God's Plan

June 28, 2021

Rebonjour mes amis! 

I hope you all had a great week and a wonderful Father’s Day, and I wish you all a happy 4th of July! 

As was foreshadowed in my last letter, it was pretty hot the last few weeks! Summer is definitely here. I never imagined when I got reassigned to the CFM that I would get to experience the full intensity of summer in the Central Valley, but it honestly hasn’t been too bad. Stepping outside feels uncomfortably close to walking into an oven, but as long as you stay hydrated it’s very doable! While biking in insanely hot weather is far from ideal, the good news is that if you go fast enough the wind on your face makes it feel marginally cooler! The only real problem is figuring out how to carry enough water with you when you’re biking, but I’ve been really blown away by how generous people are with offering us water. The Central Valley really is such a wonderful place with so many great people and I’m so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve here! From what I’ve heard, there is finally a light at the end of the tunnel for Canada to reopen, but I don’t feel too much of a rush to get there. The Lord has a plan and I’ll head to Canada as soon as I’m supposed to.

Last week we got to have zone conference! Once again, all of the missionaries in our third of the mission got to meet in the same building, and this time we didn't even have to wear masks! It's crazy to me that things are finally starting to go back to normal. Anytime we get to gather together as missionaries is always fun, but what made this zone conference such a wonderful experience was that we focused entirely on the Plan of Salvation. 

I love the Plan of Salvation. Looking back on my mission so far, many of my most powerful spiritual experiences have come while teaching about it. The first thing that we teach pretty much anyone that we meet is that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and, to me, the Plan of Salvation is the clearest piece of evidence that we have to demonstrate that. He created a perfect plan for all of His children so that he could give each of them the opportunity to receive all of the same blessings and happiness that He has; that is why it is also called the Plan of Happiness. The Plan of Salvation shows clearly that God loves all of His children and that He is not only perfectly just but also perfectly merciful. God really is a perfect, loving Heavenly Father! 

I've been reading in Alma about the story of the sons of Mosiah, and it's so amazing to see the effect that learning about the Plan of Salvation had on King Lamoni, his father, and the rest of the Lamanites. If you haven't read those chapters recently, I would highly recommend reviewing them again - especially chapters 17-18 and 22! 

Another big highlight this week was getting to attend some really fun ward and youth activities! We have such a great ward and it's been a lot of fun getting to go to Hula classes from a Hawaiian sister in the ward with one of the friends we are teaching and some of the other youth in the ward! 

We also had interviews and as always it was a great opportunity to learn and grow spiritually. It was a big reminder to me how important it is to listen to the Spirit when trying to learn because he really is the true teacher and I feel like I learned a lot about the Plan of Salvation and got some personal revelation on stuff I want to focus on moving forward. 

Today we also got to visit Yosemite which was super amazing! I'd love to talk about it more but that will have to wait for next week! All I can say though is that Alma 30:44 is so true! All things, especially things as beautiful as Yosemite, denote that there is a God! 

Love you all, 

Elder Jackson