Last email on the misión

Dearest Family,               3 Dec 2012

Wow, how weird is this…writing you my last email on the misión.  I have been so blessed to have been able to finish my misión here in Roble Oeste.  Jose Alvaro received the priesthood yesterday and he´s going to bless the sacrament next week.  He is really excited and happy to be a member of the church.  The members have been so good about reaching out to him and he´s made a big effort to get to know all of them. He gave the most beautiful and sincere testimony in his baptism.  He truly has been converted in so many ways.  Yesterday we visited him and taught about temples and family history.  We really didn´t have to teach him because he had already started his genealogy tree with 5 generations and he´s now in the process of finding their birthdates and all of that so that he can do baptisms for them when they open the temple.  The open house should be in February and they´re planning on dedicating it in March but it’s still not set in Stone.  The Jerezano family is progressing really well.  Angel has recognized the spirit a lot in the lessons.  He and his wife told us they want to be baptized as a family in December when their daughter gets back from the states.  They want us to teach her so that they can all be baptized together.  They went to a Ward activity this Saturday and we did a tour of the church for the investigators so that they could see what we do in all of the organizations of the church.  The Jerezano family had a really good time and I think they feel more comfortable with the church and the members.  They are such a special family.  I´m kind of bummed I won´t be here for their baptism but I’m just so grateful I was able to know them and help guide them in their path.

 I´ve been reflecting a lot lately about the experiences I’ve had in my misión and the people I’ve come to know and I think about how Heavenly father puts certain people in our lives and puts us in the lives of others for a specific purpòse and for our spiritual growth.  The Lord has prepared a way for all of his children to return to His presence.  He loves every single one of us.  Every soul has such great worth.  The góspel allows us to reach our potential and find true happiness and Heavenly Father is constantly preparing his children to receive it.  I know that Jesus Christ is our redeemer and that this is his true
Church.  I´m so grateful for having had the opportunity to serve in this great work for a Little time.

Love you all,

Can’t wait to see you soon.

Hermana Jackson

Monday, Nov. 26

Jose Alvaro was baptized and confirmed this weekend!!!!!  He is going to be an incredible member of the church . I have no words to describe the joy i´ve felt being apart of his conversion.  I don´t have time to write this week sorry.  but heres a foto.  i´ll write about the details next week

19 Nov 2012

Dear Family,                                                         19 Nov 2012

It’s been a great week.  Alvaro is doing well and progressing so quickly.  We're even thinking about moving his baptismal date to this Saturday.  He went to stake conference yesterday and loved it.  He said that the Jehovah’s Witnesses stopped by his house and told him that our church was deceiving but instead of getting confused and worried he bore his testimony and defended the church.  He is really great. 

Yesterday we had a really wonderful experience teaching Edelmira´s husband for the first time.  We taught the restoration and he was very attentive to every word we said.  When we repeated the 1st vision and explained how God had called a prophet again and restored his church we asked him how he felt about that.  He said, "It gives me hope knowing that there is a mediator between us and God, someone to tell us Gods will."  After inviting him to be baptized he said he wanted to read the Book of Mormon first and pray about it. Then he said, "I will tell you this.  I've been to a lot of churches my whole life.  But one time I heard some missionaries like you and when they shared their message I felt something different. It was like a burning sensation on my skin.  i never felt that anywhere else" 

The gospel is true. 

Hermana Jackson

Dear Family,                                   5 Nov 2012

It’s been good week.  But it has been really hard on my companion because she came down with a virus…poor thing.  She was in bed for a day but she is amazing because she worked really hard even when she wasn´t feeling well and I think the Lord has blessed her a lot for it.  We found a lot of new investigators and a couple of families that are really receptive to the Gospel. 

We haven´t been able to teach Edgar this week because he is in finals week and he has had a really demanding group project that conflicted with our schedule but he is still reading and very attentive and ready to keep learning.  He just finished school so now we´re are going to be able to teach him for real. 

