July 15, 2013

Hey Everybody!!!

     Well, I did write you guys last week, but our emails didn't send for some reason?? It was kind of a bummer, but oh well! I will just have to write an even better one today.

     This week has been such a great week! So to start off the week, we went to the Near's home for dinner and family home evening. And of course sister Near invited two non members to come! So that was really great. We didn't get to set up an appointment to teach them, but hopefully with time we will be able to teach them. The Nears are going to keep fellow-shipping them.

    Tuesday was such a great day! So the Nears, once again, have a family of 5 that they have been friends with forever who have agreed to take the missionary lessons. Well, everybody but their Dad. Hopefully he will come around soon. And the craziest part, is that the mom is a member, but just forgot that she was baptized when she was 16. She basically has been inactive since then so for like 20 years probably? Anyway, she has three kids, Will 15, Sara 13, and Laura 12. And all three of them really enjoyed the Restoration, and committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. They are so solid! I have no doubt that they will be baptized! Such a great family; very humble and ready for the gospel in their lives. Such a blessing from the Lord. The only sad part is they are going on vacation and won't be back until the 29th, but when they get back, we will work hard to help them become converted!

    And Tuesday night was great as well! So we had set up a church tour for Tina (an Investigator), for earlier in the day but she didn't show up and setting up a church tour takes a little bit of time. We basically just set up a bunch of pictures around the church and teach the restoration. It is very powerful. So we didn't want to take it down after she didn't show up. So we left it up and were hoping and praying that we could teach someone it. So for dinner we were eating with a wonderful member, and her son who used to be a member, But he quit coming like 50 years ago I think. During dinner we asked if we could go to the church afterwards and do a church tour with them. They of course said yes! So on our way back to the church we stopped at Tina's home to see what had happened earlier and also see if she could come to one that night. She said that she was sorry that she forgot and said that she would come as well!! So we taught the first one, and it went great! The spirit was so strong, and the member's son, Rob, said that we could continue to teach him. (In fact we just had another lesson with him on Sunday and he has committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet). After they left Tina showed up for her church tour, and hers went just as well!!! It was very spiritual and powerful. The best part was that at the end she told us that she believed that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We were very shocked! We asked her how she came to know this and she said, " I just started to really listen to you and I just know it is true now!" WOW!! Such a blessing! And we taught her on Friday and had a great lesson with her. She has made a 180 and is starting to really progress! Now, she just needs to come to church!! We are also teaching her daughter!

    And another great story happened just the other day. In fact, yesterday. We have been teaching this member and her less active husband for quite a while, and they both have made tons of progress too. But Brother Noble, husband, told us that his neighbor, Bud, wanted us to come by and see him. So we went over and started to talk to him. We were able to get into his home and start teaching him and his wife. They asked all of the right questions. Questions like, "Why are there so many churches?" "How can we know what is truth?" "The bible has been translated so many times, how can we know what it really means?" and lots of other great questions that can be answered by the restoration message! It was so great! We are going back to teach them again on Saturday!

   So as you can see, there is plenty of work to do here, and the Lord is really blessing us a lot!!! I am so grateful to be a missionary in this wonderful work! There is nothing more satisfying then serving others! I would invite all of you to serve each other this week! I have found that as we can waste so much time trying to getting instant gratification through tv, video games, movies, ipods, computers, etc... This is what the world wants, Instant everything! But true happeness doesn't come from these things, Happiness comes from serving others around you and loving those whom you serve. That is were we can find lasting gratification and true happiness, as we serve our families, and also our extended family (everybody else). A great scripture for this is, Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn ^awisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the ^bservice of your ^cfellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. Such great counsel from a wonderful Prophet, Kind Benjamin!! We can find happiness serving others because we are serving God!

