Another Week in Paradise!

It has been another week in Paradise. It is always sunny and has not rained. It is crazy that I have been out for three months now. Time is flying by. I am doing great. We are always so busy. It is so good to be finally done with my 12 week training. However my trainer, Elder Moon is going to be transferred. It is sad to see him go. He was my first companion out in the field. I wish him the best of luck. We found out Saturday night or what we call stoop night. On stoop night you basically have a good time and party until you get the transfer call. Your district leader calls you and lets you know if you are going to be transferred. He does not tell you where or who your new companion is. Elder Moon though I would be the one to be transferred when we got the call. He was shocked to find out he was going to be transferred instead. I will get a new companion on Tuesday at the transfer meeting. Transfer meetings are crazy. President Kendrick calls your name, has you stand up. Then he tells you who your new companion is, and where you are going. Luckily I will still be staying at the Andersons here in the Cardiff Ward.

I now have to train and teach my new companion about the area and the investigators. I am kind of nervous. I hope I don’t drop the ball. The Cardiff ward has been booming with baptisms and I hope my new companion and I can keep it up. We have two planned already, and potentially one more.

 The Cano’s are doing well. Theo and Cole are not progressing right now. Elder Moon and I taught them about the 10 Commandments and keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. We have invited them to read the Book of Mormon and come to church for a couple of weeks now. They still have not done either one. So their baptismal date will have to be pushed back. It is sad to push the baptismal dates back, but we want to make sure they will be ready.

Lee Bulluni one of investigators has made lots of progress this week. It all started off last Sunday when she said she had completed the entire Book of Mormon. She read it in less than one month. Crazy! Then on Tuesday, we went with her to a bible study that the Del Mar Stake puts on, called Sisters in Scriptures. She loved it! Lee said it was the best bible study she had ever been to. While she was sitting there she said a light went on in her head. She finally got everything we had been teaching her it finally made sense. She loved it so much that she said, she will go every week from now on, and come to church.  Each week they have a question of the week.  Next week’s question that they will discuss is “What does it mean to be born again?” This is perfect because Lee considers herself to be a Born Again Christian. She is interested in seeing what exactly Mormons believe it means. They discussed it a little bit about the question and that being born again means being baptized. We thought that it would be perfect for her to go to a baptism to see one for herself. We invited her to a Baptism the Lacosta Elders, Elder Pendergast and Elder Hancock, had on Saturday. She we called her to make sure that she was going. Lee told us that she had been praying about being baptized and she asked if she could be baptized without having a testimony of Joseph Smith. She didn’t know if she was ready. It was great to hear that she wanted to be baptized, and that she was willing to follow the example of Jesus Christ. We had to explain to her that the baptism was not for her it was for someone else. We told her that we just wanted to her to come to see what it is like. Lee said she would be with her mother for the week end but she would try to make it. She did not make it to the baptism or church this last weekend. However we now know that she has the desire to be baptized and what her concerns are so we can help her overcome them. So we should be setting another baptismal date soon.

Andrew Miller the older brother of Moises and Rohit, the two boys we baptized in July has been struggling lately. He said he has no friends at school and that Elder Moon and I are his only friends. This is because he started a really bad rumor about himself to gain attention. The rumor back fired on him, and no one likes him. He has been suffering from depression, and fighting a lot with his mother and brothers. His mother Elvira could not take it anymore, and thought he would hurt himself or someone else. So she took to a mental hospital. He spent all of last weekend there. Hopefully he will get better. We are doing everything we can to help him through this and to get him some more friends.

We picked up a new investigator this week named Scott. We had been going by Scott’s house for a couple of weeks. Every time we have gone over he has said he was busy. On Saturday he let us in and said he would give us 4 minutes to give him a quick summary of what we believe. He wanted a quick message to see if he would want to investigate any further. We taught him the Plan of Salvation. It took about 7 minutes but that was because he asked us questions. It went well and he seemed interested. Scott said we could come by again and give him another short lesson.

I hope we continue to be just as productive as we have been.

Love and Miss all of you.

Elder Jaden Paget

Cardiff Cake!

So this week has flown by. We have been very, very busy. We have gone on exchanges, had zone training, participated in a missionary musical fireside, constructed a San Diego Temple Cake. It has been incredible.

So I went on exchanges with Elder Sparks on Monday. He is from Pleasant Grove Utah. He is a great missionary who used to be in the riverside mission until, the Irvine Mission was created and everything was move around. Elder Sparks is one of the missionaries we split the Cardiff ward with. I was really cool to be in my old area. We got to go by all the great non progressing investigators that we used to have. It is always interesting to go on exchanges and see how the other missionary dose things. When we go on exchanges you got to learn how to improve and get a first hand glimpse of what make other missionaries so successful.

