¡ Viva México !

September 20, 2021

Holaaaaa hola!! 

It has been another great week, especially after Mexican Independence day on Wednesday, hitting one year in the field on Tuesday, and a handful of other exciting things happening out here! 

A quick(ish) update on our amigos!! 

Crystal and Milley are doing better than ever with a few solid lessons this last week and they're continuing to progress towards their baptism this coming Saturday! I always seem to get a little stressed the week of, but they really are so solid so we are praying it all goes smoothly!! As far as Crystal's aunt who also wants to be baptized, there is a little bit of a unique situation with her so we still need to figure out if she will be able to be baptized this week as well but again, we will be praying lots for the three of them in the days to come. The highlight with them this last week though had to have been making an appearance at Milley's 11 year old birthday party. Mexican birthday parties are always a good time with tons of random family hanging out on the driveway, listening to mariachi music, and eating tons of mexican food that is constantly being attacked by flies - frijoles, arroz, tacos, chips, valentina hot sauce, spicy Mexican candy which I'm still not a huge fan of, and plenty of coke/cerveza (depending on what kind of party it is lol). 

We have some big time news with la familia Saucedo!! They were pretty busy at the beginning of the week and kept having to reschedule or settle for little messages over the phone. Until Saturday night!!! They live on the very top of our area so it makes it harder to just stop by. But Saturday night we felt like we should go and it was such a miracle!! The other kids are a little older and were out for the night but the parents had just gotten home and we were able to have such a powerful lesson with them. They are going through some of the hardest things I've honestly ever seen a family go through, they have definitely been humbled to receive the gospel at this time, but their faith and willingness to turn towards God is incredible. Because of their faith though the Spirit has been working on them for the past month now and it was again so strong on Saturday and they accepted a baptismal date for October 16th!! They said they would talk to their girls as well since they weren't there but we are praying like crazy they all can get baptized that day. Such a special family!! 

Another awesome family, la familia Medrano!! We have had some super cool lessons and experiences with them as well this last week that have been so exciting!! This family we found a few months ago when as the dad was telling us to leave, the mom came out and told us she wanted us to teach their son. I would be surprised if anyone else actually remembers the story but it was pretty cool! So we taught them a little then but they got super busy and we felt it wasn't quite the right time. Fast forward to this last week we felt like we should go by them again and they were super happy to see us!! We were able to teach them and it was great but the best part was when we came back a couple days later for the next lesson they said they had read 1 Nefi 1 - the parents, brother in law, and all 5 kids - together as a family!! We then were able to have our ward mission leader come to a lesson with them last night and it was again so powerful as he shared of his own personal conversion and the Spirit was super strong. We have another lesson with them again tonight, so who knows we might have another family on date by the end of the week!! Praying everything goes well with them as well.

The last highlight I'll share, and as well make it my spiritual thought, was we had a zone council that was honestly the best one I've ever been a part of. President shared with us all some powerful thoughts about his favorite topic, obedience, earlier in the week as he read from 1 Nefi 17 and 18 - when Nephi builds the boat. For this zone council we were able to simply gather as a zone and read these chapters together and talk about the same points. One of my absolute favorite things shared was in verse 2 of chapter 18. It says Nefi worked according to the manner of the Lord and not the manner of men. I love this so much because obedience really is being humble enough to do what the Lord wants, even when we possibly don't understand. And it is all motivated by the Love we have for the Lord and when it is focused on the love for Him it is so powerful!! It was just a great, uplifting experience and the feeling of love for the Lord and for one another was really neat. I would love to invite you all to read these chapters and ponder on the lessons in them this week!! 

Sorry for another long letter. I'll drop some pics down below! Love you all so much!! Hasta luego!! 

Amor,

Elder Jackson 

1-2 couple of sunsets 

3 Elotes for 1 year in el campo y el día de independencia de México 

4 s/o to David the truck driver who got us Dennys