    Well everybody, I truly love you all! I miss you, but am really enjoying my time out here. It makes me sad that it has to end one day! So I work hard every day to try and do as much good as I can while I'm out here! I hope that all of your days this week will be full of service, and lots of fun activities! I look forward to hearing from you ALL.( notice the empthises on the "all" that means you Erin... and Cameron... :) haha I love you guys!

Elder Elder

 

p.s. I did not get the picture of you and brad. you should send it again!

p.s.s. We got transfer calls, and we will be staying here in Clinton for at least another 6 weeks! But I bet I will be here a lot longer than that!

Sunset over the Mississippi River

This is my recliner

My district!

My companion...

I got a wart frozen off!

And it blistered up!

We had a baptism on Saturday!!! It was really sweet! His name is Sean V, such a great guy!! Sean is on the right. Joe C. is the one who baptized him. He is a sweet member here.

I tried to cut my leg off!!! Ok, not really, but here's what happened. I was pounding a post in for a fence with a post pounder and I guess I hit the post in farther than I thought! Because when I pulled the post pounder up, I accidentally pulled it too high and when I brought it down, of course, I missed the post, and well... hit myself!

June 24, 2013

     Well, my heart is very full today! I am so happy that the family is doing so well! I miss you and the family so much and love you all so much as well! I don't know if Andrew knows, but it means so much to me that he writes me every day! He sounds like he is doing so much better and Aubri sounds very happy. I would talk about Erin and Cameron too, but they don't really write too often...  haha. Make them feel guilty for me. Tell them that I miss them! And when they write would you have them send it in their own emails? It makes it less confusing when I am writing back.

     So President and Sister Jergensen leave on Saturday! It is so weird. I luckily got to see them at church on Sunday. They try and make it around to all the wards out here and we were lucky enough to meet with them on their last Sunday! They have been such wonderful examples in my life. We have not met President Jensen yet! We will meet him on the 4th of July at a Zone Conference. I am excited to meet him and see how he helps the work move forward here in the IDMM (Iowa Des Moines Mission).

     Ya, home and visiting teaching are truly inspired callings! So much good comes from it! I can't wait to be a home teacher again. Well, in a way I am a home teacher now. I just have the added plus of knocking on doors. haha.

     So did you watch that seminar?? Oh my goodness it was so amazing! I have never seen the church do anything like that before! They are truly utilizing all of the resources they can! That seminar is going to change the missionary work worldwide.

     So, as far as I know Taren is doing fantastic! He is a District leader and is working hard. Wow, I miss that guy and Bradley! They both are getting close to being done. And wow, I have almost been out for ten months! Does it seem that long to you??

     So I learned something fantastic this week. I have learned how to drastically improve my teaching skills! One of the fundamentals of Preach my Gospel is Teaching People Not Lessons. So I have made it a point to do this in all of my lessons! I have had many awesome experiences since then. So the first one, we were on exchanges with the Assistants to the President, and I was with Elder Vanwoerkem, who interestingly enough was my first Zone Leader in Manchester. We went and saw this potential Investigator named Ray. We sat down with him and just started to talk and get to know him. We both were planning on sharing the restoration lesson with him, but it didn't seem right. So we starting talking about the first couple points in the Doctrine of Christ! We started with faith and then repentance and the spirit just came pouring in! This was exactly what we were supposed to teach him! By the end of the lesson, he committed to be baptized and come to church this week with us! He wanted to make his life better and repent for his past mistakes! At the end of the lesson, he said the closing prayer and he said such a sincere prayer! I Couldn't hold back the tears in the middle of it! It is just amazing what happens when you listen to the spirit! The Lord will fill your mouth when you are sharing the Gospel because we are all his children and he wants everybody to know about it.

