May 1, 2017
Hello hello!!
Happy Monday! And Happy May!
This week has been crazy, trying to get to know the new area
and all the new members and everything. There are so many new things and so
much to figure out...I'm excited for this next week because I think I have my
bearings a little bit better now.
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| Bella Vista Zone's Pictionary Tournament |
I thoroughly miss Bella Vista; I miss the dusty-country feel
of everything down there! I said last week that I knew this ET was inspired and
it was meant to be, but it still didn't make it easy, and it was even truer
this week. I didn't realize how difficult it would be trying to get to know a
new zone and district two weeks before the transfer ended, and honestly some
people weren't too friendly and accepting right at first. So I was a little sad
halfway through the week and then the Brangus house came in clutch and sent me
letters! I got a sweet letter from Sisters Sorenson, Bradshaw, and Baggaley and
it was so encouraging and uplifting and all around exactly what I needed!
And then after that it felt like the zone became a lot more accepting and
friendly and everything is fine now. :)
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| Sis. Sorenson's Posterity |
Sister Ogawa is amazing. So the missionaries in Japan found
her and her family when she was eight, and her, her two older siblings, and her
mom all joined the church. Her dad didn't though. She told me that she lives in
the countryside a little bit and it's about one hour by car one way to the
church building and there wasn't much fellowship, and it was challenging to try
and get to church so her family went less active. She said that they didn't see
anyone from the church for like eleven years and when she was 19 the
missionaries came to her house and both her and her mom reactivated. She felt
really prompted to come on a mission so she prepared for a bit and then came
out! She attended BYUH before coming on her mission, and she wants to attend
BYU Provo after her mission. :) I love her so much. She's honestly one of the
sweetest, most genuine people I've ever met. And she's sooo humble. Oh my gosh
she's incredibly humble. This week has been awesome and it's been so clutch
having grown up in a home with a parent who served in Japan and a good friend in
Japan right now because we've been able to bond over Japan and she told me that
she's LOVED being able to talk to me about Japan.
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| Same Japanese Sticky Notes |
So everyone vastly exaggerated how bad her English would be.
Haha she's doing great! She's been in America for six months and her English is
AWESOME. What I've learned is that her English is good, but she has a really
thick Japanese accent that a lot of times people don't understand. This week in
our lessons I've noticed that Sister Ogawa will say something and the
investigator will look at me, I'll repeat it--exactly the way she worded
it--and they'll be like "OHHHH" and then answer the question.
Sometimes she knows what she wants to say but she doesn't know the word to say,
so I've gotten good at guessing/saying different words until I say the one she
wants to use. This week during language hour we practiced teaching the
Restoration, but we taught it without using words like "gospel" and
"priesthood" and "prophet", something we did in the MTC,
and Sister Ogawa loved it. She said it helped her so much and it's forcing her
to expand her vocabulary, so she wants to keep doing it and keep practicing
with all the lessons! It's been a really good week and I really hope we stay
together this next transfer.
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| Prince Hans, the Bearded Dragon |
Honestly not too many pros stories this week because I've
just been trying to get to know everyone and everything...but this week we
stopped by a LA family who raises bearded dragons, and I held one! That was
cool. Also a little weird...I don't like lizards.
We had a cool miracle on my first day in the area, we
knocked a potential's, M's, door and she let us in! We taught the Restoration
of the gospel--our first lesson as a companionship--and it went really really
well. I know M felt the Spirit, because I sure did...and after I told her about
the first vision she had trouble speaking. We invited her to read the Book
of Mormon and pray about it and she said she would, and she also invited us
back next week! She had a lot of questions about missions and why we're
missionaries and about the Godhead and we answered all of them. I'm not sure
yet if she has real intent, or if she's just seeking to learn more so she can
prove us wrong...but we'll teach her the plan of salvation this week and see
what happens!
We had another cool miracle where we were biking around and
we stopped and OYM'd this guy working on his fence...he didn't seem super
interested but we just kept talking with him and finally he opened up and said
he's really interested in doing genealogy! We were like ...we can help you with
that, and he was like yeah I know...I need to take you up on that. And we told
him a bit about the Book of Mormon and he said he'd read it! And then he
told us to stop by this week, so we're gonna stop by with a family history
pamphlet and teach him about how to use family search and all that.
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| Sis. Ogawa & Me at the Temple |
Also this week the Gilbert zone went to the temple! I was so
PUMPED!!! Since I already went with Bella Vista this was my second time this
transfer...blessings from the Lord. :) I gained a lot of revelation from the
temple this time around and I was so so grateful I got to go, especially with
as crazy as this week was!! The Lord's timing is perfect.
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| Soba!!! |
This week we had a lot of exotic food. We had both Korean
and Japanese food! We had soba with a Japanese family, which was amazing, and
Sister Ogawa has been teaching me the Japanese names of all the food we
eat...so that's been really fun. :) When we had soba the family tried to give
me a fork and I said "no if I eat Japanese food I'm gonna do it
right" haha and they were all very impressed with my chopstick skills. But
then Sister Ogawa made me natto the next day and gave me chopsticks to eat it
with and I couldn't do it so she ended up feeding me haha! The natto was actually
pretty good too! :)
All in all, another good week!
I love you all! Have a stellar week :)
Sister Jacobson
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| "Mama's Pancake" at Henhouse Cafe |
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