Teaching>Baptism>the TEMPLE!

Life is SO GOOD!! Can I just tell you how many amazing experiences we have had this last week? Some funny, some stressful yet rewarding, and lots of the spirit.

First off, we got to go to the Manhattan Temple on Wednesday night! I was probably there at the same time that mom was at the temple in Provo, which is kind of neat. We went as a group of sister missionaries...about 14 of us starting out. I say starting out because by the end there were only 9 of us by the time we got to the temple (5 got on the wrong train and the doors closed before we could tell them to get off...oops!). And then we got off at the wrong subway exit...about 10 blocks too early, so we were running through NYC in pouring rain trying to catch the session in time. We were soaked! But once we got in the temple, the peace of it all just completely flooded over me. I love the temple. I spent a long time in there thinking about various things going on in my life and in the lives of my investigators and I know that everything is in the Lord's hands. He knows what He's doing, we just need to trust Him enough to let Him do it.

I was excited to hear my family had a party for the Copa Mundial. We could definitely tell when it started because people are wearing jerseys of their country all over the place and every house we walk into has a game going on. It is quite the temptation but don't worry, I don't watch them, but hey, it provides for a good way to relate to people as we go tracting!

Some of the best news I have gotten recently was yesterday, Hna Erickson called me from Morristown and told me that Miguel is getting baptized this Sunday! She said they haven't been visiting him really at all since I left but he has still just been coming to church and going to the activities and such. I guess he just told them yesterday at church that he finally felt ready. He asked them if I could come but I can't. But the important thing is that he is making the decision he is. I am so excited for him. When we first met him, I never would have guessed that he would become so converted. And it is all through the power of the Book of Mormon! He is one of those people that I look back on and think to myself, "How in the world did it happen? How did he accept it?" He was so strong in his other church but the Book of Mormon changed him and I am so grateful for it.

Yesterday was just a great day altogether. Everyone says that Sacrament meeting is supposed to be the culminating part of a missionary's week, and yesterday it definitely was. We had 3 investigators come to church, all for the first time! Maria couldn't come at the last minute but Lucina, Ana, and Minerva were all just loving it! Lucina and Minerva have family members in our branch and so it is great to be able to teach them and help to make their families complete. Ana came with her daughters without knowing anybody and she loved it! When all the Peruvian women found out she was from Peru, they just took her right under their wing and helped her around. It is so neat the way being from the same country immediately bonds people. When we meet a new investigator, we rack our brains of all the members from that country and who would fit best for them, and it works every time!

Last thing, I promise...most of the areas in the mission have a car, and we use it a lot because our area is pretty big and dangerous at night. But last month, they started something in the mission called "car fast days" where one day a week we have to leave the car parked (we can get rides with members or take the bus or something, we just can't use our cars because the mission is over its limit on mileage limitations). So anway, last Friday was one of those days. We were walking all around in areas that we've never really walked before just heading to our next appointment and before we knew it, 2 different people had stopped us and told us they had been baptized in their home countries and just moved here and were looking for the church! How cool is that? And another guy who used to be taught and wants to be taught again. I love it! Sure I'm usually at the brink of passing out during our car fasts, but we're finding like crazy! Give and take, right? :)

Ok, that's all for today. I want you to know that I know this church is true. I've never known more in my life! "The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thine eye be full of light, thy whole body shall be full of light also." (3 Nefi 13:22) Focus our eyes toward the Savior and His teachings and we will radiate the light of Christ and draw others unto it. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

P.S. Mom, thanks for the package! I love the CD's!

P.P.S. Some pictures: the sisters at the temple and a typical street in Paterson.

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There is absolutely zero theme to this email! :)

Hey Everyone!

I hope you (my family, at least) were able to read my legit letter I wrote last week. Memorial Day made it kind of difficult to use a public library since they were all closed and then we were doing exchanges the next day so I got to sit down and write a letter snail mail style. I kind of liked it though. I think I might do it more often in the rest of my mission. Sorry I didn't have pictures to send with it, but I'll include some in this email.

So, Maria DV is still continuing to progress beautifully. She has come to church 2 Sundays in a row now and loved it both times! On Saturday night, we had a noche de hogar with her whole extended family (her husband's side). Basically the only active one in the family is her husband's mother, Mercedes, and she is awesome! It was kind of crazy but it was good. The theme was about the Family Proclamation to the World were it says, "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." We had all of the kids go around with one concept each (on a puzzle piece) and explain what it was then put it in the puzzle. When we flipped it over, it was a family! :) How creative, huh? Haha, it was fun though. The kids loved it and the parents learned a lot too. I love teaching people about the family proclamation and helping them see just how inspired it is.

