Cardiff By The Sea

Hi, I have your son in my kitchen. Here is a cute photo of him. He gave my sick son a blessing.

I received this sweet facebook message last night!

Here is Jaden's letter he sent today!

 

First of all I would like to start by thanking everyone for all their love and support. It has really been a huge blessing in my life. Missionary work is hard and I love all the letter of encouragement I have received over the past few weeks. It has helped me give all that I have got to the people here in Cardiff-By-The-Sea, California. Over the last week we have had my different opportunities to serve them.

 

Monday ( July 9) was awesome it was the first time I was able to drive. I am the designated driver in my companionship. Usually they don't let new missionaries drive for at least 6 months. However my companion got in a car crash and has his driving privilege temporarily take away. I feel bad for Elder Moon, but then again I am driving a brand new 2013 Toyota Camry. Lets get back on topic you don't want to hear about me driving you want to know the experiences I have had. After going to a zone meeting, we had a cool teaching experience. We taught a 21 year old named Eric. Eric at the beginning of the lesson kept saying "you are wasting your time, I am not going to change my religion." We started to teach him about the restoration. How God is our loving Heavenly Father, and he wants what best for us. He has restored his church again on the earth. You could see that Eric was having a change of heart as we taught him. When I recited the first vision to him, the spirit was so strong. It was an undeniable feeling of truth. By the end of the lesson he accepted a copy of the book of Mormon and told us he would start reading it. It is amazing to see such a change is such a short period of time.

 

We had some great contacts over the last week, we ran into a guy named Fred, and his dog Churro. Fred is a 59 year old man, who is going through some rough times.We started to talk to him. He told us that he is going to turn 60 on July 24, he thought it would be time for celebration. Instead he will be spending his birthday in the court room. His wife decide that she wanted to get a divorce. He says he doesn't know why. If he used drugs, drank alcohol, or committed crime, he would know of a reason. He feels sad because he feels like he has not done any thing wrong. He works two jobs to support his family. He does everything he can yet his wife wants a divorce. He kept saying he feels empty inside. We explained that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be able to help him through his trials and give him the happiness to fill him. Elder Moon and I asked him if we could share a short message about Jesus Christ. We stood there is silence for about a minute, and he said. "No, I want to be miserable, me and churro, need to mourn." It was so sad. How could someone so depressed turn down the promise of happiness we extended to him? It was a great learning experience. Obviously the time was not right with him. We were able to give him our phone number so he could call us when he was ready. All we can do is pray that he will realise the great opportunity that he turned down, and remember to call us.

 

Sorry this weeks letter is so short. Next week will be better I promise you. This is just a taste of what happened this week. My mom will be posting my journal entries on my blog. So check there for more info. Once again thank you all so much. I love all of you.

 

Elder Jaden Paget