What in the world, the Elves have come!‏

I didn't have any sound, but what in the world is with the Elves! It was like watching a nightmare I once had.

Hello family in AZ
This week was super fast! Christmas Eve all 6 missionaries went to the Ward Mission Leader's home. He fed us an amazing chicken, sausage, and okra Gumbo and also the best pecan pie I have ever eaten. After we watched people outside shoot off their fireworks.It was great.
I had a wonderful Christmas or Navidad. First, we opened erethang and I played with my copter for ever. I also bought myself PERFECT PUSHUPS. My goal is that I will GET RIPPED before the mission's end. After, we ate at our next door neighbors house, and then we went to the Estrada's home where I talked with some people from Az, and then 5 of our investigators showed up and we all ate again, we watched The Nativity and then The Testaments. It was great and then we all went home.
The sad part about this week is that the Ray family decided to have a surprise trip to Mexico this last Saturday(that next day was when the kids were to be baptized). We don't really know when they'll be back. It's all good. I know that people still have their agency to chose, even if it isn't the most convenient for us. Thanks to who ever prayed for them last week like I asked. You can still do it if you want, that they'll get back soon. Joel will be getting back from Texas on Wednesday so he'll be getting baptized this weekend. Yeah! There is always something to be happy about if you really want to find it. You have two options in life when faced with a challenge; 1 sit there and sulk about how life is unfair and say the famous 'why me' thereby getting NOTHING accomplished. 2 get over yourself, roll with it, and do your best so that the Lord can do the rest. That's it, there is no other choice. I choose to roll with it. I can't wait to get some letters this week ;-). I love all of you so much. Thank you Bonnie Elias Colvin for all that you do :-).

Elder Colvin

P.S. it was pretty funny though, watching Dad act like a crazy Elf. :-)
Elder Jacob Colvin

hey you 12-22-08

How can I keep from singing,
Don't really know why my email started like that, but oh well. What is the status report of the current existence of people other than Roseanne, Trisha, and Mom? The rest of you are my family. It would be nice here and there to get a letter or email from ya. Don't you want to encourage your Brother Son and other in his missionary endeavors? Consider that your chastisement. Anyway life is going GREAT here in Gonzales. We had a miracle take place. I don't know if you guys remember me mentioning The Ray Family in my past emails, but something happened with them the other day. Brother and Sister Ray are members that were baptized in Utah when they were 17. Since then Bro. Ray had backslided into his old Lebaron Ideas (The Lebarons being a break off sect of our church). Missionaries for a long time have been working with this family and also to help their 3 younger sons get baptized. On Tuesday we went to go visit them. When we got there we talked with the parents for a few minutes and then Elder Durant boldly told him,"Your children need to be baptized." I was not expecting happened next at all, He said, "yeah I think that would be good for them. They've been telling me how they've wanted to pass the Sacrament just like the other boys in their class." I was like .......what? This was coming from a man who didn't even want his kids going to Seminary about 4 months ago. That resolved and they went, but I was surprised when gave the permission for this. It goes to show that God will answer the prayers of his children in his own timing. They are planned to be baptized THIS WEEKEND! Joel is still planned to be baptized this weekend too! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PRAY FOR THIS TO HAPPEN! My hearts desire is to see them get baptized before I leave this area, which is very possible in January. I'm going to be asking you guys if you did it during my Christmas call. Speaking of which; I don't know the approximate time of transmission on Christmas Day, but all I can say is around 4:00pm for you guys. The Estradas (the same family that invited us to Thanksgiving) invited us over for Christmas and use their phones. Junior and Adriana are still progressing great. It's a little hard right now to do much. We are still waiting for him to get his birth certificate and SS # from Idaho so that they can apply for a marriage license so that they can get married so that they can be baptized. We shared with them last night the Christams Story found in the Book of Mormon. Afterward he said to us,"I think I finally get now what the Book of Mormon is, it's like a book completely separate from what's going on in the Bible". I said,"Yes, it is separate in History but not in Doctrine, and it's scripture so that is why you need to read it and then pray about it." He committed himself to read the book that night after we left. Package updates: the Yard o' Beef is now 1/2 Yard o' Beef, the chocolates are going slowly but surely because the other three missionaries in our Apt get tons of stuff too. I got your Popcorn package the other day, Random but thank you Mom :-). I ate some immediately upon arrival. I also got the batteries today and again thank you Mommy. So Tuesday-Saturday were 80 degree days, then Sunday-today have been glacial! Louisiana and your random weather changes :-). It's fun. So, you are keeping the Gingerbread House making competition tradition alive huh? Good. I didn't get to see what every one did so send me a letter with a pic of everyones creation in it. Thank you. Hehe, Bonnie and Quin that's funny. I didn't think Bonnie would be dating so soon. Actually, it's been a month now.......wow time flies. Just remember Bub you promised that you wouldn't go and get married before I got home OK? :-) Well, That happens to be another successful email because of writing things down during the week. I hope Everyone is enjoying the Christmas Season. Remember, it's about Jesus Christ and not about dinosaurs and video games. I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!
-eLDER cOLVIN
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(wow this email might rival Ammon in length ;-) )


