New Area, New Companion, New Investigators.

MONDAY - Well we had our last pday together, Elder Chappell and I and I wanted to cry so many times! I'm going to miss this area SO much. We got everything done, everything packed and emailed to give us some time to go play some ball with Gilmer and with the other Longview elders. It was a lot of fun. We shot for teams and a couple times I ended up on Elder Chappells teams and we just dominated haha. We played, went back and showered and headed to meet brother Sellers to head to Lindale to swap missionaries. We got there and only 5 of us were going back but a whole lot came out. We drove back into Dallas and Elder Witbeck and I sat in the back of the big van and looked at pictures from the MTC laughing and enjoying the past experiences we had. Elder Williams wanted to take us out to eat so we decided on In-N-Out my first time at this "Place of the burger gods" in which everyone claimed it to be (mostly the prideful peeps from California :)) I have one word to explain my thoughts on my first time there. OVERRATED!!!!!!!! It tasted like any other burger in fact five guys is SO SO SO SO SO much better. I was disappointed. We went to the church and met up with Elder Lee and Elder Browning and went and stayed the night there. I slept (if you can call it that) on the hard floor.

TUESDAY - We got up showered and headed to Meandering way to get our new companions. It was, as it always is, amazing to see all the familiar faces from past times. Elder Drake, Rodriguez, Scott, Falk, Willman, Beatty (New assistant) and many more. We waited quite some time before the member came to pick up Elder Virrueta, Jorgensen, Henze and I to head back to Irving. We got back and spent almost  the rest of the day unpacking and getting the area explained to me. We had dinner with la familia Barraza. It was good! We then headed to visit a few more people but didn't have a whole lot of luck with that. Not a lot today. I also gave my companion a blessing tonight. Love the Priesthood.

 

WEDNESDAY - Today we had district meeting, I got to see Elder Dominguez again! Yeah I'm so stoked he is in the same ward as me! 6 of us in one ward! We had a good meeting and went back and my companion was really sick. We had to wait for everyone to get their commissary orders which took forever!!!! We waited till about 4 to do it and then had to go fax them! By the time we got done we headed out to dinner. Dinner was good, seems really tex mexy here though! We had BBQ chicken with rice and beans haha. It was good! Afterwards we went to the church for a baptism and I met the wonderful family that was just referred to us by a member the day after transfer calls... this is where my testimony of revelation comes in and that we really are called to our missions and the areas in our missions for specific reasons. So President Durrant has a saying. "If something is good, I'm not going to change it. UNLESS the Spirit tells me" So Elder Chappell and I were in the highest baptizing zone in the entire mission. A zone that used to be despised and no one wanted to go out there! We changed it around and baptized in the incredibly difficult East Texas area. So why would President "change something that's good" well, because the Spirit told him. So transfer calls were on Saturday and on Sunday Elder Crosby and Virrueta received this referral of this family and I met them this night and I saw the wife and I swear to you I have seen her somewhere. It was the strangest thing! I feel like I have talked to her somewhere. My solution is that it was before this life and that I was preordained and chosen to teach her and her family the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church is true, I know without a doubt and I love this work! Anyways the baptism was great! I got to meet the 300 members and their names that I now have to remember and memorize and know their likes and dislikes and how they can best help us, gotta love the mission! The first week in a new area is always a brain blower. I always have a head ache trying to remember everything that's been said to me. But I'm excited, this is my 6th time doing it so I should be good :)

 

THURSDAY - Today was yet ANOTHER day spent inside as we planned and talked more about the investigators we have and again by the time we finished we were heading to dinner. We had dinner with the... uh oh I'm already forgetting names! We had ribs with beans and rice hahahaha, TEX MEX! We ate and then went to our lesson with the Villatoro family (the awesome referral we got) and we had an amazing lesson with them. They are so prepared and we talked about the Restoration and had to rush out the door to head to Oak Cliff. It was crazy to see the bright lights of downtown Dallas again! We went and did an interview for a young boy named Erik being taught by the one and only Elder Rodriguez! Its going to be great to be around him again! Love that kid! We did the interview and headed to drop them off. We stayed and talked for a bit and headed home getting home at exactly 10:30. Z Z Z Z Z Z Z

 

FRIDAY - 4 days in a row of having to do something till dinner and we finally got out and worked today!!!......jk we had to do stake presidents report! Inside all day again! But we had some time before dinner to knock some doors! It was good! There are some... haha very ghetto apartments here. We went to dinner and had enchiladas. SO SO SO GOOD!!! I love Mexican food! I want a Mexican wife! hahaha. We then went and visited a less active member and he was leaving so we visited Orlando and only got in for a bit but it was good to meet him. He will probably be baptized when I'm here. We ended our night talking to Hector, a big cowboys fan, and if your wondering anyone out there the only think that really hasn't changed in me is the burning passion of hatred I have for the stinking cowboys :) So don't get your hopes up Davis family ;) We talked a lot about Jordan and the Mavs and sports just so I could easily get on common grounds with him. Elder Virrueta over here didn't even know who Michael Jordan was... But after we got into church and had a very good talk with him about his future and things like that and then we headed home, not a lot happening haha we also gave a blessing to somebody in his family that was deathly ill, Jasmine. 

