February 18, 2019 My tooth got Pulled

This week was an awesome week! So first off, Sister Jewett got baptized! We also continued to teach Deborah and set a date with her which we're both super excited about. She does have a few health challenges but we have faith that she will be able to find the strength and health to make it to church and keep commitments. We tried to use inspired questions with her as we talked about the fulness of the gospel and I feel that it made all the difference.

Sorry for the short letter. I love all of you and hope you have an awesome week. Enjoy the pictures! 

Elder Elgaaen and Bell

February 11,2019 Siri=Satan

We had an amazing week! We saw a ton of miracles as we got out and did our best to not waist 1 minute. One miracle we saw was on Sunday night. We went to try one of our people who was having a party during our set appointment the previous day and went back to see if we could reschedule or have a short lesson. We didn't find her home so we felt like we should try by a former. We went by and knocked on the door. The lady came to the door and saw us and looked down and shook her head. She opened the door and said she was packing and was busy. We didn't have any plans besides finding so we offered to help! Unplanned opportunities are the best. She was very receptive to help and after we started helping, she opened up and said her husband just left her. She was having a very hard time and said she was going to throw in the towel and that we were Heaven sent. We shared a message of peace and comfort with her and promised her that the members of the church in the area would be her family and strength through this hard time as well as shared the Book of Mormon and how peace comes through study and reading. She was so grateful and we were able to call the Bishop and his wife and they said they would stop by today to talk with her and we also set a return appointment and are planning on bringing a member. It was such a miracle! 

This week we had Stake Conference and it was good. There were lots of talks on having hope and faith as well as getting to the Temple. The Stake President was speaking and he said, "God knows all the good you do and all the not so good you may do, but he still beacons you to come Unto him." Right after, someone's phone went off and Siri said, "Sorry, I'm not sure about that!" It was super funny! Haha I wrote in my notes Siri=Satan! It was a very true statement because Satan wants us to think that we can't repent and change. He wants us to feel like we aren't worthy or aren't enough to come Unto Christ. It is such a blessing knowing Siri and Satan are both wrong and that we can Come unto Christ. Another quote that stuck out to me said, "What are you willing to do so that the Savior will stay with you?" I find this very applicable to all aspects of life. We have to come Unto the Savior and do the things we need to do for him to stay with us. His hand is reached out but we have our agency and can choose to take his hand or turn away. It is our choice. 

Well, today I am going to go do some disk golf which should be super fun! I am excited and love being a missionary! I love all of y'all and am grateful for the blessings I have. Have an awesome week! Love ya!

- Elder Elgaaen
285 S. 6th St. Jesop GA 31545 Apt 4

Archer taking pictures on my tablet

Frozen Yogurt 

Elder Jacob Elgaaen

Patrick and Jacob

Pearl sent by Emily my sister

Police Party

February 4, 2019 Pregnant and Scared

This week was amazing! I just want to share testimony of hard work and positivity! So this week we had a lot of good things going for us. We came to Saturday and all of our district wanted to find a lot of people. We had a prayer of faith in the morning and went out and worked super hard. So in the first part of Saturday, we were able to have 2 lessons with our progressing people which was a blessing. We got "pumped up" from the spirit we felt and had super positive attitudes the rest of the day. We worked hard and made sure we listened to promptings of the spirit. Usually night isn't the best time to find people because when it gets dark they all go to bed. We decided on a area we wanted to go into and do some finding. We parked around 1 mile away and decided to walk and exercise faith to find along the way. We felt prompted to knock some specific doors and we were able to find 2 new people all after dark! The spirit loves to dwell in happy places so as we made sure to have a positive outlook, we were able to be in tune with the spirit and see many miracles.

The second part of that night and I guess the more entertaining part was the patterns of the day. So while we were finding, every single person we taught was pregnant. If that isn't weird enough, we scared almost everyone we talked to and it all started in the first area we went to. We were waking up some stairs to try a potential person that expressed interest but we never officially taught. Right as we got to the top of the stairs, a person in the apartment we were going to try opened the door and we scared them. It was a teenage girl and her friends who were preparing for homecoming. She slammed the door and screamed. Her friends were all laughing. It was the same door that the person we were trying to find was at so we knocked again. It was awkward. Later when we were doing some more finding, we knocked on another door. The lady inside didn't hear and we knocked on the wrong door which lead into her kitchen. She went into the kitchen not to answer the door but to get something from the fridge and saw 2 guys in white shirts standing on her porch. We scared her knocked again and ended up teaching her. We tried one of her neighbors and there was another teenage girl! She peaked her head around the corner and right as she did, I looked through the glass on the door and she jumped back behind the wall. Then she proceeded to talk on the phone and tell whoever was on the line that we were staring at her. Haha we ended up just leaving because she was to sacred to answer. We kept working hard and went to another house just to scare another person. The lady ended up being really nice but wasn't interested. We probably scared another 2 or 3 people as well. I guess we're just scary people!

One of the best days this week was Sunday! So we went to church and had a good testimony meeting. Everyone was sharing their testimony of the temple and eternal families and it was really spirit filled. During our Sunday school meeting, a ton of people were getting pulled out by the Branch President. Then he came to us and pulled us out and asked if we could give a blessing to a sick member in the Emergency Room. We said we could so we went to do that. When we returned at the end of Church, everyone was leaving and we were listening in to a conversation of one of our part member families. Sister Jewett has been coming to church for the last 2-3 years and out of the blue said she wanted to get baptized on the 16th. It was such exciting news!

All in all I had one of the best weeks yet! I love being a missionary and serving the Lord. I know that the effort we place forth in all that we do along with our attitude can make all the difference. I know that we have been blessed with the ability to decern right from wrong and can be amazing examples of truth and righteousness as we serve the Lord in all we do. I love each of you and hope your weeks are magnificent! 

Elder Bell

January 28, 2019 Disk Golf

This week was a good one like usual. First off because of MLK day on Monday, the children had school off so some came and played basketball with us at the church. There was this one kid who was 14 and he is the second best 14 year old in the state and ESPN has already got their eye on him. He can almost dunk. We played a lot of games and Elder Lamb and I were the dream team. We were like Malone and Stockton or Pippin and Jordan. Haha We did have some good contacts with people but also a lot of really weird ones. The "focus" people we talked to seemed to have was on Black Jesus. We try and tell them that skin color doesn't matter and that is Christ's example and how we try and follow it that matters. Some people even tried showing us some videos on evidence that Christ is black. You just got to love Jesop! We had another awesome lesson with Miley on Wednesday and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Faith, Repentance, baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End) and explained the importance of the commitment of baptism. It was a super good lesson. Her family also sat in and shared some awesome testimony which really brought in the spirit. Today I got to go disk golfing which was awesome and spend p-day with Grandpa Girard! It was a great week! 

The spiritual thought of the week comes from a talk we studied in elders quorum. It is from Elder Christofferson. He talks about how the gospel is true or its not true. We either know it's true and have felt the spirit or you are still trying to feel that. I know that I have felt the spirit testify to me of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know we have a prophet on the earth who leads and guides the church. I am grateful for each time I feel the spirit leading and guiding my life. You all are the best and have been a great blessing in my life!! I love you all and hope your weeks are Flipping amazing! 

2000 Piece puzzle we finished

Disk Golf

My beautiful Pinky Finger

January 21,2019 Keep What You Need!

This week was an adventure. We had a pretty successful week with our finding. We had 3 people in church and we had an awesome lesson with one and set a baptismal date. Her date is for the 9th of February so that is super exciting.

One of the funniest things happened this week. We were eating dinner with the Osborne family and having a good conversation. We were talking about how most people see pastors as paid callings. We were saying how Bishops or Stake Presidents and other leaders in our church would put up a fight when they got released, it wouldn't be a calling, and they wouldn't be Christ like servants if they got paid. Brother Osborne then proceeded to act out taking the plate of money recieved into the back room and throwing it up in the air and saying to God, "Keep what you need." We were all laughing so hard it was so funny. 

We finally had some service opertunitues this week and possibly some others that we can do in future weeks. It is something we have been wanting and praying for and it finally came. We were able to help the Hammond family build a playground set for their kids that came just as boxes of boards. It was fun. They have some awesome but crazy kids and I decided it would be good to play a short game with them just to distract them. Well, that turned into tons of short games over and over. Then they found a football and kept telling me to throw it really high and let me tell you, it didn't stop coming back! Haha 

There is a girl named Miley and her family is members but she isn't. She is 12 and has expressed in the past a desire to be baptised. So we decided to try and have lessons with her. We could never catch her parents home to set anything up and kind of were at a stand still. We felt like we should go by this last week and we set up to meet twice a week after Church on Sunday and after Mutural Wednesday. We met with Miley Sunday after church and had a good lesson and invited her to Baptism and she said she wanted to be baptised on the 9th of Feburary so that was a huge miracle this week! 

While having dinner at a members house, we talked about parenting because they asked us if our siblings fought and struggled sometimes. We told them yes and they asked us what parenting techniques our parents used to raise us to be good men. As I was thinking, the biggest thing that came to my mind was my parents example to me. They taught me what was right and set the expectations of FHE, Scripture Study, Family Prayer, Church... and at times I may have not wanted to participate or do family activities but because from a young age I had that example, I was able to carry those things with me and they were important to me and have become my foundation now. I hope that each of us realize that we are examples in all we do even when we don't think we are. As we implament the gospel in all we do, we will be a tool in the Lord's hands and bless the lives of many. I love you all and hope your weeks are filled with AWESOMENESS! 

Elder Bell and Elgaaen

Elder Bell being shy

Elder Bell tin foil dinner creation

Frozen yogurt Ice Cream Place

Frozen Yogurt YUM!