Monday, December 28, 2009

For all those readers out there...

Have no fear all of you following Jake's blog. We haven't forgotten about you. Jake has been very busy with holiday things and talking to his parents on Christmas so there should be an email next week. Just keep checking we should have an email soon!

Sunday, December 13, 2009

On the 12th Day of Christmas...

> Hello hello hello! I have stories galore, but I will only share one then I will get to responding.
> So, yesterday (yes, Sunday) was my first baptism. There is a long story behind it, but I will give you the shortened version. So, to start out, there was supposed to be three baptisms yesterday. Gilbert Arizola, Tatay Eclarinell, and Edwin Eclarinell Jr. So, let me explain what happened. In order for someone to be baptized, they need a final interview by our district leader. His name is Elder David and he is something else. He is like the biggest work work work grow up fun is overrated neo nazi I have ever met. He, and I quote, said in a district meeting “a mission is not for fun. If you are having fun you aren’t devoted to the Lord” I don’t understand him. We, as missionaries, are asked to keep our lessons to around 30 minutes-arrival, conversation, prayer, lesson, and closing ALL INCLUDED. People don’t want to sit down and be talked to without their say in the matter for an hour-that’s all there is to it. Elder David (I went on splits with him once) sits down and talks for 45 minutes straight. I will explain something, and then he will go back behind me and take another 15 minutes to re-explain it. There is really no way to describe it like he is the guy who doesn’t buy toys for his kids at Christmas, he makes them read the whole new testament front to back. He really bugs me but I try to get along with him. Well, he, without talking to us, pushed back the baptismal date of Gilbert (he likes to abuse his authority-that’s another thing that bugs me. He thinks he is the alpha and omega because he was made a district leader…) and so I went and asked him about it. Needless to say, he didn’t give me a reason and got all mad and we, more or less, had world war 3 in our apartment. Yea, not something for a missionary to do I know but we resolved everything and we are good now so no worries Anyways, we returned to Gilbert (Elder Banawan and I) to re-teach him the doctrine that he “didn’t know” last night. We asked him what kind of questions Elder David asked him and he said (regarding “the living prophet” the section that Elder David “failed” him on) that he asked him how many prophets there were between Joseph Smith and Thomas S. Monson. That is why Elder David pushed his baptism back 2 weeks. Gilbert is such a good guy. He is 19, has a strong testimony, and is dedicated to living a lds standard driven life. That is all I am going to say about that matter because it still burns me off because there were other things that he asked him-deep doctrinal things-but there is no sense getting on a soapbox about it 1)because it would just be whining and 2)because soap boxes in the Philippines aren’t that big and I would probably crush it and have to pay for it:/
> So, Edwin Eclarinell (heretofore mentioned as tatay) was also supposed to be baptized. He had some problems that we still need to address so we had to push his date back. We offered him some things that should help his problem so hopefully he will be able to get over the strong grasp of an addiction.
> Edwin Eclarinell Jr. did get baptized, along with his brother but there is more to the story ah HA! So, the baptism(s) was(were) supposed to be Saturday, but there was a small problem. The chapel was completely without water. SO, we decided to do it in the ocean. Cool right? That’s what I thought, but turns out Edwin’s father, tatay, couldn’t make it. So, we rescheduled it for yesterday morning at 7:30 right before church. Man, those kids were flipping ADORABLE. The looks on their faces were absolutely priceless. You could feel them glowing when they came out of the font. I’m pretty sure that a baptism is one of the happiest days of someone’s life (besides getting married in the temple because that is, if you think about it, just as important as baptism). So, that is the whole story. We have so many baptisms coming up. For the Filipinos being tan, they are pretty dang white and ready to harvest. Everyone who we talk to ends up accepting our message and starting the process to rock salvation. This gospel rocks my socks!
> So, onto the responding. As for the telephone call, I am not sure exactly what is going down. In the internet cafĂ© that we are in, there is this wee poster that mentions chat and such so I will ask about that. Elder Lee heard about this web site that calls a landline or something but we will figure that out when the time comes. Just be expecting my phone call Christmas eve and Christmas day. The whole 14 hour difference really screws up things because in order for me to call you at 8 am Christmas day I need to come to the internet shop at 10 pm and that is when it closes and there is a curfew Christmas day because everyone is drunk and the curfew starts at 6 pm so I don’t know what is going on. I will try to figure things out though.
> HA that missionary hates the snow? Tell him to come to the Philippines which makes the united states look like an icebox in the summertime. Gotta love 10000 percent humidity. I miss the snow and want some but I don’t think that there is any way for me to get it haha. Ill just have to wait…
> Ps-I am sending a package to you all over the next month or so with some way cool Filipino stuff in it. All I am going to say is I would be excited if I was you all…
> My toe is weird. The scab got mixed with dirt and sand and now it is black and hard like cement. Delicious!! It doesn’t hurt anymore though so that is a good deal.
> As for the mail that I have received, I did get one card from you all. I get mail again this Friday (its transfer day. My first transfer-done. Dang…) I got a whole bunch of dearelders too. Tell Scott Wertz that I got his letter and I will try to write him back sometime here soon. The mail thing is way strict-as it should be. I only get mail when I see the office elders which is, rounded down, once a month. I will tell you what I get in this coming up transfer)
> The members are something else. I have never met a group of more humble, more loving, more Christ-like people in my life. They constantly invite you into everything and they check to make sure you are constantly doing alright. This one nanay, nanay Velasco, keeps us missionaries in Lopez living. She brings by food and washes our clothes and cleans. Do we ask her to? No. Have we told her it is unnecessary? Yes. Does she stop? No… The thing that I can’t get over though is undoubtedly the kids. When I am walking down the street in Magsaysay (the most city part of our area) you hear “elder” and little 5 year old boys and girls flock to you cause they want you to pick them up and shake their hand and stuff. One of the families that we visit has an 18 month old baby boy and I swear when they aren’t looking I am going to box him up and send him home so you can keep him until I get back. The kids are so dang cute and its heartbreaking to see the conditions that they live in but they know no better so it doesn’t matter to them. Ha I always feel bad because I always end up laughing in sacrament meeting because we have this deaf kid and he is always smiling (he is like 7) and he will scream and run around and pound on the piano and he does things that you shouldn’t laugh at but you have to because he is a kid and he is deaf so what do you do? I have come up with a simple formula…
> Kids=happiness
> That is all I am going to write for now. I am probably forgetting something but I will type it next week. Did you check up on my computer for me? Next P-day has been moved to Friday so we can have a Christmas p-day so I wont email you next Monday. Just be expecting a call all day Christmas eve or Christmas haha:/
> We are going to the beach today again for a zone Christmas party so that is gonna be way fun. Relaxing on the beach listening to people play the guitar and swinging in a hammock…while you are all freezing haha. Well, that is life I suppose!!
> I will take some more pictures. I will be sending 2 memory cards back when I get my one back so be ready for them. Can you let me know if you all received my letters yet? I have been sending letters out like crazy so hopefully the 10,000,000 people get them.
> I love you all and look forward to talking to you in less than 2 weeks!!!
> Love,
> Jake
> Aka Elder Muller

