So Much To Be Thankful For

LUNES-Basketball again of course! i had some crazy dunks to let my emotions out, couple off missed shots I was feeling it. We came back and headed to the Guerreros for dinner, it was like 100 degrees in their house and we were there for a good hour and a half. I had to go to the bathroom so we went to DQ and when i got done I came out and it was late and the lady came up and said "you want some ice cream" i said "no thats okay" she said "are you sure im throwing out anyway?" I quickly replied "I'LL TAKE SOME" it was a good Preparation day.

    MARTES-I woke up and had some awesome studies this morning, wasnt way tired like i am usually, so i was happy about that, We went tracting and as we headed back to the car to head to dinner we heard a scream and some guy came running out of his house saying "HEY HEY come in here lets talk about Joseph Smith!" So we both walked in and thought for sure he was going to bash with us, but his mom is a member and his sister too! So he wants to change his life. We left for dinner and had cat fish chips, really really good! We visted some people like Cassie and Alfonzo and Jose, Ana and Mayra. Then we ended with Poletas at La Michoacana!

 

    MIERCOLES-We had District meeting today and i gave a training to the district on using the scriptures, it was really good and we have a new elder in the district, Elder Parker, ALSO from Sandy Utah, so now we have 3 elders from sandy in our district, Elder Parker is a beetdigger as well, he says he thinks he has seen me before at a basketball game or something, I told him it probably was me. We had hemphill BBQ, best BBQ in the world! might fly back here just for that. We headed back

home and went on exchanges, i went with Elder Chantry, went and visited Don and played a bit of cards and then headed to a lesson with a girl who i talked to on the phone right when i got the new phone before heading out east. Great lesson, Sherry is her name, very open as well. Had a good exchange.

 

    JUEVES-HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!! My favorite holiday of the year, it was a good one, a time to be thankful for everything you have in this life, so all those who complain about things? or dont really have a good reason to be down? SMILE! you have so much to give thanks for, be glad your breathing and living here! We had a turkey bowl in the morning, a lot of fun, played some more

yaka puk! Went and played volleyball with the ward and went to alfonzos to teach the word of wisdom before dinner, also stopped by Jose, Ana and Mayra to wish them a happy thanksgiving! I was pretty tired all day today but happy as could be. We went to dinner and it was pretty good, for a mexican culture trying to do thanksgiving it was pretty good, first time I have had spagettii on thanksgiving?

It was good, after we played a game, we had a football with "bendiciones" written on it, which is spanish for blessings, and we tossed it around and shared what we were gratefull for in our lives, the spirit was so strong there and well... im just so grateful for everything i have for my awesome friends that support and write me, for my amazing family that send me stuff and letters, for My mom and Dad and their amazing support in what im doing, and the fact that even if i was doing the wrong things right now, they would still love me. Grateful for Aubrey, Austin, Amber, Adam, Aric, April, Zoey! I love my family and its happiness that cant be exceeded by any item in a store, or any amount of fame or cash. I'm gratefull for my savior, for with out what he has done, this life would have no purpose. For the gospel in my life and the impact it has had on me. Alma 34:38 is one of my favorite scriptures, i encourage you to look it up because it helps us realize we have so much to be thankful for. Good thanksgiving, way good day. So happy!

 

     VIERNES-We headed over to the Bueses for left over turkey, for lunch. They invited us over for Christmas eve, they want to cook a goose! They are awesome, we got back and did half of our planning and headed out for the day to visit people and invite to the fiesta de Thanksgiving we had that night with the rama, it was a really fun party and more food, i ate a good amount. We went and played Yaka puk after again, the game is a addicting! And i know that the Davises would be proud of this one, its just like phase 10 and i played phase ten last pday!

