History lessons and talking donkeys.

Here is a little from Jack's last email home. Love this kid. -K

First of all let me express my upmost appreciation for the Christmas countdown packages. It makes every morning of mine so fun. I can tell you put a lot of work into it so i just want you to know how much i love it and how much i love YOU!! I love the Christmas season! And it’s especially nice as a missionary because you’re really involved in everyone’s lives and everything you do is about Jesus and it’s just cool.  I have this family that I LOVE here and they’re moving to I think Orem in June which is going to be cool because then I can hang out with them there! They’re going to go check it out next month. They’re super nice and love us and their little kid got glasses that look like mine lololol. I think my favorite part of missionary work (aside from talking about what a nice guy Jesus is) is just being involved with people. And missionary work just flows when you just love people and you help them do things that will make them happier and it’s just low stress and kind and nice. Anyway I just love people. The most magnificent work of a Creator of worlds without number is the human condition itself. And maybe dogs. 

So transfer calls were last night! Surprise surprise I’m staying with Elder Swain! (Not actually a surprise at all). I’m excited though because I got called to be a district leader again and that’s fun because I love being a district leader! It’s like the most fun assignment because you work really close to missionaries and also can be fun with stuff. I was only a DL for 2 transfers (like a year ago wowza) and then got moved to ZL so I’m excited to do it again, probably for the rest of my mission. Ojalá. Ojalá means “I wish, or I hope” in Spanish but it’s actually Arabic because one of the Muslim civilizations of North Africa of mixed Arab descent conquered Spain in the 8th Century and influenced their language. ~history~. 

Speaking of history, I'm super into the Old Testament right now. IT'S LIKE SO COOL. Man like it's literally the foundation of modern civilization as a whole and the building blocks of everything we believe. I dedicate time at night and time during meals when we're not with someone to just reading it because it literally just makes sense to me now, which is a big deal because I've always strongly disliked the old testament because of the excess violence and weird things like when a donkey talks (Numbers 22:25-31) or when a drunk, naked Noah curses his son for covering his drunken nakedness. (Genesis 9:20-25) literally lol. But I don't know I just think that I have grown a lot spiritually and am able to understand things a little better. Like a lot of the Restoration of the Gospel is all about the Gathering of Israel and how are you supposed to understand that when you don't understand the Scattering of Israel? Or even like what Israel is? Or the scriptures that Jesus and the Book of Mormon prophets used? Wow very large tangent sorry. But look how cool things are!

Yesterday I went to a Christmas fireside in Newark and it was SO. NICE. The actual program was just alright but it was mainly awesome because several of my recent converts were there; including Marié! She is literally one of my all-time best friends ever. I had this whole spiritual confirmation where we came to the conclusion that we knew each other in the premortal life. She is literally exactly like me lol. She's getting married to this RM who is a chef and is moving to Finland! What the heck? Finland? But she is just the best and I literally served my mission to find and teach her. She's getting her endowments out in April and I'm excited to be there with her. I hadn't seen her since like June when I left Union City so it was just really nice and sweet and teary. Her sister was there who also got baptised and she's super cool too. And all my missionary friends were there and it was just the best night last night. Aww. 

Anyway. That's my life right now. Fun. 😊 fast week and just keeps getting faster. This last transfer went by really quickly, which is nice because soon I'll come home and pretend to have nightmares so I can sleep on your floor. 

Do you know that I LOVE YOU? SO MUCH. SO SO MUCH. WOW SO MUCH. I can't wait to hang out with you for the rest of eternity! I wouldn't accept anything less. I love you!

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoo
--me!