June 13, 2018
Hello hello hello!
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| Match made in heaven |
Holy smokes everyone it has been a
PACKED week and a half. This week our mission was blessed to be visited by
Elder Weatherford T. Clayton from the Quorum of the Seventy and his wife. We
spent Monday with them in zone conference and today we had a brief MLC. I can't
think of a better way to spend a p-day than with a servant of the Lord. I can
truly testify that he has been called of God. President Wheeler always tells us
that if we're in a meeting with a General Authority and it doesn't change our
lives then it is our own fault. We have been richly blessed this week as we've
been taught and counseled by the Clayton's! I know that I am better because of
the opportunity that I've had this week to learn from them.
In addition to a mission tour,
Sister Jensen and I have had a crazy miraculous week here in San Tan. To start
the week off, we had interviews with President and Sister Wheeler. How I love
them! They are both so inspired and I always come away from our interviews with
a clear vision of what I need to do next. This was my last interview with
President before my departing interview, and we both got a little emotional.
There is a special bond that comes when you serve the Lord together!
This week we had...not one...not
two...not three...but FOUR lessons with T. He is doing so awesome! He's really
grabbing hold of the gospel. I don't know if I've ever taught someone more excited
to repent. So here’s a summary of each of the four lessons:
- We met with him and taught the Ten Commandments! He was
stoked to commit to live them, and kept saying that he knew that they were
inspired from God. We also decided to move his baptism to the 23rd so he
could be confirmed in Sacrament meeting!
- We read Alma 36 in the Book of Mormon and talked
about the testimony that each of us can gain through the Spirit. At this
lesson, he told us that he'd never prayed to know if the Book of Mormon
was true because he just felt like it was from God. He got a little
defensive, so we read Moroni 10:3-5 with him and all the pieces came
together as to why we kept asking him to pray about it! He prayed that
night and received a witness that the Book of Mormon is true.
- We felt prompted to re-teach the Restoration. We felt
like he needed to understand where the BOM came from a little better, so
we focused a lot on the Great Apostasy and the need for a restoration. By
the end of it he had a lot better understanding. He even watched “Joseph
Smith: Prophet of the Restoration” (QUALITY movie 10/10 would recommend)
that night and texted us saying that he knows Joseph was a prophet!
- Yesterday we met with him and really focused on applying
the BOM to his life. We realized that he was reading the BOM, but not
really applying the principles taught. He seemed to grasp the concept!
Then we taught the Word of Wisdom. He had no questions, no struggles with
it, and agreed to live it easy-peasy. He is so prepared!
Unfortunately, T did not come to
church this Sunday. He had every intention to come, but his coworker bailed on
him at the last second so he ended up having to work :( that means we'll have
to push his baptism back a little so he can come to church twice...we're still
going to try and do it the same weekend, but instead of the 23rd we are now
shooting for the 24th. We are praying so hard for him to be able to make it to
church!!!
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| Exchanges with Sister Preston |
We met with J this week too! He is
doing GREAT. He retains information so well. We taught the restoration and he
remembered it all. He kept saying "I remember when you taught this before
I was baptized you asked this question and shared this experience" and
then he'd quote verbatim a question/experience we'd shared. Haha so crazy! He
received the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday, which was super awesome. So proud of
him. We are shooting to go to the temple with him hopefully next week!
We went on two exchanges this week!
The first exchange I was with Sister Preston, a sister who has been on her
mission for about eight months. We were in my area. We had a great day
together! We got to talk to lots of people, and we even got in off of the
street with a potential investigator! We were able to teach her a little bit
and she became a new investigator. I love exchange miracles!
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| Exchanges with Sister Reedy |
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| Me on the tiny bike |
The second exchange was with a
sister named Sister Reedy, who has been out for about 7 months. We were in her
area and we had a pretty long day. Her area is 100% bike and it was 110° outside
on our exchange...and no one answered the door. Haha so it was a little rough,
but we were definitely qualifying ourselves for miracles! My bike is a 20"
frame, and Sister Reedy’s companion’s is a 13" frame with an un-adjustable
seat...so I spent the whole day riding around like a clown. (See attached
picture) We had some good laughs about that.
Okay here's a bomb story. God is
legit amazing. Let me walk y'all through this miracle we saw this week. The
sisters in this area have been teaching M and her daughter C for awhile and at
one point M was on date to be baptized. She fell off date due to some
addictions and family opposition and things like that...but we are still
working with her! Back in December, C set a goal to be baptized before my MTC
group went home this July. C suffers from debilitating anxiety, so the thought
was that this would give her plenty of time to learn about the gospel and also
get comfortable enough with the idea of coming to church.
At the start of this transfer, a
baptism at the end of this month was not looking likely for C. Sister Jensen
and I actually hadn't been able to get in with M and C all transfer...and we
were feeling pretty down. We stopped by their house on Tuesday night and as we
prayed before going inside, I asked specifically that we would be able to get
in and share a lesson because we NEEDED to see them. Straight up I think I
called down a miracle haha because M answered, wasn't doing anything, let us
in, and we started having a lesson....just with M. C was on a long distance
phone call and said she wouldn't join us. We read 2 Nephi 4, and M was SOBBING
on the couch. We were testifying of God's love, and of Christ's redeeming
power, and the Spirit was at His peak when C came out and sat down. She said
she just felt strongly that she needed to get off the phone and be there with
us. We finished the chapter, and C turned to us and said "it's crazy
because you always know just what to read with us" and then proceeded to
unload her entire life on us. This family is facing some of the most intense
life burdens. In short, she told us that her husband is abusing substances and
had recently left her. She turned to us and said, "If God is so loving and
so merciful then tell me what I have done to deserve all of this?!" we
literally didn't even know what to say. But it was way cool because we just
testified again and brought the Spirit back, and then Sister Jensen invited C
to meet with Bishop. C stopped and goes "actually, today the thought
crossed my mind that I needed to meet with him and talk with him about things.
