This ones gonna be a little short. But first know that I love you all.
I ate lunch with a Haitian family for the first time. It was incredible. Incredibly huge. In Haitian culture, the amount missionaries eat at their house is directly proportional to how much blessings they get. So out of love for them, I stuffed my face. As in, and entire pizza, an entire loaf of bread, half a box of fries and 1 liter of soda. And then as we were leaving, the Haitian missionaries (Haitianaries) said "wow, that was a really easy lunch..."
This week was jam packed with meetings, both local and world wide. On Friday we had our Zone Conference-- where they trained us on everything we focus on and believe in as a mission. The underlying theme is Zion, how we can achieve it, how we can live our lives at the plane of righteousness needed to access Zion, and how the blessings of missionary work directly flow outwards from achieving "one heart and one mind". We also got to watch the 1.5 hour new movie Meet the Mormons, which is AMAZING. In theatres this Friday, 10/10/14. Go find it and watch it. You'll be glad you did.
That night I got hit with an epic migraine, and spent the drive home through the bumpy streets of Boston trying not to toss my cookies, and was successful. Got home and passed out. Elder Rodrigues said I was snoring approximately 2 minutes after I hit the bed... still wearing shoes and a suit... woke up at 4 and changed. Thus fulfilling my life long missionary goal of saying I slept in my suit!
General Conference: STUNNAH. So perfect, so applicable. I can't consolidate my thoughts on it right now... partially because we missed Sunday AM session trying to fix the TV to do Portuguese translation... but it turned out great, especially since one of the talks was in portuguese. Words of living prophets. Can't argue with that.
My favorite part of this week was during Priesthood session. Our friend Djeison who was baptized a few weeks ago came to watch with us, and I gave him a piece of paper to take notes on. He listened intently to Elder Quentin L. Cook's talk about achieving goals, and how distractions pull us away from them. I looked over at his paper, and saw he had written out a list of goals. This 14 year old boy, incredibly shy, attached to video games and the internet, had listened to the council of an Apostle, and wrote:
--stop playing video games so much
--stop wasting time on the phone
--be an example to those who need to believe
What can bring that mighty change of heart? First, the enabling power of the Atonement of Christ. We can overcome ourselves, our weaknesses, our addictions. Second, modern revelation and prophetic guidance. Our scriptures don't talk about video games. But Elder Cook did, and said what Djeison had been waiting to hear. That's why God calls prophets and apostles.
Next week, I'll be staying with my momma in NYC, waiting to go to a Lyme disease clinic for two days. Who knew this would happen on my mission? Not I. But I get to hang out with Marcia Jackson for two days, so I'm not complaining!
Love,
Elder Jackson
No comments:
Post a Comment