Give me a Book Of Mormon, PLEASE!

Monday-went on exchanges with the zone leaders today, with Elder Rearden. Before we went to our first appointment we went to dinner and heard more music I haven't heard forever, it was really weird. After we went and taught a 12 year old girl and she was tough, we explained very simply and she still had a hard time understanding, but she has a date to be baptized. After we did some tracting and ran into a crazy black guy who at first was yelling and swearing at us asking what we were selling and we told him we were from the church and it completely changed him, got a return appointment with him. After we tracted some more and ran into a Muslim black family, it was an 18 year old and his little sisters. They understood us and we got a return appointment as well, he told us about his job. Gamestop. Talked about the hype for the new modern warfare game is insane! So i connected to him in that way, also he said he wanted to just be a bagger at Albertsons and so i kinda laughed and explained to him thats what i was, after it was dark and so we went and got ice cream and headed home.

   Tuesday- District meeting, of course the Zone Leaders make me do a lot of stuff, i had to be in the role play we did in front of everyone and there are some people that never get picked to do so. But its good for me, after we went and got lunch with Elder Witbeck and Beatty, i love being with these elders, they are just awesome. We have such an amazing friendship. Elder Witbeck didn't want to talk about the game at all, i didn't have a problem, sports are every year, sure byu got killed but its not like it matters. Neither Byu or Utah are going to get a bowl game, not after losing to an unranked USC team. Their seasons will consist of crap bowl games, no way Utah beats Oregon. There is always next year, but for a mission and serving the one who CREATED football, only 2 years, congrats to Utah though hope they beat some of the big teams that get credit that don't deserve it. But Texas is doing good, people are nuts here! Bigger then the cowboys, After we headed to dinner and ate, i thought i fixed my bike but i didn't, i made it worse. So the bike problems continue. We are both excited for tomorrow, going to teach new people and set dates!

   Wednesday-not a whole of excitement in the morning, we had dinner with elder perry and jorgenson because they were on exchanges, elder perry is awesome! After we had 25 minutes to get back home, it was about a 35-40 minute ride as well, but we were flying. Got back met with Hno Lama and headed to our Appointments, both went well and we have a date for the 15 of October. Way excited!

   Thursday-Daily planning is always rough, in the Apartment from 6 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon, so i took some videos of something awesome i did, FIRST TRY. So those will be sent home shortly and be put up on FaceBook. After we headed to dinner with Hna Maldanado and as we finished we saw a guy trying to push his truck, so of course we went and helped, ends up he was trying to do it since noon, he needed to get it up this huge hill, so im in the driver seat steering, it was a stick as well, been a long time since i have been in a manual. I steered while Elder Lee held a tire in between his other car and the back of the dead car i was steering, while he pushed it with his car up this massive hill, elder lee was running holding this tire, it was crazy. We got an orange soda after, was totally worth it. Then we headed to our lesson with Manuel, first really awkward lesson... We thought he was gay when we first talked to him, which is fine but we go in and he just has questions about, well pretty much every law of chastity question you can think of, but he is single, hasn't had sex, and wants to be married before doing so, so we will probably have a baptismal date with him soon. He is really cool. After we headed to our lesson with the only date we have, he is awesome, we taught him the restoration and he loved it, had questions but we answered, it was great. After we walked out side and the weather was perfect! Times like those i was just so so happy!

   Friday-Went tracting in some... well very "sketch" apartments, i told elder lee as we got there "i think they may have filmed a horror film here, if not? ITS PERFECT!" We talked to a girl named Barbra, she was crazy. Simple as that. She started talking about demons and angels she saw and how her husband is possessed and how she needs a prayer. We said a prayer and continued knocking, people are so ruined here i tell you, its sad. I want to help so bad! We talked to a guy named Jose and he was drinking, and we asked if he believed in Jesus and he said not when he drinks... We were confused, he told us he pretty much pretends to not believe when he drinks because he knows drinking is bad. But when he isn't, yeah he believes. We got out of there and headed to the other elders for dinner, we stopped at wal mart and they have Texas Longhorns EVERYTHING! its pretty cool to see different teams in wal mart. They had a bunch of pictures from the finals as well which were cool. But on the way we ran into some homeless guy who started yelling at us "HEY!!!" and he said "Give me a book of Mormon PLEASE! my last one was destroyed in the rain!" So we started talking and he was talking about how people that don't give it a chance are missing out, and how there is no way that Joseph smith could have written it, that it is from god. He pretty much was sharing his testimony with us. It was amazing to hear his reaction when he first read it. He was amazed and confused as to why there are people that reject it. We went and had dinner and got a Book of Mormon in English for him because all the ones we had at that time were in Spanish. And we have an appointment with him, under the Freeway, on Friday. After we headed to another appointment with Maribel and Martin. Its Friday so of course everyone. EVERYONE. They are all drunk. So Martin was drunk and we talked to Maribel about it and she doesn't like it, i asked her what her thoughts about being with your family forever, and talked about my family and how important they are to me. She told us that she was fine with just this life, and that's when she told us she doesn't like how martin drinks. Of course she fed us too... Im so tired of eating so much, but got to be respectful. Im at 160 right now, 5 pounds more than i left. Thats not to bad but still, i dont wanna get fat!

