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