Week 10 - Happy New Year

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! I hope you all had fun during the Holidays :)

 

Life here has been good! The work is picking up so fast! So we're teaching a shy girl named Virginia, and we had an appointment set up with her. We were supposed to be to her apartment at 4 and it was 3:45. And for us to be able to go into her house we need a third guy! So we called everyone we could think of, desperate to find a guy! We prayed, then I suggested that we just head over to her apartment. So we stopped at a light, looked to the right, and next to us, we see the Mckinney brothers, two of the funniest, goofiest guys in our branch just smiling and waving at us. I rolled down the window, casually asked if they could come to a lesson, they said yes, followed us to her apartment, and had an awesome lesson!

 

Heavenly Father is so amazing, he takes care of us when our desires are righteous!

Well, I love you all!

 

Love,  Elder Higginson

Week 7 - Mt. Rainier

From Dec. 15, 2015-

It was transfers yesterday so P day is today! I'm excited we're gonna hike Mount Rainier today! Should be pretty cool, I'll take lots of pictures!  Christmas out here is cool! Makes talking to people around us a lot easier! I'm excited to skype you all! Me and Elder Graham are good friends! We never like got angry but as I've been forcing myself to not get irritated we've gotten closer! 

Wow, it's hard to imagine how hard it was for Jesus, AND Heavenly Father. We literally can't imagine the pain he felt. How sad that He was hurting so bad that he asked Heavenly Father if there was another way? And there wasn't, so he kept hurting. Makes me want to be a better person! Make sure you read your scriptures daily, Dad :)  I'm so much happier when I'm reading my scriptures every day! I probably read for 45 minutes a day! And I'm ACTUALLY enjoying reading them :) I've definitely learned to love Heavenly Father and Jesus more out here. You're a rock Dad, that's what we call the members here who never go inactive or ever question if the church is true. We love those types of members. How blessed am I that I was born into a family of ROCKS. I'm so much more appreciative of my family.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders the other day, pretty fun! Elder Anderson said I was doing fantastic! The assistants listened to some of my role plays too, and they were really impressed :)

 

Sorry my emails are so short! 

 

Okay, I miss you! Love you!!!  Jake

Week 5 (Thanksgiving Week)

Well, I'm pretty much out of email time.. So please excuse the shortness of this email! First off thank you so much everyone who's emailing me! Means a lot!  

I heard about your Thanksgiving! Sounds so fun, glad you're all surviving at home without me ;) For Thanksgiving our whole mission had a fun sports day at the church! We played a ton of basketball and volleyball! Later we had a fun dinner at our Branch President's house!

Life is good here, just insanely cold! Things in the Branch are great! Everyone there is so fun, being in the YSA is a blast! Elder Graham signed us up to sing in sacrament.. Guess we'll see how that goes huh?

(in response to my report about BYU's continued mediocrity)Haha wow BYU sucks but maybe in 2 years they'll be good? I don't know.. like Rob always says "BYU sucks!" hahaha that kinda stuff always makes me laugh, not even kidding! I'm always thinking about the family and the funny stuff
we's always do! Like making Gandpa say "6 Mixed Biscuits" Hahahaha still kills me!

(of course I had to tell him about Ronda Rousey) Wow, I can't even begin to tell you how happy that makes me about Rousey getting DESTROYED! At the MTC my whole district was talking about if Maywether fought Rousey and eventually everyone was trying to convince me that Rousey would beat Maywether! Such garbage! Glad she got wrecked!

Thanks for the Malt-O-Meal tips! I'll be sure to try it out! oh yeah!

I'd really love to make these emails longer but you know how it is. I miss the dumb funny stuff you'd do like wearing Logan's football helmet! The picture of you with the Captain America mask at the dump killed me!!! 

I'll do anything to amuse my kids.

I pray for all of you daily! Love you so much, and I'm always thanking Heavenly Father for the family he blessed me with. I'll write more next week! We invited a nice girl named Paris to be baptized and she said YES! We're so excited! Love you ALL!

Love,
Elder Higginson

 

Note from the Editor (aka: Dad): this post is a combination of his mass email, and an email he wrote to me. He includes details that should be included in his Blog.

Week 4

Elder Graham and Elder Higginson

Hey everyone! Crazy week, lot's going on! Being in a YSA branch is awesome! Everyone there really likes me and Elder Graham! 

