Elder Jacob Swanton Philippines Iloilo Mission: Nobody said it would be easy....

Hold to the rod or rusty cable....

Update from Jacob...

Dear Family,

Alright I will give the good news and then the not as good news. The good news is the package got here safe and sound and I was able to open it on Sunday and that was super sick and it made the whole day. I got all that was in the package and all I have to say is dad has a funny way of picking pictures to send to me haha they are the best and I can tell that maybe you guys got a picture printer. Anyways thank you all very much and I will be using everything that was in the package to the best of my ability.

Mom I think you might be right about the whole having super hard areas my whole mission. When I went to the mission office last p day the Elders there said that they were talking about me. They said it was funny how I went from a super hard area in Bugasong and then the next transfer strait to also difficult Tigbauan. One of the Elders said that I should be grateful because both of these areas have produced some of the best missionarys to come through the mission. So I guess I will try to learn all that I can in this area so that later in the mission it will be of use to me. Yes I am back to the peak of physical activity. When I get done with these emails I will be heading to go make new pants because all of my pants are to big to be refitted so I am going to be looking good in the next pictures haha.

It sounds like you are all keeping busy with the camps and what not. Over here we are really just trying to find people who want to learn and who will accept us into their homes. It is alot different here because

back in bugasong I could use the fact that I was white to teach anyone. But here in the city they have all seen white before and that is nothing new to them. It was a long week of walking and getting rejected and yelled at. I can say I have spent a good long time on my knees this week praying that we will have some help and have some people come to church or start to progress. We were however able to contact some less actives and teach them and I have high hopes that they will come back to church.

Tell mike that I said happy birthday and I will pray for all of you over in Utah because you have a new driver on the road and he is a crazy one haha. I hope that he has a good birthday and work goes good for him. I will be praying for grandpa and if you guys want to fast with me this next Sunday that he will get better you are more than welcome to do that. It will be a cool way for us to connect even though we are 10,000 miles apart.

As for adventures not to many other than I have done it again. Me and my comp were able to go to the furthest possible part of our area this past week and it was the craziest thing that has ever happened. Three hours into the jungles and mountains of Leon. Dad the roads that we went on I dont think that I would have ridden a four wheeler on. And yet I was sitting on top of a Beefed out Jeepney with about 60 other people on top with me. Yes the road was washed out and yes the driver just punched the gas and we barley made it. But in the end when we got there and after we had seen some super cool waterfalls. We went tracting and gave out a bunch of Book of Mormons and people up there were super friendly and that was a nice change from the regular day routine. Just a great experience and I would love to live it over again but I dont think that it will be an option to go back because after we got back, we were told not to go back because they have NPA up there and for an American that means kidnapping! So yeah maybe we will be back but who knows.

That is really all for my week and I just really have been putting it all with the Lord these past few days. I will do what I can to make this place better and try to help the branch.

Love Elder Swanton