Hola familia! I'm glad to hear yall are happy and well :) I've just had the most incredible week ever so I've gotta get on it and tell you EVERYTHING.
1. Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Hamula. They are the coolest people. I could tell he wasn't going by set notes at all, but that he was listening to the spirit and FOLLOWING it so well. He said things that were needed for everyone. He talked a ton about asking inspired questions so that has been the focus of our week here in Lake Nona. Man, they were both so down to earth and sincere. They actually sat next to us at lunch and I thought they were the coolest.
2. MLC was even BETTER. He really got down to how we can be baptizing more and consistently. I'm so so honored to be a part of that council! Then as we were out in the parking lot heading to the car, Elder and Sister Hamula asked to take a picture with Sister K and me! It was just super sweet of them.
3. We've been meeting with a less active family named the Aldaves. We went to see them the other night and they started talking about their desire to go to the temple. The grandma has been before and wants to go back. We had actually planned for weekly planning to go on a temple tour on Wednesday (the next night) with 2 other people and both had fallen through earlier that day! So we planned it for them. They called an hour and a half before we would leave and she said her back was really acting up and that her mom wasn't feeling too great either. We said a prayer after talking to her and then called her back up and told her we knew it was satan trying to keep them from going. We said a prayer with her on the phone and asked her to say a prayer on her own and call us back. We ended up going and she told us that after her prayer and a warm shower, she felt like a million bucks. They seemed to radiate at the temple and just had so much energy. When we got back to the car the mom asked if we could say a prayer and then offered one of the most heart-felt prayers! The grandma had an interview on Sunday and the mom needs to wait a little longer, but we're SO excited for them!
4. We were exhausted one morning and weren't sure if we could make it that day haha. We were getting super stressed with all the things we needed to do and it was piling up that morning. We got to the mission office and laid on the floor doing the "adjusting to mission life" breathing exercise hahaha. The Spencers who are new were laughing and helped us out a ton. When we got home we said a prayer and that's really what got us through the day. We received the strength to keep going and the peace that our best was good enough. We then met with a kid named Marcus who now has a baptismal date and is being taught by YSA. While calling potentials we contacted a guy named Kyle who wasn't at all interested in the initial contact, but after doing our best with inspired questions we were teaching a lesson ON THE PHONE! hahaha we even said a prayer with him. It ended up being a really successful day. It makes sense that we need to include The Lord in His work.
5. We had a dinner this week that was the funniest most interesting experience I've had in a long whle hahahahaaaa! I'm not kidding, Sister Kreiberg and I were dyin the whole time. They're a lil not with it, but just so full of energy and kinda corky. They fed us some leftover shrimp pasta, a black "banana pancake" and an old salad from the fridge. After taking a few bites it became apparent that we weren't going to get it down without either throwing up or putting our health at risk. Luckily she was back in the kitchen, but her husband was sitting by the table reading the Bible. We urgently looked for napkins or some kind of bag when I remembered the big ziploc bag I had with me for when there's rain :) yeaaaah.. I did put our food in the bag verrrrry slyly. We were SO lucky it all worked out so we didn't hurt their feelings or our health.
6. I had my first exchange this week!!! Haha I always thought STLs evaluated me big time on exchanges, but it turns out that I feel more evaluated as the STL! But we had a lot of fun and did tons of contacting as we were on bike all day. The Lord has blessed me with opportunities to use my spanish EVERY DAY here :) We were on our way to lunch at the house when we saw some people moving. They were from Colombia so I got to chat with them and share our purpose. We helped them out and they asked if they could come to church! I haven't heard if they came or not, but I'll ask the elders. They were way cool! At the end of the day when all 4 of us were on the way back to their apartment we were stopped at a light and looked over to a car full of 3 guys with the window down. Of course we started talking about Jesus Christ and they told us to pull over cause they wanted to know more. We shared a message with them at a 7eleven parking lot and it was super cool! They were part of another church, but really were interested.
7. Yesterday was the most miraculous DAY! 2 People we had met on the street while contacting came to sacrament meeting.. Unfortunately it was the most slow sacrament meeting I've had in a while so they were kinda falling asleep. We'll see if we can get them to come back. After church we got a text from a former investigator, Michelle Melendez who is 13 and had a date not too long ago but her Mom didn't want her to be baptized and she went to Puerto Rico. She asked us to come over. She asked to set a new date and to set up all the times we can meet. We said a prayer with her and she was so excited!! Then we went to a lesson with a guy that SIster Kreiberg had met on exchanges and SIster Aldave! Richard was way prepared and the lesson was so altered to his needs. We almost set a date with him, but he'll take a little time and he wants his wife to be involved. THEN we met with Kyle (refer to #4) for the first time in person at a college campus. He biked 20 minutes to get there and called us 30 minutes before the lesson to confirm again! Lemme tell yuh, I've NEVER had someone asking as great questions as he did. He asked during the restoration: What does Jesus want of me and how do I get on the straight and narrow path? What happens when people die without a knowledge of Jesus Christ? There should be a prophet today then (after us talking about prophets and why we need them)! After telling him there is a prophet, he asked, "who is he?!" He thought it was SO cool that we knew who it was. Then, shouldn't there be ONE true church? Why are there so many churches? How can Satan be so evil to seek misery of others? haha man, it was almost funny how prepared he was!!! We were finishing with how he can know it's the truth and he stopped us and said, "No, I feel that this is the truth! I feel like it's not you guys telling me all this but that God is!" He said a wonderful prayer too. Then we stopped by another former with a date who has been super flakey lately. We asked him if he still wants to meet with us and he said, "I really do. I can notice a difference from now and when we met."
I LOVE being a missionary!!! We read in Alma 26 this morning and kept saying, "sister that's us!" "Sister, that's how I feel!" haha. Love it, love it. And i love you all! Have a wonderful week!
Hermana Jackson
Hey mommy! Don't worry for not emailing me, I know you're running around like crazies over there haha. I love hearing your adventures though! Thats funny that you talk about the straight and narrow path cause we had THE COOLEST investigator last night ask about why it's so narrow and what is the process to get on it- I'm tellin you mama, he was the most prepared person I think I've ever met. He was asking some incredible questions- more to come ;). Did you get a picture from Elder Hamula this week? He asked SIster Kreiberg if they could get a picture with us!!! I LOVED them so much!! Like they were the most in-tune, just genuine people. They came and sat next to us at lunch at zone conference and I just loved that they were normal people and totally down to earth. In fact, they were hilarious. I hope yall got that! He said he would email you. ANyway, we had the most incredible, miracle filled week eva!!!! I'll be gettin to the email now so I can share it all :)
LOVE YOU!Hermana Jackson
Vanessa the van
Aldaves
the food...
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