Yo!!!!

November 30, 2020

Hola Padres!!! Loved getting to talk to you guys this week, it was the best part of the Holiday for sure!!!! I really am so incredibly grateful for you guys. I can't express it enough. You guys are truly my best friends, and it's not even close. I love you guys so much!! I tried to write some more stories as well as thoughts from this week

Wednesday Devo

Sisters de Nauvoo. Grateful we went. Words of President Holland. Read 2 Nefi 3: 15 de José Smith that morning. Super cool because thir was prophecy of Joseph Smith THOUSANDS of years before he was even born!! He was absolutely vital. His work was incredible. I'm so grateful for him and what he did. But those words still sound empty to me, there's so much more feeling than I can write. 

Missionary Devotional 

Elder Christofferson snd his wife. Asked missioanries what result of the Restoration are they most grateful for. Some said Joseph Smith and his work, dedication of his whole life. Other's said a prophet today in President Nelson to lead us through difficult days now. Others said their intimate relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, the revelation they can recieve as well as forgiveness and love. 

Scriptures 

2 Nefi 2:2 the Lord will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. I felt like this was a huge theme from Conference and continues to be extremely relevant and important.

2 Nefi 2 really the whole thing is awesome. It gives such a good explanation of the Plan of Salvation and how we needed a Savior to overcome the effects of the fall and how it really is part of Gods plan that He made since before the foundation of the world. 

2 Nefi 4:15-21 

2 Nefi 4:34 

Stories

Alfredo 

Doing well!! We had some good lessons with him!! Everytime it starts out a little funny, he talks about something kinda crazy snd ends up being spirtual and good by the end. It's cool. He like actually repented this week which was way awesome bc a one point he said he didnt think he was ready for that.  

Hector

Hector is out of the hospital and talks to us quite frequently!!! We had some really good lessons, went back over the restoration just to check up and it was poweful. Said he really liked it and the Book of Mormon. Just needs help w it sometimes bc its hard to understand on his own he said. But we had bishops son go over to his place and set up zoom and helped him watched the baptism of the Hermanas on Saturday which was awesome!! Really excited about that.

Margarita 

Got into contact with her more this week!! Still werent able to have a lesson but it was good to at least just get into contact with her. She was super nice and gave us a plate of Thanksgiving food on Wednesday night. And we took her some of the pumpkin cookies I made on Friday. She really liked them!! We also talked to her for a while on Saturday just about her life and stuff and I was about to try and turn it into a lesson but then Elder Woods was like alright we gotta go can we talk another time? I was like whyyy lets just talk rn but oh well

Thanksgiving

El dia de accion de gracias!!! Started w the usual workouts which always gotta love. As well as the studies, I read 2 Nefi 4 and it was fire.  We talked a ton which was so nice!!!! There were like 4 members that brought us a plate of food, and then we also went over to our ward mission leaders house, los Gutierrez. Such an awesome family!! They have a daughter on a mish tho in Idaho and she called so like they kinda talked to her a lot but I don't blame them haha and we talked to her too of course. But the little granddaughter is 4 and was sooooo cute. She spoke perfect Spanish and was just super animated it was so funny to see this little person so good at spanish, speaking without thinking at all. And I felt good about my spanish actually, I understood pretty much everything and said pretty much everything I wanted. But using the tú w the little girl was weird actually. Also she like speaks good English too but its legit only from watching YouTube and movies in English hahah. She was funny. And the food was good!! Just pretty solid traditional, one little green spagetti thing which was diferente but it was good. And no nuts so yuh 

Service w Kris's friend 

This was crazyyyy. We were just doing comp study, reading some Normas para misioneros, formerly known as the white bible, and i get a call from a random numer. Not very unusual but it said it was from Arizona which was a little bit strange. But i just asnwered w hopes it wasnt a scam and said Bueno somos los misioneros! And the voice said Hola misionero habla Elder Jackson? And was like what the heck sí? And then i realized i recognized the voice. It was Kris!!! Haha we had been emailing a little and I remembered he almost bought some buildings here in El Paso but he told me in an email that he actually passed up on it. Long story short forbthe next 20 minutes he told me he knows a dude down here named David Bingham I need to contact, they had talked about missions and stuff and made the connection i was here in EP. We kinda had a full schedule that day but Kris thought the guy needed some help tomorrow, on Thanksgiving. So i called the guy up and he was way nice. It all worked out perfect. We moved a lesson to a little later, got the service approved bc Covid, and went and handed pies out to the tenants of this guys apmt complex he just bought. It was cool!! He was nice, appreciative, and said maybe we could do some service for his mom who I believe lives in our area. Who knows what'll come! Cool thing that worked out 

