A Changed Man

Happy Monday:)

        God is good. Life is good. Yesterday was one of the happiest days on my mission. Syliva came to church for the second time and is progressing like iv never seen with her. Xiaver( jimmy fallon Jr) Got ordained a Priest. And Taurz who we tracted into had a few ups and downs but is doing SO good now. He is on tract to get baptized next week.

        The branch had gone out and gotten him a white shirt and tie and yesterday when he walked in I couldn't believe it. These past three weeks he has become some one entirely new. Yesterday in the hall way he came to me and said in complete humility and excitement that he too wants to serve a mission. He has given up weed, the friends and everything in between. Nothing in his life has given him an ounce of support or reason to have the courage to do what he is doing to change his life how he is today. It amazes me. I wish you all could just sit in our lessons because he sure is loved by God and is one of His finest.

       Only God could be giving him the divine help to overcome his past and break the abusive, violent, absent chain within his family. 3 weeks ago Taurz told us that he knew his life was going to be a failure if he didn't get out of the streets. He was brought to tears from the stories in the Book of Mormon as he related to Nephi and knew he needed to be the strong one for his siblings. Nothing I could express in email would be able to explain to you the depth that he has  in the Gospel.

        These past three weeks my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown. It truly is a book of change. Given to us to help change our lives. With every investigators the stories seem to fit them perfectly. I love the book and feel its truth. It is a good life we live!

Sister Jackson 

Taurz  Allen

Yay for mommas who send love and Stance socks.

A vid of the missionary life in action haha Elder Sherwood recorded this one day and sent it to my mission pres.

I LOVE YOU ALL.

An Apostle of the Lord

Hello dear ones,

This week we had an entire mission conference and Elder Gary E. Stevenson from the Quorum of the 12 Apostles came to our mission!  So neat. A few other missionaries and I had the chance to sing Come Thou Fount to him and our mission. For the past month we have been coordinating together for the number. I love that song and it was a tender experience! It was something eles to be able to shake an apostle of the Lords hand and to receive training from him one on one. My entire mission it has been a learning experience to understand how the Spirit touches me personally. And MAN it is a cool journey.

We are still at it trying to find people to teach as always! Ha last Saturday we met two 19 year olds at a gas station and invited them to church and they came! Every one says they will come but no one does of course ha so we were pumped. It got a little less exciting however, when we all sat down and it became apparent that they both showed up totally high. We sat there in sacrament with them and the longer we sat the more apparent it was. Geez. Ha one of them was clapping after talks and quoting the bible scriptures with the person speaking. At times i was nervous for what they were about to do. Sister Jarvis had no clue what was going the whole time. 

I Love you all. This week have more faith than fear. Jesus Christ Lives!

Sister Jackson:)

I also chopped 5 inches off my hair last week. It was actually very liberating hah. 

Fun to see old friends/ comps again!

God's Love is the best Love.

Miracles. This week was full. The past while consisted of tracting and street contacting and we were stoked for the ones with a return appointment and then we get stood up time and time again! Ha it is the norm out here unfortunately. This week particularly was a really really long week. It has been a goal to tract around the areas of the no show appointments.If God brought you to that area theres a reason....So what it looks like is we will find someone go to their house, they stand us up, we contact around them, find someone else set an apt with them at their place, they stand us up, we contact around them find someone else and set an apt at their place, etc, etc. .... Well fast forward to Saturday when we met Taurz. We were brought to Taurz's trailor park from tracting 7 different no show appointments consecutively over the past weeks! 

We knocked his trailor after a no show appointment with on of his neighbors. And Taurz came out half awake but grateful "to be woken up with Jesus." Ha he is 18 and one of the coolest kids i'v even met. Already one of my best friends. Taurz is straight from the streets as he puts, covered in tattoos and quite honestly has almost no one in his life. He was a little wild that morning and was all over the place swearing and acting out the Passion of the Christ and everything in between. We taught him about the Book of Mormon and left him with our number. 

Sunday morning we woke up with a voicemail from Taurz saying he is going to be ready to come to church. God told him that he needed to come. I can only think of one other time on my entire mission where someone called us! We sent a Member to pick him up and sure enough Taurz walked into church yesterday. 