Last week we got to do exchanges with the other Spanish sisters and it was my first time ever getting to be the one to go to someone else's area, so that was fun. I got to go down to North Branch and work with Hermana Evens, "my baby!" I might have made her make me pancakes for breakfast since she forgot to call me on Mother's Day...haha, just kidding, she wanted to. :) It was fun working with her again though. While we were together, we discovered that NJ has this really fun thing it likes to do with the weather where it will be really muggy/humid/overcast all day and then at about 5pm the heavens open and just dump down all the rain it's got for about 10 minutes, then it drizzles for another 5 then stops and clears up. Weird, I know. So if we ever happen to get caught outside when it decides to dump, we get soaked. That happened to me and Hna Evens as we went darting a couple of blocks from our appointment to where the car was parked. I felt like I had just gotten off the rapids ride at hurricane harbor or something. Good times.

We get to go to the temple again this Saturday! Our branch is going too and I am so excited!!! I miss going to the temple so much. There is a special spirit that the temple has that you cannot find anywhere else. That is where I want every one of these people I am working with to be able to go because it truly is the house of the Lord. I will need to soak it in all I can again because the next time won't be until November or so. Manhattan will probably be a little more crazy at this time of year than it was when we went in December but it will be neat to see.

Sorry this email is so random and in short-scatterred chunks but I guess that is the way my mind is working today. The work is really picking up here, which is a huge blessing. I know the potential this area has, we are just working to get it at that again so we can see even more miracles. Little miracles of the Lord are coming each and every day. If you ever think that Heavenly Father doesn't answer prayers, just get up off your knees and try to be the answer to someone else's prayers. As you do that, you will know then that He does and is ever so aware of you. I love this work. I never thought I could love people so much as I do right now. I know it sounds cliche as a missionary, but it is so true. My heart aches for them to come unto Christ! Keep them in your prayers.

Hopefully I'll hear from you all soon. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Pics: 573 - Noche de hogar with the whole family! Maria is down in the front with the kids in the yellow shirt (her son)

559 - me and Hna Cornish in front of our new favorite tag in Paterson. Oh Dominicans. :)

549 - A typical teaching appointment. Meet Wilson. He's Puerto Rican, covered in tattoos, has a really raspy voice and a difficult accent to understand, and I'm pretty sure he's killed someone. But hey, he needs the gospel too, right?

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Paterson never ceases to amaze me! :)

I hugged a drunk woman yesterday. Yep. It was pretty funny...and eye-opening actually. Yesterday was one of the craziest Sundays of my mission. We started out the morning trying to get one of our new investigators, Ventura, to church. I say "trying" because the ride we had arranged for him left without taking him...which we didn't find out until right before church started (we were waiting with him to be picked up). So then we had to call around for a taxi and got to church with him right in the middle of the Sacrament. It was crazy but I hope he still could feel the spirit there. Luckily there was an empty seat next to Rafael so they became best friends...oh little Dominican men. :) Then me and my comps had to rush up to sit on the stand because we were all speaking (which we found out about late Saturday night). I gave my talk and everybody was commenting afterward about how they remembered the last time I spoke in the branch...my third week on the mission. Haha, I hope it was a little better this time. :)

So, I sat down after my talk, which was all about how Christ invites everyone to come unto Him (2 Nephi 26:33), and Hna Binning gets up to give hers. All of a sudden, in the back door of the chapel comes wandering this big drunk black woman crying. One of the members gets up immediately to take her into the foyer and then motions for me to come out too. I go out there and find the elders reading her some scriptures. I sat down next to her on the couch, she turned to me and just threw herself on me as she started bawling her eyes out saying how she's been bad and she wants to come to Jesus. She lives across the street from the church and just came wandering over. I just put my arm around her and told her she had come to the right place to change and be better. After about 20 minutes of this, the elders offered to give her a blessing, but they told her it depended on her faith. She yelled out, "Oh, I have faith BIGGER than a mustard seed, yes it is!" Haha, something in that just made my heart go out to her. She didn't want to leave the church building until she could attend the English branch, which was still over 2 hours away from starting, so we put in Finding Faith in Christ for her to watch and she exclaimed that she wanted to get baptized! :) When the English elders showed up, we happily greeted them and told them, "Hey, we've got a baptism all lined up for you!" Good times. Like I said though, the whole experience was actually pretty eye-opening. It's so easy to love people when they're doing what's right but I had never really had such a feeling for someone who wasn't. I guess I just saw that no matter how drunk she was, something in her told her that she could go to the church and find help. I thought back to how much my talk had just applied to what I was facing. Christ invites everyone, and therefore, we should invite everyone as well. Maybe today when the elders go over to see her, she won't remember a thing that happened yesterday, but in time, Heavenly Father will touch her heart and she may wander into a church again (hopefully more sober) and feel something familiar, something good.

