Way More than 17 Miracles

February 28, 2022

Salut mes amis!

Wow. I know that February is shorter than every other month, but I cannot believe it’s already over! Everyone says it, but time really is weird as a missionary. It’s crazy to think about how much has happened and how much I’ve learned in the past nearly 17 months, but I’m glad that I still have plenty of time to keep serving the Lord!

I don’t have a ton of time to write this week, but I want to focus on some really unique and awesome experiences from this week!

We had district council again this Thursday, and this week we focused on Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel (our missionary manual) and it was a great experience! Christ-like attributes such as faith, hope, and charity have been a favorite subject of mine to study throughout my mission, and it was really great to have a discussion where we all shared attributes that we are focusing on and scriptures that relate to them.

We also had a really unique opportunity this week because another set of missionaries in Levis (a city just across the river from Quebec city) had a baptism so we were able to attend and invite some of our friends to join as well! Our incredible friend Martin was able to come and he really enjoyed the service! He had some great questions about baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and he came to church the next day so we were able to have a really awesome lesson reading in Acts 8 and 2 Nephi 31 about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is and what it does. Martin had a ton of really great insights and was really engaged, and we had a great discussion about how the Spirit helps us to remember the Savior and to do what is right. Martin himself had previously accepted a date to prepare for baptism, but right now he’s in a tough spot because he is also living with someone and when he opened up to us about it I really didn’t know what to say at first, but as I opened my mouth and just tried to express my love for him and Heavenly Father’s love for him I definitely felt the Spirit help me know what to say. It was overall just a great lesson, and I am excited to continue meeting with him in the future! 

Just as a side note, if you could all keep Martin and our other friend Robert in your prayers I would really appreciate it!

I’d have to say that my favorite moment from this week was getting to have a lesson with an amazing young man in our ward named Gabriel! He was ordained to the office of priest this past Sunday and we were able to have a lesson about the priesthood. What it is, why it matters, and what our responsibility is as bearers of the priesthood. We read a part of one of my favorite talks of all time about the priesthood “Bless in His Name,” by President Henry B. Eyring about how the most important thing as priesthood bearers is not to focus on performing every task perfectly but to allow others to feel Heavenly Father’s love through us, and I have seen just how true that principle is throughout my entire mission. I know that I am far from a perfect missionary, and that is okay! I don’t have to be perfect - I just have to be humble, faithful, positive, and sincere. I was also just really impressed by how solid Gabriel is. He is a young man in a place where religion really isn’t all that popular, but he is a faithful priesthood holder and I know that the light that he has is palpable to everyone around him!

To end our week off we had some pretty cool miracles while we were out visiting some people who have taught in the past. We went to stop by at the apartment of a lady we talked to last Sunday, and much to our surprise when we knocked a man named Jay answered the door. We only talked for like a minute, but he was super cool! He is from the Caribbean originally and he switched to English once he realized we were anglophones too haha. We asked if we could come back some time to share a message and he said we could stop by tonight so we’ll see how it goes! What really makes it a miracle though is that once we walked outside we realized we had totally walked into the wrong apartment building… I wasn’t even entirely sure if we should visit the lady in the first place, but it’s cool to see how the Spirit works sometimes! We also had another really neat experience that same night visiting someone who had previously ordered a Bible and he welcomed us right in and we got to talk about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how He has restored his church and the Gospel and talk about the Book of Mormon! He had heard about the Book of Mormon from previous Elders and he said he’s pretty busy with school, but he seemed really interested in reading it so we’ll stay in touch with him!

Love you all,

Elder Jackson