Baptisms!

Dear Family, 30 Jan 2012

Good news. The Godoy family was baptized and confirmed this weekend. Yay! It was really beautiful. It’s great because now everyone in their family is a member of the church. Hermano Godoy shared his testimony after the baptism and said “Now my family is all together and we are more united spiritually.” Another great thing that happened was that Keren (Sandra’s daughter that we had been teaching before) finally decided to be baptized and she was baptized in the same service. I’ll try to send fotos but my memory card is doing weird things again. If not this week, I’ll get them out next week. Oh, and we had an interesting incident this week. I got locked inside our bathroom on Thursday. Something in the door handle broke and I was trapped inside for about a half hour! Haha. We were really worried because we had an appointment but eventually my companion found help and I got free. That night we taught an investigator named Flor and it was a really spiritual lesson and she accepted a baptismal date! Waahooo! Maybe Satan was trying to keep us from going to that lesson so he tried locking me in the bathroom. Haha, nice try but it didn’t work!

Well, hope you all are doing well. Love you all!

Hermana Jackson

Monday 23 Jan 2012

Dear Family, 23 Jan 2012

Good news, I’m allowed to write you for 30 minutes now instead of 20.

Yay! I know it’s just 10 minutes more but it makes all the difference!

Thanks for all of your prayers for our investigators. I’m pretty

sure the Godoy family is going to baptized this Saturday. We have

seen so many miracles while teaching them. When I first met them,

Hermana Nava and I couldn’t teach Ingris (one of the daughters who is

14) because she is really shy and doesn’t like listening to the

missionaries. So the whole family is baptized except her, her younger

sister Lixi and their Dad, Mario. The past few months Mario and Lixi

have been really receptive but have had a really hard time letting go

of coffee. And Ingris hasn’t been with us at all in the lessons. A

couple of weeks ago Mario expressed his desire to see Ingris be

baptized too so we made an extra effort to get her to join us in one

of our lessons. It was kind of tricky and we had to be really careful

to not scare her away or make her feel uncomfortable but with a

balance of persistence and sensitivity we were able to gain her trust

and she’s been joining in the lessons this past week. Not only that,

but we invited her to be baptized a few days ago and she accepted!

The biggest challenge we saw was the coffee because we knew she was

the last one in the house still drinking it but we found out that

Saturday, her and Lixi said goodbye to their last cup and got rid of

all the coffee in the house. Now it’s not a temptation for anyone in

the house and they are all really excited for their baptisms! Keep

praying for them!

Denia unfortunately said she is going to move to the Laguna which is

like 30 or 40 minutes away and I’m not sure what we are going to do.

Maybe it’s not her time right now but there’s always hope that things

can change. Keep her in your prayers too.

We have been teaching a young couple named Carlos and Merlin. They

have a one year old baby. (We celebrated his birthday yesterday)

Anyways, they are a really wonderful family and we’ve only taught them

a few times and Carlos has been really receptive but Merlin, not so

much. This week we taught the plan of salvation and Carlos was just

eating it up. When we taught about the spirit world and the 3 degrees

of glory he said, “Wow, that makes a lot of sense! Before I thought I

was for sure destined to go to hell but hearing this gives me a lot of

hope!” He wasn’t joking. Later we returned to visit them but only

Merlin was home. We talked to her to find out her doubts and help

resolve her questions and she was really open and honest with us. She

said, “Look, I’m going to be sincere with you, I don’t believe in what

you’re teaching but Carlos does and what you don’t know is that before

he met you two, he didn’t believe in God at all. I’m not sure what

the difference is now but as he’s been listening to your teachings

he’s changed and the main reason I’ve welcomed you into our home is

because its helping him to believe in God” I was super surprised to

hear that because it was something I never would have guessed. He

seemed to be really receptive from the beginning. He even came to

Church with us yesterday and really liked it. (For those of you

returned missionaries reading this understand that it’s a big deal if

an investigator makes it to church. It’s really hard to get people to

come) Anyways it’s amazing to see to power of the effect this message

has on people. People can feel that something is different about our

Church and Carlos can definitely see it. I just hope that Merlin can

soften her heart and realize it too!

Love you and pray for you all!

Hermana Jackson

Monday 16 Jan 2012

Dear Family,

Happy Birthday Mom and Tyler! Hope you both have a great week!

I’ve been really enjoying training Hermana Per. She is the BEST! We’ve had a great time together and so many uplifting experiences. So, a little update on the investigators. Denia should be baptized this Saturday. She was hesitant for a while and we asked to pray to ask Heavenly Father if she should be baptized this week and the next morning we asked how her prayer went and she told us about a dream she had that instructed her that this was what she needed to do. Denia is so sensitive to the spirit and we have had so many beautiful experiences with her. Please pray for her this week that she will be able to make it to church. She’s facing a few obstacles in the family where she has to watch the kids and she is the only person in her family that has accepted the gospel so it makes it a little tough. But I know she is strong enough to make it! Also, the Godoy family is planning on being baptized the 28th! Pray for them too! Oh, I just have too many things I want to say and experiences I’ve had where I’ve been learning to follow the spirit but I just don’t have time to share them all. Uurrrg… maybe next week.

