A Christmas Eve Message to Gladden the Heart and A German Christmas Celebration

Howard and I received this email as we sat around our Christmas tree with our other two kids, Stefan and Dara. I was missing Elder Lusk so much and then this message popped up. It was our Christmas miracle message.

 

 

Dear Brother and Sister Lusk, 

Today our family was honored to have your missionary son and his companions in our home for a little traditional German Christmas celebration. You should experience him in the mission field. He radiates the spirit and excitement. You can be very proud of him. As they came in, shared, sang and prayed with us, we felt the enormous spirit of these great young missionaries.

 

Thank you for sharing him with us. We pray that that you will feel the spirit of Christmas in a special way this year as your son is powerfully sharing the gospel.

 

Merry Christmas and God bless you.

 

With much love

 

Elder Kopischke

Missionaries and Lifelong Friends

Beautiful Layton, Utah

Somebody Snitched on the Mission President?, A Steak Dinner,and A Samoan Barbecue

Hey guys! Things are going good here in beautiful Tooele. I got your letters and packages, so I'm excited for Christmas. We picked up our packages at the USLCM 2013 Christmas devotional/dinner/party that was held in Kaysville. We had an area seventy come speak to us, then had a really nice steak and potato dinner that the relief society from a stake in Kaysville cooked for us (Kaysville is in Davis County, and a lot of people there own Lamborghinis and hilltop mansions. After dinner we had a variety show that included President and Sister Hansen singing a duet of "I'm Gettin' Nothin' for Christmas". President Hansen is a very loving, but serious man, so it was awesome to see him wearing a Santa hat singing "...somebody snitched on me!"  

This week we also had a baptism of a part member family named the {}  this week. They're a great couple and it was awesome to see them baptized. We have a baptism coming up this week of  two kids who are part-Samoan. I like their family a lot, too. It's great to be around Polynesians again. There's no where near as many as there are in SLC, but there's a couple Poly families. In addition to their baptism on Saturday, I'm also excited for the after party the family is doing where they're having a Samoan barbecue. Should be a lot of fun!

Tell everyone back home I love them. As always, if there's any other questions you have, let me know. I'll leave you with my testimony that this work is amazing. The Atonement is real and the church is true.
Love, Elder Lusk

A companion from Germany and Five Upcoming Baptisms

Tooele is beautiful. It's in it's own little valley on the other side of the Oquirrh mountains, to the west of the Salt Lake Valley. It is pretty remote, and out there a bit, but I like it a lot. The people here and pretty chill. We've got five people on date (from two different families), so that's pretty exciting. There's a lot of work here. I'm in a three-way companionship right now with a guy named Elder }{, who was trained by Elder }{, my trainer,  about a year before I was, and Elder }{, from Frankfurt, Germany. They're pretty solid guys. Speaking of Germany, I just talked to the lady here at the family history center, and she said the last name 'Lusk' comes from Alcese-Lorraine, the area in between France and Germany. She's a professional, so I'll take her word for it. Pretty cool, eh?

Beautiful Temple Square in Salt Lake City at Christmas!

Go West, young man (to Tooele), "When Thou art Converted, Strengthen Thy Brethren", and Ridiculous Amounts of Green Jello

So I can't believe this, but the transfers already here. We got transfer info and I'm moving again. I'm going out to Tooele! (pronounced tow-ella) That's pretty crazy. I feel like I just got here, and I love Layton, but I guess I'm needed elsewhere. I've heard Tooele is legit. I'm excited for it. I'm going to miss Layton and all the great people we're working with up here, but I'm ready for an adventure again. 

As for miracles this week, we were out Saturday night with a guy named Elder {}. He's a senior service missionary who works in the Salt Lake area LDS addiction recovery program, but spends seven days a week proselyting with missionaries from the Salt Lake City mission, the East mission, and the Provo mission. The guy's only been a member of the church for six and a half years and has spent the entire time he's been a member working with missionaries, first in his home area in Southern California, and then the past year and a half as a service missionary here in Utah. He's a recovering alcoholic, and committed to sobriety the day before Bud Light with Lime got released (nice timing!), but managed to stay strong and has been sober for close to seven years now. He' s absolutely amazing. This is my third time I've been out proselyting with him. Everything he does is amazing. The spirit is really strong around him, and we always get really good work done with him. 

