Lizards In The Font!

Monday-we headed to our appointments and then to sandwich night and we got home late because the member just wouldn’t let us go, so it was pretty frustrating not having time to plan for the next day. My companion forgot to tell his mom happy birthday in his blog, completely forgot and he is pretty down about that, that’s about it for Monday, ready for another week of work!!

   Tuesday-Zone Conference today, I got 5 cards today, two from Kelsey, another from Maisha, Gma and Gpa and one from a family in the ward, if you could tell the Hackings family I appreciate the letter that would be great! We had a good conference, President Durrant mentioned we would be having a talent show around Christmas, I’m thinking about asking if you can clear the court for me so I can blow some minds with a single slam! But we will see, not sure, might even do it in my church clothes as well, haha wouldn’t that be awesome?! After the conference I went on exchanges with Elder Walsh and we had an awesome time, its the companion of the my first transfer and somehow I ended up eating at the same members house I ate at with elder Goodrich, crazy. Elder Walsh had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a members house and I was able to actually have a conversation, the member was old and had a very very raspy voice, I was able to understand it all and communicate, there’s a little take on where my Spanish is right now, doing alright. We ended up talking till about 12, he is from Utah as well, went to Skyline high school and we have a lot in common. Great transfer!

   Wednesday-Spend today with elder Walsh till about 3:30 and headed back and right from the get go my companion is yelling at me for something, not teaching me or helping me but yelling at me, what’s even worse is its something that either is right but he thinks his way is better or its something that he does as well... It bugs me so bad, I’m fine with being corrected on errors I make but that kind of stuff, it bugs me. But it’s a learning experience, who knows my next companion could be even worse! Ready for a change, every exchange I have gone on my Spanish has been so good but with my companion? My tongue is in a knot all the time, cant say simple statements or anything like that.

   Thursday-Headed to lunch at about 11 with a guy named Jorge who may just be the fasted speaking Spanish guy I have ever met! Even my companion has to really focus to understand, so here I am eating Arby’s with someone who I cant even catch one word, it was so difficult, but poco de pocito haha little by little, con tiempo. Our planning session ended up going to 6 pm, so we were inside all day! Not fun. But when we got out and tracked, well first of all I’m so glad that I received the best blessing thus far in my mission... RAIN, rain here is nuts, its like a hurricane! But as far as tracking? I felt good, I had a lot of confidence as well, as we got home we got a call from the sisters in our district saying that someone was trying to break in to there house, so I told the story to my companion about the kids that were jealous of Austin going out with Emily, and how they tried to egg the house and my dad was crawling by the fence and they were parked and ready to bomb when my dad jumped out in front of the car and scared the living bajibers out of them haha! Of course I was sleeping during this time...

   Friday-Long day, English elders, one of them got really really sick so they called us over to give a blessing, and right when we got home they called again to bring a coke over, and I loved helping out but it ate up a lot of time, but as long as we were able to help, he ended up getting better that night, the priesthood, I love it! Then we headed to the church because we are starting an English class, to help bring in new investigators, so that took forever, I had McDonalds, its weird to eat fast food. But it was good, then about 2 hours after downing a double quarter pounder with cheese, Hermana Almazan buys us a 5 buck! So we eat that too, my companion had his exit interview so I went on exchanges with Elder Rearden and of course my Spanish was fantastic again, all in the head, something about Elder Olson that drags my confidence down, but with time, con tiempo. Elder Olson got back and we headed to our night appointments and after as we headed home we had our nightly race home, haha almost crashing into the gate at the apartments, arguing the whole way in as well about who won and who cheated, he cheated of course!

   Saturday-More bike problems... a crucial little piece fell off the crank so it comes loose every 300 feet, no matter how tight you tighten it cause the black piece fell off an now I’m without a bike now, I feel so bad cause my dad spent a TON of money on this bike and its had nothing but problems, reflectors, bolts, pedals, tires... okay the tire part was just me, well the first time it was the second time was just rotten luck.

So we tracked and got in a big argument with my companion about a Spanish word, immediately destroyed the spirit, its something I don’t like though, I KNOW I said it right but he said I said it some way that I had never even heard of! So that wasn’t good, so for now I borrowed a bike from the member we ate dinner with, which was absolutely amazing!! (as always) Had our last lesson with Bridgira and she is solid, ready to go!