   Saturday-Today was nuts, went back to get-murdered appts and the first door we knock we get in, teach a lesson and its great. We leave and see a guy sitting on a tree trunk sad as can be, so of course we go talk to him, he tells us his story about his wife cheating on him and leaving him, taking the kids and leaving him. He is drunk though, so we are thinking maybe thats why she left. But who knows, we talk to him and he knows a lot about the church, he loves the temples. His name is Jose (of course) and we really get on his case about beer and all the sudden another one of his friends walks up, his name is Jojo and he is the same guy that we talked to and elder lee was getting mad cause he was talking about how Mexicans are keeping America alive, that they should get paid more cause they work harder then white people and (even though they don't pay taxes and they just think they can come to our country cause they screwed theirs up) i love Mexicans but is ones like him that make me mad, so he started going on about the same stuff, they both said they wanted to stop drinking. But he starting talking about this stuff again, said that Mexicans are history now, they are the biggest thing that happened to America and all the sudden Jose just goes off on him, telling him to have respect for where he is cause this is America, not Mexico. It was crazy, but soon we really stressed how pointless, stupid, useless, dangerous, disgusting, money-eating, life-ruining and... well just STUPID, beer is. So they both dumped out there bottles and said they would change, just imagine me sitting in the grass with two Mexicans both drinking beer and telling them to change. Crazy what im doing out here. Jose hadn't slept or eaten in a few days so we took him to subway, i tell you, im broke because of how many people we help. Its worth it. We helped another person push his car and headed to our BBQ we had, i didnt eat anything, crazy day though. Went and talked to Brigida, she is awesome and i love her to death, fun day.

  Sunday-Had a lesson with Juan in the morning, annoying, the catholic church.. if 98 percent of the people even knew what they believed in, they wouldnt be there! They are so unorganized, read Jesus the Christ, they are so corrupted as a religion, its sad. Its all about pride though, we have true doctrine and they just dont want to admit it. Its sad, cause all we want to do is help these people. After we went and picked up Jose for church, we got there and he looked like crap so he didnt want to come in, we missed the sacrament so that sucked. But we finally got him to get in, first talk starts talking about the word of wisdom! Just what he needed. He left after that cause he felt like crap with no sleep, was begging us to find him a ride, but we couldnt. Church was awesome, we found out the times for next week for conference! Im so so excited for it! im going to feast upon every word they say, how could you not be excited to hear words from the apostles and the prophet, the only ones in the WORLD who have the authority and keys of god. After church we went to dinner with a family who the wife is a return missionary and she was telling us about her expierence with a Jehovah Witness the other day, for those of you who dont already know, JW are our worst enemy, they hate us, but they steal all of our stuff! But yeah she told us how she asking why they change so much stuff, cause its true, we have taught familys can be blessed and can live forever, since the church was restored. They just started. Its crazy out here with them i tell you, they refuse to talk to us, because they know we have the truth. :) I love my mission, i am about 4 and half months out, its gone by super fast but i have learned so much about everything, about who i want to be when i get back, what im so grateful in this life and much more. After dinner we ran into another guy, drunk as a skunk asking us to help him, we will see how that goes. I love all the blog followers, wait to you see the pictures and videos i have, thanks for the letters as well! Please write! i promise i will write back. Love

Elder Aaron Jackson

Best tortillas ever! But. . .it's time to try to eat some tongue!

Monday-Basketball. I'm losing it. I couldn't do anything, i was still a monster on defense but i got stuffed by the rim on a dunk attempt, i don't know what to think. All i know is i will be blessed after the mission, that's a promise.  Elder Dansey showed up, new in our zone, we started talking and asked where i was from and when i said Hillcrest he said that his ex girlfriend went there and i was like, oh no. I asked him who it was, Good old Melissa Paterson, so we started talking more and found out we were hanging out a few times before the mission, we watched the byu utah game together two years ago. Crazy! We headed to our lesson with Hna Diaz and had a good lesson, headed up to the closest corner to wait for Hno Freddy, it was a CVS drug store, as we waited we ran in and got some cards for amber and wrote in them later that night, super glad you liked them baby sis!

   Tuesday-Training meeting. For only leaders of disrict and zone and back up trainers. So i went on exchanges and went tracking with elder Jorgensen, someone fresh off the plane, i understood almost everything when we went tracking and in an hour we got 6 return appointments, it was great! Elder Jorgensen is a little... different, he is 23 years old, from Idaho. So we are almost back and my tire starts to go flat, of course! telling you im going for a record! but it didn't take long to fix. Got into some more way way way deep doctrine with elder Lee that night, gosh its crazy how true the church is. After we had a lesson planned with a man named Eduardo, he has been an investigator of the church since i was 6 years old. We brought a member, Thomas and he talked the first 45 minutes! We didn't even have time to teach, they fed us too, every time i go over there they call me "flaquito" flaco means skinny, but when you put "ito" on the end of it, it means like, REALLY, so they make me eat so much! Its fun though. But the members are so hard to work with, love them to death but they dont understand that we are the teachers, and they go into all this deep stuff and off subject, its a test of patience. Then i went to go on exchanges with Elder Hansen, elder Jorgensens companion, the really smart one, he got a 36 on his act.

   Wednesday- Exchange went really well, tracked like 7 different streets, not a lot of luck but we worked. Dinner we had the best tortillas that i have ever had in my life! I'm going to ask for the recipe later down the road. Then we headed to our lesson for that night before exchanging back, We taught and the guy there was just moaning, as if something was eating him from the inside out, so we gave him a blessing, i anointed the oil and then 5 minutes later, he just stopped, was fine. Amazing, how powerful it is. The priesthood is such a gift. Got back and Elder Lee was telling me that he had the same kind of night, talked to a sick girl and they blessed here, the lesson didn't go well though cause elder Jorgensen was ALL over the place! to deep and to confusing, so Elder lee wasn't to happy, but we understand he is learning. But she was healed as well. Church is true.

