Week 2: I Broke Out of the MTC

February 2, 2017

HELLO HELLO!!

Has it really already been a week?! Man time is flying by!

So I did tell you about Dear Elder before I left, but it doesn't surprise me that you forgot...we were busy with a lot of other things ha-ha! So I can receive DE's any day of the week, but I can't respond until P-day, so any questions you asked I couldn't reply to until today ha-ha. And DE's only work in the MTC. This week I got so many letters! Quite a few DearElders came in, and I got the letter from Jess this week...and a fun little envelope showed up from Japan this week! I’m really feeling the love. :) Thanks so much everyone! 

Also don't worry, not all my emails will be as long as last week's ha-ha, it had just been over a week and a lot had happened in that one week and I wanted to make sure to tell you all about it! :) 

Companions

Glad to hear your lesson went well, Mom! I definitely understand feeling unprepared to teach. Sister Donaldson and I were asked to teach on Sunday, and we didn't receive our topic until Saturday night. Good times in the MTC. I will say though, you don't give yourself enough credit. You spend so much time preparing and giving thought to your lesson. Have a little more faith in yourself, as well as the spirit. When we're asked to teach, it's not as much what we say but more how we make them feel. In the English buildings, if a teacher hears us say that we're not good at teaching then they tell us to repent. It's pretty humbling, actually. They've drilled it into us that we are not the teachers, the Spirit it. I think the same definitely applies to Sunday School and Relief Society teachers as well. Check out Exodus 4:10-12 and PMG pgs 3-4. We can do so much more with the Spirit than we could ever do on our own.

This being said, our lesson went really well. We taught on obedience. We showed a video on LDS.org called "Obedience" (weird, right ha-ha) and it was all about Jesus Christ. My favorite quote from the video was "We don't need to be perfect; we need to be good at getting better." I told everyone about how you always sign off your emails with "work hard and be obedient" and also about how you told me about how it takes 21 days to break a habit and how I'll be in the MTC for exactly 21 days. Everyone loved it. On Sunday night we had a devo in which the speaker said "Start right, stay right, finish right." Afterwards, someone brought up what I had said in the lesson about the 21 days to set a habit in conjunction with this quote, and ever since it's been a motto for us.

Sister Donaldson and Me

Remember how I mentioned P? Yeah, she didn't show up to our second or third lessons. So up until Monday of this week Sister Donaldson and I had only taught ONE real lesson! We were kinda laughing....can't even keep a follow up appointment in the MTC....where they PAY the investigators ha-ha. Nah but really, P was sick so it wasn't our fault...it was just a bummer for us. 

We taught another PI named A. We struggled with her. We felt pressure to teach the lessons instead of to her needs...so we didn't really follow the Spirit. But on our last lesson with her we went in with the desire to teach according to the Spirit and we ended up inviting her to baptism and she accepted. 0-100 real quick, am I right?? Ha-ha it was just a role-play but it's still so crazy the difference teaching with the Spirit makes!

We taught our last TRC yesterday. Her name was A and her husband was a member but she wasn't. She was interested in learning about how the gospel could bless her family. PERFECT, right? So we spent our whole first lesson telling her about the different ways the gospel blessed our families, and we invited her to hold FHE. She did! And then our lesson yesterday we taught the Restoration and invited her to read the BOM and pray and she said she would. She also said the closing prayer of our lesson, which was super special. Unfortunately, we won't get the chance to teach her again. The next time I teach a real lesson I'll be in AZ!!! 

This week I saw Elder Brown!! Remember him?? It was so fun. He's been reassigned to Maryland, and he leaves in just a few days. He was loving the MTC, but definitely missing the field. Every time I see him he's all "SISTER JACOBSON!!!!" and we have a nice little chat. :)

Also this week...I found an Elder from Gilbert!! And guess what!!! HE PLAYS VOLLEYBALL!! AND HE’S GOOD!!! His companion is pretty good as well, and Sister Small and Sister Haggerty from my district are good as well! So we've actually played some decent volleyball this week. The Elder from Gilbert gave me his mom's number and told me that she would feed us whenever we wanted, and he also told me that there's plenty of people in Gilbert who will talk volleyball with me. :) Speaking of, how's the BYU team looking?? Somebody update me....any chance of the natty this year?

