OH MY.

This has been the craziest week of my mission so far.

I had changes. I'm now in an area called Cartago. My companion's name is Elder Velazquez. He's from Cancun, Mexico, but he's actually half Spanish, half Guatemalan. There's a twist though. I live with Elder Baca!!! What? He's a zone leader here, and we share both the area and a house. I guess you just can't ever truly get away from your parents (father = trainer in the mission). So that's been fun. Anyway, I love Cartago. iloveitiloveitiloveitiloveit. It's a city. It's pretty big. In my area before, McDonalds was like the big fancy place, and the closest thing to the States. Here, however, right in our area, we have not only McDonalds, but also Wendy's, Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Carl's Jr., and many more. They say that it's easy to get fat in Cartago. Two days a week, we eat in this RIDICULOUS mansion owned by some members that apparently have an I'm a Mormon video. It's one of the nicest houses I've seen in all my life, and they have a huge yard surrounded by a huge wall to accompany it. It's great. This is a great place. I'm so happy to be here. The members are super cool, and we received a couple references at church yesterday.

Elder Velazquez is district leader. On Thursday, we had to travel to another area so he could do baptismal interviews. It was about an hour-long bus ride through the mountains to this group of towns called Los Santos. It was super cool! It's just this sudden little, peacefully sitting in the mountains. A little too peacefully perhaps. It was almost eerie. The streets were so clean and tame, and the occasional car or pedestrian was just so weirdly calm and perfect. It reminded me a ton of the town that the guy finds in Big Fish where they throw his shoes on the wire and stuff. It's weird to not be the ward pianist anymore! This ward has one. It felt odd to sit in the congregation and sing with everyone else. I hadn't done it in months! We're going to baptize a kid named D----l on hopefully the 9th of March. He wants me to baptize him! I think he's 12 years old. He's the sweetest kid and wants to be so righteous. Love it. His parents aren't members, but understand the serious nature of the baptismal covenant, and are making D----l show them that he can behave super well for a week before they give him permission to get baptized. He'll do just fine though.

My whole time in Rica, I've been wondering if I've gained or lost weight, and the only scales I've ran into to be able to weigh myself are in kilos and I don't bother to do the math. Today, there was randomly a scale in a store that used pounds, so I stood on it and I've lost 13 pounds since I left the MTC! Maybe I'll gain it all back in this area though... Wow, this email is so short but I already feel like I'm out of things to say! I love this area. Elder Velazquez and I get along super well. We're already great friends, and we have lots of fun with the members and investigators. We're able to work well together. He has two more months than me in the mission. It's weird that Elder Baca's still such a major part of my mission after only one change apart. It's cool though. Elder Velazquez and Elder Baca's companion were also companion's at one point too, so our house is full of past connections and history. It should be a reality show. But not really. I know you want tons of details, Mom, but I don't have any more! I've mostly just been getting to know the members so far, but this week we're gonna totally dive in with tons of teaching.

Saying goodbye to Vizcaya was a little weird, but I'm super excited to be here in Cartago. Love you guys!

--Elder Hampton

Jake's new companion, Elder Velazquez

Jake and Elder Baca--reunited once again!

Of One Fold and One Shepherd

 Hello Everyone!
I've discovered that a notably large amount of people here specifically mention the movie Seven Pounds as one of their favorites. In the MTC we used to have Seven Pounds vs. Pursuit of Happiness debates about which is better. I was always on team Seven Pounds, so I'm very pleased to discover that the Ticos have my back concerning that. This week we found one of our investigators crying when we showed up for our appointment because she was going to get kicked out of her house the next day because her employer couldn't pay her on time, so she couldn't pay the rent. We gave her a blessing, read the story of the brother of Jared and applied it to her situation, and had a great prayer with her, and everything worked out okay and she still has her house! She has a ton of faith. I think she'll get baptized in a couple weeks.

If there's any Tazorac laying around the house that you could send in this package, that would be lovely! Sometimes there are moments of hilariously modern poverty that I marvel at, and I love it. This week, it was watching a little girl use an old broken PlayStation controller cord as a jump rope. Sometime for Family Night, you guys should watch a District 2 episode! You can find them at lds.org in the video section, under ''Missionary.'' They're super well-put-together and can help the family see a little bit of what the field is like.

