He's Arrived!!!

Chegadas da Missão Brasil João Pessoa dia 18 de Dezembro de 2017.


Arrivals ​of Brazil João Pessoa Mission, December 18, 2017.

Finally In the Field!

*As you can see, Elder Jacklin is in the field now and about gave his mother a heart attack when she just happened to click on her emails as he sent these first two. A quick response email was sent back to him with a very brief letter about the week. The third email is his letter for the week. Thank goodness it is Christmas this week and we will get to talk to him since it's been a comedy of errors in finding out when he was leaving the CTM and getting into the field:) 

 

Email #1

Hey hopefully you get this really fast. My P-Day is on Monday now and I am officially in the field. Sorry that they didn´t say that I was leaving on Monday instead of Tuesday.

Email #2
I want to hear from you this week!

Email #3
It is finally here. Today I left the CTM at 3:30 in the morning. I´m sorry that I didn´t get this information to you sooner. I hope that you are still happy with me even though I didn´t get to call you at the Airport. My P-Day is on Monday now because I am in the field! I am in the Bayeux João Pessoa area. I got my Trainer today as well. His name is Elder Goodwin. I´m happy that he is from the United States, because he speaks so fast, it´s hard to understand him sometimes. He´s been out in the field for nine months. He´s from Saratoga Springs as well.

It was a very sad but happy day today. My district was finally moving out into the field. We had a hard time saying goodbye to each other though. It was the people going to João Pessoa and Natal that left first, so we had to say goodbye to Elders Harris, Larson, and Carrillo first. When we got to the Airport, Natal and João Pessoa had to Split off. That´s when we had to say goodbye to Elder Swinton. We then (Me, Elder Stratton, Daniel, Geisler, Day, and Liquin), had to take a 2 hour flight to João Pessoa. (By the way those seats on that plane were made for tall people). When we got there we were greeted by the Mission President and his Wife, with his AP´s. We had a good talk with them and then we took a picture together. João Pessoa is such a Beautiful place. It just goes on forever, there are also no Mountains or Hills in my mission, it´s just all flat. When we left the Airport, we went to a Local Chapel. This is where District 45B finally departed. We all got called to seperate areas. We didn´t want it to end, but we knew that we wouldn´t be a district forever. We all took one last picture together. and said our goodbyes. Elder Geisler and I were the last to leave. We both gave each other one last hug goodbye then I went with Elder Goodwin and he went with his companion. (Man, I hope I get to see at least one of them again on my mission).

Elder Goodwin and I didn´t have a key to our Apartment or our phone. Because the other Companionship that lived there before us took them with them. So we had to go to the Presidents Office building and wait until they could track down the 2 elders and retrieve the key and phone. We were there for like 3 hours, and just barely got to the Apartment 2 hours ago. We also had to go to some game shop to do our emails, which is where I am right now. So yes, I am in the field. I am very excited to start working for the Lord tomorrow. Apparently our mission is the highest ranked mission for getting baptisms and keeping those converts in the Church. Apparently last month we had 190 and the month before that 295. In the past five months our mission has converted over 1000 people in João Pessoa. I can´t wait to get out and start doing that myself. I really want to bring these wonderful people to Christ.

I love and miss you all. Can´t wait to tell you more!

Elder Jacklin

 

Email #4

Hey I need you to make an account for me in Skype and send the Skype number to me. I don´t know when I´m going to Skype you but I´ll try to let you know. Tchau Tchau!

 

Email #5

And yes I´ve been in João Pessoa for 11 hours. So yeah.

 

*Elder Jacklin's mom is hoping that he can soon get acclimated and start sending one email with all the information she asks for at once:)*

Last week at the CTM!

Feliz Natal família! It´s my last week here at the CTM. Just to clarify that question you had, I might have put the 29th but I meant the 19th. I also might get to call when I´m at the airport next week as well. So if you get a call either really early in the morning or late at night, that will probably be me.    I´m sorry about Uncle Wayne. It´ll be sad not to see him again when I get back. I will have prayers for Aunt Linda. Tell her I´ll work even harder just for her!

