Week Cinco

Still not pictures, he forgets his camera when he emails and now has lost his USB cable.  Hopefully some next week.

Pues esta semana fue un poco mejor, pero esta todavia dificil.

But this week was boring until Friday. On Friday we did some service finally! We went to a members house that is really just a cement box and we got to break down a side of her house. So about 5 Elders took turns breaking down a wall with a 16lbs sledge hammer! It was really cool. Finally CrossFit really came into use there. But then later that day we went to Chihuahua to listen to Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the 12 Apostles speak to us, but more on that later.

That night we had our entire zone in one house. about 30 elders staying I one house. it was awesome, our zone leaders tried to keep us under control but really one of the elders had some music playing and just about everyone singing it, yeah that was a fun day.

Saturday we got listen to Elder Oaks Speak. I was really surprised about how animated he is. He seemed super hyper and every energetic for being 81, and he said that L. Tom Perry at 91 was even more energetic then he. But he talked a lot on member and missionaries working together. But the thing that really stood out to me was he gave a story of the Mantle.

The principle of the was that every time we are called to do something we put on the mantle of the calling. every single calling has one no matter how small. Now the principle is that with time and trying basically you will naturally grow into the mantle you are called to serve in. He also said that everyone feels like the mantle is to big for them to handle, but with trust in the Lord and time you'll be able to fill it.

Oh so now the food here. All of it is so good. I think that I have had one thing that I didn't care for and that was it. I love all of it, I eat so much I'm getting fat. And because it's cold out here the members feed us more and we eat more so now I weigh 70 kilos or 155 pounds haha I'm fat... (He is 20 lbs heavier than when he graduated from High School)

But the drinks are another story I don't care for the drinks all the much I could go without them. Also there is so much soda here because you cant drink the water so it's either soda or juice basically. (This is hard for him since he doesn't drink soda)

Sorry I've been taking pictures but I keep forgetting my camera at the house in my bag that I carry around with me.

But I'm out of time thanks for the love and support everyday and the prayers and everything.

Love you all missin you all too

Love, Elder Dayley

Week 2 and 3

I have to apologize for how long it has been since I have sent out any of Jacobs letters.  So this one email will catch you all up.  We would like to thank everyone for the prayers in our behalf and especially for Jacob.  They have been felt in our family and I know they have helped him as well.  This has been a rough few weeks for our family and even worse for Jacob.   I think we are all on the mend and hopefully each week will improve for Jacob. 

Please note that Jacob has a new address for any packages that anyone might want to send.  A guy from Texas drives them to the mission home.  SWEET!  That means cheaper to send and no customs for Jacob and that he will actually get the package and everything that is in it!  As for letters, he says to just email him (jdayley@myldsmail.net).  He doesn't have time to email everyone back, but he will at least get them.

Elder Jacob Dayley

c/o Julio Velazquez

P.O. Box 1486

Presidio, TX  79845

Week dos - (10/28/13)

The second week in the mission field has been a ton better than the first! My new companion likes to work hard, likes to teach me and other people and loves being a missionary  So that has really helped me this week.

The only really cool thing that has happened to us this week was on Saturday I was walking down the sidewalk and there was a tree in the way so I stepped off into the road. Right as a stepped off a truck drove by, but it was so close. It was probably 6 inches from hitting me. Like I don't even know why it was that close.  This gives an inside look into the mind of an 18 year old and what he thinks is cool!  I, on the other hand, didn't not find this story cool!!:)

But another cool thing is that we have an investigator named Tadeo. He and his son are Catholic but they didn´t liked the feeling of being there so they came to our church and started the lessons. We gave him a Book of Mormon and we read some of it and really liked it, and that is where we are at with him.

We are in apartments in the center of the city, our place is a one bedroom, bathroom, living room, and a kitchen.  Most of the people we visit are inactives.  We have three or four investigators.  We keep busy all day. 

Tell Gage, that little punk Happy Birthday from me and give him a big fat kiss and hug.  That is sad to hear about gramma, but it's her time to go.  She needs to go back to grandpa and Heavenly Father where she'll be at peace.  So Juliet's mom passed away literally about 30 minutes before Jacob started emailing us.  We decided it best to tell him, basically as in person as we could, instead of him hearing about it later in the day from his mission president.

Thats really it for this week, but everything is getter better little by little.

Love you all, Miss you all

Love, Elder Dayley

Week tres - (11/4/13)

So this has been anything but a desireable week in my life. Actually Monday was the worst day of my life by far. (Reminder - that was the day that Jacob found out about his gramma passing away.  This turned out to be quite a trial for him, but he perservered, or I should say perserering.  Things are still very hard for him, but each day is getting a little better.  Again, thank you to those who fasted for him and prayed and sent him words of encouragement.  It all worked!)  But some good news, I'm doing a little better. Better and better each day. But it is still super hard in the mornings because that's when I'm the most homesick and lonely.

