Week #52

Hi Everyone! 

Okay so an update on the area where I am serving... I'm in the Kirtland zone but my area is Shaker Heights. We have a really great area because we have such a variety of people to teach. We have some super ghetto places and then we have some wealthy areas. Everyone is awesome here! I love this area already. Elder Davis and I are getting along really well and having fun together. Turns out that I came out into the mission field with Elder Davis! Super cool so we get to celebrate our year mark together! Elder Davis is from Seattle, Washington and yes he is the zone leader with me. Really all we do as zone leaders is relay info from president brown to the missionaries and info from the missionaries to the assistants. All it is is more responsibility but it's still fun.

We have a few really solid investigators right now that I'm super excited about! I can really see most of them joining the church in the near future which really excites me! One of our investigators that we just picked up this week is a 17 year old girl named Dejah. Its pronounced like you would say dejavoo but without the voo obviously. But funny story of how we found her... So Elder Davis and his previous companion would go get hot fudge sundays from McDonalds all the time and would give pass along cards to the people in the drive through and Dejah was one of those lucky people! She called the number on the back of the card to get a copy of the Book of Mormon and she's loving it so far! She should be at church this coming Sunday which is AWESOME. She is super spiritual and super funny too! She's understanding everything that we teach super well which is awesome! Everything we tell her just clicks in her head. Love watching her learn and grow!

Our other solid investigator is named Anthony and his sister is a member of the church in California. He talks a lot about his nephew who served a mission and he loves missionaries! He came to church yesterday which was awesome because one of the sisters investigators got the gift of the holy ghost in sacrament meeting! Anthony said he loved that afterwards! He told us he is going to fast and pray about being baptized this week or next week so we'll see what happens. 

The members here in this ward are amazing! They all have a strong desire to do missionary work which makes our job so much easier and way more fun as well. I'm excited to meet more of the members this week and help them with their missionary work. I have a feeling that this area is going to be my favorite! 

Super stoked to meet my 1/2 way mark this week but I hope that time slows down a little bit. I feel like I say that a lot but I don't want my mission to just fly by! I'm loving life out here! Anyway I love you guys! Hope you have an awesome week because I know I will. Love you! 

Love, Jack

Ps. I almost forgot to tell you that I am in a 4 man apartment which is a ton of fun but the elders that we live with are in the Cleveland 3rd area which is supposedly the most ghetto area in the mission but they have a bullet box haha! It's a box that they collect all the bullets and shells they find on the streets. And they aren't allowed in their area this week because of the RNC. Anyway Love you!

This is a picture of Jackson that a member texted me this morning. The joy of having a stateside missionary. :)

Jackson's sleeping arrangements!  That's just good missionary living.

Week #51

Hi Everyone! 

We had a crazy week this week! So it started off with exchanges but instead of having one set of missionaries in Ashland and the other set in Wooster, we both stayed in Wooster for the day and did a lot of great work there. Then on Wednesday, Elder Brewer had to go to a meeting up in Kirtland so we were gone for most of Wednesday too! Once we finally got back into our area, we felt super behind. It worked out though because Thursday we worked our tails off and were packed every minute of the day so we were able to get caught up here. Friday we did a lot of service for a member of the ward. We were helping her and her non member mom with getting a garage sale set up, so that was a ton of fun. Saturday was a pretty normal day. We did get a great referral from a member over in Cleveland. They are an older couple named Terry and Shelley who are super open to learning about the gospel. They had neighbors that were members of the church which planted the seed. I'll be excited to see where they go. I'm sure they'll be great investigators. Then Sunday came. I said goodbye to most of the members in the Ashland ward there which was sad. I'm really going to miss these people. The craziest part of Sunday though was when I got a phone call from President Brown asking me to serve as a Zone Leader in Kirtland!!!! I'm super stoked to get to serve there! Elder Bowcut served part of his mission there and said that it was super fun! I'm shaking in my shoes at the thought of taking leadership in this mission but I'm willing to accept the calling. I'll be leaving tomorrow to go to Kirtland and will be meeting my companion there. His name is Elder Davis, but that's all I know about him. So that's my week in a nut shell.

Now for our investigators.

Bob is doing super good! We had an awesome lesson with him last night with the Crawfords. They bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon. At the conclusion of the lesson, we told Bob that his next step is to come to church and so he said to us "I promise you that I will be at church this Sunday!" I don't think I have ever had anyone promise me with that kind of determination in their voice. Sorta bummed that I'm not going to be here. I'll be zone leading in Kirtland by then. 

Parker is doing pretty good. He has been out of town for the last while which isn't great but he is really serious about getting baptized. His grandma is being very supportive and really pushing him to keep commandments which is super helpful. He is planning to get baptized in August at some point and he told me that he would email me pictures of his baptism. 

Those are our two most progressing investigators but next week I will be emailing you about all the new people that I get to meet in Kirtland! I took a lot of pictures this week too so I'll send those. I'm just having a blast out here in Ohio and am really glad that I got called to serve where and when I did. It is such a blessing to be in full service mode all the time for the Lord. I'm sure that I will never experience anything like this ever again. Time is definitely going by way too fast! I'm almost half way done. Anyway, I'll let you know how Kirtland is next week! Love you! Hope you guys have an awesome week!

Love, Jack

Ps. There's an elder in my district right now from Mesa, Arizona and he goes home on Thursday so I told him to go and visit you. I gave him your address. Don't expect him right away but he will probably come visit you guys soon. His name is James Hutzler. This is a picture of me and him.

Jackson and Elder Hutzler from Mesa, AZ!

Jackson and Terry

Jackson and Dave

Jack and Eldon

Jackson and the Cullers

Jackson in a cornfield

Sunset

Week #50

Hi Everyone!

This was a great week! Had a lot of fun doing missionary work. My ankle is definitely getting better which is good. I am trying to just take it easy on it for now but it really has gotten a lot better in the past couple of days! I was worried that I would have to go to the doctor and wear a cast or something but its looking like I won't have to do that... Unless I roll it again. 

I was really sad to hear about Karen but things sound like they're going okay for her. I hope that Kade will be able to stay focused on the work. I can't imagine how hard that would be. 

Our investigators are doing great! Parker is continuing to do great! I'm going to try and get pictures with everyone this week because I'm for sure leaving. Elder Brewer got called as a trainer last night so I'll be outta here. 

Bob is doing really great as well! He's still reading and praying. He's really seeking for the truth so it's really fun to teach him and see his understanding click. He had plans to come to church yesterday but I guess something came up with his wife and he had to travel out of town for her. 

Cool story really quick about a new investigator that we picked up. Her name is Nancy and we found her when Bowcut was still here. We met her on the street and she said that she would love for us to meet her at her house some time and teach her. But when it came time to contact her, we couldn't find the street that she lived on anywhere! But a couple of months later, Elder Brewer and I were driving I saw the street that she lived on! Wasn't looking for it or anything but remembered that it was the street she told us! We are now teaching her and she's doing really great! She's excited about us teaching her each week. 

Those are really our most progressing investigators. Elder Brewer and I have been having a lot of fun when finding, talking to everyone, and getting along really well. It'll for sure be sad to leave Ashland next week. 

I love you a lot, and hope that you have a great week! 

Love,

Jackson

                             Elder Scoresby and Elder Brewer at a hot air balloon festival.

 Elder Scoresby and Elder Brewer with Debbie and Michael Potts their neighbors.  She sent me these pictures and a text saying how much she would miss Jackson when he leaves Ashland this week and what a nice young man he is.