   Sunday-Today was a full day! I had a talk in sacrament, which went very well, I spoke good Spanish for 12 minutes, it was really awesome, then after church we had The baptism and it was an amazing experience, I got a few pics of who we baptized, it was gross, as we prepared the font during priesthood there were 2 lizards in the font, very very very small, like 1 inch and the other was 2 inches, of course my companion being who he is, steps on both of them, squishing their heads! SO mean.. he kicked them down the drain and as we prepared for the baptism the lizard some how ended up being in the water, so as my companion walked down, here’s this dead lizard with only... well what was left of his head, floating there, luckily he was able to get it out before anyone saw, the baptism was awesome, the spirit as so strong, and she thanked us for everything, she cried, after well all day was so annoying cause everyone was talking to Elder Olson about what he is going to do when he gets home and I was just like a third wheel pretty much, so we all went to hermana almazans after and had another hard to beat dinner with Bridgira and some others from the ward, good week, this Monday I was able to go the the dentist and they pulled out the pliers to rip my cap off and being the baby that I am I freaked but she tried and it seemed pretty stuck on there, but she left to get the main dentist and I popped it off myself haha and then it took about 5 minutes to put the real cap on and we were done, it was nice, that’s all for this week, last week with my companion, my first transfer is over!!! I get a new companion tomorrow, I will still be in this area though, I appreciate all the blog readers out there, your more than welcome to send me handwritten letters as well, if you need any help with anything please write, if you just want someone to talk to, I’m here, love you all tons!!!!

Elder Aaron Jackson

A Couple of Rough Days.

Monday-Tracking and every person we talked to was grumpy, Every single one. Headed to Sandwhich night and i tell you, never get sick of that avocado! love it. But soon we wont be able to go anymore cause it is too late.

   Tuesday-District meeting, we show up and everyone is playing basketball and Elder Goodrich the elder i went on exchanges with a few weeks ago, i asked for the ball and dunked it in my church clothes haha, still got it. Then we headed out to track and my contacting was really good today, felt smooth and was speaking well. Went to have dinner with the Bishops family again, amazing! as always. Then we had choco flan! one of my new favorite desserts, my companion has been talking about it the whole time i have been with him and i finally got to try it, really happy about that, so so good! As we headed back home, my companion got a flat, I was really happy about that! Not me this time! so we just tracked the apartments again, our appointment with Vrigira fell through, but we rescheduled.

   Wednesday-We got up did our studies and walked to wal mart which was about a 45 minute walk and we had a lady ask us why we dress in white shirts, not how we dress but the colors we dress in, so wierd and it ended up getting ugly because we talked about our prophet and she said we follow man not god and she said she follows the bible and we told her that it was written by prophets and we just answered every question with love and she got mad and left. Almost got kicked out of wal mart, cause of course like everyone, they thought we were selling something! had a lesson with cesar and he is an awesome guy, his sister is a member and has been trying to get him to join for 40 years, but i think that we will be able to help him, i hope. Had a lesson with Vrigira and we were freaking out cause she is our best investigator and she lives so far and we need someone to come with us cause we arent allowed to teach unless another man is there, so we brought a recent convert of about 2 months and his wife who was baptized august 20 of this year and neither of them speak Spanish, but it worked our, she is so solid and ready to go! We bolted out of there and met with Hermana Serna from our ward and we had a lesson with Jesus and Anel, Anel was really sick so she was getting medicine, so it was just Jesus, they are slipping, not keeping their commitments but we are working with them, in time. Im SO tired, but its a good tired and today marks 3 months complete! can you believe it! 1/8 of the way done, it is insane how time flies.

   Friday-No appointments today, thats a first, so we tracked All day. But i had a minor asthma attack! Where did that come from, obviously someone doesn't want me here, with the root canal and all that, crazy! Last two days have been really tough, probably the 2 toughest days of my mission, of my life! mentally. My companion was really getting on my nerves! I was so frustrated with him and how things were going, ready for a new companion at this point, the whole ride home i was just so built up with anger and hatred, trying to fight it off.

   Saturday-I feel a lot better today, i needed the rest. As we went out to tract, a stupid train going 2 miles an hour with 80 carts cut us off from where we wanted to go, so we had to take a detour and it was hot and hard, my legs are getting a work out of their life! Headed to our dinner and it someones bday in the ward so everyone was there almost, they had the Texas version of "97.1" on so i heard some songs i haven't heard in forever, reminded me of jr jazz, some songs i would listen to before games, my companion did a dedication on the house, first time i have seen that. But then we headed back out to work, had some girls shouting at us "I love Mormons!!!!" Haha who doesn't? at the end of the night, after contacting everyone in Spanish i felt a load better than the last few nights, back on track.

