August 29, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,
Hey, yeah, I’m ok. Just another day out here in the heat of Quinindé. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s pretty bomb. But yeah, I’m good. Thanks for all of the updates about everyone. I’m glad to know that you’re all doing well, happy, and safe. Keep it up. I’m doing ok. We´re still looking for people to teach, but it’s a work in progress. My district should start to see some bappys this month, so I’ll be happy for that. Take a little stress off me from the zone leaders.

What else? Can’t remember too much. Two baptism girls wimped out, and we don’t have anyone with a date. It’s kinda hard. But, something awesome, I found Hector in the terminal of Esmeraldas, Hector from Santo Domingo. He came out here to Quininde to be with his brother and he is going to give us a whole bunch of people to teach in a little city out by where the brother lives. It was really super awesome to see him, and he’s doing well. He hasn’t been able to come to church for a while, but that’s ok. He had a good excuse. We´ll see. What else? A ton of crap has been happening between us and the leaders, but we got it all worked out, so I’m happy now.

The little kids here have done so much, and it’s sad. I have learned about how messed up this place really is. Kids as young as 10 are already having relations and stuff. It’s awful. Just to see a little girls life destroyed from a baby. It’s like watching Brooklyn get pregnant. It’s sad. But we´re trying to help out. I know we´ll get some good stuff done.

Something cool. We were talking to some converts, and I got to see my first beer bottle fight. There were two dudes going at it. Cut the crap out of one of them across the back. Bleeding like a beast. Way stupid to do it, but interesting to watch. I don’t know what I woulda done if one of the guys killed each other. That would be hard to see, I think. But oh well. It’s passed.

Well, that’s that. We have still been going, I can’t believe I already almost have a month here in Quinindé. It has just flown by, that’s for sure, but I know that I’ll keep being happy and doing all of the things that God wants me to do. I have been a little bleh lately, thinking stuff, but I know it will pass. Keep praying for me, and doing all of the things you should. Read the scriptures, pray, go to church, be with the family, help the children, all of that fun stuff. If not, it´ll be hard when I come home and machete all of you to change, haha. Well, love you guys.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 29, 2011

Madison,
Hey, good news about the school. I’m glad to hear it. Same with work and soccer. It’s cool to see you blossom. Kinda sucks that I’m not there to see it, but whatever. We all gotta grow up someday. It’s just insane to see how fast it has been in just one year. At least to me.

Hey, well, that’s all. I’m sorry I don’t have much time. I’m kinda going fast. Got a family home evening with a cool little family, and we´re gonna eat a buttload of food.

Oh, and by the way, you can’t live in that house. Where am I gonna live? You just get to live there for a year while I’m still at home, and then you have to get the freak out so that I can live there with my wife, yeah? k, good. Well, I love ya, girly. Time is passing, no? I can’t believe that we are moving to Christmas so fast. I’m gonna die, man. We´ll see. Well, miss ya, and keep doing the good stuff.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber



Brother and Sisters,
Excellent about school. Keep doing it. It´ll be good for you. That’s cool about Christian’s birthday party and also the demolition derby. Whitney, sad about the little kids. Hunter, I have seen your stitches. Brooklyn, don’t be talking to boys yet. You’re only 13. Ask Madison about that, yeah? Well, I love you guys. Have a super awesome cool week. I know that everything will be super chill and bacán. Love ya.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 22, 2010

Mom and Dad,
Hey, I’m doing good here, as always. Working, finding people, spreading the freakin Palabra with all of these people here. Good stuff. I enjoy it a lot. Learning every single day. What can I answer? I do have mamitas for every day. Always eating rice and chicken. Always. But it’s good. Here they never have soup before, so its kinda hard. I’ve been running a little low on food, but I always just buy mandarin oranges because they’re so easy to peel and eat, and way good. Fun.

Cool about what’s happening at home. It makes me happy that everyone is still doing well and is happy. That school is going well for everyone and work. Just keep doing the small stuff and and know that it´ll go good. Yes, it goes as fast here as there. Haha, probably faster. Every week is faster than the last. And now that I’m at a year, it goes even faster. Freak. It´ll be August of 2012 before I know it, and then I’ll be sleeping in the water bed, watchin TV, and living life, haha. Awesome.

Other than that, I’m happy. We didn’t do much. The little black family caught a crocodile the other day and had it in their house. That was cool. Also, some dude on the bus was yelling at the driver, and they almost beat the crap out of him. Cops came, sucked him off. It was awesome. Hahaha, and then, in the bus, they put on a Christian movie about marriage. It was a good day.

