Brad's email 6-15-2015

Hey Guys! So this week has been a pretty good solid week! This week we had a couple of district meetings that we had to attend and it was a really nice meeting. 

This past Saturday was full of more service. At first we had to move a part member family out of their house because they are moving to Virginia and it was one of the most unorganized moves that I have ever been apart of. We literally had to pack the boxes with stuff and then take it to the trailer. It was not fun, but we got them all moved and on their merry little way.  We then went and mowed about 2 acres of brush with a push brush cutter and that took a very long time! We started that at 10:30 and ended at 1:30 and it was by that time 95 degrees. Right when we finished that we got a call from some elders in our zone asking if we could help them buck some hay. So I told them yes and we drove to their area and when we pulled up we see this huge field that has hay bales all over. So we met up with the elders and  we were talking to the owner of the field and he said there are about 400 bales and each bale weighed about 60 LBS and the other elders that we were doing it with one of them has a bad back so he couldn't help and the other has a mental illness and couldn't even be around the hay and the third was able to help but he only weighs about 160 lbs and that's what my comp weighs as well so I was the one on the bottom throwing the bales onto the truck and they stacked them. We started that at about 2 pm and we didn't finish til about 9:30pm and I was so tired and congested and itchy and all kinds of sore, but it was good that we helped this man because he would of had to do it all by himself. It felt really good to be able to help somebody that really needed it. 

This past week we have been really trying to look for the miracles in our area and we have fasted and prayed and really been seeking for the Lords hand. So in our area of Middleton we have been visiting this part member family. He is about 65 years old and his kids have served missions and his wife is a really active member of the church. This guys name is David. He is a really nice guy. I have asked him if he wants to take the missionary discussions and he said no. He said he wants us to leave a message and a prayer but he doesn't want the lessons. So we agreed with that and have been sneaking the lessons in one at a time. We will take a topic out of one of the lessons and we would work it into our message so this Non member was getting the lessons without even knowing it. Oh and did I mention that he comes to church with his wife every Sunday. He doesn't participate but he comes. This Sunday he wanted to meet with the bishop of his ward and he told the bishop that he thinks that it's time that he takes the missionary discussions. He called us and told us that he would like to start taking the discussions and it was really a miracle in our eyes because he is so ready to hear the gospel. Now we get the chance to teach him the lessons and we are way pumped!! 

Well that's really all about it.

Love,

Elder Riley

Brad's Email (Three months to go!) 5-18-15

Hi Everyone!!

So  this past week has been a pretty good week! Every week we have to call the Assistants to the President and talk to them about our zone. We have to do this weekly. I really enjoy these call ins with the APs Its really nice to be able to talk about the concerns and the positive things that make our zone better. And as they we asking me some questions I was asked "what does this mission need to become better?" now its not very often when you get to tell something like this to the assistants and your say actually will go somewhere. So I took the opportunity to give some of my input so what I personally think would help our mission better is that the missionaries need to know that they are all entitled to divine revelation and inspiration. that when the missionaries learn that they are all entitled to this and they know that they can receive inspiration for there area and improve the work. So we talked a little about as leaders how can we implement that in our own areas to show that it is possible to do. So the past week I have been doing my studies on revelations and inspiration. I am amazed at the simplicity of gaining inspiration for really anything that you need. But it is only if you allow yourself to either be humbled and allow God to work through you. But prayer is always the first thing that needs to happen when you seek for inspiration. And with prayer comes faith. because really without faith there is nothing. But when you receive and answer to your prayer or inspiration then comes the action. when we put our faith in God and pray to him asking for guidance he will give it to us. but its what we do with those answers that will determine our love for our God to show that we are willing to act with what he gives to us. 

So this is what we as leaders have to portray to our missionaries to let them know how simple it is to help the area out! 

But this doesnt just apply for missionaries as many of you may already know. but as a people. living a normal life or what ever life you are living! we can all receive inspiration. But are we all willing to humble ourselves and let the lord show us the proper way to gain achievement for the desires of our hearts? 

I love the way that the Lord works. I know that the Lord is willing to give us the answers that we need and or desire. but we must First ask. and Second listen. And Third action upon the things and answers given.

So I hope all of that made sense. Its hard for me to put all of my thoughts and write them down in a summarized version. if it doesn't let me know and I will try a better way of explaining it.

Something kinda cool happened this week, as we were driving to an appointment we saw a bunch of little animals running around in a field and I thought that they we just baby coyotes. and I pulled out my camera and zoomed in and got some pictures. it turns out they we a bunch of baby foxes! they were so cute I wanted to take one! 

And also there was a huge burn pile in front of our house and they people burning it didn't think to move our trash can so now we have a very sad looking trash can

WELL that's it for this week! Love you guys!!

Love Elder Riley

Our Mother's Day call!!

5/4/2015 Elder Hunter Jackman

Dear Family,

Is it really the end of the transfer already?? You bet it is... And moves calls have come. I'm staying as a Zone Leader in Poole and training another new Zone Leader. His named is Elder Rammell from Rexburg, Idaho. A farm boy! I haven't met him yet, but will on Wednesday. I just got done driving all the way across the south of England. Woke up at 5 to drop off some elders at the temple and now we just got back to Poole. So, it's been a pretty hectic/tiring day. But not too bad! 

Elder Trowbridge is off to Crawley and he will go home this transfer coming, it was so great to serve with him though! We killed it this transfer and taught some high numbers and saw a lot of miracles! Excited to see what next transfer brings!

P-Days here are fun. We play beach volleyball with some of the districts in Bournemouth and some other beach sports. Sooo fun! It reminds me of Oceanside, CA! Love hanging out with the missionaries over here!

