Week #45

Hi!

I'M STAYING IN ASHLAND!! I was so surprised last night when we got a call and the Zone Leaders told us that I was staying here with Elder Brewer! I really thought that I was going to be transfered! Glad to be here for another 6 weeks.

This week the weather has really warmed up and so people have started swimming and it makes me miss swimming so much! I didn't realize how much I swam until now!

This week has been really great for Elder Brewer and I! We picked up 5 new investigators this week! We did a ton of finding and teaching people right when we met them which went great! Also, like I said, it has really warmed up this week. I wouldn't say it's hot, because it's typically been in the mid to low 80s but the humidity kicks my butt! I have never experienced anything like this before! Last year I think I just barely missed the humid time of the summer so this is my first taste of it. Not going to lie though, I would rather be dripping sweat than freezing solid!

Our investigators are doing pretty well. 

Parker is still planning on getting baptized. We haven't met with him in over a week but we're going to see him tonight which will be awesome! We called his grandma earlier today and she said that he prayed for me to stay in Ashland! Prayer answered, Thank you Parker! I should be able to be here for his baptism if all goes well! 

Bob is doing pretty good too. We weren't able to see him this week due to family problems but we will later this week.

Elden is doing amazing! Can't remember if I told you or not but he struggles with depression and can't take anti depressants for some reason. Any way that has been a huge barrier for him. He started taking some supplement that helps even out the chemicals in your body which has taken the depression away!! He told us that he would be coming to church this coming Sunday now that he's doing better. He is also reading the Book of Mormon and liking that. 

We haven't seen Misty and her family for a while now but we are trying to work around their busy schedules. Her kids are super involved in sports which makes it hard to have a time to teach them.

I'm seriously over joyed to be staying in Ashland! I really do love this area and all the people that are here! Even the people that aren't interested in our message seem to reject us with kindness! It's almost refreshing to be rejected with kindness. You walk away feeling like you just made another friend which rocks! 

I hope you all have a great week and I love you all so much! 

Love,

Elder Jack

Week #44

May 23, 2016

Hi!

Such a great week this week! The highlight was obviously Terry being baptized and confirmed! It is still crazy to me that he is now a Mormon! It was great to see him at church on Sunday. Yesterday was the first time that he wore a white shirt to church! He looked just like a member of the church! He said after his confirmation that he felt so much happier! We plan to go to the temple with him on the 4th of June, so hopefully I will still be here. I've got a feeling that I am going to be moving areas this transfer, so I'm praying that I'm wrong!

Parker is doing amazing! I told him that there's a chance I could leave on June 1st and he got super sad! He said that he was going to miss me so much. He already seems like a member of the church to me which is awesome. He came to church again yesterday and we didn't even see him after sacrament meeting because he was hanging out with the deacons! He is so ready to join the church. We just have to finish teaching him all of the lessons and he has to stop drinking tea. I love Parker and am glad he's enjoying church.

Dave is doing good. He said that he will read about the Restoration. He seems to be understanding and accepting all of what we are teaching him. He struggles a little bit with retaining information which is frustrating but he's doing good.

Bob is doing great! We really focused on the restoration with him this week and he said that as of now, the story of Joseph Smith is a fictional story. Then he said, "but I know my next step is finding out if this is true". So that's exactly what we committed him to do, read the Book of Mormon, and pray to know that it is true. That's all anyone can do. If people refuse to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, then they aren't going to come to a knowledge of the truthfulness. I hope Bob will recognize the answer to his prayers. 

We are going to see Rachel and Jeremiah this coming weekend, the couple that are moving into the new house. I'm so excited to talk with them some more! They seem so great! 

We had a really cool miracle that took about 3 or 4 months to come about! So when I first came into the area, I was on exchanges with my district leader, Elder Hutzler, (side note, he's from Mesa too!) and we were contacting and ran into Nancy, a lady that really wanted us to meet her at her house another time and talk to her. Well she gave us her phone number and address and we went our separate ways. We then tried calling her and were unable to reach her through a phone call so we typed her address in the GPS and... it didn't exist. We were pretty bummed out about that one. However, 3 weeks ago, Elder Brewer and I were driving through the town that she lived and I saw a street sign and remembered that was the name of the street that Nancy lived on! We parked the car, found her house number, and knocked on the door. No answer. And so this was for the next 2 times we knocked on her door. Then, this last weekend, we decided to go by her house and see if she was there one last time. So we traveled over to her house and actually caught her there this time!! She was very happy to see us and let us come right inside! She had company over so we set up a time to come back this coming weekend! I can't wait to teach her! She seems so great!

It's really quite amazing how the Lord works. I'm glad that Heavenly Father is mindful of all his sheep! 

I love and miss you guys a ton! I think about you guys often. Hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Jackson

This is a picture of Jackson and Elder Brewer sent by a member in the ward in Ashland.

Week #43

May 16, 2016

Hi Everyone!

Terry is doing great! He had his baptismal interview yesterday and all is good so we're going for this Saturday! I can't believe that he is finally getting baptized! I feel like it has been such a long road for him. He is doing so awesome, I'm stoked for this weekend!

We didn't meet with Misty and Steve this week due to them having busy schedules but we have an appointment set up for tomorrow! I love that family and hope that I stay for another transfer to be able to see them progress a little bit more and hopefully be baptized. 

Dave, I think I told you about dave, is doing great too! We have only taught him a couple of times but he is understanding everything well and is liking us coming over and talking to him. He said that he wants to come to church this week. We are teaching him the Plan of Salvation tonight. I can't wait to see his reaction because last week he talked about how his mom passed away a year ago and how that has been really hard for him.

We've been doing a lot of finding this week with little success so far. Mostly everyone has told us they're not interested, but they've been really nice to us though, which is great! I've been really impressed with how kind people are to us whether they are interested or not. 

