Week 46: Be One Hundred Percent Responsible

December 11, 2017

Helllllooo!

Transfer 7 comps

Transfer 7 in the books!

Hope everyone's had a great week! With transfers, MLC, and Mesa Lights this week we had a crazy busy week...and this transfer's lined up to be super busy as well so it's going to fly by. To start off, transfer news! My new companion is...SISTER SMALL!! She's from a small town in Washington called Royal City and she's been on her mission for just shy of eleven months. We were in the MTC together and we are super excited to be companions! Our MTC companions are also companions so we're just having a blast re-living the MTC haha. She's a great missionary and we know it's inspired that we're companions together in this area right now. Sister Small was actually in this area for six weeks at the very beginning of her mission before the areas in Desert Ridge were realigned. That means that she knows two of our four wards really well! It's been super nice because we've been able to jump in to this transfer with both feet, since she already knows fifty percent of our area! Also, Sister Small is allergic to corn, dairy, and cane sugar AKA everything I like/everything missionaries are ever fed so this week has been amazing. I never knew that the people in the Arizona Gilbert Mission were capable of making salads!!! It has been very impressive and a much needed change in diet for me and Sister Utsch. After months of casseroles and enchiladas we are very excited to eat fresh leafy greens every night! Thus far the trio life is good. We feel like a mob cruising through the streets of our area, and we think that people are a little intimidated when three of us ride into their driveway and start talking to them...but overall it's been fun. Sister Utsch goes home a week from tomorrow and I'm really going to miss being her companion.

Best tri-panionship

Last Monday L received a priesthood blessing! The past few weeks as Sister Utsch and I have been pondering ways to help L, we've thought multiple times about asking her if she wanted a blessing. The last time we met with her we finally asked if she wanted a blessing and she said yes! The blessing was amazing. The Spirit was so strong, and the YSA bro who offered the blessing was so in tune with what she needed. It was amazing sitting there, knowing everything that she's gone through as she's been investigating the gospel, and knowing where she was at, and hearing a Priesthood holder who knew some, but not a lot, of her story say exactly what she needed at that time. The Priesthood is real. Over and over in the blessing he just emphasized trusting in the Lord--trusting His timing, His will, His servants, His gospel, and the answers she's already received. It was so simple, but at the same time so profound. I know she was definitely touched. We have a lesson with her tonight and we are excited to hear her thoughts on the blessing!

We also had a lesson with Le this week. I've taught her three times since being in Desert Ridge and up until this week she's honestly been one of the flakiest investigators I've ever met haha. This week we were thrilled because we showed up to this lesson and she had actually kept the commitment to read the Book of Mormon! She was on 1 Nephi 17. She told us that she keeps feeling a "pull" from the book, something that is telling her to read it. We had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon, and we were able to help her see that this "pull" that she's feeling is the Holy Ghost telling her to keep reading. Also as we kept talking she realized that she's gained a small testimony of the Book of Mormon. She was so excited to keep reading it! We're hoping to have another lesson this week.

This week we had a couple of lessons with the K family. On Thursday they had us over for dinner and we had a Christmas lesson. We talked about the attributes of Jesus Christ and how we can try and be like Him. We talked about how we will never be perfect like Him, but how even our littlest effort is good enough for the Lord, and He blesses us for our efforts. We also talked about how Jesus Christ set the example for us. The Spirit was really strong. At the end of the lesson we asked LK if he wanted to be baptized and he said, "SO BAD!!!!" Haha I wish all investigators would respond that way! CK said, "Well, I would love to see him be baptized with his father..." and then MK said, "Yeah I'll be baptized...I've been feeling like I need to be for a while now." CK started crying and was sooo happy. We put LK on date tentatively for December 23!! That is very soon, but he's ready. He knows everything he needs to and he loves coming to church.

