1-19-15 - The Mission.........

Hello Family and Friends. This week honestly I don't remember very well. I got kind of sick and it has all just become one giant blur, but  luckily there are some significant experiences that I had this week that I would like to tell you all about. I am doing great here. I have become the "old missionary" that I never thought I would become and I am loving life. It is a little weird because my companion and I go home together and everyone asks us when we go home and no missionary wants to answer that question haha. It has been an amazing experience and I am enjoying while it lasts.

Carlos: One of the great men that we met this week is 33 years old and is looking fro spiritual and temporal well being. He has a normal life, not married, no kids, and went to church on Sunday because a member invited him. We read him a scripture in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is really super powerful. It can help someones life in any way. We read him Mosiah 2:41 and explained to him the importance of keeping the commandments so that he can be blessed with the things he is looking for. We are hoping to help him do these things so that he can repent, come unto Christ, and be baptized and in that way he will be able to find what he is looking for. 

Juan David: One of the other great men that we found this week,(usually all the great people we find are women so it was a big surprise). He is 42 and is super great. He is a really good friend of some members and he is always at their house in our area. We had a service project in their house and we cut down a tree and he helped a ton. He played professional soccer here in Paraguay and is a lawyer. We are helping him learn about the church and the members are helping him a lot. I know that if he reads the Book of Mormon to find out if these things are true he will be baptized and not just because us or his friends want him to, but he will have those desires that will come from his heart to follow Christ. 

It is amazing how simple the ways of God are: He literally asks us to love him and do what he says, which is easy of we are humble because he knows what is best. It is really heartbreaking to meet people that really don't have desires to know about the church or follow God. Satan has them so wrapped around his finger and so controlled that they think that they are Happy living in their sins and then when something bad happens they dare to blame it on God. The mission has really opened my eyes to the wickedness of Gods children and how little the righteous really are  and it makes me sad and I can only imagine how God feels. He sent his son Jesus Christ to suffer for all the sins of mankind, but if we do not repent we must suffer even as Jesus suffered, which caused such a perfect being as him to sweat blood from every pore (D&C 19:16-19). I am very grateful that I don't have to suffer if I chose with my own free will to repent and it makes me extremely sad that people chose to not repent and to suffer for their sins. I have tried so hard to convince people of their sins and help them repent and some do and I have felt much joy in seeing them repent and be baptized because there is no other way to get into the kingdom of God. there literally isn't any other way, it is impossible under Gods law. I have grown to love the people I meet and I feel Godly sorrow when they don't repent because it is the only way to find lasting happiness.

I love the mission and I am extremely grateful to be here. I love the Paraguayans oh how I love them and how they frustrate me sometimes haha. I have found myself here and I have realized more than ever how much God really does love me and each and every one of us. 

Elder Jessop