We taught sooo many people this week. We have been teaching highest in the mission I believe so far. Our zone is on fire!! Great things are happening. This week, we found and taught our new investigator Ryan. He was found as we went knocking and met his brother Lee, who was super cool, but ended up not being all that into it. But days later, he texts us and says, ' Hey, my brother might be interested!' So we ended up seeing him! It was a great miracle.

We taught Ryan at his flat in Poole Town Centre and he lives in a ghetto kind of boarding school with some troubled chaps who are quite young. But we entered his flat and the Spirit was there. Ryan is a new Christian just trying to seek the good in all t things and be the best he can.

We taught him the Restoration of the gospel and the Spirit was swelling around in the room. It was amazing. The best part was looking into his eyes and that feeling you get when you just know they understand the message of truth. It clicks with their souls. They realise they found something they knew was missing all a long. Incredible experience kneeling down with him in his flat and hearing him ask if the Book of Mormon was the word of God and if the message was true, and then him opening his eyes and nodding yes and smiling from ear to ear.

Tears welled up in my eyes as I watched him and this is what missionary work is all about. Those are my favourite moments right there. Finding someone who has no concept really of truth or the purpose of life and unfolding it unto him in such a way that he knows undoubtedly that it is true.

Ah, I love missionary work with a passion! Though I'm not the best or perfect, I can tell when I'm nearly there, and that's when you can feel the Spirit the strongest.

So, our mission is getting iPads this coming week! Whoo! I am not too keen on them, but they should be great tools. Elder Patrick Kearon and Elder Nielsen came to our mission and trained us as a whole entire mission on how to use them righteously. I got a TON of insights from it on how when I return home, can continue to live with and return with honour. What powerul men of God they are!

So, our investigators all have baptismal dates Ryan the 23rd of May and Cindy the 30th of May - Please pray urgently for them to make these dates! I know they will. They are sooo Solid! Very prepared people.

We did a ton of knocking again this week, in the rain too. We are working in little villages where we have never really been before. Such an English area! It is proper British over here in Dorset, nothing like Peckham London (which I very dearly miss!!) 

I love eating the British dishes here: Shepherds pie, cottage pie, and tons of roast dinners with custard and truffles and other sorts! 

Well we have a busy busy week. Stake Correlation, zone planning. MLC, and moves in Staines. So tons of driving here and planning and all sorts of paperwork. Wish me luck!

I love you all so much. Thank you for all you do to help me.

Love,

Elder Jackman

Hi Everyone!!

Starting out in a new area always takes time so this week has been a very slow week! There isn't really any work in our area yet and also we are going to a lot of meetings.

So my companion is Elder Knighton. He is a nice guy but he doesn't have any experience with talking to people. When he does talk to people picture this - you know the way that Obama speaks? Well that's how Elder Knighton speaks but only in white guy voice and he isn't good at driving at all. He waits until the very last second to slow down so he can turn, luckily we switch driving everyday!  He is very offended by a lot of missionaries laughing at stupid things in district meetings and then he gets really serious and says we need to talk to them later about being mature... Me - they were just laughing, give em some slack. You don't need to be so uptight.  I guess I've got my work cut out for me!!

Other than that things are good! It's nice being back in Middleton, but I do miss Fruitland a lot!! 

This week we were trying to just introduce me to all the people in the ward, but we did meet this one guy, his name is Bobby Magee and he is a funny guy! We went to his house and he lives in a single wide that he is remodeling and so we knocked on his door and he just cracked it open and was asking us who we were and what we wanted. We told him who we were and then he slammed the door and in the back ground you could hear him yelling at his dog to sit. Then he opened the door and let us in. Well I could smell the beer on his breath pretty clearly and Elder Knighton never has been around beer at all. He doesn't know what it smells like so I told him this is going to be a visit that we are really going to enjoy. haha Bobby started showing us around his house and he took us to this one room that was just for his chickens. He calls them his girls. (Only in Idaho!!!) They live in the house and he also has a garden in his house that he is growing lots of peppers and all kinds of hot foods. He was all over the place and it was quite the experience. We even committed him to take the discussions! haha So we are going to start those next week sometime! 

For the past week I have kind of had a word of the week that I had to apply every day more than I normally would.  So my word was "Patience". I have really strived to be as patient as I can, but as the week got longer the patience got harder. Following a companion around that doesn't know how to drive or talk has been tough. Learning to work with him has been tough and I think it's also because I loved my last area so much! I never thought that on my mission I would have to start all over with having to learn how to adjust to a new area. So I guess you could say I forgot how get adjusted into an area that I am not all for, but It's has been a good experience because some of the things that I have forgotten have been brought up and relearned that have really helped me this week. What I am trying to say is that with starting all over for the first time in 8 months has been rough, but I get to relearn things and it will help me and teach me better ways to help others. Change is good as long as there is progression.  Although I don't particularly like the change that I had to make in coming to a new area, I will have new experiences. And even though I have learned some of the things before, I get to relearn them and the things that I learned I forgot how important they are. Another growing experience that has been helping me get through this first hard week!

Oh also another thing that has had to require patience, our dryer broke and so we are hang drying them! So I made some hang dry lines! haha

That's about it! love you guys!!

Love Elder Riley

Brad's email 3-30

Hey Everybody!! 

