Dear Family,
Hey, as usual, I’m fine, just getting closer and closer to the day, and I can barely believe that its already so close, in just 13 days I’m on the bus back to Quito and in 15 I’ll be there in Utah. So weird to think that I’ve been out for 2 whole years, but cool at the same time. I’m really excited. I’m glad I did this whole mission thing, it changed my life.

I did get my package, thanks, I don’t have a bed, sleeping on the floor, no bugs at all, no baptisms to end, but oh well, I’m over it, gonna try to enjoy these last two weeks, contacting went well yesterday, not writing in the journal, still, haha, too bad, haven’t taken a lot of pics, don’t know anyone that well yet to take with them, but the last week I’m gonna take a bunch, so that’s good. I think changing it would be good, so go for that. What else? Nothing, I think.

Ah, I made a list of stuff that I’m gonna need when I get home. I’m not trunky, just thinking ahead, thinking smart, it’s how we missionaries do things. So shampoo, soap, razor, deodorant, shaving cream, toothbrush, paste, and new garments, cuz I’m gonna leave all of them here, I think. Also, what’s happening to the car? I assume Madison is taking it, right? And what about my drivers license, I have to renew it, and my debit card, too. Schedule a haircut for me, too. That’s about it. The rest I can get I think, haha.

Well, el fin se acerca, y hay poco tiempo. It’s so crazy to think how little time there actually is left, I’m not sure how to take it. Just gotta keep pushing on. It makes me sad to realize that I won’t be able to see all of the stuff here in just a little bit of time, but I know that it’s necessary, and it has to happen. I have learned so much here, have changed so much, even the little dumb things I learned how to do and I know that it was the only way for me to be converted and really feel more than anything that the gospel exists, and will help us and does help us get back to God. I’m glad to have realized that. I’m so thankful for all of these good experiences, the amazing people I’ve met, my converts and their faith, the members and their sacrifices, my comps and their support, and all of the buddies and panas I’ve met here. The mission is awesome, that’s the truth. Hard to leave, but I really feel God did a little what he wanted to with me. Just gotta wait to see the rest. Thanks for all of your support from home, and the prayers, I gotta give a talk my last Sunday here, the last in spanish, don’t wanna cry but I’m sure I will, haha. We´ll see. Love you guys.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber



Hermanita Madison,
Holy crap, I only have 15 days till I’m home. I have no idea how to react, just keep pushing, I guess. Hopefully. Sad about Maddy’s husband being killed. They just barely got married recently, right? I would have no idea how to cope with that. Yeah, Grandma said Broderick got home, what the crap, and Peña, too, huh, cool. He’s a good guy. Looks like Ammon will come in this week, and then it’s all left to me, so I’m happy for that. It should be fun at home, do some stuff. Love you and miss you, pray that these days will go by, I’m afraid they might just stop altogether, haha.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber



Dear Kids,
Hey, fun, glad you guys could do that, it’s almost August, weird, but fun, I miss you all a lot, and will see you all really soon, too, don’t worry. Love you guys.

Elder Reber

Dear Family,
Hey, yeah, I’m fine, doing well, just pushing on the best I can. Pretty crazy to look and see how close its really getting. This is the last week I can invite people to baptism for the last Saturday of my mish. The next two weeks I invite them for when I’m already home. That’s way, way weird. So this is basically my last week to see fruits of my labors, so I’m gonna dig in super hard, find 30 people, and just be happy with it and try to help out these people the best that I can. I think it´ll be really good for me. President’s coming, too, to do interviews, but I’m not sure he´ll do me because it’s so close to coming home. We´ll see, I suppose.

Happy Anniversary, so crazy that you guys are already at 25 years, but cool. It´ll be fun to go on a cruise or something, especially cuz I’ll have the house alone, haha. Just chill. Hopefully by that time I’ll be used to it again. I think so. Good stuff.

We didn’t have the baptism like we were hoping, so that’s sad. No one came to church either, so I’m kinda sad for that. But I know that we will do better this week especially with the goals that we have, so we are excited. The zone leaders are gonna cross over and help us too, so I bet that´ll be good. Find a lot of people and new families. Gotta baptize that last week, right? I hope so. I’m having fun, gotten more used to the heat, so that makes things a little bit easier. Dropped a little weight, not a ton, but I’m happy with it. Should drop a bit more before I leave here.

