Best tortillas ever! But. . .it's time to try to eat some tongue!

Monday-Basketball. I'm losing it. I couldn't do anything, i was still a monster on defense but i got stuffed by the rim on a dunk attempt, i don't know what to think. All i know is i will be blessed after the mission, that's a promise.  Elder Dansey showed up, new in our zone, we started talking and asked where i was from and when i said Hillcrest he said that his ex girlfriend went there and i was like, oh no. I asked him who it was, Good old Melissa Paterson, so we started talking more and found out we were hanging out a few times before the mission, we watched the byu utah game together two years ago. Crazy! We headed to our lesson with Hna Diaz and had a good lesson, headed up to the closest corner to wait for Hno Freddy, it was a CVS drug store, as we waited we ran in and got some cards for amber and wrote in them later that night, super glad you liked them baby sis!

   Tuesday-Training meeting. For only leaders of disrict and zone and back up trainers. So i went on exchanges and went tracking with elder Jorgensen, someone fresh off the plane, i understood almost everything when we went tracking and in an hour we got 6 return appointments, it was great! Elder Jorgensen is a little... different, he is 23 years old, from Idaho. So we are almost back and my tire starts to go flat, of course! telling you im going for a record! but it didn't take long to fix. Got into some more way way way deep doctrine with elder Lee that night, gosh its crazy how true the church is. After we had a lesson planned with a man named Eduardo, he has been an investigator of the church since i was 6 years old. We brought a member, Thomas and he talked the first 45 minutes! We didn't even have time to teach, they fed us too, every time i go over there they call me "flaquito" flaco means skinny, but when you put "ito" on the end of it, it means like, REALLY, so they make me eat so much! Its fun though. But the members are so hard to work with, love them to death but they dont understand that we are the teachers, and they go into all this deep stuff and off subject, its a test of patience. Then i went to go on exchanges with Elder Hansen, elder Jorgensens companion, the really smart one, he got a 36 on his act.

   Wednesday- Exchange went really well, tracked like 7 different streets, not a lot of luck but we worked. Dinner we had the best tortillas that i have ever had in my life! I'm going to ask for the recipe later down the road. Then we headed to our lesson for that night before exchanging back, We taught and the guy there was just moaning, as if something was eating him from the inside out, so we gave him a blessing, i anointed the oil and then 5 minutes later, he just stopped, was fine. Amazing, how powerful it is. The priesthood is such a gift. Got back and Elder Lee was telling me that he had the same kind of night, talked to a sick girl and they blessed here, the lesson didn't go well though cause elder Jorgensen was ALL over the place! to deep and to confusing, so Elder lee wasn't to happy, but we understand he is learning. But she was healed as well. Church is true.

   Thursday-Got up did our studies and headed over to a recent convert lesson with a girl named Sandra, taught her the first lesson, best Spanish i have spoken so far on my mission, i spoke clear, i explained well, it was awesome! Today was planning day so we grabbed a bite to eat and hit Preach My Gospel, set up our next week. After we headed up to Brigida and i will tell you, its a tough tough ride up there, but she is so worth it, she was my first confirmation baptism and i love her, i will always cherish her because i was able to help her and she is just awesome, we taught her, had an awesome lesson and after we started talking about food and she got mad at us when she found out we hadn't tried tongue, so we are going to eat tongue with her, i was getting all excited and she was so confused but excited too, she is awesome.

   Friday-Specialized training, again had to catch a bus up to the church, we got there and we always start every meeting the same. We say a prayer, recite our purpose, D&C4 and recently the president asked us to memorize the 22 points in Spanish, its these 22 sentences on the back of Preach my Gospel, i did it in district meeting but i wanted to do it in front of the president. So the AP, Elder Jensen asked if anyone wanted to do it, everyone was like no way, my hand just shot up, everyone was confused, some young missionary, not even 4 months out raising there hand. I got up and president Durant came over to me as i stood by me and put his arm around me and said "lets put some pressure on elder Jackson... Never mind this is pressure enough" and he walked away, i stared the mic and looked at the 100 plus standing missionaries and, did it. Got a nice applause for it and people just were like what? then the president got up and just complimented me on my Spanish and my courage and asked all those whoever could do the same, remain standing. Me and like 4 others stayed standing. It was pretty cool. Great meeting, got a few cards, my bike part (which of course was the wrong piece!) and i just learned a lot. Went home and got ready for dinner, yeah that's how long these meetings are, 6 hours or more. Dinner was not planned out well, so we couldn't go, members don't get it sometimes, that we cant stay out till 12!!! so we went to McDonald's, had our brains corrupted by some lady gaga and went talk with a few girls we had talked to before, had an awesome lesson. Then we rode home and were drenched!!! It was pouring!! We were just smiling and screaming it was so fun!

