Dec. 18, 2017 Ilumina el Mundo

What up tho...!!! How are we all doing? Well I have had a pretty tuanis week this week. We have been working hard and getting references and having family home evenings so we can get people baptized you know. We also put a bunch of fechas this week. Those are baptismal dates but it is way faster to just say fechas right? These people here are amazing and I love them so much. They are a little stubborn and don't want to go to church all that bad but we are getting there. So we had interviews with Pres. Duran and he let me know why I was with Elder Roundy. He told me that he isn't emotionally ready to be with a latino comp. He wouldn't be able to handle it with him and he and the Lord felt like I was a great choice for him... I was like well the Lord and you want me to learn a ton more patience... He kinda laughed. So he told me to help this District out and he told me that I have his trust and he wants to see these areas succeed so that means a ton of work to do right? Another thing not too cool happened here this week. The other Elders went to have a family home evening with the Branch Pres. and they asked him what he thinks would help the branch grow. He said we need to rededicate the building. They were like WHAT???? He was like ya. I don't know if you had heard about this but the missionaries were teaching a girl that was possessed and ever since she had a melt down in the church the branch has not grown. When I mean melt down I mean the bad spirit came out and stuff. She told a member who tried to reprimand her that he had broken the law of chastity and was not worthy to even take the sacrament let alone reprimand the spirit. Hahaha in interchanges I met the girl!!! Wow it just felt gross being in the same house with us. No I didn't have her come out or anything but wow it wasn't a good atmosphere. Then Pres. Mario Branch Pres. said that even new converts had felt scared for some reason and he feels like it is for that reason. So we are trying to fix that right now... Hahaha pretty cool right? Anyways I have been studying in the Book of Mormon and wow is it powerful. No wonder Pres. Tommy Monson said that we needed to read it and get a testimony of it. And in this last conference there were more talks about reading the Book of Mormon. I love the activities that Predicad Mi Evangelio tells us that we can do. It is great you all should go try some of them out. Well it is only a week until Christmas and man am I excited to have my last Christmas in the mission field. Christmases just aren't the same here. All they do is blow off fireworks on the 24th they don't even do anything 25th. There is 0 celebration of Christmas. Even some of the churches that are "Christian Churches" don't celebrate it or have Christmas lights or trees because it is a sin to them to celebrate Christmas. These type of people walk around with a veil on their heads. It looks like the stole someone's table cloth and put it on their head but... Ya.. I'm sure Briar knows what kind of people I am talking about. Hahaha well ya we made a dope poster of Light the World in Spanish obviously, to sing Christmas Hymns and go caroling and take pics with some people and Light up their world and their Christmas right! Hahaha ya welcome to the Kingdom. Mommy put the pic on Facebook Instagram Twitter you name it because Elder West, Mower, Roundy and I want to be famous. Make sure you put the ·Lighttheworld on it so we will be famous! Haha love you guys have a great week!!!

Dec 11, 2017

Hey what up fam?! So this week we had a pretty good week. So we were working hard and having fun always right? So this week we had a sick family home evening. We had 9 investigators in it so that was cool. Then we had interchanges on Wed. I went to Ilobasco with Elder McDaniel. So that was really fun. We found a huge snake.... Wow... SShe was like I love just to listen to the Gringitos pray. So that was weird. Anyways it was really fun because we also put 5 fechas bautismales and they were all pretty positive people. Even in my area they were working pretty hard they put 4 fechas here too. So pretty happy for the success. Then we shared the Light the World video with them. It was really a great lesson. My comp even worked on his Spanish. Then rolled around Saturday and no one was home and it was honestly was so hard. Sunday rolled around and we only had one investigator. But he had a great time there. After that we went to sing Christmas Hymns in the Old Folks home. It was funny because we did that and the Nuns were super happy with us but the best part well there were 2 parts. 1 our investigator took us there. 2 we got a pic with the Nuns. That was my fav about this week. I have a flipping pic with Nuns. Well that is really all I did this week so ya! Love you!!!

Jackson. 