Well, that’s that. I’m doing good, working hard, gonna see how this week goes, and then, wow, it´ll be even more real. 3 weeks, is still a bit, but 2 is just yeah, basically cooked. I love you guys a lot, and miss you all. 22 days, can you believe it?

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

Oh, and so what day is my farewell and what time, so I can tell Elder Aitken and Evenson so they can come, too?


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Madison,
Well, your life continues, like usual, but that’s good. People going home, you moving out, only having 3 weeks left, so insane. Everything is happening, and I don’t know what to make of it, but that’s ok. Whatever. Cool about the rain, I know that God wanted it to happen, and if everyone fasted, it was obviously for that. Claro que si, mi ñañita. Cool beans.

Well, what can I say? You guys got the whole house to yourselves, right? That’s fun. I’m gonna go work like a freakin bestia today and during this week. Got interviews, and then I got some other stuff to do, too. So freaky, man. Anyway. Enjoy what you got left of the summer. Put something on my facebook about me coming home, that would be cool. Just DO it. Love you and miss you a lot.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


Dear Whitney,
Hey, yeah, 3 weeks and 1 day, crazy, huh? I think so, too. It’s getting pretty close, and that’s weird for me, but I’m excited, too. I think that it´ll be fun. I love you and miss you, too.

Dear Brooklyn,
Sad about that girl, though. I think that you can still have fun though, just keep doing good stuff. Enjoy the summer, school starts in what, 3 weeks? How fast was that? Miss you and love you.

Dear Hunter,
Have fun during the rest of it, buddy. I know that you´ll like it. I love you and miss you, too. Have a good week.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

Mother, Father, and others,
Hey, yeah, its been better, so that’s good. Still just thinking like a bestia about the time, but I think after this week hopefully it´ll die down a bit, and not just get worse, haha. We´ll see. We did some stuff, taught a ton and found a lot of new people, which I’m glad for. I’m gonna try, so thats good. Crazy that I can say I don’t have any more months left, though. Just weeks. Who woulda thunk it. Anyways.

The package, I had an Elder in Quito pay for it, love the guy, and I’m just gonna pay him back, so hopefully it gets here Friday. That would be great, so I’ll keep hoping so.

Well, not a lot to say. We´re just trying to do good stuff, keep my head on straight, and end good. I’m super happy about everything, can’t wait to get home and see all them guys again, but I think it´ll be weird for me to do it, too. Whatever. I love you guys a lot, thanks for all of the support. 29 days, wow, incredible. Enjoy summer, its ending fast like lightning.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber


Madison,
Hey, I forgot to tell you happy birthday, but it was totally in my mind, so that counts for me, shut it. I hope it was a fun one. Better than mine. Nah, probably not, mine was super sick, loved it. 18, good stuff, you’re legal, but don’t go using that legalness to do bad things. I’ll come home and straight up kill you. Believe me.

Well, that’s fun, sissy. Miss ya, love ya, hope your week is full of merriment and good times.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber


Chidren!
Hey, I’m in Coca, having fun, doing good stuff, seeing lots of plants and sleeping on the ground, so that’s fun, I don’t have a bed, haha. Love you guys, enjoy your summer, its ending fast!!

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

Dear Family,
Hey, well, I’m fine here. The email is being dumb, but that’s life sometimes. I’m out here in Coca, suffering, dying, but it’s been fun. The week was super slow, I’m way tired, my feet hurt, I’ve sweat out everything I had left, I think, but just keep trucking. Pray that I can at least have the desire to keep walking. It’s starting to really wear on me, the time, and I’m thinking a lot. I don’t want to, cuz it makes things that much slower. Anyway.

Sounds like stuff at home has been good. I’m glad to see that everyone is happy and enjoying their vacations. Can’t believe that summer is already almost over. Way strange to see that, but its normal, too. I bet all the kids aren’t too excited. Freak, here, the kids die to go back. I think its just the friend thing, and the fact that they never leave their houses here during breaks. They all look so bored, haha. Nothing better to do.

Things here as far as the work are ok. Everyone lives sooo far away from each other, and we walk like the entire day, every day, over dirt roads and they all have rocks just big enough to not like slow you down, but to dig into your feet, so that’s just so much fun. We have a bunch of people that can get baptized, my favorite being the hot Colombian girl, but hey, there’s that. I’m hoping to leave here with 7 baptisms, I can live with that. We had one last weekend. We went to a river right next to a bar, haha, and the drunk people came out and watched. Idiots, yes, but it was kinda cool. The kid was happy. I taught the class to the youth on Sunday, and they all love me now, so maybe I can get to know all the people before its too late. Hope so. If not, it´ll be so much slower.

