Englands the best!

Hello there!

So it is weird to think but today is my one month mark. haha The days are super long, but the weeks are short and the months shorter.

Anyways...its been a pretty good week in Cwmbran. It was most definitely a busy week! Our zone had training on tuesday, which was basically everything that i had just learned in the MTC. The new training they are implementing in the mission field has already started to be taught to new missionaries in the Preston MTC, which means England is the best haha But they will be starting this new training in the other MTCs very soon. On wednesday I went on exchanges with the Elders in Cardiff because my companion is a district leader, so i was privileged to spent the day in Cardiff city centre and elsewhere for most of the day. It was pretty fun because there are so many different ethnicities in Cardiff. All we have here in Cwmbran is pretty much just welsh and english. Thursday was a pretty big day for me though. We went on another exchange with the Elders in Blackwood; my companion left me to be the senior companion for the day with Elder Leyba. I'll tell you what...it was scary! haha I don't really have too much of a sense of direction around Cwmbran yet so we got lost a few times. We spent almost the whole day just talking to people on the street and knocking on doors because all of our appointments failed. The story gets better though....on our way home we met a Jehovah's Witness. We started talking to him and he kept pointing out the differences in our beliefs, but that he agreed on some of the true doctrine we have. I call this experience a semi-bash because we didn't argue with him too much, but we did ask him a lot of questions in order to get him to contradict himself haha Probably not the best idea but he wasn't interested in our message anyways. He did challenge me to find where in the Bible that Jesus is referred to as Jehovah because they believe Jehovah is God, which we know isn't correct. Hence, that is where my spiritual thought is related to. But before that, the rest of my week...we had a good day on Sunday. We received news that hopefully out chapel will be opening back up within the next two weeks which is awesome!! That will definitely make the work a little easier, meaning it will progress a good amount. Many less actives will come back to church and we will be able to get our investigators to church! Today for pday our zone is getting together to play football, soccer, which makes me very happy! haha Oh and its getting colder here, it was 15 yesterday morning, in celcius that is. I love it.

Okay, so spiritual thought: We all know that the title Jehovah refers to Jesus Christ. I have started to read "Jesus the Christ" again and the chapter that was in my personal studies talked all about this! I love how things coordinate like that. So Elder Talmage refers to a couple scriptures to show that Christ is Jehovah; this is how he does so. Jehovah in Hebrew can be translated to LORD in english. We see that in the Bible when Christ is referred to it is in capital letters as LORD. In Exodus 3:13-14, Christ tells Moses that he should tell the children of Israel that "I AM" sent you to lead them out of Egypt. The name "I AM" has the same meaning as Jehovah. Christ is also referred to in the Bible as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is in referenced in Exodus 6:2-3.  In John 8:58 Jesus Christ is referred to as "I AM" which previously stated has the same meaning as Jehovah! Therefore, Jesus Christ is Jehovah. He is our savior redeemer. He is the only way by which we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. He is our loving brother and advocate with the Father. I love this work, the church is true.

-Elder Jaquish

What I wouldn't do for a set of wheels!

Hello everyone!!




Ahhh so I'm in the field now. Crazy huh? I think so. But anyways, my first area is in Cwmbran, Wales. If it were spelled how you say it it would be Cumbran, but its welsh. Its been a crazy past five days. I have tracted so much already! Almost every one of our appointments always cancels so we just go finding. Its okay, I love to talk to people, but the welsh are stubborn. Nice, but very stubborn. We talk to people on the street and sometimes they listen to what we say add then decline our invitation to learn more, most of the time they keep walking as they say not interested, and more than that they yell at us haha Well they dont yell that much but they always say they have their own religion. My favorite is they say "No thank you, I'm a Christian." And we just reply with "Perfect, so are we! We have a message about Jesus Christ and this book teaches all about him." But they always decline. haha I love it. I know its bad to make people look stupid, but you cant help it when then make themselves look stupid with little effort from us. Okay, so enough of my ranting about the people. My companions nmame is Elder Cadwallader and he is from California. He has been out fo about 10 months and hes awesmoe. We have so much in common its unbelievable. One thing we say is that we were matched as companions in the pre-existance because we get along so well haha But nonetheless, I am learning a lot from him; how to be bold and never give up on talking to people, even after hours of rejection. I'm excited to learn a lot more from him.



