This Week Was Fantastic!

This week was fantastic! We were able to see so much success. The Lord is truly blessing us! Roman  and Andrew were able to enter the waters of baptism and make a covenant with their Father in Heaven. Seeing children of our Father in Heaven choose to follow Christ and be baptized in the manner He was. The Spirit that was present at the baptism was unreal. The ward was so supportive- the Relief Society room was overflowing with people! The talks that were given were very loving (although not completely doctrinal). President and Sister Mullen also came to the baptism! I am so thankful that we were able to have the Lord bless us with these wonderful people to teach. 

                                                                                                    

It was completely by 

His grace that we found them and

were able to teach people as prepared as them. I am also grateful that we were able to have two more investigators there whom we also would not be able to teach without the grace of God: Madison, who is getting baptized this Saturday at 2:00 pm, and Danielle, who is getting baptized the first Sunday in March! It is nothing short of a miracle! We are so grateful for the Lord's hand that has been in our lives this past few weeks. Also, we were blessed by the Lord to start teaching  all 4 of Danielle's baptismal age kids! We also were able to start teaching a very promising father in a part-member family. Elder Drebot showed forth our faith and diligence in a minuscule manner and look at how the Lord has blessed us! The Lord is unfairly gracious to those who try to serve Him with all they have.

I was reading in Alma 12 this week and was struck by the descriptive wording of the way we fall into Satan's grasp. It used the word "encircling" in describing the chains that will encroach into our lives if we allow ourselves to be tempted by his subtle tactics. We must employ all caution in our lives so that we do not become his captive. Fortunately, we have the Holy Ghost and the light of Christ's atonement to guide us through and break the chains with which we are "encircled about" by. Satan will try to stop our progression on all fronts if he can get us to simply stop living the way God has asked. If he can get us on one thing, he can slowly get us on more and more. The power of Christ is stronger than all of that though; we can one day stand before God as changed people and look up at Him in full confidence that we have become clean through Christ's atonement and that we are free of the influence of the devil. We will be prepared to enter into eternal life with our Father and His Son. This knowledge is beautiful and it is great that we can share it!

We are so so so excited for the next few weeks! We are going to have so many baptisms here in the Jurupa Ward. The ward members are helping out so much and it is such a blessing. This is not the same ward it was when I got here. I think that this ward will continue to have the missionary fire for a long time! I hope and pray I can stay one transfer longer! I love it here so much. 

The rain here was kind of bad, but nothing too crazy! We were just soooo bored sitting in the apartment. That night I had a dream I went home and it was the weirdest thing ever. I felt as if I had had a two year dream and then woken up and life was exactly the same as where I left off. I wonder if that is what it will be like!

Oh, check out Madison's blog post about becoming Mormon! It's so stinking cool!: http://jeanmachine97.blogspot.com/2017/02/becoming-mormon.html?m+1

She is the best!

 I love you lots! have the best week ever!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Coolest Experience of My Life!

It was Temple Monday

Those cakes are crazy! (from Roots Tech pictures mom sent).

Are those pictures from Wells (of the flooding)? That is nuts! We've had light rain but not anything major. I don't know if there's anything big coming up soon. I remember that there was a YSA conference at ASU and Vai Sikahema was there with Chad Petersen, Thurl Bayley, Mitt and Anne Romney, Alex Boye and others. It was super cool! I remember learning a lot from it!

Speaking of FH, we had Madison start doing hers so that withing a week or two of getting baptized she will be able to go do baptisms for the dead. She is THE most solid person I have ever taught in my whole life! She's going to be the next Al Fox.

Wow, I have learned three great things this week: 1) I am glad "marriage/relationship counselor" is not in the job description of a missionary, 2) the law of chastity is such a blessing and 3) the Lord really does work through other people to accomplish the things He needs done when He needs them.

An experience with an investigator living with a boyfriend who is cultivating a desire to get baptized realized she needed to get married, separate, or not get baptized. It definitely built my testimony that living the law of chastity, all of the other commandments and having companionship inventory with your spouse or significant other is vital to a healthy and lasting relationship. I'm thankful for the many wonderful examples of couples who, conversely, do apply these things and have amazing and loving relationships that have lasted for decades and will for eternity!

