Monticello, NY Feb. 12, 2014.

I don't have TOO much time today, so I'm just gonna write one big email. I'll have people keep their eyes out for a package with my name on it.. Idk how long it takes for mail to get up here from the office.

So yeah. Monticello. I met up with my companion Elder Encarnacion last Thursday at Ossining and they gave us our phone and our car keys and sent us off haha we drive a 2013 Chevy cruze. White. It looks really dirty right now.  But things have been really good. We live in Monticello, which is a tiny town. But our area is HUGE because we cover all of the surrounding towns.. Me and my companion get along super good. He's been out on his mission for about 8 months, so I'm the senior companion. Since he's from the DR, we speak a lot of spanish together! It's good for me haha a lot of people told us Monticello was gonna be horrible but we've actually been having a really good time. Encarnacion loves to dance, and he's actually really good. And he is super good on the piano too. And he likes to rap, so we like to freestyle in the car on our way to stuff.. Even tho we are both really bad haha it's so weird for me to not be a zone leader. I feel different, but it's good. The only thing I don't really like is that we are so far away from everyone. 

Our branch is... Interesting. Haha there was about 30 people at church on Sunday. They say we usually get about 50. And church is in English. There is one spanish convert, who is moving to Florida at the end of the month, and one other lady who is from panama, who prefers English.. Other than that, me and my companion are the only ones who speak spanish. We have translating equipment, the kind we have at home to translate stake conference, and we have to translate sacrament meeting. Since nobody in the congregation needs a headset, elder Encarnacion and I just translated to each other haha it was really funny. We are hoping that soon we can have people in sacrament who will need a headset cuz that would mean we have investigators at church!! 

We live in a decent sized apartment. It's not bad, but I'm used to the one I used to live in. There I had my own bathroom. Here there are four of us to just one. We live with elders Sullivan and Rydalch. Both English. They are crazy! We are always laughing at them.. But they are good guys. Also, Monticello is the coldest part of the mission.. This morning when we left to go to the gym, it was 1 degree outside. It's horrible. We have two sisters who are in our district/ward. We kinda all work together and help with each other's investigators. It's pretty cool. Like if we find a new investigator, we talk about them and then all together decide who the best companionship would be to teach them. Unless they speak spanish, then we automatically get them. Which we will need, because we are opening the spanish area, so when we got here there was no investigators or anything, so we are starting from scratch. But it's going good. Life is good. Sorry if I missed anything. Ask if I didn't cover something!

I live at

661 W. Broadway #7

Monticello, NY 12701

But it's better to send mail to the office. So yeah. Hope you all have a good, warm week. I love you guys!

I got transferred! February 5th, 2014.

Okayyyy guys 

You're probly wondering what's going down with transfers. Well. I was super surprised. I am getting transferred! I am getting released as a zone leader, I am leaving New Roc and am heading to a little town called Monticello.. Population is like 7 thousand haha it's supperrr far. Like a two hour drive from where I am right now.. I am going to be "white washing" which is what we say when we start a new area.. As in, the missionaries in the area right now are both leaving, and then me and my new companion will be replacing them.. So neither one of us will know the area at all. But from what I hear, there's nobody out there ha I will be serving in a branch up there.. I will be companions with elder Encarnacion, he's from the Dominican Republic, so I'm excited about that haha gotta get that Dominican accent back.. I'm really sad to leave tho. I love this area and this zone, and I thought for sure I was going to stay because elder mceachern was here before me, but President felt it was better to transfer me and leave him here. So yeah. It's rough. But we will see what the new area has to bring. We are supposed to have transfers today, but the weather is terrible right now and the roads are really dangerous so transfers were postponed until tomorrow. So yeah. That's what's going down with me ha other than that, I have no other news.. Things are going well tho. We all face challenges. Nike has the best advice ever.. Just do it! I am going to make my time up in Monticello a good one. It's literally the place in the mission where nobody wants to go, but I'm hoping to be able to change that. And I've been inspired to create a t shirt.. It's going to say JUANTICELLO.  But I might need some money for that haha maybe as a birthday present you can donate to the t shirt fund? And I'll have somebody create it out here online for me.. But yeah. Thank you all for the support and the love I feel from you. I miss you. I love you.

Oh and Sister Dalley, idk if you remember her from Christmas, says hi haha have a good week :)

Anddddd we made a huge snowman the other day.

January 29, 2014.

Ayeeee.

Dad.

Yeah. Weather is terrible. Haha but we are not confined right now.. It's just freezing outside! Like 15 degrees right now. I didn't know you had gotten that sick while you were on your mission! That sounds terrible.. I feel so blessed because I haven't even had one day where I didn't feel well enough to go out. I bet that was a Pretty big trial.. I've heard so many good things about the Gilbert temple! A lot of pictures on Facebook. I would like to see it haha it looks amazing. Haha yeah Alex boye was a totally random thing but it was super cool! Que es la comisión de Sonora-Arizona? Is that for isagenix? You should totttaallllyyyyy grab some candy on the way back.... Just an idea. A new counselor! Who do you think it will be? Aww Mann. No more juice box :( I loved that car. I still feel super bad for crashing it.. I remember you were really looking forward to be able to drive it.. Sorry again.. I'm not worried about the car situation, I have a longboard so if anything I can use that to get around! 

