When The World's Burnin Down Might As Well Roast a Marshmallow‏

Well hello!!

Okay I'm sorry I didn't get to say Happy Birthday to Channing and Happy Father's Day to Dad last week.  I was trying to write like a mad man in 10 minutes.  But anyway, FELIZ DIA!!  I hope Channing is loving Atlanta and that Dad will at least be happy with seeing sick faces all day.

But thanks for the packages, yes I did get both.  The peanut butter and jelly and the pictures and M&Ms.  All of it was awesome.  I was super happy.  Made me think of where I came from and what the heck I'm doin here.  So thanks very much for that.

Um yeah I have a problem with my personal card.  I tried to take out some money but it says that it's blocked?  I didn't know what that meant.  So if you could figure that out it'd be great.  Cuz I'm gonna go to Quito AGAIN this Tuesday so I could find a new camera or a new battery.  But Elder Sanchez has offered to buy the camera anyway so if you could help me out with that as soon as possible.

Well okay this week this week.

Well we had baptisms!!  10.  And it was awesome!  I had to go to Lago Agrio to do some interviews for the missionaries there but when I got back I was told I was gonna have to do 2 more in the sector of the other missionaries.  And it wasn't too bad.  But holy cow I heard the saddest story of my life.  One of the girls I interviewed, who only has 20 years, had gone through complete and utter hell.  I'm not sure how much I can tell you but out of respect for her I'll just say that a year ago I could not be able to handle hearing that.  I got stressed out listening to high school dating problems and now I'm helping someone repent of the worst sins.  It's crazy how much a year can change things.  But the coolest part was that the next day we continued the interview and there was a new light, a new hope the eyes of this girl.  She talked about repentance and it was a miracle.  A week ago she didn't even want to listen to the missionaries.  But her time is short here in this life so that put a lot of perspective on things.  We read Alma 36 together and that's exactly how she felt.  And that was just awesome.  I love it the Atonement.  I love missionary work.  So we went to the water fall and had the baptisms but afterwards some kid of 18 years fell and broke open his head.  Some little girl came screaming to me and Elder Hassell saying that he was dying.  So we ran over there to find tons of people around him as was laying on the ground.  He needed pressure on the wounds, had to make sure he didn't have neck injuries, and yeah he got my Peruvian tie wrapped around his head with a couple of rags.  Then a group of men carried him up the hill.  Then we gave him a priesthood blessing.  Then we carried him on a plank of wood through the jungle.  Then we went in the back of a truck at 100 miles per hour (my cheeks were flapping) (and I mean my face) to go 20 minutes to the nearest hospital.  And the kid was a boxer.  And I had to keep his arm elevated.  But he didn't want to.  So I arm wrestled a boxer in the back of a speeding truck in the jungle for 20 minutes.  Life is great my friends!!!

I don't know about Chase but I do wanna know!  What's his address in Brazil??  He leaves 4th of July!  Tell me!!!

Well I love you all and I'm super happy to be alive.  Hope you are too.  Love life and keep on rollin my brothers and sisters.  I'm gonna go eat some chicken now

If You Want A Helping Hand...‏

Look at the end of your arm!! buuuuhhh

Hello from Quito!!  Now you may ask yourself what is this man doing in Quito again and I have the answer!  Leaders meeting.  I guess we have them every month where we get to eat, play football (soccer), and get chewed out by the President if we've been bad.  I think it's gonna be fun!  But wheeeew that bus ride is long.  But I got to read the Book of Mormon and watch Taken so now I have a thirst to punch a wicked man in the throat.  I think there's a reason we shouldn't watch those movies....

But how can you say summer is half over?!  From the sound of your letters summer never started!  Loco.  And mom we always knew you were crazy with the flowers but at least recognizing it is the first step to recovery.  Si se puede!! Buuuuh.