Another excellent week! We have been doing TONS of service this week, but we were doing it for members for the first part of the week... I mean we love to do it but we would be more successful if we did it with non members. So when I was at home one of the evenings for dinner I decided to pray for new ways to find investigators. After I had prayed I just laid on the floor and just closed my eyes and I cleared my mind and all of a sudden I got this AWESOME thought. My thoughts... " I love doing service but I would rather do it for a non member but we have tracted this area every other week and no success... so if our version of tracting doesn't work then we need a new plan.  We have a truck... how can we use it."  Then the super clear thought jumps into my MIND!! " Service tracting!! We can put lawn mowers in the back of our truck and a weed eater and we can go door to door and ask if we can mow and trim their lawn and we will take the trimmings!" So we decided to try it!  Elder Patterson and I are both stoked to try it. So on Saturday we got 2 push mowers and a weed eater and we went to 10 different houses and 4 of them let us do it and the rest didn't, but out of the 4 that let us do it we got 3 new investigators out of it and we are actually starting the discussions with one of them and their family tomorrow! So inspiration comes to those who seek for it.  Know that trusting in the Lord and knowing with fervent prayer and faith He will give it to whoever needs it and seeks for it. If I hadn't prayed for a new idea and way to help people we would not have had those 3 new investigators!  It works!! 

Elder Patterson and I had an appointment with a PMF (Part Member Family) and the wife isn't a member and we had committed her to baptism for Feb 28th, but it didn't happen. The husband got his name removed form the church and then re-baptized, so right now he doesn't have the priesthood and to regain that it would be about a year and a half process. He wanted to do the baptism and he couldn't so he said he doesn't want to proceed with it. But he still wanted is to go over the discussions with them. Yesterday we had a discussion with them and we have been praying that his heart would be softened and she would be able to be baptized. So yesterday he said to us... "I want her to be baptized as soon as she can cause if now is when she wants it then now is when we should do it".   We set a date for the weekend after gen. conference. SO that was a HUGE miracle! We have been praying for her to have an influence on her husband and she has! God knows how to change somebody's heart as quickly as he has too! 

So yah! its been a good week! Oh and there is a new video that the church has made! It's another Easter Video! So I invite and challenge everyone to watch and share it on facebook!  http://www.mormon.org/easter it is such a good video on Christ and that he still lives!!

Well that is about it! Have a great Easter!!

Love Elder Riley

Brad's Latest Email 3-16-15

Hi All!!

Okay! Well this week was a good week! We have been doing so much service!! I am actually getting TAN!!! Every day this past week has been in the high 60s and low 70s. We have been in our service clothes more than we have been in our proselyting clothes! haha It has been a busy week. A mission is an amazing thing. I now have such a wide variety of things that I can put on my resume. I have done so many different kinds of service!! It has been so nice and I have learned so many different techniques. Oh, but one thing happened last week that was the worst! So on Tuesday after District meeting we always go out to eat. So we decided to go to IPC (Idaho pizza company) and on Wednesday I woke up around 3 in the morning being extremely dizzy and having nausea. I threw up. So all day Wednesday I was puking and I literally didn't have any strength at all! I puked a total of 12 times!!! It was a rough day. I don't ever want to have food poisoning again and my entire district had it! It was bad! But thank goodness that was the only bad thing that really happened. 

Yesterday as we were in ward council, someone had to give a spiritual thought and in this video that he showed us there was a saying that stuck out at me. "You never know how strong you are... until being strong is all you have left." That really stuck out to me. This brothers spiritual thought was on courage. It was a great thought. It talked about how standing up for what we believe in, to have courage.  As a missionary I have the opportunity to lovingly correct them on something false that they have learned about our beliefs. 

For example: (and I am not bashing on ANYBODY), but we were sitting down in a 5 star restaurant.... ( Dennys ;) ) and this man came up to us and told us everything that we do wrong in our church.  Luckily he wasn't making a scene and before he had the chance, I Interrupted him and invited him to sit with us. He did. He was an older man and I asked him where he had learned what he knew about the LDS church. He didn't tell us what church he was a member of, but he said that they have a class at the church that preaches and teaches how to deal with "MORMONS".  So he told us some of the things that they teach the congregation. I began to ask this old man where it says to love they neighbor as thyself? and he told me it was in Mark. So we looked it up and we read it and I asked him who were his neighbors? He said anyone around him. So then I asked him what it meant to be a christian? He said to be Christlike and to lead by example. I told him I don't understand why Christian churches,  not all, but some preach against another. I asked him if it means to love they neighbor as thyself shouldn't we be united? So we continued to talk and it turns out that he wants to know more. He apologized for the way he presented himself and we took down his number and are going to call him and see when we can come and see him.

I could have just let him tell us what he believed, but instead I let him know in a loving way that the things he found out or learned were not completely true. So have courage to stand and be proud of what you believe. If we are all Christians we need to be united. We NEED to be Christlike! We need to be example of the believers! 

Well that is about it! 

Thanks all! 

