2/6/12

> Hello!
> Sounds like Thomas is scoring tons of goals in hockey. Tell him to
> keep it up and he will be pro in no time! also the dance sounds really
> cool. How was the clean up for the island that you made? real sand?
> wow. In our ward there isn't a calling for a ward activity planner, it
> is the missionaries. The missionaries here do EVEYTHING!
> I don't think I have any requests for a package. I don't really need
> anything at the moment. Are you serious!!!!!!!!!!! Taylor broke his
> hand!? that is ridiculous. I cant believe that would happen. He was
> destroying everyone. No one could keep up with him! wow, that makes me
> really sad. I think I will write him a letter this week.
> so good news! I measured my height:D guess............ 6 10 and a
> little bit haha. with shoes.  It's crazy. We played
> volleyball today and paintball! which was really fun! it doesn't matter
> what ties you send. I think I will just give them away. Send some
> normal ones too though.
> So the story of the week is called the super big. It is a 3 pound
> sandwich that we bought on Thursday! hahaha I ate half in less than 5
> minutes and someone told me about another challenge that I have to
> eat 5 pounds in 20 minutes and I get 200 reais!!!!!!! I am going to do
> it one of these days:)
> and guess what!!!! I killed another fly with a pen!!!!!! I am so good!
> so that's all. A week that isn't the most exciting.
> Love you all!
> LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

1/30/12

Hello family and friends!!!!!!!!

First off, don't worry about the favela. They are my friends now haha They even offer me alcohol which is expensive. They love the missionaries and if you talk to them they love us even more hahaha. I still haven't gotten the package, and yeah it is possible that no one is there. Usually Saturday and Sunday they don't have anyone there. it should be fine it will get here. Yeah I am giving my ties away.  It is easier than anything else. Bright colors and normal colors and they don't have to be expensive. Kohls!:D 

we had another baptism this week! her name is bruna she is 17 years old, and she is the neighbor of those little girls. It is really sad there, the dad drinks and they barely have enough money to eat but we cant do anything about it. They act like we are their dad, but it is fun. 

hahaha the picture of my jeans is awesome right?! I think I grew, I don't really know but my other pants are still perfect, so maybe my jeans already were that short when I left. Not really sure, but I will try to measure. Don't send a new pair of jeans! that was the first time I wore them and that was just for a minute.
that is so sad that you guys went to classic burger without me. i don't think you have ever done there without me. that's funny.
I can't even believe that 200 days have already passed. It's fun to think of the mission in terms of weeks. Its more or less 100 weeks and its crazy because the weeks pass really fast here. Its like every two or three days when you are working hard. 

so i got the Elmonts christmas card! that was funny and a good surprise. My new comp is great! My kid in the mission! his name is elder Del Castillo, yes he speaks Spanish. for Bolivia!!!! I am already learning tons of Spanish here and it will definitely improve after these 2 transfers with him. It is really fun to lead things for a change, but I also know that it is really important that he learns how to do everything too. To make a long story short he is speaking a lot during the lessons hahaa.

we had an activity this week! it was movie theater night. We projected a movie and had popcorn and soda. Really easy and everyone loved it. We are thinking of another one to do for next Wednesday. It should be every 15 days. Nuts I know, but if you have ideas for activities I am all ears. 

we also had two service projects this week on the same day. wow it was hard. We dug up pipes and reconstructed everything. After we helped build a house, mixing cement( by hand without a machine) and carried a lot of bricks. Everything was worth it though, because I am soooo strong now! not really....

so cool story. Livia who was baptized last week has a dad that stopped going to church 12 years ago. His kids are being baptized and now he is wanting to go back to church. it is the coolest thing we can do as missionaries, is bring families together and make them more united and a lot happier. It also gives me hope that when someone leaves the church that I already baptized, they have a chance to return. 

That's all! 

love you ALL

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

1/23/12

Hello!!!
So I haven't gotten my comp yet. He comes tomorrow and I am so excited/ nervous! it still hasn't even hit me but I know when he gets here we will be working a ton.
I am glad you looked up the favela haha it is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life, but its safe. Everyone there knows the missionaries and like them a lot but I still don't like to tract there. We have a member there and we visit here every 2 or 3 weeks.
so my new area is in tabuleiro, maceió. It is almost the exact same place I was before. I can almost see my old area haha. so I don't know if I told you but this is the second time following sisters. We took the sisters apartments the two times I moved and they are super clean. No need to worry.
The work here will be really good, the members are willing to help and people like me here haha. That is ridiculous that they only stay 6 weeks now! wow! that's lame but I am glad I already started my mission at least...
Natalie went to church!? that is awesome! I am so proud of her!!! haha. I hope she liked it.   Tell her that I will be back in no time and to try to keep busy while I am here:)
You can send those emails if you want, usually I look at it on byu.com since it is a church website hahaha.