     And the second experience was also on exchanges, but this time it was out of our area. We were in Dubuque. We were struggling to find people to teach, so we sat down and prayed about were to go. Several names popped into Elder Clark's Head. I was on exchanges with him. So we went to see these people. One of them was a 22 year old named Dakota and his experience was kind of similar to Ray's. We started teaching the restoration, and I just had an overwhelming feeling to stop and ask him a couple of questions. So I did and it was so sweet! Through these inspired questions we were able to really figure out what it was that he truly needed which was a testimony that there truly is a God. So we talked about prayer and the importance of it. We asked him if he had ever prayed. And he said, "no, I have never really prayed before." So we told him that the only way he would ever know if there was a God is if he asked! So right after that he said, "Ok, can we pray right now?"..... This never happens! We always have to almost coax our investigators to pray! So, he prayed, and was pretty sincere!!! And he also committed to be baptized when he received an answer and is planning on going to church!!

     I have learned so much about being a missionary this past week. I have to teach the person, not the lessons! And God loves all his children so much we just have to listen to the spirit to know what he would have us say!!!

     Well, I am praying for you and my family everyday! I pray that your own testimonies will continue to grow. and that through the Atonement you can all become even better than you already are. I was telling Aubri that if we are not changing, then we are not moving forward, and if we are not moving forward, then we are moving backwards!! My invitation for you and my family this week is to find something that you could change to bring your lives closer in harmony with the Gospel! Everybody has something they can change, because if they didn't then they would be perfect, and if we are perfect, then why would we need a Savior?? I testify that we need a Savior, because we all screw up! and we need his Atonement to help make us clean and grow closer to him! I love this Gospel so much and love my Savior with all my Heart! I love you and my family as well! I hope you all have wonderful weeks!

Love,

Elder Elder

It's so green here!

President and Sister Jergensen!! I am going to miss them. They leave for home on Saturday!

Gotta love corn fields...

June 17, 2013

Hey!!!!
    I love my new area! It is a great place! It is a smaller town, not nearly as big as Rock Island, and you know that I love that! The smaller the better in my mind! Yes, I love my companion. He is a great guy! So funny, and we get along great! I really have enjoyed whitewashing this area too! It is like we are starting this area completely over, getting a fresh start. We have really enjoyed it so far.
    The members in this ward area are so great! So get this, last week the youth had trek and this one family invited a nonmember family to go with them. Then they went to church and the nonmember kids brought their mom and younger sister. Elder Anderson and I will probably start teaching them soon! This is how missionary work should be. Members inviting their friends to attend! I am so excited to work with this ward and help get the rest of the members excited about missionary work.
    This week was so sweet because we were able to find three new investigators! One of our investigators, Sean came to church. He is getting baptized on the 29th of June! The Lord has really blessed us and this area.
    As a Zone Leader, we get to attend the Mission Leadership Counsel once a month and have counsel and training from our mission president. Since this was President's last one, on Tuesday, he and his wonderful wife let us ask any life questions we wanted to! They answered them for us. It was so inspiring! They are the key example of a happy marriage and a wonderful family. They talked about things such as service, love and charity. Things that they taught were very critical to their marriage and family life. These are also things I've noticed really help in a companionship. That meeting was one of the most spiritual meetings I have been to also!
    This week in my studies and lessons, I have learned a lot about the fundamentals of the Gospel!! One of the most important fundamentals I think, is the revelation through the Book of Mormon! So in my studies I would read a chapter and then ponder about what I read and receive revelation on how to apply what I learned. There is so much to gain from the Book of Mormon. And all we have to do is open it up and read it. I really wish I would have known this before my mission! But I am glad that I have learned what I know now. The Book of Mormon is everything! Without it, the church would not be able to stand! One of my favorite parts of the morning studies as missionary is our comp. study. We share with each other the different revelation we received!
   I hope you are all having a wonderful week!
Elder Elder

Excerpt from letter from his mission president

"We are pleased to let you know that your son, Elder Jason Scott Elder, is a member of the select group of elders who have been called to serve as Zone Leaders in this mission. As Zone Leaders, he and his companion will supervise the activities of the missionaries in their zone, serving as special representatives of the Mission President.

