November 27, 2017
Hey!! What's good in the hood?!
Things are real good in
this hood; it's been a solid week! We've been working our tails off!
 |
| Looking fly on Thanksgiving |
To start off, I hope
everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was hilarious because we had mission
choir practice on Thursday morning, so the whole mission got together...and we
all looked so FLY!! Haha you know you serve in a biking mission when you're
used to seeing one another covered in bike grease, sweat, and the classic dust
of Arizona. It was fun to see how everyone "really looks." Sister
Utsch and I managed to survive the three dinners we had...although we were not
able to eat anything for like three days afterwards haha. Our first dinner was
with a half-active, half less-active family in one of our wards. It was a
pretty awkward dinner because half of the family was super excited to see us,
and the other half was pretty stand-offish...but we were grateful that we were
able to bring the Spirit into their home! Nothing is a coincidence, and I know
that they needed the Spirit of missionary work for some reason on Thanksgiving!
 |
| Comps looking fly on Thanksgiving |
 |
| Thanksgiving with the F family |
 |
| Snowball fight AZ style |
Our second dinner was
with a part-member, recent convert family in Sister Utsch's last area. They
invited us and their current missionaries to come and have Thanksgiving with
them. It was so fun; I've only met the family once but I was amazed at the way
that they welcomed me into their home and made me feel like part of their
family. We got there, and they had us put our names into a "raffle for who
says grace," and then they asked us to grab gloves. The mom knew that the
four of us missionaries are all from places much colder than Arizona, so she
went to Bahama Bucks (a super delicious snowcone store in AZ) and bought a case
of snowballs so we could have a snowball fight!! It was so sweet. It was 100
degrees here on Thanksgiving Day, so she goes "I knew that it would be
weird for you to be somewhere so hot for Thanksgiving, so this is my solution
of how to make it colder!!" Haha and then we went inside and K (the recent
convert) wanted to do crafts with us. And then, it was time to eat. No lie,
probably the best Thanksgiving food I've ever eaten in my life. The dessert was
caramel apple cheesecake; need I say more?? Once we were fat and happy, the mom
pulled out this game called "Who said it: The prophet or a princess?"
SHE IS LITERALLY NOT A MEMBER OF OUR CHURCH!! It was amazing. She had found ten
quotes from various prophets/apostles or Disney characters and we had to
determine which quotes were from the prophets and which quotes were from the Disney
characters. It was actually really hard haha. To top off the dinner, they gave
us gift bags with blankets, candy, and chapstick! As we were leaving, they were
SO thankful that we had come. They said "It's usually only the three of us
at Thanksgiving...so it was really nice to be able to share it with people who
mean so much to K." :')
 |
| On our way to three Thanksgiving meals |
If you thought that was
it, you thought wrong!! Because we still had one more dinner! Our last dinner
was with an active family in one of our wards, the J family. Sister Utsch and I
love this family so much. They are the kind of people that just make you feel
at home in their home. They are also hilarious. They made probably the best
apple pie of my life...which is a miracle because ever since I was in the MTC
I've wanted apple pie and I've never been served it on my mission...until Thanksgiving!!
We had a great time with the J’s, and Sister J was especially grateful that we
came over because her daughter is serving a mission right now and she was
really missing her on Thanksgiving. When we went to leave, they also pulled out
gift bags for us! It was like Christmas! They've picked up on our weird love of
matching with each other and bought us two matching t-shirts...which means that
Sister Utsch and I now have 7 matching t-shirts. This is what happens when
you're companions for four months. All in all, it was a great day and it was a
fun change in pace, while still being a productive day of work!
 |
| Kickin off the Christmas season |
On Friday Sister Utsch
and I had the opportunity to work at the opening night of the Mesa Temple
Lights. What a way to kick off the Christmas season! It was BEAUTIFUL.