Another investigator, Madison, felt prompted to go to a fireside in Redlands where an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, Elder Dallin H. Oaks, would be. She felt the Spirit so strong as he spoke and she was able to receive a witness that this church is the Lord's and this is His gospel. She said she felt as if there was no one else in the chapel and he was speaking directly to her. He answered all of the questions she had, especially the ones she was hesitant to ask. There was no coincidence that he came and the cards fell the way they did. The Lord knew full well that this Sister needed to hear that. He loves us and wants to help us.

I came to know the Savior more this week as I was reading through Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage. On page 176 it talks about the woman at the well and how the Savior did all the work. He planted a seed in that city and everywhere He went. He was the Master Sower. He then allowed His disciples to come through and harvest them. That really hit me. It is amazing how the Lord prepares people and does so much to help them and then allows His disciples to enjoy the fruits of His labor as they harvest them and bring them into the fold. He does the hard part and allows others to receive the benefit. That showed me of His true selflessness. He really did all for us and yet He wants none of the applause. He literally did everything He did for others. I'm grateful for the work he's done in preparing people to hear the word of the Lord and has then allowed me to enjoy the fruits of His labors as I get to see them enter into a promise to serve Him and keep His commandments for the rest of their life and as He promises to forgive their sins and send the Holy Ghost to them; that is a selfless act on His end that I am so grateful for. Jesus Christ's character is amazing. His infinite atonement changes everything.

This Sunday (2/19) we will be baptizing Andrew and Roman. Next Saturday (2/25) we are baptizing Madison. The following Sunday (3/5) we will be baptizing Danielle! I am so beyond excited! This has been the coolest experience of my life! 

They were cleaning out the old books from the ward library and I scored! I got Doctrinal New Testament Commentary by  Bruce R. McConkie (all 3 volumes) for free! I'm so excited. I'm going to send them home too because I am not really supposed to read them on my mission but will plow through them when I get home!

Love you mucho! You are the best Mom ever! Happy Valentine's Day! 

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Did You Know the World Is Flat?

This week was another fantastic one! Man, it is so great to be a missionary. I love every minute of it. We are so beyond blessed. We have seen so much success! We had 4 wonderful non-members come to church this week!

Madison is progressing so well. She is easily one of the most prepared people I've ever seen in my life. We have been teaching her a tad over a week and meet with her about every other day. She has already almost finished 2 Nephi and loves it. She already considers herself a "Mormon" and stood up to someone who was Pentecostal who was telling her that the Plan of Salvation was false. She is loving all of the members and even says that we are an answer to our prayers (even though she is really an answer to our prayers!). She has already made so many changes in her life and said that she simply has no desire to do anything wrong anymore! Whenever she hears a bad song come on, she changes it; whenever she gets invited to hang out with old friends, she says no; whenever she is tempted to say something mean, she refrains. It is so cool! I'm so lucky and glad to be able to teach her! She is going to be baptized on the 26th of February.

Andrew, the Freemason we are teaching is also doing spectacularly well! He is loving church and was so grateful for the Plan of Salvation. He says it has changed his whole outlook on life. He is almost done with 1 Nephi and says he is really liking it now. He listens to it whenever he drives as well. He told us how much he felt rejuvenated after honoring the whole Sabbath day with his girlfriend's family. He's getting baptized on Feb. 19th.

Roman is doing great too! He's an awesome 11 year old. He loves church and loves us. He is so smart and really absorbs so much of what we are talking about. His mom (a returning member) seems to really like coming to church too! He's getting baptized on Feb. 19th!

Myrna and Denman are doing well too. They are loving how they feel as they are keeping the Sabbath day holy, reading their scriptures, and praying twice daily. They both indicated how much they love having the missionaries come over because of the Spirit that comes as well. That tickles me inside to hear!

I really came to know the Savior through reading D&C 19:15-20. I think I've probably read these verses 100 times, but they really sunk in this time. There really is "no other way nor means whereby man can be saved, only through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ (Helaman 5:9)". If we want to live with God again, we must repent; otherwise we must suffer- even as Christ suffered. There is no excuses we can make. Alma 42:22-24, 30 teaches us that without repentance we are fully left to the demands of justice. We cannot receive mercy without repentance and we cannot try to cover our sins. I feel so much more grateful for the mercy that is available to us through Christ's Atonement, who was willing to face and pay for the demands of justice simply out of love for us and the Father. I am grateful that we don't have to pay for our sins and that we can receive complete mercy if we allow the Savior to cleanse us, which is what He is begging us to do. We must simply humble ourselves and submit to His will so that we fully become changed. 

