Elder Jacob Smith: Happy Halloween

Man it sounds like you had a fun week! Full of Halloween stuff! I sure miss the Halloween season. It is so weird that it is the end of the year and it is still hot! I am not loving it too much! It is just really humid! But all is well! Haha but yeah Mom, I really do miss all of my clothes and just wearing whatever I want.

Noooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Not the Valley Center Playhouse! I can't believe it's closing down. Why is everything coming to an end? Well at least I was able to go last year! But that was such a fun thing we did for so many years. To be honest the plays are just sooo cheesy but ya gotta love the experience!

During this past week, I got the chance to go on splits in Jaen, my old area! It was nice to see some of the members there and teach some of the investigators that I left behind! One member who is 12 years old, his name is Dayton, saw me walking in the street and yelled Elder Smith!!! He ran as fast as he could and almost knocked me over because he just jumped and gave me a huge hug! It was so nice!

I also went on splits with a returned missionary from our ward. We went together to an investigators house named Ruth. She is 14 years old and she is so interested in the church. It was only our first lesson and we set a baptismal date in November for the 30th! Our goal for baptisms is 5 for the month of November so we are pretty excited to see what happens!

Speaking of November! You are not going to believe what is going to happen! Russell M. Nelson is coming to the mission! Only the Chiclayo mission! So the 19th of November we will be traveling to Chiclayo. We will hear is talk on the 20th and return on the 21st of November! So at least we get a different type of treat for November! We are so stoked!

My area is so legit and a lot more calm because we aren't that close to central Jaen. The members are great and always are willing to help and we always have a fun time with them. Elder Rich is doing really good. The president told me that I have to make sure that he works hard the rest of his mission. Honestly we work really hard and have fun at the same time with games and stuff! We only speak in Spanish so I have grown a lot in Spanish wise and I don't worry too much about that anymore Also, my health is good. I am sleeping well and I am able to get up on time just fine. We are also running every morning from 6 30 to 7. It is a little over 2 miles what we are running.

That is so awesome that you were able to do all that family history research Dad. Hopefully you can start to be able to do it with Mom's side. Honestly I never really was that interested in all that stuff before my mission. But I think that know I would love to do it. I will for sure look into it when I get back. But yeah I have memorized D& C 4 in English because we said it every week in priests quorum. But I will look into the other scriptures you gave me as well!

Freak yeah BYU! Beat Boise state! Man that makes me so glad to hear about Taysom Hill and that I will be able to back for his senior year! I miss football so much!

This past week for lunches with the members was um, . . . memorable. We eat with members for lunch on Saturday and Sunday and both times they gave us soup....with chicken liver in it! Oh my gosh I almost died! Haha it was funny though. I put it in my mouth, not knowing what it was and instantly I knew that it was not normal meat because the texture is like hardish, gross butter, idk but I instantly spit it out, and asked to Elder Rich, what the heck is that. But don't worry the member didn't see. He just told me, eat it fast and don't think about what you are eating! So with the 3 huge pieces remaining I put it in my mouth, trying not to chew it, and I swallowed it! I'm still alive!

But yeah this week was legit! We also went to Shumba again where there is a member's farm! It was so awesome! We ate fruit like all day! Coconuts, bananas, star fruit, this weird gooey fruit, guanabana, these types of plums. Yeah I was in paradise! Oh while there, we climbed coconut trees and killed a snake! That is what that picture is!