Well, that’s about it. I’m having a good time. Had another interview with a 15 year old girl, interesting. We should have some baptisms this week. Kinda a weird story. She went to Machala, a different town, and the missionaries there put a baptismal date with her for this Saturday. She comes home tomorrow. We almost didn’t have to do anything. So that’s good.

Well, I love you guys and miss you all a lot. I love it here in the coast, and I’m just trying to find people that´ll come to the freakin church. I know that with Gods help, it’s all possible. Just a few things to tweak and make perfect, and we´re golden. I’ll talk to ya next week. Almost Whitney’s birthday again. Freak, that’s nuts. Super crazy. I remember it was the day before I left for Peru last year. Ouch. Well, that’s that.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 22, 2010

Madison,
She deserved it. She was always so mean to me. And hey, she laughed too. But I really might torture her. She is afraid of me, and I LOVE it. Haha, well, that’s all. I’m doing good. I’m glad that you’re happy at home. Way cool that you got promoted. Keep working hard. Do you make more money, too? I would almost expect that to happen, but I dunno. I’m just a fat gringo in Ecuador. We´ll see.

Keep going good in the soccer thing and more in school. Don’t let them grades fall. They all you got. Go for the ACT at least 2 times more, and study. I’m serious. You can get a scholarship easy to SUU with way good grades and a high ACT score. Promise me, ok?

Hey, well, that’s it. I love you a lot, and I wish you the best as always. Just keep trying with all of the things that you wanna do, and I know that God will bless you in all of the thinks that you wanna do in your life. Always remember to put your trust in him and he´ll come to the aid. I’ll talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber
Tu ñaño



Dear little sisters and the little boy, too,

Wow, the first week of school. Bacánsisimo. That sounds super fun. I remember school. I never liked it but I know you guys do. No, just a joke. I always liked school. I’m super glad you all had a good first day and you’re making a lot of friends. Keep practicing and singing and all of that. It’ll help you a whole lot in life. I miss you guys and love you tons.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 15, 2011

Dear Mom and Dad,
Hey, yeah, everything here is really good, and I’m still enjoying this little Quinindé. I have become a little bit more accustomed to the heat, so that’s really good to have down. And I’m finally starting to understand what’s going on with all of the teaching and the things I gotta do to help these people. Its been going good, all well and all of that. The packages haven’t got here yet, but I’m not sure if they will for a little while. I hope so. Apart from that, I’m doing fine. Got my cell phone, finally, and it’s a lot cheaper to talk. Haha, cool stuff about Gentry and James. I’m sure they had some really crazy stuff happen. I just hope that I can remember. It’s hard right now, honestly. I can hardly remember anything. Just the people that I have baptized, and some cool stuff that happened with them.

Ummm, what happened this week? I’ve been teaching really well, slamming down inspired questions, and me and my comp are starting to work a little better. Its hard with him being new, and wanting to have all of the authority. He teaches good for being new, but he’s 25 and, well, I suppose it’s hard me being Senior Comp. It really doesn’t mean too much, but I think he don’t like it. We´re working.

Lets see. The biggest stuff. Had a cool experience with an investigator. She’s not reading, praying, or doing anything. She basically got mad at me when I started doing questions, and then just told me that she was never going to get baptized. Really. I bore strong testimony, the only thing I could, and then just sat there for a bit. She thought, then says " . . . . Yeah, then, lets give it another shot." Excellent. It was really cool. Never had to save someone like that before. I felt really good after, and hopefully we can pull some good stuff out with this family.

Another thing. I did my first interview yesterday. It was good. ROUGH, but good. I already knew some things going in that the missionaries told me, but it was a real story. It’s all confidential, but its really hard when you know something she does, but the husband doesn’t. And I can’t tell him a thing. That sucks. But we´ll see. She opened right up, and I’m super glad. They seem to trust us well, and it makes me happy. This stuff is true. We´re the only ones who can do it. We´ve been working like maniacs here, looking for someone to teach, or someone that will at the very least come to church, and we´ve seen some fruits. Pray for us that we can go to those prepared. We gotta do it.

Well, that’s about it. About the airport thing, it would be cool, but I’m not so sure. I would like the airport thing, and all of those cool experiences, and its just hard because I won’t have a chance to plan with the people or anything. Some may not even be active or have moved to other places, and I won’t be able to find them. I dunno. I’ll think a little more about it and let ya know. If so, you guys gotta learn Spanish pretty quick, or you won’t be able to understand them, haha. Well, I love you guys. Got my hair cut, looks like crap, so don’t worry about the girls. I’m gaining weight, I think, too, which sucks. Not sure how it’s possible, but I’m gonna change it. Miss all of you, and just a year left from yesterday and I’ll be back there. Well, eso es todo. Cuidense mucho, y sigan adelante, por fa.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 15, 2011

Madison,
Jenika got married? Bah ha ha, that’s awesome. She was always mean to me, but whatever. Stuff happens. Cool about all of the other stuff that’s happened, too. Good luck with the soccer game this week. I think that it should go well. They’re just little kids. Just do what you can, and make sure they have fun and learn a lot of stuff. That’s the most important.

