Email #70...July 4th, 2011

el quatro de julio.

happy fourth of July! i'm sorry... my hands are freezing right now, which
makes it hard to type... so i will not be typing much today. it seems
like i just barely wrote you guys though. not much has happened in the
last couple days, but we did, and are celebrating the fourth. we
started off last night with a pancake "midnight snack"... we made
homemade pancakes, bacon and an omelet... pretty tasty... not gonna
lie... then today we had a little barbeque as our pension (Beatty,
Tripp, Wilkins and i). we had choripan. don't know what the heck it is
in English, but they are good!... kind of like brats mixed with hotdogs.
and tonight we are going to have another barbeque with some
investigators! i'm excited for that, and Chile plays in the Copa
America tonight as well. maybe we will get some peaks on that?.
to be honest,this fourth was much better than the last. the sun is
out, not raining. i don't have any feet pains, none at all really. and
i'm just happy... even after the normal downer things that happen during
the week. we were sitting around our little "camp fire" eating our
choripans and talking about our greatest memories of the fourth. as
you know, the fourth is one of my favorite holidays. being a kid,
blowing stuff up, warmth, and just fun! but i was thinking about it.
even though i'm not in the States, this fourth will be one of the holidays
i will never forget... enjoyable in it's own way.

this week we had a great fast and testimony meeting. coming from a weak
branch, it was one of the best i think i have had here. i love the
miracles of fasting! we had a couple great experiences.... Saturday night
we went to this family who is learning about the church. to be honest,
i didn't like going over there too much. the grandma would tell us the
same story every time about how she got saved in the Evangelical
Church (every evangelical person has the "saved" story)... so i wasn't too
excited about going over (i'm working on that attitude... by the way). we
get over there and start talking to the grand daughter about the
restoration. we were able to teach everything without any
distractions (first time in HISTORY) and she understood it so clearly,
the most i have seen from all the people we have taught! i was amazed.
when we finished she asked "so you're saying that the Evangelical church
doesn't have the authority?". hmm... well, we asked her what she thought.
she said that it didn't have it IF what we said was true. then
proceeded saying that she would drop everything and change churches if
she finds out it's true. whoa! sweet! it was awesome! and a great
experience. then on Sunday we had quite a few people committed to go to
church. we went by their houses Sunday morning and no one answers... we
were bummed, but went to church without them. we get there and 3 come in,
then another one, and another one, and another one... until we had seven! it
was awesome. such a great blessing. half of them we didn't even know so we
talked to a couple before they escaped. we asked one little girl why she
hadn't gotten baptized yet... jokingly (but seriously at the same time). she
had a blank stare, didn't answer, and then went to Primary. after the
class she and her friend (a recent convert) come to me saying... ELDER
JACKSON! we NEED to talk to you, this is an emergency! (mind you... they
are nine) i go out and talk to them and she says "we have a problem, i
can't choose between you or Beatty to baptize me." ha! that wasn't hard.
she went from a blank stare to being worried about who baptized her.
hopefully she can get permission and get baptized on the 30th.
wonderful blessings from fasting! i love the mission... that's all i
got.l love you all! have a great week!

elder jackson