March 27, 2017
What is up! I hear y'all are in
Hawaii...ok. Cool. All I know is I better get a new pair of Jandals. ;)
It's been another solid week here in
AZ! It's been really windy this week which means my legs are in a perpetual
state of soreness. The past six weeks I've felt like Sister Sorenson was like
my mama bird, bringing me worms and helping me move around the nest. This week
I felt like Mama Sorenson straight up chucked me out of the nest with no
coaching on how to fly haha. I've lead out almost every day this week and she's
stopped bailing me out when I say stupid things while street contacting. I can
tell that she's getting me ready to be out of training in just six short weeks
(this is a seven week transfer) and it's good because it's making me uncomfortable
and forcing me to grow. At least that's what I keep telling myself.
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| Taking the Gospel to All Species |
Transfers were WILD! We found out
that Sister Bolormaa was made companions with the OTHER Mongolian Sister in the
mission, Sister Utsch was called to be an STL, Elder Kestner (our DL) was
called to be a ZL, and Elder Mitchell (our co-Elder) was called to be AP!! So
that means there are four APs this transfer, and in the June transfer the OG
APs will be stepping down. That was exciting. Once the transfer boards came out
I had a moment where I realized that the reason I was sad about Utsch, Kestner,
and Mitchell leaving is because they're all GOOD missionaries. I liked serving
around them because they're hard-working, obedient, and successful. It was a
good reminder to me of how I need to be living my life as a missionary, and how
I can be a good example to everyone--including other missionaries.
We got anti-d on the street this
week...it was scary but at the same time the Spirit was so strong and I knew
without a doubt that the church is true. He was Jewish and he was trying to
wreck us for the New Testament and I spoke up and said "Sir, we don't want
to argue with you...but I can tell you that I know with 100% certainty that
Christ lives and that we WILL see him one day." And it totally shut him
down...even though he didn't agree it's not like he could do anything about
it--he knew he wasn't going to change my mind.
We saw a cool miracle this week
where we came out of dinner, and we decided we were going to bike to our other
ward. When we decided we were going to bike there we both heard this voice say
"That's wrong." We were like...okay we're not supposed to go there,
but we'd planned to go there this evening...what are we supposed to do?? Just
then, this guy rode up to us on a bike and was like "Hello missionaries!!
How are you?" and we started talking to him. Turns out he's a member, and
his daughter is a less-active member who lives in our ward boundaries. After he
left I was like "Sister Sorenson we need to go and see Sister M this
evening." We started biking there, and on the way there was this lady
named J out watering her plants. We stopped and talked to her about faith in
Jesus Christ, and we taught her about the Book of Mormon. She gladly accepted a
copy and told us she would read it. We invited her to baptism and she told us
that if she found out it were true she would be baptized. So that was super
cool. We then went and visited Sister M, and we talked with her about having
peace in our lives, and how the gospel can help us with it. She tearfully told
us that she needed peace in her life, and one way she loves to bring peace in
her life is through music. Her daughter reminded her that when she's scared at
night she always sings "A Child's Prayer" so we sang it with her in
the middle of the lesson. It was such a sweet reminder that we all have a
loving Heavenly Father who truly does hear and answer our prayers. When we
left, Sister M was so grateful we had stopped by and thanked us for reminding
her that it's possible to have peace in her life through the gospel. As we were
leaving, we stopped and talked to a lady on the street named A. Her family just
moved here and she loves Jesus Christ. We taught her about the Book of Mormon,
and she was ecstatic when we gave her a copy--for free! Haha we asked if we
could come back and visit her and she said yes and gave us her address. After
that we felt strongly we needed to bike to our other ward. We were so grateful
that we had followed the Spirit and stayed a little longer in that ward...if we
hadn't have listened to the council of the Spirit then we would have missed out
on meeting J and A, and Sister M wouldn't have found the peace that she so
desperately needed either.
This week we had 6/12 week meeting.
The APs in our mission trained all the new missionaries and it was awesome. At
one point Sister Sorenson volunteered me to get up and teach the APs, alone, in
front of everyone. Oooh I was so mad at her. But, as I am not one to back down from
a challenge (I am prideful), I did it. And it actually went really well. I
taught them how to offer a prayer and recognize the Holy Ghost. Afterwards they
were both very impressed and the rest of the missionaries cheered haha. For the
rest of the day I had so many people coming up to me and saying "how long
have you been out? Only six weeks?! What??" so it was a good confidence
booster for me as a missionary but also humbling because I know that I don't
have the capacity to teach the gospel and that it's the Spirit working through
me. It's such a blessing to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.