 

     SABADO-We went and played football in the rain and the mud, i came back soaked and with mud all over haha, it was so worth it though, a ton of fun and the weather was perfect. Checked mail and I got my new ipod today, awesome, thank you so much mom and dad for that, i love the pictures that are on there of my friends and family. We went to dinner and had Cicis pizza, first time for me. We taught the restoration to them and headed to the Guerreros, taught them it as well! and she went off about the Virgin Mary... she seems to believe that the Virgin Mary is more important than Jesus Christ. It was really bad, the more she talked about the catholic church and its history... hard to understand why anyone would go to that church, but we showed love like we always should and after the English Elders came over and... more yaka puk! 

 

    DOMINGO-Good sabbath day today, Alfonzo came today, i blessed the sacrament today and got a compliment from presidente on my Spanish, we had dinner with the Acevedos after and then headed to some lessons we had, we stopped at Ronnies house (crazy guy who came out yelling at as on Tuesday) and set a date for Christmas eve, how cool would that be if we get to baptize on Christmas eve!!! I love this work, hope you enjoyed the blog this week, getting closer to calling home and talking with the fam, so so excited! Love you all, keep following, keep writing!

Elder Jackson

Dunking on MJ

Monday-We spent the night at the English Elders Apartment and got up and went shopping and got emailing done and went back to the Apartment, I took a nap.. kind of? We then went to get some lunch and washed the car as well, went to the church for a little and played some basketball, I went really hard for a good 30 minutes, full speed. We had Dinner with the Guerreros and a lesson as well, we then headed to some people we might be able to visit, got into Artullos, who had many doubts about the church, we bore our testimonies so strongly and left like Everyone should, there were some drunk people outside and we talked to them, they asked us to take shots, and within minutes we left.

    Tuesday-We had a lot of time to tract today, we went out and it rained today! We had a really good lesson with a man named Ismael Guerrero, after that we were told we have to get home because the rain was so bad and was not safe to drive in, we loved it, felt like little kids running around, we wanted to continue tracting cause its the best to tract in the rain. Our wives will continue to get cuter and cuter as we do so :) We went to Lauras and Memes for dinner and they made Hamburgers.... its weird not to have beans rice and tortillas for once, they were so good!

    Wednesday-We had a training today, really good one as well, thank you Greg for the letter. President Durrant is probably one of the coolest and nicest people I have ever met, as we came to the end of the training he started ask if we had any questions and people asked about the talent show coming up and I raised my hand and said "so.. how would I go about challenging my Mission President to a dunk contest for the talent show" All the missionaries went "OHHHHHHH" and president just stared me down and started streching like we were going to go right there, so funny! He then went to say there is no way he could beat me, LIES! One missionary yelled out "didn't you dunk on Jordan once though" he said "that's a lie" and then his wife gets up and says, "no he did! there is a newspaper article on it I have!" hahaha so Elder Aaron Jackson might have a dunk contest with someone, who has dunked over the greatest player in history! pretty cool huh!? President Durrant also touched on how we can not see family members, so sorry I couldn't see you Uncle Allen. We then went on exchanges, I brought our zone leader Elder Struk back to Lufkin, he talked about how I would very soon be in leadership!

He took me out to dinner at "la unica" one of the best restaurants ever! and we headed to a lesson with Isabel, a friend of a RM member in our branch who we have been trying to visit, in the training they talked about prayer and how we must say very simple prayers, so I said the opening prayer and after Isabels eyes just filled with tears and said "Su oracion fue muy bonita" The spirit was so strong and we had a great lesson with her! Very good day, so happy after today!

    Thursday-I planned today, all by myself. It was super weird, it was good to finally get out of the house and go tracting, we ran into an old couple who had been to Salt Lake City to do family history stuff and they were from the Church of Christ and the old guy tried to bash with us, we left in peace and went next door and were talking with Mario and The old guy came back with a paper with a few scriptures on it, trying to bash with him, we simply proved him wrong and walked away,

lovingly :) We tracted into ANOTHER person that works with the RM in our branch, that's the third one! haha I joked that we will baptize the whole staff of olive garden. Josh thank you so much for the letter! We worked super hard tonight, trying to get into someones house, it was really good, came home and dropped dead, its a good feeling when you feel like your actually doing something.

