I'LL SEE YA'LL REAL SOON!

HELLO MY BEAUTIFUL FAMILY! I hope everything is going good and the life in the west is treating you well! This week was one of those just hard missionary weeks. Where you just pray to make it through the days! And here i am:) 

We had zone training on Tuesday which rocked to have something new in the schedule. The Sisters from Toxey came the night before and we had a slumber party in our living room! The four of us are the only Sisters in our zone! Sister Lahmen my comp was super stressed the night before because she was suppose to teach. And right before she was suppose to go up she turned to me and asked if i would teach it with her. Hahaha so i actually taught my very first zone conference! All went welllll:) 

In the south there are so many crazy and intersting people where i find myself thinking "How did you get to where you are today?'' hahah. Even the members! We had dinner one night at this families home. (All homes in the south are just piled with random stuff EVERYWHERE. A lot of them wreak of cat pee too.) So we found a place to sit and Brother Foy starts talking to us. Eventually it got very serious and informed us that he had received notion that a second civil war was going to happen November of this year. And that a letter will be read in church from the 1st Pres. calling all members to the rocky mountains. We asked a lot of questions and when Sis Lahmen asked what will happen to those members who don't go to the rockies? Sis Foy said "OHHH lets not talk about that, and upset our stomachs for dinner". Hahah i asked what about us the missionaries? And he said we will be sent home in June! So I'LL see Y'all Real Sooon!!! CHEERS. 

I can see myself fighting for conviction everyday. And it is always subtle but i do feel God with me at times. Like when we were walking to a less actives home I felt the impression with a certain house. I ignored it and kept going. On the way back we passed that house again and I asked Sis Lehman if we could just knock this door. It was a tired looking black man who literally just let us right in. It was too easy. We set an appointment to go back and teach him and his wife this week end. When we walked out we both were just like WHATTT.

It isn't all that good though as i am sure you could guess. Out of the people we do get an appointment with its seriously like 1 out of 25 that keep it! And I am so used to not being let in that when I do and we are suppose to teach I don't know what heckkk im doing haha. I taught a wretchedddd Resto lesson to a young black couple. I just had to laugh afterwards! But i am getting better slowly and surely.

I am just living the life down here! Me and my comp are still figuring out how to work together. I often times don't understand her and her reactions to things. She just needs love. Maybe a lot of love. And all I can do is pray! She says the cloudy weather also makes her more grumpy and depressed and its been cloudy alll week. So pray for some good ol' SUNSHINE:) 

Anyways!! I love and miss you all everyday! I am thee LUCKIEST human alive to have the family that i do! So much dang love!

Sister Jackson:)

This is one of the ladies that we just read the Book of Mormon to:)

Southern Livinggg!

My Sweet Sweet family!!! 

How in the world is it over there?! Once again it feels like a lifetime since I have talked to Y'all. Well I made it here! And it was a dang good wake up call from the MTC haha. It wasn't long after I got off the plan that a large black man came up to me asking me questions about the church and trying to catch us in a trap to bash. I stood there and was just like oh geez so this is the life now hahah. All is well though:) I am serving in FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA. It is beautiful here. It is a small quaint town. Right next to the bay! Their is a pier that goes into it, that we OYM (open your mouth A.K.A contancting/sharing messages) up and down almost every night! It was probably my favorite part of the day. Gosh so much happens I don't even know where to start! 

My comp is great!! She is from New Mexico and has been here for 7 months. We work really great together and have open communication about what works and doesn't which is awesome. We are still figuring out how to teach together but I'm just jumpin right it:) I guess our area has been known to be a slower area but she is just ecstatic about this transfer because we have already exceeding the weekly goals x 5 since I got here. We have a good time together.

I am already toughening up hahaha. It has become almost comical how rude people are sometimes and how much you get rejected. And how annoying we are and must be with knocking and calling people over and over again. So once I came to that conclusion of brushing things off fast, and just accepting the life of a missionary everything became a lot easier. However, because so many people love jesus down here there will be people who just say "AHH Bless y'all! I loveeeee jesus y'all keep spreading the word!". Ha it is the best to have those type of rejections every so often:) I truly respect every religion and all have great people in you just have to remember the unique message of the FULLNESS  of our church. That is worth sharing.

