Week 23: Awake and Arise

July 3, 2017

Hello!! Happy July!!

I cannot BELIEVE that it's July! Where is the time going?! Recently I've really started to feel the "time is flying" feeling that every missionary ever talks about, so I'm really having a difficult time comprehending that it's July and the Fourth is tomorrow!

This week has been a refiner's fire on so many levels. Man. But before I get to that...

This week we had Zone Conference! I always love having Zone Conferences; they're such wonderful opportunities to reflect and make changes. At this Zone Conference we spent a significant time reviewing what Elder Pearson talked about while he was here--ever since he came there has been a serious current going through our mission. It's really cool to feel the shift that he brought...we all have a renewed conviction and enthusiasm for the work! I also had the opportunity to sing at Zone Conference with another sister and two Elders. That was a good time.

We had an awesome miracle lesson with M this week, our 60-year-old sassy black-man investigator! He's been investigating the church for a really long time, and he has studied religion basically his whole life, so our lessons with him are typically pretty intense and we end up talking about religion in way more complex terms than what we're used to. It's really weird, but also really fun. He's SO CLOSE to being baptized. He keeps saying that he's "on the right path" and that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true. This week we went into the lesson and I wanted to put him on date to be baptized. We tried a while back to put him on date but he didn't accept it and didn't set any goals to try and work towards that date, but I felt really strongly that we needed to give him a date and help him set goals to be ready for that date. During the lesson we talked about the faith cycle--how the Lord's pattern is ALWAYS to have us take action, and how only after we've taken action do we receive evidence of what we already know to be true. We read Joshua 3, when the Israelites cross the Jordan River and are promised by the Lord that they will cross on dry ground, but their feet are wet before the Lord parts the waters. M absolutely loved it...and I testified to him that he's in a similar position, that his next step is baptism, and that the Lord is asking him to take a step of faith-even into the waters of baptism. I then explained that I wanted to set a goal with him, a date to be baptized, and I wanted us to work together to get him ready for that date. He was a little apprehensive but he said okay, and then I told him that we'd prayed and that we know that he can be ready by July 22. He said it was too soon, and we asked what would be holding him back. He said "literally the only thing preventing me is smoking...and the problem is that I really enjoy smoking, because it gives me an excuse to take a break from work." Then, I was super bold...haha I've never been this bold on my entire mission. I said, "So if I'm hearing you correctly, the only thing keeping you from following Jesus Christ and being baptized, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, receiving the Priesthood, and entering the temple....is smoking?" And I could tell it caught him off-guard, and surprised him. He was like "well, when you put it that way..." and then I testified that he could quit, and that if he worked towards July 22 then the Lord would bless him, because he would be taking that first step of faith. He explained to us that he'd tried so many times to quit before, and he'd never been successful...and we fired right back with "but you've never tried to quit with us before." Finally he agreed to give it a shot...so M is on date to be baptized on July 22!!!! The Spirit was so strong! We have a lesson with him this Wednesday and we're going to sit down and plot out a roadmap for success, including how he's going to stop smoking by then. Please pray that he will have the strength to quit--we need all the prayers we can get!!

This week we also received permission to keep teaching M (the 11-year-old girl)! Her mom gave us the go-ahead to keep teaching her, and she came to church yesterday and she loved it! Unfortunately, her mom has not given the go-ahead for baptism...so we can only teach her as of right now. :( But we know that her heart will be softened at some point, and we know that miracles happen every day!

Cookie-making service activity

This week we had a lot of really awesome gospel conversations with a lot of different people. It's amazing to me how the gospel of Jesus Christ is literally connected to everything. We walk up to people all the time and start talking about the weather and within minutes we're talking about the gospel. This week I really noticed how everything we experience prepares us to experience something else. I felt like every visit we made was intended to influence another visit; by the end of the day we were drawing on various conversations we'd had earlier in the day and having some really intense, spiritual discussions. I love being a missionary!

