TUESDAY - HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY TO MYSELF! :) 20 and a half years of age
holy cow! Also it was 11 years ago that the tragedy in New York
happened. Best wishes go out to all the families that lost loved ones in
that sad event. We decided to have a minute of silence during
companionship study. Today was tough! One of those days you feel like a
train full force hit you head first! We had a good district meeting
today though, very good training by Elder Richardson. After we all went
to Panda Express! LOVE IT! We didn't even know there was one here till
just a few days ago, so it was really good to have for the first time in
a long time. When we got back we grabbed the GPS and were on our way.
We headed down to Kilgore and started knocking some apartments and then
visited some members, not having any luck whatsoever, so we tried some
other ones and had a guy let us right in and start playing the guitar
for us and talked our ears off for a good amount of time. We were so
tired but carried on and then headed back home to grab a bite to eat and
try and stay on our feet. We dropped off a few ward mission plans to a
few families and then headed to the stake presidents report with
President Wagley. He is so awesome! Members are so great out here but
its just super hard to find people that are interested in the Gospel.
Most of them are just so set in their ways they wont even budge. But
anyway the meeting was super good! We then went back down to Kilgore to
teach a couple English. Its really fun to teach them English, also we
got a compliment from them about our Spanish. They said they thought we
were Hispanic by how we talked on the phone :) WHOOP WHOOP SOY HISPANO!
WEDNESDAY - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER! BIG 17! my only advice is....
stay away from them boys! hahaha, I hope you had a good one! Today was
good! 9 hours of work. No dinner. One appointment. We mixed it up a bit by
doing different things all day. We started by visiting some of the
members to give out more ward mission plans then we went to the
Monterrey to contact a bunch of Hispanics to tell them about English
classes. We went tracting and got in with a girl named Alfreda and
taught the Restoration and invited her to be baptized and she accepted.
Man it feels good to be back on track and teach! We had a total of about
56 contacts today which is a record for me! We grabbed a quick bite to
eat at Sonic and then went to the church to meet Hno Plascencia
hahahaha, he is SO awesome! Love that guy. We headed over to Marlenes
for a lesson and of course she had a DVD player with no remote so we
couldn't do what we wanted to do. We ended up testifying to her and I
told her flat out that she will not live with God after this life if she
does not leave her other church and be baptized by the Authority of
God. It was very powerful. We ran home that night and got food dropped
off for us by the Rivas family and then headed to bed. Exhausted!
THURSDAY - Planning is the best day of all the week... NOT. We
got through it and went out to work. Had some very awesome experiences.
We had a lesson with Brent with Andy and taught the Plan of Salvation. I
love the Plan of Salvation. Its my favorite to teach that is for sure.
We then went on splits. I went with Andy to a lesson with Charles where
we taught a quick lesson on the Word of Wisdom and he agreed to live it.
Super bien. We then went to visit a less active we had tried to visit
so many times in the past and didn't have any luck. This is where the
Spirit came in. We were heading there and we missed the turn and then
when we got back to it we went down the wrong road. But when we arrived
she was just pulling up and we caught her and had a great conversation
with her. Who would of the thought the Spirit would lead you in the
"wrong" direction hahaha. If we hadnt of missed the turn and gone down
the wrong road we would probably not have caught her. I love this work.
We then went back to find out Elder Chappell and Brother Sellers both
had a similar experience. They tried a less active who didnt answer and
there was another LA that lived right across from them in the complex.
They tried both and nothing. So they sat there for a while thinking
"what the heck do we do" They started to pull out when they saw a man
walking towards the stairwell that led to the less actives apartment and
so they went back and sure enough it was him. They got in and had a
good conversation with im and then as they left 35 minutes later the LA
across from them were just leaving so they caught them as well. Miracle.
Wonderful Thursday it was. Gods hand in the work is amazing to see.
FRIDAY - We got up at 5:45 to head over to the church because we
got invited to a scripture chase for seminary. It was really fun! But
took a toll on our energy level thats for sure. We headed down to
Kilgore for the day and met 2 girls with amputated arms within one hour.
Crazy little stat. We had 25 contacts and met some good people but no
real luck. We headed back to Longview for the Spanish party at the
church. We were so excited to eat but it started while we were setting
up our English class and we walked in and there was NOTHING left. No
food. We were disappointed because it was a Hispanic party... there
supposed to make TONS of food.... It was sad and it didnt help that
nobody came to English class... again. We helped clean up and then
headed home.
SATURDAY - Crazy day. We got up and headed up to Idabel for a few
interviews. 2 hour drive... yuck. We did the interviews and drove back
down almost dead by the time we got back. We grabbed a pizza and ate a
bit before heading out to Kilgore again. We tracted a bit and went and
visited Josh but he was playing games so we went to dinner and came back
at 6. He told us his favorite game is Halo so he goes to the preview on
his xbox!!! Crazy kid!!! Looks pretty good! But it will be there when I
get back. We read a bit with him too and then left to visit Alfreda.
She moved to Dallas. So much for that! We then went to the Alexanders
and shared a scripture with them. Really hope they are there tomorrow.
We headed over to la casa de la familia Florez to go over the work in
the Spanish branch. It was really good. Ate a ton of pineapple to start
our fast.
SUNDAY - WOW what a day today was! Marlene didn't come but
Candelario did come so that was good. Sacrament talks were super good
and we got the lesson thrown on us for second hour. Subject: Second
coming.... not a good one to teach while you have investigators in the
class. We headed to English ward after and had a surprise from a less
active that we thought would never ever come back to church! She told
her story in class about how her grandmother had passed away and that
because she was not a Temple Recommend holder she could not put the veil
over her and it tore her apart because she was the only other member in
her family. So she is back. She also brought her 11 year old (non
member) Grandaughter. They are just so wonderful and I was happy all day
because of that. We had the opportunity after church to give them both
Priesthood blessings. So powerful and I'm so grateful for the Priesthood.
Its so real! It was such a powerful experience. Love this church, so
grateful for Jesus Christ and all the blessings and knowledge I have
gained here on my mission. We finished with our meeting and ended our
fast with spaghetti at the Rossows hahaha, brother Rossow is so funny.
Love the ward and the branch. We did some more contacting and had a
total of 143 contacts for the week. Went and did numbers and came back
tired and ready for a reboost. Loving it out here. So crazy how fast its
gone. Thanks for reading and have a great week! The church is true, I
know it!
:)
love,
Elder Aaron Jackson #25
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