October 30th email

Wow, Halloween is tomorrow. I don't know about the rest of you, but that crept up on me so fast. Where did October go?

So this week we had another cat experience...We were just walking to an appointment, and there was a white kitten sitting on the curb. (No collar) It looked at us, we looked at it. It meowed and we meowed back (no judgments, now. We speak fluent feline. I think.)... then it proceeded to follow us! We walked all the way down the street with it; it absolutely refused to leave our side. Or, rather, my feet. As we were going along it stayed basically between my feet, going all around walking circles around me (Still trying to determine if it was "protecting" me, or mocking me). I tripped so many times over my own feet trying not to step on it!

When we finally got to the door, it wanted in with us. I had to pick it up, and hold it outside the door while someone else closed the door behind me!

When we got out the door an hour later, there it was. It saw us and we saw it, then it darted out and followed us again! Same exact story; tripping and everything! We went about twice the distance as earlier though, and at one point it was suddenly gone. We turned around and it was behind us, staring intently up a driveway, in a pose like it was going to pounce (kittens are fierce beasts after all). Then it dashed up the driveway and we lost sight of it. Just as quickly as it appeared, it disappeared! 

Also this week, we got a tour of a building downtown where a member of the church here works as a secretary to a State Justice, got to see his office and all sorts of things around it, he had an awesome view of the city.

Sorry for not too much this week, but things are looking like they'll be picking up this week, so hopefully next weeks email will be longer!

Love you all!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

 

 Jacob sent me some pictures today! There were no explanations again, so enjoy figuring out what's going on in a few of them.

 

 

This is a picture from last weeks Zone Conference where they did a silly pose. You can see Jacob holding a Book of Mormon high in the air! It looks to me like a lot of the missionaries have a great sense of humor!

October 23rd email

Hello everyone!

This past week was great, if a little hectic. We got a text from our zone leaders (they're in charge of about 20 missionaries, essentially) Tuesday evening, telling us to cancel every single appointment we had the following day, because we were going to tell as many people as possible about the Meridian Idaho Temple that just got built; they're having an open house for it right now. So Wednesday we knocked on about 80 doors and talked to about 40 people! Met some interesting people, one lady whose door we knocked on yelled some not so nice things, then told us to leave before she called the police...so, despite having only knocked on the door, we left! 

Then, almost right after that, we talked to two people who were quite interested in us and were very nice! It was great, made us forget the previous experience almost right then and there!

Then on Thursday we had a Zone Conference, when our mission president talks to us and we learn quite a bit from him! He showed us some new and upcoming changes that were soon to be going about, but not for a while; we were among the first to see them. That's left vague on purpose (mwuhaha)

Friday we had exchanges! My companion and I swapped with another companionship for the day, I got to meet and be with one Elder Sparkman. He's almost at his two year mark, leaving in early November! He was quite fun to be with, the people we met were very kind- it was a good day (aside from the 18 miles biked total that day)

THEN we had something crazy happen- someone approached us and asked to take the missionary lessons! (Well, sorta. They asked someone else who referred them to us. But still!)

One last thing for all of you. I got a few emails asking for the address to send mail to, since I mentioned it last week (and I forgot to include the address. Whoops!). If you want to send me any mail, you can send it to our mission office and they'll make sure that it gets to me, since we move around frequently. Just address it to me, and send it to the address.

Idaho Boise Mission office:

1111 S Cole Rd

Boise, ID, 83709

Thanks everyone! Love you all. Have a great week!

 

Here are a few pictures I found on the mission Facebook page from his Zone Conference.

 

 

 

 

 

The address to send mail to Jacob is at the top of this blog on the right hand side. It will always be there. His birthday is in the middle of November and I'm sure he'd love a few birthday cards next month. Thank you all for your love and support for him!

 

October 16th email

So I realized that I accidentally left the story about the cat unfinished... (Thanks for letting me know everybody!)

So after I got down out of the tree, we gave this lady who told us about the cat, who my companion was talking to, the collar. She called the number on the tag, of the owner. (The address wasn't listed) She left a message as they didn't pick up, and then we left. There wasn't much else for us to do!

So this week, we were knocking on some doors and had this great experience- the last door we knocked on one night, this dog starts barking. So I'm thinking, "oh no great... they're not going to be happy because they have to deal with their dog" Then this lady opens the door, hops out quickly, and shuts the door behind her swiftly to prevent her dog from coming out.

When the door is shut, she looks at us and goes "You're not my pizza" my companion says, "Nope, but we're much better!" And from there we launch into a conversation with her, and, long story short, we're visiting her again this Thursday! 

A while after that, we were having a tad bit of a tough day, when we got some mail! I don't know why, but there's something about receiving letters in the mail that's just so encouraging when we've had a rough day (like, for example, knocking on a door, a lady looking through the window, going to her door, locking the deadbolt, and walking away.)

