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.
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| Exchanges with Sis.'s Jensen & Meglen |
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| Zone Conference |
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!
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!
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| Temple baptisms with A |
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
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| I spy bunnies eating carrots |
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| Temple baptisms with A & P |
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| San Tan & Higley zones |
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| Flag football ft noodles (arms-length) |
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