We´re teaching another guy named Jose Alvaro who is 19 years on and is showing a lot of interest in the Gospel and he´s been praying and told us he felt like this is that path that God wants him to take.  We are excited to teach him more and guide him to baptism.  It’s just so hard getting the chance to teach these two because we can´t be alone with them and we´re constantly trying to find women in the ward that can come with us to teach him so it gets really complicated sometimes.  But it’s all worth it.  I just keep picturing these 2 as future missionaries.

And Edelmira and her children came to Church for the first time yesterday and they are a really special family.  I’ll tell you more about them next week.

Thanks for your prayers.

Love you all

Hermana Jackson

Monday 29 Oct 2012

Dear Family,                  29 Oct 2012

Ok, so this is a picture of Merlin that got baptized.  She has basically taught herself the gospel by reading the book of Mormon on her own and we would leave pamphlets with her in the bread store and answer her questions.  One day she had an appointment with the elders to teach her the Plan of Salvation but a problem came up and she wasn´t able to get there on time.  But she was really anxious to know about it and she also wanted to know more about baptisms for the dead.  We explained a little bit about the Spirit World and Heavenly Father´s plan for his children.  While we were explaining she stopped us and said "So, that means I’m going to see my grandmother again?"  We answered with confidence that she would.  Her eyes watered a little and then she asked "And my aunt?"  We assured her that she would be able to see her too.  She smiled the biggest smile with tears of joy in her eyes.  I felt so privileged to be able to share that with her and see the hope and joy that the Gospel is bringing into her live.

Let us not take for granted the precious blessings that are promised to us through Gods plan of salvation.

Have a good week.

Love you all,

Hermana Jackson 

22 Monday 2012

22 Monday 2012 

Ok, I'm sorry this is going to be such a short letter but I only have like 4 minutes.  Edgar went to Church again and wants to be baptized but he’s still not sure about a date.  There is a family in our Ward that owns a bakery and one of their workers started showing a lot of interest in the gospel. Her name is Merlin.  She started reading the Book of Mormon and going to Church on her own and the family gave her name as a referral to the Elder in her area but they never got around to visiting her.  But we started teaching her little by little every time we stopped by the store.  She was baptized on Saturday.  I have a really sweet story about her that I want to tell you but I’ll have to leave that for next week.  Sorry!

Love you all!   Rachel

15 Oct 2012

Dear Family,
Hope you´re all doing well.  Especially Dad.  Ya´ll take care of him ya hear?! 
Yesterday, Edgar came to church again.  Edgar is 18 years old and he lives with his Aunt who is catholic and his parents are catholic too. We've only taught him a couple of times but he has showed a lot of interest in the church.  Unfortunately his family doesn´t support him very much and its really hard for him to get permision to leave.  Yesterday he traveled 40 minutes in bus by himself to get to church.  He still doesn´t feel completely comfortable with everything that goes on at church because he´s not used to it but I really admire the sacrifices he´s made to be there and to learn more despite all of the challenges he faces.  

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson

Monday 8 Oct 2012

Dear Family,                                                        8 Oct 2012

     Wasn´t conference just great!  I loved Elder Uchdorf and Elder Holland´s talks.  Elder Holland gave a talk really similar to that in the MTC and its one of those famous shake up the missionary talks that we see a lot in the misión but he just this versión was a Little different.  I love it.  It made me reflecto on how I want to be when I get back.   I want to keep the good habits I’ve learned in the misión and use them for the rest of my life.

     So a few of our investigators went to conference.  Jacobo went with Nancy and Edgar went to both sessions on Sunday.     Edgar is a new investigator that we found this week. His friends invited him to church but they realized that he doesn´t live in their Ward boundaries so they took him to our Ward last Sunday.  We only taught him the first lesson but the spirit was really strong and he seems to be really spiritually prepared to hear about the restoration.  He says he´s looking for a church to join right now.  After watching conference he asked if he could serve a misión.  I think he was really inspired by the messages.  We didn’t get the chance to talk with him much after but we´ll ask him more about his experience on Wednesday when we teach him.

