Elder Jacob Elgaaen in Jacksonville, Florida: March 26,2018 Almost Conference!

This past week was a great week! We had a lot of opportunities to serve and help which in my opinion is one of the best aspects of missionary work. I also had the opportunity to listen to a few General Conference talks each day leading up to the upcoming General Conference. This week we also saw some tender mercies and miracles. But one of the best things was we got a little bit of bacon and also we started a new "challenge" of how to read the Book of Mormon. :)

And the best thing was we had great church attendance and a great lesson with Ralph, Carol, and Jimmy

One thing I have grown to love more and more on my mission is serving others. This past week, we had a lot of opportunities to help some people. We helped Brother Luthie pack up some things and get ready to make the drive to Utah. We also got to help Brother Barber a lot. I had been wondering how I could best use my talents and abilities to serve those around me and hasten the work. This week as I prayed for opportunities, I was given many. A few opportunities I had were fixing Brother Barber's car window that was rolled down and wouldn't go back up. On his other car, he broke the handle off and I helped him get it apart so when he gets a new handle we can put it back on. I helped him change his battery, helped him load some fire wood in a guys car, did other small things... but most importantly, I was able to help give him and his grand daughter a blessing. As I prayed for opportunities to serve in greater capacity, I was given many opportunities. Some things I have been reminded of is as we pray for things, God will provide. As we serve with no desire of reward, we get the greatest reward of Joy and many other blessings. Imagine if everyone took 1 hour a week to serve someone else with no desire of reward. The world would be a better place in just 1 hr.!

Now about General Conference... I wanted to better prepare for the upcoming General Conference so I decided to listen at least one General Conference talk a day. As I have done so, it has been such a good opportunity to renew and increase my spirituality and better have the words of prophets on my mind. Something that I have recently been able to practice and learn is that as we put in the effort to study and prepare for messages given to prophets and apostles by God, we will get a lot more out of what is shared and said. Also as we continue to study and apply what we learn, we will receive blessings. If we put in the effort to show we care about what the Lord wants us to learn and know, he will enlighten our hearts and minds and bless us even more.

This week was filled with tender mercies and miracles. Some weeks as Missionaries, life seems like it is just falling apart. We can't seem to get anything to go right no matter how hard we try. We invite 15 people to church and 0 show up, we have 8 set lessons and they all fall through. This week was an odd week when things just worked out. We had a bunch of different lessons happen, and it was super good. We started inviting people to have a question and read a chapter from the book of Mormon while praying and writing inspiration to Receive answers for themselves. We met with an investigator who hadn't been contacted for months and had an awesome lesson with him. We set up a lesson to meet with Ralph and it fell through twice! It was very sad but he said he would be at church with his Mom and her boyfriend. And miracles happened! He showed up to church with his whole family. They loved it and had a great time. Our mission leader had a good chat with them before they left and set up an appointment for that night around 6. We went at 6 and had an amazing lesson with Ralph. He said he wants to be baptized and is willing to put in the work to make it happen. He was smiling the whole time we were having the lesson with his mother (Carol ) and her Boyfriend (Jimmy). You can tell he was filling the Holy Ghost which was something he loves. The lesson we had was super powerful and the spirit was so strong. Carol and Jimmy could defiantly feel the spirit and many tears were shed.

Last of all, Sister Grieve gave us some bacon. We were expecting a box or 2 of the 12 piece bacon you buy for campouts. She ended up giving us a 10 lb. bag of bacon! We can now eat bacon every day for every meal and never run out! Haha. The members here are super awesome!

I hope you all have an awesome week and continue to prepare for General Conference and be open to inspiration and prayerfully ask questions. I know you can Receive answers as you do so. I love you all and appreciate all you do for me! Make this week the best week yet! Love ya!

“Success isn't given, it is earned. On the track, on the field, in the gym. With blood, sweat and the occasional tear.”

- Nike