March 12, 2012

This week we had transfers on Thursday Elder Adamson went to Story City just north of Ames and I got a new comp named Elder Wally like the movie.   He has been in the army special forces for the past 3 years and has another 3 years when he gets back.   He's a pretty cool guy really head strong and opinionated but nothing I can't work around.   He seems to really like   me and keeps saying we're going to get along great,  I can already tell, haha.   There's a few things I need to make sure he doesn't do.  He says he offends people a lot because of his humor and sarcasm and he thinks he's always right, but don't worry I can fix all that! haha ;) He's a good missionary though.  He knows the gospel pretty well and he knows a lot about other religions and about the apostasy which is good for this area.   He said he's been in trouble with President Jergensen a few times already and cant seem to stay out of trouble.  I told him he won't have to worry about that anymore cause I don't get in trouble cause I obey the rules, ha, don't know if he liked that too much but oh well.  The mission is still going good though I still have a few tough days especially after transfers but no worries just keep pushing forward.   We have two new investigators that we taught for the first time on Friday. Ones name is Chad and the other is Audrey.  They both live in town so we can see them pretty much anytime no problem so that's good.   They both really liked the restoration and want us to come back.  Chad was raised catholic and he's what the catholic's call a "digger" which means he asks a lot of questions and wants to get answers.  Which is great cause we have most of  the answers.   Audrey is an older lady and has been in a few different religions because she doesn't agree with a few things.  She was really into the lesson and had a bunch of questions.  We were there for and hour and a half and she wanted us to stay ,longer and keep talking, but we had other appointments we had to go to.  She said well give me a call and we'll set up another time for you to come over, ha, so that was great!   Paul is still doing good he gets kinda discouraged if we don't teach him something new.  So we're doing our best to always teach him new things.  His cousin Heather the JW said she would come to church with us and invited us to come to her big sacrament thing where they pass around the bread and wine but only 144,000 can eat and drink it.   So we're gonna go to that with her, should be pretty fun.  Haven't been able to go to the Tibbots lately but we're going to try this week if we have time.   We have zone conference on Friday and stake conference this weekend.   I love being busy!!! =)    Everyone literally has the ability to move mountains, all you need is faith!

Love Elder Jach

March 7th, 2012

March 7th, 2012

Everything is going great!  Transfers are tomorrow that's pretty scary.  I'm really nervous about my new comp and whether he'll be a hard worker or not we've been working so hard here and have started seeing a lot of success.  If someone who doesn't work comes in he might mess it all up.  President Jergensen said that my new comp is full of energy and feels like he will be good, so i hope he is right.   Me and Elder Adamson have really been getting along and having fun together kinda sucks to see him go.  This area has grown so much in the last 6 weeks it's crazy we actually have a teaching pool and haven't really had to do any tracting which is awesome.  We tract like one day a week for an hour or 2.   We had another awesome Sunday.  Another random guy came to church and we're going to teach him this week or next he said he'll definitely be back on Sunday!  Ha sweet!  Then one of the members called and said that they were just at a friends house and they said they would like the missionaries to come over and teach them so we called him and set up an appointment for tonight excited for that.  This area is exploding and Elder Adamson is bummed that he's leaving.  Paul is excited for his baptismal date and is still doing great.  His cousin Heather (the Jehovah's Witness) is still taking lessons from us and told us that she thinks we are really nice and genuine people she was going to come to church with Paul on Sunday but her sister (also a JW) made her go to church with her.   That's ok we will keep teaching her and I feel like it could easily lead to baptism.   Her husband doesn't seem too interested and won't sit in on the lessons, but he hears most of what we teach her so that's good.   As for the Smith family we still haven't been able to get a lesson with them but we're still trying.  Luis pretty much doesn't want anything to do with us.  He still won't answer the door when we can hear him inside.  We knocked 5 times one day and he still didn't answer, but that's ok maybe one day he'll except lessons.   The Tibbotts son had a heart attack last week so we haven't been able to see them lately.  Their son is doing ok now and we should be able to go see them next week. Faith is still not progressing and her mom had  Sunday off and still didn't come to church so we don't know what's going on there, but we're still teaching her and she's good when we're there so we just need to figure out what's going on.   Still loving being on a mission! Remember when you're in the service of your fellow man you're only in the service of your God.  Mosiah 2:17