I feel like I'm seeing so many gringos everywhere lately! There were two at church yesterday. I didn't get to meet one, who is our high councilman. The other was called Lane Gould. Actually, he's not gringo. He's Tico, born in Rica, but was adopted by a couple in Delta, Utah when he was four years old, and he just moved back here a year ago. I learned that he knows my old roommate Richard. It was super cool because I actually know more Spanish than him, and he had to have me help him converse with the members. He was just visiting our ward.

I've been reading in Mosiah this week. Chapter 4, verse 22 makes me want to never deny someone a coin if they ask for money, unless they explicitly say it's for drugs (yes, we get people saying that often). We were able to borrow a copy of The Testaments this week, and we've been using it like crazy. There are three kids who have been coming to church with their Grandma, but they're not baptized because their parents refused to give permission. Yesterday, the parents showed up at church on their own. Our ward mission leader invited them and us over for dinner, where we watched The Testaments. They felt the Spirit and cried, and now we're going to be able to begin teaching them as an entire family. Well, Elder Loredo and some other guy will. I still feel strongly that I'm getting changed. We find out tonight or tomorrow.

No pain or health problems this week. Elder Loredo and I are getting along. We're way more natural friends now than we were for the middle weeks of this change. I haven't bought an electric shaver because I haven't had a convenient opportunity haha. There's plenty of money in my account though, so thanks! I hope St. George was a total blast and everything! I'm pretty anxious to find out about changes. Guess we'll see what happens! Love you and miss you all.

--Elder Hampton

Another Email

I always want to have creative email subjects, but I can never think of them in the moment. I saw Todd Ulrich in a video we watched this week about asking inspired questions. I introduced abbreves to Elder Loredo and now he always says ''estupes,'' short for ''stupid'' in Spanish.

There are a ridiculous amount of Jehovah's Witness down here. It seems like 90% of the time we find someone who first appears to have a ton of potential as an investigator, they quickly reveal that they're a J-Dub. It's super annoying. They have their local members tract in the neighborhoods too, so they often ruin our contacts by covering all the area and freaking everyone out and not wanting anything to do with religion. Crazy news: We got our shower fixed on Saturday! Yesterday I took a borderline Jacuzi-temperature shower. It was amazing. Can't wait to do it again today. I almost lost my only pen yesterday when I dropped it and I was like ''Oh no! My pen!'' and then it rolled into the gutter which happened to have water flowing through it, and it started floating downstream, so I ran after it and stomped into the water to step on my pen. I saved it, then turned around to see the bus we had been trying to catch parked there full of people staring. They'd be staring even if I wasn't running around like that though.

That's so great that Grandma and Grandpa got their MTC date! I'll look for a shaver down here. That's so great that you guys got a car! Sometimes I miss Fran (the Taurus) and wonder if I'll ever drive her again. I try not to though, because that's straight up trunky. We drink tap water, Mom. It's super clean and safe and all that. Supposedly. I believe it. Oh yeah, I might have to go to the doctor this week and get my toe cut open so they can squeeze pus out! I had an ingrown toenail, and took care of the nail part, but unfortunately it got infected and now there's pus in there. I'm going to see the nurse at zone meeting on Wednesday so we'll see what happens. Other than that, the only other health issue would be the cough, and it's not even an issue. It's practically gone.

In this mission, each area covers the same boundaries as one ward. So Elder Loredo and I are in charge of the Vizcaya ward. I really hope I don't get changed in three weeks! I just want one more change here. I don't feel ready to go yet. I'll express that to president in my email. Of course, whatever the Lord has in store is what will happen, and it'll be for the best. I'm bothered right now because this computer is telling me that my iPod is corrupt and there's nothing I can do about it. I hope it's just the computer though. We'll see next week. Thanks for getting those CD's Morgan! That fun./Tegan and Sara tour sounds heavenly!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jealous. I hope lots of people I know go and have a jolly time. Anyway, Elder Hampton: out. I'll probably never say that again.