We are unsure about when MK will be able to be baptized....I can't remember what I have and have not shared about the K family so I guess just a brief back-story: MK was raised in the church but never really had a testimony. When MK and CK were married MK was Less-Active and CK wasn't a member. About six years ago they reactivated and CK was baptized. They were like a powerhouse couple in the ward, but they had a few really big concerns that were unresolved. One of these was whether or not the prophets and the apostles were really called of God. CK fasted and prayed for two years to receive a testimony of the prophet, and felt like she received an answer that he was not a prophet. She was really upset by this, but she and MK felt a strong desire to go to the temple and be sealed so they kept working towards that. Around two years ago they were still struggling with various things, the word of wisdom being the biggest thing, and the bishop told them that they could not have a temple recommend as long as they continued abusing various substances. This was the breaking point for MK, and since they were already struggling with the line of authority, MK removed his records from the church. They stopped coming to church and for a really long time MK was super anti. It's crazy because you talk to the missionaries who served in this area just a year ago and they will tell you that the meanest person to them was MK. But around a year ago, MK started seeking direction in his life. He started praying. He had a couple of really cool dreams, where a man gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to read it. Initially, he refused to read it, but one day...about eight months ago...as he was driving along the side of the road, he saw a sister missionary wipe out on her bike really bad. He says that he thought about that sister missionary nonstop for multiple days. He was so worried that she was hurt, and he says that he realized that the reason why he was so worried is because he knew that she was a set-apart representative of the Lord, Jesus Christ. Get this...that missionary...the one who crashed her bike...was Sister Small! As a result of her crashing her bike, MK gained a testimony that the missionaries are servants of the Lord. This opened the door for the next set of missionaries to get into the K home and start teaching them. During one of our lessons with them, their home teacher left a commitment that has literally changed their lives. He said, "Take the good of the gospel, and run with it. The rest will straighten itself out." Ever since, they have come to church every Sunday. It's been over four months. They read the scriptures, they pray together, and for the first time in his life, MK has a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He wants to be re-baptized!!

MK met with the bishop yesterday to begin the process of re-baptism. From what we understand, it should be a pretty painless process considering the circumstances in which he removed his records...but obviously we don't know the specifics because that's not entirely in our stewardship. We went by last night, and they brought up the same old concerns. CK is really frustrated about the line of authority...she's angry that MK has to meet with the bishop...she's upset about the organization of the church...etc. It was a really intense lesson. However, the difference between these concerns two years ago and these concerns today is that now they have a testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They've felt the Spirit in settings that matter, and as a result their hearts are softened. MK is going to continue to meet with the bishop, and we are hopeful that he will continue to be humble. We are also hopeful that CK will soften her heart. Nowhere do I feel the mantle of a missionary more than in the K home. I testify that the mantle is real. I know that missionaries are called of God. The authority that we have is real. I promise you, we are sure as heck not trained on how to deal with situations like this. I am not equipped to help them resolve these concerns. Half the time the only thing I know how to do is bear testimony! But as we are sitting in their home and they are asking rapid-fire questions...I feel the Spirit come over me and I am able to be a conduit for Him. I am able to get out of the Lord's way and let Him do His work, through me. I have a testimony of this work. I know that it is the Lord's. No one knows His children better than Him. Countless times on my mission I've been sitting in lessons and scriptures I didn't even know I knew come into my mind and it's exactly what the person needs. I've felt of His love for His children so deep and so poignant, and I have such a deep-rooted testimony of the reality of His love. Last night as the K family were freaking out, we had the opportunity to tell them that Sister Small was the missionary who crashed her bike in front of MK. They both started crying. MK said, "Thank you for being a catalyst in the road of my conversion." and we were able to testify of the evidence of God's love. The Lord knew that this point was going to be critical for the K’s. He knew that they would need something to help them to trust Him...why else would Sister Small come back to an area that she's already served in?? It's for them. It's the coolest thing. Please keep them in your prayers. They are so close.

Nativity at the Mesa Temple

This week we also had MLC. Of all the MLCs I've attended I think this one was my favorite. We read a talk by Lynn G. Robbins given at a BYU devotional in August called "Be 100 Percent Responsible." Probably one of the best non-apostle talks I've ever read. In the talk, Elder Robbins talks about "doctrinal pairs" that the adversary tries to divide in our lives....things like mercy and justice, faith and works, and agency and responsibility. For the purposes of MLC we talked a ton about agency and responsibility, and how the two need to go hand in hand. It was all about accountability, which is something that I've been thinking a lot about! It was a life-changing meeting and I would strongly invite everyone to read that devotional and ponder how Satan is dividing doctrinal pairs in your life!