Love Elder Jach

March 5th, 2012

I had a phone call this week from a mom that lives in Izach's mission.  She lives in a town of about 3500.  They (her family of 7 kids and husband) are the only members.  They call it little Rome as it is full of Catholics.  It was such a wonderful phone call.  Every time she talked about Elder Jach she got teary.  He had been there for Family Home Evening and had bore his testimony.  "What an amazing and powerful testimony" she said.  What mum doesn't love to hear that.  She talked of his growth since he entered the mission field 3 months ago and of his constant smile.  Apparently it is not at all typical for them to be teaching so much.  Their family has lived there for 15 years and have never seen the missionaries so busy.  She attributed that to Elder Jach and Elder Adamson.  "They work so hard" she said.  How great that was for another mom to reach out and share her thoughts about our boy.

February 27th, 2012

Still working really hard and doing our best to stay busy.   Paul got moved out and is living with his cousins in Earlville (where the Smiths and Luis live).  Heater his cousin is a Jehovahs Witness and her husband  Jason is currently looking for a church and thinks he found the truth in the Baptist church  =).  We helped Paul move in and they said that they really appreciated it and that we could teach Paul there anytime we needed.  So we did and invited them to sit with us during the lesson.  Little did they know we planned the whole lesson for them and taught them all about the restoration and challenged them to baptism and reading and praying about the book of Mormon they said if they knew the book was true that they would be baptized.   So that was great!   Oh and we set a baptismal date for Paul on the 24th of March and he agreed.  He is still working on receiving an answer for the BoM he said he feels like he has had a few small conformations but still isn't sure if they were answers or not so he is still trying.  He is more and more excited about it every time we see him so that's great.   We currently have a lesson set up again with the Smith family on Wednesday at 6pm.  So that will be great as well.  We had a high council man come to church on Sunday and he said that there is a family in the area that is ready to come into the church... so maybe it's them or maybe it's Pauls cousins or maybe its someone else.  We had a lesson with a man named Richard in Independence he is a really nice older man he was a history teacher but had a stroke and his memory went bad.  So he can't teach anymore but he has had missionaries in the past but we're not sure what he's been taught or if he will be able to progress because of his stroke but he is a great guy and wants to have more lessons.  We will teach him as long as he wants us to.   As for Luis he was at home when we went over and the front door was open when we knocked.  We could here them inside but no one came to the door and it was closed when we got to the truck so we're not sure what to do about that.  We might try a few more times but doesn't seem like its going to go anywhere yet.   We haven't been able to see Faith in the past few weeks she has been sick and at her dads and her moms been working so we haven't been able to set up a lesson for a while.  The Tibbotts are still doing good we've had a few more lessons with them and are going over twice a week now.  They said they love having us over and love our discussions but Mrs Tibbott doesn't feel like there is one true church or that she even needs to go to church.   She thinks as long as she is trying to follow Jesus Christ that that is all that matters.  We've been encouraging her to read and pray about the BoM and know that once she does that she will know that she needs to come to church.  Things are moving slowly with them but at 78 and 81 they don't really want to change at all.   We know that as long as we keep working with them that maybe one day they will know that its true and have a desire to change.  I'm still loving my mission and serving others I pray for everyone back home and know that the Lord will bless each and everyone of you if you will but humble yourselves and ask him. =)

Love Elder Jach

February 20, 2011

As for the mission so far this last week has been pretty good.  We've still been really  busy as usual.   We went to Cedar Rapids and went on exchanges with our zone leaders Elder Edwards and Manwearing they are awesome and really great missionaries.   Elder Edwards goes home in about 2 weeks now and he's really trunky (ready to go home).  We didn't get very many lessons in last week because we were in Cedar Rapids then we had district meeting on Thursday.  We did service on Friday and Saturday by helping Paul move which was good.  We got to meet more of his family and they said we could teach Paul at their house so that was great.  We told them they could sit in on the lessons and ask questions and comment as much as they wanted so hopefully we will have a few more investigators because of that.   We weren't able to see Faith last week.  She was sick and her mom was sick so that was tough.   We still haven't been able to get a hold of the Smith family or Luis .   So the few potentials we had are slipping away but we are finding more and more everyday so its ok.  We went and saw the Tibbotts on Saturday with our branch mission leader Brother Droste he is a great guy but can seriously talk for hours we were at the Tibbotts for over 3 hours and Bbrother Droste was talking the whole time.  Luckily he was talking about the gospel and answering questions that they had so it was really good.  We had a great lesson with them and really got them thinking.   Brother Droste let us testify of the truthfulness of the gospel at the end so that was good and I feel like they are really moving forward.   We will probably start going to see them twice a week.   We have a zone p-day today so we're going to Cedar Rapids and playing basketball with all the Elders in the zone so that will be fun.  Well that's all for this week. 

