Elder Mitchell Janda

Pictures

2010-08-14T15:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture of me... when i was rich.. haha too bad that is like 100 bucks haha

Tacos in puebla come from a huge thing of meat in a spicket roasting like this... and that tiny mexican guy is in charge of cutting it... woohoo tacos

pic of the view that we had while driving this week

8/14/10

2010-08-14T14:45:00.001-07:00

Hey there!

This week was a pretty decent one... I lose track of time here in the offices and can't remember what happened this week and what happened last week, so sorry if I repeat stuff that you have already read! This was the first week of transfers so it was pretty busy. The first week and the last week are always the busiest. We had to first thing, take all the elders that were leaving to the airport and pick up the new ones. We went to the president’s house to pick up the ones that were leaving and to eat a dinner with Sister and President Rex. It was the best cuz she cooked lasagna with salad and for dessert.... BTS!!! ha-ha it was the best day ever. But we needed it cuz after that we didn’t sleep all night from taking Elders to the airport at all hours of the night... that part was not very fun... and then the next day we had to pick up the new elders and help train them and all that... I am pretty sure it’s not a good idea to have the secretaries train the new elders after they haven’t slept all night. I am sure we looked like zombies haha. We also had to close down some areas and open up some others throughout the week. This means that we had to collect all of the furniture and things that the mission owns from the areas that were being closed and take them to the areas that were being opened. That was pretty fun because we get to travel basically the whole mission. We got to go to Tlaxcala, Atlixco, and Guerrero. I have now officially visited 8 Mexican States!! haha so I am pretty excited about that. So that is basically what we did this week.

As far as sicknesses go, I am pretty tired of it. haha I am about willing to do anything to get better. I ended up buying new glasses this week to see if that helps at all. We will see. I pick them up tonight at 6 so I will send a pic. They are pretty goofy I am sure but its all good cuz they only costed like 20 bucks.... which is a sweet deal on glasses. If they work I may go get more stylish lenses but who knows. I am on my mission so who really cares about my glasses. I have also been talking with a doctor from the medical board in salt lake to try and figure out what is going on with my head... we will see what he thinks. I talked with him once Friday and will talk with him again Wednesday... as I said. I am about ready to try anything... well not quite. Elder Peterson down in ajalpan by my first area said I should go down there and take shrooms hahaha. There is a place where they sell shrooms down there that supposedly the Beatles took when they wrote one of their albums. So it’s a pretty big tourist spot haha. But I am not that desperate. Elder Prusse says I just need to punch myself in the head or go on a date and spend some time with a girl. haha I like the second idea better... the girl one not the head punching one. But that’s about it. It wasn’t a real eventful week. The time is passing by faster and faster all the time. I cant believe that I will be 20 in 13 days and am halfway through my 11th month in the mission. Crazy how time flies.

Anyways, love you all.

Just want you all to know that I am still strengthening my testimony. I know this is Christ's church. I know he suffered for all of us. For all our pains, sadness’s and sicknesses. I am not sure why I am suffering through this sickness right now, but I know that he is there for me all the time whenever I am willing to reach out my voice in prayer. I know that we have a prophet today in these times. I know Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he was called of Him. He saw everything he saw and did everything he claimed to do. He was a great man and a great example for every Church member. I know that the book of Mormon is the word of God and that if we prayerfully read it, the mysteries of heaven and the questions of our soul will be answered. I invite all who read this to take reading the scriptures more seriously. Both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. No other generation has had more knowledge at their fingertips than we do and I feel often we take it for granted. The prophets of ancient times spent days upon days and months upon months writing and revising and translating those scriptures. Let us thank them by reading and applying the principles that they learned and taught. "A smart person can learn from their mistakes. A smarter person can learn from the lessons and mistakes of others." I know that we are all Sons and Daughters of our Eternal Heavenly Father and that he loves us with a love that we cannot fully understand.

I love you all so much

Elder Mitchell Janda

7/24/10

2010-07-24T19:46:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone!

This was an ok week. You all basically know whats going on with me but I'll give you a quick update/rundown so that you can tell other people if they happen to ask you. This week started out the same as every other week. haha We work in the offices, look up references, and help Elders with problems that they have in the mission. I was feeling... ok... this week at the beginning so when one of the Elders from the mission decided to go home and his comp (my old comp Elder Velasco) was left without anyone, I told president i would be fine to go work with him for a few days and see how i did with my head and whatnot. I was extremely excited for the opportunity to go out and work and teach again. I have missed being able to teach and talk to everyone about the gospel a lot. Sadly that day was the only day i got to work with Elder Velasco. About mid-day once again i started getting extremely sick and my head starting hurting really bad. I would get dizzy and feel like i was going to pass out. So when President called and asked how i was doing i had to tell him that i was doing pretty bad. He made arrangements and i was back in the offices that night. That was Wednesday night and Thursday all day that i was with Elder Velasco. Then Friday was good. I woke up and my head definitely hurt but not too awfully bad. So i started to run errands and whatnot with Elder Garcia. It was the best cuz we went to get mail and i got the package with my new shoes in them. I was soooo excited cuz my other ones were pretty messed up. The bottoms let water in... the side had a gaping whole in it.. and the laces where broken in 3 spots haha. So that was an excellent day. Not to mention the snacks and books. Thank you Mom!! Sadly my happiness did not last all day. By the time night rolled around i had one of the worst headaches i have ever had. It was a class 8 on the 1 to 10 scale. Pretty bad. Luckily i was able to go home and go to sleep and when i woke up in the morning it was only about a class 4. But today is P-Day! Elder Garcia and Prusse and I woke up and starting cleaning the house. President tipped us off that Sister Rex wants to inspect the house... and trust me... when it comes to clean Sister Rex has high standards. Not that our house was super dirty or anything. We just wanted to wow Sister Rex rather than have her just be complacent with us. Then after cleaning we went and ate. We ate a food called Gringas! They are delicious. It is basically a quesadilla but with half a pound of meat and cheese and pineapple. That is what the attached picture is of. The are delicious and definitely one of my favorite things to eat down here. Then after that we went and got our hair cut. Then we went and changed into normal missionary clothes, and now we are here! But that's about what happened this week. Nothing too super exciting. I was thinking that if anybody has any questions about what Puebla is like they should ask me while i am in the offices and have a little more time to write. So let me know if anything comes to your mind! As far as the other Elders go, Elder Blackner is in pretty bad shape. His hip is not feeling any better and they said that if it wasn't better by this Monday he was going to have to go home and get surgery. So that is pretty sad. He is a good kid and i hope that he'll come back to the mission if he ends up getting sent home. Elder Prusse and Elder Garcia are doing great. They are both really funny and i am thankful for this opportunity i have had to get to know them while being in the offices. Well, that's about it for this week! I love all of you and wish you the best!

Love

Elder Mitchell Janda

Sooo... we got our hair cut today and they put this crazy thing on... I felt like the pope! haha or the great pumpkin. The other one is a picture of a famous fountain down here in puebla. It is called, la china poblana. Its right in the middle of a big roundabout so its pretty cool. Well, hope you are all having a great day!

Much love,

Elder Mitchell Janda

Pictures

2010-07-18T19:04:00.001-07:00

Mitch hanging with the Elders in the office.

Cutest girl ever.

Graffiti? Really???

They were painting a red chili on his friends house. It is a store and Levi wanted people to know, so Mitch thought it was cool that he could call graffiti service.

7/10/10

2010-07-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey there,

This is my new P-day for a while (at least while I am in the offices). Office life is kinda cool and kinda boring. The cool thing is that I am not out and about walking around which normally makes the pain worse but the crappy part is that the secretaries rarely have a chance to teach people and stuff like that which I don't really like. I am with 3 other Elders right now in the offices. The financial secretary is Elder Garcia and he has been here in the offices for 6 months. He is really funny and really sarcastic. The other Elder is Elder Prusse. He is Elder Stone's old companion and he is the Executive Secretary so he handles the organization of changes and companionships and all that stuff. Right now I am working on a new program for references. Previously we had a blue card for every reference but right now I am setting it up so all the references can be seen through the email system so the Elders every week can just print them out and go! That will make things a lot faster for the whole mission. It will also allow the ward leaders to be more involved in the work. I am excited cuz President has me at the head of the project and when the time comes I will be the one that teaches him about it and has meetings with the Elders and ward leaders to teach them how it works and all that jazz. The other Elder that I am with is named is Elder Blackner, he is my companion. He is from Idaho and his problem is that his tendon in his hip slides across the bone every time he walks. So he has to go to a doctor in Mexico City this week. I might go with him. We are going to get the 3rd and final consult to see if he should go home for surgery or not. Everyone except him thinks that he will have to go home but we will see. So that's what's happening in the office.

Apart from that this week has been pretty boring. Just working in the office and running errands.

The house we are in is super huge! It is insane. It's big enough for about 10 elders to live in. There is a living room with couches and everything. But it is also the most expensive house in the mission. Its like 400 bucks a month. Which is pretty crazy for here. But the house is where all the Elders stay their last night in the mission. So you can imagine that the spare rooms have TONS of crap in them that Elders leave before they go home. White shirts, ties, pants, towels, sheets, stuff like that. I had to clean the room today cuz I am tired of living in a pig sty. But wow there was a ton! I shouldn't have done it though. I used to much energy and now I feel like crap and like I am going to pass out. But anyways....

That's the news for this week. Nothing too exciting cuz I am not doing much. President is really stressing that he wants me just to relax and stuff. In fact he is encouraging naps. I feel like a big baby and hate having to be treated like this but I know something is wrong and am scared just to say i'll go back to work before we find what it is.

The pic I attached is one of My friend Levi I always talked about. That's him and his wife Jahira and their store in the background.

