Week 11

Well HI!!!!

This week was sort of short, not a lot of things happening so I'll just put

it in the way it was.

so since coming to this great city and on my grand adventure i have been

trying, note trying, to learn a language that is as foreign as i feel

sometimes. haha but on this journey i have had a key or a main gift with me

the whole time well more than one gift. I have the gift each person gets

after baptism, the holy ghost, which one of our investigators Yahir got on

Sunday after Elder Picuasi baptized him on Saturday. Another gift is the

person who's name is always on me, well so is my name, but its the name

Jesucristo (Jesus Christ) at this time of the season we like to remember

the greatest gift the world has ever been given, the Son of God. Now here it

doesn't feel/look like Christmas but it sure is around us. even through there is

no snow the date tells us.  other people are putting on sweaters or

jackets cause they are cold at 62 degrees or something like that. What a

great time of the year!!!! and for missionaries everywhere what a great

time to just go crazy!!!! haha so we are or have been trying to bring the

whole town unto Christ but i don't think that's going to happen for

sometime but i won't stop trying that's for sure!!!. there is actually

a couple of songs that at this time of the year i like to listen and sing

to and thanks to my dad for putting them on my ipod i can. one is Edwin's tal

1862 by Peter Brianholt. this is a great song cause when missionaries miss

home they look up to heaven or to a picture or two of the family back home

and then they see on high an angel choir 8 million voices singing, and then

they look to the one man who's birthday we celebrate even Jesus Christ.

What a great thing to remember the birth of the one who we all look up to

and can rely on. another gift is the gift of tongues. which I have!! and I

have seen it turn me from a full English speaker into a person who has learned a

lot and has listened to what people are saying and can almost comprehend what

they are saying to the fullest but I cant speak it yet. keyword yet. Its

taken a lot and a lot of just focus time but i am going to do it in 3

months or so i will be able to speak a language which 3 months ago i had no idea

how to comprehend. i have a social gift and i thank God everyday for it.

Another gift is the gift of a wonderful family that supports me in all

things i do!! it helps on missions, let me tell ya. another gift is prayer.

through prayer we can all feel close to the ones we love its sort of like a

phone call to the heart of your mom. its pretty nice i feel everyone's 

prayers and when they say bless all the missionaries well we are blessed

and because we have so many people looking out for us when we feel like

being shy a thought comes out and says well maybe the person right next to

you, as you are riding in a taxi with six people and the car is the size of

the little red car at home and you are maxed out in space, the thought comes-

to talk to the person right next to you and well you do it in the best

language you know. Its when you don't know how far you can push yourself or

how many more steps you can take. Its when your back is aching cause your

companion makes you carry the weight because you are new. by the way i make

a good pack mule. haha who knew haha oh wait i did. Its when your companion

complains cause in the morning you ran five miles and he doesn't run. its

when you have all the stuff and your legs hurt and then they don't- its been

a great week!!! its been really trying sometimes and its been good and its just

been new. fun in deed!!! i love this work. Now during this season or

remembering loved ones who are gone or remembering the person who's

birthday we celebrate. let us, like last year and in years past, do as

President Monson says. Help others before ourselves. Its not a day to

remember the presents we get, which thats always nice, but its a day and a

season to be like Christ and to act like him and to think of others before

ourselves. so let us do that. not just because that's what I'm going to do here

in Ixuathan but lets all be a little more like the Savior and help others out

in anyway possible in fact why not do it all year round not just during

this season. i will be out here for two years serving in place of the

Savior and after i am released its not over then it goes on and on for the

rest of my life. its a daily thing that makes us all a little better

inside. so let us be the one who is an example of the believers in all

things! we are all one in the Lords eyes. it has taken a week and a half for

me to figure it out and well here everyone serves each other and they have

nothing. they have bearley enough to support themselves sometimes but i

tell you i have never seen a happier people that take in whatever you say.

We walk up to a person that is the poorest man around and he says hello,

would you like to come and eat at my house. and we say no that's OK but he

insists. its when we walk into a house that has 4 kids and not a lot of

food or drink and they give you some and you just say thank you and share a

message about God. its when they don't have enough money to pay tithing

but they still do and they then have a flat tire or need to get

somewhere but just gave the money they had to their kids so they cant pay

for the mototaxi and they walk to church. God blesses us all i can tell you

that and i have so much to be thankful for and you know what i will

forever be thankful and just the thought of how happy a people such as these

are its amazing!!! this is my week all into one!!!

The picture is of Yahir and Elder Picuasi and I with Yahirs mom and brother

in front of the church. Now Yahirs family doesn't have a lot but he is the

first convert in his family and plans to bring them all unto Christ. What a

great kid!!! he is 10 years old and has a testimony of this gospel like you

have never seen he knows it is true and that's all he needs. we are

actually in like 40 minutes going to go see him and teach him more. he is

what we call an example of the believers!!! he will be an awesome

Missionary some day. oh and Elder Picuasi is wearing my pants Yahir my tie

and my shirt. and the rest is Elder Picuasi's

til next week!!! love you all!!!!

Elder Jaymes A Monson