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