``how could it be cold here in Puerto?"

So, sounds like there`s been some pretty interesting weather in Utah this week! It`s good to hear that everyone`s ok and that no one was hurt. This week has also surprized us here in the jungle! We heard all week last week that a cold-spell was heading towards Puerto and that it was going to be very cold. My companion and I were just laughing all week saying to ourselves, ``how could it be cold here in Puerto? The only time it`s cold is after sweating so much that your whole shirt is wet and then walking into one of the air conditioned rooms in the church.`` haha We left our room Tuesday morning sweating in the heat, as usual, joking around saying, ``hey, it`s a pretty cooollllldddd day, right?``  Well, we got to a lesson and realized that they all had jackets on. We asked them if they were cold and they said yes, and that the cold-spell was coming. We couldn`t believe it! Afterwards, we entered into a member`s house where we were visiting and it started to rain very hard! And, it start to get VERY cold!! We were so surprized!! It`s been cold for almost a week now, and recently starting to warm up. I wore a jacket to church on Sunday! At church this Sunday a little girl with a huge smile stood up at to give her testimony and said, `` I know that the missionaries are true, and I know that angels are real!`` haha I stood up in the testimony meeting and stated that I too knew that the missionaries are true. I`ve been learning through out my mission a lot about the difference between trusting in ourselves and trusting in God. Many times that we feel down because we feel that we aren`t good enough or funny, social, or outgoing enough. I`ve learned that we must stop trusting in our own abilities and start focusing our trust in God, and how willing we are to do what He askes us to do. He took a fourteen year old farm boy with hardly any school education and called him to be a prophet of God. If Joseph Smith had focused on his abilities, trusting in his own power, he wouldn`t have gotten very far. But, he learned to trust in God, he learned that a lovely quote that the Best Family sent me last week that I has truely come to my mind multiple times this week. And it states: "God does not begin by asking our ability, only our availability, and if we prove our dependability, He will increase our capability." -Neal A. Maxwell

I`m doing great and am learning to love the people here! I have also grown to have a great love for my companion, we are good friends already. I`ve decided that I have a love for the people of Peru, and now the people of Ecuador as I have worked with amazing missionaries from both places! I love you FAMILY and FRIENDS and MOM and DAD and ANGELYN and MARIAH and EZRA!!!! 

Elder Jeffery