Dallas: Week 3. The broken tooth.

Monday-Not a whole lot after we got done with emailing, went home and wrote some letters, and didn’t get to play basketball and we went out and got to work again. In what reached to be 112 degrees! Lot of fun, sweated and sweated!
   Tuesday-We taught our investigator, Alezmo the one who has cancer in his throat and we found out he was baptized already in our church... very awkward, went tracking and knocked on this old guys house who didn’t even acknowledge who we were and just let us in, he had a huge tumor on his elbow and we talked and talked and he just said "i appreciate what you guys do and you just have such a sweet smile to ya... But I’m not converting" haha so we left, we just finished knocking and we were heading back and we saw a huge family moving, Hispanics too! So we ran over and begging them to let us help and they were just shocked, they were super nice and couldn’t get over the fact that we wouldn’t accept money or anything, but we just wanted to help. They haven’t called us back, I’m guessing they will soon after they get settled in, i told them about what a mission is and how much my family means to me but how true this is because I’m willing to leave them for so long, it was very spiritual. Elder Olson and i continue to try and work our kinks out some times i feel like he is trying to make me a 2 year experienced missionary in only 6 weeks, so its tough but i cant grow unless struggle right? i struggled in school, on the court, and with relationships with friends but look at me now, i graduated, i have some of the strongest relationships with my friends and i could probably take on Lebron on the right day. :) so i think its good for me!
   Wednesday-Awesome day! One of the companionships in my zone is having a hard time finding people and so we went on exchanges after district meeting and knocked some streets, i went with Elder Rouse who is such a stellar missionary, he has been out for a year and he is a die hard Lakers fan, but he is awesome i really hope i get to serve with him, my Spanish just took off as well, we taught a guy named Jose (of course its Jose cause 60% of everyone here has that name!) but we taught the plan of salvation and i just had the gift of tongues, understanding and speaking! But it was good, i got some cards today as well so i would like to thank Kelsey, Maisha, and of course my dad for the awesome letters! Kelsey! yours was just bursting with colors and awesome pictures and of course your amazing handwriting! But really the cards I get like that dad, that almost have me in tears, I love it thank you so much. Later on we tracked of course and then we taught the Family that i found through revelation! and oh my gosh its amazing how miracles happen out here, their son has the same question Joseph smith had, cause his mom and dad both attend different churches and so we taught the restoration and wow, they are a solid family, i think they will be baptized by the end of September! But our solid investigators now? Jesus and Anel are getting worse... and it breaks my heart cause Jesus is like my best bud i love him and he relapsed again last night, but he has a testimony and he will be baptized for sure. Really good day I tell ya, awesome.
   Thursday-Planning day today so we were in the Apt. till 4 or so... Yuck, but its really important so we can know what to teach and do for the coming week, but we had dinner and i cant remember what they are called but its like turkey sandwich? but Hispanic and 6555 times better! and we are now at 50 days in a row of over 100 degrees! also I’m going on exchanges tomorrow, so I’m excited.
   Friday-I am going for some kind of record, most flat tires in a mission, yeah that 99% guaranteed? some how i got the other 1% and my tire just.. Exploded!! It sucked! luckily we were already to our exchanges. Today was my day though, we were going on exchanges but in my area so that means i had to plan everything on my own, tracking, lessons, ALL. So i was nervous but i tell you that the gift of tongues is amazing!!! I was with Elder Hansen today, he got a 36 on his act so he is really smart and a 5 on the Spanish test (which is really high i guess) and i led in everything! i Talked more Spanish, i understood and i taught Anel and just did a killer job with questions and scriptures and i talked about my family and how the church has helped us in our life and how its not easy with a big family and how this gospel brings unity, all in Spanish, so i want you to imagine Aaron Jackson from sandy teaching in all Spanish, crazy, i wish you could see how much i have learned and grown. One bad thing about the day, i cracked my tooth!!!! not good, hope its okay, we will just have to see though, awesome day though!
   Saturday-The most i have biked in the mission.. was today, a ton of up hill as well, we biked so so much, lunch was the best though! We ate at a members house, his name is brother Lama and he used to be a big time like huge! Chef in Dallas, it was so so good, i crammed all i could in my stomach. Went tracking after biking forever! Cause brother Lama lives really far, and the first family we talked to let us in and i really wish i could get some consistency here cause yesterday i taught so so well but this time.. i couldn’t speak or understand ANYTHING! It was like, what on earth! but I’m working at it, trying to learn as I go. Saturdays are really busy but today we had 8 appointments bust, so it was sad. Didn’t get to teach at all. Ate some dinner and started our fast for tomorrow.