Dec. 4, 2017 New Area

Here we are again with another week gone and another month too. I had changes last week and now I am in Sensuntepeque. It is a town about 2 and a half hours away from San Salvador. It is FULL OF HILLS. I am not going to be chubby anymore because there are not buses to use and it is just full of hills! My calves are going to be bigger than Coach Ripps calves! Hahaha. So I finally have my first North American comp. His name is Elder Roundy. He is from Panguitch Utah. He asked me if I knew where that was and I say YES! I know where it is and he was like you are one of the first. So ha. He is new in the mission. He just finished his training. But man he is struggling to learn spanish... I feel like I have to help him out so much. He is really emotional too. So that doesn't help him very much because when he gets frustrated he doesn't get mad like I do. He gets sad and cries. So we are going to toughen him up a bit and we are going to help him out. I promise I won't be mean. But really the kid is just a wonderful missionary. He has a strong desire to serve the Lord and be on His errand. He already has a strong love for this people which is amazing. I know he is going to teach me many things and he will help me be a more Christ like missionary. So I gave a district meeting and everyone thought that it was super fun because I played don't eat Pete hahaha to show the importance of the spirit. Then we had interchanges. I was with Elder Mower who has 6 months on the mission. We worked hard. We also kinda did it because he is training a Gringo and my comp can't speak spanish either so I sent them on their own so that they can learn how to speak. It didn't turn out too good. They said that they felt a feeling that they should go back to the house and I don't if it was completely true but I can't say no you should have stayed out working because of the situation that there is in this country. But these are some kids that are pretty soft. Like not trying to judge but I mean they go hide in the bathroom and cry... So Elder Mower and I are having a hard time. So anyways we had stake conference on Sunday and Zacatecoluca is part of the same stake as us!!!! I got to see all those guys!!! I was so happy to see them! Wow I even  got to see Doris my convert! She had a family member from the states and she was introducing me to them as the Elder that helped her find the gospel and start her journey and all that. That made me so happy. Like that is a true convert and I love her. I just want her to keep going. I didn't get a pic because she left really fast. But wow that was just amazing. So like that is pretty much all that I did this week. So I am just getting huge calves losing weight being leader and lifting the area. 

Love Jackson

 Voice Recording
What's up Fam?!  Just chillin' in a new area Sesuntepeque.  So, we've got 4 Elders in this branch that
 we have and the funny thing is that all 4 of them are white and from the States, not a single Latino here. I just happen to be the great and blessed District leader that SUCKS!   You know though, What it is, what it is.  so what  we're doing this week.   This week it was just a little wierd, because we had stake conference, we had a bunch of different things.  We had the Christmas devotional, I didn't get to work all that much in the area because it was just 3 days or something
 of work.  It kind of stunk it up.  So, I'll mostly talk about Stake Conference.  We show up, and immediately I see a previous investigator from Zacatecoluca.  My 2nd convert, O MY GOSH!!  Het eyes lit up when she saw me and I ran to her.  Gave her boyfriend a hug, gave David a hug.  And I shook her hand and she was shaking mine for like 10 minutes and saying oh my gosh, I'm so happy to see you.  Then she started introducing me to her family that's from the States that are members too, and she's like oh he's the who helped me find the truth, he's the one who helped me find my happiness on this journey.  I was like WOW!  This is incredible!  That's a real convert.  I just went and said Hi to all the others.  Even the guy who never wanted to be baptized when I was there, He got baptized.  It was awesome!   I even saw Ivan, one of my best friends.  The guy that I gave my shoes away to because he didn't have any.  So, like don't be mad mom, but I didn't like those shoe anyway.  They didn't even work, they were going to fall apart if I used them, but he only used them on Sunday.  It was just really awesome to see all those guys.  Then we had stake conference.  It was pretty good-- until the Stake Presidency started talking, they didn't give very good talks, but our mission President and the Temple president gave great talks. 
The Christmas Devotional was awesome.  We watched it in Spanish because there were 2 other people there to watch it in Spanish in the branch.  The branch President and his wife.  HAHA   The only reason he was there because we asked him if we could come watch it and he said yeah yeah, I'll come too, I'll watch it with you, so it was kind of funny. 
It was really good.  I really liked Elder Duncan's talk, because I know him.  I've met him, I shook his hand, I've talked to him face to face, so that was pretty cool.  It was a good talk.  Pres. Uctdorf's talk, everyone's talks were great, Everyone did a great job in that devotional.  I don't know if you guys are doing the Light the world thing, but we haven't been doing it here, it's a little bit different.  Like I feel like you guys have a lot more chances, a lot more opportunities to do different things. 
But my goal this week is to start doing the Light the World thing, because I think it will help us find some new investigators.  So I encourage you guys to do that.  so yeah, that's my jam, that's my beat.  Elder L 