Service in the am 

Woke up at 5:38 to go do service for a lady in the ward. It was 37° when we left our apt!!!! I thought i was going to freeze!! Luckily our Carolla heater is top notch, might give Dads a run for his money. Jk not quite that but it was good. The lady had a bunch of old stuff but her son was cool and eventually some more people showed up from the ward and it was good! We only broke one thing, it was a glass square in the table, kinda like that old coffee table we used to have, but it fell out and broke. Also the ward ppl was just hno Gutierrez and the ramos family haha. Good people!! 

*Update w this. Shes not a member first off. But also she had wayyyy more crap than I realized. Shes like a hoarder, it was gross stuff haha she has a cat and it smelled like cat vomit inside. The best thing we found amongst her stuff had to have been the ashes of her grandma or something haha that was wack. There was a bunch of old virgin mary stuff, other random old junk. We were there for like an hour on saturday morning and moved most of the big stuff. But then the other guys there were there like all day but didnt finish. So we went bacl over yesterday, yes Sunday it wasn't my idea at all, and helped for another two hours. 

**We weren't very efficient yesterday in general which kind of bugs me sometimes. I don't know how to balance like being loving and wanting to have fun and be friends and just wanting to work, be efficient, do everything we need to

Baptism for Hermanas

Said the opening pray. I want a baptism so bad!!! Hector watched it tho!! It was sick. Spirit really strong. Loved it in spanish. We sang a spanish hymn w ppl for the first time and I loved it!! 

EXCHANGE 

Ahhh so after the baptism we came back to do sn exchange with Hunter and his comps and it was sooooo dope!!!!! I went with Elder Jenkins and he is such a good dude!!! It was just so nice to be with someone who had an excitement for the work and some energy and experience and stuff. It was so lit. And they had a heck of a night planned so it was perfect. First we just planned and studied a lil and it was nice bc normally im like the driving force, but our energies and intentiveness i guess just matched. It was awesome. Just in the studies he talked about some things from PMG which ai thought i knew about but i hadnt studied since the MTC so definitely need to start doing some more in that. But our lessons were way good. I dont know if it was bc we were teaching in english but i was just about to feel and focus on the spirit a lot more. I just tried to focus on the things they were saying, and tried to just say what came into my mind. I think ill get to this point with my spanish where I don't think about it at all, I've already felt like I've progressed so much, but it was just awesome bc I felt like the spirit was really strong. And the people were sick. There was a lady who we made a new, we had a Bible study with. Then we had meal with a member outside and it was soooo good. It was like roast but w bbq sauce and vegetables and potatoes it was fire. And she was super cool, convert of 11 years and going to give BoM to all her fam for Christmas. Then a really good lesson with this returning member. She said it'd been like 12 years since she'd been to church and had a bunch of questions but it was awesome. Another older lady who was way nice, progressing well. And this super elect dude who was awesome, he is like totally knows its true he just is living w his gf. He like believes in the law of chastity but his gf isn't super open to the church rn, but i think she'll come around. He was super cool. And then we actually did go outside and went on a walk but we were productive while we did it too and did contacting still, invited people to church and stuff. It was so much fun honestly. It just clicked with Elder Jenkins. Idk it was weird I felt closer to him than any of the comps Ive had so far. And he was suuper grateful for it too bc he said Hunter and his other samoan comp are kinda quiet. And the samoan is kinda lazy haha. We just had a lot more in common and were both super excited for it, it was a super fun night. 

Spiritual Takeaways

Follow the spirit!!

Contact w genuine interest 

Study PMG 3,4,9,10 - CCE revelation from Pres Oaks

Write as I go in Personal Study, write inspiration down!! 

 

Preach My Gospel 

I hadnt been studying this as much as I shoukdve so I started yesterday and read this part I love so much. Really these 4 things are huge. And it just becomes more evident that the spirit is absolutely essential. Hear Him!! I want to find some legit people so bad ah 

 "develop Christlike attributes, study the missionary lessons, improve your ability to speak in your mission language, and rely on the Spirit in order to teach with convincing power"