I send all my love. I hope you know you are all in my prayers and thoughts.

Love

Mitchell Janda

7/5/10

2010-07-05T17:56:00.001-07:00

Welllllll

This is been a pretty good week! My symptoms of sickness came back Tuesday and I was M.I.A. almost all week... but don't worry I have talked to President and we have found a solution. He is moving me to the mission office with another Elder to be the mission secretaries. The otherElder's name is Elder Blackner. He is American and is currently in a wheelchair. I am not sure why... but we are hoping that this will be a good chance for us both to lay low and recuperate. So cross your fingers!

Sounds like life is pretty normal right now for all of you. I still wish I could be there to enjoy the summer with you but I am really loving life as a missionary. Today we went to a store called Waldos. Its basically a dollar store. Everything costs 13 pesos. Its super cool cuz they sell everything! Cereal, Milk... bathroom supplies.. Everything!!! They even sell root beer! So Elder Judy (my district leader) and I both bought root beer and were feeling like excellent American Citizens. 4Th of July wasn't too exciting.... especially cuz it was Sunday. The people are notreally lovers of America especially after the law that Arizona put into action. So it was basically just a normal day.

I am kinda sad that i am leaving this area. Especially my comp. he is the man and i am really going to miss him. He is a hard worker and really funny. We could knock doors for hours and not get bored just cuz we would be laughing and living it up the whole time. But I have heard my new comp is cool and he will be my first gringo comp so that's cool. Also we will be in the offices so I will be working a lot with President Rex and Sister Rex so i am excited about that. I hope I don't get fat from never walking though haha.

Well that's the big news for this week. Nothing too exciting. We have a few new investigators and we are still waiting on the others for their divorcement papers to go through.

Anyways,

I send my love to all!

Elder Janda

6/28/10

2010-06-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

I am doing excellent this week. The pain has subsided to the point where i am almost pain free. I am very thankful for all the prayers and thoughts on my behalf. I know i have been blessed for your faith.

I am now in a new area with an Elder named Elder Velasco. He is the zone leader and he is super cool. For the first time in my mission (except with Elder Barragan) i have a comp that really wants to work hard and knows why he is here. But Elder Velasco and i are working super hard and hope to have much success this change. I am in a relatively small area. It is basically on a university campus so its hard for a lot of Elders cuz there are a lot of attractive immodestly dressed girls. But no worries!! haha If you look up the BUAP (the name of the university) that is exactly where i am at. It is a really good area and i expect to have much success.

This week was really good. My comp had to go on divisions a lot with other Elders so i was with another Elder a lot this week. His name is Elder Bencomo and he is an excellent Elder. Its his first change in the mission and he has been a member for 1 year. But his testimony is very strong and he knows a lot about the gospel. That just goes to show that if you have the desire... time doesnt matter. We have worked a lot together and i have been very touched by his humility and spirit. I have a long way to go on those things.

As far as investigators go... we have some really good ones. The problem is is that they are not married and we have to wait for them to get divorced from their previous spouses before they can get remarried and baptised (Ramon and Marisela). Another of our investigators (Raul) does not believe in God. But we are teaching him and he is gaining a testimony. Then we have a few others but they are not super active in investigating. So we are spending a lot of time looking and doing our best to find new ones.

As far as birthday list.... I really cant think of a lot of things... but here is the list that i came up with...

1. Perfect Pushup (the concrete floors are killers on the hands)

2. Pics of fam and friends (i havent seen you guys in 9 months!! sheesh and you complain about not getting pics of me)

3. A book called "the teachings of Howard W Hunter"

4. A book called "Faith comes before the miracle" or something like that (in spanish it is fe precede el milagro)

5. A new journal (with letters from everyone in it)

Thats it... there isnt a ton of stuff that i really want and nothing i really need.... mostly pics and letters hearing from everyone. I know you say your lives are boring but its the little things that i wanna hear about. When i get too many letters about weeks that nothing happened.. after a while... i have no idea whats going on in your lives! haha

Well i am doing great and send all of you my love. This is the Gopsel of Christ and this is His church. I know that i am working in his work and where i should be right now. I love all of you and wish you the best. I pray for you daily.

Love

Elder Mitchell Janda

6/7/10

2010-06-07T19:49:00.001-07:00

Hey mom....

Things are getting better all the time. My comp and I are still working out our problems but at least we are able to work. This week was good! I got to baptize a lady that we have been working with for quite a while. It was really cool to see her be able to be baptized and even cooler to have her ask me to do it. Sorry I haven’t sent any reading assignments. I forgot that you wanted them haha. But just keep reading where you are. The best way to learn isn’t from some structured reading program but to have questions and look for the answers in the scriptures.

As far as everything else goes.. nothing super exciting this week. I am kinda losing track about when one week ends and another begins... I can’t believe it’s been 8 months. I also can’t believe I have already been with this comp for 3 weeks. Time really does start to fly and if we are not careful it gets away from us. I am learning a lot from this comp. I am learning about how we must put our own desires and ideas away sometimes to reach the best common ground, compromise I guess you would call it. Tell Janis that I'm sorry that it seems that I complain about my comps a lot. I don’t mean it to seem like I am complaining. I am just trying to explain everything that’s going on in my life and those are parts of the things that are going on. I didn’t call my mission president so that he would change me but I called so that we could figure it out. It is often hard to figure out our problems with others if we don’t have another person. That other person should normally be the Holy Ghost but when anger gets into the picture the Holy Ghost cannot be present and I felt it necessary to call in the reinforcements... That is why we have leaders after all. So I am sorry if it seems that I complain a lot. I will be more positive in my emails. It just seems that when I only tell the good things you all wonder what’s going on... so I am trying to tell everything without complaining.

Apart from that I really don’t have much to say this week. Nothing too exciting really happened.

But I love all of you tons

Love

Elder Janda

5/31/10

2010-06-04T00:08:00.003-07:00

Hey all,
All continues well down here in good 'ol Mexico. I am learning what it truly means to learn from our struggles. I have been struggling this change. I have not accomplished exactly what I wanted to accomplish in my first 8 months of the mission. In fact I haven’t yet accomplished what I wanted to accomplish in my first 3 months. But I know the Lord has his plans. I know this is his work and that it will go forth nobly even without me. I need not worry about my results if my efforts are what the Lord asks. Because he measures success in a different way than we do.
Anyways.. I guess everyone is dying to know about what happened with my comp. Well... Monday in district meeting he talked about companionship unity. That really confused me cuz we have no unity at all. So I decided I had to be open with him and tell him what I was thinking. So Monday night I tried to talk to him...I asked him why he never taught or helped plan or anything like that... he got pretty upset with me and told me that I was prideful and that due to my pride I didn’t care about anyone else. That hurt a little bit... especially cuz I was trying to come to him as humbly as possible. But I asked him what I could change to help us have the spirit with us more and he wouldn’t answer. I tried to explain that I wanted us to be successful as a companionship and for that I was talking to him. He told me that I took control of everything... but I know that was an excuse so I told him it was an excuse and he got mad and said, "well than what do you want me to do cuz you know everything apparently” I told him we both needed to work together and I apologized if I took control and he got more upset and mad and told me that I didn’t care about anyone but myself and that this was going to be a horrible change and all that. I continued to try and talk but I couldn’t... my patience broke and I had to call the mission president and talk with him cuz honestly I wanted a new comp. This isn’t why I came on the mission. But the mission president didn’t answer. So we didn’t talk that whole night and in the morning I called the Pres again. I talked to him and I told me he has confidence in me that I can solve things. Sheesh. So that day we talked with the zone leaders and figured some things out. Now things are better. They are not great or even really good... but they are better. That’s the haps for now.
As far as the work. We have one baptism this Saturday and hopefully another two next week and the week after. We'll see what happens. This area is kina difficult cuz its a really old area that the missionaries have been in forever and everyone knows who we are. But also because there are mostly Catholics and the Catholics here in Mexico are the most closed off to listening. Their religion is more of a tradition for them.
But anyways... not much new here. I started the book of Mormon over again but this time I'm reading it in Spanish so I am going a little slower. But I am looking for examples of humility and how to be humble. I have a clean copy of the BofM and I am just going to mark things and write notes about humility. I think it will be a great way to learn and to humble myself. I know that’s an attribute I can really work and should get better at.
Anyways
I love you all
Love
Your esteemed colleague
Friend
Relative
Elder
Mitchell La Vell Janda

5/31/10

2010-06-04T00:08:00.001-07:00

5/24/10

2010-05-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

Hey all,
Anyways, the visit from Elder Bednar was so amazing! I actually got to talk with him for a few minutes. Just him and me and ask him a few questions and he asked me a few and wow it was so amazing talking with an apostle of the Lord. He taught us to be better teachers and to focus more on the spirit.
Today we went to some pyramids here in Cholula. They are really cool. They date back to the times that the Jaredites were here. But who can really trust science. Ha-ha They were super cool though. The pic that I attached is of me sitting on one of the steps of a large pyramid.
Other than that nothing super exciting has happened this week. I think on account of that my comp and I don’t get along too amazingly. Which makes me very sad. I don’t feel like we are working very efficiently with the spirit... which means we are not accomplishing our purpose as missionaries. I will be talking to him tonight and we will be settling our differences.
The other thing that happened this week was that we were finally able to put a baptismal date for one of our investigators named Lucy! She is the grand- daughter of one of the members of one of the wards. She is like 25 and it was such a spiritual experience to be able to invite her to follow the example of Christ and be baptized.
Hmmm.... I am really boring this week.
A large spider bit me when I was sleeping and my right thigh swelled up but not too big, ha-ha.
I bought a new type of fabric softener that smells delightful....
hmmmm.....
That’s really about it. I have some super good friends here. One is named Levi. He is the second counselor of Ometoxtla. He is 25 and married and waiting for his first kid but we always have gospel conversations and the other day we talked with a Jehovah's Witness and it was good fun. We are also going to paint the wall of his new store... it was my idea. Ha-ha he is super cool though and I hope to be able to visit him.
I really love the people here. Especially the members of Ometoxtla. They told me when I get married I have to come back to have a party with them.
Anyways, I want to stress once again how amazing the Book of Mormon is! If you’re not reading it everyday... do it!! How can we expect to live in a world with so much strife without spiritual nourishment? None of us would go more than 2 or 3 days without food.... but I know that sometimes we may go Sunday to Sunday without "feasting on the Words of Christ." I reiterate the words of the prophets. Read the book of Mormon!! I promise you will receive increased spiritual wisdom and guidance in your life... and the greatest promise of all.... When Christ comes, he will recognize us.... because we will know him and be serving him. We will have his image in our countenance.
I love all of you
Pray that I may be ever more humble to be able to serve my companion and to learn the things that I must learn from him.
Love,
Elder Janda

