Week 65: Spiritual Questions Deserve Spiritual Answers

April 23, 2018

Hola!

Another week, another email! This week seemed to fly by...Sister Rowley and I realized this morning that we are already on week three of this transfer and we're confused how that happened! The next few weeks are already lined up to be super busy, but we are excited for what lies ahead.

Exchanges with Sis.'s Jensen & Meglen

This week we had the opportunity to go on exchanges with some sisters in Queen Creek! They are currently in a trio so I had the opportunity to spend the day with Sister Jensen AND Sister Meglen. Sister Jensen has been on her mission for a little over nine months, and I've been her STL for her whole mission. I love that girl! She is so awesome and has grown so much as a missionary these past several months. Sister Meglen is brand new, fresh off the plane from the Provo MTC so it was really fun to get to spend the day with someone with so much greenie fire! We had a great day cruising around their area talking to everyone that we saw and inviting them to come closer to Jesus Christ.

Zone Conference

We also had Zone Conference this week! I love President and Sister Wheeler! I'm pretty sure I say that every time we have MLC or Zone Conference, but I definitely know that a huge reason why I was sent to Gilbert on my mission is because of President and Sister Wheeler. I think the longer I'm on my mission the more I realize how inspired they truly are. Zone Conference was almost an exact repeat of the last MLC--completely focused on building a Christ-centered mission culture/life. It's amazing how you can sit in two meetings; both structured exactly the same, and get completely different revelation both times. It was exactly what I needed this week!

Overall, this week I've been reflecting again on how the gospel of Jesus Christ requires effort from us. This has been a common thought of mine for the duration of my mission, and the longer I'm out the more I realize how divinely inspired it is that our Father in Heaven requires us to put forth effort to gain a testimony. If it didn't take effort to gain a testimony of the gospel then we wouldn't appreciate it! This week one of our ward mission leaders told us a story about his twelve year old daughter--she was beginning to question her testimony, so he told her that they could attend any church she wanted the next week. They picked a popular non-denominational Christian church nearby and went. He said it was a very unique experience, and afterwards he asked his daughter what the experience was like for her, and she thought for a moment and said, "Well, it was nice, but it was very different from our church." He asked her what made it different and she said, "I didn't get the same peaceful feeling that I get when I attend our church." This opened the door for him to be able to teach her about the Holy Ghost, and about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it triggered between the two of them a discussion that wouldn't have been near as productive if he had just answered her concern right off the bat. He recognized that although he had a testimony, regurgitating his testimony to her wouldn't be near as powerful as her gaining one for herself. It was an awesome story, and it reminded me of Matthew 16:13-17:

13¶ When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?

14 And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.

15 He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

I'm pretty sure that I've shared this scripture in one of my emails a while ago, but it's honestly one of my favorites. I especially love verse 17, where Christ says "for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." Gaining a testimony is difficult, and 100% time consuming--but think about it--we wouldn't want it any other way! Anything worth having is going to take effort, and spiritual questions absolutely deserve spiritual answers. Our answers to our "questions of the soul"--whether they are temporal questions, spiritual questions, doctrinal questions, historical questions, ANYTHING, are best answered by our Father in Heaven, through the power of the Holy Ghost. Gaining that witness for ourselves is absolutely essential for us if we are to endure the storms that life is bound to throw at us. I know it!

We had an awesome lesson with C and M this week! We read the Book of Mormon with them, and were able to uncover some of their concerns preventing them from progressing. Sister Rowley and I were puzzled, but as soon as we discovered their concerns so much of the past several months made sense and fell into place--we are excited to keep working with them with this newfound knowledge so that we can help them come closer to Christ!

Temple baptisms with A

We had the opportunity to go to the temple with A this week! A member gave us family names so we were able to do baptisms as well, and it was a really sweet evening. The Spirit was so strong, and A was floored to be inside the temple. When we were in the baptistry I turned to her and said, "Can you believe that you are in the temple right now??" and she looked super dazed and was like "This is the most surreal thing I've ever experienced." One of her recent convert friends also came, and we had a great time together! Haha A's boyfriend, J, performed the baptisms and straight up that is the closest I've been to a boy in fifteen months and I think the only thing that prevented it from being traumatic for me was the fact that we were in the temple. It's going to be a major “YIKES” when I come home this summer haha, I'm not mentally prepared for how awkward I'm going to be. 
 

