Jake hasn’t been able to write a mass email to everyone the last two weeks but wanted me to send his love to all of you. I thought I would share some excerpts from what he sent to me.
Mom!!
We were walking home the other night, and I was thinking about putting up the Christmas stuff with you. I got a little teary eyed, but I looked up at the stars and I just felt peaceful and happy. But it’s all good. Things are great here. I am so happy that Isaac’s baptism went well, and that makes me happy. We had a baptism last Saturday as well so in a way I felt like I didn’t miss Isaac’s special day.
But yeah so I will be able to Skype for Christmas. My companion and I are thinking Monday morning here like early. We don’t know what time exactly yet but I will let you know next week. So the mail gets to me from when the zone leaders or whoever goes to Cebu or when president comes here to our island. I got your package!!!! Thank you so much the food is so yummy. Oh and my companion loves you!!
So we eat some sort of fish pretty much every day here with rice. And sometimes we eat baboy (pig) that can be cooked tons of different ways. People here do whatever they can to buy food for their families. Fishing, driving pot-pots(little tricycle things that you can ride around town), sell or fix motorcycles, there are tons of bakery places too. There are some good treats, these things called quakes. kind of like a type of little debbies that we get every week. And we get bread a lot. It is so good here. The market here is called a chungy and it smells. I don’t really like walking through it because it reeks of fish, but yeah sometimes we walk through if we need eggs or oil or something. But every p-day we come to Dumaguete to do our grocery shopping at a grocery store called Robinson's. It’s cool.
Sometimes I drink the water, but mostly it is just from our house. We have a filter for our sink which is good. I never really got diarrhea or anything too bad. There are a lot of mosquitoes and cockroaches and little lizards everywhere, but not too bad.
I am in a branch, and we had like 55 people at church last Sunday. We are really working hard to reactivate less and inactive members but it is hard work. It is good though.
Everything is so great here!! My comp and I are working hard even though our branch is struggling. There is no budget for any activities... even a Christmas party. So we don’t get to really do anything like that with our branch members. It’s so sad because our branch is probably one of the poorest in the mission. And we might not have a very merry Christmas in Siaton.
I’m working hard to help the branch progress. So the training in Cebu was good. We learned more about how to progress as missionaries after the adjustment. To become real effective missionaries. That is my goal. My mission president is so awesome. We had a Christmas program/devotional/party for Negros Island and elder Pasikala and I performed a musical number, away in a manger. He played on a little guitar thing and we both sang. Then pres Schmutz gave us fist bumps when we sat down. He is just like a father/bro/greatest mission president ever. I love him! But yeah things are good.
Because here I realize how much I took for granted back home. Just be happy we have shoes r clothes or underwear or soap and food. It is so different here. But the gospel is true and I know it will help those who listen to the call of their father in heaven. I love being here and being able to be the instrument in the lords hands in which his children may attain life eternal. It is so great.
Thanks for being such a cool family, and being active in the lord's church. It is so great. Well I love you all so much and am so excited to Skype on Christmas!!
gugma gikan ang akong kasingkasing, Elder DeSchepper
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