Pushing My Hardest from the Intersection of Elder and Cool!

I got to help build a helicopter, we had zone pictures, we went to a yummy steakhouse, the intersection of "Cool" and "Elder" and some other fun times! ​

 

 I can't believe in 7 days I'll be giving you a big ol' hug!!! I can't wait! That will be so much fun!!  I love you and dad so much and I am so excited to see you. I plan on going as hard as I can this week. I am really excited because I think (and am praying) that our investigator Crystal R. will be getting baptized in the next week, on my last Sunday here in the mission! It's going to be awesome! 

It will be so nice to see Dad again, I am sure. I sure love that guy and am excited to see him too. He is great. Man, being on a plane that long unnecessarily would be awful. I'm glad you endured it well and made it safely! 

I think I will do cheer, but like you say as a side thing. I really want to succeed in my major at BYU so I will be doing all I can to get good grades. I feel so much more confident with school now and I feel that I can be a lot more wise and judicial with my time. 

This week was great! I really enjoyed MyPlan this week. It really taught me a lot about preparing for the future. I feel a lot more comfortable and confident. I enjoyed the approach they took to it as it was more about having an attitude of faith and continuing discipleship. It will be a great help to the adjustment of returning home. I have really felt the Spirit help me these last few weeks. He has helped me see that I can keep growing greatly these last few days of my mission. I am pushing my hardest and want to "leave it all on the field". 

I really enjoyed reading in Matthew 8:17 where it talks about Christ taking our infirmities. I visualized Him physically taking these infirmities from these people. A lot of the infirmities that He took were awful. I can only imagine the bravery and love it would take to willingly take upon Himself those terrible pains and weaknesses and infirmities. The love He has is amazing. I hope I can show my love for Him by being obedient!

I love you tons!! 

Love,

Elder Jackson :)

It sure is getting close! It's weird that I have less days than Elder Broadhead has months, or even transfers! And yes, that is so cool about seeing the Mullens!

I'll admit though, I still don't feel like I am going home. It is weird to describe, but I don't think it has hit me yet!

That is so cool about the Mission President. It's a small world. So there is a boy in our ward (our Bishop's son actually) who is serving his mission in Guatemala. He just got a new mission president. The new president is the Moreno Valley Stake President's brother, President Schumway. He is from Elko. The stake president's son is also serving a mission in Guatemala, just a different mission. I'm sure the returned mission president you met was the one who was replaced by our stake president's brother! Small world eh? That is way cool! 

This week was another great one. There really are no such things as bad weeks when you are a missionary though. I love being out here. All of our hard work has seemed to pay off and we were able to pick up some awesome new investigators (including Crystal C., an investigator I had taught when I was here in this area last year!). It was way cool! We also had 3 people come to church, which is always a wonderful blessing. There should be quite a few baptisms coming up here in the next few weeks and months!

I was studying a lot for a talk I gave this week. I am still geeking out over Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk called "The Voice of Warning". It really paints super clearly that if we are to truly live the gospel, we must share it. I believe the two are reciprocal and cannot be done without each other. Ezekiel 33 shows very well that our neighbors' blood is on our heads if we do not sufficiently warn them. I think that is quite easy as a missionary, but I admit, that would be a little more challenging as a "regular member", but it is nonetheless important. We have to let love be our motive in sharing the gospel, and if we do not I don't think it ever comes across as effective. If we don't have love motivate us, I think that is where the fear of opening our mouth comes from. It connected for me to 2 Corinthians 8:9 where it says that Christ was rich but became poor (performed His Atonement) for us so that we through Him can too be made rich. If we are willing to do what He asks He will transform us. We can work all we want but it is only through Christ that we can leave poverty. Once we are lifted from poverty's grasp, it becometh us to let our fellowman how they too can be lifted by Christ. If we don't I feel that we are as dross and are as hypocrites. We must love not only God, but our neighbors. We have a serious obligation to warn.

Here are some pictures of a disgustingly huge truck we saw this week! Why some people like trucks that big, I don't know.

I hope you enjoy your time in KY! I love you so much!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

"A Sharp Object"

This week was really good. Again, we worked our hardest and looked for ways to improve, even though we didn't see a lot of results for our work. I truly think the Lord is testing us to see if we will keep being obedient and hard-working when we aren't seeing success right away. 

We experienced miracles this week! We had an appointment set up with our investigator. We had a team-up planned to come with us but when she showed up she said she needed to reschedule. So we did. The night we had an appointment planned with her we had another team-up planned. We were late going to pick him up but he was late coming too, so it all worked out! Then during the lesson, the concerns she brought up were those that only he could answer (it was about race, and both the investigator and our team-up are black so he was able to say things that we couldn't). She was able to feel the Spirit and we were able to help put the pieces together to help her understand the different things she was feeling (which was great because I was able to use some of what I had learned in feeling confusing spirits to help). It was great! I'm so thankful that the Lord orchestrated all of that so that we were all where we needed to be at the right time to help this child of God!