If i have ever felt that talks and lessons are inspired I felt it yesterday stronger than ever.  In sacrament, the talks were about family and how we are each others family and he commented to me the whole time how he needs these people.  In Gospel Principles it was on the Word of Wisdom and he sat there intently on every word and even met with the Branch President after Church to see how he can help him change. He was a different person entirely. Never have I seen such a change over 3 hours.  

We went and taught him the Restoration this morning with a member and committed him to get baptized on March 10. By the end he was smiling as we taught. MAN nothing is more real out here than meeting and teaching someone who is truly, deeply, SEEKING. Keep Taurz in your prayers this week:)

I know this Gospel is raw, genuine, work full of lots of heart. Jesus Christ gave us the beautiful Gift of second chances. And I love him for it.

Sister Jackson:)  

Sister Brinson, my Relief Society President.

We are born to meet the King

HEY:) I hope yall had a good Super Bowl weekend. Ha it hit me how out of the world I am when I found out it was happening this weekend from 90 yr old residents in the rest home that we sing to. No one could remember quite who was playing though hahah. This morning we found out when we were walking around tracking all the hung over fans:)

Ms. Kathryn had a beautiful funeral service. It was my first "Baptist" funeral and boy they don't mess. As two "white gurls" in dresses, we usually stick out like sore thumbs and the funeral was no different. They had a live choir singing praises as the family walked in to see the casket for the last time. People were fainting and wailing and fanning. It broke my heart. She was loved widely and deeply. As I spoke everyone was clapping and shouting "amens" and "yes Jesus."  And it ended in a raging applause! It was hard for me not to throw a few hallelujahs in there:)  It was a really cool missionary tool through it all. At the end as I bore testimony and read something from the Book of Mormon and the pastor sat behind me nodding and amening. I kept wishing yall could have been there! After wards they had big fish frys and BBQs. We spent a few hours gutting fish with the family in the yard. Everyone was drinking Gin havin a good ol time hah.

Its funny. Out here you feel like there are some days where every decision you make is led by God and other days where you feel completely left in the dark making wrong turn after wrong turn. Both are for either their (gods children) or your good. A few days ago we had one of those awesome days. We were lost trying to find an appt. and pulled over on the side of a neighborhood to look at our GPS and 2 girls walked past us and waved. I watched them walk away and like usual the feelings come in ya and we chased em down. As we asked them their names it turned out to be the girl we were LOOKING for!! Not even close to where we were suppose to be. We taught her and her cousin Puddin the Restoration in the street right there. It was a beautiful moment filled with the spirit. God answers prayers. Feeling the spirit of that lesson was something He knew I needed that day.

I have found comfort in a scripture lately in Hebrews 12:6 "For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.."

That applies to every ounce of our lives. I know because he loves us he is going to stretch and mold us in difficult and painful times. BECAUSE he loves us. Love is what fuels this life and quite frankly what fuels every piece of doctrine found in this gospel.

Thank you for making me the luckiest gal alive! Sending so much love your way:)

Sister Jackson

Madison Madness

HI dear ones,

Sister Jarvis arrived excited and psyched to go this week:) She is from a tiny town in New Mexico will 11 in her graduating class. We are hitting the ground running in Madison.

I laughed my head off the other day. One of her first lessons broke her in quite nicely. It was a lady that we had contacted on the street a week or so ago and when we got to her run down cylinder block apartment she yelled "who iz it?!" ( everyone yells that here when you knock and no one knows who it "iz" when we say the missionaries haha) She said "open the door so I can see yo face." We walked into another world in there. It was dark only lit by the t.v screen. Sandy just laid on the couch talking and would yell across the room every so often to a random man who was asleep next to us. Roaches EVERYWHERE. Sister Jarvis sat down next to a bucket on the floor that was filled with black and yellow liquid. Soon to find out that every so often Sandy would lean over and spit up foul liquid. As we hugged her and left she was crying and pleading to get away from the life she lived. The Book of Mormon fell straight into the bucket of bodily fluid and we stood there and smiled hahaha. She dug it out and whipped it on the rug and continued talking. Haha these people make up a good population of Madison.

