Hi.
SO here are some highlights of this past week.
Monday: we went to a museum for p-day last Monday. it was really dumb. bunch of nude paintings >:[ i was so upset and i got my companion and i to just hurry through the entire museum. As we sat and waiting, some lady worker came up to us and started talking to us about the museum. then she started asking us questions about who we were and why we were there. then we spoke a little about our church and missionaries. two other elders then came, and spoke with us. then we left, because we wanted to go spend our p-day somewhere else, so we left the rest of the zone there.
Then Wednesday came around; district meeting. during the meeting, the English sisters brought something up. they said that on Monday, there was a lady that was giving a tour of the museum and was saying things that they overheard. she was saying to the people she was giving the tour to, "see those guys dressed up in white shirts and ties, and those girls in the skirts? those are missionaries for the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. they leave there families and friends for 2 years to go preach the gospel to people. They are some of the happiest people i've ever seen!.." when the sisters shared this with us i asked them "wait.. was it an older lady with a black shirt on?" and they replied yes. That was the same lady that my comp and i and the other 2 elders spoke with!! Turns out she went and told the people in the museum about us. pretty awesome! :) always be a good example because you dont know who's watching.
Wednesday: so nothing major here.. but the night before during nightly planning, i felt that we should visit a recent convert (who is also less active...) at 6:00pm. i fought the feeling because she had told us already that she wouldnt be able to see us because she was busy and stuff. but i finally wrote it down in my planner that we would go by her house at 6, even though she said she would be busy all day. So Wednesday we went through all of our plans. They all fell through... which is normal. but i was speeding in the car to get to the recent converts house, and got a lot of speeding violations from the cars monitor. it was 6:05 and we showed up to the apartment. there was no cars :( i was so disappointed... so i started turning the car around. Then, she actually walked out of the door and saw us! I was like "Hey!... Hey come here!" hahaha and she was like "uh i thought i told you i was going to be busy." and i just told her "yeaaah well.. we were just in the area so we thought we would try," which wasnt really true... hahah. She said she was just going to her neighbors house to get some eggs or something random. she told us about ALL the things that were keeping her busy and we listened to what she had to say. Finally we were able to get to the topic of general conference and gave her all the information about it. We told her how much she is missed and just how we are her friends and stuff. I know you are probably like "uh so what elder J..." but let me tell you that the Lord puts us in the right places at the right times for reasons that we sometimes dont understand. Im not sure anything ever came from this incident, but im happy because i know we did what the Lord wanted.
OHHH!!! Yeah!! sooo Wednesday afternoon elder M and i had nothing to do so i told him we were going on an adventure... we went west on this street until it came to an end. it led us to a bunch of docks and water and stuff like that.. you know, the ocean or whatever? The sight was really cool. it was in a residential area so it wasnt like a beach or anything. but i told him i wanted a picture so we got outta the car. i noticed two signs that said "no trespassing," but i justified ,"Oh i just want a picture, thats all!" and walked my way onto the dock. The dock was SUPER old and creaked every step. it didnt have any rails or anything, it was just old wood that was somehow held together. I walked out and elder M followed and was taking careful steps. i told him "elder come on, its fine. nothings going to happen." we got some cool pictures, and a sweet video of some small sharks and some manatees. i was happy :) so i started walking back to the car, but midway through the dock i noticed a blue crab which caught my eye. i was awestruck... such a cool little animal. hahah! so i leaned over the dock a bit, and then over to the opposite side where i thought it went. just then, the dock just collapsed under my feet and the words "ohhh crapp" slowly came outta my mouth as i descended into the water!!! i actually landed on my feet and quickly ran out of the water. i turned around to see my companion.. He was still on standing on the dock on the ONE plank of wood that didnt break!!! i was like ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!! i managed to get a picture of him and hopefully i can send it. I was laughing and at the same time so upset with myself. It made me think of how we have these signs that tell us not to go somewhere or do something, but we selfishly go anyways and bad things happen. Kinda like commandments.. like keeping the sabbath day holy. Yet we justify ourselves and say "i just want to buy this," or something. Since when has sin been justified?
Friday: another similar story. we were on exchanges and Elder B was in my area with me. i told him we were going to eat at a fast food place outside. so we did and as i was sitting waiting for him to join me, i saw a car with a flat tire go through the intersection. i picked up my food and walked up to B and said "take your food, lets go." he was like "why?" and i told him someone needed our help. So we ran across the street and surely enough, the car i saw was behind a little market with a destroyed tire. the driver wasnt in the vehicle so we just waited awkwardly.. she came and i spoke with her. she said she had help on the way already and didnt need anything.. soo we just left her with a pass along card with our name and number. I was slightly disappointed but.. you never know, she could've went on our website and watched conference or something?!
Saturday and Sunday: CONFERENCE!! it was great :) i hope you all enjoyed it as much as i did. Last week a member told me of a situation she had. she was struggling with some feelings that she had for someone, and she didnt want to feel that way.. i didnt know what to say, but i told her that giving service to that person will always help. I knew she might not have been satisfied with that answer so i told her to fast and pray, and that during conference someone will say something that will specifically answer her prayer. Last night she sent me a text and said "thank you." and when i asked what she meant, she didnt respond (or we didnt get the text...). but i knew that she had actually gotten her answer and was expressing her thanks. Im so glad for conference. i wish more people would've watched it.. I was so sad... we invited so many people but no one came :( its okay though.
I hope you are all doing well. sorry this is really long. i just wanna share my storries with you guys. i love you all.
-Elder Jacob James
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