Hey yall.
This week wasn't too bad. We had some more blessings, but some unfortunate things happen.
Thanksgiving was good! We have some members from Canada in our ward so we went over there for some dinner! It definitely beat last years meal of Chinese take-away haha The unfortunate events that happened on Thanksgiving day started in the morning. We went and taught this man named Keith, whom I believe I mentioned last week. Well he told us that the church wasn't something he wanted to pursue right now and that he felt more comfortable in the "traditional" way of church, meaning just one preacher speaking to the congregation. We testified of the restored church and taught about the plan of salvation. We tried explaining that sometimes new things take time for us to get used to. Any kind of change can make us feel weird. We talked about the good feelings he was getting and that they were from the spirit, but he still insisted to not go to church again. He is willing to still have us come over though, so that's not too bad. The next event happened later that evening. We got a text from Roy saying that's he didn't feel well and that he didn't want us to come over the next day. He also said that he didn't want to join our church because he was happy enough with the one he attended. Darn. We are giving him a few days before we go see him again. He had a baptismal date for the 10th. I hope that he is okay and that nothing bad has happened to him to make him change his mind so suddenly. Ill let yall know how it goes.
The good part about this week is amazing!!! Its like almost what every missionary dreams of! Less-active work is progressing like none other! haha One got him temple recommend back. Another got a temporary one to do baptisms for the dead. Another one is just an interview away to get her recommend to take out her own endowments, and another is a meeting away form regaining her membership!!! Hopefully my companion and I will be able to go to the temple next month! Its up to our mission president to determine that, since the temple is outside of our mission. I think he will let us go...i hope! hahaha But yeah, so that is what I received my greatest joy from this week. It just feels good to see someone you have grown to love enter in to the house of the Lord.
My testimony is stronger than ever. I know that this church is true. Sorry for the short email, but one again time has slipped out of my hands. It seems to be doing that a lot lately! haha
Take care all.
Godbless.
-Elder Jaquish
Monday, November 28, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
15 months goes by fast...
Mornin all!
This past week was so good! One more person committed to baptism next month, a new person at church, a few referrals, and a less-active preparing for the temple!
The new person with a date is Roy, whom I have mentioned before. We had a prime lesson with him at the beginning of the week. We read from the last two chapters of the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and helped him understand how he can get s sure testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. I bore my testimony on the order that those two paragraphs give, namely that if we read, ponder and pray about the book with a sincere heart. we will feel that its true. Once we know the book is true, then we will know/come closer to Jesus Christ and then come to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He realised that he had already done that and that he had a testimony! We invited him to set a goal on December 10th for baptism and he said yes!!
The new man at church was Keith. I believe I mentioned him last week, about how he was a referral from one of our investigators. Keith had a good time at church. He just wants to do whats right and become a better person. He agrees with all that we have taught him the two times we have seen him. We are gonna try and set a date for baptism with him next week. I think he will accept. He said he will be baptised anyways, its just sometimes people get afraid when they see a date haha
Those who get referrals are the ones that don't really need them. That is a quote in our mission and its true haha We were blessed to get 3 referrals from various sources and we are already teaching loads of people :) The Lord is merciful.
The less-active who is going to start preparing for the temple is Kerry! She met with the Bishop finally and got everything sorted out. She is gonna go do baptisms for the dead soon, of which she is wayy excited about!!! Its just so cool to see someone get excited about the gospel. It brings us so much happiness, just to know about the plan Heavenly Father has for us. I know that the gospel changes lives. I hope that none of us are afraid of change...
Sorry for the shortness of email. Time has escaped me once again. I just want to send a Happy Birthday shout out to my Uncle Mark, Uncle Frankie and Ellie1I hope yall have a great bday week :)
Take care all.
Godbless.
-Elder Jaquish
This past week was so good! One more person committed to baptism next month, a new person at church, a few referrals, and a less-active preparing for the temple!
The new person with a date is Roy, whom I have mentioned before. We had a prime lesson with him at the beginning of the week. We read from the last two chapters of the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and helped him understand how he can get s sure testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. I bore my testimony on the order that those two paragraphs give, namely that if we read, ponder and pray about the book with a sincere heart. we will feel that its true. Once we know the book is true, then we will know/come closer to Jesus Christ and then come to know that Joseph Smith is a prophet. He realised that he had already done that and that he had a testimony! We invited him to set a goal on December 10th for baptism and he said yes!!
