You alright mates?! haha
Hello everyone! I hope yalls last week has been as good as mine!! My first full week in Wolverhanpton was wonderful. I know that the work will easily progress here as long as we work hard, and working hard is exactly what I plan on doing!
I had a pretty cool tracting experience this week. I picked the street that we were going to tract for the day. The first couple doors were rejections. Then I realised that some of them had "Neighborhood Watch" stickers on them, which pretty much means that we arent allowed to knock on peoples doors there. That didn't stop me or my companion though. We continued knocking...At one door I told Elder Smith that I had never gotten invited inside on the doorstep before. It was literally like the next door we knocked on that this guy answered the door. I initiated the conversation by showing him the Book of Mormon and telling him a bit about it. I told him that this book answers questions of the soul and asked him if there was any question that he would like to ask God. He mentioned about the reason why bad things happen so frequently. Instead of answering the question on the doorstep, I aksed if we could come in and talk a bit more and..........he invited us in!!!! Ahhhh. So cool. My first time going in someones house on the doorstep haha We used 2 Nephi 2 to answer his question and later taught the Restoration. It was pretty cool! Awesome actually. But unfortunately, he isnt too intersested in going to church or anything because he suffers from depression. But nonetheless, we will still go back and try to teach him more and maybe help him the best we can with his depression.
We have taught someone a couple times this week and they came to church!! Just for sacrament meeting though because they had to go to Birmingham to visit her neice in the hospital. They should be staying the whole time of the church next sunday though. We have talked about baptism with one a couple times, but have yet to give her a specific date. She said that she wants to be committed to the church when she gets baptised because she has seen too many people go lessa ctive after their baptisms in other churches. She is expecting some kind of big answer to the BOM and Joseph Smith though so it will take some time. We tried explaining that it wont be a big answer but just warm feelings of the heart, but she still wants to wait till she has gotten the answer she wants. I know it will come in time as she continues to be taught and comes to church.
Spiritual thought for this week! It sorta comes from a combination of the lesson we had in Sunday School and my personal studies in Jesus the Christ this morning. So the Sunday School lesson was on John the Baptist and his mission to prepare the way of the Lord. John was commissed to preach repentance and baptism to the people in preparation for the ministry of the Messiah to baptise them by fire, meaning the Holy Ghost. To be baptised, we must first repent of our sins, then cometh the baptism of water by immersion. We talked about how just like Jesus, we are baptised by going fully under the water. After we are batised, we must continually immerse ourselves in the gospel by serving and partaking the Sacrament. In my studies this morning, I went over Matthew 18:1-7. Here it talks about who is greatest in the kingdom of God, little children. We must become as little children to inherit all our Father has. In the scripture I mentioned, it talks about this and how if we offend someone that is childlike, its a serious sin. I think this all just has to do with ourselves and making sure that we are continually repenting and being the best disciple we can be. My hope for all of you is that you immerse yourselves in the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That is the only way we can become perfect! Always strive to become like little children because that is what we are commanded to do. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and know that it truly has been restored to the earth once again.
I love you all and hope that you always have a smile on yalls faces! :)
-Elder Jaquish
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
"The Land of the Wolves"
Herro everyone! You alright? (Thats how they ask how you are doing here in Britain haha to me i think its rude but whatever lol)
So as I mention in my last email, I got transferred to Wolverhampton 2. Pretty much my area covers the top bit of Wolverhampton. Its all mainly the outskirts of the city so its all residential. I dont even think we have much of a town centre, just some shops here and there. Nonetheless, I'm excited to get to work here! They have baptisms pretty frequently here; I believe the last one was sometime in July or August. After that, the people they had committed to baptism like disappeared or something, idk. But we have some good investigators right now. They are just waiting on a confirmation from the spirit before they (I should just say she) chooses a particular date for baptism. We fasted for her yesterday so that she will get an answer to her prayers so we can continue on with the lessons. We have yet to make contact with her to see if she got an answer, so we plan to stop by and visit her briefly to talk about it. I'm sure she got an answer. Like I said before, fasting works.
I dont have too much more to say about the work this past week because I just got here. This week is gonna be good for sure! I can feel it in my bones hahaha We have some good plans and even better faith that we will find some more solid brothers and sisters to share the gospel with this week!