I also feel like recently I've turned a corner in my mission. These past few weeks I've had some amazing experiences and some amazing opportunities...just over a month ago Elder Pearson came and toured the mission, three weeks ago Elder Bednar came to my stake, and then this week we had Zone Conference. Plus, the plethora of other amazing and miraculous things that missionaries experience every day! It's been like a perfect storm haha. At every single one of these meetings the core thing I took away was that I'm doing well, but I could be doing better...and I've become self-aware of where I can improve and really started working towards becoming better. This week all of these feelings kind of came to a head...if I had to compare this week of my mission to a chapter of the Book of Mormon I would say that I am currently in 2 Nephi 4--"O wretched man that I am!!"(verse17) Haha, this is what President Wheeler calls an "Awake and Arise." This week I decided that I want to work harder than I have ever before on my mission, because the Lord is worth it. I realized that I am happy just doing the work, and that it's okay if no one accepts it...because I am still giving them the opportunity to receive the gospel.

However, I picked a bad week to have this "Awake and Arise." Sister Rudd and I have been met with road-block after road-block this week...every single day something has prevented us from going and working all day long. It's been so frustrating for me!! Like I said…a refiner's fire; I know we're being tested and we'll see miracles and blessings as a result. A couple examples of things that have happened:

This week I lost our phone. It fell out of my bag along the side of the road and we realized it probably about 30 minutes after it happened. Our phone is our life--we have 600 contacts in there! Lose the phone, our effectiveness decreases. So we stopped, said a prayer and retraced everywhere we'd been in the past hour or so...we were looking for around two hours and then we had to go home, with no phone. When we got home we had the sisters we live with call it and a man answered and told us he'd found it along the side of the road. We were able to meet up with him and get the phone back...but looking for it ate up two hours of our proselytizing time, so that was frustrating. But! The guy who found it is now a potential and we're going to try and visit him this week...so that's exciting.

Making Sis. Rudd work! S/O to Sis. Hatch, our driver

Nurse or Missionary?, idk

Sis. Fuimaono playing w/Sis. Rudd's crutches

On Saturday at zone sports Sister Rudd got injured. We were playing dodge ball and she went to dodge and her foot went one way and her body the other. It's not her ankle, it's her foot. She said she heard a pop and her foot is super swollen and she can't put any weight on it. I honestly think there's a really good chance it's broken. We called the mission nurse and they told us to wait a couple days and if it's still causing her problems then they'll send us to get an X-Ray. Well...it's been a couple days and they still won't send us...oh and they haven't come to look at it either. They're just diagnosing it over the phone. I'm really, really frustrated and trying so hard to be patient, but it's hard because I can see that my companion is in pain. The nurses also told us not to ride our bikes, and when I said that our area is 100% bike they told us to call and see if we could get a car....but we haven't had any luck in getting a car. I'm super frustrated at that. We got some members to drive us around a little on Saturday night and last night as well (do you have any idea how difficult it was to find people...it's the Fourth of July weekend!)...but other than that we're literally sitting ducks. We've spent a lot of time the past few days sitting in the apartment icing her foot and wrapping it and trying to get her better...but her foot is still just as bad as it was right after it happened. Please keep Sister Rudd in your prayers. We're really, really worried about her and we're hopeful that this trial is just a small moment on her mission. We're also hopeful we'll get the go-ahead for an X-Ray soon.

Anyways, it's been a good week! We saw tons of miracles and had lots of fun. Our area is doing so WELL and this work is amazing! The Lord's hand is in everything and I know He loves each of His children so much and is aware of each and every one of us. The Book of Mormon is true!

Have a great week and a great Fourth of July! I love you all!!

Sister Jacobson

Cookie-making service activity

Nursing Sis. Rudd while eating an Otter Pop

Week 22: Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Fire

June 26, 2017

Hello friends and family!!

Is this real life?

Happy Monday! We've just finished the HOTTEST week of the season here in Gilbert. On Tuesday it cleared 121°F and the Phoenix airport closed down...but don't worry...us Mormon missionaries were still going strong on our bikes! Last night it was like 108°F and there was a hot breeze blowing around and we were like "Wow, it actually doesn't feel that bad!!" What am I becoming?!?

