its morning everyone, today's the day, the sun is shining...... this week was very long.. but fun and full of excitement and extreme spiritual learning..!! on Wednesday we left Jalapa at 3 in the morning to make it to the Elder Ballard concert in the cap..! its really a conference, but concert sounds alot more legit.. first we heard from the LCCM (mtc of guate) pres. elder Clark and his wife. after i had the privilege of sitting on the 3rd row to hear from our wonderful Apostle Elder M. Russell Ballard!! he is a missionary expert.. one of the great things he taught us is to get the words from preach my Gospel from the pages of the book and into our hearts.. he also told us to not be obedient robots!! haha... he told us to switch it up, do something different, and have fun doing the lords work.. you can be obedient and still have fun he said!! (i didnt know he knew my motto, we must think alike).. i have a whole bunch of notes that i took, im sure glade i did that... he is such a powerful man.. At end we all shook his hand.. but not in the normal way.... the way we did it was, he held his had out from the stand. and shook his own hand in the air and we did the same.. he said that was just a more efficient was to do it.. haha.. he killed 200 birds with one stone.. like i said he is a stud!! the way back on the bus was terrible.. its like a hot bus, on mountain roads, back and forward, bumps, pot holes... and seeing people vomit out the window doesn't help at all... but dont you worry, i had my hand full of mints to help me out.... the video was taken just as we were entering Jalapa... good times . ya... i was sleeping on the way to the concert in the morning on the bus. when out of nowhere something was tapping my sholder.. i looked over and elder Udall was asleep, and his head was trying torest on my sholder.. it was just weird so i had to wake him up... haha.. that would have just looked awkward.. jimy was set apart last night... he is a good kid.. he is going to Peru.. im gonna miss him.. he always went with us to our appointments.. he is going to be a great missionary.. we had some people enter the church yesterday during priesthood meeting, and they asked us if we could come teach them.. haha.. i love being contacted!!! while we were at the Ballard concert a elder from my first area told me that everyone is still asking for me! that make me feel very good.. he also told me that one little girl calls all the missionaries elder oakey!! how cute is that!! its gettin hot again here in Jalapa..
happy B-day Father
check out my cousin Sister Becca Bean Fisher,

Missionaries get Frosty Reception: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

she is a SUPER STAR!!!!!

Elder Oakey

Sitting, waiting, wishing

julio with alvaro our investigators with big happy smiles

jimmy is a missionary now

divisions with daniels

hello my fello comrads,
isnt today just a beautiful day...
Jared... Germany??? thata boy.. mom im so glad that you did a good gob teaching the women how to make bread and soup in RS.. i love your bread and soup, i bet they did also!!! and now they know how to make it... i hope you didnt tell them the secret ingredient... even if they did, i know they couldnt make it as good as you... on the 13th we had changes.. but not elder udall and i.. we are both still here in jalapa for another change..!! whoot whoot...so.... our general plan is to find a bunch more super sweet investigators.. we are in the process and it is commin along just well.. we haven't been able to get ahold of the fam Fuentes.. and jovani moved to the capital for a few months.. but Alvaro is progressing very very well.. we even have a baptism date with him. so i was contacting this lady, and she said that we couldnt come in because her dog was very mean and would hurt us.. at this very moment the dog was present... so i put my had through the door and the devil dog started to lick my had like their was no tomorrow.. haha.. she ended up saying she didnt have time.. but we have a return visit!! haha good times.. FYI, my comp elder Udall actually slipped on a real banana peel.... the myth proves to be true.. no need for myth busters anymore... heather your blog is legit.. everyone looks all grown up in all the pic.. crazy... no joke, that bike im riding in the pic, was really hard to ride.... but nothing compared to that ole hippie boy with the rusted roof that lives down the street.. dont tell him i said that...
well their you go...
i just recieved this from a buddy...
TRAGIC NEWS FROM HOME

Just making a formal announcement to those who have not already heard, but on Saturday, January 15th, 2011, Shane Smith died in a hang gliding accident. To those who may not remember, Shane was a missionary from my group who was tall, amazing volleyball player and avid hang glider. The news has hit all of us from his group extremely hard and we are all trying to remember the truths we taught in the mission field as to where he is now. Please keep his family in your prayers. Thank you.
see ya at the tree....