Bummer for New Mexico.  Must be really dry.  And hurrah for arrowhead hunting.  And is it just me, or are the missionaries actually baptizing in our ward??  Did they used to do that?  I never knew what the missionaries did except invite me to play basketball and eat our food.  Rock on!!!  Keep em goin!  And now Channing can go teach them Lesson 5 of Preach my Gospel.  All of the lessons while shes at it!  Keep em comin to church.  But that's really awesome.

Okay so this week was good.  We had a baptism!  And we don't have a good baptismal font so where do we do baptisms??  In a waterfall of course!  So we all got together to go to the water fall but as we were going (me in the back of a truck because they said I weigh too much for the car...) we see the police stopping all the cars asking for papers.  So the car with the other 3 missionaries and the member stop.  It turns out he doesn't have a license to drive!  So we hide the car in some motel and we aaalll pile up in the back of the other members truck.  Then we go by the police and they tell us that's illegal and they saw us stop and now they're gonna fine us. Then they took pictures.  (Cheeseburger griiiin)  $43 bucks and we continue on our way.  And we have to drive deeep into the jungle (where the tigers live and the indians get drunk) and we did the baptism there.  It was pretty cool.  And really beautiful. A pity my camera battery doesn't work.  Always somethin!!!

But other than that, we had lessons with fire flying out of our mouths and angels singing on high in testimony of our words.  We had a rocking one yesterday testifying to a guy of the Restoration.  But he's a hard coconut.  But anyway we'll just keep on trying to teach these people.  It's pooodooorrooooossoooo!  And I also went to the other part of our zone 3 hours away where there live the 3 chilenos and the guy from Uruguay.  They're awesome guys.

But hey that's all I'll talk to yall next week!  I love ya guys and hope you're happy!

Welcome To The Jungle‏

Hello everybody!  Well okay I'm in Coca.  And it's burning hot.  I got here at around 7:30 in the night and I was sweating.  But it's been a big change!  I have spiders in every corner of the bathroom, we have lizards next to our house, we live in front of the branch president, and this place is flat!!  Nothing of mountains, hills, nothin.  Flat!  And I pretty much live in the rain forest.  We were walking home at night and now i can see the stars, hear tons of birds and animals, there's anacondas in the rivers, and I'm pretty much alive right now.  On the bus coming here I had my head out the window.  There's just somethin about nature that makes me feel alive.  Also on the bus they just haaaaad to put on the Avengers.  NOOOOOO..... but I didn't watch it all so at least there's some surprise left when I come home.  

Um, being a leader kinda stinks.  I have to always receive phone calls from the other missionaries, fill our papers, do capacitations, and spend money going to Quito every month but I guess I'll survive.  I still believe it was some freak accident that I'm here but hey I'm just gonna live it up while I can.  My companion is Elder Sanchez and he's about end his mission.  He has just 2 months left.  I'm in Elder Redd's old sector again so my companion doesn't really know the sector either, just how I was when Elder Redd left me in Quito.  But it's cool.  We're lost together.  

There's different groups of idginas here.  One group kills people then shrinks their head while the others sell chicha and play bingo.  Needless to say, we're teaching the ones who give us the yuka drink.  And it tasted....interesting.  I'm not sure if it fermented or what but... I was singing in the street afterward, "Luuutthhhy in the ttthhkkyy withhh diamondttthth, luuutthhhy in the tthhhyyy with diiaaaamooonddthhthhhehehhuuuu"

And that's about all the time I have because I was too busy reading other things and arguing with the district about the premortal life.  I'm gone... hopelessly gone.  But I hope ya guys are doin great and that everybody feels better and that the wind dies so you can feel the sun I'm feelin.  Because it feels gooooood!!

Love ya! Adios.

From Concrete Jungle To Something... A little more real....‏

Well the changes came!  I'm being shipped off to the Oriente!  That's 8-12 hours in a bus and it's complete madness.  The Oriente is where the jungles are, there are no mountains, there aren't many people, it's blazing hot, and I'm going to be a zone leader.  Good grief.  The Lord wants somebody to be tested up the wazoo!!!

