True Thanksgiving

This week was awesome. 

This was the third Thanksgiving on my mission, and it was the best one. Not because of food (although thanksgiving dinner with 20 Brazilians was PRETTY GREAT), and not because of family (because I didn't get to see them...yet), but because the Lord blessed us immensely and the holiday gave me a chance to be truly grateful. 

This past week we had four baptisms here in the portuguese group! 

Zito and Filomena were baptized on Wednesday night. We had a family home evening with them on Monday night at the Machado's house, and they told us they would make the decision that night and tell us the next day if they would be baptized. I prayed harder that night than I've ever prayed before; we pleaded with the Lord to bless them and waited on Him. The next day we went over at 6 to meet with them, and Zito told us he and his wife had decided to be baptized-- the next day. So we ran and had them interviewed and the next day they were baptized. It was the culmination of a lot of struggling and fighting for the truth, on our part and on theirs. They overcame great opposition to be baptized and are already being changed by the experience.

On Saturday we had the baptism of Jelsom and Jose Gomes, two young men in a family we have been teaching for several weeks! A recent convert of a few months, a young man named Anselmo, performed the baptism. It was another awesome experience. 

On sunday all four were confirmed and I had the chance to confirm Zito and Jose. Confirmations are always a really spiritual experience for me and this time was the same, even in Portuguese. 

I wondered about why I was supposed to stay here on the mission for 1 more transfer, and i think I'm finding out why. The spirit is being poured out in our ministry here and I'm just tried to direct it toward the ones who need it most. 

Theres nothing better than an attitude of gratitude folks, its takes what we have and makes it enough.

I love you all! No time to stop!

-Elder Jackson

Bonus Points

Greetings all! 

Seeing as I have officially passed my 2 year mark, I'm calling this next month my overtime. Hoping for some bonus points here :) this next week should be very eventful. 

This week was great as usual, ups and downs for sure, but everything turned out okay. We had the awesome opportunity on Saturday to visit the Boston temple with Zito and his family. The experience was marked by tender mercies-- one of which was that the temple worker behind the front desk of the temple who greeted them just so happened to be Cape Verdean. And had a quick whispered conversation in Criolu. It was doooope. #theLordprovides

The other mark of age I saw this week? Everything I own is falling apart. Its like all my clothes/missionary tools realized the 2 year mark had passed and gave up, causing them all to suddenly tear/snap/rip/be lost. I lost all my favorite pens, had two other pens explode, had buttons rip off pants and shirts, broke my watch twice, and lost a chunk of the sole of my best shoes. I officially feel like a good missionary. 

We are preparing a family of 4, two boys and another man for baptism this week. We'll see how it goes, but an extra prayer for them would be much appreciated. They're overcoming a lot to make this step!

A lot of other cool things happened and I wish I could share them all, but I unfortunately cant.

So suffice it to say, I'm alive, sprinting hard, and excited for my third Thanksgiving in the field. 

Lets get it!

Love,

Elder Jackson

T-minus 30 to Translation day‏

Time is ticking, clock is clicking and we're starting to sprint. 

This week on Wednesday will be 1 month left, and on Friday will be my official 2 YEAR MARK. Hard to believe. I can still remember those first days... 

Elder Soller and I are doing awesome, the work is progressing. We had 53 people in our not-so-little Portuguese group. Building on the shoulders of giants for sure. 

Our people are progressing really well. Ademar is keeping commandments the members don't even keep... we think this could be a big week. The ward officially decided to split the home and visiting teaching completely between the english and portuguese, so we're getting ready to leave the nest.....

I'm loving life. Trying to constantly focus on the blessings and tender mercies so I stay on top of the wave of work that always threatens to drown me. The Lord is so good. 

Spiritual thought?

1 Corinthians 2:9

Luke 9:24

What does it take to be permanently happy?

Love you all! Sally forth!

