Better and Better

Hello! How is everyone?

Things are going as great as ever down here in this Central part of the American continents. There was a 5.4 earthquake the other night around 1 AM. I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of the apartment of some other Elders, and I just kind of lay there all tired and enjoyed all the violent shaking going on around me. It was the strongest one I've felt here so far. Too much fun. My health is fine in all aspects, Mom, don't worry. Haha. Sounds like Cali was as fun as it's always been! Glad you guys were able to escape the frozen tundra.

To answer some of your questions: Elder Loredo's family are active members and completely supportive of him serving a mission. He's from an area of Mexico called Tampico, which is basically along the border of Texas. I don't even know how to spell the name of his area before Vizcaya, but it's in the zone Cartago, where Elder Baca is now Zone Leader. I've been keeping in contact with Warren through email recently after a few months where we didn't hear from each other, so that's been awesome to be talking to him again. As for finding new people to teach, we've been finding quite a decent amount! It's still about the same percentage of people that slip through the cracks and don't have anymore interest after a couple visits, but now we're working with way more people so we're able to catch more of those people who are prepared and willing to discover the truth of the gospel.

Thank Brother Krommenhoek for me! That's super thoughtful and cool of him to do the whole testimony thing. I'll be sure to translate that. Hey, I think you guys have asked me several times about the food here, and I've never said anything too specific. I still don't have much to say about it, but I don't know if I ever told you about the fried bananas we have during the majority of our lunches. They're SO good! Probably my favorite new thing I've tried here so far, because I haven't really tried much. I live in a suburb where people mostly prepare pretty typical foods.

So I don't know if you guys have any advice for how to fix this, but shaving every day has been a bit of a trial my whole mission, and especially lately. More than anything because of my neck. I've tried so many different methods of shaving, but my neck gets extremely irritated every dang time I shave. Does an electric razor help with that? If so, maybe I'll ask for one of those as an early birthday present in this next package or something. Oh! Speaking of things that come through the postal service, I got mail from five different people today! We had a lame zone party at a park, but it was worth going since the leaders brought our mail. It made my week! I'll be replying to all of them ASAP.

Church yesterday was amazing. We had seven investigators there, and people left and right asking for us appointments and giving us references and asking to be baptized (okay, that was only one person, a twelve year old kid who always comes with his grandma but hasn't been baptized and asked us what he needs to do. Pure heaven for us)! Things are going great. Love you guys. Let me know how LOST is going. Until next week,

Elder Hampton




Jake and his new companion, Elder Loredo.

 

The view from their apartment.

Two Changes In!

Wow! In two days I'll have completed two changes in the field. Crazy. We find out tomorrow what the plans for changes are, and then changes happen on Wednesday. I'm both excited and nervous. It's going to be an interesting week! I'm pretty jealous of your guys' spontaneous California excursion! Definitely miss those kinds of trips. Hope it's a great time! I do write my mission president every week, but it's just a few sentences to let him know how everything is. I think he just skims them unless we mark them as super important. There isn't much to what I write in those, so I'll just keep doing things the same way I have been.

As for CD's... I would love to have everything The Lower Lights have ever released! I love the four songs you guys gave me, and I totally want the rest! According to the bishop's wife, I have bronchitis, and she's all concerned about it and says I need injections. I don't know if I do, but if I'm still coughing like this and happen to see the nurse at changes, I'll probably mention it to her. Most missionaries make it their whole mission without a doctor's appointment though, and I've already had one, so I really don't want to become that guy who's always going to the doctor for every little thing. Our new pool of investigators is going pretty well. None of them came to church, but they're actually reading and praying, and deserve the proactive title of ''investigator.'' To answer dad's question, we normally teach between 5 and 10 actual investigator lessons every week. The perfect Catholic family said they couldn't meet again till this Saturday, so me and my new companion will be hitting that up! So excited.

I bought a backpack at Walmart this week! The school year here starts in February, so there was a big back to school sale and I got a decent one for like 15 bucks. It was really cool to have Elder Christofferson with us on Saturday! We all got to shake his hand before the meeting. As the agenda was announced, I learned I was saying the opening prayer, so that was a little nerve-wracking, praying for a room of hundreds just a few feet in front of an Apostle. He speaks perfect Spanish, too, so it's not like he had no idea what I was saying. Despite all the speculation, he didn't come with any big announcements or changes to the mission! He actually just let us ask him questions the whole time, which was awesome. He said the questions should pertain to missionary work, so we didn't get into too crazy of stuff. In answering what he expects of us, he talked a bit about how for these two years we're set apart with the same apostolic duty and authority he has. Awesome. There were people filming the whole thing and taking all kinds of pictures. Guess we'll probably show up in the church news or something!