Taught some weird people lately.. One lady was a witch. Like, she was telling us about her religion and how she's a witch and can cast spells and stuff, pretty cool! 

We're teaching an 18 year old right now named Nate. He's kind of anti Mormon, so teaching him is interesting! We're always really careful not to Bible bash! Pretty fun stuff. 

Yesterday while we were driving around looking for a good neighborhood to knock doors, I jokingly said "Wouldn't it be nice if the people ready to hear the Gospel had green lights over their houses and the people not ready had red lights? It would save lots of time." 

And a couple seconds later we saw a house with a green light on it.. So of course we knocked on the door! And it was a young guy (YSA age) and he was so ready! We have an appointment with him tomorrow! I thought that was pretty dang cool. 

Glad you got the picture from the Vazquez family! I was excited when she offered to do that! Elder Graham is from Roosevelt, Utah! Haha he's a good missionary, we get along!

You asked about how we spend P-Day (aside from laundry).  We usually just email on P day and get some fast food with other Elders but today we're playing some basketball and throwing the frisby! Should be pretty fun! 

We have a lot of options for thanksgiving! We'll probably eat at the Branch President's house, his wife is a really good cook! It's really cool the branch loves us! I like being in the YSA! There are a couple INSANELY attractive girls, so I have to keep the blinders on. hahaha! Oh well. 

Hey, we had Malt O' Meal the other day! Made me think of home! Wanna send me the recipe to make it how you make it!? That would be awesome! 

Dad I got a haircut! Hahaha you were absolutely right, like... it's not bad, but it's for sure not good! Yours were WAY better!  Oh well, maybe I should be happy about it, that way the ladies lay off a little.. (; 

Well again we don't have much time to write.. I'll send a picture of me and Elder Graham! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I'll miss being with you but I know I need to be out here. Love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Higginson

Note from the Editor (aka: Dad):  this post is a combination of his mass email, and an email he wrote to me.  He includes details that should be included in his Blog. 

Week 3.5

The following was an email sent just to me (Dad).  It had a lot more detail than his mass email...and I wanted it in his blog for mission journal purposes.  It also made me laugh!

Hey Dad!  I loved the pictures by the way! I got to show my comp pictures of the people I'm always talking about haha!

Wow I don't know how Ethan did in his championship football game, but tell him i'm proud of him! and Daniel too! 

I'm getting a haircut later today... scary. 

Our area is like 100% a car mission!  We have a 2016 carolla haha it had like 40 miles on it the day we got it! 

My comp is a district leader but he's been a zone leader before! Elder Graham has been out 16 months! The mission president was excited to pair up me and Elder Graham! Our mission president is so awesome! Hilarious too! 

I'm buying a bike today... Hoping I spend the right amount of money! That's the kind of stuff I like to have you around for Dad! Well wish me luck! 

Hey you and mom should send me some easy food recipes! we've been eating good though, just like chicken, fruit, ramen etc.. Dad I got a big bag of fruity Dino Bites and pretty much wiped it out in a week! It's so good! 

Haha my comp and me get along so good, he doesn't have my kind of humor really but we still make each other laugh! I'm blessed to have him, he's really good at being a missionary!  Tell uncle John and aunt Tawnie thanks for the ties! Dad I can't belive how lame everyone's ties are! And I'm like looking too good!  I get so many compliments! Oh yeah! 

Dad we have the Puyallup YSA ward!!! Weird right?! Haha it's pretty fun though the ward really likes me! Well they're actually a branch but they're trying to be a ward! 

DAD! Guess who I saw yesterday.. JAKE RICHARDS! What the heck?! I didn't know he was here! He was like, in shock when he saw me I'm not even kidding hahaha! Pretty cool, and I saw my other friend David Kim too! He didn't even know I got my mission call! So he was freaking out too! So funny. 

I like how our whole day is planned out, feels good! Elder Graham is insane at starting conversations with people! I'm trying to pick up on it! Getting better though! 

Tell the kids that I'm constantly telling other missionaries about them! miss those guys! 

Love you so much Dad! You're my role model and my hero. I miss you always being with me to talk to and make jokes with and give me top notch advice! But I'm enjoying the mission and it'll fly by quick! Love you!

Jake