Email #24....August 2, 2010

hay que bautizar!

wow what a week... you know as i go through the week, the experiences i have don’t seem very big or spectacular… not saying that i had a huge experience this week, but as i look back, i realize how great of a week i had. it seems like that every week as well… but this week... hmmm where to start... we started off great! we were able to enter two houses... now that doesn’t seem like a lot, but let’s put this in perspective… in the past 9 weeks(i won’t even include my first transfer), i have not entered more than 5 or 6 houses(as in knocking doors, because that is all we do). Anyway, we entered each house and they weren’t even one of those awkward moments like last week.. ha! when we contacted them we actually asked them if we could stop by one day. they said why not right now? SWEET! so we entered and taught them… of course! we taught Ignacia and Reynaldo in the first house and maria in the second. they were so receptive and had great questions that we were able to answer. they were really curious and wanted to know more about the church. we invited them to church and set another cita with them. Well… Sunday comes along and what happens? they don’t show up! they were sleeping and we couldn’t get them up... oh man was i frustrated! i haven’t brought an investigator to church in over 12 weeks... lets just say i was a little mad, sad, and frustrated. i really, REALLY thought that these three people were ready to make it to church… not because we were going to make them, but because they wanted to go for themselves. satan is working hard, but we are working harder! we are going to their houses tomorrow to see what happened.

the Lord really has blessed me. i have been blessed with such a great companion that saw that i was down, and he brought me back up and made me realize a few things. first of all, maybe we didn’t get a whole lot closer to setting a date for baptism, but we planted seeds. we are still planting seeds. i don’t care if i baptize them(although i would love to), i just want them to be baptized. Second, we brought back two inactives this week! it was tough but we did it! and that was truly a great feeling to see them walk in the door. third, testimony meeting was amazing... (sidestory) when i was planning where we should go to visit inactives this last Saturday(the list we have has every member on it… active or inactive, and we don’t know who is who, so we go to every house) and i just had a feeling to go to this certain house. i was pretty sure that this guy was inactive, but wasn’t positive, so we went. we got there and I was wrong… he was an active member. I’m just not great with names because they are freakin’ hard here. anyway… we just visited with him for a little… talked to him about his family, and his life, nothing huge and spectacular… just a good conversation. well back to testimony meeting, that brother bore his testimony about missionaries and how they really help the lives of others. He said that he needed that visit at that moment in time and we were there for him. it was such a strong simple testimony that he had… and an amazing feeling that i had. then a sister bore her testimony. this hermana is my favorite. she and her family are so amazing and so strong in the church. she is a returned missionary along with her husband (the family name is Hormero). Anyway, she reminds me EXACTLY of Curtis Christensen’s mom… exactly… down to the hair! the way she acts, It’s crazy! her testimony was so strong about missionary work, it was truly amazing...

sorry this email is kind of all over the place! but back to the story of the brother(hermano) after we visited him, we went to a house down the street to do an inactive visit. the hermana wasn’t there, but her niece was. we talked to her and found out she has a good friend that is a member and she was really curious about the gospel. we taught her a little as we stood out on the front porch and tried to get another cita with her, but she moved today to her moms house… so another seed planted!

anyway, this week has been great, maybe not the way i wanted it to be at the beginning, but it was a great week. the Lord really helps us in ways that we don’t think of, sometimes we focus so much on one thing(baptism) that we forget about the other things(inactives, members that need strengthening, etc). this church is true… no doubt about it. i am so happy to be serving for our loving Savior and helping others come unto Him. i love you all!

Elder Jackson

oh and i found reeses (Walmart brand)today! but they’re soo old. still it’s peanut butter… ha! and i got a great visit last night from Elder Mondragon(my cousin in quotes). we are really good friends and he came and stayed the night at our house because they had to go to Concepcion today. we had a great time talking and well.. didn’t really get any sleep, but it was worth it to talk! and in packages, still please send reeses and kit kats and butterfingers? and are you sending bottom garments? because the garment thief stole another one!!... (i like the boxer briefs… by the way) well again i love you and hope you all have a great week! OH and there was an exorcism going on next door… at least it sounded like it. crazy.. well I’m sure i forgot something but that’s all I have this week. chao!