I was just too scared to call him." We called Bishop right then and there
and he set up a time for not only him, but his counselors to meet with her. It
was awesome!
So we went back two nights later,
and right before we got there C had just gotten home from filing for divorce.
The timing could not have been more perfect. She tearfully told us about the
experience she'd had when she met with the counselors in the bishopric. She
said their visit with her had brought clarity and peace, and they'd given her a
Priesthood blessing. She told us that that was the first time she’s truly felt
God's love and peace since her son died a year and a half ago. Sister Jensen
and I were very touched, that is a HUGE leap in her progress! At that moment,
both Sister Jensen and I felt very prompted to invite C to be baptized...but
neither one of us acted on the prompting. When we left the lesson we were both
so mad at ourselves...and were kicking ourselves for the missed
opportunity.
But wait...it doesn't end there. On Sunday
C met with Bishop. She drove to the church by herself, walked into the church
by herself, and sat down with Bishop...ALL BY HERSELF!!! We stopped by on Sunday
night and she told us that walking through the halls of the church she didn't
even feel nervous or anxious...she felt calm and peaceful!! She was so
surprised, and so were we. She told us that Bishop had invited her to church on
Sunday and she committed to come! She also told us that Bishop had asked her to
be baptized...and she'd been hesitant to accept the commitment. We then told C
that we'd felt prompted to invite her to baptism two nights earlier but hadn't,
and that we'd dropped by with the intent of basically redeeming ourselves haha.
She paused for a little bit, and then asked what the process to be baptized
would look like...so we walked her through step by step, and the more we
explained, the more she realized how close she was to being able to be
baptized. At the very end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized on June
30th and she said YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE ARE SO EXCITED!!!! She
can totally make it, and she knows it! God is legit amazing. Even though C has
been through hell and back this week, I know that these trials are what have
ultimately led her to have this desire to draw closer to God. I know that her
meeting with the counselors in the bishopric and bishop were instrumental in
her feeling the Spirit again. We are so excited for her. Please keep her in
your prayers.
So yeah, that was way awesome. But
if you thought that that tapped us out for miracles for the week you thought
wrong! We met with A again this week. We took him on a tour of the church. He
is now renting a room in a home right by the church so he expressed some
curiosity about the church building. Our lesson started out much of the same
way that it did last week. He came into the church looking very downtrodden and
worn out, and wouldn't make eye contact with us. As we walked through the
building and helped him feel God's love though, he began to perk up. We brought
a member with us who has suffered from addiction as well, and A connected
really well with him. You could just see the hope enter A's eyes when this
member told him that he was a recovering addict. Here was someone with a
seemingly perfect life, telling A that he CAN really, truly change, and he
knows it from personal experience! It was very powerful. At the end of the
lesson, we invited him to be baptized on July 21st and he accepted!!!!!
Wooohoooo!! He also accepted our invitation to attend ARP classes, he is doing
great.
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| South zones with Elder Clayton |
To top the week off, we had MLC and
Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Clayton. Zone Conference was incredible.
We focused a lot on the faith to find and baptize converts, how to set goals
and make plans, and how to help people keep commitments. It was a training that
I know I definitely needed. Elder Clayton's training was entirely focused
around receiving revelation. He gave us a "recipe" for receiving
revelation...an acronym taken from Matthew 7:7, "Ask, and it shall
be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto
you." The Acronym is ASK. A-Ask, it all begins with a question that we
need an answer to. S-Seek, our next step is to seek the answer to the question
through studying the scriptures or the words of modern day prophets. K-Knock,
finally we turn to the Lord in prayer, inviting Him to confirm the answers we
have found in the scriptures, or educate us further. It was great! I really
latched onto that training.
And of course MLC today was
top-notch as well. Elder and Sister Clayton did a ton of follow-up training. We
were able to council with one another and really dig down deep and find out
what our mission is made of. We talked about what we do well and what we could
do better, and then Elder Clayton helped us apply the things we'd learned in
zone conference so that we could improve on our weak points. I am so ready to
hit these last three weeks running and apply everything that we've learned
these past few days!!
Man I know this email is so long...I
am just seriously so blown away by how much the Lord is blessing us here in
Arizona. I've truly learned on my mission that the Lord is far better to us
than we will ever deserve. At the beginning of this transfer, we were dropped by
our most promising investigator, and had no other investigators close to
baptism. But now we have three people on date to be baptized, and several
others progressing who will make that commitment soon. I know that faith truly
does precede the miracle. Ether 12:6. I am humbled and grateful that the Lord
has blessed us so plentifully this week. He is giving us much success, and I
just feel blessed to be a part of it.
I love you all!
Sister Jacobson
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| Amazing thing I discovered |
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| AZ sunsets |
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| AZ sunsets |
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| Car selfies in AZ summer be like |
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| Car selfies be like |
