It's How Miracles Happen, Have you Arrived? and Lord Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise

hey!

     So everything here's pretty good. We're working hard to get people on date for baptism. It's all about being diligent, obedient, and faithful. That's how miracles happen. We're teaching this 40-some-year old spiritual black guy right now. He's a returnigator, which means that he's been taught off and on for years, we're like the twentieth set of missionaries he's had, and he's pretty much a legend in the mission. He's a great guy, he's just got a few roadblocks that are keeping him from baptism. We found out the other day that that roadblock just got overcome, so we just might be the ones to baptize him! Like I said, he's a great guy, he's super spiritual, and pretty funny, too. We usually end our meetings with him with him saying, "Well gentlemen, be safe, prayerful, and vigilant, and we will see you, creek don't rise, and God willing, on the morrow." He's the second spiritual old black guy we're teaching. The other one is the son of a third generation southern preacher. He's almost 50, and he's been around the world and back twice (as he makes sure we know) and he's seen and heard and done everything. He's one of those guys who's open-minded to a fault. I love diversity and I love open-mindedness, but you also need to be able to discern between what's true and what's not, as well as good, better, best. He thinks that because life is a journey (and it is), reaching a destination defeats the purpose. We're just trying to help him understand that we agree with him, to a certain extent. Life is definitely a journey, and truth can be found everywhere, and just because his search for a church can be over, doesn't mean his search for Christ can't be. I'm out here fully committed as a servant of the Lord, but that doesn't mean I'm not still on a journey to become like him. It's a journey that will last my whole life, and the church isn't a destination, it's an iron rod. That's where the fifth and final principle of thew doctrine of Christ comes in, which is enduring to the end. It's about once you've found the path, stick to it and constantly hold to the rod and follow the straight and narrow path, not check out the straight and narrow for a while, then go looking for other paths. 

    Anyways, the Church is true, and the Atonement is real. Tell everyone back home is miss them and love em! 

Love, Elder Jake Lusk

Obedience brings blessings

Below is a message I (Elder Lusk's mom) received from a member of the Winchester Ward today. As parents, we are so proud of him for committing to be completely obedient and on the plan. We know that sacrifice and obedience brings blessings!

 My wife and I stopped at Sonic in Salt Lake to get something to drink on Wednesday and saw a couple of Elders having lunch. I walked over and said: "Hey Elders, do you know Elder Lusk?" They said: "Sure do! He's in this Zone" and one of them was his companion in the MTC. I got Elder Lusk's phone number from them and called him to invite him and his companion to lunch while we're here. I got a text m...essage back the next day from Elder Lusk saying thanks for the invitation and saying how much he appreciates the thought and support, but his Mission President wouldn't give him permission to go to lunch with his old Scoutmaster.

You & Howard should be very proud of your obedient missionary. I think if I was invited to lunch by somebody from back home, I'd go enjoy it and ask for forgiveness later! Jacob is a fine young man and a great missionary.

Cow tongue tacos and Tongan food/Culture

Hey!

     How's everything back in Winchester? I got your package, btw, so thanks for the Cheez-Itz! Stuff here in, SLC, is going pretty good.  We've got a bunch of people we're working with, including a bunch that are pretty solid, it's just hard to get appointments sometimes. we should have several people on date soon, though, which is awesome. I love a lot of the people that we're working with because a lot of them are pretty chill. I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but we really get taken care of out here. our first week we had a dinner almost every night, with leftovers that served as our lunch the next day. There's also a ton of Tongan and Samoan people who live in our area, and they're always trying to feed us. We'll be walking down the street and we'll hear, "Elders! Come eat!" and there'll be a huge Polynesian extended family having a feast and waving us over.They eat like crazy. I love it! Serving here is awesome because you get the Utah culture as well as Mexican culture (my spanish is starting to come back, btw), and Polynesian culture. There's some Tongan less actives/recent converts we're working with who cook for us every time we come over, so I've gotten to have traditional Tongan food, which is delicious. I also went to a Mexican restaurant after zone meeting on Thursday with the zone leaders, and tried a cow tongue taco, which was actually pretty good. Oh, and it's not just the members that feed us. We've been walking down the street and been given water, soda, and food by nonmembers. everyone knows us and even if they're not interested in getting baptized, they'll wave and say hey and even give us food. 

    So aside from the food, I'm also really liking how much my testimony is being built that when you follow God and live right, how much easier and happier your life is. I'm getting to see how cool it is when people turn their lives from meth and stealing and gangs to following God and living right. I'm super grateful that I was born into a family that raised me in the gospel as well as the fact that we've always had money and lived in nice areas. compared to most of the people here, we're pretty rich. Like I said, it's built my testimony and made me count my blessings. 

Tell everyone back home I miss em and love em! 

Love, 

Elder Jacob Lusk :)

     

First email from the actual mission field!

