An email from the Grovers

(Hermana Grover is from Orlando, and is serving in our mission - currently serving in the Canary Islands. She and Megan had an art class together at BYU. One day in the spring, Hermana Grover said to Megan, "I received my mission call!" When Megan asked where, Hermana Grover told her it was to the Spain, Madrid Mission. Megan of course told her that we were here, serving, and would be her Mission Parents. A few weeks later, Megan got her mission call, and when she told Hermana Grover, she said, "That's where I'm from!" The Church makes the world much smaller!)

President and Sister Jackson,

We've been waiting and waiting for the opportunity to meet Hermana Jackson while she's serving here in Florida.  Since it was beginning to look like we might not ever have the privilege of Spanish-speaking sisters assigned to our ward, we asked President Berry if it would be okay if we sort of took matters into our own hands and traveled to her!  President Berry was characteristically accommodating, and okayed our getting together in Kissimmee (only about an hour away from us).

What a delight it was to meet your daughter and her companion, Hermana Day!  We had so much fun visiting over lunch.  They even took the time to prepare a spiritual message for us.  As we're sure you know, you have every reason to be proud of your daughter.  She appears to be serving valiantly, carries the Spirit with her, and represents the Lord and your family extremely well.  She is a special young woman.

Here are a few photos from our visit today.  In a following email is a little voice recording we made for Hermana Grover that we thought you would enjoy too.  Thank you for sharing your wonderful daughter with us here in the Florida Orlando Mission!  Thank you, also, for taking such good care of our daughter there in the Spain Madrid Mission!

Blessings!

Bob & Melissa

Servicio!

Yep, you better believe it was another fabulous week around these parts of Kissimme/ St. Cloud (we technically cover both areas since we're spanish). The theme this week was service. We saw a recent convert last Sunday night and he kept apologizing for his lawn and said he can't get ahold of the guy to come do it. So we mowed it the next day! It was actually super fun using that monsterous weed wacker thing and we finished just in time for the rain to pour. His face when he showed up right as we were leaving :) priceless. 

Tuesday we were up in the St. Cloud area and had planned to stop by a member's house who had been through a rough family situation recently. She couldn't think of anything for us to do, but we insisted. So we mowed her lawn too! haha We had to borrow some clothes and shoes, but it was so great to help her out a lil bit. After that we asked her how she's been and she started to vent. I started getting worried about time (I want to be sure I'm using time wisely) when I all of a sudden got such a feeling of peace and confirmation that we needed to listen to her. DUH, that's what Jesus would do. We recieved a text from her not long after leaving that basically said that he day was "blugh" before and that she had said a prayer right before we arrived that she could feel better. The Lord loves us and surely answers prayers. I'm happy I was a means to answer hers in a small way.

Wednesday we had service with the english sisters at Mimi Larson's house (Gary's mama!). Joey had us spanish sisters go cause Mimi knows me and that would open the door for the english sisters. We shared some great videos that she and her house helper, Phylis, LOVED. We sang 2 songs (yeah, SIster Moffitt has the voice of an ANGEL! It's incredible) and it really brought the spirit. After eating a smorgasborg(sp?), we planted some branch things and they taught us tons. They were the funniest ladies ever, we were laughing the whole afternoon. 

Friday night we got a call from the ZL's to do service the next morn for a guy that speaks spanish! It ate our miles, but it was SO worth it! We did some hard-core digging and such (#myarmsstillkill haha) and then we taught the restoration and invited him to the baptism that night! He came and loved it and said he would come to church.. Unfortunately that didn't happen, but  we're praying for him and hoping to get by there again. 

Gotta run!!! I'll have to tell you aout the temple next week. It was AMAZING!!!

LOVE YOU!!

Hermana Jackson

Mowing a forest for a recent convert 

 Yeah I actually used a monstrous weed wacker thing! way fun.