Love you all and remember to always where your armor (2 Nephi 1:23)

Love Elder Jach

February 13th, 2012

As for the week its been pretty good it went by really fast.  We were gone on Wednesday and Thursday I was in Cedar Rapids with my MTC comp Elder Meservy while Elder Adamson went to a meeting in Iowa city.  Then Thursday we both had a meeting in Davenport and were gone all day for that. It was nice to have different things to do and great to see Elder Meservy he and I have become great friends and hope that we will get to serve together in the field which is becoming increasingly less likely due to the increase in missionaries every transfer, but  It could happen.   We have thought about getting Faith a ride to church but she doesn't want to come without her mom.  Which is understandable for a 9 year old.   We still haven't been able to get a hold of Luis we have gone there a few different times, but have never caught him at home.   The Smith family had a wrestling tournament that came up so we weren't able to meet with them, but we got their phone number and are trying to reschedule for another time.   Our teaching pool is expanding and more people seem to want to learn more about the Church which is great.   We have been working hard to find new people and have found a few people and set up lessons so hopefully we will have some new investigators by next week.   We have been giving out Book of Mormons and our phone # so people can call us if they have more questions and that I think is helping.  The Book of Mormon is our greatest tool in bringing people unto the gospel and i know that as long as we keep working hard we will be blessed.

 I know that that this Church is true and that my Heavenly Father loves me.

Love Elder Jach

February 6th, 2012

The mission is still going great!  I'm loving it more and more everyday and feel closer to my Heavenly Father everyday as well.  The work seems to be picking up and we seem to have more lessons to teach so that's good.   We still haven't had a lesson with Luis.  We haven't been able to catch him at home.  That is annoying, but we have a lesson with the Smith family on Sunday so that will be good.  They seem to be interested and we gave them a book of Mormon when we saw them last.  Faith is still not really progressing and her mom works most Sundays now so she cant really come to church anymore and her dad wont bring her which is really annoying, but oh well  I know that as long as we keep working with her and strengthening her faith that the Lord will find ways for her to get to church and open those doors.   We have been teaching an elderly couple the Tibbotts.  They are awesome.  They said they have had missionaries over before but that they wont change... ;) ha.  They feed us cake every time we go over.   We took a member with us last time and were there for almost 3 hours answering questions and clearing up things that they have heard.  It was a great lesson and we found out that Mrs. Tibbott is reading from the Book of Mormon.   She said that she gets a weird feeling when she picks it up but says its not a good feeling.  We encouraged her to keep reading and gave her some scriptures to read Mr. Tibbott is really stubborn but enjoys talking about our religion i feel like they are progressing and want to know more we just need to get them to church which will be pretty hard cause Mr. Tibbott has been home bound for about 4 years because of diabetes but  I think we will be able to get them to church within the next few weeks.   We have also been going to a part member families house and teaching them.  The mom,  Susan has had missionaries over a lot but whenever they would have a spiritual thought she would leave the room so we decided to start doing bible thoughts and she started joining us for those.  Now she is asking questions and bringing up her concerns about the church.  We got her to read out of the Book of Mormon and she had some really great questions about the chapter that we were able to answer perfectly and she seemed to get a lot out of it.   Her husband,  Brian was baptized a few years ago and said that she is talking to us about stuff that he didn't even know she was thinking, so its been really cool to see the changes in her.  I feel like she is really starting to progress.   Dang this work is awesome!   I love being out here and serving my Lord and Savior!   We have been busting our butts and I know the Lord sees that and is blessing us because of it.   I'm so thankful for this wonderful opportunity that I have to be out here and for the chance that I have to study the gospel and bring the happiness it has given me to others.

If everyone were like Moroni the gates of hell would be shut! -- great scripture!

Love Elder Jach