Email #46....January 10, 2011

well hello!

wow, i didn't even know President Swenson sent you a card at the beginning of
my mission!(a Christmas card with pictures of the missionaries) that's cool.
yeah there are a toonnnn of missionaries here.....in fact, there as so many,
we won't be getting new missionaries for a couple of months. and
it's crazy... i can't remember if i told you this... but out of the 200
missionaries, 120 are gringos and the rest Latinos!... but it's great
because President was telling us that when he goes to meetings with
other presidents, he noticed that we speak better Spanish than the others...
not to be prideful or anything, but a lot of the other missions have their
conferences in English! yeah i know its crazy... we are in South
America.. we should be having meetings in the native language... it's
weird... but i think it's cool that we are one of the few missions that has their
meetings in Spanish. it is also crazy how much President and Sister Swenson
know about each one of their missionaries. they are amazing! and yes, there are
Senior missionaries in the office.

thanks for sending the email picture of Josh! i can not believe how much
weight he has lost! he looks like a different person! i'm pretty sure i
will be losing weight here in the summer. it is sooooooooooo hot!
seriously. there is a hole in the ozone so the sun is so strong. it's a
completely different feeling here... the thermometer says it is 94ish
degrees but it feels so much hotter... at least over a hundred! not
to mention in our house where we sleep... it was 95 degrees until about 8 p.m.
before it started to cool down. talk about hottt! and you can't even get
away from it! speaking of temperatures.. if you ever send me garments, could
you send mesh ones or the spandex sports ones please? i think they will be
cooler...nothing urgent, just so you know :).

well... we are getting blessed here. Patricio (investigator) still has his
date set for the 22nd. every time we talk to him he says that every day
he gets more firm on his baptismal date. it is a great blessing. he is
so ready! i know that satan will really try him, but i believe that
he will go through with it. he is a great guy and, luckily, me and Elder
Clemence came at the right time! we also have another baptism the same
day! Carolina. it really is a gift though. somehow her baptism papers were lost,
so she has to get baptized again.... we have the privilege of teaching
her, just to make everything solid. and it has been great because she
has been helping me with my testimony. she is so up beat! even though
she has a lot of hard things going on in her life right now, she is
just so happy! and when we told her that she had to get baptized
again, she got so excited! it was great. there is also another girl
named Claudia... her boyfriend is a member but hasn't been to church
since he was little (he is in his high 20s now) we have helped to activate him
again and she said she wanted to be a member! so we are working with
her too. our obstacle...we gotta get them married. we started talking about the
plan of salvation and she loved it. she had no idea that there was
life before this life and that there will be life after this life. needless to say she
is really loving it. anyways that's what's been going on here in Victoria...
in a nutshell....surviving the heat and preparing people!

well, my health is alllooot better! thank you for your prayers and
suggestions. i feel a lot better, and even my hypoglycemia hardly
ever kicks up. the only problem i have now is allergies. i have never
had them so bad in my life! every night before i go to bed
and, recently, when i wake up. i am taking pills but they aren't helping
very much. i do take benedryl if it gets too bad at night though. no worries i
am doing alright.

and i have received one package from allie, which i
absolutely lovvvved! perfect gifts. and i also wanted to thank you mom
for the gifts. they were great! especially the yo yo's... not kidding... i have
been teaching Clemence how to yo yo because of my old days when i was
obsessed with them. really... they have been so much fun.. ha ha. simple things
are great. anyways i hope you all are doing well and staying warm! have a
great week!

elder jackson