Working in the Lord's Vineyard *literally*

 February 10, 2021

Rebonjour encore mes amis! 

It has been a heck of a week. Looking back, it feels like something weird/memorable happened this week, but I don't have the time or patience to go into every single detail so I'll just give you the highlights! 

The biggest change this week is that I finally go to meet my new companion Elder Jones! He is a really awesome guy with a truly incredible story. Growing up he was never really active in the church, but through a series of events he found his way back to the church and now I'm lucky enough to be serving with him! We get along really well and I can already tell that we're going to enjoy our time together. I think we can both learn a lot from each and our different perspectives on the Gospel and how it has influenced us in our lives. 

Like I said earlier, a lot of stuff happened this week, but I'm just gonna focus on the stuff that I have pictures of (let's be real, I know what some of you are here for). We had a very memorable evening on Friday when our carbon monoxide alarm went off not once but twice! And I'm not talking about the little chirping that happens when the alarm is low on battery. So, naturally, we were kind of worried. Long story short, after a lot of phone calls we ended up just calling 911 and having the fire department come down and scan our apartment, and, thankfully, everything was fine. In the end, we got some fun photos and one of the fire fighters left a wrench in our apartment, so hey there's that. My favorite part of this week, though, was getting to work the church's vineyard with our ward. We worked on pruning and tying vines to help the plants grow, and it was honestly a ton of fun! There was a lot more thinking involved than you might typically expect of manual labor. It also made me think of one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon, Jacob 5 (look I know it's suuuper long but the symbolism is just too cool). 

My spiritual thought for this week relates to something that I talked about with our stake president and his family this week: desires. Something that I've come to realize as I've studied the Gospel is that, ultimately, God will grant our true desires - for better or worse. Our job as missionaries is to help others develop and grow their desire to come closer to God because we know that is what truly matters most and will bring them the most joy during and after this life. But how do you actually go about doing that? In the mission tour we had not long after I arrived here in Fresno, our area president, Elder Pearson, gave us an answer to that very question. He gave us a formula he called the "conversion ratio" for helping our friends learn and become converted to the Gospel, and I adapted that same formula a while back for District Council to apply to how we grow our desires to do good in general. In the end, I came up with three things that we can develop to increase our desire to do good.

1. Understand your divine identity

2. Develop charity (Christ-like love) for those around you

3. Gain/strengthen your testimony of the Gospel

I don't have time to explain the details for why I picked each of these, but I feel confident in saying that if you do those three things then your desire to do good will increase. 

So, I'd invite all of you to pick at least one of those three and work towards improving that aspect this week. Whether that be praying to feel God's love for you, reading your patriarchal blessing if you have one, praying for charity, or taking time each day to meaningfully study the scriptures, it's up to you! 

Love you all, 

Elder Jackson