Sunday, January 31, 2016

February 1, 2016

Alright this week has been the best!!! So so so much has happened and I will try my best to explain how cool this week has been over email!!!
We had a powerful powerful baptism on Saturday for Christia Barabona.  She has had the most picture perfect conversion. It was so cool! While her baptism  was getting close she had so many signs telling here how her decision was what God wanted for her. Last Friday night was the #1 most spiritual lesson i have ever been in where she just testified over and over that God is real and she knows that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is  His restored church. It was so powerful. She really has gotten the ward so excited so pretty much everyone showed up to her baptism and after she was baptized she just stood up and bored her testimony for like 20 min. to the whole ward who showed up! It was amazing!!! And all the members who have been apart of helped here were just amazed how much they were helped by Christia. She was changed but everyone involved, including me were helped as well by her testimony! So cool!
We had a new family come to church this week I left right after sacrament meeting to go pick up my new companion for a brand new crazy adventure. So Elder Palzario and I will be opening up Caticlan for missionary work!!!! The thing is we do not have an apartment or a meeting house yet.... We just grabbed  some sacrament trays and some gospel principle books and left to go start the church. AGAIN SO CRAZY!!! So last night we found a hotel to sleep in.....ya a hotel. My first time sleeping with air conditioning in 18 months!
After the most beautiful drive ever along the beach 6 hours we got to Caticlan and it was about  6pm. Somehow about 1 hour later we were able to find a nice apartment that we could move in on Wednesday! MIRACLE!!! So after this we will go finish the deal! Then look for a nice place to have church. We could have it in the apartment but we really want a nicer place because Caticlan is unlike any other place here. It is very very rich!  It is a huge tourist spot! Boracay island!!!!  It is so beautiful!!! I will be sending tons of pictures so you can see!
I am so excited but super nervous at the same time. This is going to be a lot of fun but I know super super challenging. But I am up for the challenge and ready just to go hard! This will be the best way to top off the best mission ever!!! If there is one thing I have l learned  the last few months is that this work is not ours at all. Before my mindset was that "The spirit was my greatest tool." but ever since realized that "I was the tool of the spirit" a lot has changed. I  now just try and get out of the way and let the spirit teach. It makes a huge difference. With the conversion of Christia. We did so so so little. We just tried to get out of the way of the Spirit and it was amazing!
We are going to work so hard but never get in the way of the spirit. We will focus on families families and families to give this place a strong foundation to grow! I love love love my mission and feel so so blessed to serve here!
I love you all so much!!!
love,
Elder Jackson Erik Craythorne