3rd letter from Portola, CA - Week 8

Hey everyone. This week has been awesome up here in Portola! The sun is shining and the sky is Blue! We've had lot's of service this week and our investigator's are progressing slowly but surely. Anyways sorry I have to keep this week's email super short because I'm literally soooo out of time for writing this week.  But I will tell you that miracle's happen every day and that this truly is the Lord's work. I love this gospel and I love the Lord. I love the opportunity to be a missionary and to serve. 

I'm grateful for all of the support and everything you all have given me. Sorry for the lack of picture's I promise they are coming they are just taking forever to send this week sooo I don't know if I'll have time for any. 

But in closing I just want to remind all of you that life is amazing and full of miracle's and I promise that as you look for them you will find them. Our Heavenly Father never leave's us and his plan is truly one of eternal joy and peace. I know that as we strive to follow the Savior's example, that we will be blessed!!!! 

You all have a Heavenly Father who loves you and I love you all and can't wait to make lot's of new memories with you and share lot's of experience's on this crazy journey we call life!!!! Smile !!! Love life and I'll talk to all of you soon!

Oldie but goodie from the MTC that he forgot to send while he was there ;-) ...We'll take it!  P.S.  No word yet on the Visa status, but I do know that he is loving it in Portola (you can just "hear" it in his voice in his letters!) and he is getting many blessings while he's serving there.  

2nd letter from Portola, CA - Week 7

Hey everyone!!! Well it's been another week in Paradise A.K.A Portola, CA and honestly any week as a missionary is just fantastic! I love it sooo so much it's awesome. So I met the other two elder's from my district last Tuesday and they are good guys but yeah there are only four of us in this California district and we cover a lot of land which is awesome.

 

Alright so let's see, we have around 15 investigator's at this point all at different point's of progression which is great! We have some closer to being ready for baptism than others but it's all good! It's super super fun, I truly love every single one of our investigator's and I'll tell you that this definitely is the Lord's work because there is no way the thing's that happen are from our hand's there is just absolutely no way.

okay so two huge miracles that happened this week. (there are honestly countless other small ones every day)

1. On Saturday we had a previous investigator call the ward mission leader and tell him that when he used to take the lessons he wasn't ready to commit to baptism but now he is sooo we will start working with him pretty soon.

2. At church this Sunday we had a younger guy just walk in he was a non-member and just kinda stumbled upon our church as an accident. He listened to the last 10 minutes of Sacrament and liked it so much he decided to stay for class and learn a bit more about the church. So he said he might come to church next week which is awesome, I don't really know where thing's are going with either of these people but we are super hopeful.

Anyways in closing I just wanna say that I love all of you and I'm grateful for all those thing's you have done for me. I want you to know that I know that this church is true. That the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith spoke with our Heavenly Father and was a true prophet.  I know that Thomas S. Monson is the current prophet in these latter day's, and Most importantly that Your Heavenly Father loves you deeply and because he loves you, he sent his only Perfect son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to atone for all of the sin's and sorrow's of this life. And that as we follow his example and teaching's that that is where true happiness lies. 

 

I know that he knows everything we've been through in this life and can help us through it. And in closing I challenge you all first to love one another and serve all those around you that you can. That is truly the most fulfilling thing you can do.  Lastly I know that you can find out that these thing's are true for yourselves by Reading the Book of Mormon, Pondering what you have read and sincerely asking our Heavenly Father if they are true.

Anyways I love you all, you should totally email me that would be fantastic and you will all be in my prayer's.

heeft een goode daag!!!!!!

1st letter in the field from Portola, CA - Week 6

Hey Everyone!! I am serving in a little town in Northern California called Portola.  It's a super little town with like 3,000 people but it's super pretty, big tall pine trees everywhere. It's a lot of fun being a missionary, I'll tell you about a cool story here in a minute. 

But just to catch you up I arrived in Reno last Tuesday and the mission president and his wife picked us up and took us to the mission home in Sparks Nevada.  So there we had about 6 hours of orientation which was a little difficult because everyone was a bit tired to say the least, but after that we found out who our trainers were going to be and I'm getting trained by Elder Corry. He's a super great missionary and we get along super well.  He is from Washington D.C.  

So then we got in our truck (Yes we have a truck in our area it's super cool) and stopped by the store and then proceeded on the hour drive from Sparks,NV to Portola, CA. and then the work started and I have loved every second of it. It's super fulfilling and absolutely awesome.

Elder Walker & Elder Corry - Chillin' on P-day

So real quick I'll share a awesome experience I had on Friday.

So, we were having a pretty discouraging day honestly nothing seemed to be going right we were walking around and couldn't find anyone at all to teach, it was not fun. So finally we made it back into our truck and decided it was time to say a prayer so that we could be guided.  