    Friday-We exchanged back, it was a good exchange but can only handle so much of Elder Struk, we found 6 new investigators though, Me and elder Drake got back together and dropped off our stuff and left for lunch, Elder Chantry is one of the coolest missionaries I have ever met, he took us all out AGAIN! he always offers to buy for me and us, so nice, so we went to Empire Chinese buffet? I think that's what it is called, for mine and elder Drakes 6th birthday (mission wise) So good, we then went and had 2 lessons and one I could not believe..... we cured cancer again!!! The last one Elder Drake gave the blessing, and the girls cancer was gone, this one I gave the blessing about 3 weeks ago or so and they left for Houston to have tests done so that's why we had to come back 3 weeks later and found out, completely gone, I gave the blessing to her... so both me and elder drake have healed cancer, her name is Juana Sanchez, she had it for 5 years and its gone, you see miracles out here, I know the church is true! Without a doubt in my heart, its amazing, yet even miracles like this, people are still blind. I'm glad I can see what Christ has done for me, and how he helps me, I'm 6 months out and I could be dropped off in the middle of Mexico and get around, that's how much the lord has blessed me with the language. I love my mission. We headed to the church for the pizza party that the branch was having and after we burned our ties, its a tradition, 6 months you burn a tie, 12 a shirt, 18 pants, and 24 a suit, forget the suit part! But I'll do the rest? I got some good pictures and a video :) we visited Cassie (15 year old we ran into a few weeks ago) and almost had a lesson, it was so weird, we went to shake hands with her grandma and she totally did like a gangster, homie g...  handshake. We bursted out laughing when we left! When we went back to the Apartment to grab our ties, The english elders had spider webbed our entire apartment! it was annoying! but have to love them!

    Saturday-We picked up dinner way early in the day after a few appointments and went to our investigator, with a date, and had an awesome lesson with him before going home to eat what we got, He is so ready for baptism, I'm so excited, I want to meet my goal so bad for baptisms, We went back to the appt and ate with English elders and waited for transfer calls, Elder Chantry kept calling our phone to try and make us jump, and when elder drake was in the bathroom he changed their name to "President Durrant" and then when he came back out he called again and Elder Drake freaked out and answered it only to find it was the english elders phone! But luckily we did not receive any calls, Elder Chantry broke my desk or should I say he went underneath and grabbed my legs and started pulling me under and ended up breaking it!!! No calls, I'm staying in Lufkin another transfer, spending thanksgiving, Christmas, and new years here!

    Sunday-Alfonzo came to church today and I was so tired, Sundays are the hardest for me, so dead from the week. We went to dinner right after and then started inviting everyone to Noche de Hogar (family home evening) we do it as a branch because its so small, it was really fun, we did a scripture chase game and then had cake and food after, not a whole lot more happened, so glad I'm staying here though, don't have to pack and I love it here, so excited! I love this work and I will continue to work hard and better myself in this wonderful work, I love the blessings I receive, really there is no better thing in the world, I haven't experienced what its like to drive a lambo, or to play in the NBA but I can guarantee that there is nothing better, thank you followers, I love you all.

Elder Aaron Jackson

"I NEED THE WORD! GIVE ME THE WORD!"

Monday-Emailing early in the morning and then we headed up to Nacogdoches to play Ball again with the other elders, i was on fire! Elder Chantry had a very interesting series of events, he tried to jump over Elder Drake and rolled his ankle and went to sit down and broke the chair, we were all rolling on the ground laughing so hard, after another 5 hours of playing we went out side to find the keys were left in the car, this was just not elder Chantry's day. Car was completely dead and we had to wait for jumper cables to come our way, Elder Chantry then took us all out to dinner to Cheddars, so so so good, it was a good Preperation Day.