Well, thats all. I just called the secretaries to see how I can send them the money and get the package here before I have to leave, so I hope we get it out before that. Other than that, I had to buy a fan and pay like 20 bucks for buses, so thats why I’m pulling out so much money. Probably gonna have to take out another 30 before next Monday, when I get the regular 90 dollars and the reimbursements, hopefully, to put it all back together. Sure is nice to have that fan, though. We have an air conditioning fan thing, but it totally sucks and is weak, so thats good.

Love you guys a lot and miss all of you. Can’t freakin wait to get back out there into the cold again, haha. It´ll be great. Tell everyone I miss them.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber


Madison,
Ummm, ok, you didn’t write ME, so don’t throw that at me. I wrote you 2 weeks ago, and then received this letter. It’s YOUR fault. Maybe you should stop paying so much attention to Jenika’s bro, and start paying attention to your own, ouch, BURN, haha.

I’m hot as crap, feel like I’m in the only place hotter than hell, and am kinda done with this whole heat thing, but only 5 more weeks and I;ll be in the cold. I can;t believe that its already down to 5, so crazy to think about. Sounds like you’re having fun with the European chick, don’t get tattoos, they get ugly when you’re old, that’s a promise. Yup.

Don’t worry about college, it´ll be weird at first, but its not that big. You´ll probably even get into it, I didnt, don’t like that crap, but that’’s me. Just go with it and try to have clean fun, no bad stuff, you hear.

Ok. Well, thats all. I’ll talk to you next week. This Wednesday I hit 23 months in the mission. Yeah. The last time I can say that. After that, I can say I hit 2 years, and then I’ll be home. Cool.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber


Dear Whitney,
That’s gross about what happened with dad, but kinda funny, I guess, haha. Whatever. I’m glad you liked it. Summer’s almost over, enjoy it because you get to start sixth grade, right? Cool stuff. You get to go to a new school and everything. I remember when that happened to me. It was pretty fun. Love you!

Dear Brooklyn,
I’m glad that you’ve been having fun with your friends, that’s always good. Keep doing it. You’re starting high school, so weird, but just remember who your real friends are and always remember that your friends should be doing good things, not bad things, ok? Love you.

Dear Hunter,
Fun about everything that’s been going on at home. The 4th huh? I completely and totally forgot about that, how sad. Its weird to think about it, though, haha. Keep having fun there and doing all that you can, because pretty quick you gotta go back to school. Crazy. Love you!

Elder Jace Reber

Dear Family,
Hey, I don’t have a lot of time, and sorry for not writing yesterday, its just that I got changed. That’s sucky, but the good news is that I got sent to the freakin JUNGLE. YES. I’m in a place called Coca, which means Cocaine in Spanish. Guess what the problem here is? Hot women, haha, not drugs, I’m screwed. I really like it so far, haven’t seen anything cool but hopefully p-day we can go out to find some rivers and hopefully some monkeys or snakes. Hopefully. Remember how I said that Quininde was the second hottest place in the whole mission? Guess what the first is? Here. I’m dying, it’s so hot right now, but at least I’m probably gonna shed a few pounds, we hope, before I get home, and then just let the cycle continue. We will see.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. It was a really good day, actually. 4 freakin cakes, can you believe that? One at lunch, one at the Familia Gilces, one at a surprise party with the zone which was way unexpected, and one at the Famila Moncayos. Next day, at the Romeros. So much cake, but whatever. Super good.

What else? That’s it. Can’t believe that there are only 6 weeks left. I’m gonna buy a new memory, and go to town with pictures, so that there’s a lot of good stuff to see when I get back. It´ll be good. Anyway.

Well, that’s that. This place is somehow booming with baptisms, not sure how, so I’ll have some before I go, which will be so cool. I get to baptize in a freakin river, so cool. We´ll see how things work out. Hopefully well. Love you guys a lot, wish me luck here in these last weeks, I just wanna meet some people, have them remember my name at least. Miss you all a lot.

Love,
Elder Jace Reber

My birthday with zone leaders! A total surprise!

Our faces shoved in to my birthday cake!!

One of the 4 cakes I got for my birthday!