Never gets old

Cause we could without skirts on :)

Dad, how do you like that shirt? We wore her clothes cause we didn't have our work clothes with us 

The new thing. They'll next be converted to earrings 

Service day at Mimi Larson's!! 

A nice afternoon in the rain. Thank goodness for those lovely hats she lent us ;) 

spe-ider. Irracnus deathicus... name the movie. Still one of my fav's. hint: it's one of Scotty's too. But it's not How to train a dragon. 

That Mimi sure is a HOOT! We had a blast with her.

And we really did work. Made a nursery actually. We learned lots of new stuff! And got mangoes from her tree :) 

TEMPLE DAY!!!! 

Sister Barattiero woke up at the crack of dawn to take us and then took us to a way yummy breakfast! 

Service on Saturday morn.. Got my first red ant attacks haha worth it though cause miracles came from that service!! 

The plan of the Lord is incredible.

Que tal?! Man, these weeks are always so filled with cool stuff, i get pretty stressed trying to fit all the goods in! Here it goes:

1. Luis. Remember the guy that we came out of a lesson and he was sitting on the front porch listening to the BOM? Yeah, he's the bomb. He keeps asking really great questions and seems to be super interested. One minor detail though: in his excitement to learn more, he discovered anti Joseph Smith stuff on Youtube. But we basically told him that he's gotta have an open heart and search the correct sources. He's reading in the BOM and unfortunately couldn't come to church yesterday, but this week for sure!

2. We saw Maria Mejia earlier in the week and had johanna share her thoughts from her baptism- that brought the spirit perfectly. After saying the closing prayer to our lil lesson, I felt prompted to tell Maria that I know she knows this is all true and that she's ready for baptism. We got to the bottom of her problem which is Ernesto who is living with them. He's still married to a woman in Honduras and she won't divorce him until he gives her money. He also hadn't had a job for a month so Maria was getting worried. I told her we would start praying for him to get a job. I also asked her to pray this week until we see her this friday about a baptismal date. The girls and us (she can't cause she has diabetes) are going to do a fast tomorrow. BUT the next day when we saw them again, she told us Ernesto got a call and now has a job! Wooo, the hand of the Lord!

3. Stopped by the house of a couple from the DR that we've seen off n on. She's pretty interested and he's definitely closed off but loves us. We are going to do a temple tour with her next week cause shes super interested in the temple. We're excited. Her name is Korina and she seriously has a strong testimony. 

4. We're starting to really do english classes this week, so last week we put a thing on FB and on the website of El Sazon (our favorite Mexican hole in the wall) and then put a lil flyer in their restaurant. They're the coolest couple that own it and they're helping us out tons with getting people to our classes. We've been inviting them to church for a couple of weeks and this week we finally cracked down haha. They said Sundays are their only days to clean the reastaurant n stuff, so we insisted on coming by this Saturday to wash the cars and help them out so they'll come to church! We've been able to take advantage of lots of service opportunities lately that we're super excited about! We still walk with Louise every other day and this morning I mentioned the lessons she agreed to have. She's not stoked about the elders (assistants) coming by, but we'll keep tryin. We and the english sisters are going by Mimi's (Alley Larson's grandma) to do some service in her yard. We got special permission cause she's english but doesn't want to be threatened by missionaries she doesn't know, so we're hoping to open the door for the english sisters. 

5. A recent convert in our area, Carlos Utitiaj, is the coolest! He's on fire and wanting to come out with us and is inviting tons of family and friends to listen to his very first talk in church :) He's really excited and is taking his talk so seriously, I LOVE IT. We're going by to mow his lawn tonight and we told him the way he could "pay" us is to keep sharing his testimony and providing references, wooo! solid deal, I'd say. 

6. This 100 day reading "challenge" is the best thing that's happened to me! We're reading it out loud as a companionship and I'm learning so much and it really enriches our teaching. President wants us to be focused on the promises of the BOM and how we can use those with investigators. This morning we were reading more about the promised land... I really can't even begin to explain my thoughts. The plan of the Lord is incredible. I sure hope y'all are doing this challenge as well! If not, today's a new day and you can start! Repentance is real haha. 