I love you all! Have a great week!

Sister Jacobson

Link to referenced talk: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lynn-g-robbins_be-100-percent-responsible/

Very lit house in our area

Mission life

Comps chillin'

Week 45: Counting Sheep

December 4, 2017

Hello everyone!

D-Ridge zone sports this a.m.

It's been a great week. Transfer calls came in last night and I will be staying in Desert Ridge for a fourth transfer. Sister Utsch and I are on our last leg as a duo; on Wednesday we will be in a trio for two weeks before Sister Utsch goes home! We are excited to find out who our new companion is going to be. It's definitely bittersweet. The last four months of our companionship have been incredible, but we know that there are great things in store for our tri-panionship and even once she heads home. The work goes on!

To start off, L was not baptized on Saturday. We weren't expecting it to happen, but we were remaining optimistic until the very last second! We had a lesson with her this week, and as we were preparing for the lesson we really sought the guidance of the Holy Ghost. We tried to put ourselves in her shoes and imagine how she was feeling and then prepare a lesson based off of that. It was really cool, because when we got to the lesson with her we discovered that we'd hit the nail on the head with how she was feeling. Because of the Holy Ghost, we were totally prepared to help her! The Spirit was really strong during our lesson. Afterwards, Sister Utsch and I talked about how REAL L's intent is. She's such a genuinely good person, and when you talk with her you can tell that she wants to be baptized because she truly wants to follow Jesus Christ, and that she wants to be a member of His church. There's no desire to be baptized for personal gain or social standing or whatever...it's purely out of a desire to follow Jesus Christ. It's so refreshing to see, and I know that the Lord will bless her for her righteous desire. I know she'll be baptized one day, and that's going to be an amazing day! I'm looking forward to it, and I know that she's looking forward to it even more. Keep her and her family in your prayers!

Visiting L at work

In addition, this week Sister Utsch and I also made a pass through the drive-thru at L's work! Haha that was fun. We got chocolate malts and L was kind enough to use her employee discount to cover our tab. Bless. Best investigator haha.

This week Sister Utsch and I had probably the most rigorous religious conversation I've ever had on my mission with this potential we found in the area book. We knocked on his door back in August, and a woman who did not speak English answered and we tried to ask for S, but she didn't really understand, and she told us to come back either after October 18, or in 2018...so we were really confused and all around it was pretty awkward...so we hadn't gone back, but this week we felt really strongly we needed to stop by. When we knocked on the door, S answered and he knew exactly who we were right off the bat! He told us that other missionaries used to come and talk with him about a year ago, and that it was really weird because he would see them all over the place. He said that everywhere he went he would see these missionaries and they would stop and talk to him and ask him if he'd read the Book of Mormon. He told us that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon, but English is his second language, so it was really difficult for him to understand the old English in the Book of Mormon. He said that the last he'd heard from the missionaries, they were going to bring him a Farsi Book of Mormon, but he'd gone out of town and then they were transferred so he was lost in the shuffle. It was a huge miracle, because we totally have a Farsi Book of Mormon in our house and this whole time we've been like...who was this supposed to be for?! Probably for S! We'll take it to him this week. As we were talking with him, we found out that he's been studying religion for the past thirty years. He's an honest seeker of truth, and he told us that he's been practicing the Baha’i religion, which basically practices the main fundamental beliefs of all religions. That was really evident by our conversation with him because he agreed with much of what we were saying. It was fascinating to talk with him, and he really wanted us to come back to continue our conversation! We are excited to take the Farsi Book of Mormon over and hopefully start teaching him.

Pizza reward for service

We did service for a part-member family in our area this week! A few weeks ago we helped them move boxes from their house into their garage, and this week we helped them move the boxes from the garage back into the house haha. We didn't have a dinner appointment that night, and as we were leaving, they asked us if we had dinner. We said no, and they invited us to come back in an hour for dinner! They went to MOD and got us our favorite pizzas! During dinner we saw a massive miracle. This family's daughter was baptized a few years ago and is the only member in her family. The mom would join, but won't because her husband is unsupportive. He's always been really brash and stand-offish, but as we were eating dinner with them I asked the question, "How did you two meet?" and it ended up being the most inspired question of my LIFE. His countenance totally change and he opened up. I was able to connect with him really well! It was so surprising! When we left, Sister Utsch was like "Wow that is something I have never seen, and may never see again...Brother L-R was actually SMILING!!!" Haha a slight exaggeration, but it was still really cool!