Exciting, huh? :) Let's see...oh, also this week, we contacted and taught an Italian man (who speaks some Spanish) and a Brazilian woman (who just speaks Portuguese but we do the best we can). Michael and Cari, the Italian man, Victor, wants you to call him and talk to him. He is from Napoli and brought out a lot of pictures of Calabria (are they anywhere near each other?) I don't know. Anyway, I'll send you his number. And Chris, if you want to call Anisia and speak Portuguese to her, go for it. Since coming back to Paterson and going to Ellis Island every other week, I have grown this huge desire to learn both Portuguese and Italian to just be able to communicate with more of these people! I've learned how to teach how to pray in Portuguese and how to offer help in Italian. Any extra help from you on more phrases or whatever would be greatly appreciated. :)

I heard good news from Hna Erickson in Morristown about Miguel! I wrote him a letter before I left and was pretty bold with him about the church and left 2 Nephi 33:10-11 for him to read. Apparently when they went over to give it to him, they spoke really boldly as well and when he read the letter, it matched up perfectly with what they had been telling him and he knew it was the spirit. He is seriously praying about moving his baptismal date up now. I absolutely love that man! When I look back on my time in Morristown, he is definitely one of the reasons I was there.

So how are you all doing? How is your latest tour going, Malcolm? Summer has basically started now, right? I love the summer time on the mission. People are just naturally happier and more willing to talk about God and make changes in their lives as we point out the blessings of God's creations all around us.

I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us more than we can know. The very first principle we teach is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. That is a principle I think I took for granted so much before my mission. No matter what our circumstance, our heartache, our joy, or our suffering may be, He is always there. I love teaching people how to pray and hearing them talk with Him for maybe the first time in their life. My mind goes so much to Mormon 9, which I have become addicted to lately! It testifies to me that miracles do happen, our prayers will be answered, and we will be blessed through our faith.

I pray for you all continually that the Lord continues to bless you. Take care and I will write again next week. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Humidity!

Hey everyone! How are you all? First of all, thank you SO MUCH to everybody who wrote me for my birthday!!!!!! It made me feel like the most special missionary in the world. I was kind of sick this week with this, that, and the other (headache, cough, and passing out :) but the Lord blessed us greatly in the work and things are progressing well. Needless to say, I really appreciated all the extra love and support I got from you all. So thank you.

Also, Happy Birthday Megan! (yeah, I know this is the week late...sorry). I hope your day was fabulous and that you felt loved, because you are the best. Love you!

Entonces, this week was kind of crazy. It's really starting to get humid and hot here, and until last night, our ac in the apartment didn't work, which was exciting. We picked up this amazing new investigator on Monday night, Alexis. About a week and a half ago, we were wandering around this huge apartment complex listening for Spanish as we walked down the hall, to help us decide which doors to knock. We heard a ton of people speaking Spanish inside one room, so we knocked. The door opened and inside we saw piles of beer bottles and cigarette smoke filling the air. One guy came out to talk to us (Alexis), we introduced ourselves and were about to just give him a pass-along card and leave but in the course of the contact, both Hna Erickson and I felt the spirit really strongly telling us that he needed the gospel. We set up an appointment and went over on Monday night. The spirit at that first lesson was so strong! I can't even explain it. We went back on Friday and again had the same experience. He opened up to us that he has a lot of things in his life that he wants to change, that he wants to do better. He didn't really have purpose in his life or feel like he had any hope to be better. We talked to him about the faith and repentance and compared his story to Alma the Younger in the Book of Mormon. It was just really powerful. Anyway, we ran into him last night on the street and he had been having problems with some people he lives with and he is taking off this week to go back to Puerto Rico. His whole family is there and he doesn't have a job here or anything, it's just better down there. But it broke our hearts that he is going because he was so cool but I know that we found him when we did for a reason and hopefully we will be able to get him in touch with the missionaries down there as well.