I said the prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us know where we should go and we just listened for a few minutes and I had a name keep popping into my head over and over, which was weird because we had just drove by this families house ten minutes before. It didn't look like anyone was home but I told my companion and without hesitating he drove straight to this families home and we ended up having an amazing lesson with the father and I honestly think he is progressing really well. 

After we got out of the lesson I was talking to my companion and told him that that was the only name I could think of at all and he said that the prompting he got was to listen to his companion.  So because we put our faith in the Lord and listened, great things happened. That's not the only experience like that I've had in this short time I've been in the field but I know that Heavenly Father is watching over us and that this is truly his work and honestly he is working shoulder to shoulder with us every day and I love being a missionary soooo much.

Anyways I love you all and you're in my prayers everyday.

And P.S. I'll be in Portola for at least 6 weeks and if my visa get's here after the 6 Weeks then I'll be here for 12.

Thanks for all the emails and support I love you all!!

Pre MTC departure update!!

Hey family, well I'm sure you're probably wondering why I'm emailing you on a Thursday and there is a reason. But just wanna say hi and I'm glad to talk to you.  Soooo I have some good and bad news.

The good I get to email all of you wonderful people today soooo that's always good.

Now for the not so good news well its not bad news per say its just different news. Soooo they are having issues with mine and a couple other missionaries passports sooo it looks like I'm staying state side for a while.

Sooo I'm serving in the Reno, Nevada mission temporarily while they figure my visa stuff out.

Which to be honest I'm kinda disappointed that I'm not going straight to Nederlands. but I know that Heavenly Father is infinitely more wise than I and I promised him that I would go where he wanted me to go and do whatever he wants me to.

Sooo in all reality its kinda cool I get to serve a mini mission before my real mission, sooo double the fun right???

So yeah I love all of you and I'll talk to you asap.

MTC: End of Week 5

Hello friends and family!!!! Well I honestly have no clue where to begin this week everything blurs together.

uhm we got a few new people in our zone and they are pretty cool. I think my mom will put their pictures up on the blog anywho.   (see below)

One of my favorite speakers spoke on Tuesday and it was awesome!!!! It really touched my heart!!!! 

Anyways I guess I should probably say what everyone has been waiting to hear!!!!.... 

Flight plans: soooo I leave from the Salt Lake airport on Monday the 25 at 4:37 pm 

and arrive in Amsterdam at 10:50 am their time soooo it's about a 10 hour flight (roughly), straight there sooo that should be great!!!!!!!

uhm yeah I promise to send lots of pictures and cool stories while I'm over there!!!

Love you all!!!

 

Here is Jerrick's Zone at the MTC.  Some of these Elders and Zusters (Sisters) will be going to The West Indies, Sweden, Denmark and some will be w/him heading to the Netherlands...all Dutch speaking! :-) 

 

MTC: End of Week 4

uw doel - anderen outnodigen om tot christus te komen

door met u hulp het herstelde evangelie en te nemem

geloof en jezus christos en zijn verzoening

bekering, de doop, en volharding tot het einde toe.

Translation:  Our purpose- to bring others unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel, develop faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, and Enduring to the end.

So this week has been leuk uhm.  Learning to work with three unique individuals has been a challenge but we work well together and have taught some really cool lessons.

Andy is progressing...well uhm yeah not too much new with him.

Esmeray prayed for the first time so that is pretty cool! It is a huge step in her conversion process.

We got a new investigator named Micheal and he is 18 and lives with his dad.  He just moved from Belgium to Netherlands, he really just needs someone to be his friend which is totally fine with me and seems really willing and interested to learn about the gospel.

Anyways I'm doing great and ya know I love love you all.

Everyone write me as you will. Alright peace love and hair grease love you all!

MTC: End of Week 3

Well hello everyone!!! So to start off I would just like to say everyone should email me and such because I love hearing from your faces.

Anyways this week has been great!  Everything kinda blurs together soooo sorry if I repeat things I said from last week.

Alright so our investigators are both doing well and progressing. 

I'll start with Andy, he's been taking the lessons in stride!!! So I think we are going to ask him to commit to baptism which will be awesome!

Our other investigator Esmerai has been really cool she started out with no belief in God at all and so we talked to her about faith and shared Alma 32 with her (which you should all read) and we had her read specifically verse 42 at the end and she started to cry and committed to praying to our Heavenly Father and reading the Book of Mormon, which was sooooo so cool. 

Being a missionary is the greatest thing ever!!!!!!

P-day Selfie!! 

 (finally got some names to put w/these Elders faces! :-)

The Elder on the left with the gray tie is Elder Turner and he is from Calgary, Canada

and the Elder in the middle is Elder Drinkwater he is from New Jersey

and you know the super suave elder on the right ;)