Swanky water someone gave us

We were doing YSA work this week, and we decided to go on a bit of an adventure haha. We realized that our YSA ward goes suuuuper far south of our family ward area, and we'd never been down there! We were curious about what was in the boonies of our area, so we went there. We found a Fujifilm warehouse! And we discovered that there's an air treatment plant! But don't worry; we also did some YSA work while we were adventuring haha! We tried visiting this one girl, but her house was surrounded by a fence with big dogs, and we couldn't see how to open the fence. And then we tried to visit this other girl, but her address doesn't exist. So then we tried to visit this one guy, and he was home! We were able to talk with him through the doorbell camera (lol what is this world?!) and he couldn't meet with us right then, but he wants us to come back this next week! Miracles come when you visit the far corners of your area!

Something to ponder

On Saturday Sister Utsch and I had the opportunity to go and work the Mesa Temple Lights again! We saw a couple of miracles. It was fun because right when we got to the Mesa Lights we were walking through the parking lot into the visitor's center and I heard someone yell "JENN!!?!" and I turned and it was a member from my first area! It was so good to see her! And perfect timing, because they'd been looking for me the whole time they were there and right as they were leaving we were arriving. It was really weird to hear someone whose ward I served in call me by my first name, dang it Facebook! Haha.

The second miracle was really cool. We were at our last rotation of the night, and it was 9:15. Our shift ended at 9:30, and we hadn't been having much success in talking to people. We were at a station where not many people stop, it's mostly people just trying to breeze past and get to the next cool thing. Sister Utsch and I were standing back and waiting for people to stop so we could go talk to them about the display there, but for the most part, we were doing the whole "Hello, welcome to the lights! Have a good night!" kind of deal. This lady stopped and looked at the display, and Sister Utsch went and started talking with her. At this point, the crowd had started to disperse a little bit, so I could hear parts of their conversation. She had just moved here with her young daughter from North Carolina, she hadn't found a faith yet and so far her daughter HATED Arizona. I looked, and her daughter was tugging on her mom's sleeve saying "Mom, let's goooo! I want to keep looking at the lights!" Meanwhile, Sister Utsch was trying to have a spiritual conversation with her mom. I heard a voice in my mind say, "Go to her." I went over to the daughter, and started talking with her. I asked her what her name was, she said K. I asked her how old she was, she said seven. I asked her what her favorite part of the lights were, she said everything. I asked her what the best part of Arizona was, and she said nothing. I started listing my favorite things about Arizona to her, and we started having a conversation. She was a WILD little girl haha, it took a lot to keep her entertained. After about ten minutes, she got bored and went back over to her mom. It was at the exact same time that Sister Utsch was about to get this lady's address so the missionaries could go visit her. Literally nothing else could have gone more wrong. In these fifteen seconds, K accidentally knocked her mom's drink out of her hand, so it spilled all over Sister Utsch and I and onto the ground, Sister Utsch's pen wouldn't work, and K started getting more and more persistent. I looked around frantically for something to entertain K with, and my eyes rested on the forgotten display. It was a scene of shepherds and their sheep on the night of the Savior's birth. I said, "K! Do you want to come with me and count these sheep?!" She was SO excited to come and count these sheep with me. We counted all the sheep in the exhibit, and then we counted all the chickens, and then K realized that she'd forgotten to count ONE sheep. The one she'd forgotten was the one that the shepherd was holding. She said, "I'm sure the shepherd didn't forget that sheep though! He's holding it!!" and she laughed, but that small statement really impacted me. Our shepherd is Jesus Christ, and I know that He doesn't forget any of us. One of my favorite hymns recently is "Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd," and I thought of the third verse:

Dear to the heart of the Shepherd,

Dear are the “ninety and nine”;

Dear are the sheep that have wandered

Out in the desert to pine.

