Hey guys(: this week was good! We realized that all the people that we have are super chill but they just aren’t ready to accept the gospel because none of them have come to church this whole change. Its super heart breaking because they listen to us intently but they just don’t put into practice what they HEAR and FEEL. This morning I was studying a lot about prophets and their special calling that they have as a guide for Gods children. How, in the same way that our investigators sometimes don’t put into practice what we invite and share, we as members don’t put into practice what revelation the prophet has revealed to us. It’s for our happiness and it’s the simplest and humblest way to follow God, feel His love, and be a happy family.

On Monday we had a pretty cool FHE with a less active family and the family Panduro. We taught the plan of salvation and gave scriptures to everyone so that they could help us explain each stage and participate as well. In the end they had some pretty deep questions so it was good to help them understand more about this perfect plan that gives us direction about our purpose.

Something super cool is that last night we were contacting a bunch of people on the street, and after following and talking to a couple who weren’t very interested, we stopped to look at our agendas to figure out who to go to and teach. Well someone called us from behind, we turned around and there was a lady sitting on her porch with a guy we thought was her hubby. We went up and talked to them and found out that she is a member that hasn’t been attending in a long time because she is from Moyo! She recently moved here to be with her boyfriend. She wanted to ask us where the church was so she could start to attend again! She seems super cool cause she was baptized 3 years ago and always went with the missionaries to visit people. But now we are going to start visiting her boyfriend because he’s not a member but he’s super interested in learning(: love tender mercies!

Changes are the day after Christmas... IDK I feel like I’m gonna get changed. When pres was here he was like “wooow you’ve been here for a while we should change ya” and I was like “noooo pres noooo” haha so IDK we will see(:

So glad Dad had a good birthday, I was thinking about him all day yesterday. Well I can’t wait to see you guys!!!

Love you,

Hermana Jackson

Heading out to email today.  Hna Vera might not look happy but she's ok :)

It was Chileno's bday(: he’s a cute little guy but he's pulling a funny face here. We visited him for a little bit to eat some cake(; and of course to wish him a happy bday. We gave him a little remote control car that we bought at the tienda for 10 soles haha.

Hey everyone! So training is going good(: I like it because it is making me a lot better at teaching and understanding the gospel! My daughter is super sweet and it’s a really humbling experience training.. It shows you all of your weaknesses and I’m really learning a lot.  It’s also kind of hard because I need to be a good example to her, but sometimes I feel like I’m still just learning myself, so I’m just trying to be really repentant of the things that I don’t do so good and trying harder to do them better, IDK it can just be hard sometimes haha. but hey THREE MORE MONTHS(: I got this!!

So here in Pucallpa it’s a pretty big city. All of the men either work in construction or drive motokars. And all the ladies sell food or clothes or makeup. Except my pensionista! She sells these super fancy pots that cost like 3000 soles hahaha IDK its nuts. But Pucallpa is basically all dirt. They aren’t very modern at all even though they have 2 malls. But hardly anyone buys their stuff there because they are just used to going to the Mercado and buying all their food, all day every day. Also it seems like all the women do here is cook their rice and pollo and beans I swear haha.

Things are going pretty good here though. I really like my area but the ward is struggling big time. There’s hardly any assistencia (attendance) so it doesn’t even count as a ward, and none of our investigators are coming... ugh , we’ve just got to find new people I guess! Transfers will be coming soon so we will see if I actually stay in this area.

Guess what, Snyder finishes her mish and goes home this week!!  I just love her, she was there during probably the hardest months of my mish when I was just starting out and trying to understand everything.  I don’t know what I would have done if she wasn’t in my first area.  She was always right by my side, encouraging me to keep going and reminding me how lucky we were to be in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. Haha

Well I can’t wait to see and talk to you in 2 weeks!! And I hope you have the best bday ever Dad (:(: imagine me giving you a really big hug for your 30th bday... (;(: love you!

Enjoy the pictures (:

Love,

Hermana Jackson

Started pouring rain while we were doing a service project.

Everyone at the FHE

Zone practicing "Rocking around the Christmas Tree"

Hna Velazquez came to stay with Hna Vera and I while Fink is in Iquitos

My snowman lights - part of my Christmas decorations (:

Got my tree and decorations up !

The gator head they gave me for my birthday in November. 

It was so big that I had to just take a picture of it and have them keep it. (:

Today I’m not so good): I’ve been throwing up this morning and I just feel awful and it makes me miss you a lot.  ‘M’ gave us food from the street carts last night that I ate and when I woke up this morning I just felt so sick and started throwing up. I’m going to go home after this and lay down but I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay home because we have appointments tonight. 

