First week in Australia

G'day Mates!

Ha ha. Oh, I am so stoked to be here in AUSTRALIA! I'm kinda bummed too though. I'm gonna miss California. That is like my second home now, but I am so excited to serve here. The people are great and I love being a missionary.

The first thing I noticed in the airport was all the Sister missionaries. Every single one of them was a solid 7 at least. I was so confused. What is happening to the world?! But it is all cool. Half of them went to the Sydney mission.

Another thing that weirds me out is Asian people with British accents. They are everywhere here. It really throws you off at first. I couldn't sleep on the plane so I spent 15 hours going out of my mind. The missionaries here are pretty cool! The rules are a lot less strict here - especially about ties. You can wear whatever tie you want! So crazy! There are so sexy ties here in AUS.

The people here don't eat sugary cereal. If you want to get like Fruit Loops or something it is $11. I am going to starve. I just spent six weeks living off of cereal. Its all good though. The ramen is great and they have this one cereal that is like Cocoa Crispies but not as good.

One funny thing my comp does is whenever we see a good looking girl on the street he hits the sun glasses holder thing under the rear view mirror. It comes down and there is a picture of Jesus in it. I guess it kinda helps. All it does for me though is draw my attention to the fact that there is a good looking girl nearby.

The ward here is so boss. They are great people and they love missionary work. We had a ward activity with around five nonmember families present. The church attendance in this ward is up too. California had heaps less actives and only about 90-ish people in the meeting. Here there is a small amount of less actives - enough to keep us busy - but around 200 people come to church. It is so great!  This one guy we met while tracting asked me what nationality I was. He didn't think I sounded American and when I asked him what I did sound like he was too embarrassed to tell me. It was pretty cool.

My companion knows a Sister in the Portland visitors center mission. Her name is Louisa Priday. If you know her tell her Elder Bunda says, "Hi." Everything here is beautiful, the ocean especially. I can't even tell you how crazy this world is. I can't believe how big it is too. It took 15 hours to fly here at 600 miles an hour. There is still so much more I haven't seen. I am so grateful that God loves us so much and has given us so many blessings.

I love you all so much and can't wait to see you again. I'm gonna be so sexy when I come back, with my accent and whatnot. Oh, also d**n and h**l are not bad words here. People throw them out left and right and there is no issue. You can even say them in church! I'll try to keep myself pure but don't judge me if I drop a D-bomb in my homecoming talk.

Love you all!
Elder Jamison

Safe arrival of Elder Jamison

Dear Brother and Sister Jamison,

We are happy to inform you that your son, Elder Joshua Paul Jamison, has arrived here in the Australia Perth Mission, and we thank you for sending him to us.  We are glad to have him here, and have confidence that he is going to be a fine missionary.

His companion in the North Beach Area, Elder Bunda, is a strong and faithful missionary.  He will play a vital role in the adjustments and training process your son will go through.  We encourage you to pray for his success and happiness and to write letters of encouragement and support.

It is our privilege to have him serve with us.  It is a great trust that you and Heavenly Father have placed in us to assist him in realizing his full potential as a servant of God.  We will assist in every opportunity to help him to grow in the gospel, to bless others and to invite all to come unto Christ.  He will truly be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

May the Lord bless you to experience the joy and satisfaction that comes from having a son serving in this sacred responsibility.

Sincerely,
President  and Sister Lindsay
Australia Perth Mission

To Australia

GUESS WHAT!?!

I got my visa two days ago! Yes indeed I fly out to Australia in 5 hours. My time in California is unforgettable and I am sad to leave. I have grown so much here and learned how to be a good servant of the Lord. I hope that I can continue to see progress while I serve in Australia.

This week has been so strange. I saw some nuns one day - SO WEIRD. Do you remember that M&Ms commercial when they see Santa and they are all "He does exist!" and Santa's all "they do exist!" It was just like that. I wrecked hardcore on my bike. It hurt really bad and my hand is scraped up like nobody's business. One of our investigators was having this candle show thingy. They smelled pretty nice and there was some dang good horchata there. Then yesterday we were going to see this lady who is 100 years old and her family was randomly there. We knocked on the door and they go "Elders come in! Sit down and eat!" We were all "WHAT!?" It was so random. The 100 year old lady and her son were basically deaf and they were a little crazy too, it was super funny.

Oh, I have met so many amazing people here in California. This has become my home. I almost can't stand to leave it. I know that the people all around the world need this message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. I now this is the truth and, most importantly, I now that Jesus Christ lived and died so that we could be free from death and sin. Never lose hope. You can do whatever life throws at you if you trust in God.

I love you all!
Elder Jamison

The Plan of Salvation (Sidewalk Chalk Version)

I'm so happy to be on a mission

Being a missionary is so weird.... the craziest things happen to us all the time.

At 7-11 there was this 12 year old looking kid working the counter. He was obviously not old enough to sell alcohol.  When we asked him how old he was he got all shifty and said ...... 18.  It was pretty funny.

The neighbor kids lit up a smoke bomb and threw it in our manager's back porch. She isn't the nicest lady.

