Living With The Parasites

Thanks to all of you who write Jake; I know he loves to hear from you.  jacob.stiles@myldsmail.net

Hey Everyone,

This week I have been really sick with parasites.  I first figured out that I had them on Tuesday when I couldn't get out of bed.  My whole body just hurt; like all my muscles.  Having parasites basically just drains all the energy out of you and you can barely do anything.  I have not got medicine yet because I have to take an exam for three continuous days so today is the first day I can take the test. The names of the Parasites are Entamoeba Hisolytica and Endolimax Nana.  The tests cost $27 each and it being the end of the month I don't have any money to take the tests.. but i will get reimbursed.  Right now I feel really crappy but we still go out and work when I can but when we do I can´t do a ton because walking just takes everything out of me. Being sick on the mission is the worst because there is nothing that you can do and all you can do is sit there and read scriptures.

I have not got the scripture covers yet. I should get them tomorrow or on the 8th but the book of Mormon one I got is way cool and you will love it!

We have had a couple pretty cool storms lately and lots of lightning. This 4th of July a couple will be getting married and baptized (well the wife is a member) which is really cool!  A good way to spend the 4th!  His name is Freddy and he is 19 and super cool.  He has been going to Institute for a while now and lives with his girlfriend. We also found 2 more people that aren´t members but they live together and with a big family that are members.  The problem was that they didn't want to get married because they thought it would cost a lot of money but now they are all for it! Sorry this email was short because I was sick but I'll send pics of the house.

Love, Jake

Oh and I held a turtle.

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Check Out The Iguana

Hello Everyone,

We only taught our new investigator once because we haven't been able to find her house so... yeah we don't really know much about her.

Elder Calero is actually really cool! At first I was kinda worried about not being able to understand each other but he knows a lot of words in English so all I have to do is ask him what a word is and he can tell me. He has a problem pronouncing the words so he can't speak the language very well but we're working on it.. He is super funny and he always laughs at my jokes so he's pretty cool!.

Yes we have moved into our new house but I don't have any pictures of it yet. It's a lot smaller than our other house but its super nice. It is the only house that has 3 stories and we have a hammock above looking at the Volcano! I'll make sure to send pics.  Elder McCleery and Shill live with us too.  The second story isn't finished so everything is kinda crammed downstairs right now.

My eye is better! Haha, Yeah definitely different! but yeah lots of people know about my experience now... I think even Prez... hahaha

I ordered my scripture covers.  I think they might be more expensive but I have to have them cause my scriptures already broke once. They will be done on the 8th.

This week was a pretty good one! We are doing some great work here with my new Comp! Something interesting that we do is that every week we have Zone Meeting where everybody gets together and we talk about how we can better ourselves.  Also every week we learn a different dance move and each week we put them all together! This weeks move was called The John Wall.

We found a guy named Nelson to teach.  He's really interested in the Gospel so we have been teaching him! We have been working with a family to take them to the temple and get sealed.  Also this 4th of July we're having a wedding and a baptism to make a family!  This week a grandma tried having her grandson pee in a Pepsi bottle right in the middle of church but we stopped her and took her kid to the bathroom!

Our area is right next to a river and we figured that instead of walking all the way around the river its better to just go through it . So I have some cool pictures that I will send! A  lot of the kids here hunt crabs and one of the kids caught this big Iguana and we got to hold it.  It was super cool!  We Helped an old lady cross the street and also took out all the weeds out of the cornfield of a member! Good thing I got some practice doing the same thing at Grandma and Grandpas!

Thanks for everything! Oh and I got the photo from Grandma Maxine and also the shirts package!

Salud, Jake :)

Jake's email is jacob.stiles@myldsmail.net

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Focusing on Service

Hey Everyone,

OK here is a spiritual experience we had - We were walking down the road and it was right after someone talked to us and we saw this lady.  She said that she has been waiting for us and wants us to come teach her and the only way we would of found her is that we had an impression to go a different way than usual. Things you can do is to help is just invite families to church and make sure the missionaries know.  Literally anybody that you think might want the gospel let the missionaries know and they will be more than happy to teach them. Also, If you can go out and accompany them during there lessons so investigators can see we are normal people. Sis. Ayala that contacted you on FB one of my baptisms.  Their family is super cool! They were super excited that you responded and they thought your Spanish was super good! We haven't moved into our new house. We will do it tomorrow.

