Sister Jacobson's Glimpses of Gilbert: Week 16: There Can Be Miracles, When You Believe

May 15, 2017

Hello hello!

Skype home

Man it was so great talking to y'all yesterday!! I could have kept talking and talking forever and ever...it was really hard keeping it to an hour. Fastest hour ever! But that's okay; we can talk forever when I get home. :)

This week we had a lot of ups and downs! But every day we kept saying "there are miracles, when you believe!!" (Like that one song...I don't know the name but it's really popular haha)

So we started the week with a really discouraging text from that referral we were so amped about last week! We wanted to set up an appointment and he texted us and said that he didn't want to meet just yet, but then told us he'd been reading the BOM every day and so far had been impressed with it. We were grateful he was reading, and that in it of itself is a miracle, but at the same time we were really nervous because there's a lot that can go wrong...and we wanted to be there to help answer his questions. So we're praying that he'll be open to meet in the near future.

The very next day, we were bummed out because of this text and we were out working. We weren't seeing much success and not that many people were home, so it had been a long day of knocking a lot of empty houses...and we were biking to a member's home and we saw this guy taking his trash in. We asked if we could help him and he said no, but the Holy Ghost was like "no. help him." so we hopped off our bikes and went and grabbed his other trash can and took it in for him. He was really grateful and impressed that we were so willing to help him. His name is H--he's from Vietnam! In talking to him he mentioned that he was Catholic, and he LOVES the Old Testament because of the story line. Whenever I meet someone who loves the OT I always ask for advice on reading it, especially Isaiah, and he thought it was really funny that a missionary was asking, in his words, “an average Joe” for advice on studying the scriptures. But he gave me some advice, and then I was like "Well...if there was another book of scripture that had a story line similar to the one in the OT would you be interested in it?" and he said yes! So we gave him the BOM and he was PUMPED about it. Sister Ogawa and I left and were jazzed! It was such a smooth BOM placement. :)

Gilbert, AZ sunset

Then, that same night...we decided to go stop by a recent move in named W. He's a junior in high school and he's a recent convert. He's a foster kid and he's living with a nonmember family. He bore his testimony on Fast Sunday and it was amazing, so we wanted to meet him and get to know him better! While we were talking to him, the family he's living with was all there and they were all SUPER open. They invited us to come back any time and we're hopeful that we'll get to teach them more about what we believe!

Then....yesterday we had a HUGE miracle. There's this family in my area named G. They're recent converts of almost a year, and have been less-active for a while now. They've had some hardships in their lives these past few years, and the gospel initially provided a lot of hope for them. But for one reason or another they haven't come to church in a while. The missionaries in this area work really closely with this family; they're just the nicest people you'll meet. Anyways, so we stopped by a few times this week for a lesson but never quite connected with the whole family. We saw the kids, or the dad, but never everyone all at the same time! We were sitting in church on Sunday...when out of NOWHERE the mom and one of the daughters showed up. I started like hitting Sister Ogawa to get her attention and we both couldn't believe that they were there. We sat there the whole sacrament meeting with tears in our eyes because we were SO happy that they were there and got to partake of the sacrament. After sacrament meeting our WML came up to us and was like "what did you do to get them here!!?" and we were like "Literally nothing.” We hadn't seen them all week and then they showed up to church! It was a perfect service...all about mothers and the importance they have in the home...definitely what she needed. When they were at church, a member family invited them over for dinner...and the whole family went! Then last night after we had dinner, we felt like we needed to stop by their house and the whole family was home. We shared with them a message about mothers and invited the children to serve their parents this week. Halfway through the message, the dad looked at us and with tears in his eyes, said "I bet your parents are so proud of you" and we were like oh my gosh thank you so much...and then he was like "I mean...I just know that they miss you so much and they probably worry about you...but if they could see the good work you're doing...I mean you're out here changing lives!! If they could see that...they would be so proud." and Sister Ogawa and I both started crying...because sometimes, especially with this family, it feels like you're talking to a wall and the things you're saying have no effect...but this was a little tender mercy from the Lord to show us that our service is appreciated, and it does matter. It was really cool. And definitely a big miracle--there can be miracles when you believe!!

Japanese candy - Thanks Elder P.

Sister Ogawa saw a pretty big miracle yesterday as well. This will sound weird, because it doesn't start off sounding like a miracle--but I promise it was! So her dad is currently in the hospital...and we're not quite sure why...but because he's in the hospital he Skyped her! She told me that her dad very rarely emails her and the last time she called home he didn't want to Skype...but since her mom was in the hospital and was Skyping her, her dad decided to Skype in as well! She also said that once he's released from the hospital he won't be able to drink or smoke anymore, so she was really excited about that...yesterday she kept saying "The Lord has a perfect plan!! Even for the Japanese!" :)

Something cool I did this week: during personal study one day I went into our closet and prayed vocally for 20 minutes. It was awesome. I know that there's power in prayer; it's how we talk to God!! How could there not be power?! But I felt God's love for me so acutely and so abundantly in that moment, and was probably one of the most spiritual experiences of my life! Pretty awesome.

Skype view from home

Anyways, that's my week! It was really great...one of my favorite moments was getting to pray with my parents. One of my favorite things about being a missionary is being invited to pray in member's homes, because we have the ability to leave blessings on their homes. D&C 75:19! So it was really cool to have the opportunity to do the same for my parents via Skype. :)

I love you all!

Sister Jacobson