Week 49: 2018

January 2, 2018

Hello! 

Happy Tuesday! And Happy 2018!! It was a really weird feeling waking up yesterday morning and realizing that it's 2018. I can literally remember getting my mission call in September of 2016 and being like...wow I come home in 2018...that's so far away. And now I come home this year. It's a very strange feeling! Almost as strange as realizing that all of 2017 aside from the first 17 days were spent as a missionary! 

P.O. shredded Jaime's card

It's been a good week! Definitely a weird week...haha it kinda feels a little bit like it didn't even happen? You know that weird limbo between Christmas and New Years where time keeps moving but it sorta feels like it stops? Yeah, missionaries are not exempt from that. Haha we still saw miracles though!

Tuesday night we had dinner with the K’s. Sister Small and I were really unsure of what to teach them...planning for this lesson took a LOT of prayer. All day on Tuesday we were stressing about what to share with them, and when it came time for us to sit down and plan the lesson we truly felt like we were guided and inspired. We realized that something we'd been talking about all day was everyone's individual conversion to the Lord and His gospel. Ultimately, everyone's end goal is the same--to gain eternal life and live with Heavenly Father one day. The variable is the path that it takes to GET there. For some people conversion is a singular, lightning bolt experience...but I've found that for most people, conversion is not that way. For me, conversion has been a lot of little spiritual experiences over a long period of time, with many of those experiences being few and far between. But eventually those little experiences amount to one big conversion. We kind of realized that the K’s come to church, look around and see all of these people with rock solid testimonies and wonder, "Why don't I have that??" We decided to watch the Mormon Message "The Hope of God's Light" with them. If you haven't watched that video--do it!! It's so good! We were a little bit worried about the kids paying attention through the whole video, so we came up with a bribe to keep them entertained haha. We told them that if they paid attention the whole time we had a surprise for them. It worked! The kids watched the entire video and even contributed during the lesson. We asked them to identify similarities and differences between that story and theirs, and the kids were some of the first to point out the similarities. They were so excited when we gave them mints at the end haha. :) Then Sister Small and I shared moments in our lives when we knew the gospel was true. We invited them to write down things that they KNOW about the gospel. MK and CK loved the idea and were really excited to do it. 

We also had a lesson with K this week! We decided to focus it all on Jesus Christ and why He's important in our lives. We spent the first part of the lesson discussing ways that she's come to know that Jesus is the Christ. It's cool because every single one of her experiences that has shown her that Jesus is the Christ included moments where she had felt of His redeeming love. Her testimony of God's love is SO strong! We showed her a video of BYU Vocal Point (you know I'll find any excuse to involve Vocal Point) singing "I Stand All Amazed" with segments from the Bible Videos included. The Spirit was so strong! K was getting all teary-eyed and emotional. It's such a blessing to be able to teach so many of God's choice Spirits. She's progressing so well, and we are excited for the future with her!

Working on a puzzle

This week I developed a theory. I think Sister Small is magic. This week we met three people whose doors I have knocked countless times since being in this area. One of them is a referral originally received back in April, which the sisters were unable to contact. Back in October we received a referral for the same person and we've still been unable to contact him. But this week the door opened for the first time ever!! We met his little brother AND his older brother, both were super friendly and super excited to see us! We were able to find out some more information about him and we're excited to hopefully get in with him. The second one is another referral we've been unable to contact. We knocked the door and met his brother, who told us when a better time would be to contact his brother! Fingers crossed! The third is a part-member, over-age youth family in the Stratford Estates ward, the ward that Sister Utsch and I whitewashed into! I cannot tell you how many times I have knocked on that door. I hate to say it, but I'd honestly given up hope that anyone would ever come to the door. But this week it was 8:45 p.m. and I thought, what the heck, let's go knock on the M’s door. My mindset was a little bit like "We have literally nothing to lose...it's really late, and most people get mad when we knock on their door this late...but we've never met them and they never answer anyways so...why not??" So we went and knocked....and the door opened. I literally did not know what to do--I was in shock. Haha and he was SUPER friendly and welcoming! We got to know him briefly and he even told us that his kids are at his house Monday, Tuesday and every other weekend. It was awesome! Seriously, I think Sister Small is a miracle worker!

We had a small miracle yesterday. We went tracting in one of our wards and the second or third door we knocked a woman named K came to the door. She was super friendly and told us that she'd lived here for three years and hated literally everything about Arizona. Haha we asked her if she'd ever run into missionaries before and she said no. We about fell over!! I think I can count on one hand the amount of people I've met on my mission who have never met missionaries before. We started talking to her about our purpose as missionaries, why we come on missions, etc. She thought it was the coolest thing ever! We asked her if we could teach her more and she looked really sad and told us that her husband wouldn't allow it. So we asked her if we could give her a copy of the Book of Mormon. She lit right up and was like "I've always wanted one of these!! I've thought about ordering one myself, but looks like it came to me instead!" It was super cool. I know that the Lord is preparing people to receive the gospel! Even if she's not ready to meet with missionaries right now, one day she will be.

This week some horrible illnesses have been circling around the mission. About half of our zone got the stomach flu, and a sister in our stewardship got the flu, which turned into hand foot mouth disease, so they were stuck inside this entire week. We heard that they were stuck inside, and we didn't realize how bad it was, so we took them lunch one day and ate with them so they could have some company. It was probably not the best decision. I've been sick since Saturday. I originally thought it was just a sinus infection, but as the days have gone on it's become pretty obvious that it's more than just a sinus infection. My throat is pretty sore and I've got a really nasty cough. In addition, I'm pretty sure my voice has dropped an octave. The Elders in my zone keep making fun of me haha. I'm pretty sure it's the flu...and there's literally no improvement since Saturday haha. Nevertheless...the work must go on! We've gone out and worked every day and I know we've been blessed. It's been amazing because I've noticed that during the day, when we're working, I feel normal and my cough isn't as bad...but when we get home, it kicks back up and I start feeling icky again. I promised the Lord that I would work hard all day every day my whole mission and I intend on keeping that promise. There's not enough time on the mission for sick days. If it doesn't improve in the next couple of days then I'll go see a doctor, but until then I'll keep working my hardest! 

Zone movie on NYE

For New Years Eve we had to stop working at 6, but we had the opportunity to gather together as a zone and watch a church movie. Our zone watched "The Cokeville Miracle" and it was so fun! We all brought snacks and shared with one another! Afterwards we were able to read our patriarchal blessings individually and set personal goals for the new year. I'm excited for all that 2018 holds and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me this year!

Happy New Year everyone! Love you all so much!

Sister Jacobson 

Selfie with decorations

Finished the puzzle