Week 33: O Babylon, O Babylon

September 11, 2017

Hello!!!! 

Selfie with my new phone

Comin atcha hot from a smartphone in Mesa AZ!!! (Actually the majority of this was written on a computer...typing an email on a smartphone is not what it’s cracked up to be) What a WEEK! Let me tell ya about how wild it's been here...but first...let’s talk about some of the amazing miracles the Lord has blessed Sister Utsch and me with this week!

This week we had another lesson with L! She's doing so awesome. Seriously I have no idea what we did to deserve such a prepared investigator. She is so gung ho and ready to go; she just eats up everything that we teach her. This week we talked about the Word of Wisdom and as we were teaching she told us that about a year ago she used to LOVE tea and drank tea multiple times a day. Then she said one day she woke up and decided that she needed to stop drinking tea. She told us that it was really hard at first, but she felt so strongly about not drinking tea that she was able to stop. She also told us that she's been tea-free for a year now and described to us how much better health-wise since not drinking tea! I know that the feeling she had that one day where she needed to stop drinking tea was inspired from Heavenly Father and was part of Him preparing her to be ready to be baptized this month! On Sunday she announced her baptism to the YSA ward...so exciting!!

Playing with T's dog

Last night we had dinner with T. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and a little bit about the Lord's plan for her and her family. One of my favorite things about the gospel is the simplicity it brings into our lives. T talked a lot about wanting consistency and wanting something basic to grasp onto and we were able to teach her the most basic doctrines of the gospel and testify about how it all boils down to faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit was strong and she told us that she feels really strongly that she needs to start making an effort to say family prayers out loud with her son every night. Sister Utsch and I were floored...it's so cool to be able to see people change as we work with them and help them develop that relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ! She is doing awesome!! Also, T invited us to a painting party in her “beer” garage with a bunch of her friends so we're super excited to go to that--stay tuned for pictures hopefully haha.

We also had dinner with the K’s this week. They requested a lesson on baptism so we taught all about baptism and why it's important and why it needs to be done by someone holding the proper Priesthood authority. We took advantage of our new technology and showed a video of Christ's baptism and invited them to read the account for themselves in the scriptures. They're doing so well! Their faith is growing little by little and it's amazing to be a part of their journey. At one point their five year old son came out and said 'Sisters, this is my favorite book!' and held up Spencer W. Kimball's, The Miracle of Forgiveness, hahaha tooo funny. Also, the dinner they made us was phenomenal--we're treated too well here!! And while we were eating a HUGE storm rolled in so we took shelter in their home and watched the lightning until it eased up enough for them to drive us home. Good ol AZ!

We had a super cool miracle this week. On Friday we decided to stop by a potential named R. We met him while tracting about two or three weeks ago and honestly we were not placing much faith in him...when we met him he made it pretty clear that he's not religious at all and doesn't have a relationship with God, but he took a Book of Mormon and said he'd read it. We thought he was just being nice but we decided to go and stop by his house anyway and follow up....and he'd totally been reading!! He was like, "It's weird...every time I pick it up to read I just feel better...like a weight is lifted off of my shoulders and it's easier to do the things I need to do every day!" Haha and we were kinda like...weird....WEIRD that what we told you would happen would ACTUALLY happen. It's almost like....we've experienced that ourselves and want other people to experience it?? I swear, if people would just listen to the things that we say then their lives would change completely!! But yeah, it was awesome! We're going back later this week to teach him. :)

This past Thursday we had MLC, where we activated our phones! It's been amazing having LDS Tools--let me tell ya. But everything else has been a nightmare. It's been so much of a nightmare that all that you can really do is laugh about it. We left MLC so overwhelmed with all of this new stuff we have to learn how to do and it's already a huge adjustment for sure. The new app is cool, and I think it'll be good once we're used to it...but so far it's not very user friendly...only the STLs and the ZLs have activated phones right now and I think we've called the ZLs over 10 times in the past four days to ask them questions about the app and about the phones, and I think they've called us about the same amount of times. It feels like we're in a little technology club with the ZLs and the four of us are all simultaneously overwhelmed and suffering together haha it's great.