Hark! He is earnestly calling,

Tenderly pleading today:

“Will you not seek for my lost ones,

Off from my shelter astray?”

As K and her mom were leaving, her mom turned back to us and said, "You know, I promised myself that the first person to talk to me about religion here in Arizona I'd hear out. I'm really grateful I came here tonight." I know that Jesus Christ knows each of us and that He is always reaching out to us. I know that it was not a coincidence that K and her mom came to the Mesa Temple Lights. He's always providing us with opportunities to turn to Him. I know that it's not a coincidence that they stopped at mine and Sister Utsch's station. Sometimes He relies on us to reach out in love to those around us and minister to His lost sheep. It's an honor and a privilege, as well as a sacred charge and responsibility, to have the opportunity to reach out to those lost sheep around us. I am humbled by the Lord's trust in us as His servants.

I love you all! Don't forget to #LightTheWorld this week!

Sister Jacobson

Braided hair gang

Someone paid for our Cafe Rio and someone else gave us a gift card!

A stoplight, a food truck, & a selfie

Weekly planning toast

#famous at Gilbert Historical Museum

What are those glowing eyes?

...a horse, of course!

Week 44: The Nutritional Value of a Twinkie

November 27, 2017

Hey!! What's good in the hood?!

Things are real good in this hood; it's been a solid week! We've been working our tails off!

Looking fly on Thanksgiving

To start off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! It was hilarious because we had mission choir practice on Thursday morning, so the whole mission got together...and we all looked so FLY!! Haha you know you serve in a biking mission when you're used to seeing one another covered in bike grease, sweat, and the classic dust of Arizona. It was fun to see how everyone "really looks." Sister Utsch and I managed to survive the three dinners we had...although we were not able to eat anything for like three days afterwards haha. Our first dinner was with a half-active, half less-active family in one of our wards. It was a pretty awkward dinner because half of the family was super excited to see us, and the other half was pretty stand-offish...but we were grateful that we were able to bring the Spirit into their home! Nothing is a coincidence, and I know that they needed the Spirit of missionary work for some reason on Thanksgiving!

Comps looking fly on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving with the F family

Snowball fight AZ style

Our second dinner was with a part-member, recent convert family in Sister Utsch's last area. They invited us and their current missionaries to come and have Thanksgiving with them. It was so fun; I've only met the family once but I was amazed at the way that they welcomed me into their home and made me feel like part of their family. We got there, and they had us put our names into a "raffle for who says grace," and then they asked us to grab gloves. The mom knew that the four of us missionaries are all from places much colder than Arizona, so she went to Bahama Bucks (a super delicious snowcone store in AZ) and bought a case of snowballs so we could have a snowball fight!! It was so sweet. It was 100 degrees here on Thanksgiving Day, so she goes "I knew that it would be weird for you to be somewhere so hot for Thanksgiving, so this is my solution of how to make it colder!!" Haha and then we went inside and K (the recent convert) wanted to do crafts with us. And then, it was time to eat. No lie, probably the best Thanksgiving food I've ever eaten in my life. The dessert was caramel apple cheesecake; need I say more?? Once we were fat and happy, the mom pulled out this game called "Who said it: The prophet or a princess?" SHE IS LITERALLY NOT A MEMBER OF OUR CHURCH!! It was amazing. She had found ten quotes from various prophets/apostles or Disney characters and we had to determine which quotes were from the prophets and which quotes were from the Disney characters. It was actually really hard haha. To top off the dinner, they gave us gift bags with blankets, candy, and chapstick! As we were leaving, they were SO thankful that we had come. They said "It's usually only the three of us at Thanksgiving...so it was really nice to be able to share it with people who mean so much to K." :')

On our way to three Thanksgiving meals

If you thought that was it, you thought wrong!! Because we still had one more dinner! Our last dinner was with an active family in one of our wards, the J family. Sister Utsch and I love this family so much. They are the kind of people that just make you feel at home in their home. They are also hilarious. They made probably the best apple pie of my life...which is a miracle because ever since I was in the MTC I've wanted apple pie and I've never been served it on my mission...until Thanksgiving!! We had a great time with the J’s, and Sister J was especially grateful that we came over because her daughter is serving a mission right now and she was really missing her on Thanksgiving. When we went to leave, they also pulled out gift bags for us! It was like Christmas! They've picked up on our weird love of matching with each other and bought us two matching t-shirts...which means that Sister Utsch and I now have 7 matching t-shirts. This is what happens when you're companions for four months. All in all, it was a great day and it was a fun change in pace, while still being a productive day of work!

