Sister Jacobson's Glimpses of Gilbert: Week 58: McKennah Got Baptized

March 5, 2018

Hello everyone!

Sis. Rowley, my boot, and me

I cannot believe it is already Monday! This week has been super fast out here in the blessed AGM. So here's the transfer news: I am in an area located in Southern Gilbert! We are part of the San Tan Zone, which is the smallest zone in our mission--only 10 missionaries! This is the furthest South I've been since I was three months out on my mission, so it's like a whole new world down here. My new companion is Sister Rowley from Greenville, South Carolina. We were in the MTC together, her last companion was Sister Donaldson (my MTC companion), her MTC companion was Sister Small (my last companion), and Sister Donaldson and Sister Small are now companions! The MTC lives on! Work-wise this week has been BOMB...spirits wise this week has been questionable haha.

Cadaver foot

I will start with the questionable parts of my week! Unfortunately, my ankle is still causing me quite a bit of pain. I've been taking really good care of it, icing it whenever I can, taking loads of ibuprofen, and keeping it elevated and in a brace. Around Friday the bruising started to get really bad and my foot straight up looked like a cadaver, so we called the mission nurse, and she told me to up my ibuprofen intake, put a walking boot on for a day or so, and if it didn't significantly improve by today then I needed to call her. So I wore a boot on Saturday and then yesterday my ankle was probably the worst it's been and it still hurts pretty bad today so we called the nurse and now I have an appointment with a foot/ankle specialist tomorrow morning. I'll probably get an X-Ray and they will probably put me in a walking boot for the next little bit. So that's definitely a bummer...probably no biking for me this transfer!

Lunch with L

Leaving Desert Ridge about killed me. I knew that I loved it there, and I knew that I loved the people I was serving and teaching...but I didn't realize how much I truly, truly LOVED that area until I had to leave. Monday and Tuesday were filled with so many goodbyes and my heart hurt by the time Wednesday rolled around. On Tuesday we had lunch with L, and then a goodbye lesson with K (who is doing MUCH better at her scripture study and daily prayer!), and then we said goodbye to the H’s, the P’s, and T. My last dinner in Desert Ridge was the K’s. CK made us Hawaiian Haystacks because she knew how much I love them, and we were able to have a brief lesson about patiently waiting for the blessings the Lord has promised us. We had a great discussion about why God sometimes makes us wait for things, and eventually we concluded that sometimes waiting for things makes us appreciate the blessings when they actually come. We took pictures together, and we were all laughing so I don't think we got a single picture where all of us are looking at the camera. As we were taking the pictures CK hugged me and got emotional and said "Thank you for everything; you will never know how much you have blessed and helped our family." That seriously ripped my heart out...I am constantly amazed by how inspired my mission, my areas, and my companions all are. I know that I was supposed to serve in Desert Ridge for each of the people I taught, and I know that I needed them just as much as they needed me.

The finale of Tuesday night was the B family. We had correlation at their house, and took some pictures together, and then Sister B gave me a croissant because I would be missing dinner at their house so she didn't want me to feel left out. I LOVE that family. Every time I went into their home I learned something new about life and multiple times I've thought about how much I want to be like the B’s when I grow up haha. Leaving their house is when it got real that I was leaving Desert Ridge...and I was a mess. I started crying, and when we got home I tried to console myself by eating the croissant but that just made me cry harder haha it was probably the most pitiful thing of my life.

Adios Michael, my 2017 Corolla

So yeah, between leaving Desert Ridge and my ankle being mysteriously painful I've been feeling pretty down this week. I am just a little sad, but everything will be okay! There is tons of work to do in San Tan, and Sister Rowley and I have already had a great start to this transfer. I am hopeful that after my Dr.'s appointment tomorrow we will be able to get my ankle healing properly, and that should help boost my spirits!

So now I'm here in San Tan! It's a lot different from Desert Ridge, and it's weird because I've spent the last...ten or so months of my mission serving in the North of the North of our mission and now I'm more in the middle. We have quite a few investigators in this area, and I can feel that this area is where I'm supposed to be at this point in my mission.

I look so cute wearing my sneaks

On Wednesday we had a lesson with one of our YSA investigators, A. She is dating a guy preparing for his mission and she comes to church with him every Sunday. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and told us that she has been praying every day to know if it's true. When we taught her on Wednesday we taught about the prophet/Priesthood/dispensations. The lesson went well, and it definitely showed her the need for a Restoration. The Spirit was there, but she was pretty quiet. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! And then she brought up her concern. She told us that her mom would be unsupportive (new YSA ward, same concerns am I right??) and she wants to be able to look her mom in the eyes and tell her with full confidence "I know this is true." She started crying and the Spirit FLOODED the room. We testified to her that God would help her know this was true, and she prayed with us right there to know when in the next month she should be baptized. After the prayer we asked her what she felt and she said, "I feel like I need to be baptized March 31st. I can feel the Spirit telling me that I need to work towards that date, if not one sooner." It was awesome! She told us that if she receives an answer that this is true before that day then she'll be baptized sooner. It was a miracle!

We had MLC on Thursday! It was a really great MLC. It was really similar to my first MLC back in August. President gave an awesome training on the difference between Administering and Ministering, and he gave us specific suggestions on how to be better at both. During MLC it really hit me how blessed I am to have President Wheeler as my mission President. He has so much gospel knowledge, as well as life knowledge, and both he and Sister Wheeler have had a lot of unique opportunities in their lives. Moral of the story is...they know what they're talking about haha!

McKennah's baptism!

Last night we had a baptism! Okay I am apparently the pro at getting transferred and walking into baptisms haha. When I came into the mission we had a baptism that weekend and then when I went to Desert Ridge we had a baptism like three weeks later. It was a really special baptism. It was for a little girl named McKennah. Her family was inactive when they moved into this area but now they come to church! McKennah wanted to be baptized so bad and she was so excited and so happy to have the opportunity to make covenants with our Heavenly Father. We had the opportunity to teach her ALL of the commandments Saturday morning, and then she had her baptism interview right after. She passed with flying colors and was able to be baptized last night! She was baptized twice because her dad said the words in the prayer wrong the first time, and the witnesses didn't catch it until they were out of the font, but she was so excited to get back in the font and do it again! I told her that she was so special that she just had to be baptized twice haha, she liked that. It was a really special night, and she had great support from the ward and from her family! It was a great end to the week.

Other than that...we saw lots of other people...and I'm still trying to keep everyone's names straight haha but those are the highlights. We have a bunch of lessons lined up for this upcoming week and it should be a great week! We are excited.

I love you all!

Sister Jacobson