Week 62: Building a Christ-Centered Life

April 2, 2018

Hiiiiiii everybody!

Service last week

What a week! I think we were busy every minute of every day this week. Seems to be the trend of this transfer haha!

To start off, there is a new email guideline in the mission. We now only have an hour to email, which is a very short amount of time haha. So if I don't respond to your emails individually then I promise I am not intentionally ignoring you...I just don't have time!

Wednesday this week was probably the busiest day of my whole mission. We decided to take a pizza to some of the sisters in our stewardship and eat lunch with them at 1:00 pm, and then we had a lesson with M, our recent convert at 2:00 pm. We met with her in the park and taught the restoration again! She is the cutest girl ever with such pure intent. She is the rock that keeps her family anchored to Jesus Christ! Then we had a correlation meeting at 3:00 pm with one of our ward mission leaders.

On the temple grounds with A

At 4:00 pm we had the opportunity to have a lesson with A on the temple grounds. We showed her around the outside of the building, and talked about how once she's baptized this week she will be able to go inside! We also taught the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, which we were really nervous about, but the spirit on temple grounds is so powerful and she readily agreed to live both commandments! We have just a handful more of principles to teach her and then she'll be ready to go for her baptism this Thursday. We are so excited!

Temple baptisms with A

At 5:00 pm we went inside the temple and did baptisms, with A, a recent convert. THAT was a special experience. I've never been to the Gilbert temple for baptisms, so this was my first time in that baptistry, and A brought tons of family names...which is super awesome for such a recent convert. She asked the ward mission leader to be baptized in place of her dad, and the Spirit was so strong in that moment! It was a really sweet and tender moment watching A's joy as she watched this man receive the first saving ordinance on behalf of her father. She definitely felt the Spirit and she kept telling us how overwhelmed she was, but also how happy she was. I love the gospel! You can't fake things like this!!

We got out of the temple at around 6:40 pm and ran over to the church building for our 7 o'clock lesson with T. It was more of a group lesson than anything haha, there were three members there! We are so blessed to serve in such a great mission with so many people ready to fellowship at the drop of a hat. T had a question about Christ's ministry in the Americas, so we read 1 Nephi 11 with him and taught the Doctrine of Christ. He was soaking up every minute of it, and his desire to be baptized is definitely increasing. At the end of the lesson, he told us that he wanted to talk to a recent convert about their conversion story...which is a really good indicator of his real intent! Then he told us that he was going to tell his mom about his decision to be baptized this past weekend, and we haven't heard how that went, but he told us he wasn't really nervous because he knew that this is what he wanted to do. Such a stud!

By this point in our day (yes, we're still on Wednesday) we were EXHAUSTED. We kept saying "WE FEEL LIKE MISSIONARIES!!" all day haha, but we had promised one of our relief society presidents that we would help a recent convert move out, so at 8 pm we rolled up to this recent convert's house, packed up a couple bedrooms, vacuumed the floor, and moved some boxes to the living room, and then headed home to make it back by 9:30 pm. We enjoyed a nice dinner of rice at 9:30 and went to bed feeling very accomplished, but also very, very tired haha. It was a great day!

MLC

On Thursday we had MLC, and the theme was "Having a Christ-Centered Mission Culture." It was an awesome MLC! We had the opportunity to talk about the things our mission is doing well at, and the things we are doing less well at haha. We set goals and made plans on how to center our mission more around the Savior and His teachings, and also incorporate more Christ-like love in our day to day interactions as well. I came away feeling so refreshed and so ready to go out and change the culture in our mission, and I also came away with a greater desire to build my life around Jesus Christ. He truly is the center to everything we do, or at least should be. I have a lot to learn about making Him the center of everything, but that's definitely something I want to work on these next several months.

Birthday poloroids

Friday was my birthday!! My 21st birthday was beyond lit. Haha Friday morning Sister Rowley was like "Look at how you're spending your 21st, vs how almost every other 21 year old in the world is spending theirs. It's pretty cool." And she's right! Honestly my birthday last year was one of the worst days of my mission; I just remember being sad all day, but this year my birthday was amazing. It was a great day spent in the service of others, and I was also reminded of how blessed I am to be serving in this mission. My mission has blessed me in more ways than just a deeper knowledge of the gospel. I've also made some really amazing friends along the way. Sister Small and Sister Donaldson came down and spent some time with me, so our MTC group was reunited once again! They surprised me by decorating the house in the morning and then we opened my presents and then we all went and got cinnamon rolls for breakfast together. All in all it was a great day and I'm grateful for all the love and support!

And last but not least, this weekend was GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not gonna lie, I'm super gutted that this was my last general conference on the mission. There is just something special about general conference as a missionary! I think it has something to do with the fact that you stay awake all four sessions. Haha in all seriousness, this general conference was fantastic. I received so much revelation. I also received a very powerful witness that Russell M. Nelson is a prophet of God. The Spirit was so strong in the Saturday morning session. Seriously I think all of us missionaries were crying, and afterwards we were all talking and all of us received the same confirming witness. I LOVED how this conference was so focused on revelation and following the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I also enjoyed the emphasis on repentance and 2nd chances. As always, it's tough to choose just one favorite talk, so here's a list of my favorites: Brian K. Taylor, Lynn G. Robbins, Neil L. Andersen, David A. Bednar, Taylor G. Goday, Bonnie L. Oscarson, all of Sunday morning lol, Jeffrey R. Holland, and Quentin L. Cook. And of course, I absolutely loved President Nelson's talk. I had no idea that he wasn't raised in a gospel-centered home. That shatters the stupid myth that the leaders of our church are only cradle Mormons. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for EVERYONE because it is CHRIST'S GOSPEL. The leaders of this church are not just old men. They have been called of God to lead and guide us here on Earth! They have been prepared their whole lives to be able to lead us! If you don't have that witness, I invite you from the bottom of my heart to do what it takes to gain that testimony. Study their words then go to our Father in Heaven in fasting and prayer. I promise, He will answer your prayer.

Anyways, I love you all!

Sister Jacobson

Happy 21st Birthday to me!

Birthday gate!

MLC selfie