But the rest of the week after Wednesday has been a lot better then the first half of them. I actually got to share my feelings and exprience with an investigator on Friday. He was super depressed and didn't want to do anything. I knew how he felt because that's the excact way I felt too. I don't know if it helped but he came to church and he said he felt better.

But I get to learn a another new langauge! For the Mennonites I get to learn German! That's super cool, but it's going to be hard.  All I have to study is the Book of Mormon, but I know I'll learn it.  My spanish is coming along slowly.  I can almost understand most of what people say to my companion and what he say back.  But once they srart talking to me, I can't understand anything.  It's kinda annoying.

It's getting so cold here! I found out it snows in Chihuahua!  I had no idea this is what the church meant by warm climate mission!

One of Jacob's best friends got his mission call to Pocatillo, ID, english speaking.  Mind you, his friend is half Mexican.  This was Jacob's reply to the news.

HAHAHA!  You know what's funny is that I was telling my companion that he was getting his call soon.  I said how funny it would be for him to go english speaking because his two all white friends would be fluent in spanish and he wouldn't.  Then his two white friends and his white dad could speak spanish together and he would't be able to!

Okay I'm out of time, thanks for the love and everything miss you all!  Tell everyone thanks for the emails even if I wasn't able to respond to them all.  I read them and they really helped.

Love, Elder Dayley

First email from Mexico

So Mexico is close to what I thought it would be haha. Really kinda run down and old. But the people are super nice here, which is good. The food here is really good too, not as spicy as I was thinking though.

My first week was rough really got homesick, and just really wanted to go home. I talked to my companion and he really did not care for my thoughts, so as you can image that really helped. (not). But I just talked to my mission President and he changed my companions, to a American that I already went on splits with and he is really cool. Glad for that. 

We do a ton of walking here, and do a ton of inactive member work here. The ward here is great super supportive and helpful. We teach like anywhere from 3 to 6 people a day which I do not know if that is being busy or not.

The Spanish is not the same spanish in the MTC. There it was slow and clear, here its all fast, munbbled, and not clear at all. So I have to ask ¿como? a lot. Which is a nice way of saying What?

So the mail, if you want to send me a letter I would just email it Ill get it faster. For Packages send it to this address 

Julio Velazquez/Elder Dayley

P.O. Box 1486 

Presidio, Texas 79845

It goes to a guy in texas that brings it down here to the mission home. It is faster and safer that way

Everything is going good now, thank you for the prays and support love you all, miss yall

Love, Elder Dayley

First week in Mexico

Here is an email chain that we had this morning.

It's killing me not hearing from you for so long.  I want to know details. 

Tate and Gages games went ok this weekend.  Tate's team won pretty easily.  I messed up and caused the other team to get a TD based on my play call.  Man that was a mistake.  Tate had 3 TD passes.  Gage's team played a really big team. Almost everyone was over 100 lbs. and 10 or 11.  We aren't anywhere that big.  Gage got hurt and had to sit out a series on offense.  The ended up losing 26-7.  First lost in 3 seasons, so pretty good overall.  The line is what killed us. 

I sent an email with lots of questions to hopefully help you send us info.  Steph Efnor got her mission call to SLC East mission, leaves in Jan.  Justin had his interview yesterday morning and is now waiting on his.

Other than this nothing exciting is happening.  O Wait, I did get release from YM President finally.  Someone asked if it was bitter sweet to be released.  I told him no, just bitter.  I was called to be the Ward Financial Clerk.  So exciting huh. (Sarcasm)

Ok, I hope you are working hard and doing what is right.  Can you understand your companion?  Give me details.

Love you,

Papa

_________________________________________________________________________

I talked to my Mission president and he changed me to a new trainer which I already did a split with and we really got along well. He’s American from Utah, but he’s really nice. His name is Elder Hanks from around Salt Lake.  I just changed companions probably 40 minutes ago, right before I emailed you. But I went on splits with him on Saturday and he’s really cool. I learned more that day than I had all week.

We walk around the city and just talk with inactive members and try to reactivate them. Then we get referrals from them and members.

The members here help a lot.

We wake up at 6:30 and get ready, then do personal study at 8:00 personal, 9:00 is companion study till 11:00. 11:00 till 12:00 is language study. After that work until 2:00 when we eat. Then work until 9:00 and go home and eat dinner. 

_________________________________________________________________________

Wow, so different than mine.  We had to be out of the apartment by 10 am and get all that done except language of course.  I hope this week works better than last.  

Do you do daily planning?  

Do you tract or are you to busy?  They are really focusing on inactive here as well.  

