Sister Jacobson's Glimpses of Gilbert: Week 71: Hello June

June 4, 2018

Hey everyone!

Post MLC companionship loving

What a WEEK! Man so much has happened. Sister Jensen and I have seen so many miracles this week...the Lord is absolutely blessing us here as we are doing our part to do His work!!

We had exchanges this week! I was with Sister Sattler, a sister who has been on her mission for around nine months now. She is the sweetest! We had a good day of knocking doors, and not too many people answered...but we still had a blast together. We had a stake correlation meeting and got to eat apple pie and homemade peach ice cream there...which was definitely a highlight!

Exchanges with Sister Sattler

We also had MLC this week! This month’s MLC was entirely focused on the Savior and the last week of His ministry. President walked us through each day of the Savior’s last week and we discussed the various events that took place. President pointed out that the last week of Christ's ministry contain the majority of miracles that people remember Him for. In a room about 90% full of missionaries going home within the next three months President posed the question, "What will you do your last transfer that will be miraculous??" It was one of the best MLCs I've been to! The Spirit was tangible. At the very end, I had to bear my departing testimony, and that didn't even feel real. It was almost an out of body experience...like I was watching someone else bear their testimony. I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I've had to serve a mission, and especially for the opportunity that I've had to serve in MLC these past several months...I've learned so much about myself and about my Savior as a result of striving to be a Christ-like leader!

Right after MLC we picked up a new investigator! Earlier in the week we texted A, the guy with the LSD tat from last week, and we found out that he had had a really tough week. Basically he'd gotten kicked out of his apartment, so he was living on the street, and he'd started to turn back to his old addictions. We were able to text him some scriptures to read from the BOM, and he said that those helped, and then Thursday we met with him at a nearby park and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He wants to change, but isn't sure how. In his eyes he will be an addict forever. It was incredible to see hope enter his eyes as we started teaching him about Christ's Atonement and the opportunity to change through Jesus Christ. During the lesson I felt very simply yet very powerfully God's love for him. Afterwards he texted us and thanked us for meeting with him. He told us that we are actually "angels walking the earth" because we help people like him change every day. It was very tender. He's got a journey ahead of him but we're excited to keep working with him!

Me doing my thang

This week we had a day where it felt like everything was falling apart. All day long, the majority of our plans were falling through...even things that don't usually fall through like ward mission leader meeting and dinner were falling through. It was kind of frustrating in the moment, but right towards the end of the day it was made very clear to us that the Lord had been orchestrating it all day long. We were in the apartments around 5 pm, the time we were supposed to be at dinner, and we were just trying to contact people. We felt impressed to stop by N’s, the lady we started teaching a few weeks ago. Since our first lesson with her we haven't been able to get in with her again, and we've knocked on her door a lot. Right as we got to the base of her apartment building, she came outside. She saw us and waved us over, and the three of us sat down on the stairs of the building. She broke down. Earlier that day she'd received the results back from a medical test that showed her testing positive for cancer. She was scared of what that meant for her and for her family. In addition, her family life at the moment is not the best--there’s a lot of contention in her home and she doesn't know how to fix it. She asked us to read with her. We read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and were able to testify that as she read the BOM she would be blessed with an increased ability to handle the various things she went through. At the end we prayed together on the stairs, and N definitely felt the Spirit. We're going back later this week to teach her some more. I know that we were supposed to be there that night! If anything had gone differently throughout the day, we wouldn't have been in the right place or at the right time to catch N right as she came outside. I even realized, if V had gotten baptized, we would have been at the church filling the font and not out proselyting. We would have missed that opportunity with N. Sometimes I forget that the Lord has a bigger plan in mind! But anyways, keep her in your prayers, she is having the cancerous tumor removed this Friday, and is waiting for results back from another test to see if there's cancer in another part of her body.

Blacksmithing

A side note, A and N are only two of the many people that Sister Jensen and I taught this week who suffer from extreme addiction. I don't think I've ever taught so many addicts at one time on my mission. Many of the problems that these people are experiencing could have been prevented by avoiding partaking of the addictive substance in the first place. I want to take the opportunity now to testify of the inspired nature of God's commandments, especially the Word of Wisdom. I've had a lot of people ask questions throughout my life about the Word of Wisdom, and by far the most common response is "well that's so restrictive and excessive, all things in moderation right?" or "I can have just one vice." While the guideline "all things in moderation" is sometimes appropriate, it is my suggestion that when dealing with addictive substances, it is not an appropriate guideline. All of these people we're working with in some degree or another started out at the level of "all things in moderation" with their "one little vice" --a drink here or there, or a smoke here or there, until finally things have spiraled out of control and they are left cleaning up the wreckage left in their lives from a habit that has become unmanageable. The danger in addiction is that it takes away one's agency, and leaves one feeling utterly helpless and hopeless. This week I've learned that Satan is very good at making addicts feel that he's won, that they've made so many mistakes that there is no way they will be able to return to God's presence. In other words, he's very good at making them feel like they've failed at HIS plan. But I know that God's plan is a plan of forgiveness and mercy, and that God knew we would come to Earth and sin. I know that God sent Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son, to Earth to suffer and die for us. Jesus Christ took upon Himself our sins and our imperfections, and through repentance and reliance on God we are able, by some way we don't fully understand, to find healing and peace. Change is possible because of Jesus Christ.

This week we had an awesome miracle. On Monday night some other sisters in the mission were biking through their area when one of them stopped and said "we need to knock on that door right there." They went and knocked on the door and met T, a 19 year old guy who is looking to draw closer to God. Earlier in the day, missionaries from another church had knocked on his door and he had turned them away. But when the sisters came around, he said that he felt something different. He let the sisters in, they taught him the restoration, and invited him to be baptized June 24th. He accepted!! He is YSA age, so they passed him off to us on Friday. I legit started crying when they told us about him. This kid is potentially more golden than J. We taught him the doctrine of Christ on Friday and everything he said was something we were about to teach him. It was crazy! He's been texting us pictures of scriptures he likes from the BOM, and so far it's been insane to see how much the Lord has been preparing him. We are stoked to keep teaching him.

Some other fun things that happened this week:

At J's temple sealing

We got to watch the Be One Celebration! It was SO GOOD. Sister Jensen and I were both openly weeping in the back of the chapel haha. 10/10 would recommend watching if you haven't already!

We got to attend a temple sealing on Saturday! We'd never been to one before, but a RC (of like a year and a half) in our YSA ward got married and sealed and was adamant that we come. It was awesome! So much happiness in that room!

It cleared 100° this week! It's set to stay above 105 for the rest of this week...summer is upon us!

Anyways, I love you all! Thank you for the love and support and prayers.

Sister Jacobson