Elder Jacob Colvin

to all both near and far

It's Elder Colvin's Weekly Epistle,

Our cell Phone just went off in the library, How embarrassing. I have thought (this last week) that I would start writing down things that I think of during the week on a paper. This way I won't get Elders cramp when I get to the library. This is normally what goes through my mind when I get here,"OH wow cool a computer cool cool cool and I can use it, and I can even talk to my family Yeah!..............I just forgot what happened this week....". Now, after 19 months I'm learning. So here it goes. 4 items of agenda: Thank you everyone that contributed in sending me that GIANORMOUS package I got on Friday. Beautiful. I'm still laughing about the sheer volume of snacks you sent. A yard O' Beef, Oh Boy! a 2 lb bag of Sour Patch Candy, too funny. I Haven't opened the 2 wrapped things that were in it. We'll see what happens on the morn of the 25th. Should I read the letters now or on Christmas because I haven't done that yet. So, yes mom in responce to your question, IT SNOWED HERE!!!!!!!! WHAT THE CRAZINESS! I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE SNOW HERE! A few days ago I heard from a member that there might be a chance of winter precipitation mixed with rain. I really thought nothing of it because I was sure that snow wouldn't come here. The next morning I awoke to the Elders in my apartment Screaming,"It's snowing outside Aghhghgh!" I stared at it through the window still in denial then, .....we went outside and played in it like there was no tomorrow! We did every snow-thing we could. It was as fun as it was unbelievable. A member told us that the last time it snowed here was before I was born. El nino Strikes again. So, I got hit in the eye by a Frisbee the other day. I couldn't see out of it too well at first, but it's cleared up and I'm good to go 20-20. Sister Woods made me go to a Doctor just in case, and he said that there is no damage or anything. we saw a parade this week. It was cool. They definitely through out more stuff at you here. We didn't stay too long, but we did pass out some cards to Hispanic people while watching. wow, you see what happens Elder Colvin if you write down stuff to say. Oh yeah we had 5 people come to church on Sunday and they all loved it. Joel came and he is progressing great. This week was just full of blessings. We went to this one house out in an area we never looked before because a Man ordered the Movie Joy To The World. we delivered it to him and we talked for a little while. His friend came up too, during our conversation, and we shared with them the Message of the Restoration. They are now committed to baptism for the 3rd of January. It's great! I hope you all liked the stuff you got in my package. The thing that each kid got will work too. Well time is running short , but I want to end by saying again how much I love all of you and I hope that you all are Having a great Christmas Season. BONNIE HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOU CRAZY COOL CAT!
-Elder Jacob Colvin
Elder Jacob Colvin

hey

Does Bonnie's missionary email still work? I heard it still does until like=
a month after your mission. If she has a new one please let me know what=
it is. Thank you
EC
Elder Jacob Colvin

I have a good news for you‏

It's called the table,table,table
I'll always remember that song you showed us Robert. :-)

