AJ's Missionary Experience...Elder Jackson

Conversion Happens by the Spirit, Not Me!

Elder Cornia and I had another good week this week. We are really seeing some good things come out of this area. I am starting to realize however that I need to start relying on the Lord more. I have gotten to the point where I feel comfortable as a missionary-- I don't feel like I have no idea what is going on anymore. But that is not always a good thing. Sure, I don't get nervous as much anymore and I can honestly say now that I know that this church is true and that there is no way to prove that it isn't, because it encompasses all truth, but like I said, I still need to rely on the Lord. I feel like if I were to write a book with my limited gospel knowledge, even I could convince anyone that this is Christ's Gospel and that the bible totally supports this as the one and only true church. But this is not what we are supposed to do. People are not converted because the gospel is proved to them, they are converted because they feel the Holy Ghost testify to them that this is the truth, and it is. In fact, I was reading in Acts 9 and it says "But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him" (v. 22-23). I thought that was quite humorous. If we try to prove Christ, it won't work. We are called to invite people to come to Christ, not prove. And I need do more inviting and less proving. That comes back to leaning on the Lord. He knows what these people need, and if I am not prepared spiritually to hear what it is that they need from the Spirit, I won't be successful. So my goal this week is to have the Spirit with me more so that I get back to how it was when I first came in the mission and I was scared helpless of what to say, so I simply said what I felt the Spirit prompt me to say. I know that will make a big difference!

We are working with 3 families. We also picked up some cool new investigators this week. The guy is a skateboarder for a company called Active who hurt his knees jumping off of a like 30 foot ledge on his board and now has a cane and draws and his girlfriend owns a mobile dog grooming trailer in an old pink Winnebago. They are super funny and we hope we can get them to progress towards baptism!

That is about all for this week! I hope I can do a better job this next week. That's why we have the Atonement though, so we can become better and put our shortcomings behind us!

I love you lots! Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Jackson