Would you give your LIFE for it?

Hey, how is everybody doing? Is it warming up in Utah yet? It sure is here. I love it! This is a long one, but it's worth it, I promise. :)

Miracles happen, everyday. Sometimes you wonder as a missionary if the work you are doing is pleasing unto the Lord. Sometimes I wonder why the heck he is trusting me to teach His children the gospel. None of us are perfect, but Heavenly Father knows that and He works with that and He leads us in our imperfections to become better, to be led by His Holy Spirit and be sanctified. And when you can look back at a week like this and see the way the Spirit guided without you even realizing it, you are just humbled again and again at the power of the Lord. I'm just going to hit day-by-day the little miracles:

Tuesday: Miracles of Finding. Exchanges among the sisters in my zone; I was with Hna Minetto! She served here in Morristown for 3 transfers last summer so as we were walking around the town, we ran into tons of people that she had taught previously that had just fallen through the cracks because they moved or something and got their information de nuevo.

Wednesday: Miracles of Challenging. Set 2 baptismal dates! One with Ranferi and one with Martin! They are awesome. Martin still has some doubts but at least he knows now that this is where we're headed. But Ranferi's lesson was so powerful! The spirit was so strong and he didn't even let us finish the baptismal challenge before he said that he wanted to get baptized!

Thursday: Miracles of Testimony. Absolute exhaustion but lots of new investigators. We ended up with 4 lessons back-to-back with guys who LOVE to talk...fast...and a lot. Hna Evens was just staring at me and I was getting a headache just staring at them. Wow. But one of them, Sergio, invited us to give a lesson to his youth group at the Catholic church. Haha, he liked what we were saying. We were trying to get across to him about how this is the only true church and then he looked at me straight in the eyes and he said, "Would you give your life for it?" That was the first time I had ever been asked that and I was so grateful I was able to look straight back at him and say, "Yes. Yes I would." He had nothing to say after that. I was grateful for the chance Heavenly Father gave me to strengthen my testimony so much by bearing it.

Friday: Miracles of Diligence. I was not feeling too great all day and was still exhausted of Spanish from the day before but we just kept going and working hard. Some good appointments throughout the day but the clincher came in the last appointment of the night, a power visit with a member of the branch, Angela. She is one of my favorite women ever and she has been struggling a lot lately. Life is so hard for these people we teach. Their families are in their home country, they think they have come here to chase after the "American Dream" and then they realize it's all false. Angela goes to work, comes home and spends the evening with her 10-yr-old son, and goes to sleep...day after day. And then church on Sundays. There are no nice things to go to in the community, no other good families to hang out with or go to the movies with. So we started sharing a message with her, having no idea what we could say to help, and my scriptures fell open to a part in Alma 43 that I had marked after Dad cited it in a letter to me. It was random, about some wars of the Nephites and Lamanites, but it spoke right to her. She started crying and so did I as we felt the spirit of the Lord fulfill the promise to "open your mouth and it will be filled."

Saturday: Miracles of being in the right place at the right time. Popped in to visit a recently reactivated member of the branch, Walter, who had been praying that someone would show up that could give him the spiritual boost he was seeking. He wanted to call us but didn't want to pull us from our lessons so he went for a 15-minute walk instead. We felt like we shoudl go visit him and happened to go over right after he left, and left a note on the door. He called us 10-minutes later and we had a great lesson on faith.

Sunday: Miracles of Prayer. Ranferi came to church! Need I say more? Ok, well, maybe one kind of un-miracle...we found out he's not married to his esposa...roadblock major. And also Hector came to church and talked with the branch president and they are getting his records transferred up from Honduras after 13 years!

Well, I think this email is long enough. :) Thank you for your continued prayers and support to me and most especially for your prayers for our investigators. Prayers really are answered, and the more we recognize the answers, the more we get them. I miss you tons but I love you more!

Love,

Hermana Jackson