15

January 13, 2020

General Información

A formal "que onda" to all of you where ever you may find yourselves this afternoon. Today is the start of a big week, Thursday I'll have 15 months in the mission and then on Saturday we are getting changes. There is a chance that I get changed but I am loving being with Elder Manavahe and the area is looking really good so I'm hoping that I can stay another change. 

The Worth of a Birthright

We have an investigator named Blanca who has been reading the Book of Mormon; she is really great but says she hasn't gotten her anwser yet that it's true. We challenged her to read Moroni 10:3-5 that night and then pray to get her confirmation. To try to boost the results, we decided to fast that day after the food. We started our fast around 2 pm, and continued on our day. The next day, the Sisters in our district asked us to help them out with refilling their water jugs, so we made our way over there and finished around 1 pm; only one more hour until lunch. As we were saying goodbye to the Sisters, they offered us first water, to which I said no. Then, they offered some left over candy from Christmas to us, to which I again gratefully declined. Finally, they asked if we wanted some of these chocolates called "Krankies" which I really like. With a rumbling stomach, my will broke, I broke my fast, and ate like 4 of these tiny candies. After leaving though, I was still crazy hungry, as one would expect that 4 pieces of chocolate isn't the most filling thing in the world, so I stopped by a little street-side store and bought a banana. I don't know where in the growth process of this lump of matter that supposably a banana, but something defininently went wrong. A big bite left me looking for a garbage can to spit out the banana chalk, but part because I didn't want my 2 pesos (like 10 cents) to go to waste and more because I was starving, I unpleasantly scarffed the rest down. At these point, after having WW III (culture reference!) with my fake banana, it was already time to go to lunch. The point of the story is I got there and probably was as hungry, if not a little more, than I would've been if I had just waited the last hour of my fast. Thinking about that experience the story of Esau and Jacob found in Genises 25 came to my mind. In the passage, a hungry Esau makes the very uncalculated decision to sells his birthright to his younger brother Jacob for a bowl of food. Obviously, Esau wasn't thinking of the big picture. At a moment where his will was weak, he gave up something of so much worth, for something that pales in comparison in value. While we can all find ourselves in a similar situation, when we focus on the real value of things and have a vision that is more eternal, no matter how hungry or tired or weak we may be, we may always stand strong and keep the privilege of our eternal birthright as inheriters of the kingdom of God.

El Fin

I truly love being here in the mission. It is a once in a life time opportunity to be tutored by our Heavenly Father, and learn lessons that will help me to have a testimony that will last through anything and everything. In the end that's the goal of the mission, to achieve a conversion that will allow us to stand forever in the restored Kingdom of the Lord. Wishing you all an incredible week, and I will talk to you all soon! Love you!

Elder Jackson

1. The district 

2. Preaching

3. Breakfast of champions!

4. Lunch