Oct. 1, 2017

How was your week?  Did you enjoy conference?
I really enjoyed president eyring's talk this afternoon and elder Bednar's talk.   But they are some of my favorites anyway.
I liked the one 70 that talked about his changed vacation plans and how things in life change. He was funny and one of the other 70's, Koch I think was his name. He was a bit snarky, I liked it.
I can't remember which one talked about miracles and divine intervention, but that talk was great too.
We have been reading and discussing pmg chapter 6 but just once part at a time so we aren't done yet but we are working on it.
Our week was pretty normal Carson played football on Wednesday and Jared called and asked him to play baseball on Saturday again so that was fun other than it was raining and cold. The temperature went from 90 to 50 in a day I swear. Cold sucks!
I'm having surgery again on Wednesday to take the metal out of my shoulder so hopefully that goes well and the recovery isn't long. The Dr said I had to be in the sling again but didn't say how long. I'm not excited about that part at all.
Well, hope things are going well. Have a great week.
Love you
Mom

 So this week was ok I would have to say. I didn't have that much visible success. But I'm sure we will see it in the future if we keep working. The main highlight of the week was general conference. I'm sure that was the highlight of everyone's week ;) Anyways this week we were working so hard to get some people to go to conference. We asked them just about every single day and they still don't go. I don't know why but the people here have problems with commitments. Like they are so afraid of that word. It is so stupid. I don't understand why that word is so difficult for them. It is just do something that you say you will or sometimes a little bit more. I get really frustrated. But you know I just have to love this people as the savior loves them. Because if I can see all their potential I will understand how to help them. I just want to be a great missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. So also we had 4 people go to general conference we are almost positive that 2 will be baptized in a couple weeks. I just hope that we can meet our goals by helping God's children. I love you guys have a great week. PS 3rd GC

Mom:  Who are the people in the pictures?

Jackson:  Elder Hughes and Elder McDaniel. They came with me and we watched conference Sunday in English

Mom:  Commitment is a hard thing. It's not just the people there that have a hard time with it.  It's a generation thing I think.

Jackson:  No I don't have problems with commitments. When I say I will be at a place at a certain time I am there. And one thing I don't get is why a piece of paper saying that you are married is a big commitment when you have 3 kids? I just don't get it. I did watch it in Spanish but it isn't as good. The translators don't have the voice crack President Eyring does. The translators aren't as strong as Jeffery Holland there just are so many differences.

Mom:  I didn't mean you have commitment issues. But I agree with you on the translators just not being the same. Carson had the TV on the Spanish station when it started on Sunday morning and just that little bit was weird.

Jackson:  Yes it just isn't the same. Hahaha I got a email from a social security thing

Mom: Forward it to me. It's probably some kind of scam.

Jackson:  No it was a notification that the embassy from San Salvador will not do anything for social security. But hes fine we get along and everything. A little inpatient sometimes. But its fine. no I have not gotten the package. I should get it this week or the next

Mom:  So what else is going on?

Jackson:  Not much. We are struggling with the investigators but we'll be fine. We are working hard to keep everything good. But wow... Mommy I'm old in the mission...

Mom:  Yep. More time out than you have left. What a great feeling😊. These last 9 months are going to go by so fast you won't know what hit you. It's gonna be awesome.

Jackson:  Love you mommy talk to you next week

Voice Recording:
Alright, well, we have another week down.  It was an alright week.  Well, it wasn't that great of a week, I'll be 100% honest.  We tried really hard, but there wasn't that much success.  At least I felt like I was trying hard.  And so What happened this week.  It was general Conference this week as you all know.  Our main focus was just to commit people to go to General Conference, because if you go to General conference, it is a high possibility that you get baptized.  So we were committing everyone.  The first day, of Conference rolls around and only 7 people for the whole zone show up.  Not 1 of our investigators.  I don't know, I kind of got really disappointed, really sad, really discouraged because I passed by their houses every single day and they said yes, yes, we're going to go, we're going to go.  Then when it comes to the day, they never show up.  Wow there some really good talks.  I liked Jeffrey R Holland's talk and Dallin H Oakes, Russell M Nelson,  Saturday they were all really good, the Priesthood session was really good too.  Wow, here it's super apostasy because there are women in their Priesthood session.  Like WHAT is going on here?? But you know, it's alright.  It's what it is.  So, we had to stay in San Miguel because it was too late to go back to our house.  There weren't buses and everything, so we stayed with some missionaries.  We stayed with the district leader, we got a call from the zone leaders that we had to go get everyone tomorrow.  It kind of bugged me some of the stuff that they said. So then Sunday Conference; we actually got to watch this one in English.  Saturday we didn't get to watch in English, because no one showed up.  No, no, I can't come right now.  It's like the stake Presidency, they can't show up to conference.  I was actually kind of upset about that, like  they can't show up to conference, alright, it's cool, but it doesn't matter.  So we watched in English.  So 4 people showed up, for our investigators, They were cool.  But, one thing that kind of still bugged me is that everyone that we invited did not come.  These were all references of members -- it was ridiculous. Let's just say that.  I'm really discouraged about that.  How the people do not do anything, like the people here, they have zero sense of commitment.  Like they don't know what commitment means, not even the members know what commitment means.  They are so scared of that word, commitment, it's ridiculous.  Like, I don't know what the deal is.
Pretty much no one here is married, So we're like why aren't you married?  NO, it's because we don't want that commitment yet, it's a big step.  so I was like, How long do you have together?  Oh, 15 years, we have 2 kids.  OH!  You don't think that's enough commitment? Like What's a little paper going to do with your name signed on it saying you're Freakin' married?  I don't know, this country is frustrating me right now!  Because they don't understand a lot of things.  But it's alright.
Then, Conference rolls around, I'm really sick, it's a cold, it's gross. 
We found a lot of people this week again.  But it was cool, I was like it's great finding people.  Our problem right now is finding people that want to learn and progress and be baptized.   Like they don't progress, they just listen.  We had to drop some people this week, they were always, yeah, yeah, we'll do that and they always say that they do stuff, but they're such liars, so we dropped them, like it's not worth my time to keep going when they don't do what they say they're going to do.   They don't want to change their lives, so we have to drop them.   That was our week pretty much, just General conference stuff all week.  We're hoping this week is going to be a lot better.  Well have a great week.  Love you guys.