   Saturday-Not a whole lot happened today, we had so much planned out but it ended up being a pretty hollow day, we had dinner with the mom of one of our investigators who is so hard to teach cause he is 14 and just a punk, but he likes to skate, so i was able to talk to him about how i used to skate and connect a little with him, open up. So we are doing a little better. As we got ready for bed, ended up talking about how we are going to start a Halo Texas Dallas mission clan and only speak Spanish online, it was a good day.

   Sunday-Love the sabbath day, get to feel the spirit, none of our investigators showed up but Fabricio. Dinner was good but then i realized after stuffing my face that we had an appointment with eduardo... meaning some how i was going to have to stuff down a huge meal! and of course they had so much food when we got there, i some how did it. Afterwards as we headed outside to get a ride home, biggest rainstorm ever! lightning every 2 seconds, NO EVEN KIDDING! i took a video while heading home, but its not that good but yeah it was crazy.

Happy Birthday Amber! Sweet 16!

Monday-We played some ball, i got some awesome vids that i want on facebook por favor!

   Tuesday-Did the usual today, tracking then we went to dinner with Tomas who is awesome, had my all time favorite food out here so far, they are called Tortas, they are like sandwiches but ten times bigger and better! then things went bad, we drove all the way to our appointment and Elder Lee got a popped tire, and the appointment punched.. so it was a long walk home. It was a terrible day, but only more to come! we have to keep working, we will be blessed.

   Wednesday-Long day, had a meeting, another 6 hour meeting for new missionaries and trainers, so we didnt have much going that day, no letters. I was shocked, but the meeting was great, they asked me to dunk it but i didnt. Only if we are playing. The meeting ended and i got a call from my top investigator and she told me that she is taking english classes every night so she can learn english, so she wont be able to see us anymore, it was rough, we got dropped off at dinner and i was so beat. Had 2 lessons with Hno Lama that went pretty good.

   Thursday-Today was planning, so nothing really new, we were super excited to go to our appointment with a man named javier cause he sounded really interested, so we skipped the Church Talent show that was going on with our ward, witch is good cause the bishops SON did a dance to a Kesha song! in the church! a bad song too! but our appointment was way down south, so we grabbed some sonic and of course we get there and the song "dynamite" is playing and it just brings so many memories back to BOTH of us. So we start jamming out to it! then after we go to his house only to find out he is a member already... heart breaking.

   Friday-Today was good, we had a zone council and i had to recite the 22 points in the back of Preach my gospel, in spanish. Its nuts, some how i memorized them all really fast, in like 30 minutes. The meeting was awesome, i got some letters from my fellow baller Kelsey #10!! She is just awesome, cause she writes me a lot! THANK YOU! and Jackie sent me a letter too so i was really happy about that, Everyone was talking smack (Not really) about playing ball on monday, Elder Faulk, someone who i have played against, played for Kearns. Another elder, HUGE Kobe fan from Cali, is really good and we are all talking about balling, so its so exciting.

   Saturday-Oh my the worst eating expirence ever!!! so we left to go tracking and there is NO food in the house. So we go grab 3 burgers from BK and eat them all, about an hour later when we are tracking, a investigator who has been investigating since i was 6!!! 13 years!! who we set up an appoinment with, calls us and invites us to lunch, we go and he has amazing enchiladas for us and he would not let us finish "quiere mas?" so we are stuffed and we teach him a POWERFUL lesson, he said out of the 50 missionaries he talked to he had never heard the things we said! it was great, then i realized we had dinner at 4 instead of 5 today... and it was about 3:55 when we finished there, he dropped us off and we ate dinner. I could not stand up straight, one wrong move and i would have exploded! I was so sick, we got home and then went out after sitting for a few minutes. Ran into some crazy people, some guy sniffing Paint, it was bad, he was yelling at me, saying i look like a mormon. This world is sick i tell ya.