   Thursday-Got up did our studies and headed over to a recent convert lesson with a girl named Sandra, taught her the first lesson, best Spanish i have spoken so far on my mission, i spoke clear, i explained well, it was awesome! Today was planning day so we grabbed a bite to eat and hit Preach My Gospel, set up our next week. After we headed up to Brigida and i will tell you, its a tough tough ride up there, but she is so worth it, she was my first confirmation baptism and i love her, i will always cherish her because i was able to help her and she is just awesome, we taught her, had an awesome lesson and after we started talking about food and she got mad at us when she found out we hadn't tried tongue, so we are going to eat tongue with her, i was getting all excited and she was so confused but excited too, she is awesome.

   Friday-Specialized training, again had to catch a bus up to the church, we got there and we always start every meeting the same. We say a prayer, recite our purpose, D&C4 and recently the president asked us to memorize the 22 points in Spanish, its these 22 sentences on the back of Preach my Gospel, i did it in district meeting but i wanted to do it in front of the president. So the AP, Elder Jensen asked if anyone wanted to do it, everyone was like no way, my hand just shot up, everyone was confused, some young missionary, not even 4 months out raising there hand. I got up and president Durant came over to me as i stood by me and put his arm around me and said "lets put some pressure on elder Jackson... Never mind this is pressure enough" and he walked away, i stared the mic and looked at the 100 plus standing missionaries and, did it. Got a nice applause for it and people just were like what? then the president got up and just complimented me on my Spanish and my courage and asked all those whoever could do the same, remain standing. Me and like 4 others stayed standing. It was pretty cool. Great meeting, got a few cards, my bike part (which of course was the wrong piece!) and i just learned a lot. Went home and got ready for dinner, yeah that's how long these meetings are, 6 hours or more. Dinner was not planned out well, so we couldn't go, members don't get it sometimes, that we cant stay out till 12!!! so we went to McDonald's, had our brains corrupted by some lady gaga and went talk with a few girls we had talked to before, had an awesome lesson. Then we rode home and were drenched!!! It was pouring!! We were just smiling and screaming it was so fun!

   Saturday-Not a whole lot happened today, we had so much planned out but it ended up being a pretty hollow day, we had dinner with the mom of one of our investigators who is so hard to teach cause he is 14 and just a punk, but he likes to skate, so i was able to talk to him about how i used to skate and connect a little with him, open up. So we are doing a little better. As we got ready for bed, ended up talking about how we are going to start a Halo Texas Dallas mission clan and only speak Spanish online, it was a good day.

   Sunday-Love the sabbath day, get to feel the spirit, none of our investigators showed up but Fabricio. Dinner was good but then i realized after stuffing my face that we had an appointment with eduardo... meaning some how i was going to have to stuff down a huge meal! and of course they had so much food when we got there, i some how did it. Afterwards as we headed outside to get a ride home, biggest rainstorm ever! lightning every 2 seconds, NO EVEN KIDDING! i took a video while heading home, but its not that good but yeah it was crazy.

Happy Birthday Amber! Sweet 16!

Monday-We played some ball, i got some awesome vids that i want on facebook por favor!

   Tuesday-Did the usual today, tracking then we went to dinner with Tomas who is awesome, had my all time favorite food out here so far, they are called Tortas, they are like sandwiches but ten times bigger and better! then things went bad, we drove all the way to our appointment and Elder Lee got a popped tire, and the appointment punched.. so it was a long walk home. It was a terrible day, but only more to come! we have to keep working, we will be blessed.

   Wednesday-Long day, had a meeting, another 6 hour meeting for new missionaries and trainers, so we didnt have much going that day, no letters. I was shocked, but the meeting was great, they asked me to dunk it but i didnt. Only if we are playing. The meeting ended and i got a call from my top investigator and she told me that she is taking english classes every night so she can learn english, so she wont be able to see us anymore, it was rough, we got dropped off at dinner and i was so beat. Had 2 lessons with Hno Lama that went pretty good.

   Thursday-Today was planning, so nothing really new, we were super excited to go to our appointment with a man named javier cause he sounded really interested, so we skipped the Church Talent show that was going on with our ward, witch is good cause the bishops SON did a dance to a Kesha song! in the church! a bad song too! but our appointment was way down south, so we grabbed some sonic and of course we get there and the song "dynamite" is playing and it just brings so many memories back to BOTH of us. So we start jamming out to it! then after we go to his house only to find out he is a member already... heart breaking.

   Friday-Today was good, we had a zone council and i had to recite the 22 points in the back of Preach my gospel, in spanish. Its nuts, some how i memorized them all really fast, in like 30 minutes. The meeting was awesome, i got some letters from my fellow baller Kelsey #10!! She is just awesome, cause she writes me a lot! THANK YOU! and Jackie sent me a letter too so i was really happy about that, Everyone was talking smack (Not really) about playing ball on monday, Elder Faulk, someone who i have played against, played for Kearns. Another elder, HUGE Kobe fan from Cali, is really good and we are all talking about balling, so its so exciting.

   Saturday-Oh my the worst eating expirence ever!!! so we left to go tracking and there is NO food in the house. So we go grab 3 burgers from BK and eat them all, about an hour later when we are tracking, a investigator who has been investigating since i was 6!!! 13 years!! who we set up an appoinment with, calls us and invites us to lunch, we go and he has amazing enchiladas for us and he would not let us finish "quiere mas?" so we are stuffed and we teach him a POWERFUL lesson, he said out of the 50 missionaries he talked to he had never heard the things we said! it was great, then i realized we had dinner at 4 instead of 5 today... and it was about 3:55 when we finished there, he dropped us off and we ate dinner. I could not stand up straight, one wrong move and i would have exploded! I was so sick, we got home and then went out after sitting for a few minutes. Ran into some crazy people, some guy sniffing Paint, it was bad, he was yelling at me, saying i look like a mormon. This world is sick i tell ya.