The new man at church was Keith. I believe I mentioned him last week, about how he was a referral from one of our investigators. Keith had a good time at church. He just wants to do whats right and become a better person. He agrees with all that we have taught him the two times we have seen him. We are gonna try and set a date for baptism with him next week. I think he will accept. He said he will be baptised anyways, its just sometimes people get afraid when they see a date haha
Those who get referrals are the ones that don't really need them. That is a quote in our mission and its true haha We were blessed to get 3 referrals from various sources and we are already teaching loads of people :) The Lord is merciful.
The less-active who is going to start preparing for the temple is Kerry! She met with the Bishop finally and got everything sorted out. She is gonna go do baptisms for the dead soon, of which she is wayy excited about!!! Its just so cool to see someone get excited about the gospel. It brings us so much happiness, just to know about the plan Heavenly Father has for us. I know that the gospel changes lives. I hope that none of us are afraid of change...
Sorry for the shortness of email. Time has escaped me once again. I just want to send a Happy Birthday shout out to my Uncle Mark, Uncle Frankie and Ellie1I hope yall have a great bday week :)
Take care all.
Godbless.
-Elder Jaquish
Monday, November 14, 2011
Zone Conference and Funny B-day Story
Hiya! How's everyone been this week? Its been brilliant this week! So many blessing from Father in Heaven.
This week we had a Zone Conference with Elder Donaldson who is an Area 70. He pretty much rebuked us for slackin on the baptismal commitments. He challenged us to Invite people to be baptised on the first visit. I believe that I had no problem with this because I tried my best to prepare for it. That right there taught me about how important preparation is for anything. I wouldn't had been able to learn as much as I did if I didn't spiritually prepare for the conference. Elder Donaldson also spoke about the importance of the spirit in conversion. My favourite part was when he talked about how significant the Book of Mormon is in our lives. We will lose light if we don't open the Book of Mormon each day. We will be held accountable if we fail to use it correctly as well. If we continually implement the scriptures into our daily lives, we will create a more personal relationship with Heavenly Father. He also talked about prayer. He stated that the true order of prayer is as follows: To the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Just think about that...
We were able to make those improvements with our investigators that we wanted to andddd...we got a baptismal date!!! We met this woman named Wendy like a month ago. We couldn't contact her so we stopped trying by. Well during splits with the Zone Leaders, Elder Dudley and Elder Morrissey went by Wendy and spoke to her again! They talked about the Book of Mormon and its role in bringing us close to Christ. She ended up giving them her personal diary to schedule in a reading assignment each day for the next month or so, and told them to come again the next day (Saturday). Well we went by, with a member, and taught he the lesson of the Restoration. She felt the spirit. She told us how her life is kinda jumbled up and she just wants to get back on track with the Lord. She really liked what we taught because it felt good and sounded familiar to her. She accepted to be baptised on 10 December!!! She had an amazing time at church yesterday as well! The ward just fellowshipped her like crazy!!!
That was pretty much the most exciting parts of the week. One of our investigators, if you can remember me talking about Ivan, took us to see one of his friends to teach! haha Referral from an investigator baby! The rest of the people we are working with had a rough week, was too hungover, just didn't feel like it, or was too scared to go to church haha But I'm happy with the one that came :) We have a lot of really good appointments set up for this week and we made it a priority to get members scheduled already to help us teach these people. It really makes a difference when you have a member teaching and bearing testimony with you!
Quick funny story of something that happened on my birthday. So we didn't have anything to do that night, so we decided to do some street contacting. We talked to this one drunk guy who had just lost his fiancee and was a complete wreck. We tried to comfort him. We even said a prayer on the street corner! He hugged us and said thank you. He then took my hand and kissed it!!! hahahaha I was like uhhhh...I felt really bad for the guy, but there wasn't much we could do. Then we went to try by someone else that wasn't in. Elder Dudley decided to make phone calls, so that left me to talk to people as they passed by. Well, after a couple of people rejecting my conversation invitations, I realised that I was standing on this dark corner where the only light flickered from this half broken street light...no wonder nobody talked to me. hahahaha
Thats it for me today. I hope everyone has a smashing week!
Godbless,
Elder Jaquish
This week we had a Zone Conference with Elder Donaldson who is an Area 70. He pretty much rebuked us for slackin on the baptismal commitments. He challenged us to Invite people to be baptised on the first visit. I believe that I had no problem with this because I tried my best to prepare for it. That right there taught me about how important preparation is for anything. I wouldn't had been able to learn as much as I did if I didn't spiritually prepare for the conference. Elder Donaldson also spoke about the importance of the spirit in conversion. My favourite part was when he talked about how significant the Book of Mormon is in our lives. We will lose light if we don't open the Book of Mormon each day. We will be held accountable if we fail to use it correctly as well. If we continually implement the scriptures into our daily lives, we will create a more personal relationship with Heavenly Father. He also talked about prayer. He stated that the true order of prayer is as follows: To the Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost. Just think about that...