Sis. Rudd, my daughter!

My new companion is Sister Rudd, she's from Springville, Utah...and she is FRESH out of the Provo MTC. So I'm training a brand new missionary this transfer! Man, just when I was getting really good at being JuCo! ;) Haha I'm just kidding, honestly it's been fun leading out the area and kinda calling the shots--it makes me realize how much I've grown these past five months! Sister Rudd is already an awesome missionary, she has so much missionary fire and I'm excited for all the wonderful things she will do in the Arizona Gilbert Mission.

However, as fun as this week has been...it's also been pretty stressful. One of our ward mission leaders said "Man, you take someone out of the area that’s been here for eight months and leave someone who's been here for eight weeks...may as well whitewash the area!" Haha but as many times as I've felt lost or confused this week, I'm grateful this isn't a whitewash--that's too next level for me haha. Another member told me that she could see it in my face that I was stressed...I'm an open book apparently haha!

Sis. Ogawa's last night in the Gilbert Zone

Sis. Ogawa saying goodbye

We saw tons of miracles this week. Tuesday was my last day with Sister Ogawa, so we had a few member appointments in the evening so she could say goodbye...but in the afternoon we worked super hard to try and find some new people to teach. We stopped by a member family named the S’s. A few weeks ago they had brought an eleven year old girl to church, and we wanted to stop by to try and set up an FHE with this girl, M, so we could teach her the Restoration...but when we stopped by the S’s, M was totally there! They invited us in and we sat down and started talking with them and eventually we turned the conversation towards the gospel. She's an awesome girl--super smart and SO prepared. M told us that she'd been to seven or eight different churches, and that she felt something different when she came to ours. We asked her if she knew why it felt different, and she said that she didn't...so we taught her the Restoration right then and there! Afterwards we invited her to read the BOM every day, and she told us that she already was!! And then before we could invite to baptism she was like "And...I want to convert to your religion." Man...that threw me and Sister Ogawa for a loop! Haha but that was really exciting for us. The struggle now is that since she's eleven, we need to get permission from her parents before we move forward. We stopped by her house last week just to meet them, but they weren't home...but M told us that they're always home on Mondays, so we'll stop by them tonight! Pray that their hearts will be soft and that the Holy Ghost will testify of the truthfulness of our message!!

On Wednesday we got a text from a lady in one of our wards, and she asked us to go and check on her neighbor, whose air conditioner had stopped working the night before. She was really concerned about her neighbor so we went and stopped by, and made sure they were doing okay...and then we asked them if we could leave a Book of Mormon with them. They said yes! It was hot outside and they didn't want to let all of their cool air out of the house, so we taught super briefly about the Book of Mormon and then invited them to read it, and they said they would...so we'll stop by this upcoming week and follow up! Super excited!

We had a really, really cool miracle on Thursday night. We stopped by E and V to see how reading the Book of Mormon was going, and we had an awesome conversation with them! So V has two kids- E, who's ten, and then R, who's sixteen. Every time we've ever been over to her house, R has hardly ever acknowledged us. We always say "Hi R! How are you today?" And sometimes, very rarely, he says "Good." and then goes into his room, but most of the time he doesn't say anything and just goes into his room. We'd kind of accepted that he was never going to join in our conversations, but the LAST time we were at their house, V mentioned that R had just gotten home from a VOLLEYBALL game and I was like "R!! You play?? How long? What team?" all that good stuff, and we talked for a bit and then I told him that I played in high school and we established that weird volleyball bond that all volleyball players seem to have haha. So anyways, back to this week...we stopped by and we're talking to V and E about the Book of Mormon and how their week was and what their plans were for this upcoming week...and out of nowhere R just comes and sits down in the living room with a plate of rice and chicken. We keep talking...and none of us really say anything to him...and then after like five minutes he jumps in and starts talking to us!! When he came into the room I was getting ready to get to a spiritual thought and leave a commitment and then leave...but when he came and sat down I knew that it wasn't time to share a thought yet...what he needed was to feel like he could talk to us as friends without having religious pressure. So we kept talking, and eventually he mentioned that in two weeks he's going to go build houses up on the Indian Reservation in Northern AZ...and I was like "R, did you know that last summer I spent two and a half weeks in Africa building houses??" and he thought that was the coolest thing ever. He was like "You did?? What!! That's amazing!" and had all these questions about what we did and all this stuff, and I told him a few stories and about how much PERSPECTIVE that trip gave me and how life changing it was, and I told him I'd bring my photo album the next time we came by, and then I was like "...actually a super cool scripture came into my mind as we've been talking, and I know it'll apply to you as you get ready for this trip in two weeks!" and I shared Mosiah 2:17 (“And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”) and he LOVED it and was like "what book is that in?!" and I was like "The Book of Mormon!!" and he was like "wow, that's super cool. I really like that. It's totally true. Serving others really is serving God." And then he was like "actually I have a question for you guys...what's with all this calling each other brother and sister?!" which opened the door for us to testify about how God is our Heavenly Father and how we're all Spirit brothers and sisters and then he asked us a few more questions! It was awesome. When we left, V followed us out and was like "I cannot believe he came out! He's struggling even knowing if there's a God right now...if you can give him that knowledge then I will be eternally grateful." Man...it's moments like that that I live for!

