Arriving In Garland Texas . . . My Last Area.

February 18 - 24, 2013

MONDAY - Good pday today, we got everything done and then went to Walmart to get a few things and then I took my bike for a spin and the crank within seconds was lose. Going to be about 200 to repair so Witbeck just let me use his bike instead. Much easier. I got pictures with everyone and then they all took off and we tried to catch a few members and get pictures and had no luck. Hno Villatoro didn't get that I was leaving. We went to the norths apartment to get my helmet and ended up just staying and talking about the white wonder and how crazy it was that we are all so old!! Good last Pday.

TUESDAY - We got to meandering way and then got our new companions. Im super glad I'm with Elder Trover, I may just end the mission with no Utah companions. He is from Atlanta Georgia and is way sweet! We all went to Panda and then we dropped off all our stuff and went shopping with Elder Scott and Falk and they showed us our area on their map. Then we spent the rest of the day unpacking and went to one lesson with a part member family, with Alberto and Juan. Thats all we have right now. 

 

WEDNESDAY - We had district meeting and its weird to be a district leader again. I did interviews with everyone and just got their goals for this transfer and what they want to accomplish and the things I can do to help. After we went out to eat again. I didnt buy anything because I'm sick of it haha, We are starting a weight loss competion so everyone wanted to eat a lot for the weigh-in. My companion bought me food and of course, I weighed... 165 the same I always have hahaha. We got back and tried to visit some less actives and ate dinner at the Serranos. Good family haha, very funny. Good food too. We went and had another lesson with Juan and Alberto, they have a lot of questions. Elder Trover is a newer missionary but he has way good spanish so I'm happy about that, he was able to tackle a lot of the questions without my help. 

 

THURSDAY - Well seeing how we got torn apart by a 70 about planning, we took 7 or 8 hours and planned out everything! We did not leave til about 8 to go to English classes and of course a group of youth come out and first thing they say to me "I heard you can dunk!!!" hahaha, I just denied it and went to the class. We learned some Dentist stuff. Then we headed back. 

 

FRIDAY - Full day of work, we knocked a ton! No success whatsoever. One return appointment, but that is it. We had an interesting dinner hahaha... the sister said she invited 2 more people to eat with us and it was their daughter and her friend and it was like all fancy and seemed like a date. I don't even know what to talk to girls about anymore... not that I knew before... "So... how about that book of mormon?" I forgot what you even say haha, the family wants me to come back because the dad's bday is on the 11th as well so they want to have a party. After leaving elder Trover and I joked about how we were going to marry them haha. We had another lesson with Juan and Alberto, the questions continue to flow and be answered just as smooth as they were asked. Not sure if they are REALLY interested. Dominguez and Latham stayed the night for bball in the morning. 

 

SATURDAY - Bball!! Elder Falk and I were on a team and I came out red hot, I hit my first 2 threes like nothing, hand in my face? it don't matter. We won the first game but the second? 0 for 18 from three point land  ice cold.... I could not make a layup either. We went down 7 to 13 to 14. Then we made a solid comback to tie at 14 only to be downed by my main man Elder Chappells deadly shot from the arc to end it, I played solid defense though! Probably had a triple double with blocks, steals and rebounds. We went to breakfast after and I said no again but again someone offered to pay for me. It was real cheap and good. Falk and I and the rest of the gang were just chattering it up about going home. It just blows my mind how much time we have. We got back and I could hardly move!!! I was so sore!!!! I slept for a while and then we had coorelation at the church with the ward mission leader. We tried some more peeps and no luck, dinner was sketchy. We had tomales but from Guatamala, instead of a corn husk it was some big jungle leaf. My stomache did not like it. We visited some members to end our saturday night. 