    Tuesday-District meeting today, drove all the way to Hemphill and had the amazing and famous BBQ there again, of course! Then we got to go back to the Hemphill Elders Appartment, they call it "the shack" it is awesome! Then we got some Texas rain, or in other words There-might-be-a-tornado kind of rain, it was awesome! We had dinner with Juan and Rosa and they bought us pizza hut! which was really good! we went tracting in the rain, it was awesome because people thought we were crazy but we were enjoying it, until the thunder started sounding like it was 2 inches away from us, shaking the whole neighborhood! We talked to an awsome sophmore, Cassie and set up a time to come back, she was really cool, I started to get a major head ache too, not good, I needed to sleep bad!

    Wednesday-We tried to go visit Hector, and there was a stick bug on his porch! First one I have ever seen, crazy looking thing. Hector was there but his grumpy old Grandma told us otherwise so we didn't get in. We started tracting and some big black guy came sprinting at us as we got out of the car, saying "I NEED THE WORD! GIVE ME THE WORD!" we said "you want to learn? lets go back and teach you? Do you live around here?" he said "Yeah lets get in the car and ill show you" we explained we couldn't so we walked to his house, he had us walk in before him, and was saying random things the entire time! We got in and he gave us a tour of the house, not sure why! It was pointless and he asked us to pray with him, Elder Drake said it and made it clear that Jesus is the SON of god, they are separate beings, and after the prayer he told us they were one, I then said "can I see your bible" he went and got it and I pulled out Acts 7:55-56, which proves they are different beings, he didn't know what to say, so he rambled on about something that didn't even make any sense at all! so we got out of there and he asked for our Book of Mormon and we explained we only had Spanish stuff, and he started talking in some weird whack tongue and said it was Spanish and we both were just like... We got out of there after that. Then we knocked some more and talked to Alfonzo Diaz, awesome Man, we taught the first lesson and should have set a date, but then we went and got Elder Field for our exchange, we then finished the street and went to dinner, ribs! We went to the Guerreros after and had a really good lesson, Hna Guerrero says she will come to church for sure.

    Thursday-Planning was pretty good, I talked a lot about what I wanted to change, that at times I feel like I am hanging out with kids with a 8th grade maturity level, and I don't feel like a representative of Jesus Christ, President then called, scared us both, but only to give us a referral that is in the HOUSTON mission, so we might get to leave the mission!!!! We had a lesson with the Santoyos and cleared up some of her Catholic deep confusion. My accent is getting so much better, and my Spanish is getting so much better, Elder Field said (and let me remind you he is a zone leader out 18 months and he is the one who talks to the president and gives him ideas on who should be leaders and who should train) he said "your going to be training very soon" Freaked me out! but I'm excited for the future challenges! SO tired though, as always.

    Friday-HAPPY 11-11-11, we took pictures at 11:11, had a really good study and finished the exchange with Elder Field, We had some good Appointments planned for the day, a ton actually, even one with Alfonzo who lives at 1111 by the way!!! But they all, almost all, canceled on us. We went knocking doors an I cant tell you how much I love it when the people don't expect a bunch of white boys to speak Spanish and then we just start going off and they sit there with wide eyes! haha priceless, love this language. We were so tired but kept working, We talked to someone named Sarah and she was way cool, seemed open too, her dogs were crazy! we headed home for dinner and then were picked up by Presidente in his BEAST Camero! So loud, and we headed out to some Appointments and check ups we had left. He then dropped us off at the church to pick up... more dinner? and we then were left there with out a ride, so we played jump rope with all the kids, well I did, it was so fun! I love kids! It was a lot of fun, we then went to help the English Elders find there phone they lost and got home with 2 minutes to get to bed, long day!

    Saturday-We had Frisbee today and my head was killing me after and all day today, it was a lot of fun, never think the teams are very fair though! We had another Appt with Alfonzo and had an awesome lesson and set a date with him for the 10th of December! We visited Hector and read in 3 Nephi 27 and then had to leave cause he had to go to work. We then went back to Nash to knock some more and went to check on someone we talked to earlier and those crazy dogs I wrote about? still crazy.... one of them almost got me on the leg, they were all trying to bite us, it was scary, I was pretty close to just punting one of them! We headed up to dinner and it was pretty bad, to be honest I have no idea what it was, but there were flies everywhere and cold rice and beans and some gross sauce... gotta love the mission! :) We then went to the church to get into the library to make copies of the progress records. Head ache continues.

