Trying New Things

November 8, 2021

Bonjour! (sometimes you just have stick to the classics)

The leaves are falling, the weather is getting colder, and the temptation to play Christmas music is growing - but hang in there! Typically I’d say to hold off on playing Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but since Thanksgiving was about a month ago… I honestly don’t know what to say anymore. Either way, we’re getting closer to Christmas and that makes me excited! 

This week was pretty tame, all things considered, but I’d say it was another good week! We have officially completed week four of the circuit breaker, and since it got extended another week we are well on our way to week five. Who knows, maybe we’ll reach a full six week transfer! In the grand scheme of things, though, it doesn’t really matter. Either way, the work will move on. Elder Eich and I have continued to see progress this week!

For example, I was able to get in touch with our new friend Mitchell a few weeks ago over messenger and this week we were finally able to have our first meeting with him! He actually lives a little over an hour north of us in a city called Miramichi (which, if you’re wondering, is pronounced Meer-uh-me-she. I’m telling you, New Brunswick has some of the wildest names!), and he was previously taught by the missionaries in that area. It turns out that he is interested in having more discussions! It’s so cool to see the way that technology allows us to teach people that we have never met in person! 

Something that was really fun this week was finally getting to have some English learning session with a member in our ward named Richard! He and his wife moved to Moncton from Chile, and they areboth awesome! They came here so that his wife could study accounting, and Richard has been working crazy hard down in Montreal since there are more opportunities for Spanish speakers there and his English is still pretty limited. He was working so hard, in fact, that he had some health issues so now he’s back in Moncton while he recovers. Even though there is a pretty serious language barrier, I already feel a real bond with him! He is super fun, kind, and gracious - I have so much respect for him and his wife! It’s definitely an adventure trying to communicate with our very limited language skills, but the gift of tongues is real and I know that it makes up for my weaknesses in ways that I don’t even notice. We’re still in the process of getting a weekly English class set up with our ward, so I honestly didn’t really know where to start when it comes to helping someone learn English, but I know that the thing that has helped me the most with learning French has been reading the Book of Mormon in French so, hey, if it has worked for me I am sure that it will work for Richard! There truly is special power in the Book of Mormon, and so far it has been going pretty well so I’ll keep youupdated!  

I’d say that the coolest thing that happened this week was getting to give a chapel tour for the first time! Thankfully, even with the ongoing Covid restrictions we are still able to meet with people at the church as long as they are fully vaccinated. One of the numerous tender mercies that we have received in the last few weeks is that a Sister missionary who is currently serving in Utah has family that lives in the Moncton area that aren’t members of the church and she has been has been sharing her experiences as a missionary and teaching them about the Gospel. A few of them expressed interest in getting copies of the Book of Mormon and learning more about our church so she sent us their contact info! We were finally able to meet this week, and due to the circuit breaker we decided tomeet at the church and offered to give them a tour and they happily accepted! It was a really great experience! It was just one of the many unique blessings that would not have come without the circuit breaker restrictions!

Love you all,

Elder Jackson