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