We were able to make those improvements with our investigators that we wanted to andddd...we got a baptismal date!!! We met this woman named Wendy like a month ago. We couldn't contact her so we stopped trying by. Well during splits with the Zone Leaders, Elder Dudley and Elder Morrissey went by Wendy and spoke to her again! They talked about the Book of Mormon and its role in bringing us close to Christ. She ended up giving them her personal diary to schedule in a reading assignment each day for the next month or so, and told them to come again the next day (Saturday). Well we went by, with a member, and taught he the lesson of the Restoration. She felt the spirit. She told us how her life is kinda jumbled up and she just wants to get back on track with the Lord. She really liked what we taught because it felt good and sounded familiar to her. She accepted to be baptised on 10 December!!! She had an amazing time at church yesterday as well! The ward just fellowshipped her like crazy!!!
That was pretty much the most exciting parts of the week. One of our investigators, if you can remember me talking about Ivan, took us to see one of his friends to teach! haha Referral from an investigator baby! The rest of the people we are working with had a rough week, was too hungover, just didn't feel like it, or was too scared to go to church haha But I'm happy with the one that came :) We have a lot of really good appointments set up for this week and we made it a priority to get members scheduled already to help us teach these people. It really makes a difference when you have a member teaching and bearing testimony with you!
Quick funny story of something that happened on my birthday. So we didn't have anything to do that night, so we decided to do some street contacting. We talked to this one drunk guy who had just lost his fiancee and was a complete wreck. We tried to comfort him. We even said a prayer on the street corner! He hugged us and said thank you. He then took my hand and kissed it!!! hahahaha I was like uhhhh...I felt really bad for the guy, but there wasn't much we could do. Then we went to try by someone else that wasn't in. Elder Dudley decided to make phone calls, so that left me to talk to people as they passed by. Well, after a couple of people rejecting my conversation invitations, I realised that I was standing on this dark corner where the only light flickered from this half broken street light...no wonder nobody talked to me. hahahaha
Thats it for me today. I hope everyone has a smashing week!
Godbless,
Elder Jaquish
Monday, November 7, 2011
Transfers
Mornin everyone!
So we got transfer calls on Monday night, and yep, I'm staying!! Elder Dudley and I are staying here in Nottingham. I'm excited to be able to be with him for another transfer! Well, actually, he only has a transfer and a half left so I'll most likely be 'killing' him! haha I hope so because I don't want anyone else to have the honor of finishing this fine missionary.
The past week and a half has been brilliant! We are being so blessed by the Lord. I reflected back to when I first arrived here in Notts 4 and we had absolutely nobody to teach. Over the past 12 weeks the Lord has blessed us so much and our teaching pool is getting jam packed! I'm not boasting in my strength or work, but in the work of the Lord! I'm grateful that the Lord is right by our side fighting this war with us! My testimony has increased this past week as to how much diligence pays off. I felt an increase to just give everything thing I had and boy did it work. People took copies of the Book of Mormon like a kid in a candy shop. The other day we passed out 7! We went to a part of our area called Beeston, which is where the university is. We met a girl from Malaysia/Australia, two guys from here in England, a woman from Tanzania, and a guy who is from Uganda! The last guy just stopped and talked to us. After a few sentences were said, he just took the Book of Mormon out of our hands and said he would read it and call is to teach him! Sweet eh? I felt the spirit just bursting within me as I was eager to let everyone know of a living prophet of God.
Another cool story we had this week comes from flogg10ing. This is when we tract around a teaching appointment we have, whether they are in or out. We had a member out with us as well! His name is Sam. He is 23 and never got to serve a mission because he just started coming back to church this year and is already engaged. I was making some phone calls while Elder Dudley and Sam went to knock on some doors. Sam decided that he wanted to knock the door and in was the funniest thing ever. This is how it went according to Elder Dudley:
So Sam says "Hello"
Guy at door"hello"
pause
Sam "how are you today?"
Guy at door "good"
pause
(I didn't want to take over just to give Sam the experience even though i know that he was waiting for me to step in)
Sam "Hey do you know who we are?"
Guy at door "No"
pause
Sam"would you like to know who we are?
