Saints and Service

November 15, 2021

Rebonjour tout le monde!

It's crazy to say that this week is the end of the transfer! Even crazier is that we already have transfer news: Elder Eich and I will be staying together here in Moncton! It's nice to know where I'll be spending Christmas. In other news, the circuit breaker was extended, but this time the area it covers was decreased so I'm hopeful that it will end soon! I can officially say that I spent a six week transfer in lockdown, and it honestly wasn't that bad. How could I brag to my kids that I served my mission during Covid if I never spent any significant amount of time in lockdown? 

This week was really great! Due to the circuit breaker, we ended up making the trek Nova Scotia to have an exchange with the zone leaders, Elder Olson and Elder Babbel. They are both great missionaries, and it was really fun getting to know them better. It's so interesting to see how we've had such different mission experiences so far, and I love hearing other missionaries' reasons for serving and the testimonies they've received. Since Nova Scotia doesn't have as many Covid restrictions, we got to do service for some people raking leaves and actually do some in-person finding which was a nice change of pace! 

My favorite experience this week, though, came while doing service for a lady named Tammy on Saturday! She had reached out to an ad on Facebook and we were able to get in contact with her last week and she asked about attending church and having us help her move some things which we, of course, were happy to help with! She actually ended up attending church virtually last week, and she did the same thing this week! 

Thanks to the reduced size of the circuit breaker, she was just outside of the boundaries so we got to visit her in person and help her clear some stuff off of her porch and move it into a barn/shed/thing (picture attached). What made the service really fun was Tammy's grandson Tim, who insisted on helping us the whole time. He had bright red hair and reminded me of my younger brother Zach, so needless to say he was pretty awesome! When we finished Tammy said that she was really interested in learning more about our church, and Tim said he was excited for us to come over again sometime! 

One other fun thing from this week: I started listening to Saints Volume 1 (a book that describes the history of our church) and thanks to all of the driving we've been doing we finished it in four days! After that I immediately started on Saints Volume 2, and now I'm almost halfway done with that as well. I have always loved history, but I'll admit that I have struggled to really get into the history of our church - that was until this week happened. It's been great to listen to the books in such a short amount of time because it has shown me how everything fits together. I have so much admiration and appreciation for the early saints (which is what we call the members of our church) who were willing to go through so many trials and injustices purely because of their faith in God and their testimonies of the restored Gospel. Like anyone else, the early church members and leaders were far from perfect, but that just makes what they were able to accomplish and the faith that they showed even more amazing. It is clear to see that the hand of the Lord has been present guiding this church from before it was officially organized, and I know for that the Savior continues to lead this church today! 

Love you all

Elder Jackson