Happy Halloween y Feliz Navidad

November 2, 2020

Hola de El Paso!!! The promised land!! What a great first week here! 

But before I talk about El Paso, we gotta talk about Christmas in Cruces. New Mexico gave me an early present on Tuesday morning when we woke up to snow!! It was a crazy surprise which called for David Archuleta Christmas music and hot chocolate. It made for a fun day as we also said bye to a few people and had some last lessons there. It gave me just a taste of Christmas and the special spirit of the season to come, which is really of the spirit of our Savior!! We of course had some resemblance of Halloween on Saturday, my mom's all time favorite holiday, but wasn't quite the same. But we are got our little 2 foot tree up here last night so we are getting a head start on the next holidays! I really can't wait to get to testify of Savior in the special time of year that's all about Him. 

Sadly, the Christmas buzz early in the week turned into a bit of cabin fever as we got news on Wednesday that that all missionaries in both Las Cruces and El Paso would be in strict isolation for the next couple weeks because of a huge spike in Covid down here. It has made for a little slower welcome to El Paso but still great nonetheless! We have a cool view from our apartment, which is a huge upgrade in itself. Also it made for a couple cool walks in the city which is a total ghost town right now. And tons of phone calls, almost all in Spanish!! Some are good portion of Spanglish, which is 100% a real thing and straight up hilarious. People will be talking for a minute in spanish, throw in a line of English randomly, then just go back to Spanish. It's a great time and it makes me so happy to be able to use my Spanglish too!! At times it's a little tough to understand over the phone but the gift of tongues continues to be so real. 

Other great things, we have had a few meetings with the ward already and they are incredible!! Seriously so invested in missionary work it is insane. What a blessing, especially since my new comp Elder Woods and I are opening a new area down here! We made a ton of calls to try and get to know the members and set up lessons with them which was fun. As well, we tried to get in contact with people who have been previously taught in the past, which was a little slower at first. But we decided to keep grinding it out yesterday. We said a prayer before we made the last few calls of the night and sure enough we were able to talk to and set up some appointments with several really cool people for the coming week.

I think that pretty much sums it up! Not as many crazy stories this week but I'm so happy to be in El Paso and feel so grateful for the Lord's direction in putting me here. I was reading this week in Mormon 3 this week and Mormon talks about the love he had for his people. He says in verse 12, "I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them." I really have felt this same love for the people I've met on my mission, both in Las Cruces and already here.  God's love is so real and strong for all of His children! 

I hope you all have a great week and can feel our Heavenly Father's love for each of you every day! 

Con amor,

Elder Jackson 

1 Christmas morning in Cruces

2 Said bye to one my "dads" Elder Gale 

3 Morning views from the apt

4 Sunset, yard know even tho its through the window

5 Attempt at Halloween spirit

6 Oreos getting ahead on Christmas as well