7. This Friday is our temple day...! I'm SO excited to go to the temple as a missionary and to receive guidance for my area and my people. I'll letcha know how that goes. Last time I didn't tell you, but the night after the temple we were weekly planning and I had the most horrible feeling come over me. I couldn't even explain what it was, nor can I now haha but I'm pretty sure Satan was trying to attack me after such a spiritual high at the temple. I got a sweet blessing that night from Elder Bevans, a senior missionary. I've learned on the mish that Satan works like that though. 

Well yall, I'mma send some pictures I've been slacking to send. I hope you have a wonderful week!!! Lizzie and da homies should be partyin this week- don't forget to send the Hermanita some pictures! ;) 

Love, Hermana Jackson (stink)

MMM yeah. Maria sure knows what she's doin! 

I think I'm pretty clever and hilarious. 

the tiniest froggy 

What a surprise we found in our apartment this morning.......... BAAAA! We're safe and well cause my companion's tough.

Maketh me melt like a popthicle on the fort of the lie.

Man, what a WEEK! I got a new comp- Hermana Day (nailed it) and she's super great! It's quite an adjustment switching companions and such, but we're enjoying ourselves. Before I forget, Sister Brooks and I already have jobs lined up for after the mish - so money. Check out Echo water. The owner lives in our ward here in Kissmmee, the Barattieros. They're the coolest! 

So the 4th just ain't the same as it is in Utah haha. BUT we got to go to this huge festival right by a lake where we had a mormon.org booth and there were about 10 missionaries per 2 hour shift where we just got to talk to EVERYONE and get referrals and such. Every missionary's dream.... Minues the stand 2 away selling marijuana and the crazy loud worldly music.. Yeah, kinda odd. I heard Sister Berry was doing some dancing and when President Berry said she couldn't she goes, "Hey, I was a dance major, I've gotta dance!" hahaha she's a hoot. We actually got tons of spanish contacts as well, sop definitely well worth our time. We were on the night shift so at 9 we got to watch fireworks!! 

We have a new senior couple in our ward that uncle Bob knows! Elder and Sister Bean from Kaysville. I guess he and Bob were ski instructors at the U. They're super cool though and gonna be way helpful. 

We went to visit a less active Hermano Marroquin last week and he was painting his walls. We basically insisted we could help, but he turned it down. However, we shared a message and invited him to church. He didn't come cause Colombia was playing in the world cup. So this week we went by and talked about the importance of church and everything, and I ain't gonna lie, we were pretty blunt. But his non-member wife was there and was probably more excited to come to church than he was!! They came to the ward party on Saturday but only stayed a few minutes cause their young son wasn't too stoked to be there. Then yesterday they didn't show up and wouldn't answer our call!!! NOOO. Why is it so stinkin hard to get people to church!? Whatever, unphased. We'll get them there this week for sure. 

Maria Mejia has been fallin through tons recently as they're having to move and their life is getting crazy (Satan's tryin em). She bore her testimony this week and it was the sweetest thing! Our members are pretty great to welcome her and everything too, so that's helpful.

2 weeks ago Sister Scheckman who's been so helpful with Maria called and had us clean the house of one of her friend's names Louis. Louis speaks all english, so we can't teach her. The Lord must want me to learn something, because we keep getting in situations to clean the craziest houses. We were happy to do it, but man, I promise I will always be clean! We spent 3 hours cleaning it and it looks tons better! We dropped by last night cause we were in the area and we shared a video and a thought. We asked her what she thought her purpose in life was and she said, "you know what, I DON'T KNOW!". We went over the plan of salvation briefly. She went to church yesterday but didn't seem to love it cause she said she wouldn't go back. When we invited her to be baptized she said, "I will NOT be a mormon". We asked her what we could pray for and after a long pause, she told us she wants to lose weight. We asked if we could work out with her every other morning at 6:30 and she was so excited about it! haha so this morning we rode our bikes over and walked with her for a bit. Hopefully we can soften her heart a bit and gain some trust. 