We also had a stoned teenager tell us that God had told him that we should take a hit of his weed. We replied, "He most definitely did not". He asked us why God would put weed on the earth if He didn't want us to smoke it. Elder Drebot replied, "God put arsenic on the earth, did He want us to smoke that too?" Touche. 

We also walked up to a guy who was working on his yard and blowing the leaves out of the grass. He said, "Me first: the world is flat." We at first thought he was joking and was going to just say something anit-Mormon to us and say it was just as preposterous as believing in our church. But no, he proceeded to talk for the next 15 minutes about a YouTube video he'd watched that proved that the earth was actually flat and the center of the Universe. He said the video uses "physics" to prove that gravity is a conspiracy and that everything we think is gravity is actually density (which is only a factor when gravity is in effect...?). He asked if a plane ever dips when flying around the world and he said that if you were flying around the world you'd be flying upside down if the world was a sphere (again...false). He said all the water would run off the ocean floor it the world was not flat (again...gravity accounts for that). All in all, this guy was bonkers but looked completely normal. It was so sad that he full-heartedly believed that the government had spent so much time and money to cover up the fact that the world is really flat. People are crazy! 

I am so beyond excited! It was such a relief to hear that I made it in to the ASU ID program.

I still have my rain gear you sent me last year. I haven't really used it because it takes so long to put on. I just wish the shoes I had didn't soak up water like a sponge (the hole in the bottom probably doesn't help). I just don't want to buy new shoes with only 6 months left to go, ya know?

Wow, your adventure to Antalope Valley sounds crazy! That is so cold! I think I would have something go wrong with me in those temperatures. I haven't been in anything under 40 in close to 3 years, I think. I'm glad you survived. I agree, I think you need to take a warm vacay to get into some heat! Sorry to hear about your car giving you troubles though! That is really the pits. Do you think they did that just to wait until the warranty was up so that you'd have to pay for it? What kind of car are you thinking of getting? Are the Renegades those smaller ones? What about a Grand Cherokee? That is a little bigger. Did you like the Highlander? You should get a 4Runner if you want something bigger. They're nice. The Tacoma is like the best car out there, in my opinion :) haha But whatever car you get, make sure that get something sleek! After all, you are the coolest mom on the block! haha. So if you got a new car, I'd get the Highlander. Does dad just like the Pilot that much? haha. I was just planning on using that when I get home, but I'm fine with whatever. I'm just grateful that I've been able to use a car! Thank you! 

Thank you so much for being the best mom ever! Love you tons! Have a great week!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Another Amazing Week!

You are right about the water! It has rained like I have never seen before in my life. It hasn't rained hard, but it has pretty much been constantly raining this whole week. Yesterday we weren't allowed to leave our apartment because of the flood warnings. All we went to was church and dinner. We apparently go 6 inches just yesterday alone. The hills here are like glowing green and there has been a ton of roads that have been washed out or are closed because they are flooded. It's been a lot of fun. I way like this kind of weather compared to sunny and hot. Although, my shoes are not waterproof at all so I wanted to let you know I am going to buy some shoes today that won't get soaked every time I walk in a puddle. My electric razor also is almost 100% dead so I am going to buy a new one. If you see some charges on my account, that is why! I will say, I am sure that the snow is a ton of fun! I can't believe how much has come. Stay safe!!!!

Tell Brother Hale I said hi. He is a great guy. I like him a lot and am grateful he was my leader. You are right about the leadership meetings being so spiritual you feel you'll burst. I've turned into a baby and tear up at a lot of them now. You just can't take me anywhere!

This week was yet another amazing one! We have seen so many miracles- it's unreal. I love being a missionary. I am grateful that we have two years to serve because it's two years worth of opportunities to see ways that we can learn and improve. I have really seen these past few weeks how I really am nothing. I, of my own effort, will never baptize anyone unto repentance or have any success in the work. This is the Lord's work and for too long I have been letting Elder Jackson get in the way of it. The trainings we received on the enabling power of the atonement of Jesus Christ, or grace, have really shaped the way I am doing this work. I am still working hard, just like I was before, but I am asking to be enabled and to be led. That has made all of the difference. The Lord really does fulfill all of His promises. As we've trusted in His promises and asked to be enabled the floodgates of the Lord have poured out upon us. I am speechless. I am so beyond grateful for all that He has done for me and for us as a companionship. Even though I still stumble and fall each day, He is, for some reason I can only attribute to love, still blessing us for simply trying and trusting. It has touched my heart immensely. I feel that the only way I can even come close to paying Him back is by doing as John directs in John 14:15 & 21: loving Him and showing that love by keeping His commandments. I've always been an obedient missionary, but obedience has no longer become a "have-to" but and "I want to" to that I can continue to receive these amazing blessings and feel the Spirit I have felt recently. I've been out close to 18 months now and I feel like I'm just now learning what I need to do to be a successful missionary.