There is this crazy song playing every where about what foxes say.... weirdest song ever.  I don't know what the music industry is coming to.  I miss music a lot but I have found that my past interests help me connect with people.

I'm so happy to be on a mission. I have been thinking a lot lately about how blessed I have been my whole life, you and mom were the best parents I could have ever asked for.

I am having a great time here, yeah there are some discouragements but it is all awesome, and it is helping me prepare to be all that I am meant to be. The time is going way too fast.  Mom said that Marisa Storts is back already! Crazy, I am about 1/4th the way done... INSANE.

I love it here in Cali but I am feeling my time to leave is close. Transfers are next week, I think it is coming around then. Nov 4th is my guess, but I can't really know for sure. It could be later today even.

I love you so much!
Elder Jamison

A tough week

Hey Everybody,

Elder Shields and I have hit a wall. We have been so excited and so blessed this transfer. We had some amazing progressing investigators and we found so many people who wanted to come closer to Christ. This week it all seemed to fall apart. We have had a lot of trouble contacting one of our investigators with a baptismal date.  A former investigator, that we were able to contact after trying so long, canceled her appointment with us.  An investigator we found, and thought had amazing potential, has stopped progressing.  Worst of all, two of our investigators might not be able to be baptized.  Their family situation is complicated and their mother will probably not allow them to be baptized.

At this point in the transfer we feel depleted. It is hard to be a missionary sometimes, but I know, and Elder Shields knows, that those miracles we saw really were miracles.  The people we have taught this transfer have come closer to Christ and the people, especially the children, we have talked to have changed us as well.

Having General Conference has been a real blessing as this week. We both gained a lot of insight on what we can do to be more productive and have the Spirit more as missionaries. We both thought that some of the talks were directed at us as well as to some of our investigators, who we intend to share the talks with. Hope is not lost, as long as we have faith that God will provide for us a means by which we can accomplish His work. I am so thankful to be a missionary.

I have been reading Jesus the Christ a lot recently. It is crazy complicated language, but I am learning a lot from it. I have also been thinking a lot about how lucky I have been. I grew up in the true church of Jesus Christ.  I was always provided for, but I still had to work, and learned the value of it. I have been blessed with unshakable faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. I know it is real and I will never deny it. Before my mission I would often wonder what would happen if my faith was put to the test. If I was threatened for my belief in Christ. I often questioned whether I would stay strong, but now I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, I will never deny my God. I know he is real.  I know he loves all his children, and I know that through obedience and His power, we can do all things. I can't remember the scripture off the top of my head, but a prophet said if God asked me to do all things I could do them.  I know this to be true. If God told me to do something, I could do it. Whether or not I would do it is a different story though, but being a missionary and the conference talks we just heard helped me see there is hope for me. I would always think there would come a point when I would be perfect and I could stop my progression.  However, now I see that I will not and cannot ever be perfect, I will always be trying to come closer to Christ.

Sorry this letter is so heavy, but this week was crazy. I learned so much. I'm still a super immature teenager. I'll let you know about all the crazy things that have happened in my other letters.

Love,
Elder Jamison

Come listen to a prophet's voice

Here is what I will be doing this weekend. I invite you to watch too. Afterward, let me know what you think.

The people here are amazing! I don't want to go to Australia anymore

This week has been so awesome! We have seen so many miracles!  We have been having quite a bit of difficulty getting in contact with a lady named Mireya but we were finally able to on Saturday. We taught a lesson about the word of wisdom as she had expressed some concerns about her being tired all the time, and we attempted to set a baptismal date with her. She didn't want to commit to a date within the year, she believes that she needs at least a year of study and church attendance in order to be truly converted. We are thankful for her desire to be committed but we asked her if she would pray about the 4th of November, which is the date we wanted her to shoot for. We have another lesson with her on Saturday and she has said that she will come to church next week. We are hoping to find her an amazing ward member as a fellowship.

We have also made a good amount of progress with two of our investigators who have accepted a baptismal date, Jesus and Guadelupe. They have shown sincere desires to learn about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and have both been to church multiple times. Jesus has told us that he has felt the Spirit in Sacrament meetings before, but we aren't sure if Guadelupe knows what the Holy Ghost feels like. We hope that we can help her receive a spiritual confirmation this week as her baptismal date of October 19th approaches.

There are so many wonderful things happening in our area. We are also excited to begin teaching a family of three. While on exchanges with Elder Epps, we decided to pray for a specific miracle, we prayed that we would find a family of three to teach. Immediately after getting out of the car we saw a man cleaning his truck. We talked to him and we came to find that he was the head of a family of three and they were extremely kind and open to us. I have come to know through experience that when the true desire of our hearts is to serve the Lord, that desire is projected into the appearance of miracles.

We had four investigators at church yesterday! It was crazy! The people here in Oxnard are so amazing! I don't want to go to Australia anymore... I LOVE IT HERE TOO MUCH! I will cry myself to sleep for sure when I have to leave.

I must go, the tie rack at the Bargain Center is calling my name.
Adieu