5/17/10

2010-05-18T21:19:00.000-07:00

Yup... Transfers again. I got my new comp today. His name is Elder Jimenez and he is from The federal district of Mexico City. We'll see how he is. I have heard he is not one to follow the rules and I thought I saw an iPod touch in his luggage. Ugh.... Stupid Elders. Anyways... My comp Elder Barragan got transferred. That's the big news for today.
This week was kinda a bummer. We worked hard but when it came to Sunday all the people that we committed to come to Church with us weren't home. I felt like we accomplished very little this last week. :/ But hopefully with this fresh start I can take the opportunity to be bigger and better! I know that is what the lord wants of us. I was really down this Sunday for our lack of investigators in sacrament meeting but luckily the stake president came and talked. It was sooo good. He invited us to do something that I would also like to invite everyone of you to do.
1. He told us to think of the GREATEST blessing that we have received in our life.
2. He told us that the Lord has more blessings even better than that if we are ready.
3. He invited us to write down one or two things that hinder us from having the constant guidance of the Holy Ghost.
4. He invited us to vow never to do them again.
5. He told us to write down things that we would covenant to always do to have the spirit.
It was a great invitation and I hope you are all as touched by it as I was.
So its been raining a lot lately. I think we are entering into the rainy season. It has rained every day for the past 4 days and its raining outside right now. haha But its ok cuz.... well there is no reason to dislike it sooo its all good.
I’m super stoked to listen to Elder Bednar this Wednesday!! Oh man its gonna be good. I'll let you know how it goes and what he talked about and whatnot. I think he is going to talk about faith. But we'll see what goes down. so think of me between 12 and 4 your time cuz I'll be listening to an apostle of God!
Other than that I am a pretty boring dude this week.
Mom and Dad... congrats on 21 years of marriage!!
Morgan... Way to be 18. haha
Kyle....your the man
Court.... I love you

Sorry it was short this week.
Much love
Elder Janda

5/10/10

2010-05-10T20:08:00.000-07:00

Mitch is doing amazing. I know his last two emails have been small. He shared some amazing stories with us on the phone. He is great. I am so proud of my son. I love him and am very grateful for the sacrifice that he is making. Thanks to all of you for your love and support. He feels it. He did ask us to apologize that he is horrible at writing letters. He stressed how much he loves the scriptures and would love to spend the entire day studying. He is also way stoked that Elder Bednar is coming down to speak to them. He hopes to shake his hand. Elder Bednar has already sent them assignments on what he will be talking about. How cool.

This is the email he sent today...

Well.... I dont have much to say because i was able to talk to you all last night. But i want all of you to know that i am so thankful for you and love you. My Father in Heaven has truly blessed me with the best. Not much has changed in the last 16 hours since i talked to you.. haha But another week has begun. Sadly my comp is pretty stressed cuz the other district sent the worst numbers in ever. So the zone leaders are also a little concerned and expressed it strongly to my companion. We are working well and have work to do.

(This following paragraph has to do with the new law that was passed in AZ requiring people from other countries to always have ID on them showing that they are legal. I guess it is causing him a lot of grief. People are mean and angry to the point where he is scared to say where he is from but he also does not want to lie because he feels that the spirit cannot be with him if he is not honest.)
President Rex told me what Dad told me. He told me not to lie but to just say that i was born in Utah or that my parents are from Utah. Something to that effect. So you can tell Elder Myer's mom that if you want.

You are welcome for the willow tree. I am glad you liked it.
( Mitch sent me a willow tree statue called inquisitive boy, it is beautiful)

Well, I really dont have much to say.......
Just that i love you all!!!
abrazos!
Elder Janda

Waited all day....

2010-05-04T14:11:00.000-07:00

I don't have time to email this week... but luckily I get to call you.
It has been a ridiculously crazy week and my comp is one of the most forgetful disorganized people I know. haha.
But anyways, call me this sunday at about 6'o clock your time (I think).
It would be 8'o clock my time at this number ***. If that doesn't work... try with another zero in front like this ***.
If I don't hear from you after about 15 minutes I will call you so you can have the number.
Much love to all.
I cant wait to talk to you.
Love
Elder Mitchell Janda

4/26/10

2010-04-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

We just had the craziest activity in the world as a zone so right now I am super super beat.... But... this week was way good! We did get to baptize daysi! It was super cool and her whole family came (They aren't members but we are hoping now that she is they will accept the missionary lessons)! Her baptismal program was way cool and full of the spirit. The only bad part was that the guy that was supposed to fill up the baptismal font couldn't do it so he passed the responsibility on to someone else who didn't know how to do it. They did it wrong and the water was "murky"I think is the best word to describe it. Dang I'm really losing some of my English Vocab! Uncle Brian was wrong!! But we had to baptize her in that water anyway... it was cold and smelly haha but my comp was the one that baptized her so no worries!! haha
Also this week we put another baptismal date for this week! Our goal is to start baptizing every week. There are not any elders in our mission that are doing it right now so we want to start it. But we are praying that it doesnt fall through cuz the guy is really old and has Alzheimers. He doesn't remember things really well but he does want to be baptized and comes to church. We are just afraid he won't pass the baptismal interview.
Yesterday we did divisions with some of the priests in the ward. I went with a kid named Juan Carlos. He is super chill. I would want him as my companion. He isn't quite ready to be a missionary yet though haha. We were prompted to go to a certain place and there we found a member of the church and he asked us to come quick to give his grandma a blessing. She is 90 years old and was coughing up a bunch of blood. When we walked in all she would say is "my body hurts!" dont touch me! and things like that. When Juan Carlos saw all the blood he got super freaked and told me he didn't feel comfortable giving the blessing. So we RAN the mile and a half to the church building to get the Bishop. Then we want back and gave her the blessing. Thats all I know about that as I have not seen them since.
The other Elders in xoxtla rocked it this week. Last week we had a special meeting with them to get them motivated and this week their numbers more than doubled. But we are still going to surprise them this week by showing up at like 9 in the morning at their house to see if they are all ready for the day and studying in their companionship. We'll see. They are total goobers and I cant I believe they are older than me but I guess we all have some qualities like that. Sorry everyone for all the embarrasing things I have done with all of you.
Anyways... I am so pumped to talk to you all on mothers day.... Don't buy a phone card... I'll look and see how much one is here. I am sure they cost less cuz there are millions of illegals there that talk to their families and since the people here are poor they need cheap phone cards. So I will check this week and let you know next week if I will call you from a phone card or what. But... I think I am two hours ahead of you guys so I will probably call around 5 or 6 your time. I will finalize the plans this week. But plan on Mother's day at 5.
Speaking of illegals. I don't know if you have ever wondered if I know any hahahaha oh gosh I know hundreds of people who have gone to the United States illegally and a bunch who help bring people across the border and a bunch who have families that are illegals in the US. Sheesh its the place to be I guess!
But anyways I hope you like the photos I sent.
The one on the bike is me and my zone leader Elder Soriano. We had to get to Daysi's baptismal interview quickly so we had to go like that. It was pretty funny. And the other is the view from one of the chapels in my area. The volcano on the right is called Viuda Dormida and the other El Popo. El Popo is the one that is active and is constantly spitting out smoke and once a year it erupts. Haha
Anyways.
I love you all!!!
Until next week
Much love
and
more
love
Elder
Mitchell
LaVell
Janda

4/12/10

2010-04-12T21:20:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,
I hope this letter finds all of you well. I am thoroughly enjoying myself here in Cholula. My comp and I get along super well (for the first time!) haha But oh man we are working our butts off. We are taking care of 3 wards here and our area is huge. Luckily we have bikes though so we can get around. Sadly I have horrible luck with my bike. It has broken 5 out of the 7 days that I have been here. But it's all good. We have been teaching and working up a storm. We taught a ton of lessons this week and put a few baptismal dates. Hopefully everything works out and they go through. The wards in the area are really cool. The coolest though is a ward called Ometoxtla. The second counselor in the bishopric and the ward mission leader are so legit. They are really good friends and both got back from the mission within the last 3 years. The are always willing to help us with whatever we need and I am so grateful. Also they are just super cool. They remind me ALOT of Brother Tyler. I hope I can be like that one day.
This week has really gone by super fast and I feel like a ton... yet very little exciting has happened. My house is super cool like I said last week. The only down side is that the dog next door (every dog for that matter) has fleas. So our house also has fleas. I have that mattress cover so they aren't too bad for me but they eat us up in the night. The area is so pretty though. I am right in between the 3 volcanoes but not super close to any. But I can always see them and they are sooo sweet.
This area I am pretty sure was once inhabited by Jaredites. Today we saw a huge catholic church on a huge hill and we learned that there are all kinds of ruins beneath it. The one at the bottom dates back to Jaredite times. But now there is a big old catholic church on top. There are a TON of catholic churches here. 365 to be exact and one in progress. You could go to a different Catholic church every day of the year here!!
Well.... i really don't have a ton going on....
ButIi want you to all know that I love you and I cant wait to talk to the family in a month!
Love
Elder Janda