So an example of these blessings that we are talking about would be a Madison. We received a call randomly indicating that there was a girl who was friends with a member family that had moved up to Utah a few years previous. She had gone up to visit for one of that family member's wedding as a bridesmaid. She was so impressed with the strength and longevity of LDS marriages; and the love and joy that she felt among friends and families who lived the gospel that she wanted to learn more. We called her the next morning and she asked if we could meet that night. We said of course! We called a member of our stake presidency, President Harris, and asked if his family's home would be available for us to teach there and they graciously said yes. When we got there, I just felt the Spirit confirm that she was prepared. She had previously attended Harvest (the mega church) and it didn't sit well with her. We started teaching the Restoration and the Spirit flooded the room.  I'll admit, the lesson went longer than it should have, but man, it was so powerful! She happily agreed to all the commitments, especially being baptized on the 26th of February because she said that she's spent the last few years of her life living "her way" (after being victim to some horrendous stuff) and she saw that that wasn't working and she knew that the only way to find actual happiness was doing things the Lord's way. That touched me. It's true. When we asked her how much of the Book of Mormon she thought she could read, she said she thought she could read up to the Book of Jacob by Monday (today). The lesson was on Saturday evening. When she showed up to church 12 hours later on Sunday morning, she was a little scared and nervous, but felt good- that was probably from the fact that she had already read the entire book of 1 Nephi! I don't know any member that has ever read all of 1 Nephi in a night. She said it was so interesting. I was blown away. The ward was so kind to her and really helped her feel at home. 

Now I did nothing to deserve this. We did not find her by our hard work or obedience. But the Lord, in His mercy, allowed us, as imperfect and unprofitable servants, to be able to teach one of His wonderful and very elect daughters. I am so thankful for the trust He has placed in our hands to do so and I hope to live worthy of continued blessings. I am so thankful that my heart has been softened and I have seen this change. I truly am nothing, but my God is everything and He is blessing us beyond measure because we are simply trying our best to be obedient to His commandments, working diligently and with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and hope in the promises He's made us. That makes my heart joyful beyond all measure. I love the Lord and I love His work.

I have been forever changed by my experiences here and I am grateful that President Mullen been an instrument in allowing that to happen. I know he loves the Lord and you love us missionaries. 

We also had a dope 11 year old in a part member family who is progressing, a Mason who is looking to convert and is dating an RM, and a dry Mormon who wants to convert from Catholicism, all come to church. It was a blessing! The work is going sooooo well here! It makes me beyond happy!

I love you and dad so much! How are the Jeronimos? Tell them I say Hi and I love them! Have the best week ever! Love ya!!!!

Your Elder Jackson :)

Mindset Shift to Grace

We were so beyond blessed this week! Elder Drebot and I have been working our tails off this past transfer. We were able to find a fairly good amount of new investigators and put them on date, but we really struggled with having people be solid. We knew that our goal was to baptize 4 people in the month of February and we knew that we were completely able to achieve a goal that we had set before the MLC. We have committed ourselves to hitting that goal. As we worked through this transfer, something felt like it was missing. After we received our wonderful trainings on grace and then turned around and gave those same trainings, our whole mindset shifted. We realized how little we had been including the Lord. We decided to ask for His help doing His work and to apply better the counsel we had received. Instantly I became so much more gracious for the Lord and what He has done for me and how He has helped. I felt the Spirit much more and was able to receive more personal revelation. I felt myself being enabled. And then we started seeing all of the miracles!