We were given a "challenge" this week to read the BOM in 100 days!!!! YESSS! We've already started and it's the best thing ever, I'm so excited about it. So I want to invite yall to do it with me :) You'll just be a few days behind. The Book of Mormon is incredible and such a good way to receive answers! The promised within it are so powerful and so TRUE. I know that it's the word of God.

I love yall and wish you the best of luck :) Have a wonderful week!!

Barattieros 

festival 

Don't worry, I'm in Zion!! 

teeniest froggy

The Sunshine State and Lightning Capital of the World ... isn't that an oxymoron?!

So this week sure was a great one! Minus the fact that it's tranfers and we received the sad news that sister Brooks will be leaving tomorrow. We're almost 100% sure she'll be going to Windy Ridge and sister Dia (Day) will be coming here! With a whoppin 12 spanish sisters it's really fun to figure out what's gonna happen haha. Call us pioneers. I'm super sad I only got a transfer with Sister Brooks cause we had lots of fun together. BUT bring on whatever's ahead I suppose :) 

Let me please tell yall how cool the lightning here is!! I've never seen it just fill the whole sky and it's constantly goin- looks like paparazzi. I also prolly have more pictures of the clouds and sunsets than I do of anything else.. What a beautiful place I'm in!

Anway, this week we had a goal to get some more investigators and to contact more to reach that goal. Let's just say if I wasn't fit before, I'm definitely on my way. We rode at LEAST 20 miles for 4 days straight due to our lack of saving miles (sound familiar?) hahaha bless our hearts. I ain't complaining though cause I actually LOVE being active and talking to everyone! The only downside is the huge overpass we ride over twice a day. So we were riding to a less active's when we stopped to talk to a guy on a walk with earphones in. He wouldn't tell us his name and said his day was going super crappy. He was reluctant to inform us of why but then he finally softened and told us that yesterday his wife told him she wants a divorce and now he has nowhere to live. He said yesterday he was cursing God for doing this to him. We shared the "Mountains to Climb" Mormon Message with him and look up at the end to see him literally bawling. We bore testimony that our message could help him and asked if we could meet him somewhere to share it but he said he's got to organize himself and prepare himself before. So we told him he could learn more by reading the BOM and gave him one. Enrique looked each of us straight in the eyes and said so sincerely, "thank you". He didn't want any other missionaries to come by cause we were "the angels" that found him so he got our number. I've been praying for the past few days that he'll call or somehow get in contact with missionaries!!

We stopped by a potential that's super hard to get a hold of and sitting on the porch was Luis, whom we've met before, playing on his tablet. We asked if he'd seen the website on the back of the picture of Jesus Christ and he said no. So we invited him to check it out. Then Virginia came to the door and allowed us to teach her a lil bit. We mostly got to know her, but she shared that her father left her when she was young, but that she knows her Heavenly Father loves her. She just seems to get things and have such a strong testimony! When we came out of the house Luis was listening to the Book of Mormon! hahaha he told us all about what he had read about Joseph Smith and such, it was the coolest! We saw her again on Saturday and had plans to invite her to go to the baptism close to her house instead of us sharing a message. While waiting at the door we were saying, "what if she just came to the door dressed up for the baptism?". Pfff, she totally came to the door with a dress on! We asked her why she was dressed up and she said it was cause we were coming. However, she made some lil excuses to not go to the baptism. Again she was incredible and seemed to understand the need for a prophet in these days and especially the importance of being old enough to choose to be baptized showing heavenly father that we are willing to follow him. Yeah, she's unreal! She wouldn't set a date cause she wants it to be spontaneous.... haha but we'll see what we can do this week!

