August 24, 2016

Well, it is Wednesday morning and we still haven't heard from Jackson this week.  I'm not really worried, just bugged, that no one has let us know if he made it the mission home and where he is going to be serving for his first area.  He was supposed to be on a bus from Guatemala City on Monday but who knows for sure.  Jackson didn't know any details when he wrote last Tues.

So- I decided to email the Mission home and find out what's up and I did get a response.

From: Sharon Lancaster [mailto:slancaster@kellerits.com]
Sent: miércoles, 24 de agosto de 2016 10:58 a.m.
To: El Salvador San Salvador East Mission <1985949@ldschurch.org>
Subject: Elder Jackson Lancaster

Good Morning.  I am writing to find out if my missionary made it to El Salvador.  He said they would be leaving Guatemala City on Monday, Aug. 22 on a 5 hour bus ride, but I haven't heard anything new from him since his Pday on the 16th.

If you could please just let me know that he has made it to the mission safely that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Boyd & Sharon Lancaster

From the Mission Home

Dear Boyd and Sharon Lancaster,

Your son has safely arrived to our mission hear in El Salvador. He is doing well and today is on his way to his new area! He will have time to write the next preparation day. Preparation days here in the mission are Mondays. Thank you for your concern!

Sincerely,

         Elder Neifert

         -Secretario General-

Misión El Salvador San Salvador Este

OK-- so I got this Monday afternoon about 1pm and was a little ticked that we wouldn't get a letter this week, but stopped diligently checking my email waiting for a letter.  And we went about our work day etc. and came home and started working on our deck about 5:15ish.  

When we came back in when it got dark around 9pm I checked my email out of habit and CRAP!  Jackson emailed at 5:25pm!  I was ticked and felt really bad that we didn't get to email back and forth for a little bit, Had the dang guy at the mission office not said they wouldn't be emailing, I would have kept checking my email til 10pm like I had on Monday and Tues. waiting to hear something from him.  I could tell Jackson was disappointed.

But here are the letters for this week.

On Sun, Aug 21, 2016 at 10:50 PM, Sharon Lancaster <slancaster@kellerits.com> wrote:

This week has been pretty chill. Nothing super stressing. We worked a little more on the deck but have been pretty lazy about it. We need to put new drip edge on and then we can get to putting the decking on. It really shouldn't take too long once we get going. The hardest part will be putting the railing back on and redoing the stairs. We're thinking we might make them wider and put them more in the middle instead of on the edge by the house and add hand rail on both sides. If we do that we will pour a cement piece from the house out to where the stairs end. But first we need to just get the deck done. We also got the steps to the basement sanded, cleaned off and retreated so I can re-stain them too. I just need to get some motivation to get it done.
I did get the house cleaned and almost have Carson's room upstairs cleaned up. He is such a hoarder😬. I have quite a few things I'm taking to the DI BEFORE he sees them and decides he just can't live without the junk.
Carson's birthday was yesterday. He got a new outfielders mitt and a Brandon Crawford jersey. It's pretty nice. He had some friends over and they played softball for a while and had pizza and then we set up the wii to the projector and they did Mario kart races. It was pretty fun. Today he is being ordained a teacher.
Dad went out to Jace Tilley's farewell at 11 and Carson and I stayed at our ward so he could be sustained and then dad picked me up and we came out to Bryant's farewell. We have to leave right after he talks so we can get back to get Carson ordained a teacher and then everyone is coming for dinner to our house after. We were going to do our home teaching dinner today too but all the home teaching families except the Bakers are out of town today. So I guess that will be a bust for the month of August because next Sunday is my and dad's anniversary and the day before school starts and I don't want to add one more thing to that day. I guess dad and Carson will have to get out and go visit their families this month 😊. Not quite as fun but still good.
This last week I decided to start working on some personal goals and I figured that a perfect place to go to find a place to start would be the young women personal progress book. I worked on some of the goals while I was young women president and would take the challenges given each week with our lessons and work on those goals but since I've been released and no longer in Young Women's, I have found my life lacking the guidance that I had. The focus each week of preparing lessons and reading and studying conference talks and different passages of scripture isn't there and I am feeling the difference and I don't like the lack of the guidance of the spirit. Anyway, the first goal I chose was to work on is the first goal in the book in Faith. Personal prayer morning and night. I do that, but I decided to make my prayers more thoughtful and heartfelt. Which with everything going on with weddings and missionaries, it wasn't really hard to do that. I find myself taking time to be still and listen and even if I don't necessarily hear an answer I am filled with peace which gives me what I need to tackle whatever comes my way during the day. It's amazing how little effort we actually have to make to get a huge dividend from the Lord.
I hope that as I continue with a new goal each month that I will be able to be a better person-- mom,wife. Etc 😊
So, how was your week?  Any cool or scary experiences to share?  Are you ready for your ride on the chicken bus?😂😂. I really am not going to believe that you are on a tour bus until I see an actual picture.
I'm super excited for you to get to work. You are going to be such a good missionary. Have fun while you meet people. Talk about the gospel and remember what you love about it. Get to know the people. Love them with all your great big heart and you will be more successful than you can imagine.
Love you so much

Mom

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 5:25 PM, Jackson B Lancaster <jackson.lancaster@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Alright I'm sorry. I got my comp today and we didn`t do any thing. I've rode plenty of buses and stuff sorry about not emailing. MY companion is the DL and his name is Elder Villatoro. He is from Guatemala and doesn't speak a bit of English. The apartment last night was completely nasty. There were lizards in the closet and it was crazy gross. My apartment is pretty nice I'm in San Vincente? pero no sè. I'm sorry about the email thing. I ate my first papusa? it was good but I don't know much. I'm walking around and the family that feeds us and washes our clothes has a welder!!!! Put I can't understand them. So alright this is gonna be rough and I'm gonna have to learn fast. Tell Carson Happy Birthday and tell him that I wanted to be there to ordain him but I couldn't. I love him to death. I love you guys and I promise I'll work super hard. I think we have two baptisms next week so we are starting of good right :) 

Love you mommy

Elder Lancaster

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 5:43 PM, Jackson B Lancaster <jackson.lancaster@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Mommy...? ;)

On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 5:57 PM, Jackson B Lancaster <jackson.lancaster@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Alright whatever you obviously hate me. Just kidding. Can you get me Fuller's email, the seminary teacher and Kyle Gomm's email? That would be awesome.

We also got a letter from Jackson's companion-- I'm pretty sure that he used google translate to translate from Spanish to English-- I left it exactly how it was sent.  It's kind of entertaining:)

Hi sister Lancaster, is good to say hello , my name is Elder Villatoro , I'm from Guatemala and I will be the coach Elder Lancaster here in El Salvador San Salvador This mission will be my pleasure to be next to her son and to support you to develop their full potential as a child of God, since it is a wonderful missionary and leaneth faithfully to come to magnify the potential that Heavenly Father given , it is that this work really us refining and helps us to be getting better see, I only took four months in the mission but can testify him to the wonders and miracles that are here, we actually change life is certainly your child is a great missionary and I really feel very honored and grateful to be your partner. know that I am here to serve and always cuidare and leaned to Elder Lancaster to becomes the Missionary God wants it . Have a great week . we are in contact.

Elder Villatoro FigueroaMisionero de Tiempo completoLa Iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los Últimos Días

 Not the best picture, but we will take it!  He looks Happy!!  We think his companion is the one he is standing by, but they didn't tell us.

Til next week!