Come to the Edge

Its pitiful how little time I have to email today, considering this was one of the best weeks of my mission so far. Miraculous things are happening in Brockton and we can't take credit for what the Lord is doing. But to be His hands.... it is humbling, sobering, and incredibly rewarding. and REALLY COOL.

 

I will resort to bullet points:

 

-This week we contacted a referral, the son of someone the sisters in Dorchester are teaching. His name is Jose. He is 30 years old (shoutout to Darren, I totally told him in my flawless portuguese that he was the same age as my brother who lives in New York) and was deeply moved by the message of the Restoration. And he came to church on Sunday without us having to wake him up. Which in Brockton.... is a MIRACLE :)

 

-William progressed towards baptism, and his interview was a sweet experience. We brought the Young Men's secretary for the ward with us (he's kind of taken william under his wing) and he was spectacular at talking to Angela (will's mom) about how ready he was. He was ready! He's smarter than I am! He told us his IQ is 122! Anyways, when Elder Carvalho came out of the baptismal interview, he said, "I'm pretty sure he knows more of the gospel than I do." Mission accomplished.

 

-On Friday....

 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland came to our mission. And talked to us for 3 hours. For those on this email who aren't aware, Elder Holland is an Apostle of Jesus Christ, one of 12 of this planet. Plus he's just the best speaker of all time, plus he spoke at my mom's mission farewell, plus he shook every missionary's hand in the mission and pronounced an Apostolic blessing on us that shook us to the core. Can't really explain how it felt. But it was a profound experience that marked my soul forever. No joke. 

 

-On Saturday, after having a spiritual feast with Elder Holland,

 

we had 7 of our brothers and sisters enter the waters of baptism.

Yup. Amilcar, Veninha, Joana, Nuria, Orlando, Julio and William were baptized on Saturday night. In our last mission webex, President asked the whole mission to pray for Brockton that this crazy thing we had planned could occur, that these people would be ready and that they would do it. And they did. It was something like I've never seen before. All of them, lined up in white in the front, from all different age groups and stories and lives, all joined together by their testimony of the truth. And, as Tomas said in branch council later, it was a "special group of people." All ready, all diligent, all brilliant and prepared. Something that's never happened in Brockton before.

 

-On Sunday, we had 9 converts confirmed as members of the church and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. Its cheesy to write it out like that but SERIOUSLY IT WAS SO COOL. I was able to confirm Luigi and promise him some legit blessings. 

 

So in general, I'd say this week was pretty good.

 

My last thought: my prayers these past two weeks have changed. Before I prayed that the Lord would take away my sickness, heal my brain and my blood, just make it all better. But I changed. I pray now that the Lord will not let my affliction hold us back, hold the work of salvation here from bringing people to the Savior. He answered me. It'll all be okay.

 

Love,
Elder Jackson

 

Brenton has found a way to continue one of his passions: plants!