Guy at door "sure"
Then i stepped in and said we were missionaries and bla bla bla.
Well we met with them 3 days later and they were really prepared. We found out this guys name was Daniel. He had a son called Kory (after lead singer of slipknot) Daniels partners name is Ashley and Ashley has a daughter called Mae. Ashley had read the plan of salvation leaflet and loved it and you could really tell the spirit was working on them. It was a pretty good experience to start our Saturday off on!
We had Zone Conference this past week and I will refer to something I learned there to end my email with. President Ogden instructed us on how we need to use more 'heaven sent' questions. Using good questions is crucial in order to someone open up to us, create a sense of trust, and know what to teach. Also, this way the person becomes an agent unto themselves instead of an object. Spirit will teach spirit and conversion will take place. I love this gospel so much. I love how everything just makes sense. I know through many experiences I've had with searching for a 'heaven sent' question that the Lord will give us what we need to say when we need it.
Speak to yall next week.
Godbless.
-Elder Jaquish
So we got transfer calls on Monday night, and yep, I'm staying!! Elder Dudley and I are staying here in Nottingham. I'm excited to be able to be with him for another transfer! Well, actually, he only has a transfer and a half left so I'll most likely be 'killing' him! haha I hope so because I don't want anyone else to have the honor of finishing this fine missionary.
The past week and a half has been brilliant! We are being so blessed by the Lord. I reflected back to when I first arrived here in Notts 4 and we had absolutely nobody to teach. Over the past 12 weeks the Lord has blessed us so much and our teaching pool is getting jam packed! I'm not boasting in my strength or work, but in the work of the Lord! I'm grateful that the Lord is right by our side fighting this war with us! My testimony has increased this past week as to how much diligence pays off. I felt an increase to just give everything thing I had and boy did it work. People took copies of the Book of Mormon like a kid in a candy shop. The other day we passed out 7! We went to a part of our area called Beeston, which is where the university is. We met a girl from Malaysia/Australia, two guys from here in England, a woman from Tanzania, and a guy who is from Uganda! The last guy just stopped and talked to us. After a few sentences were said, he just took the Book of Mormon out of our hands and said he would read it and call is to teach him! Sweet eh? I felt the spirit just bursting within me as I was eager to let everyone know of a living prophet of God.
Another cool story we had this week comes from flogg10ing. This is when we tract around a teaching appointment we have, whether they are in or out. We had a member out with us as well! His name is Sam. He is 23 and never got to serve a mission because he just started coming back to church this year and is already engaged. I was making some phone calls while Elder Dudley and Sam went to knock on some doors. Sam decided that he wanted to knock the door and in was the funniest thing ever. This is how it went according to Elder Dudley:
So Sam says "Hello"
Guy at door"hello"
pause
Sam "how are you today?"
Guy at door "good"
pause
(I didn't want to take over just to give Sam the experience even though i know that he was waiting for me to step in)
Sam "Hey do you know who we are?"
Guy at door "No"
pause
Sam"would you like to know who we are?
Guy at door "sure"
Then i stepped in and said we were missionaries and bla bla bla.
Well we met with them 3 days later and they were really prepared. We found out this guys name was Daniel. He had a son called Kory (after lead singer of slipknot) Daniels partners name is Ashley and Ashley has a daughter called Mae. Ashley had read the plan of salvation leaflet and loved it and you could really tell the spirit was working on them. It was a pretty good experience to start our Saturday off on!
We had Zone Conference this past week and I will refer to something I learned there to end my email with. President Ogden instructed us on how we need to use more 'heaven sent' questions. Using good questions is crucial in order to someone open up to us, create a sense of trust, and know what to teach. Also, this way the person becomes an agent unto themselves instead of an object. Spirit will teach spirit and conversion will take place. I love this gospel so much. I love how everything just makes sense. I know through many experiences I've had with searching for a 'heaven sent' question that the Lord will give us what we need to say when we need it.
Speak to yall next week.
Godbless.
-Elder Jaquish
Another Smashing Experience
Hiya all!
