One Year Later....

Hello hello!

Well first you better tell the boots family(brother boots especially) i say hello! i reflect back on my farewell talk sometimes and it makes me cringe. my knowledge of the gospel and the book of mormon was primary level compared to what it is now. thank goodness i have a homecoming talk to redeem myslef. haha. topher is going to be a lights out missionary! he has no reason to be nervous.

This week! another busy one. my concept of time is gone.. the days all feel the same, i woke up today and didnt realize it was p day! The mini mission ended and we all meet back up at a chapel, the mini missionaries are given the opportunity to bear their testimonies and share experiences from their mini missions. it was SO cool! all i could think about was brandon as he's about to leave, and ty as the mission is not too far off. What amazed me was the power of these kids faith to come out and give up their time to do this!

Had another great week teaching *****! teaching is my drug. im addicted to teaching! if a missionary could teach all day everyday there would be no thoughts of home, or being sad, or discouraged. the feelings that come with teaching others about the restored gospel unforgetable, undeniable, unbelievable! ahha a lot of uns.. lol but its so true. teaching is what keeps us going. we taught some important commandments this week. Chastity, tithing, word of wisdom! she understood and accepted them all. she also passed her baptismal interview yesterday so we are 100 percent in the clear ready for the covanent! cant wait till friday.

Unfortunatly we couldnt catch up with carrol this week. it bums me out because she has been prepared and is ready. she just needs us to come over and have one more spiritual experience ans she will be hooked. with new people we find and teach it takes time for them to recognize the spirit for what it truly is. we dropped by carrols place probably 4 or 5 times before she let us teach her. then she realized what we had to say was good so she let us come back. from there we have to distinguish if she is for real by chruch attendence. if they come to church they are for real! we havent been able to really reach her the importance of church and we hope to next we see her. our job is just to present them pure doctrine and truth, their job is to use their agency. we havent been able to present her with enough yet.. sometimes i want to grab people and scream saying LET US FINISH! once we have taught them the basic lessons and commmandments then they can make their choice but it doesnt make any sense to stop seeing us until weve offered all we can offer. ah frustrating! but we still are feeling optimistic about her abd hopefully we can see her this week.

Im such a sook lately and i dont know why. i think being away from my family for an entire year has something to do with it.. a year is a long time not to see family. also, im genuinly loving those I serve and its turned me into a total baby. i dont want baptisms or high numbers to look good for my leaders or to show president what i accomplished this week. i just care for these people. i love them.

i read an article in this months ensign. called BECOMING perfect in Christ. if oyu havent read it yet do it! it tells us how the savior can transform us. change our expectations for ourselves and others! perfect doesn't mean without sin or mistake. it means completion, finishing, enduring. and applying the atonement on the way.

being a missionary will test you in every way possible. its up, down, left, and right. but one thing is consistant. if you work hard, you will be happy. if you give the lord everything he will take care of you. moroni 10:32 as you love lord with everything you have you will learn to love those around you. guys like us are far from perfect but if we let the atonement become our anchor even we can become perfected in christ. i love it. and i love you all! have a great week.

-Elder Jake Guzzo

The Most Amazing Week

Hello everyone!

This has been the busiest, most overwhelming, amazing week of my mission. I'm literally tired all the time. this week was constant go go go! transfers were hectic, picking a missionary up from the airport. I dont know how to explain it all that would make sense but just so BUSY!!

They do a program called "mini mission" here in the stake where priest age guys and girls get paired off with the missionaries or 5 days! they live with us and are basically missionaries for a short week. its pretty exciting for the youth to come out and do this. so not every companionship gets to have a mini missionary but elder poai and I were chosen. his name is khaleel. super nice kid but so unbelieveably shy. we picked him up up on saturday morning and he'll be with us till wednesday night. right when we got back to our area we had an appointment with ***** who is getting baptised on the 19th. we taught her the gospel of jesus christ! we had khaleel teach the last point, enduring to the end. he was so nervous! reminded me so much of being a new missionary! but he did a great job. I'm really impressed with how many youth will come out and do this mini misison. they are on school holidays so they are sacrificing precious time. I dont think when I was 17 I would have done it... very cool of them. after we taught ***** we went to see carrol. carrol is a fijian lady we found tracting. she is the sweetest most genuine lady ever. we went in and kept the same lesson plan that we had with ***** BUT at the end of this lesson I extended the invitation to be baptized by the priesthood authority of God. she looked up, paused... and said I would. yes, I will. it was the most textbook preach my gospel video lesson I have ever taught. this lesson showed me that Im a missionary. Ive been out an entire year and it finally shows.. my skills are being refined. I would have never in a million years pictured myself being able to teach like this. Ive learned to ask questions, listen, and teach to their needs. I dont mean to sound arrogant. ammon teaches us to boast not in ourselves but in the Lord. Im boasting of my heavenly father. the Lord truly blessed us that day! the faith of this young boy to give up his school holiday and come out with us brought a different spirit to the lesson. the Lord made sure we had a great experience so that khaleel can see the amazing side of misisonary work. what a blessing!

Another tender mercy I want to share with you. since i have been i the jandakot ward i have taken it upon myself to change the attitude of this ward in the mission. as you know last week was transfers and a new sister came into the area. she said to her companion. "Im so excited to be here, Ive heard amazing things about this ward and this district" WOW? two transfers ago people were dissapointed when they were called to come here... now its the place to be! and its nothing that specifically Ive done, but things heavenly father has shown us we need to do.

The assistants called and asked if we would be in their video for zone conference this week! haha we are supposed to give them a few video clips of us talking with everyone, a principle in preach my gospel. so we've been talking with everyone! one example today we pulled up to the drive through at mcdonalds and the lady took our order and asked anything else? and I asked have you ever wondered why you are here? where did you come from? and where are you going? hahhaha the lady didnt even respond it was so funny. so weve been doing goofy things like that hopefully it turns out good!

elder eti is from tuvalu! i do know that the fiji mission covers tuvalu. sounds like a fun week back home! oh and you know in sacrament meeting(fast and testimony meeting) i got up and went on a little rant about how proud I am to be American and how the independence of a free nation was a vital part in the restoration of the Lords kingdom here on earth. I tried not to be too loud and proud USA but i had too. hahah over all a great week. so so so busy i think when i sat down just barely it was the first time i though about home all week. Not that i dont miss all of you and pray for you all. my mind is just sinking deeper and deeper. i love you all.

-elder jake guzzo

Grilling at a ward party :)