Monday, February 11, 2013

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

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