 

SUNDAY - Interesting Sunday, Elder Trover left to go to a baptism in Oak Cliff and I stayed with the other elders and went to church with them. Elder Wirth and Hardy. Elder Hardy, Trover and I were all supposed to be talking but since Elder Trover left we had extra time. I felt bad because Elder Hardy has been out 20 months, 6 weeks less than me and he got up and spoke for 9 minutes and I spoke for 20+ and after everyone told me I had really good spanish and asked him if he was new. I'm very blessed to know the language as well as I know it. I still have a lot to learn obviously but I'm very blessed. Church was good, we went back and changed and headed to dinner. Then after we went to a Less active member and they had a 19 year old daughter and again!!! Trying to hook her up with us!!! We were just cracking jokes and we set up a dinner with them and I told them no menudo we were joking around a lot, the mission is so great. We went back and I got numbers and we hit the sack!!! 

 

Elder Jackson

Transfer! I'm Off to Garland!

February 11 - 17, 2013

MONDAY - Pretty normal pday. Got everything done and just went to lunch and shopped. Nothing new. Then we had a few appointments. We had an awesome lesson with this girl we found and we went and she just left her kids in the house while she went to some guys apartment. Sick world we live in! Then we had a really good noche de hogar with Santiago and with the De la Cruz family and also the Arrazolas. We watched the John Tanner story and then just talked after. Way spiritual!

TUESDAY - We had our studies and then we went to do service at the thrift store. Really not as good the first time haha. Was not enjoyable but we did help them and that is what counts. Also bought a shirt for Elder Chappell. Bulls Derrik Rose shirt for $1. SWOOP! We left and were going to knock but didnt have a lot of time so we went back changed and went to dinner with the Part member family, Jimenez family. Flautas! So good. Then we had a sweet lesson with this new girl who is the friend of la hermana Mackay. We taught the Restoration and it went really well. She understood it very well! Then we visited the Villatoros and Villanuevas.

 

WEDNESDAY - We did some knocking today and talked to a bunch of people. We had a lesson with the Rivera family and it was sweet we gave the mom a blessing too. They kept telling us they were never come back and that doesnt matter who comes. We were some of thousands of missionaries that have tried and tried again. But she said she was ready to come back. We had an amazing lesson and then we set up a family home evening and hopefully we can talk to the dad. We then went to dinner and ate some amazing tortas with the Mancia family. SO GOOD! Im going to miss this food. We then taught Raul with hno Magana who is a boss! Then we gave a blessing to hna Jasimine Coronas son who was sick. Then we headed home for the night. 

 

THURSDAY - We are on the verge of reaching standards so we just skipped planning today and went knocking. We didnt have much success so we went and got lunch and had pupusas and contacted the waitress. We then went to the church to help set up for the wedding and the baptism. It was a way good wedding. I said the opening prayer and then they were married and then we had the wedding. Hno Cruz is crazy! He wanted to do all this stuff against the manual for baptism and so he was mad when we told him no. So we did it, it was so long! Then we ate... not very good food for a wedding. We went to braums to eat ice cream on the way back. Crazy day. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

     

FRIDAY - Today we were chewed out by a 70. Elder Audikitais came and got on our case about our planning and everything that we do. But oh my goodness, it was the most I've learned in a meeting in a while. It was from 9 to 5. Long time but I got a lot out of it and I plan to set goals to baptize every week the last 6 weeks of my mission. Long meeting but amazing. I'll show notes after my mission to those who care to see. We had dinner with the Abarca family after and visited some people. We found a really solid girl who wants to come to church and learn more. We planned to end our night after getting chewed out haha. Got to get better. Thats for sure. 

 

SATURDAY - Another crazy day! Baptism of Santiago was awesome!! Super good service! We then went out and contacted people and then went to dinner with the Coronas and had more flautas. Then we went back after visiting hna Barraza... the call came. My 7th and final area. Garland 6, getting doubled in. Elder Trover is my new companion. 