     Hope you all had a great week.

Love,

Hermana Jackson

1 Oct 2012

Dear Family,                                                       1 Oct 2012

Cynthia was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday!  She seems to be very happy.  I will attach a picture of her and of Josue (her boyfriend who is a member of the church) Zulma went to the Relief Society broadcast with us on Saturday.  I think she was a little confused by some of the stuff like Visiting Teaching and the pioneers but at least she could feel the Spirit.   She has told us she wants to be baptized but that she doesn’t know when.  She is the process of praying to get an answer.  A few weeks we had a multi zone conference with Elder Duncan (an area authority).   He talked to us about giving a teaching record to our investigators for their own copy so that they can see what they need to accomplish before being baptized.  It’s actually really helpful because Zulma was able to go through and tell us what principles she doesn’t understand yet for example she asked, “What’s the resurrection”  or they can ask us to teach about something they want to learn more about.  It’s been good for her to have a vision of her progress before baptism to help things move along.  Her boss has showed a lot of interest too so we’ve started teaching her these past few weeks.  But she has a lot of crazy questions about the Church like…”Why does the Prophet have body guards?” and other interesting stuff like that.  We’ve been trying to keep things simple and direct it back to the basics to not confuse Zulma.

Well, hope you are all doing well and that you enjoy Conference this weekend.

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Hermana Jackson 24 Sep 2012

Dear Family,        24 Sep 2012

     This has been a great week. The work is really just exploding here. 8 investigators came to Church yesterday and one of them told us she wants to be baptized this Saturday!!!  Her name is Cynthia and we were totally shocked and really happy for her.  The APs are in our Ward but they hardly get time to work with their investigators because they are in the office most of the day.  So they have been handing over a few investigators to us.  Especially the women that they have a harder time teaching because they have to have man present in the lesson.  So Cynthia is one of them and she has been going to church for a long time but has never wanted to be baptized until we taught her on Tuesday about the how the Lord answers our questions and how to recognize the Spirit.  The next time we saw her was on Sunday and she said she wanted to be baptized.  The only challenge is that she lives outside of the Ward boundaries but attends this Ward because her boyfriend is in the Ward.  So we´re just waiting to get the Mission President’s approval.  We´re also teaching a family that has been less active for a while and they all came to Church yesterday for the first time in months.  Their daughter’s name is Nancy and her boyfriend’s name is Jacobo.  Every time we visit their family he is there and participates in the lessons.  This week after one of our lessons he wanted to talk to us.  He told us that when we talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Purpose of Life, he got a really strong feeling in his heart that what we were teaching is true and that he feels like this is that path he needs to take.  We are so happy for him! But his situation is also like Cynthias in that he doesn’t live in the Ward boundaries.  In fact he dosn´t live in the mission boundaries but he is always in the Uruttia´s house.  So we´ll see if he can get baptized here or in his own Ward.   We´re just really happy that he´s experiencing a true conversion. 

     We are also teaching a woman named Zulma.  She works as a house keeper-nanny for another one of our investigators and she has read the Book of Mormon up to Alma!  She says she feels like it’s true and says she wants to be baptized but she doesn’t feel ready and doesn’t know when.  But she attended a Ward baptism on Saturday and went to Church yesterday for the first time. 

The work is really just exploding here.  I am so grateful that the Lord has blessed my companion and me with the opportunity to be a part of this work.

Hope you all have a wonderful week,

Love,

Hermana Jackson

transfers

Dear Family,

Ok, just to finish up telling you everything about Marcala..They only closed the area of the sisters and 2 pair of elders are still working with the branch.  So we spent the whole day on tuesday showing the elders where our investigators live and introducing them. It was king of hard.  I felt like i was handing my children over to someone else.  But Factoria and Natividad are doing well.  Last we heard, the lawyer had turned in a report of her life story to the register and we are now just waiting for an answer of what needs to be done next. Thanks for remembering her in your prayers. 