Well to start off the past week, nothing much happened. It was kind of our average day at the CTM this past few days. We had proselyting this week though. We didn´t get any contacts though. We talked and said hello to some people but most of them just kept walking or didn´t want to learn more when we did talk to them. I do have to say Elder Stratton and I are progressing far with our investigators. We have both of them committed to being baptized this Saturday and one of them we started to talk about preparing to receive the priesthood. He looked at us and said, ´´Wait, I can do that?`` It was a fun and spiritual lesson. ( I know that these investigators are just our instructors acting different, but they told us that these are real people where they used to serve, so we treat them like real investigators).

I am ready to get out of the CTM. I mean my language half is telling me, NO you still have a lot to learn. But I´m really hyped about going out into the field. I have to say it still gets hard with being home sick. I miss the things I used to love doing so much. I miss holding Oreo. I miss hanging out with my D&D friends. (Especially Hunter, because he was the one person that turned from being one of the people I disliked the most, to being one of the Best people I have ever met outside of my family. Tell him that I really miss hanging out with him). I´m also happy that those guys were happy about getting my old Noodle Swords. It has been a hard December. I think about all the traditions we got to do. I miss putting up the Christmas tree, and listening to all the Christmas songs. But I know that it will be amazing here in Brazil. I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season. I can´t wait to see you all on the 25th. I would also like to ask you to do something for me. This holiday season I challenge you to go out and serve someone you think may have challenges in their life. Help them to understand that no matter how hard the times get that they will always feel love from someone. Show them kindness, even give them something. Whatever you feel can help them. 

That´s all I ask for this Christmas. I don´t care if you send me money, or packages. ( I´ll admit that would be nice). But please give it a try. Be happy this Christmas season for me okay. Be kind to one another in the family and to your friends. I´ll also be sending some letters home today, hopefully they get to you before Christmas. Don´t open them until you are all sitting around the Presents on Christmas morning. Read them a loud to one another. Start with Mom and Dad´s first.

I love and miss you all.

Feliz Natal, Merry Christmas!

Elder Jacklin

 

Last trip to the temple before they go to the field.

 

Hello family and friends and whoever this goes to!!!!

**Elder Jacklin references that he is leaving the CTM on the 29th but then says they have 2 weeks left. We think he either hit the 9 instead of the 0 or the 2 instead of the 1 and he is leaving the 20th or the 19th but we will clarify that next week, that is if he will EVER answer any of his mother's questions she asks:).**

It is the start of our fifth week here in the CTM, only 2 more to go before I go to the field. I leave for the field on December 29th. It is going great here, I can finally get the language down here. It gets hard here sometimes. Probably the fact is we have been here for such a long time that it is starting to get kind of dull being in the same building all the time.

It was a great week this week. We had the Night of Lights on December 2nd. We celebrated turning on the lights of the CTM and eating Ice Cream, (for those who don´t know, yes Brazil has Ice Cream). I got retaught the Hakka this week. I used to do it in Rugby before our games. But I figured out that I was doing it wrong the whole time. See there were Elders from New Zealand here. Their names were Elder Metekening, and Elder Tomeosauve, ( I think that is how you spell their names). They left yesterday for the field. I´m so happy they taught me how to do it in New Zealand, because now I´m going to teach it to everyone that I know and see when I get home.

We got two new elders in our district. Their names are Elder Swimnton and Elder Carrello. One of them is from Las Vegas, and Phoenix Arizona. Their awesome, they really brought more life to our district. They came from the Provo MTC, so it was a really big shock for them when they came here. We help them out a lot, and they catch on really fast. We´re taking them out into the city today, and we have to show them all of the good places to go. It is going to be a great last 2 weeks here at the CTM. I can´t wait to get out into the field. I miss home a lot. I miss all of my friends that are still at home, and all of them that are serving missions. You guys are all amazing people. You are all one of the biggest reasons I chose to come out and serve a mission. Eu amo todos vocês, ( I love you all). Eu não posso esperar vir todos vocês novomente! ( I can´t wait to see you all again!)

I´m sorry that this isn´t one of my longest letters, but I will write more soon!

This is your Elder from the south part of Sao Paulo Brazil saying good day!

Elder Jacklin