Even though we had a lot of people to work with, they all seemed hollow. We had people start dropping us and we felt the necessity to drop others as well so that they could further be prepared. But in so doing, the Lord allowed the floodgates to be opened. He blessed us with tons of referrals, 3 of which asked if they could be baptized! We also were able to have much more powerful lessons. This past Sunday we had 6 nonmembers come to church and 4 of them are progressing towards baptism! We are so excited to have these people be baptized and follow Christ. We cannot take credit for any of it. It wasn't that we worked any harder or did anything different other than follow the counsel and ask for (and notice) the enabling power of Christ's Atonement. God is the One Who did all the work, we just were fortunate to be the conduits through which He could! This is how I came to know the Savior more.

Look how green it is!

So yes, the Lord really blessed us this week! The work is going stupendously! One of the people who is progressing is an 11 year old boy named whose mom is a convert who went less active but now is returning and wants him to be a part of the church! He loves church and is such a great kid!

MLC

All in all, this week was just the best! Even though I've been sick this week, I've never been happier as a missionary. My great friend Allan Raymundo is also leaving to his mission this Wednesday. He is a cool convert I got to know in Corona. We also had transfers this week. Elder Drebot and I are staying together! Woo! It is crazy to think though that the Sister who came in with us who is Spanish speaking goes home tomorrow! This has flown by! Oh my gosh! 

Our Mission President has a goal to have us each do 10 hours of service per week. Right now we are at about 3 hours on average. Service is so much fun!

First Presidency Posers

I'm glad that dad liked the birthday gifts! I thought he would. I love those pictures! haha he looks great. Man, I love you guys. I hope he had a great birthday!

Those pictures you took were beautiful! Nevada and Utah are really quite pretty! I'm glad that you were able to be safe in your travels back home. I'm sure dad is happy to have you back home too! It'll be nice to be back home after 105 weeks away from you all :)

It's funny that you talk about traveling because I was reading my blessing this week too and it talks about how I'll travel to see the world and to support my family as well. I wonder if I'll be just like you when I'm grown and be traveling as much. Time will tell!

I love you mucho! Have the best week ever! 

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Mario.

Ni hau! This week I went on an exchange with the Chinese Elders. We...well actually they...taught a lot and had a lot of success and I understood absolutely none of it! haha But they cover 3 missions so it was a lot of fun to go outside of the mission for a lesson! The street sign says Ontario which is outside of the mission (it's all legal though! haha). We also had a yummy meal with a Chinese member named Brother Zhiang. It was hot pot and it was divine! 

Jackson jong lau (I probably mispelled all of that)

 We had a great week this week! It was a little slower and less fruitful than the previous one, but it felt much better. I for one felt the Spirit much more and feel like I came closer to the Lord this week than I have in a while. I definitely learned a lot about grace this week and I feel like I understand what it is, how one gets it, and why it is so important much clearer now. I had a hard time at first, but as I prayed for help in recognizing times when the Lord helped me do things I couldn't do on my own I had an interesting thing pop in my head: Mario. I have never been big into video games but Mario was one that I loved as a kid. There is a special thing in Mario called Star Power. When a star pops up, you have to run and jump to catch it, but when you do you are able to run faster, jump higher and have defense against those trying to hurt you. You still have to do all the work, but the strength of this power that is beyond your own makes you many times more effective. It eventually wears off and you have to find more. I thought this was an incredible connection that the Lord helped me see. When we are under the influence of grace we still have to go and work, but the effects of that effort are drastically larger than before when we are on our own. After I understood this more, coupled with what we learned at MLC, I was able to ask for grace and feel the strength of the Lord come into my life. I felt myself becoming enabled. I felt my gratitude for my Savior growing. I hope to continue receiving grace throughout the rest of my life and I hope I can continue to have the Spirit teach me things like this that help me understand the gospel more.

We had another amazing experience this week with the Lord showing forth His power. A few weeks back we had a family mention to us that they wanted us to stop by their parents' who had become inactive. Wrongly, we forgot to go by, but yesterday we saw the family who had referred us at church and quickly remembered that we hadn't stopped by. We both felt very strongly impressed to stop by. The impression grew stronger and stronger. When we eventually stopped by that evening, the wife,  answered the door. The Spirit immediately touched our hearts that this was exactly where we needed to be. As we sat down and got to know them, the Spirit got stronger. As we started talking about the First Vision I felt the Spirit probably one of the strongest times I ever have on my mission (top 5 for sure). We felt the Spirit guide us to which scriptures to use and what to say. We felt prompted to open it up to a testimony meeting and all of us (Elder Drebot, Brother and Sister Garcia, their adult daughter, and I) bore testimony of the Savior and what we knew to be true concerning this restored gospel. There was not a dry eye in the room and like I said, I can only remember a handful of times where I could feel the Spirit stronger than I did then. They said that they had literally just been praying for something and we knocked on their door. They said having us show up on their doorstep brought back the exact same feelings they had had when the Elders had originally knocked on their door in Bogota, Colombia back in the 70s. It was amazing to be such a literal answer to a family's prayer and an obvious instrument in the Lord's hands. We did nothing, but through us the Lord was able to show forth His power to some of His beloved children. That was an experience I will always treasure.