Oh yeah, and Thanksgiving was good. I had a lot of turkey and a ridiculous amount of green jello, so it was all good.

So that's what's going on right now. I'll definitely send pictures next week and tell you how Tooele is. I know this work is amazing, and I bear testimony that the atonement is real and that it's powerful and it really works. The church is true.

Love, 

Elder Lusk

A Beautiful Scene from Layton, Utah and Who's that Elder with that Husky?

A transfer to Florida, Christ-like Attributes, A Letter to My Brother and, by the way, Right Now I'm on a Mission

 This week is cool because I'm on exchanges with my DL (district leader)  right now, a solid guy named Elder James who gets is getting transferred to Florida next week (he's been out 103 weeks and refuses to believe he's going home next week. Instead he's just getting transferred back to Florida and released from full-time service). We're working on developing Christlike attributes (see chapter 6 in PMG) and It's a really great learning experience.

To Stefan

 

Dude, that's awesome that you went out with the missionaries! Keep it up! It's so much fun!  I'm focused on a mission right now, and committed to living the mission standards in the handbook. Anyways, what I'm learning since I've been out is that pop punk is amazing, and I don't think I'll ever lose my passion for it, but amazing as it is, the gospel is a thousand and three times better. Right now I'm on a mission, and as much as I'm sure the new ADTR record is good, and as long as I've waited for it, I can wait another 20 months. It's worth the wait, and it's not worth being disobedient. That's one of the things I'm learning not only on a mission, but in life in general. A mission is better than the best punk album out there, hands down, and I know it's better than playing D1 college ball, or seeing VT have a miracle season and win a national title. If you're gonna do something, do it right, and right now I'm a missionary. The gospel is amazing, and the atonement is real. This work is the best work you can possibly do, and I can't wait until you serve a mission, which is why I want you to keep going out with the Elders back home. Keep calm and carry on, my brotha. peace...Elder Jake Lusk

Yes, Officer, We Would Love to Baptize You; Snow Covered Mountains and The Best Brisket Outside of Texas

So...we got someone on date for baptism now. His name is Officer }{, and he's a police officer. He's currently going through a divorce, and his ex-wife is LDS. He was raised [in a different church], but had been consistently going to church with his wife. Last transfer, he approached the Elders and asked for a Book of Mormon, and a time to meet up. We had a lesson with him on Thursday (his day off) and taught him the Restoration. He told us he already knew most of that and that he's been reading the Book of Mormon and praying a lot recently. I asked him if he's prayed to know if the Book is true, and he said he hasn't yet, just because he's assumed it's true. He was in church yesterday, which is great because you know when a cop says he'll be somewhere, he'll be there, and he'll be dressed sharp and on time. He said that now that he's on his own, he knows he's doing it for himself, and for his three-year-old daughter, who he wants to be able to baptize when she's eight. He said he's decided it's time to fully make the commitment, and at the end of the lesson was the one that asked us when he could be baptized. We've got him on date for the 12th of December, because that's the next Saturday he has off. The guy is golden and he's really cool. He was telling us cop stories and how the reading the scriptures and praying helps with stress even better than hitting the gym does, which is saying a lot for guys like us. Anyways, I'm pretty excited about all that.

    Last Friday we had Elder Bednar come speak to us. That was a really cool experience. It wasn't him standing up there and lecturing to us; the whole thing was interactive. The meeting was based off three talks that he told President Hansen to pass out to us a couple weeks ago, before we even knew he was coming. The talks were "Ask in Faith", "Seek Learning By Faith" and "Converted Unto The Lord". The entire three-hour meeting was him having us stand up and talk about something we learned, or ask a question based off those talks or other related things. He would almost always answer our question with a follow-up question, letting us figure it out for ourselves. The whole theme revolved around being humble, using faith, doing our part, and accepting God's will over our own. I would highly suggest reading those talks, because they're really good, and it's mostly what the meeting was about. 