I was reading in D&C 121:34-46 this week and some wonderful things stood out to me! In verse 38 it says that if we do not live the way God has asked, especially as priesthood holders, we are left to "kick against the pricks". I looked up what a prick was. It described it being a sharp object. Kicking a sharp, pointed object would be very painful. I also remembered that in Acts 2 (also verse 38) it describes the Holy Ghost as "[pricking] in their hearts". So the Spirit taught me that living contrary to the way we are told to in D&C 121 will leave us to painfully kick against the pointed pricks of the Spirit- we will be kicking God out of our life. We always say how much we need the Spirit to function, and it is true. If we don't act as we should, we will kick that Spirit away to our own detriment. We must not do that. We must serve as if we were truly servants.

That is a way cool blessing! Blessings are awesome. I truly enjoy giving them. I'm glad that you were able to receive what God wanted you to hear! 

Haha those pictures (of trucks on the freeway) remind me of when I was like 11 years old and thought semis were the coolest thing ever and I took dozens of pictures of them as we were on a road trip. Do you remember that? But they look good! I think a photography class sounds like a blast. I would be happy to take your Nikon and try to learn how to use it. I don't know much about photography but I sure want to learn! 

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I also got to ride in a Humvee this week! It was sick! 

I hope you have the best week ever! Love you so so so much! 

Your Elder Jackson :)

Working as Hard as I Can (Home August 15th!)

Elder Jackson with new mission president, President and Sister Hammon.

We had an awesome week. We worked really hard and even though we didn't have much success in finding a lot of new people to teach we did see the Lord's hand in our work a lot! We had gotten quite a bit of backlog referrals and old potentials piled up on our whiteboard so we set out to find those who were ready to be taught and pause those who weren't. We spent a few days stopping by as many of them as time would allow with absolutely no success. We didn't let up though and at the end of one night right before we were supposed to return to our apartment we stopped by Mario. We sat down with him and had a wonderful lesson. He is very simple in his understanding but is just a nice man. He accepted baptism and a date and came to church! It was a wonderful miracle and made all the hot weather and no-answer doors worth it! It was awesome. 

One day, when we were walking around and it was particularly hot and humid, I had the distinct impression that what I was doing right then and there made God happy. That was a really cool thought. I wasn't doing anything amazing and we weren't even having a ton of success, but the fact that we were out laboring in faith even when there wasn't immediate results  made my Father in Heaven happy. That is a wonderful thought to have. I am grateful for the reassurances of the Holy Ghost and the thoughts He gives us.

I also had a wonderful thought as I was studying. I came across a part in Alma where it talks about the people of Ammon feeling, because of the dire circumstances they were in, that they should dig up their weapons and go and defend their country. Helaman counseled against it, saying they might lose their souls if they did. That hit me hard. The people of Ammon were among the most converted in the Book of Mormon and I think the reason they stayed converted was that they buried their weapons of rebellion and they left them buried. They didn't "return to [their] vomit", no matter how much it seemed like they must. They trusted in their priesthood leader and kept their covenants and the Lord blessed them. We don't know what would've happened if they had retaken arms, but thank goodness they didn't. We must do the same. Once we have buried our rebellion we must not return to it and we must move forward with faith, keeping our covenants and remembering the associated promises.

I also loved Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk this past General Conference called The Voice of Warning. It talked about how watchmen warn. We typically think of prophets as watchmen (Ezekiel 33), but we can be too. D&C 88:81 tells us that those who have been warned must warn their neighbor. We have been warned of the dangers of sin and so it is our obligation to warn our neighbors (all) of the dangers of sin and the joy that comes from keeping the commandments or else their blood is on our heads. Thus, missionary work isn't just a good idea or a nice gesture, but a sacred obligation of all members of the Church. It made me so much more motivated to share the gospel now and when I return home. It also has helped in our dinner visits and working with members! 

I am planning on not "dying" and working as hard as I can. I feel like I really have been making myself fire on all cylinders. I don't want to finish my mission jogging, but rather sprinting. 

Please don't get hurt in the fire! That would be nooooo good! I can't believe that plant is still alive after all these years either! That is crazy!

This is the plant Elder Jackson gave his mom in kindergarten! I have packed a starter plant from this one to take with me in case we have a fire evacuation.

So as far as AZ, maybe I can fly down either the morning of the 22nd or 23rd and return the morning of the 28th, that way I have a while to see all my old pals. 

As far as my flight home, I am totally ok with you posting the arrival time of my flight on Facebook so that people can come. 

(SLC, Delta Terminal, 1pm, August 15th!)

I am sooooo excited for the family get-together that week before school starts! It sounds like a blast to me! We should plan out some fun things!  I am so excited to meet little Bryson too! 

As far as technology, should we plan on getting it right when I get home (before we head to Winnemucca)? Or what do you think? I'm fine with whatever! 

Is my apartment furnished? Am I sharing a room or am I in one of my own? 

Here's some pictures of the week! I got a good one with the Hammons and we saw the F16s doing some cool flight exercises! They are soooo cool! And I love the Hammons! 