Sunday, December 6, 2009

The Daily Blogger

> So, before I start, I have a story for all of you. It is the story of what happens when you cut your toenails down the side and not straight across like you should.
>
> So, this whole story started on tuesday when I went to zone conference. Zone conference (this was the Christmas one so it is different) is where the elders get together and they just have fun. We have workshops, we eat catered food, we have a few people get up and bear testimony, they are way fun. So, this zone conference was different because it was the christmas zone conference like I said. We had gift exchange where we exchanged previously bought gifts and such, we played games, we sang christmas carols, the whole shebang. At this point, my toe was a nice green color with pus coming out of the side like a water fountain. I took my toe to sister anderson and she told me to go have a pedicure...are you kidding me? I will come back to this a little later...for now it is back to the zone conference story. So, we exchanged gifts, took pictures and such, and then headed over to SM. SM is a 3 story mall. It is paradise haha. It has mcdonalds (which is not called mcdoo by the way it is just like mcdonalds in america except for a few menu changes...rice...) pizza hut, KFC, dunkin donuts, a movie theater, TONS of stuff. It even has an ACE hardware haha what the heck? So, we went to the mall and it was SO much fun. Just being in a mall was good because it was like a break from the boonies that is lopez (my area). There were actual cars in the parking lot, not just Chevrolegs. Anyways, I had a funny experience in the mall. Elder Lee and Elder Bernard had to get something in ACE so we went in there. When they were checking out I saw this white guy so I decided to go talk to him because it was the first white guy I had seen in a month. So, after a good 20 minute conversation I got the info on him. He is a "treasure hunter" (you know-the guys who blow all their money looking for gold?) and he said that the Philippines is like the richest (as in gold) country in the world. Yea...and I wear a size 7 shoe...I also found out that he is a pastor. He started going on about how mormons were all good people and such and how we help people. This is where the conversation started to pick up. He goes "you just wait. Over the next few months the Lord is gonna start a great work here..." Elder Lee hopped on the opportunity like a tiger-"yea, well the Lord has already started a great work here"-that was the opening line for a referral...or so you would think. His next line left us all with our mouths agape. "You know what, eventually I am going to teach a sermon on the holy ghost in one of the mormon temples" I like choked on my spit haha. I was almost bust out laughing but when I saw that he was serious I regained my dignity. Are you serious? My sarcasm caught the best of me and I blurted out "ha good luck with that" and he heard it and responded with "I have people working with the mormon leaders...one day ill teach." At this point we could see that this guy had absolutely NO interest in listening to our message so we gradually bailed on the conversation. Ha I still cant believe that that guy said that. He is gonna teach a sermon in the temple. Cool. Maybe in the kirtland temple but not within the next...I dont know...eternity will he ever get that opportunity. Unless he is converted, but then things get complicated so we wont go into that.
>
> After that we continued walking around going in a store here and store there. They had TONS of clothing stores that were the equivalent of hollister or abercrombie so it was like a wee dose of home. We had to leave at 6 to get back in enough time, but we still had a good chunk of time to look around and have fun. Have you seen that christmas carol movie with jim carrey? It looks WAY GOOD! Ill have you know we went into the grocery store in the mall and I bought skittles and mike and ikes haha. I couldnt resist...
>
> So, back to the toenail story. When Sister Anderson (the presidents wife) saw my nail she told me to get it taken care of and suggested a pedicure. Yea...right. So, the next day (wednesday) I went to the hospital which wasnt really a hospital at all, it was like a 80' x 30' building with an "emergency room" and a lobby. Haha good times. I saw the doctor and he told me that they would have to remove the whole nail and that there was no alternative. Ok, FIRST OFF you DONT have to remove the whole nail. You remove the section that is embedded in the soft tissue. Come on now. I only have 38 university credits and I have more medical knowledge than that guy. He prescribed me antibiotics for bacterial control, a blood coagulant (which I didnt take. Why would I take a blood coagulant if I’m NOT BLEEDING???) and pain pills the size of a golf