But my bday was pretty fun. And since it was on a pday we went shopping and I bought high heels... hahaha, which I’m just going to pack and bring home. Then we went to teach an investigator named Lina. She’s really cute but she’s just not progressing yet! While we were leaving her house we saw Hermana Marcia on her moto with her son. She said they had been looking for us because she had made me a chocolate cake for my birthday and they wanted to sing to me! So we went to her house and they sang to me and then tried to give me a huge crocodile head for a bday gift(: but it was too heavy to carry and so we just took pics with it hahaha then we went to Marbella’s house and the bishops family were all there and we were able to do a little family home evening with them. It was pretty fun(:

This last week we found a ton of families! Like 5 new families!! haha we feel really blessed. So this coming week we are going to work with all of them and see how they progress.

But I just feel super sick and I just want to go lay down. So I will talk to you next week ok?

Love you,

Hermana Jackson

                                               On my birthday with Hna Vera

Happy Birthday in the Jungle !

This week was super crazy!!! I’m still here in Pucallpa. I was with Hermana Pardo for the first half! The offices called us Monday night and told us that we were both going to be trainers and train NEWBIE SISTERS. We were both freaking out hahaha but our comps got here Wednesday afternoon. My comp is 19 years old. Her name is Hermana Vera and she is from Bolivia. She has a little cute voice and is a little shy around people that she doesn’t know but she is so CUTE and I love training, and I’m so happy!!! It’s the funnest thing and it makes me so much better at teaching and Spanish and everything, its great(:  its seriously helping me to become a much better missionary and it’s fun to help her learn as well. It’s totally making me super humble and show a ton more charity so I love it. I just try to be super understanding and loving because it’s the worst when your just starting your mish.

So life is pretty good and I’m also super pumped cause we are going to be here for Christmas and I get to spend it with the family of my pensionista and I loooove them. I’m gonna be super sad when I have to leave this area.

This week we didn’t have anyone in church.. Ugh. But a family that we have been teaching is starting to progress. Their names are Richard and Marian. Before us the elders were visiting them but the wife didn’t ever want to listen, but now she LOVES us and she is the one who is always asking when we can come back. But we really gotta try and find some new people and that’s what we will be focusing on this week!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Marbella is having a "family home evening" with all of the members at her house today haha, so that’s what I’ll be doing for my 21st birthday(: I can’t tell you how many members have asked me "Can I invite you to some chicken for your bday?" hahahahaha I love Peru(;

Love you guys!!!! Hermana Jackson

 Me and Pardo going to pick up our comps at the airport.

  

Hermana Vera and a cotton candy sunset(:

 Hermana Vera's leg.  Poor girl,  her second day she got a big bug bite and it turned into a huge blister... we had to go to the clinic to get it all cleaned up!! Welcome to the JUNGLE!

The girls that we teach with their moms. 

They were showing us their dresses for their 15 year old sister's party.

Hey guys! This week was super cool! Way better than last week! I hope you all had a super scary Halloweennnn, haha.  Here in the jungle me and Velazquez celebrated by wearing black and orange and buying Oreos and milk... not super Halloweenish but we were semi happy so it works (; Velazquez stayed with us until Tuesday this week cause Fink was in Iquitos for a meeting. Monday we visited Lorena and José and they told us that they are going to get baptized but that they don’t want to put the date on it.. ugh. But whatever, you can totally see the change in them and that they know that it is true but I think they just want to feel super strong before they make the commitment. We are just gonna keep helping them learn! I wish they would get baptized like right now buttt the date is not as important to God as the promise and commitment that they will make so I think it’s all good.

Tuesday we had a service project with the whole stake and I got sunburned. So everyone this week has commented on my skin color change "wow estas super chemada, pon tu sombrero" haha.

We are visiting a lady named Milagros. She is super cool and completes with her compromises (commitments) but hasn’t come to church yet! Her dad lives with her and he is 94!? He is suuuuper hilarious though and always talks to us. Last time he brought out 3 watches and two of them were broken. He would take out one watch and describe it to us, telling us what was wrong with it then put it back in his shirt pocket and take out the other one and describe to us what was wrong with that one but that it was "a really good watch" and then tell his daughter that they need to take them to get fixed and then put them back in his pocket. Then 30 seconds later he would start all over again telling us about his watches hahaha suuuuper cute.

This week was cool because we found 2 new families!!! One of them is family of a less active who has received missionaries before. We visited them and they said that they already want to get baptized haha. So that’s super cool!! But we gotta get them married though and they want to keep learning and everything before they put any dates. Their names are Juan and Jacqueline.