Ok, so now I am in Roble oeste which in Comayaguela.  Or basically part of the capitol.  This is my first time being in the city and it has been quite the culture shock.  My area is basically like the Beverley Hills of Honduras and its kind of intimidating.  I have to dress differently, talk differently teach differently and i feel like i've been transfered to a completely different mission.  I went from sitting in little homes with chickens running around me to fancy mansions.  I actually feel kind of spoiled.  As you can see in the photo attached, we have a great view of the temple from our house.  Its really exciting being in this area because a lot of people have questions about the temple.  However it is still kind of hard to find investigators because almost all the homes in our area are gated off so we have to find connections to get in.  The members are really great and it is so nice to be in a ward with so many active members.  Our mission president attends our ward and the APs too.  Today we had the privelage of helping out in the temple.  They haven't finished a few things and they just got a shipment of the furniture so we got to help un pack it and carry it into the temple.  Its really beautiful!  The director gave us a really cool tour.  My companion is hermana Guyant and shes from Eagle Mountain. Another gringa!  We had a trio with hermana chavez who is from Honduras but she was waiting for her visa to go to mexico so she was with us for a few days.  She left this morning. 

Love you all!

 

Hermana Jackson

Tue, Sep 11

Dear Family,

Sorry i didn't write yesterday becasue we had an activity with the Sisters in tegucigalpa yesterday and we were just informed this morning that both my companion and i are being transfered and that they are closing our area!!  We are really sad because we have a lot of investigators progresing and we just recieved a bunch of referrals.  But the Lord has a purpose to it and Im ready to go wherever he sends me.

HOpe you all have a great week

Love,

Rachel

3 Sept 2012

Dear Family,

 

Today we went hiking up to a waterfall called Estanzuela.  It was really pretty.  you can tell by the photo that i got sunburned.  This week i got the chance to go back to La Esperanza  my 2nd area because we had a zone confrence with President Fortuna.  We practiced teaching with a few members and i got to talk with the Branch President and a few other members.  They they told me that the Godoy family is doing well and that they are all going to church regularly.  yay!  

Hermana Factoria is doing well and her and Natividad are still pressing forward going to church waiting for their papers.  I admire the sacrifices they make.  They live really far away from the chapel.  Thanks for keeping them in your prayers.

 

Hermana Jackson

 

 

Making Tortillas

Dear Family,

This week we’ve been working with a lawyer for Factorias paperwork.  He is a member or the church and has sacrificed a lot of time to help her.  Just this week he traveled to the register where she was born to start the process.  I’m amazed at how willing he is to help.  Its incredible how the lord  puts angels in our path.   

This week we had an activity with the relief society and we learned how to make flour tortillas.  I had learned a little bit before from another member but now I think I’ve got it down. The first picture is of a member named Angela.  She was the one who taught us.  And the 4^th is of the stove that the majority use here in the pueblos. 

Hope you’ve all had a great week.

Love

Hermana Jackson

Monday 6 Aug 2012

Dear family,                   6 Aug 2012

I got transferred on Wednesday.  Hermana Duncan and I were a bit disappointed because we were only together one transfer and on my very last night being in Talanga we had one of the most incredible lessons with Josue and he felt the spirit so strongly and accepted to be baptized!  I’m so happy for him even though I had to leave before I could see him baptized I just want him to eventually make it to that point!  Hermana Clawson, my companion from the MTC, is now with Hermana Duncan.   I’m at peace knowing that he’s in good hands.

Now I’m in Marcala.  It is absolutely beautiful.  The branch is really small and the work is going slowly but I’m happy to be here.   My companion’s name is Hermana Hartman.  She is from an island off the coast of panama.   It sounds like a really cool place.  I’ll have to tell you more about her in another letter.  The first picture attached is of her.

