How Can We Not?

Hello friends and fam bam. Its been a while since a big update from Elder Jake has come out. Like many of you, I have been playing Santa for some kids and families here in Managua. This year santa came with 12 soccer balls, toy cars, stuffed animals, and a ton of candy. Santas gift to me was no snow and no Utah this christmas!! Couldnt be happier with palm trees, big city, and 90 degrees. It has been very sleezy christmas down here!  I hope all of you had a sweet Christmas and spent some time with the people that matter most. We have been traveling all over Nicaragua lately. Lotta good food. Little sleep. Lotta energy. Lotta smiles. Lotta high fives. (Between two ferns for ya there.) 

Got to skype the fam bam on Christmas which was awesome. It was a little weird to be honest. Sometimes i forget that i have a family thousands of miles away but haha ya it was pretty sick. I want to thank all of the people that were there. You are still all just as ugly as when i left and i still love all of you so much. 

Elder Sherle (Esteli), Elder Jake, Elder Clark (TipiTapa)

At the mission Christmas party this last monday, i was pumping up my soccer balls and putting some last minute toys together to send with my old companions back to Esteli and Tipitapa when another young missionary came up to me and said "Luckyyy. Your mom is awesome for sending you all that stuff." First i told him, "yes i know my mom is awesome, you dont have to tell me that. But this stuff isnt for me and my mom didnt send it to me. All this stuff is for people i know here in nicaragua." He was shocked and couldnt belive that none of it was for me and that i had spent all this money on people that i barely know. He asked me "How can you spend all this money and just give all this stuff away without keeping anything?" Alright, pre mission Dylan would have handled the situation a little differently and probably with some different words but i simply asked him, "How can you not?" He walked away thinking. 

I will never forget the Christmas that our family had several years ago on an indian reservation. We got very little and gave much. I didnt understand at that age the reason for less presents and a work filled Christmas but i will never forget my father dressing up as santa for those little native american kids and us handing out our humble socks filled with toothpaste and candy.  

I have been so blessed. We have been given so much. How can we not give back?

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said it like this:

Brothers and sisters, such a sermon demands that I openly acknowledge the unearned, undeserved, unending blessings in my life, both temporaland spiritual. Like you, I have had to worry about finances on occasion, but I have never been poor, nor do I even know how the poor feel.  Furthermore, I do not know all the reasons why the circumstances of birth, health, education, and economic opportunities vary so widely herein mortality, but when I see the want among so many, I do know that “there but for the grace of God go I.”¹⁸ I also know that although I may not be my brother’s keeper, I am my brother’s brother, and “because I have been given much, I too must give.”¹⁹

The Bible like this:

21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, Onething thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and giveto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come,take up the cross, and follow me.

 22 And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved: for hehad great possessions.

 23 ¶And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!

 24 And the disciples were astonished at his words. But Jesus answereth again, and saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God!

 25 It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

 26 And they were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved?

 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

The Book of Mormon Like this:

16 And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish.

 17 Perhaps thou shalt say: The man has brought upon himself his misery; therefore I will stay my hand, and will not give unto him of my food, nor impart unto him of my substance that he may notsuffer, for his punishments are just

 19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?

 20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.

 21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.

 22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom alsoyour life belongeth.

I hope that this Christmas we all have remembered how much God has given us. I hope that during this time of year and always that we remember Christ and His sacrifice for us. I pray that we can all be a little better this next year and look for the joy that comes in helping other people. How can we not?

Love all of you. Take it extra sleezyyyyyy in 2015. 

Mission Christmas Party