Sept. 18, 2017

 Zone with Pres. Ochoa

 Yes, it's alive. 

He's crazy!  Love the shirts though :)

So this week was a success. We found 18 new people and put 7 baptismal dates this week. You know what it is!!! Just so you all know you all can do the same things. You just have to follow the spirit and listen to what he says. Anyways, this week I have some experiences with the spirit. First is that we were walking around in the rain and no one was home but the spirit told me that I should go see if the house that was close would let us in. He did! Then we put a baptismal date with him. Another is that when there is contention on your part or the part of an investigator the spirit will not be there. Learned that because a BLIND man was telling me that I was a blasphemer and all that jazz because I said the book of Mormon was true. I love this gospel and I hope you guys strive to learn more. Love you guys have a great week.

Holy cow!! Talk about dry council😩. This is painful. It's almost as bad as "Bueller, Bueller..."  And Carson says he looks like him too. 😂. The missionary was short which was fine because he was terrible too but this new high councilman. Wow!  I think if they can't give a half decent talk that will keep your attention at least a little bit, they should be barred from the talking part of the high council responsibilities. Hopefully he learned something from preparing his talk because I have no idea what he is supposed to be trying to teach us. . . Saving grace. President Ferry stood up to speak for a minute. He talked a little about the natural disasters and things going on in the world. He told the story of Chicken little, Foxy Loxy. Where chicken little gets hit by the acorn and is going to tell the king the sky is falling and he goes along and finds Foxy Loxy and makes a friend and they both are heading to tell the king the sky is falling. But Foxy Loxy needed to make a detour to his den and chicken little follows along trusting. And goes into foxy loxy's den and was never seen again. He used it as an example of be careful who you decide to listen to in this crazy world. Satan will take you away quietly without you realizing what he is doing by trusting the wrong people. He also talked about Peter walking on the water and how his faith faltered. It is easy to let ourselves believe the things people around us are saying am not trust in the lord. He likened our situation to being in the Eye of the hurricane where it is peaceful. But Outside the eye it's beyond windy. We feel like we might be in the eye of the hurricane, but all around us things are in turmoil.  Great message to end on. Were you affected by any of the Hurricanes or earthquakes that have been happening?  They've had over 200 earthquakes in soda springs, Id area in the month of sept already. Some people here said they felt the biggest one, but I didn't. Austin Bingham said they felt the one in Mexico City in the MTC. His companion thought Austin was shaking his bed😂.  They were all ok though.
We had a good week. Carson played football on Wednesday against pleasant grove. They played pretty good, still have some defense issues to work through but won the game 28-6.  The varsity lost the homecoming game 22-7 against bountiful. They aren't doing so well.
Jared asked Carson to come play ball on Saturday with their fall ball team so we spent the day in hyrum. It was a nice day and fun to be at baseball games again. Carson played really well. For not touching a baseball in a month he played awesome.
We about froze on the way home. I thought it was a great idea to take dads jeep with the top off because it seemed like it was pretty warm when we left at 11. By the time we hit mantua on the way up I knew it wasn't a good idea. I was already cold. We had sweatshirts and blankets but still cold. So the ride home was waaaay colder.
Sunday was a normal day. Eastons birthday dinner at grandmas. Dad smoked bacon wrapped pork loins for dinner. It was really good. No strawberry salad though 😕.
Carson arranged his eagle board of review along with Brandon baileys and Tristan reeders. And they got that taken care of Sunday evening. Then we came home and relaxed for a 1/2 hour Til we got ready for bed.
But that monkey inside our backs and all we have left is to plan the court of honor. That shouldn't be too bad.
So, how was your week?  Anything super exciting happening?  Are you making friends with the members? Less actives? Just new people?  Do you play soccer with the kids there?  Is azalea still writing to you?  How about Andy?  Macey?  I've been writing to her but haven't gotten to her the last couple weeks. I need to do better about that.i was thinking that since our letters seem to be getting shorter that maybe we should pick a scripture or something in preach my gospel to study together each week and tell about how it helped or affected us during the week as we study, pray and act on it. I'll let you choose what we should study since you have specific things you are studying and we can do whatever. And maybe it will help dad get motivated about our new calling. He doesn't want to go visit people. I don't know that I really do either, but we said we would do the job, so I guess it's 'suck it up buttercup' 😳.   Anyway. Pick something for us to study together and we will start today.
Have a great week! Work hard.
Love
Mom

Mom:  So what's up today?