 

SUNDAY - Conference today so it was weird not being able to say to everyone I'm leaving. So after dinner with the Ayalas I went and said good bye to a few people. Got pics with the Aguillon, Ayala, Santiago, Raul. So sad I'm leaving. Im going to miss this ward. Santiago came with us and invited Rauls wife to church! So boss already! Love the kid. I packed the rest of the night. Also in the morning we had our solid investigator at conference as we chased her little kid around the gym. So we didnt get to see much of it but that's ok. We went to the english one and it started out in spanish hahaha the english members were kind of freaking out. The message applied EXACTLY to our investigator... church is true. Love you all, off to Garland!

 

Elder Jackson

A Week of Service

February 4 - 10, 2013

MONDAY - A good pday, we got everything done as fast as we could and then we went to the National scouting museum. It was pretty sweet, really cool but for the national one I expected a bit more than that. We started our exchange with the assistants and I stayed here with elder Beatty and Witbeck went with Weatherford. We got back at 6 and we were both really hungry and so we went to Taco Bell due to time crunch, we talked about how we were almost done and he asked me what I wanted to do after. I told him BYU was top of my list of schools and he was trying to get it out of me but in reality I have no idea what I want to do. I don't know what I want to study. After we visited some families and headed back for the night.
 

TUESDAY - This week was a bit different because we needed to start finding service. So we did, we went from church to church on my GPS which is thousands!!! and asked for service. We even went to a Buddhist temple... so crazy! Nothing. We were on our way to a food bank when we decided to stop at a thrift store and see if they had something for us to do. Sure enough they let us sort stuff, pull stuff and a bunch of other stuff. Way good service! We did 3 hours and got a lot of questions about the church and such, it was a lot of fun. We got done and headed to switch back. We had dinner with the Cruz family and were 45 minutes late, it was ok food. We then went to our appointments with hno Cruz and he is just crazy! We visited Raul and he was just going into all this deep doctrine and stuff. Luckily he is just a boss and is one of the most faithful and solid investigators I have had in my mission and will be baptized. Then with Santiago the same, we just wanted to go over the interview questions to get him ready for his interview and stuff. Hno Cruz just was a bit crazy. We ended our night. The east elders had our car and they came over and spent the night with us so they could head to the meeting with us tomorrow.

 

WEDNESDAY - We had our zone meeting and talked about baptizing 115 in March. Everyone was on board and it was good, we have an awesome zone that's for sure! President came to interview a few people, Elder Chappell might go assistant. We will see what happens with transfers, going to be crazy. After the meeting we wanted to go get lunch at Burguesa Burger, the best place in the world but we lally-gagged so we didn't have time. We ate at pollo regio before doing service at the north Texas food bank. Where we boxed up cans and organized them while... listening to Michael Jackson and Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Metallica. NUTS! Its been a long time since I last heard that kind of music. We finished after 4 hours and headed back to Irving to go to dinner with the North elders at hna Abarcas house. It was pretty good, we had only one scheduled appointment that canceled and we didn't have much luck the rest of the day.

 

THURSDAY - More service! from 10 to 1 we went to "Irving Cares" and helped unbox and shelf what we boxed yesterday haha, it was a lot of fun. But very draining. We got done and went to lunch with the North elders and did some planning and cleaned till dinner at 5. We picked up some pizza from hna Cardona and went to the east elders apartment to eat with them and start a small exchange with them to do the interview for Santiago. Elder Chappell came with me to interview Santiago and he passed. Again much talk about school and BYU and such, Elder Chappell is a boss. One of my favorite comps for sure, him and Elder Witbeck are probably top two. So good. We visited a few people before getting some game fuel at the seven eleven by their house and exchanging back.

 

FRIDAY - We had lunch with the Alfaros at 1 and tried to teach their daughter that just got here from El Salvador. but she wasn't very interested. But it was a good talk and after we came back to plan and finish cleaning the apartment. We made plans to reach standards this coming week and to work real hard. For it could be our last week together believe it or not. We went to the church at 7 to meet a referral and eat dinner and found out that it was a valentines dance!!! No way!! Did not look good for us to be there. So we got the food and got out. It was gross! So bad! So we decided to go to IHOP cause we had no other dinner. We saw a new orange Lambo and a yellow Ferrari right next to each other in the parking lot of on the border. So sick! We ate and headed home. 