ball. He said we would wait until Saturday to take the nail off which screwed me over because that meant that I couldn’t walk (his orders…) until Saturday. So, I got to be confined to my apartment from Wednesday until Saturday. Saturday came along and there was (coincidentally…or maybe not) a specialty surgeon that was there from Manilla. A specialty surgeon was his title. Yea…because it takes a “specialty surgeon” to remove a part of a toenail BUT I am no less grateful that I was sent a doctor who knows what he was doing…Anyways, I asked him if we needed to remove the whole nail and he laughed and said there was no reason to remove the whole nail. So, I went in to the “emergency room” and got my toe worked on. Ha I can assure you he was not too gentle with the needle either and I don’t have a problem with any of that stuff either. Anyways, you can probably guess what I am about to say. I had elder Lee (the elder who went with me to the hospital) film it so I will send you the memory card soon:D Its way cool haha. I have watched it like 9000 times already. Ok, maybe not that many…
>
> It is frustrating because this whole ordeal cost me 2300 pesos which is more than 1/3 of my “support” for the month and I don’t know when I will be reimbursed but I will let them do it in their own good time.
>
> But, that is the story. It kind of sucked being not able to go anywhere from Wednesday to Saturday (I don’t know how retired folks do it. Sitting at home with no work made me want to scream) but it is all good. I spent hours going back and marking my scriptures so now they look nice and pretty! Ha what do you do:/
>
> So, that is how my week went. For my Christmas gift at zone conference I got this cool native thing carved out of wood from Marindouque (pronounced mair-in-dookie no joke. The missionaries shorten it to dookie. “Dude, where is your area again?” “Dookie” “Oh man I LOVE Dookie” Yea, its funny to hear them talk. The only problem is it takes 2 days to get from the island to the church we had zone conference at because its SO FAR…). It is a container that is carved out and has a leather hinge and stuff it is WAY COOL.
>
> Now, I will try to respond to the questions that I didn’t get to respond to last time because of time restraints. As for my companion, yea he speaks really good English. He is quite possibly the most amazing elder I have ever met. He has NO anger, contention, resentment, or height. He is really really patient and is SUCH a good influence. All I speak is Tagalog and it is coming along expectantly. It is still difficult to teach more indepth principles like the Law of Chastity or the Atonement (not like that is important or anything) because of the difficulty of the words, or length of the principle but I am chugging along. I promise that if it weren’t for the Lord, I would be failing miserably right now. Its weird. Take a day and sit down and right your blessings out on a piece of paper. It starts average length then keeps going and going…and going……..and going. Ha I am pretty sure I have the best employer in the world and my paychecks are the richest
>
> My stomach has been fine. I don’t know who will read this but I don’t care ill talk about diarrhea all I want. No I haven’t had any of such things yet. We call it LBM (liquid bowel movements-TMI??) here in the good old Philippines and it has been hitting some elders in our district HARD but I take those probiotics and that multivitamin every single day as directed on the bottle so I am still going strong!! The food is one word, which I am sure you can guess-Rice. I have started mixing rice, soy sauce, chili powder, and hot sauce cause it is the hottest thing I can get here without buying lava singe your tongue you wont be able to taste anything for the next 3 weeks peppers so it works. Soy sauce I have decided is DELICIOUS. You can do SO much with it. Ha I have fallen in love with soy sauce-something I used to DISPISE. I will send you a recipe for Adobo one day. It is chicken, garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots, soy sauce, and more delicious DELICIOUSNESS that goes into it and you put it over rice it is SO good.
>
> Can you get me Derek’s and Max’s address? Check on facebook for it-it should be there. Just ask Chelsea for the password and then you will be able to get on my account and go look at their pages and get the information.
>
> Did Brady really bear his testimony? Ha I am SO proud of that kid. He is maturing spiritually faster than the clunky remote control car in the case (tell brady to read that one. It is an inside joke. Ask him to explain it haha good times) I bore my testimony and it just came out smooth and nice. I have decided that there will be not one single fast and testimony meeting where I don’t bear testimony on my mission. It is a goal so we will see how that one goes down.