   Sunday-First things first HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARIC!!! Love you little bro and im so proud of you for making it to 11, i remember when i turned 11, felt like yesterday! So cherish those moments dude! Cause they fly by. Also i noticed something really interesting, did you know that Ambers and Arics Birthday have always been on the same day, they are exactly 5 weeks apart, hers will be on Sunday as well and will be the same day always! Kind of cool huh? anyway today is fast Sunday, so sitting in sacrament and trying to sit of straight and be an example and listen and try and understand Spanish with no food or energy and you need a lot of energy to try and listen to a different language and understand let me tell ya, it was pretty difficult. But its moments like this that make me glad I’m not at home being lazy, I’m dead every night when getting home but very happy, knowing i accomplished something, and am learning so much. After we went to the obispo i mean bishop haha so used to Spanish that some words im forgetting in English, it is also affecting my spelling if you haven’t already seen. We had sloppy joes and i downed 4 of them and 2 pieces of cinnamon cake, so good but at the same time not so good, i loved what the bishop said to me when he offered me a jalapeño, "This is a Mexican’s butter! we eat it with EVERYTHING" haha, we then talked about our investigators, today was very sad as well cause Jesus and Anel didn’t come which means that Elder Olson will not get to baptize them, and not only did they not come but they were at a different church... Sad stuff, but got to keep working, after we went tracking and visited a few people. I was so sick, not like sick but i ate so much that it was hard to ride a bike in that weather cause i was so thirsty but had no room in my stomach, but we kept going. I had my first threat, guy told us to leave or he would call the cops, it was exciting. Elder Olson asked if i wanted to go back cause i was moaning and bending over but i wanted to keep going. For all those who are complaining about the weather in Utah? I got something for your try a whole week of getting up into the 100 and teens even 121 degrees one day! That’s not all! 80% humidity added to that! BUT WAIT THERES MORE! I’m out exercising in this in black pants a shirt and a tie, I have a feeling that when I arrive back in salt lake for the summer? its going to be perfect weather! :) Oh also before bed i started to sing Sum41 really loud, still got those words memorized haha Thought you might get a kick out of it Elder Olson didn’t like it I don’t think but oh well, there is my week, had a lot of fun and stressful times and only more to come! I again thank everyone for the letters and for all those followers! I hope to get a few more letters as well, so please write! Let me know how things are going and i will write back when i got the time thanks and i love you all!

Dallas: Week 2. "Workin' Hard".

Monday-(after emailing) i played basketball and the first play i backcut and threw it down with authority, all the mexicans were shocked, yelling "su mama quiere usted va a la casa" your mommy wants you home boy hahahaha also there is an english elder here who apparently has been looking for a challenge for a long time and he is pretty dang good... till i came :) blocked him somewhere in the teens, and stuck 4 threes in his face and well... i just still got it and i want everyone to know that!! i always will! after we went shopping, a mexican (less active) took us in his brand new RX8 with his little shifters on the steering wheel and drove to wal mart going 100, i thought we were going to die!! we said to him "you gotta lot of tickets" his response was "not a lot really... like 12 or 13" HA! but we had to hurry so i grabbed the tube for my bike and food for the week then we were on our way, got home and found out it was the wrong size of tube... UGH so we walked again out in the hot sun, tracting, the best i tell you the best! We got our 20 contacts in and headed to dinner or should i say DA DA DA "Monday Sandwhich Night" a member (hermano Freddy) has assigned spots for all of us and makes an avocado turkey sandwich with tomatoes and we can write down what we want off of our sandwich or what we want more of or less of and the next time we go, because we have assigned seating, it was so so good, the food here is amazing!!! Members are like lions fighting over that calendar to sign up to feed us!
   Tuesday-District meeting to start the day, and i went on my first exchange in the mission, went with this hilarious elder who is just... well you would have to meet him, his name is Elder Goodrich and so i tracted with him, stayed in his apt, and his companion went with mine for the day, it was awesome we have a ton in common, same color of scriptures both english and spanish and same middle name!!!! CRAZY a lot of the same likes too, he likes lebron and derrick rose, he likes sum 41, i told him the only two concerts i had been too, but we still worked hard and went the extra mile and got 30+ contacts in, talked to a girl who had just got shot, below her collar bone and her whole arm was swollen but yeah it was fun, had the weirdest dinner combination some really good fish with little ceasers for a side dish! talked to someone who said 90 percent of what we taught was bull crap and joseph smith wrote the book of mormon, so i asked if he had read it and he said no and he was high so we got away from him, rejected a lot today but it was fun.
