my beautiful sprained ankle
my beautiful family
my best friend Cassia
To you fantastic souls scattered across the globe,
HAPPY MONDAY.
This email cannot, of necessity, be as exciting or wonderful as last week's. I mean we had a surprise baptism of a mom's kids on mother's day. But nevertheless I WILL ATTEMPT.
SHOUT OUTS:
-To Daniel & Ashley and Scott & Kiersten, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY. And thanks for getting married the same week of the year. Makes it much easier for us missionaries to give reasonably-timed shoutouts.
-Shoutout to my favorite season of SPRING, or primavera in Brockton, which makes me happier than most things in life. Rebirth. So legit.
This week we continued with teaching all the youth of Brockton, especially focused on Malique and William. Our one difficulty with them is that their mothers are both hesitant for their baptisms, even though they both want it and are both completely prepared. We talked to William's mom on Saturday though, and she agreed to be present for his baptismal interview on Wednesday. HOPEFULLY (fingers crossed) he can be baptized this weekend on the 24th or 25th.
By the way, the gospel of Jesus Christ is totally relatable to Dragon Ball Z. Every time we teach william we have our obligatory Epic Dragon Ball Z Moment where Elder Lopes relates something awesome that happened to Gohan or Goku because William LOVES DBZ. Then I give an Epic Avatar the Last Airbender moment, a show which he also loves. Then we say a prayer and have an incredibly spiritual lesson. Who says watching tv isn't useful, neh?
Another fun thing happened this week: we lost our car :((( to the Elders in Hingham because their car is in the shop and their area is way to big to walk in. but in fact that is more like a :/ or even a :) because the Lord does some amazing things which situations like this.... like someone Elder Lopes was teaching before I got here, named Jaimie, has been MIA despite all our efforts the past 7 weeks. And then we lose the car, and the first day we're walking on Main St and he shows up right in front of us. We taught a lesson right there about 1 Nephi 3:7 and doing hard things. Tired feet--->tender mercies
One last thing: the other Elders in Brockton have been teaching a man named Orlando who did not want to be baptized. He felt he had to be perfect before making a promise to God, and nothing they did had worked yet... they counseled with us about it in our District meeting and a thought came to my mind. I suggested they teach him about the temple and all those passed on who were waiting for him to do this.
Later that day they taught him a lesson about the temple, and at the end he asked, "okay, what do I need to do?" He'll be baptized on the 24th.
My biggest thought from this week... we so often expect revelation and answers to prayer to feel like this overwhelming out-of-body confirmational experience, but often it is not. Most of the time it is an idea that comes while you're pondering or praying. Something simple. Something that seems right. And then you do it, it works. And you know it came from God.
I used to think that attributing things to God that way was backwards. Now I know that's exactly how He works for the salvation of His children.
Best scripture of this week: Helaman 5:30. Explains the Holy Ghost better than anything else I've found.
I LOVE YOU ALL! STAY GOLDEN!
-Elder Jackson
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