March 18, 2013

Things are still going good!  Had a tough week last week with depression and all but luckily I'm working my way out of it now so this week should be a good one!  There are 2 greenies in the district now so it adds a little more stress to my plate but I guess that's what I paid for right...? It's spring break for Iowa State so pretty much the town is deserted.  Church was empty, it was like I was in a branch again.  It was a good Sunday anyway!   Austin is still doing really well.  He's struggling to talk to his parents about wanting to get baptized but he knows its what is right and is such a smart kid.  He figured out that the reason he isn't getting an answer to his prayers is because he doesn't fully intend to act on the answer he receives.   He fears that his parents won't approve of it.  He  also attends another church by himself and helps them with things so doesn't want to tell them that he is joining a different church either. Luckily he has a great support system from the Greene family and really wants to do what the Lord wants him too.  It's funny how much fear plays such a huge role in our lives.  Fear that it won't work the way we want it to, fear that we will get an answer to do something that we don't really want to do, fear that we'll make a mistake.  So many fears that hold us back from doing what's right and what we know we should.  When in reality if we lay aside all of those fears everything works out and we are SO much happier because of it!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

March 11, 2013

It was another fantastic week!  Matt got baptized!!!  It was great!  His wife's family came down from Missouri and it was a great turn out.  He is such a great guy.  His mother in law was super nice and made us promise that we would see him every week still because he's kinda lonely since his wife is in basic training right now.  We are running out of investigators cause all of ours are getting baptized,  Ha Ha I guess it's a good thing but at the same time we need more people to teach.  Sorry I haven't been able to get any pictures sent off  I'll try and do that this week on a members computer.  Hope everything there is going as well as it is here. Love you and miss you all!!!!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

March 4, 2013

It was a good week!   We went on exchanges in Marsheltown and got snowed in for 3 days while we were up there ha it was a fun time and luckily we were still able to get a few things done.   Funny story, my comp got hit by a car! Ha ha!  Don't worry he's fine it pretty much just bumped him but he did fly about 10 feet from where he was.  The driver was horrified as you can imagine and it probably didn't help that all 4 of us missionaries were making jokes about it and laughing.  But hey it was funny!   He was ok so it wasn't a big deal.  We had stake conference this weekend and it went well.  Elder Oaks talked to the whole Midwest about missionaries coming in and told the members to step up their game so hopefully that helps. Then on Sunday there was a CES fireside and Elder Bednar and his wife spoke.  It was a great fireside!   Transfers are next week and I think  I'm getting transferred.  We'll find out on Saturday if I am =S.  We've been having a pretty good rise in missionaries coming into the mission and it will continue at least till the end of the year so that's exciting.  We have another baptism this weekend for Matt.  He's doing great and is super excited to be baptized.  We talked yesterday and he mentioned that he was reading the BoM the other day and he said he just felt so good.  He searched for other words to describe what happened but with a tear in his eye all he could get out was that it felt so good! =) Super Awesome!!!!!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

February 27, 2013

It was a great week we had the baptism of Alyssa on Saturday and we have another baptism on the 9th.  Super exciting!  Things with Alyssa's baptism went well it was a little hectic because I hadn't put together a baptism in a while, but we got it all done and it worked out great.  We had a snow storm here and we were on exchanges in Story City so got stuck there for an extra night.  It's great to see the progress of the area and to know that the members are working hard to help us out too.  I miss you all so very much and am so thankful for all you do.  Keep working hard and rely on the Lord.  This Church is true and He is there for your support!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

February 19, 2013

Things are going great!!!!  Alyssa is getting baptized this weekend and there will be another one in 2 weeks and another in 3 weeks as well!  This area is finally going after a lot of hard work!   The members here are doing great with helping us and really starting to be missionary minded.  We picked up a new investigator last week his name is Matt.  He has been dating a member for 3 years so has known about the church for a while and they recently got married. So he decided it was time for him to look into it for himself.  He loves the morals of the church and is a great guy.  He prays and reads his scriptures every night and after every lesson he prays and asks if what we taught was true.  Then he'll text us and let us know how he felt after praying.  Such a great investigator!

Love Elder Jach-Goates

February 11, 2013

Things are going great!   I have a new companion Elder  Claridge from Arizona.  He's an awesome kid.  He's been out for 5 months so he's still pretty new but he's a hard worker and we get along great!  The work is really picking up and the members have a lot of trust in us so hopefully we'll start seeing more referrals here soon.  We got to meet with Austin again, he is still doing great and has started reading out of preach my gospel ha what an awesome kid! He is 17 and  Alyssa is 20 and she is doing great as well!   We get to meet with her this week and get her prepared for baptism.  We got another referral from the Greene family a guy named Matt we haven't been able to meet with him yet but the Greenes are excited for us to talk with him.   President Jergensen asked me to be a district leader again.  The work here is about to explode I can feel it!

Love you all!

Elder Jach-Goates

February 4, 2013

As for the mission it has been a pretty crazy week!   A lot of things have happened!  My companion has been going through a really tough time and has decided to return home.  This past week has been super slow because of it, but with my new companion coming in on Thursday the area should explode!   There is a lot of potential here all I need is someone that will work with me and help bring the Spirit in to direct every lesson.  Alyssa is still doing well the zone leaders have been meeting with her on my request and we will start back up with her come this weekend.  We received a member referral a few weeks ago from the Greene family (I was in the same room in the MTC as their son, small world). Austin their friend is doing great.  We had a lesson with him 2 weeks ago and he took notes during the lesson and even quoted BoM scriptures! Ha ha he is an awesome kid and is super prepared.  His only hold up was telling his parents that he wanted to take the lessons so he finally mustered up the courage to talk with them and they have agreed to let him so we get to meet with him on Friday.  He has had questions for a while and has asked the Greene family or looked up the answers on lds.org.  We set a date with him for baptism on our first lesson, March 16th and will work for that sadly I'll probably be gone for that but will get to see him grow for the entire time! =)  Such a great work this is!  How blessed I am to have to opportunity of being an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Love Elder Jach-Goates