But by far the most exciting thing about this week was J! We got a referral a couple of weeks ago from some other elders, for this guy named J who they'd taught like one or two times. They said they weren't sure how solid he was, but it was worth a shot. We met him on Tuesday, and the first thing he said to us was "What time is church Sunday??" We had a great conversation with him, and then set up a time to meet on Friday. Our lesson on Friday was BOMB. He is so prepared for the gospel, and is searching for friends and also to improve his relationship with Christ...the YSA ward definitely fits the bill! We asked him to pray about if the BOM is true, and he said, "I don't have to, I already know that it is." And then he told us that he prayed one night for God to give him direction, and the very next day the elders street contacted him while he was working on his truck. He wasn't too interested, but the elders were persistent and he realized that this was God's answer to his prayer, so he let them come back. And then he told us that he had told one of the elders that he is trying to quit smoking, and the elder shared a scripture with him from the BOM and told him to think about the scripture every time he wanted to smoke. J goes, "Sisters, I haven't smoked in three weeks. I know that book is true." It was awesome! Such a cool story! And we've asked all of the elders who taught him if they shared a scripture with him and none of them remember sharing a scripture...crazy! If that's not the Spirit I don't know what is haha. He came to church yesterday and made some friends and seemed really excited to be there--we're pumped to keep teaching him!

Anyways, I love you all! Have a fantastic week!

Sister Jacobson

I spy bunnies eating carrots

Temple baptisms with A & P

San Tan & Higley zones

Flag football ft noodles (arms-length)

Week 64: The Many Miracles of San Tan

April 16, 2018

Hello everyone!

STL meeting with Sister Wheeler

This week has gone by both fast and slow at the same time. The first week of the transfer always feels this way haha. Sister Rowley and I had an awesome week! Out of all the STL companionships in the transfer, we are the only one that survived the transfer. It's been so nice to be able to jump into this transfer ready to go!

We had a lesson with C this week. So C is the sweetest lady of all time who suffers from extreme anxiety. A little over a year ago her oldest son was killed in a tragic automobile accident, and she has told us multiple times that she feels like her trust with God has been broken. She told us that before the accident she felt like she had great faith in the Lord, but it really hurt her when her son didn't get a "miracle" and survive the accident. Teaching her is slow, and takes a lot of love and repetition, but I've already seen her make progress in the last six weeks! We've decided to teach her one gospel principle at a time, and use each lesson to build off of the last. So the last time we went over we had a powerful lesson on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and then this week we focused 100% on the first principle of the gospel--Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We talked about how exercising our faith, ACTING on the things that we hope and believe, allows us to reach the healing and strengthening aspect of the Atonement. We focused a lot on scripture study and prayer, and C told us about an experience she'd had a week or so ago where she said she literally felt the Lord sustaining her and strengthening her and telling her to trust Him. It was so tender to hear her say that for the first time in over a year she was able to trust God! And then at the very end of our lesson she prayed out loud with us! She was really nervous, and she didn't want to do it...but we promised her that God would see her exercising her faith and that she would be able to feel His love and she did it!! It was such a tender and sweet prayer. I remember in the MTC my teacher told us that some of the sweetest memories on our missions would be hearing an investigator pray out loud for the first time…and it's true! Those are among some of my favorite moments.

Baby goats!

We had another awesome miracle this week! On Tuesday night we felt impressed to stop by this investigator named A. A is 76 years old and has been investigating the church for a long, long time. She hasn't really progressed too much since she's been meeting with the missionaries, because she doesn't retain information too well. We had a lesson with her a couple of weeks ago and we felt like we finally made some progress with her, and then last Sunday she came to church! We dropped by Tuesday night and she was SO excited to see us and SO excited to tell us that she'd read the introduction to the Book of Mormon...and SO excited to tell us that it had piqued her interest, so she went ahead and read the introduction to her Bible! She was like "Sisters, I had NO idea how many different translations there were of the Bible!" It gave us the perfect opportunity to testify of the need for prophets, and of the divine nature of the Book of Mormon. We were able to talk with her about how the Book of Mormon fills in some of the doctrinal gaps in the Bible, and we just watched it all click in her mind. After ages of hearing the same thing from other missionaries...she finally got it! We set up an appointment for Friday, and when we went by on Friday she had read up to 1 Nephi 7 and actually internalized what it was saying. The specific details she remembered were crazy! We could tell that she had legitimately read...and she loved it! It was so cool...it was one of those moments where we knew that we were fulfilling our purpose and doing what we've been called to do. Then on Saturday we saw a missionary who has been home from his mission for about seven months now who was trained in our area. We asked him if he'd ever met A and he was like "Oh the one in the apartments? Yeah, my companion and I found her!" We were like "No way!! She's progressing!" and he couldn't believe it. He was like "A is progressing?! What a miracle!" So two and a half years in the making...but it's all in the Lord's timing! We are excited to keep working with her.