Oh boy this past week was brill! haha We are being even more blessed. We better be anyways, after all the tracting in the rain we did this past week hahaha That's right. Good ole sunny England is finally giving us some wet weather to work in! Well, the weather has been super weird this past week. If anyone visits the country, the basis of any conversation is the weather, so thus why I started out my email the way I did. haha
Anyways, yes, we had a goal of speaking to all of our investigators about how they feel they are receiving the message so that we could determine whether or not to continue teaching them. We were feeling slightly ruthless because nobody we are teaching was really progressing. We good things came out of it! Our investigator called Emma kept her commitments to read and pray. She is also still excited to learn and grow. The only thing she is concerned with is with she can make friends with the young women or not. Easy concern to resolve. Our investigator called Roy is also doing alright. We thought he was avoiding us, but he just had a rough week. He is actively learning about the church through mormon.org and is creating a desire to change his life to be in accordance to what the Saviour wants of him. He expressed the good feelings he is getting while reading the Book of Mormon as well, so that's good!! Our other investigators are still good as well and we had some good spiritual lessons with them as well. Ive come to learn that nothing happens unless the spirit teaches the individual. You know its working when both student and teacher are learning. Its just so cool when you learn something when you are the one that's suppose to be teaching! haha
Another smashing experience we had this week comes from how useful pass-along cards are. They are the best! So we got this text from the office saying that we got a referral from church headquarters, which like never happens so I was just excited from that! haha We went by the next day to see this guy, who's name is Ben, and he is so cool. He met missionaries while working in Stoke, which is like 60 miles away. They gave him a pass-along card and must have told Ben that if he went on the website, some missionaries would come visit him. Well He let us straight in and was like, okay lets see this book. haha we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how is testifies of the Saviour Jesus Christ. He told us how he is tired of the same scene of a friday or saturday night and that he wants to find more purpose in life. He wants to know about the after life and what he needs to do in order to get the most peace. He says he wants to fill the hole in his heart! Yeah buddy!! That's what an Elder wants to hear haha We talked about baptism and he seemed to like the idea. We are going to see him on Wednesday. I'll tell yall how is goes next Monday in my email.
So yeah, that's pretty much the best parts of my week! I have learned this week that attitude counts for something. The way you look at doing the work will have an affect on the outcome of your success. I have been excited to work these past weeks and as a consequence, we are being blessed! Or that's what I think haha
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Follow the promptings of the spirit always. They will lead you to do good.
Godbless,
Elder Jaquish
Oh boy this past week was brill! haha We are being even more blessed. We better be anyways, after all the tracting in the rain we did this past week hahaha That's right. Good ole sunny England is finally giving us some wet weather to work in! Well, the weather has been super weird this past week. If anyone visits the country, the basis of any conversation is the weather, so thus why I started out my email the way I did. haha
Anyways, yes, we had a goal of speaking to all of our investigators about how they feel they are receiving the message so that we could determine whether or not to continue teaching them. We were feeling slightly ruthless because nobody we are teaching was really progressing. We good things came out of it! Our investigator called Emma kept her commitments to read and pray. She is also still excited to learn and grow. The only thing she is concerned with is with she can make friends with the young women or not. Easy concern to resolve. Our investigator called Roy is also doing alright. We thought he was avoiding us, but he just had a rough week. He is actively learning about the church through mormon.org and is creating a desire to change his life to be in accordance to what the Saviour wants of him. He expressed the good feelings he is getting while reading the Book of Mormon as well, so that's good!! Our other investigators are still good as well and we had some good spiritual lessons with them as well. Ive come to learn that nothing happens unless the spirit teaches the individual. You know its working when both student and teacher are learning. Its just so cool when you learn something when you are the one that's suppose to be teaching! haha
Another smashing experience we had this week comes from how useful pass-along cards are. They are the best! So we got this text from the office saying that we got a referral from church headquarters, which like never happens so I was just excited from that! haha We went by the next day to see this guy, who's name is Ben, and he is so cool. He met missionaries while working in Stoke, which is like 60 miles away. They gave him a pass-along card and must have told Ben that if he went on the website, some missionaries would come visit him. Well He let us straight in and was like, okay lets see this book. haha we talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how is testifies of the Saviour Jesus Christ. He told us how he is tired of the same scene of a friday or saturday night and that he wants to find more purpose in life. He wants to know about the after life and what he needs to do in order to get the most peace. He says he wants to fill the hole in his heart! Yeah buddy!! That's what an Elder wants to hear haha We talked about baptism and he seemed to like the idea. We are going to see him on Wednesday. I'll tell yall how is goes next Monday in my email.
So yeah, that's pretty much the best parts of my week! I have learned this week that attitude counts for something. The way you look at doing the work will have an affect on the outcome of your success. I have been excited to work these past weeks and as a consequence, we are being blessed! Or that's what I think haha
I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Follow the promptings of the spirit always. They will lead you to do good.
Godbless,
Elder Jaquish
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