4/5/10

2010-04-05T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Family!!!
Well you have already heard but yes ma'am I had transfers this week. It was super hard to leave Chilac. I almost felt like a lot of those people were part of the family. My converts came over too and all cried except for one of the boys. haha he's too cool for school. What surprised me most was when the family that we rented the house from started crying especially the 15 year old. Cynthia. They were all going around saying something nice about me and she couldn't. She just started crying and left the room. A little weird but touching.
Well... my new area is called Cholula, it's in Puebla but thats about all I can tell you. I will have to get more information later to you about that. My new comp seems cool but I've only been with him for about 5 hours so who knows. But I have a good feeling about this one. The hard part is going to be that it will be a big change from Chilac to here. Chilac was a Puebla with 70 members. Cholula has 3 wards and is in the city!! It's also one of the two areas in the mission that is a bike area. So that's kinda cool. I am really excited to work here. My comp says this place (Cholula) is known world wide for how many Catholic churches it has. Hundreds!!!! I can't remember the exact number. But yep hundreds of catholic churches. So that's interesting. I feel like a rich man in my new house!! haha There are two bathrooms, two stories, 3 bedrooms and a small kitchen. We rent it from a member. Although... with bigger nicer house... comes bigger badder price... 1200 pesos a month haha. But it's all good the mission pays me back for it. My comp is also a district leader so I am excited to be able to learn from him.
This past week in Chilac was pretty good!! The best part by far though was conference! Oh man I was more excited for conference than I was for Christmas (except for the getting to call the fam part) But it was sooo good. One thing that really surprised me though was how little they talked about adults and how much they talked about kids and youth. It almost seemed as if they were saying to the adults...well your time has passed. Lets make the rising generation the best yet! It was such a good conference. Luckily I got to watch it in English too!!! So that was so great. The funniest part was that Elder Hall and I both thought all the white people.. especially the women looked sickly and pale HAHA Elder Hall was like, how am I going to marry one of them. I will constantly be asking her; "are you sure you are alright? you like pale... lets go to the doctor." Luckily that is not my mind set haha. But it is true that they all looked sickly. haha I guess being around dark skinned people for half a year will do that to ya.
As for the doctor thing. I am not positive about what I want to do but I still want to be a surgeon. I don't care about the laws. While sitting in conference I realized that the best thing you can do in life is help and serve others. What a better way than to be a doctor... I have other ideas but we'll see about those.
Wellllll I don't have too much going on. Hopefully this next week I will have all kinds of new stories and news for you all!
I love you all so much and miss you.
Choose the right.
And.. Quit thinking about the things you know you should do and just do them.
Love
Elder Janda

Welllll... since you all like sending packages and mail so much... it is time we put those skills to good work!! While siting in conference I was pondering upon my own charity and how I can improve. I remembered a comment by Sister Rex that I receive more mail than anyone else. Lets put those services to good use! From now on please at least once a month every member of the family write a letter to a missionary (whom you will not know) of encouragement and gratitude. Sign it only with your first name. Address the envelope like you would to me except instead of Elder Janda, put "missionary in need" I have talked with Sister Rex and she expects.. as do I for letters to come. Also whenever you send me a package. Please send another to "missionary in need." If they do not come I will be giving my packages away.
I know I am being forward with this but I feel that it was direct revelation from God on how we can help missionaries of this mission that don't get letters or packages from home. I trust this to all of you with my deepest gratitude and promise that as you do it... Heavenly Father will bless your lives in a great way. You WILL feel the spirit more in your life, you WILL feel the love of Christ envelope your souls, and more than anything I know you will CHANGE THE LIVES of missionaries in the missionaries. By changing their lives, you very well may change the lives of HUNDREDS of people here in Mexico. Don't hesitate to send them mail. This is a great service project. I already told Sister Rex the letters will be coming so don't make me a liar. THANK YOU
Hey Mom thanks.
Send this to others and spread the word.
Mitch

3/29/10

2010-04-04T08:51:00.000-07:00

Family and Friends!
Another monday has come. It seems as if the weeks go by faster and faster and faster. And then continue to go by faster.
This week has been a rather excellent week. It has had its ups and downs but overall its been a really good week. We went to the pueblos a lot this week. They are legit mexican pueblos. They speak completely different languages that are nothing at all like spanish. Popaloka is more like chinese because the way you intonate your voice completely changes the word. For example. "i nta" can mean 3 different things. Water, tree and one that i cant remember depending on how you intonate your voice. It is crazy. for example. To say "we would like to share a message about God with you" in spanish is... Nos gustaria compartir un mensaje sobre Dios con usted. In popaloka it is...Chinga onit suchingoshinit palabraDio ahah. Hahaha how crazy is that!! But i'm loving it here. The people have such crazy traditions and superstitions. One of them is that you cant bathe in cold water after eating mole. Another is that you cant cut your hair after eating or you will die. They have such crazy stuff haha i love it.
Sadly some of the people are really corrupt. In one of the pueblos we have gone to called San Pedro, EVERYONE is Catholic. which isnt bad but they enforce it by law. And if you change they kick you out of the town. Also if you dont do a weekly service project for the city they make you pay a ridiculous amount or they kick you out. And if you come back and still dont pay it. They put you in jail. the amount is about 7000 dollars. Which no one here has haha.
but we have really been trying to find people this week. Sadly we havent had much success. I talked with my comp in an effort to be a perftectly obedient companionship so that the spirit could be more with us. So we talked about rules we could improve on. We are getting better with some things. I've learned that this isnt just a personal effort. If i do something and my companion isnt doing it, all it does is create disunion (i cant remember if thats a word) between us. I guess i'm learning skills that will help me with being a better husband some day.
I love the scriptures. I have been studying them like a mad man. I want to just have them in my brain memorized so that i can read them all the time. I love them.
My one cool experience for this week that i would like to share is that we are teaching someone who is a Jehovah's Witness. He has tried to prove me wrong with the Bible many a time. Sadly the bible proves me right. I love it. Because they believe that Jehovah is Heavenly Father, We know that he is Jesus. I hope we can baptize him because he has Genuine Questions and when i show him the scriptures that prove the gospel right and him wrong he always is genuinely interested to find out. But he hasnt come to church :/ so we might have to move on. Which is kinda sad. But thats my cool expierence. Im teaching a Jehovah's witness and not only are my companion and I owning it! But we are doing it in Spanish. I still cant believe that i can speak this language. It is such a blessing.
Im sorry to hear that about elder Myers. Its true that the soda is really good down here cuz they use real sugar but you have to be careful with how much you drink. The highlight of my week was finding a can of DR pepper in a store. It was the best moment ever.
Well im about out of time. I want you all to know that i love you. Remember the things that are of MOST importance in your lives. Continue progressing towards the celestial kingdom and Be Humble. the great stumbling block of the Church is pride. It is Satan's ultimate tool.
I love you all and want you to know that this church is true. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is the Word of our loving Heavenly Father and if we follow the precepts it teaches we will one day live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Even that same Christ who died and suffered for us. Our elder brother. I love this gospel and this opportunity i have to be here on a mission serving the people of Mexico and my Heavenly Father.
Ondi Init! Popaloka
Hastla Mostla Nahuatl
Hasta Luego Spanish
Until next week! English

Love
Elder Janda

3/22/10

2010-03-22T15:46:00.001-07:00

Dear Family,

I am hopeful that this letter finds you all well and happy. This week was a very hard week. But I find that the Lord is willing and able to lift us even out of the darkest places. We spent a lot of time this week in the Pueblos of San Juan and San Mateo. They are both extremely isolated but San Juan even more so. They are one of the only places in the world that speaks popaloca. They do not even all understand Spanish. There was many a dog in San Juan and let me tell you, when one comes... they all come. At one point (and I exaggerate not) there were 30 dogs surrounding us all growling and ready to seriously attack. My comp is super scared of dogs and wanted to run. But I know that would make it worse. Haha so we fought our way through. I grabbed rocks and a nearby fallen cactus and swung the cactus and through the rocks at the dogs and we made it safely without a bite. But I am not eager to go back and face those dogs. Next time I will take my slingshot and knife. We are going back tomorrow. I am a little scared cuz I don’t know popaloca that well and my comp only know how to say donkey. The people are very strange but I know they need the gospel.
In San Mateo it was a little better. The people there actually speak spanish so we could talk to them really well. Some of them tried to speak in Nahuatl to try and get us to leave but I know a little bit of Nahuatl. Needless to say that just frustrated them.
I am convinced I could be doing better in the mission. I know it is possible to baptize every week. But as you can see I have about 25 weeks and 4 baptisms. I am working to achieve the faith and diligence that is needed to accomplish it. Please pray that I can have more faith and be more diligent. Also that my companion and I can be unified as one. That is the way Heavenly Father needs us to work in the church. As one. I feel extremely far from the mark and I know this is why we have not had success. Please pray that I can be more humble and charitable so my companion and I can be united as one.
Other than that not too much exciting happened this week. Over all it was really boring and our numbers were kind of low. Which means something is wrong. I need to talk to my comp about it so we can settle our differences and start to work like Father in Heaven wants us to.
I love all of you and pray for your well being every night.
Love Elder Janda