Elder Oakey





thanks barry the vandel

sitting, waiting, wishing

little latina

dulce frio

hello.. we found a new way to meet our neighbors.. its genius.. we simply ask to borrow stuff.. and then we end up talking to them.. we gain their trust by taking it back on time.. haha its working pretty good.. (borrowing stuff like pans, or a cup of sugar, ect. ect.).... haha we find out tonight if we have changes.. im thinkin that elder Udall and i will stay together for another change here in jalapa.. but you never know.. the brother that normally cuts the churches lawn, fractured his leg.. i saw him on his crutches hopping around edging...... haha so i we ended up doing everything for him.. it was nice to cut a lawn again after so long.. i really enjoyed it!!!! also this week we did a super house clean up... im even thinkin my mom would have passed it for how clean we got it.. we swept, mopped, scrubbed, used Clorox, and some other toxic chemicals.. you can really tell the difference.. the spirt does dwell in cleaner places! it was just kinda nasty cleaning the toilet and stuff like that without gloves.. haha... but we got er done!! Like i said, we clean it every 3 years whether it needs it or not...... i did an on the spot lesson in Sunday school yesterday.. i taught alittle on the plan of salvation, with a twist on the Gospel of JC.. the pic with the twin little girls has a funny story.. i have know this family for a few months now.. and just the other day i realized that they had twins.. the main reason is because they dress them just the same.. and i have never seen them together.. haha.. so when i saw them together it was really shocking!! and its super hard to take a pic of them together, because one of them runs every time she sees a camera.. thats why the pic is of us in a big group.. we had ward council meeting yesterday afternoon.. as we ended i made a video of everyone passing me saying their name and calling.. now we know everyone by name and face.. and durring the meeting we passed a paper around so they could jot down their phone numbers.. look out barrio Minerva here we come!!!

references are to baptisms, as contacts are to ______?_______...........

Elder Oakey

Udall, getting his floor shine on!!

the most chill work in the world!!

the district

sunday school..

Honduranian dinner from elder Lagos

every 3 years, whether it needs it or not

key foucs, the 2 cute twins

hello,
new year, huh?!...
what are some of your new year goals.. and are they goals or just dreams...?... we were invited to a members fam for the big night.. but we still had to be home by 9, but it was super fun.. we had alot of food. the power went out a couple times on new years eve night... it was kinda funny cuz everyone was not blasting music for a hour or so... the town was so quiet and dark...haha... and their were so many stars.. then the power came back on and all the noise came back.. we had a couple dinners wtih members this week.. and we also went on 3 divisions with members from the ward.. we always get alot of work done when we go on divisions... twice as many lessons.. we were going to the fam Aquino's home, and on the way we saw bro. Aquino riding his bike towards us.. a long story short, he couldn't listen to us that day.. but he had a good excuse.. he had almost cut his finger off with his chain saw.. and he was biking to the hospital... haha.. he laughed and told us that it would have been better if his whole finger would have came all the way off.. haha. yup.. so yesterday we had 4 investigators in church with us.. during Sunday school we all watched the Restoration video, everyone said they learned alot and felt the spirit..
love to all, and to all a good night

Elder Udall and I a year later

hello fam.. it was so fun to talk to you on Christmas day.. you all sound so grown up.. especially cydney and Landon.. haha and yelling through a couple phones to say i loved my cousin sister missionary Becca bean in Scotland was pretty awesome also!! after we got off the phone with everyone we went to the church and my comp cooked a peach cobbler!! yummy!! with vanilla of course!! we at a plate of it then gave the rest with the borrowed pan back to our comedor, they said they loved it!!! so on the 24th night (when they party and celebrate X-mas), we were invited to chill with the Del Valle family!! it was really fun!! but we had to be home at missionary time...
but that didnt stop the party.. we live in a alley way and in this ally their was a huge party with speakers that can blow your clothes off...
in other words, our whole house was shaking... but we played some cards and just waited for the 12 o'clock mark.. at 130ish in the morning their was no one to be seen... crazy.. at 12 we went UP ON TOP of our metal roof to watch the many fireworks!! it was a BLAST!!!! the smoke made for not very good pics, you know the flash got all caught up on the smoke and it couldn't reach me.. you know after thanksgiving you have a bunch of turkey left.. ya just think of that but guate style which is tamales.. their is such thing as too much of a good thing... would you think so?? too much of a good thing?? at least for the tamale situation, and a handful of others.. so maybe in the grand prospective of everything, yes their is too much of a good thing.. but were still on the debate table on this issue.. hit me up with some feedback... thanks..

