August 2, 2016

Hard to believe that 3 weeks have already passed. Briar has your watch and a pair of garments that I found in your laundry. He is taking pretty much the same flight as you did, so he will be there tomorrow morning. Hopefully you will get to see him for a little bit.
How's your companion?  Any better than last week?  What part of Wyoming is he from?
Chance is leaving the MTC and headed for Nova Scotia around 11 today. Latisha said he joined the MTC choir and loves it. He got to sing with the Nashville Tribute Band last week. I guess there are a couple missionaries that are doing a blog post that are there now and going to the same mission that said that Elder Hardy is the comedian and he loves to talk about his trucks and farming.
Is there anyone there posting a blog about your mission or the MTC experience that we could read?  I guess I'm not up on all that kind of stuff like I should be.
Hope your week has been good and that the language is coming along. As long as you keep studying hard and working at it it will come. It's going to be frustrating for a while but when it comes it will be awesome.
I'm curious as to what your travel plans out of Guatemala are going to be. It's about 145 miles from there to San Salvador so I'm guessing train or bus. I suppose if there aren't that many of you going they could just bring a car to get you.
Are you having fun and getting along with those in your district and zone?  Is there anyone else there you know besides Parker?
You haven't been giving many details about how it's going.
We did a few things last week. Carson went to lagoon twice. I ordered the decking to fix the deck and it got delivered yesterday so there's a project to get done and we still need to replace the window wells before winter hits. Carson started football practice yesterday  and said he rolled his ankle already so I don't know how it's going to go. Dad isn't coaching this year so that will be weird.
We had the ward pool party on Thurs. and visited with a few people. And we took Carson to Central Intelligence on Monday. Jolene and I went to the movie on Friday when Carson had friends over. Dad stayed and hung out with them. And Saturday we went to Lava to tube the river with Kevin and Jolene. There were soo many people there. It was fun though. The power was out at our house when we left around 9. So we figured it was a good plan. Then we got pizza for the kids and we went to dinner with Kevin and Jolene when we got home.
We got up Sunday morning to the power being off again at 730am so that was awesome to try and get ready for church. It didn't come back on Til 830pm. We went to Briar's farewell. Dad recorded his talk for you. We came home and grilled chicken and steaks and then went for a jeep ride because it was getting hot and nothing to do.
I went to lunch with Nicole, Jenny, Marianne, and Latisha yesterday. Kendra moved to St George over the weekend so Marianne was having a hard time. It was good.
Hope everything is going good for you. Remember we love you. Work hard, be obedient, have fun, love what you're doing and it will be great. Attitude is everything!
Love you
Love
Mom

Jackson has been emailing around 10am so this email is later than normal- I left the time sent on here.

Jackson:  Sent: 8/2/2016 3:31:31 PM

Subject: week 3

 On for an hour

Mom:  So what did you do today? 

Jackson:  Sent: 8/2/2016 3:52:17 PM

Well first I just wanted to tell you that I got hit by a car this week.

Mom: (in not complete panic mode yet-- but already a bit worried since his email was late)

 Aug 2, 2016 at 3:53 PM, 

So how bad are you hurt?

Aug 2, 2016 at 3:54 PM, 

Are you ok?   When did it happen?

-ok- I know it was only 4 minutes from the first email to the next one, but I swear it was like 10 or more.  It seemed like forever!!

Jackson:  Wed, Aug 3, 2016 at 3:56 PM

Ha the mirror hit me in the chest. So I was walking back from a store they took us to. Then I just had this feeling that I needed to move over and right as I moved closer to the sidewalk I saw the car speed up and I lifted my arm to dodge it and the mirror hit me in the chest. So I´m okay but like grandpa said always listen to the holy ghost.

It was last week. But today I placed two Books of Mormon in the town. Did you know that people sit with a garbage sack full of raw chicken and sell it?? It is a lot different here. Oh ps I don´t have to eat the food at the members houses they just told us that in a workshop because a lot of people get sick. But this country is insanely different but I freaking love it. 

Oh I wrote you a hand written letter. So I guess not. I sent it last week. Every thing here is so cheap. It is honestly stealing from these people I feel like. When I was placing one of the BOMs the guy asked how much for it as he pulled out his wallet. And I was like no we don't want your money. So the culture is a lot different here. But when I was placing that same BOM I didn't really know what I was saying all I knew is that I told him my testimony and he wanted the book. Some one over heard too and said can I have one of those books too so it was a pretty neat experience. 

I lost some of the correspondence on this day - he didn't reply to each of my emails and I cleared out my sent box before I thought of doing this :( Oh, well.

Did you notice he never told me how bad he was hurt? He told his friends that the people there don't like American's and he was pretty sure it wasn't and accident.  That always gives you a warm fuzzy.  But really nothing that is a surprise.  There is always someone out there that isn't going to like you for some reason they've made up in their head without getting to know you.

Mom:  That's pretty awesome!  When you leave the Books is there contact information in them somewhere?  That's pretty cool.  I'm guessing that the referral goes to the missionaries that are assigned to Guatemala City? 

Jackson:  The one guy wrote his name and said we could always find him in the park and he wasn´t interested as much as the other. He gave his number.

Wait wet? (How Latinos say what)

Oh last night was a really sad night... All my Latino friends left. I mean there is going to be more but it won´t be the same as these guys. Haha This one called me his nigga because he heard it in a song. It was so funny

Mom:  So how's your companion?

 

Jackson:  He´s good. He knows a lot of spanish and I think since my district likes to joke we are getting him to be a little more loose.

Mom:  That's good he knows a lot of Spanish -- you can probably learn a lot from him.  Is he going to the same mission as you?  I'm not sure how it all works.

Jackson:  No not him. But most of my district is going to the same mission. You know that kid playing football at Wyoming. Ya he´s in my room. One of the coolest guys in the MTC. But anyways I'm excited to see Briar. I´m gonna be so excited to leave this place. 

Mom:  So are you riding the Chicken bus to El Salvador?  ;)

Jackson: No not a chicken bus. A tour bus. Gotta go LOVE YOU MOMMY!!!! I pray for you guys every prayer which is a lot. LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!! Until next week.