Cano Ramos is the coolest Puertorriqueno that Sister Brooks and I met on our first week in Kissimmee. We called him last week and he gladly invited us to come over! We had such a great restoration lesson with him and when we invited him to be baptized he was so pumped! We set a date for the 26th and he invited us to come the next day! sadly he fell through, but we'll see him this week. Also, he's got a sick mullet haha. I'll for sure get a picture.

Sister Brooks sent a message to her mother this week via facebook asking her to read in the BOM and bearing her testimony! She got a message back that her mama was a few chapters in and just having a hard time understanding so Sister Brooks is going to send a manual. But how cool is that?! Technology folks, it's bringing miracles!

Alrighty, it's time to say see yuh lata, but I love you all and invite you to read in the BOM and pray to know it's true. I've loved the experiences of asking again to confirm and strengthen my testimony! That book is powerful. I know it's true and can teach us the pure principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love that it teaches about the plan of salvation! Good luck yall, have a good one! over n out.

Hermana Jackson

...that was the sweetest moment I've had on my mission

So wow, where to even start?! First off, the Mejia family has the most special place in my heart. I was filled with so much joy this week because of them. So on Tuesday we had exchanges (I went to lake nona with Sister Ward and had the greatest of times!) and while Sister Brooks was here she went over the baptismal questions with johanna and Barbara. When they went over tithing johanna said, "So sometimes I get 5 dollars a week and sometimes I don't get any so I'll just pay a dollar every week to be safe". Haha my heart! She's the softest most mature 12 year old. We did a temple tour with the girls and their mother Maria on Friday night and it got a lil long, but they enjoyed it. Maria's comin around and keeps bearing her testimony about knowing this is the true church and how happy she is. Johanna sat in back with me in the car and she was looking at the ctr ring she had just gotten before the tour and she looked up with me with the most sincere look and said, "This is so special. Thank you!" I'm not even kidding, that was the sweetest moment I've probably had on my mission. Moments like those make it so worth it. Saturday morning Maria called us all stressed and asked for us to come help her make the tamales. I think we made 200+ tamales and they were divine! Imma get the recipe haha. call me latina. 

The baptism couldn't have gone more smoothly. The members of the St.Cloud ward helped us SO much and the spirit was really powerful. When Johanna exited the font and we wrapped the towell? around her she bowed her head and started weeping on my shoulder. Barbara had to be baptized like 4 times cause the guy had 2 knee replacements and the water had drained a bit. She was super flustered, but still happy. Sister Brooks and I gave the message of the restoration to all present. In english... Yeah I don't have the first vision memorized in english, I would have been a lot more comfortable in spanish, but I memorized it all weekend and it turned out well haha. It was incredible though!! After the whole thing when everyone was mingling Johanna pulled sister Brooks and me aside and said, "I just want to thank you for all you've done for my family! It means so much to me and I can't imagine if you'd never come to our house". AHHHH missions are the best things ever! The church is true. Maria also shared her testimony with everyone. Yeah, she and her boyfriend are totally next! And the girls were confirmed on Sunday.

So Thursday everything was falling through and we had just about made it through all of our backups in the evening.. We stopped by Jon, the one whose Mom died the day before we met him. He's totally avoiding us. We then saw the cutest Korean woman dressed to the nines struttin down the sidewalk so we trapped her and talked to her. So she's a missionary all by herself and that's her life dream. She left her husband because he didn't believe in a God. She's living with a lady who does bible studies and the night before we met her she asked them to pray for her to meet 2 missionaries. Yeah, there aren't coincidences. She was the cutest lil thing and I was amazed at her faith. She'd be the greatest member missionary. When we set a timed camera up, she goes, "I luh Jesus!" hahaha I coulda died. 

