Mom,

Thanks so much! I honestly didn't do much for my birthday. It's fine though. Thanks for the clock! I'll be buying batteries for it today and I'll set it up. I haven't gotten the other package yet. The mail should be coming this Friday from the mission office, so I should get it then. I actually couldn't see the videos you sent. The computer that I'm at doesn't have the video thing to play something from an IPhone. Maybe there's another way that I'll be able to see them.. I don't know much about computers.

 

Actually, I'm coming up to 3 months left until the year mark. It's coming soon! I think these next couple months should go by pretty quickly.

 

That's such a weird story about Chubs! He's so strange sometimes. I have no idea what that would be. Thanks for telling me that! Good to know that Chubs is still alive, haha.

 

That saying in Spanish, "Ya lo se." Literally translated it means, "I already know that." I've heard it before. And yes, you did spell it right! I think it would be a slang way of saying "I know". I would say it when somebody tells me something I already know, that I'm good friends with. Speaking of language in high school, I'm really losing my German. Remember the Italian guy at Casanova's? Well, he speaks a little bit of a few languages, like Portuguese, French, and German. And he also speaks Spanish fluently too. I try to speak some German with him sometimes, and I can't say much anymore. Sad, but I'm getting really good at Spanish.

 

That's funny about Spencer. They do have wierd things in Germany. I remember Julian, the ballroom friend from Germany thought Root Beer here tasted like cough syrup. Different tastes in Europe.

 

I'm glad to hear Quiznos is still going. I hope it at least lasts until I come home. I want to go say hi to Larry after my mission. I don't think I'll work there unless he asks me though.

 

I'm loving those quotes! I found a good one today in my study as well. It's from Joseph Smith. He said, “a religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” Pretty good I thought. I was studying for Diego, one of our investigators. Diego is 14 and doesn't come to church because he has soccer games on Sunday. I'm hoping that when we see him again, I'll have enough things about sacrifice in the Gospel that it'll get him to sacrifice enough soccer for God. He's making me frustrated lately, because he really wants to get baptized but he just won't come to church.

 

Yerlin is super hard to get a hold of. We haven't been able to see them again yet. I'm praying that we can get in contact with them again. She would be an excellent addition to the Branch.

 

This last week, we brought a returned missionary out with us. His name is Jordan Handley. He's from the English Ward here, and he just got back from his mission in Argentina. He taught with us. Just by his teaching, I could tell he was an amazing missionary! He taught so well! I hope I can eventually teach like him. We'll be taking him out more often for sure. Interesting thing about Argentina, and also Uruguay and Paraguay. In Spanish, when there is a double L, like in "Yo me llamo" which means "My name is", the 'Y' and the 'll' both make the 'y' like in 'you'. In Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, they say all those with a 'sh' instead. So "Yo me llamo" would be pronounced "Sho me shamo". So, Jordan would always talk that way when he talked in Spanish. It was really fun to talk with him. He had some really interesting stories from his mission. I'm kind of glad I'm not in South America.

 

Yesterday, we ate at the Branch Presidents house. They didn't feed us because it was my birthday, they just fed us because they like us. It was really good!

 

That's about all I got for this week. It was a pretty good week!

 

Love you mom! Miss you!

 

-Justin

 

Q of the W:

1.  Do you pack a lunch everyday?  

 

No, we usually eat lunch right before we go out. I want to start packing a little something everyday so I don't come home at night and want to eat. Sometimes I come home and I'm hungry.

2.  Is there any food item or candy that you can't get in New Jersey that you miss from home?

 

Yes, JCW, Carls. Jr. and Costa Vida. Haha, I can't really think of anything right now though. I can usually find stuff at Walmart.

3.  Do you guys take turns driving?  Have you driven a lot in NJ?  Scary...

 

Yes, we do take turns. NJ roads are ridiculous. I don't like them. I'm officially used to the names though. I think about going back to the number streets in Utah, and it seems a little weird. But it would be a lot nicer. People here are super mean on the roads too. I've learned to be a little more aggresive to get around better. I'll definately be a better drive in Utah.