I had another tender experience with Kathryn's family. We had all got together to discuss the funeral and share a message with them. We thanked the family for letting us teach Ms. Kathryn as we all sat around in a circle. I began to cry when Cedric asked me to speak at her funeral. I never would have imagined the feelings you feel on a mission.

I love the life I live and I'm so grateful to be here. I spoke on missionary work in Sacrament last sunday and had the chance to teach both youth sunday school and Y.Ws. And talking to the youth is MY favorite. They are AWESOME. I look back at where I was before I came out here and who I was and see so many similarities as I talked with them.I would never imagined being who and where I am today. God is good to his children.

I love you all so much. Keep reading. Keep praying. He knows you.

Sister Jackson 

TRANSFERS

Happy Monday:) 

This has been a tender and tiresome week for me. We have been up and back at the hospital multiple times this week seeing Ms. Katherine. About a week ago we went for the first time. I held her hand around her IVs and looked her in the eyes and told her I love her. I can't explain the experience but the words sounded strange coming out of my mouth. I tell so many people here that I love them and I truly do but this time it came out with the conviction of everything inside of me. She was weepy and expressed the same to me. Leaving the hospital it was as if God told me subtly that was it. And ever sense that day she has quickly gone down hill and at this point probably wont make it. We have prayed with her family on multiple occasion and I get teary eyed still because of how deeply my heart feels for them. She is my family. Cedric will talk to her unconsciousness about how he is still going to go to the temple for her to seal them forever. That was her biggest wish. The whole thing is humbling and the perspective on temples and life eternal has really rooted me this past week.  

I heard a quote the other day that said "If you've found a life you love, you must have the courage to live it." Living this Gospel takes courage and it takes faith. No one is exempt. Sister Cook and I trained in our Zone Conference this week about taking control of the moments in your life. We came to this earth with determination to gow spiritually and amount to something. We promised not only God but ourselves that we would. We owe it to ourselves to keep that promise!

President Smith called us last night at 10:20 when we were laying in bed and said "Sister Jackson are you ready to TRAIN again?!" I laughed. Come tomorrow I will go pick up a brand new Sister and bring her back to Madison. Life is a good one!:) The people here are good to the core. Real fun. For the past hour and a half i'v been sitting next to a pal who has been passionately comenting and laughing to himself about youtube videos on Jesus and Blue Jeans.

Keep seeking Him. I love you all immensely and am happy here.

Sister Jackson

We had a wild storm here and were stuck inside yesterday for Tornado Watches. I was suppose to speak but we all were sent home after the sacrament for safety:) We took "shelter" At the Sherwoods. This is Xiaver who we work with. A.K.A Jimmy Falon Jr. Last week he came to church for the first time in 9 years. He is a great!

Happy MLK

Hey family! 

Things are going swell in Madison. I don't have much time today. Just wanted to say I love y'all! 

This week has God was good to us and we were able teach many lessons straight on the street as we talked to people. Between being serenaded by drunk Baptists and getting yelled off of angry country mens property we had some sweet, dear, experiences.

Yesterday we were leaving an apartment complex and as I drove I saw a lady crossing the street in my rearview mirror and something subtle inside me said talk to her. So I stopped the car at the stop sign and I chased her down. We began to teach her the Restoration and tears streamed down her face in despire. She fights many demons and wolfs in this life. I looked at her brown eyes as I read a few things to her from the Book of Mormon. And I felt gratitude once again for Our Savior and the knowledge he gives us.

Another neat highlight happened last night when we were driving home last night a sister called me and told me news that made me want to cry. A few months ago I wrote home about a boy named Quan, who we stopped at and challenged him in Bball. And if we won he had to listen to us.... Sound familiar?? Quan is the winner now because he is getting baptized! I couldn't believe it. The work is pressing forward!

I love you and I love the Book of Mormon. There is truth in it. Keep reading. Thank you for being my best friends!

Sister Jackson

Not a bad place to live:)

We snapped this one foggy morning in a route to get our investigators ready for church.