This week was pretty good! My last day with Elder G. we went and played baseball with an investigator.  We just played with a stick they found and a plastic ball. We only played a little bit till one of the kids hit a line drive right into my eye... and it was kinda sucky.  OK, this next part might not be appropriate, haha -  we learned that the remedy to help this is to put breast milk into your eye so that was interesting to figure out.

Then we had changes! This was really cool because I got to see and talk to Elder Moore about his experience in Belize and the mission. We had the 2nd most baptisms in the mission and we also got a picture of the family we baptized! My new comp is Elder Calero and he is from Honduras and yes, he does speak Spanish. But its really good because my Spanish is good enough that I can talk to him. But we get along really good!

The next few days we helped a man move out of the house that we moving in.  Then the next day we lifted 500 cinder blocks up into the house of another member.  So this next week we're really focusing on doing service for people.

Love, Elder Stiles 

This is a conversation that Jake and I had today while he was emailing - It's a Winner.

Jake: My last day with elder G. we went and played baseball with an investigator and we just played with a stick they found and a plastic ball. We only played a little bit till one of the kids hit a line drive right into my eye... and it was kinda sucky but this next part might not be appropriate haha. We learned that the remedy to help this is to put breast milk into your eye so that was interesting to figure out.

Mom:  Your breast milk story is awesome!  As an ophthalmic technician for the past 25 year I must say that I have some considerable experience and have never heard of that remedy. However,  if it might work than go for it!  I'm dying to know if you put breast milk in your eye??  Tell me if you did!

Jake:  haha yeah it does work... haha honestly the one of the weirdest thing that's ever happened and at first I told her no but she was honestly pissed that i didn't want her breast milk in my eye.... but yes i did it... :)

Mom: OK, so did she squirt it into a bottle first or did she squirt it in straight from her nipple??? 

Jake : haha nope she put her nipple right over my eyeball... the only thing I saw was milk coming out of her nipple....

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Goodbye to Grandpa Bill

If the letter sounds random then it's because I've combined everything that he wrote into one letter.  You can write him at Jacob.Stiles@myldsmail.net - Thanks for sending him an email even if it is just a short note so he knows you're thinking about him

Hey everyone!First of all I'm doing awesome down here in El Salvador! This week was really good! Our whole district baptized people and it was super cool! Me and my companion have done 11 baptisms this month! My least favorite thing here is called Chuka which means dirty in Spanish. It's a drink that has beans, a pink liquid and chili in it and it's really gross. The weirdest thing has been the dogs here. A lot of them look like zombies and have like mold or something growing on them. Just about the coolest car I've seen has been a Lancer. It had a bunch of aftermarket stuff.  It was dumb compared to what you see in Idaho. Funnest part- volcano. Companion- speaks good Spanish. Something scary that  happened was when someone told us there was gang activity and we had to leave.The Volcano that we went to is Santa Ana which is right next to Izalco! The one we went to was a much easier climb than the other.I've realized the importance of working with the members and inviting their friends to hear the gospel because they are more likely to listen. I've got to confirm a lot of people now.  Between me and my companion we have baptized 11 people. We will most likely get the 2 most baptisms in the mission for our zone. Everyone that we have baptized have been looking for a change in their life. I've baptized the Pulunto family, Hector Vigil, Delmi, Fatima Florez, and Anna and Stefani Ayala. Those are a couple of the names that I have baptized and confirmed. I haven't eaten anything super weird but the food is just different. We cooked something that was rice and milk that's kinda like oatmeal. Our kitchen in our house is just a table with a microwave. We are moving this weekend to a nicer house with an air conditioner. This week was good! Just like all the other ones.  A story this week is we went to an investigators house to see when he wanted to be baptized and he said at 7.  We thought he meant the next day but he wanted to be baptized that day!  So we had to run to the church and get everything ready. Then while we were there a mom of one of the baptisms came in and told us she was going to get baptized too! She then called her Priest and was yelling at him saying she was going to get baptized in the Mormon church.  It was all just super crazy and there were a ton of people there.Oh that's really sad about Grandpa but I know he is in a better place and that he is with our Father.   I kinda had a hard time thinking about him dying on my mission before but now that I have a greater view on the plan that our Father in heaven has for us I know he's in a better place.  Knowing more about the Plan of Salvation has really helped me a lot in the mission.
Thanks for everything!

Jake 

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Volcano

This week was super awesome! We ended with 6 baptisms this month and we were the 3rd highest baptisms in El Salvador! We have been doing super awesome! 

We don't have much time to write but I will give you a ton of photos to make up for not being able to write! We went to the volcano and it took up most of our day.  I took a bunch of pictures with all of our members of our district!

Love, Elder Stiles