Nov. 27, 2017 Changes

So we finished the change this week. I feel like the changes are just going by faster and faster. Also I am leaving the area and going to have a new comp! So this week we were going to have a baptism but it fell through because the district leader was really pressuring our investigator. She said that she wasn't ready but the DL kept pushing her in the interview. I didn't like what I heard from her when she told us about the interview. I was upset with the Elder because he thought of her as another baptism another number and she is a person a daughter of God that wants to learn more about the gospel and just wasn't ready. But other than that we had a fun. We went and visited some people. Also one day we were contacting and everyone was super crazy. The first person that let us in was weird. We asked if we could say a prayer and he said No. I'm Catholic. What? That doesn't make sense? But okay? Then the next one said we were way out of what the Bible teaches. Normal answer. The next we just were trying to present ourselves like how old we are and where we are from and the lady said I don't remember when that was part of the gospel. We were like sorry??? The last one was ya come on in and it was great then we said that God has called a new Prophet to lead and guide us and he lost it. Nope. This church has to be false. God will not have a Prophet. It says in the Bible that there will be false prophets. So we said do you believe that God is the same today yesterday and forever? Yes obviously? Well then will you believe that God called Prophets like Moses Noah and Adam before now he will do the same and call a Prophet? No absolutely not! That is absurd! Who would ever say that is posessed by the devil!! Hahaha ya the people here are crazy. Also this week was Carnival. The second biggest in the world, right behind Brazil. Ya and we didn't get to go see the half naked girls or the girls just painted up. But to be honest that is all that I can say we did this week. Love you guys! 

Fotos

In the trunk of a car. 

When I took the stitches out of my finger by myself and the only thing they had was a pad to give me...

A cool place where we were contacting.

Nov. 20, 2017 Service

Hey fam! How is everyone doing? This week was successful I would say. So we have still been finding teaching and doing just about everything to help others come unto Christ and get rid of their sins with a baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. I enjoyed this week to be honest. So Monday we played softball and soccer. But the reason why we didn't write more than 10 minutes was because we let the sisters cook something and it wasn't even good but it took 3 hours to cook it.. Ridiculous. Anyways, Tuesday we worked hard and we put a baptismal date with Jesus. He is awesome and I just hope he changes his mind about a few things and changes to be baptized. You can see how bad he wants to be forgiven but he lacks a few things. Wednesday we got to go to the temple. I LOVE going to the temple. You learn so much and you just feel so close to your Heavenly Father. I enjoy my semi'annual visit to the House of the Lord. We didn' even get to go to our area after we had  left it in the morning. We got back at 830 at night and the last bus goes by at 630. I think we just barely missed it right? Haha so then Thursday we had a baptismal interview for Maria. She is going to be baptized!!! We are so excited for the 25th. Also we found a ton of new investigators. We found 8 in one day. So we are doing pretty good in all aspects of the work! We even had a service this week, well it was a really short service project because I almost cut my finger off with a machete cutting a tree down. We almost saw the bone!!! Haha so they gave me 2 stitches and even one is under my fingernail. Wow my finger really hurts. But ya! Just working hard to get those 'tisms. But ya. So that was my week. Hope you had  a great week. Love ya'll!!!

Voice recording:

Hey Fam!  What's Up?  Just clocking in from El Salvador we're in the morning right now and we're outside on our patio listening to the birds and looking at my Mango tree, the fruit that has the cashews on it, I have one of those trees at my house too.  I have a bunch of trees that don't even exist in the States here right now at my house, it's pretty cool.  But it sucks because right now we're in the season without fruit.  I have a papaya tree that has a ton of papaya on it though, it's pretty sick. But we're just sitting here, I was thinking about my week to talk to you guys.  I already wrote the letter, but like, this week up to Sat. it was amazing.  Well, Monday kind of blew, well, we had fun and everything, but didn't get to write and that kind of upset me.  But the rest of the week was great.  We honestly had a great week.  Then Sunday rolled around and no one went to church.  well, we had 2 people go to church, we had 2 people progress.  It was just really frustrating.  We have a sister that had her baptismal interview.  She is supposed to be baptized this next Saturday that comes.  I really hope it happens because I have been working so hard in this area to get another baptism and it just has not happened.    Like we are working incredibly hard to do this and I want to do what the Lord wants me to do, so it's just a little bit difficult  to get people to get baptized sometimes.  I mean, their agency, the thing is in this area right now is we find amazing people, they love it, they want to change and everything, but then they don't like to use their agency to do good things, like go to church.  Like it's really hard for me and the kid I'm training.  We're working hard and everything but we just can not find that person that goes to church that first time that we visit them.  We can not find that person that wants to be baptized.  IT is really difficult, but we'll be ok. 

