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

9-15-14 I Lost 8 Pounds in a Day, ¿Mbae piko?‏

This week was great. Full of ups and downs. The best part was that a lot of good things happened. I'll start with the first.

District Activity: We had a super awesome district activity. We played soccer...(we always play soccer), but we decided to mix it up a bit and we cooked too. We went super chichi and made Asado (a type of beef), hamburgers, sausages, and mandioca!!! It was super good. I ate quite a bit and we had a super fun activity. It will probably be my last one here in Tayuasape, but it was also one of the best ones. In the picture we have my companion and I, Elder Guitarra, Elder Ward and the the 4 sisters. Hermana Huanca, Hermana Weeks, Hermana Cevallos, and Hermana Boley. 

They are all pretty awesome. Thanks to Hermana Boley it all got competitive. She played soccer before her mission and challenged us, but no one got hurt!!

9-11-01: 
This week was 9/11 remembrance day. 

Elder Hampton and I sure did remember singing the song.

I'm proud to be an American

Where at least I know I'm free

I wont forget the men who died

Who gave their life for me

And I will stand up Next to you

And defend her till the end

Because there ain't no doubt I love this land 

GOD BLESS THE USAAAA!!!

I LOVE America. We took some pictures to celebrate our love. Don't ask me where I got the tie, but it is pretty awesome. I hope that America had a great 9/11 remembrance day because I sure did. God bless the USA.

Friday and Saturday: My dear family and friends I would like to tell you how I found the best diet and the worst diet in the world. If you want to loose weight get sick. If you want to feel like dying for a couple of days, get sick. What happened is that Friday morning after my exercises I got super sick. I think the exercises lowered my defenses and the disease got me! Friday and Saturday I was in bed all day. Didn't eat, didn't drink, didn't move, didn't talk, didn't do ANYTHING. It was pretty rough. I had a fever of 104 degrees and a lot of diarrhea and vomiting. It must have been from something I ate, but I'm not too sure. Yippee for third world countries. I'm perfectly fine now (don't worry mom). I'm a little weak still but today is my Preparation Day so I will rest again. It is the first time in my mission that I have been so sick, so I'm thinking that my course was about due. I lost 8 pounds too. Great diet, but don't do it. It was pretty terrible. I was bummed that we didn't leave for 3 days this week due to sickness, but in The Book of Mormon, the brothers of Ammon couldn't leave to work because they were thrown in jail by the Lamanites. At least I wasn't thrown in jail by the Lamanites. I love bright sides :D.

We had 2 investigators in church and they should be getting baptized by the end of this month. We are working with a few investigators and we hope to keep finding more.

I had the sudden realization today that my mission here in Paraguay is coming to an end. It freaked me out, not going to lie. Then I thought back and pondered on all the spiritual experiences that I have had in my mission and there are to many to count. I'm so grateful to be here. I'm so happy. Every second has been worth it, even the sick ones haha. If anyone who is reading this is thinking about a mission and going I invite you to JUST GO!!! The Lord will bless you beyond what you ever thought was possible. I love you all and hope that you have a great week. :)

Elder Jessop

9-11-14

Me SICK

Elder Guitarra, Elder Ward and the the 4 sisters. Hermana Huanca, Hermana Weeks, Hermana Cevallos, and Hermana Boley, Elder Hampton and me

9-8-14 / September

Hello Family and Friends. Cool things have been happening here in Paraguay. The week went by fast, like always... It is getting harder and harder to type in English, but I keep giving it a try. The week was spectacular and I am super happy and I hope you all enjoy my letter.

We did service this week! We cut down a tree (for those of you who don't know, I'm deathly afraid of heights). Elder Hampton went up in the tree and started cutting it and I just gathered all the stuff he cut and put it in piles. Then the family of which we were doing service started to laugh at me because I was afraid of heights. SO I mustered up my courage and climbed the tree to cut some branches off, I only got up to the lowest trunk there was, BUT that is an accomplishment. It took us about one and a half hours to cut the tree and it was super fun. We then ate lunch with the Ortega family and went on our way. We were pretty wiped out the rest of the day, but service projects are awesome. We are trying to do one at least once a week.

