10-13-14 I'm Staying in San Lorenzo with Elder Hampton‏!!

Hi everyone!!! I have some great news! I'm staying in San Lorenzo with my companion Elder Hampton. I thought I was going to go, but I was wrong. I'm super excited and happy that I stayed. My week was super great too. It went by super fast, like all of the other weeks.... haha. My days are like a basketball game. You start it with the opening tip off and before you know it the game is over. Sometimes there are super long games when nothing goes right, but you win anyway and some times you just go Kobe and score 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. If that made sense, those are how my days are..... haha. At the end of the day, I sit down and sometimes I can't even remember what happened. If it wasn't for agendas I would forget everything. Now to tell you all about my week!

District Meeting: Like I said I thought that I was going to leave so I said goodbye to the district, but it turns out that that was unnecessary because I stayed. There is a sister that goes home with me in May and when we left she yelled, "See you in the airport!!" It turns out that I saw her that next Sunday.... haha. I sent a picture of the district.

Friday: We met two Paraguayans that are musicians. They live in the United States, but are in Paraguay for right now. There band is called The Vera's Brothers, and supposedly it is a popular band in the states. They live in Florida and they talked to us in English. Elder Hampton and I talk in Spanish all day so it was a little weird talking in English. They were pretty awesome and we are going to help them find true happiness and learn about the gospel!!

Saturday: We had a baptism on Saturday of Deisy Vera. One of the members of the ward, Daniel Gamarra, baptized her. He has helped us a ton visiting her and her family. Next on the list that are going to get baptized is her mom and her little sister. The way we found this family was a miracle. The grandma (girl with white hair in the picture), had lost contact with the church for two years and we were teaching her neighbors when Deisy called us over and we taught them and now we got to where we are now. Deisy baptized and her family learning about the gospel. It is amazing how God works. The baptism was really spacial, it was scary because it was the first time that Brother Gamarra had baptized someone. He is a convert in the church and was baptized this year in February. Deisy's mom came to church yesterday for the first time and she loved it so we hope to see a lot of progress with her to. Deisy's little sister turns 8 in December and will be baptized then :D.

Sunday: Church was awesome! It might have been the first time that we actually got to church early. It was nice to sit, relax, and feel the spirit. The classes were awesome and we learned about the responsibilities of being a parent (for my future self ;)) haha. I also learned about the importance of trials and hardships in our life so that we can learn, grow, and progress spiritually. I have had a bit of trials here in the mission, but what we learn from the example of Joseph Smith, our trials will be but a small moment and if we suffer them well they will be four our benefit. Later that evening, we had dinner with the Armoa family. We went over there and cooked cordon bleu and mashed potatoes, I felt super American! I crushed the crackers using their cracker crushing thing. Not sure what the name is but it was fun. I felt like we were in the Flintstones or something like that. Every Sunday night my companion and I have to do numbers and report them to the assistants. We finished at 10:20 and then crashed the bed. It was awesome. 

I started reading the Book of Mormon again. I have been reading a lot in Doctrine and Covenants, but I felt that after the conference I had to re-read the Book of Mormon. I have felt the spirit really strong of late and my testimony has grown more and more with a knowledge of the truthfulness of that book. If you don't know what the Book of Mormon is, READ IT. It will bless your life, I promise.

I have learned a ton about the importance of listening and accepting other peoples advice and opinions. My mom told me that sometimes I was a know-it-all- .....I feel like a lot of teenage kids think that they are, but I have leaned here in Paraguay the importance of listening to advice, accepting the error that I may be committing and changing so that I can be more Christlike. Something that after all these years, the influence of my mom had taught me. Don't be a know-it-all. haha. I have learned how to use the Atonement in my life to change the bad things about me and making them strengths. The scripture in the Book of Mormon, Ether 12:27 has helped me a lot to recognize my weaknesses and let Jesus Christ turn them into strengths. 

I know that this church is true. I can feel it in my inner being and I know that the feeling comes from the spirit. In the Bible it states, for your fruits, ye shall know them (I know the scripture better in Spanish, but I think that is it.). My fruits, I feel like are showing. As I live the principles of the Gospel I willingly come unto Christ and chose to try to be more like him. He invites us all to come unto him. I'm privileged to be here, helping others come unto Christ and learning about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm happy and I am filled with joy. Thank you for the support and love. May God bless you all.

Elder Jessop

10-6-14 General Conference Weekend

Hello Family and Friends!

This last weekend was that of General Conference. General Conference is when semi annually, we listen to the words and council of the prophets, apostles, and other leaders of the church. General Conference is absolutely awesome and is something that can help the life of any human being that exists. If you have any questions about what is General Conference, I invite you to go on LDS.org and look. I can't look for you because I don't know how... Haha being in Paraguay has sure dropped my technology wisdom.