     I guess the only other things I wanted to mention were that mountains completely covered in snow are beautiful, Famous Dave's has the best brisket outside of Texas, and 6-month old purebred Boxer puppies are absolutely adorable.

     Oh yeah, I also wanted to say that this work is absolutely amazing. I love seeing the joy and light the gospel brings into people's lives. The Atonement is real. Christ Lives, and this is His church as restored though the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Love,

Elder Lusk

The Elder Bednar, Not Enough Room to Receive all the Blessings and It Drives My Work

Hope everything is going well back home. Things up here in Layton are going great. I'm still stoked to be here. I'm also stoked because on Friday we're having a mission meeting where I'll not only be able to see the elders I served with in Glendale, but we'll also receive trained from the man, the legend, the Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. That's pretty exciting.

 

Our investigators are great! We got a guy to come to church for the second time this week, and he stayed the full three hours. We've got plenty of support and fellowship for him, so things are looking good. This week we're going to be praying on a date for him to get baptized. We're pretty excited about what the next couple weeks will be like for him. Most of our other work is with part member families, so helping them do what they need to do to get all of them baptized and then sealed in the temple. In terms of both dinners and miracles it's been an awesome week. We get dinners provided every night except Monday night up here in Layton. On Friday, one of our newly reactivated member we're working with swung by our apartment with a giant trunk full of food. We have enough a shelf and a half dedicated to oatmeal, and an entire shelf dedicated to hot chocolate now. We've got enough ramen to feed a small army (ramen is super good if you don't use the seasoning packets and put it Cajun seasoning instead!), and everything we need for our own thanksgiving dinner except the turkey. We've got so many canned foods that it looks like the shelf is about to break. You know that scripture that we'll get blessings and won't have room to receive them? It wasn't until; I've been on my mission that I realized it was literal. The people out here are awesome. In terms of other miracle, we were giving someone a blessing, and even though I wasn't the voice, I got a specific prompting to bless her a certain thing, and a second after I got it, Elder () said it, so that's how much the spirit was there. It's really cool how the spirit works. 

 

I'll just close with my testimony that I know that this church is true and I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless everyone's life. The power of the Atonement is real and it's becuase of it that I'm out here and it drives my current work and it's driven me to come out in the first place. 

Love,

Elder Lusk

A Baptism in Sri Lanka or Was it Glendale and A Reflection on Dogs or is it People.

so...things here are going great. I got to go to a baptism down in Glendale on Friday. The Sri Lankan family that me and Elder {} were teaching finally got baptized and I got to witness that. The spirit at the baptism was amazing and there were a ton of people there. The entire relief society room was full.
 

We've got some good people we're working with up here and I'm excited for the potentials. Aside from that it's been a pretty average week. 

I guess since it's been on my mind a little bit and I'm not sure what else to write about, I just want to talk more about something I briefly mentioned last time. Everyone in Utah has dogs, and so far, I've gotten to pet a dog just about every day since I've been out on my mission. I'm learning a lot about people and reading emotions, but I'm also learning about how to read dogs. Like, how to know when the big pit bull that's barking at you when you walk in it's front yard wants to eat you up or if he's just excited someone is coming to pet him. Dogs are a lot like people. I firmly believe all of them are born good, and it's when people abuse them and raise them to be guard dogs and prize fighters that they turn mean. Big dogs like german shepards and pit bulls are some of the sweetest dogs I've ever met if their owners respect them. The other thing I've noticed is that dogs can sense fear, and they know when you're afraid of them, especially when you show it. If you show the dog you respect them and aren't there to be mean to them, they'll be nice to you. They just want love. People are the same way. You just gotta respect them and make sure kids are raised in a good environment. 

So, there's my gospel analogy for the week. My last little thing on that is that I definitely want a dog when I'm older I want something big, but not huge, like a husky mix. And I want to get it when it's a puppy, so I can show people that big dogs can be super nice and loving. And, I'm going to make sure you get to spend time around it so I can help you overcome your fear of dogs :)

 

I bear my testimony that this church is true, that the Gospel is for everyone, and that the power of the atonement is real. This work is absolutely amazing. 