Pics from Facebook

2010-03-20T08:51:00.000-07:00

3-15-10

2010-03-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and family!
Dang this was a pretty slow week. It felt like everyone we went to go visit wasn’t at home. We worked all day everyday but only taught like 11 lessons which was half of what I wanted to teach :/ It kinda bummed me out a bit but we'll see what happens this week. I know I can work harder so I am just going to make more of an effort. There is a different feeling here in the mission. In my life before this everything was "quick" and "fast." If I wanted to succeed in something I could go work hard for a day or two and be the best. Here it is a different story. I am truly learning what it means to be diligent haha. Here it is a CONSTANT effort to do your best. I have never experienced something like this before. I guess cuz I have never had something consume my whole life. Well, anyways..
This week started out really sad. On Tuesday morning right before I was about to get into the shower, the branch counselor came and asked us if we could come help dig another grave. He told us that the last time the people had told us the wrong place and we had buried Hermana Fabiola's mother in a plot of ground that belonged to someone else. So we had to first go dig another hole so that she would have somewhere to go and then second unbury her and pull her out of the ground. It was a pretty crazy day. Really sad too. The craziest part was when one of the ladies asked if I would say a dedicatory prayer for the grave. haha I guess we were the highest religious officials there. But it is crazy to see how much that service has opened up the door for this family. Only Hermana Fabiola and her husband and kids are members and the rest of her family never even would let us talk to them. But after helping so much with the funeral they are willing to let us come teach so we will see how that goes. The best part was that the day before her mom died I gave her a blessing. After we left, she looked around the room and told her family... "tell those young men to come back. All the pain went away when they were here." That was really great to here. It is amazing the things that you can accomplish if you are a worthy, ready, priesthood holder.
We also had another funny story when we went to talk to a less active member. We are trying to baptize his son and reactivate him. He is basically deaf so you almost have to shout when you talk to him. We asked him how his prayers were going haha he misunderstood us and started telling us what a prayer is and why it is important. Then when we left he handed us each about a 3 foot long stick of sugar cane! haha what on earth! We were laughing so hard.
That’s about it for stories this week. It was a pretty boring week. But I love the Book of Mormon. I think there is something about being here in Mexico that makes the book even more real. I love it. These people here in Mexico really are descendents of the Lamanites. It is such a cool thing.
Love
Elder Janda

Where's Elder Janda

2010-03-16T19:14:00.000-07:00

3/8/10

2010-03-10T08:23:00.000-08:00

Familia y amigos
Estoy muy agradecido por el tiempo que me ha dado El Senor. (I am very appreciative for the time that the Lord has given me.) Estoy dando cuenta que ese tiempo en verdad pasa bien rapido.(I am starting to find out that this time is going by pretty fast.) This week has been amazing. I have really grown a lot in this week and have had the opportunity to learn so much. It started out with Zone Conference. I learned a ton. My knowledge was reinforced about how we need to work with not only all our might and strength... but with our mind. We need to think things through otherwise...as I like to think of it...we will be swinging at life with all our might and strength and missing. It’s a lot like a piñata. It’s not the person that is the strongest that breaks the piñata. It’s the person that hits it right. I learned many other things but that is what I would like to share with all of you.
This week I have really been trying to serve others. I have found that the times when we are most down and ready to give up...the promises of the Lord really come into effect. If we lift others burdens soon ours disappear and we don’t even feel them upon our backs. Much like the people in Alma. They had persecution after persecution heaped upon them and because they trusted in the Lord. "Their burdens were made light." My burdens have been made light this week and I have found an ever increasing love for others as I have taken the opportunity to serve. This week I was able to help one person shovel hot tar for the road they were making. Another we helped chop wood for firewood. Another, we helped him dig out a stall for his 2000 goats, and another, we helped dig a grave. That one was my favorite. I have never dug a grave before. Sadly here in Mexico the rules about digging graves are not so strict. I found a small box I was digging. A baby had died and the person had not marked where they buried it. I had to dig a smaller hole to re-bury the baby. It was sad. But it was very cool to be able to do. The people’s hearts were touched by the service and all but one agreed to let us come back and teach them. The grave one was the best because they are family members of some people in our ward and they never will let us come over. But after that we saw the mother in the street yesterday and she asked us what day we would like to come over! It was great.
As far as investigators go we are doing pretty good. We have 3 about ready for baptism and some new ones that look really promising. I love it. Well that’s about it for this week. It was mainly a week of service. My goal was not to let a single person pass that had some sort of burden without offering to help. Ha-ha The first few days my hands bled from using a shovel so much and what not but now they are calloused and strong. The Lord has so many blessings for us if we just take advantage of them.
I love all of you so much. I pray for you each day. I hope that you can continue doing the good things that you do and continue to seek to be better. Remember the words of the last general conference. We should expect to work to be better every day. Because that is what the Lord expects of us. I hope that can be your goal. To continue to be people of sound minds and pure hearts. So that one day we can be found spotless before the Judgment seat of God. We are not in the Celestial Kingdom yet. Let us evaluate ourselves and make a new effort every day to one day reach that goal. By no ways is it easy. But I know it will be worth it.
Love
Mitchell Janda

3-1-10

2010-03-01T15:56:00.000-08:00

Dear family and friends.
It has been a good week. I have my new comp. He is 26 years old and from Peru. He is like a foot shorter then I am. Today we were cleaning the apartment and I had not finished sweeping yet. He told me to give him the broom. When I asked him why he said cuz, I did not know how to sweep. As far as the work, he is good. He wants to work and we teach pretty well together. But I am learning a lot of patience and love. I read the talk by President Monson from the last conference called school thy feelings. It hit me right in the face and now I am really trying to choose my attitude. It has always been something of a philosophy of mine that you can choose to be in a good mood or a bad one but it is just so much harder when you are with hard people.
We did not have a lot of success teaching this week so I do not have any big stories or anything. I was bit by a monster spider but I am not sure when. All I can see are the fang marks on my lower back. They are about ¾ of a centimeter apart so the thing had to have been huge. Other than that, all is well here. I do not have a lot of time to write this week.
Know that I love all of you and am so thankful for each and every one of you. You brighten my days whenever I think of you. The world is turning into such a crazy place and I am thankful for the opportunity I have to be preaching the gospel in these last days. This truly is the Lord’s work.
I love you all so much.
Love
Elder Janda
I have a project to ask of you though pretty please if it is not tooo much. I want recipes of things to make. But i only have a single burner and a pan and a pot. haha. So nothing i have to bake. Only things i have to use a stovetop burner for. If you could collect a few i would be so thankful. Thanks

2/22/10

2010-02-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hola!
Whats up favorite people? This week has been good! Today is transfers. I am staying in Chilac but I'm getting a new companion. We'll see how that goes. I don't know him but someone told me he is from Peru so we will rock the language. Me with my Gringo accent and him with his Peruvian accent. We got to baptize this week and it was so amazing. Even more because it was a family. You can just tell that their lives have changed so much and that they will continue to change. I'll attach a picture. I baptized the Dad and Elder Saucedo baptized the mom and the son. The spirit was so strong. The Mom was really nervous. Satan was trying really hard to convince her not to do it. But she did! And the Spirit came and she started to cry and bore her testimony. Wow it's so amazing to see the change that people can recieve. We also got them married this week. on Wednesday. I got to be a witness for the wedding. It was kinda cool. I've never been to a wedding that I can remember. Let alone one that I had to plan and help pay for jaja.
We also had divisions again this week. It is just where we change comps for a day. I was comps with Elder Zesiger. It was his last week in the mission. He is a real cool kid. I can't believe he is already leaving. I remember when I first got her and he told me he had 3 months left. I figured that would seem like forever but it feels like 2 or 3 weeks ago. We had a lot of fun. The only bad part was cuz we are both white americans.. the people bugged us the whole day. The only words they know in English are swear words. So they yelled swear words at us ALL day. It made us pretty mad but we tried to keep it cool.
I'm loving Mexico more and more. There are always things super different and weird and I dont think I would ever want to live here with a family but I really love the culture and the people. I worked in el campo on friday cutting down trees for firewood and tore up my hands pretty bad. We were doing service for one of the hermanos in the ward. My hands arent calloused and strong like they were before the mission haha. All I do with them is shake peoples hands and read the scriptures.
I have been trying to joke and have fun with the people a lot and just do stupid fun things cuz they laugh at everything. Especially if a white person does it (no i'm not racist thats just how it is). Friday we had a talent show to try and get investigators. Elder Zesiger and I dressed up like old grandpas and told/acted out a story. It was super fun and we'd just do random things in the middle like square dance or fight with broomsticks like light sabers. Everyone loved it and was laughing so hard.
Then yesterday we went to a little pueblo in our area named San Juan. The people there don't speak very much Spanish. They speak Popaloca. They are one of the only towns in the world that speaks it as their primary language. It was hard to teach them cuz they dont understand Spanish very well (I know more than a lot of them). And a lot of people rejected us and just wanted to fight and argue. So we didn't find very much success. But I think with my new companion I might go back. There are only 2027 people in the whole town so we could talk with a lot of them in just a few days.
Well, I hope this letter finds everone doing well. I am doing great down here in Puebla and am trying my best, to be my best. I am learning that the time that I have passes very quickly and I cant waste a second. I love all of you so much.
Keep praying, reading the scriptures, and going to church.
Love
Elder Mitchell Janda