At
the start of last transfer we got a referral from a stake president for this
woman who was asking a lot of questions about the church. We went and stopped
by all last transfer and she was never home. Like two weeks before the transfer
ended, her son answered the door and told us that she was in the Philippines
until March 22. We were like awesome...this solid investigator is out of town
until the first day of NEXT transfer. Useless. So on Wednesday we went and
stopped by and her son answered the door again and told us she'd extended her
trip. We were like...really. This is ridiculous. But we taught him a little bit
and he told us that he'd read a little bit of the Book of Mormon that we'd left
last time and we invited him to be baptized and he told us he would. So that
was awesome. Last
night we went and stopped by to see if she was home and she was!!
Holy heck I wish y'all could have been there and felt the Spirit while we were
talking to her. She was busy and really jet-lagged so we just met her briefly
but the Spirit was so strong. As we were talking with her I had the distinct
impression that I would see her enter the waters of baptism. It was really
cool. Then we left and Sister Sorenson was acting kinda weird and finally was
like "Sister Jacobson...I don't want to jinx our luck...but when we were
talking with her I felt really strongly that we are going to baptize her."
And then I told her what I'd felt and we were both freaking out haha. So
needless to say we are really excited to start meeting with her and teaching
her! The Spirit is real!!
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| Carrot Man's Carrots! |
To explain my subject line...last
night we were on our way to our investigator's lesson, when a man literally came
out of the woods and goes "Do y'all like carrots??" He literally
popped out of nowhere. Haha it's not very often that people OYM us so we were like
"YEAH WE DO" and he proceeded to give us an absurd amount of carrots!
We tried to talk with him about the gospel...he's not interested, but tbh he might
be the most Christ-like person I've ever met--he gave the Mormon missionaries
carrots! Everyone hates us but a select few--and Carrot man is one of the
select few.
Something else also fun this
week....I've gained a stronger testimony that we are called to a PEOPLE, not a place.
There's this family in one of our wards who has been investigating since 2009.
They're the driest Mormons ever. All of their kids are baptized, and both of
the parents have stake callings in scouting but they're not members. So our
ward has been telling us to stop by them ever since we got here and every time
we were like okay we will...and I've stopped by on exchanges and Sister
Sorenson's stopped by on exchanges and we've never gotten in with them. Well,
this week that changed! We knocked their door and the daughter answered...in
volleyball spandex and a volleyball t-shirt. Jackpot! I go "Auuuhhhh SWEET
you play volleyball?!" and she was like "yeah I do...so does my
Sister!" and I was like awesome what tournaments have you played in...and
I rattled off a list of big national tournaments and she was like "Yeah
how'd you know?!" and I told her I played volleyball and she was pumped,
and invited us in. Come to find out...the mom who isn't baptized ALSO played
volleyball! They are like the ultimate volleyball family. You know they have a
subscription to Volleyball USA magazine. They were like totally updated on the
current recruits and all that jazz...so I was pulling out the big guns and like
reciting volleyball states out the wazoo. Then we started teaching them and we
found out that the mom has never actually read the Book of Mormon...so I
started telling this story from high school about when I didn't have time to
read the Book of Mormon because I was so busy with volleyball and I set a goal
to read just one verse a night and it changed EVERYTHING. I then expressed how
when I really buckled down and read the Book of Mormon ALL aspects of my life
were blessed, not just the religious aspect. She committed to read. As we left
I was like boiiiii this family does not know the amount of volleyball stories I
can draw parallels to the gospel with. That was a moment this week where I
really felt a confirmation that I'm in this area, in these wards, for a purpose
and that purpose is inspired.
Oh also, I should have mentioned this last week. Our mission is holding a huge musical fireside on April 9...and I've been asked to sing in a number! I'm singing with six other girls and it's a party.
ALSO!! General Conference is this
weekend! We are SO excited. Women's Conference this past week was amazing and
now I'm just so excited for this upcoming weekend. I would seriously encourage
all of you to write down some questions you have and ponder them in your mind
this week. I can promise that you will receive answers as you watch General
Conference and write down promptings you receive. Remember: revelation received
and not written down is revelation lost. Avoid the living room couch and
actually listen to the inspired messages our prophet and apostles have for
us--it truly is a sacred time of year!
I love you...have a good week!
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| Letter from Sister Murnighan in Australia |
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| Missing Scamp |
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| Look at this Cute Puppy |
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