Week #14 Learn it, Live it, Become it

Hello Everyone!!

This week was pretty awesome.   I am starting to really get ahold of the language.   I am getting to the point where I can just have conversations with people about random stuff and respond and everything....it´s SO awesome!  I´m so thankful to be learning Spanish too...it's the best!

So this Saturday, we got called by the Bishop...he wanted us to come over to his house.   We had no idea what for, but we went.   Basically, he invited us over to tell us how appreciative he and his family are for our hard work and how much he loves us.   He said that he can feel a new spirit in the ward and it is readily apparent.   After that, his wife cooked us pankekes(chilean pancakes) and then we had 3 complatos each...they are AWESOME! (basically a hotdog with avocado,tomatos, aji, and mayo)   Right after that, we had a family home evening with some members and a less active family. We showed up...you guessed it...they had complatos! lol  We ended up eating like 4 pankakes, 7 complatos, and like a half liter of coke each. Lol  We were stuffed!   Another night, we had a family home evening with the family Acosta.( They´re great because lots of time, food is the only way to get less actives to meet with us)   There were like 3 or 4 different families there...like 18 people. It was AWESOME!   We had tacos.   They were delicious.   I got inducted into the clan of WOOGIE WOOGIE.   I can´t really talk about it...it´s a secret. ;) lol   But that was fun.  Their son, Mauricio, is a professional dj.  He has a sweet setup in his room.  He let us play on it a little...super fun! (I´m a little jelous of Elder Lawson now.)   He said he is going to make us a cd for Christmas! :D  I´ll have to wait to listen to it though. :( Oh well.

Louis and his Mom thought that we looked hungry... Here is what they gave us to take home with us!!!

We have a less active, Luis Vera, that has made like a complete turn around.   We had a lesson with him last week and he ended up just telling us about this epiphemy he had.   Basically, he wants to get back together with his wife so that he can live the gospel with his wife and his son again! :)   It is just so awesome to see someone have a desire to change their lives to serve the Lord´s will in their lives.

Our Thanksgiving Dinner!!

Today, for Thanksgiving, the district had our own Thanksgiving.   We cooked turkey, stuffing, rolls, potatos from scratch, gravy from scratch, pie, and fruit.  It was super awesome.   Also, we went ahead and did dirty santa for christmas since we probably won´t all be able to get together on a pday before transfers.  I´m probably going to be leaving the sector after this change...in 3 weeks.

Michael and Elder Jackson

So scripture of the week is 3 Nephi 19:28 "

28 Father, I thank thee that thou hast purified those whom I havechosen, because of their faith, and I pray for them, and also forthem who shall believe on their words, that they may be purifiedin me, through faith on their words, even as they are purified inme.

29 Father, I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hastgiven me out of the world, because of their faith, that they may bepurified in me, that I may be in them as thou, Father, art in me,that we may be one, that I may be glorified in them.

This is just such a great scripture...so powerful.   It truly emphasizes our savior´s unconditional love for us.   Many times in our lives, we lean on the prayers of our friends and family, but what we learn in this scripture,(and typical don´t think about) is that the savior is always praying for us.   The point of the gospel is to change us.   For us to have a change of heart, a change of desire, and a change of our very nature.   Jesus prays for us to experience this "mighty change of heart".    Through this change, we can have Christ in us, even as the father is in him.   That is just miraculous to think about...imagine the possibilities;however, all of that is predicated on our faith in Heavenly Father and HIS gospel.   We must learn to not only trust the guidence of the Lord, but to DEPEND on it. It is the ONLY way that we can become the sons and daughters that we are destined and ordained to be.

If you get nothing else from reading this, whoever you are, know that our Heavenly Father loves us.    He wants us to be the best that we can be and the happiest we can be with our families.    That is through the gospel of our Father and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love each and every one of you.   I wish you luck on this journey we call life and I pray that you would feel the love of our God in your lives.   That you would feel his hands guiding you in every decision.   And that you would come to love the gospel.   When you learn to love the gospel more than you want to breath, you will find happiness.   God bless.

Con amor,

Elder Jackson

Week #13

Hello All,

This was a good week...lots of work.  First,  I met a new missionary to our zone at our zone meeting this week.  His name is Elder Ranking.  He is a super great guy from Arizona.  I was talking with him and after a bit, I told him that I only had two months in the mission.  He was like " OH REALLY??  I figured you had like a year."  That was sweet to hear.  He said he thought that because of the way i talk and the way that I carry myself...he said I seemed like someone who had a lot of experience.  Kinda cool to hear that.