Found a Puzzle at the Doctor's

I'm sure you've all been anxiously awaiting the explanation of the subject of my email so here it is. On Monday, Sister Donaldson woke up very sick. She's had a bad cough and stuffy nose. All day on Monday I was just feeling like she needed to go to the doctor, but we both kept saying that it was just a viral infection and it needed to run its course. But then, after lunch she was in PAIN. So I went...okay we need to go to the doctor. We went to the MTC doctor and they took one look at her and said "she needs to go the ER immediately." so we're like FREAKING OUT because they didn't give us any more information and we didn't have the chance to tell our district or anything...we think that they were worried she had appendicitis. So long story short we end up in this little van with a driver named Tino and off MTC campus. It was crazy because we roll up to the ER and they're playing music AND the TV is on...plus everyone looks at us because we're suddenly not with missionaries anymore and this black tag just screams "Hi! I'm different!" Ha-ha. It's crazy, we've been here for two weeks and it was SO weird hearing music and the TV being on! We spent all afternoon in the ER. Turns out she has a bladder infection and it's a really good thing that we went. How grateful am I that we ended up going to the doctor. It could have been really bad, and she might not have ended up coming to AZ if we hadn't have found out what was wrong with her. So we've been joking all week that we broke out of the MTC ha-ha. 

Battle Wounds!

Also, I had my first bad mission injury this week. On Sunday we were leaving devo and running back to our classroom to grab some things and we were running late and it was cold...so we were RUNNING. And I stubbed my toe and completely ATE it. Like on a scale of 1-10....definitely like a 10. My scriptures and journal went flying into the air and my skirt was above my head...totally flashed the Elders behind me ha-ha, my bad. I skinned my knees pretty bad, as well as bruised them REAAAAL badly. MIRACULOUSLY my tights didn't rip! I've been grateful for long skirts this week because my knees are so ugly. Every time during exercise time someone is like "what happened?!" and I'm like "I WAS CLUMSY." In all my years of volleyball...I've never had bruises this bad. I'm very blessed though because I've heard stories of people doing things very similar and having to delay their departure time.

Alright...that's about it. This week we got travel plans! Tuesday morning at 3:50 we leave the MTC. Our flight leaves at like 8:20. Mom, I'm not sure what time I'll call from the airport but it's going to be early. Probably like 6 or 7-ish. Can't wait to talk to you and to hear all about Arizona! Also, I'll miss a p-day so it's going to be like eleven days before I email you next.

This week we watched this awesome devotional by Elder Bednar about the importance of following the Spirit. He told a story about him and Elder Packer back in the day. It's hard for me to tell y'all to watch these things because so much of the MTC media is only available to missionaries. However, Elder Bednar said that Elder Packer gave a talk on it a few years ago entitled "The Twenty Franc Note" or something like that. It's when Elder Bednar was a missionary in Germany and Elder Packer was a new apostle! It's so great...look it up if you can find it!

I love you so much!

Sister Jacobson

Bathroom Cleaning Crew

The MTC Zone

Rock Canyon

The MTC District

Internalizing the Word

Week 1: Sista J in the MTC

January 26, 2017

Hey hey hey!!!!

So as I'm sure you figured out...my MTC p-day is Thursday. They actually told us right after I sent that first email but since I'd already sent it I couldn't get back on and send another one...it's been a long week and it was such a bummer to wait so long to email! This means I'll only have one more MTC p-day. I forgot y'all were headed to San Antonio this week...have so much fun!! SA is such a fun city. You might have something waiting for you at home ;) 

Thanks, Rockwood"s!

Hey!! Go to DearElder.com and you can write a letter and they'll deliver it to me same day at the MTC! Getting mail is so much fun and it just brightens your day! Please tell the Rockwood’s thank you so much for their letters this week!! I almost cried when I opened their notes...they were so sweet and please let them know how much of a pick-me-up it was!

Remember when I came home from my first semester at BYU and said that one semester at BYU had taught me more than four years of high school? Alright the MTC puts four years of high school and a year and a half at BYU to SHAME. I have learned so much this past week and have grown spiritually as well as mentally. TBH I might have grown physically as well...the wrath of the MTC food is real. When you're speaking English in the MTC they really crack the whip because you only have three weeks before you ship out, so there's hours upon hours of studying every day and each lesson goes a little more in depth than the last. It's crazy how we're been exploring the simplest of doctrine, but have been finding so much deep application to it.  It's exhausting, but so so great.