So I'll just tell y'all about a moments from this week! I have met so many interesting people from different walks of life. Our mission focuses on less actives so we see and try to contact and teach them a lot. We knocked on the Karkinians and they usually slam the door shut but he let us in and we were both kind of shocked. Long story short we taught family history to him and his wife and it was HARD. Brother Karkinian used to be a bishop and so i am sure you can imagine what it would be like to teach a Less Active bishop. He literally fought every word we said with evidence from some book or idea or another. His wife was awesome though and a lot more open to what we were teaching and is just an angel. So we kept going because of her and got her number at the end of the lesson to give her a call again. By the time we left we were both physically shaking, and I honestly just wanted to cry hah. I felt like i had just been dragged across the asphalt.  We can't give up on them, i just kept thinking that i didn't want to have to be the one to keep pursuing them. It really shook me but i am learning and growing pushing past my own insecurities in hopes of softening hearts in the Lord's work! 

After, we got out we rushed to a dinner appt that we were late to! Sis Giles fed us gumbo and I don't think i am a fan. Sis lehman is an EXTREMELY  picky eater and struggled more than i did. Sis Giles is considered less active because she physically can't come to church. She has one leg, and has Mersa which causes her skin to have open bloody wounds all over her body. She doesn't have teeth and lives in a horder like apartment. She is straight AWESOME and i love her to death but her kitchen made the gumbo even more questionable. Sis Lehman emptied to Plan of Salvation bag and dumbed some of our gumbo into it when Sis Giles was wheelin around somewhere. Hahah ah gosh.

We then left and stopped by a few more houses and ended up at kevins. So in Fairhope it is weird because it is almost segregated completely by a street between the white people on the north and the black people on the south. Most of our visits are on the black side. But kevin lives in a trailor park nestled in woods down on the south side. We sat on his pourch and taught him Family history/plan of salv. His son was killed 4 years ago so thats what he was drawn to. He told us that he almost committed a serious crime 2 weeks ago but something stopped him. So we just explained that that was God and that he is preparing him to live with him again. He just kept going though ha, and explained that he had a knife to a man in his grip. But that something his Grandma said about a prideful heart will send you to hell. So he didn't do it. We set a baptism date with him but he got drunker and drunker and the night went on so i don't know how long it will take to get that date but he is a good guy with a good heart. We eventually left because no progress was being made with his beer in his hand haha. We got into our car (which we have by the way! So i wont bike much in this area!) and it wreaked of alcohol, which we found out that all of his neighbors back there had dumped beer all over our car ha which set sis lehman off into a pissed mood the rest of the evening. Haha it is just stuff like this that i have never experienced before! I do feel protected by the Lord as a missionary, somehow i have courage to talk to everyone and knock so many different types of doors. It is all so dang surreal here!!

A last cool experience is when we knocked on a door last week looking for one of our potential investigators, she wasn't there but her sister  Jessica was living there and we got talking to her and gave her a passalong card. The house is completely engulfed in smoke to the point where it sucks to breathe but she was really nice. The days that followed i kept bugging sister Lehman that i thought we should go back to see if she had watched the video/check in. Sis Lehman didn't want to (i don't blame her cus im the greenie out here:)) Anyways i couldn't get her out of my mind and i finally drug my comp over there and we ended up setting a time with her to go back on Tuesday to teach her a lesson! This is the first time I have felt guided by the spirit to someone. Sis Lehman apologized for being so stubborn, and talked about how i have the spirit just as much as she does as the trainer. I am slowly becoming more confident in myself as a missionary!! 

Anyways this is a novel but i still can't believe I LIVE HERE NOW. I have been homesick because it is SO different and much less social than the MTC where you see nice people all the time but I am just plugging a long and I know soon enough fairhope will feel like home:) Some days are so hard and i often find myself pleading with the lord for a desire to be here. But I know great things are going to come from my mission and true happiness comes with a life centered on our savior!! My heart has so love for all of you and miss you all daily!!