Love, 

Elder Lusk

Repping the west side, fighter jets, new lifelong friends already and knowing you're been saved for such a time as this.

So I'm absolutely loving it up here in Layton. Once again I'm repping the west side, so the part of Layton I'm in isn't the super rich part. Even then, it's not ghetto by any means. It actually reminds me a little bit of Winchester, except there's no old downtown part. It's right next to Hill Air Force Base, so you can hear (and see, but mainly hear) fighter jets flying overhead all the time. Some people don't like it, but I think it's pretty cool. There's more trees up here in the northern part than there are in the Salt Lake valley, so it's looking pretty nice with right now being fall. There's also a lot of Utah State alumni up here, as opposed to SLC where everyone's Ute fan. We've got some pretty solid people we're working with and I'm totally pumped to be working up here. 

Elder {} is pretty cool. He's from  Minnesota and even if he hadn't told me, I would've guessed from his accent. I'm also really excited about the how the apartment played out because when I got there I put my stuff down, turned around, and got grabbed in a hug by a guy named Elder {}. Elder {} is from Fresno, California, and he came out the same time I did (we were in different MTC districts because he's Spanish speaking). We met each other on the UTA FrontRunner coming up to SLC from Provo. Thirty seconds into our conversation, we found out that we were both into{similar music} and were immediately best buds. The guy reminds me a little bit of Mike, but that's probably just because he's into the same bands and played for a  band before his mission. We were in the same district our first transfer, but we've never been in the same apartment until now. After our missions, we're planning on jamming together because he said he's probably going to BYU-I, but he's looked into USU and he's still thinking about it. Good stuff!

My last night in Glendale, we had dinner with a less-active Samoan couple that we had gotten pretty close with.[] , the guy, told me he's sure that there's people in Layton who are waiting for me and that I'm going there for them. I'm pretty sure he's right. My second night in Layton we visited a middle-age less-active  couple named {} and{}. I spent a while talking to {} and found out that she shares my passion for not only good 80s music, but also for sports and sports medicine, for cooking, and for dogs*. She grew up in LA and was raised playing basketball on the streets of Compton, so by her junior year of high school had been offered a bunch of Division 1 scholarships. She played D1 college ball and had the same Pre-style, do-or-die, losing-is-not-an-option, do-or-die mentality in sports. We talked for a while about crazy hard, long workouts we've done and that crazy mentality you get in during a competition, and we talked about performance enhancement, and sports medicine, and all that good stuff. I feel like she's someone that I've been prepared to help out. 

Like I said, I'm pretty excited to be serving here. This is a really good area. I know that this work is amazing and that God knows what he's doing, and that the power of the Atonement is real if we put our part in and let it work. 

Love, 

Elder Lusk :)

A new family from India and an upcoming transfer....oh, and peace out!

Hey!

This has been a pretty good week. Yesterday we started teaching a family from India that cooked us curried chicken and potatoes over rice. They have a strong christian background as well, so they're pretty open. The daughter is 22 and she's studying up at the U to become a civil engineer, so I'm wondering if dad might have some study/career advice to give for someone looking to go into that field. We also got our Sri Lanka family, back on date. They were supposed to be baptized a couple weeks ago, but when the ZL's interviewed them (Elder }{ DL...dad can explain more about how all that works), we found out they still {had questions}. We got a senior missionary couple involved and now they're completely getting baptized in a couple weeks. By the way, if you guys ever get the chance, you should serve a senior service mission. i can totally see you guys doing that. The senior missionary couples we have here are great. We also finally got to take {} to temple square. She's still not sure about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, but I think temple square helped and we also got a good elderly couple to fellowship her. 

 

On a different note, guess who's got two thumbs up  and is getting transferred tomorrow out of Glendale and off to Layton? As much as I like it here and I know the area super well, I'm excited to be getting out and seeing a fresh area. Layton is up in Davis County, which is where a lot of those Utah Mormon stereotypes come from. From what I've heard, it's super rich and everyone's white and active Mormons. I'm going to be in the Layton West stake, though, which is apparently the only not as rich part of the county. Either way, I'm pretty excited about it. 