Yep, a year. Wow. I’m happy and sad. I’m burning down, getting a lot closer to the end. Pretty quick, I’ll be in the same place as Gentry. Kinda blows my mind, really. We´ll see. Well, I love you, and hope you have a good week. Haz lo justo. Ok?

Love,
Elder Jace Reber


Kids,
Hey, wow, that’s cool about all of the things that have happened to you. That James and Gentry all came over. That’s pretty cool to hear, I think. I was happy to hear it. And that you all look so much older. Wow. It kinda scares me a little bit. But just keep going, yeah? Just keep doing the stuff that you know you should. I love all of you guys a lot, and am super happy to be here in the mission. I know that what I am doing is true, and that you guys are gonna have a lot of blessings. Only one year left! Pretty crazy to me.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

August 8, 2011

Dear Family,
Well, I’m still alive here, so that’s good. Lovin life in the Esmeraldas, gettin a little bit more used to the heat, and finding people like crazy. Its fun. I’ll go into a bit more detail later. But first, freakin Kyle, you´ve gotta be kidding me. How does that happen? I’ll probably go there just to visit him after. But that’s cool. They say the Russian women are beautiful. But I would bet they all got clothes, and the 13 year old girls don’t look 18. Here they do. I’m serious. And yes, they’re pretty. Whatever. What do I do, right? haha, cool stuff. It´ll be hard there, yeah. But then again, there’s nowhere that’s as cool as Ecuador, so that’s for real. Cool on what’s happening at home. School starts again, and just learning the good times of Cedar. I always like to hear what’s going on. The summer just flew by. I remember in. . where was it. . .Conocoto, when the kids told me that they were just getting out. I think I was with Martinez. Wow, it seems like a long time back, but it really wasn’t. Time flies.

Anyway. What can I say. So much stuff here. Like, its incredibly cool. All of it. There are a ton of trees, palm trees, its really tropical, the people are super friendly, and everyone listens. EVERYONE. But there isn’t a lot of success. Everyone listens, no one comes to church, and no one is married, nor wants to. Haha, cool. But other than that, it’s incredible. I love it a lot. There’s a lot of blacks, and a lot of stuff that happens. But it’s not too dangerous. I’m actually not in Esmeraldas. I’m in a little town like an hour and a half north called Quininde (Keen-een-day). It’s a little more quiet, and really secluded. Things still happen, but not on the Esmeraldas scale. I haven’t used any bug spray because there hasn’t been too much of a problem yet, and no one has tried to rob me yet. I dunno. I can’t remember much that has happened. Lots of experiences with people, and everyone wants to hear.

Lets see. Tuesday, met some people, just got to know the area. Wednesday. We found a new family, and some cool people. Nothing else, I don’t think. Thursday. My first district meeting. It went ok. I taught some stuff, and we all learned. Fun. went to Esmeraldas in the night, and we met up with everyone. Its an hour and a half from there, and we ended up having to spend the night. I dyed, super, from the heat, but that’s life. Friday, can’t remember. Saturday, tampoco. Yesterday. Yeah. Haha, I don’t wanna scare ya, but its a cool story. So we´re in a lesson, yeah, teaching a mom and her daughter, and waiting for her to cook. She wanted to give us dinner. Heck yeah, I’m down. So we taught, and we´re just talking with the daughter, reading and stuff, and the mom comes in from outside, and says "They just plastered some kid in the street!" Wow, what?! Are you serious? We go out to look, and there’s a big crowd. EVERYONE is in the street. Some little kid comes up bawling, and they come up and someone spreads it. There was a drive by like 2 houses down, and they shot the crap out of some dude. We didn’t see the body, because the ambulance came quick, surprisingly. Wow. It’s treated like something normal here. I guess it happens often. Interesting. Worse, haha, because we had to go down the same road to get home. Fun stuff, my Quininde. I love it here. This Friday, too, there’s a village called Guayacana 3 hours from here, in a canoe, yeah, a canoe, and we go there to do service and look for new people. We stay there overnight in the church, and come back. Awesome. I’m stoked.