   Sunday-Gave my confirmation today, i wanted to cry, my first one, it was awesome, felt the spirit so strong!!! Church was great, i love church, day to rest and learn more about  our savior, its great. Had dinner with a member which was fantastic, after as leaving (this ones for you austin) we pulled out and i saw a guy outside working on his black mark V while his SECOND one sat there beautiful as ever, and came home and headed out, got home and read some Jesus the Christ, me and Elder Lee get into some CRAZY deep doctrine talks at night, its amazing how much you can learn about this church, the church is true. If every person would humble themselves enough to take the time to sit and ponder it and really think about what we teach, and give it a chance! They would know what im talking about, there is now way, i try and think of ways it couldnt be true and its impossible, the church is true and just how great the gift we will recieve if we follow the example of Jesus Christ. I love this gospel, i love my Savior, I love my family and i know i can be with them forever, Yo se que el Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios, como un misionero de la Iglesia de Jesucrist de los santos de los ultimos dias, usamos este libro cada dia, en nuestras lecciones, en nuestros estudios. El Libro de Mormon es la clave de nuestra religion. Sin este libro, Jose Smith no fue un profeta llamado por Dios, no tendriamos nuestros testimonios de Jesucristo, de el plan de salvacion o Felcidad. Yo se que puedo ser con mi familia, juntos para siempre! Mediante la expiacion de Jesucristo podemos recibir perdon por nuestros pecados. Yo digo estas cosas en el nombre de Mi salvador, me Senor, me Redentor, Jesucristo. Amen.

   Monday-Bout to ball it up, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMBER!! LOVE YOU SIS, SWEET 16 

Con Mucho Amor

Elder Aaron Jackson

Amazing Coincidences

Monday-Pday, already talked about my dentist trip, after the english elders came over and we mad cookies and wrote letters, it was a lot of fun, crazy stuff, we then headed to the mission home and grabbed some elders fresh off the plane, weird looking at these scared elders and realizing that was me 6 weeks ago, i took out an elder named elder Beck, completely scared, it was a lot of fun! As we finished the night we headed back to the assistants house to drop them off and some elder who served about 3 hours from my area came over to me and said "i heard you can dunk it!" I’m thinking what in the world! how did that get clear out there!!! His name is Elder Polp he is awesome and you will find out in the next day why! But we had to bring in a Another elder from out east to spend the night and his name was elder Lopes, and he seemed like a normal guy, and as we got ready to sack out, he took off his shirt and he had a sleeve a tattoos, so we started talking and ends up he is a recent convert, it was awesome to hear his story too, gotta love this work!

   Tuesday-Transfer meeting, so intense, all the elders crying cause they don’t wanna go home and then we all move in the gym to tell us who we are going with and my whole district was getting new companions, and during the last meeting with President Durrant we all joked around and said "president you should stick us all together so we are forced to learn the language together" His reply was "dont be surprised if it happens" and he walked away.. well it happened, Elder Witbeck got put with Elder Beatty, Elder Moffit got put with Elder Crosby! it was insane, i got put with... get this, look at my blog about going to the dentist and how there was another elder in there who broke his tooth? remember that? what are the chances! He is my new companion, he has been out 7 months and he is awesome, AWESOME! But what are the chances... Same dentist office in this huge city, same day, i mean there are seriously thousands of dentist places i have seen. Its insane, the two who broke their teeth, we have a ton in common, and he is also a scholarship holder to Boise State, he will be suited up and playing for them when he gets back, he had scholarships to many different schools, but only 3 would hold them for a mission, Boise, BYU, and Washington, but he had tons! He wanted to go to BYU but they screwed him over, so he doesn’t really like BYU now because of that, but he went to a school of about nine hundred students and trounced schools of about 2500 and he is from cali, a huge football state! Its crazy, but as we were about to leave to go unpack and get him settled, we ran into elder Polp again and we got on the subject of Boise State and he said "ya i got a friend playing basketball there, he is amazing, his name is Mason Sawyer" i turned around and was like... what!? Ends up he went to WJ and we started talking and i said those are some of the people we used to play with, me and my brother, and i started naming them all, Reyes, Jordan.. and he just freaked and said no wonder you can dunk, but i said i learned that on my own. But yeah crazy story, he told me mason was in the MTC about to leave to Alabama but couldnt handle it or went home or something. But now i have my new companion, Darren scott lee haha austins middle name and well.. Aaron lee and Darren lee working side by side. Also one of the new missionaries that came in? krugger, sound familiar? for all those big Ute fans, yep its another Krugger and he has a scholarship to play for the utes when he gets back as well, he got stuck with a Wyoming FB player, big ol Tongan, haha it was awesome! So i asked about my companion about his last area, and he said he was in Central Dallas, he saw the stadium when the heat were there and they did a free entrance thing the game when they won in Miami and he said it was nuts, some day ill be in a city when they win it all, haha, but we got back and headed to dinner and got there early so we stopped at the 7-11 and got some Gatorade, you will never believe what flavor they have... Cucumber!!?! why!? so me being me, being curious bought it and it was gross! Dinner was great and we got home and he started playing music on his ipod, just instrumental, and the halo theme song comes on... and i just go wide eyed and freak out, he is a halo fan, never thought i would find one out here on the mission, so so happy with my companion!!!!

   Wednesday-Planning session, Next door neighbor knocks on our door and asks us to move her couch, we do it of course cause we love it! and she talks to us about how Catholics are right and how she respects us and all that, sweet old lady but we had work to do. After Planning the other elders invited us over for pizza so we went and ate, then headed up to meet the girl who we just baptized to ask about her confirmation, cause she is getting it this week and we asked her who she wanted to receive the blessing from and she picked me... so i have my first confirmation this week!!! in Spanish!!! so excited!! As we got done there Jesus and Anel punched so we ran into these two black girls who asked the strangest question and i wont put it on here but we just taught them with power! It was awesome, after that we headed home and ran into a guy who worshiped Satan and told us how they kidnapped girls and skinned them and hung them from a tree... not cool. But he said he wanted to change so we told him to pray and got away from him!