Kickin off the Christmas season

On Friday Sister Utsch and I had the opportunity to work at the opening night of the Mesa Temple Lights. What a way to kick off the Christmas season!  It was BEAUTIFUL. The Spirit there was so strong. We were able to talk to so many different people; both members and nonmembers alike and testify of the reason for the season; Jesus Christ. Christmastime softens people's hearts and I know it's because we are more focused on the Savior of the world than at any other time throughout the year. He truly is the light of the world; which is why the Church's Christmas initiative this year is #LightTheWorld. We saw the launch video a couple of weeks ago and we've been eagerly awaiting the worldwide release so we could show everyone and we've already seen miracles from it!

One of the miracles we've already seen from #LightTheWorld happened as we were biking through a park in our area one day. We saw a lady sitting on the end of a slide with her son, and they appeared to be in pretty rough shape. We stopped and started talking to them, and she told us that she had just gone through a messy divorce, she didn't have a job, she had just moved here, and it was time for her to take her son back to his dad's for the week and he didn't want to go. In addition, she told us that she is a member, but hadn't had a chance to move her records into our ward yet. As we were talking with her, we found out that she had moved into a house kitty-corner to ours! We were able to give her a run-down on all her neighbors, and tell her when and where church was, who the bishop was, and things like that. We asked her if she'd seen the #LightTheWorld video yet, and she said no, so we pulled out one of our phones and showed her and her son right there in the park. She started crying and told us how grateful she was that we had run into her, because she had been feeling really alone and she needed to know that God was aware of her. As we left, they got up and started playing on the playground, and overall they just seemed much happier. I know that we were supposed to see her that day, and I know that we were supposed to share the #LightTheWorld video with her. It gave her hope...and helped her to know that God loves her. If you haven't watched the video yet...I would strongly invite you to watch it...and then share it with someone else, and look for ways to reach outside of yourself this holiday season and serve others as the Light of the World, even Jesus Christ would. You can find the launch video on my Facebook page, mormon.org, or via lds.org.

On Saturday Sister Utsch and I were excited because it was our first full proselyting day together in a loonnnggg time. We planned out the best day ever, and set a goal to boldly invite everyone that we contacted. We have a few part-member families and less-active families that we've been working with on and off that are really close to formally and regularly meeting with us that we've been too scared to be bold with, for fear of scaring them off or offending them. But this week Sister Utsch and I read a talk that said something along the lines of "there's not enough time to not be bold." and we felt called to repentance, so we decided to focus on being bold all day long. Everywhere we went, we talked to everyone we saw, we asked for referrals from everyone, we knocked lots of doors...and not many people were home. We weren't letting anything get us down and we were working so hard...we were determined to find new investigators and help others come closer to Jesus Christ. In the evening we were biking down the street and we saw a potential investigator we've been trying to get in with outside putting up Christmas lights, so we started talking to him! We established that his name is J and that his lights looked good so far...and then he told us that he needed to grab something inside but he'd be right back. We waited on his driveway for five minutes....then ten minutes...then fifteen minutes...and it became pretty obvious that he wasn't going to come back outside. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. We were both so frustrated as we left his house, we biked over to a neighborhood park, and we sat down on the curb and just started crying together. At this point, it had been close to two really tough weeks, with a lot of encounters similar to that one...and we just didn't know what to do. We were like "What are we doing wrong?! We're doing everything we're supposed to be doing, we're being obedient, we're working hard, we're trying our best...why does it feel like everything is culminating against us?!" We said a really fervent prayer, and then got back on our bikes and got back out to work for the last hour of the day. We talked to a few more people, with no luck, and then stopped by a member's to get water...and as we were walking up to the door, our phone beeped. We checked the message and saw that we had just received a new referral from the Mesa Temple Lights. It said, "Met him and his small family, doesn't think it was a coincidence he met the missionaries here, wants to meet with the missionaries where he lives, very curious and willing to convert." We started crying again, but this time out of gratitude. We haven't been able to get in contact with the referral yet, but we are so excited for the opportunity to hopefully teach this family! As I was writing in my journal on Saturday night I reflected on Stanley G. Ellis' talk from this past General Conference. In it he says, "We see that hard is the constant! We all have challenges. The variable is our reaction to the hard." I know that life is sometimes hard, and that sometimes we don't understand everything that happens. I know that sometimes it would be easier to quit and give up; I can assure you that Sister Utsch and I sure felt like quitting when we sat on that curb in the park, but I know that Heavenly Father does not want us to quit. I know that He gives us challenges and trials because we can handle them and He trusts us to be able to maintain our faith in Him despite the difficult times. I know that as we choose to have gratitude through our trials that we will receive more blessings from Him and in turn we will be able to trust Him even more.