2-15-10

2010-02-18T05:47:00.000-08:00

This week has been better. It was super sad though. We were supposed to baptize a girl yesterday but on Saturday (while we were making her baptismal program) she called us and told us her mom said she can’t get baptized. How dumb, right! Then when we went to confront her mom she left out the back door and didn’t come back till after we left. So we can’t baptize her. But we should have some baptisms this week... fingers crossed. Satan tries so hard when they are so close.
Other than that this week has been good. I was still having a hard time with my comp at times but on Saturday it all changed. We went back to the house to use the bathroom cuz the public ones are just that...public... they are just holes in the side of the street. While I was in the bathroom he got in bed and went to sleep. I tried to wake him up but he wouldn’t. So I started reading scriptures and studying. I figured if I couldn’t work I might as well be productive. And it finally came to me!! I need to make better goals. I had goals for when I first got here but after I accomplished them I never made new ones!! So I sat myself down and made some goals. Wow that was the best personal revelation of my life. It was so perfect. Then after about two hours Elder Saucedo woke up and we went to some more appointments.
I love Mexico. The people are weird, the food is different and it’s absolutely crazy but I love it. Today on our way to Tehaucan there was a lady sitting so close to me haha. I have lost all scents of "personal space." I don’t know how the people live here though. I was talking with a guy in my branch this week. He was excited cuz he got a raise and a promotion in the factory where he works. He got raise to 15 pesos an hour. Which equates to a little less than one dollar and thirty cents. He makes $1.30 an hour. He has a wife and two kids! I don’t know how it works.
But the people are so loving. He is a convert of about 7 months. He told me if I am ever feeling lonely or down that we could stop by his house and make ourselves at home. He reminds me a lot of brother Tyler. And his son is almost an exact replica of Brody. It’s really cool.
Yesterday we went to a little Puebla just outside of Chilac. The population is about 500 people and there are no streets are anything. Just houses. And every person that we talked to doesn’t know how to read. They work in el campo which translates to the countryside. But when they say it means they have a little patch of land where they grow corn or something. Or they work for someone else that has land. I got to go work in one day and wow it was legit. I had my machete and felt pretty legit. You can by a machete here for about a dollar and fifty cents. haha its the coolest.
This week has been good. My motto has been "I can’t control the symphony. All I can do is play the one string I've been given" When we CHOOSE to be happy and do our best... well.. we just find that we are happy. I love it.
I Love all of you so much.
Valentines Day is not the same here. Haha these Mexicans think they are the kings of romance. Really they are just the kings of everyone having relationships with everyone else. It is so gross here. Pornography is everywhere and you gave to learn not to look at news stands or at certain types of stores cuz it is just everywhere. But yeah they make a pretty big deal of Valentines Day. En verdad I don’t really like the holiday that much. It’s just an excuse to have to give someone something. If you don’t give something your a bad guy and if you do give something how can you really tell that its from the heart! Sheesh. We should do away with such holidays.

Hmmm... a hike eh... sounds sweet! I wish I could accompany you. haha yesterday I went on quite the hike to San Mateo. Its like 5 kilometros. So a little over 3 miles. It was pretty crazy. It was like walking through the jungle.

2/8/10

2010-02-10T15:26:00.000-08:00

Hey family and friends!!
This week has been really good down south! I had a few scary experiences. We had an earthquake (tremor cuz it didn’t last too long) of 4.8 on the earthquake scale. And it rained an extremely crazy amount. We were a little nervous cuz this past week in the state of Mexico there has been super severe flooding. But we are all good! No worries. We have been trying to still find new investigators. It’s hard here cuz no one wants to change. We have been working with one family that we hopefully will get to baptize this week. The problem is that they aren’t married. But since it costs about 25 bucks Elder Saucedo and I are paying for the wedding. They also asked us to be witnesses in their wedding I don’t know how it works back home cuz I have never been too involved with a
wedding but it’s gonna be really cool to be able to be a part of their special day. They have 3 kids too so it feels so cool to know that their lives are changing. We have had a few other spiritual experiences this week but I don’t really like to share them cuz I don’t know how. The spirit was so strong that I know that I couldn’t do the experiences justice with my words. But I will try and share one that happened yesterday.
We went to one house and the lady was really hesitant to let us in. She finally said ok and as we started talking to her and her son we heard a noise in the back. We asked if anyone else was in the house and they said yes. We said that we wanted everyone present so everyone could benefit from our message. The boy left and brought back his dad. The guy was huge. I was really scared that we were about to be killed or something like that cuz he looked super angry. But as we shook his hand and started to introduce ourselves he started to cry. Harder than I have ever seen anyone cry. He began to tell us that the
night before two spirits that looked exactly like us had visited him in his dreams and said that they would visit him the next day. The man continued to sob and tell us that he has drinking problems and that his wife doesn’t talk to him. He cried even harder as he told us all he wants is to stop drinking so he can have a happy family and for his wife to forgive him. He asked us why we were there. We began to read the Book of Mormon with him about forgiveness. We asked him if he would like to pray to Heavenly Father and ask for forgiveness so he could get rid of the guilt he feels. He told us that he would. So the whole family knelt down and he began to pray. It was the most spiritual prayer
I have ever heard. We are going back to visit them tonight so we are hoping he is doing better.
Other than that we haven’t been able to do a lot this week. It is like the
celebration of Chilac week so everyone is partying and drinking every night. So we can’t find a lot of people. Pray for us to be able to find the people the Lord has prepared for us. My comp still isn’t working. There are days he doesn’t wake up till 8 but I don’t want to talk about such things anymore. I apologize for the letters you have had to receive in the which I was complaining. No one likes to hear a sob story and I am going to try to start looking in the mirror to change and quit worrying about him. So sorry. This week my favorite scripture has been Alma 26:22 cuz it tells you everything you need to do to bring thousands of souls unto Christ. Well.... I have only brought one so far but I'm working to be the best I can so I can be the best tool that I can be in the Lord's hands.
Also, I got mail this week! I got a letter from Court that made my life and also a package from Sis. Green. Thank her so much for me. It was a very excellent package and I am extremely grateful. Spanish is coming along great. I talked with one of the assistants to the president of the mission this week and he told me it is extremely rare for a missionary to be able to talk like I can after 2 or 3 months. I have really
been blessed. Thank you all for your prayers and support. I know that there is no way that I could do this on my own. You are all the best. Love Elder Janda

1/25/10

2010-01-25T15:00:00.001-08:00

So Mitch thought it would be fun to write in spanish so I would have to translate. Morgan did a great job reading it cause I was to impatient. Now you can all figure it out. HEHE
The one pic was tagged on his facebook. I am not sure who took it or posted it. But I thought I would share it.
Ya bautizó!! El sabado pasado fue bautizado Zenaida Martinez Romero!! Haha Yo tuvé la oportunidad para bautizarle en el ojo de agua (si sé que eso significa eye of water, es solamente una nombre) Pues yo escribé eso en español para que ustedes necesiten traducirlo
Les amo!

Soooo... yep we baptized. Well I did ha-ha it was sweet cuz I got to do it in a river John the Baptist style. It was so legit. Sadly my companion has basically died now (dying is like slang in the mission for when you don’t want to work or do anything) yesterday he wanted to go back to the house at 630 and I couldn’t keep him out past 7 then he watched a movie with the family we live with. I just read scriptures. Sheesh. I hate it cuz he totally knows he’s acting like this. On the upside, all this experience is really helping me. I got quite the compliment from one of the native missionaries today. They said I talk better than one of the elders who have been here for 20 months and they said I talk better than most who have been here for a year. That made me really happy cuz I'm really trying my hardest. It’s even harder when you have someone that doesn’t want to work but I’m trying my hardest to press forward. I have gone from teaching about 40 percent of the lesson to about 80 and I always have to talk to the taxi drivers and stuff. The only time Elder Saucedo seems happy is when we are with members and he puts me down. What ever he has been in Chilac for 5 months and hasn’t baptized so I think a lot of it has to do with jealousy. Also, I think he was really excited to train a new guy but as you all know haha I’m gonna do everything I can to be the best as fast as possible. Which means he didn’t really need to train me that much. But yeah he is pretty down. He sleeps in about an hour every day and doesn’t exercise and then starts study like 45 minutes late. Ugh.
Anyways. Sounds like everything is going pretty well on the home front. Its crazy to think that Brett is leaving! Haha I am getting mission old! We have had some intense weather here as well but no tornadoes. We have still proselyted every day so all is well with me. It really surprises me how many missionaries don’t want to work and just want to party. Why come on a mission and leave your family and girlfriend if you don’t want to do it with all your heart. You only have one chance in your life to serve the Lord every day every minute for two years.
Family, friends, this church is true. I know it. Jesus Christ suffered for each and every one of us in a way that we can never fully understand or explain. However, I do know that because he did it we have the opportunity to take advantage of the greatest gift we can partake of, eternal life, not just living forever but living forever as gods and goddesses with our Heavenly Father as a perfect resurrected being. I know Joseph Smith saw Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. And that through him they restored their gospel and the keys of the priesthood. What a gift in our lives if we choose to take advantage of it. I invite all of you to take better advantage of it in your lives. Read the Book of Mormon, go to church, pray, and keep your thoughts on Christ. As a representative of Jesus Christ I promise you will receive more blessings than you can imagine. I love all of you and wish all of you the best.
Les quiero
Elder Mitchell Janda
Elder Vazquez, Mitch, Elder Arellano