 

Oh, and I did here from Elder Martin. Sounds like he's doing great. I know that the gospel is true and that this work is truly amazing. The Savior really loves us all and can work in miraculous ways to better people's lives. 

I think that's all I got for this week, so peace out, 

Elder Lusk

Meeting a Seventy, the Restoration is refreshing and, ah yes, Brotherly Love.....

Hey! 

So things are going great here. We have a really good week coming up. We got a new investigator last night, which was the first in a couple weeks, so it was refreshing getting to teach the restoration again. We also have a bunch of lessons for this week already planned, which is great. Also, tomorrow we have a mission tour from Elder Clark of the Seventy. We're meeting up in Bountiful and it's like a multi-zone zone conference. We're all going to get a chance to meet Elder Clark and shake his hand, so that'll be pretty cool. And then later that night we're going to temple square with Tosha (she was sick last week), So it should be a good day.

I'll let you know how our week goes! Tell everyone I love em, except for stefan, of course........ 

Love, 

Elder Lusk

First Baptism.... with Companion, Elder Barker

General Conference!!!

So before I go on, I totally gotta tell you guys about General Conference. Priesthood session was Saturday night and that was absolutely amazing. Seeing the inside of the conference center in person for the first time is like your first time seeing the mountains. It's absolutely amazing. The organ is huge! We had front row seats, too. We got there pretty early, and were sitting on the front row on the far left of the plaza. We sat with our ZL's and the elder who trained Elder Barker, which could make him my grandpa. That's not even the best part. When we were sitting there waiting, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf himself walked by twice and the second time he stopped to shake all of our hands. How cool is that? The Sunday morning session was also pretty good. We had forgotten about Music and the Spoken Word beforehand, so even though we showed up on time to get in, the house was already full. We took our investigator, and watched it in the theater of the conference center. So, not the same room, but same building at least, and it was on a giant screen, so I guess it worked out. I felt like the whole session was directed to her, and she felt that way, too. It ended up being really good. We're taking her to temple square tomorrow (we had to reschedule because the temple square sisters had a meeting Friday night) and we're hoping that that'll be the final push to get her to commit to a baptism date. 

Aside from that is was just an average week in the life of a salt lake city missionary serving the Lord. I'm sending a part two in a few minutes that'll have some pics, so stay tuned.

Love Elder Jake Lusk

Not Afraid to Ask and Imagine if You Were Blind

 

     We've got a pretty exciting week coming up here. General conference is at the end of the week, and we've got tickets to at least the sunday morning session as well as the priesthood session. That's going to be really cool. What's even more excitign about it is we're taking one of our investigators to the sunday morning session. We're supposed to anyways, and we picked the one that we knew would be impacted the most by it. Her name's {}and I think I've briefly told you a little about her without giving her name. She's 27 and has lived in SLC all her life. She has four kids and a pit bull and is pretty much single (long story). Everything that's happened so far has been pretty amazing with her. We were contacting another potential investigator when it was like our second or third day in the area, and he wasn't home. As we were walking away, we got the impression to go back and talk to this lady sitting on her front porch. It didn't seem to weird at the time (even though it involved us turning around and walking back a few houses) becuase we were hardcore about our policy of talking to literally everyone those first couple weeks. We started talking to her and found out that she had lived in Utah since she was a kid, and for 27 years had never talked to a single missionary. She decided to talk to us that night becuase she had been praying hard the night before for guidance and help in her life, and felt like us showing up to talk to her was a sign, especially since it was unplanned. On our first lesson, we invited her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, which she did later that night and ended up having a dream where she was at her old church (she was born and raised{}, but recently baptized into a [different] church) and it didn't feel right, and something told her she was supposed to be in the Mormon church. We've been teaching her for over a month now and it's been going really well. One of the things I love about her is that she's not afraid to ask questions. If she has a concern or doesn't understand something, she'll ask about it. Once we explain things, then she gets it, and makes sure we know when she gets it and when she doesn't. One of her main concerns is with modern prophets, especially Joseph Smith. She's told us she really wants to believe and be in the church, but wants to have some concerns eased first. A little bit of inspiration came when we were teaching her at an elderly couple's house nearby and we invited her to general conference with us, as well as a visit to temple square. I'm super excited for this weekend coming up becuase I feel like that'll be the key that'll get her to the point where she's ready to get baptized.