You had me at Gilbert!

Another fun thing this week...I learned that one of the wives of one of the members of our mission presidency was like a total beast at volleyball back in the day. She was on the USA National Team (back when they still had that) and then was invited to try out for one of the 80s Olympics team!! She was telling us this story and I was like ...amazing. And then she told me that she has a bunch of buddies that get together on Mondays and play volleyball together...so now we're going to get together and play one of these Mondays. I'm so stoked!!

Anyways, it's been another fantastic week. I love being a missionary and being a representative of Jesus Christ. This is the Lord's work and His hand is in everything!

I love you all, have a good week!

Sister Jacobson

New cover for my PMG

Transfer 4 planner

Puppies

Week 21: I want to be Elder Bednar’s Best Friend

June 19, 2017

Hello!

Ladies and gentlemen I would like to inform all of you that today it is 118 degrees in Gilbert Arizona. And tomorrow it will be 120. Let me tell ya, it's brutal. I really don't know how we are surviving. The only explanation I can think of is that we're just super blessed for serving the Lord. And unless we are directed otherwise from President Wheeler, tomorrow we will go out on bikes and work all day long, just like any other day. This week especially something has been on my mind and I'd like to share it now. The only group of people in the entire world I can think of that would be willing, excited even, to go out in 120 degree heat--with a heat advisory in effect--are the Mormon missionaries. Why? Because our message is true. The message that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and is back on the Earth today is so IMPORTANT and so VITAL that thousands upon thousands of young men and young women worldwide pay their way and volunteer their time to provide an opportunity for everyone to experience the BLESSINGS and the JOY that this gospel can bring. So my simple request to everyone not of our faith is this: give the missionaries a chance. Trust me, we KNOW it's super awkward when we come up to you on the street and start talking to you about Jesus Christ. We KNOW you don't want to talk to us and that you're not interested...but we also KNOW that this gospel is true and can bless your lives beyond your wildest dreams. Give the missionaries--heck, the gospel--a shot. You just might be surprised.

AZ or HI? You tell me!

P-day lunch at Cafe Rio

Anyways, this week we had a couple of AWESOME moments and a couple moments of just utter despair haha.

This week we went and met with our 10 year old investigator, E. While there we found out that her mom, V, had reached out to a member of the ward and asked for scripture passages from the BOM that E would enjoy--and the member came THROUGH and sent loads of amazing scripture stories! Shout out to amazing members--your missionary efforts make ALL the difference. We stopped by the member later in the week to say thank you, and this member mentioned to us a conversation that she'd had with V a few days prior. She said that in this conversation, V had started talking about the Mormon missionaries (us!) and how she never EVER thought she would be in a position where she was letting them in her home, let alone letting them read from the Book of Mormon with her. But she continued on and said that the scripture we had shared last month with E had brought her so much hope and so much peace, and a knowledge that things would be okay--even if they weren't right now...that she was willing to let us come in and read more hopeful scriptures. The member told us that the thought that came to her during this conversation was that even if we don't baptize E or V, we're still making an impact in their lives and that is doing a whole lot of good. So that was a super cool moment for us!