The other family contacted US. We were walking home one night and this little kid came up to us and said that some girl wanted to talk to us. The girl is Janessey and she lives with her boyfriend and wants us to teach them because he has a couple of addiction problems and knows that we can help! I was able to teach them with Hermana Fink because she came to my area to do a work visit and it went super good, so we are excited to see their progress.

This week was stake conference and we had 5 investigators in church!!! Also one of the 70 came, Elder Alarcon.  And Elder Godoy (he’s super cool) came and visited just the Elders and he spoke to Pres Li and they made some rule changes in our mish! Now we can’t have any pdays with the elders..(they’re crackin down on us) (; But he said that it’s just better if the girls and guys were separated on pdays.

That’s about it! Seeing some progress again which is always good! My comp Hna Mora finishes her mish and leaves this Thursday so I’ll be alone again like it seemed I allllways was when I first started my mish, but it’s all good(: haha

Oh this week I ate majas (it looks like a big guinea pig with spots and deer meat and it was really good and next week I’m eating salchavaca... (it looks like a type of pig with an anteater type nose ). Wild meat from the jungle. haha but mom I gotta go!!! (:

Love you lots!

Hermana Jackson

www.hermanakaitlynsuejackson.blogspot.com

               With Lorena and Jose'.  Me and Hna Mora bought some cloth and a                                                      sister in our ward made us matching dresses. (:

With Hna Velazquez at Stake Conference.

With our Pensionista's family,  Pedro, Hna Marbela and their kids

Abish, Jose' and Nadie.  They call me Gato for my eyes haha. Which is funny cause

my friends at home nicknamed me Kat too.

Our Halloween snacks(:

This week was super cool. We tried focusing a lot on our daily goals to try and meet them and it made us feel a lot better about our work by the end of the week! We had 11 less actives in church this week which was super cool! But we had no investigators and we haven’t had any for the past 2 weeks and it bugs me. We gotta find some more people!

José and Lorena are OKAY. José has like the strongest testimony because of the BOM but Lorena doesn’t read so she’s super behind and he doesn’t want to get baptized without her so yeah. That’s where we are with them! We saw that our family Allain came home today!!!! We are super happy and are going to go visit them tonight (: last week we went to the zoo for pday and saw a lot of animals. It was super fun.

But Hna Velazquez has been staying with us for the past 4 days cause Hna Fink went to Iquitos for a meeting with all the leaders. 

Everything’s going pretty good in the area! We had a less active named Jovana who is progressing a lot and her husband isn’t a member so we are trying to work with them!

Something super good that I had this week was a drink made from Camu Camu, it’s a super sour fruit!!! They take out the pulp inside and then make this smoothie yogurt drink out of it and its super good. It’s like it’s icecream in a drink haha

Love you lots(:

Hermana Jackson

At the Zoo

This is a convert family that we visited last night! They just came back from their first visit to the Lima temple this weekend!!! They did baptisms for the dead because they don’t have a year as members yet but they absolutely loved it! They’re so converted to the gospel! He used to be a borachito aka alcoholic, but the gospel has totally changed him. Super cool!!

Still in Pucallpa

This week not a whole ton happened that I remember, but I try! haha we had a FHE on Monday and all the power went out right as we began to start!! there’s allllways power outages here it’s annoying. But we did the FHE with a bunch of flashlights so it was pretty cool! And the bishop ended up dropping by so he joined us too! We were with a convert family, Onil and his wife Marcia and they are going to the temple for the first time this week on Wednesday and are super excited!!

We finally got a date for Lorena and José!! They are going to be baptized the 12 of November!!! We are super excited for them!! But they gotta be more diligent because yesterday we visited them in the morning and they didnt even end up coming to church.. Ugh. so they gotta come si or si these next 2 weeks or their date will fall!

Also this week I did a change with Valazquez in her area! It was super cool cause we were able to do family history where we just go to the church and help members enter their FH in family search from 6 to 9!! It was super cool and I loved it! There was a lady who came whose name is Luz. She’s an elderly lady who, because of her health couldn’t attend church so they had to bring her the sacrament, but then she started putting in all of her efforts and she even bought a cane and started coming to the church and she feels a lot more blessed. IDK  it was just cool to hear her testimony.

Also something that really touched me this week was a youth video that I saw from the church. And the guy who was preparing to go on his mish said that in the final days when he meets his savior he wants to be able to say, look I gave you literally everything I got, just like you gave me everything you had. 

That’s definitely something that I want to be able to say too!!!

Then we did a service for an investigator of Valazquez’s. We cleaned up her back yard and burned a bunch of stuff haha but that family loves me. Haha they always ask me when I am going to come back and teach them haha

Anyways not much more to say for this week!!

 Love you guys!

Hermana Jackson