   Thursday-District meeting, get to have it with Elder Witbeck and Beatty, so excited, we did some role plays and I was with elder Beatty and he said my Spanish is the best in the MTC district, he was blown away, but of course I told him his was awesome cause it is! love this guy, he is awesome and so humble. But it gave me confidence, i know its just as good as there’s but it helped me so much, and that whole day i understood better and spoke better, it was great. We went to an inactive family who would never want me and Elder Olson to come, they would always avoid us but Elder Olson would try so much and so hard, but we got in there house, there was 4 Hernandezes in our Phone and we guessed the right one, guessed where they lived from my brief memory and got it right and got in and taught a lesson and had the wife balling, it was amazing! We are trying a new strategy, going to track around the members so its easier to get them out teaching with us so excited about that! Just loving how everything is going! so happy with it.

   Friday-First lesson together and we were all over the place haha, teaching parts and pieces of different lessons, it was bad! but we got out and laughed about it, that’s the thing i love most about Elder Lee is he is all about having a good attitude! Its great. We had BK for lunch, it was pretty good, then we had Taco Bell for Dinner which was amazing!!! Talked about the TV series we like, he loves lost, community, and The office, so we are on the same page there. But then after we made 2 members mad, it was not good! cause one called and asked if we wanted to do service and we said of course then right when i said by i realized that we had lunch with Hno lama at that time, we do every first Saturday, so i called Hno lama. Not happy, told us to cancel the service, so we did and Hno Freddy, not happy. Us? not happy! Then after that Jesus and Anel cancel!

   Saturday-Lunch with Hno Lama, another famous meal, he was talking about how he has prepared lunch for George W. Bush and all these famous people, his food was amazing! Then we went out and tracked till we got a call from the zone leaders and they wanted to blitz the area and take us out to dinner and we went to Jacknthebox, my first time ever and they all didn’t believe me, i explained they aren’t in Utah, they were freaking out, it was good though. Then we went blitzing and found some new people it was great, i just love my mission, its the greatest thing ever! its so hard but at the same time its so fun!

   Sunday-Fast Sunday, and I’m tired and hungry, sacrament comes and we had 3 baby blessings and we had to bump the confirmation to next Sunday cause Brigida's Tio or uncle, passed away so she had to go the funeral in Mexico, after church we headed to the bishops for dinner, it was amazing and also a new couple moved in the ward, both RM’s who wanted to come teaching with us! so we are so excited!! After getting home we headed out to find and some guy drives up to me and says "habla espanol" i said "si nosotros hablamos espanol" so he pulled over and asked about Adam and Eve, which is classic, its so hard for people to understand why it they needed to partake of the fruit but we got in his car and soon found out he was completely drunk, we tried answering his questions and he was just swearing in Spanish and i was trying to ask him good questions and he wasn’t listening, after a few minutes he gets out and just starts peeing on his car! so we said that’s it lets get out of here, so we get out and we are yelling at him to not drive drunk, we tell him to give us the beer and he does and we huck it, tried to stop him from driving but he wouldn’t listen, i asked what if you crash! and he just takes off, we were so mad after that, but then we found a perfect investigator who will be baptized this month no doubt! haha so we ended on a good note!

   Monday-well i love this work, that’s all I’m going to put for today because im happier then i have ever been right now, the more i learn about other religions and how ridiculous their beliefs are, and how hard it is not to prove them wrong, with the bible! its just exciting, very exciting! cause we don’t even force anyone, we just invite them to find out for themselves, its all inviting, and it works, this work is real and its amazing! I’m about to go play some ball, and enjoy me pday and go find more people, thanks for following, i will be in the this address till at least October 9th so if you want to write here please do!

13100 Pandora Dr. Paces Cove Appts. #115 75218 Dallas, TX

Thanks everyone and I love you

Elder Aaron Jackson

Lizards In The Font!

Monday-we headed to our appointments and then to sandwich night and we got home late because the member just wouldn’t let us go, so it was pretty frustrating not having time to plan for the next day. My companion forgot to tell his mom happy birthday in his blog, completely forgot and he is pretty down about that, that’s about it for Monday, ready for another week of work!!

   Tuesday-Zone Conference today, I got 5 cards today, two from Kelsey, another from Maisha, Gma and Gpa and one from a family in the ward, if you could tell the Hackings family I appreciate the letter that would be great! We had a good conference, President Durrant mentioned we would be having a talent show around Christmas, I’m thinking about asking if you can clear the court for me so I can blow some minds with a single slam! But we will see, not sure, might even do it in my church clothes as well, haha wouldn’t that be awesome?! After the conference I went on exchanges with Elder Walsh and we had an awesome time, its the companion of the my first transfer and somehow I ended up eating at the same members house I ate at with elder Goodrich, crazy. Elder Walsh had to use the bathroom so we stopped at a members house and I was able to actually have a conversation, the member was old and had a very very raspy voice, I was able to understand it all and communicate, there’s a little take on where my Spanish is right now, doing alright. We ended up talking till about 12, he is from Utah as well, went to Skyline high school and we have a lot in common. Great transfer!

   Wednesday-Spend today with elder Walsh till about 3:30 and headed back and right from the get go my companion is yelling at me for something, not teaching me or helping me but yelling at me, what’s even worse is its something that either is right but he thinks his way is better or its something that he does as well... It bugs me so bad, I’m fine with being corrected on errors I make but that kind of stuff, it bugs me. But it’s a learning experience, who knows my next companion could be even worse! Ready for a change, every exchange I have gone on my Spanish has been so good but with my companion? My tongue is in a knot all the time, cant say simple statements or anything like that.

