Sister Jacobson's Glimpses of Gilbert: Week 34: Administering

September 18, 2017

Hello!

Comp goals

It's been another solid week here in Arizona! I apologize if this email is ridden with spelling errors, the computers are all being used by other missionaries setting up their smartphones so Sister Utsch and I took one for the team and decided to email via phone this week. The rest of the mission gets smartphones tomorrow!

A lot of our time this week was eaten up by things other than proselyting. It's been frustrating. It's ironic because I remember being a greenie and seeing my companion go to leadership meetings and being jealous because she got to be inside a cool church building instead of a hot bike outside...and now I would so much rather be on my hot bike outside! A couple of weeks ago President Wheeler gave MLC training on administering vs. ministering...and he gave us ten points to success for each. He explained that administering is taking care of the temporal welfare and needs of those in your stewardship, while ministering is attending to the spiritual needs. He also told us that the ministering aspect cannot be taken care of until the administering aspect, so I've been trying to remember that this week but it doesn't mean that I like it Haha!

We had an awesome lesson with the H's this week! We showed them Family Search and helped them find some of their ancestors. G got so excited! It's been amazing to see G's transition since I first came in to the area to now. When I first got here he was pretty timid and unsure of himself and this gospel, but he is just blossoming and growing and so eager to learn. You can tell that he's all-in and ready to go.

After a ward hula party

We had a funny/alarming moment this week. Haha we rolled up to our lesson with L on Wednesday and she goes "Sister Jacobson. I stalked your Facebook and I TOTALLY found your mission blog. I was reading it like 'Wow who is this 'L' that I keep reading about? It sounds very familiar...'" Hahahaha we were laughing so hard. Facebook probs. Good thing I had all good things to say ;) so shout out to L because I know that she's probably reading this right now! L told her parents about her baptism this week. Unfortunately, it did not go over too well...so we have made the decision to push back her baptism to a later date, in order to give her parents’ time to process her decision and to give their hearts time to soften. She's so awesome though, seriously her gospel knowledge astounds me and her testimony is rock-solid. It’s a bummer she won’t be baptized this month, but I'm not worried about her at all...it’ll only be a matter of time before she’s able to be baptized. :)

Actual conversation between me and Sister Utsch this week at 6 AM on the way to zone sports:

Me: Oooh it's a little brisk out here!! Maybe I should grab a sweatshirt...

Sister Utsch: Sister Jacobson...its 75° right now.

Look at what Arizona has done to me. In other news...it’s started to cool down a bit here! It was in the high 90s this week and it felt amazing. We've almost made it!!

We made it "weird"

We had a cool moment this week to increase our faith in being a Facebook mission. We stopped by a really promising potential who has been really busy and he told us that he felt bad every time we come over because they're just so busy and it's never a good time. Long story short, he was basically like...look we don't want to be wasting your time with all these stop by visits, so just don't come by. But when we told him that we were on Facebook and could friend him and teach him that way he was SO excited! He lit up and was like, “Yes!! Please!! That way we don't have to worry about coordinating our schedules, we can just meet via technology.” It was so cool! Another cool moment where an investigator liked a post I shared! I was like I’m doing it!! I'm being an online missionary! So we’re coming around to the idea of being on Facebook slowly but surely.

This week the P’s had their baptismal interviews. Since we whitewashed this ward from our DL he couldn't interview them so our ZLs did the interview. They passed with flying colors! They've been waiting for years to be baptized so this week is going to be amazing for them. One of our ZLs was in this ward like 6 months ago so he knew the family pretty well...and last night he expressed to us how exciting this was for him to see, because six months ago they were nowhere near being able to be baptized. It really made Sister Utsch and me realize how blessed we are to be the ones to see this last stage actually happen...I wish at baptisms we were able to see every single missionary that touched the individual and helped them progress to that point, because the baptism photo would be a whole lot more than the two current missionaries!

Sis. Utsch, Sis. Allison & me

This week we were #blessed to be visited by Sister Utsch’s last companion and my MTC companion’s trainer! Sister Allison was an incredible missionary and she's an amazing person. We got to go to lunch with her and bring her to a lesson with us and it was just so great seeing her. The lesson we had with her was with the K family. We love them so much! We talked about the stripling warriors and their unwavering faith and trust in the Lord. The Spirit was so strong and I just know that the Lord is with us, and helps us in every way that we need it. He is literally our Father and He is not going to abandon us or leave us, His love is so real and I feel it so powerfully every single day.

Anyway....my thumbs are tired. Sorry this is a trash bag email. Not a super exciting week but this next one is lined up to be exciting! We have 4 baptisms on Saturday!! Wooooohoooo! Also I am 8 months old in the mission today and I am confused. It feels like I left yesterday...where is my mission going?!

I love you all!

Sister Jacobson