I love to hear your temple goal, mom! I really just love the temple. I've come to see myself easily going once a week when I get back. It's too important of a thing to not go often. Love your guys' addiction to LOST! Don't worry, there's definitely no ''It was all a dream'' twist. Some people misinterpreted the ending to be that kind of cheap twist, but it's not what it is. As long as you're watching every single episode, paying attention, and loving the characters, you should understand and be satisfied with the ending. So just keep plowing and enjoying it! The Spanish is still improving every day. I understand most people most of the time. I wouldn't say I dream in Spanish though, because I still talk with Elder Baca in English all the time. If my next companion is Latino though, my Spanish is going to skyrocket.

Loved the message you shared about getting rid of the little things, Dad! It's inspiring to me, and I'm going to start making a bigger effort to identify those things. Yesterday was some sort of area conference, and the stake choir sang ''I Am a Child of the Lord of the Rings.'' At least, that's what Elder Baca and I named it. They sang ''I Am a Child of God'' with several 30 second interludes between verses of the song ''In Dreams'' from Lord of the Rings played on a flute. I guess the people of Costa Rica aren't familiar with Lord of the Rings, or aren't fazed by the fusion of hymns with blockbuster theme songs, because only Elder Baca and I were looking around in disbelief at what was happening.

We had a pizza party today as a district since it's the last P-Day of the change, and probably about half of the district will be changed this week. The pizza was from some member's pizza store. Hopefully this offers a little more detail for you, Mom! Don't know what else you want to know, haha. Things are going great, though. I've really become confident with calling this place my home for these two years.

Love you all.

--Elder Hampton

January 7, 2013.

Hello all!

Don't freak out if you don't get an email from me next Monday. I think changes are going to be next Wednesday, and President will probably make P-Day on Tuesday next week. Elder Christofferson comes this Saturday! I'm super excited about that. I hope he has huge news for us or something. We did a ton of contacting this week. We were pretty much down to one investigator, but now we have about four! Church attendance by the members is going back up, too. We contacted this perfect family the other night! They're way catholic, but they won't be for long. It's a somewhat young couple and their little boy. They also had a daughter who died in her infancy. The mom asked us what we believe happens to children like that, and the Spirit was so strong as we told her the truth. I think that's going to keep them interested more than anything, since their church leaders probably tell them their baby is in hell. They can't meet with us again for a couple weeks, but I can't wait to go back and teach them more about how they can be an eternal family.

We haven't gone to the Modern Family with the killer dogs in quite some time, because only two people were really progressing and they both left to Nicaragua. I never thought I'd say this, but I can't wait to face those dogs again, because it'll mean that M---o has come back from Nicaragua. My foot fungus is doing just fine! I just have to put on that weird animal cream every day or two and it keeps it dead. The weather has been super hot here lately. Sounds better than the weather you guys are having, though! I've been using my card to buy food and things like that since I found out how much Christmas money was on it. Thanks so much! I haven't bought a CD player, because I'm thinking it'll be better if you just send me CD's and I use computers to put them on my iPod, so I can still have all my music in one place. I don't have much to say this week either, but I love you guys! Glad to hear everyone's well. Excited to hear some updates next week!

--Elder Hampton

Happy New Year!

...and so 2012 ends. So quickly. I opened the rest of my presents on Christmas Eve. Thank you so much for everything! I loved it all. I'm so glad you sent that Conference Ensign. It's been my favorite part of my scripture study. We had three dinners that night... I was dying by the end. Christmas night, we just went to one house and tried to sing a little 80's karaoke but it was awkward. It didn't feel like Christmas at all this year. I think that makes it a little earlier though. I tried not to think too much about what I would be doing if I was at home.

We did some divisions this past week, but for the first time I was the missionary who stayed in our area and had to lead me and the other elder to all our appointments and lead all the lessons! I was a little nervous, but the Spirit totally guided me. That day, I learned that M---o will be coming back from Nicaragua! It won't be for a few months, but maybe I'll still be in this area. If not, I'll make sure whoever replaces me knows to keep up with him and get him converted. It's almost given that Elder Baca will be transferred this next change since he'll have almost eight months in this area. It's weird to think that I'll most likely have a different companion so soon.

I haven't had the chance to get mail in a couple weeks, so I still haven't heard anything about the ward package... I'm dying. I depend a little too much on mail sometimes. It's like I have a mail meter as one of my needs like a Sim. I love to get and send mail. It's an addiction. As for New Year's Eve, we're still expected to go to bed on time. We're just going to be passing it with some members, like we did Christmas Eve and Day. Christmas was basically another P-Day. Maybe we'll play a little more Skip-Bo than usual tonight. We'll see.

Our ward starts at 9. Things have been super rough this month. Everyone uses the holiday as an excuse to become inactive, or if they're not members they use it as an excuse to not give us the time of day. Things have slowly started to turn around a little in the past few days. Hopefully this week is way better. I'm pretty used to the area. I hope there's not a freak thing where I get transferred instead of Elder Baca. I'm just getting comfortable making my way around here and talking to the members! I hope your guys' Christmas was amazing. Sounds like it from what you told me. Happy 2013! Love you!

--Elder Hampton

Jake's description: "Me Mr. Krabsing as I eat yet another tamale. I've had way too many. So glad the season's over."

For Keili: "Hello Sidney."