last night we put another baptismal date with another teenager named Alvaro.. he is 17. so now we have 2 17 year olds with baptismal dates.. Alvaro and Jovani.. and were still workin with the Fuentes and Aquino families.....

we did alot of actives this week.. on Tuesday we did the stake Christmas party.. on Wednesday we all played soccer.. and on Thursday we had our ward Christmas party..

we had a few investigators to all of the activities.. everyone is always late here.. its called the chapin hour.. but their is one exception to this.. and that is when you are gonna play soccer... on Wednesday everyone was right on time.. haha
but i just tried to send the house walk through and it can only be 25mb or less... so i gotta think of a different way to send it..
well i sure love you all...
I FOUND SOME PINK STARBURSTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The True Red

The Tree

Helping Out

Fight Night

Del Valle Fam

Christmas Phone call

12 oclock watch

CRIBS

hello everyone...
we had our mission Christmas party yesterday.. our bus left jalapa at 3 in the morning.. haha. and we had to do a huge loop to get to the cap. we got to the cap. at 8.. we got back to our house Monday night at 7ish... crazy long day.. but the thing is it doesn't even feel like Christmas.... we found a couple new families this week that are just amazing.. this week i will also be able to talk to my mom and dad.. i got my Christmas tree from dad yesterday!, and i also got the package from the Allen fam.. and also bro dimille!!! thanks alot!! ill have to wait for my moms package till the next time i go to the cap.. or we have changes in a few weeks and ill get it their...but yup.. a really nice fam invited us to the 24th night at their house.. here in guate.. they do everything on the 24th night.. like opening presents and stuff like that.. they think it is weird that we wait for the 25th morning to open presents...well i hope everyone has a very wonderful Christmas... and during all the madness, lets take a moment to really to stop and remember what we are really celebrating for..
bye bye now..

mormon bus



suprise one year dinner

nice leamons

flippin toast

so it happend....
i hit the big one year.. i didnt really do anything.. it just kinda happened... we worked super super hard this week and it was amazing to see the fruits of our labor!!we also went on divisions 2 times.. the first time was on tuesday with elder taquiej and i stayed in my area..and on friday i went with elder stenquist the ZL to his area!! it was a blast.. and we got alot done.. a family in the ward surprised me and made me a one year dinner.. the members with missionary's on missions are so loving.. haha they give us so much of everything... so ya i got a hair cut... Ron Allen was my inspiration!! thanks ron.. its my first flat top in my life.. and i think i rock it pretty good... we also got our toilet seat.. its so nice to have one.. you dont know how amazing one is untill you dont have one for a few months... so another area was having problems with filling up their baptismal fount.. they started to fill it at 12 and at 4 its was up to the first step.. so we came to the baptism and they were not close to being ready.. so we said we should just go down to the river.. all the authorities said it was fine.. but the girl didnt want to... so a long story short. we ran to our church and filled up our pilla.. we also got help from a hose from outside through the window to help it fill up in a record time of 40 min.. then we ran back to the other church to tell everyone.. then they all came down to our church. and we had a successful baptism!!! cell phones and cars would have saved us about 2 hours in this whole process.. get er done...!!

The filling of the pilla

Kinda like my Truck

It Came

Divisions

Cold

a stud one armed mt.biker

.....................

happy bithday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Mark and Zachhhhhhhhhhh happy birthday to you..
SOCKS!!!!


hey..we had changes.. i got elder Udall from Arizona... he was in my first district, and we went on alot of divisions.. so i already knew him.. Udall has 16 months.. i love the letter i got from heather a few weeks ago.. it said, gee little brother you dont even have a year yet.. haha.. thanks for the reminder big sister.. hey jen jen.. i found your store here in guate.. i hope you like it.. after changes we all ended up going out to eat at applebees!! it was super good.. i even took a picture!! can you believe that?? the Christmas devo last night was amazing.. thats what that pic is with the 4 of us just chillin in a class room.. we get to see it in english if we want.. its alot better when you actually get to hear the prophets voice and not just a translator guy... i just realized that im really bad at writing about my spiritual experiences... dont get me wrong.. i have a whole bunch... but to put them on to paper.. ya, thats something i have to work on.. so im sorry for the lack of spiritual experiences.. and im sure i can improve in that department.. so if any of you are wondering what you should get me for christmas, dont worry about it.. im good.. well maybe you could give a kiss to my mom or something, or write me a letter.. but other than that.. im perfectly fine..
cool beans..
Elder Oakey