 

The Missionary Musical Fireside was absolutely amazing. It was called. " Christ the Life the Light and the Way." The Del Mar Stake pulled out all the stops for this one. They flew out the director from Idaho ,James Grant for two weekends to practice and with us. Crazy right? He wrote the the musical while he was on his mission. The purpose of it was to have members, and non members come and leave with the feeling and knowledge that they believed everything that was shared is true. All the missionaries in the stake were involved in some way. Some sang and some had speaking parts. I had a narration part. What would happen is that there would be a song then a narration part or testimony, then another song. We practiced a lot over the last 2 weeks that we have know about it. The spirit was so strong there. It is amazing the power that music has and how it invites the spirit. Everyone that went said that it was amazing. We didn't have any of our investigators show up despite the fact that we reminded them several times. However one of our old investigators on the other side of the ward, named Elsie showed up. We helped Travis Stevens make another cake for the event. He made the San Diego Temple. It is by far the coolest cake I have ever seen. It took a lot of work but it was worth it. The Musical turned out great thanks to all the hard work everyone put in.

 

Any way once again I have run out of time to complete my weekly letter. I am sorry they are so short.

 

Love Elder Jaden Paget

Shortest Weekly Letter Ever!

Alright I don't really have a lot of time, to write. This last week has been amazing. We have had so much success. Labor Day was incredible, it was probably the most success in one day that I have had so far on the Mission. I wish I could have been at the Cabin though. Anyways holidays are always amazing in vacation spots. Everyone is happy and are in good moods. We were able to talk to about 60 different people and give them pamphlets, Book of Mormons, and pass along cards. One of the presents I got for my birthday was a Book of Mormon with Cami's, my sister, testimony written inside. I was able to give it to a lady who was in need of guidance and direction in her life. Well at least back to her Car. She was walking her dog and could not find her car so we were able to help her find it. I am sure if she reads it it will also provide direction in her life as well. Thanks Cami for doing that.

 

This week we also got two boys committed to Baptism. Theo and Cole Cano are going to be baptized on October 4. It all started when Theo asked his Dad Ted, if they needed to go to church to make it to heaven. Ted said yes you need to go to church. His dad realized that he needed to have his kids be taught about Jesus Christ and the plan that God has for us. Their parents are members but have not been active for years. Their Dad is alright with them being baptized but the Mom doesn't know. She is the main hold up right now. Theo and Cole are learning so much and are excited. I feel that teaching them will also activate their parents as well. It is so amazing to see so many young kids and teenagers interested in the Gospel. They are truly the noble and great ones. They are the rising generation that will usher in the Savior.

 

I hope everyone is doing well. Keep on Keeping On.

 

Love Elder Jaden Paget

 

19th Year!

 

Thank you everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday. I had a great birthday, but I wish I could celebrate it with my family and friends. It was awesome. I didn't have to run because it was a Sunday, and we didn't have a meeting at 6:30 am like we usually do. So already I was off to a great start to my 19th Birthday. I had some time to open my presents that my family had sent before church. I opened the boxes from my parents and sisters and to my surprise I had to open one present per hour.  Each present had a specific time on the outside of when to open it. Inside there was a poem that corresponded with each gift. It is a great Idea so that it lasts longer but, I couldn't open them while I was at church or walking around.  We went to church and there were so many people that came up to me and wished me a happy birthday. I don't know how they all knew about it. I didn't really tell anyone. After Church we went around with Josh Atkinson to a few houses but no one was home. Everyone was out and about for Labor Day weekend. Then we had Dinner at the Parsons house. To my surprise they had their house decorated with balloons and banners. It was crazy. When I dropped off the ingredients to make my favorite cake, I must have left the decorations that were supposed to be for my room in the bag. So I feel bad that it probably made them feel like they had to decorate for my b-day. Dinner was fantastic, we had Chicken and Steak burritos/tacos. Then for desert we had better than any thing cake. Could not have been any better. The only thing that could have been better is if I knew the BYU football game score. Hopefully they won. I have been wondering about it since Saturday. Any way it was great and I got lots of goodies and things I needed. Thanks!

 

Two weeks ago at the beach we met a man who wanted to be a Mormon and move to Saint George. On Wednesday we were walking out of the Library and saw him sitting at the computer. We went up to him and asked him if we had talked to him before at the beach. He said No. Elder Moon and I then turned to walk away, both thinking that he just didn't want to talk to us. He had lost his interest after talking to us at the moon light beach party. Then out of the corner of our eyes, the real guy appears. He was looking at the DVDs here at the Encinitas Library. I feel bad that we got him mixed up with somebody else but, they could be/probably are identical twins. We walked up to him and started talking. We talked for about an hour. His name is Mark. Mark is finally going to move to St George on September 8. He has been struggling lately and wants a fresh start with his wife. He found a job and a place to move into, but he just got his car repossessed. He doesn't know how he is going to get there. We asked him if we could teach him and he said that he wanted some time for his wife to find out more first. We told his that's what missionaries are for to teach people more about the gospel,and answer any questions that they have. It is sad to see that he is a golden investigator and he turned us down. He wants to meet with the missionaries in St George when he gets there, though. So that's good. Hopefully we can get in contact with the missionaries down there.

 

Things are going great here in Cardiff. I hope they continue to stay that way.

 

Thanks

 

Elder Jaden Paget