oppened again. But at that time it was late and we had to go home and work. So we called our mission president and he said that we could do it today. I'm so lucky but I dont have that much time.

But there wasn't much progression this week. We found some people that are willing to listen to us but I'm not sure if they are willing to act. But we will see.

It looks like we are going to have a good November. We have investigators with dates but haven't been attending but say that they want to go. so that's good news.

I have to go now! President doesn't want us to loose too much time today so it had to be quick. 1 hour is all.

I'm safe and sound and happy!

Elder Jared

For the family

(This week Brandon sent a letter to the family only) -- but he did send the following pictures with this explanation:
For Pday, my district leader (Elder Damacen) plays rugby so he taught us how to tackle (safely) into matresses. It was really fun haha so that will explain a lot of the pictures this week.

Conference Weekend!

Man what a great weekend this was. So much excitement with the new apostles! We were all really really excited to see who was going to be the next Apostles. Man so amazing. I predicted Elder Rasband as an Apostle but the other two were wild cards, but their testimonies were so strong. So full of love for us and our Lord Jesus Christ. I received the confirmation that they were called to be the new apostles.

I really loved all the talks this weekend. So full of Wisdom and Guidance.I learned so much about to apply to myself and my investigators and Converts. I left my notebook at home so I'll just give a brief thought about the talks that really spoke to me.

I really loved Elder Utchdor'fs talk about simplicity. I really feel that as humans we just make things to complicated. It's a good thing to take a step back and look to see how we can Simplify things and make things better.

I loved Elder Nelson's story. It truely is heart breaking to see a family have three little ones die, but they died to see a Prophet of the Lord live. Such an amazing story.

I loved How Elder Oaks explained the atonement so clearly. It was clearer than the air we breath and if you ask me, The atonement is more needed that the air we breath...

I loved Elder Durrant's Challenge. I hope that you will take time each week to "Ponderize" a scripture. Or this week I am doing my missionary scripture which is 1 Nephi 13:37. I have it in English, Spanish and Portuguese to help me learn. I am really looking forward to this 20 year challenge :) I hope you guys keep me update on this challenge for you guys.

I love conference so much, as missionaries we call it a 3 day pday because its a time to recharge the Spiritual batteries and learn to apply the words of the prophets in our lives and the lives of those that we teach.

The week was pretty good. We got a lot of investigators to the conference. 6 actually!! and we had 10 of our 23 recent converts go! Most of the converts are in-active right now so 10 was a lot! I struggle with these converts because it makes me so sad that the don't remember the importance of the sacrament. We didn't find anyone new to teach this week it was a week of rejections. but that means that this week can only get better!

I don't know if I have talked about Reina and Nicanor... They live in Nueva Colombia (still talking with President about going there, there are a lot more hoops to jump through than we thought) Nicanor was scheduled to work this Sunday but he said that he couldn't go because he wanted to go to conference! And he went! haha they are progressing so much even though we really can't meet with them. They are reading and praying and of course attending!! It is so fantastic!!


Love you all

Elder Jared