Second,  I went on divisions with Elder Orchard because Elder Peck had to go out with Elder Johnson bc he is the district leader.  We went to this man´s house.  His name was Patricio.  Patricio is learning English, so we spent a while helping him. with that...he actually speaks and understands pretty dang well.  Anyway,  we started talking about the gospel.(  More Elder Orchard just because he knew him better and everything.) Patricio basically said that he doesn´t want anything to do with the church, but that he wants to continue English.  Suddenly,  I felt prompted to say something.  I started talking in what seemed to be( and what Elder Orchard told me later) "like perfect Spanish".  I don´t remember what I said, but I know for a fact I was being guided.  I wasn´t the one talking.  It was like someone else was in my head whispering what to say.  I would have this voice tell me what to say, and then i would think " That´s perfect!"  All I really remember doing, is testifying of the truthfulness of the gospel.  I know that the Holy Ghost was speaking through me because the most powerful lessons are always the ones that you don´t really remember, BECAUSE YOU AREN´T SAYING ANYTHING REALLY!  This was such a humbling experience.  Elder Orchard told me that night while we were planning that while I was talking, he couldn´t help but to look at me because he felt the Holy Ghost so strongly and knew that I was being guided.  

We had once with our friends from the Bahai church again this week, but this time it was in OUR chapel.  It was a good time.  At the end, we showed them around.  When we got to the chapel, Sebastian said "permisso" or " Excuse me" and went and started looking around the chapel.  He went to the back and just say in one of the pews...smiling.  When he came back he was real excited and just said that he feels at peace in there...we explained why.  lol

We ran into a super old menos activo family...it´s a guy named Luis and his mom.  When I say old, I mean OLD!  His mom, is 103.  That was super cool...she has more energy than us!! lol  They had a bunjch of stuff from world war 2.  We had a great visit and lesson with them.  At the end, they asked me to pray.  I prayed.  After Luis opened his eyes, he turned to his mom and said "Mommy, how do you feel?"  She replied "Peaceful.  That was so awesome to know that both of them feel the spirit when we are there.  We had another lesson with them yesterday and they said  "I just feel so happy when you are here...happy and at peace."  It is so cool to know that we have been striving to be worthy of the presence of the Holy Ghost and the people around us are starting to see it.

The miracle of the week, it the Acosta family..again. lol  The hermano (recentely reactivated) started inviting less active families over to his house for family home evenings.  at the end, he has been challenging them to return to the church and basically giving them stuff to do in the church ( but not an assignment)  The amazing part is, due to that, we had a new less active family come to church for the first time this week.  We hadn´t even taught them.  Also, his son, Gonzalo, went to a fireside with Elder Christianson this week.  He said " I knew I needed to go, so I invited a friend to go with me."  His friend is a nonmember.  He told us that she smokes weed.  He told us that after the meeting she said basically "I don´t want to do that anymore.  I want to live clean and receive the blessings of the gospel."  Since then, she hasn´t smoked weed and is going to church in the sector where she lives.

The scriptures this week are on revelation.  Revelation is something that many people think is out of their reach, but the reality is that it is in your pocket, waiting for you to take it out.  

Mathew 7:7-8    7 ¶Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seekethfindeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.  

If we don´t pray for revelation and seek to obtain revelation, we won´t have it.  He that seeks the gift of revelation with a sincere desire to inquire of the Lord, will receive it.

Doctrine and convenants 42:61 "If thou shalt ask, thou shalt receive ^arevelation upon revelation, ^bknowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the ^cmysteries and ^dpeaceable things—that which bringeth ^ejoy, that which bringeth life eternal."

The gift of revelation is a miracle.  It testifes to us how to bring joy into our life, into our families, into our hearts, and into our souls.  It is how we can know the desire of the Lord in our lives.

Doctrine and Covenants 9:7-9 "7 Behold, you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

 8 But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in yourmind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shallfeel that it is right.

 9 But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought that shall cause you to forget the thing which is wrong; therefore, you cannot write that which issacred save it be given you from me."

The spirit of revelation is a powerful tool and a mighty tool.  It isn´t something that is just given.  It is something that we have to seek.  We have to meet God half way with it.  He wants to give it to us, but we have to want it for ourselves as well.  We must study our desires out in our mind and in our prayers.  You will know you have received revelation when you feel a burning in your heart and when you continue to return to the topic.  If it is something isn´t right, you will forget about it.  You will feel the insignifigance of it and desire it no more.

