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
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| Jake's new companion, Elder Velazquez |
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| Jake and Elder Baca--reunited once again! |
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