June 26, 2017
Hello friends and family!!
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| Is this real life? |
Happy Monday! We've just finished the HOTTEST week of the
season here in Gilbert. On Tuesday it cleared 121°F and the Phoenix airport
closed down...but don't worry...us Mormon missionaries were still going strong
on our bikes! Last night it was like 108°F and there was a hot breeze blowing
around and we were like "Wow, it actually doesn't feel that bad!!"
What am I becoming?!?
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| Sis. Rudd, my daughter! |
My new companion is Sister Rudd, she's from Springville,
Utah...and she is FRESH out of the Provo MTC. So I'm training a brand new
missionary this transfer! Man, just when I was getting really good at being
JuCo! ;) Haha I'm just kidding, honestly it's been fun leading out the area and
kinda calling the shots--it makes me realize how much I've grown these past
five months! Sister Rudd is already an awesome missionary, she has so much
missionary fire and I'm excited for all the wonderful things she will do in the
Arizona Gilbert Mission.
However, as fun as this week has been...it's also been pretty stressful. One of
our ward mission leaders said "Man, you take someone out of the area that’s
been here for eight months and leave someone who's been here for eight
weeks...may as well whitewash the area!" Haha but as many times as I've
felt lost or confused this week, I'm grateful this isn't a whitewash--that's
too next level for me haha. Another member told me that she could see it in my
face that I was stressed...I'm an open book apparently haha!
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| Sis. Ogawa's last night in the Gilbert Zone |
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| Sis. Ogawa saying goodbye |
We saw tons of miracles this week. Tuesday was my last day
with Sister Ogawa, so we had a few member appointments in the evening so she
could say goodbye...but in the afternoon we worked super hard to try and find
some new people to teach. We stopped by a member family named the S’s. A few
weeks ago they had brought an eleven year old girl to church, and we wanted to
stop by to try and set up an FHE with this girl, M, so we could teach her the
Restoration...but when we stopped by the S’s, M was totally there! They invited
us in and we sat down and started talking with them and eventually we turned
the conversation towards the gospel. She's an awesome girl--super smart and SO
prepared. M told us that she'd been to seven or eight different churches, and
that she felt something different when she came to ours. We asked her if she
knew why it felt different, and she said that she didn't...so we taught her the
Restoration right then and there! Afterwards we invited her to read the BOM
every day, and she told us that she already was!! And then before we could
invite to baptism she was like "And...I want to convert to your
religion." Man...that threw me and Sister Ogawa for a loop! Haha but that
was really exciting for us. The struggle now is that since she's eleven, we
need to get permission from her parents before we move forward. We stopped by
her house last week just to meet them, but they weren't home...but M told us
that they're always home on Mondays, so we'll stop by them tonight! Pray that
their hearts will be soft and that the Holy Ghost will testify of the
truthfulness of our message!!
On Wednesday we got a text from a lady in one of our wards,
and she asked us to go and check on her neighbor, whose air conditioner had
stopped working the night before. She was really concerned about her neighbor
so we went and stopped by, and made sure they were doing okay...and then we
asked them if we could leave a Book of Mormon with them. They said yes!
It was hot outside and they didn't want to let all of their cool air out of the
house, so we taught super briefly about the Book of Mormon and then
invited them to read it, and they said they would...so we'll stop by this
upcoming week and follow up! Super excited!
We had a really, really cool miracle on Thursday night. We
stopped by E and V to see how reading the Book of Mormon was going, and
we had an awesome conversation with them! So V has two kids- E, who's ten, and
then R, who's sixteen. Every time we've ever been over to her house, R has
hardly ever acknowledged us. We always say "Hi R! How are you today?"
And sometimes, very rarely, he says "Good." and then goes into his
room, but most of the time he doesn't say anything and just goes into his room.
We'd kind of accepted that he was never going to join in our conversations, but
the LAST time we were at their house, V mentioned that R had just gotten home
from a VOLLEYBALL game and I was like "R!! You play?? How long? What
team?" all that good stuff, and we talked for a bit and then I told him
that I played in high school and we established that weird volleyball bond that
all volleyball players seem to have haha. So anyways, back to this week...we
stopped by and we're talking to V and E about the Book of Mormon and how
their week was and what their plans were for this upcoming week...and out of
nowhere R just comes and sits down in the living room with a plate of rice and
chicken. We keep talking...and none of us really say anything to him...and then
after like five minutes he jumps in and starts talking to us!! When he came
into the room I was getting ready to get to a spiritual thought and leave a
commitment and then leave...but when he came and sat down I knew that it wasn't
time to share a thought yet...what he needed was to feel like he could talk to
us as friends without having religious pressure. So we kept talking, and
eventually he mentioned that in two weeks he's going to go build houses up on
the Indian Reservation in Northern AZ...and I was like "R, did you know
that last summer I spent two and a half weeks in Africa building houses??"
and he thought that was the coolest thing ever. He was like "You did??
What!! That's amazing!" and had all these questions about what we did and
all this stuff, and I told him a few stories and about how much PERSPECTIVE
that trip gave me and how life changing it was, and I told him I'd bring my photo
album the next time we came by, and then I was like "...actually a super
cool scripture came into my mind as we've been talking, and I know it'll apply
to you as you get ready for this trip in two weeks!" and I shared Mosiah
2:17 (“And behold, I tell you these things that ye
may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your
fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”) and he LOVED it
and was like "what book is that in?!" and I was like "The
Book of Mormon!!" and he was like "wow, that's super cool. I
really like that. It's totally true. Serving others really is serving
God." And then he was like "actually I have a question for you
guys...what's with all this calling each other brother and sister?!" which
opened the door for us to testify about how God is our Heavenly Father and how
we're all Spirit brothers and sisters and then he asked us a few more
questions! It was awesome. When we left, V followed us out and was like "I
cannot believe he came out! He's struggling even knowing if there's a God right
now...if you can give him that knowledge then I will be eternally
grateful." Man...it's moments like that that I live for!
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| You had me at Gilbert! |
Another fun thing this week...I learned that one of the
wives of one of the members of our mission presidency was like a total beast at
volleyball back in the day. She was on the USA National Team (back when they
still had that) and then was invited to try out for one of the 80s Olympics
team!! She was telling us this story and I was like ...amazing. And then she
told me that she has a bunch of buddies that get together on Mondays and play
volleyball together...so now we're going to get together and play one of these
Mondays. I'm so stoked!!
Anyways, it's been another fantastic week. I love being a
missionary and being a representative of Jesus Christ. This is the Lord's work and
His hand is in everything!
I love you all, have a good week!
Sister Jacobson
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| New cover for my PMG |
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| Transfer 4 planner |
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| Puppies |
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