Well, that’s that. I’m learning, teaching, dying of heat. The kids here, even the 12 year old girls, have already lost their virginity. They really look older, like 19, but are young. Super sexually active. Everyone has like 9 kids. One family, who we met, has five kids, the oldest being 10, and the mom is 22. Yeah. So she had her first kid when she was 12. Sad and crazy. Well, I love you guys. Don’t worry about me. I’m not stupid or anything. I’m not gonna get robbed or killed, and there shouldn’t pass anything bad. Just keep prayin, and I’ll do the same.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

Oh, and the packages, I haven’t got them yet. I would assume they won’t get here for about 3 months more, because we´re so far away. Even when they get to Esmeraldas, it takes a week or 2 to send them to me. Freak. Haha, love you guys. 4 days from a year!

August 8, 2011

Madison,
Hey, yeah, I’m happy here. The black chicks are all hotties, and I’m just way guapo. HAHA! No good, I’m a mish! Don’t just do that stuff to make me happy. Do it, really, and feel the difference. There is one, I promise you that. You read, God blesses you. I’m a missionary. I promise blessings. Do it. At least try it, yeah?

James wrote me, yes. Kyle, freakin guy going to Russia. Cool, though. I hope he has fun. I would assume so. There’s nowhere better than Ecuador, though. Gentry got home, too, right? That’s fun.

What else? Cool about the soccer thing. You´ll do good. SUU is cool. Just enjoy it. You´ll make friends, and it is a whole lot cheaper. Just work really, really hard outside of school, save money, and go in a couple of years. We´ll see, yeah. And I miss you too. Just a year left, and then I have to start life again. I’m nervous. Sucks having to have a job, I think. But I dunno. I don’t really remember much. I love ya, girly, a lot, and I just want you to be happy. Don’t worry about the things that happen. Just go with the flow, and go with God.

Love, Your Brother,
Jace



Dear Kids,
Hey, thanks for all of the news and the good stuff that has happened. HAHA, school is here again. But that’s still ok. I have almost been here a year, like you have all said. Cool, no? And pretty crazy. The summer just flew by. I remember when you all told me that you were gonna have summer. But oh well. Just keep doing the good things that you know you should be doing, ok? Oh, and I saw Kung Fu Panda 2, too, in Spanish! It was kinda funny. Well, I love you all a lot and hope you have a good week. My companion is named Elder Manrique. He’s from Guayaquil, here in Ecuador. He’s ok.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber
Su Ñaño

Aug 1, 2011

Dear Family,
Yeah, thanks for all of the new updates and whatnot. I like hearing whats been going down in the house and back at home and all of that. Crazy about what happened to Hunter. All of the little kids have been doing that, and it is kinda dumb, but what can ya do?

Me, well, after only 1 change in Chillogallo, I got shipped out. To Esmeraldas. A little city thing called Quininde. There are only four missionaries here, and we´re four hours from every other companionship. Oh, and I was made District Leader, so that’s cool. I’m basically the leading authority of this little place here, and it makes me kinda nervous, but they’re ain’t nothing else to do, just work. My companion is named Elder Marinqe or something like that. I’m kinda embarrassed to ask him again. But whatever. He seems ok. I can barely understand him, and I hope he’s not too bossy, but we´ll see. I think we could do some good here. It’s really hot and there’s a lot of humidity, but nothing that I can’t handle. I just hope that we can find some people. And that I can do good as a DL. Just pray for me. In 10 days I’ll be at a year, pretty crazy. And they say once you’re in Esmeraldas you’re there for at least 6 months, so that´ll be kinda fun. I hope. Or it might just drive me up the wall. I dunno.

I got here, and my comp wasn’t here yet. I waited outside with my 3 suitcases and my guitar, just scared. They rob like crazy here. So this crazy lady comes up to me, and says she’s a member, and I had no idea what to say. She followed me somewhere, and luckily I found a real member who lent me her phone. I was pretty freaked, but I think everything worked out well. Cool stuff.

Well, that’s about it. I’m really gonna miss Chillogallo, and I was hoping to have some new stuff to try there, and the sector was way big, but I think we can do some good here, too. I love you guys, and I’ll let you know how I’m handling it this next week.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

Aug 1, 2011

Madison,
I don’t know if you ever read the email to mom or dad, but I got changed today, AGAIN, to the coast. I’m excited to know what it is that I am going to do or need to.

Hey, are you going to church and all of that? Or reading the Book of Mormon and praying? All three? Do it. You have to. It’s the only way to really be happy and to have all of the blessings that God has planned for you, ya hear? Do all of that. Oh, and the second year will be faster. Just don’t think too much about it. Think. When you graduate High School, I’ll be like 3 months away from coming home. Hey, well, I love ya, and hope that you have a really super awesome excellent day and week.

Love, your brother, who is scared and a little sick,
Elder Jace Reber




Dear Kids,
Hey, I don’t have a lot of time, but that’s crazy about what happened to Hunter. Keep doing what you know that you should, and I know that everything will be really good for you guys. I love you all a lot and miss you.

Love,
Jace