Missionary Letters To Jon

Hi Jon! I know Thanksgiving isn't a Mexican holiday but I wonder if you did anything special at all. I bet you did - maybe a family cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for your or maybe your mission president had all the missionaries over. I spent all day Monday and Tuesday trying to get Maddy's wedding invitations printed, labeled, stuffed, and mailed out. Then we drove up to Island Park on Tuesday night. I had a good time up there. On Wednesday there was only about 1 inch of snow on the ground but we got about 6 inches of snow on Thursday night and another foot of snow on Friday night. We did some fun sledding! Uncle Chris came up on Friday morning with Nate and Abby so Nate and Aimar worked all day on a ski jump. It was so-so on Friday but it was amazing on Saturday after another foot of snow fell on it. Aimar learned how to do 180s and Nate did backflips off the jump. At first Nate went straight up and landed on his back. Later he rotated more but didn't get his skis all...

Hi Jon! I'm so glad you took the time last week to write Mom and me about the "real deal". I know you write a letter that goes to about 100 people and you probably want to keep it really lighthearted but with mom and me you can share the real deal and it helps us feel closer to you. She and I were both missionaries so we get it and sometimes we might have some advice for the situations you are going through or maybe just pray for you. I've had investigators who don't progress very fast. It's frustrating but something you'll constantly be dealing with. Remember that it's not your job to convert people - that's the Lord's job. Your job is to find them and teach them and let the spirit do the rest. I'm sorry Elder Espinoza doesn't help out more or take the lead on contacting and teaching. I've had companions who weren't obedient and it's always hard. Remember that all callings in the church - even being a missionary - ...

Hi Jon. Your letters are getting really short! I know you are short on time but we don't really know what's going on with you and your investigators, etc.  The weather has been getting really cold. We had snow on the ground yesterday when I woke up - maybe just frost but still it was white everywhere. We had elections on Tuesday and not all of the votes have been counted yet. A lot of issues were so close that they are like 50 votes apart with 50,000 left to be counted. I voted by mail this year which was super easy and lots of other people had to stand in line for 4 hours. The polls closed at 8p but anyone in line at that time could vote and the last person to finish was at like 1:30am which is crazy.  Javi had a band concert last week and Chance had performances of Into the Woods. I went to see the play on Friday night and it was super long - like 3 hours. And I don't like the music. But I wanted to see Chance and it was cool to see him on stage. Javi played ...

Halloween was pretty fun. We gave out more than 1,200 treats and I think that is a new record. The Thompsons gave out 1,056 Krispy Kreme doughnuts and ran out before 7:30pm. I sent you a bunch of pictures so I won't say much about our costumes. Mom and I are planning to put our house on the market this May so we can downsize into a smaller house somewhere. It made me a little sad thinking this might be our last Halloween living in this neighborhood but maybe we'll get one more depending on when the house sells. I went kayaking in the Provo Recreation Center pool and started teaching Uncle Chris how to do a combat roll. It was pretty hard for him to pick up and he'll need a couple more sessions of practice just like I did. He likes my new kayak though so maybe he'll buy one like it. Hannah and Dallin blessed their baby Maverick yesterday. We drove to North Ogden to be there with them. I forgot to take pictures so sorry. Grace Hume was there and she looks amazing ...