>
> Holy cow, dad is rockin church huh? Dang, apparently this past month has been the time for spiritual growth out the yin-yang haha. Soon he is gonna be called the quorum of the seventy…ill bet it is such a feeling of fresh air for him to be done his schooling. He has worked SO hard on that so he has more than the right to boast BUT tell him to check out Alma 26:11-12. Just a guideline He has come a long way haha I remember when he started back in the day at FCC. That seems like it was so long ago oh man. Dad is such a champ!!
>
> When you say the Chinese guy are you talking about Eddison? The kid who is 5’5” and has a HARDCORE asian accent? Haha he has a long story of his own. We sat down one night when I went over to kevins for one of our late night chill sessions ha and he like told me his life story and it is INTENSE. Remind me to tell you one day. It follows Pirates of the Caribbean almost perfectly haha.
>
> I have not gotten my memory card back yet.. As for the time it takes to get stuff, letters obviously take much less time than packages. The card you sent me you sent on November 12th and it was received by the Philippines on November 20th (I read the little stamps over the actual stamp haha) so it takes between a week and a week and a half for a letter to get here but I only get letters and packages when the APs (assistants to the president) come by which is once a month guaranteed, twice a month sometimes-but is isn’t too bad. Days fly like pigs and you lose track of the time when you work your butt off so the day is over before you know it. I have been on my mission for 3 months. WHAT? Where did the time go? Tsk tsk tsk…
>
> If grandma muller sent me a package please tell her thank you!! Tell them that I love them and that I miss them. I sent a letter out to grandma and grandpa clark this past week so they should get that soon. Can you get me grandma and grandpa muller’s address so I can write them? I know like half of it but I don’t want to send it to someone completely different because I messed up the address haha that wouldn’t be too good:/
>
> As for stories from the field, I don’t really have any cool cool stories because I was cooped up in the apartment all week long so that kind of sucked. The best story that I have is about how one day this week I sat in the apartment and read 532622 ensigns about every possible topic known to man then played scrabble with elder Lee (he was way way sick and he punched a wall and broke his hand-don’t ask why…) I was disappointed yesterday at church because we found out that one of the people we were gonna baptize cant let go of mga cigarillo (cigarettes) or alak (alcohol) so we have to push his baptismal date back yet again. Eventually…this Saturday I get the privilege of baptizing a 19 year old named Gilbert and I am way stoked for him. He has come such a long way.
>
> I am sorry to say that I am going through withdrawals. I haven’t been able to look at nice cars or sit on a bike for a good 3 months and it is taking its toll on me. The most car style action that I got was being in a van (going to zone conference) that was a stick and I was itching to drive it SO BAD…yea-pathetic I know.
>
> I am so jealous of the snow in Utah. I want some cold. Last night it dropped down to like 78 and poor elder Banawan was shivering. He had to use my sweatshirt cause he was so cold. You get used to sweat though ha. That is what correlates with the Philippines-sweat. I have a picture of the Salt Lake Temple in the wintertime at my desk and I always look at it and long for snow, but I don’t think it is gonna come anytime soon…no matter how hard I wish for it. I am so stoked to see the pictures that were sent
>
> Speaking of which, I am sending a couple of pictures in this email so you get them. One is of the sunrise, one is of this adorable little kid (no its not Bernard) and one is of the water in the Philippines (it is not a good picture but you get the idea) so hopefully you will get them. Let me know if you do.
>
> Well, that is all she wrote. It is time for me to go wash my clothes, get a haircut, and do what I need to do.
>
> I hope you are all staying warm-I definitely am haha!! I wrote Brady a letter this week so that should be getting to him before this Sunday. I also sent a little surprise which is way cool so hopefully you get it and it hasn’t been broken or anything. Tell me if you get it ha I want to know what you think of it. It was my Christmas present from president Anderson but I cant use it so I sent it home. I hope you get it before Christmas!!!
>
> I love you and miss you all. I hope the snow isn’t too much of a problem ha. I wouldn’t mind it being a problem here! Tell everyone I say hi and am way STOKED to talk to them at Christmastime (less than 3 weeks WOOOOOOOT!!!)
>
> Love you all,
> Jake
> Aka Elder Muller

