Hey! this week was super cool.. Literally at the beginning of the week EVERY APPOINTMENT that we had planned fell through. It was super tough because we really didn’t have very many people that were progressing, so we just did a whooooole ton of walking around our area trying to FIND.

On Tuesday we had our zone conference! It was the first one that we have had with the new pres and it was super good. They talked a lot about repentance and being worthy to do the Lords work. Then they took us to lunch at some restaurant that was just around the corner! They are so loving though and I can already see the difference in the mish because of it! For example on Saturday our stake pres called a meeting for our entire zone and he just asked us what our opinion was on how he could do better and what we could do as a stake to get more people to church! They’re really starting to WORK here! And hopefully we will see the fruits of it soon!

Friday we had work visits! I was with Hna Brotherson in my area (she is from Virginia). Like I said we have just not had very many people to work with, and all of our appointments had fallen through by the afternoon. So I told Brotherson that we were gonna contact a house. Well we went up to the open window and started to contact an older lady with her niece! In the beginning they were soooo hard hearted. They live right in front of the church and we asked them if they had ever gone inside or attended before and she said that she refused to attend because one time one of the people that attends there invited her and when she told them that she was catholic she said they told her that she did not understand who God was or his purpose and she was really offended! At first she did nottt wanna talk to us at all, but as we started asking her questions about herself and began to testify a little bit about what we do as missionaries she began to soften up. Then we asked her if we could share a message with her and SHE LET US IN. We both were super stunned haha but we came in and shared a simple message of Christ. The lesson was so guided by the spirit, we weren’t using any fancy words or using any big stories but just testifying that Jesus Christ lives and loves us. By the end of the lesson they both had softened their hearts and the older lady Manuela said that we could come back to visit her and that her niece would try to be there when we came.. So amazing how the lord guides us to his children.

Hermana Emerita assisted church this Sunday!!! She is the wife of the patriarch! That’s the first time in over a year. We were super super happy and the bishop was really surprised and super happy as well. Also one of our investigatora Sulema attended but she came late after the sacrament! She is one of our progressing inv and has a desire to repent because she has done a lot of things in her past; hopefully we see more of a change in her this week!

Another experience that I had was with a cute little lady named Ruth. Ruth doesn’t have very much education and can’t read, so we teach her very simple and very small concepts. Yesterday we taught her about prayer and we were explaining how Cristo and God are two different people and that when we are praying we are talking to God but Christ is the one who is carrying our prayers to him. But she just couldn’t really understand the concept! So I ended up taking out a piece of paper and drawing stick figures of God, Jesus the Holy Ghost and us, Gods children and THEN she understood. By the end of the lesson we asked her to pray, and she said a very short very simple prayer but did it in the correct way. We told her to keep practicing and she asked me for the drawing that I made so that she could hahahaha I loved this humble experience though because now she talks to her heavenly father and I know that he has been waiting to hear from her.

I’ve had so many humbling experiences this week that I don’t have time to write them all. But I just feel grateful because I know that God is testing my diligence in this area! We hardly had any people to teach in the start of this week and by the end we had made some pretty awesome contacts with a lot of cool people. I know the Lord always provides a way (:

Love you guys!

Hermana Jackson

PS.  I FORGOT TO TELL YOU I let Hermana Brotherson cut my hair hahaha because the ends were in such bad shape and I just want it to grow already. So it seems short again to me but it’s a ton healthier. AND it was the first person to ever cut my hair besides you!!! Crazy! Also, No she’s not a professional stylist but she did a good job. hahaha

With the Hna's at Zone Conference

Cute little tree frog

With Hna Vasquez at Zone Conference.  She is from Arizona.