Monday, April 18, 2016

FYI...JOSH HAS ONLY BEEN GONE 5 MONTHS...(this is taking FOREVER!!!!)



 so this week was GREAT! we finally got rominas son, franko baptized! and well sunday.

finally !!!! it was so great to get franko in the water!!! it was so funny, friday at 4 we had his baptism set all planned out and we woke up that morning and it was raining and cold. so we waited till about 3 and called it off and as soon as we let everyone know that it was off it got super sunny and RIDICULOUSLY HOT!!! lifes funny sometimes my comp and i just looked at each other like really?¿ ok so maybe todays not your day franko so we visited them and set the date for the next day. it was a good call on gods part to reschedule his baptism cause it was just so good. hah i know that sounds lame but their no other way to describe it. the family was happy the little girls behaved even the baby was quiet and happy! it was pretty funny a lot of the time us as missionary's can get really caught up in the work thinking its our own and we are in charge of it when in reality its gods  and he has no problem proving it to dumb missionary's

so sunday was something i dont ever want to forget. i was up early working on a talk for church then realized that we had to run and grab la familia rodrigez because franko needed to be confirmed. so we get dressed and rush over to their house in a big hurry and of course were the alarm haha so we help the kids get all ready and take off already being late for church. so we get to church just in time to do the confirmation and my comp looks over at me and goes "ok this ones yours" i felt like nacho when i was his turn to play at the party in front of everyone hahah and i must have looked terrified cause my comp gave me a pat on the shoulder and said "suck it up and get it done you've got this". so we have our hands on his head and all i have to say is that the gift of tongs is a real thing and wow the spirit is one crazy feeling. as soon as i started speaking spanish just started to flow out of my mouth. things i hadn't studied ever before forms of spanish Ive never used it was crazy! and all thought i just idk sorta felt like empowered idk how to explain it. i imagine that its how superman feels all the tire hahaha super amazing! then after the confirmation i gave a talk on service and that was just a freakin powerhouse! ive cracked the code i know how to give good talks. i mean people were laughing, woman were crying, mascara was running it was great hahaha !!!!! i love giving talks in capilla because we are so few that really anything goes so its funny cause when i would mis pronounce a word or struggle with a word people just yell out the right pronunciation or word hah love it. i also gave some seriously sarcastic verbal to our priesthood president who thought that it wasn't proper for us to start the reunion late on account that we were grabbing a family. it was super funny hermano zappato es such an old cooc :P

this week was such a blessing i hate to say it but ive been pretty cranky lately and this week has taught me that i really need to enjoy the small things and not be afraid to do things that make me happy. so my comp and i went fishing today with some other elders today and last night i payed with Argentinian black powder and lighter fluid. lets just say the cops were in the neighborhood hahah dad would have been proud! 

i love you all so much and am so grateful for this opportunity to serve!!!! please be good AND HUSTON AGAIN BE SAFE IN THAT DANG CAR !!!!!!!! 

love, josh

 Black Powder???

 Filled a Door in for Service...

 An Awesome Baptism

 By the lake Fishing...

 I love the smiles...

 No idea why he took or sent this one???  Hes 18...what can I say?

 His GOOD FOODDDDD!  Yummo!!!

SERVICE dad would have been proud we took out a door and filled it !!!!

also blew up some black power 

also my comfort food!!! im gettin pretty good at cookin!! 

Monday, April 11, 2016

 These are some of Joshs favorite Companions...

18, young, and so silly!!!

 I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!!

 So darn sweet and Cold...

Doing some service cutting some wood...

ok so this week was a blast !!! we had a BAPTISM!!!!!!! i got in trouble Sunday :P , and we just had to much fun!!! 

WE GOT HER!!!!! romina gonzalez got baptized last Saturday after 3 weeks of visits, 3 different fechas de bautizmal, and a whole lot of lessons!! it was so great to finally get her into the water! and it was just perfect, everyone was just happy . we went and got her ready an hour before the baptism and played with her kids and their friends. then started walking to the bishops house where we have baptisms which is like 2 miles away and the girls didnt want to walk that far and the mom didnt have money for a taxi. this is the kind of family that lives off of eating basically fry bread cause flour and oils cheep. so my comp and i run up really fast from behind, grab the girls and throw them on our shoulders. you should have seen this moms face when i grabbed her CHUNKY little girl and thru her on my shoulders... PRICELESS!!! lets just say that it was gods that lifted that little chunk up cause theirs NO WAY i could have done it on my own!!! hahah so we get to the bishops house SWEATY, tired and just havin a blast!!! so we change out, sing a hymn, and then its water time so i hop in the pool and ITS COLD !!!! like to where i started to shiver so shes asks ¨hey elder Jackson how the water?¨and i reply ¨¨oh its pretty hot ¨¨ so she steps in and just starts giggling!!!! that was the first time id seen her giggle. so we do the baptism and as she comes out of the water shes just all smiles !!!! it was great id never seen her and her family so dang happy !!! it was killer !!!! :D

