happy happy birthday miss BEEEE!

Alrighty, another quicky this week.. SORRY.

1. Simon was promising in the beginning and knows it's true but may be afraid of having to act upon that knowledge. He bailed on both lessons with members this week and such. We even got to his house one night with te member and he was riding off on his bike to give something to his neighbor who "really needed it". we told him we would wait and to hurry. Yeah, he didn't come back for an hour and a half as we weekly planned on his porch. We had to temporarily drop him.

2. we were dropped by lots of investigators this week. it was actually pretty funny cause it happened in about 10 minutes. BUT we now know who to focus on! God helped us seperate the wheat from the tares :)

3. Wednesday was an interesting one. We saw a recent convert and her husband who.. have a rough life style. But she's 6 months pregnant and has cancer, he's working all day so they can have food, etc. He had family coming to town to pick him up and take him to connecticut to see his mom and new nephew and stuff. He said he'd only be gone for a week but she knew he was leaving her. Hours before he planned to leave, we were stuck in the middle of her pouring her heart out and saying how she doesn't want to be homeless again and such.... That was SO hard. Like my heart was so weighed down. I found myself praying for them and thanking Heavenly Father for all my belssings. That was messy and we ended on the best note we could without getting involved. But we couldn't function very well after so we stopped by a member's house for a blessing. We both kinda broke down crying cause we felt so out of tune with the spirit. Our blessings were both so inspired and so so sweet. Thank goodness for the priesthood!!! We hadn't eaten dinner by that time (about 8) and they quickly made us fried egg sandwiches before our next appointment. I think they were even better cause they were made with love :)\

4. we've been teaching english to a family from Burma just one time a week for the past transfer. Last week we taught them how to pray and this week we got to teach the plan of salvation!!! It was the sweetest experience to see the hope light up their faces. The lil kiddies are adorable.

5. One of my first weeks here, in weekly planning I asked if we could go through formers. Sister Conger thought she knew all of the formers cause this area is fairly new, but one stood out to me and she didn't know her. Her name is Denise. We stopped by a few weeks ago and have seen her about 4 times now. At first she was comfortable in her jewish faith and was pretty closed, but she's read in the bom between every visit, comes with questions. This week we invited her to church. She went to the Leesburg ward with her sister who is a member. We went over last night to answer her questions. She LOVED church and how nice all the strangers were to her! She said we came at the perfect time for her because she was trying to decide if she anted to pay to be a member of the synagogue. She told us she knows we came at that time for a reason. She used to be christian but then when she married a jewish man she raised her kids that way, but always felt a secret void of Christ. Anyway, she's AMAZING and praying about baptism on the 13th of December!!! Last night she talked about Judaism in a past tense and seemed so ready for this new path. Ahh, wish i cold share more. Gotta run! LOVES!

Hermana Jackson

Also, this is for Pops-
I guess I haven't been good at telling yall how much i really do appreciate the ipads. No joke, i'm not sure how we did it before. It hastens the work SOOO much! I really really hope yall can get them. It's a rough adjustment, but worth it for sure. I got to skype Carlos in Peru again this week and had that returned missionary teach with me. Carlos is doing REALLY well and this last lesson was a big improvement. I've come to a testimony of the power of twos for sure this last transfer or two. It's hard to teach someone in spanish by myself. So one-dimentional. we're curresntly working on passing him off. But I put a picture on facebook of skyping carlos and had about 10 people i didn't know like it (from peru) so i messaged them. I got 2 referrals from it and 2 others who I'm currently talking to :)ahhh! Lot's of missionaries here have been able to reach out to friends from home and convert them. I coudl just go on and on about it. Not only that, we have our area book with us at all times! We have a map (kinda cause we don't have wifi everywhere). The record keeping is so pristine. Like we report on EVERYTHING so that missionaries who come will know when we called the people, when we heart attacked them, etc. mm, yeah. I really hope yall get them. Keep me updated!

LOVE YOU!

Hermana Jackson II

satsumas

Haha Dave, remember the man that whistled his s's in Satsumas? Walter, our investigator does the saaame thing and it makes me laugh inside and think of you. 