so some funny stories this week... we were knocking doors this week and some lady came to the door and said "no one is here" and my comp said "you are someone" hahahaha that was ridiculous. Nothing came of it, she was just a grumpy old lady.
and this week we had a baptism!!!! a girl named Livia she is 9 years old and her sister and dad are members. The mom of the family inst a member so we will try to work with them to get married and after get her baptized to complete the family. i sent pictures. also there are pictures of other little girls shirley shirleige shirleine sheila rayanne raissa  and in the other family ligia with the dad john. It took me a few visits but i finally know who every one is haha. The names are so similar and ridiculous.
also my comp will be Bolivian! so I will come home speaking Spanish too! whooooo!
Also I need more ties so next package in a few months can you send ties? thanks:)
Love you guys and hope everything is going well!
LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

1/16/12

Hello!!!!
So guess what? I will be training this transfer!!!!!! it is ridiculous but I will talk about it later.
I am in the Tabuleiro ward with a temporary companion until my trainee gets here next week. The ward is awesome and I am excited to work finally! My district leader is elder McComber and we were friends at BYU haha so that is awesome. everything is great right now!
yes that means I am in a safe area now! ha I hope you are happy:)

Does dad know a Pratt from the volleyball team?
so the new area is really good. The thing that is the best is that my trainer is my next door neighbor!!! can you believe that?! I never thought I would see him that much before he left to go home but now I get to see him every day. It would be good if you sent a BYU magazine too:)
so a story for the week. we played a game in our new area called choose where to go and if we get lost you cant ask for directions. It worked perfectly! we got lost and found our way back, in an hour hahaha.  We got off on the wrong stop of the bus and it was in the middle of a jungle. I knew which direction to go to get to our meeting but we ended up hitting a cliff with a river running at the bottom. I took a picture haha. We wanted to jump it but decided to walk around. it was crazy and we were in the middle of nowhere!we got to know our area though!

so I don't know if you guys know what a favela is but look it up online. We have one in our area and everyone is crazy and drunk and loves the missionaries. oh! the eders! they are CRAZY.

another thing funny is the garbage men here. It is a garbage truck with three guys running behind it grabbing the trash and throwing it in the back. hi tech right? haha
so that is all for the week! love you guys and hopefully my comp comes next week!
LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

1/9/12

 hello!!!
> Tomorrow I will know where I am going and will leave my area because I
> am being transferred!!!!!!!!!!! whooooooo!!!!! yeah, I am excited so
> that is definitely not the only thing that happened this week. I have
> a lot more later.
> I haven't gotten the package, I think i will when I am transferred
> tomorrow. I don't know where I am going or who I will be with. I am
> excited to see a new area and actually explore Brazil. I don't have
> much time today because we are writing really late here. We went to a
> mall today and had all you can eat pizza there... so we were there for
> a long time and didn't get back to email in time so sorry but I can't
> email much this week. Glad byu volleyball is doing well, they played
> there first game right? Taylor will write eventually haha. iIhave
> faith.
> So if you think killing a fly is cool wait till I tell you what
> happened this week. I will only tell you because I am being transferred
> and the danger will be far away..... so we were sitting in our front
> room (us 4) and we hear 5 or 6 gun shots really close to our house! we
> all stared at each other and I went to the door and looked out the top
> crack, because I am the only one that can reach, and there were 3 or 4
> guys running down the streets away from the gun shots. Then I saw a
> guy on the ground. We waited until everyone left there houses and
> there were tons of people outside and we went and looked. The guy was
> shot 4 times and we saw him take his last breath and die!!!! basically
> the craziest thing that I have ever seen. I am sure you are way happy
> that i shared that with you:) I have pictures that aren't very good
> that i will send next week. I tried to take a picture from our
> house... didn't work.
> Can you send me a belt please? next time.
> another thing. Natalie.... you are not bad at math. I tried to teach a
> girl math and she didn't even know that there was a difference between
> 2-3 and 3-2. it was really hard for me. Anne and Mike sent me a card!
>Thank you to everyone who wrote me and/or sent packages at Christmas.
>It was awesome!
> Thank you!!!!
>The hardest thing is to find people that are actually
>married! everyone is "married" which means that they are just living
>together.  It is hard, that is why everyone baptizes a bunch of kids.
>Our focus is men though, like it is in almost all of the other
>missions because without men, the  church can't grow in that area. It's
>weird to think that the mission will end. Before the mission I thought
>the mission would never come. It is awesome. I am super excited for this
>transfer and for the upcoming weeks.