Hello Everyone,
What is going on? my week was great! We had the opportunity to go to the Christmas devotional. I loved it. It really was great. That was the first time I've gone to it. Last year didn't get to. Junior and Adriana came to the Ward Party on Saturday, Church on Sunday, and then the devotional that evening. I'm so happy they are taking this church more sincerely and doing the things we've asked them to do. Up until this Saturday the week was not the best in the world but, We finally got to light at the end of the tunnel. Saturday we were at a Flea Market passing out Cards for the 'Joy To The World' DVD. Last week they gave us a free booth because we were giving away free things but, this week we got there too late so we couldn't get a booth. They were already filled up. We decided, instead, to look around and look for Hispanic people to give cards to. Well we ended up talking to a man named Hugo from Durango Mexico. He was (I'm guessing) a Minister for some church. He was talking about how he was saved and we weren't and stuff and the Bible was all he needed and ...etc. Well it was basically a one sided conversation because he never gave us a chance to respond for longer than 10 seconds. However, amazing thing came from it; During Hugo's 'I'm more humble than you are' talk Elder Durrant contacted a Man named Joel that was walking by. Joel the next day called us and said that he wanted to come to church but he didn't have a ride. The sad thing is that we left our phone at the Apt. before we left for church so we didn't get the message until afterward. We felt so bad when we listened to his message, hardly ever does someone call us about coming to church. we met with him that night and he ended up coming to the Christmas devotional. We committed him for baptism and he said he would. He is a simple Jolly guy. I like him a lot. I am loving everything that is going on. I know the Lord is preparing people here to accept the gospel. I know that If we will put our Trust in our Heavenly Father he will lead us through all the Trials in this life and give us true Happiness: Success in righteous things. I love you all so much and I can't wait to hear from y'all in a letter or something. Bye
-Elder Colvin
Elder Jacob Colvin

oh what an annnoyance‏

I clicked on all of my email addresses and i accidentally pushed ERASE! I need Grandma's and Gabrielle's email Address because I can't remember em.

However, Hello Everyone I hope everything is fine in AZ. I still can not believe, even after looking at the pictures, that Sister Colvin is home. It is not computing. Oh well I hope y'all are having lots of fun and stuff. This week was moderately great. We walked up to this trailer that we knew had some Spanish people in it, and we knocked on the door. A guy opened the door and we told him who we were and that we had an important message to share with him and his family. He let us in like, "uh..ok." so we walked in and we see two women sitting on the couch watching their 'Novelas' or Soap Operas in English (That is ALL the Spanish channels are full of). It's night time and They are looking at us like, 'who are you guys?' So we say again and who we are and why we're here. The Older Lady gets up and walks to the door saying,"Everyone needs to here this," and she rounds up everyone outside and in their rooms to the front room. They are a cool family, actually they are 2 families. They are both living here together. Rosalita (the older Lady) is cool and she is fired up about reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. I'm excited to see where this will go. Thanksgiving was good. I Kind of had a hard time sleeping that night after all was said and ate. We were invited to two homes; 1 our next door neighbor, and the Estradas in our Ward. We ate a ton at our neighbors Apt. and we played some horseshoes and it was fun. By the time we had to go to the Estradas we were still pretty full. Thankfully Hispanic people don't celebrate this holiday south of the border so they weren't accustomed to making a huge Feast. Therefore we didn't eat as much there so it was all perfect. It's been fun trying to explain what Thanksgiving is to our investigators. They call it, "Dia de Pavo" or 'Day of Turkey' in English. We met With Junior and Adriana Fabian last night and talked with them about why they haven't been keeping their commitments to read or come to church. Well, they just said that it was laziness and also they felt a little embarrassed about coming to church after we taught them the Law of Chastity because they didn't want to have people at church looking at them or something. Well we talked with them some more and told them we love them and invited them to keep Reading and keep coming to church. Well my life is going good. It's been a little rough this week but I always remember Aaron, Omner, and Himni's account in the Book of Mormon and it keeps me going. They didn't have any success until about 17 years into their ministry but, they were blessed to Convert the King himself of the Lamanite Nation. I love my mission and I love You Guys mucho.
Bye
Elder Colvin

Elder Jacob Colvin