Okay, so I love Wales. Its a beautiful country with rolling hills and the most green I have ever seen. I've gotten lucky though because since I have been here its only rained once, aside from the current weather. But it rains a lot so I'm looking forward to it haha It was quite enjoyable tracting all day in the rain a few days ago jk It was horrible. One thing that reallys sucks though is that I havent gotten a bike yet so we have had to walk everywhere, which is not fun when half of the city is a hill, which leads me to my first story for yall:



So when we got to Cwmbran, we dropped my stuff off at the flat, or apartment for you Americans haha, and we then proceeded to go tracting. We met this one kid who seemed interested and we gacve him a copy of the Book of Mormon. We got his address and made an appointment to visit him on saturday. Well this address happened to be to a house that was at the top of the hill and was pretty much the last house that you could get to. It took us about an hour to walk there, no joke, and when we finally got there all tired we knocked on the door and the family that answered had never heard of this kids name...figures he would give us a bogus address. Elder Cadwallader and I had a good laugh about the whole situation. But the spirit guides you it ways that you dont always like. We started talking to these kids who were playing rugby in the street, threw the ball with them a couple of times and talked to them because they were facinated that we were from America. One of the boys took us down to his house and we met his mother and talked to her about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon. She took a book and we comitted her to read and pray. She accepted and we have an appointment with her soon! It was really cool to see how the Lord works in mysterious ways. I have faith that she will hold her appointment and won't cancel...hopefully! haha



Okay so second funny story I have. Just as some backround info, Jehovah Witnesses are pretty famous around here as well so a lot of people get us mixed up with them. So while we were walking the other day this group of girls kept saying really loudly that they love birthdays and Christmas. I didnt realize that Jehovah Winesses don't believe in those holidays, but anyways, my companion mentioned why they were saying those things so loudly. So me being me, I turned around and said to them, "You know that we aren't Jehovah Witnesses right?" And the one girl gave me this funny look so I returned the favor and started walking again hahaha I love being a missionary.



Time to get serious with a spiritual though: This actually comes from my personal studies this morning. We have been told that as we gain a greater relationship with Christ and try to understand His atonement that we will find more joy and it will be easier to do the work. So I started reading "Jesus the Christ" the other day. Whilst upon my reading today, it stuck out to me that Heavenly Father didn't want any of His children to fall away and suffer, but it was something that had to happen according to the plan. Because Lucifer was cast out of heaven, man would be tempted. That is why we needed the atonement. We needed a way to rid ourselves of sin and have a way to resist the cunning temptations and ways of Satan. Another thing that intersted me is related to the fall. I believe the scripture is Romans 8:12,18 or something like that, but it says that by one man death was brought upon all, and by one man we will be saved from that death. Jesus Christ is and was the only person by which we can gain salvation. Always strive to lean more about him and His misson on earth. I know that by doing so you will be greatly blessed with the spirit.



"I love this work, the church is true."

-Elder Jaquish

Out of Training!!

As of September 6th Jayson is officially out of training and should now be at his mission home. He said the trip from Preston to Birmimgham should take around 2 hours. There is now a pictures page available to see. Along with his email he sent a picture of the missionaries that were at the MTC with him for the past 2 1/2 weeks!

More news from England!

Cherrio everyone!

 

So England is treating me....okay. I somehow got the flu a couple days ago and it really was not fun. I spent a whole day in my room sleeping. But, im all better now and and glad to be back at work!! I still love it here. Finally it has stopped raining everyday here haha And we have been playing lots of football (soccer)! It awesome. Cool thing that has happened so far is after one week of being here they sent us out to Manchester City Centre to proselyte! It was way scary. My companion and I walked around and "talked" to lots of people. Most ignored us or just said hi or no thanks. A few we talked to for a couple minutes. This one guy from Afghanistan who was muslim talked to us for a while. I taught him a lot of doctrine but he wasnt very receptive to it. He kinda just laughed and he actually started teaching us! haha I was like who is this guy, to be teaching me?! Then he got into politics, which is no good. I tried getting away multiple times but was unsuccessful. Thankfully, it was time for us to board the train to go back to Chorley. It was such a learning experience and wayyy harder than i thought. We definitely have a lot to improve on. But good news...we getting to go knocking on doors this friday! So im excited about that. Other than that, we went on a church history tour and got to see where Pres. Hinckley stayed when he was in Preston on his mission before he went to London. Also, we went to this beautiful little village where Heber C. Kimball and Joseph Fielding taught. It was a spiritual experience and so much fun.

 

Spiritual thought:

 

Elder Bednar said in a devotional that it is not enough to go on a mission, but we need to strive to BECOME a missionary. We need to work hard and remember that it is the Lord's time and work. All members of this church should strive to live the gospel and become converted, not just convinced that this is the true gospel. I know that this IS the true restored gospel of Christ. Promise that i will have a better thought next time :)

 

-Elder Jaquish