Love Elder Riley  

Elder Allison

1. Hello Family.
2. This week was super awesome!! We are making a lot of progression with a lot of different investigatores. And we are focusing on still a lot with the young men. It is so much fun. Today we went to the meeting then hurried back to go and play basketball and soccer with the young men. We brought 8 young men investigatores to the activity!!!! ( It is a tiny bit easier to convince a young man to play soccer than to go to church on sunday :) But it all starts somewhere. jana. 
3. The good news is that Fernando is super excited for his baptism this saturday, and the ward is helping him out a whole bunch. We went and visited him with the bishop on thursday and it was so awesome!! The bishop is changing his excitement! :)  Also Sebastian is very excited for his baptism on the 28th. He has his white shirt and white pants all ready. And his family is all in, supporting him. We know that soon his mom will also make the choice. She is reading the Book of Mormon. And is in 2nd Nephi 12 right now!! She is enjoying it. Its just a matter of time. Also we have been working a lot with Brayan, Brandon, and Bruno a lot. Their mom and grandma arent giving the support that they should be. I dont know why, but the ward is also helping with them a lot also. It is funny because we usually walk the kids home after church, and there are like 10 young men, or kids walking home with us. 
4. Another cool thing this week was that we found a place that they call the "lost city" i dont remember if i told you about this the last week, but it is a little "neighborhood?" Its like 30 yards by 50 yards, more or less, with just one entrance that is hidden in the corner of our area. I didnt know about it until a few weeks ago. But it is a little place with about 40 or 50 houses, made of tin walls, They are by far the most humbling houses i have seen here in mexico. I have seen a lot of houses that were pretty difficult, but this one takes the cake. Well we went in there and contacted some people. We didnt really know how to, but i started playing soccer with some teenagers, and kids, and we kind of won their confidence, and we were able to enter into one of the houses and teach about 5 people. Everyone there knows each other. So we are pretty confident that if we can get a few people to start going to church we will be able to find a ton of people. One of the dads that we taught went to the english class, then the next day went to church. It was funny because i started to juggle the soccer ball, but then it fell into a little ditch like thing. I reached down to get it. And BAM, my pants ripped SUPER bad, everyone started laughing SO much. One of the kids was on the ground laughing so hard, It was one of the funnier experiences that has ever happened!! jaja :)
5. The young men won a thriller this week 13 to 9 jaja. They made me and my companion jerseys. They are pretty sweet. 
6. Today we are going over in like 2 hours to eat lunch with Fernando, his mom, his sister and two ward members for the birthday of Luz ( fernandos mom) We are pretty certain that in just a few weeks her, and her daughter will get baptized, they go every week and love church.
7. All in all everything is going great! I love these people more than you could EVER imagine! They are so special to me. I love being a missionary. Have a great week!!! 

1. Love Elder Allison

This week was great!!! Miguel got baptized!!!!!!!! :) It was so amazing. So we went over to his house with our ward mission leader to visit him on Tuesday, and he was there on youtube watching the joseph smith movie, taking notes, i just looked over at my comp. like "is this really happening...?" He is awesome!! He has so much desire to learn! The baptism was really great! It was on saturday, well he works in a trucking bussiness, and delivers stuff all over mexico. So thursday he told his boss, that he would not be working Saturday because he was going to get baptized, there was another worker in there at that time that overheard. That guy is the driving buddy of miguel. They go together on the trips because you need two. Well that guy just happens to be an Anti mormon. He was a member, went on a mission, and is now completely against the church. Well miguel told us on Friday that he was saying a bunch of stuff about the church the whole ride, and it was multiple hours. talk about opposition in all things. Well miguel told us, "Elders, I dont know if this was bad, but i told him he had better shut up or i would make him.." jaja he said that he was about to punch him. The guy apparently cooled down a bit, but he gave him a sheet of anti mormon stuff to look up on line. The devil works hard on us, and on our investigators, that is for sure. But he said that couldnt change his mind about the answers that he has received :) That guy is in big trouble in the judgement day....

So on Tuesday, we looked and looked and looked for people but again no one was home or they were false directions. My comp and I were just super frustrated. We sat down on the curb and just thought what in the world is going on. What can we do? My comp suggested we go over to a member to ask for refrences so we did, and that member just had someone move into her appartment to rent one of the rooms. So we were able to teach her, and she was pretty interested :) That was a pretty cool moment, right when we were at our lowest, Heavenly Father guided us to someone else. Pretty cool stuff!!!

Leonardo, Elizabet, and Rosa. The grandma, daughter, and son. Story is still going great. The mom, and son now have 3 straight weeks going to church and they feel wonderful. We put a baptismal date with Leonardo for 21st of Febuary, and he is really excited!

We also put a baptismal date for a guy named Martin this week, who is fairly new, but really likes the church. It was probably one of the easier baptismal dates i have put in the mission. He was just like, Ya, i like the idea of your baptisms. It makes a lot more sense than the baptisms in the cathlic church. So we are pretty excited. 

We had a bunch of meetings this week!! 

We found a really cool family of three this week and have an appointment for tonight that we are really excited about, hopefully things will go well with them. 

President hall wanted us to give our stake president a little preach my gospel book, So we were forced into going to the CCM. jaja We went in and gave it to him, then we were walking back to the gate and a guy that works there was like "Hey did you guys eat breakfast? We were like... uh no, not really and he was like then why dont you go eat in the cafateria." So he took us over to the cafateria. And we got to eat. There were a bunch of missionaries eating there, it was awesome!! We felt like rockstars because everyone would see our visitors pass and be like "NO WAY are you guys real missionaries!!" And we would be like... uh... well we arent fake ones. jaja we sat down and ate with some missionaries, and then we would have a bunch of missionaries come up to the table, and kinda sworm us asking us all kinds of questions, it was way funny!! So many people wanted to talk with us. 

All is going well in the area. I am very happy, this may or may not be the last week. The little kids in the neighbor hood continue to think that I am a soccer God sent from heaven. 

This weeks english class was fun, i am glad that i am in charge of teaching the kids, it is a way good time. Thanks for all you do, I love you guys so much!!!

Love Elder Allison

2/9/2015 ~ Elder Jackman

Dear Family,

This week was great. It was Elder Blackner's last week in the mission too! 2nd companion that I've sent home in a row - honestly, it is quite hard to keep focused and work hard when you have 2 companions leave for home consecutively! I got a call from Presdient Millar - I'm called to train a brand new Zone Leader! His name is Elder Hare, he's from Richfield, Utah (Yes, ANOTHER Utah companion! But I work the best with them!) He was in my district in Peckham, so he went from being Peckham District Leader to the new Wandsworth ZL! So, that's super exciting! He is a great guy and a super hard worker! We are going to destroy it this next couple transfers together. By the end of it, I'll have been in Peckham for 9 months and perhaps more!! So long, but I am grateful for it. I have learned so much here in London, and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else! Training a new ZL though is apparently one of the hardest positions in the mission! But I can easily manage :)

This week went a bit slower. A lot of people cancelled their appointments with us, so that was a drag, but we were still able to get 5 new baptismal dates, and we have a lot of new people in our teaching pool! This week, we finally taught our new investigator I found on a bus named Arlette - she is from Cameroon, and is pretty golden! She is very very nice. Also, we are teaching this man named Seth, a Ghanaian, and we teach him in this place called 'Kumasi Market' a busy busy Ghanaian shop which sells crazy foods and crazy Pentecostal music blasts there - and we teach him in his office upstairs in this African salon. It's a crazy place to teach, but he is super nice. 

