02/16/2015

Dear Family,

I definitely learned some valuable lessons this week. The first one is that this is not about me. So transfer rumors were going around like fire last week. All I heard was that I was leaving Cherry Park. I was really disappointed and I did not want to leave at all. I love Portland and Cherry Park so much and we have so much going for us right now. Plus, this will be my 6th ward in 7 months. I have no idea why I m getting bounced around so much. Then the actual letter came. I am going to serve in Battleground, Washington in the Vancouver North stake. I just had so much peace right then that this is where I need to be. I realized that the only reasons I want to stay were for me me me. I wanted to see the fruits of my labors and see these people get baptized. I completely trust my companion and I know that he will do great in continuing the success. Now I know that the Lord needs me somewhere else. Then I read that I will be a zone leader and those same feelings of nervousness an anxiety came back so I have some mixed feelings right now haha. Elder A will be my companion and he has been out for about 15 months so he will be great. I don't know him very well. I did get to see who was in the zone and I know most of the missionaries. Elder Livingston is serving there so that will be fun.

So we had the inevitable law of chastity lesson with Shaylah. She is living with her boyfriend, Thomas. That didn't go so well. We are still meeting with them, but she is not on date anymore. The cool thing is that now we are starting to teach Shaylah's brother. Maybe that was the whole reason we were teaching them.

Kate is still doing great. She wanted to write a paper for her class on the early development of the church. She said that she would just Google some stuff which made me really nervous, but nothing has come up yet. She came down with what she thought was strep on Wednesday. We were supposed to meet with her that morning, but it didn't work out. Later that evening we were with a member an appointment fell through. So my companion thought that we should go see Kate. We went there and explained what a priesthood blessing was and then gave her one. She loved it and she felt so much better the next morning. It turned out that she didn't have strep. Then on Saturday night she called us and explained that her husband was in the hospital. Apparently he had a kidney problem. She asked us to come over and give him a blessing. That was really cool to me. She didn't know anything about the priesthood or how blessings work. She just knew that we gave her a blessing and she knew somebody else that was in trouble so she knew it would work. Her faith is amazing to me. So we went over and gave him a blessing. Then we went over on Sunday and gave them both the sacrament. It was really cool and I am going to miss them.

Noel is such a stud. His wife kicked him out of his house and he still came for all three hours of church and he is set for baptism on the 7th of March. We just don't know what his living situation is like. We had another great lesson with him on Saturday about the Book of Mormon.

We had a funny experience with Jordan. We had an awesome lesson about the Plan of Salvation. He was loving it. Then we were about to wrap up and his mom came out. She was yelling and cursing at us about putting him on date to get baptized and how we won't be welcome into her house. She stormed back into her room and slammed the door. Jordan was so embarrassed. Then he sheepishly looked at us and said, "Sorry, she's had a few drinks." We all just started laughing. He still wants to be baptized and he was at church for all three hours on Sunday.

The Bishops referral was pretty solid. We put her on date for March 21st. She went to this ministerial training to become a minister and hated it because of the drugs and alcohol. She grew up in Arizona going to a Mormon church so she is just more interested in that. I wouldn't say that she is quite ready for baptism, but we will see.

The weather here has been great. It is sunny and in the 60's. It reminds me of June. Because of the weather, we decided to walk to our dinner appointment instead of having them come and pick us up. We walked right by Richard's house and he was smoking a big fat one. It was pretty disheartening. He has made so much progress and he is starting to slip now. He just came to a plateau and got impatient. We always talk about the pride cycle in the Book of Mormon, but that applies to each of us now. Richard was doing great and now hi is slipping. Eventually he will humble himself and quit again. We all do the same thing with different aspects. Maybe we start doing Family Home Evening or start going to the temple more regularly. Then once that starts to be routine, we relax. Then Heavenly Father humbles us in one way or another and that is when we decide to pick it up again or not. That is what we will be judged on I think. He knows that we will slip and relax and get complacent, but it's up to us to decide if we will ever turn back  The Nephites were humbled again and again and every time they turned back to the Lord except that last time. They never went back to doing Family Home Evening or attending the temple. Then they paid for it. Hopefully we don't get slaughtered as a nation, but we will pay for it if we don't go up after we plateau.

I am excited for everyone's mission calls. I can't believe that Kelli is going to be home soon. Time flies! Josh will be great in Georgia. He will learn so much! Keep me posted about Kolton. Chele and Jessica are getting close? Thanks for keeping me updated on basketball. It sounds like it is a pretty tight district race... except for us. But you never know. There are so many lessons learned from sports.

I think that is about it for this week. Thank you for the email. Keep being great examples to those around you. You will have a positive impact if you actively engage in a good cause. I love you!

Love, Jaxon