Email #50...Monday, February 7, 2011

one year comin up!!!

wow... i cannot believe it has almost been a whole year since i entered
into the "unknown", in the MTC. and here i am, in Chile, speaking
Chilean. it is absolutely crazy! it definitely has nothing to do with me but
everything to do with the help of our Heavenly Father... now before i go any further...
i just want to thank every single person who has sent me a letter, email
or package. sometimes these P-days get a little hectic, so i get
overwhelmed and caught up to the point i haven't told you all thanks enough!
but i am really thankful for you all and the time and effort you put into
sending me something. i just realized that.... as i am looking at my
FREAKING SICK tie tac from Uncle Barry. thank you all so much!

well... whoa, what a week! lots of stuff to do! it's kind of weird now
that we are "co compañeros"... and well... since i have been in Victoria
longer, i kind of lead. it's a different world. the leaders are stressing even more
about numbers and about lessons. it's definitely stressful... but fun at
the same time. Elder Lisonbee and i are getting along great. actually
he was my airplane buddy. we sat next to each other for a grueling
seventeen hours on the flight to Chile. we were both so nervous we didn't
really talk, but we laugh at that now. he was in a different district so i
didn't get to know him in the MTC, but now we are great friends. he is
actually from Highland, so we are practically neighbors. but things
are going great between us.

as for the baptismal dates, we are probably going to have to move them
back. neither of the investigators came to church this week because Claudia
had to work and well... Joanna lives far away so its hard for her to assist.
we talked about the law of chastity with Claudia, and she is not ready
for marriage..... she wants to get baptized so bad, but thinks she is
too young to get married (19 years old with a four year old kid, hmmmm)
but we are still working with her... obviously. and Joanna just needs to
get her assistances to get baptized. she will be moving here in April (not March)
and then she will be able to go to church every week. but other than that
things are going pretty slow here. apparently ever since the
earthquake the baptisms have gone down a lot. but president predicted
that they will be coming up this year. our goal for baptisms in 2011
is about 125 baptisms a month... hopefully we can achieve it!

FYI it is way hot here...then, Saturday was absolutely freezing! i couldn't
sleep because it was so cold and now i am soooo hot! like i said...the weather
here is bipolar!!!! anyways things are going well! Elder Lisonbee was exactly
the comp i needed. we are definitely enjoying our time here. well i
hope you all have a great week! the church is true all over the world!
chao!

love elder jackson