November 13, 2017
HEEELLLLLLOOOOOO!!!!
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| Best comp |
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| 9.5 months later & still kickin it! |
To start off, on Tuesday we had zone
conference! We were able to receive some awesome training from President and
Sister Wheeler, and Sister Utsch and I won first place for best maintained car
for the third transfer in a row! That was exciting. The only time that L could
meet this week was Tuesday afternoon...in the middle of zone conference...so we
had to get permission from our Zone Leaders, the Assistants to the President,
AND President Wheeler to be able to leave zone conference for an hour so we
could have a lesson with her. The ZLs and the APs were like "Ehhh...might
not be a good idea to leave in the middle of zone conference. Ask
President." And then when we asked President he was like "Yeah?? It's
better to DO missionary work than TALK about missionary work right??" Haha
I love President Wheeler. We weren't exactly sure what to teach L because we
had been feeling like the past couple of lessons were good, but that she wasn't
progressing as well as she could have. We decided to go over the restoration
again and we read Joseph Smith History. The Spirit was strong, and it was a
good lesson. Before the lesson, Sister Utsch and I prayed about a date to
extend for baptism, and we felt pretty strongly about December 2nd. We also
felt strongly that if the desire didn't come from her then the baptism wouldn't
happen. So we decided to extend the date for December 2nd and then invite her
to pray about it and get the confirmation for herself. However, during the
lesson, we didn't extend the date. We merely invited her to pray about a
baptism day. Afterwards we both felt like we had followed the Spirit but we
were really nervous because sometimes when you invite investigators to pray
about baptism days they decide on a day like five months in the future and then
it never actually happens....
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| I'm at church not an art gallery |
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| We're #1! |
On Tuesday we received a call from a
member in one of our wards. She told us that they have a nonmember living with
them who is interested in learning more about the church! His name is D and he
is from the Philippines! Two weeks ago his wife died, and two days after she
passed away, he suffered from a stroke. Fourteen years ago he met with the
missionaries, but he wasn't ready. But as you can imagine, he is pretty humble
right now. So we went over and taught him on Tuesday night....and long story
short we had four lessons with him this week!! We taught him the Restoration,
the Plan of Salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and had a lesson focusing on
the importance of Priesthood authority and prophets. There's a little bit of a
language barrier, and his speech is pretty slurred as a result of the stroke,
but we're getting better at understanding him! He's an honest seeker of truth
and this week we've seen him make little changes in his life. The first time he
prayed out loud with us on Tuesday he was really hesitant and he prayed to
Jesus Christ. But then last night he was excited to pray with us, prayed to
Heavenly Father, and closed in the name of Jesus Christ. In addition, his
prayers have become more fervent. He told us last night that he doesn't want to
ask for anything from God unless he truly feels like he needs it; which is why
he didn't ask God if our message was true the first time we met with him. But
the past two times he's asked very sincerely if our message is true. He is also
reading the Book of Mormon and he came to church yesterday! He told us
that he loves our church because everyone is so nice and actually lives our
religion. He is super big on true conversion, from the heart. He always says
that true conversion changes the way that we are...it's pretty cool to see how
important that is to him! He's the sweetest man and we have loved getting to
know him this week! So far the biggest challenge is helping him understand the
importance of Priesthood authority. His big thing is that he and his wife were
baptized in the Jordan River like fifteen years ago--he's very proud of it, he
loves talking about it! And it is pretty cool; not many people can say they
were baptized in the Jordan River haha...but he thinks that because he was
baptized in the same river as Jesus Christ that he is good to go, so it's been
a little bit challenging trying to help him understand that the person who
baptized him did not have the authority to perform that ordinance. We're
excited to keep working with him!
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| The AGM sisters invited to help at the Mesa Temple lights |
This week Sister Utsch and I also
met so many solid potentials. We had a lot of moments where we
"happened" to be biking past someone's house right as they
"happened" to come out of it and we stopped and talked to them and
they invited us back, purely for the reason that it was so
"coincidental" that we were in the same place at the same time. I'm
tellin ya, there are no such things as coincidences in the eyes of the
Lord!