1/18/10

2010-01-21T20:27:00.000-08:00

Sounds like another great and challenging week for our missionary. Just for a little laugh he did send me a whole paragraph in spanish. Eric and I aren't sure if it was on purpose or if he just forgot. In his emails there is no punctuation or capitolization. He told me it was to hard to remember whats what now. So I try and correct them before I send them out. Funny from a kid who was such a perfectionist.
Hey fam!
(referring to our trip to Vegas) I know what you mean about the corruption and stuff in the world. I fear its even worse here haha. I have learned where I can look when walking down the streets cuz they sell videos and magazines of porn everywhere and the adds and stuff for stores often have scantily clad women. How dumb. Anyways...This week was good for me. Another week in San Gabriel Chilac. Nothing too exciting. We don't have any good investigators right now so we are knocking a lot of doors and trying to work with members. The people of Chilac are really weird. They are just kinda awkward. This week a lady started yelling at us for about 2 hours and dragged us to her house claiming that we had broken in the day before and stolen her tv and some money. I was a little scared cuz we actually had knocked on that door the day before and I was afraid no one would be able to stand up for us. Luckily her neighbor stood up for us and said we were good jovenes (young people) and wouldn't do that. Neither of them wanted to hear our message but I'm just glad we got out of that situation!! I forgot I want to ask you some stuff I think your still in Las Vegas so maybe you can't do it but I want the recipes for that good type of french toast, syrup (normal and the good kind for french toast) scones, and no bake cookies please!!! if you can, send them to me in the next hour. If not next week is all good. I want to make some american food for some people in our ward so I want to make them french toast and no bake cookies haha. cuz I don't have an oven so I can't bake anything. But that would be good! thanks!!
Elder Janda

1/11/10

2010-01-11T15:15:00.000-08:00

This is a long one because I am also sharing the letter he wrote Eric. I thought it was very special and he also shared some other things that I thought were amazing.
Hey family!!
I’m starting from the beginning of the week so that I don’t leave anything out.
This week started off horrible!!!! Hahaha Monday night I was feeling a little sick. Tuesday I couldn’t get out of bed cuz of pain in my stomach and head. I had to almost crawl to the toilet to relieve myself of diarrhea and throw up. Lovely haha. Wednesday was a little better. I still didn’t leave my bed. Only to walk to the store. You can buy prescription drugs here in there stores so I hit up the drugs that my Mission Pres. said and took twice the dose (also what he said to do). Needless to say I was better the next day ha-ha just really weak from not eating anything since Monday at lunch. The rest of the week was better. I was the senior comp though. So I made sure we woke up at the right time, had study time, and worked our butts off. Ha-ha this week we went to the outskirts of town and looked for people cuz we haven’t been having much success in town. It was sweet I felt like I was walking through the jungle… I kinda was I guess. I’ll send pics. We found a few people and have appointments to come back this week. I also offended my first person ha-ha. She was talking about how we can’t have the Book of Mormon cuz the bible says nothing about it… I was sick of it. We have talked to this lady tons of times and she never does her commitments so I felt like it was time for do or die. I read a part of 2nd Nephi 29. Ha-ha look it up. Then I told her the book of Mormon was true and that if she didn’t read it and pray about it she was being ignorant… She laughed at me cuz I usually don’t say much. But then I told her that I knew she wanted to see her daughter (who died in a car wreck) again and this gospel was the only way to do it. Needless to say the next time we visited her she actually read a page. Ha-ha
Not too much exciting else happened this week. I am still having to get my Comp to work… our numbers are low and if I'm gonna be here, leaving the people I love and my country and my language I’m not gonna lay low. I’m gonna work my butt off. And anyone else that is with me is going to also. We had transfers today but I’m still with Elder Saucedo in Chilac for another 6 weeks and we are going to have success and we are going to work our butts off. He has no choice. But I love chilac so I am glad we are staying here. I’m tired of it. Ha-ha I haven’t gotten any mail yet except the Christmas package. Maybe today in district meeting.. I don’t know when for sure. I hope I do. Well that’s about all the time I have. I talked in church about missionary work yesterday and did pretty ok. It was super super cold this week. And rained a bunch. So if this cold front makes it up to you guys Morgan should get snow. But think of me in my cinderblock house when you think its cold outside!!! Ha-ha dang it sucked. Saturday it was pouring but I loved it at the same time. I smiled at everyone and they just looked back at me like I was crazy. Oh well… so I am not allowed to email anyone but family I found out. I am doing this so that I can be the best missionary I can. I love you ALL!!!!
Love Elder Janda
Dear Dad;
Another 6 weeks in Chilac! haha I'm gonna rock these ones though. I’m committing myself. I love this mission. I know this is the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know it with all my heart. I have felt angels lifting me up and round about me pressing me forward. To answer your questions.. No, I never got to be a host in the MTC. My P-days were on Wednesdays which are the same days people come in to the MTC so I never got to help with that. It’s all good though. And I’m glad I’m staying in Chilac.
They need 5 more priesthood holders to be able to start building a chapel. That’s my goal for this transfer. These people deserve a chapel.
That sounds like a lot of fun that Andy and Adam came down to visit. In two short years we can do stuff like that again. I wish we could have done more stuff like that together. After my mission we will have to do some stuff like that. Dad I love you so much and miss you so much. Thanks for the example you have always been to me.
You are one person in my life that has constantly been fixed on the good. Thanks for that example. I love you so much. This Church is true. I can’t say it with enough emphasis. The priesthood is the Power of God. The Book of Mormon is true. I just finished it again for the second time in my mission. I love it so much.
Well I better get going we have a zone conference today at 2 which is like 45 minutes and I don’t want to be late!!
Love you
Mitch

1/4/10

2010-01-06T18:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Family
So today we went to the zoo here today and it was bien chido. You can like touch the animals and what not!! haha I got to go in the cage with the animals!! haha I went in with some young tiger and lion cubs and they bit me!!! haha but they were small and just playing so it was all good. Other than that this week was ok my comp is getting lazy and sleeping in and stuff so I am having to be in charge a lot... its hard but I'm doing ok. Other than that not much is going on. I don't have time to write a lot this week at all.
New years was good. We had to be inside early cuz all the teenagers and young people dance in the streets for money. It's kinda bad so we had to be in early. Other than that not much.
We still don't have much at all by way of investigators. Its kinda sad and bums me out a little but I'm working my hardest so its all good! -sheeesh! We have people that will sit and talk for hours but they never read the Book of Mormon and never accept commitments. Its frustrating. But we are trying! We don't receive blessings until after the trial of our faith right!!
I'm running out of time. I might get to talk to you more tomorrow though cuz we had a meeting today and only get a little time to email. I doubt it though.
I love you all tons Elder Janda

12-28-09

2009-12-28T19:57:00.000-08:00

For those who haven't talked to me. Mitch is doing awesome. It was great to talk to him on Christmas. He is having a great time but definitely missing some of our everyday necessities. Restrooms, washing machine, heater, shower, grocery store on every corner and a post office. All the fun stuff. He reminded us several times how rich, lucky and blessed we are. I am so proud of him and the sacrifices he is making. What a great kid, I am sure I wouldn't be able to do it. Thanks again for your constant love, support and prayers. What a great experience he is having.
Thanks Brenda

Hey Family!!
It was so great to be able to talk to you all on the phone for
Christmas. It was the best Christmas present ever. I wish we could do that more often. Things are pretty much the same here.
We went in to Tehaucán and helped some other missionaries work
in the city. That was cool cuz I’m just in this little town of Chilac. I haven’t had the opportunity to see how it is in the city. I like it. I’m sure I will get to work there sometime. That would be exciting. But for now I’m loving Chilac. The branch here is so cool. They are all like family. I really like that. I think wards in the US should be more like this. This is how the church is supposed to be. But all good ha-ha. I think I’ve grown up a lot since I’ve been here. And sometimes it makes me very upset when people are stupid and put others down. None of us are perfect. It takes two hands on the iron rod to be pressing forward. You can’t point fingers and keep two hands on the rod. How dumb. Anyways.
Friday night Herman Fabiola bought us tacos. Oh gosh they caused some severe damage. Not diarrhea but some crazy stomach pain. It sucked pretty hardcore.
I don’t have too much time to email today cuz we have to go into Tehaucan early to by groceries. But just know that I love all of you so much.
I love you, Mitch

12/21/09

2009-12-22T11:35:00.001-08:00

Hola Familia!!
It's hard typing in english cuz every word gets the little
squiggle underneath saying it's mispelled.
Oh well anyways!!! Hey ¡!!! Feliz Navidad! I’m doing fantastic down here!
I’m finally over the culture shock of it all and what not. I’ve just come to
accept that every floor is either dirt or cement. And every house is filled with
bugs. Haha Its so different here. A completely different world. Wow I dont
even know how to describe it. Besides everyone being extremely poor and the
living conditions and stuff being soooo different, they just do things different
all the time. They set off fireworks here everynight and I hear gunfire all the
time. Some of it is when people kill their animals and my comp says some is
from people killing people who try and rob them. I wouldn't doubt it haha. But
I love it here. I am starting to be able to understand a lot more. I think my
branch president realized it cuz he made me speak in sacrament and then turned
right around and had me teach Gospel Doctrine. IN SPANISH! Haha so never complain about giving or preparing a lesson again. Other than that this week has been really good. Missionary work is definitely different than I thought it would be
though. They don’t have addresses here and no mail service in Chilac. So that
answers your question about sending stuff directly to me. Nope! If you wanna
try and find my house on google… there is no address but I live on the Street
called calle “reforma” I live in between Matamoros and Juarez. I live on the
west side of the Street across from a day care. So look for a bunch of slides
and stuff like that. I live right across the Street on the roof. I think my
house is the only two story building on the street so hopefully you can find it.
I contacted this one girl who is a missionary for the catholic church and she agreed to let us come over and talk with her. After three lessons I know that she knows its true. I can tell. But she says there is no way she can change her religión. UGH!!! Another family we are supposed to baptize this Saturday I dont think is going to happen cuz we went over to there house yesterday to talk to them and read the scriptures with them but there was a truck outside and the ladies son said his moms boyfriend was over!!! NOOOOO!!!! She’s married haha. And apparently has another man on the side. UGH. There is one bright hope though. We have been teaching this one family and we got them to come to church this last week and also to come to 3 branch activities. So they basically spent the whole weekend with them. I think we are going to challenge them to baptism this next lesson. I feel good about it. They are a family of 6 but the two youngest girls are not old enough to be baptized but still that would be so cool. I pray that it helps.
I also got my first hair cut today. I don't think the lady has ever cut a
white persons hair cuz mexican hair is much thicker… I am bald haha. I can't wait
to see what my district leader says today. It's not like I could do anything
about it!!! Oh well!!
I’m doing so good. I miss all of you so much and can't wait to talk to all of
you! I miss you!!!!!!
Love
Elder Janda!!!

