P-day to the Zoo / Lake

Hello! 

Well last Monday we went to a zoo type place that has a beach inside of it at a big lake haha and there was a monkey that was free out of his cage and he was our friend. At first we didn’t have any food so we were just giving them our pass along cards haha but then we went and bought chifles which are like banana chips and we fed it coca cola too. Haha.  The monkey did give me a kiss though!!! It was super cute, no worries it wasn’t on the mouth just on my arm(; and the two ladies that were with us are my pensionista and her mom.  The younger lady is my pensionista, Mariela and Edith Rojas.  Hna Snyder wrote me and said that she was in Moyobamba!!! She’s super excited and I’m super happy for her. Moyo is like the sacred land of our mission because it’s a lot more fresh and cool there. 

My area is really small and it’s really hard to make street contact because there’s not a ton of people out and if there are people usually they are drinking!!! So during the middle of the week we had only made like 25 contacts which is horrible, so we decided to knock doors, and the first door that we knocked on the lady, whose name is Jessica, straight away told us to come in and we were able to share a quick message with her, then we taught her again yesterday and she is really cool and really smart. She wants to learn a lot more about our church but she still doesn’t want to come to church because she is catholic and also has to tend her brothers kids alllll the time and doesn’t know how she can make time to visit on Sunday! But we are going to work with her lots in the next week.

A bunch of people in my ward have had things stolen this week! Felix had his moto battery stolen and Hermana Luz was robbed from her bodega (cellar) ): and yesterday somebody stole a brand new bible out of the bishops office. Iquitos is really crazy.

We were teaching Janet again, one of our investigators and after asking her to be baptized for like the 3rd time, when she knows it’s true (and because we usually invite in every lesson) she told us that SHE HAD BEEN BAPTIZED IN THE CHURCH WHEN SHE WAS 14. Like what ????  hahahahaha idk it would have been nice to mention to us that she was member already hahaha but we have to search her registro and see if we have her records. But that was definitely a surprise!! Well until next week.

Love you!!

Hermana Jackson

                                   

                                                    With Hna Lara - Rainy Pday at the lake

                                      Giving a pass along card to a very interested investigator :)

                                    Sharing a little coca cola and banana chips with her new friend

                                       Just a little lovin from the new friend :)  Got a kiss on the arm.

Back to the bus

April 18th

Hey guys!! 

Marcela is a lot better!! She is getting help and hopefully will improve from there, it’s really up to her but we are helping as well. I don’t know if I already told you but I had the biggest impression to look up a talk from Elder Holland about depression that he gave in conference 2 years ago and we read it with her and it was a really awesome experience! This talk is super good and it talks about how we can overcome things and receive help through faith in the savior and through priesthood blessings.

So I sent your package! I dropped it off at the offices and the courier services that you send pkgs to us with will pick it up and then you should get it soon!!

Awww,  Wyat is getting so dang big and smart!!! He is gonna be such a big boy when I finally get to love on him again (: same with baby Dax, awww I miss those little munchkins and I can’t wait to get to know and love on Zoe to !!

This week was good! We had a couple cool experiences that I’ll share with you super quick!!

One day we were going from place to place and no one was in their houses and I felt like we should pray to find an opportunity to find someone. So we stood on the side of the street and prayed to be inspired to find someone to help or to teach. Well after the prayer we started walking on the street and I felt like we should turn back and go back to the street that we were just on and contact a couple that was sitting outside of their house. Well we went back and contacted this couple and they turned out to not be what we had hoped and didn’t want anything to do with us haha so we kept walking and I felt a little bad and didn’t quite understand why I had had the feeling to go back on this street. Well we kept walking and about a minute later we ran into a member we knew that is a returned missionary and the first thing that he told us was that he had been thinking about us and that he has a reference for us of one of his friends that lives in our area!!! So we went with him and contacted his friend and now we are going to teach him tomorrow !! (: so crazy how the lord works isn’t it?

This week it has been raining a lot!! Which I love, but when it rains on Sundays NOBODY COMES TO CHURCH. It’s so annoying!! So we didn’t have any investigators in church but we are actually teaching a lot of new people. One of our investigators accepted a date to be baptized! Her name is Janet (: but she hasn’t attended church yet so we still have a lot to teach her!

Anyways I love you lots and things are good here (: today is changes but I’m definitely staying here. they say the people in this area never leave!!! Haha , I feel like my comp will stay too,  but we will see!!