We are lately having a problem teaching people who are really indoctrinated - VERY Pentecostal and stuck in their beliefs. So we have a TON of cool people we are working with - just it will take some time to teach them all and sort it all out. No worries!!

Did a lot of ministering for our zone. We helped the sisters in Peckham build a wardrobe that took nearly 3 hours!! It was tough! But it felt nice to help.

I've seen a lot of wild things out here this week. The cold is making people sad and depressed. On the bus two days ago, I sat next to a Jamaican who was talking to himself and had a dull shard of wood and he was stabbing himself on his arm and legs and head with it really really hard. It was quite scary. Seen a lot of fights in the streets and drunk people too - its sad to see people like this. That's why they need to gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Sometimes, as a person/missionary I feel worthless, useless, like I have done no good. Some days are rougher than others. But there are many many more moments and days where I look back on the good I have accomplished. I have helped to change people's lives. I wish I could help everyone I meet. I want to baptise the world so badly, it pains me!! I want to do more than I can always - but I am reminded of Alma's experience when he wanted to be an angel to go and fly around and proclaim the gospel to everyone, but he was rebuked by the Spirit- You do what you can, and do the very best you can.

I have changed so much. I am grateful for my mission so much. And though sometimes there may be hard days, those are the days also where I learn to rely more on my Saviour Jesus Christ.

I hope you all know that I have a testimony. This gospel changed lives, I have seen it firsthand. I love serving so much. I am excited for these next couple of transfers. It will be challenging, but I know I can do hard things! 

I love you all so much,

Elder Jackman

Hey family.

This week... This week was like a blur, a tough blur. We are still working really hard on building up a big pool of investigators. I am pretty sure when we have a big huge pool of investigatores i will be gone. seeing as the next change coming up will hit 4 changes here in the area. Which is when president almost always changes the missionaries. And that will be 3 weeks away. But I want to leave the area, in good hands to my comp. We have been contacting like craziesss, and we knocked a lot of doors too.... tecniquly we are only allowed to knock doors according to the spirit. So we went and stood in front of the apartment buildings, and tried feeling the spirit as to which we should knock. We came to a mutual agreement, and knocked the whole building. It went well. It was something different, and fun. We met some nice, and not so nice people :) We also checked all the contacts that we did in the street. We set up appointments with them in the street, they tell us their address and the time we should go by. Well we are convinced that everyone got together, and decided to pull a giant prank on the mormons or something. Because we went by around 25 peoples house this week, and they were all people that gave us a time, and address.... well out of all of those 25, there was 1 that let us in... :) jaja. But what eves. We just tried to keep smilling through it all. And laugh it off. There were a few unexpected new people that we were able to find, and go into their houses to teach. So that was good. 

Miguel is doing really really well. He is an awesome guy. He wants more than anything to be baptized, and has been clean completly from cigaretts and coffee for more than a week, so if everything goes well, he will get baptized this week. :) He says that everything is going a lot better with his family situations, which we are happy about. There are a few guys that always make fun of him, as he walks by now that yell out to him "hey mormon" but he says that he doesnt care. Which is cool. Because he said that before that would have affected him a lot more.

I found out that i have the "opportunity" to give a talk in our stake/zone confrence that we have every 3 months with the members and president hall.... yipee!! I dont know how i have been so blessed, but at least they gave me a little bit of notice ;) It will be on Wednesday this week, for all of you that want to send an extra payer my way. Also, they wanted a recent convert to speak, so we thought of Dolores. She is going to speak, unlike me, that is right up her ally. She was pretty excited to hear that she is going to speak. jaja. 

One of those days, where litterally like every appointment fell through, we were walking past some kids playing soccer in the street, there were like 15 of them. one of the kids said hey mormons come play.. I just looked at my comp, and we put down our bags and played for a few min. Well all the kids were just super shocked, that a white guy from the states could play soccer. It probably wasnt the best use of time, but it helped us relax just a little bit. And its not like we waste very much time at all :) And now every time we see those kids in the neighborhood (which is just about everyday, because the appartment complex is small) they run up to us, or yell out to us "la reta! La reta" which pretty much means lets play a game. jaja. It is way funny. 

Today we took a nap after the meeting :) That felt very good, it was the best nap i have had since i have been on the mission, by far!

That is pretty much it for the week, there are quite a few of investigatores that are progressing well. We are hoping for the best for each of them, who knows if i will get changed or not in 3 weeks, probably going into my last area pretty soon, before my final area.... Alpine utah.... wow weird... I sure do love you all.

There is no doubt in my mind that the gospel is true. I am so thankfull for it in my life. And going on a mission was for sure the greatest decision of my life. I really love it!!! 

Have a great week!

Elder Allison

Brad's email 1-26-15

One of the sister missionaries that are in his Zone area.  

Hello!!

