I, Hermana Jackson, having been "born" of a "goodly mother"

Hello hello!! K, quick disclaimer: I dont actually fancy the mission lingo of "born", "Mother".. all that jazz.. However, I thought it was quite clever on my part, so I couldnt resist. WOAH what a week!! This place somehow continues to get better and Im lovin it! Despite my horrors of getting put with a hard (as in disobedient or just nothing like me) I got put with the opposite! Hermana Allred, from AF, could easily be my twin. Not by looks, but by personality and such. hahaa so as you can imagine, there's quite a lot of energy here in Windy Ridge. K how cool is this, my area contains Disney World, Sea world, Universal Studios, and international drive (still have yet to know what that even is, but I guess its pretty cool). So Monday night after I shot you a lil email, we had mission president interviews, a lil meeting (which I was asked to bear my testimony in... Slightly intimidating) and then the Sisters were all taken to the Wood's house to stay. Dad asked how many languages are in the mission and how many missionaries are spanish speaking. there are 4- english, spanish, portuguese(?), and creole. Not many speak spanish.. For instance, for 4 incoming hermanas the president had to use all the hermanas here in the mission (5) to train. After a breif orientation on Tuesday we were introduced to trainers, picked up my bike- side note: I dont have a helmet.. Im wondering if that has been sent yet- and then to the mission office because Sister Busathe was gettin flustered with all my packages :) hahaha WOW it was like Christmas!!! THANKS! I got my lovely quilt from Mama/Aunt Lyssa (MUCHAS GRACIAS), a box of goods from the sweet McGuires (they must know me real well or had some insiders from you mama and papa, cause they nailed it). May I ask that people dont send lots of treats......Im really scared about getting fat. We'll give some to others if needed- it's likely. I got my 2 skirts Mama, and they are perfect- so comfy and light weight. We had 3 lessons planned for the day, but all 3 fell through :( We contacted a ton and I was the happiest person ever. It was way fun! Wednesday we had a meeting with a member, dinner with a member (holy cow, we have incredible dinners with members). The next day we had dinner with the Mendez family and while we were waiting for the food to be done, their son thats 20 was expressing his worries about going on a mission. He didnt want to be held back that much in school. He sounded like he wasnt getting time in to read his scriptures every day and that church was a burden to him. It was a good moment for me to reflect and to try and express how I felt about my mission. It was hard not to just say "GO ON A MISSION!" haha and it was hard for me to try and understand his feelings, but we committed him to reading PMG so he would get a better idea of what a mission is like. Then we had a wonderful meal and shared a thought about member missionarys. It was really cool during my testimony I noticed the mom was crying.. It was seriously such a simple testimony (clearly) but then she told me how much missionaries mean to them and that I had said something that really touched her. That was a really sweet moment. The language is comin along. Its a lil stressful that everyone expects so much here haha but the members are super sweet to me and I just try my hardest to learn. On Thursday we were supposed to meet with 3 teenagers, but 2 werent home, so we taught the one (Robert) with his mother and sister in the background, and we had a member present (America- yes, her name is America). We thought he spoke spanish, but apparently he's more comfortable with english so we taught in english. He accepted the invitation to be baptized, prayed with us and was super excited. I cant even tell you how cool it was!! Alright so I need to wrap this up pretty quick here.. Its amazing and humbling to me that these people give us food all the time and work so hard to get to church. I love these people! And I love this area! Saturday we had a service project (WITH HELPING HANDS JERSEYS ON- always a dream of mine) at a school and one of the members had a BYU shirt on. I said something and he told me about BYU beating Boise state!!! what? yes. Im so proud. And Dad, Mason Herzog says hello? apparetnly he went to East. Liz, way to stand strong and true and blue with all those boise state fans, by the way!!! Atta girl. Dad, sounds like your driving is improving... Way to be fast and furious driving on mediaans and over steps. And thanks for the jokes, I sure did enjoy them :) always. I love you all and Ill talk to you next week!!

Love, Hermana Jackson

Zone Conference