Hermana Jackson

hermanakaitlynsuejackson.blogspot.com

Almost time for changes again, What??

Hellllo(: This week we had some cool experiences!! This change has literally gone by so quickly!! Next week we have changes again!!! But I think I will stay with my comp for one more change, even though she has already been here for four months, I feel like we have a little more work to do together in this area! I loooove my comp. I can truly say that she is one of my besties. This is one thing that I truly love about my mish, is that I get to have best friends from all over the world.

Last Monday we taught Felix! We had a family home evening in his casa, and other people were supposed to show up but it ended up just being us and a member named Alonso. Alonso is 22 and he is preparing to put in his papers for his mission! He always comes out with us to teach people and he is super cool! The other week he gave me and my comp bracelets with our names on them, the people here are suuuper giving. Like another convert that we have, has already given me a shirt and a dress but like they’re not exactly garment worthy so.... it’s the thought that counts(; anyways!!! The FHE was just us four and we watched the restoration of Joseph Smith, the movie that’s like 20 minutes, and during the part where Joseph is praying to heavenly father in the sacred grove, I felt the spirit so immensely strong. After the video we started talking to Felix and he had tears in his eyes and said he felt the spirit really strong all through his arms and body. The mission has truly made me have a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and that he sacrificed so much to restore Christ’s church on the earth again. He is truly an amazing man and I am so grateful for his example of faith and diligence.

The other experience that we had was on Saturday! My comp has been wanting to change houses so we have been looking around our area but there is literally nothing, but we contacted a lady one day who had a room available. The room was wayyyy too small but we asked her if we could visit her! So we came back the next day and taught her with a video that the church released this month about the resurrection of Christ. Well at the end of the lesson I invited her to pray because she told us that she is passing through really hard times with her health and feels alone. So we told her that God always listens and she can turn to him, and she told us that her mom had told her just that day that she needed to pray but Milena (that’s her name) didn’t know how! So we taught her very simply how to pray, and as she began to say her prayer, she started to cry and cry and her prayer was sooo sincere and she said that it wasn’t a coincidence that we came to her house and that God had sent us to her. Her prayer made me tear up! I love spiritual experiences like this, it’s truly what makes the mission worth it is seeing the change and progression in others.

So this week our investigator - M - was taken to the hospital. It was a very difficult situation and I won’t share the personal details but I love this lady and she is doing better and she returned from the hospital that same day.

She will need some ongoing treatment, so please please keep her in your prayers!!!

I love you all so much!!!!

Hermana Jackson

Conference Weekend

Hey mom!! Conference was so awesome!!! Now that I actually want to listen, ;) conference goes by wayyy to fast (; haha but I loved Elder Holland’s talk, he is always so amazing! That one was probably my favorite and I want everyone to see/listen to it or read it because it’s so true!! Tomorrow comes and it’s like we forget how good we felt today.

Nothing big really happened this week. We didn’t work as hard and I can feel a difference, it has been hard on me a little bit.   My last comp was so strictly obedient and then this one is so opposite. I feel like together we have just been much to laid back and it’s not very good, but I promised heavenly father that I would work harder this week. 

Last week I got a blessing for the first time on my mission because I just felt
without any drive to work and that helped me.

One cool thing that happened this week was that we found a less active
while going to teach one of our other less actives that wasn’t home. This guy moved to Iquitos 6 months ago from Chiclayo. All of his 3 children and the lady that is his kids mother live there but he separated from her (weren’t married) like a year ago. We have taught him twice now and he is progressing so much!! He was baptized when he was 14 but after his baptism he never was faithful in the church and shortly after became less active. Now he is reading the scriptures everyday and telling us what he has learned and how he is going to apply it in his life even before we can ask him if he has been reading! His name is Nicanor (:

love you mom!

Hermana Jackson

                                 Birthday Card she & Hna Lara made for me and Jaylie's bday's -
                                                               w/Felix the investigator.

                                               She got to see Hna Inca from Tarapoto area

                                               Splits with Hna Willes -  In Hna Willes' area

                                  Not sure who Hna Jackson & Hna Lara are with in this one.

