Milagros esta semana ...

Well hey fam!!! How's everyone doin? Wait, first... I SKIMMED emails today (my new execution plan is to print off emails and write about them the following week.... sorry) and that's SO sad about Ryan Runia! what a shock. I'm sorry to hear about that. I love being able to tell people of the plan of salvation and telling them what I know to be true. No greater joy comes than from the work of the Lord!!! This week has been a fabulous one! No crazy stories of me dancing or being in newspapers haha just good ol miracles happening every day :) Last week I wanted to tell you about la famila Acosta de Puerto Rico! The father and mother have both been married before and now they are happily married and members of the church. She was baptized back in May. Her daughters, Yari and Amalia are 14 and 11. We went to teach them last week and it had been one of the craziest of days so we hadn't prepared a lesson plan! We prayed and felt that the restoration was what we needed to talk about. We started teaching it and the spirit was just so strong in the room! I told of the first vision in my own words (Oh, the girls don't know much about the church btw) and was just overwhelmed by the spirit as I saw tears come to the eyes of Yari. We explained the Holy Ghost and also about Joseph Smith and that his family was split in beliefs and what churches they attended (like her father who hates mormons and mother who is now a member). We told her she could, like Joseph Smith, pray about what church is true. We watched the restoration video and after talked to them about their feelings. Both committed to praying about our message and said they would be baptized if they came to find it was true! It was such a powerful lesson. That sunday they came running up to us with the biggest smiles and told us they had prayed and had a great experience. They both are thinking about baptism. Their mother called us this week and told us the backgroud of their step dad a lil more. Also that her husband's (member) kids had wanted to be baptized, got verbal concent from their mom, and then a week before she called and said they couldn't be baptized. So basically Hermana Acosta is worried about her girls getting hurt and everything. so we need to be careful and pray for their fathers heart to be changed. We teach them tonight! Also, this Thursday we had an appointment with la familia Aponte de Venezuela. We've been teaching them the whole time I've been here and they just didn't seem to be progressing like we would like them to be. So we decided if they hadn't prayed about a baptismal date when we went to see them, then we would have to "drop" them. We brought with us the Mendez couple (members). Elaudio (the dad) seemed to be pleased and happy the whole lesson but was pretty quiet until finally we asked if he'd prayed about a date. He answered, "yes. December 8th sounds great!" He comes to church almost every week and has a really strong testimony. He's been taught for months so we're excited he's finally taking the step! Friday we had exchanges!!! Sister Heiner (ma P-town sista!) came and got me and I went to the Olympia area. It was the best day ever! I realized how much easier it is to speak english all the time, but how the english people aren't as accepting.. I actually really missed my spanish haha. We went knocking for a part of the day and ran into a fellow who just seemed like the saddest person. He was trying to argue with us and told us we were brain washed and that we couldn't tell him we "know" anything. I cried after, not because I was offended- I know this message is the truth and nothing can change that- but because I was sad at the things he believed and the way he rejected the message. One of our appointments later was canceled so we decided to go see an investigator by the name of Vanessa from Colombia. She spoke english so don't get too excited haha but she was the cutest lady with the 3 most beautiful, fun daughters! basically she was so accepting of our message of prayer and the book of mormon! She was golden. She could turn out to be mine and Hermana Allred's investigator cause they want to go tp the spanish ward. Yesterday we taught a referral from the portuguese elders, named Herson. We had to teach him in the hall of his apartment complex cause no one else was home and our members bailed. But he was soaking in our whole message about the restoration and when we told the first vision, he said, "what did Jesus say?!" so we told him that none of the churches on the earth were true and that through Josephj the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. Then he said, "what more?!" so we taught about the book of mormon and the promise in Moroni. He committed to reading the whole thing THAT DAY!!! haha we told him it was 500 pages and he said he'd read it before next Sunday!! K what? We were blown away! Anyway, gotta run. But it was a wonderful week and we're expecting a spledid one this week as well :) I love you all and hope all is well!!! Praying for you and grateful for all your prayers- I truly feel their power. Have a good'n.

Love, Hermana Jackson