Life is going awesome. I'm happy, at peace, joyful, I feel loving, I'm trying to be kind :D, and I love sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with others. I can start this letter with some thoughts about what happened this week:

I really can't stop thinking about General Conference. My favorite talk was that of Elder Richard G.Scott. He talked about 4 key things that we can do to have more peace and guidance in our lives. He talked about daily personal and family prayer, daily personal and family scripture study, weekly family home evening (a night when the family gets together and has fun) and regular temple attendance. I thought the talk was awesome and I really loved it and it filled the innards of my soul like many other talks that were shared. He also said that individuals and families who do those 4 things are willingly coming unto Christ, that was awesome. There were also 4 talks that were given in a different language. 2 in Spanish which I could understand, 1 in Portuguese (understood that one too), and one was also given in Cantonese (lost me on that one) haha. It is truly a blessing to learn another language. I have learned Spanish and I'm trying to learn Portuguese now that I have time. I bought a Portuguese Book of Mormon and I'm reading it. 

I took and sent some pictures. I bought a watermelon.... and ate... I really love watermelon. It isn't like Grandmas water melon, but it was got nonetheless.
I love my mom and dad, I have learned so much from them. I learned in conference the importance of decision making and how the decisions that I make will affect me the rest of my life. I want to thank my parents for helping, and supporting the decisions that I have made in my life. So far the best decisions that I have made, and many would agree with me, is that of coming here to serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I love my Lord. I get to know him better and better daily. He lives and he will come again. It will be a great and terrible day. I look forward to being on his side.

Thank you for all the support. I love each and every one of you. Keep the letters coming. I appreciate them.!!! Have great weeks!!

Con cariño
Elder Jessop

9-29-14 Missionary Work in Paraguay‏

Hey everyone. Today my computer is a little faster and I'm able to write you all a better email. This week was awesome. Had its ups and downs, miracles and heartbreaks, but I learned a ton and I know that the Lords hands are in this work. 

Martes: We have some investigators that are really really close to being baptized. Deisy, Jose, Luz Maria, to name a few. Tuesday we had our district meetings and we were kind of stuck with what to do to help these people. We decided to fast as a district and that same night we went to Deisy's house. She is an investigador that is the granddaughter of a member and her mom is not a member. Her mom thinks that she is not old enough to make her own decisions, but we decided to go and watch the movie On The Way Home to show them how the gospel can help them in their lives. We went with a recent convert and had one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever had in my mission and the mom of Deisy felt that her daughter needed to be baptized and gave her permission. We found this family teaching their neighbors and their neighbors told us to visit them. It has been a big miracle, but this work is the Lords work and he can give and take to help us learn something is what I learned Wednesday.

Miércoles: We went back to Deisy's house to do her baptism interview and she was not there. Her and her mom had gone to the hospital for something and her mom told us that she wasn't going to be able to get baptized this weekend. BROKE MY BIG OLD HEART. I learned in that moment the importance of trusting in God and knowing that it is him that makes the decisions and that I must be humble enough to accept them and follow his will in doing so. It is OK that she didn't get baptized on Friday, it is not the end. We still are working with faith and love and we are going to see what we can do to help. Like Always :).

Viernes: There were 2 other baptisms in the ward on Friday, One girl turned 8 and then the investigador of the other elders named Antonio. I sent a picture of him with the other elders. He is 11 and got baptized and his dad is less active who is finally coming back to church again. It was a miracle to see that. Super fun baptism, and really spiritual.

Saturday: We had a big activity on Saturday called Capilla Abierta. The sisters from our whole zone had to come and then 4 Elders from the ward where I'm working. There was a lot of participation. I tried to send a lot of pictures. Capilla Abierta is an activity that is based on the principals of missionary work and the importance of using members in the work. The goal was that the members could bring their friends to the activity and then we could teach them. There were several rooms that explained about the different organizations that the church has such as: Young men's, Young women's, Relief Society, etc. It was a 4 hour long activity and we received 59 referencias. That was super cool. I hope you enjoy the pictures because I sure did :D

Sunday: DEISY CAME TO CHURCH!!! with her grandma and little sister! It was super cool to see her and gave me a great feeling of peace to know that she came. It is in the Lords hands and she will get baptized when the Lord says that it is her time. We also had another investigator in church named Julieta. 

I have learned so much in my time here. I don't have much time left. My dad wrote me an email today and said that I have 7 and a half months left. WHAT THE!? Where did the time go. I can't explain with words the joy, peace, love and everything I have felt, learned and experienced here. Every second has been worth it. I can say that with the fullness of energy and love that my heart can give. The changes are next week and I will probably be leaving from here in San Lorenzo, but wherever the Lord sends me I will go. I love you all. Thank you for the support.

Elder Jessop

September 22nd, 2014.. 16 months In

Hola mis queridos familiares y amigos. Esta semana pasó muy rápidamente de verdad. Estoy en un cyber y mi computadora está siendo muy lenta por eso decidí escribir en español. La verdad es que mi vida se está volviendo loca y no sé en que pensar.

I left my house  in California, 16 MONTHS AGO. I feel like it was only a little while ago...   

My computer is being really slow, but I learned the importance on Friday of always being grateful in every circumstance in any situation.  I will not be able to write much this week due to the slow computer, but I am learning the importance of being patient and I'm grateful for that.

If you have any questions about what I learned on Friday. You can go online to www.lds.org and look up the General Conference talk in April 2014, the one where President Uchtdorf talks about the importance of being grateful in every circumstance.

I love each and every one of you. My mission is flying by, but I am happy. I cant ask for anything better. Even with the trials and difficulties, the work of the Lord keeps going strong and it will never fall. I am grateful to be a part of it.

Elder Jessop