His birthday was Sunday the 25th and I CANNOT believe I forgot. I'm a HORRIBLE sister. :( On a better note, he sent us this e-mail (collectively, as he doesn't have much time on p-day) on Monday, the 26th. :) ENJOY!
i am busy busy and busy everyday. even on p-day there is not enough time to get things done. i love you dad and i am grateful for all that you have taught me. the example you are to me. the Spanish is still hard and i still have trouble understanding what people are saying... but i am learning... in my email from the president today he told me that he knows who my next companion in and he speaks no English... so i better start cutting out all English... all of it.. haha i have 3 weeks left of this my first transfer and the work seems to be progressing... it is frustrating because we haven't been in the water as much as we have planned but we have like 6 people lined up for the 8th. great things are happening for us and we are working hard. our goal every week is to contact 140 people. if we do this every week we will have at least 1 person to baptize for a few weeks later. i went on splits with one of the zone leaders on Tuesday i think and it was fun because he is from the north side of Tucson. Elder Moeller. we had a great day and worked hard but when night fell we took a wrong turn and ended up one street away from where we needed to be. OH i know... lets cut through the jungle over there!!!! great idea Elder Moeller... so we start trekking.. after a while we follow a stream to the back of a house and we think we are saved.but out of nowhere two giant ghost dogs come out of nowhere and are about to eat us... i think they were pit bulls. but they were meaaaaaan... we turn to run and there is a barbed wire fence about waist high... well there WAS a fence there... i think we destroyed it. haha... but after getting over or through the fence we are stumbling through large loose rocks the size of basketballs and barely keeping our balance. Elder Moeller reached the end and jumped for safety and i tried to follow his steps. i took my leap.... aw the rock slips down into the creek bed and i am flipping down with it. haha. i fell about 5 feet into some kind of poisonous plant that left stinging welts all over my arms and some how i ended up on my feet at the bottom.. i scrambled up and out of there and after taking a brief assessment we pressed on. after a short while we came to another barbed wire fence... slid right through the middle and didn't get a scratch. well that's because elder moeller was wrenching the wires apart. haha. after the fence we found our selves luckily on the right street. haha. with an hour of work left in the night. yay. the end.
that was exciting for sure. after that day it just got super duper hot... just scorching hot.. with a ton of humidity... suffering. but today was a blessing.. cool and cloudy... my birthday was something special... went to church... had lunch with some members... fell asleep at the table. then walked around in the heat until the sun went down.. we climbed a humongous hill in a colonia called arenal searching for a contact that we had an appointment with and it was all for naught.. but i did get some sweet pictures. i keep forgetting my camera.. hopefully my comp will let me get it and then come back for a few minutes to get some sent to you. after our mountain adventure we went to the house of a member and there were some of the youth there and they threw me a little birthday feast of empenadas. mmmmm. i will send pictures eventually. but it was awesome.. i love my branch and i love the city.. as hard as it is to get around here. haha... i love you all so much and i know that the church is true.. that this work is the work of God. i know that the worth of every soul is great and that is what makes this so hard to do... i cant save them all. in fact i cant save any of them. i can teach and then it is up to them and their desire to feel the spirit. elder Castañeda and i sing hymns in almost all of our lessons. there is power in the songs of the church. another thing that we do for our investigators is we give blessings of comfort. we do all that we can to let them feel the spirit. i want so badly for everyone we teach to just understand that what we are teaching them is it... the answer to all life's questions and the gift of happiness.. but only few of them do... i know the they at some point in their journey get it. whether it is now or after now. haha. i love you all and i send my best of love home to you.
con amor,
elder elrey
p.s. here is a link to some pics he sent with the last letter. click! Thanks for reading! Love you all!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Address!
Jeff can NO LONGER e-mail people who are not family. There are two other options for you to contact him. They are:
1. Dear Elder.com POUCH: It's free, they send them out every week on Mondays, and all you have to do is enter his Mailbox # (308), mission code (MEX-VER), and departure date (0405). To go there now, CLICK HERE.
2. Send them to the mission office. We'll have a specific address soon, but for now send them to:
Elder Jeffree Dell Burnett Elrey
Mexico Veracruz Mission
Altamirano 27 entre de Mayo y Carranza
Col. Flores Magon
91700 Veracruz, Veracruz Mexico
Please keep writing him and supporting him! He loves you all!
He e-mailed me today.
mesico is nuts... nnnnuuuuuttttssss... its always hot and i am sunburned like a lobster. i got to Veracruz on thursday and went to the mission home for some training.. i am in a city called San Andres, Tuxtlas goooogle it... its hotter than ever and i am about to go to a wter falll i will attatch pictures later today...
gotta go.... love...