Well anyway, it's been an incredible week!!! Last Monday after emailing we went outside of the library and were talking to a guy in the parking lot when the librarian came out (preface.. they told us last week we need to be careful about not "pushing people" with our message cause they've had complaints). She told us, "you need to stop it! we just got another complaint!" and we hadn't talked or even said hello to one person in the library.. So while talking to this guy I'm kinda on the verge of crying cause we were totally accused. Luckily he was super cool and wanted to meet with us a lot after that haha. His name is Darius and we saw him twice last week! So we continued to Target to get our groceries and we were kinda silent on the way. We had been in there not but 2 minutes when a lady in the isle put her hand on sister Conger's arm with a smile and said, "where yuh from? what ward?" We chatted for a few seconds and she said, "keep it up sisters!" we both must have look a bit sheepish (my throat was hurting like i was on the verge of water works) and she gave me te biggest mama hug!!!! She gave us so much love and when she left we turned into another isle and there we were bawling like fools in the mouthwash section haha. The Lord sure does provide right when we need it! She was an angel. That sounds so dramatic, but it was just as real.

On exchanges on Saturday in Belleview we decided to go tract a street that we had some potentials on and where we had just had a first lesson with the coolest lady ever a few days prior (her name is Cinthia, but I don't have much time...). We stopped at the house on the corner cause there were 2 guys out and we "asked them where a house was". we got to talking and Simon (with ALPHA and OMEGA tattooed to his eye lids and a nice gold grill) and he's on a quest for truth. We shared the restoration and quoted the bible as much as we could (not too much haha but the Lord helped us) and slowly he was intrigued and less attacking. haha quote: "some people like John called Jesus Lord and shepherd and savior cause that's what resinated with them. I call him duuuuu (dude) cause I was born in the rock time. So I be rockin with jesus!" Not sure if that's complete blaspheme to write that, but jst so yall have a good idea of this fellow. He prayed so sincerely to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and at the end he opened his eyes and repeated, "Joseph Smith". After thinking it through he said, "I know He was a prophet. I feel so much light. I totally love him, he's so cool! He couldn't come to church, but he promised to come next week. We invited him to read the resto. pamphlet and I was prompted to give him the 17 truths of Christ's church card in my bag. We went back last night with sister Santos and at first he was talkin about no church or religion being correct and that he has been called of god to be a preacher and establish the truth. He understands the bible really well and really LOVED the card I gave him. He's going to be baptized on Nov. 22!! He's SO excited and seems to get the priesthood. he kept sayin, "i love what yall are sayin. I love the priesthood. I feel like yall's message has truf". I really really wish yall could just talk to him and meet him and everything. He's prepared. When we asked him to read 3 chapters by wednesday he said, "yeah, but yall cant give me this assignment without coming back to follow up!" hahaaa alright fine! He wanted us to come every day, but then got realistic and we set a few lessons for the week haha.

Antonia and the girls fell through 2 or 3 times this week.. BUT they came to all 3 hours of church. Antonia is doing well, but the girls need a bit more.

I'm teaching Carlos via Skype still and he's doing great! We had a member return home from his spanish speaking mission this week and he's stoked to come with us!! YESSSS.

Gotta run. Look for miracles every day this week!

con amor, Hermana Jackson

feedin da shishees 

Joey when I was on exchanges in Eustis! Sister Maw's the coolest! We were in the same district when I was in Kissimmee. 

I guess we're in one accord cause we walked out of our bathrooms that day and literally were like this! 

Spotted on exchanges 

contacting on the golfcart! haha we got permission to use member's carts :) good thing for all that practice at home, eh? 

another awesome exchangie 

selfie in the car. 

good ol Flarda :) 

Sayde and Antonia 

These sisters are unreal and we loved our exchange with them! The one next to me is the older sister of my friend Max Jensen!

hahaaa.. worth 1000 words.

Blaaaa!

Ok so first off, I'm SO SO sorry for not writing yall the past two weeks... Just tell everyone to stop gettin engaged and then maybe I'll have some time to tell yuh haha. Nah, I'm so happy to hear about all these happy events!! Shout out to miss Meggie Boshard, now Mowler(?) something of the sort.. for getting MARRIED this last week!! Nuts, i tell you haha.