The Spirit there was so strong. We were able to talk to so many different
people; both members and nonmembers alike and testify of the reason for the
season; Jesus Christ. Christmastime softens people's hearts and I know it's because
we are more focused on the Savior of the world than at any other time
throughout the year. He truly is the light of the world; which is why the
Church's Christmas initiative this year is #LightTheWorld. We saw the launch
video a couple of weeks ago and we've been eagerly awaiting the worldwide
release so we could show everyone and we've already seen miracles from it!
One of the miracles
we've already seen from #LightTheWorld happened as we were biking through a
park in our area one day. We saw a lady sitting on the end of a slide with her
son, and they appeared to be in pretty rough shape. We stopped and started
talking to them, and she told us that she had just gone through a messy
divorce, she didn't have a job, she had just moved here, and it was time for
her to take her son back to his dad's for the week and he didn't want to go. In
addition, she told us that she is a member, but hadn't had a chance to move her
records into our ward yet. As we were talking with her, we found out that she
had moved into a house kitty-corner to ours! We were able to give her a
run-down on all her neighbors, and tell her when and where church was, who the
bishop was, and things like that. We asked her if she'd seen the #LightTheWorld
video yet, and she said no, so we pulled out one of our phones and showed her
and her son right there in the park. She started crying and told us how
grateful she was that we had run into her, because she had been feeling really
alone and she needed to know that God was aware of her. As we left, they got up
and started playing on the playground, and overall they just seemed much
happier. I know that we were supposed to see her that day, and I know that we
were supposed to share the #LightTheWorld video with her. It gave her
hope...and helped her to know that God loves her. If you haven't watched the
video yet...I would strongly invite you to watch it...and then share it with
someone else, and look for ways to reach outside of yourself this holiday
season and serve others as the Light of the World, even Jesus Christ would. You
can find the launch video on my Facebook page, mormon.org, or via lds.org.
On Saturday Sister Utsch
and I were excited because it was our first full proselyting day together in a
loonnnggg time. We planned out the best day ever, and set a goal to boldly
invite everyone that we contacted. We have a few part-member families and
less-active families that we've been working with on and off that are really
close to formally and regularly meeting with us that we've been too scared to
be bold with, for fear of scaring them off or offending them. But this week
Sister Utsch and I read a talk that said something along the lines of
"there's not enough time to not be bold." and we felt called to
repentance, so we decided to focus on being bold all day long. Everywhere we
went, we talked to everyone we saw, we asked for referrals from everyone, we
knocked lots of doors...and not many people were home. We weren't letting
anything get us down and we were working so hard...we were determined to find
new investigators and help others come closer to Jesus Christ. In the evening
we were biking down the street and we saw a potential investigator we've been
trying to get in with outside putting up Christmas lights, so we started
talking to him! We established that his name is J and that his lights looked
good so far...and then he told us that he needed to grab something inside but
he'd be right back. We waited on his driveway for five minutes....then ten
minutes...then fifteen minutes...and it became pretty obvious that he wasn't
going to come back outside. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. We
were both so frustrated as we left his house, we biked over to a neighborhood
park, and we sat down on the curb and just started crying together. At this
point, it had been close to two really tough weeks, with a lot of encounters
similar to that one...and we just didn't know what to do. We were like
"What are we doing wrong?! We're doing everything we're supposed to be
doing, we're being obedient, we're working hard, we're trying our best...why
does it feel like everything is culminating against us?!" We said a really
fervent prayer, and then got back on our bikes and got back out to work for the
last hour of the day. We talked to a few more people, with no luck, and then
stopped by a member's to get water...and as we were walking up to the door, our
phone beeped. We checked the message and saw that we had just received a new
referral from the Mesa Temple Lights. It said, "Met him and his small
family, doesn't think it was a coincidence he met the missionaries here, wants
to meet with the missionaries where he lives, very curious and willing to
convert." We started crying again, but this time out of gratitude. We
haven't been able to get in contact with the referral yet, but we are so
excited for the opportunity to hopefully teach this family! As I was writing in
my journal on Saturday night I reflected on Stanley G. Ellis' talk from this
past General Conference. In it he says, "We
see that hard is the constant! We all have challenges. The variable is our
reaction to the hard." I know that life is sometimes hard, and that
sometimes we don't understand everything that happens. I know that sometimes it
would be easier to quit and give up; I can assure you that Sister Utsch and I
sure felt like quitting when we sat on that curb in the park, but I know that
Heavenly Father does not want us to quit. I know that He gives us challenges
and trials because we can handle them and He trusts us to be able to maintain
our faith in Him despite the difficult times. I know that as we choose to have
gratitude through our trials that we will receive more blessings from Him and
in turn we will be able to trust Him even more.