Our Mini-missionary, Sis. M

Cactus cookies ft Sister M

We had a mini-missionary with us this weekend. Her name was Sister M and she was from the Gilbert Spanish Branch in the Gilbert Stake (the 2nd stake I served in!!). She was awesome! Sister M is the fourth mini-missionary I've had on my mission and it's always amazing to me to see how different each mini is. Each of them decide to serve a mini-mission for a different reason, and each of them glean something totally different out of the mini-mission...but it's cool because whatever they get out of their weekend is exactly what the Lord needs them to get. We had a super crazy weekend filled with service, ward ice cream socials, baptisms with investigators, and of course the classic 8 hours of church...so not exactly nitty-gritty missionary work, and we felt bad because it wasn't a "true" indicator of what a mission is like, but it was exactly what Sister M needed! The Lord's hand is in everything!

Yesterday was awesome. We have a recent convert in one of our wards, Ar, whose husband is Atheist and has no interest in joining the church. The ward has offered a lot of prayers on his behalf, and I know that Ar would love him to join the church, or even express interest in joining. So to mine and Sister Rowley's surprise, he came to church with Ar yesterday! He'd never been before! Ar was so excited. He stayed all three hours, and the majority of the meetings were centered on service and families, two aspects he really connects to. Then last night was the New Member Fireside and Ar spoke...and he came!! It was beautiful. Man, I'll tell ya, you cannot beat the Spirit at those New Member Firesides. I've been to so many and every single time the Spirit just blows me away. T came, and it was the first time we'd seen him this week. He is really stressed out about school and graduation right now and the deadline for his capstone project is rapidly approaching...so he wasn't even going to come to the fireside but between us and his fellowshipping member we talked him into going. He looked so exhausted and pretty out of it...please keep him in your prayers!! He needs all the help he can get right now...and he needs to find the strength in him to continue to progress towards baptism. He is so close!

Anyways, all in all it's been a great week...lots of tender mercies being sent our way from our Father in Heaven. I want to testify to all of you that the change that the gospel of Jesus Christ is, is real. It's not something that anyone can fake. Elder Boyd K Packer said, "True doctrine, understood, changes attitudes and behavior. The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior." I testify that this principle is true. I see the change that this gospel brings about in people on a daily basis and I know that the reason for the change is an increased resolve and desire to become more like our Savior, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven, who created a plan for us to be able to repent and change--a plan perfectly and completely centered around Jesus Christ.

I love you all!

Sister Jacobson

Last zone sports of the transfer

Service at Bro. J's with the new zone

Baby goat...it's eating me!

Ridin' fresh (when you see it)

Cute cactus cookie

Week 63: A Got Baptized

April 9, 2018

Hello hello hello!!

Cute companions

What is good?! It's been another week full of miracles and tender mercies. Last night transfer calls came in and we found out that, against all odds, Sister Rowley and I are staying together for another transfer in San Tan!!!!! We were so surprised. Usually we have a pretty good feel of what's going to happen, but this totally blindsided us. We have twelve weeks left on our missions, so we aren't sure what's going to happen next transfer, but we are so excited to have the opportunity to work hard together for these next six weeks! We already have a great transfer lined up.

Transfer 10 in the books

This week we had another opportunity to teach T. He is really stressed out about school and graduation and stuff, so we had a short little lesson all focused on the covenants we make at baptism and the blessings we receive once we're baptized. It was an awesome lesson. Sister Rowley and I were so unified and the Spirit was so strong; she shared scriptures I was thinking of and said exactly what I was thinking and vice versa. The progression he's made since he first started meeting with us is unreal. T is so ready to be baptized; he just doesn't see it yet. He told us that he kinda wants to move his date back, but we know he can still be ready to be baptized on the 21st! We will keep working with him and probably decide this week if the 21st is still a go or nah; keep him in your prayers.

This week Sister Rowley and I had a ton of finding miracles. All transfer long we've been teaching tons and seeing teaching miracles, but we haven't seen a ton of success with finding...until this week. We picked up four new investigators this week! The first one is an OAY in a less-active family. His name is J and he is ten years old. His family situation has recently become pretty rocky, and his mom is a lot more open and receptive to the gospel than she's been in the past. We got in this week and they committed to read the Book of Mormon and to let us come back this next week!

The second one is another OAY in a returning less-active family that we've been trying to get in with foreverrrrr. They currently live out of our area, but have family in one of our wards and will be moving into our area in a month or so. It's a little bit of a time commitment (and mileage commitment) to go visit them, and all the times that we'd gone to visit them they hadn't been home...but last night we felt inspired to go by around 8 o'clock. The mom had JUST gotten home, and told us that if we'd come any earlier that we would have missed her. We got in and finally met both of her kids, B and L, shared a brief message about God's love for them, committed them to say daily prayers, and set up a return appointment for Wednesday.