> Also we did service on Saturday and there were coconut trees
> there, so of course we had to try to climb them and get the coconuts
> down. I then found a giant pvc pipe and used that.... modern
> technology in Brazil!! that's all for this week. love you guys!!! i will
> be in a different place next week!
> LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

1/2/12

hello!!!!!!!!!!!!
You are so right. Skyping was awesome! Usually people feel bad after talking to there family because they miss them so much, but I have never been so happy in my life. Also something happened that made me happy too. I will tell you later. I decided that I dont have an accent, I just cant speak fluently. I have to stop and think when I am speaking in English. OH! and also, I was talking in my sleep in Portuguese with elder mccann hahahaha. elder ludwig was reaally scared and left the room.
That's funny you wrote about the transfers because there was an emergency transfer! he left and I have a new comp. Elder Vilar! He is awesome but it is likely that I will only stay with him until the real transfers, which is this week so thats alright I guess. He left because other missionaries were fighting. There were three couples that changed. I think I got the best comp!
So about the packages. Elder ludwigs package got stuck and he has to pay 250 reais for it! thanks for fudging the truth on mine:)
Thanks for all of the new years wishes! that was awesome to see and made me really happy!
  Iwould write back to people but I think things are normal again with my new comp. I will see how long he likes to stay in the lan house but I dont think I will have much time to do anything....
We are definitely blessed in the US! you guys have no idea. When you come to pick me up I will show you haha. so I talked to president about you guys coming and he said that if my stake president calls or skypes to us in Brazil, he can unofficially release me. Just to make it so I am not an elder and I dont have to keep the rules like swimming. Then when I get back to the US he will have the interview and release me for real. It happens a lot here so he said it shouldn't be too bad and I have a place for you guys to stay too:) ha we will see about that.
So some funny things that happened this week: my old comp S. melo drank a cup of water and he always flings out the last bit of water. We were at a members house and he did the exact same thing he always does... but he chucked the cup and it smashed into pieces!!!!!!!!! hahaha
also the emergency transfers happened...
I got letters from dave and julie, the ward haha, and sister rose!
and the COOLEST thing that has ever happened to me that already happened to lucas in the 4th grade....... I dropped a high lighter and it killed a fly!!!!!!!! the weirdest thing was that it didn't hit on impact, it bounced, the fly moved and off the bounce it died hahahahaha. sooooo awesome!!!!!
Also mom, that special journal paper that you bought for me will run out. When it does should i just by a notebook and right in that?
Thats all today! love you ALL and hope everything is going well
LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS

12/26/11

We are laughing at granpda falling asleep while skyping :)

Merry christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i bet it was awesome! 

so my mom didn't write me this week because we are skyping in about 21/2 hours. (at least i think that's why). The things I opened up this week were.... super glue! I fixed my belt finally!  paper, now and laters, scissors, a new shirt, pringles, and a chip for my camera! everything that I could ever want:) 

so, some things that happened during my Christmas: on Thursday we had a mini party thing with 4 families from the church. It was really fun! they made a ridiculous amount of food and of course tons of left overs! We ate and talked for about 3 hours haha. It was really fun and felt a little like christmas. 

On Christmas eve we spent it in the house I will skype. We made 10 PIZZAS and had 6 liters of coke( which isn't that exciting) and had brownies! basically we were sooooo full. We spent the entire day there and watched the other side of heaven at night. The film about the missionary in Tonga. Christmas eve was awesome!

Then came christmas. I woke up at 630 and opened my presents. I think it is the earliest christmas I have ever had in my life. After we went to church and there were about 40 people there, whereas the usual is 120 hahaha. it was nice and quiet:) after that we had lunch and went to a house for dessert. (this is when mom will be mad at me) after that we had nothing so from 3 till we slept we had nothing to do hahaha. I watched 4 films, the restoration, the testaments, finding faith in Christ, and joy to the world. Let's just say that I found out the true meaning of Christmas! it doesn't seem that exciting to you guys but really I wouldn't trade it for a usual christmas. It was good to learn that christmas isn't all about gifts but really about Christ and what he did for us. By the way, I am not saying that I want to change our christmas! I am just saying that it is good for me to learn what a "humble" christmas is. :)

BUT the funniest thing that happened to me this week was when we were walking to lunch on christmas. This house is really long from the church and from our house about a 30min walk, and we walk next to a street that is really busy all the time. So this car is going about 50mph and pulls a u turn crazily and pulls up next to us. We were on the passengers side and the wife just looked at me really funny but the car continued to follow us. So we stopped and he pulled over all the way and said "hey my wife wants a photo with you!" I was like... what the heck is this guy doing. He risks his life to try and take a picture with me. I said alright and she came close to me and was super embarrassed and he took the picture. Yes, the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me because of my height. Really really weird haha. I didn't even know what to say hahahahahaha. oh well. that's all I have for this week. happy new years and I will talk to you guys next week! see you in a few hours family!!!!

LOVE ELDER JAKE LANGLOIS