2 Nephi 28:30  "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learnwisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

Revelation isn´t something that is given all at once.  It is a process.  It is given to us piece by piece as we strive to become more like our Lord and teacher Jesus Christ.  If you use not the gift of revelation, certain truths of your heart will be taken away.  That is why it is so important to constantly seek the Lord´s desire in our lives and for revelation for our lives, our family, our work...daily.

Doctrine and Covenants 6:23  " 23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"

Don´t look for signs.  More often than not, they aren´t going to happen.  When we receive an answer, when we have peace of mind, and a confirmation of what we need to do, it is a witness from God.  What more do we need??

I would encourage everybody strongly to seek the guidence of the Lord in your lives.  Through the gift of revelation, we can know how to better live our lives in harmoney with the desire of the Lord, lead our families, be happy, and become who we are destined to be.  I love all of you.  Miss you.  Pray for you.  Know that your Lord wants to show you the way in your life....all you have to do is meet him half way and ask.

Con amor,

Elder Jackson 

Week #12 Hot, Hot, and more Hot

Hello Everyone,

So this was a tough week.  This week, it was very hot, lots of lessons fell through, we got rejected a ton, and we were tired from doing service on pday last week and waking up at 5am for a meeting saturday.  Friday-Sunday, we had like 3 lessons...we were walking the streets literally from 3-10 every day with maybe a hour lesson each day.  I got a little irritated, but Elder Peck was able to pull me back in lol.  We both had to do that a little this week...we were running on like no energy.  

I had the opportunity to talk with a man named Cristian who is openly a Satanist.  He basically told us that we were dumb for believing what we believe and that we should do whatever we want to because it is more fun.  We obviously couldn´t really do anything...we just told him a little about what we believe.  As we were walking away, I was prompted to testify to him.  I turned around and said " Hermano, I know with all of my heart that the Book of Mormon is true.  It is the words of God.  Through the Book of Mormon, we know how to live a happy succesful life.  We know how our father in heaven wants us to live and who he wants us to become.  I know that your Heavenly Father loves you, and wants you to return to him.  God bless you and thank you for your time."  It was definitely an experience...it was the first time on my mission that I´ve been worried about my safety.  Especially when he went inside to get his Book of Mormon.  (It was burned...i thought he might be getting a gun.)  I felt the power of evil in those moments...never begin to believe that it isn´t real...it is just as real as the priesthood.  

We stopped to talk to some younger less actives (like 18 years old) and I had to use the bathroom, so they let me.  One of the guys is really good at guitar, so he was playing Enter Sandman by Metallica...the mom walks in and says "Why did you let THEM in?"  We respectfully replied "We are only using the bathroom hermana, forgive us."  Though this doesn´t really bother me, it is appalling to me that someone could treat another human being in that manner...like they´re scum.  I will always remember my feelings when I heard that and pray that I never make someone feel that way, ever.

With every bad, there is a good.  I experienced much good this week.  Saturday, I got to be an usher at our meeting...in attendence was Elder Nelson, Elder Vinas of the Seventy, and President Christianson of the Seventy.  Elder Nelson talked about missionary work (surprise) and it was a good talk but the real cool part came when he stopped right before his testimony.  Bowed his head for twenty seconds or so. Looked at his translator and motioned him to step away from the mic and delivered THE MOST powerful testimony in perfect spanish with what I can only describe as the voice of thunder.....it was incredible. The background story is he cant speak or understand spanish. He used headphones and had all the talks being translated as they went.  When he said HOLA it was very clearly a gringo (i am chileno now).  I was blown away.  I got to shake all of their hands.  It was a great meeting.  I felt the spirit during Sister Nelson´s talk too.  She talked about being able to see concourses of angels when we teach because it is not only us there, but also all of the ancestors of the person empowering us so that the person can feel the spirit, be converted to do their ordinances for them as well....I might have cried just a little bit.

I had a promting to say something during a lesson that was COMPLETELY off topic....I shared a verse and the hermana said " That´s why I know the church is true..."  She just sat there smiling and shaking her head up and down.  I don´t know exactly what she meant, but I know I touched her heart.

I noticed something today.  We teach this girl Camilla and her uncle Manuel always sits in on the lessons.  He is an active member of the church.  He is old, has poor health, has no kids or wife,  has a speach impediment so he is hard to understand, can´t read.....but this man is SUCH an example to me. 