Well, I don't really know what else to tell you for now...I don't really want to blow everything before I call home this Sunday. My companion and a member of the branch, Angela, really went through a lot of effort on Friday to make my birthday a special day. I'll tell you all about Angela when I call. She's basically my mom on the mission.

I hope everything is going well for you all. Take care and know that I love you. Thank you for your love and support in helping me focus on the work of the Lord. I know this is the most important thing I can be doing with my life right now. This next several months is going to fly by...I better hang on to it tight! :) The church is true. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

These seeds have taken a LONG time to grow...

Hey my wonderful family, how are you? Things are going well here. Actually, they are going more than well because we have a baptism this Sunday!!! His name is Reymon, and he is turning 8 today. He is the son of an eternigator that can't get baptized because she's not married but he is so excited to get baptized this week. It's kind of interesting teaching a little kid...and we haven't even really taught him a ton because he has pretty much grown up in the church but hey, he's cool. His 12 yr-old sister, Paola, is a member and we're still working with his parents to get his dad moving his feet to get married to his mom. Hopefully there will be good news on that to come. But we are way excited. :)

We also got a baptismal date set with Paco for May 9! Things are finally starting to come through around here. Miguel has told us he will get baptized, he just doesn't want to set a date because, as he explained it, he has already been baptized in 2 wrong churches in his life and he doesn't want to make that same mistake again...but he'll get baptized, don't fret. :)

This week was eye-opening in some respects...I don't really know how to explain it. Basically, one of the members here, Angela, analyzed our companionship for us (and the last 2 companionships I've been in here in Morristown) and said that I always get put with someone who is really "carinosa" because I'm not, basically (I don't know how to define that word...it's like kind, caring, sweet...I don't know). Haha, I have heard that lots on my mission and I never quite know how to take it because they always follow it up by saying that it's not a bad thing, because people can still tell I love them just in a different way...anyway, I thought a lot about it and came to the conclusion that the reason I have been left here in Morristown for so long while we're teaching all these little men is because men don't care if you're carinosa or not! They just listen to the message and take it for what it's worth so...yep, that was my conclusion and my mid-mission crisis ended just as quickly as it began.

I got to be the concluding speaker at our fireside last night for the 2 Spanish branches in our stake. I shared about how to tackle the seemingly insurmountable task of reading the Book of Mormon. It was a really good experience and I think the spirit was really strong. Everyone left with a ton of energy to start reading the Book of Mormon and see the miracles from it. Hopefully with everybody having stronger testimonies of the Book of Mormon, we will receive even more support from the members in the work and energy to share the gospel from them.

Anyway, I don't really know what else to say. It was a good week but hopefully this coming one will be even better. I hope everyone is doing well. Take care and know that I'm praying for you. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Sorry, my creativity has run dry for the week...:)

Hey family!

How are you all doing? How is the wonderful springtime for you all? Hna Erickson and I are just loving it here in Morristown. Our favorite thing is just parking the car every once-in-a-while and WALKING! It is so much nicer to be able to contact outside and such.

This week was kind of a crazy one as we lost almost 2 entire days to proselyting because we had to go to Ellis Island for orientation one day and then start work the next (we only go there April-October to help). It was fun this time being the one to get to show my companion around because she had never been before (considering the last time we went, I was still in my first transfer of my mission). I found Papa Chuck's dad on the Ellis Island page and am hoping that when I get home I can do more searching on that. It said he declared his destination as Little Falls, NJ! That was in my first area! Crazy, I had no idea.

The month of April has been deemed "Change of Heart" month, as we are anxiously preparing for the Cherry Hill mission to join with us in July. It's consisting of several fasts, shorter preparation days, daily reading of the white handbook, and other things to help us become more unified and get more baptisms. We have already been seeing several blessings from it as we have 2 investigators praying about a baptismal date right now (Miguel and Luis) and hopefully another we will set tonight (Paco). Paco and Miguel came to church yesterday and they loved it! Paco is the coolest kid ever. He's 18-yrs old, from Mexico, and is just so humble. We've taught him twice now and he is reading the Book of Mormon and everything. Hopefully more good news on him will follow.

