Happy Halloween! 🎃

November 2, 2020

Comment allez-vous? 

I know I already put it in the subject line, but Happy Halloween! I’ll admit I haven’t always been a huge Halloween believer, but this year was probably one of the best I’ve ever had. The  day before Halloween our entire district dressed up (see attached photo). I figured I’d just dress up as a missionary since I’ve already got a pretty good costume (and it was kind of expensive), but I ended up dressing up as a cowboy with the other Elders in my district. Halloween night I had fun waking around the neighborhood with my family and handing out candy. A house in our neighborhood even made their own little haunted forest in their backyard, and it was super fun! Things were a lot slower than usual in terms of trick or treaters, but it was kinda nice. I still wore my tag on my cowboy vest, and it was funny to notice people staring at it as I passed out candy.

It was yet another great week at the MTC, but if I tried to record everything that happened I’d probably still be writing until my training ends on Friday. And yes, I’m done with MTC on Friday! I’ll fly out to Fresno on the 11th, so I’ve still got another letter before I head into the field, but it’s still crazy to think about how soon I’ll be leaving. 

I actually had a zoom meeting on Sunday with my soon to be mission president and his wife for all the missionaries that are headed to Fresno soon. There were quite a few other missionaries and their families (shout out to Elder Allred from my district), and it made things feel a lot more real. My mission President and his wife seem super nice, so I’m really excited! It sounds like I might have quite a few opportunities to speak Spanish too since 60% of the missionaries in Fresno are Spanish speaking.

I’ll share a funny story from this week before I get into my spiritual thought. Over the course of this week we came to the realization that 7/9 of the missionaries in our district own a sword of some description (don’t ask me how it came up it just did), so, naturally, we decided to have "bring your sword to class day."  Unfortunately, I’m one of the two missionaries that don’t own a sword. However! I do own the next best thing: a butter knife - and those of you who read last week's email know that I have somehow become a champion of butter (spray butter is still better though). We were learning about how to ask how much something costs in French for class that day, and to practice we made infomercials to try and sell our swords.

I won’t go into details, but - suffice it to say - I gave a rousing speech about the storied history of my legendary butter knife before demonstrating its might against a cold McDonalds French fry. It cut right through on the second swing! My partner, Sœur Wood, then proceeded to show off an amazing butter knife promo she made - complete with slow motion and lo-fi music. 

Our district has three teachers, Frère Brenchley, Sœur Winder, and Frère Bennett. We also have a teaching advisor, Brother Webb, who frequently stops by. They’re all super nice, have a sense of humor, and, most importantly, they have powerful testimonies. It’s been such a pleasure to learn from them. 

This week Frère Brenchley said something that really struck me: works without faith is dead. I’ve always understood that faith without action is pointless, but I haven’t always considered the inverse of that saying, namely acting without faith. It can be easy to find ourselves going through the motions, motivated solely by a sense of duty or of obligation and lacking any real conviction. Frère Brenchley talked about something people in his mission called “greenie fire,” meaning the enthusiasm and faith commonly found is new missionaries that is sometimes lost over the course of a mission. People with greenie fire don’t get discouraged; they keep working hard and have faith that the Lord will reward their diligence. Greenie Fire reminds me of a really awesome talk from Elder Oaks (it’s actually his first ever talk as an apostle) that my companion and I watched called, “Why we Serve.” In his talk he explains that the true reason why we should serve is charity, and I think having charity is how we can always have that greenie fire in our lives. Our perfect example, Jesus Christ, and all of God's prophets have been motivated by it. I want to learn how to truly love others as Christ does during my mission, and I think that’s something we should all pray for. I’d invite all of you to watch “Why we Serve” this week if you have the time, and to join me in praying to have more charity for the rest of God’s children. Having charity will be especially important this week with the election so close. 

Love you all,

Elder Jackson 

P.S. Sorry this letter is so late! It was a busy weekend 

Bring Your Sword to Class Day

Halloween Spirit 

Guns, Knives, and Liam Payne

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