 

SATURDAY - We started knocking right off the bat and it is amazing when you can tell when someone is actually interested in hearing your message. We ran into this girl named Rosio who had 4 kids and was having problems with the dad it seemed. Super sweet girl and interested. We have an appointment with her soon and I'm excited for that. We knocked a lot and we didn't have dinner and we didn't want to drive all the way back to the apartment so we went to Chillies to start our fast. We knocked some more and ran into some crazy evangelist guy who really wanted to bash. I could have destroyed everything he came up with, with the tons of scriptures going through my mind that just staple my testimony and the truthfulness of this church together. But, we didn't. We left because there was contention. We visited hno Villanueva last of all and he said for the first time that he will be at church!! Exciting stuff!

 

SUNDAY - Good sabbath, hno Villanueva came!! Raul and Santiago as well. Fasting was tough but we went to the north's after and broke it with some left over pizza. We finally finished cleaning the apartment and finished right before dinner at the Arrazolas. It was good, chicken is kind of getting old though for me. We have had it so much! We ate and dropped off north and went to work. Visited the Campos family and the Corona. Then a surprise call from Elder Solis, well brother Solis now came in. He has a kid on the way in 4 months! So crazy!!! It was okay to talk to him, crazy how long he has been gone. We finished our night by doing numbers and hitting the sack hard. Long week. Lots of service. Even longer week ahead! love,

 

Elder Jackson

Second Place Just Wont Do. We Need to Be #1!

January 28 - February 3

MONDAY - I hope my blog isn't really bad because I have been behind in my journal this whole week! Busy busy busy. Finally got all the photos sent to my pops. Hope they will be on facebook soon or whatever. We got everything done that we needed to get done. We had an awesome day planned! Dinner with the Alfaros and we were going to teach their daughter who is not a member who just got here from El Salvador, but they canceled and gave us dinner... then we were going to have a noche de hogar with Santiago and the Familia de la Cruz but they canceled too. We even tried to visit a member that was leaving on her mission and just say good bye and they were not there either! Everything fell through. We went and visited Jasmine and had a really good lesson. She says she is going to fast with her sister in law and read in the Book of Mormon. We just got her excited about that and headed home to put the groceries back that we forgot about!

TUESDAY - We had district meeting today and were stupid after. We went to a restaurant after where a member works and she gave us free food last time and this time she couldn't... and none of us had money haha so Elder Chappell and Witbeck had to cover for us. It was really good, but really dumb. We headed to the library to work on the stake president report and were there waiting for the other elders almost all day!! The weather has just been crazy here the last few days!!! It was raining really really hard as we left for dinner with the Mackays. We had some good food with them and then blessed their new home they bought and were on our way. Didn't have a lot of luck that night. We need to find new people that's for sure. 

 

WEDNESDAY - We finished the SPR and headed back to the apartment because my head was killing me! So I came back and rested all day untill dinner with the Escotos. We had spaghetti but it was really watery... kind of gross. But okay. We tried to visit some old investigators and talked to this guy whose life just really wasnt going well! His familiy is in Mexico and he doesnt have money to pay for bills and he is really sick and had no money to go to the doctors, just really really sad. I was kind of out of it cause I had been sleeping all day. We went to the church and talked to some youth and then got some ice cream at braums before heading back to the apartment.

 

THURSDAY - I didn't get up today till late but the head ache is getting better. The North elders took us to dennys for breakfast and it was way good! Then elder Witbeck wasnt feeling good so he sacked out for a while I kind of planned. We checked mail and my streak continues... like 3 weeks without mail. longest in the mission! haha, must be that time. We had chicken at the Romans house, again. We always do! Which is fine, it was really good. We had a lesson with Santiago at the park, talked about temples and baptisms for the dead. That doctrine is clear as can be, a child could understand it. We then taught the Restoration to the Campos family and they really liked it a lot. Feels good to be out teaching after being stuck inside or doing reports all day! We got back and I read some of my spanish notes from the MTC and we laughed pretty hard. Its amazing to see the improvements! 

