September 10, 2012

This week was extremely slow!   We had a total of 3 lessons for the whole week.  We are really trying to find some investigators and more potentials so that we can have an actual teaching pool.  Luckily we have 3 scheduled lessons with some really good potentials we have a guy tonight who is in a part member family his wife is a member and he is always full of questions.  He came to church last week and had a really good time.  We are going over for dinner and a lesson tonight.  He loves having us over and is such an awesome guy.  We have a young couple on Tuesday that we have taught before and seem interested and we have a family on Saturday the ones who were really excited about the BoM.  So things are moving just not as quickly or as much as we would like but sometimes that's just how it is.  It's weird being a trainer sometimes I forget that what I teach him will be the standard for the rest of his mission.  That's crazy!   I hope I'm doing a good job.  Luckily we get along great and have fun together so that is good.  Well wish me luck!

Love Elder Jach -Goates

September 5, 2012

Things have been pretty slow this last week we haven't had many appointments and our promising potentials,  Kennabell and Bill were sleeping on Saturday and told us to come back Sunday but they weren't home.  Maybe they forgot, but she seemed to still want us to come back so we'll keep trying.  We have a lot of potentials from when the Nauvoo temple sisters came tracting in our area so we're going to try and hit some of those this week and hopefully deepen our teaching pool.  I had my first full district meeting on Thursday and of coarse mixed up a few things again but that's ok! =)   It turned out to be a great meeting!   I'm kinda starting to like giving trainings.  I trained on the plan of salvation and used the whole time going over scriptures on each topic.   The zone leaders trained on the atonement and did an awesome job!  I love talking about the atonement!   Elder Bagshaw is doing great!   We are a lot alike so it makes it pretty easy.   Seems the Lord is blessing me with good companions now! =)   We went on exchanges last week with the ZLs in Burlington and than with Keokuk elders in Keokuk they were fun.  The one with the ZLs was definitely more productive than the one in Keokuk but they were both a good time.  It's great to be a missionary even though not everyday is fun.  The days that things go well and you see progress makes all the those hard days worth it!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

August 27, 2012

As for the mission, definitely a crazy week!  With transfers and being a new trainer. My new comps name is Elder Bagshaw he's from Centerville Utah.  He's a cool kid, we get along great already.  He's pretty quiet but opens up once you start to talk to him.  Life is so much more busy than it was.  Two hours of study on top of making sure I'm prepared for district meeting and that everyone in the district knows their responsibilities.  Saturday was my first district meeting, ha of coarse it didn't go perfect but we for sure had a lot of fun in the process.  It was a get to know you district meeting to help everyone of coarse get to know each other.  It was fun!  My new zone leader is Elder Winchester my other comp from the MTC, haha!  It was really cool to be able to see him and spend time with him again.  Makes me feel like we're back in the MTC.  We also recently got 2 new investigators, Kennabell and Bill a couple with a few younger kids.  We went over and taught then about the Book of Mormon.   Funny story when me and Elder Kirton first went to try and set up an appointment Bill answered the door and said OH NO only the King James Bible comes in this house none of that new Mormon Bible stuff!   Apparently his wife was the one that received the Book of Mormon from the Nauvoo sisters.  She came out and as she did Bill yelled from the other room devil worshippers! haha =)   We sat on the deck and started to talk to her about what the Book of Mormon was and told her that it wasn't an interpretation of the Bible but was another witness to strengthen peoples faith in Jesus Christ.   At that point Bill came out and said well now I want to hear about this!   Apparently he was listening through the window! =)   So we proceeded to tell them both about the Book of Mormon and set up another time to come back.  Me and Elder Bagshaw went over on Saturday planning to teach the restoration but ended up answering a bunch more questions about the Book of Mormon.  Bill really wanted to hear a story out of the BoM so of coarse I told him the story of Ammon, =) and asked him what he thought.  He said that's a great story.  I asked what he got out of it and he said well the Lord was able to give him strength to defeat those guys and I said exactly, the Lord is able to help us in all things.  At that point they were so excited about the BoM they just wanted us to leave so they could sit and read it!   It was an awesome lesson, and we're excited to see them again this week.