 

Two other updates:

I don't know if you already know, but Seth Smith joined the Army. He's in boot camp right now! He emailed me last Sunday and told me that he was leaving the next day. Crazy right!!

 

Another, we decided to go to Ikea today! There's one in Elizabeth, right next to the Newark airport. We're going to eat there too. I'm getting the swedish meatballs for sure! I'll take some pics.

 

Love you!

 

-Justin

 

 

Dear Mom,

 

So with Yerlin, hopefully I'll be able to stay to see her be baptized. They rescheduled the last appointment, so we haven't been able to see them since that last appointment. I really want to start meeting with them more often. She needs to be baptized soon!

 

It's kind of wierd to think about my birthday coming up. I don't really feel much different. In fact, it doesn't really feel like my birthday is coming up. We probably won't do anything special for my birthday. It doesn't really matter to me. We'll just celebrate when I get home! It's wierd how time flies, right!

 

I think just all of those songs that I had would be great. Be sure to make copies and send the copies if anybody is learning those songs. I imagine that Julia might want to learn them. I don't know if Kelsie and Kyle have given up on the piano or not though.

 

I'll definately look up those diners. I want to go to one of them so bad!

 

You finally finished! That's so awesome! I know exactly how you feel. When I finished I really wanted another book to be there to read on, even though there's not much to go on about. Those will be the first books I read when I get home. Christopher Columbus was definately inspired of God. Did you know he's actually mentioned (not by name) in the Book of Mormon? 1 Nephi 13. I didn't know that before my misson!

 

I miss hiking so much! I loved that hike on Timpanogas! That last part was pretty scary though. That'll definately be a tough part in the future though. I really want to hike it again though.

 

I do really like the missionaries I'm with. The other missionaries in the apartment are Elder Jensen from Arizona and Elder Guymon from Utah. He's from some place kind of south-east. Like 40 min away from Provo. They're both way cool! I love to hang out with them. They're planning on going to BYU and UVU. I'll try and hang out with them after my mission.

 

So we had a good amount that happened this last week. I brought my planner today to do email, so I can remember better! So every Tuesday, this family in the Branch likes to feed us. It's the Medina family. I think they have a thing for the missionaries, because they have a son who is on a mission now. Their meals have been come to be known as a Medina Meal. They're huge! They're always a challenge to finish. But it's really, really good food. So we ate the Medina Meal and shared a spiritual thought with the family. After the meeting, Brother Medina walked with us outside to introduce us to two guys he met. We set up a time to come meet with them today. They probably forgot about the meeting, so hopefully they're home and we can still teach them with Brother Medina. The Medina Family is always a great experience! After that, we had an appointment with the Pineda Family. We've never really met them, so we decided to go meet them. Brother and Sister PIneda have been members for two years now, and they love the Gospel! Brother Pineda is the second councilor in the Branch Presidency. He's a really good guy! Well, as we were driving over to their house, I got the feeling that they were going to feed us. This was literally 20 minutes after we had just finished the Medina Meal. Well, I was right. The Pineda family had prepared a little dinner. I couldn't finish it. It was also good food, but there was absolutely no room in my stomach! That night I realized that so far on my mission, there have been times where I've never eaten so little, and I've never eaten so much. Some days I have breakfast, a little lunch and that's it for the rest of the day. Then there's day like last Tuesday, where we went to Five Guys for lunch, had a Medina Meal, and another meal right after that. Fun experiences!