 

On a slightly different note, this is specifically for Stefan...

 

Bro...

 

Imagine if you were blind...

Complete darkness...

No colors, no views, no beauty, just pitch black.

If you were blind, ask yourself how badly you'd want to see.

And if pushing yourself to the limits could give you sight, would you do it?

If there was a cure, would you let anything stand in your way?

Would you risk the haters and the critics to see again?

Do you really want to succeed?
Would you really care if they mocked you, laughed at you, pointed at you, or bad mouthed you?

Would you be concerned about your extreme goal, or just embrace the extreme work?

What if you had to learn hurt, trust pain, and embrace struggle?

Would you still be concerned with being realistic?
Would you still figure your odds and calculate your chances?

If you had to spend more time planning your workouts and less time planning your weekends, woudl it even be a tough choice?

If the cure for blindness was humility and pain, would you go for it?

If the cure for blindness was looking foolish, would you risk it?

If seeing again took a fight, would you start swinging?

If the cure was doing things you can't do, would you attempt them?

If a few extra hours, a few more drops of sweat, and a little more blood was all it took, would you claim your sight?

Do you really want to succeed?

Then choose to be blind and do whatever it takes to succeed...

Because if you don't, you're just blind anyway...

 

All I can add to that is HOO-AH! Hit me back, I want to get your thoughts on it.

 

Love you all!

 

Love,  Elder Jake Lusk

Sri Lanka, Laos, Sierra Leone, Bridges and Temples and On and On!

Hey guys

Yeah I got the package. I got it later that night, but it was good timing because I was craving cheez-itz.

Our baptism went well. I don't have my camera with me right now, but I'll definitely send pictures next week. 

 I just got back from the temple, by the way. It's always pretty amazing in there. We're downtown using the computers in the family history research center across from temple square to email. I love it downtown. Some parts are a little sketch, but the areas around temple square and up north near the capitol are pretty nice. That's what I've noticed about the Salt Lake Valley so far. For the most part, the north and east sides are a lot nicer than the south and west. By the way, we found a little spot on top of a bridge near the freeway on the far corner of our area where at night you can look out and see the lights from the whole city and then climbing up the mountains on the east side. I didn't have my camera with me, but sometime this week before we head home we'll stop and take a picture of it. Our area's kinda weird, because it's mostly a half a mile by a mile. It actually stretches out almost ten miles to the west, but it's pretty much all industrial. We got a referral last week for someone who lived in an apartment above a warehouse way out in the middle of nowhere out that way, so we biked four or five miles out there to try and find them. That was pretty cool because we were almost closer to the Oquirrh Mountains on he west side of the valley than the giant Wasatch Front on the east. You got a really good view of the valley.

That's about the only super exciting thing going on right now, besides finding the family from Togo (in West Africa, near Ghana) to start teaching and they're pretty golden. That's just one more country to add to my list. So far I've met, taught, or served with people from  Sri Lanka, Laos, Sierra Leone,  Sudan, Samoa, Tonga, Myanmar, Sweden, France, England, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Mexico, Nepal, Guatemala, the Cook Islands, and now Togo. And I might have missed some, too. Those are just off the top of my head. It's so diverse here, it's crazy. That just shows how much the gospel is true because it's not just an american thing or a white person thing. It's for everyone, and everyone can feel that and take part in it. The church is true and the atonement is for everyone and it's real and it's powerful. 

Love,
Elder Lusk

Watch out for "the system" and "the industries"...good counsel?

Hey!

Hope everything is going well with you guys. Thinks are going pretty well here. We met two new families that we're going to start teaching soon. One of them is from West Africa, so that's pretty cool. We've got a baptism coming up next week, which I'm excited for. He's 9 years old and his parents are recently reactivated less actives. The actual baptism is going to be performed by a senior missionary who responsible for reactivating them, but we were the ones to teach him, so we can take some credit. I'm pretty excited for that. Aside from that, the only really exciting thing that happened this past week was talking to the old drunk homeless guy in the street trying to tell us to watch out for "the system" and how "the industries" are out to get us. Gotta love Glendale. 