I also did a division with one of the elders in my zone from Columbia. His name is Elder Mejia and he has a little more time than I have in the mission. This same day we had Ward fun night and we brought a couple investigators. We had a family home evening as a ward and it was super fun and we ate hot dogs after!! Straight America right there. 

We had a couple lessons this week with a couple of our investigators. Here are the following: Deisy, The Salguiero Family, Celia, The Cabrera Family, Julieta and the Rosly family. Deisy went to church on Sunday and is planning on getting baptized in the short future and she is awesome!! The Salguiero family is having some trouble with fulfilling with their commitments. They love seeing us and sharing with us and they want to go to church, but when the day comes the advisory gets them and they don´t go. It is an awesome family and we might stop working with them for a while so that they can recognize the difference of when they feel the spirit and when they don't. Celia is a girl who is deaf and can't talk, but luckily her sons all can talk to her using sign language!! It really made me want to learn sign language. Her husband died about a year ago and they are struggling as a family to find refuge from that loss. THEY NEED THE GOSPEL!!! The Cabrera family is awesome. We always go there and help them peel garlic and then we teach. Christian is from this family, who got baptized last week and now we are working with his family members. The Rosly family are old investigators that are super interested in coming back to church again. Julieta came to church this Sunday and shared her testimony with the congregation. She is 11, our investigator, and a star. She will be getting baptized shortly as well :))).

There was a thunder storm this week and it was super strong. We spent it cleaning the church for Sunday :DDD. That is all.

I love the mission. I'm learning more and more everyday how to love and be more like Christ. I have never been more tired, stressed, or happy. It is all worth it. My time here is shrinking and I am happy that I have had so many spiritual experiences and times in my mission. I love my God. I'm so far from perfect, but I am getting there. Jesus Christ lives and loves us. May we all be able to accept that love and follow the example of Christ and walk how he walked. If we do it, we will be able to enjoy our place with him in his kingdom. I love my family and I cant wait to get sealed to them in the temple when I come home. Have a great week!!! I love each and every one of you and I hope my letters show that.

Elder Jessop

9/1/14 - I Hope They Call Me On A Mission...... (and that it never ends...) hehe

Hello, Family, Friends, Loved Ones, and all those who may be reading this email. I hope that you might feel the joy and love that is being sent from me to you, through a lovely computer screen here in San Lorenzo, Paraguay. I love love. Love makes the world go round. I'm tired a little. I had to wake up early today to go to a conference this morning and my eyes just want to shut haha, but don´t you fret! :) Now to get onto the week.

Tuesday: We had our district meeting. The elders and the sisters in the district are pretty awesome. One of the sisters goes home in October. We had our last district meeting before the changes and we decided to take a picture! The picture is like lop sided, but that is what happens when you put a timer on the camera and it takes its own foto. Also, Elder Hampton and I had to go to the hospital because I punched him in the face.... No just kidding, Elder Hampton had a big red bump on his face and everyone thought that I punched him haha. He got an infection and his face got super inflamed and red so we went to the doctors and he bought some pills and he is good as new :) I promise that I did not hit him. ;)

Wednesday: I am trying to remember what we did. I'm looking in my agenda to remember and it looks like we taught a couple of lessons and we met a guy named Paulino. Paulino is a guy that smokes a ton. Like 40 cigarettes a day. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted and showed a desire to stop smoking. We helped him put goals and plans so that we could help him stop. We hope to follow up with the goals but according to what we know, he has already dropped from 40 to 20. PROGRESS!!!! We also got two new sisters in our Zone. Hermana Boley from Alpine Utah and Hermana Weeks from Saint George Utah. Hermana Boley is the new Sister Leader Trainer in our Zone. We have 3 sets of Sister Leader Trainers in our mission. For those who don't know what a "Sister Leader Trainer" is all I know is that they help the sisters with planning & stuff. Doing divisions, studying, and helping them like a normal Elder Leader, just sisters. Hard to explain haha.

