August 13th

Family and Friends!
It is super hot and still isn't cooling down a bit. The hottest time of the day is at about 5 to 6 o clock. Everything has been just soaking in the heat all day and by that time everything is just emitting heat so it comes from everywhere!

The work is fantastic! The parents of the two boys that were baptized are doing great! They have been reading and doing their part to gain a testimony! And their son got the priesthood and ordained to the office of a teacher yesterday which was awesome! He asked me to do the ordination so that was especially cool. Other than them our other great investigator dropped us this week :( She called me when we were on exchanges on Thursday and said that she read and prayed and decided that it isn't best for her right now, and she wants to stay with her church and Bible study. So that was a dagger to the heart! But our Pastor friend is just the coolest person in the world! We taught him one more time this week and he read the chapter we left him and loved it. We left him with some other really good chapters in Mosiah that he should really like. He has some real potential though. I asked him in the lesson what it would mean to find out that the book of mormon was true to see if he was comprehending everything and he said "Well I would have to leave where I am now and change some of the things that I do and I would probably go do what y'all do. I would have to tell everyone about this other testament!" SO that was amazing! We were super excited. I really think that he will get baptized. With his attitude and his current situation it just looks great.  If he got baptized he would definitely bring others. He is just a great guy though. Our other pastor friend is doing well, we haven't taught him again but we stopped by and he said he started reading a little, but didn't have time to talk. We will try back to see how he's doing. That is about all with the work though.

The Atonement study is still awesome! I have found that the more that I study it the more I want to teach it. That is originally why we started this study because Preach My Gospel says that learning about the Atonement will increase our desire to share the gospel. We have been studying some great stuff, and it is amazing and humbling to think about our nothingness and Christ's love to do what he did. This week I have thought a lot about will power. We read in the Bible the parts right before Christ went through his suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane and he asked 3 times if there was any other way but there wasn't. Then he voluntarily went forward and suffered more than anyone can possibly imagine. It makes me feel like a loser haha because I don't even have the will power to get up and do push ups each morning! But it has definitely made me work harder and try to be better. As we were studying this week Elder Chipman looked at me and said "Man! The Gospel is so true!!" And it is, the more I study the more it works out and proves itself over and over again! It is true!!!!!!!
  I hope y'all have a great week and I love you so much! Thank you for your support and love and prayers, they help a lot! Love you!!

Love Elder Jackman