Jackson:  Nothing good

Mom:  why not?  What's up?  I wrote this in my letter.  But here it is again because you tend to forget to answer my questions.

I was thinking that since our letters seem to be getting shorter that maybe we should pick a scripture or something in preach my gospel to study together each week and tell about how it helped of affected us during the week as we study, pray and act on it.  I'll let you choose what we should study since you have specific things you are studying and we can do whatever.  Any maybe it will help dad get motivated about our new calling.  

Jackson:  Like what do you mean? I don't understand what you want me to pick

Mom:  I don't care. Something you want to study together. A favorite scripture or scriptures. A talk. Whatever

Jackson:  I don't study what I want to study is the thing. I study for the people that I am going to teach...

Mom:  I know- so just something that you are working on

Jackson:  Study chapter 6 in pm 

Mom:  So what's got you down??  Companion? Members? Just everything?

Jackson:  Why do you think that I am down???  I am here taking names and kicking ass!!!!!!

Mom:  When I asked What's up? you said nothing good.  So I thought maybe you were down.  But glad to hear that you are doing good.

Jackson:  No it is that we aren't doing anything. I think we are going to play ping pong in the stake center but you know what it is

Mom:  Don't you do stuff outside?  or is it too hot?    How in the heck can you wear a sweatshirt down there?

Jackson:  It is a sick sweater... It is the CIA I use it to run in the morning to sweat more to lose more weight. And no it is too hot to play outside

Mom:  I see it has CIA on it.  you are going to get shot.  

Jackson:  No. They are my friends they always ask me if anyone gives me trouble because if they do they will give them a good beating they said

Mom: I guess that's good until they aren't your friend :/

Jackson:  Hahaha we hardly see any mom. There aren't very many here and they are in certain parts. but we don't go there at night so it is all good

Mom:  so what time do you have to go in?

Jackson: At 9 like normal

Mom: So is it dark at like 7? or earlier?

I guess you are out of time.

Have a great week!  Love you

Think about what you want us to send for Christmas because I'm going to probably send it mid October.  I'm having surgery on my shoulder on Oct 4th so hopefully will be feeling better by then.  It seems like your stuff is taking at least 2 months to get to you so I better be proactive or you won't get it in time for Christmas.

Love you

Mom

Sept. 4, 2017 Labor Day

Well, the first week of school down. Carson drove every day. He's not too bad of a driver. Kourtney rode with a couple of days. Friday he had to be to school at 630am so she didn't go with that day. I think so far he likes his classes and teachers. He said one of the teachers is a little different. But I don't remember which one.
It's nice to have somewhat of a routine again. School, practice, homework, bed. 😊. Ym on wed. They went shooting with the miamaids. I guess only 2 of the girls showed. But they had fun.
Thursday they played at mountain crest. They played well and won. I don't remember the score. Carson played almost the entire game. Chance had some really good plays and Sean played quarterback for most of the 4th quarter. So that was good. The freshmen were the only team to get a win against them.
Friday Carson had a back to school party at the school. Then we headed for the cabin. Saturday we waited for Taylor and Kayla to get there and went out on the lake. It was a perfect day for wakeboarding. Carson and Taylor road the tube for a bit. We had lunch and then Carson was on the wakeboard. He gets up every time but is still working on actually riding it. Like I said the water was awesome and he was doing great and then the boat decided to not run 😳. We were clear over on the east side of the lake where we always go, and the boat just bogged out. No power. So we got Carson in the boat and headed back to the marina. We were just praying we would make it back. It backfired a few times and almost died. It's acting like it's not getting any gas. But it was full. We went maybe 5mph the whole way back. As we were getting to the wakeless area we were passing the coastguard boat and I thought. Ok if it dies here we will be ok😊. It didn't. We got it in and back on the trailer and then I could breathe again. It was a little bit scary thinking about it dying clear across the lake where there really weren't any other boats to speak of. Even simple prayers Are answered. I could feel the answer come that everything would be ok. (I didn't know if that meant getting back to the marina and the boat on the trailer or not, but I knew we were going to be fine).
It was still a good day. We went back to the cabin and on our way up Snowberry there was a lady and a little boy that were walking. Their 4-wheeler had broke down. We stopped and picked them up. Since we had the boat we took them up to the cabin with us and Taylor gave them a ride back to their place down by the golf course in his jeep. While we got the boat backed down the driveway. They Taylor, Kayla and Carson went to the chevron to get the propane tank for the grill filled and get some drinks. We played games and relaxed and had dinner when grandma and grandpa got there after their shift at the temple.
After dinner we all went downstairs and watched a couple episodes of Scorpion.
Sunday we slept in and had brunch about 11. And just relaxed. Watched a Harry Potter movie or 2 and read. Had dinner and came home around 7.
Carson has football practice this morning at 8, so he and dad went to pick up Sean. It's kind of crappy that they ruin the last holiday of the summer with football☹.
We don't have anything planned for the day but maybe dad and I will finish the stairs for the deck. I guess we'll see. Jolene And Kevin invited Carson to go to the flow rider with them. So he has something to do today at least.
We were planning to go out in the boat but that ship sailed. On to plan ?
So how was your week?  Anything fun happen?  Anything bad?  It's amazing how fast the days seem to go by. Do we need to do anything with your stuff for school?  I'm guessing that you need to get most of your stuff in order by December like you had to before. Let us know what we need to get rolling for you. Scholarship, housing etc. it's all coming fast even though it seems far away still.
Well, I hope you have a great week!
Love you
Mom