Thursday: We invited one of our investigators, Daisy, to get baptized on the 6 of September. She said yes and we are praying that everything goes well!! She is reading in the book of Mormon and Sunday we will verify how it is going. She has plans to come to church with her grandma!! We also had our Ward fun night and a ton of our investigators came. Mostly kids from 10 to 20 years old, but who doesn't like to play soccer. The missionaries don't play, but it is fun to watch! Christian also had his baptism interview. He passed it!! He is planing on getting baptized this Saturday!

Friday: I don't remember what happened on Friday..... Sorry.... All I've got written down in my agenda are the 6 lessons we taught. We taught Paulino, Christian, Oscar, Jose, and I don't remember the other two. I´ll do better next week :)

Saturday: I do remember everything that happened on Saturday!!!!!!! Christian got baptized!!!! It was an awesome baptism! Christian is the first of his family to get baptized. He is 13 and he is inviting all of his brothers and sisters to go to church and all of his friends go with him to the ward fun night. He said that he quit playing soccer on Sunday to come to church! He is awesome and it was a very spiritual day. We also had, in the morning, a youth activity in the stake were all the missionaries in the whole stake and all the teenagers in the whole stake got together and went out proselyting! It was fun. That is all :)

Sunday: Great day. Had 4 investigators in church. Paulino came!!! The one who is trying to stop smoking!! Daisy came to with her grandma!!!!! Christian came to get confirmed. Two other investigators came also named, Julieta and Yeison. We are helping them to. They both believe that the church is true, but there are little problems, but everything will work out the way it should.

Today: We had a meeting of leadership. Twice a year all the zone leaders, district leaders, and herman lideres entrenadoras get together with the mission president and we have a meeting. Every other month it is just zone leaders and sister leader trainers. It was a great meeting!!

I love being a missionary! It is going by fast. I'm enjoying it to the limit. There are no limits!! Celestial glory or nothing!! haha. I love you all and to all fare well!! Untill next week.

Elder Jessop

1.Our leadership meeting, all of us got here in the mission of the same day.

2.The same picture but with an Elder who wasn't in the first one

3.My old companion Elder Arrington

1. My companion drawing on the chalkboard.

2.Christian!!!!

3.Christian and friends!!!

1. District. We had changes.

2. I made Hamburger Helper (thanks mom and dad)

3. Me and Elder Guitarra.

8-25-14 RE: The Fruits of Love....

Hello. I would love to start of this letter with a big giant happy birthday wish to my mom, Rebecca Jessop, from her son, Elder Jessop. I will start with a song.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MOMMY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!!

I love you mom. Miss you a ton and I hope that you enjoyed your birthday month.

This week was an awesome week. The heat is beginning again and it is still winter time.

Monday: We had a ice cream and brownie party!!! Just 4 of us. 

It was awesome and after that I started a diet plan hahaha. The diet plan always begins after pigging out. It was a great brownie and the 5 big dots are things called Alfahores. You can look it up on the Internet if you want, unless you're a missionary haha.

Tuesday: I went on a division with one of the district leaders in my Zone named Elder Vanegas. He is from Columbia and goes home in October. It was a great division and I learned a ton from him. I'm definitely enjoying the mission. The time that I have spent here has been worth every second and I'm happy.

Wednesday: Today we had a meeting with the district leaders and we have to present a giant presentation in a Leader Council. 2 times a year in our mission, the district leaders go with the zone leaders to the leader council and in this council we have to present something about district meetings. Instead of a normal Leader Council with just the Zone Leaders and the sister leader trainers, we will have all the district leaders there too.

Thursday: We met a girl who is a member named Sixta Vera. 