   Sunday-Church, love church, i was all focused today, trying to understand everything that was said, everything!! And i got about 75% i would say, cant wait to learn to speak it better, in time, with patience, patience is something very important and something i need, so its going to be really good for me! we had dinner after with a young couple both RMs the Thompsons, and the husband was white and his wife was Hispanic and they both spoke English and Spanish, i taught them a lesson, Spanish was much better. I took my time and gained confidence as a went. Then we went out tracking not a lot of time cause my companion forgot the lock so we had to go back, so we hit the apartments again, found a Jehovah witness watching the cowboys getting killed who let us in and we answered every doubt, attack, and question he had. With power, it was awesome! I felt so good going home on that, he invited us back and i feel its cause he couldn't prove us wrong, in reality no one can, and there are so many stereotypes out there, people here from their other nonmember friends about our church and they believe it, its like why do you believe someone who doesn't even go! i don't get it, and then we, the people who actually go to the church, try and tell them and they refuse to believe, all we do is invite. We don't force or try and take other peoples beliefs. We invite. If they take the invitation with real intent then they will receive the truth. I know that.

   Monday-This morning we went to the store before heading to email, my companion jumped a bush after locking up our bikes and ripped up his hand on a tree, i got over the bush pretty easy, of course. There's my blog for this week, another one coming very soon, time just never stops right? Crazy. Love you all, thanks for taking the time to read.

Elder Aaron Jackson

ROOT CANAL!

Monday-Not a whole lot after we got done emailing, we went out tracking and then of course headed to freddys at 8 for sandwich night which again was amazing!

   Tuesday-Not a good day. 3 AM roles around and i wake up in pain, my mouth is just killing me because of my tooth, i did not sleep after that and my companion told me to try and sleep and i still couldn't do it, we called sister Durrant and tried to find a dentist, she told us to call around so we called the elders in Mesquit and they gave us two members who were dentists and we were able to set up an appointment with one of them for that same day, but not till 4 in the afternoon, and it was a 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hours back, so that's what we did the whole entire day! I went downtown for the first time and let me tell you, it makes Utah look clean, nice and small. Just crazy, so many people that look like they will kill you if you get in there way, but i never feel threatened. But we got there they opened my mouth and said... you need a root canal, and thats it. So 4 hours of bus riding just for that, but i was able to talk to my dad and that was a real treat! The people there were all so so nice! Helped us a lot and wrote a prescription for the pain until i had the actual work done on Friday, but it was an hour wait for the medicine, so we did some shopping and ate at Mcdonalds, i gave some money to a poor girl and felt really good about that. Got the Medicine and didn't get home till about 8:30 so our whole day was shot, we tracked for maybe 10 minutes and headed home.

   Wednesday-Specialized training meeting, somehow the story about my tooth got out haha everyone was asking how i was including president Durrant and the story got changed so much it was very funny, some people thought i lost 3 teeth from crashing on my bike haha! But the meeting was 6 hours long and i got mail too! i love mail :) and the package, Love my family and their help with my requests, not having a watch was hard, i looked at my bare wrist like 80 times a day, and it just sucked. But the meeting was great! we got out about 4, i got to see my district and i tell you they are brothers to me, i love seeing them. But we got done and got to work and i tell you the medicine im on makes you drowsey and tired and loopy, and so here i am in the heat riding a bike, on the busy road, on this medicine... probably not a good idea, but i wanted to work! i love the work and i don't want to stop, i feel so bad about yesterday and how much time we waisted. But it was quit the experience, i would laugh at some of the stupidest things, and not know why. But we did it, and im happy we worked.

   Thursday-Planning day! in the apartment till about 3:30, mas or menos. Then we headed out to an appointment, talked to a few people, my Spanish is getting really good. My companion says the stuff i use and the words i use he didn't use till 1 year out, i think he is lying but who knows? But we had dinner with the Relif Society President and it was absolutely amazing!!! I just cant get enough of this food, with the amount that i eat? I will probably find a way to beat my metabolism, it was good and afterwards we went out tracking and ran into a couple that reminded me exactly of when i was dating Randi in High School, exact couple!!!!!! Same in every aspect he was exactly like me and she was exactly like her, so we talked for a long time and they were really interested and it was really good to talk to them and they were such nice people, we headed home with only two words on my mind as i went to bed, Root Canal...