Jesus and Nancy Avila have bailed on us 3 times in a row this week and we're getting super sad that they don't want to meet with us anymore.. We've been focusing on meeting with 2 members for a short period every day and that's been a slight fail for the spanish branch hahaha. The conversation we had the other day: "I can't meet with you tmoorrow." "Oh darn, can we set a time on Sunday for next week" "No I'm going on vacation" "Where you goin?" "Home sweet home"... Pfff haha blow to the face. We also went to see a less-active and he wouldn't let us in cause USA was playing Portugal. Priorities. 

Gotta run, but I loves you all! keep being missionaries and sharing this glad message with EVERYONE!!! 

Hermana Jackson

exchanges with Sister Ward 

Sister Scheckman 

Johanna

Johanna & Barbara

Happy Father's Day, Papi!

Ahhhh I just wrote a good long email and somehow losst it..... Really quick I wanna tell Grammy a happy birthday too :) love you and miss you Grams!!

Ok so we are being incredibly blessed here in Kissimmee!!! We're starting to get a good group of investigators and solid ones! 

side note: A huge thunder just cracked and sister Brooks and I slowly turned to look at each other wide-eyed hahaha it just doesn't get old. It's seriously huge. The lightnight is also incredible. Love it.

So we went to see a less-active this week who has MS and only can move her head and one arm. She's the most positive person and so filled with faith. She wants to go to church, but it's just too hard for her and her husband. We showed her an "I'm a mormon" video and at the end she got quiet and started to sob. Through her tears she said, "soy mormona". It hit me so hard that I couldn't hold back tears. It made me realize just how blessed I am that "I'm a Mormon". The spirit was definitely dwelling with that sweet lady in her home. 

Yesterday we went to see an investigator and her friend and they weren't home. We stopped at the hoouse next to them where there were some people talking. yeah, they were JW's and wanted to bible bash. We didn't fan the fire, only testified of simple truths. Then Our investigator walked out and invited us in! I know that if we hadn't stopped to talk to everyone, we wouldn't have been able toteach her and her friend (whose dad just died a week or two ago) the plan of salvation. They ATE IT UP and invited us back. 

The cuban couple, Jesus and nancy are totally the coolest and have strong desires to know if this is the truth. They've been so sweet to us and the other day leaving their home they called from the driveway for us to come back to them, we went back and Jesus said that he feels like we are their daughters (they have all boys) and that they love us! Oh I love them so much and want them to embrace this message!!!

The Mejia girls are doing so great! Barbara LOVED trek this week and when we taught the law of chastity, their mom started crying at the end and testified that she knows this is where they should be. They came to church and were slightly late.. missed sacrament, so after all the meetings AND a lesson from us, the mom said, we're going to stay for the next sacrament so we can take the sacrament!!! Golden I tell you!

Running out of time, but I love you all and hope all is well! :)

Con mucho amor, Hermana Jackson

Hey mama!

Yeah so the cubans we found by taking their groceries are back in Semoran, i haven't heard from Sister Marsh! I sure hope they're taking the discussions still! And I'm not even sure why but we seriously have a great teaching pool right now! We almost taught 8 or 9 lessons Tuesday but 2 fell through so we got 7. The Mejia girls are being baptized this week and their sweet mama is the happiest! She's totally next. She keeps telling us that she knows this is where they need to be. She's cried a couple times thinking about it. Yeah, we're being so blessed. Also, I received the packages!!! ... man, you take good care of me mama, thank you!! I pray for yall every night and hope you're not going insane with how busy you are! I love you so much and you look fantastic! Just know that I couldn't be happier here and I'm workin hard. K i'mma get to the big letter. I have tons to report on. 

Con mucho amor, Hermanita Jackson

Went to the beach for district pday!! SO fun. Yeah, the sister who took the picture timed it great... Both times. 

Lovely morn 

caught a lil froggy :) and then felt bad and let it go 5 minutes later 

the apartment we helped with... words don't even describe. It's like worse every time we go now.. 

The beautiful puffy clouds that gather early afternoon..

And the big black sky just an hourish later