I want to bear my testimony that I know the church is true, and I know this work is truly amazing.

Love,

Elder Jake Lusk 

Firm as the Mountains Around Us!!

Hope everything is going well. things are going great here in SLC. We just got our transfer info for next transfer, which starts on Wednesday. Me and Elder Barker are staying together in Glendale, which I'm happy about because we're working with some solid people right now. 

 

Tongan update of the week: this week we had dinner with a big Tongan family and they cooked us a bunch of traditional Tongan food, which was absolutely delicious. We had curried chicken and veggies, sapa suey (some sort of noodles with chicken and veggies), taro, which is like really hard, thick Tongan potatoes that act like anabolic steroids apparently, and pork chops all served over rice with mango pineapple coconut O'tai and something called poli'popo (that's no doubt spelled wrong), which is like a Samoan pastry with coconut cream on top. Tongan food is amazing, and as usual, there's a ton of it. The very next day we went to lunch at a little hole-in-the-wall place called Pacific Seas that was a Tongan food place owned by a family of Tongans and had pretty much the exact same thing, not to mention it was a hook-up becuase they're tongan and we're missionaries. If I get a chance, after my mission I'm taking you guys there so you guys can try real tongan food and real O'tai. It's amazing,. 

I feel like all I do is talk about Tongans, but they're great and I love them and I never get tired of them or run out of Tongan stories. 

Anyways, It's really cool seeing how far everyone's progressing and the way the spirit's working in this area.  I'm really starting to love this area. The people are great, and the scenery is amazing if you look above the run-down houses and apartment buildings. The mountains are still amazing, and I never get tired of them. We got caught in a rainstorm the past two days, which is the first big rainstorm the valley's had since the beginning of July, and the worst part wasn't getting soaked and muddy, it was the fact that you couldn't see the mountains. It's always comforting having them right there to the east behind the downtown SLC skyline. It makes songs like "Carry On" with lines like "Firm as the mountains around us..." make so much sense.

I bear my testimony that the church is true and I love this work. love you all!

Elder Lusk.

Jail and dreams and The Lord Provides our Daily Bread

     Hope everything in Winchester is going well.  Also, to follow up on your most recent letter, here's what's the most recent with the guy I was telling you guys about who we were teaching who's open minded to a fault. We actually missed our second appointment with him because we had some other stuff to take care of during district meeting and weekly planning (my comp's DL), so we went over the next day to apologize. It turns out if we had showed up, he wouldn't have been there either because that morning he ended up getting sent to jail. Seems like a common problem with people around here.

     On a much higher note, as much as it's hard in this area sometimes, it's also great. One of our investigators had her prayer answered by a dream (did I tell you about that one?) and is also progressing towards baptism. And just by working hard and being faithful, the Lord will sometimes hand you golden investigators on a silver platter, like going over to visit a less-active and finding out half of their family are nonmembers who want to be baptized as soon as possible. I love missionary work.
     I also cannot express to you just how much I absolutely love the Tongan people. We were biking through the park the other day and we called over by a huge Polynesian family who helped us pile on rice, chicken, watermelon, eggs, sausage, and some other stuff onto paper plates, then brought us water bottles, hot chocolate, bread, butter, and jam. As much as the food is great, sometimes it's hard not to feel slightly bad, even though there's more than enough food to go around. The only price we had to pay was opening their testimony meeting by bearing our testimonies for them. We had microphones and were speaking in front of an extended family about the size of an average sacrament meeting around here (so not terribly huge). I felt the spirit and it help me realize that as much as we're blessed by the generosity and hospitality and straight-up charity and love of these people, we bless them more than we know just by bringing the spirit with them as we join their feast. We are seriously blessed, though, because they gave us a couple more loaves of bread to take with us in our backpacks which was the Lord looking out for us because we had run of of bread that morning. 

     I'll leave you with my testimony that I know this church is true and that the gospel is real and that the Lord really does know us and look out for us. Love all you guys!

Love, 

Elder Jake Lusk

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.