Elder Elrey
my ward is called El Jardin. :)
entonces... continuing on... i willl attatch some fotos of my first few days adventures to this email! fun fact about Las Tuxtlas this is where Mel Gibson filmed Apocolypto. and the water fall in the pictures is the same as the one in the movie... pretty awesome. so ias i said it is hotter than el infierno and it is always humid... i am sunburned and pretty much always uncomfortable... :) but its an amazing place... Elder Schilhabel and i are in the same zone here in Tuxtlas so i get to see him ever few days. so we got to Veracruz on thursday night and immediately my mind was blown... the mission president picked us up with his secretaries and the assistants and took us on a tour of the city then up the Gulf a little ways there is an island there where the light house is and it is called La Isla de Sacrificio... people used to be sacrificed there.. no big deal. and it is the symbol of our mission. We got to the mission office and immediately washed up and walked to a resaurant on the gulf and ate a ton of carne and tortillas. surpisingly enough i dont have diarrhea... yet. haa. despues(after) we ate we went back to the office for about an hour of training on health and stuff... the told us a lot about how the mission is splitting and they are creating a villhermosa mission that will cover the south gulf.. my area now is in the area that is going to be in the new mission so i might get switched into a different mission... entonces... the next day we started where we left off with more training and then we got our trainers... my companion is Elder Castañeda he is a native and he speaks a little english but i think i am teaching him more english than i am learning spanish haha. he is the man and i wouldnt survive without him... we got to our area in San Andres friday night and immediately got to work... contacting and such we also went to the branch presidents house and socialized for a few minutes., ate some sandwiches, and i got spanked by a crazy old lady... 9 times! insane... after that little encounter we kept doing contacts until 930 and then we got back to the house... our apartment is supposedly the nicest in the zone... buuuut it is stilll a little scary haha. i will send pictures next week. my first day was crazy as you can see in the pics i baptized Guian Carlos and then we walked and climbed hills and walked and climbed bigger hills aaaaaalllll day long... i have gone down a belt notch in 3 days.. i am gonna be a skinny man when i am finished here. haha. i dont remember much of the last 3 days other than teaching in the most random places and being sweaty. it is insane how much work is involved. but the worth of souls is great. you know the drill.. haha.. make sure everyone reads this.. well the good parts.. :) i am not allowed to email friends anymore because the rule is only family and i am focused on obedience. yesterday was sunday and i bore my testimony in sacrament and i think i understood what was going on. i dont understand much of what is said because th people here just leave out s sounds and slurr a lot of words together...i will get used to it i guess.. there is so much to say... after church we taught i few lessons and then had lunch with some members. a soup called posole that is made from the cartelidge of the spine of a pig i think... it was way good and for dessert a nice slab of pineapple with chile powder and lime.. also amazing. :) we continued to wlk everywhere and take the ocassional taxi if it is far which it always is. haha.. i love this place though.. somtimes i get discouraged but i know that in time all things will be alright as long as i am obedient. today was our preparation day and we first took our laundry to a member who offered to do it for us and then we went with the zone leaders to the waterfall Salto de Eyipantla which is amazing... and it smelled like Lakeside park. hah.. i am out of time and i gotta email the president so i will tell you more about my life next monday.
love you family
com amor,
Elder Elrey
I didn't get the pictures he said he attached, but I hope you enjoy! Love, Pearl.
1. Dear Elder.com POUCH: It's free, they send them out every week on Mondays, and all you have to do is enter his Mailbox # (308), mission code (MEX-VER), and departure date (0405). To go there now, CLICK HERE.
2. Send them to the mission office. We'll have a specific address soon, but for now send them to:
Elder Jeffree Dell Burnett Elrey
Mexico Veracruz Mission
Altamirano 27 entre de Mayo y Carranza
Col. Flores Magon
91700 Veracruz, Veracruz Mexico
Please keep writing him and supporting him! He loves you all!
He e-mailed me today.
mesico is nuts... nnnnuuuuuttttssss... its always hot and i am sunburned like a lobster. i got to Veracruz on thursday and went to the mission home for some training.. i am in a city called San Andres, Tuxtlas goooogle it... its hotter than ever and i am about to go to a wter falll i will attatch pictures later today...
gotta go.... love...