   Wednesday-Not a lot today cause we had planning today so we were stuck in the Apt all day long and i was just getting frustrating with not having success at all so when we got home after a long day of rejections and elder Olsen asked me to pick a street and i closed my eyes and walked to the map and said to myself i feel that we must track a street that has the name... chester in it, first street i saw when i opened my eyes was called "Chesterton" it was insane!
   Thursday-Had a meeting with all the trainers and with the big boss today, got to see my old district and hear a little how everyone is doing, Elder Wittbeck has only taught 2 people but seems to have a good attitude about the work which is great and everyone else just seems older already, it was great to see all of them again. After that long meeting we went tracking on Chesterton and only one hispanic family lived there and they were on their way out so we asked to come back so hopefully we can get back there and teach them, then we went to a members house to teach Fabricio, a 13 year old who well.. just not the curchy type and we went to try to teach him and he just didnt care at all and his mom, bless her heart wants him to be a part so bad, butt not in a forcing way at all. So after we went and taught Vabriga and committed her to baptism which was awesome! But we were late getting home and so we probably went 25 the whole way home, and it was dark in the city of Dallas and we were just biking and biking and biking and biking, so crazy but got home, dead tired.
   Friday-Woke up just out of it today, so so tired, we went and taught a lady who was catholic and we taught her the restoration of the gospel and about Joseph Smith, and she was catholic and her neighbor came over who is some other religion and we asked her to give the closing prayer and she did it the catholic way then all the sudden the other guy starts talking and then shouting!! putting his hands on our heads and giving us a "spirit" it was interesting, after we got some lunch at El Rancho, really spicy stuff, not having the best luck in tracking but still got our 20 contacts in, after we got home and ate some dinner we just felt terrible, so we said a prayer for help and we just said, you know what lets get out and work, and we shook it off, had a positive attitude and went out and the first three people we talked to wanted to learn more, then we hurried to our lesson with my favorite investigators, Jesus and Anel, i gave my first priesthood blessing and it was great so great so we ended the day on a good note.
   Saturday-Today right after studies we went and taught a guy about four foot eleven and who had cancer in his throat so he had this high pitched voice, tracted a little bit after and then grabbed some lunch, studied in the park on the language, then we headed out for dinner which was fish again but it was absolutely amazing!!! so so good and ice cream to follow, then i shared a scripture with the member and we went back to work, had an appointment with a lady and her daughters, read out of the BOM cause its the BOM!!! then tracted some more, met a black war veteran who lost his arm and he wanted to pray with us so he formed a circle and wanted to join hands and of course im on the side with the stub! so there i am, on the porch of some random black guy with no arm and holding the stub in prayer... who would of thought haha. But Spanish kicked my butt today, my companion is really good so he corrects me all the time and it really bugs me sometimes cause it discourages me and makes me not wanna speak but i know i have to be told whats right, so i just was frustrated and hurt cause my companion was kind of.. mean about it.
   Sunday- Today my feelings finally burst out and i just had a really serious talk with him and how i was struggling with teaching and felt left out cause my spanish isnt as good as him and when we contact, his spanish and the hispanic that we are talking to is much better than mine, so i just had a mental break down, but i was embraceful to it, i thank my dad for that, i know there will be times just like this that will come and go, in the long run, i will progress in spanish daily, i know that. Church went by so so fast, kind of heart breaking cause some of our investigators we had powerful lessons with were not there and the rule is you have to attend 3 consecutive times before baptism, so if they dont come next week, elder olsen will not be able to baptize them. Dinner again.. just amazing absolutely amazing, i ate it all. Contacted a little after, talked to a Vietnamese girl but no english or spanish so haha we tried to communicate with her best we could, we then contacted 3 drunk black guys, which was fun, sundays go by so fast here, dont know why because in the MTC even before sundays have always been the longest days to me, but i contacted and spoke and understood a lot better today then yesterday. Another week to remember and 2 weeks already gone, i cant believe it. I just want everyone to know back at home that i have changed in a lot of different ways except my love for everyone, family and friends, everyone back at home, and you know who you are, will always be with me on my mission, your examples and advice help me stay balanced out here, i love you all so so much and i hope to receive letters soon.

Aaron with President Durrant