Last night we picked up a new
investigator from the Mesa missionaries, T! We had a hand off lesson with the
Mesa sisters at the Mesa visitor's center and we got to teach T! She is on date
for baptism for January 6th but she is BEYOND golden, and beyond ready to be
baptized, so it will likely be moved sooner. She is so awesome. To name a few
things...she's been going to church for eight months consistently (we are so
confused how she is not baptized yet) and she has a solid testimony of the Book
of Mormon. Oh, also she attended this past General Conference. T was
floored when we told her that we live three streets North of her, that there
are awesome members that live on her street, and that we can meet more than
once a week since she doesn't have to drive all the way to downtown Mesa to
meet with us! Everyone, THIS is why you don't teach people outside of your area
(or your mission, for that matter...)...because it is going to be far, far
better for T's long-term conversion to be attending the ward she lives in. Not
gonna lie, Sister Utsch and I are pretty ticked that the Mesa missionaries
didn't pass her off months ago like they should have, because now she is
attached to their ward...which is about a 45 minute drive from where she lives,
and because if she had been able to meet bi-weekly with the missionaries then
she would have progressed a lot quicker. Luckily T is so prepared and so ready
to go that she is willing to attend our ward and be passed off so close to her
baptism! The past is in the past and Sister Utsch and I feel so blessed and so
grateful to have the opportunity to teach T at this time!
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| Exchanges with Sis. Ultzi |
On top of the crazy amount of
lessons we taught this week, we also threw in two exchanges! Obviously, we had
to reschedule the exchange with the sisters we live with haha, so we did that
on Thursday. I was with Sister Ultziduuren in my area and we had an awesome
day! She's from Mongolia and is probably one of the sweetest people I've met in
my entire life. We knocked a lot of empty doors but it was great getting to
know her better!
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| Exchanges with Sis. Jensen |
A few funny stories from this week:
During one of our lessons with D, we
invited him to church and he said "I cannot promise I will be there."
So Sister Utsch and I started testifying about the importance of church and
trying to follow the Spirit to resolve his concern, we asked the members how
attending church has blessed their lives, etc. and like fifteen minutes later
we invite him to church again and he says "I cannot promise I will be
there." We were like...D are you kidding us? So we go "What would be
holding you back??" and he says "What if an emergency happens and I
end up not being able to go and you're there looking for me?!" and started
laughing so hard. We felt pretty silly haha...that's not a concern we're used
to dealing with!
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| With my mom & my sister :) |
We had a member lesson this week and
at the end we asked the question, "Do you know anyone in your lives that
could maybe use the gospel?" and their little girl pipes up and says
"Satan!" Hahahahahaha it was priceless. Sister Utsch goes "Ooh
I'd hate to be his missionary." Too funny.
On the way back from the Mesa lights
meeting I was driving and made a wrong turn and got hardcore lost in downtown
Mesa. We didn't realize it for a while, but eventually we were like "We
should have hit the 60 a long time ago...where are we?!" and we looked it
up and realized we were so far away...haha I've never driven in downtown Mesa
before…especially not in an Arizona Gilbert mission car! Haha but we made it
back alive...phew!
Anyways...those are the major
highlights from our eventful week! Our week was filled with massive miracles
like these, as well as little miracles. That's the amazing thing about the
gospel; we are constantly being blessed, even if we've already been blessed!
The Lord is so eager to bless us with the very best that he has to offer and I
know that we in the Arizona Gilbert Mission are truly blessed with the best. I
love this work and I love being a missionary! I love that the Lord can use me
as an instrument in His hands notwithstanding my imperfections and weaknesses.
I love you all!!
Sister Jacobson
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| 1st place in car maintenance... |
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| ...3 transfers in a row! |
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