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson

Ps here’s a photo of Hermana Per and I in her typical clothing from Guatemala. The skirt she is wearing is the type of thing she wears every day in her home. Isn’t it beautiful?!

Monday 9 Jan 2012

Dear Family, 9 Jan 2012

Hermana Nava went home this week. Her last day here the lights went out. So she had to pack up all her stuff in the dark with just a few candles and we had to get up at 2:30 in the morning to make it to Tegucigalpa at 8. It was pretty crazy. So, now I am training a new missionary and her name is Hermana Per, pronounced like “pear”. She is from Guatemala and she is absolutely adorable. I’m so excited to train her these next 3 months. I found out that I actually met her before and didn’t realize it! My friend in the MTC, Hermana Mosco, lived in Guatemala for 4 months serving in a language program. She lived with Hermana Per and her family while she was there. While we were in the Guatemala MTC, Hermana Per and her brother were given permission to visit Hermana Masco for 2 minutes outside of the MTC gate and I had to accompany her that day. I think I was her temporary companion for the day or something. So I remember seeing Hermana Per and her brother but I had no idea she would be my companion someday! She didn’t even have her mission call at that point! Small world. Anyways, she is just great. She speaks Spanish, English, and a Mayan language called Cakchichel. I asked her to say a few phrases and it sounds crazy! It’s like French mixed with a bunch of other languages. Anyways, that all I have time to write today. I’ll attach a photo of her so you can see what she looks like.

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson

P.s. Dad, new years was pretty crazy. They set off fireworks alllll night. I slept just fine (with ear plugs) That’s so fun that you took the boys for a fly in the plane. I bet they just loved that!

Ok, so it won't let me attach the photo right now. I’ll try next time. Sorry!

Happy New Year!

Dear Family, 2 Jan 2012

Guess what…I’m going to be a trainer starting this Wednesday!!! The elders have always teased me that I’m going to train and I always tell them. No! I don´t want to. I don’t speak enough Spanish!! A couple weeks ago an elder told me I was going to train but I thought he was joking like the rest of them. Then afterwards I thought about it and thought what a bad attitude I had and how unwilling I was to give serve. So that night I got down on my knees, asked for forgiveness and told heavenly father that if he wanted me to train, then I would do it willingly. And sure enough the next week my leaders told me I would receive a new sister missionary. So I’ll be sending off one sister to her home and welcoming in a new one. I am actually really excited now. Hopefully all goes well and that I don’t confuse her too much with my crazy Spanish. Haha

Hope you all had a happy new year!

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Dearest Family, 26 Dec 2011

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! It was so great to hear your voices. Congratulations Lisa and Will on the new baby girl! I can’t wait to see a picture of her. Have you named her yet?

Well, unfortunately Mario and Lixi weren’t baptized this week. We’re hoping they’ll be ready next week, along with Denia. She wants a little more time to get to know the church but she really is ready. She has such a great testimony of the gospel. She was telling us about her experience growing up going to the Catholic Church and how it never felt right to her. She said, " I wish I had met you two and learned about the gospel earlier in my life when I was a young girl." Hopefully we’ll see her baptism soon or even better with her family. We taught her mom and her brother for the first time this week. She was a little nervous about how her family would react but when we met with her mom she gave us permission to baptize her. Please keep them all in your prayers.

Love,

Hermana Jackson

P.S. Thanks again for all the Christmas gifts and treats. Mom, here’s a picture of Hermana Nava and I with our headbands in front of the tree. And the other is a picture of us and our zone leaders.

Feliz Navidad

Dearest Family, 19 Dec 2011

Feliz Navidad!!!! I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season. I'm so exited to talk to you all this week!! So, I tried to figure out what day I can call you but my leaders said we have to wait till our meeting with the president to find out. But they told me I get to call you some time in the week for just one minute to tell you what when and at what time. It would be great if you could call me but I’ll let you know when I call you. I'm going to try to do everything I can to call you guys Saturday morning. Alright, I only have a few minutes to write. ..aahhhh! But I had a really great experience I want to share and hopefully I can write enough to do it justice. So we are teaching a girl named Denia. She is 22 years old and we set a baptism date for her this Saturday but until this week she still wasn't sure if she knew the church was true. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying and said she hadn't received an answer yet. So we invited her kneel down with us and pray right then and there to find out if it was true. So she did and wasn't sure. Then I asked her how she expected to receive her answer and she said she wasn't sure but maybe through a dream or something. So we explained to her what the holy ghost feels like read D and C 9:7 through 9 and while she was reading she looked at us with a surprised look on her face and said whoa! I feel like my heart got split open but it doesn’t hurt and that something warm is being poured into it. She felt the Holy Ghost and knew for surety that the Book of Mormon is true. It was a beautiful experience. Maybe I’ll write more about it next time but I’ve got to go!

Love you all!

Hermana Jackson