The Arizona Family

Sister Donaldson and Me

The first day here was the longest day of my LIFE...but other than that it's been going pretty fast. Everyone kept telling us how hard our first week would be...and I kept waiting for it to get hard and to have an existential crisis...but it never set in.J I just love the gospel and my life here and everyone I'm with!! My companion and I keep saying that we really hit a home run here at the MTC. Sister Donaldson and I are a great fit for one another. She's from Coleville Utah. She did rodeo in high school and she also played volleyball! She and I are basically the same person, except she's more soft-spoken. I absolutely love her to death and I am so blessed that I lucked out with such an amazing companion. Our zone consists of three districts, one who got here the week before us and one who got here the same week as us. In the district that got here first there are two Sister Training Leaders and two Zone Leaders. Then when my district got here they called two more STLS and one more ZL. My district is incredible. I've never met a group of people more prepared and more ready to be missionaries. They are all such great examples to me and we all get along really well. There are three Elders going to Oklahoma City, two going to Colorado Denver North and one going to GILBERT ARIZONA. Then there are two sisters who are going to Hamilton New Zealand (their visas didn't come in time)...and FOUR of us going to Gilbert!!!!!!! Sister Donaldson, Sister Rowley, Sister Small and I are all going to Gilbert. I found SS and SR on Instagram before coming here so it's been so much fun to actually get to know them!! The four of us as well as Elder Simmons get along really well and we have a lot of laughs together. I'm so excited they're going to Gilbert with me!

So the two going to NZ were struggling on the first few days because they were bummed about not getting to go to the NZ MTC but then they were called as STLs and they've been great ever since! So yeah, the district and zone are great! I mean, yeah our District Leader lost his scriptures on the second day here and our ZL packed the wrong pair of slacks that have a rip across the butt and yeah the STLs walked into the men's restroom and it's been a bit of a mess at times...but its great!!

We didn't get exercise time for our first three days here so on our first day of gym time I ran like three miles in twenty five minutes J I went HAM.  My comp was like "Sister I didn't know you were such a gym rat!! J But our zone is ALL about four-square. It's super intense and low-key super competitive. I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle yesterday. MTC four-square, who knew right?? I have tried playing volleyball but it's worse than backyard barbeque and I get really frustrated. Today I played a little bit with a Japanese Zone that leaves this week and because they've been here so long they're actually fairly decent. There was one Elder who was from Laie!!!!! We totally bonded over Laie stuff, and he knew exactly who the Lowes and the Ho Chings were, and he even knew Auntie Tamara!! He's in her ward! He asked why I didn't stay and grow up in Hawaii and I told him that my parents were worried I would be bullied as a Haole and I thought he was going to fall over from laughing so hard....and I've seen him a couple times since gym time and every single time he's like "MY POLY SISTER!!!!!" 

For all my friends out there who were in Cape Verde with me this summer: I saw Cole this week in the MTC!!  I guess he's elder Jones now...it was at the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast so I didn't get a picture, but it was really fun to see him and catch up with him a bit. I've also seen Sister Doig, Sister Williams and Hermana Daley this week! Also Sister Inman is in my zone! It's been so great seeing all of them and it's been fun having familiar faces around. Also, I'm totally in the MTC with Donny Osmond's son?? Ha-ha, he's going to Italy Rome. At least he told all of us he was Donny's son…it’s gonna be real awk if he just said that and Donny doesn't actually have a son! J 

This week I was rebuked. We had some old mission presidents come to our district meeting on Sunday and I was sitting front row, taking notes and I don't even know what happened....I fell asleep and next thing I knew it was the end of the meeting. I felt awful. Afterwards one of them pulled me aside and was like "Sister, are you okay??" and I was like...”Oh yeah, sorry. I'm just really tired today.” and he was like…"SISTER. You are a MISSIONARY now and missionaries do NOT get tired." He was totally serious!! I wanted to cry...I was like “Uhhh, I didn't mean to fall asleep. I'm sorry, uhhh I've been here five days and I've never struggled with staying awake.”....and he was like, “What you need to know is that if you tell yourself you aren't tired then you won't be tired.” Good. Thanks for the advice....because I totally meant to fall asleep. :(  Ha-ha, it's become kind of a district joke because now when someone is like "I'm tired" we're like "THAT"S NOT THE RIGHT ATTITUDE". J

We taught our first lessons this week! Sister Donaldson is really good at asking heartfelt questions and I'm really good at asking more bold questions.J She'll bear testimony and extend a well worded baptismal invitation and they'll say no and I'll hit them with the "why not??" Ha-ha-ha, it's been fun to see our personalities interact. Our first investigator this week was named I. He recently went through some hard times and wasn't sure if God was answering his prayers. Friends and family, I want you all to know that the power and authority that come from being a missionary is real. Sister Donaldson and I went in to the lesson with full intentions to teach the Restoration, and as soon as we sat down we threw our lesson plan out the window. We ended up teaching him about trials, and I literally started pulling scriptures out of thin air that I'd never read before. The spirit was so strong and afterwards SD was like "Sister that was amazing where did you learn all those scriptures!!" and I was like "Sister D....that wasn't me...that was straight up the Holy Ghost teaching through me." It was so cool. 