Elder Elder has been faithful and diligent in previous positions, and we feel this achievement is an impressive reflection of this faithfulness and devotion. We know that your training has done much to make possible his rise to leadership.

As a Zone Leader, Elder Elder will need to work hard, be guided by the spirit of the Lord, and have the enthusiasm to encourage and motivate the missionaries in his zone. He must be a constant example in word and deed. He must live in complete harmony with the commandments of the Lord, which includes living the missionary rules with exact obedience.

We want to thank you for sharing Elder Elder with us, and know you will see great growth in your son when he returns home.

Warm regards,

Dirk O. Jergensen
President

My comp is crazy!!!! Haha

Mississippi Bridge

June 10, 2013

Hey,

    Ok, so my new companion is Elder Anderson!!! He is the sweetest guy! He is a wonderful missionary and is hilarious. He is constantly making me laugh. So we got assigned to a new zone leader area, which means that we whitewashed into an area. So neither one of us knows anybody or the area! And neither one of us knows anybody in our zone too well! Oh... So I guess you would like to know where I am... haha... I am serving in Clinton, Iowa now! And will probably be here for quite awhile. Zone Leaders don't get transferred too often. So Clinton is a decent sized town just north of Rock Island on the Mississippi River. And we actually have an apartment across the river in Fulton, Illinois, but our area is still the Clinton Iowa area. It has normally been just a normal proselyting area, but because we are getting so many new missionary, we had to split a zone and Elder Anderson and I get to start his new zone.
    Since neither one of us knows anybody in our area, we have to rely so much on the Lord for help. The other day was way sweet. We prayed about where to go finding, and the first house we knocked on was a lady who is really good friends with a member and has always wanted to know more about our church! We talked with her for a good while, and plan to set up an appointment with her friend and teach her in her home. It was a miracle! We only had to knock on one door and the Lord had someone waiting for us to teach! That to me is such a testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel!
    My advice for all of you is to make sure to be having scripture study and pray every night. And something that would be cool would be if you guys used Preach My Gospel and role play teaching each other. I promise you that teaching the gospel is the best way to help our your testimony, even if it is just role playing it with your family. I have learned so much about the gospel because of teaching it. Another thing, I can also promise you, that if you read The Doctrine of Christ, you will be spiritually fed. Our President is always telling us to get the Doctrine from our minds to our hearts. The only way that we get investigators to do anything is when we invite them to do something that requires them to change, and then we follow up with them. You should do some sort of competition with them! I will even do it with you too! Like a reading competition! Reading the Book of Mormon is the springboard to a super strong testimony of the Gospel! I love you all so much and miss you dearly! The Lord will bless you all if you are diligent and faithful! That has been so apparent to me on my mission so far! I love you!
Elder Elder

Rock Island District

Just riding the bus...

I am going to miss Rock Island!

We really wanted to check this church out...

Aubri's tie. Thanks!

This is my comp!!!! Elder Anderson

Beautiful Iowa!

Road Trip!

Look how green it is!

Operation breakfast!

We made some muffins for our investigators to wake them up for church. Sadly they still didn't come! Even after breakfast!

Probably the smallest bathroom I've ever used... but the good news is you can wash your hands while you... use the bathroom...

June 3, 2013

Hey!!!
     My week went really well! So got some news for you. We got transfer calls on Saturday, and President has called me to be a Zone Leader!! I am getting transfered from Rock Island to somewhere else. A Zone Leader though!! I asked President if he was serious, and he said that he was. So that has been on my mind for the past couple days. It is kind of a scary thought to be a zone leader, but if that's what I am supposed to do, then I suppose I will do it!! ha. So ya I am getting transfered once again. 
     Oh, the storms over here have been awesome! The lightning out here is so cool. It seems like it is so close!! The tornado sirens have been going crazy here in the Quad Cities. Sadly, we didn't get one come through though... We really wanted to see one! ha. But there were some crazy winds on Thursday night, and trees scattered the roads. I have never seen wind that strong. All of the traffic lights in Davenport went out too because they lost power. haha. It was crazy. When you looked up at the sky the clouds were literally racing by. So sweet!! Luckily we had the car that day! ha.