This week was pretty chill. We had a great time. But the truth is we were traveling a ton.... I don't like traveling... It SUCKS!!!!!!!! Hahaha we had to travel so much because we were practicing in a choir. We practiced and traveled more because we had a multi zone with Elder Ochoa. The Area President. Wow those guys are so powerful... I cant believe how powerful they speak. The thing is that they don't even speak and make doctrine or the ways that we should do stuff complicated it is all so simple but as humans we mess everything up. He told us we don't have to teach the lessons point for point we just have to teach repentance. And we only should teach the people that want to repent. Anyways so we found 2 super amazing investigators this week. One is Lionel he has 3 church attendances and he hasn't ever been to a church in his life. He is a boyfriend of a member so he has been going and he is really awesome he wants to learn and know so much. The other is Jose. He read the Restoration pamphlet 4 times and had questions and he wants to come to church to know more. He asked God what church he should join and a couple days later we showed up. So he Is super positive. Also I am staying in my area but getting a new comp. My comp is going to go open a new area and train. So that is pretty cool. Love the heck out of him. Going to miss him but its all good. Well that was my week. Love you!

Mom:  I didn't realize it was transfers already. That's a bummer you are getting a new companion again. You must be hard to get along with 😉. Did you get your package?  I'll send your backpack and keyboard tomorrow since the post office isn't open today.

