Is it spring? 'cause the area is blooming!

It must be spring cause y'all are vacationing! haha I hope Scotty and Chels are safe and that Lizzy, Park and crew are enjoying beloved Utah :) I gotta get goin cause I want to send pictures and I have TONS to share! First, remember Miguel who we were teaching last transfer? We stopped by his house this week and set a time to come back to see him. We had an incredible lesson with him that was so simple about prayer, the holy ghost and reading the scriptures. He opened up so much with us and accepted baptism.. but not a date unfortunately cause he's moving to Boston in a couple weeks. SIN EMBARGO, we're hoping to strengthen his knowledge and testimony so that when he goes to Boston, we will have the missionaries there get to him and he will be ready! We had exchanges on Friday with dear Sister Thomson from New Zealand again :) SIster Gruber and I stayed here in Semoran and Sister Marsh left for Olympia. Exchanges are THE BEST! I learned so much from her and we learned how to be better teachers and such. We also got to go see a family that we've been trying so hard to see for so long. He is way strong in the church, comes every week, etc., but the rest of his family is struggling. His wife doesn't want anything to really do with it anymore and his grown kids don't see where it fits in their lives either. Anyway, we had a noche de hogar con ellos y fue bien increible! Wow, the spirit was so strong, especially when he bore his testimony and his daughter in law wants to start meeting with us! 

Ok, now Aurora and Juan! He enjoyed church and when we went over earlier in the week, he told us he wants the discussions! He was asking tons of questions which was great, minus the fact that we couldn't understand him cause he was mumbling a lil bit and talks so fast! They give us a hard time on the spanish end, but they're helping us to get better. Anyway, then we had a temple tour with them on Saturday. Couldn't find any members to come so guess who translated.... me! hahaha Besides it being toasty and humid out, I was extra hot! But with the help of another 2 elders, we conquered. Juan really liked it and kept saying, "one day I'll go in" "one day I'll get baptized". He asked questions about entering the temple as well and why his wife couldn't go in (she's less active). She's so happy with us coming over all the time and with going to church. They have come the last two weeks :) Saturday night we didn't have many miles left for the day (we were actually over a lil from the temple tour) and thought we may not be able to visit our members for dinner. They came to pick us up and they had a less active  (I know, we're magnets to less actives!) that we didn't know about in our area and a non-member friend. After sharing the restoration, he wants to know more, came to church yesterday with his daughter and we will be seeing him in a few days!! His name is John. Sunday we saw our investigator Gabby again! She's awesome and reads the Book of Mormon before every visit! She's 15, so there are some things that need to happen like especially her getting to church before we can move on with her much more. Her mother isn't too interested. But yesterday after talking about the plan of salvation Gabby accepted a date for April 20th!!!! We're praying really hard for everything to work out. Ok, running out of time!!! I love you all and hope you're enjoying your break!

Hermana Megs

This lil chika will be famous for her voice one day! 

Sister Sullivan. Bringin the 90's back? 

not pictured: Juan 

Happy Saint Patty's to yuhs!

So this week we're gonna take the gratitude approach on the email cause i'm just super grateful about lots of things. Alrighty, 1,2,3,go!

1. The man in the Coka Cola shirt. We had been contacting and tracting a ton on Tuesday and were just exhausted. We had ridden our bikes pretty far.. I hate to say it, but it was a "going through the motions" point of time. We hit a park and it was slow so we sat down and organized ourselves, made calls etc. On the way out we passed a mother doing homework with her daughter, I quickly turned around and we started talking to her. Turns out she speaks spanish and was super interested in the Book of Mormon and learning more about how this message can bless her fam. We will be seeing her in a few days. Then on our way home we saw a guy in a Coka Cola shirt sitting with his bike on the corner. We stopped to talk to him and long story short, he just moved here 2 weeks ago, is going through a mid life crisis, no one has talked to him here, he's depressed, etc. He asked the most incredible questions though while we chatted!! He asked how we gained testimonies, what the difference between our church and other churches is (BINGO, authority) he told us he was confused about the bible having been translated so many times (BINGO, Book of Mormon), he told us for the past 4 nights he had been praying to God to know why "he's doing this to him" (BINGO, Joseph Smith). I mean, I really wish I could even describe how inspired it all was!!!! We had him read the last two paragraphs of the introduction and the look on his face just totally changed! He told us he would read as much as he could tonight. He told us he knew we were an answer to his prayers. Hermanitas, Gruber, Marsh y yo walked away from that with tears filling up our eyes.

2. Technology. We had ipad training this week with the "traveling sisters" and my eyes were so opened to the many possibilities! I've had a lil bit of a hard transition with the ipadsies and FB and such.. I just aint a techy haha. Where's Scotty when yuh need him? haha joke. But I've truly realized how much this expands the horizon and hastens the work!! During our meeting with her too she bore her testimony and it just hit me and I knew it was what I needed to hear. 