 

This last Wednesday and Thursday were really awesome! We had Leadership Training. Leadership Training was amazing. It was all the missionaries that entered the mission after January 1 of this year and all the Zone Leaders. Also, President and Sister Jeppson were there along with all the Senior Missionaries (meaning the couple missionaries). We went through all these fundamental lessons that we learned in the MTC: The Doctrine of Christ, Revelation through the Book of Mormon, Revelation through Prayer, Revelation through Church attendance, They commit We follow up, How to Begin Teaching, Teach People not Lessons, & The Role of the Spirit in Conversion. They were divided up into both days. President Jeppson and the Zone Leaders, the Assitants, all took turns teaching on each topic. Then after the training (that's what it's called when they teach about the topic) they did a demonstration role-play. Then we all broke up and did role-plays. We basically pretend we're teaching. The person pretending to be an investigator comes up with a concern, then we as missionaries try to teach them and help them. It really helps! It was an awesome experience. There were a few times when President Jeppson sat down with me and a couple other missionaries and watched me teach. I got a little nervous when President Jeppson was watching, but I think I did pretty well. All in all, it was an awesome two days of learning! About eight hours of sitting down and hearing a training then doing role-plays. Between each session though, Sister Jeppson and some other older sister missionaries had some food prepared. They also fixed lunch which was amazing! Definately a mom's cooking!

 

So something amazing happened that we saw this last week. The two other English Elders were knocking one day and they found a Spanish guy who told them that they could send the Spanish missionaries back. We finally got back to him one day. We knocked on his door and a lady came out. She asked us if we were looking for her. I thought that was pretty weird because we were looking for the guy. I asked her if they both wanted to listen. So they both came out. I was about to start asking them about what they know and if they've heard of the Book of Mormon before then the lady (Monika) said she was already a member. I was thinking, what?! We don't have any record of any members in that area. I asked her to explain more. She said that when she was 15 in Peru she and her parents were baptized. She really liked the church and then when she moved to America a few years later, she lost contact with the church and hasn't been since. It was a miracle that we found her! I told the English Elders this story and they just absolutely loved it. I told her where the church was and she said that she wanted to go. She said that she remembers that she really liked the teachings of the Church but she doesn't really remember much. So we said that we would love to start coming by and teaching them both about the Church. She came to church yesterday! They both left really quickly right after Sacrament Meeting, but they came to Church! It was amazing. We just taught her about the Restoration this last Friday and she started to remember it. That's about it with her so far.

 

 

Q of the W:

 

1.  Does anybody do anything for missionaries birthdays?

 

Not much. There was a birthday in the apartment last month. We just invited a couple other missionaries over and ate lunch together.

 

2.  Are the leaves turning colors yet?  If they are...you have to take pictures.  It is my favoritist thing ever!!

 

Not yet! I will definately take pics. Still very, very green here.

 

3.  Have you heard anything about how you missionaries can vote this year?  It's an important year to vote!! 

 

I haven't heard anything about voting. I really want to vote though.

 

 

Love you mom! Hopefully this week was a little bit more than usual. Good week! Love you and miss you!

-Justin

Dear Mom,

 

So to start out what happened this week, we have an investigator who is finally getting closer to baptism! Her name is Yerlin. I can't remember if I've talked about her before. Her husband is a very less-active guy from Puerto Rico. His family is a very active family back in Puerto Rico. Yerlin is open to anything religious. We just taught her last week about the Plan of Salvation. Carlos is the husband and he loves relearning about the church. As we were teaching the Plan of Salvation he kept bringing up things that he remembers. It's great to see him love to relearn about the Gospel! Yerlin was really into learning about the Plan of Salvation. She had basic ideas about where we came from and where we're going. She was very interested in learning what it was like in the Pre-Mortal Existence and the Spirit World. The lesson really got cool when we talked about Celestial Marriage and the Celestial Kingdom. We were talking about how amazing the Celestial Kingdom will be and how it has been our end goal before we were even here on Earth. I then brought up how we need to follow everything in the Gospel including baptism. She asked about what if she had already been baptized in another church. I reminded her about the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ and how we only have the authority to baptize. When she said she understood it was then the perfect moment. I asked her if she would be baptized. She said yes very enthusiastically! It was an amazing experience and the Spirit was definitely there. That's what every missionary looks forward to. Yerlin said she wanted to wait until Carlos' mom came to visit them in November because she's flying to the States to drop off her son at the MTC. This is all a great set-up to get Carlos and Yerlin a very happy family in the Gospel. We'll be teaching them again tonight about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm very excited to teach them!