But yeah I'm pretty excited!  I just about crapped my pants when they told me where I was going and what I'm gonna be and I told them "no really, what are the changes."  Bina!  Pura bina.  But it's gonna be awesome, I'm gonna have to grow up real fast.  But just slap me in the bottom, send me to the edges of Ecuador, and call me George of the Jungle!  

Um but yeah that's about it, I gotta go to the terminal in 20 minutes but I just thought I'd tell ya guys what's goin down here.  From ghetto to jungle hippi yi yaaaay hippi yi yooooo Brett's gonna gotta grow because if he don't the zone won't float and Brett'll probably die too.

But thanks for sending a package and pictures and what not.  You're awesome!!

I thought Jodi Messina died.....

Good luck dad in Young Mens!!  Teach them the gospel to make them change!!!

Learn math Cambria and good luck getting ready to go to High school. he.hehe. MUHAHEHENHENEEEEEHEEEEE

Okay gotta go, love ya all, hope you're great, and I'll talk to ya if I survive.  dun dun duuuun

What We We Have Here is... A Failure to Communicate‏

Ah the same happened to Kyle.  Bummer.  But yeah if it wasn't the best call at least it was somewhat entertaining.  All the Haitians asked me for a dollar after it was done and they tried to talking to me in English.  Esos locos.  

Okay that's good that Dad and Darrell did a good job.  I'm sure it was really great.  I just didn't know what to say about the funeral.  Think I'll just write a letter instead.  haha and Papa is still great.  I can just imagine the aunts talking about it in their loud voices.  ah, Cambria is still doing alright then!  Menos the D in science buuut hey she can pull it off!  Or else.  

Yeah about the birthday thing it's alright.  I don't need anything really.  I just put together my alarm clock with some super glue.  Seems to be working fine again!  But what I would like is pictures of the family and the Valley and stuff to show my companions.  I gotta get this camera fixed or else all this mission will be a vague memory....

Oh and maybe they sell little cards of Christ there in the states?  Those little cards are great to give investigators.  But if not oh well.  My colored stickers will have to do.

That's really cool that school is almost out.  You guys have any plans for summer yet??

Well it was nice to talk to you all and see ya, but as we went to the cita we had planned right after it was like nothing had happened. The work keeps on goin!  We found some guy from Guayaquil and his drugged friend who told us all about his baptism in Guayaquil.  It was hilarious.  He did the re-enactment and everything.  Then as we were walking away from them we could hear him yelling to his friend that he didn't know anything about God.  

Then we were walking by the offices today and some white guy put $20 in my shirt pocket and my first response was thinking about how they robbed me with that card.  Heeeeey I said, and he looked at me innocently.  "I'm not gonna take this money" I told him but then he smiled and I asked him if he was a member and he said yes.  Of Bountiful Utah!  Pelucones!  But I gave the money to Elder Recalde to call his mom tomorrow.  I've also talked to a man from San Antonio Texas who asked me if Mitt Romney is gonna win.  Also a tall guy from Washington.  The United States is everywhere!!

But more than that I got nothin to tell ya guys.  So I guess I'll just write ya next week!  Next week are changes so we'll see if I go anywhere new.  But I love ya guys and I'll see ya next week.

What a Week‏

Hello!

Well I hope the funeral went well and I'm sure Dad and Darrell did a great job.  It's really great that Blake and Channing did the DVD, sounds like it was beautiful.  Hope you're all getting along fine and that the Spirit and your testimonies give you the comfort you need.  

I think I'm the one who has it easy compared to everyone else at home.  For me, it doesn't seem real yet.  I know it'll hit me when I walk into Papa and Grandma's house and see the empty chair and when I go over to help with the lawn.  As of right now, my life continues normally, like a ripple that didn't reach the surface.  But the day after I could study a lot about the Plan of Salvation and read a few teachings of Jospeh Smith about death.  Joseph Smith lost several brothers, 6 of his children, and saw the death of his father.  Yet he understood the immortality of the human soul, and he used his personal experiences with death to give comfort and hope to others.  He said that we have the greatest reason of all people to rejoice because we understand the true nature of death and we know of the saving ordinances that Grandma received in order to be accepted into the kingdom of God.  Other people are destroyed by a death and can't find the hope or the strength to continue forward.  But how sweet is it to quietly say to ourselves on the darkest night, "I know my family can be together forever."  Because of the death and the resurrection of a man 2,000 years ago we'll live again.  The sting of death is swallowed in the glory of the resurrection.  And it's awesome!!