Wow, Little Bryson is adorable! I can't wait to meet him. Where are Trent and Taylor living? Maine? I can't wait to see him. He's so cute! I hope Trent is dong well!

I bet Jesse is having a blast! I will have to take him snowboarding next winter! I miss snowboarding so much, but that would be a ton of fun to go with him. I'm sure he'd pick it up very quickly!

I heard that there has been some crazy weather. It's been raining a lot here, but nothing too heavy. I heard LA flooded too! Sounds like there is a lot going on weather wise! Stay safe! I'm glad that you didn't drive home yet. Wait until it clears up!

I love you tons! I hope you have a great week! I still love you and miss you a lot too! 

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)

Love this Work!

That is so true! I come home this year! That is crazy to think about! I put my old calendar from last year away today and it was weird to think that I spent all 365 days of that year on a mission! 

That is cool to hear about the missionaries giving talks there. They seem to do that occasionally here, but I've only had to once. It sounds like they were pretty bomb talks though! I'm sure I'll be in the same boat when I am there on my last Sunday as a missionary.

Thank you for dropping my portfolio off. What all is in there; I can't remember. Do you have a digital copy you could send me? 

How was KY besides the cold KY rain and overcast skies? Did you see anyone besides Grandma? How is she doing? How are you feeling after visiting? I'm sure that is so hard. We have a couple of houses like the place grandma lives that we've been asked to teach people at and it is so sad to go there. I don't want to end up there. I don't want you or dad to end up at one either. I hope that you and dad live where ever I do. I'll always either buy a house next to yours or have a little casita that y'all can live in or something to that effect. I've lived away from you for long enough, I want you all close by!

This week has been amazing here in the Jurupa Ward! We are having an absolute blast with the work. The Lord is pouring out blessings on us like we can't imagine! We have been blessed as we've worked diligently and with faith. We were able to find a lot of people this week who were interested in hearing about the Restoration of the Gospel and who were willing to accept a baptismal date when we extended one (we have 12 people on date for baptism now!). We have also been blessed to be able to receive a lot of referrals recently which has greatly contributed to our success in finding the elect. I'd tell you about all the wonderful people we've found but it'd take too long! The most notable is a woman who is 60 years old. She has a myriad of health problems. She remembered seeing missionaries in Riverside a while back and wanting to talk to them. When she saw an add on Facebook, she decided to jump on it. She was excited to learn about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and quickly accepted a baptismal date. A member took her to church and she told the member that she really liked it! How great is that! I really hope I can stay in this area another transfer. I love it here so much!

This week I came to know the Savior more as I studied the Book of Mormon, in particular 3 Nephi 17. It was when the Lord groans because of our wickedness and then weeps for our faith. He prays for the Nephites and it is so powerful that no words can describe it. Then the heavens are opened and angels and fire encircle the little ones. This showed me how much my actions affect the Savior. He very much cares about what I am doing more than I do. He wants me to have faith and righteous actions more than anything. If I do, He will weep for joy. If I become as a little child, I will have angels to minister around me and will have the fire of the Holy Ghost round about me to purify and protect me. I was flabbergasted at how much He cares and what will happen if I simply follow His invitation to follow Him. It's so simple, yet incredibly difficult.

Abigail is doing well. She's still struggling a lot but I think she has a good foundation. She wants to go to the temple to do baptisms for the dead and she showed up to church this week. We set her up with a couple who are family history wizards. I think as long as she keeps on putting God first, things will work out eventually!

The work here is incredible. We picked up 10 new investigators, contacted 10 referrals, and have 12 on date. This area is so big! We have way more work to do than we can handle! I love it!

I love you and miss you so much! Have the best week ever! Travel safe!!

Love,

Your Elder Jackson :)