so Sunday we confirm romina and the spirit is just THERE it was killer and on top of that it was fast and testimony meeting so bonus !!!! only problem was that this poor single mom was trying to keep her 3 wild kids quit the and couldn't really listen. she was just flustered as heck her baby's screaming, her next oldest alma (age 9) is running around, and her other daughter is having a full on conversation with her friend loud so im like hey give me your baby i can go out and play with him which apparently is a big no no but hey as soon as i took the kid out the 2 girls sat down quiet 1 of them EVEN bore a testimony and shared a lil scripture!!! but after the reunion my comp comes up to me and is like broooooo you cant bail on sacrament meeting! and i just said hey man whats more important me being perfectly obedient OR our new convert feeling the spirit? idk maybe im wrong but it felt right and it was worth the verbal i got from our straight arrow bishop hahah 

and well this week was a blast on night my comp and i just couldn't get to sleep so we grabbed our beds and climbed up on the roof and just chilled up there all night talkin and laughing reminiscing about our lives before the mission. it was a needed lil adventure. and for PDay my zone went and PLAYED FREAKIN PAINTBALL!!!!!!!!! it was so ghetto!!!! dad would of had a heart attack hahahah this Argentine literally just gave us guns and masks and said theres the course go crazy hahahahahah and i dont wanna brag but my team KILLED!!!!!! seriously to much fun! i freakin love it hear i cant image what id be doing if i want here! im so grateful for this opportunity!!!!! 

i love you all so freaking much !!! mom i cant believe you broke a spoon over hoots head TO FUNNY!!!!! hahahah 

BE GOOD !!!! 

les amo, josh

Pictures from Josher this Week...Yeah

He and his Compi look so good!!!!!

Dinner looks AMAZING!!!!!

This is Rocky, They LOVE Rocky.  They call him their Argentine Dad...Is that a pepper in his hand???

No idea what they are doing but im sure its nothing good...LOL

Monday, April 4, 2016

Today om 12:47

so this week sorta stunk la verdad :P but its all good its all apart of it i guess. we had salami investigators, a very spiritual conference, and well DUMB Mormons..

so we wasted basically our entire week on this family who were supposed to get baptized for the past like 3 weeks but unfortunately they couldn't get baptized AGAIN because of some weird doctrine about period blood and baptism freakin bible.... im gonna study it up this week because im pretty sure that our stake president just made it up to get everyone outta his house hah but ill let you know what the deal is next monday. so my comp and i are just gonna go over and have a super frank talk with her about baptism because we literally killed almost every night over at her house with her kids, doing service whatever she could basically think of... and i dont mind it we just cant waist time like that.  we also could just not find ANY of our investigators ! seriously it was SO LAME!!!!! 

haha oh conference was just funny to be honest! i had the opportunity to watch it in Spanish and well it just wasn't the same without the prophets voices but i got some good notes on the saturday sessions. but sunday was just well not spiritual hahaha we went and grabbed the family gonzalez(the family that was supposed to get baptized) and she has a 9 month old baby, a 15 yr old son, and two really young girls like 10 and 9 years old and well their all a little wild haha. so we get into the stake presidents house which is really nice for argentina and the girls just go wild!!! their climbing all over yelling at each other breaking things it was AWESOME !!!!! and the president is well sorta of a peter priesthood he believes that everything needs to be neat and orderly always which made it even better because as him and his family sat in the front row of the living room very reverently me and my comp sat as far back as we could trying to preoccupy this loco fam !!!! IT WAS A BLAST!!! hahaha the baby puked on me! the girls drew on my comps face and this poor mom just watched in horrer poor woman shes got a rough situation. but needless to say the pres WAS NOT happy about conference! tooooo funny! 

and oh my gosh mormons are just funny!!! seriously after conference on sunday our stake president literally sat us down for 40 minutes and blamed us for the fact that nobody came to his house to watch conference! he was all bent outta shape because he took the time to set up chairs in his house and nobody came. he told us you should have announced it during sacrament last week!! and we told him we did president but their was only 9 PPL IN THE DANG CHURCH!!! then he said well i talked to the bishop and he said he had no idea that it was at my house! then we told him that well that makes sense BECAUSE HE WAS ASLEEP ON THE PULPIT!!! and he just kept saying just dumb stuff monologing hard and clayburn and i just sat their giggling and throwing it all back in his face. i love it when older men try and take advantage of us its toooo funny cause they just expect us to roll over and take the blame for everything and when we don't and show them the facts it just leaves them looking SO DUMB!!!! 

dang so yeah that was my week sorry a little lame :P but in all honestly as hard as the mission is and as crazy as mormons are i LOVE THIS WORK!!!! i can not think of a better way to spend 2 years! im so grateful that i have the opportunity to learn a ton of new things, serve the lord and ppl of argentina, and actually get to know the doctrine! i love you all so much and im so grateful for all of your support, love, and prayers!! 

to my family i love you all more than life itself and i miss you guys like crazy! please be good and love each other! be patient read them scriptures and get good grades(hooty) and ill see you all soon :) 

le amo, josh

ps no mom i have not gotten your package yet but i am getting the letter !!!!!! THANK YOU LOVEYA!!!