-Elder Jackson

Beginning With the End in Mind

Me with Elder Tuckett and Elder Pennington (the ones who walked Boston Common 

on Day 1, and some of my best friends here)

Elder Araujo and me

The Frandsen family (drove us to stake conference)

So Jenna sent me some awesome planners, but there were some Portuguese sisters who had none, so I gave them away (sorry Jenna, hope you understand... but the sisters thought they were the best planners they've ever seen). I then had to make my own: some of you may recognize the picture!

Hey all! 

First: shoutout to Kiersten! HAPPY BIRTHDAY! and scott for his sick beard. and running a half-marathon. 

Quick update from this week:

Transfers were on wednesday, and Elder Araujo went to Boston 1 PO (my motherland) and Elder Soller (my previous companion from Boston) came to Central Falls PO! Exciting times. Things are crazy here. 

The strangest part of transfers was saying goodbye to most of the elders that arrived in Boston with me two years ago. The ones I walked with on the first day in Boston Common bore their last testimony here Wednesday night, and it was surreal. But their "acceptable sacrifice" really just inspired me to sprint to the finish-- which is now 6 weeks away. 

We have several families progressing towards baptism, and I love them. One thing Elder Araujo taught me was how to truly love the people I teach, and do anything for them; I'm trying to put it into practice, even with the people I meet for the first time on the streets of Pawtucket. It transforms the work. 

Stake conference was on Sunday, and we got permission to rent two VANS from the airport to drive our group down to connecticut! It was one of the craziest mornings of my mission getting everybody to the vans and ready to go, but so worth it. We had our own little section of seats at the conference, which extended from the front of the chapel to the stage at the back of the gym (same size chapel as Ashburn). 

I'm searching for the purpose of these next 6 weeks, but not too hard. Mostly were just here to work. I've been given an amazing group of missionaries to serve and they're helping me weed out all the leftover "nets" I haven't yet forsaken. 

I love you all! Be good! Do good! Have fun! 

-Elder Jackson

Record Breaking‏

 Anildo at his baptism

Record breaking Sunday!

Ironically, my first picture with elder Araujo!

Our investigator's dad is a super famous musician in Cape Verde. 

Famous enough to be on their 1000 escudo bills.

What a week it was up here in Pawtucket! Our little Portuguese group isn't so little anymore!

I only have 12 minutes of library computer time, so lets see what happens here.

The big news of the week is that our friend Anildo Fortes (not anilo, as I had called him the whole time) was baptized on Saturday! It was awesome. He asked for me to baptize him. All came from the Elders being lost on their bikes one day and asking him for directions. He couldn't give directions, but he did want to know about the gospel. And on Saturday he was baptized. 

On Sunday we broke the record for attendance in the Portuguese group! The church was full and we ran out of chairs. It was full of great testimonies and Anildo's confirmation was excellent. I felt really enlightened by the fast also. 

On Friday we found out Elder Araujo is being transferred. Everyone here loves him and is very attached to him so it's been tough for all, but he's going to Boston Portuguese, so I know it's gonna be good :) Elder Soller, who was my companion in Boston, is coming here to Central Falls and will be the last companion of my mission. 

That's all! See pictures! Let's go! love You!!

-Elder Jackson

The Forests on Fire!‏

 Me and Elder Dawson recording

Beautiful fall colors

The ward had a halloween party, mostly populated by people from our group

Whaddup everybody, just letting you know that the work continues up here in the smallest state in the union!

This week was interesting, not a ton of crazy things to report, but some quick highlights. 

Tuesday we finished up writing the music for the project President gave me and Elder Dawson and we recorded Wednesday night (see pics). Its kind of a secret for most of the mission so I've edited the recipients of this email... But President is creating a cd with the testimonies of Christ of all the living Apostles and Prophet, plus the past several prophets. It's a 20 minute continuous track of testimonies, and he gave me the challenge of writing/recording underscore for the whole cd. At first I almost said no, but it's turned out to be really pretty exciting. I've even had some spiritual experiences writing, as entire songs came to mind and came to be in just a few minutes. So we finished doing our writing on Tuesday, then recorded on Wednesday!  A member of the church in Foxboro, MA will be mixing the cd. So he has to do most of the work :)