Jackson:  Yes I got my package sounds good I'll be waiting for it

Voice Recording:
Well, Another week down, Another month down too.  We're in the month of September now.  Wow, a lot of time has been going by really fast when you think about it.
So, this week was a busy week, like a little bit different kind of busy.  Cuz to be honest, we did not have that many lessons, we did not do much in the field of missionary work.
 But, this week, Monday was just a normal P-day.  Then we had Tuesday, which in the morning we had to go to a choir practice because Elder Ochoa, the president of the area, the Seventy, was going to come to our zone and have like a multi zone here and all that jazz.  So Wednesday we had to that too in the morning, we had to so to San Miguel to practice in the choir and everything. and then Thurs rolls around and they said to be there at 7am to practice and we were like wow, that's way early because we were supposed to be there at 8am to practice, that's what they said.  So we get there at 7:30am and we're like we aren't going to practice and the other Elder is going to be pissed, the Zone leader, because he's the one who plays the piano and everything.  We started practicing at 7:45am and 8 rolls around and 830 rolls around and they're like we're going to have everyone come out here and Elder Ochoa, Pres. Duran and his wife are going to sit down here and take a picture of all your zone.  So you guys gotta line up and do everything like that.  So we got lined up and we stood there for like 15 min. it was like 845 almost 9am.  You know how it is, you can't just stand there and sit there and not talk to people so we started going to talk to other people and they're like hey, hey, you guys gotta get back in line and stuff like that.  We're like What?  Are you kidding me?
He showed up at like 930am, Elder Ochoa and President and then we went and sang Have I done any good in the world today?  In Spanish there's a hymn, the 7th hymn, you can sing it to the tune of 6.  We did kind of a mix between Israel, Israel god is calling and the other hymn, it was pretty cool.  Elder Ochoa talked to us and taught us that what we need to do is find more people and set more baptismal dates.  He said we need to be more direct with the people, we can't be messing around with them.  We just gotta ask them if they want to repent, because that's what we're here to do.  We are here to ask them if they want to repent and receive a remission of their sins.  I really liked that, it was really powerful to listen to them.  The wives of Pres. Ochoa and Pres. Duran those 2, it was really great.  That was Thurs.  Then Fri rolled around, we moved 300 bricks.  But these bricks, the bricks in the US are small, these bricks are like 1/2 a cinder block is what a brick here is.  We moved 300 of them.  A lady wanted us to help her  out so we were like ya cool.  and we did it.  It was pretty cool to learn how they do it, and we learned it and we did it.  But what happened was too, he threw one and he was like, these bricks aren't like bricks in the states. They break really easy, and one was already broken, but he didn't see it and he threw it and I went to catch it and a piece fell off and smashed my nuts.  Like I was on the ground for 10 minutes.  Almost crying it hurt so bad.
Then Saturday we had to go into Ilopongo, we had to go into the Centro because my Companion is going to train, it's pretty cool.   It's pretty funny because he's going to go open and area, I'm staying here.  But that's how it is, so we had to go there.  We went there with Elder Hughes and everybody like that with the people who are already training.  It was fun, it was good, it wasn't bad. Yesterday my companion was saying good bye to a lot of people because he's out of here.  Today we'll see if I'm leaving too.

Sept 11, 2017

I'm not sure if this is upside down on purpose or if they just don't know how to use their camera?  :/

Well this week I got a new comp. He is Elder Hernandez from Mexico... To be honest Mexicans are hard to get along with... They think they are better than every other latin out here. But whatever. We are working really hard. We have a teenager that should be getting baptized in a few weeks he is super cool. He hasn't been to a single church in his life. But we are working with him so he can be baptized. Then we are also trying to have cool activities and everything but not many people want to show up. We will have to see how this change goes. The pic was on the bus with an Elder that was in my 1st district.

Peach days weekend. What a joke!  I came to town in Friday morning about 10 to get gas to go to Ogden and pick up grandma at Kenworth and there were people already going to the booths in the center of town. The post office was all sequestered off on Wednesday. It's nuts!  There were people putting out blankets and chairs on Thursday morning when Carson went to school at 730am. How do people have time to sit there all day watching their stuff?  It can't be left unattended until 3pm. I just don't get the draw to it all.
Last week was pretty uneventful for the most part. Carson played in Pocatello on Thursday they won 49-6. It was kind of a sad game. Our kids looked like superstars but they didn't necessarily play that great. 😕
Friday I went to help sell programs at the first home game. A bunch of the freshman boys came too and they sold quite a few. Even though it was out of their comfort zone. I figure they should have some ownership in their fundraising. It's not the parents responsibility to do everything.
Saturday we made salsa and went to Justin Adams wedding reception.
Sunday was just the normal.
Hopefully things are going well. Let us know what's new.
Love you
Mom

Voice recording:
Well, this week this week we had changes, I got a new companion, he's from Mexico his name is Elder Hernandez.  He's pretty cool.  He's alright, he's got a year working hard.  We're getting it done here.  I'm finally senior companion, but it doesn't matter.  Last week, it was really cool because we found 23 new people to teach and that's always been a difficulty with me here.  We're doing good.  Like I really don't have much to say, this really doesn't have much battery left.  I gotta get some new ones, but we are working hard trying to get some people to get ready to get baptized.  That's pretty much what we did this week,  We just had changes and I was just showing him the area, visiting a few people, looking for new people.  So there you go.  That was our week.  Love you.

Mom: Peach days weekend. What a joke!  I came to town in Friday morning about 10 to get gas to go to Ogden and pick up grandma at Kenworth and there were people already going to the booths in the center of town. The post office was all sequestered off on Wednesday. It's nuts!  There were people putting out blankets and chairs on Thursday morning when Carson went to school at 730am. How do people have time to sit there all day watching their stuff?  It can't be left unattended until 3pm. I just don't get the draw to it all.