We had a chance to
talk to Jake when he had a layover in L.A. on Memorial Day. He sounds great. He was traveling to Culiacan alone (which is
unusual for a missionary), but he sounded upbeat and happy. We assume he arrived safely Monday night and
is now testing out his new-found Spanish skills somewhere in Mexico!
May 17, 2014
Dear
All:
That’s
awesome your [Mom’s] foot is doing better! Josh has been telling me funny
stories about making his companion eat a pound of Reeses's and 28 slices of
bread and a whole ice cream sandwich in one bite!
Things
are pretty normal here, we have an investigator named Javier. He’s a an actual
non-member, and he says he was impressed by our Spanish. My companion, Elder Kester
and I have been getting that a lot so it’s nice to know were progressing. He
has a lot of questions and is a professor at USU so he always has a lot to contribute
to the conversation, but he can ramble on. Sometimes our lessons with him are
usually an hour and a half when they should be 45 min.
But
yeah, I leave for Mexico in 9 days! Kinda bittersweet. I’m gonna miss all my
friends here, but I’m excited to leave the MTC. I got my travel plans. I leave
here at 4:30 in the morning and I fly from SLC to LA to Culiacan. I travel all
alone because I’m the only missionary in the entire MTC going to Culiacan! I’m
gonna die over there. It’s been over 100 degrees for the past 6 weeks, and it’s
only gonna get hotter! But I’m pretty excited. We did get new missionaries in
our zone this week they’re all pretty cool. Not a lot of interesting stuff this
week. Our teachers bought us krispy kreme doughnuts because were special.
If you
could send my Husky shorts that would be amazing, also my glasses before I
leave would be great too. Um…the shirts you gave me the arrowhead ones (dress
shirts) fit perfect around the neck and chest but they’re like a foot too long
so I don’t know if I can get them hemmed or anything or just have to deal with
really long shirts.
Sounds
like everything is great at home. Any news for the NFL draft? New pickups for
the Seahawks?
Pretty
typical week though. Sorry for the short letter. I’m gonna miss the elders in
my district were all really close, which sucks. I just hope I don’t get a
square for a companion.
I didn’t
know you were recording me when I spoke Spanish! I dont want people to make fun
of my poor grammar, but I’ll come back speaking like a gangster I think. Any
who, hope everyone is doing well!
-Elder Latimer
P.S. Also, L.
Tom Perry and his wife came and spoke to us! We’ve had 5 apostles now, crazy! I
hope president Monson comes this week, but I doubt it. He’s a busy guy! Anywho,
that’s all!
May 24, 2014
Dear
All:
That’s
so sad about Jace [little brother had a problem at school with a bully]! Make
him take wrestling and teach him to punch kids in the face! He's too nice to do
stuff like that though.
I did
get the package. It’s in my classroom right now. I didn’t have time to go
through it right now but I will in a little bit! I forgot my stupid adapter at
home again! So I don’t know if I’ll send pictures this week. I have a lot of
good ones for all you to put on my blog and everything.
But
yeah I leave the MTC at 4:30 a.m. and my flight is around 8:45 a.m. to LAX and
then I have like a 5 hour layover until I go to Mexico. So I’ll call for a
while during the day and stuff. Maybe you could give me Ryan’s phone number too
and I’ll call him. I think that would be a cool surprise since I have 5 hours
to kill. I am traveling alone. It says
on my itinerary I’m the only missionary on the flight. That will be weird not
having a companion.
It’s so
crazy I’m almost done at the MTC already. It flew by for me. My Spanish is
getting better and I’m so excited to serve people down there. By the way, if
you send packages use the U.S postal service and not Fed Ex or private
companies because they get searched more heavily at the border. So if you send
things use the U.S postal service. It still takes a while to get there. Also,
put a picture of Jesus right over the seal of the box, and maybe like cheesy
Christian stickers on it. Our Mexican teacher says that discourages 95% of
people from stealing your package, and it actually makes it get there faster in
a lot of cases.
I’m
gonna miss my district and zone everyone is so awesome in it. We all get along
great. I’m gonna right most of them. But yeah our Mexican teacher Hermano Arce
says that the people in Mexico LOVE missionaries and they treat you like
general authorities and apostles. He says that the Elders don’t gain much
weight it Mexico, but the sisters do because the members feed them like they're
grown men.
I get
to Culiacan about 7:00 pm on Monday, I’m so excited! I’ve been walking around
the city via Google maps and I love it! It’s pretty ghetto, but I have a really
good feeling about it. Our teachers have told us lots of cartel and gang
stories, like people dropping grenades in the streets and having 50 cal turrets
in the back of pick up trucks and just spraying at other cartels. But they love
the missionaries! They protect them and stuff because they’re very God fearing
and go to mass and everything so that’s good for me! Apparently, they're really
big into the Angel of Death, which they kind of use to justify their killings,
but our teacher said it’s basically Satan.
But
anywho! I won’t tell you about stories like that once I’m there so I don’t make
you worried. Unless you want to hear about them! In that case I’d love to share
any and all things! But I’ll try to keep it as spiritual as I can! What I’m
most concerned about is the heat, but I’ll survive! Sounds like everything is
great at home! Love and miss you all!
-Elder Latimer
P.S. Elder
Bednar came and did a surprise devotional! It was insane. He did a Q&A it
was awesome. I’ve got to see an apostle every week since I’ve been here! It was
so funny. One sister asked about specific scriptures saying that women couldn’t
hold the priesthood, and he was like, “There are 15 living scriptures (the
apostles) and you’ve got one right here.” Me and my comp were like
"OOOOOOHHH PLANCHAR!" which in Spanish is like the equivalent to a “burn”
ahha. But it was pretty funny. He then went into an awesome explanation why. It
was basically that the priesthood is an umbrella and everyone under it gets the
blessings. The men just have the job to hold the umbrella. There was more
detail than that but I don’t feel like explaining it all. Very cool week here
though. People say that me and my companion are really great at teaching
together and were very unified and have a strong spirit about our lessons, which
is really cool to here. Anywho, that’s the little bit I forgot to write about.
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