My companion is pretty cool. He is coming near to teh end of his mission so hes pretty experienced. He is from London so thats cool! We get along pretty well. Our sense of humor is slightly different so that might be a little challenging slash he will probably end up thinking I'm a weird kid by the end of this transfer haha But anyways, all of that doesnt really matter because we are working for the Lord, not for ourselves. We will get along because we are both missionaries and we are connected by the gospel. Although I must say, he makes some weird noises and talks to himself sometimes hahaha I just laugh about it and smile :)
Hmmm...so I have a pretty cool spiritual thought for this week that I'm sure all of you can relate to. It comes from Alma 8 and 10. When I read these chapters the first thing that came to mind was of course service. But as I thought about it, it also gives another great lesson; following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. By reading these chapters, we see that Amulek was prompted to go back home and wait for some guy who claimed to be a prophet of God. Earlier in his life, he has not followed the promotings of the still small voice. But this time he did and boy was he blessed!! He was able to be in the presence of a prophet, was able to feed him and have his house/family blessed. And later on we see that he became a great missionary. This too can happen to all of us if we listen to the Holy Ghost. We can do great things be taking small steps!! I promise you this, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I love you all and am thankful for the work that we are all engaged in to bring our brothers and sisters back into the fold. I hope each one of you who read this has a fantastic week!!
-Elder Jaquish
So as I mention in my last email, I got transferred to Wolverhampton 2. Pretty much my area covers the top bit of Wolverhampton. Its all mainly the outskirts of the city so its all residential. I dont even think we have much of a town centre, just some shops here and there. Nonetheless, I'm excited to get to work here! They have baptisms pretty frequently here; I believe the last one was sometime in July or August. After that, the people they had committed to baptism like disappeared or something, idk. But we have some good investigators right now. They are just waiting on a confirmation from the spirit before they (I should just say she) chooses a particular date for baptism. We fasted for her yesterday so that she will get an answer to her prayers so we can continue on with the lessons. We have yet to make contact with her to see if she got an answer, so we plan to stop by and visit her briefly to talk about it. I'm sure she got an answer. Like I said before, fasting works.
I dont have too much more to say about the work this past week because I just got here. This week is gonna be good for sure! I can feel it in my bones hahaha We have some good plans and even better faith that we will find some more solid brothers and sisters to share the gospel with this week!
My companion is pretty cool. He is coming near to teh end of his mission so hes pretty experienced. He is from London so thats cool! We get along pretty well. Our sense of humor is slightly different so that might be a little challenging slash he will probably end up thinking I'm a weird kid by the end of this transfer haha But anyways, all of that doesnt really matter because we are working for the Lord, not for ourselves. We will get along because we are both missionaries and we are connected by the gospel. Although I must say, he makes some weird noises and talks to himself sometimes hahaha I just laugh about it and smile :)
Hmmm...so I have a pretty cool spiritual thought for this week that I'm sure all of you can relate to. It comes from Alma 8 and 10. When I read these chapters the first thing that came to mind was of course service. But as I thought about it, it also gives another great lesson; following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. By reading these chapters, we see that Amulek was prompted to go back home and wait for some guy who claimed to be a prophet of God. Earlier in his life, he has not followed the promotings of the still small voice. But this time he did and boy was he blessed!! He was able to be in the presence of a prophet, was able to feed him and have his house/family blessed. And later on we see that he became a great missionary. This too can happen to all of us if we listen to the Holy Ghost. We can do great things be taking small steps!! I promise you this, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
I love you all and am thankful for the work that we are all engaged in to bring our brothers and sisters back into the fold. I hope each one of you who read this has a fantastic week!!
-Elder Jaquish
Holiday and Transfers
Hmmm, wow. Its been a long time since I have sent an email to you all! It has most definitely been a crazy past month with the Christmas season and all. I will shortly say that my Christmas was wonderful. We were able to spend both Christmas Day and Boxing Day with some members from the ward that are awesome! It was nice to feel a part of a family on the holidays since I couldn't be home with my own family. It was amazing though to be able to speak to them on the phone. It definitely made my Christmas one I will never forget.
