Thank you for putting my music together. I also have come to find out that a lot of missionaries just put all their music on USB flash drives because all the cars in our mission have those. So you can also just Copy and Paste the music from the ipod playlist onto a flash drive if you'd like! I sure wouldn't mind it!
Two stake conferences eh? That is strange! We have ours this weekend as well! Keep me updated on everything that happens!
So quick question: How do you use bleach? My white shirts are still white, but I don't think they'll always be that way. The Atonement covers everything, but I guess its infinite limits do stop at wrinkle-free cotton so hopefully you can help me out there before anything hits the fan..or in this case the shirt/tie.
How was your Halloween?? We were all herded off the streets of California and into the safe confines of a dedicated Stake Center Building where all the missionaries were allowed to do P-day activities and watch the Best Two Years movie. I must say, Halloween a year ago at ASU compared to Halloween as an LDS missionary is about as polar opposite as it gets! Last year we were at a dance or two, ate lots of food, stayed out late and watched scary movies. This year we made a point of avoiding all of those! haha but it was still good. Holidays as a missionary are great! We get enough food to power a Pruis! It's nuts.
I think the hardest part of being a missionary is TV. Not necessarily not being able to watch it, but not being able to look at it when we go into a house or restaurant. Especially when it's football. And even more hard when it's your companion's 21st birthday (he drank his first *root* Beer haha ) and a family takes you to TGI Fridays and ASU is playing Oregon on the TV and you cannot watch! That's self discipline right there. But my source told me we lost in triple over time, so that's tragic.
Good news this week! I can finally take my boot off for a little bit at a time and start trying to get it strong and healthy again. I've never been so happy to take off a pair of shoes! Not as happy news: I have to do Physical Therapy and am still supposed to use my boot for the next 5 weeks until my next appointment.
This week has been sort of challenging as our companionship seemed to have incurred the wrath of influenza. This kept us inside for a large portion of the week. We weren't able to proselyte much but we worked hard when we could.
I'm very grateful for my companion and how he is always trying to use his time how the Lord would have him. When he was sick, he was still nose-deep in the scriptures and watched a lot of The District. It was just a great example to me of someone who really knows that this is the Lord's time and he is spending it very wisely.
My goal starting this week has been to become more converted to Christ. I don't want to fall victim to the plague of inactivity or apathy towards the Church or the Gospel at any point in my life, and frankly, losing my testimony is one of the things that scares me most. In order to avoid it though, I know that developing a love and conversion to Christ and his Atonement is the "cure", or even the "immunization". There is no better place to become converted to Christ than on a mission, where there are minimal worldly distractions. In a world where even the "elect will be deceived" by Satan and his temptations and myriad of lies, we can find hope through Christ. Alma 23:5-6 in the Book of Mormon talks about this conversion (I learned about this topic in Elder Bednar's talk "Character of Christ") and how essential it is. Conversion has been in my mind a lot lately and how I am to get it. I think really the only way is to do as we promise in the Sacrament, and "always remember Him" and study about Him in the scriptures. I have spent the last few weeks in the New Testament and am reading it all the way through for the first time. I really am trying to pay attention to and have the question of "how do I learn to love the Lord more than anything else" always in my mind as I read, so that I can start to serve more in the way He would have me serve. I am so far from perfect, but I know that what we preach is true and that if we apply it to our own lives, whether full-time missionaries or not, that we can attain that conversion and overwhelming love of God in our lives and strengthen our foundations upon His Rock so that we can stand up with confidence in Satan's whirlwinds and stay deeply rooted in our Saviors solid and enriching soil. We need not fear. "Fear not: believe only..." (Luke 8:50)
Have a great week! Love you!
Elder Jackson
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