 

     so yeah, it's my first P-day in the actual mission field. I've been here since Wednesday. So far I'm loving it. We're in a tiny area that's like a mile and a half by half a mile. it's straight-up ghetto, and I'm loving it! I mean, it's Utah ghetto, but still. It's like a weird mixture between Compton and West Virginia. I guess it's kinda like a really big Kent street. It's mainly a poor, ethnic neighborhood that's pretty quiet except for the occasional mariachi music or thug rap, sirens, and (I've been told to keep my ears open for it) gunshots. I'm positive it's nowhere near as rough as where the guys in my MTC district are serving in Detroit, but it definitely shatters your perception of Salt Lake City. 

  being in an area so small means that even if though we don't have our bikes yet, we can still walk everywhere in a reasonable amount of time. the great thing about walking is that since you're in the ghetto where a lot of people also don't have cars, and there's plenty of people home in the afternoon, there's always people to talk to. There's a lot of people who are laid-back and willing to listen to you. Everybody's got their excuses for why they aren't ready to/don't want to change, but at least they're not too stuck up to talk to you. And in areas like this, only about 30-40 percent are LDS, and of those, only about half are active, and even then, a lot of those who are active come from part member families. The parts of the mission that are the Mormon stereotypes are more to the north, like Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington, Layton, areas like that. I think they're all in Davis County and some in Utah County. Most of those are where they send the sisters because they're not going to send them out to ghetto places like this. places up there are closer to 80-90 percent Mormon, and they're mostly rich, white, active members. But out here...haha it's awesome. so much diversity. and so many characters. Just in less than a week my companion and I have met so many characters it's crazy. One of the guys we're teaching is on probation for killing a guy back in the 90s . We've talked to plenty of people who'll be in the streets smoking a cigarette (or a blunt) and claim that they're Mormon. there's people who we ask if they're LDS, and they truly have no idea if they are or not. it's pretty wild.

   yeah, the work out here's pretty crazy but i'm loving it. I want to bear my testimony that doing this work is the best possible thing anyone can do at my age, and that it changes and blesses your life so much. I know this church is true and that people lives can be made so much better if they truly turn their hearts to following god. 

   Love everyone!

Second letter home after 10 days in the MTC

Hey!

    

     Yeah, the time here's been amazing. It's crazy that in less than a week I'll be in the actual mission field. Before I got here, I thought that I'd want to be out of the MTC as fast as possible and just got out to the field, but now that I'm here I don't really want to leave. It's not that I don't want the actual mission to start, I just love being here. This has been the most amazing week and a half of my life. Our district has grown so tight. It seems weird that we've only known each other for ten days because we all feel like we've known each other forever. We've talked about it a lot and we've all grown so much in the past ten days. We thought that after just four days, and now we've grown even more. It's amazing what this place is like.

    So the general authorities are all on vacation during July, so during the devotionals we haven't had any of the Twelve, but we did get to watch a MTC Christmas devotional from Elder Bednar called "The Character of Christ". If you get a chance, look it up and watch it. It's lifechanging. I also may not have gotten to meet a general authority, but I did get sit in the front row of a play featuring Elder Christensen of the District season 2, so that was pretty cool.  

     Tell everyone I love em and miss em

 

Love,

 

Elder Jacob Lusk

 

 

First email home after just two days in the MTC (Missionary Training Center)

HEY!

 

How is everyone? Today's P day already, so I've got an hour to send emails. The MTC is awesome. I've never seen so many missionaries in one place. There's more people here this week than has ever been in the history of the MTC or ever will be, and everyone's Mormon! Weird, eh? My district is awesome. Half of us are going to Utah, Salk Lake City, and the other half are going to Michigan, Detroit. I'm also really excited becuase with P day today, we had between half an hour and fifty minutes to work out. My companion's not a runner, but another guy in my district is, and we got an exchange authorized and went on an easy 3-miler around campus talking all about running and the sport, and then lifted with the rest of our district in the weight room. Fun and games aside, this place ia amazing. The spirit is super strong here and everyone has such a huge testimony. I've been pushed really hard in my thinking and spirituality. I feel like taking Mrs. Finny's (AP English) class this past year helped stretch my mind, and get it able to absorb everything I'm learning.

 

So enough about me, how's things back home? Everyone good? Thanks for the package, by the way. I haven't opened it yet, but I just got it. Well hey, tell everyone I love em and keep in touch! 

 

Love,

 

Elder Jake ;) Lusk

 

This blog is being created in order to share reports from our son, Elder Jacob Lusk, who is currently a mission for our church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is serving in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission. He entered the Missionary Training Center on July 17, 2013 and will serve for 24 months. We will share messages from his letters home in hopes that we can capture some of his experiences and that through his letters we can see how he is sharing what is most important in life, to help others come to know our Savior, Jesus Christ, to learn of the restored Gospel and to learn about how families can be together for all of eternity.