The past few or so weeks have been pretty good. Nothing to spectacular happened. The work was about the same. We have made progress with some of the people we have been teaching, but that progress just doesnt seem to matter when they dont come to church when they say they will or dont return your phone calls. Its okay though, they have their agency to choose whether or not to keep progressing. One couple are doing sooooo good!!! They have seen the blessings from following the commandments. I remember one night when we went over, we were talking about those blessings. They told us that they want more so they have decided to start following the Law of Chastity!! Even though they do live together, they are restraining themselves from the most important aspects of this particular commandment. It was just so cool because it was her decision to start doing these things! Jumping ahead a couple weeks after this experience, he decided to pay tithing on Sunday. He did so, having faith that the Lord would help his family, and oh boy did He! They have been so blessed with receiving help with groceries and other things from a couple members of the ward! It was so cool to see them excited about all of this :)
One more experience that happened this past monday that i will make my spiritual thought: Elder Cadwallader and I decided to visit every former investigator that we had in the area book. Also, we fasted fo success from these formers. The day started off good with passing out a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon. Then the rain came. Ew. We still persisted in working our hardest. It was towards the end of the day at about 5pm that we found who we were meant to find that day. We knocked on this one former investigator's door, of whom invited us in. We found out that he had gotten a new girlfriend since the last time the missionaries were teaching them. His new gf was the elect of God that we were meant to find. She told us that she has just recently, like a couple days before hand, had the desire to read the Bible and situate her life. She said she has realised that it was goinf downhill and that she wanted to change that. She was soooo receptive to the spirit! When we introduced the gospel and the Book of Mormon she was so excited to learn more!! So cool.
I learned an important lesson from this experience. That is: prove God. He has said in scripture to prove him that if we doing spiritual things, such as pray unceasingly for a specific thing, He will grant us what we want. Fasting works. Thats what I wanted to prove to Him and myself. From this experience, my faith has strengthened. My testimony on fasting is solid. My challenge to all of you is to think about something you may be struggling with in your life and to prove our Heavenly Father. Pray to receive guidence or help with the desires of your heart. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ that it WILL work!!
Some more news I have for yall; I have been transfered out of Wales into England!!! Yayy haha Im in a place called Wolverhampton. Im so excited to do the work here! My new address is
7 Ryhope Walk
Pendeford
Wolverhampton, England
WV9 5NB
I love you all and hope everyone has a great rest of the week!!!
-Elder Jaquish
The past few or so weeks have been pretty good. Nothing to spectacular happened. The work was about the same. We have made progress with some of the people we have been teaching, but that progress just doesnt seem to matter when they dont come to church when they say they will or dont return your phone calls. Its okay though, they have their agency to choose whether or not to keep progressing. One couple are doing sooooo good!!! They have seen the blessings from following the commandments. I remember one night when we went over, we were talking about those blessings. They told us that they want more so they have decided to start following the Law of Chastity!! Even though they do live together, they are restraining themselves from the most important aspects of this particular commandment. It was just so cool because it was her decision to start doing these things! Jumping ahead a couple weeks after this experience, he decided to pay tithing on Sunday. He did so, having faith that the Lord would help his family, and oh boy did He! They have been so blessed with receiving help with groceries and other things from a couple members of the ward! It was so cool to see them excited about all of this :)
One more experience that happened this past monday that i will make my spiritual thought: Elder Cadwallader and I decided to visit every former investigator that we had in the area book. Also, we fasted fo success from these formers. The day started off good with passing out a couple of copies of the Book of Mormon. Then the rain came. Ew. We still persisted in working our hardest. It was towards the end of the day at about 5pm that we found who we were meant to find that day. We knocked on this one former investigator's door, of whom invited us in. We found out that he had gotten a new girlfriend since the last time the missionaries were teaching them. His new gf was the elect of God that we were meant to find. She told us that she has just recently, like a couple days before hand, had the desire to read the Bible and situate her life. She said she has realised that it was goinf downhill and that she wanted to change that. She was soooo receptive to the spirit! When we introduced the gospel and the Book of Mormon she was so excited to learn more!! So cool.
I learned an important lesson from this experience. That is: prove God. He has said in scripture to prove him that if we doing spiritual things, such as pray unceasingly for a specific thing, He will grant us what we want. Fasting works. Thats what I wanted to prove to Him and myself. From this experience, my faith has strengthened. My testimony on fasting is solid. My challenge to all of you is to think about something you may be struggling with in your life and to prove our Heavenly Father. Pray to receive guidence or help with the desires of your heart. I testify in the name of Jesus Christ that it WILL work!!
Some more news I have for yall; I have been transfered out of Wales into England!!! Yayy haha Im in a place called Wolverhampton. Im so excited to do the work here! My new address is
7 Ryhope Walk
Pendeford
Wolverhampton, England
WV9 5NB
I love you all and hope everyone has a great rest of the week!!!
-Elder Jaquish
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