She got baptized 11 years ago and is from a place called Ypacaraí. She is a little sick and hasn't gone to church because the leaders told her that she had to go to a different ward, but it is a miracle that we found her. We have investigators next door and they told us that Sixta wanted to meet us. We didn't know that she was a member. She came to church on Sunday with her two granddaughters and the neighbor that is our investigator!!! It was awesome

Friday: We had two great lessons that I want to share. One with Christian. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he accepted it and came to church on Sunday and is getting baptized this Saturday!!!! He is a teenager and is awesome. We had another lesson with the Salguiero family and felt that we really had to focus on the Book of Mormon. It turns out that they are not reading it and we decided to read a little with them and we marked 1st Nephi 1 and it turns out that when we went back Sunday they had read it!!! We have plans to go back today!!! They have a baptism date but they need to go to church 1 more time before they can get baptised. They are awesome!!

Saturday and Sunday: We had Stake Conference! It was awesome. I've said the word awesome allot. We got to here from Elder Bednar. Yeah the apostle Elder Bednar. It was awesome and he talked to us about repentance and the importance of it. It was a very powerful talk. We also had 4 investigators in church, which got to see the apostle, Elder Bednar. They really enjoyed it and they are coming back next Sunday!!

I learned a lot this week about the importance of love. Love makes us do and want to help. The pure charity of Christ is what we must develop to enter into his kingdom. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is based on the principles of the love that God and Jesus Christ have for us. My goal is to love and always love. I love each and every one of you. I appreciate your letters, love and support. Sorry for the English. It is getting pretty bad, but that doesn't change my love :)

Elder Jessop

8-18-14 Week 6 of Change 10. Woah!!

Hello Family and Friends!!! I did some cool things this week and I sent pictures!!! Hope you all enjoy them. Life is going good, fast, and fun. There was a baptism this week!! Wo hoooAh!! The guys name is Damien and I will tell you guys about him and about everything that I did this week!

Monday: We had our district activity on Monday and we did a couple of things. First we played soccer and it was awesome!! I've really grown to love soccer. Everyone plays it here. I have seen like 2 basketballs and one football in my whole mission. Soccer, Soccer, Soccer! SO we played soccer and then after we played ultimate Frisbee (thanks mom and dad for the Frisbee). Ultimate missionary Frisbee is pretty cool. It is like normal ultimate Frisbee, but with missionaries. We then proceeded to go eat something called a Lomito Arabe which was very delicious and after that we went to eat ice cream. That was our district activity and it was awesome.

Tuesday: We had lunch with one of our investigators on Tuesday who is a chef. His name is Isaiah's and he has one leg. He lost his leg in a motorcycle accident and is trying to move on from it. He is absolutely awesome and ready for the gospel. We went to his house and we made him cordon bleu. It was really awesome and spiritual. Basically he told us his life story and the next step is getting him to church so that he can get baptized too.

Wednesday: I found dead chicken. There is a women in my ward here that sells chicken. What she does is she takes the guts out, puts the chicken in a bag, and takes to her work the next day to sell it. We went to her house and had the opportunity to help her. I have never seen so many dead chickens in my life! Elder Hampton is used to it because he has a farm, but I grew up in a different part of town lets just leave it at that! Yeah for Los Angeles!! So we gutted chickens and it was a very fun experience.

Thursday: I had a division with a missionary named Elder Estigarribia. He is from Paraguay and is in an area right now that is 1 hour from his house haha. That is like if I was serving in Ventura California being from Los Angeles California. He goes home in February and is a convert and is awesome. We had some fun, it was a rough day because it was a day before a holiday and everyone was preparing for the holiday, but our efforts were not in vain because they have an investigator that will get baptized in 2 weeks!

Friday: We had two very spiritual lessons that I would like to share. We had one lesson with the Rivas family and another with the Salguiero family. 7 investigators in total. We taught the Restoration the the Riva's family and taught the plan of salvation to the Salguiero family. They were very spiritual and I will let you guys know more about them.