So this week has been a pretty good week for the most part. We did lots of things and tried to find new people to teach. It was Elder Patterson's first week in the mission field and he said that he really likes it, but he is going to have to get used to it.! He is such an awesome Elder. He has the attitude of a new missionary and is keeping me motivated. I still don't have a picture of him, but I will get one today and lots more! This companion likes to take pictures so I am going to follow his example and take pictures as well! haha 

I'm very sorry to hear about Grandpa Clawson... He really was an amazing person, but I guess the Lord really needed him in preparing the kingdom for the second coming. I am really thankful for the example that he set. I will honestly never forget him. I am also thankful that the last time that I saw him he was able to work and enjoy the farm. He taught me alot about cows!  haha He kinda went deeper than he had to when talking about the reproduction of the cow... haha, but I guess you know that he really likes the farm and his family because of the way that he talked about them and his deep love for them. I am glad he is out of his painful state. Make sure the Clawson Family knows that I love them and I am always praying for them. I respect that family and consider them family! 

The weather here has been really nice lately! We have been parking our truck and walking everywhere that we go. I have been rolling up my sleeves and trying to get a sun tan. ;) 

This week we have been focusing on the topic of Freedom To Choose. It has been a solid week of talking about agency and why we have it. I was given the opportunity to teach Elders Quorum and the Gospel Principals class. It is always interesting talking about something that everyone in the class knows quite a bit  about, but it was really nice to teach it. I talked alot about my life before I was a missionary and about my conversion and how it was my choice to serve a mission and not anybody else. It was my choice to decide to participate in church. it is all my choice!  

I talked a lot about being accountable for the choices that you make. I told them some more experiences about my life before my mission and how I had to be accountable for those choices. Some of the consequences are good and some are bad. It is all up to us. I talked about before we all came down to earth and the choice that we all made to follow Christ's plan so we would be free to chose and that we would be accountable for those choices, rather than taking Satan's plan and being able to do whatever we want and be able to return back to him and not have to be accountable. I concluded with my testimony and challenged them all to think a little bit more when it comes to making some decisions and to try and remember the gift that we have been given and how we can use it wisely. 

It seemed to go well and there was quite a bit of participation. I have found out that no matter who you are talking to or who you are teaching to ask a lot of questions. For example: if someone were to bring their car to a mechanic and said it is making a noise and that is all they said, well that doesn't really help me very much. So I have to ask where it is coming from, the front or the back, right side or left. Is there a vibration, does the sound come up when you slow down or speed up or when you apply the brakes? 

All of these questions are going to help me find the answer to the problem of the car and when I can pinpoint where the sound is coming from. It is the same with teaching. If you want to find something out or if you would like someone to talk or to ask a question or answer a question, the best way is to ask LOTS of questions! It works! :)

Well, that is about it for the week.  Have a good one!

Love, Elder Riley

1/19/2015 - Elder Jackman

Dear Family,

Incredible week, one of the best weeks of my mission. We worked so hard, I'm so tired right now. We truly worked our guts out. We had the BAPTISM of BOBLOU!!!! Our Cameroonian investigator! He is amazing! Baptised him in 2 weeks flat!! Such a golden young man, so prepared and so humbled. He was a gift from God to us as missionaries. I think I've told you all this story before, but we did meet Boblou while we were contacting on Christmas Day giving out wrapped up Book of Mormons and 'He is the Gift' cards. He loved it so much and texted us the very next hour and wanted so bad to meet up. He wants to be a missionary so badly. We taught him everything and he soaked it all up like a sponge spiritually. After the baptism, he got up and bore his testimony. He now knows this is where he needs to be. He is currently trying to strudy PMG and submit papers eventually to serve a mission. Perhaps he will be a great leader in Cameroon, where there is oly small units there. He is such a great person, so humble. He was confirmed on Sunday, I did the confirmation, and blessed him that he would one day be a future missionary. It was powerful. Ah, this is what missionary work is ALL about!! Truly the best thing ever. All of our converts here in Peckham are doing so well! We have baptised 4 people in just a couple of months here and even President Millar and Sister Millar came to support and congratulate us. We are doing some great work here. Building up the Church here in London feels so accomplishing. 

This week was very cold and rainy too. I went on a powerful excahnge with the Clapham DL, and we had such fun together. We had a powerful exchange review - I taught about him serving with ALL his heart. And what that really meant.

He ended up having tears rolling down his eyes, and he applied that counsel. Now that counsel made him better and he accounted saying it was one of the best exhanges ever. It changed him! He's only got 2 transfers left, so I helped him the best I could to start now serve the best he could.

London is great. We are doing lots of finding 24/7 - we talk to everyone we can! We have had some crazy times doing it - people running up to us and flipping us off and getting right up to our faces! Scary stuff! But nothing we can't handle!

London is a concrete jungle. I haven't seen grass in ages haha. Always on a bus and tube and train or feet. So much travelling this week. We are so happy to hit the streets again - in fact, me and Elder Stephan (my mission trainer/dad) are going on exchange again in Peckham! Whooo!! 

This week I worked so hard. 

My testimony of the Saviour really increased. I was saying my nightly prayer and then felt inspired to read Alma 7: 11-13. It talks of how Jesus knows literally everything about you - even the deepest of heartaches. I burst into tears as I sat there in my study room late at night. Now the pages in my scriptures are all crinkled from my tears hahaha. But it felt nice and remind myself that Christ is my personal Redeemer. 

I know this with all my heart. I've applied it! It works and it can work for you too. My mission has changed me so much.

(Thanks to everyone for the gifts/letters they sent!!! :))

Love,

Elder Jackman

1/12/2015

Dear Family,

Brilliant week yet again! A lot of zone planning that's for sure - and I mean a lot. Computer work galore, zone goals, MLC, DLC, and other trainings for our mission and Wandsworth Zone. 

London is getting colder and colder, mixed with a lot rain too, which makes missionary work miserable. Soaking and tracting is not fun!! 