I hope you have the best week! Love you tons!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

We got be Marshalls in the Independence Day Parade! It was a blast!

I'm glad that Winnemucca hasn't burned down yet! Hopefully it doesn't! I see the smoke from fires here every few days. It is crazy how it went from looking like Scotland here a few months ago to being 111 degrees and bone-dry with fires all over. Fortunately all of them are pretty small and seem to be under control quite quickly. Stay safe up there!

I have really had a great week this week. We were able to have a lot of success and had 3 people at church as well as finding some awesome new people to teach.  I am amazed at how well Satan can counterfeit the works of the Lord. But it really is just as Moses describes when he asks where his glory is. Satan can't replicate the peace that comes from the Spirit no matter how much he tries.  I was reading this morning in Alma 56:39-40 where the stripling warriors are being pursued in a straight line. The Lamanites were pursuing them and not leaving their course because they were set on destroying and the Nephites were going straight so they would not be destroyed. When we stay on the strait and narrow we will be able to avoid the darts of Satan who is chasing after us with a desire to destroy us. That is what I am doing. I want to do my best to be obedient in all so that I have no deviations in my course that would allow Satan to catch up to me.

We were ushers at a car show for a "car club" which felt like the 4-wheel version of the Hell's Angels!

I love you tons! Have the best week ever!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Sad Goodbyes

Some of the coolest missionaries I know!

This week I came to know the Savior more as I studied His teachings to the apostles regarding growing faith and overcoming doubts. I was again baffled by the complete lack of of doubt that the Savior had. He was in the same situations that the apostles were in (such as casting out devils or walking on the water) but was able to do so much more than them because he did not have any doubt. He believed completely in Himself and knew He was doing His Father's will. I was really excited to learn more about this and to start applying it. I need to have more faith so that I can be the tool through which miracles can happen. 

Things are going well here in Lasselle and Ironwood. I am excited for all the good things that happening. We are having a lot of member involvement, people at church, etc. It is great! I'm pumped. We are having a baptism this Sunday!

I am really sad that President and Sister Mullen are leaving this Friday. It will be an interesting transition. We'll see how it goes! I sustain my leaders though. I know President Hammon is called of God. 

It has been waaaaayy hot here. Yesterday was 111. But water helps! 

We had a few missionaries come home here in Moval so they are way excited to help us out and give us referrals. You are right, the responsibility to share the gospel is actually not on the missionaries, but it is on the members. The members are to find and the missionaries are to teach. The more members do missionary work, the more the church grows. The counsel given all throughout the D&C in regards to missionary work is for all members, not just missionaries. 

Tell the family hi for me! I am excited to see them all. I hope they can all be at the airport when I arrive. I got my itinerary this week from President Mullen during my exit interview. Ahhh it was so spiritual but it is also so sad. I will be so bummed when my mission comes to an end. It's getting real. This is my last transfer. Ever. It's sad. 

Here's a sample of a Samoan dinner and some shirts I designed for the mission! The Justs are some of the coolest missionaries I know and they are heading home this week :(

Love you so much! 

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :) 

Brother Samuelu, "He's the coolest!"

 This week was absolutely fantastic. I was really taught a lot by the Lord. Last week I realized that my effort could use some work so I set out at the start of last week to push as hard as I could this week and to qualify more for the Holy Ghost. Long story short, I am prideful and need to humble myself and I need to grow my faith more by being more diligent and finish my mission sprinting. I just need to make sure I don't forget this important lesson over the next few weeks!

I have been focusing on increasing my faith by asking the Lord in prayer every morning to lead me to those I can baptize and to help me be able to treat this day as if it's my only day to serve Him. I also have been asking what I need to study multiple times during my personal study both for myself and my investigators. I honestly forgot to do it many times but I did notice a big difference in my attitude and the Spirit I felt during the week. I realize how easy it is to plateau and unless we are constantly looking for ways God wants us to improve, we will start digressing in our progression (Alma 37:41).  We saw some miracles in the Samoan ward this week by being led to a really cool set of cousins. We felt strongly to stop by this one family but they were not there and we talked to the younger cousins instead. We taught them the message of the Restoration and they accepted! It was awesome. We also were blessed to find some way cool people in the Lasselle Ward. We had 3 of them show up to church too! It is a huge blessing. 

It is crazy to think that there in only a week and a half left of having President and Sister Mullen as my Mission President and wife. They go home the last day of June. It's sad! I'm going to miss them. We had a really good multi-zone conference this week in which they said goodbye to us and shared their testimonies, advice and the Doctrine of Christ. It was powerful. 

I agree, I think the amount of time I have home will be perfect. Not too long or too short. I hope I can adjust in that amount of time. It is also really nice to know where I will be living and to have that all taken care of.

It is hot here but I think I've adjusted. We went hiking this morning and it got up to almost 100 by the time we finished and I didn't notice. I guess 4 years in this kind of heat makes it not seem so bad! 

I am really determined to give it my all these last few weeks I have left! I love you so so much and I hope you have a fantastic week! Stay safe and enjoy your travels! Love you!!

Your Elder Jackson :)