 

Last night was a pretty good night. We went over to a less-active members house. He and his wife are pretty well off. They have all sorts of nice stuff in their house. They have a big expensive looking couch, a big TV, he has an android version of the i-pad, and she has an i-pad. They also have a flat screen TV over their kitchen table, haha! She also has an i-phone. Nice cars out front. It's just not a huge house. Anyways, we went over there to share with them a scripture and try to get them to come to church and help us out in missionary work. They ended up feeding us. It was an amazing dinner! She cooked this fish called swai fish with a very good sauce made with onions, bell peppers, and tomato sauce. For a good side dish, she made shrimp in a different sauce that was also very good. She made a lot of it too! It was hard to finish because there was so much of it, but it was delicious! Yesterday at church, they also made a couple Tres Leches cakes to end the church meetings. Amazing! It was gone so fast. Everyone loved it, especially the Relief Society. Great!

 

Not much else happened this week. I'll have to get some pictures going this week. There's a street I drove by this last week called Linden St.

  

The temple dedication thing sounds pretty fun! I wish I could go.

 

I would love to go to one of those diners, but I've heard they're pretty expensive. I don't know for sure. Sometimes I have to be careful when hearing something in the mission. Some missionaries will say something small, and it'll just take off. For example, there's this place called Aldi that we go shopping at. They have very cheap stuff and it's actually pretty good quality. I've heard for the longest time that they only accept cash. So we always go to a bank before we go shopping. The other Elders at our apartment told us that they were talking to a member and found out that Aldi does accept credit card. That whole 'Aldi only accepts cash' probably only started because there maybe was one time when Aldi's credit card machine was down. I don't know, but now I know they do credit card. So I have to be careful sometimes. Maybe the diners really aren't all that expensive.

 

I can't believe Luke's farewell already came. He still has a couple more weeks. That's pretty crazy! I'm so excited for Luke. Mexico City is going to be an awesome mission! I'm more excited to be able to talk with him in Spanish. That'll be the best part seeing him when he comes back. I can't believe Kenny's already back! That seemed to go by so fast. I can't wait to see him again and Josh. 

 

Every once in a while, a missionary will have a couple talks on CD. We listened to one the other day from General Conference in April 2010 I think from Elder Holland. I remember one really good quote. He said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. So, watch your step." Awesome!

 

Q of the W:

1. How do you say "I love you" in Spanish?

 

"Te quiero." It literally means, I want you, which I know, is a little strange. But that's just the way Spanish is! It makes perfect sense in Spanish and really does have the meaning of "I love you." You can also say, "Te queremos" which means 'we love you'.

2. How are you doing with your contacts and Diovan? (need more yet?)

 

Good and good. :)

3. General Conference is coming...where will you watch it?

 

Probably at the Scotch Plains chapel in English. I'm so excited for it!! I love General Conference!

 

By the way, I'm with a couple missionaries (good friends now!) that love music. Can you send some of my piano music stuff in my next package?? Like 100 years, Apologize, all those songs and stuff. By the way mom, I'm coming to absolutely love music, especially the piano. You're going to have to give me piano lessons when I come home and teach me everything you know, like the chords and all that stuff. I want to know everything!

 

Love you mom! Talk to you soon! Another idea for b-day present if you haven't figured out something: a little portable electric dictionary or something. My previous companion had one that was really cool that he got off amazon.com I think. Just an idea, I don't really need one. But anything is great! Love you lots. Te quiero!