Madre.

I'm doing a lot better! I'm not coughing anymore. I'm sorry you are still sick! Have you gone to the doctor? You should. I know you would tell me to do that if I said I was sick. I can't believe the temple has 4 floors! The one here is 5, but only two of them are the temple.. El obispo garnica cuanto tiempo tiene como obispo? Crees qué lo van a relevar pronto? Yeahhh. Dad told me about the car. I'm  not upset. How much were you able to get for it? Haha I was wondering why I never got your card! I thought it might have been lost or something.. I'm glad you have it! 

The rest.

This week has gone by so fast! We didn't do a whole lot.. We had interviews this past Thursday. Mine was interesting. It's always good to talk to president, he always knows how to help and how to make us better! 

The work has been a little slow. A few weeks ago we talked with our bishopric about how we need to get our members more involved with our online stuff, so they told us that on the 26th they would give us (the missionaries) the entire third hour of church to teach the members about what we do on Facebook and how they could help us. So then this Sunday we were all ready with our training and everything and we were excited to get this stuff going.. But the bishopric forgot to tell everyone in the ward and in the auxiliaries soooo we didn't get to do it. And now we don't know when we will be able to. Super lame. Our ward struggles a little bit with stuff like that. 

I can't believe I officially have less than 6 months left. It's unreal. My 18 month mark was actually on the same day as one of our sister missionaries, so we kinda celebrated together. We went to the Aguilar's (whom I love more than anyone out here)  house for dinner. She made posole :) it was pretty good! But it sucks cuz I just compare everyone's food to mom's and in my head I always think.. Mom's is better... But I still enjoyed it haha and also I officially started what the missionaries out here call 6 months to sexy.. Meaning the last 6 months is the time we work out super hard so that by the time we get home we are looking prime !  

Transfers are also next week. Either one of us could go, but elder mceachern will probably leave. We know for sure we won't be together, so this time next week I will have a new companion! I'm a little nervous, but I'm sure it will be fine. It's crazy to think that after next week I will only have four transfers left... It's that time! But anyway, today is the birthday of one of the sisters in our zone, so we are kinda throwing her a party today! It should be fun! I love you guys. Mom, get better please. And everyone else- take care of her. :)  have a good week!

I don't know if you guys have seen the original picture, but one of the sisters here drew me this version. It's my three favorite things. Me as a missionary, me as a basketball player, and me eating chicken wings. 

January 22, 2014.

Bom dia! 

Dad.

Yes. A vortex. It's actually pretty cold right now. We were grounded all day yesterday cuz the roads are horrible so missionaries weren't allowed to drive. It snowed for like 21 hours straight yesterday/today. And the roads are still horrible and it's windy and cold.. So cold that if the wind hit my teeth it would hurt no lie! But even tho we are grounded today too, we live really close to the church so we just walked here. Hahaha that would be crazy.. We'd have to sacrifice a lot of sisters In Our zone.. Wait you had typhoid in your mission? What's salmonellosis ...? My cough is kinda gone. I'm doing a lot better, but it's still present.. I don't like it. Yeah haha time is going by ridiculously fast.. Here the elders that work in the office don't do office stuff. They basically deliver the mail to everyone around the mission and they help move people in and out of apartments.. Andddd I don't think I will be an assistant. I think it would be cool, but with the given circumstances I don't think I will be.

Mom.

I'm doing good :) a lot better, don't worry. I can't stop playing in the snow. Even though I hate it, whenever I see a big pile of snow I have to jump in it. It's a rule. I'm sorry you don't feel well :/ I hope your day off helps you recover quickly! Aww man the Gilbert temple looks awesome! I wanna go... No me llegaron tus cartas ! I got dads, but I didn't get the one from you..? Shhhh you don't have to buy me a new camera, that would be a lot of money. It'd be better to use it on something else. Seriously! I answered Kevin, don't worry :) let him know so he can check his email! 

You don't need to thank me for anything.. I have all the thanking to do- for everything you guys do for me and have done for me. I don't need to be thanked!

Elder Zazueta with Alex Boye

Other things. 

Well, like i said. It's freezing. I don't like it. We're grounded all day. When we got to the church, there was water everywhere. One of the drinking fountains broke and was leaking water.. There was so much! We are just hanging out at the church! Probably gonna play some basketball soon! This week was pretty uneventful. EXCEPT for Sunday was way cool. I was sitting in the chapel waiting for sacrament meeting to start, and I was saving a seat for one of our families we teach.. As people pass by I greet them and out of nowhere Alex Boyé walks in.. So naturally I reach out my hand and say "brother Boye, nice to have you here!" Long story short, I invited him to sit next to me and he did.. And our sacrament meeting is in spanish which he doesn't speak.. So I offered to translate and he said it would be great. So for the next hour I translated all the talks, and shared my iPad to read the hymns wih Alex boye haha it was a really cool experience. Definitely the highlight of this past week. Well. Love you guys. Hope you have a wonderful day!