Then yesterday, we walked to the church building for church, and it's not far- only about a mile. But it was COLD! 30 something degrees, one person told us. I don't know how accurate that actually is, but it was cold!

Later yesterday someone helped us out, and fixed my bike... I seem to have bad juju with my bikes and get flat tires out of nowhere. Not running over anything, nothing! But oh well.

That was the major happenings of this last week in a nutshell, love you all! Have a wonderful week!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

October 10th email

Good afternoon everyone!

This week I got sassed by a cat. We were going around, it was early evening. We were talking to people on the street, when this lady approaches us and asks us if we could help her rescue a cat. So we follow her down the road a bit, to this evergreen. We find it (a bright white ball of fuzz amid all the dark brown branches; excellent camouflage), and I climb a few feet up and make my first attempt to get to it- to no avail. I get out of the tree, and reassess, then go back up. It comes up to me, close enough that I could pet its head, but as I grabbed its collar to try and pull it to me so I could pull it down, the collar pops off! And then it gives me this look like "Now why would you go and do a silly thing like that?" Then walks away. I stayed up there for a few more minutes, and it came close again, but not close enough! Eventually it puts itself on the exact opposite side of the tree from me, placing the trunk of the tree directly between us. It perches there, and looks at me. "Haha, can't catch me now!" 

Now, during this time while I'm making a fool of myself attempting to rescue this cat, my companion was talking to this lady. She was extremely nice, but sorta standoffish, like "I don't really want missionaries talking to me" BUT for the sake of the cat she did! ...I'm still pulling twigs off of my jacket!

Besides that, we had to bike back about 6 miles uphill the whole way from a meeting. That was quite the workout! ...that won't be happening again. That sure made your legs burn!

The only other thing I really have to tell about, is that I'm going to be teaching some of the other missionaries here how to cook and bake. They're insistent that I show them my "master chef skills" ...which don't exist, but, we'll see if we have time!

'Til next week,

Love you all!

-Elder Jacob Degiuli

 

Since there are new missionaries, they went to a training meeting on the 3rd. Here are some group pictures from that meeting with their Mission President and his wife. I like to call her the Mission Mom. I don't know if that's appropriate, but it makes me feel happy.

 

 

This is a picture that was sent to me as a text message from someone who fed them dinner Saturday evening. I love getting those pictures.

 

Jacob finally uploaded his pictures today. I was one happy mama. I got no explanations of each picture, but that's alright.

 Squirrel!

 

 This one made me crack up. I'm guessing it made him too.

 

 I can tell this was smoke in the air from the many nearby fires in August.

 

 Making dad proud, taking pictures of wildlife.

 

 This looks like an awfully long road to walk. Where are their bikes?

 

 I believe this was transfer day, when they went from the two of them in their apartment to four. He told me they did a massive cleaning. I am assuming something was terribly dusty and being banged out.

 

Along with my comment above about the bikes... Where are their beds???

 

I am so grateful for Jacob to have these experiences. Thank you to everyone for supporting him and writing to him. I know he appreciates it as do we.

 

 

 

 

October 2nd email

Hello everyone! 

This past week was actually pretty darn great! We have two more missionaries in the apartment now, more details on that in a minute!

So we have spent time this week chopping wood, teaching a lesson to a man and his fiance, and doing something called splits- where we go out with another missionary for a time. That was Wednesday; there were some new missionaries that came in and I was asked to go with one of them Wednesday evening and show them some simple things to do around the area, and talking with people.

THEN Thursday came around, and it was a transfer day! Meaning, some missionaries got new companions. I got a new companion, his name is Elder Barton! He's brand new! I'm training him!! (Ah!) 

So, Elder Carlsen (my last companion), is still in the same apartment- but he also got a new companion. So there's four of us crammed into a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. It's all good though!

Sunday and Saturday were largely spent watching general conference, which, for those who don't know what that is, it is a broadcast of talks that the church leaders give, put simply.

I love you all, and look forward to hearing from you!

 

Here are a few pictures from transfer day with his new companion, Elder Barton.

This is from the Boise East Stake President and his wife. They had the group of missionaries over for Conference. Here are the pictures they sent and here is what they said in the email:

We love your sons! Thank you for sharing them with us here in the Boise East Stake! We watched conference together then made some pizza and talked about conference and got to hear about mission life a bit. We love them and appreciate their hard work and positivity! They get it! We love the spirit they bring with them.
 

 

 

This video was also shared but the quality is not great. You can see Jacob flash the "I Love You" sign to us. I love that he does that!

 

 What a great week for him. What a great week for us to receive so many pictures and the video. We are so proud of his hard work!