 

-Justin

Dear mom,

 

Why in the world are they canceling church that Sunday because of the Brigham City Temple dedication?

 

I have to say, my Spanish is getting better I think. Every transfer it gets a lot better. I've actually had a couple dreams where I speak Spanish or somebody else speaks to me in Spanish. Pretty weird because I still wouldn't say that I'm fluent. But cool. That's exciting to hear that Julia and Kaylee might take Spanish. If they're still doing it when I get home I would be so happy to help them out!

 

I was the same way when I was reading the last book of the Great and Terrible Series. I was really sad when I finally finished. So good!

 

So today was a pretty fun day. We went down to Princeton and played football with some members from the English Ward over there. We actually went to the Princeton University to play. The original plan was to play in their football stadium, but it was being used. So we played in a lacrose field that we found. It was pretty fun. Not much that exciting happened this week. Just transfers happened, and I'm in charge of my area. I'm with a guy named Elder Wettstein from Washington state. He's pretty fun. It should be a good six weeks coming up. I'm getting to know the area pretty well and I have good relationships with the members. They really like me especially now that they know I can play the piano. Just yesterday, we went over to the Branch Presidents house for some dinner and to talk about the Branch a little. Apparently there are a lot of less-active members in this area. President Rojas says that there are so many members that come from their country and come once to church and never come again. He also says there are like 200 members in the Plainfield Branch. That's hard for me to believe. He's says another big problem is that people are so caught up in work that they put their work in front of their church attendence and their commitments to God. It's really sad. I don't know how to help them. Even if we could find them, I don't know what we would say. Some people are so hard to find. And I don't even know why they have phones when most of them don't work or they don't pick up. Super frustrating.

 

There's this new missionary in our district, and they live pretty close to us. He just came from somewhere in southern Utah, but he went to UVU for a year or so. He's pretty cool. We were hanging out today with them and we actually started talking about burger joints and JCW's. Man, I really miss that place! Along with Carls Jr and Costa Vida. But they actually have Five Guys around here a lot. We just went there today and it was really good. I haven't had a good burger like that in a while. There are so many McDonalds around here though. I was also talking to this missionary about Quiznos and how bad the headquarters people are. I can't believe that Larry had to close down his store! That's so sad! I can hardly believe it. I was really looking forward to going back to say hi to Larry and the rest of the people working there after my mission. If you get any more info on it let me know. I'm actually friends on Facebook with Larry's son named Eric Brassfield. You could maybe ask him on my Facebook more details on it. I don't know if that would be private stuff or not, but that's a way to see.

 

I honestly don't know for my birthday. Maybe Five Guys card. That alarm clock would be a good idea. I really couldn't think of anything else. Surprise me!

 

Q of the W:

1.  Do you know if you are able to vote this year??

 

I want to vote. Especially for Mitt Romney. I don't know much about him, but I'm pretty sure he'll do better than Obama. There are so many Obama fans out here. I don't know why..

2.  Have you heard from your friend from Quiznos?  I totally have forgotten his name?  I hope he has a job now.

 

Channing. I haven't heard from him. I wrote him a letter when I was in the MTC, I think. He never wrote back. Also, Seth hasn't written back either. I'll try them again. I'm pretty sure Channing had another job.

3.  Have you been taking pictures lately with your camera?  It would be fun to get pictures from you...:)

I've kind of forgotten about taking pictures. I really need to do better with that. Every once in a while, I'll find something cool or interesting. I should carry around my camera for those things.

 

 

BTW: I really, REALLY need a GPS. I'm going to have to buy one today probably. I'll try and keep it around $100. It's pretty much impossible to find addresses without one and my new companion doesn't have one. It'll be nice for the rest of my mission for sure. I also really need to buy new shoes soon. Maybe a gift card to Marshalls or Kohls too..

 

Love you mom! Sorry if my emails aren't very detailed. I'm working on that.

 

-Justin