Elder Elrey
my ward is called El Jardin. :)
entonces... continuing on... i willl attatch some fotos of my first few days adventures to this email! fun fact about Las Tuxtlas this is where Mel Gibson filmed Apocolypto. and the water fall in the pictures is the same as the one in the movie... pretty awesome. so ias i said it is hotter than el infierno and it is always humid... i am sunburned and pretty much always uncomfortable... :) but its an amazing place... Elder Schilhabel and i are in the same zone here in Tuxtlas so i get to see him ever few days. so we got to Veracruz on thursday night and immediately my mind was blown... the mission president picked us up with his secretaries and the assistants and took us on a tour of the city then up the Gulf a little ways there is an island there where the light house is and it is called La Isla de Sacrificio... people used to be sacrificed there.. no big deal. and it is the symbol of our mission. We got to the mission office and immediately washed up and walked to a resaurant on the gulf and ate a ton of carne and tortillas. surpisingly enough i dont have diarrhea... yet. haa. despues(after) we ate we went back to the office for about an hour of training on health and stuff... the told us a lot about how the mission is splitting and they are creating a villhermosa mission that will cover the south gulf.. my area now is in the area that is going to be in the new mission so i might get switched into a different mission... entonces... the next day we started where we left off with more training and then we got our trainers... my companion is Elder Castañeda he is a native and he speaks a little english but i think i am teaching him more english than i am learning spanish haha. he is the man and i wouldnt survive without him... we got to our area in San Andres friday night and immediately got to work... contacting and such we also went to the branch presidents house and socialized for a few minutes., ate some sandwiches, and i got spanked by a crazy old lady... 9 times! insane... after that little encounter we kept doing contacts until 930 and then we got back to the house... our apartment is supposedly the nicest in the zone... buuuut it is stilll a little scary haha. i will send pictures next week. my first day was crazy as you can see in the pics i baptized Guian Carlos and then we walked and climbed hills and walked and climbed bigger hills aaaaaalllll day long... i have gone down a belt notch in 3 days.. i am gonna be a skinny man when i am finished here. haha. i dont remember much of the last 3 days other than teaching in the most random places and being sweaty. it is insane how much work is involved. but the worth of souls is great. you know the drill.. haha.. make sure everyone reads this.. well the good parts.. :) i am not allowed to email friends anymore because the rule is only family and i am focused on obedience. yesterday was sunday and i bore my testimony in sacrament and i think i understood what was going on. i dont understand much of what is said because th people here just leave out s sounds and slurr a lot of words together...i will get used to it i guess.. there is so much to say... after church we taught i few lessons and then had lunch with some members. a soup called posole that is made from the cartelidge of the spine of a pig i think... it was way good and for dessert a nice slab of pineapple with chile powder and lime.. also amazing. :) we continued to wlk everywhere and take the ocassional taxi if it is far which it always is. haha.. i love this place though.. somtimes i get discouraged but i know that in time all things will be alright as long as i am obedient. today was our preparation day and we first took our laundry to a member who offered to do it for us and then we went with the zone leaders to the waterfall Salto de Eyipantla which is amazing... and it smelled like Lakeside park. hah.. i am out of time and i gotta email the president so i will tell you more about my life next monday.
love you family
com amor,
Elder Elrey
I didn't get the pictures he said he attached, but I hope you enjoy! Love, Pearl.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Pictures!
These are the pictures that were on a memory card he sent home of his district in the MTC. I don't really know who anyone is, but I'll label all the ones I can. :)
Above is Jeff and his Companion, Elder Robertson.
Elder Shriver and Elder Facer.
Hi, I'm Jeffy and I can count to Potato!
Hermana Thomas
Elder Shriver
Jeff and his best buddy Elder Schilhabel.
Silly boy. :)
He's a GOOF!
His eye's are dilated. He got glasses!!
At the Provo Temple!
Elder Shriver, at the Temple.
He loves sticking that tongue out.
Above is Jeff and his Companion, Elder Robertson.
Elder Shriver and Elder Facer.
Hi, I'm Jeffy and I can count to Potato!
Hermana Thomas
Elder Shriver
Jeff and his best buddy Elder Schilhabel.
Silly boy. :)
He's a GOOF!
His eye's are dilated. He got glasses!!
At the Provo Temple!
Elder Shriver, at the Temple.
He loves sticking that tongue out.
I LOVE my Elder.
He called again last night from the airport. His district left the MTC at 8:30 pm and their flight took off at 12:50 am, so they had A LOT of time to just hang out at the airport. It was SO good to hear his voice and talk to him about everything going on with me. I love him SO much and I miss him. For now, his letters should be sent to the Mexico Veracruz Mission home. The address is on Facebook and I'll post it on here in another blog a little later today. I love you all for the love you have for my awesome brother. Keep in touch with him! He really appreciates the love you send in your letters. I'm so proud of him and incredibly excited about his new adventure.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Another Phone call!
He's done it again! Jeff called my mom today to let her know he got his Visa and he'll be leaving for Mexico tomorrow night at 8:30. Next time we her his voice will be Mother's day, two days before my birthday! What an AWESOME birthday present that will be! :) I'll post his NEW address on here and his facebook when we get it. Keep an eye out for it! Thank you for all the support you guys give him. It means a lot to us all.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Phone Call, from Poland.
Not really. Ha But we DID get a phone call from the one and only (not for long*) ELDER ELREY! Well, my parents did. His district is waiting on the Visas so they'll be in Utah for a while more. He got to hear the bad news about my Grandpapa (Lymphoma :[)in "person", so to speak. He's a little shaken, but other than that he'll be okay. He's working hard and learning lots. They have him working in the call center thing up there until they get those visas. I love him tons and miss him every day!! He NEEDS letters!! Let me be honest with you,I'm not too great at writing him myself... But I'm working on it. We just sent him Package #2 yesterday. It had a rugby ball, a pump and some other things in there that he's been asking for. Please, WRITE HIM! He needs reassurance that you all love him as much as he loves you. Until next time, I'm outie! :)
*Joe submitted his papers to the stake president last Monday. :) So there'll be TWO out before we know it!
*Joe submitted his papers to the stake president last Monday. :) So there'll be TWO out before we know it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)