Are you typing up another email or is our chat back and forth it?  

How are you getting internet?

What are your plans on P-Day?

Is there anything cool to see there?

Can you send the correct spelling of the town?

Does your companion know Spanish and how long has he been out?

Love you

___________________________________________________________________________

I’m sending another email.

We do our daily planning at night

No tracting here but a lot of walking

We go to an internet cafe but right now I’m in the mission office because i just talked to the President

Nothing really that cool to see, they sell a lot of cowboy boots and hats here though

It’s Cuauhtemoc 

And he knows a lot of Spanish been out for 4 months

Love you 

_________________________________________________________________________

Do you like the food there? Is it mainly Mexican or can you get other stuff?

Have you eaten anything strange or anything you don't know what it was?

Am I taking up all your time?

_________________________________________________________________________

The hats here are probably like $600 in pesos which is like $45 dollars in the USA. The Dollar is worth like 12 or 13 pesos 

Yeah it’s like an hour west of Chihuahua.

The food is good a lot of chicken and rice and beans but it is good

_________________________________________________________________________

So, how do you get your monthly money? 

Does the mission give you a check, deposit in an account?

Lucky, on the chicken, do the member feed you or have you had to learn to cook? heeheehee

Have you had to do laundry or anything?  Clothes working ok?

Whats the weather like?  

Is this way to many questions?

_________________________________________________________________________

No good questions

We have a Debit card

Members have feed us every day so far

Haven’t done laundry yet so I don’t know haha 

Weather is cold in morning and night but hot in the day

Everything is working good

_________________________________________________________________________

OK, so the Mission gives you a debit card, what did you do with yours?

Have you gotten a coat yet or do you just wear one of those Mexican rug coats?  heee heehee

I sent your email to Sedina with the new address for packages. That sure is nice of the guy to do that.

So this may be a dumb question, but a lot of Mexicans?  Any whites?

_________________________________________________________________________

I kept my card and bought a coat. The other elders said it was a good price and good quality. 

A ton of Mexicans no white people, except there is clan of Germans that are here and they like started their own church based off the Book of Mormon but that’s it for white people 

_________________________________________________________________________

Germans wow, what are they called?  Not Mennonites?

Looks like you’re about done with your time.  Love you and we are praying for you every night.  It's pretty neat that the boys are praying for you.

3-6 lessons are a ton a day.  Our missionaries don't really teach at all.

I love you and am proud of you, cannot wait to hear from you after a week with a normal companion.

Love papa

_________________________________________________________________________

Love, you yeah they’re called Mennonites. Why? Have you heard of them?

We get a ton of help from the ward here it is really cool.

Love you, tell the boys I love them too, and miss you all

Love, Elder Dayley

_________________________________________________________________________

I looked it up on Wikipedia:

The Cuauhtémoc area is the home of around 50,000 Mennonite people divided into various colonies that surround the city.

The Mennonites settled in the San Antonio Valley, as far as 120 km (75 mi.) to the north of the town. There was a General Conference Mennonite Church in the town composed almost entirely of Mennonite refugees who came to Mexico after World War I. The growth of the Mennonite population due to natural increase and to additional immigration from Canada stimulated its economic activities. A small cereal factory was established by non-Mennonites, while a large cheese factory, slaughterhouse, and ice plant were erected by Mennonites (the Redekops) in the town. In 1947 the Mennonite Central Committee established a service unit in Cuauhtémoc to provide health services, recreational direction, and assistance in educational activities of German-speaking children

Although the city, formerly called San Antonio de los Arenales, developed only after the arrival of the Old Colony Mennonites in 1922, it has practically no Mennonites living in it. However, the streets and the numerous banks teem with them, especially on Monday mornings. Cuauhtémoc is the most important commercial center for Old Colony Mennonites in Chihuahua.

In the early 1930s the recent Mennonite immigrants from the Soviet Union (Rußländer) formed a Mennonite congregation in the town, but by 1987, it had disintegrated completely. The few Mennonite families and General Conference Mennonite Church and Mennonite Central Committee workers living in the city in 1986 (5 families and 5 singles) worshipped mostly at the General Conference congregation at Kilometro 11. Cuauhtémoc was the first city to erect a senior citizens home under public or government jurisdiction. Its first matron was a Mennonite, Maria Giesbrecht, from the Santa Rita Colony (Nord Colony).

_________________________________________________________________________

Hmmm cool, I don’t know the city well enough to know where any of that stuff is at but that’s some cool info. 

I forgot in the big letter that on November 16 Dallin H Oaks is coming to speak to the missionaries in Chihuahua. That’s really cool!

So i just got in Chihuahua and met my new companion he's native, no english which is good. We are in Catuamuc? I don't know how to spell it, but doing good, everything is fine and no problems so far. Just got to send a quick email today, it was nice talking to everyone. Love ya, miss ya.