 

FRIDAY - We did the SPR today and the english elders.... they are a little cooky in the head. This is a very important report and they scheduled an exchange for the day and so they were late and they didnt fill out the report right. It was a disaster. But the pizza was good and President Porter is just so awesome! Exciting year for the Dallas stake. We then went and knocked for hours and hours and hours and found a few semi solid people. Its tough finding new people but your still blessed a ton for working. We had dinner with the Barrazas and had chicken with rice. Then we taught Raul and had an interesting lesson about the 12 tribes of Israel. We had a meeting in the morning so after heading back we decided to do P90x because we werent going to have time in the morning due to the meeting we had. HAHA! of couse its kenpox which is the fighting one and you kind of look dumb when you do it. So we looked to see if the weight room was empty and sure enough it was! So we go up there and start doing it and it is just weird, and sure enough this beautiful girl comes up to run and sees us doing the weirdest stretches and such hahaha, so we decided to keep going and it gets worse AND more people come so we finally stop and just run on the machines. So funny!

 

SATURDAY - Really sweet meeting today. We got up and went there and found out that it was not president Durrant that called that meeting, but the assistants. We got together and talked about how there was ANOTHER miscount on the baptisms in December and we really had 96. So we reached our goal! BUT! that is only the second highest in mission history. Second?! What the heck!? Being an athlete and amongst many others we talked it over and said we do not want to go home with the second highest. We want number 1. So we set a goal to baptize 115 in March. It was such a good meeting! We wrote down more sacrifices we are going to make. We also found out that our mission is one of the best in the USA. All the southern states together average about 25 baptisms a month. We double that and almost tripple it averaging almost 60 a month. They did a check on the mission and Salt Lake loves what President Durrant is doing out here. But coming from yet another athlete his response was "yes, but we can do better" So we got fired up about this new goal. Most of the leaders are old like me so we all talked about how we dont want to go home second best. In fact my whole district have all been zone leaders. Elder Beatty is the assistant right now, and 4 of the other 5 of us were there. So amazing. We headed out pumped! We got some lunch at raisin canes. I got letters from Shawn and Nate also. We headed back and knocked all day again. Had pizza with the maganas and helped them move a matress. We taught the Dominguez family to end our night. Way good lesson. Thats what happens when you have two old missionaries with 42 months of experience combined.

 

SUNDAY - Pretty good Sunday, we had a mission fast for our new goal of 115  So that was good. We had Raul and Santiago there at church and it was a great service. We went back after and broke our fast and cleaned up a bit and had dinner at 5 where we ate some strange pasole. Elder Witbeck ended up throwing it all up after before heading to a lesson with the Jimenez family. Hna Jimenez just never breathes. She talks and talks and talks and talks. We did numbers and went to bed super tired. Good week!

love,

Elder Jackson

P90X!

January 21-27, 2013

MONDAY - So not much of a pday today because we had stinking meetings all day again. We got up and headed to meandering way to have a meeting from 8-12. Then we had subs there at the church and headed to the office to pick up mail, you know your getting old when there is never anything for you hahaha, but thats okay with me. We then headed back home and the assistants came down cause we were going to go to the scout museum, we are talking the headquarters of scouting is here in Irving or something HUGE. But it was to late so we went out to eat at on the border with them. Talked about the mission and how everything is going. Its crazy how powerful our MTC district has become and how much we have learned. We all have been zone leaders and trainers. We went to some random apartments at night and gave a blessing to a guy who was having adiction problems. It was crazy cause elder Witbeck felt inspired to go to those apartments and I felt inspired to offer a blessing to this guy. Small miracle of the day. We got some groceries real quick since we were close and headed home.