Play first, then teach - fruit of our labor

We had an evening where it seemed like all of our plans fell through. We had a lesson at 8 o'clock so we were trying to work around the area that the appointment was at but just nothing was happening. We were street contacting, tracting, stopping by members--we were trying everything and just no one was home. We finally stopped and said a prayer and asked for direction in where to go. After the prayer we waited, and listened for what the Holy Ghost was telling us. Neither one of us felt anything. We pulled out our ward lists and started flipping through them for some people to stop by and try and visit--and nothing was coming to our minds. We had to go through each of our ward lists probably 3 or 4 times before I finally started feeling directed to one ward. I started reflecting on our recent meetings with the Bishop and the Ward Council and finally I was like "Let's try stopping by the J family." Sister Ogawa thought that sounded good so we went there--and the family was outside doing yard work! They were like "I'm so glad you showed up!! We could use a lesson right now." They invited us in and we sat down and in the course of our conversation I gathered that two of the kids that were there don't normally live there, and are less-active. One of them, C, was like "rumor has it that missionaries always have super good lessons planned. Let's see it." And it was like a challenge haha so Sister Ogawa and I pulled out all stops and taught a super bomb lesson on the Doctrine of Christ, and how it can bless our family relationships. At the end of the lesson Sister Ogawa asked them what they could do this week to be more unified as a family and C was like "Actually...do you think you could come back next week and teach us another lesson? I think we need it." Naturally, we accepted haha and then committed them to pray as a family every day before then. It was awesome. And it was a really cool lesson for us on how the Holy Ghost directs us--we didn't receive the answer to go to the J’s right away...we had to be patient and wait and sift through the ward lists on our own before we received even a little bit of direction. Sometimes that's how it works, and it's times like that where we're blessed to be able to exercise our agency! The Plan is perfect.

High Five

Haha Saturday was our depths of despair day. This weekend the Gilbert Stake was blessed to have the opportunity to have Elder Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles preside at Stake Conference. He was accompanied by Joni L Koch of the Quorum of the Seventy, so we had two General Authorities present. On Saturday Elder Bednar had a meeting with the youth from 10:30-12:30, and then he was meeting with the stake president at 1:00. Some Elders in our zone had a baptism at 2:00 and the stake president told them that he was going to try and bring Elder Bednar to the baptism. So all of us missionaries were going WILD inviting anyone and everyone we could to the baptism--trying to set them up so they could meet an Apostle. Sister Ogawa and I had four investigators commit to come to the baptism, and all four were excited! But then Saturday morning all four texted us and cancelled. We were so bummed. But we turned our attitudes around and we were like "There's another plan for the day!!" and we went out and worked. So we're biking and we're probably a good 30 minute bike ride away from home and Sister Ogawa goes "do you hear that??" and I just hear this sssss sound. I look down and her tire is just COMPLETELY flat. She had a MASSIVE hole...like it looked like someone slashed her tire it was so big. We were like...is this a joke? And you gotta understand, this whole transfer we've had bike problems. A few weeks ago I had six flat tires in one week...just flat after flat after flat, and finally I took it into the office for the Vehicle Coordinator to look at and the inside of my tire was completely shredded and had destroyed the rubber tube, and earlier this week we'd patched one of Sister Ogawa's tires. At this point I think I can change a bike tire in my sleep. But anyways, we were so far away from home, and we were a good 15 minute walk away from the nearest member so we started walking and we were both just silent haha we were so mad. But—a tender mercy--the first member's door we knocked had a repair kit and we were able to patch the tire! So we were on our way again, and then the rest of the day was fine...but for a few hours there we were like man this sucks haha.

