So this week we worked in the area of GOLD that I told you about! We found a lady named Jessica. It started raining super hard when we were down there one night, so we went over to her house so we wouldn’t get soaked, and she let us in and gave us a bunch of weird fruits from the jungle to try! One was called pijuayo. It’s super good! But anyways after sitting with her for a while we began to teach her. We set up another visit and when we came back she started to tell us that she thought we got stuck in the rain at her house for a reason, and that God wanted her to change. She listens intently in every lesson and is praying to know if it’s true! And she came to church this week with her niece! She said she really liked it but she was a little confused why we break off into relief society.. So she wasn’t into relief society yet but she said she just has to get used it haha

We are visiting another lady who is older. she’s evangelical and so everything that we say she’s like "HALLELUJUA". (: But her beliefs are pretty similar to ours, so she understands really easily and she has a brother who is a member in Pucallpa so she’s interested! She told us a story about one of her pastors who had come from another part of the country to teach their congregation, and how he had taught them was by using a dumb blonde joke... and that he tied it in to Jesus being the buen pastor... ugh. those churches just struggle.

So on Saturday we went to a baptism that the hermanas had! This little kid was getting baptized by his grandpa. but his grandpa messed up on the words like 5 times, and then the little kid kept throwing his hands up in the air when the grandpa actually dunked him. I happened like 3 other times hahaha so the last time the grandpa actually said everything good but then the kid straightened his back cause he didnt wanna be dunked again, and so the grandpa was just super frustrated and he tried to force the kid in the water and everyone was like....... what is going on... hahahaha it was so awkward.

A cool experience this week was that we were gonna go and try to find someone to do service for on Saturday morning. But in the night after we planned and also the morning when we woke up I just had the biggest impression that we should go work. So I told my comp and we decided to go to another part of our area where we had never been before. Well we get there and the first house we knock on a lady comes out bringing a chair and says COME IN without even saying a word to her! Her name is Estela. We taught her about families and that through the gospel we can overcome whatever trial that presents itself in family relations and in life situations. At the end of the lesson we thanked her for being so willing to listen to us and she just started to tear up and cry. She said that she had been feeling so awful because she was having problems with her older children. She hadn’t been attending church for a long time and she felt distant from God, she looked up to us and said through her tears that she knew that God had sent us and in that moment I felt complete peace because I knew that we had done the Lords will and had found someone who was searching for God’s love, just as we had prayed for to find the morning before we left the house. The Lord is so ready to give us all kinds of opportunities and experiences that will help us grow and learn and become better if we can but listen to that STILL SMALL VOICE.

Well just a side note here, yesterday a cop car came zooming past us while we were stopped in our motokar, and I just gotta tell you that I’m pretty sure it was the same model crap TRUCK that Jayden had before he left on his mish hahahaha but as a cop car. oh the jungle (:

We also taught a less active who told us that she has a special gift.... people from all over Iquitos come to her telling her about their illnesses. She writes their names and info in a book and then in the night prays for them and then has DREAMS about them that tells her what kind of illness they really have and what they need to do to get better. Super crazy. She told us some pretty crazy stories about that!

This week has been super good! Thanks for all the love and support! And thank the ward lots for me because I got their Christmas package this week and it was super sweet(:

love you!

Hermana Jackson