 

SATURDAY - Today was our first day to really get out and work. We quickly emailed the SPR off and went to work. We had a lesson with Raul and talked about the Book of Mormon and the importance of it. There are a lot of great investigators here! We headed to some Laundry mats and left some pamphlets and did some knocking before going to dinner. One of the first doors we knock was so funny, I love being part of the true church because no matter what they doubt there is a scripture to back it up! Its so funny how we love the Book of Mormon and we share it, not because we put it above the Bible, but because it is what makes us different and yet we follow the bible more than ANY other religion yet they all claim they do haha, the world is full of pride and greedy people that think religion is a business. I guess pastors need some kind of income to pay for their BMW's and mansions huh? Why not the tithing of all the poor people that THINK its going for a good cause. Okay I went a little too far there :/ There are so many great religions out there I just wish they could see the truth! We talked to a guy that at first was arguing with us and I backed up every doubt with a scripture... In the Bible. By the end of the contact he accepted a Book of Mormon cause he realized that his beliefs were nothing but a big circle of contradicting confusion and apostasy that formed after the death of the Son of God himself. It was really good. That's why I love this work! I don't mean to offend anyone by all means. I love everyone I meet! So many amazing people out here and they all have just such great faith in Jesus Christ, all we want to do is add to that, so please don't take it that way. We headed to dinner and had some amazing pasta with the Errazo family and had a lesson with the Villanueva and Villatoro families. They both canceled though so we had a boss lesson with a young man named Santiago. We taught the word of wisdom and Law of Chastity. We ended our night and my companion is still sick! 

 

SUNDAY - CHURCH ALREADY! can you believe its already been a week! I'm stoked for church, we went to the meetings before hand and got to know everyone, I'm super excited to be here. All Spanish baby! We sat down in Sacrament and had all our progressing investigators (7) at church! The place was packed with pure Hispanics and I just was soaking it up with a big smile on my face! Time flied and before you knew it we were heading out to dinner after church. Dinner was good, we had Chicken and rice and green beans and yum yum yum! We ate and had a lesson with Vannessa and Kimberly and set dates with them. We drove to do numbers and ended our week. Thanks for following, my new address should be up if you want to write me! Thanks,

 

love,

Elder Aaron Jackson

(")> Penguins rule!

Transfer: The Longview Days Are Over

MONDAY - Today was a pretty average preparation day thats for sure. We did the usual, emailed, laundry, etc. We played some taps at the church with the other elders. I love playing ball! We then came back and got showered and dressed and headed to the hospital with Hno Flores to give a blessing to the father of the lady in whom we are teaching the English classes. Then we went to Charles house and taught him the remainder of the commandments and set up a time for his interview.

TUESDAY - Today was an awesome day, interviews with the President. We got up and headed straight to Sulpher Springs. We got there a bit early and set up for our training and talked about a few things with the zone. Elder Chappell and I stressed obedience and then we turned the time over to Sister Durrant to give her training so we could go into interviews. Elder Chappell went in first and was in there for a good 15-20 minutes! Then it was my turn. I walked in and he said "Elder Jackson, the Hillcrest Husky legend! come on down!" We sat down and asked what I wanted to talk about and I told him I really didn't have anything and that things were all going super well. He said "Well keep going, seems like you don't even need me. I'm super proud of all your doing. Don't let up at all. I'll try and stay out of your way" that was it. I couldn't believe it. I tried to stay in there as long as I could but my interview was for like 1 minute. We got done and jumped right into the role playing that Sister Durrant had everyone doing and then we finished the meeting by giving our training as well. President came in and talked to us and got on all our cases saying we have to act more like adults, but he did this all out of love. He really wants to help us out a lot. We finished the meeting and headed on our long journey home. We stopped at Braums to get some ice cream and then got home with just enough time to drop the other elders off and head to the Eastwoods for dinner. We had nachos! Really good. We had a very awesome lesson afterwards as well, talked about the Fall of Adam and Eve. He had a lot of questions about it that we were able to clear up very well. It was a very good lesson. We did some contacting at the Monterrey for a while and then bought Marlenys picture from her baptism. What an awesome gift! We ended our night like that.

