All Cats Go to Heaven

February 27, 2021

Rebonjour mes amis! 

This week was really busy, but that's honestly what I prefer. We got to have a lot of lessons with members in our ward and we made good progress with our friends so I feel really excited about the future! 

It's been really awesome getting to church in the person the last two weeks! I thought the 30 minute bike ride to get there would be pretty miserable, but I've honestly enjoyed it both times! I feel kind of guilty hearing about how cold the rest of the US is right now (RIP Texas) while I'm sitting pretty here in California where it feels like we're already in Spring. In fact, a lot of the trees have already started to blossom (check out some of the photos I took while biking to church). I'm sure I'll be missing this weather next year, though, when I'm *knock on wood* freezing to death in Montreal. For the moment though, you better believe I'm enjoying the blue skies and sunshine! 

This week we were finally able to meet with our new friend Angie! She signed up to meet with the missionaries on Facebook, and we've been in contact with her since then. We met her on Saturday in the park and got to know a little bit more about her and her story, and I've never met someone who is as excited about coming closer to God! Funny story, she's actually referred herself to the missionaries at least three different times, and we were the third companionship to get her referral - which is ironic because her address is actually in our area. The day that we met with her she had also scheduled a meeting with another set of missionaries which, needless to say, caused a little bit of confusion for a sec haha but, hey, things are all cleared up now and we can't wait to keep meeting with Angie in the future! 

Things weren't all rainbows, sunshine, and butter(flies) (shout-out to my MTC gang) this week, though. We had a couple sad things happen with Ida, but, don't worry, there is a happy ending. She's had a lot of stress lately dealing with the dozen or so cats that she takes care of, and we've been working with a member to try and help her get rid of them. Things took a tragic turn this week when one of Ida's cat's came home extremely weak, skinny, and covered in injuries that indicated it was most likely attacked by a dog of some sort. Unfortunately, the cat ended up passing away a couple of days later. We helped Ida move the body since she didn't feel comfortable doing it herself. It was definitely a real trial for Ida, but I've been really impressed by the way she's responded to it. Ida told us that she was just going to trust in God and have faith in him, and ever since that trial she has been progressing a lot more the last few times we've met with her. 

The death of Ida's cat was really sad, but that trial has allowed Ida to take the next step on her path to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. This whole experience strengthened my testimony of the necessity of having trials in this life. It's in our most trying times that we are able to exercise our faith and change our very nature to be more like Jesus Christ. I'd invite everyone who reads this to take the time to look back at a trial you've faced in your life and to look for the ways you have grown because of it. 

Love you all, 

Elder Jackson

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