We just got a new investigator named P. She's a TRC (Teaching Resource Center) investigator so she may or may not be real. When we got here we were told that one English district wouldn't get TRC investigators this week because the TRC was running low, when we went to orientation we found out that our district was the one that wouldn't get TRC. We were so upset, and all day we were kind of moping around because we were like...this is the MTC...their job is literally to train us to be missionaries!! How can we learn if we can't teach!! But then we found out that the other district in our zone was really struggling with homesickness and none of us really were and we felt better about them getting the chance to teach instead of us. BUT THEN!  We got back from dinner and there were TRC slips taped to our door! I guess the TRC had missed a stack of slips or something so we ended up getting them this week. Anyways, P is great! We've met with her once and she has a lot of questions. We spent almost all of our first lesson getting to know her and bearing testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. It was crazy because as soon as I said "I know this church is true" the whole atmosphere of the room changed the spirit was so strong. I almost didn't know what to do with myself. I felt it, Sister Donaldson felt it, and we know that P felt it for sure. Our next lesson with her is tomorrow and she LOVES history so we're planning on teaching her a ton about Christ's earthly ministry and the apostasy. I'm really excited to meet with her, and I feel so much love for every single person we teach. 

When you first get to MTC you get this little manila envelope with your tags, your room key and your ministerial card in it. It was so crazy because it was the first day of my mission and I pulled out my ministerial card and was looking at what should theoretically be my release date (June 26, 2018 for those eagerly awaiting my return. ;)) and I just thought...okay it's the first day of my mission...what am I going to do between now and June 26 2018 to be the very best missionary I can be and to be the Lord's physical hands here on Earth. It all boils down to obedience. If you're obedient then you'll have the spirit, and if you have the spirit then you'll teach with the spirit, and if you teach with the spirit then people will become converted to the gospel and come unto Christ. I've set the goal for myself here in the MTC to become more like the Savior. 

Yesterday was the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. Not gonna lie, the first five minutes of the broadcast were SUPER cheesy and I was like oh no...but then it was really cool because we got to watch Elders Bednar, Oaks and Anderson interact with each other as apostles of the Lord while discussing missionary work. They also changed the missionary schedule! So we now have the option to go to bed between 9:30 and 10:30, and our study time in the morning is more flexible. We can do comp study whenever we want! Also P-day is extended by two hours because we don't have to study on p-day, which is going to be super nice. It went into effect immediately so last night we got done with class at 9 instead of 9:30. They also changed the key indicators but since I'm not in the field yet I don't really know how much it'll affect anything....but yeah exciting stuff! 

One cool thing that our ZL told us this week is that the MTC is like a temple, because every room has been dedicated by an apostle of the Lord and everyone here has to have a temple recommend. So we get to live in a temple for three weeks...kinda cool right??

On Sunday we watched a devotional by Elder Bendar called the Character of Christ. I know for a fact that he gave this devo a couple of years ago at BYUI....PLEASE look it up and listen to it. IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE. I'd seen it back in June, but seeing it again was still so life changing. You will not regret it. 

All in all I'm doing great. I love being a missionary. I'm so happy here and I love learning about the gospel all day long!

Love and miss you all!!

 Sister Jacobson

Facials and Donuts

Snowy Night

Facials: MTC Style

1 hour down…approximately 14,129 to go!

January 18, 2017

Mom and Dad,

I made it safely to the MTC! As soon as you get here they start speaking to you in your mission language...I was a little worried but it's crazy, I totally understand everything already!  It's like I'm fluent or something. ;) 

My host is super nice and it was so fun to see Jaime and Connor and Wade before heading in. Jessica called us on the way to the MTC so I got to talk with her a little as well. I ate an Einstein bagel and my tummy is happy.

I also hear there's ice cream in the vending machines here?? 

I haven't met my companion yet, but her name is Sister Donaldson and I saw a picture of her and she looks sweet. More to come on her in my email this week I'm sure! No word on when my p-day will be yet...if it's tomorrow then I won't get the chance to email until next week. So far everyone I've met has been so nice and it's not nearly as scary as I was expecting it to be. 

Anyway, just wanted to email y'all and tell you that I'm here safe and sound and already having a good time! I'll work hard these next eighteen months and make you guys proud!

I love you!

Sister Jacobson