Super Sick

Well This week went by really fast! Seems like yesterday that we emailed last! Well this week I got super sick from the food down here and one day I couldn't even leave the house. I may or may not have thrown up in the street but that's just because I'm working hard haha. We got to go to Temple this week and do a session in Spanish and I didn't understand anything. We cleaned up most the house but mostly just live in harmony with all the other creatures.. There were other missionaries in our area but they all left and just put us in so we have to get to know everybody. We are just in the Ponderosa ward and our area is probably like half of a square mile. Still haven't gotten the packages you sent me. Sorry my email isn't very long this week. Nothing really happened cause I was sick. Dad would love it here because everyone here has a big loud annoying muffler a fake plastic hood scoop and a billion stickers and they are all crap cars. But its ok cause they all have big spoilers which make them so much cooler! ;) Mom you would love it too because we get chased by dogs all the time. There are stray dogs everywhere and they are called chuchos. We had to burn a bunch of clothes and we set off the fire alarm in our house. Oh and one last thing; one of the guys here is Elder Naillon and he coached Triden in wrestling!  He's from Caldwell!

Love, Jake

One of the pictures is of a street.  The other is of my companion talking to a lady with a white cloth on her head (they think the clothes make them receive revelation).  And the last one is in the park.

Dead Lizard

Hey everyone! 

So I'm doing amazing here in the mission! My Companion (or my dad:) His named Elder Gonzalez and he is from Utah and has some amazing Spanish! Couldn't ask for a better First companion! 

I would also like to congratulate Preston on leaving for his mission tomorrow! 

First of all I'll start off by talking about my house! Its really big and pink! That's about the only good thing about it haha. When we got there, there was rotting food on the ground, trashed clothes, dirty dishes, Birds in our ceiling, a family of cockroaches that live in the drain of our shower, spiders everywhere.  The Latinos put the used toilet paper next to the toilet, and birds constantly fly in our house. OH and we also found a dead lizard in our fridge! We're living the life! Dad and Chase would love it here! 

Papusas are the most popular thing here and they are amazing! Me and my companion both got papusas and drinks for $1.40 and $5 is a lot of money to carry around here.

We are brand new missionaries here and so we don't really know anyone, but this area is supposed to be blessed and a humble area. But there are certain places that we can't go after six cause people would probably kill us but its ok cause we have the Lord on our side! There is this crazy lady that we have to walk by all the time to get to the bishop's house and if we talk to her she will swear at us and throw rocks at us. I tell people I'm from Chalatenango because that's where the white Latinos are from. My name now is pronounced Es-Steal-es because that's how it sounds in Spanish. We give out candy to all the kids so it makes up for my crappy Spanish! Its super weird here because on guy we taught, as we said the prayer, he prayed too with is arm at the square yelling things at us.. But all in all I love this place and I know we are doing the right thing!

Love, Elder Stiles 

I'm Still Alive

Hey I haven’t been able to read any of the emails but I only have 15 min to say that I'm here in my mission and I'm alive! We just got to the temple and met the prez and the other missionaries! Its really cool here and the temple is amazing! The community is really cool! I'ts kind of run down but its amazing! I think that we are staying in the prez´s house tonight and getting our new companions tomorrow. It was really hard to say goodbye to my companion but I know he's going to be awesome! We only got like 2 hours of sleep so I cant wait to get to sleep!

Well I'll email more next Monday I think! Thanks for all the support!

