Transfer! I'm off to Lufkin, Texas!

Monday-We actually got to relax today, i got 8 letters out only to receive 5 more that day, thank you so much everyone for writing me! we headed to our lesson and it cancelled on us but we noticed some black people moving in near by and ran over and moved EVERYTHING for them, favorite part about the mission is the service, they were so surprised, asking if they could pay us and we just told them we love doing it and take no money, i love it, makes me so happy. I got a letter from Kelsey today with my next transfers cover and i have to say I LOVE IT! love ya kels, thanks a ton. Sandwich night was good as usual.

   Tuesday-Here is where things start to get crazy! We have interviews with the president and we get there and i get into my interview with him and he has been stressing about the Spanish speakers a lot lately and he tells me to tell me about my week in all Spanish. So i just go, and he stops me and says "wow Elder Jackson, your Spanish is amazing, i cant tell you how stressed i have been with our Spanish speakers, but you have just blown my mind, and you didn't study before mission right?" Me-"no" President Durrant-"You have the best Spanish for your age in this mission" "Put yourself in a position to teach, I'm going to be leaning on you in the future" Then his phone rang and he picked it up and said "can i call you back, I'm in a interview with elder Jackson, I wish you could meet him he is awesome, he is my future star" I got out of the meeting and went back with the rest of the zone and we were about to finish the meeting when President Durrant stopped the meeting and said "can I say a few words" He then proceeded to tell exactly what he said to me to the whole zone!! He told everyone about how good my Spanish is, with a few weeks ago getting up in front of the WHOLE mission and reciting the whole back page of preach my gospel in Spanish, talked about when they asked who wanted to recite them and my hand was the only one that shot up, the young Elder Jackson. Thanks for the letters from Greg, Randi, and from Brendon, I appreciate it so much! Me and Elder Lee got back and had penguin day, solid black ties, it was awesome! We tracted and got really nothing then we found this family with all these kids and had an awesome lesson, we promised to know their names by the next visit, got more studying to do I guess :)

   Wednesday-Normal busy day, biked all the way down to the bottom of our area, long bike ride, only to have our referral not there, esta bien I found 11 cents on the ground, cha ching! We biked a ton today, the majority of our gigantic area. But it didn't phase me, I am now a machine on the bike, legs are built and I am crazy. We had a lesson with Fabricio and with Brigida and talked about the transfer calls on Saturday, I was sure I was getting transferred because of what President Durrant said about my patriarchal blessing, so I'm a bit scared. I was beat after today, dropped like dead pigeon.

   Thursday-Felt terrible today, both of us, we had weekly planning and we both felt so out of it that it was so difficult to do. Then we went and taught Hno Munoz about the law of the tithe.

   Friday-Wow me and elder lee, if only you could see what we do with some of our free time! haha, we decided to figure out Gods time to us, cause we know from the scriptures that a thousand years to us is one day to god, so 41 years in this life is only an hour to God, I have only been alive for less than half an hour! 1 minute is .6877 years 8 and some odd months, and a second is about 4 and a half days!! NUTS then we found this game in Elder Lees desk called 20 questions, where you think of something and it trys to guess it and it kept guessing our thing and we were getting so mad haha, then I finally was like "A MUMMY!! Lets see it guess that!!!" and it failed and we were cheering and freakin out, haha wow I love being a missionary. I then had to go on exchanges with Elder Jorgenson for the night because Hno Munoz had his interview and so we knocked some doors and the last one we got into was a girl from the baptist church but she wanted to change, awesome! So she starts talking about her crazy friend she has who hates Mormons, then all the sudden the door bell rings and its her friend sure enough, and she is from Russia and she is just yelling at us, saying that her friend is stupid for letting us in, so we just bore a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and got out of there because my questions were making her really mad! But we were able to get a return appointment with Jana, the baptist girl.

   Saturday-Change back, today is the day of craziness, transfer calls. We changed back and went out to lunch with the Zone Leaders, I don't appreciate Elder Solis, he is not so nice, everyone has issues with him, he is crazy and thinks he can do whatever he wants, he is trying to take OUR baptism just because he feels he needs to be a part of it. He is nuts, anyways we went back and we go out to our appointment and we are just waiting hoping that the call doesn't come, but it did, yes that's right I'm getting transferred, but where you might ask? well I'm kissing the city lights good bye and heading out east about 3 hours drive from here in Luphcan? (Lufkin) not sure how its spelled, but its so so far out there, in the jungle, adventure time! But wait that's not all, in my third transfer, i am now a senior companion, i will be with someone my own age and will be the senior companion, out in the middle of no where, with no president or APs, and I went from a bike to a car, I will be in a car on Tuesday!!!!! Im so excited, Elder Lee got called as District leader and is training someone new. So please everyone, don't send letters till I find out what my address is, because I will never see them until I get back to the city which could be, who knows when. If you have already sent them, I will have Elder Lee forward them, but if not WAIT till I get it up on Facebook. Also very sad news, president Durrants mom passed away, keep him in your prayers, thank you.

   Sunday-Church was great, I bore my testimony and said good bye to everyone in the ward, going to miss them all so much now. We went and had tongue at Brigidas and she found out I'm leaving and was not happy at all. Im going to miss her a ton. Mesquite elders then came and spent the night, not a good idea, we were up so late and they were freaking out, Elder Perry is one of the biggest Star Wars fans i have ever met, Thought you might like that dad, its all he does, he said if he had a time machine he would go back and see it opening night, episode 4. NERRRRDDDD!!! Of course I am as well with my favorites, thats the week for you in a nutshell, thanks everyone, I appreciate, wish me luck as I go out and be a senior companion for the first time. Love you all

Elder Aaron Jackson
 

General Conference Weekend

   Monday-We had a packed monday, 4 lessons set up boom, boom, boom, BOOM! all right after the end of Pday, our first was with Manuel and he was the same as last time, bringing up awkward chastity questions, Martin and Maribel were not there, Jaclyn we brought Hna Almazan and she did an awesome job at connecting with her, Then we taught Hno Munoz for like 15 minutes and had to run to sandwhich night.