3. Sister Berry (in particular.. President Berry as well, of course!). This week at trainer/trainee follow up she was just so full of love and care. I'm so grateful for her fun, loving personality and all that she does to keep us functioning as a mission and as individuals. She cracks me up too. Again, Mama and her would be friends.

4. That we are a biking mission. HAHAHA! my heavens, it allows for so many hilarious stories. In the past week we've had two funny casualties.. One of sister Marsh thinking she could mount a curb... Came to a complete hault and tumbling down (don't worry, i got permission to share). And the second of us coming to the corner to stop and sister Marsh kinda tripped on the bike a bit and then I did as well hahaha wow, bless our hearts. I can assure you we are being careful though! Also, I love being able to exercise a bit during the day and contact people on the way. So many pros. Minus the fact that the humidity is creepin in on us..

5. My trio. The pros just keep pilin up! Ilove learning from them and working with them! They're the best companions and we're enjoying time together. It'll be weird going back to 2.

6. Yesterday. Miracles are flyin here and yesterday was full of them. Aurora (less active that we found) and her husband (non member) both came to church!!! As well as Maribel (member from Honduras here for her daughter) and brought her friend Oscar who isn't a member but his whole family is and he lives here now! He LOVED church and wants to see us this week! Then later we got a call from mayra- the Mayra we met last week- after we had heart-attacked her door (she's super sick) and she was almost in tears and told us she was grateful and then that she "read the whole book"...!!!!!!!! She read the whole BOM in the last week and really loved it! she has some questions written down to ask us when we go over and she says she's super excited to keep learning more. Wow, WHAT'S LIFE?! It was the coolest thing. Oh, minor funny thought: We called a potential yesterday and he asked me to marry him hahaha. If nothing else, it provided a good laugh.

7. Growth. The saying that Matty gave me before I left "there's no comfort in growth and no growth in comfort" keeps ringing truer and truer. I'm being stretched and pushed to do things that scare me or stress me out or frustrate me. But I know that as I go through with a smile on, recognize the hand of the Lord and try and understand what he wants me to learn, I'm becoming better. Wow, I love the mish so much and I'm so grateful to be here!

I love yall so much and I'm grateful for you! Have a good'n!

Love, Hermana Jackson

There's always an excuse for a celebration! 

Not featured: sister Marsh with 2 months.

Celebrando seis meses de felizidad verdadero :)

The quote "Time flies but remember you're the navigator" is repeating through my mind hard core this week. I left for the Mexico City MTC 6 months ago from today!! WOW. I'm amazed at where I've come since then and grateful that I get to continue growing and becoming what the Lord needs me to be. This last week was incredible, as always and so filled with miracles! We focused on "how to begin teaching" and teaching short lessons on the spot. We received 4 new investigators and this week we will be receiving 3 member referrals which is 3 more than this area has gotten in the last 6 months!!! One of the investigators is Mayra. We were knocking in a complex and had just finished all the doors in a hallway without any answers and were headed to the next when a lady poked her head out of her door and yelled to us. We went over to talk to her and asked if we could say a prayer so she let us in. Before we started she said, "I've gotta tell you. Last night I was on the phone with my daughter telling her I really needed to find a congregation. I saw when you knocked but I was on the phone with her again. After a minute I felt like I should open the door and talk to you!" We told her we had been sent from God and that He really wanted her to hear this message. She was so faithful and so open to learn! She accepted the Book of Mormon and said to us, "ok, I'll write things down if I have any questions" without us even saying anything. I really don't even know how to explain how solid she was, but we're way excited about it! We've also come to an epiphany this week... Through our finding efforts we have been able to find 4 less-actives from other countries now living in our area. We also have been seeing some less-actives in the ward beginning to progress. I truly think that's a big reason why we're here! To strengthen the ones who have gone astray a lil bit!! One of them, maribel, came to church this week and when we asked her the second hour how she felt she said, "I've been thirsting for so long! I finally feel at peace and I'm so grateful to be here!" She was gleaming the whole three hours and the women in the ward welcomed her really nicely so we're hoping she'll become "a regular" or active, if you will. Another thing I've come to learn this week, the hard way... I've been called to repentance for not being so good at writing in my journal. horrible actually. On Sunday last week we were preparing a last-minute primary lesson in the library when to men from the english ward came in and started talking about missions and all. They stopped and told us to MAKE SURE we write in our journals! I wanted to melt I was so guilty. Then the next day we were watching a mormon message and it talked about President Eyring writing in his journal. THEN we were reading through "adjusting to missionary life" in TWO different parts on wednesday and both of which said to write in your journal. And you wouldn't believe it, but the next day we get a text from the zone leaders asking us to look through our journals to share what we've learned on the mission..... You. are kidding me. I KNOW the Lord sent all those messages to me. I've been trying to in the past, but find "better" things to be doing and just don't put the time in. I've now successfully written every day and it's becoming something I enjoy. Sorry I'm going on about writing in my journal, maybe yall don't even care haha but I really did gain a testimony of the importance of it this week. So Imma encourage all yall to go write in your journals this week!! My companions are the greatest and we're just havin a grand ol time together! Not sure where I heard all the horror stories about trios, but they aint ringing true for these tres hermanita amigas. Sister Marsh doesn't even NEED training cause she's teaching sister Gruber and I a lot. It's so fun to have a fresh mind with us. Sometimes we get stuck in ruts of doing things redundantly. But she's bringin on the fire out here in Semoran! 