Love, Elder Stiles

Went To The Market

Finally nice to get an email from you guys! ;) Well this week wasn't that crazy but we got to go to the market! Before we left one of the guys came in and told me that my mission was changed to Panama... but then after thirty min of freaking out he came in and told me that he was just kidding. We went to downtown to go to a market where they just had lots of trinkets and stuff so nothing that would of been really useful. But it was way cool! It was all underground and there were like 4 stories! People were always trying to get us to look at their stuff but little did they know we had no idea what they were talking about. After that we went to Wendy's and it was probably the greatest thing ever because after eating rice and beans for 4 weeks it kinda gets old. After I ordered all my food I realized that when I got it I didn’t get anything that I asked for.. they must of misunderstood me or something. After Wendy's we went to a Catholic church and it was pretty crazy! but also really depressing. We went to the plaza after and talked to people and handed out Book of Mormons. Me and my companion talked to 3 people. The first was not very interested. The second people we talked to already had a Book of Mormon so we just shared a message with them and after having no luck we talked to a really old guy that may or may not have been crazy.. But either way we were able to give away a BoM! We thought our Spanish was really good until we got out there and realized that is actually really bad and can't understand anyone.. But I'm so ready to get out in the field and start changing peoples lives for the better! Sorry my emails aren’t very long. It's hard to have anything to say when we do the same thing every day. Next week will be better! One interesting thing I saw on the way to the market was some guys fixing a light post but they didn’t have anything to put the ladder on. So they just had like 10 people holding the ladder on the bottom and had some poor guy at the top wobbling back and forth..

Love, Elder Stiles

2 More Weeks!

Here is Jake's email this week.  So awesome to hear from him each week but he caught us by surprise by writing us a day early.  There is a new picture attached.  Just some explanations:  Nortes apparently means Northerners. MTC Devo is a devotional talk given by Elder Bednar.  Prez. Cox is his MTC President. The talk Jake referred to by Elder Holland is titled Safety for the Soul.  It is also a Mormon Message titled "Testimony of The Book of Mormon" by Jeffrey R. Holland.  It is an awesome little video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHY-Y9yraR8 

Hey, So we got to write a day early because tomorrow we are going to be running around the town of Guatemala! I'll get to that in a bit. So first of all I'll start with were I ripped my pants last week... Kinda like in Spongebob but it was down the side below my pocket. I really hope they can last me two years. We had to have a sewing class taught by the Hermanas, and me... cause apparently I'm the only other one that knows how to sew stuff. And I'm not sure what kind of weird traditions they have down here because lately everyone has been setting off fireworks. Like at 5 in the morning... I think it might just be some kind of sick joke.. haha but when I first woke up to it the first time I could of sworn they were just gunshots. I was so tired I didn't even care at first, but after 20 min of it I had to go check it out and that's when I realized they were just fireworks. We had our first fast Sunday here and it was the longest Sunday ever. Don't get me wrong it was so amazing but there is only so much Personal study you can do.. One Spiritual experience that I thought was cool was that us Nortes were watching a MTC Devo by Bednar and we got about halfway through and it stopped working. We tried everything to get it to work. We even had the computer wiz come over and help us and he said it was just to scratched and we were going to have to watch it in Spanish. But that wasn't stopping Elder Magalei! He got up and told us we were going to have a prayer and if we had faith that it was going to work. So we all got on our knees and said a prayer and when we put it back in it played perfectly! "The church is true" - Elder Stiles. We are two weeks away from  being in the field and I know I'm going to miss my zone so much! We already making our reunion! Tomorrow we get to go to Wendy's and I'm pretty sure were going to buy the whole store out. After that we get to go to the market with the 2 weekers and buy stuff and hand out Book of Mormons! We just had a talk by Prez. Cox and every time he talks it just makes us want to get out there and do stuff! I can't explain how pumped I am! We are now the big boys on top! Its so funny when the new guys have to have us translate for them and they don't know how to talk. Our Spanish is pretty good as long as we can understand them. We can talk the gospel really well. One thing I would like you to look up is the talk by Elder Holland. I think its called the Testimony of the Book of Mormon. So powerful and I know it's true. There is absolutely no way that those men could find the faith they had in that book if they didn't KNOW it was true. I'll have more for you next week!

 

Love, Elder Stiles

Oh and also I finally got my mail. Only 20 days for me to get dear elder! I also want to let the young women know I got their package and it was the greatest surprise ever because I was so hungry and that candy was amazing! Also make sure to tell Montana that I do know who she is haha. At first I thought the whole package was from her and I was like what the heck, my bros friend sends me a package but my family doesn't?! haha but it was amazing! Letters are the best to get!