   Friday-today is the day i die! We got on the bus and my companion was teasing me, kept telling everyone that asked on the phone that i was going in for "surgery" and he thought it was funny, i was not happy and excited. We got there and there were two other missionaries there haha we asked why and one of them, sure enough, cracked a tooth! eating a taco at Jack in the box!!! We got there about 10:30 and i was called in and they began the work, they started the numbing process but i was getting really worried cause he came in 15 minutes later and i felt no different, my tooth was still throbbing, he began to drill and let me tell you, i felt all of it and he shot me more and more and more with numbing medicine and one of them sent a shock all the way up my face causing me to see double for about 20 minutes and my head was spinning in pain, this is not even the worst part, afterwards he took his little pointy scraper and poked my nerve, I jumped almost completely out of the chair, it was the most pain i have ever felt in my entire life, he then said "i am going to have to numb that which means you will feel the same pain again for only a second though, but you cant jerk, you have to concentrate on holding still" I knew it had to be done but it was a reflex! how do you control a reflex, so i grabbed onto the chair as hard as i could and he shot it, the same pain came but i held myself down and then... gone, couldnt feel a thing, such a relief, he shot it about 4 more times and i didn't feel anything, he then grinded it down to almost nothing and put a temporary crown on it, but i was in there from 10:30 to 3:30, not a fun day! but they were so nice! The dentists daughter came in after and asked if i needed anything and asked if i wanted her to call my dad and tell him i was alright, she also gave me 20 dollars for food and the dentist gave me some fruit cause he knew i was starving, so so helpful! Im so grateful for them, for the 75% discount i received and the additional help, afterwards, with permission from the dentist quote "you can eat anything but if its to hard to chew then you have to eat on the other side of your mouth" so.. we went to panda!! :) it was awesome! But after that it went back down hill, they gave me another prescription and we didnt have time to fill it, so i was completely out of it the rest of the day, we had a dinner appointment with my favorite members in the ward and it was a long drive and i was completely out of it, in pain, and sweating in the massive heat, as we slowed down to lock up our bikes, i didnt pull up soon enough on the curb and just ate it hard on my bike, not fun. Dinner was great, they talked about a daughter in law who passed away at 6 months and how because of that they started to go to church again and changed a lot (because apparently they were totally inactive about the time i left for the mtc is when that tragedy happened) and i love them! they are so awesome, but we ate with them, i was out of it and we got a ride THANKFULLY! to our appointment with my favorite investigators! Jesus and Anel and we taught an awesome lesson! and Elder Olson bore a strong testimony and i was trying to keep up but i dont remember much of what happened cause i was so out of it haha, as we got home and got ready to end the day my companion apologized and apologized for the long day, and i just smiled, and was so happy. Its these days that i love, The days that we struggle, how else are we supposed to grow? how else do we learn? Im thankful for the rough day because i made it through and i will always look back at how i made it through, i was so grateful for it and i went to bed with a smile on my face.

   Saturday- woke up at 3 again in more pain, this time adolorido dolor or achy pain haha, because we didnt have time to fill my prescription which was double the Mlg from my first pills so the pain was pretty intense, so thankfully we have such wonderful members like Hermano Freddy (he is the one who does sandwich night) he took us to the store to get it filled and it was an hour wait, and he waited and we did some shopping, i saw posters from the mavs championship and it was weird cause it was the first time seeing dirk holding a trophey, its amazing how cut off from the world we are, but i love it, its so nice knowing that all i have to worry about is helping others, makes me happy! Im getting better on a bike though, getting better on my wheely haha and more fit. We had dinner with Hermana Roja who is from Costa Rica and she stuffed Zucchini with meat and rice and stuff, it was amazing, we also ate salsa out of a cup, it was good but weird, but i have never liked zuccini but wow that was amazing! We then went to the Apartments to track, we ran into a couple a girl from Romania married to a guy from Mexico, she spoke English and he spoke Spanish HOW DO THESE COUPLES END UP TOGETHER she is studying Spanish and is pretty good now but they invited us back so its great! she was amazed at how good our Spanish was and how committed we are to the work, no TV or Music she was so surprised.

   Sunday-I had to go to Correlation meeting today and talk with all the leaders in the ward about our investigators and the help we need to get them closer to baptism. It was a good meeting, and my Spanish was really good too, so surprised at how well im progressing, its like im told a new word or principle and thats all it takes and its applied! BOOM just like that so im grateful for the gift of tongues, it is such a real gift of god and i know it, church was awesome cause all of our investigators came!! I was in pain though cause i hadnt taken my pills and i needed something to eat it with, but it was great to see them. After church we had another awesome dinner, it was dropped off. Jello for me, a gallon of simply lemonade and chicken with spaghetti with green salsa for the sauce, it was way good!! But i realized that almost everything i was eating felt like i was back to December 21 and 22 of 2010, with the whole wisdom teeth gig! jello, pudding, and mashed potatoes. Then we headed to our lesson with Vrigira and it was an unprepared lesson cause i had to go to that meeting in the morning so we didnt have time to prepare but she feels like she is ready and so do we so i belive will be having my first baptism on the 27th! exciting stuff!

   Monday-I had an amazing study this moring before coming here, about the Holy Ghost and i tell you that the scriptures have so much to offer and people really dont realize that, i love it! I learn new things every single day!!!! Another week done, i cant believe how fast it goes by, almost been 13 weeks out, Thursday will be 3 months, it is astounding to me, i wanna thank everyone for following and for the letters, i received 2 from kelsey, from the fam, maisha, todd and shawn, THANKS i will have letters out to you soon, thanks for the words, the updates and the love that you have shown. Love you all and hope you enjoy this weeks blog.

Elder Aaron Jackson

NEW PICS: Last days at MTC and Arrival In Texas!