Pro Tip: Don't Touch Posion Oak
Joyeux Noël!
Apparently, that's French for merry christmas (thanks again Google Translate). Things are indeed starting to feel (notice how I didn't say look) like Christmas here in Visalia. Normally, the weather feels like it's late fall, somewhere between October and November, but once you start biking… it definitely feels like December. Masks honestly come in clutch for biking.
But don't worry, the lack of snow didn't stop us from getting into the Christmas spirit this week. The city can't have any Christmas parades this year because of Covid, but they came up with a cool idea to just have people drive by a stationary parade instead, a reverse parade if you will. Some of the missionaries in our zones got us a spot in the parade, so we got most of our zone together for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night to man the Light the World themed booths we had. I'm not gonna lie, it was really fun. We yelled Merry Christmas at countless cars, waved Light the World signs and Book of Mormons, and handed out pass-along cards with our phone numbers to almost every car that drove by. On the last night we even started getting cars to honk as they drove past us. Good times.
I had one other really unique experience this week: bringing David, one of the friends we are teaching who's 15, to a teachers quorum activity. The plan was to film part of a movie that the teachers quorum president had written up, and David was actually super excited to participate. We decided to bike over to the target we were all meeting at since it was only like 1.3 miles away from where David lived. Things got off to an interesting start though when his bike got a flat tire, but everything worked out in the end. David ended up getting a ride with the two leaders while Elder Forsberg and I biked with the other teachers to our "set" (meaning a park next to a dried up river bed). While we were biking to the park we passed a big homeless camp (see pictures), which was kind of surreal. It looked like something straight out of The Walking Dead (I've honestly never seen the TV show but that's the best comparison I could think of). The actual filming itself was pretty mundane, minus the part where I accidentally grabbed some poison oak… but hey, David had fun and my hand is fine now so it's all good!
Those experiences were both very fun and memorable, but the best experience I had this week was the lesson we taught our friend Ida. Ida is an older lady who's gone through a lot of hard stuff in her life with health and her family. She actually referred herself through a Facebook ad from the Church, and she has so much potential. She's super humble, and she has such a sincere desire to feel God's love for her. We got to testify to her of God's love for and that my companion and I were put here specifically to help her; it was a very spiritual experience. We also helped her realize that she's felt the Holy Ghost before in her life as she read the scriptures which was really rewarding. The best part was when we started talking about faith and Ida said she feels like she only has a mustard seed of faith. I mean come on, have you ever heard a more perfect set-up for Alma 32? As we read that part of the chapter and explained that Alma was talking to the poor and outcast, Ida said she felt like he was talking directly to her. At the end, she even said the closing prayer. It's an experience I hope I'll never forget.
Since becoming a missionary, I've come to realize how crucial it is to always have the Spirit with you. I can't emphasize enough how important it is to water your seed of faith every day - and we do that by taking the time to do things that invite the Spirit so we can "hear him." If you're not already - or even if you are - please take the time to reflect on your life and think about what you should do each day so you can feel the Spirit.
Love you all,
Elder Jackson
Photos:
Reverse Parade
Homeless Camp
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