   Thursday-Headed to lunch at about 11 with a guy named Jorge who may just be the fasted speaking Spanish guy I have ever met! Even my companion has to really focus to understand, so here I am eating Arby’s with someone who I cant even catch one word, it was so difficult, but poco de pocito haha little by little, con tiempo. Our planning session ended up going to 6 pm, so we were inside all day! Not fun. But when we got out and tracked, well first of all I’m so glad that I received the best blessing thus far in my mission... RAIN, rain here is nuts, its like a hurricane! But as far as tracking? I felt good, I had a lot of confidence as well, as we got home we got a call from the sisters in our district saying that someone was trying to break in to there house, so I told the story to my companion about the kids that were jealous of Austin going out with Emily, and how they tried to egg the house and my dad was crawling by the fence and they were parked and ready to bomb when my dad jumped out in front of the car and scared the living bajibers out of them haha! Of course I was sleeping during this time...

   Friday-Long day, English elders, one of them got really really sick so they called us over to give a blessing, and right when we got home they called again to bring a coke over, and I loved helping out but it ate up a lot of time, but as long as we were able to help, he ended up getting better that night, the priesthood, I love it! Then we headed to the church because we are starting an English class, to help bring in new investigators, so that took forever, I had McDonalds, its weird to eat fast food. But it was good, then about 2 hours after downing a double quarter pounder with cheese, Hermana Almazan buys us a 5 buck! So we eat that too, my companion had his exit interview so I went on exchanges with Elder Rearden and of course my Spanish was fantastic again, all in the head, something about Elder Olson that drags my confidence down, but with time, con tiempo. Elder Olson got back and we headed to our night appointments and after as we headed home we had our nightly race home, haha almost crashing into the gate at the apartments, arguing the whole way in as well about who won and who cheated, he cheated of course!

   Saturday-More bike problems... a crucial little piece fell off the crank so it comes loose every 300 feet, no matter how tight you tighten it cause the black piece fell off an now I’m without a bike now, I feel so bad cause my dad spent a TON of money on this bike and its had nothing but problems, reflectors, bolts, pedals, tires... okay the tire part was just me, well the first time it was the second time was just rotten luck.

So we tracked and got in a big argument with my companion about a Spanish word, immediately destroyed the spirit, its something I don’t like though, I KNOW I said it right but he said I said it some way that I had never even heard of! So that wasn’t good, so for now I borrowed a bike from the member we ate dinner with, which was absolutely amazing!! (as always) Had our last lesson with Bridgira and she is solid, ready to go!

   Sunday-Today was a full day! I had a talk in sacrament, which went very well, I spoke good Spanish for 12 minutes, it was really awesome, then after church we had The baptism and it was an amazing experience, I got a few pics of who we baptized, it was gross, as we prepared the font during priesthood there were 2 lizards in the font, very very very small, like 1 inch and the other was 2 inches, of course my companion being who he is, steps on both of them, squishing their heads! SO mean.. he kicked them down the drain and as we prepared for the baptism the lizard some how ended up being in the water, so as my companion walked down, here’s this dead lizard with only... well what was left of his head, floating there, luckily he was able to get it out before anyone saw, the baptism was awesome, the spirit as so strong, and she thanked us for everything, she cried, after well all day was so annoying cause everyone was talking to Elder Olson about what he is going to do when he gets home and I was just like a third wheel pretty much, so we all went to hermana almazans after and had another hard to beat dinner with Bridgira and some others from the ward, good week, this Monday I was able to go the the dentist and they pulled out the pliers to rip my cap off and being the baby that I am I freaked but she tried and it seemed pretty stuck on there, but she left to get the main dentist and I popped it off myself haha and then it took about 5 minutes to put the real cap on and we were done, it was nice, that’s all for this week, last week with my companion, my first transfer is over!!! I get a new companion tomorrow, I will still be in this area though, I appreciate all the blog readers out there, your more than welcome to send me handwritten letters as well, if you need any help with anything please write, if you just want someone to talk to, I’m here, love you all tons!!!!

Elder Aaron Jackson

A Couple of Rough Days.

Monday-Tracking and every person we talked to was grumpy, Every single one. Headed to Sandwhich night and i tell you, never get sick of that avocado! love it. But soon we wont be able to go anymore cause it is too late.

   Tuesday-District meeting, we show up and everyone is playing basketball and Elder Goodrich the elder i went on exchanges with a few weeks ago, i asked for the ball and dunked it in my church clothes haha, still got it. Then we headed out to track and my contacting was really good today, felt smooth and was speaking well. Went to have dinner with the Bishops family again, amazing! as always. Then we had choco flan! one of my new favorite desserts, my companion has been talking about it the whole time i have been with him and i finally got to try it, really happy about that, so so good! As we headed back home, my companion got a flat, I was really happy about that! Not me this time! so we just tracked the apartments again, our appointment with Vrigira fell through, but we rescheduled.

   Wednesday-We got up did our studies and walked to wal mart which was about a 45 minute walk and we had a lady ask us why we dress in white shirts, not how we dress but the colors we dress in, so wierd and it ended up getting ugly because we talked about our prophet and she said we follow man not god and she said she follows the bible and we told her that it was written by prophets and we just answered every question with love and she got mad and left. Almost got kicked out of wal mart, cause of course like everyone, they thought we were selling something! had a lesson with cesar and he is an awesome guy, his sister is a member and has been trying to get him to join for 40 years, but i think that we will be able to help him, i hope. Had a lesson with Vrigira and we were freaking out cause she is our best investigator and she lives so far and we need someone to come with us cause we arent allowed to teach unless another man is there, so we brought a recent convert of about 2 months and his wife who was baptized august 20 of this year and neither of them speak Spanish, but it worked our, she is so solid and ready to go! We bolted out of there and met with Hermana Serna from our ward and we had a lesson with Jesus and Anel, Anel was really sick so she was getting medicine, so it was just Jesus, they are slipping, not keeping their commitments but we are working with them, in time. Im SO tired, but its a good tired and today marks 3 months complete! can you believe it! 1/8 of the way done, it is insane how time flies.