On Wednesday we had zone conference. I learned a lot and had a lot of ideas. One thing I liked  most was our discussion about personal gratitude and accountability to the Lord. It reminded me of a habit I started in Boston when we just barely started with the Portuguese group. My district leader gave me the idea. Each night in prayer before bed I would write a list of all the tender mercies and blessings of the day and actively express gratitude for each one. Then I would think of the missionaries, investigators and members and ask God questions about each one, how I could help them, and record the answers as action items for the next day. Then in the next day's evening prayer I would account to the Lord whether I did what he told me to do. Because of this exercise I feel that my time during those transfers was the most grateful and some of the most productive of my mission. I lost that habit, and I restarted this week. About half the time I fall asleep doing it but that's ok! It's the effort that makes the difference.

In terms of people, one of our families that didn't make it to their baptism resolved a lot of their concerns and issues this week. They all came early to church this week for the Primary program. Also, our awesome Brasilian friend Ademar, who cold called us 3 weeks ago and asked to meet, set a date for his baptism on November 29. It was awesome. He's a man truly transformed by the gospel, to an extent that I've never seen pre-baptism. He's so ready; now we just have to convince him that he is :)

Life is good.

One thought: in Mark 1:17-18, Jesus called his future apostles from their work as fisherman, and they "straightway forsook their nets". To the extent that we realize our true calling, each one of us, as fishers of men, we also realize we have a lot of "nets". It's super evident as a missionary which ones are still holding on to their nets with one hand while they try to swim to the Savior. It's sometimes too heavy of a load to make it "to shore". What nets does the Lord want us to forsake?

Love,
Elder Jackson

Winter returns, a little opposition, and trusting the Lord's timing‏

 Cape Verdean babies!

 FRISBEE!

Birthday pranks.........

Greetings!! 

Its cold here in Rhode Island.... this morning when we left our apartment it was 25 degrees! And I, like Darren, turned on the heat for the first time, thus ushering the official start of winter. With this cold front has come a little bit of spiritual opposition.

Last week we were preparing two families for baptism this past sunday, but in the end it wasn't the right time for anyone. As Elder Holland says, salvation is not a cheap experience, and some of our people are paying a token of the Savior's price as they work through bad habits and addictions. It was hard because in both cases we found out, not directly, but through other people, that they were suffering/falling to temptation behind the scenes. 

I learned a few lessons this week:

1) Addiction likes to be hidden. I was reminded of an ad I saw on the side of a bus in Brockton: "Hunger is hidden". The adversary convinces so many that they shouldn't tell the ones who can help them about their struggles, for shame, sharp guilt, or fear of punishment. I think we all know what that feels like. Even after weknew of an addiction this week, and asked the individual everything we could to help her confess her struggles to us and let us help her, that "wounded animal" inside would not come out into the open. She just couldn't tell. So we keep working, praying, reading with her. And we shared these: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/12-steps-to-change?lang=eng

2) Trying to force conversion/change never works -- we must invite and trust in the Lord's work behind the scenes. 

Our missionary work is like trying to move a wet spaghetti noodle across a table. If we try to push from behind it just spreads all over the table and goes nowhere. But if we pull from the front, tracking the path ahead, it follows a straight line behind our hand. 

In the shower (where I get most of my best ideas) I asked what we should do. Actually, I asked if we should keep trying to get to overcome their struggles before sunday. The answer was surprisingly clear... like a big knot inside just unloosed and the Lord told me to chill out, and trust his timing. That He's not working on cosmetic changes with these people, but deep transformation. And I felt instant peace. 

At church I compared how I felt about my people, compared to how I felt 20 months ago. There's a love there for them that I couldn't access before; a trust in God I didn't know before; and a happiness that actually makes me a lot smarter and a lot more perceptive. 

So long story short, all is well :) Sorry if this email came off wicked dramatic, but I learned a lot this week. The work goes on, and I'm learning a little more of the father-of-king-lamoni sacrifices required to really know God.

I love you all! Go kill it this week!

-Elder Jackson