Our week was solid. I had so much fun!! Spent the whole thing in Peckham, doing lots of contacting. Went out with a missionary from Lovell, Wyoming named Elder Mayes - man, he lived out there in the boonie didn't he? A town with a couple hundred people!! Wild. He is a strong woker. A lot of the Americans from small towns are solid missionaries - they know how to do missionary work!! 

We have been working a lot with our Cameroon investigator Boblou - he came to Church yesterday again too! Whoo! He needs one more week - but his baptism is right around the corner! Keep praying for him! 

Something I have cherished on my mission is the deep love I develop with each person we baptise, and the people I work with where our spirits just click with one another. For instance, we had a DA at Isata's home (our most recent convert) we had Casava rice and leaves - a great dish! But after spending some time with her, I walked out of the house with a huge smile on my face. Such great happiness filled my heart I couldn't help but smile!! I LOVE the people I have come in contact with - especially when you see them keep coming to Church and staying active! Such joy! 

I have grown a lot this week. The scriptures really strengthened me and showed me the better way. I have a 100% testimony that the scriptures are true and they do show you ' all things that ye must do' They contain the words of Christ. I have loved reading them, especially this past week - I'm a new person I feel! Such renewed strength that I know has only come from God. 

Great week - not too much happened, but still sooooo productive. The Wandsworth Zone is in good hands ;)

I keep having dreams about Jersey island!!! Ahhh, I miss that island sooooo much!!! I honestly almost cried thinking about all the great times I had there - from cycling everywhere, the cows, the ocean, the castles, the sunshine, the members!! Everything! Jersey island is written in my heart!! Just thought I would add that. Maybe we can all take a trip there in the summer after my mission?? :)

I love everything here and my mission. I love the gospel! I love being a missionary so much. I dont want to leave!! 

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Jackman

1/5/2015

Dear Family,

What a great week!! We are seeing SO much success here in Peckham! We had the wonderful chance to baptise our investigator, Isata, from Sierra Leone (West African) She is so special to me and we have a great relationship! She was one of our 'golden investigators' - baptised in less than a month! We were eating in a Sierra Leonian restatrant with a member, Bro. Kamara, (also from Sierra Leone) and he presented to us Isata, who was there - and wanted us to teach her! She was his aunt, they eventually found out! They were able to reunite as family in London. Funny how the Gospel works in that kinda way - This is what gives me complete joy! She was so solid the whole time and she asked me to baptise her :) Standing in the water with her was amazing too.

Many more baptisms to come about this month! 

Whilst contacting in Peckham, we met one of our other investigators! Boblou, from Camaroon (also West Africa) Boblou is such a tender mercy from the Lord. He's our 'Christmas miracle' - I approached him in the streets and gave him a wrapped up Book of Mormon and some candy to him and his friend. They loved it so much. He's on a student visa for a couple years here in England. We taught him the next day and he is SO golden. All he wants is to be baptised as soon as possible!! So we gave him a date for the 17th! Please pray for him!! Boblou only wants to serve God and wants so badly to serve a mission. He wants to do what we do. He's 23 and full of humility. We already love him to death. Again, the Lord continues to bless us continually here. We are working hard and staying 100% obedient and worthy. We are even giving an MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on 'Exact obedience' to all the mission and wrote an article for the mission newspaper thing. I've never been so on fire on my mission!!

Lots of busy work this week. It's the start of a new transfer here. I only have 5 more in total...Crazy how fast time flies. 13 out 17 transfers done with! Can you believe it?? Time needs to slow down! Well anyway, lots of planning for the new transfer ahead - like Zone Training's, DLC's, presentations, and so on. Plus, if I train a new ZL next transfer, I'll have to tackle zone goals and Stake Correlation pretty much by myself until the new one gets the hang of it!

A lot of new missionaries coming in this transfer, so new faces! Always fun to work with. 

So much fun this week - went out on tons of splits with the Kennington Spanish elders, talking in Spanish all the time haha or trying too - I seriously sometimes think I'm serving a Spanish speaking mission... Ate a lot of African food today - one that almost destroyed my throat with spicy and a lot of fufu too. I'm trying to keep my 6 pack but it's getting progressively tougher haha. 

Life is SO good! I love where I am. I have been really ill too this week - coughing up my lungs and sniffling a ton. I caught the flu on Monday last week, so that was hard on my body. The mission can tear you apart physically and make you look like absolute horror, but I'll come back victorious knowing I served the Lord valiantly. 

My testimony is growing so much - Ah, I can't begin to tell you my great experiences with the Atonement, the gospel, everything I have learned. God is good. 

Happy New Year everyone. Make this one dedicated to the Lord. Consecrate your lives to Him. 

:)

Love,

Elder Jackman

Hi All:

(We asked Brad to come up with a word for the year that he will live by)  So before I forget my word for the year is FEARLESS. It is something that I feel a leader needs to be and something that people can look up to.

So this week has been a pretty good week! We did do lots of service again! It has been snowing here as well and today there is supposed to be a big snow storm! Thats always exciting!

It has been a good start to a good new year! On Monday we went to the stake center and played basketball and that was super fun! I really am getting lots better at playing and I have found that I am quite competitive. Then we went home and did lots of laundry and did alot of cleaning. We decided we were going to deep clean our apartment, so we pulled out the oven and the fridge and mopped the floor and cleaned the bathroom and we shampooed our carpets. It was needed! Our apartment was already clean to begin with but we thought we would make it even more clean! There is really nothing better than to come home to a sparkling clean house! (from the mom: Who is this kid?)