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson

20 Aug 2012

Dear Family,                                 20 Aug 2012

This week we’ve been working really hard with the members to get the attendance up in sacrament meeting.  We were told that if we had more than 70 people they would start looking for land to build a chapel.  President Fortuna spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday and we had 87 people in attendance.  We doubled last week’s attendance!  So now the branch president is looking for a plot to purchase for construction!

We are teaching a family of 4 and they came to Chruch yesterday.  Natividad is a member of the church but has been less active for years and Factoria isn’t a member.  I admire Factoria a lot.  We’ve been teaching her a lot lately and she wants to be baptized but they need to get married first.  It’s a Little complicated because she doesn’t have an identification, nor does she exist in the system in Honduras.  Her story is a sad one but she’s told us a bit about her background in order for us start the process of applying for her identity.  Her parents abandoned her when she was a baby and an older woman took her in and put her to work.  She treated her badly so Factoria ran away when she was 9 years old and started working in a house with another family that also treated poorly.  So, left again and that became the pattern of her life.  She went from Catacamas to Comayagua, to Siguatepece until a friend from work told her she could work in Marcala with her so they came here together but unfortunately her friend didn’t have work for her after all and she was left alone in a park looking for a place to sleep. That’s when she met Natividad who took her in and they’ve been together ever since.  That was for years ago.  Now they have two small boys and they’ve started coming to church.  Factoria has been reading the Book of Mormon every day.  Even though she doesn’t capture everything, she is faithful in reading every day.    We asked her where she learned to read because she never was allowed into school and she said she just picked up books and learned on her own.  This woman continues to amaze me!  And the thing I admire most about her is her humility.  When she told us about all what she went through, she didn’t complain or exaggerate.  She just told how it was with a cheerful innocence in her voice.    When we taught a lesson this week she closed with a prayer saying, “Please bless so that I can get baptized”.  She is so pure, as I’ve been getting to know her I see her as a diamond in the rough.  She is such a precious daughter of God that has been tested and tried and that deserves the best blessings that the Lord has prepared.  Right now we are trying to get a few papers in order to obtain an identity card but it’s been really tricky.  Please keep her in her prayers.

Love you all,

Hermana Jackson

p.s. attached is a picture of Factoria and Natividad.  She looks really young but shes actually 21

13 Aug 2012

Dear Family,                                         13 Aug 2012
That’s so exciting that Eleanor was born!  I contributed that name by the way and I’m definitely a fan of the choice. haha
I’ve been getting to know my companion a little better this week.  She is crazy!  In a good way...really spunky and upbeat.  She’s been telling me a lot about the island where she was born and the culture is really interesting. I attached a picture of her greatgrandma with her normal everyday outfit.  She told me that her grandma doesn’t even know what a car looks like.  Just to give me an idea of what it’s like there.  The culture sounds really beautiful and very much preserved.  And the clothing they use is really cool.  Hermana Hartman speaks Cuna and Spanish.  She was telling me about the religious beliefs of her people on the island and how it’s really similar to the doctrine of the Church.  They believe that Christ came to the Americas and they also teach something really similar to the plan of salvation.
So I've also been getting to know branch a little better too.  I found out that I'm Young Womens President and Sunday School teacher for the youth.  It’s going to be quite the balancing act but I’m glad to be here.  The Branch President and his wife are wonderful.  I’ll write more about them next week.  

All my love,
Hermana Jackson

30 July 2012

Dear Family,                           30 July 2012

     We got to teach Josue a lot more this week.   He came to church yesterday and had his new baby girl in his arms the whole time.  He’s so proud to be a dad and so protective of her.  It’s really sweet.  Although he’s been coming to church he still isn’t sure if Joseph Smith was a prophet.  We knelt down in prayer with him in one of our lessons this week and he gave the most beautiful sincere prayer to know it’s true but he’s still not sure.  But I know the Spirit is guiding him even if he’s not aware of it because he has the desire to go to church.  Thanks for all of your prayers.  I love this family so much and I keep imagining them kneeling down in the Temple getting sealed someday.  I can just see it.  It’s not just our dream but Melisa’s dream too.  Josue just doesn’t know it will be his soon.