Pano of AZ sky

This week we also went on an exchange with Sister Bolander, who is in her first transfer in the mission! She's in a trio so it was kinda fun because she got to come into our area with me AND Sister Utsch. It was fun to be on an STL exchange with my STL companion haha. It was a sneak peak of what's to come the two weeks before Sister Utsch goes home, when we'll be in a trio. We had a good day! We were able to help a less-active member decorate her home for Christmas and share an uplifting message with her about having hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I love being able to help people find hope!

Taught our 1st Skype lesson this week!

Due to Thanksgiving, we weren't able to meet with the majority of our investigators this week, which was a bummer. However, they all still came to church yesterday which was exciting! It was T's first day in her real ward and we were so proud of how the ward fellowshipped her. They did a great job! We haven't been able to meet with L in two weeks...so she probably will not be getting baptized December 2...which makes us sad, but we just want her to be baptized when she feels ready. We know she's ready, but she needs to gain the confidence that she's ready...if that makes sense? We're excited to meet with her this week. We also met with K this week and had a brief lesson on the Restoration...all these solid investigators!! I felt like she was teaching me the Restoration for real haha.

The monthly theme for primary is "I can be a missionary now!" and at the beginning of the month we told all of our primary presidents that we would love to help in any way that we could...and they all procrastinated....so yesterday we made appearances in both junior and senior primaries for all three of our wards! 6 presentations yeah haha!! We got to talk to the kids about ways that we prepared for our missions, things that we wish we'd done differently, and how they can be missionaries now. It was so fun! I remember being a little kid and thinking the missionaries were rock stars, and I remember so clearly those days that the missionaries came in and taught us. I hope that they see us as rock stars and remember our lessons yesterday!

Our sink has been leaky for months

I heard a cool fact/analogy this week. It has been scientifically proven that if you were to eat only Twinkies, then you would eventually starve. You could eat and eat and eat until you felt like you were going to pop, but you would still starve because of the lack of nutritional value in a Twinkie. If you were to eat only Twinkies you would eventually die, and it would be no one's fault but your own, because you failed to change your diet. Far too often, that is the way that we are with the gospel. We read our scriptures, say our prayers, and attend our meetings, and we have spiritual experiences--we all come away saying "Wow that was so spiritual." But the application isn't there. We receive promptings from the Holy Ghost, yet we do not act on them. We can read and read and read, or pray and pray and pray, and feel the Spirit multiple times, but until we APPLY the things we read, or ACT on the answers we receive, we are guaranteed to starve spiritually. If your testimony is withering, or the flame of your faith is dying, then that's on you. Change your diet. It is not enough to merely go through the motions in the gospel, or to treat the gospel like a monotonous checklist of "do’s and don’ts." This gospel is not a gospel of knowing things, it's a gospel about BECOMING...in order for us to become who God needs us to be, and therefore reach our full potential, it is absolutely essential for us to apply the things that we learn. I know that with the help and the guidance of the Holy Ghost, we will be able to identify and make changes in our lives and thereby become spiritually full.

Thank you for all the love and support, I truly feel every prayer! I love you all!

Sister Jacobson

Thanksgiving with the F family...

...RC in Sis. Utsch's last area

Getting wrecked by Sis. Sperry's snowball