The Trials of Missionary Work

Hello everyone. A lot of things happened this week that hurt my soul. We also found a lot of miracles on the way and I'm really grateful for those. I want to tell you about what happened to one of the families we have been teaching, but I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty tired. I hope you all had an amazing week and yea that's about it. I'll tell you some of my experiences this week now. 

First what I want to tell you is what hurt my soul:
We had three baptisms planned for Saturday. It was a family. The dads name is Damien and his sons are named Bruno and Francisco. They were going to get baptized, all three of them. We had baptism interviews planned for them and everything and they came to church and everything and were really excited to get baptized. On Wednesday, two Catholic priests came to their house and obligated them to be baptized in the Catholic church because their sons go to a Catholic school. Damien and his family almost don't have anything and the two priests have a lot of money and started saying things really bad about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. By the way the Catholic church is really different down here. I don't know why it is different but now Damien is afraid to get baptized with his kids in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. His son Bruno still wants to get baptized but he can't because his dad won't let him. I'm really sad because of this. The only thing we want as missionaries is to help other people be more happy. We don't go around talking bad about other churches. We believe that people can worship who they want and where they want when they want too. I feel like we have done almost everything possible to help them and when you feel like you have done everything so that something happens and it still doesn't happen. It is hard sometimes but there is always light at the end of the tunnel with Jesus Christ as the mediator of all things. 

Something really awesome that happened this week is that we found a drunk guy one day and they next day he came to church drunk. It was awesome except for the drunk part but still. This guy told us everything. His name is Juan and he wants to change his life. His wife left him and couple years ago and he wants to change everything and find God in his life. Well I know one thing is for sure that he found the right place to change his life. He is awesome and we are helping him a lot with his desire to change and follow Christ.  

There are a lot of things happening around the world in missionary work for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There are more than 80,000 of us in the whole world and we all work together for one cause. This is the work of the Lord. I know it is with all my heart. It is hard sometimes, but I love it.I hope you all have a great week. My dad sent me peanut butter recently so I will be enjoying that when it comes. Love you all. 

Elder Jessop

This week was really hard. La semana mas duro en toda mí misión.‏

Hi everybody! Elder Jessop here, writing now in a place called CyberRicky's. Turns out the guys name is Ricky. That makes sense right. This week was really long and I have never been so tired. A lot of good things happened this week though. I got bit by a dog. That was fun. There was a flood outside of my house on Saturday and we baptized two people this last week. One guy named Marcos and a girl named Maria. It was awesome. Now I'll tell you the stories.

Dog bite: A dog bit me. It kinda hurt. I was doing a contact on divisions with my Zone Leader and we were talking to a guy and I stuck my hand over the fence to pet the dog, like I have done a million times, but this time the dog bite me. We finished the contact though nice and strong. I then walked home and cleaned my wound. I looked up what to do if a dog bites me and it turned out that we needed to ask the guy if his dog had rabies. It didn't occur to me that the dog could of had rabies. Luckily he didn't, don't worry mom I know he didn't because we asked him. That was a good day. 

Flood: There was also a flood. It wasn't a flash flood because there was no warning. It was literally a flood. It just started pouring Saturday and then it flooded outside of my house. It took an extra 10 minutes to try and find a way to cross the thing. I have a picture so that is cool.

Baptism of Marcos: We baptized a 10 year old boy named Marcos. He is the nephew of a girl we baptized two weeks ago. He is awesome and he is going to make a great missionary one day. 

Baptism of Maria: Maria is a 19 year old girl that lives with members that are less active. They gave us the reference a week after we asked them if they had anybody we could teach. It was a miracle because they found somebody and we baptized her. She already wants to serve on a mission and she is really converted. It was a blessing to be apart of her conversion and to be able to baptize her. We also reactivated the family in the process and that was something awesome too. 

This week was really hard. But that is because we are working. The Lords hands are in this work. The last General Conference it was said that we now have over 15 million members of the Church. The work is going fast and it will keep going until it is done. I'm just glad I have a chance to be a little tiny part of it. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is my Savior. I know with all of my heart that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only church there in that God has given authority to act in his name through prophets. I know it is true. I'm happy that I know that.

I love you all and I hope you all have great weeks.

Elder Jessop

La Conferencia General‏

Hey everyone. My week was great. I have a lot of cool stories to tell you all. I hope you are all doing well and chill'n like villains. 

The General Conference: General Conference was awesome! General Conference is like Christmas for missionaries. They are 7 missionaries in my zone that are North Americans and the rest are Latino. Lucky for us we got to watch it in English and they all watched it in Spanish. It was pretty sweet. For those of you who do not know what General Conference is, it is a conference that the church does every 6 months when we get the listen to the Prophets and Apostles of the world. It is something that we have had since the beginning. Jesus Christ himself always had his meetings with a bunch of people when he was a prophet and he taught the people the will of God and we still do that today every 6 months. Anyways that was pretty awesome. 

The Lesson of Miracles: This last week I did divisions with my Zone Leader, Elder Moffett. We have been in Caáguazu for a long time together and we live together in the same house too. We went to teach a lesson in a place named Toro Blanco. We talked to the mom of our investigator, who is a member, and she told us that nobody was home. We were bummed but we waited like two minutes and out of nowhere our investigador Marcos shows up. He is 10 so we can't teach him. We have a rule that we can't teach lessons unless there is a guy who is more than 12 years old present. It is to protect us from bad situacions. So still we were stuck without an option, but then his aunt Martha showed with her Friends, they were all girls, so we still had to find a guy. We asked them to wait five minutes and we would come back with a guy. What we did is we went to a soccer field where a bunch of teenagers were playing soccer. We ask them to help us and only one wanted to help us. And then THEY ALL CAME. All 15 of them. We found a guy. We found a lot of them. So we began talking and Elder Moffet went to do a baptism interview with Marcos and I taught 27 teenagers and a 65 year old grandma by myself in Spanish and Guarani. It was pretty awesome and a miracle because Marcos passed his baptism interview. IT WAS AWESOME.

That is the best story of the week that I have. Miracles are real and I know that the Lord can work Miracles in every one of your lives. I´ve been away for a little while but I still have a lot to learn. I love being a missionary. I don't think I have ever been so happy. I am helping others help themselves. There is a lot of rejection but the people who accept the true gospel makes it all worth it.

Much Love

Elder Jessop

• mi nuevo companero and my favorite treat in all of Paraguay 

  (peanut butter squares)‏

  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Woooooooooohooooooooooo

Hi everyone. 
I'm a doing great. I didn't get changed/transferred and I'm still in Caáguazú. I did get a new companion though. His name is Elder Arteaga and he is from Chile. He is pretty awesome. I hope you are all doing great and I want you all to know that the Lord is a Lord of miracles and through him we can do all things.

I baptized someone this last Saturday. Her name is Martha and she is 14 and she is awesome! I felt so warm after and the water was really cold. I could feel the love of God and I know that he used me as a tool to help Martha enter in the way that God has set for her. I have pictures so I will send them shortly. 

I love you all. Keep the peace. I hear that there are a lot of things going on around the world. Tranquilopa. Soy un misionero y estoy muy feliz.

Elder Jessop