TUESDAY - P90X is great! We did it today before headed to email. We took the east elders shopping and then emailed. We had dinner with Hna Abarca and had some pretty amazing tacos! So so so good! We ate and as I was sharing the scriptures the north elders came in and we left to teach Santiago, pretty sloppy lesson haha, all over the place. But he liked it a lot. Then we taught Raul and reviewed the interview questions with him and then headed back. Hopefully things go well with his interview tomorrow.

 

WEDNESDAY - We had our zone meeting today and it was in Grand Prairie this time. It was really good, I think the zone really likes us. We spent a lot of time talking about the new mission cards we got and also Just Serve. Im excited for Just serve, it stinks I wont be here when it really starts to roll but its exciting. Service is my favorite. We ate lunch afterwards because we didnt have time to run back to the house. Chick-fil-a is so good! We knocked for a bit and then before we knew it, it was time to go to dinner. We all met up at the carrillos and had some good pasole. We dropped off the north elders and headed to the church for Rauls interview. It went well, hopefully he can be baptized but he is going to talk to president about it. 

 

THURSDAY - P90X was good today, but the people below were not happy haha, stomping at 6 am. I am so sore though! But its good stuff. We ended up spending a lot of time on the Stake president report today and didnt get to plan at all. oh well haha. We did some knocking before eating steaks at the Mancias house and talking with Bryan about his mission, he leaves very soon. We had another lesson with Santiago in the park and it was really good. Still very solid. 

 

FRIDAY - HAPPY BDAY MOM!!!! The best mom in the world had a birthday today. Im grateful for everything she has done and does for me. We are so so so sore haha, I couldnt even bend down to grab my shoes. Hahaha kind of funny, but really good. Great work outs! We did some knocking by this part member family and it was funny because we decided to stop by at the same time the Jehovah witnesses did and it was just really weird to be in a lesson with them. Great people, just only with part of the truth. But they are very dedicated and they get out and knock so thats good. Just not as much as us ;) We ate an early dinner at pollo regio and then went to our lesson with Raul and followed up on the interview. We still didnt have an answer yet... but he is super good. I love this guy and its for people like him that you come on a mission. He is willing and is growing in the gospel and is just great. We then went to drop in on an old investigator that let us right in and we had hot chocolate and talked about the benefits of church and such. It was a really good talk. I love Spanish!

 

SATURDAY - We dropped in on a lot of less actives today and knocked some apartments as well. But we didnt have any luck. we are going to start looking for service now. We feel that would be better. We had dinner with the Coronas at 6:30 and had the best enchiladas ever!!! I told them how my familiy loves mexican food and they said I have to bring my mom and dad back. They are so awesome!!! We then had a lesson with Hilarie and with Jasmine and it was crazy! We talked about the Book of Mormon and then I started to talk about families and I felt the Spirit like never before. My feet started to get really hot and I felt an overwhelming feeling of peace as I talked about the temples that have been placed on earth so we can have eternal families throught the authority of God. Who wouldnt want that? How could someone believe that we wont have our families after? Thats just dumb. It was one of the most powerful lessons I have had on my mission and Hilarie just started to cry and Jasmine too. It was crazy, they are just such wonderful people and sensitive to the Spirit as apose to denying it. It was way good. 

 

SUNDAY - Good sabbath day. We got the call that Raul has to wait till May :( Santiago and him both came though. We then went to eat at the Arrazolas and it was a lot of fun. We were cracking jokes the whole time, I was making fun of elder Jorgensen because I've been in a car for the last 9 months and he has been on a bike hahaha. It was good. We then left and we were so tired that after trying a few people we went back to change and just passed out for like 2 hours. So exhausted. We then went and talked to Raul to let him know about the news and he gets off probation May 13 which is a Monday and usually baptisms are on Saturdays... which means I will not be here. I'll be home. I told him that and he said he wants to do it on that Tuesday and he wants me to baptize him. So what a gift that is, a great way to go out to. Baptize one of the most humble men I have ever met and then head home with honor. I love this work and our zone is doing so good! I testify that this is the true work of God. There is no other work that brings more joy and peace.

 

Elder Jackson