The third one is ANOTHER OAY!!! Sister Rowley and Sister Donaldson set up an appointment with this family like two months ago...and they kept it!! We had dinner last night with this kid named N and his family and shared a super general message about Jesus Christ. Their family situation is also really rocky, so we have to be a little careful here, but he is excited to keep learning!

The fourth one is an YSA referral. Our neighboring zone's Zone Leaders had a lesson yesterday with someone in our area and then passed him off to us. Apparently he's super open to learning more and is a super cool guy. We are excited to meet him!

Jump starting - a first

On Wednesday Sister Rowley and I were in the right place at the right time. It was the morning, and we were visiting some potentials and some investigators in the apartment complex in our area. We knocked on one of our investigator's doors, but she didn't answer, so we kept walking further into the apartments. As we were walking through the parking lot, we saw our investigator, cleaning out her car! We asked if we could help, and she told us that her battery was dead and that she needed a jump. Sister Rowley and I told her we could jump her, so we went and got our car....and then we realized that neither one of us has ever jumped a car before. Haha smooth moves. Luckily our District Leader is a car guy, so we called him...but he didn't answer. We got desperate and ended up searching on Facebook "How to jump start a car" and found a 90 second video explaining it to us. Thank goodness for Facebook right?? Long story short, we successfully jumped the car, and no one was electrocuted in the process!

A's baptism

Thursday was an awesome day!!! A's baptism!!!! Ahhhhh! So exciting. Haha I have never had more things go wrong than what went wrong at A's baptism. Holy smokes. First, the font in the YSA building is HUGE and takes forever to fill. We got to the building at 3:15 and it barely filled in time for the baptism at 5. Then, A showed up at 4:30 with the baptism program...as a link on her phone. She'd forgotten to print it out, so we had to scramble to find a way to print it. There was someone in the institute with a printer, so we were able to print it out....but then the formatting was wrong...so we had to fix that...meanwhile it's like 4:45...and then the photocopier took forever to turn on...so it was like 4:55 and we were still trying to get the programs taken care of haha. From there it was smooth sailing!!! That is, until it was time for the ordinance to be performed. Her boyfriend was the one to baptize her, he'd never baptized someone before, and he is just returning to activity. The baptismal prayer wasn't hung up on the inside of the font, and he couldn't remember it. He seriously struggled so much to say the prayer perfectly. Sister Rowley and I were holding our breath haha, but he got it right and she was baptized! Haha there were other little things that went wrong, but all the hiccups aside, it was a really great baptism. The Spirit was so strong and there were tons of people there to support A. Her family wasn't there, but it was awesome to see the ward and her boyfriend's family rally around her to support her in this decision. T came and afterwards he told us he'd felt the Spirit really strong, and it was a really sacred experience for him. Ahh baptisms are the best!

Missionaries who taught A

And then yesterday at church, right on par with the rest of the baptism...her confirmation had to be redone because her boyfriend's dad forgot to say one thing as he was confirming her. Haha after her second time being confirmed she goes, "NOW am I a Mormon?!" It was pretty funny. It's interesting because I think it's very easy to say "Oh these things are just little details...it doesn't matter," but in reality it DOES, it matters to our Heavenly Father that all things are done in order! He is a God of order and if He ceased to have order He would cease to be God. It's a testament to me of the necessity of the Priesthood and proper authority, and is also a testament to me of the reality of God's love and attention for each of us.

We also had a BOMB lesson with C this week. We taught the law of chastity, but felt inspired to teach it using “The Family: A Proclamation to the World”. (https://www.lds.org/topics/family-proclamation?lang=eng&old=true) We'd both never taught it that way before, but it was so inspired. The Spirit was 10000% there as we were planning the lesson. Here’s a list of miracles that happened during that lesson:

1. Her RM boyfriend left the room right before we started teaching the law of chastity, meaning that she could talk openly and honestly with us without feeling awkward. It also made it less awkward for us teaching!

2. The fellowship member we'd brought with us had been pondering earlier that day about the importance of commandments and how they show God's love for us, therefore she was able to bear powerful witness of the truthfulness of what we were saying.

3. “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” was the first thing that Cassie had ever read from our church. She told us that it was what initially got her interested in the church, and she told us that the families that she sees in the church are the type of family that she wants.

It was way cool! She was crying and the Spirit was really powerful. We are still on for the 28th! We are so excited.

And then, to close the week, all of our investigators came to church yesterday. It is the greatest feeling when someone you were expecting to be at church actually shows up, and it's so cool being able to sit back and recognize that all of the speakers and topics are exactly what your investigator needs. There are no coincidences!

Anyways, I love you all! I hope everyone is having as great of weeks as I am! Haha thank you for all the love and support!

Sister Jacobson

Exchanges at the mission home

Cleaning out the car

Cool car we found

The fab 4 at lunch