    Sunday-Fasting for our investigators to come and they did! We had 4 at church! it was so awesome, had the primary program today though so not sure it scared them half to death or what, bunch of cute kids screaming "I AM A CHILD OF GOD!!!"" at the top of their lungs, but it was good, Church was long and I was hungry and tired and my head hurt from lack of sleep. But we headed to Presidentes after and had an awesome dinner with Blue Bell Ice cream, best ever. We went back to the church and then helped set up for something for the young womens, There is a girl named Ivy who just turned 16 like Amber, and she is exactly like her! In almost every aspect, I love the branch, so many cool people. It was a good sabbath and we went back and I died basically, I love coming home tired, knowing that you worked hard, that you did something, that your growing. Love the work, love the followers thank you so much! Con mucho amor

Elder Aaron Jackson

First dog attack and finally. . .a Patriarcal Blessing!

Monday-We went to the zoo in the morning with everyone! there were about 10 of us, it was a ton of fun and I got a lot of pictures.. of course no penguins though :( Emailing was good, I loved the email I got from my mom in all orange! it was the best, after we went to the church and played Basketball for about 5 hours, it was the best, its been a good minute since I have done that, I played amazing and made me happy to know I still got it. I was catching oops and ripped a chunk out of my finger so that wasn't good, but so worth it! We had an awesome Halloween and probably the best pizza ever! went to sister and brother Bueses house and they are so awesome, burned some Disney music on there computer and ate home made Mexican and BBQ pizza that puts Big Daddy's to shame. Awesome Halloween!

   Tuesday-District meeting was really good as usual, we had a combined one and were with the entire zone, we went to the all you can eat pizza hut buffet afterwards and then started our two day exchange with Elder Struk and on the way home saw the most beastly Ford GT (orange) tearing down the street, in Lufkin!!! We had a few good lessons tonight one was with Rob and Ashley, Ashley is very sweet and wants to join but wants the support of her husband, who is so disrespectful to his wife and makes me so mad, and he is lazy and doesn't want to come back to church. Less active, big time! The lesson was so intense, we were bold and Rob looked like he might kill Elder Struk, Elder Drake and I both shared probably the most powerful testimonies in our missions, and we went out of there full of the spirit. We then got into a 17 year olds house, Ricardo and taught the first lesson, Elder Struk is a good guy and a great leader, he kept us up all night so we could tell him about our experiences before the mission and such, it was a good talk.

   Wednesday-Happy Birthday Elder Struk! We started our day off by raking leaves for an old lady who was surprised when we smiled and said we would love to rake your... lawn? not sure if you would call it a lawn here in east Texas, even after she completely rejected our message. After we went to a really good taco place and then went on a 3 way split, I went with Elder Field, my other zone leader who is actually the trainer of Elder Lee, he is way cool, we taught some good people and after got back together, as we headed to Jose Ana and Mayras for a lesson I had my first break down with Elder Drake, he made fun of Utah and I SLAMMED on the breaks and yelled at him to shut up, I'm so sick of hearing people talk about us as if we were "automatically" going on a mission, I worked hard and had a lot of tough decisions to make to get out here, he didn't expect it and we had our lesson and were getting gas and he apologized and I did as well. We had a person we wanted to go meet with a member, Her name is Isabel and Rob Garcia was the member coming with, we talked about breaking news in the world, freaked us out, apparently a month ago a scientist in Switzerland broke the speed of light, and Romney looks to be president, crazy how the world is, its really ugly right now, who knows whats going to happen. Iran wants to blow us off the map, protesters in all the big cities trying to break the government, he freaked us out. Anyway, she wasn't there but we are going to try and visit again. We went and visited a girl named Flora Falcon after, she is 16 and a bit flirty with us, but she has interest in the message as well.