   Tuesday-Day of District meeting, It was a good meeting and we focused really on the importance of planning, we planned to have a combined planning day on thursday to help one another. After we got done and headed home we started to track, we headed to an apartment that looked as if it could be crawling with hispanics, the first 8 doors. Nothing, We stopped and tried to figure out what was going on cause we both felt like something was up. We said a prayer and the first door we knocked, heard rambling spanish draw nearer to the door and she opened it up and let us in, we taught a powerful lesson and got a return appoinment. The power of prayer is underestimated. Because of Sandwhich night we were not able to have a full lesson with Hno Munoz last night so we went back tonight and taught the plan of salvation, it was great. In the car ride home Hna Almazan told us about how Hno Munoz has been kind of rebelious against listening to the missionaries but he loves us and she said she knows we were the ones chosen specifically for him, and i dont doubt that one bit, the lord knows the exact presidents, companions, people that will be with EVERY missionary, he knows my little brother adams companions and why they will be his companions, where he will go. Its truly amazing.

   Wednesday-Pretty normal day, we had a lesson with Fabricio and we actually got him to listen, we tried to share personal expierences and help him realize that this life is short and important. I shared some of my high school expierences and my descision to leave on my mission. His little sister was having chest pains and her mom asked us about the priestood and asked us to give her a blessing so i was able to do that, so greatful to be a priestood holder. During the lesson we got a call from the bishop saying he just married a couple and they were ready to be baptized, so we just had that fall into our lap, my companion said i was a miriacle worker because he had never seen the progress we have done in his mission, he hasnt had a baptism yet and now we have several dates, awesome people and are looking at having a awesome month of october.

   Thursday-Planning session was a mess, we had to hunt for a ride last night and i hate it, so sick of asking people for stuff. We found one, then at 2 in the morning one of our investigadors calls us up to see.. how we are doing? at 2!!! We got a ride to planning but for some reason i was thinking it was at 11 when it was at 12 so we got there an hour early, but we went to get something to eat, the planning session was okay, not worth all the trouble. We tried to set up an appoinment with Fidel and he gave us the usual No puedo visitar con ustedes por que yo tengo trabajo todos los dias so we just were sitting there and he randomly calls us and we go over teach the restoration and almost set a date with him and his mom. After we headed to see Hno Munoz again and teach more, He is so ready for baptism. It rained so hard and lightning every second, storms here are awesome! then we went on exchanges, going with someone newer than me! excited to see how it goes.

   Friday-Exchanges start and we have a busy day ahead, elder Jorgensen is an interesting character... He crashed on his bike it was pretty crazy. But he is very awkward with all his contacting but is working on it. We talked to a lot of crazy people (side note that i just remembered, i heard my first gun shots last week and i forgot to put it in my blog i think 4 shots :) probably not a thing to be very excited about) anyway, we talked to all hispanics pretty much, my spanish was enough to be able to comunicate just fine. We then went to dinner with the bishop, ends up Elder Hansen got a flat on my bike but fixed it, after dinner we came out to find elder Jorgensen got a flat too! so we had to walked wal mart, we then booked it to our lesson which punched. So we went tracking and well it was just awkward. I was happy to get home in my area after.

   Saturday-I have been so excited for today. General conference. The first session was awesome, new temple in provo and a temple in paris france! When i get back i plan to go on a temple trip and just go to as many as i can. We were at the church all day, and mcdonalds was the closest place so we ate there for lunch and dinner YUCK! i didnt eat at all the second time cause i was just sick of it. We played basketball in our church clothes inbetween, it was pretty intense, i did really good, could of dunked it if i had a chance but they kept double teaming me, not out of intention just because no one knew what they were doing. The pristood session was great, My favorite, Jeffery R Holland spoke pure power, Thomas S. Monson spoke about Dallas Texas! His talk is so true, no joke, so many churches here, everywhere! I feel so dumb that i never took advantage of conference in my youth, these are prophets and apostles of God. I was more excited than any football, basketball, or championship game of any kind. Ask Elder Jorgensen, i was bugging him all night saying "guess what tomorrow is" he would reply "what.." "WE GET TO HEAR FROM THE PROPHETS AND APOSTLES!" it was so good though, so so good, took so many notes.  

   Sunday-Another day of feasting upon the words of the pophets and apostles. We went to lunch at Hna Almazans for lunch after the first session and the food was amazing, we were almost late for the second session, as it ended we walked out side sad as for we have to wait 6 more months for that again, but thats okay because it well go by so fast. We went tracking and the very first house we knocked we got in and they are solid! We got a return appoinment and we were amazed at how prepared they were, but like i said before, the lord knows who we need to talk to and when. Im so blessed to be out here doing this, forgetting about my needs and focusing on the needs of others, actually doing something instead of nothing. I have learned so much out here and i will never stop learning, i love it, i love this church because i can be who i want to be and still recieve blessings. I can be with my family forever and NO other church can give you that, NOTHING ON THIS PLANET can give you that, but this church. Thanks to all my followers. Love,

Elder Aaron Jackson

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