 |
| Pano of AZ sky |
This week we also went
on an exchange with Sister Bolander, who is in her first transfer in the
mission! She's in a trio so it was kinda fun because she got to come into our
area with me AND Sister Utsch. It was fun to be on an STL exchange with my STL
companion haha. It was a sneak peak of what's to come the two weeks before
Sister Utsch goes home, when we'll be in a trio. We had a good day! We were
able to help a less-active member decorate her home for Christmas and share an
uplifting message with her about having hope through the Atonement of Jesus
Christ. I love being able to help people find hope!
 |
| Taught our 1st Skype lesson this week! |
Due to Thanksgiving, we
weren't able to meet with the majority of our investigators this week, which
was a bummer. However, they all still came to church yesterday which was
exciting! It was T's first day in her real ward and we were so proud of how the
ward fellowshipped her. They did a great job! We haven't been able to meet with
L in two weeks...so she probably will not be getting baptized December 2...which
makes us sad, but we just want her to be baptized when she feels ready. We know
she's ready, but she needs to gain the confidence that she's ready...if that
makes sense? We're excited to meet with her this week. We also met with K this
week and had a brief lesson on the Restoration...all these solid
investigators!! I felt like she was teaching me the Restoration for real haha.
The monthly theme for
primary is "I can be a missionary now!" and at the beginning of the
month we told all of our primary presidents that we would love to help in any
way that we could...and they all procrastinated....so yesterday we made
appearances in both junior and senior primaries for all three of our wards! 6
presentations yeah haha!! We got to talk to the kids about ways that we
prepared for our missions, things that we wish we'd done differently, and how
they can be missionaries now. It was so fun! I remember being a little kid and
thinking the missionaries were rock stars, and I remember so clearly those days
that the missionaries came in and taught us. I hope that they see us as rock
stars and remember our lessons yesterday!
 |
| Our sink has been leaky for months |
I heard a cool
fact/analogy this week. It has been scientifically proven that if you were to
eat only Twinkies, then you would eventually starve. You could eat and eat and
eat until you felt like you were going to pop, but you would still starve
because of the lack of nutritional value in a Twinkie. If you were to eat only
Twinkies you would eventually die, and it would be no one's fault but your own,
because you failed to change your diet. Far too often, that is the way that we
are with the gospel. We read our scriptures, say our prayers, and attend our
meetings, and we have spiritual experiences--we all come away saying "Wow
that was so spiritual." But the application isn't there. We receive
promptings from the Holy Ghost, yet we do not act on them. We can read and read
and read, or pray and pray and pray, and feel the Spirit multiple times, but
until we APPLY the things we read, or ACT on the answers we receive, we are
guaranteed to starve spiritually. If your testimony is withering, or the flame
of your faith is dying, then that's on you. Change your diet. It is not enough
to merely go through the motions in the gospel, or to treat the gospel like a
monotonous checklist of "do’s and don’ts." This gospel is not a
gospel of knowing things, it's a gospel about BECOMING...in order for us to
become who God needs us to be, and therefore reach our full potential, it is
absolutely essential for us to apply the things that we learn. I know that with
the help and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will be able to identify and
make changes in our lives and thereby become spiritually full.
Thank you for all the
love and support, I truly feel every prayer! I love you all!
Sister Jacobson
 |
| Thanksgiving with the F family... |
 |
| ...RC in Sis. Utsch's last area |
 |
| Getting wrecked by Sis. Sperry's snowball |
No comments:
Post a Comment