Alright now the moment we've all been waiting for....stake conference. I really don't know how to describe my experience with Elder Bednar other than saying I now want to become his best friend. He came, he threw down, and it was beautiful. Literally everything out of that man's mouth is pure gold.  Our recent convert spoke Saturday night and did a wonderful job. She was able to meet Elder Bednar and talk with him briefly and she was just on cloud 9. Because the church is so mature and so thriving in Gilbert, Elder Bednar was able to talk about a lot of the basic doctrinal principles on a much deeper level. It reminded me a little bit of the training we receive in the MTC--he talked much about how EVERYTHING in the gospel is connected and ties into the Doctrine of Christ. He is so bold and not afraid to say it how it is. In the adult session he kept saying "buckle up…" or "if you're buckled up I can say this…" and then he'd say something super bold and accurate and it would make everyone squirm but in a good way. I couldn't write fast enough notes--I received so much revelation!! Next time you get a chance...sing all 7 verses of “How Firm a Foundation” and consider how the Atonement of Jesus Christ enables us to do so much more than we could on your own. I promise you'll never sing that hymn the same again.

There was a special 8 AM meeting for recent converts, recently reactivated members, and investigators...and the bishops, ward mission leaders, and full-time missionaries were able to attend. Sister Ogawa and I have been working our tails off these past few weeks trying to invite as many people as we could to this meeting and we had ELEVEN people there! (Out of the 50 or so we invited....but that's still pretty good) I went Blaine (Dad) x 1000 at this meeting haha. At the adult session the night before I was watching Elder Bednar closely and I figured out where he came in/out of and where he stopped and shook people's hands and then I carefully plotted and calculated where we would sit the next morning. So I staked out a spot for us and one of our recent converts and our investigator to sit on the aisle of one of the rows he walked past and shook hands, and then we placed our investigator on the end, the RC next to him, and then Sister Ogawa and me. We were on the fifth row, and where I was sitting was dead center in the chapel. It was one of the best meetings I've ever attended in my entire life. The day before Elder Bednar introduced himself to the recent convert and then centered his whole talk in this meeting around our recent convert. This recent convert is going to realize in like two months how incredible that is haha.

For the general session we stayed in our super good spot and as we were singing the opening hymn I made eye contact with Elder Bednar (because I legit couldn't stop staring at him and I'm pretty sure he has all the hymns memorized--true story) and he smiled at me and I had a moment where I was like what is my life. We didn't get the opportunity to shake his hand, but that's okay with me...I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to have even heard him speak and to have been so close!! Also, I am 100% positive that if I had shaken his hand I would have done something super embarrassing--because that's what's happened every other time I've met someone I respect/look up to/admire. So it's a good thing because I probably would have tarnished the good name of the Arizona Gilbert mission in his mind. Haha, just kidding.

Anyways, the moral of the story is that Elder Bednar had amazing things to say, and I learned so much...but I think what stood out to me the most is the PASSION that he has for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He speaks about it with such wonder and amazement, and I wish more of us were that way. The Spirit just floods the room when he walks in and it's impossible to deny that the mantle that he carries is real, that he truly is an Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ. In every session he spoke for one hour and could have easily gone on and on and on, and I would have gladly listened longer. He had to constrain himself to speak for only one hour--can you imagine?? The average member struggles with a 15 minute sacrament meeting talk, let alone an hour long discourse with no written notes. It really made me aware of how IMPORTANT those 15-20 minute general conference talks are. They're inspired, and they're for us. They could go on a lot longer but they choose the 20 minutes that they think we need MOST at that point in time. What a blessing!!

Selfie with ivy

Tiki torches

Well...last night transfer calls came. Unfortunately Sister Ogawa will be leaving me!!! We don't know where she's going yet, or who my new companion will be...but on Wednesday we'll find out. I've loved my time with Sister Ogawa and I'm sad to see her go, but she's such an amazing missionary so I know she'll do amazing things wherever she serves. :)

Anyways I love you all! Have a phenomenal week!

Sister Jacobson

Absurd amount of eggs!

P-day lunch at Cafe Rio

How to Gangster

Sister Ogawa's a natural!

No swimming allowed!