   Friday-No appointments today, thats a first, so we tracked All day. But i had a minor asthma attack! Where did that come from, obviously someone doesn't want me here, with the root canal and all that, crazy! Last two days have been really tough, probably the 2 toughest days of my mission, of my life! mentally. My companion was really getting on my nerves! I was so frustrated with him and how things were going, ready for a new companion at this point, the whole ride home i was just so built up with anger and hatred, trying to fight it off.

   Saturday-I feel a lot better today, i needed the rest. As we went out to tract, a stupid train going 2 miles an hour with 80 carts cut us off from where we wanted to go, so we had to take a detour and it was hot and hard, my legs are getting a work out of their life! Headed to our dinner and it someones bday in the ward so everyone was there almost, they had the Texas version of "97.1" on so i heard some songs i haven't heard in forever, reminded me of jr jazz, some songs i would listen to before games, my companion did a dedication on the house, first time i have seen that. But then we headed back out to work, had some girls shouting at us "I love Mormons!!!!" Haha who doesn't? at the end of the night, after contacting everyone in Spanish i felt a load better than the last few nights, back on track.

   Sunday-Church, love church, i was all focused today, trying to understand everything that was said, everything!! And i got about 75% i would say, cant wait to learn to speak it better, in time, with patience, patience is something very important and something i need, so its going to be really good for me! we had dinner after with a young couple both RMs the Thompsons, and the husband was white and his wife was Hispanic and they both spoke English and Spanish, i taught them a lesson, Spanish was much better. I took my time and gained confidence as a went. Then we went out tracking not a lot of time cause my companion forgot the lock so we had to go back, so we hit the apartments again, found a Jehovah witness watching the cowboys getting killed who let us in and we answered every doubt, attack, and question he had. With power, it was awesome! I felt so good going home on that, he invited us back and i feel its cause he couldn't prove us wrong, in reality no one can, and there are so many stereotypes out there, people here from their other nonmember friends about our church and they believe it, its like why do you believe someone who doesn't even go! i don't get it, and then we, the people who actually go to the church, try and tell them and they refuse to believe, all we do is invite. We don't force or try and take other peoples beliefs. We invite. If they take the invitation with real intent then they will receive the truth. I know that.

   Monday-This morning we went to the store before heading to email, my companion jumped a bush after locking up our bikes and ripped up his hand on a tree, i got over the bush pretty easy, of course. There's my blog for this week, another one coming very soon, time just never stops right? Crazy. Love you all, thanks for taking the time to read.

Elder Aaron Jackson

ROOT CANAL!

Monday-Not a whole lot after we got done emailing, we went out tracking and then of course headed to freddys at 8 for sandwich night which again was amazing!

   Tuesday-Not a good day. 3 AM roles around and i wake up in pain, my mouth is just killing me because of my tooth, i did not sleep after that and my companion told me to try and sleep and i still couldn't do it, we called sister Durrant and tried to find a dentist, she told us to call around so we called the elders in Mesquit and they gave us two members who were dentists and we were able to set up an appointment with one of them for that same day, but not till 4 in the afternoon, and it was a 2 hour bus ride there and 2 hours back, so that's what we did the whole entire day! I went downtown for the first time and let me tell you, it makes Utah look clean, nice and small. Just crazy, so many people that look like they will kill you if you get in there way, but i never feel threatened. But we got there they opened my mouth and said... you need a root canal, and thats it. So 4 hours of bus riding just for that, but i was able to talk to my dad and that was a real treat! The people there were all so so nice! Helped us a lot and wrote a prescription for the pain until i had the actual work done on Friday, but it was an hour wait for the medicine, so we did some shopping and ate at Mcdonalds, i gave some money to a poor girl and felt really good about that. Got the Medicine and didn't get home till about 8:30 so our whole day was shot, we tracked for maybe 10 minutes and headed home.

   Wednesday-Specialized training meeting, somehow the story about my tooth got out haha everyone was asking how i was including president Durrant and the story got changed so much it was very funny, some people thought i lost 3 teeth from crashing on my bike haha! But the meeting was 6 hours long and i got mail too! i love mail :) and the package, Love my family and their help with my requests, not having a watch was hard, i looked at my bare wrist like 80 times a day, and it just sucked. But the meeting was great! we got out about 4, i got to see my district and i tell you they are brothers to me, i love seeing them. But we got done and got to work and i tell you the medicine im on makes you drowsey and tired and loopy, and so here i am in the heat riding a bike, on the busy road, on this medicine... probably not a good idea, but i wanted to work! i love the work and i don't want to stop, i feel so bad about yesterday and how much time we waisted. But it was quit the experience, i would laugh at some of the stupidest things, and not know why. But we did it, and im happy we worked.

   Thursday-Planning day! in the apartment till about 3:30, mas or menos. Then we headed out to an appointment, talked to a few people, my Spanish is getting really good. My companion says the stuff i use and the words i use he didn't use till 1 year out, i think he is lying but who knows? But we had dinner with the Relif Society President and it was absolutely amazing!!! I just cant get enough of this food, with the amount that i eat? I will probably find a way to beat my metabolism, it was good and afterwards we went out tracking and ran into a couple that reminded me exactly of when i was dating Randi in High School, exact couple!!!!!! Same in every aspect he was exactly like me and she was exactly like her, so we talked for a long time and they were really interested and it was really good to talk to them and they were such nice people, we headed home with only two words on my mind as i went to bed, Root Canal...