Love, Elder Dayley

Last Email from MTC

Jacob leaves Monday morning super early to Mexico.  We will get a phone call from him at some point while he is waiting in an airport for a flight.  We are so excited to hear his voice!  (Justin he asked for your cell number, so you better have your sound on and the phone near you Monday morning - early if you want to talk to your brother!)

This is his last email from the MTC.  You can still email him at jdayley@myldsmail.net

Here is the address to the mission home:

Elder Jacob Dayley

Mexico Chihuahua Mission

Oninaga #2210 A, Antes Morelos

Cuauhtemoc

31020 Chihuahua, Chihuahua

Mexico

It has been the slowest but fastest month in my life. The flow of time here is slow days but fast weeks, I'm excited to see how that translates to the real world. But today is probably the last time I'll be going to the temple for a really long time, that's weird to think about because here you can go ever single week. Which we did, and is really cool.

It's been really nice to get all of your letters through out the week, they really do help a ton. You won't think so but they do! Thank you for all the support and love. I've been writing Devon (Ridd one of his best friends who is serving in the Madrid, Spain Mission) and Cody (Jacobsen his cousin serving is the Salt Lake City West mission) every week, which is really cool to hear from them!

I got the Bethels package this morning and when I opened the paper covering it, there was a box inside that said 5cc syringes w/o needles. At first I didn't know who it was from so I was freaking out a little bit. Like who would send me syringes from AJ(Apache Junction). But then I showed it to my companion and I said, "Hey look now I can start taking my steroids again!" They thought that was pretty funny. There is a pic showing what the box looks like.  (The Bethel's are good friends of our family and she works at her husbands, fathers' doctors office.  Thus the reason for the box!  Really funny actually!) 

So on west campus on P-days you can walk down the road to a place called Brigham Landing and get stuff over there which is really cool!  They have a burger place and Jamba Juice.  I like hearing about Tate and Gage's football games.  I like bragging about them to my companions!  Haha

So General Conference! How was that for you guys?? But favorite talk was in the priesthood session by President Ufdorf when he was talking about Failure. And what I got out of it was Failure is natural, let it work for you, don't work for it. But this is the most I've ever paid attention to Conference in my life and I actually got a lot from it so that was really cool.

So I'm out of time now love you all, miss you all.

One Month in the MTC

So here is the email we got from Jacob yesterday.  He leaves to Mexico a week from Monday on 10/14.  So any letters or packages you would like to send him at the MTC do it quickly.  Probably no later than Tuesday.  You can always email him at: jdayley@myldsmail.net

Here is the address for the mission home in Chihuahua as well:

Elder Jacob Dayley

Mexico Chihuahua Mission

Calle Oninaga #2210 A, Antes

Morelos

Colonia Cuauhtemoc

31020 Chihuahua, Chihuahua

Mexico

  

Today marks the month day of being in the MTC, it went by fast but at the same time really slow, but then I look ahead and there's only two weeks left. It's weird how time flows here. 

Glad to here that everyone is doing good, and everyone is going good in football. Colton was asking for advice for his dance. So I would say don't wear your suit jacket into the dance leave it in the car. You can't move as well in it and it gets really hot while you wear it, and those things stink. Another thing is eat light at the dinner before hand, don't try and impress her with the amount of food you can eat or be in a competition with your friends to see how much you can eat. A lot of food moving around in your stomach is not a good feeling. 

So this week we have become the oldest district in the zone, and elder Wright and Elder McKay are zone leaders, and I was asked to be the District leader for my district. Which is cool because now I don't have to worry about myself but I now have some responsibility to keep me occupied. Oh and also I broke through the 150lb barrier mark!! I gained 8 or 9 pounds so far. I'm fat now, just kidding, I actually have an eight pack coming through haha. Tell Tate to step it up. 

Mama asked about my Sundays, well this Sunday we studied for hours until 1:30 then went to priesthood and sacrament meeting. This Sunday and Saturday though we are going to Main Campus to watch them all. Hopefully I can stay awake through all of them. haha I'm going to miss our traditional breakfast afterwards.  I also get to go to temple every p-day.

This last week we had a lot of rain come in and it snowed on the mountains around us it was really cool looking. But it was kinda cold, I was fine though, it wasn't to bad since we are inside most of the day.

Grandma asked me to take pics of the snow on the mountains so I did that for her they are really cool, but I like The Superstition Mountains better they're cooler looking.    

Last night we had a speaker from Scotland and he had an accent and everything. He taught about how ridiculous is the thinking of those who don't believe us to be Christians. He was really bold in everything he said it was really cool to listen to. 

That's all for this week.  Love you all, miss you all.

Love, Elder Dayley