One of my highlights this week was when I destroyed a squirrel in our car haha. It was really sad but they always run across the road right in front of us and I always try to avoid them. This little guy ran right infront of us and got turned into bird feed... Poor little fellow. 

I didn't get to go out to eat with Ralph, he never called me after I gave him our number so hopefully he does this week. I'll let you know if he calls.  (Ralph is a member from Jackson's first area that lost his wife a few months ago.  He emailed Jack, and wanted to drive over to Ashland and take Jack and his companion to dinner.)

Congrats Liza and Coop on the recitals! You'll be happy that you stuck with it! (piano)  I sorta wish that I did.  And I can't wait to see how good you are at tumbling when I get home Liza! You'll be a professional by then!

Love, Jack

 

Week #42

May 9, 2016

It was really great to talk to you and the family! I miss you guys a lot! Dad said that you did a great job on your talk as I was sure that you would! I'm way excited to read it! It is really impressive to me how much time you spend in the temple and how much time you spend participating in church functions! I'm so grateful to have parents that appreciate the gospel and do their very best to serve those around them. I really love you guys. I just wish that I had been a little more aware of how blessed I was. I had no idea until I came here to Ohio. Thank you Mom.

Elder Brewer is planning on going to UVU. I still have no idea where I want to go but I've got time to figure that out. 

We did get to see Misty this week which was great! We had Bishop Dahl come with us and the lesson went really well! They read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon as a family and had really great questions about the plan of salvation, which is what we taught this last week. Misty has a very outspoken personality and Steve, her husband is much quieter. Bishop asked Misty what she thought about church and she said that she didn't believe that she had to go to church to worship God, but she said that she still wants to come to church. Then Bishop asked Steve how he felt about church, and he said that he knew that he and his family need to go to church in order to learn and grow more than they could on their own. Steve will definitely be a solid foundation on which Misty can rely to get her into the church and then to stay active. They are really doing great. We will hopefully see them again this week to be able to see how they are doing. 

Terry is still doing well and is working towards the 21st for baptism! I will be very surprised if he doesn't make this date! He is doing so amazing!

I'm seriously loving it here in Ashland and am hoping that I will get to stay here for another transfer after this one! We'll see what happens though. I'm learning and loving so much here! We've got a ton of potential investigators lined up this week that will hopefully be turned into investigators!! Can't wait!

I love you a lot Mom! Only 14 1/2 more months until I get to see you in person! That's way crazy to me! Feels like I haven't been gone very long. Hope you guys have a great week!

Love, Jacky Boy

Week #41

I can't believe how crazy small of a world it is! That is way cool that Trevor is teaching that sister missionaries mom! It's amazing that me and all of my friends are meeting so many different people and teaching the gospel in so many areas of the world! 

Now for our investigators:

Terry is still doing well. We are going to push his date back to the 21st. He just needs a little bit more time to be ready for baptism. We really want him to solidify his testimony of the gospel. This last week at church was great though! We had 3 investigators there so we weren't able to be with all of them at once. We just kinda let Terry go through church without us taking him every where. He was talking with all of the ward members and really having a great time! He is doing great!

We dropped Rick... He wasn't willing to keep any commitments and wasn't remembering the things we were teaching him.

Elden is doing great! We had a lesson with him at the church this last Saturday to try and get him comfortable with the church building and ease some of the fears he has about coming. It was a fantastic lesson! We ordered a large print triple combination and he told us to write our testimonies in it so that he can remember the Elders that found him and brought him back to the gospel. After our lesson with Elden, he texted us and said that he felt the spirit so strong and would definitely be at church! Then Sunday came and he didn't end up making it out to church for some reason. Also, earlier in the week we taught Elden the Word of Wisdom, which we were worried for because he is a heavy smoker. When we went over there, he was telling us how the doctor told him that he needs to quite smoking in order to get over the health challenges he's facing right now. Not only did we recognize that this was a miracle but Elden said he couldn't believe that we taught that lesson right when he needed it most! 

Like I said before, we had 3 investigators at church. The first was Terry and the other two were Parker and Bill. Parker is the 12 year old son of a less active member. One of the ward members met Parker's mom when he was driving the city bus. We went over and visited with her and she isn't really interested in coming back right now but she said that she would like us to teach her son. We started teaching him and he has loved meeting with us. He was really excited to come to church and actually already knew a lot of the ward members! We are going to try and set a baptismal date with him tonight!

Bill, our other investigator that came to church, is married to a returning less active member. Bill has on and off investigated the church for the last year. He really struggles with the word of wisdom and the idea of not being able to drink coffee. In just the last couple of months he's come to a better understanding of the gospel and is feeling better about the church. We're trying to set a baptismal date with him in the coming weeks.

We got a text from Misty yesterday and have an appointment scheduled with her this week. Hopefully it won't fall through. I'll let you know next week how it goes. 

We found another great investigator this week named Bob. Bob is a middle aged man that knows way too much about the bible! He knows so many facts which led to what he calls his de-conversion. He no longer has a faith in God because he feels like he was abandoned. He asked us in the lesson if we thought the Book of Mormon was what he was missing and the member that was with us in the teaching appointment said to him, "I can honestly tell you that the Book of Mormon is what you're missing." He continued to bear powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and the blessing it has been in his life. I can't wait to see what Bob thinks of the Book of Mormon after reading it!

Elder Brewer and I are having a great time here in the Ashland Area and are loving every minute of it! I love you guys so much and can't wait to talk to you on Mother's day! HOLY CRAP that's only one week away!!!! See you guys soon!

Love, Jack

                       Jackson and Elder Brewer

                                                  Ohio in bloom.  Winter is finally over!