At weekly planning the four of us started transferring everything from our area books into our app and at the end of three hours, I had put in 3 full teaching records, Sister Utsch had also put in 3 full teaching records, Elder May had put in 2, and Elder Gleave had put in 3, but then his app crashed and wouldn't start up so he had to delete the entire app and start over. I think I would rather poke my eye out with a hot stick than transfer all these teaching records. So yeah, it's been awesome.

Getting my massage on

However, as nightmarish as this transition to technology has been so far...this IS the future of missionary work. At MLC the head of technology told us that by the end of next year every single mission that has iPads or tablets will be transitioned to a smartphone mission. This is how the Lord is hastening His work. We also talked a lot about using technology effectively and efficiently, and the comment was made that this technology is going to make it easier for those seeking the truth to be found. Instead of casting nets to fish for investigators, we're part of the transition that will start casting fishing poles to fish for a single investigator. It's all part of the Lord's plan to find the elite. One of our biggest concerns has been distractions, and one thing President Wheeler talked about was that if you're distracted by anything while a missionary then it's no one's fault but your own. He threw down...he was basically like...if you're distracted, wake up and get focused on your purpose...get to a place where focusing on your purpose is second nature to you. It was a great training!

In other news, the Arizona Gilbert Mission is actually the definition of the blind leading the blind right now. At the end of the MLC one of the Elders raised his hand and was like "So when do you want us to start using Facebook??" and President Wheeler was like "Better log on tonight and get going!!" but they gave us like no direction and no rules?? So basically we have no idea what is and isn't allowed haha we're just kinda going for it and using our judgment and following the Spirit. A member ordered Sister Utsch and me pizza Thursday night so we sat on the floor of our room with a pizza box in between us and logged onto Facebook....and then we cried together. It was horrible. I can't imagine what it would be like coming home after 18 months or 2 years and logging onto Facebook for the first time...it was absolute trash logging on after just seven months--it went against everything I've learned on my mission. It was literally like opening a door into Babylon...being able to see everyone's posts and the newsfeed and seeing what's going on in the world....horrible. We went through our pages and literally gutted them...like if you knew what my Facebook looked like before and what it looks like now you wouldn't recognize it. We put like all of our albums/posts on private and we untagged ourselves on basically everything and hid a ton of posts from our timelines...it was intense. And it took forever holy smokes. But the best thing about being on Facebook so far is that all of MLC is friends now! And we're able to be friends with all of the missionaries that just got home from our mission...it's so great. It just makes you feel good to go on to Facebook and the post at the top of your newsfeed is from another missionary and they're talking about Jesus just like you! And we can be friends with our investigators and members and stuff like that...that's been awesome so far.

On my mish but still reppin the Y!

In terms of what's allowed and what's not...still not exactly sure. I think what will happen is that President will come out with a guideline of what's okay and what's not once we experiment a little and gain more experience but as of right now it's up to us. So what I'm saying is that if you have a genuine, serious question about the gospel, or about what I'm doing as a missionary/why I'm serving a mission...then by all means message me on Facebook and ask it and I'll answer! But if you're just sliding into my DMs to talk to me about how I'm doing or about BYU sports or whatever...then don't be surprised when I don't reply until Monday via email. :)

Transfer calls came in last night!! I am staying in Desert Ridge with Sister Utsch! We are so excited for this next transfer. This past transfer with Sister Utsch has been the best transfer of my mission, and this next one is lined up to be even better! Transfer calls came in and we were dancing around the room--we were SO happy. Haha we were laughing because I said "Sister Utsch...this means you'll be my longest companion!!" and she was like "yeah...unless you get ET'd again" and I was like "Don't even joke about that....it's still too soon." Haha but in all seriousness...good things are ahead in Desert Ridge! I love this gospel!

Anyways...I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Jacobson