     The Temple in Tegucigalpa is finished and now we’re just waiting for the church leaders to let us know when the open house will be.  Yesterday a one of the leaders from the district visited our branch to notify us of some goals that the area authorities have made to bring 500 people from our area to the Temple open house.  The sacrament attendance is really low right now.  In the 70s and 80s and there are about 700 members. We have so much work to do in activating but we had another meeting with the leaders yesterday and they are really enthusiastic and about getting to work.  Not only do they have so much work but they are also will need to contribute funds for the bus ride and they are encouraged to invited other families and contribute to their bus ticket.  I look at the sacrifices that this branch is making to go to the temple and it reminds me of the pioneers and they gave to build the temples.  We really are so spoiled in Utah.  The people here really are pioneers building up the branch and going to the temple.  It really inspires me to be a better member when I get home.  

Love you all,

Hermana Jackson

Monday 23 July 2012

         23 July 2012

Mom, you're right… I never told you where my companion is from.  She's from Highland, Utah and she's a lot of fun.  She was a park ranger in Nevada and gave cave tours and she loves adventures.  It’s really fun being her companion because she's all up for looking for people to teach up in the mountain part of Talanga.  Sometimes we feel like hikers because we now have a couple of investigators that live WAY up at the top of a hill and you can see all of Talanga and a bunch of other cities for that view.  It’s a really beautiful hike up to their house.  So yeah, we are enjoying ourselves.  I have learned so much from Hermana Duncan about missionary work and the gospel and things about myself that I didn't even realize.  This is our last week in this transfer and I really don't want to get transferred but I think it might happen. I especially don't want to get transferred because I’m really attached to the Palacios family.  (Josue and Melisa)  They are a young family about our age but we've really gotten close to them and gained a lot of trust too.  This week was a little tough because Josue went to Guatemala and we haven't had the chance to teach him since he went to Church last Sunday and he didn't go to church yesterday but Melisa told us that he really wanted to.  So I guess the good thing is that he still wants to go to Church and learn about the Gospel but we just need the chance to actually teach him to help get to baptism.  We have an appointment tonight.  Keep praying for them.  One of the big obstacles is paying for their wedding.  It’s really expensive because the paper work is a little more complicated because he’s from Guatemala.  But I know it will all work out.

Thanks for your prayers!

Hermana Jackson

July 16, 2012

Dear Family,                                                                      July 16 2012

Thanks for the birthday wishes!  It was a really great day.  Something that made it good was that the night before we taught Seidi a lesson, she said the closing prayer and went off about "Bless Hermana Jackson that she will have a happy birthday tomorrow and bless her family, her mom, her dad her brothers and sisters."  She continued to bless all of you in detail.  It touched my heart because I think about how all of you have prayed for her and here she was praying so sincerely for all of you too. 

We are teaching someone named Josue.  His wife is a member of the church who was less active but has been coming back to church lately.  I remember the first time we taught him he said he didn't believe the Book of Mormon is true and he was really hard.  He stopped listening to us for a while but then started to read the testimony of Joseph Smith and opened up to have us over to teach him again.  We've been teaching him for the past few weeks and he is doing so well.  He still has a lot of doubts but the Spirit is really working within him.  On Saturday we challenged him to be baptized and he didn't accept.  It’s been really hard for him to accept all of this.  Towards the end of the lesson I felt prompted to ask him what his motives were for listening to us.  He began to really open up and told us about how he used to have a really good relationship with God but fell away for a while.  Then he said we "Woke up something inside of him that he hadn't felt for a long time"  It touched my heart and the spirit was so strong.  Yesterday he came to Church for the first time ever.  That was a huge leap of faith for him.

Please pray for him and his family.

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson