Elder Jacob Elgaaen in Jacksonville, Florida: August 5, 2019 Smoking, Killing, and Magic

This week was super great! So first off the bad and ugly.... On Friday we were playing Frisbee before we did service for Catholic Charities a food donation organization. Someone threw me or Elder Miller my comp the Frisbee and we were on opposite teams. I jumped up to grab it and Elder Miller did something. He is a smaller guy (doesn't have a lot of meat on him) and so I outsized him. We hit in the air and I was completely fine but Elder Miller wasn't! I knocked the air out of him really good I thought I had broken ribs or collapsed one of his lungs. He was gasping really weardly and so it was pretty awkward because I couldn't really do anything to help and so I asked if he was okay. Haha After 15 seconds or so he was back to normal and was fine. I guess I can check almost killing my companion off my bucket list.

On Tuesday we had a District Council and Elder Welsh and I went on a tradeoff after. It was the very end of the month so we had very few miles to use so we tryed to use them sparingly. We ended up using a ton and on Wednesday ended up going over and having to finish that months miles and start early onto the next month's. On our tradeoff the Tyre family fed us and made some massive burgers. I took a picture of one that I ate which was leftover. They were probably and inch thick. So good! He smoked them and also had a fryer and fried up frys, onion rings, and corn nuggets (corn in dough ball). It was super good. The next day we helped him set up a water slide at the church for mutual and he smoked hotdogs and they were super good!

We had a referral we were given. She lived on Scrubtown Road and so we thought it was suspicious because one of the zone leaders favorite works is scrub. We couldn't find it on the map but eventually figured out where she lived. We went by and were able to share a message with her about how The Book of Mormon can bring her comfort that she seeks because of babysitting 4 grandkids who live to push her buttons. She was very accepting and so hopefully we can meet with her this next week.

On Sunday Torry (convert baptized in Jax Beach when I served there) came out and spent the day with us. He came to church and it was pretty funny! Everyone was saying how they wanted him to come back. Lots of them said they better see him every week. Haha it was so good to see him. We also had Pam in Church and she was super excited and enjoyed being there. She also knew some of the members and met a lot of the other members. After our day of missionary work, Torry had brought me a gift of Magic the Gathering cards. It's a card game that Elder Miller had gotten into when serving around Torry and he wanted me to get into it. He brought me a deck and so we played a game and it was super fun. Torry also cooked us dinner and made sturfry. Super good!

We talked about how important it is to have the spirit with us. In Preach My Gospel, it talks about learning a language. This relates to a physical language but can also relate very well to the language of the spirit. Something President Monson said stuck out to me about the common language we need to all learn.

“There is one language … that is common to each missionary—the language of the Spirit. It is not learned from textbooks written by men of letters, nor is it acquired through reading and memorization. The language of the Spirit comes to him who seeks with all his heart to know God and keep His divine commandments. Proficiency in this language permits one to breach barriers, overcome obstacles, and touch the human heart”

- Thomas S. Monson

The spirit is so important to have in our lives and we obtain it through seeking and study. We receive through obedience to commandments. I love the blessing the spirit can be as we do the things that bring it into full force in our lives. We can become our best selves. Hope everyone had and has a great week! Love you all!!!