      Yes we are getting a new mission president at the end of this month. President Jensen is his name. It is going to be hard, because I love President and Sister Jergensen so much! It is going to be so different having a new one. But I am excited to see what happens though. It should be an awesome time for our mission. Another chance for us to prove to the Lord that we are willing to do whatever it takes to keep this mission at the top! I know that President Jensen will be just as good if not better than the Jergensens. Simply because he is called by the Lord. He always qualifies those whom he calls.

      I am pretty bummed that I am leaving before Friday though! I really wanted to clean the temple! Maybe I will get a chance in my next area. And ya you should deffinitly take the family there. So much church history, and they will all love it. I hope my next area is close by Navuoo so that I can go there a lot.

    Well I miss all of you guys, and love you all so much, and I too pray for you each and every day! I hope that you all have wonderful weeks, and I will talk to you all next week!

Love, your son, brother, friend, and missionary

Elder Jason Scott Elder!!!! :)

May 28, 2013

Hey,

   Well this week was another great one!!! It did rain a lot though! We almost drowned. I know that we are not supposed to go swimming, but the roads were covered in water! haha. So Sunday after we got back from our coordination meeting with the Bishop, we had an appointment to go to. At this point it wasn't raining too badly, but once we had gotten about halfway there, we were both pretty wet. We had coats on and umbrellas, but our legs were still getting hit. So by the time we got to this guy's house, our feet and pants were pretty wet. And to make thing even better, the guy that we were going to see wasn't home... So we knocked on a couple of doors in the rain and then decided that we had better head back home so we didn't drown. As we started to walk back home, it started to rain even more!! My umbrella was starting to leak...... I didn't think that was possible and my rain coat wasn't doing too much either. There were rivers running down every single road! haha. It was so cool. I have never seen that much rain before in my life! We just got to the point where we stopped avoiding puddles because we couldn't and our feet were soaked anyway. When we got home, we took our shoes off and dumped the water out of them!!! We were pretty wet! It was fun though!! haha.

   Yesterday was a great p-day. This ward here in Rock Island is a great one. There are lots of really fun people! We had a ward party at the church for Memorial Day. So Elder Bowers and I met with some of the youth at the church and played some volleyball before the dinner and also went out and played ultimate frisbee on the lawn, and keep in mind how much rain we got Sunday. haha. It was so much fun. We were pretty wet after we got done playing. And to finish off the day, we had a great lunch with the ward and played some basketball!! Probably one of my favorite p-days! It reminded me of our home ward when we would have ward get togethers. The bishop here is really great too! He was out playing with us and the youth! He does a great job helping us fulfill our purpose out here.

   That's crazy that you are cutting down those trees in the backyard. They have been there for as long as I remember living there, which was my whole life... haha. Tell Aubri that I remember climbing that tree with her back when we were small and that tree was very tall. haha. But now it is just a sad dead tree, and soon to be stump.. haha. You will have to take some pictures of the yard and send me them. You will have to tell the kids not to feel so bad about doing yard work because I am doing lots out here. One of my favorite things to do out here is service. Just getting out into the community and helping people. In face we just got back today from doing service at the Quad Cities Botanical Center. Every Tuesday, we go and help out with whatever they need. They have a big huge garden outside and an indoor garden as well. We have done as much as move dirt around, pull weeds, plant flowers and clean out flower beds! You ought to be proud! I pulled weeds for two hours today. I know that doesn't seem long, but it was!! It is really fun doing it though. And on Tuesday this place has a big meeting with food, so we always get fed really good too!! That's always a plus!

