Thursday, February 19, 2015

2/9/15 - All of Your Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength

My Mission...... What is it like to be a missionary? 

People always talk about the missionary life. I have felt recently that I was preserved until this time so that I could serve a mission. It has been the hardest years of my life, but like they also say, its been the best years of my life. Changes/transfers are this Wednesday and I don't know what is going to happen, but I know that I must serve with everything I can because before I know it, it will be gone. I love the mission and it always makes me happy that I can share my experiences every Monday with my beloved Friends and Family. 

Capacitación de Zona: This last Friday we had our Capacitación de Zona and in our mission we talked about the importance of baptism, retention, and Reactivating less active families. That was the basis of the capacitation that we gave, my companion and I. The doctrine is that every one needs to be baptized in order to enter into the kingdom of God. After baptism everyone must be nurtured by the word of God and do all they can to live in accordance with the principles of the gospel. Unfortunately some people fall and stop living these principles, but every one can come back if they repent and come unto Christ again. The doctrine is always the answer. We talked about the applications that we are applying in our mission so that we can baptize more sons and daughters of God, help them in their conversion process, and reactivate the ones that have let go of the iron rod. We read a talk by Elder Lawrence B. Corbridge that was a Mission President in Chile in 2008 and A vision to baptize. We baptize people because it is the only way that they can enter into the kingdom of God. You can be a great person, do everything right, even keep all the commandments, but without the baptism we can´t enter into his kingdom. That is why Christ got baptized right. In my mission we are changing our mission so that we can baptize more, retain more, and reactivate more. The goal in our mission is 2000 converts this year and it is quite a t ask ahead, but God blesses us according to our desires.(Alma 29:4). It was an awesome Capacitación de Zona. 






Paraguyan Buses: My companion and I had to go do a baptism interview for some Elders in our Zone and it was the crazy experience of our time together. Talk about a 1 and a half hour detour there and back. We were supposed to be there at 5 and we got there at 6:30. We left at 7 and were supposed to get back into our area at 7:30 and got home at 8:40. It was a rough day to take buses. I looked at my map so many times and we were pretty lost, but luckily Paraguayans are really good with directions, not so much street names, but directions yes. It taught me a big lesson and now I know a lot better the city of Asunción. Good adventures.

Investigators: We have a couple investigators that are progressing and getting baptized soon. Jose Enciso has a baptism date for the 21st. He has to go to church once more but he is super prepared and super ready to be baptized. He loves God and reads everything we give him. We are trying to help him feel the spirit and recognize his answer by using the Book of Mormon. He is amazing and will get baptized. Then we got Juan Francisco, he is 42 and has been divorced but he is really interested in the church. It helps when his Best Friend is a member and went to high school with him and her two daughters are return missionaries. They have been preparing him for like 1 year. We are teaching him about the restoration and he is doing great!! Then we have the Mora Family that we found. The dad is a member and the rest of his family isn't and he really want to go to church he just didn't know where it was, but thankfully we found his house and we have an appointment with him tomorrow. The work is going great here and I love being a missionary.

I have been extremely blessed to be here in Paraguay serving the Lord the best I can. I know that the church is true and I know that everyone can know that truth if there are willing to ask God. It has been hard, but every second has been joyous, I have learned the importance of love and serving the Lord and his children because of the love that we have for them. I hope that you all enjoy my emails and I will let you know if I get changed or not.

Elder Jessop


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