 

WEDNESDAY - We had a pretty long day today because we decided to do our planning today because tomorrow we were heading up to Gilmer to mand a boothe at the all-famous East Texas Yamboree. This event is huge!!! They close down all the stores and kids get out of school, I mean huge! So we are excited to go up there. We planned and then went down to Kilgore to do some tracting and got into one house but didnt have a lot of time so we left him and his family with a pamphlet and headed to our lesson with Celia and Lupe. We just talked about church attendance and invited them to come and then we went to the Flores' house for some dinner. They always feed us good. 6 gorditas with rice and a big bowl of blue bell ice cream.... YUM! We also got some fruit for the road. We ran over to the church for coordination meeting with Bro Sellers and Andy and had a good meeting and split up. Bro Sellers and I visited the Alexanders and also the Nelsons. Bro Sellers was talking about how when I get home all the 18 year old boys will have left there girl friends for me to come and pluck hahaha, I cant believe how close I really am to that point. Time never goes slow when your having a blast! We got back to the church and helped clean it and headed home for the night.

 

THURSDAY - YAMBOREE!! 17 MONTHS IN THE MISSION! We got up and had personal study and then headed out the door to Gilmer. We got up there and started manding the booth and it wasnt as crowded as we thought. We got some dinner after and then went to the square where everything was and that was where it was just crazy!!!! People everywhere! A lot of members as well. We went around contacting, I gave a card to a black kid and his teenage friends and he wouldnt take it because it was "white Jesus" but I got him to take it in the end. It was a crazy experience. We had a lot of fun there but it was way to worldly. Music, lights, rides....GIRLS! So it was way weird. It was a lot of fun though. We did the interview for the Gilmer elders and then we headed home after a long day. 

 

FRIDAY - Today was interesting. We received a referral for the aparments acrossed the street and it didnt have the apt numbers so we decided to pray and write down the numbers that came to mind. 63 came to mine and 65 to Elder Chappells. So we tracted all the 60's and 63 didnt answer or wasn't there, and 65 opened and shut the door right away. At least we tried. We then started our long day of drop bys. Today was a drop by day. We visited some old, and potential investigators and then did some tracting as well. We had dinner at 5 with the Grizzles and it was soup, super good soup! So delicious. I tell you it doesnt matter where you go on you mission you will always eat good! Unless its really poor place and dead birds is a delicacey... ouch! We did some contacting, tried ot have a lesson with the Ramirez family and then we went and taught English classes. Charles was interviewed and he passed! Tomorrow is the day!

 

SATURDAY - TRANSFER CALLS! Today is the big day! We went out tracting and ran into some crazy people, one lady invited us in and she was nuts and her house was full of flies and it was just gross and she wanted to anoint us with oil... it was nuts. We kept tracting and found a hispanic lady who had a lot of questions that we were able to answer and set up a return appointment. We headed to pick up Hno Flores who we actually went to a lesson this morning as well that canceled on us, well we got there and he was leaving. Anyway we went to Marlenys and started the new member lessons with her and then dropped off Hno Flores after and went to Genghis Grill to meet a member who bought us dinner. We sat and enjoyed a huge bowl of steak, chicken, rice, noodles, bbq sauce, shrimp, crab, beef all mixed together. So good! We then went to the Ramirez family's house and they were not there. First they blow us off last night and tell us to come back the next night and they arent even there? If your going to make a commitment keep it! We did some contacting at the Monterrey before heading home thinking we were staying together here in Longview for another transfer. Nope. Elder Beatty called (New AP) and told me I was going to Shady Grove South as a Zone Leader with Elder Virrueta. I hate the mission because of good byes... 

I didn't sleep well tonight!

 

 

SUNDAY - Incredible day! We had Spanish branch and I got some pics with Hno Flores and Hno Plascencia. My two favorites in the branch. We would always have this joke that every time we would call him we would say "hermano el mundo se va a acabar!" (the world is going to end) and we just had a lot of good times. So in the pics on my right is Hno Flores and left is Plascencia. We left the branch and it was weird like i will probably never see that place again. If I do it wont be for a long time. We went to English and I told the bishop I was leaving and they cleared a spot for me to share my testimony at the beginning and it was hard not to cry. I love this area and the ward and branch. So many amazing people here. I got some good pictures with some of my favorites. I wanted to get pictures with everyone but it was to hard. Sister Whitman gave me a hug! Haha, I'm going to miss everyone here! We had some great classes and then we had Rylands baptism after and it was amazing! My throat was hurting from trying to hold back the tears. I don't want to leave but I have to. Ryland is so awesome and her family as well! So supportive. It was the most spiritual baptism I have ever been to in my entire life. I will never forget that day. Not in this life or the life to come. We had cake after and said our good byes and went back so I could start packing and then we headed to the Johnstons for numbers. I got a picture with them as well. So there you have it. The Longview days are over. I am now heading to my 6th are and getting my 10th companion and I STILL haven't had one from Utah!!!!! I'm excited and thanks for all the support, love you all!

 

Elder Jackson