This week was really good.  All except for the Sunday part.  But, I've been learning a lot in the scriptures.  President Durrant was telling us we needed to learn more about the Book of Mormon and the spirit.  I really like chapter 4 and 5 of Preach my Gospel, it really helps me understand my purpose and understand how I can help others come unto Christ more effectively.  Because I mean if I just sit there and teach them everything and they never read or they never feel the Spirit, they will never be baptized because who wants to be baptized.  Especially here, there's like a church on every single corner and there's like 3 churches on every block.  So everyone's baptized, everyone goes to church.
The week wasn't that bad.  We found a ton of NEWS this week.  Just working hard to get people to progress.  The mission life isn't the easiest thing. 
Oh and Sat. I almost cut my finger off with a machete, just so you all know.  Got a couple stitches and they put one of the stitches under my finger nail because there was nothing else to put it in.  It hurt so bad.  Still hurts.  Bleeds a ton. Always have to clean it.  Almost saw the bone.  You'll see the pictures. 
Have a good one!

Nov. 13, 2017

Hey Guys!!!! How was your week?? Mine was just lovely. I had some fun this week. First off we are in a NEW HOUSE!!! Soo happy like beyond belief. 1. The house was ugly 2. It had mold growing and not for our fault. 3. The neighbor who is the sister of the owner is CRAZY. She woke up at 5 am every single day to  throw on some music full blast and wake us up. So when we moved we left a few things that weren't ours but weren't the owner's either. But the crazy neighbor had to come in the house. She sees a box that I really thought was the owner's and picks it up then literally and I mean literally throws it on the floor and says "This isn't mine!" We honestly started laughing but we couldn't laugh at the same time. Wow it has been a joke all week long. After moving the next day we had a purification activity. Where we were all going to change and be more pure and obedient missionaries. So my comp and I are trying to be better missionaries in a few parts of the work. We are also trying to get Selena to be baptized. We are going to do her interview this week so we might have a baptism coming up. Pretty excited for that. The members still are not being all that great but the attendance is going up. So this week we also used the talk from 2006 by David A Bednar and they shall not be offended. Yes I remember this talk from when I was baptized. I still remember listening to this talk. I didn't capture all of it as an 8 year old but I remembered the part where he says that we choose to be offended. So last Monday I was looking for the talk and I sure did find it. Wow was I happy. We shared it with a few of the less actives in the ward, because almost all of the less actives are less actives because someone didn't visit them, or because someone said something mean or whatever it is, it is always the member's fault. So we shared this talk with them and they said the same thing that the talk said, Well I never thought of it that way. So there is a talk if you need one to use in your next talk in church if you don't have a topic. Also during this week I got to weld a car!!! Hahaha I was so happy. Show Jason Bingham and tell him to cut me some slack. I know I need more practice. But that was my week love you guys! 

Nov. 6, 2017 Didn't get sick!

Fried Bananas 

This week was a really good week I would have to say. We had fun worked hard and just are doing really good. We visited a ton of people this week. We even had interviews with President this week. Hahaha I told him about what happened in the ward last week and how the attendance is going down really fast... He said that he would make an appearance in one of these days that are coming closer. The assistants talked about how we have to follow more rules and be better at all that jazz. Just normal mission stuff. To be honest I love President Duran. He wants us to be the best and he pushes us to our limits I feel like. I mean he wants us to baptize every week, which is not an easy thing to do but it is obtainable. He wants us to love others as Christ loves us and told us "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" Hahaha another thing that happened is that just earlier this today we left to visit with a member and we passed by the church at 4:30 but we saw something super cool. We saw one of the counselers of the bishop and a counseler of the Elders Quorum washing their cars. I was like wow cool car wash. We asked the member why he didnt invite us? Hahha but the member likes to machete others so he sent a message to them saying can I bring my car tooo wash too? The other members were like when did you see us and we just responded what? We were visiting in Chapel super far away from the church. So just typical church leaders for ya. Wow I am just loving the mission. It is super difficult especially in these months but it is amazing. I had never thought about the mission this way but I am here helping others have a better relationship with Christ and our Heavenly Father. Sometimes I wonder what would the people do if we weren't here to teach them? Also the same question that President Nelson said in conference. Where would I be or this person be without the Book of Mormon? It is a question we should ponder many times. Not only one and done. Now here in the mission it is starting to get a little hotter. The rain is starting to go away. However, the nights are still cool well if you think 80 is cool. But the days are like 90 to 100 so ya I guess the nights are cool. Haha I am all over the place in this letter. Its because I am always tired in the night... But it is all cool. I hope you had a great week! Love you all

Your Boy,

Elder J. Lancaster