Sister Jacobson's Glimpses of Gilbert: Week 18: Direct Questions Bring Direct Answers

May 29, 2017

HELLO!

Another Awesome AZ Sunset

Happy Monday! This past week FLEW by. I can't believe we're already on week four of this transfer! And Happy Memorial Day! Man, I swear Memorial Day is trying to ruin our lives though. We asked probably 20 members before finding a place to email, since the libraries are closed and everyone's out of town...we were worried we wouldn't get to email today!

NEVERTHELESS, we have had an awesome week out here in Gilbert, AZ! We've been super busy and all three of our progress records were filled front and back this week. Working hard and seeing miracles.

To start off, last Monday we stopped by to see W, the foster kid living with a non-member family. W wasn't home but his family was and they let us in. The ten year old girl was so excited we were there and she was absolutely raving about the scripture we had shared the last time we were there...and she was like "I want a set of scriptures I can read and mark just like yours!!" And so we asked her mom if we could give her a BOM and she said yes!! Her mom is a Methodist so that was HUGE. And as we were leaving she was like "Please come back and give my son the happiness that you two seem to have!!" We got outside and were on cloud 9!! It was awesome...so that's pretty promising and we're really excited to see them this week. :)

Dope Pic of Me on My Bike

Last Wednesday was a day full of lots of highs and lots of lows. So we had a lesson with a Recent Convert, named P, and we had a service project for her for about two hours in the afternoon...and then the next night she was going to feed us dinner. P is awesome so we were really excited...and then at like 9:45 a.m. she texted us and cancelled all three appointments. We were really bummed out...especially since that pretty much flushed our Wednesday plan down the toilet. So as we were sitting there replying to P, we got a text from an investigator we've met with a few times saying, "Hey Sisters, I've been talking to my husband and we've decided...the LDS faith is not for us." So we got dropped. And both Sister Ogawa and I felt like we just got punched in the gut. It was SO hard. We were heartbroken, and we tried to set up an appointment to talk to this investigator about her newfound concerns but she was just like, "I wish you both the best of luck the rest of your missions." and wouldn't meet with us. It was pretty devastating. And this was all before 10 AM!! Sister Ogawa and I were so scared to go out and work because of all the bad things that had happened in the morning but we kept telling ourselves "Fear comes from Satan!!" and we went out. And MIRACLES happened! The FIRST person we OYM'd on the street was named J, and he grew up with tons of Mormon friends but lost contact with them when they went on their missions. He's been to church before, loved the feeling he felt there, accepted a copy of the BOM AND invited us to come back and teach him more!! We realized that if we'd been in the lesson with P we wouldn't have met him. We were like, okay Heavenly Father, we see you. And then the rest of the day we got in with tons of potentials and got referrals from lots of members and it ended up being an awesome day...there's a reason behind everything!

We had interviews this week! Interview day is one of my favorite days of the transfer; those 15 minutes with President Wheeler go by so quickly. I always leave interviews with a renewed sense of purpose and drive; it's such a good reminder of why I'm here on a mission. He gave us some great advice and we've been working hard to apply the advice he's given to us in our missionary efforts.

Dirt Biking

On Thursday we had two very direct lessons. We have an investigator, S, who is super busy, but is ALWAYS out walking his dog at 7:30 every night. We know where to find him haha. ;) So we set up an appointment one night on the street to come and meet his family. We planned to go into the lesson and just get to know them and share a very general message about faith. But to our surprise, S sat all his children down on the couch and said "Alright kids. Ask the missionaries whatever questions you'd like." And straight out of the gate his 15 year old daughter goes, "What is the difference between being Catholic and being Mormon?" Haha I haven't had a question that direct on my whole mission. It caught me off-guard! I panicked momentarily but then Sister Ogawa and I looked at each other and I was like, "Let's talk about the restoration of Jesus Christ's church." And we were able to give the family the whole first lesson right there, she admitted she'd never prayed about which church was true, and after we finished the lesson I asked, "If these things we've been talking about tonight are true, would that be important for you to know?" And the whole family was like yes! And then Sister Ogawa was like, "How do you think you're going to know they're true?" And they were like, "By reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it's God's word." It was so cool! The Spirit was so strong, and we're excited to follow up with them this week. :)

Sis. Ogawa, Me, & the 3 Amigos

The other direct lesson we had was with a potential, C, who always lets us in whenever we stop by! She recently moved into the area and we found her after talking to her on the street one day. This was our third time stopping by her house and this time she really opened up to us and was like, "Why does it feel like I'm missing something? How can I fill this emptiness in my life?" And we asked if she'd been to church recently and she said no, and we asked if she'd been reading the Bible and she said no...and you could tell it was like a revelatory moment for her because she realized that what she was missing was Jesus Christ. Our imperfections + Jesus Christ and His Atonement = a Perfect fit! We invited her to church and she said she'd come...but something came up last minute and she ended up not coming. We'll get her this week though. :)

So yeah...those are my highlights! Oh and also...next p-day will be Wednesday, June 7 because someone from the missionary department is coming to evaluate our mission next Monday and we will be in training meetings with him all day Monday. :)

Have a good week! I love and miss you all! Thanks for all you do!

Sister Jacobson