   Well, we don't have a ton of investigators at this time, but we do have a few. Kelsy is a friend of a member out here, and she is getting baptized on June 8th, and she is our only investigator at this time with a date. Another one of our investigators is Emma. We went over to one of the less active member's home that we are working with and she was over there, so we taught her the first lesson and invited her to be baptized. She was pretty excited, but now we are having a hard time getting into contact with her, but hopefully soon we can see her. Another one of our investigators, Shelly has been smoke free for a good 5 weeks now!! She is excited to be baptized too, but she is having a hard time making it to church, but once she can start coming, she will be baptized soon. Elder Bowers and I are outside all of the time walking around talking to people, so hopefully we start picking up a few more investigators!!

   So we are excited for June 7th because we have the opportunity to go into the Nauvoo temple and clean it with our ward!! It is going to be so sweet!! Then hopefully, we can get a member to take us one of these p-days to go through a session with us. It has been forever. It seems that the family went to Nauvoo with Grandpa and Grandma in their motor home! How old was I?? 10 right? Idk, but it seems like forever!!

   Well, I think I wrote too much!! haha. But I just wanted to let you know that everything is going just great! And I am having the time of my life out here. Although there are hard days, I wouldn't trade this experience for anything. No not even a trip to Lake Powell!! Haha, well, that's actually a hard one... haha. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful day!!!! I love you all so very much! Don't let a day go by without giving thanks to Heavenly Father for everything you have! Because he gives us so much and too often we take those things for granted. Every experience we have, negative or positive, are given to us to make us stronger an d build us up. We have to be thankful for everything!

Love,

Elder Elder

Harvester Works Factory!

Big tractor

May 6, 2013

Hey!!!
   Well, I am doing fabulous, as normal! Haha. My new area is great! It is a little different than Manchester, but I still love it. We are already teaching a lot of people and have a couple dates. So it is exciting. My companion's name is Elder Bowers. He is a great guy. He comes from California. I can't remember the name of his town, but it is by LA. He has been out only one transfer ahead of me, so we are both young and excited to work. We have 10 Elders and 2 Sisters in our district. Our district is so great though. It is fun being the District Leader. Challenging at times, but well worth it.
   So on Mother's Day, we aren't exactly sure... We talked with the members who have a computer we can use and they haven't gotten back to us on a time yet. Probably sometime between 3 and 6. I know that is a big chunk of time, but I just don't know. I will you before we get on though and see if it is a good time. I am very excited to talk with everybody and see them all! Yes, Elder Belliston stayed in Manchester. They don't normally send out both missionaries. They try and leave one who knows the area.
   We had an amazing experience on Saturday! Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and spoke to use. We got to meet him and shake his hand!! Of course, he commented about my name, haha. It was funny. He just asked if that was really it, haha. He is a sweet guy! And with him being there, nobody could have denied the Spirit that testified he was a servant of God. He bore the sweetest testimony of the Savior as well. When he talked to us, he gave us tons of advice. One of my favorite topics was when he started talked about how the Lord knows the beginning from the end. He knows exactly what is going to happen and when, and He knows where we need to be. So we need to be patient and just submit our will to the Lord. And once we do that he will shape and mold us into who we can become!
   I love his Gospel! There is nothing on earth that is more satisfying than knowing that we are all children of God and can be like Him! That is our purpose in life, to become like God. We are heirs to His kingdom. All that he has is ours for the taking if we just live our lives according to the commandments and Gospel. It really isn't that complicated. However, the natural man gets the best of us quite often. We just have to push forward feasting upon the words of Christ and endure to the end. Just like it says in 2 Nephi 31:20-21.
  I love you!
Elder Elder

P.S. My new address is:
Elder Jason Elder
558 27th St #11B
Rock Island, IL 61201

P.S.S. I don't know how long I will be here so if you send a package do it before June 7. That is the next transfer date and I don't know if I am staying or going.

Cute kids!

Elder Bowers, my new companion.

Sweet barn church

Our apartment 

Just working out while studying...