Also if you want to send me anything my new address is

320 Volanta Ave. Appt. B4 Farehope Alabama 36532 :)

xoxoxo Sister Jackson

My cute comp:)

The eaten or not eaten gumbo.

HELLO FROM THE OTHER SIDE

Family I can't tell you how great it is to be able to respond to all of you!! I am overwhelmed by the love and support you guys give me. I seriously can not thank you enough. I want to write each one of you back, but it might take me a few weeks. Needless to say I found strength and comfort in each single one of your guys letters I wish I had time to respond to them all this second!!

This week was good! For Easter, Pres. Ballard came and talked to us! It was broadcasted to every MTC in the world. Pretty neat to be where the entire world came together. I can't exactly remember what he said but I remember it was good. Hah that's my lil tired MTC brain for ya! Other than that just had more church and devotionals and a walk to the temple! I am going to miss the temple...today was the last time I'll go for a year and a half! But I hope all of you had an incredible Easter full of love for our Savior! I wish I could have heard grandma's lesson. I love her lessons. 

It is hard to sit here and summarize what has happened this week because it feels like a lifetime of events happen every day. It's mostly filled with class time and teaching investigators. We have an investigator named Jessi who is awesome. She is portraying herself when she was a non-member but we aren't suppose to know that she has joined. Anyway!! We have had a lot of awesome lessons filled with tears and the spirit. However, she loves to just chat and is very, very open about her life. Haha I swear it sometimes just turns into 45 min counseling sessions between me and her.. whoops! Hahah she's 30 and divorced but somehow we connect on the same level and I find myself giving her dating advice, hahaha last week I told her that I think this boy she is trying to marry has commitment issues. I try to refrain from doing that but dang she just is blinded by who knows what!! hahah I often explain to Sis Davis that she shouldn't encourage those two because there are 1,023,984 red flags. Anyway, I promise we teach a lot of spiritual things here too;) We teach non- stop! Which is exhausting, but great practice.

Even though me and Sis Davis could not be more different, we teach well together. She comes in on clutch with the scriptures and I am a lil better at relating and connecting! She also gets nervous sometimes and just says she wants me to take it hah so we are working on balancing the time. 

We just got another investigator who is RAD. She super outdoorsy and so I am like living vicariously through her! We talk about places to snowshoe and what not (told her to go to green pond), and I tell her to hike for me too! It honestly is weird a lil still to interact with people here who still have real life's once they leave. My teacher is going to J Beibs this weekend....What I'd do to hear some real music haha.

Another thing that I started doing this week is playing volleyball with some of the more athletic elders and sisters. It's funny because it was all the elders who are way extreme into basketball and think that they are the hot stuff here because they are committed to play in college or were before they left. But I hold my own and it's fun to do something that I actually did before the MTC!! Haha.

I also had a 15 min convo between me and an elder who speaks Mandarin and it was his first day here, translated by elder horton and stroud. Come to find out later, he speaks English, is from Idaho and has been here 10 weeks! They all laughed so hard, they played us like fools! Sis Davis claims she knew but i KNOW she didn't haha.    

I am still finding it fun here despite the routine! Last Friday during service cleaning I had the lil custodian guy teach me color guard twirls with the brooms. He is surprisingly immaculate at that art. We can all only aspire I guess.  

I have really felt some of my answers to prayers answered here. I have felt more of an assurance to keep going and have been given a little more confidence that I owe to myself to really dig deep in this gospel and find the truths. I look back at the first day I was here and I truly have seen myself grow and overcome things I didn't think I could. I have been more in-tune with every single emotion and feeling with in myself than ever before. Everything here is so deep and filled with real soul filled things that matter. I think at my life before here and there was a lot of small talk and superficial events that happened all the time. That is not the case here and it has only been two weeks! 

