Calabazas y Fe !!

October 18, 2021

Hola hola!!! Another great week here that flew by and was full of highlights! 

First things first, an update on our amigos! 

-La familia Medrano. They are doing good! They made it to church again which was awesome! Except for the dad, who had to work again so he couldn't make it, which was a little bit of a bummer. But he told us of a cool experience he had this week where he knew without a doubt God helped him feel love for his difficult landlord which helped him deal with some challenges in their store. All in all they are doing solid and are continuing to progress well! 

-La familia Saucedo. They didn't make their baptismal date of this last Saturday, but they are still doing well! They all came to church again and even paid tithing. After church they also met with our Obispo and he was able to give them some special counsel. The youngest daughter hasn't been as interested as the rest but recently turned a corner, so we are hoping to get them baptized all together in the near future!! Now we just gotta tackle the WoW :) 

-Adela. She is so legit!! We had several really good lessons and most excitingly, she's on page 93 of Libro de Mormón!! It's so cool to see how eager she is to learn!! We are so excited for her!! 

-Our friend Crystal is the best, the only hard thing for her this week was that she was really wanting to bear her testimony in sacrament so she was a little sad when we explained she'll have to wait a few more weeks until fast Sunday haha

-New peoples!! We have been having a ton of success in this trailer park that's pretty close to our house and seems to be chalk full of elect people!! There are several families and other individuals we were able to find this week and really are hoping they can progress.

A fun highlight from the week was on Tuesday we carved pumpkins with our favorite members, la familia Gonzalez!! Every year they go out to east New Mexico and pick up a bunch of pumpkins to sell so they had a million! It was a party and definitely made it feel like Halloween, even though Elder Woodhouse and I might have been singing some Christmas songs this week as we got our big coats out a couple times at night haha. It was a blast though to be with los Gonzalez and you already know my templo pumpkin takes the cake. 

Last couple quick things, we had an awesome exchange on Saturday where we set some steep goals and then we had some crazy miracles to hit those goals including finding a new on the very last attempt of the night! And then we also haven't been able to meet with Crystal's aunt Sandra too much but got back into contact with her this week and she said she still wants to be baptized next Saturday!! So we are pumped and are going to have a busy week making sure she is ready to go! 

My spiritual thought to wrap up is about Faith. Faith has been on my mind a lot after President Weathersby shared some powerful insights on it in MLC the other day. As we know it's the first principle of the gospel and the first step to all of the blessings from Heavenly Father. It is the belief that leads to action and then power from God. But recently, I've been pondering on exercising faith even when you don't see the miracle. 

I love the story President Nelson shared in his talk from April. "In Samoa, Fiji, and Tahiti, just as the meetings began, the rain stopped. But in Tonga, the rain did not stop. We saw vibrant faith at work among each of those islanders—faith sufficient to stop the rain and faith to persevere when the rain did not stop." 

I know true, complete faith is living the gospel even when the rains don't stop and know that Heavenly Father will give us the strength to get through. Ultimately as we excerise faith we will grow to become more like Him. One last quote from President Nelson to close! 

"Faith in Jesus Christ is the greatest power available to us in this life. All things are possible to them that believe. Your growing faith in Him will move mountains—not the mountains of rock that beautify the earth but the mountains of misery in your lives. Your flourishing faith will help you turn challenges into unparalleled growth and opportunity."

Y por fin, Eter 12:6. 

Have a great week!! Love you all so much!! 

Con todo el amor, 

Elder Jackson 

1-4 Calabazas con los Gonzalez 

5-7 Mole and tunas 

8 Not my pic of the temple but too good not too add