Did You Think to Pray?

January 24, 2022

Salut!

Well, here we are again. I can’t believe it’s already Monday! With how cold it’s been lately I half expected time to be frozen still, but for some reason it just seems to move faster and faster.

Just as a follow up from last Monday, winter storm Izzy never really ended up being a thing for us in Quebec City so we had an interesting time buying groceries Tuesday afternoon and getting Elder Felix a haircut from Fadi the syrian barber - I’d highly recommend him! 

The real meat of this week has once again been social media, phone calls, and video calls with members which is fine by me. As I’ve said before, we have some really wonderful members here in Quebec (just like pretty much everywhere else in the world) and I really enjoy getting to study and feel the Spirit with them each week! We also made a few expeditions out into the frozen wasteland to deliver some cookies to members we want to get in touch with and people who were previously taught. While the cold and Covid have definitely diminished the number of people outside, we still had some good contacts with people as we were walking around and riding on the bus. Any positive interaction with someone where we both leave feeling happier is a win in my book, and the majority of people we talk to are usually naturally curious about what two anglophones from America are doing out here in Quebec. 

We also heard from our friend Martin who has been MIA in Mexico and found out that his return got delayed because he caught Covid, so that was a good update and hopefully he gets back soon! We also had a really great lesson with our friend Hermann talking about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with an emphasis on how it blesses families, and it really clicked with me as we were preparing and teaching just how central the priesthood, covenants, and the Book of Mormon are in strengthening families. 

One major highlight from this week is that President Ferland (the same person who dropped off A&W to us a while back) got in touch with a local service organization here in Quebec and we were able to visit them and get everything in order for us to start serving there once or twice every week! I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: service is pretty much the best thing ever.

I don’t have a whole lot more to say about this week, but I’ll close by sharing a tender mercy I experienced. I have been messaging someone who has talked with missionaries in the past over Facebook for the last couple of weeks. I would send him scriptures every day and he was super friendly but then all of a sudden I couldn’t message him anymore. I was confused, but we let a few days go by and after a few failed attempts to contact him I just decided to text him since we have his phone number. He responded and was nice, but then he asked if this was the same Jackson that he had blocked and I was pretty bummed since I had been holding out hope that he hadn’t actually blocked me and that something else had happened. Not really knowing what else to do I asked him why he had blocked me, but he didn’t respond. I was feeling kind of sad about the whole situation and how everything played out, but there is a quote I read recently from Brigham Young that talks about the importance of prayer, especially when you don’t feel like praying, and I found a quiet moment to pray and as I tried to focus on gratitude and all the experiences I’ve had and all of the blessings I have received on my mission I found the comfort that I needed. It was a testament to the power of gratitude and especially the simple but essential power of prayer. While this story would have already had a happy ending if it had stopped there, I was really humbled when a few days later the person who had blocked me sent me a friend request on Facebook and apoligzed for blocking me. He explained that he had blocked me because he didn’t know how to tell me he wasn’t interested in joining our church, and I got to explain that we can still be friends even if he isn’t interested in joining my religion and we agreed to still be friends and I’ve still been able to message him and answer his questions. I know that this is a pretty uneventful story in the grand scheme of things, but it was meaningful to me and it is yet another example of the way that God gives us the assurances we need to continue to persevere and find hope and peace. I’ve read 2 Nephi 31 a lot recently with members and we inevitably seem to end up discussing what it means to endure to the end, and I have strengthened my testimony that enduring to the end really should be a joyous process as we continue to develop faith, hope, and charity and progress ever so gradually towards becoming like our Savior. Have a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Jackson