Week #93

Hi Mom!

Oh my gosh I can't believe that Bennett's papers are in! That freaks me out. It doesn't feel real that I'll be coming home and he'll be leaving. I must say that I'm excited to come home. Not trunky though! There is definitely a difference. Trunky is when you lose motivation and that isn't going to happen. Like I was telling Dad, I've worked way too hard to give up now. This area reminds me of Ashland. That area was hard to get rolling but once we did, it took off! I'm thinking that is what will happen here in Sandusky! At least I'm hoping. We were able to pick up 2 new investigators this week which was a step in the right direction. One of those investigators was Jordan. His throat is doing a lot better. He hasn't gotten the stitches out yet but it's getting there. He has a cute little family. He's married with 2 little girls and another baby girl on the way! I would love to teach his whole family! His wife is insanely shy though. We'll get there. Jordan committed to read the Book of Mormon this week and we'll see him tomorrow to follow up on that. He will be a solid convert. He has a great understanding of living a Christ centered life. It was so nice, he said that the other day, when it was raining really hard, he drove around Sandusky looking for us so that he could give us a ride. Such a nice guy! Unfortunately he didn't find us so we got dumped on! I'll get to that story in a second haha.

Caroline is doing okay. She's still slowly getting better. We're going to try and focus on getting her to church this week to help her feel the spirit more abundantly in her life. That will no doubt help her through this trial. 

We'll be seeing Dustin and his family tonight. They are so awesome! I'm stoked to teach them more and help them accept the gospel. This week we helped Dustin in his crawl space under his house and it was so muddy under there! I was covered in mud! It felt so good to get dirty though! I never get to do that!

An awesome miracle that happened yesterday! So Elder Ellsworth and I were stopping by former investigators, trying to see if any of them were interested again. We went by one and the guy we were looking for had moved. A little kid answered the door so we just gave him a card for a free DVD about Jesus Christ. About 10 minutes later, we got a text telling us that a little kid on the street that we were just at ordered a DVD! It was awesome! I love it when people order stuff! Referrals are the best! 

Now for my story about getting caught in the rain... This last Sunday, we were out tracting on a street that was about a mile and a half from home. We had walked there so we could save some miles (and work on getting more holes in my shoes). We finished one side of the street we were on and were planning on going on to the other side. That was when we saw them... the clouds coming in from the West! They were quite possibly the darkest clouds that I have ever beheld. There was nothing we could do to avoid this storm. Those clouds were moving at the speed of light. We began the long walk of shame back to our apartment. About 60 seconds after we began our retreat back to the comfort of our home, the rain hit. I would say that within half a minute I was soaked to the bone. It felt as though I had jumped into a pool! We had no umbrella. All I had was a windbreaker that does a great job at attracting and retaining water... Not ideal for rain storms. I have never been that wet my entire mission. Despite the seemingly tragic circumstances, Elder Ellsworth and I were both laughing as we walked through the rain. As we walked down the street which had transformed almost instantly into a river, we saw Kevin, an investigator we picked up earlier that day. He stood in his garage nice and dry and waved us over. He looked at us with a slight grin. We talked with him for a little bit under his dry roof and then, once again, walked along the bank of the river (the side walk). By the time we got home, we were dripping wet. The only dry spot on my entire body was my back pocket, which had my wallet! MIRACLE! Everything else, literally everything, even the contents of my bag, were soaked haha! Good times. 

I don't know when I'll be skyping. I'll let you know when I find out.

Happy Birthday Mom and Cooper!!!!! Can't believe Coop is already 15! That is so old! Miss you guys a ton! Love you Mom! You're the greatest!

Love,

Jack

Jackson and Elder Ellsworth after getting caught in a massive downpour.

                                              

Week #92

Hi Mom!!!!!

This was kind of an interesting week. So I told you last week about all those people that we met and had appointments set up with. Well it turns out, they are all super flakey! All of them flamed us and one of them blocked our number haha! The tough life as a missionary. We have been doing so much tracting and contacting it's crazy! There will most definitely be holes in the bottoms of my shoes by the time I'm done with this area! The only struggle is turning these people into investigators now. No one can seem to keep a solid appointment! Last week we called a potential to make sure we were still good to come for our lesson which was less than 30 minutes from that time. She said it was still going to work for her. Sure enough, when we got there, she wasn't home. Such a struggle! Only if people would be strait up with us. 

We did meet this really cool guy that is willing to have us come back though. His name is Jordan and he's the only one that had a legit excuse to not being able to meet with us this week. While he was at work, he some how cut his throat open way bad but told us to come back soon. Awesome guy.

All of our investigators, besides Caroline, are really struggling right now. Robert is just having a horrible time with his Dad. His dad is in the hospital and it doesn't appear that he's going to get any better. He still wants to meet, just not right now. 

We dropped Denitra and Lauren. They kept giving us really lame excuses so we decided we need to give them a break. I think they'll be prepared down the road though. 

Another super cool thing that happened this week was with Dustin, a Less Active member of the ward. So we have been trying really hard to meet with Dustin for the past 2 months. We have finally gotten back in contact with him. We set up a family home evening lesson with them, which we had yesterday and it was AWESOME!!!!! Out of his 5 kids and his Fiance, Dustin is the only member. None of them really have a solid background with religion but they all seem to be interested in it. Dustin knows that the gospel will bless not only him but his family as well. He's so awesome! They're a great family! Slightly crazy, but who isn't haha! 

We're working hard, Lots and lots of tracting! Hopefully next week I'll get to tell you about all the new investigators we got! But if not, that's okay too... I love you a bunch! 

Congrats Bennett for putting  your papers in! It feels like I did that yesterday! Love you Mom! Have a great week!

Love,

Jack