This week we are holding a fireside for our branch and the Dover branch about the importance of the Book of Mormon, and it will include a challenge to all of them to read the Book of Mormon from cover to cover before the end of the year. I just finished the Book of Mormon for the second time all the way through in Spanish (well, almost 2 times, but the first time I made it to Helaman 13 when President Bahr challenged us all to read it from the beginning...so I started over). It was an amazing experience. I absolutely love the Book of Mormon. No matter how many times I read it, I learn new and important doctrines about the Savior Jesus Christ to apply in my life. I counted how many references there are to Christ in the Spanish one and, while I don't have the exact number with me, it was something over 5,000 times in 600 pages that it talks about Him. It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.

Well, I think that is about it for this week. I hope everyone continues to be doing well and that you are all doing things each day to grow closer to our savior Jesus Christ. That's where we find real happiness. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Energy Revived!

Life here in Morristown is going SO well! I will admit, it is hard for me to be here another transfer but luckily I love the people here and my new companion, Hna Erickson (from Boise, ID), is AMAZING! We have such a great energy for the work here and are going to see some amazing miracles this transfer, I can feel it. We've got branch activities and firesides in the making and all sorts of neat things planned to see this place grow. I'm so excited! So yeah, Hna Erickson was in trained in Paterson by Hna Bushman (she replaced me when I left for here) and now we're companions! I just love her, don't even fret. :)

Wasn't General Conference just amazing? We watched it here in the chapel in Morristown and went to check on our members/investigators in the Relief Society room during the hymns (we watched it in English). Lots of amazing talks and all focused on family and strengthening the family and the home. We see just how important that is so much every day. I also had fresh in my mind the special day that Saturday was in our family and kept thinking over and over again how grateful I am that our family was sealed in the temple and that mom and dad had Jesus Christ as the center of our home. Memories were coming back of waking up to read the Book of Mormon before seminary, interviews with Dad, consistent Family Home Evening, and the example of always turning to the Lord in times of trial. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with a family like that and hope that I can help be the means of bringing that joy and comfort to the people here in New Jersey. These people here have become like my family and I want them to have what we have! And it's gotten to the point where I walk down the street and know almost everybody...haha, oh Morristown. So conference...Darwin came to the Saturday morning session and Miguel went to the Priesthood session and they both loved it too. Afterwards on Saturday afternoon, Darwin told us he wanted to get baptized!!!! We went over to visit him yesterday and talk with him a little more about it and Miguel told us he had been kicked out of the house Saturday night because he hadn't been paying rent or working for a year. Miguel called him and he was in Ohio, moving to Michigan. I wanted to cry so bad but my tears had already been expelled during conference. I got to talk to him for a sec and he said that when he figures out where he's moving, he wants the missionaries to come by. He said thanks for everything and that was it. It was a hard night, to say the least, but I know that the Lord will take care of him. I'm not even giving justice to explaining what all happened but I think you get the jist of it.

Anyway, I wish I had my notes with me right now from conference, but I don't so I will have to go off the top of my head. I loved President Monson's talk I think the most. When he mentioned about the missionaries serving on both sides of the veil, my thoughts of course went straight to Anthony and the work he is doing there and what I am trying to do here. This is the most important work that exists! It is the work that spans the timeline of existence and brings families together for eternity. Now if we can just get some of our investigators married! We're shooting for 3 weddings this transfer. Haha, definitely next on our to-do list. :)

Well, Hna Erickson and I are still working hard and trying to do our best. I don't think she believed me at first when I kept telling her that all of our investigators are "little men"...and then she started meeting them and found out it's true. One of these days, I will get to sit down in a house again for a lesson! It's pretty funny. Please keep praying for them to recognize this is true, because I know it is! I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Ok, and now I suppose I'll attach some pictures.

341 - Hna Binning, Hna Cornish, and I going out to lunch at Panera Bread to celebrate our halfway mark.

320 - Hna Evens and I with Miguel (doing the bunny ears) and Darwin. I love those guys!

281 - my zone last transfer (transfer 5)

328 - eating frog legs. Yeah, we went out to lunch with the branch mission leader between sessions on Saturday and he took us to a Chinese buffet...and I might have loved it.

338 - my new comp, Hna Erickson, and I :)

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