Tuesday we had District meeting and I was given the topic of goal setting and accountability. So I talked alot about goals and how they are important in a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly aspect. That we need to always be setting goals that we can 1. attain  2. are reasonable 3. you will progress with. 4. enjoy.  We talked alot about all that good stuff. I really don't like talking about goals for an hour and a half just because there is really not alot you can really say that will make the conversation progress, but we did talk about how our district can receive 81 lessons taught a week. That means all they would have to do is to teach 3 lessons a day for 7 days and we can reach that goal. They are going to be working on it for the rest of the transfer and we will see how that goes. I made sure to really emphasize the word Accountable because I told them that when they set a goal they need to be accountable for reaching that goal or not reaching it. and why they didn't reach it. What was it that was making them not be able to reach a short term goal and if they didn't why? So Elder Stuver and I want to teach at least 20 lessons a week so we set a goal for 3 lessons a day. Monday we were not even close to 3 lessons and on Tuesday Elder Stuver was sick and on Wednesday I was sick so for 2 days didn't get any lessons! We said we are going to have to teach 5 or 6 lessons a day til Sunday night to reach our goal of 2 because I want to be accountable to the district in my part for teaching the correct amount! We did it! It feels so good to be able to reach these simple attainable goals! 

This weekend we went to a part member families house and we had J-Dawgs and they were SUPER good! We put a new grill together for him so he made us dinner and they loved that sauce! It was so good!! This family is awesome. He is just a chill guy and he has an awesome personality and loves to talk cars so that means not only do I get to go over for amazing food but I also get to talk cars!  I really like going over there and this upcoming Thursday we are going to play volleyball with Doug so that will be good and we are eating at their house again on Tuesday and he is making chicken riggies. I guess they are super good! They come from New York! So we will see how that goes!

Oh and there is a family that lets us come over whenever we want to get Italian sodas and when we were driving to their house we saw a snowman that can only be found in the state of Idaho... so you will see what it is! I thought that is was pretty funny! so hope you like it! 

That's about it for the week! love you guys!

Elder Riley

A few excerpts from Brad's last few emails.

This new investigator that we have was from a referral. We were told to stop by her house and offer her some service. We went to her house and as we pulled in she could hear our truck. She came out and she did NOT look happy... so I was a little afraid what was going to end up happening, But it turns we were able to chop some of her wood. So, it has been really cold lately... and I think the coldest it got here was -9 degrees and it was FREEZING! So since it was so cold and EVERYONE in Idaho has a wood burning stove here, they go through quite a bit of wood when it gets that cold especially  this early in the year. So it has been cold and you should probably have quite a bit of wood to get you through the entire winter.  We were doing service for this grump of a lady and we were chopping what little wood that she had and she was almost out and it is only November!!!  We being so service minded lately we got it in our heads that we were going to go find a trailer and not go back to her house till our truck and this long trailer was full of wood.  We finally finished cutting down all the wood and all that fun stuff and showed up at her house with this huge trailer and our small pickup maxed out on weight overflowing with nice pieces of heavy cherry and apple wood and elm trees. We pulled up to her house she once again heard our truck and came out and was looking a little more mad now then the first time I saw her, but we didn't say anything but "SURPRISE!!!"  and her face went from angry to tears pouring down her face. She gave both of us hugs and was so grateful for our good deed. She let us in and told us her story. She said that she doesn't have any family. Her husband is in prison for life for murder and her son died around this time of year when he was 13 years old.  He was in a head on collision with a logging truck and her cat that she had for 20 years had died 2 weeks ago. She was going through a rough time and she said that she was NOT interested in the gospel at all and in any kind of religion. She said it makes things too real. We told her we weren't going to say anything about the gospel and we do but she doesn't really notice because we just threw it into the conversation. She is really enjoying our company and she said this is really what she needed. She actually said she considers us her grandkids. She doesn't have any kids so she likes to think that we are her grandkids. 

Service is such an amazing thing in this life. As my family knows I have always been one to do service and the reason I love it so much is because it's a chance to help anyone who needs it and it makes you feel so good! You have no idea how much people love little things like shoveling their walk or taking the newspaper to their door or randomly raking someones lawn and you don't get to see what their reaction is or hear about it all you know is you just served one of your brothers and sisters. I STRONGLY feel like service is the way to someone's heart. It is a sign of love and compassion for them. We need to help our brothers and sisters in this mortal journey. and if they don't want it respect that, but it never hurts to ask. just saying...

Christmas

We spent the first half of our Christmas opening presents and we were able to have a good time calling home and reading Luke 2 with them! It is one of my favorite traditions, but we spent the second half of our Christmas at a member's home! It was fun to spend Christmas with them and be able to eat with them! They made us menudo and I didn't really like it. The texture was the worst but it cost a lot of money to make and so I made myself eat it. Just to be kind. Elder Stuver had 1 bite and didn't like or eat the rest of what he took! I'm lucky I have such a strong stomach! It is something that I will never want to eat again... but it was a good experience. We just watched a bunch of church movies with them!! 

 

They are an awesome family and have been out of jail for 3 months and they have stayed marijuana free for 145 days! I'm super proud of them! I am Doug's Sponsor and I council with him on addiction recovery so I go over the 12 step program and talk about his addiction and how he can overcome his addiction and not want to crave it. They are an awesome family and we love doing work with them! We eat at their house every Saturday! She is a pretty good cook when it isn't cow stomach... haha but they are progressing so much!! Right now we are trying to get them to quite smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. We really want Doug to advance in the priesthood so we are really focusing on them right now. They want to be sealed in the Salt Lake temple so we are trying to find a temple picture of the Salt Lake temple so they can have a picture of their long term goal!

 

Well that is really all that happened this past week! I love this area so much! I'm so thankful for everyone's support and prayers! Try to always remember that we should always remember through the year the birth, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. and always keep him in our thoughts.

 Love, Elder Riley