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

One more for good luck

> Ok, I am going to try and reply because I came back to the place where we email for another elder (they just got back so we had to bail on our appointments) so I will continue responding. First, I have a story.
>
> Earlier today, before we went to the place where the waterfalls are, we stopped in this city to get some food (the place where we bought the fish that got left on the jeep-nee). I was sitting down when I looked up at this lady who looked less then respectable wearing 2 pairs of underwear 6 inches above her waist. Like when a child pulls their pants up to their chest to emulate erkel-that is what this woman looked like. I looked at her and let out a chuckle and looked at elder Banawan and he laughed with me. Well, apparantly the lady saw me and was offended because she got her revenge by coming over to me, singing "we all need someone to LEAN on..." horribly I might add. I started dancing cause she was obviously trying to embarrass me because I laughed at her so I fought fire with fire and she ran her hand through my hair. I was like WOAH and she laughed and walked off. I asked how to say creepy in tagalog but no one answered. Yea, so I got my hair felt by a creepy filthy woman who needed a shower today. That was fun.
>
> Your thanksgiving sounded way fun. We did nothing special for thanksgiving. I woke up and elder Bernard, another american in our apartment, was like "today is thanksgiving" and all I could think about was how you guys were going to be waking up and eating delicious food and gathering together and having a blast. I wish I was there to put up the christmas tree with you all. Can you send me a picture? Ha the good ol christmas lights. That reminds me about last year when I put it off until like the last minute and you asked me to do it and it had snowed like 12 inches and they still werent up and it was like december 22nd. Ha. Sorry about that:/ Why in the mud didnt dad hang the lights? Just dont pull a clark griswald haha:)
>
> So, elder Lee is done so I have to go now. Sorry I didnt email more again. Love you all so so much:)
>
> Love,
> Jake
> aka Elder Muller