   Sunday-Gave my confirmation today, i wanted to cry, my first one, it was awesome, felt the spirit so strong!!! Church was great, i love church, day to rest and learn more about  our savior, its great. Had dinner with a member which was fantastic, after as leaving (this ones for you austin) we pulled out and i saw a guy outside working on his black mark V while his SECOND one sat there beautiful as ever, and came home and headed out, got home and read some Jesus the Christ, me and Elder Lee get into some CRAZY deep doctrine talks at night, its amazing how much you can learn about this church, the church is true. If every person would humble themselves enough to take the time to sit and ponder it and really think about what we teach, and give it a chance! They would know what im talking about, there is now way, i try and think of ways it couldnt be true and its impossible, the church is true and just how great the gift we will recieve if we follow the example of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel, i love my Savior, I love my family and i know i can be with them forever, Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios, como un misionero de la Iglesia de Jesucrist de los santos de los ultimos dias, usamos este libro cada dia, en nuestras lecciones, en nuestros estudios. El Libro de Mormon es la clave de nuestra religion. Sin este libro, Jose Smith no fue un profeta llamado por Dios, no tendriamos nuestros testimonios de Jesucristo, de el plan de salvacion o Felcidad. Yo se que puedo ser con mi familia, juntos para siempre! Mediante la expiacion de Jesucristo podemos recibir perdon por nuestros pecados. Yo digo estas cosas en el nombre de Mi salvador, me Senor, me Redentor, Jesucristo. Amen.

   Monday-Bout to ball it up, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!! LOVE YOU SIS, SWEET 16 

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Aaron Jackson

Amazing Coincidences

Monday-Pday, already talked about my dentist trip, after the english elders came over and we mad cookies and wrote letters, it was a lot of fun, crazy stuff, we then headed to the mission home and grabbed some elders fresh off the plane, weird looking at these scared elders and realizing that was me 6 weeks ago, i took out an elder named elder Beck, completely scared, it was a lot of fun! As we finished the night we headed back to the assistants house to drop them off and some elder who served about 3 hours from my area came over to me and said "i heard you can dunk it!" I’m thinking what in the world! how did that get clear out there!!! His name is Elder Polp he is awesome and you will find out in the next day why! But we had to bring in a Another elder from out east to spend the night and his name was elder Lopes, and he seemed like a normal guy, and as we got ready to sack out, he took off his shirt and he had a sleeve a tattoos, so we started talking and ends up he is a recent convert, it was awesome to hear his story too, gotta love this work!

   Tuesday-Transfer meeting, so intense, all the elders crying cause they don’t wanna go home and then we all move in the gym to tell us who we are going with and my whole district was getting new companions, and during the last meeting with President Durrant we all joked around and said "president you should stick us all together so we are forced to learn the language together" His reply was "dont be surprised if it happens" and he walked away.. well it happened, Elder Witbeck got put with Elder Beatty, Elder Moffit got put with Elder Crosby! it was insane, i got put with... get this, look at my blog about going to the dentist and how there was another elder in there who broke his tooth? remember that? what are the chances! He is my new companion, he has been out 7 months and he is awesome, AWESOME! But what are the chances... Same dentist office in this huge city, same day, i mean there are seriously thousands of dentist places i have seen. Its insane, the two who broke their teeth, we have a ton in common, and he is also a scholarship holder to Boise State, he will be suited up and playing for them when he gets back, he had scholarships to many different schools, but only 3 would hold them for a mission, Boise, BYU, and Washington, but he had tons! He wanted to go to BYU but they screwed him over, so he doesn’t really like BYU now because of that, but he went to a school of about nine hundred students and trounced schools of about 2500 and he is from cali, a huge football state! Its crazy, but as we were about to leave to go unpack and get him settled, we ran into elder Polp again and we got on the subject of Boise State and he said "ya i got a friend playing basketball there, he is amazing, his name is Mason Sawyer" i turned around and was like... what!? Ends up he went to WJ and we started talking and i said those are some of the people we used to play with, me and my brother, and i started naming them all, Reyes, Jordan.. and he just freaked and said no wonder you can dunk, but i said i learned that on my own. But yeah crazy story, he told me mason was in the MTC about to leave to Alabama but couldnt handle it or went home or something. But now i have my new companion, Darren scott lee haha austins middle name and well.. Aaron lee and Darren lee working side by side. Also one of the new missionaries that came in? krugger, sound familiar? for all those big Ute fans, yep its another Krugger and he has a scholarship to play for the utes when he gets back as well, he got stuck with a Wyoming FB player, big ol Tongan, haha it was awesome! So i asked about my companion about his last area, and he said he was in Central Dallas, he saw the stadium when the heat were there and they did a free entrance thing the game when they won in Miami and he said it was nuts, some day ill be in a city when they win it all, haha, but we got back and headed to dinner and got there early so we stopped at the 7-11 and got some Gatorade, you will never believe what flavor they have... Cucumber!!?! why!? so me being me, being curious bought it and it was gross! Dinner was great and we got home and he started playing music on his ipod, just instrumental, and the halo theme song comes on... and i just go wide eyed and freak out, he is a halo fan, never thought i would find one out here on the mission, so so happy with my companion!!!!