Another part of this is that I'm always busy.  Hardly have time to think about my own life when I'm looking out for the progress of others.  That's what I'`ve learned from the mission.  When one thinks on his own problems, his own failures and difficulties, he's miserable.  When one can dissolve himself in the good of others you have a way of forgetting other things.  I don't want to say that I'm forgetting Grandma or anything, just that I can move forward without self pity or overwhelming sorrow.  I do feel sorry for you guys, Papa, my cousins and aunts and uncles, but I know that it's possible to feel the love of God through the event of death.  And more than anything, death is a flash of our own hourglass that's constantly moving.  Shows us how we should live and how should we die.  But more than anything I'm just grateful for my family and the Gospel.

Well this week was alright.  We had a talent show, and we did two sketches.  I was Nephi and we did the part of getting the brass plates.  But in Spanish they're called planchas.  But a plancha is also a  clothes iron.  So the planchas de bronce were two irons that we finally got.  We tried to make everything funny.  And it was good.  It's always great to make people laugh.  And just teaching some people!

Well that's all, thanks for everything, we'll talk sometime next week (i still don't know) and I love you all, hope you're doing great, Adios!!

The Devil Controls The Media‏

And why do I say that as my title?  Because only Satan would tempt poor Elder Jackson with the last Harry Potter, Captain America, 3D Star Wars, the new Spider Man, The Avengers, Ghost Rider, and the third Batman.  That has got to be pure evil torture.  I've seen only hints that the movie is coming out and I cry like a sad sad girl who got left without a date on prom night.

Speaking of prom, BLEEEEEHHHHH!!  I tell Elder Recalde horror stories about prom.  Pink tuxes, immodest dresses, awkward dinners.  He thinks we're all crazy for spending so much money on the stinkin thing.  I agree.  NEVER AGAIN!!  But I hope they have fun.  Cheers.  Matt Jarvies is a funny guy.  Russel's invitacion was so stinkin cute I puked.   

OOoooooh Cambria is running hurdles.  YEAH BOY!!  I miss hurdles.  I talk like an old has been to Elder Recalde about those too.  It was the life.  It's more like I just miss it being warm.  And being in shape.  When I'm climbing up these hills in the pouring rain feelin the burn in my legs.... it just makes ya feel like an old piece of wood sittin in a puddle.  

Well this week was stake conference and we had Marcus B. Nash, Elders D. Todd Christofferson and Richard G. Scott talk by satellite to all of Ecuador.  It was inspired.  Just what Ecuador needs.  Talked about how they're part of the covenant people of Israel, how they should remember mission work, marriage, service, and the sacredness of women.  I didn't know they spoke Spanish!  Pretty cool to hear them talking another language.  Sounded pretty good.  Better than me says Elder Recalde.  That's made me be more dedicated to learning Spanish again.  

We taught some of those haitianos again and not all of them understood us.  Speak French!  So we used the movie of the Restoration and put the language in French.  That got their attention.  But after they were done they put in some movie about assassins and there went the spirit.  But hey it's a work in progress.

We also showed another investigator the movie of the Restauration and we asked him what he thought about the restauration of the church of Jesus Christ.  He told us that he was impressed how the Smith family planted corn with faith.  He also has a patch of land and he plants with faith, and he always reaps the harvest.  (Slap to forehead)

Um we had emergency changes today so we haven't been able to do anything.  Somethin went down in the coast.  But I gotta go!  

Hope everything is goin great and you're all living like a bunch of rabbits in a corn patch.  I love you all, and tell some people to be patient with my letters I'm trying to get them sent.  I'm broke!!  (oooh yeah there's only 3 bucks in the account.... sorry!)
BYE!