They say you should go home on a stretcher...

Craziest week of my mission, hands down! This might be long but you MUST read on...I promise it will be worth it (at least up to Thursday :) I will go in chronological order:

Tuesday: TRANSFERS! I was SO SAD to leave Paterson, especially saying goodbye to Maria DV was the worst but I know we are going to keep in touch forever so it's all good. Then we got to transfer conference and realized only one other Spanish companionship was changing...which puts me with Hna Cornish again! Crazy, huh? This is our 3rd time being comps...MTC, then the trio in Paterson, and now here in NORTH BRANCH. It is at the old southern border of the mission, before we got Cherry Hill added in. Talk about culture chock from Paterson! People have lawns here! :) We are in an English ward down here with a couple of rows of Spanish members we work with that wear headsets during sacrament meeting. But the Spanish program is growing a lot so we're excited to see what we can do. Very Spanglish environment though. I translated 2 talks during sacrament meeting, which was exciting. We live with 2 other sisters, Sis Neves and Tolman. And Sis Neves is from Sao Paolo and cooks for us every day. :)

Wednesday: Ellis Island...and then there was an accident on the way back so it took us close to 4 hours to get home (usually it's only 1) and got 1 lesson in.

Thursday: Walking day! The weather was gorgeous...even a little drizzly, which was nice so I had 0 fear of passing out...until at about 7:45 pm when we got hit by a car! Can you believe it? Here's what went down...We were walking across the street (in a crosswalk) when a car was making an unprotected left turn onto our street and I guess he didn't see us. Hna Cornish yelled, "Sister, look out!" and next thing I know, I'm flipping in the air or something from the impact and landed on my ankle/side of my foot. Basically head on the car hit me but Hna Cornish only got hit by the front corner of the car. So anyway, I couldn't get up, the guy stopped and called 911 and soon enough the street was closed off and there were police and ambulance and lights and everything. I could move my right foot or my left shoulder (don't ask why...I'm confused as to how I fell). They got me on a stretcher, put me in the back of the ambulance and drove me to the hospital. Talk about pain shooting through my body! Hna Cornish called President Bahr but he wasn't answering so she left him a message saying, "Hey, can you call us? Thanks." Haha. Don't worry, we took pictures of me with the EMT's (but I forgot my camera cord today...sorry) and I was smiling and joking around with them, trying to ignore the pain. We got ahold of President and Sister Bahr and they came down to our area right away and stayed with us in the ER until 1:00am. I got x-rays and everything and discovered that I have a fractured foot and possibly a fractured shoulder (the x-rays weren't too good for the shoulder). And a huge bruise on my hip from where the car hit me. Yeah, so that's the story. So now I have a sling on my left arm, a huge bandage on my right foot, and a crutch under my right arm...I feel like Tiny Tim. :) They tried getting me to use 2 crutches in the ER but my shoulder was killing me and I was in so much pain that I started shaking really bad and almost threw up/passed out so President Bahr put a stop to that. :)

Friday: We were in pain most of the day. Hna Cornish got a bruised tailbone and I was trying to figure out how to deal with life. :) Luckily Sister Tolman is a hair stylist so she did my hair for me since I can't reach up my arm. We got a couple lessons in with me hobbling around...I'm stubborn, I know.

Saturday: Went to the Manhattan Temple! We had this trip planned for a while because Matilde (a convert from Paterson last year) was getting her endowments and I was not about to let the fact that I got hit by a car get in my way! We actually got all the way there without getting lost at all and we were early for once! Changing trains/subways 3 times was exciting. So my right heel has touched the ground of all the NY subway system...and NYC is so fast-paced! But the temple was wonderful. I saw my old trainer there, Hna Bushman, and she freaked out when she saw me come hobbling into the temple like I was. Haha. I also saw my friend Aubrey from BYU because there was this huge YSA conference going on this weekend! So good. And I came home so TIRED!

Sunday: What a way to meet everybody! I stood up at the pulpit translating for some talks, and then Bishop Stone got up to introduce me while I was still up there (he hadn't met me yet) and we got to tell the whole ward what happened. Yep, good stuff. I played the piano in the Spanish sunday school...using my left foot on the pedal and not really moving my left hand at all. It was fun. And hey, mom and dad, I was talking to this woman before church who had lived in Bakersfield a long time ago. She asked who my parents were and turns out she lived in the apartments back in the early 80's when Anthony was a baby and had dinner with you guys all the time...and her uncle baptized you, Dad! Do you remember Linda Low? I showed her pictures of you all now and it was fun updating her on our family.

Ok, there you go. Sorry it was so long and not that spiritual but it is what it is. I know that my Heavenly Father protected me this week because my injuries weren't nearly as bad as they could have been. Thank you for your prayers for me. I'm trying to keep going out and doing the work the best I can...though door knocking isn't quite an option right now. :) Hna Socorro told me at the temple on Saturday that Satan knew I was planning on going out of my mission on a high and he tried throwing this in my way to stop me...but it won't! She said, "What Satan didn't know is that you are stronger than him." So the work continues. I love it everyday.

I miss you mucho but I love you mas,

Hermana Jackson