    Thursday-Finally our exchange ended and we dropped the ZL's off and headed to wing stop before our planning session. I got 2 letters today but not what i expected, it was the two i tried to send to Kelsey :( they failed to send. Kelsey when you read this can you send me a letter, I'm not sure if you moved or what, please let me know asap! Planning was good, set some good goals and then headed out to work, my Spanish was pretty good today, Cancel, cancel, cancel. All of our appointments canceled, but we got word that we might be getting TRUCKS!!!! how awesome would that be, just small trucks, we were both freaking out when we heard that. Love the mission. Kelsey Pleaseeeee write me! gracias!

    Friday-Less active work today, we went and blitzed an area again and me and elder Chantry ran into some black guys who that were from Utah, went to Clearfield High School, they were so cool, one of them PROMISED me that i would marry someone who speaks Spanish, haha and he then told us if any one messes with us to come find him in the projects. We then had Dinner with everyone in the branch, wings and pizza. After we headed to volleyball, before everyone wanted to see if i could really dunk, because of course when missionaries find out about this they tell everyone! So I was doing some crazy off the backboard stuff and 180's and the branch was flippin, it was pretty funny, but i gotta get it on a low, I think that President Durrant wants me to do it in the Talent show for Christmas, in front of everyone! Volleyball was fun, I played good for once, instead of trying to spike it ALL the time like I usually try and do.

    Saturday-No ultimate today, we went out to IHOP for breakfast, so good. We got ready did our studies and then headed to Jose Ana and Mayras for the last lesson with them :( we watched the Testaments with them, they loved it and its sad that we gotta stop going over there, but we gotta find more of those who are prepared. We went down to the south part of Lufkin, we are talking the jungle, the boonies, and we walked up to this house with this huge dog who was just sitting there, staring. I said "I wonder if he is a nice dog" and then he growled and we said "nope!" and turned around and all the sudden like 6 dogs came out of no where, all trying to bite out our legs, it was nuts. We went to dinner and it was pretty good, made us both kind of feel sick after though, as i was sharing the scripture I heard their son dropping swear words left and right, playing MW2 in the other room. I didn't let it get to me though because after dinner, we went and found 6 new investigators, with a total of 9 for the week, that's really good! We are excited for that.

    Sunday-So tired and hungry through out the day, we went to dinner and i was so excited because i had been fasting all day, and we get there and they are having menudo with cow stomach and intestines.... it was the most disgusting thing i have ever had! i had to force it down, it was so bad. I almost threw up several times. But thats what the mission is about right? We then started our trip to the patriarch in Henderson, the furthest i have ever driven was tonight, about an hour and a half drive, got there and he talked to me for maybe 5 minutes then gave me the blessing. Some random guy in Texas, and he said things that not even my friends, brothers and parents know about... How? the church is true. It was so mind blowing to me, that i had to have my companion drive home, as i sat in the passenger seat, crying in happiness about what i had just heard. So very grateful for my family now and for my future family. Im excited to see the things that he told me come to pass. The church is true and Jesus Christ is our savior, with out him, without the authority and baptism, well... the next life, eternity, isn't going to be very fun for those who don't change their ways and have an open heart to the gospel, and don't judge from what the hear from others, drives me nuts. What should i believe, this website that was made by a nonmember, my nonmember friends, or a member who actually goes to the church! so many people are blind and do not take a chance, a step of faith. I love where i am right now and i wouldn't change for anyone, anything, or for any reason. The church is true, and it has blessed me and my family so much. I invite all that have not had the chance to hear because.. their nonmember friends say its not good or the internet? to go to the source instead, i love you all so much and am glad you are all writing and following. Please keep writing, i promise to respond to every card sent.

Love Elder Aaron Jackson

New Pics! Arrival in Lufkin!