...What in the world happened this week...

...I don´t really want to talk about what happened this week...(sigh)... I mean we had good. I´ll start with that!

We had a lot of Miracles happen this week. We have this one investigator. She really has no care in the world about somethings. She didn´t even mind feeding her baby right in front of us as we were teaching. It was a little weird, but we´re getting to her. How we met her was very interesting as well. I just knocked on the door and asked if the day after we met her if we could get to know more about her. She said sure and gave us specifics on what she would be doing. She said 2 o´clock I´ll be here you can come then and share your message.

So the day after we came and explained the Restoration with her. She had a lot of questions and we answered them to her satisfaction. We gave her a Book of Mormon and told her to read and pray about it.

The next day we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She had questions about the Holy Ghost and the Gift of Tongues. So to answer her question, I taught the lesson in English and Elder Kozlowski translated to Portuguese. Her question was answered. That was probably one of the biggest Miracles of my Mission.

We had a Baptism this week. The man we baptized had been in the Church for 12 years but was never baptized. But finally he knows it´s true and was baptized and confirmed yesterday. As for the family that we were supposed to baptize. They aren´t married legally. They never told us that until we taught about the 10 Commandments. This is what I don´t really want to talk about. And now the husband is losing faith because he doesn´t think he needs to be married to be baptized. So we´ll visit him tomorrow and talk with him. They are going to be I know it!

That´s all for this week my family. Keep on working strong in all you do! Missionaries keep preaching the Gospel. I pray for you all everyday, I love you all and I am so happy that I could meet you all. This is all for this letter! Until the next!

Élder Jacklin

SEMANA DE BAPTISMOS!

Eiiiiioooooooooooooooooooo!!!! Como vocês estão, este carta hoje vai ser sol em Português, como este som?... Não sol uma brincadeira. Mas este- oh sorry, this week was really good! I don´t know if you read the title but that´s for this coming weekend.

Soooooooooo.... To start off the week we had a fun little day of cleaning the cockroaches away. Yeah, I hate them with a passion now, they ate almost all of our food, ok it was more of the ants that did, but anyways it was bad.

We had an activity this week. A Missionary activity! That Elder Kozlowski and I put together with a member and our Bishop. We made this to get non-members and in-actives to come and BOY did they come. We had 45 people there that were either in-active or that were non-members. We had a good spiritual activity and we played a lot of games. Then we had cake and soda after. It was a huge success for our work.

We had Zone Conference this week, we learned a lot of great new stuff. We almost had all the people from our district in the same Zone. We have me Elders Stratton, Day, and Daniel. We´re only missing Elder Geisler now.

Now for the goods. We have 5 baptisms marked for this coming weekend. Four of which we had planned, but then the other one came out of nowhere, and he came to us, instead of us to him. He´s getting baptized because he knows it´s the right thing to do and also the person he wants to get married with is a member and she will only marry a member. So this weekend is going to be amazing. Now I´m a little short on time so I won´t have the message at the end. Sorry... But I love you all, I hope you all have Happiness in your lives. I pray for you all everyday. Tchau! 

Elder Jacklin

Uma Tarde em Itália! Como vocês estão!

HEY! Hows it going everyone! This is your favorite and over exaggerating missionary in Brasil! Things have been going fantastic this week! We have had so much success this week!

So to start off the week I had devisions with the Zone Leaders on Tuesday. I don´t know what it is about people here, but they go crazy when they see tall people? Has anyone else had this problem yet? But at the end of the day we had pizza paulista, which was amazing!

The next day we had a BAPTISM! It went amazing. The person we baptized has such a strong spirit and she was very happy after she came out of the water. That was also my first time leading a baptism as well. Elde Kozlowski did the ordinance. Then we got to meet with another investigator again who I had given my Book of Mormon to to read. We got him a new one and I got mine back. We also had a great conversation with him as well.

So why I brought up Italy is because we apparently really like to do things that have to do with Italy here. My country worships your country Sister Miller. It was great! We had Italian food, we had people from Italy who spoke in Italian, which interestingly enough I can actually understand. But the best thing of all is that we got our investigators to go to the activity.

Yesterday was awesome as well. We got all of our investigators that could go to Church to go to Church. We´ve been working with a family now for a long time but finally we are going to Baptize them the 28th in the OCEAN! YEAH MAN! If everyone in the Zone can get Baptisms scheduled for the 28th the President will let us baptize in the Sea. As well as I had to give a talk yesterday as well. The best part about that was that I got people to cry because of the Strong Spirit I was giving off as I talked.

Well I didn´t make time to prepare a thought for the end of this letter so I think I´ll end it off with a couple of words of wisdom. I think these words can be of great use to you all who are going through trials. It´s in the Book of Matthew but I can´t remember where but it says. ´Be not afraid, only believe´ Don´t  be afraid in the Mission or at home or where ever you are. Only believe in yourselves and in your God, through faith in Jesus Christ that the Holy Ghost can help you through your trials. That´s all for this letter. I love you all and pray for you all. You are all my family and I don´t know what my life would have been like without you all. If you guys are struggling I pray that you can have my Spirit to be with you always. I think about you all when I do work and when I teach and when I study. I´m grateful for you all. A Gente vai la! Tchau minha Família!

Élder Jacklin

OPA!!! Meu Família!!!!!! (I consider friends as family too)!

Hey what´s going on everyone! I hope you are all getting these emails! I love sharing my thoughts with you guys! Things in Brasil have been going amazing this week! We´ve had a lot of miracles this week.

To start off we have 3 new investigators to teach. We taught two of them on Monday. They are really interested in the Gospel. We taught them about the Restoration and invited them to read a part of the Book of Mormon and pray about it. One we lost unfortunately, but the other read the part, and is starting to read from the beginning. I think he really likes what we are teaching him.

We marked a Baptism with one of our investigators for this week on Wednesday. She is really excited and is a very spiritual woman. She has such a strong belief that through Jesus Christ all things are possible.

We have also been teaching a family for the past couple of weeks and finally marked them for baptism this coming week. We also gave the wife of the family we were teaching a blessing yesterday because she is preparing for surgery this week. She said after that that moment was the most spiritual feeling she had in here entire life.

This week was full of great things. It was a time that I think I have given the most love in my mission. I thought that for this weeks thought I would talk about Charity. Earlier this past week I was reading in 1 Corinthians 13 and I love what Paul says about charity:

1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;

6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;

7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.

10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

It is the greatest gift of Christ to this earth. I know that Charity is the greatest gift to this earth. Because without Charity, there would probably be no Atonement for our sins. Christ did that out of perfect love for us. Which is Charity, Charity is pure love. I invite you all this week, to find ways you can give charity to someone. Remember what it says in verse 3. I could give $1,000,000 to someone and say it is charity without having good in my mind. This is not charity. Charity is kind in all things. I know this to be true. I love and pray for you all always and I close this email and this testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Élder Jacklin