Alma 32:21"And now as I said concerning faith—faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." 

Doctrine and Covenants 6:36  "Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not."  

4Nephi 1:15-17  "And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.

 16 And there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lyings, nor murders, nor any manner oflasciviousness; and surely there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.

 17 There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God."

Manuel is such an example...he relies on nothing but faith.  Not even the faith of what he reads (because he can´t), but the faith of others when they testify of the scriptures and of Christ.  This is a perfect love of Christ.  He has the most powerful prayers that I have seen...he speaks from his heart.  He truly is a disciple of Christ and has devoted his life to learning of the gospel.  Manuel is a man of integrity and for that he has my utmost respect.  I aspire to one day have the faith that he has..with confidence to act on this faith in everything I do.  My prayer is that all of you would strive to have this kind of faith.  If you achieve it, you will see and be a part of many miracles in your life.

I love all of you.  This is the work of our Christ.  Hope for all things in Christ.

Con amor,

Elder Jackson

Week #11 Work, Work, Work Does Not Make Elder Jackson A Dull Boy

This week was another great week to be in the service of the Lord.

First experience, one night this week, we were having trouble...our lessons fell through...our divisions fell through...and nobody wanted to talk to us.  We decided to do something different.  We decided to go to another church.  We went to a Pentacostal church here.  It was at night on like Wednesday, so there weren´t many people there, but it was a good service!  The pastor had a good lesson.( Though he was off just a little bit when he said that their church is the only true church because the Bible is the only book that talks about Christ. lol)  The people of the church were super excited that we came!  Afterwards, they gave us CHILEANO HUGS! ( For the women, includes a kiss on the cheek with a hug)  We realize that we aren`t supposed to do that, but if you don´t, it is really disrespectful, so we felt that if we didn´t it would hurt the work...so we went with it.  One of the things I liked about the sermon, was that the lpastor said "God didn´t create evil...there is evil in the world because of the poor choices of US!"  So true.  

Another experience that was pretty sweet...so we were walking in the street one day...again not having much luck, but I walked by a Catholic women in the street and said "Hola, buenas." In Chileano, that means "Hello, good evening."  She just smiled at me and said "Elder bendiga."  That means "Elder, bless you."  That was very refreshing, especially since usually the Catholics are very hateful towards us.  It is just nice to see somebody else that understands our purpose, to invite others to come unto Christ and be perfected in him through the power of the atonement...nothing more.  :)

The last thing is kinda funny.  So we were preaching a lesson one night with a recently reactivated family...the Acosta family.  The parents are active now, but now we´re working on their kids. ( One has an interview tomorrow to receive his calling by the way.)  I had had like  two sandwhiches already, so I was feeling pretty good.....the hermana just stared at me and said "Elder, pancito." lol That means, "Elder, there´s bread." lol  Or, in other words, eat more!  So to be polite I ate another two sandwhiches....she looks at me "Elder, pancito." LOL Long story short, she wasn´t satisfied until I had eaten like 7 sandwhiches...and she gave us chips to take home. lol

The verses this week are as follows: 

1)  Omni 1:26 " And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue infasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved." 

2) Alma 28:14 "...And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord... 

3) "Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in ^agood works, that Christ, the ^bLord God Omnipotent, may ^cseal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who ^dcreated all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.

I felt inspired to share this this week.  I feel that as a body, we do a pretty good job at being dedicated in our works and activity in the church, but there is room for improvement.  With every act of love and obedience, we draw closer to the Lord.  Although acts of love are very important and leave a lasting impression, they mean NOTHING if you don´t allow the gospel to change you.  As Omni says, we should offer not just our works, or our tithing, or our energy, but our ENTIRE SOULS!  There is a monumental difference in a missionary that does good acts, and one that gives his soul to the Lord...it is readily apparent when you see it.  It is the same with members of the church....with all of us!  We all have the potential to be changed, but many of us don´t allow it.  If we allow this alteration of our souls to occur, we will become like Heavenly Father, and he WILL seal us his....for now, and for all eternity.

I just want to testify of the changing power of the atonement.  It is perhaps our greatest gift from Heavenly Father, behind maybe only our agency.  The atonement will carry you, through all of your trials and tribulations and your heart-ache, but you have to let it.  I am so greatful for the gospel and the Plan of Happiness.  I pray that each of you would allow yourselves to be changed, to be perfected, through the atonement of Jesus Christ.  This is my humble prayer, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Con Amor,

Elder Jackson