First thing
before I forget. I need my social security number for the apartment that
I am living in and I forgot it. So obviously don't sent it via email,
but call the mission office and they will give it to me from there. It's
not like I am going to get kicked out of the apartment or anything. It
is for a background check and it is basically a way for them to earn a
little extra money. The church pays for it, but if you could do that
then that would be great.
I
did get Dad's letter last week. Thank you for all the updates and for
all the advice. I'm not sure why it took so long, but I did get it.
Alright
here is the update for this week. We ended up putting four people on
date for baptism this week so that was great. We now have six with a
legit shot of going through.Great things have been happening here in
this zone. Our goal as a zone is 30 baptisms by March 31st. Every zone
is a stake here so that is a lot of baptisms for a stake in not a lot of
time. It didn't look good last week, but we were really blessed this
week. Our zone went from having 14 on date to 26 so things are going
really well here.
Jeffrey
is still ready to go for Saturday. It has been a blast teaching him. I
can't remember if I mentioned this last week, but he has some mental and
social disabilities. He is really smart but he has a short attention
span so we have to keep him involved. He will just say stuff right out
of the blue that has nothing to do with anything and it always cracks me
up.
We
put Shaylah back on date for March 28th. We have had some really good
lessons with her and I think that she can be ready. She came to church
on Sunday and really enjoyed it so I hope things keep progressing with
her.
We
also got a referral from a different ward that has sisters in it. They
have an investigator who doesn't feel comfortable being taught by
sisters so we are teaching him now. It is funny because we have a recent
convert that is the same way so the sisters teach her. This guy's name
is Jordan. He is 31 and still lives with his parents. Basically,he sits
in his room and is either playing video games or on the Internet all
day. He wants to be a part of something so bad so he wants to join the
church. I know his motives aren't great, but hopefully that will come
with time. He is on date for March 14th.
We
also got a referral from the YSA ward.This guy has been going there
with a friend for a few weeks and apparently he is ready for baptism. He
is 40 and married so that would put him in our ward. We haven't met him
yet and I can't even think of his name right now, but he seems golden.
He is on date for March 7th.
Mark
is another one that we put on date. That one was funny. He has been
investigating for 12-13 years. He lives all the commandments and
occasionally goes to church. Personally, I just think that he is lazy,
but here is probably something else that is holding him back. He is on
date for February 28th. I can totally tell that he is just not ready and
willing to go through with it, but my companion was so pumped. Haha. It
reminded me of when Elder Calhoun is telling that story about the
grocery store to the other Elders and they are like, "Well that's too
bad" and Elder Calhoun is like, "What do you mean? He was interested!"
Haha! Kind of the same thing. He wasn't at church on Sunday. Hopefully
he turns around.
The
last one is K Brewer. She is so in tune with the spirit it is crazy. So
after our lesson last Sunday she prayed for a long time that she would
get an answer if this is what she needs to do. She said that she was
expecting some audible voice telling her what she needed to do. Then
Sister Brinkerhoff gave her a scripture to read. Then Kate turned to the
WRONG ONE. She was flipping through trying to find it and came across
Alma 32:16-19. I think that is my new favorite scripture. She was like,
"I think I got my answer." It was awesome.She is on date for March
14th... which happens to be her birthday! I had no idea either! I had
flashbacks of Julia Ogden. This is the third time I have put somebody on
date on their birthday. It was crazy! She still has her issues, though.
Her mom is crazy and super feminist and Kate is scared to say anything
to her. So that is one issue. Another is she is a smoker. A smoker! Who
the heck came up with smoking?! Wow, that is a beautiful plant. Let's
call it tobacco and then light it on fire and breathe through the smoke!
I think that she will be able to quit. She had the motivation to quit
when she was pregnant, so hopefully the same thing can happen here. Keep
her in you prayers.
I heard about the
Super Bowl. We were getting a ride to the Brewer's right at the end of
the game. Brother Higham was listening to it on the radio. He asked it
if it was okay and we were like not really so he turned it off. He
waited for about 17 seconds and cranked it back on haha! Then he was
like, you are making me feel guilty and we were like sorry so he turns
it off. This cycle continued for the 15 minute drive so I got bits and
pieces of it. People will be pretty upset over that loss. It was weird
because I didn't even have a desire to watch the game. Heavenly 'Father
is helping me focus on the work here.
We
do have a DVD player, but we never use it because of our iPads. We have
the gospel library app so is the bible videos on there? We have all the
Bible videos. Is it the same thing or is it something different?
I
have been reading a lot from the New Testament lately. I always knew
that Christ spent most of His time with the poor, but I never really
thought about that. What an awesome attribute. I just picture Him going
around to the people here in Portland. We see a lot of poverty and there
are no rich areas here like any of my last areas. We talk to a lot of
homeless people or people coming from broken homes. First of all, it
makes me so grateful for how I was raised. There was this family that we
talked to where the dad just lost his job and they had nowhere to go.
So they went to the streets and begged people for money. The second
thing is that this is the kind of thing that Christ dealt with. If He
was in the streets of Portland helping the poor, He would give them much
more than money. I can't picture any of the powerful world leaders
coming here and spending a day talking with the people.Yet Jesus is more
powerful than any world leader and He spends His time with the poor in
heart. That was just something That I have been thinking about this
week.
Thanks
for the e-mail. Thank you for the love and support and prayers form
home. People say all the time to tell you thank you for making the
sacrifice to send me out here. I am being blessed so much out here. I
love you!
Love,
Jaxon
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