Saturday: I baptized someone on Saturday named Damien. He is 20 and awesome!!!!! We had a very espiritual baptism interview and he chose me to  baptize him!! 

Gotta go. Love you all Have a great week!!

Elder Jessop

8-11-14 Miracle Week!!

Hello Friends and Family, this week was pretty crazy. We literally didn't work at all because we had so much stuff to do, but we did what we could and the Lord did the rest. I would like to help you guys smell what I'm stepping in.....(this is what Elder Hampton tells me when he understands what I say..) I am actually stepping in quite a bit of mud, rocks and water (baptisms!!!) It is a good thing that my last companion left me a pair of shoes because the other two I have a pretty destroyed (mom my shoes will last me I promise :D)

Tuesday: We had our Zone capcitation on Tuesday and Elder Hampton and I presented it.We talked a lot about goals and how the goals we make here in the mission will help us make goals after and then we got to the spiritual part. We are working hard as a mission on our formality. Actually looking like representatives of Jesus Christ. White shirts (which is hard when Paraguayans wash your clothes by hand haha), clean shoes (for all the new missionaries :D), firm handshakes, the proper way to direct yourself to others, and stuff like that. It was awesome to be honest and we all committed ourselves to doing it. Then we had an activity at the end and told everything to close their eyes. We played the song I'm trying to be like Jesus (the primary one) and told the missionaries that we were going to show them a mirror and they were going to see themselves in the mirror. Instead of showing the mirror we showed a picture of Jesus Christ and that got us all thinking. Are we really striving to be like Jesus Christ. Am I really striving to be like him? I thought about it for a long time, studied about it, prayed about it, and I feel the point of the mission is to help us become like him. I really feel like I'm trying and I'm super happy because of it. 

Wednesday: I did a division with Elder Mejia in our zone. We both served in Paraguari and we talked all about it. One of the people I baptized went to Spain to go work! She wrote me a letter to say goodbye and said that she would get in contact with me on Face Book... Elder Mejia is from Columbia and goes home next March. It is coming up fast.

Thursday: We had interviews with the Mission President!! Elder Hampton went first and then I went second. I learned that through the grace of God we can be saved, that after doing all we can and even though we are going to fall short, the atonement makes up for the rest. That helped me a ton and then the assistants showed us a video about how Jesus Christ makes everything possible. Through Jesus Christ we can be happy, we can have joy, and can receive our salvation. Only because of him. Then we did Weekly Planning and had a miracle on Sunday. That night we had our Ward fun night and we had a ton of investigators come. They really wanted to play soccer and we hope that they can come to church too!

Friday: One thing that really stood out Friday was that we had a family home evening with one of our investigator families and with a member family. The investigator family the the Slaguieros and the member family is Davalos. We watched the Restoration and the kids committed to reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know that it is true. The parents of the Salguieros are members and we are helping to reactivate the family and help the kids get baptized. We then played a game where we opened candy bars with spoons and forks. IT WAS SO FUN! I ate a lot of candy :DDD

Saturday: There was a baptism on Saturday of a girl named Miguela. For some reason my photos are not loading to the computer so I cant send any pictures, but there is always next week. This girl is 10 and her dad is a member that got baptized in Paraguari a long time ago. He is way cool and he is coming back to church and the daughter got baptized on Saturday

Sunday: By far the best day of the week! Tons of miracles happened today!! We had  8 investigators come to church!!! It was a miracle. The Salquiero family came after having not come for over 10 years and a girl named Julieta came to, who will hopefully get baptized this Saturday and then 4 other teenagers came who went to the Ward Activity Night on Thursday. We are helping them too. We are seeing a lot of miracles in our area and thanks to faith the Lord has blessed us quite a lot. 

I love being a missionary. The days go by faster and faster. Every Monday I say to my companion, "How is it Monday already?". Before I know it it will be done, but the work doesn't finish with the mission. It keeps going and becomes greater! Being a missionary is awesome. I'm happy and I love serving the Lord here. 

Love you all!

Elder Jessop