The Lord has been showering blessings here in Belleview! WE're still working with the lil spanish family. Antonia is the mom and the sweetest thing. She's progressing so well, made it to conference, asking good questions and fasted yesterday at church! We haven't set dates with them yet but it's not for a lack of effort. Sayde is the 15 yo daughter and so mature and sweet too! She's been going to mutual, she started out not knowing if there was a God, she just understands things and is also progressing really well. Celeste is 9 and doesn't necessarily understand everything haha she's quiet, but funny when she does talk. She's moving right along with them. The dad on the other hand isn't antagonistic but isn't too excited to jump in.. We have an FHE set up tonight at a member's house and we're way excited. I get to teach Antonia in spanish :) wooo! But it's hard not having a second witness and we're trying to balance it out. I can translate but sometimes it takes away from the lesson and such, so that's being worked out. We're trying to get members who speak spanish to all the lessons.Saturday we invited them to fast about baptism. They came to church (the girls) fasting, we had 2 YW bear testimony and they were PERFECT! One of them spoke of her baptism and how that helps her make good decisions. Yeah, unreal. Testimony meeting yesterday was one of the best ones I've been to!! Each testimony was simple and rich with doctrine. And then in gospel principles we talked about baptism. Oh, fun fact, I translated sacrament meeting my first week here! It was a good experience, but definitely stressful. 

Walter and Carol are the cutest oldie couple that we've been teaching since before I got here! Carol's pretty quiet and just agrees with her husband most of the time, but then when you ask her, she's definitely following along and seeking answers. haha. Heck, we asked her about baptism and she said, "I'm ready, I'm just waiting for Walter!" then when we asked her to pray and ask if the BoM is true she said, "Oh, I don't need to, I know it's true!". Walter is a talker and he's very strong willed!! Like he yells at us a bit haha but its all good, we're just lucky to have THE COOLEST and most helpful members! mm, hallelujah. I actually had a lesson with them 2 weeks ago on exchanges and we are trying not to push the baptismal date with him cause he's super sensitive about not wanting to be pushed and I was prompted to share the timeline we made for them. Before even explaining it (and i had prefaced it with lots of love and concern) he kinda flipped out at me haha but our member saved it and then Walter kinda set his own date, so that was way cool! He came to priesthood and soaked it all up, she came to the women's broadcast and loved it even though it was a tad late for her. They watched conference all day Sunday (at the house unfortunately) but it really made a difference in Walter. He said he felt something and talked about how special it was when President Monson spoke! So the sad part now is that we just found out that there's something holding him back from baptism for a few years, therefor Carol won't do it without him, but we'll see what can be done.

We met a cool lady the other day after having contacted a media referral accross the street. Her name is Diane. We briefly taught her and sister Conger went back to see her on exchanges on Fri. She called on Saturday morning and said, "I need to set a time for yall to come back, that was fenomenal!" I'm running out of time, but I love you all and thanks for all the prayers cause we're seriously seeing blessings all over!

Hermana Jackson

flat tire on the way to MLC... hahaha good  thing it was in front of donut king! 

da souf

Our MLC practicing our song for the mission christmas devotional haha. WOAH.

I'll be singing once with MLC, once with the spanish crew and once with the PORTUGUESE crew haha. 

her concert :) this was last Monday. The first thing she said to us was, "I keep getting more excited (for her baptism) as I read the Book of Mormon!" 

The next youngest person in there was prolly in their 60s 

the Burmese fam :)

Sister Denise Brown :) mmm, I just love her! 

truly I'm da grinch haha 

heh.. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Denise allowed us to wear her Christmasy sweaters and BEST  of all her GRINCH shirt!!!!

Una Boda!

WEW! lkseflskdfl;ksdjf haha how do I even express my feelings and thoughts right now?!!! THATS AWESOME!! Kinda crazy but I'm so so glad that they're happy! It sounds like they're flying pretty high right now haha. Don't worry bout me :) I'm super stoked for them!! Lil surprised I suppose although I shouldn't be haha. I guess it's just funny that life actually happens and I'm in my own lil world haha. I LOVE my world so I wouldn't change it in a second. Hey, they'll be at MY wedding so it's fine if I aint at theirs hahaha! I know this is where I'm supposed to be and this is where I WANT to be more than anything. 

GUESS WHAT! So I got to go see the Larson's at their house this week :) I'm sure you received pictures haha. But It was a really special experience. I'm super sad I didn't have more time for the lesson cause they took us out... But all in all we got a lil something in and the Lord definitely directed it. I love them SOOO much! I guess that's what happens when you pray for people and think of them often.I REALLY hope she was watching conference cause there were several talks that were directed to her questions. Anyway, they're just the sweetest of people and I really appreciate their love.

I'mma get on the big email and such. I've gotta email Matty and Shanda back real quick though.

Te quiero MUCHO! (muah!)

Hermanita Jackson