I had a pretty cool meeting with a member of my branch pres the other day. He knows where my heart has been and where my desires are. As we were talking he broke down to me in tears rolling down his face and said "Sister Jackson, you will get out there and those answers WILL COME. I promise you. I look at you and just think this incredible." He said, "There will come a time where it all will just wake you up to the reality of this gospel". He has not a doubt that I wont find the truth of the BOM and the rest of the doctrine. I've never had anyone show me so much confidence in finding answers than I have here. Don't get me wrong it still is an ongoing fight to stay motivated and full of faith but I feel the lord has given me just enough to keep going!

My heart could seriously burst with the love that I have for each and every single one of you. I feel so undeserving of the time that you have all put towards me in my life right now.  I truly could not do this without any of you and wish you all could see how much you mean to me. I do a lot of reflecting here especially since I cant respond till Wednesday! I want you all to know I'm praying for you all and love you to the core of my being!!!! I miss you tons, keep up the good work over there:)

The beloved MTC pic 

 In honor of J Biebs this weekend

 Elder Stroud from good ole BYU 

How I love Sista Garcia 

FIRST WEEK

HOLY COW. It literally feels like it has been 6 life times since I have seen you all! First off, thank you so much for your dear elders and your package!! Haha it is the best feeling in the world to hear the DL say my name at the end of the day. Mom I laughed so hard at what you sent me. It is a typical mom move and I loved it. I may just use those affirmation band aids cut or no cut. I'll go over what the MTC is like a bit! 

The first day I got here I thought of you boys because I was the last one to make it to my district haha. I also got pulled aside on my way in and received a few stern talks that I just love my family a lot and that is a good thing. Obviously that just turned me into more of a mess but it's comical I guess!  It is literally another world here. One of the coolest things is seeing all the different languages and countries here. There are two elders who call me Flo Rida (the rapper;)) because that's what they think I'm saying with my american accent. Also I have seen Kenz almost every day which rocks. I see friends from the BYU as well which is fun. Speaking of the Y, believe it or not, food DOES GET WORSE THAN THE CANNON. Hahah it blows my mind that people gain weight here. I've eaten a mediocre salad and a PB and J 3 times every day since I've been here. Haha but its alright I'll live. 

Mom we just watched the first session of the temple dedication in one of the buildings here. And you'd be proud because I joined the choir! We sang last night at the devotional and will sing this Sunday for Easter! ALSO I have 24/7 access to the snack room which just means more PB and Js and chocolate milk anytime I want! It is BOMB DIGGITY!!! Haha at first I felt bad dragging my comp there all the time because she likes to stick to a schedule but I hook her up big time! That's why she likes me so much;)

Church here they just call up two random people from the ward and they give a 5 minute talk! Of course I wouldn't prepare one before hand because who's got time for that and low and behold Sister Jackson was the first talk. Hahaha my district laughed because before that everyone was talking about their talk if they were to get called and I announced that I didn't do it!

My District is awesome. I love them a lot. It is just a bunch of quirky kids. We have really grown close though. I tell everyone we have a heartfelt district haha because many nights have turned into a girls camp type of night where everyone cries and pours the truths of their  deep soul hahah. There are just two other girls in the district and they room with my comp and I so I spend a lot of time with them as well Sister Perhson and Sister Garcia. My comp is great! Her name is Sister Davis. She's from West Bountiful and went to Legacy and Woods Cross. Let me tell you, she is a solid member of this church! She has known she has wanted to serve a mission and has gained a witness that this church is true at the age of 6. She never gets sick of spending every second with a comp  (something I have struggled with). Haha. We are so different and have very different senses of humor. But we get a long just fine.

Everything they say about the MTC is true. I have never been more tired in my life. I literally feel like it is 3 in the morning every day here. It is a hard schedule. And i havent been sleeping awesome so the whole 630 thing is still kickin me haha. 

I seriously am so grateful for all of your love and support! I truly am thee LUCKIEST missionary alive because of all of you!!! Dad your letters every night helped me more than you could ever imagine! And Cars your quotes were just what I needed. I know a lot of you don't know exactly what I'm experiencing but I could not thank you enough for the love and support you have been giving me!!! I feel like you guys are too good to be true. My heart could not love you more!!!!

xoxo Sister Jackson:)