December 7, 2009

2009-12-07T18:37:00.001-08:00

This place is crazy. Crazy. Crazy. I am in a little tiny town called Chilac.
I dont know if you can find it on the map. Its about 45 minutes outside of
Tehacáun which is about a two hour bus ride from Puebla.
My living conditions.... hmmm. My ''house'' is built on top of someone else’s
and we pay 30$ a month to live there. Soooo... you can imagine how nice it is.
The floor is unfinished cement. So its not like costco... its like a stucco
floor haha but its ok just really hard to clean. The walls are cinder blocks
and the ceiling is too. There are a few windows but they don’t fit the holes
really well so bugs and stuff can climb in and do as they please. A bird flew
in this morning haha. Its pretty tiny. I would guess about 20 by 15 feet. But
they only time I spend there is for studying and sleeping so that’s not too bad.
We don’t have running water inside but there is a sink outside and a ''toilet."
It’s just a hole basically.
My first few days here were really hard and I missed everyone so much. I got a
native companion from Mexico City. His name is Elder Saucedo. He doesn’t speak
English which is hard cuz Mexican Spanish is way different than MTC spanish.
WAY DIFFERENT. I didn’t understand anything at all the first few days. It was
so hard to sit there and have no idea what was going on. Also some of the
people here speak a form of Mexican called ??nawak??(Morgan searched this and it is Nahuatl).
But it’s a completely different language. I definitely wasn’t sure if
I’d be able to do it at first. Actually a lot. Definitely the hardest thing in
my life. But I’m starting to get it.
The food is definitely an adventure. They don’t use silverware here. They just
use tortillas to grab whatever they want and then eat it with the tortilla. My
first day... wow I wasn’t sure if I could do it. When we walked in the door
there were flies everywhere. Nothing was clean. They pulled something off of a
fire called chicharrón which is pig skin. They gave me so much. and I had to
eat it all. Haha needless to say that night I had the dire dires. And then
another day we had something they call barbacoa here. They dig a hole in the
ground... light a fire.. and toss a goat into it. Then they eat it! The whole
thing. The head is their favorite... yep that means brains, tongue, eyes, skin,
everything. Its a big deal for them to cook a goat for you so you have to eat
it. It was different.
It was a huge culture shock for me the first few days. In one of my lessons a
lady busted out her baby and started breast feeding her right in front of us. I
was like... uhhhhhhhhh. Not sure what to do. But I just sat there and smiled
and nodded my head cuz I had no idea what they were saying. I feel like such a
goob. Even little kids (3 year olds) will come up to me and say stuff and I
will have no idea what they are saying cuz I can’t understand. I can’t even
imagine how everyone else is doing
My highlights of the week were church, and going to bed every night. Also
anytime I understood what people were saying. Church was great. Elder Saucedo
and I blessed the sacrament cuz they don’t have priesthood boys. The branch is
only about 30 people. We meet in someones yard. But the spirit was there when
we broke the bread and passed the sacrament. It was a great experience.
I am growing more and more grateful for you all everyday not to mention how grateful I am to have lived in the United States my whole life where we have laws about how
you can prepare food.
Well I think that’s about it. I have to go catch a taxi to get a ride into
Tehacáun to buy food and some soap and a pillow cuz I dont have any. The taxis
and buses here are crazy. They cram tons of people in and drive soooo crazy...
dirt roads, busy streets, doesn’t matter. They will pass anyone and go as fast
as they want. As far as I can tell most places don’t have a speed limit.
I want you all to know I love this gospel. If I didn’t know for 100% surety that
this gospel was the gospel of our Heavenly Father, I would already have come
home cuz this is so hard. But I KNOW this church is true. This is God´s work.
He loves all his children and I am blessed enough to get to work with the ones
of Chilac. I love all of you soooo soo much. I miss you and can´t wait to talk
to you at christmas.

Much love
Elder Mitchell LaVell Janda

Last MTC email.

2009-11-25T22:24:00.000-08:00

Hey Family!
I hope this email finds everyone well! This has been yet another wonderful but
interesting week in the life of Elder Mitchell Janda. Last Thursday through
Saturday were normal. Nothing too exciting. I got my last hep. shot. So I'm
all set for Mexi land! Then on Sunday I had the sweet opporunity to bless the
sacrament for the first time in Spanish. It was so sweet. Spanish is so much
cooler than English. I just wish I could speak it better! Haha I'm coming along
though.
How is everyone there!? I hope you are enjoying your Thanksgiving holiday.
There is no such thing as a holiday for missionaries I guess haha.
Last night
Dallin H. Oaks came and spoke to us and it was the coolest thing in the world.
I ran yet again to get a front row seat. It's so amazing to actually be like 15
feet from an apostle of the Lord. Wow. He talked about a lot of stuff but the
thing that I heard most was one.. to learn that Tools dont have desires of their
own. They do whatever their master wants. If I want to be the best tool in the
Lords hand then I need to only care about what he wants for me to do. On the
same kinda note the other thing that I learned was that missionaries need to be
full time. So ALL the time I need to focus on missionary work. I am not going
to worry about you guys anymore! The Lord will take care of you. :) And if I
keep my wants aligned with his, whatever happens will be what the Lord wants!
And I will be able to be happy with that.
I'm so excited but nervous for Mexico.. I am the travel leader for my group so
I have to make sure everyone is on the plane and ready to go and if anyone is
missing or something happens then I have to take care of it. I am also just
kinda nervous to get there. I am excited and want to be there I guess I just
hope that I am prepared enough! ya know!?
So how is the family doing? Its going to be hard in Mexico. I have heard it
takes a month or two for a letter to get there instead of the two days it takes
for here. That will be hard but its ok. I miss my family a lot but not really
too much. :) haha in other words... I wish you were here more than I wish I
could be there. I am sooo happy when I am serving the lord. It's kinda like
when you are here, your emotions are just maximized. You can feel more angry,
sad, and upset than you have ever been, but on the other hand you can feel more
happiness, joy and love than ever before. It's totally worth it. I love serving
the Lord.
I can't believe tomorrow is Thanksgiving! haha I didn't even realize
until yesterday when my teacher was like well I have Thursday off for
Thanksgiving. I was like.. WOW. I totally didn't know. I am so thankful for
all of you.
I finished reading the BoM this week. I am starting the book of Matthew now so
I can read about Christ's ministry. I want to learn about Him. If I am going to
be His representative, I should know as much about him and be as close to him as
possible.
I love all of you so much. Thank you for all that you have done for me. And
thank you for the package. I shared with everyone and they were all very
grateful. I can't wait to talk to you on the phone!! haha I love you!!

November, 18, 2009

2009-11-21T18:07:00.000-08:00

Hola Familia!
How is everyone? I was so excited to get all your mail today! I always love
getting your emails and mail. Sounds like life is going pretty good down in AZ!
I'm glad to hear it. Life is great up here in the good ol MTC. I'm startin to
get a little cabin fever from being stuck here for so long.
But anyways... My Visa.... is not here yet :/ maybe tomorrow. Eesh. Normally
it would have come yesterday or today. I'm a little worried but Mexico hasnt
had too many problems recently. You never know though. Oh well its all in the
Lord's hands. I'll go wherever he wants me to! And if i get to stay here i'll
just try and learn more!
This has been a pretty good week. I've been really trying to up the Spanish
Speaking by doing English Fasts. (I'll go a whole day without speaking a word
of English) I figure if i want Heavenly Father to bless me with the Gift of
Tongues i better work my hardest! Its hard though now that everyone in my
district is so comfortable with eachother cuz a lot of times they will just want
to talk or get side tracked when we are supposed to be studying Spanish. I feel
like the bad guy but i've really been trying to tell everyone whats up and that
we should be studying. I know they all came out here wanting to be the Best
they can be. I want them to be the best they can as well. And i know that
without them trying to do their best i will not reach my full potential. I've
had a few inspiring lessons this week.
On tuesday we had Brother Edgely from the presiding Bishopric of the Church come
speak to us. He talked of the importance of "leaving tracks" or living your
life in a way that people will recognize what you have done and that will
provide missionary opportunities for the future.
On sunday sherri Dew came and spoke to us. Normally i dont care for female
speakers but she spoke with such power! She talked about figuring out who we
really are and truly knowing that. I realized i've had it wrong. I always
thought i was Mitch Janda, smart, good grades, nice, liked music, played sports
and hung out with friends. I realized none of that is what is important.
Except being nice i suppose. All of those things, Music, Sports, all the things
like that are things the world would have us focus on. But that is not what is
important. What is important is Our ETERNAL personalities. Who we really are
as children of our Heavenly Father. We must strive to bring out those traits
that made us make the decision to come to earth and go through the biggest test
we had ever known.
Anyways.... I am doing really well up here. Just focusing on learning and being
the best i can! I am so thankful for all of your examples and whatnot
throughout my life. You have all shaped me into the person i am today and i am
thankful for it. I see missionaries who dont know why they are here or who dont
want to work and it just saddens and sickens me. I used to get so upset and
just want to tell them to grow up. But then i realized that they dont have the
same support group that i have. I love and thank you all once again soo much.
Love Elder Janda