   Alrighty fam and friends, I love yall and love hearing from you every week through letter and email!! Hasta la proxima semana!

Con Carino, Hermana Megan Jackson

temple service at it's finest 

las tres de nosotras 

selfie.. I did my hair that day.. 

clippin the nails. Good ol set up, eh? 

we went to steak n shake to celebrate our "birthdays" and before some solid weekly planning 

la la la fabrica

Hola familia! Que pasa? Wow, this lil (lil being all relevant.. I'm so scared i'm gaining weight.. apparently in the cheeksies) Hermanita is happy as a clam :) SIster Gruber and I received our newby on Tuesday morn and odds be havin it, she's from Utah haha. And we knew each other at BYU! Her name is sister Marsh from Joseph, Utah (I don't even know where that is..). She is 20 and tall and knows a surprising amount of espanol. Willing to work way hard, try things and mess up, and has a genuine love for the people here! As scared as I was, of course I'm pleased as punch with how things are going. This week however was slightly rough in the way of investigators.. Both Miguel and Salatiel won't answer calls, don't wanna see us.. So we're doing our best to sort that out. We recognize the need to continue finding though to cycle through and find the elect, so we have been finding like crazy this week! We have a few complexes we are knocking out right now and got super lucky in the past few days! We found a girl named Carla from Honduras living with her mama and Carla is a less-active! she has been looking for a church here and is excited to come.. EVEN though she didn't show up yesterday..? Struggle around here. But she has a car so that's a huge plus. Our chapel is about 20 minutes from where we live right now cause the normal one is under construction. Anyway, we have a lesson with her, her two young boys and her mother tonight and we are bringing a recent convert her age that we're super excited about!! Should go well and we are hoping her mother will be receptive. Then yesterday afternoon we were knocking and found ANOTHER less-active from Mexico named Aurora and her husband who doesn't sound like is a member (Juan). WOOO, that'll be so great to work with these two families to regain activity and hopefully even get the non-members in on it! We love to say prayers at door steps cause it invites the spirit and really opens up hearts! I've been so amazed at the way people open up after the prayers. We gain such a love from them as well when we understand what God wants them to know and feel. What a joy this work is!!!! I can't even believe how happy it makes me! Yeah, it's frustrating and tiring sometimes, but WAY worth it! Haha so I have to tell you about sacrament meeting and the contrast of the last two.... Kinda luckily we didn't have any investigators last fast sunday cause it was a lil bit off-topic and THEN a guy gets up and starts telling a way long story about the farm and roosters. I started zoning out after a lil cause it was a lil monotone as well, but I got a nice wake up call to a "cockle-doodle-doo" from the pulpet..! hahahaha my heavens. I thought the branch president and some of the members would die. However, this week I was expecting kind of the same and I got quite the opposite experience. The testimonies were so centered on Jesus Christ and the spirit was radiating! I wish I could go into details, but I better not. We loved it though. Ok I've got more time and I'm not sure what else to report on, so I guess I'm done? haha. But I do want to tell yall how much I love you and count my blessings to have such wonderful examples to follow! We're so blessed with a knowledge of this gospel and I hope we'll all remember that so we will share it with others! This work is the work of the Lord and it's really gettin rolling right now! I pray that you're all safe, healthy and enjoying yourselves (wherever you are and whatever you're doing :) Loves from da sunshine state!

Con mucho amor, Hermana Jackson

Leaving my mark on the mission :) 

the girl over my shoulder behind me is from Denmark and I've been told since the day I got here that we look alike :) I must be danish or something. 

The pioneer days with the english sisters! last week..

The District - awful picture of me, haha!

 My sista Heiney came home this week! I hope she brings my stuff over soon :)

Mantando en la lluvia :) Pay no mind to the lovely duct taped helmet.