Update from Jacob.....

Hellooooo Family,

Well, its been awhile since I have been in contact but, I had better tell you mom, Yes I did receive both packages and no I have not opened them because I am down at the Zone Leaders house for a couple days with the rest of the zone and I don't want to open a package with 14 other Elders who did not get any packages! So yes I will wait until I get home and then next week I will say thanks for all of the stuff. Well the family sounds like they are doing good and all tell all the kids that I said good luck and do good in school and don't take it for granted. Anyways I'm just sitting here in an internet cafe down in San Jose on our p-day drinking a coconut and cookies and cream smoothie and it is so nice here. The air conditioning here is funny cause if people have it then it is as cold as it can possibly go haha.

 So on to the week. I'm am going to try to be a little more in depth but no promises. So things here have been a little bit better because we had the traveling APs come to our house and go out with us during the day. So that was Wednesday and on Thursday we started to teach Sarah Boustista again. She was going to be baptized that Saturday. So we got everything ready and taught her and she was interviewed and she was found to be go to be baptized. So I was super pumped for that. Now we are to New Years Eve and things here really start to pick up haha. So new years night I went to bed around 10:15 and then at like 12:00am my comp and Elder Larsen wake me up and tell me that we are heading to our neighbors house to have a feast of food. I have included a picture of the fun. So I headed over there and here is just a head of a pig and the whole family is just watching Lord of the Rings 3. So we grabbed some food and watched the whole dang movie and yes it was soo long hahah but it was a great time. They are not members but they are our landlords so we gave them a little message and headed home not bad for a New Years party. And while we slept little did we know someone shot a fire work at our house and burnt my comps towel hahahahaha. So on New Years we had a Sarahs Boutistas baptism and little did I know that there was a small typhoon coming our way right during the baptism. So me and Elder Olivar headed there and when we get there her dad is way mad. He is yelling and saying that he does not want his daughter to be dunked in the middle of a Bage-o or storm. He looks at me and says how much do you weight and I said like 140 kilos and he said Ok you can do it but not him, and he pointed at my comp. I was like holy cow ok, yeah it was kinda interesting as we walk down to the shore the waves are five to six feet tall and it is so darn choppy out there I did not even want to do it. I said a prayer that the waves would calm down and I carried her out into the waves because she did not want to walk. 

I was walking backwards so that she did not get hit in the face, and about ten feet out a huge 7 foot wave hits me in the head and we go under and lucky I was able to keep my feet or we would have been gone, the back current was so strong. So any ways I tried to baptize her but she was freaking out at that point she would not let go of me. So I carried her back to shore and her dad had to talk to her. I asked him if he still wanted to do this and he said yes. So I pick her up one more time and head back out into the tempest. I kid you not the storm looked like Satan himself was powering the waves. I raised my hand to the square and a huge wave was coming so I finished and she started to freakout cause she could see the wave, but I could not and then I just shoved her under and picked her up and just held on as another wave hit me right in a back. I was slowly able to make it back to shore and she was so happy and smiling. So yeah that was my week just another week in not so paradise am I right. Well I love you all and mom, my favorite place so far would be Tica, it is a small town in the middle of 10 miles of rice fields. We have to walk on these little rice patty paths to get out to the members houses. The kids always see us way before they get there and they run so fast to come and see us. I love this place and the work even though it is for real the hardest thing ever. My favorite family is Nanay Lele. She is a old grandma in the middle of no where and she is such a strong member and so is all of her family. Ever time we go there she makes me a soup of just straight grass and leaves and tells me that if I eat it my diabetes will go away. The fun thing is that I don't have diabetes and the soup taste so darn good ahahah. I love you all, ha seeing all the kids here go back to school makes me think of back home and how much I miss you guys. Love god and never think that he is not listening to you or any of your prayers. Love 

Elder Swanton

PS. I finally finished the Book of Mormon and have started the bible and I am pumped to keep reading.

 

Where we live

Gourmet kitchen

Cool tile

Sweet New Years Eve Party- pig is not smiling

Baptism in flip flops