   Friday-today is the day i die! We got on the bus and my companion was teasing me, kept telling everyone that asked on the phone that i was going in for "surgery" and he thought it was funny, i was not happy and excited. We got there and there were two other missionaries there haha we asked why and one of them, sure enough, cracked a tooth! eating a taco at Jack in the box!!! We got there about 10:30 and i was called in and they began the work, they started the numbing process but i was getting really worried cause he came in 15 minutes later and i felt no different, my tooth was still throbbing, he began to drill and let me tell you, i felt all of it and he shot me more and more and more with numbing medicine and one of them sent a shock all the way up my face causing me to see double for about 20 minutes and my head was spinning in pain, this is not even the worst part, afterwards he took his little pointy scraper and poked my nerve, I jumped almost completely out of the chair, it was the most pain i have ever felt in my entire life, he then said "i am going to have to numb that which means you will feel the same pain again for only a second though, but you cant jerk, you have to concentrate on holding still" I knew it had to be done but it was a reflex! how do you control a reflex, so i grabbed onto the chair as hard as i could and he shot it, the same pain came but i held myself down and then... gone, couldnt feel a thing, such a relief, he shot it about 4 more times and i didn't feel anything, he then grinded it down to almost nothing and put a temporary crown on it, but i was in there from 10:30 to 3:30, not a fun day! but they were so nice! The dentists daughter came in after and asked if i needed anything and asked if i wanted her to call my dad and tell him i was alright, she also gave me 20 dollars for food and the dentist gave me some fruit cause he knew i was starving, so so helpful! Im so grateful for them, for the 75% discount i received and the additional help, afterwards, with permission from the dentist quote "you can eat anything but if its to hard to chew then you have to eat on the other side of your mouth" so.. we went to panda!! :) it was awesome! But after that it went back down hill, they gave me another prescription and we didnt have time to fill it, so i was completely out of it the rest of the day, we had a dinner appointment with my favorite members in the ward and it was a long drive and i was completely out of it, in pain, and sweating in the massive heat, as we slowed down to lock up our bikes, i didnt pull up soon enough on the curb and just ate it hard on my bike, not fun. Dinner was great, they talked about a daughter in law who passed away at 6 months and how because of that they started to go to church again and changed a lot (because apparently they were totally inactive about the time i left for the mtc is when that tragedy happened) and i love them! they are so awesome, but we ate with them, i was out of it and we got a ride THANKFULLY! to our appointment with my favorite investigators! Jesus and Anel and we taught an awesome lesson! and Elder Olson bore a strong testimony and i was trying to keep up but i dont remember much of what happened cause i was so out of it haha, as we got home and got ready to end the day my companion apologized and apologized for the long day, and i just smiled, and was so happy. Its these days that i love, The days that we struggle, how else are we supposed to grow? how else do we learn? Im thankful for the rough day because i made it through and i will always look back at how i made it through, i was so grateful for it and i went to bed with a smile on my face.

   Saturday- woke up at 3 again in more pain, this time adolorido dolor or achy pain haha, because we didnt have time to fill my prescription which was double the Mlg from my first pills so the pain was pretty intense, so thankfully we have such wonderful members like Hermano Freddy (he is the one who does sandwich night) he took us to the store to get it filled and it was an hour wait, and he waited and we did some shopping, i saw posters from the mavs championship and it was weird cause it was the first time seeing dirk holding a trophey, its amazing how cut off from the world we are, but i love it, its so nice knowing that all i have to worry about is helping others, makes me happy! Im getting better on a bike though, getting better on my wheely haha and more fit. We had dinner with Hermana Roja who is from Costa Rica and she stuffed Zucchini with meat and rice and stuff, it was amazing, we also ate salsa out of a cup, it was good but weird, but i have never liked zuccini but wow that was amazing! We then went to the Apartments to track, we ran into a couple a girl from Romania married to a guy from Mexico, she spoke English and he spoke Spanish HOW DO THESE COUPLES END UP TOGETHER she is studying Spanish and is pretty good now but they invited us back so its great! she was amazed at how good our Spanish was and how committed we are to the work, no TV or Music she was so surprised.

   Sunday-I had to go to Correlation meeting today and talk with all the leaders in the ward about our investigators and the help we need to get them closer to baptism. It was a good meeting, and my Spanish was really good too, so surprised at how well im progressing, its like im told a new word or principle and thats all it takes and its applied! BOOM just like that so im grateful for the gift of tongues, it is such a real gift of god and i know it, church was awesome cause all of our investigators came!! I was in pain though cause i hadnt taken my pills and i needed something to eat it with, but it was great to see them. After church we had another awesome dinner, it was dropped off. Jello for me, a gallon of simply lemonade and chicken with spaghetti with green salsa for the sauce, it was way good!! But i realized that almost everything i was eating felt like i was back to December 21 and 22 of 2010, with the whole wisdom teeth gig! jello, pudding, and mashed potatoes. Then we headed to our lesson with Vrigira and it was an unprepared lesson cause i had to go to that meeting in the morning so we didnt have time to prepare but she feels like she is ready and so do we so i belive will be having my first baptism on the 27th! exciting stuff!

   Monday-I had an amazing study this moring before coming here, about the Holy Ghost and i tell you that the scriptures have so much to offer and people really dont realize that, i love it! I learn new things every single day!!!! Another week done, i cant believe how fast it goes by, almost been 13 weeks out, Thursday will be 3 months, it is astounding to me, i wanna thank everyone for following and for the letters, i received 2 from kelsey, from the fam, maisha, todd and shawn, THANKS i will have letters out to you soon, thanks for the words, the updates and the love that you have shown. Love you all and hope you enjoy this weeks blog.

Elder Aaron Jackson