Happy Sabbath

Sorry that I missed you guys. Today our zone went to this place deep DEEP in the forest where there is a waterfall and so that took up most of our day. I do have a few funny stories for you though haha.
>
> The first one made me think of you mom. I have to confess, before I tell the story, that I was laughing histerically during a prayer. Not something for a missionary to do right? WELL, elder Banawan and myself were tracting a couple days ago when we came across a house that we felt we needed to go to because it was the only house for like 1000 meters. We went in to find HARDCORE born agains who agreed to listen to our message. We started teaching and it turns out the father was this pastor guy who was "licensed" to be a missionary. He showed us all his liscenses and church ids and all this stuff, and so elder Banawan and I realized that he wasnt gonna except our message. We told him that we were thankful for his time and that we were going to leave but before we left we were going to close with prayer. Elder Banawan asked the father to give the prayer and he gladly accepted. Mom, you know the stories we tell about the people who worship Christ by screaming hallelujah? Well, this guy started his prayer by deepening his voice and practically screaming "OH HALLELUJAH!" I felt bad because I was laughing SO hard. I was quiet about it but all I could think about was what you would think if you heard it. Haha it was an experience that I will never forget.
>
> The next is a tracting experience. I went on splits with a ward missionary who is a good friend and we went tracting. He was telling me about how mission experience when we came upon this party. We started talking to these two old ladies and they were giving us the look of DEATH. Brother Djeta was talking really fast to them, and while he was talking like 15 people lined up behind the two old ladies with this look of disgust on their face. I was like what in the world, why are these people about to kill me? Brother Djeta turned to me and goes "so...we tracted the party after a catholic baptism. All these people are hardcore catholic..." or something to that degree. We tracted a catholic baptism. COOL. I turned to him and said "well, I cant speak tagalog so it is up to you to get us out of this one bud!" in english so none of the people understood me. Ha it was kind of funny I am not gonna lie.
>
> Today, like I mentioned earlier, we went to these waterfalls. I am sorry I didnt catch you all. We left around 7:30 this morning. After buying food and stuff, we rode a jeep-nee (a kind of public transportation) to the point where we would have to walk. One of the ward missionaries who came with us left the meat (enough for like 12 people-we had a BIG group) on the jeep-nee haha so that kind of sucked. It was like a 30 minute walk to the house where we dropped off our stuff and headed out for the falls. From the house it was like another hour or so walking through rivers and 6 inch deep mud to get to the falls. We were gonna wade in a bit like up to our knees, but it had leeches in it so we didnt haha. The walk there sucked because I think I am getting an ingrown toenail (that is gonna be fun to get taken out if I do have one) and it hurts WAY bad. We will let time dictate what is going to happen with that one. Anyways, on the way back I got lost and separated from the group so I had to ask these little kids to lead me the whole way back to the house haha. Fun times here in the mission I can assure you:)
>
> As for the pictures, I am definately taking some. One morning I woke up at 5:30 and ended up watching the sunrise and got a GORGEOUS picture that I will try to email next time. I am trying to start getting some pictures with the families that I am teaching so hopefully that will be on the next card. By the way, I wasnt correct about the package thing. I get another chance to get stuff on december 22 or so so we will see.
>
> There are 2 sisters in our zone. We always hang out with them on pday and they are way cool. We went to the falls with them today so that was way fun. It is nice to get people your age who arent just guys. Well, more like 4 years older but its ok ha. There are 4 companionships assigned to lopez so our areas are pretty big. I will be out here for a good couple months. I need one more transfer with my trainer, one with a follow up trainer, and then after that I dont know what is going to happen-tis up to the Lord!!
>
> I really hate to end this email so abruptly with so many questions still to answer, but we got back SO late from that activity and I need to buy a christmas gift for our zone conference tomorrow (we get to leave at 4 am cause it is SO far on a bus. It is kind of like a christmas party) and I need to buy a whole bunch of stuff cause its pday. I am sorry to cut things short. I will try to catch you all next pday so we can chat.
>
> I have a quick favor to ask of you. Can you take my labtop to bestbuy and ask them how much it would be to get everything off my harddrive? I have tons of pictures, music, and all my assignments from freshman year at Utah State on that harddrive. It is a lot of stuff. Can you take it to them and have them look at it because it is pretty old and they wont be able to give you a quote over the phone because I dont know if the harddrive is still even good. Please ask them if they can look at it and give you a quote. Thank you:)
>
> I hope everyone is doing well. Stay warm an safe. I feel like a butt cutting this this short but I need to go and get ready for my appointments and such. Tell brother Ellsworth that I got his email. Please tell Steve I say hi and hope he is doing well. Ha I miss that guy:/
>
> Once again, I hope you are all doing well. Tell Braeden Gray that I say hi. He probably wont remember me but he did something for me at aarons camp that I will never ever forget. It is one of those experiences that changes the way you look at the church that you have when you are a kid one of the crazy spiritual things that everyone searches after. Tell him I say hi.
>
> I will try to email something worth reading next time haha. Sorry again.
>
> I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and cant WAIT to talk to you all at Christmas!!
>
> Love,
> Jake
> aka Elder Muller