Love Elder  Jach-Goates

August 20th, 2012

It's been quite an eventful week!  Last week I mentioned we dropped a lot of our investigators but that I'm sure it was going to work out.  Well turns out it did, ha.   We have 7 new investigators all of which want to make it to church but haven't been able to yet.  We have more potentials and more people to try and contact now as well so things are definitely looking up!   We still haven't been able to contact jerry (our investigator that had a baptismal date) and now with school started it will be a little harder but we'll keep tryin!   We got transfer calls on Saturday and Elder Kirton is leaving and is going to be a district leader somewhere.  That's exciting for him!   We were on exchanges when we got the calls so it was a little different.  I was down in Nauvoo at a baptism of the zone leaders with our district leader.   President Jergensen called so that usually means a leadership position and he was talking to Elder Holmes (the district leader) and told him that he was being transferred and going to be a zone leader and that his companion was going to be training.  So that's way cool! Then he asked if he could talk to me... im thinkin oh great now what, ha ha.  I answer the phone "yes president?" he says "how are you doing" I said "well pretty good" he said "I want to hear a wonderful out of you!" i laughed and said "well I was doing wonderful" he laughed and said "well I have 2 favors to ask you..." I kinda sat there and said "...2... favors?" he said "yes the first one is the Lord would like you to be a new trainer  will you accept that call?" I said "well  I guess I can do that."  He said "great! the second is the Lord wants you to be the new district leader as well, this is a lot of responsibility but I know and the Lord knows as well that you are ready for this!" ha I kinda chuckled and said "well I'll put my trust in the Lord and in you and see what happens! Ha ha.  So I guess I'm a new trainer and a district leader.  I'm definitely overwhelmed but I hope I will be able to handle it.  Lets just say I hope my greeny is ready for a treat cause everyone knows I like to have fun! =) ha.  Wish me luck and you might wanna keep my new comp in your prayers! Ha ha

Love  Elder Jach-Goates

August 13th, 2012

As for the mission its gonna be a short one!   Lets just put it this way... It was a tough week! We lost 5 investigators one of them had a date set for Baptism this Saturday.   We have very little teaching appointments so our days are pretty long.  My mood has been up and down, up and down and it seemed as if it couldn't get any lower and I pray it never does.  But out of all of this negatives and fearful people it seems as if things are getting better already.  We'll see what happens this week! =)

Love Elder Jach-Goates

August 6th, 2012

Things are going great still here in Burlington.  Our investigator jerry wasn't at church on Sunday though so we might have to push the date back one week to make sure he comes to church.  But that's ok he still wants to be baptized and is doing good.  Those 4 referrals we got were awesome!   We taught them on Tuesday and they loved the lesson we were there for 2 hours and still didn't finish the restoration.   We invited them to baptism and they said if they know its true they would.   We got Camille to say the closing prayer for us and in her prayer she said thanks for bringing these boys over and shedding so much light on so many different things.   It was awesome!   She asked us several times throughout the lesson how we are so knowledgeable about the scriptures and about life in general, haha!  They were really impressed it was great!   The spirit was definitely present and directing the discussion.  The pageant is over =(   It was such a great experience to work at the pageant and to meet so many people.  I made really good friends with the guy who plays Joseph Smith and his wife that was really cool.  He would come talk to me every time he saw me.   I know he wasn't the real Joseph Smith but playing that part gave him an enormous amount of the spirit and you could feel it every time you talked to him.  It was awesome!   If you haven't seen the pageant you need to see it next year because it is amazing!   We got to watch it on Wednesday, it was SO good, and very spiritual.   It teaches all about the church and the restoration its so great. Saturday was the last day of pageant and we got to stay and help take it all down we were there till 2 in the morning taking everything down and loading it all up.  It was a long night. We didn't get to bed till 3 than had to be up for church in the morning.  Luckily we got a 3 hour approved nap after church.  That was sweet!   I love you all and appreciate all the support.

Love Elder  Jach

July 30th, 2012

Things of coarse have been pretty crazy with the pageant and trying to keep our area progressing but everything is going great!   We set a baptismal date with Jerry for the 18th and he's pretty excited.  We had an awesome lesson with him and he really opened up it was great!    We got some referrals from the pageant that seem really promising.   It is a family of three and then one other friend and they want a group lesson.  They went to the pageant a few weeks ago and I guess they were slow at getting us the referral because they called Nauvoo and asked where we were that they have been waiting for us to come teach them. Ha!  That was pretty cool!   We have our first lesson with them tomorrow so we'll see how things go.  The zone leaders mentioned that it seems like President Jergensen is preparing us for future leadership positions by making us work the pageant.  It takes time away from our area and so the work is of coarse slowed down because we're gone.  But we have been doing a great job at keeping the work going, just like when zone leaders and district leaders have to be gone from their areas all the time.   It's been so great to be a part of the pageant and to talk with so many different people.  I was able to go to the temple for the first time on my mission on Monday and it was awesome!   We did initatories and an endowment it was so great to go through the temple again.  We went on exchanges in Keokuk on Thursday and Friday up until the pageant we had a blast!   We taught their investigator who has a baptismal date for this Saturday.   It was a fun lesson she's a strong willed person and knows what she wants she doesn't like a lot of questions and of coarse I love asking questions! =)   It was pretty funny.   Then later that day she called the Keokuk elders and asked if she could have another lesson the next day... and wanted to know if I could be there haha... she had a friend over that was a member and they apparently looked me up on facebook and everything it was pretty funny! =)  I talked to her after the lesson the next day and she said she didn't start the stalk but she said I'm not finished with it yet either... hahaha not really sure how to take that but oh well. =)   Things are going  good and I'm loving it of coarse!   Hope all is well back home.

Love Elder Jach