   Wednesday-Planning session, Next door neighbor knocks on our door and asks us to move her couch, we do it of course cause we love it! and she talks to us about how Catholics are right and how she respects us and all that, sweet old lady but we had work to do. After Planning the other elders invited us over for pizza so we went and ate, then headed up to meet the girl who we just baptized to ask about her confirmation, cause she is getting it this week and we asked her who she wanted to receive the blessing from and she picked me... so i have my first confirmation this week!!! in Spanish!!! so excited!! As we got done there Jesus and Anel punched so we ran into these two black girls who asked the strangest question and i wont put it on here but we just taught them with power! It was awesome, after that we headed home and ran into a guy who worshiped Satan and told us how they kidnapped girls and skinned them and hung them from a tree... not cool. But he said he wanted to change so we told him to pray and got away from him!

   Thursday-District meeting, get to have it with Elder Witbeck and Beatty, so excited, we did some role plays and I was with elder Beatty and he said my Spanish is the best in the MTC district, he was blown away, but of course I told him his was awesome cause it is! love this guy, he is awesome and so humble. But it gave me confidence, i know its just as good as there’s but it helped me so much, and that whole day i understood better and spoke better, it was great. We went to an inactive family who would never want me and Elder Olson to come, they would always avoid us but Elder Olson would try so much and so hard, but we got in there house, there was 4 Hernandezes in our Phone and we guessed the right one, guessed where they lived from my brief memory and got it right and got in and taught a lesson and had the wife balling, it was amazing! We are trying a new strategy, going to track around the members so its easier to get them out teaching with us so excited about that! Just loving how everything is going! so happy with it.

   Friday-First lesson together and we were all over the place haha, teaching parts and pieces of different lessons, it was bad! but we got out and laughed about it, that’s the thing i love most about Elder Lee is he is all about having a good attitude! Its great. We had BK for lunch, it was pretty good, then we had Taco Bell for Dinner which was amazing!!! Talked about the TV series we like, he loves lost, community, and The office, so we are on the same page there. But then after we made 2 members mad, it was not good! cause one called and asked if we wanted to do service and we said of course then right when i said by i realized that we had lunch with Hno lama at that time, we do every first Saturday, so i called Hno lama. Not happy, told us to cancel the service, so we did and Hno Freddy, not happy. Us? not happy! Then after that Jesus and Anel cancel!

   Saturday-Lunch with Hno Lama, another famous meal, he was talking about how he has prepared lunch for George W. Bush and all these famous people, his food was amazing! Then we went out and tracked till we got a call from the zone leaders and they wanted to blitz the area and take us out to dinner and we went to Jacknthebox, my first time ever and they all didn’t believe me, i explained they aren’t in Utah, they were freaking out, it was good though. Then we went blitzing and found some new people it was great, i just love my mission, its the greatest thing ever! its so hard but at the same time its so fun!

   Sunday-Fast Sunday, and I’m tired and hungry, sacrament comes and we had 3 baby blessings and we had to bump the confirmation to next Sunday cause Brigida's Tio or uncle, passed away so she had to go the funeral in Mexico, after church we headed to the bishops for dinner, it was amazing and also a new couple moved in the ward, both RM’s who wanted to come teaching with us! so we are so excited!! After getting home we headed out to find and some guy drives up to me and says "habla espanol" i said "si nosotros hablamos espanol" so he pulled over and asked about Adam and Eve, which is classic, its so hard for people to understand why it they needed to partake of the fruit but we got in his car and soon found out he was completely drunk, we tried answering his questions and he was just swearing in Spanish and i was trying to ask him good questions and he wasn’t listening, after a few minutes he gets out and just starts peeing on his car! so we said that’s it lets get out of here, so we get out and we are yelling at him to not drive drunk, we tell him to give us the beer and he does and we huck it, tried to stop him from driving but he wouldn’t listen, i asked what if you crash! and he just takes off, we were so mad after that, but then we found a perfect investigator who will be baptized this month no doubt! haha so we ended on a good note!

   Monday-well i love this work, that’s all I’m going to put for today because im happier then i have ever been right now, the more i learn about other religions and how ridiculous their beliefs are, and how hard it is not to prove them wrong, with the bible! its just exciting, very exciting! cause we don’t even force anyone, we just invite them to find out for themselves, its all inviting, and it works, this work is real and its amazing! I’m about to go play some ball, and enjoy me pday and go find more people, thanks for following, i will be in the this address till at least October 9th so if you want to write here please do!

13100 Pandora Dr. Paces Cove Appts. #115 75218 Dallas, TX

Thanks everyone and I love you

Elder Aaron Jackson