                                            With her companion Hna Lara - from Bolivia

Old abandoned tour boat on the amazon

Semana Santa

So first of all
we weren’t able to go to the zoo last week because it was out of our zone boundaries
and our district leader didn’t get permission to leave, ugh. So we just ended
up going to a place called Rustica and ordered pizza. And then we didn’t make lasagna
with our convert because I ended up doing an intercambio with Hermana Willis
that day! 






OH MY GOSH!!!!!
MASON WELLS. That is insane!!! He is such an awesome guy!! I can’t believe
that, that’s so scary. AHHH I really hope he recovers soon! I had heard about
the terrorist attacks here in the mish but I heard that there had been three
missionaries that had passed away, so I’m glad that you told me what actually
happened.  Just like the bombings in
Paris last fall, we were told that you guys were at war so I’m glad you
remembered that we don’t get to accurate of info about the world.  






Awwww I was
totally thinking of Aunt Janet’s on Easter and that I wanted to go to the Easter
hunt hahaha that’s always been my fav. I bet Dad was happy to have a day off
to, even if you didn’t make it up there. 









So last Monday after
we went and got pizza, we went and shopped in Belen!! That place that you
always hear/read about in Iquitos. It’s like an outdoor market and its
huuuuuuge and its actually pretty sketchy, like black market ! But there’s some
other cool stuff there to so I’ll probably go back today to get you some of the
cool stuff(;. Later that night we had a family home evening that was super
awesome! We watched the video about The Gardener.. I think it’s by Elder Christianson
but it’s pretty and has an amazing meaning, so you should watch it!






Tuesday we
taught our investigator Maria. She’s a middle aged woman whose husband passed
away years ago and she has been both mom and dad to her kids as well as to her
grandkids now, because their Dad just passed away and the mom is always working.
She is really accepting the gospel though!! We taught her dia de reposo (resting
day) and she said she had no idea that it was a commandment to keep the Sabbath
holy and not work. So she said that from now on she wouldn’t work on Sundays!! But
guess what, this Sunday she didn’t even come to church.... she said later that
it was because her son is in motocross and they went to watch his race hahaha
but next week for sure!






On Friday
morning we taught one of the converts named Leonzio. He is an old guy with one
leg and he’s a little crazy hahahaha.  He
told us that he wants to marry a 28 year old because all the women his age are
boring hahaha , what?  But he’s been
married like 3 times already. Anyways, we taught him and left and when we got
home I realized I had taken his remote for his tv!!! hahahaha because when we
got there he was watching bible videos because it’s the Semana Santa here and I
had turned the volume down so we could talk and I forgot I had put it in my
bag... he said he had a war with his sister about where she put the remote.
opps(; also that day we went and ate with another one of our converts Cintia. She
put on this fund raiser thing and it was in another member’s house and the
member there just talked to us allll about his mission,  because he served in Bolivia where my comp was
from!! He’s a super awesome guy! Then later that day I had changes with Willis we
went to her area. It is like what you see in the Iquitos pics!! It’s all the
houses on stilts and plywood above water! It’s just as sketchy as it sounds.
haha and when the water gets super high they just throw another layer of
plywood over their floor. Its super crazy. 






Me and my comp
gave Willis a reference and I was able to contact them with Willis! It was a
family who lives in the swamps and the Dad is blind, but they loooove God. They
told us that one time he had fasted for 7 days... nuts. But I feel like they
are really going to progress because they are very accepting!






My comp has
been sick with a bad cold this whole week so that’s been kind of hard because
we haven’t been working very much or having the desire. But I did get to see women’s
conference!! All the Americans were able to watch it in English and I was so
happy. I absolutely loved it, it went by way too quick!! The whole message was
about service and how we have a divine opportunity to help others(:  






Anyways love
you much!! Hermana Jackson









Sorry no pictures again.  This time I didn't have my cord to connect my camera to the computer. 

Iquitos Week #3

 First of all I hope that you and Jay had amazingggg birthdays!!! Even though I’m in the mish I still think about my fam everyday so don’t even think that I forgot the birthdays (;

So this week I’m still just trying to get to know my area. That’s the bad thing about changes, when you move into an area with someone who already knows everything and all the people, it doesn’t feel like your area. It just feels like your visiting! So that’s where I’m at right now. Just still trying to convince myself that Tarapoto isn’t my area anymore and that Iquitos is my new guy(;

My favorite person to teach is an old guy Felix. I told you about him last week but he seriously is the sweetest. Me and my comp made a card for you and Jaylie's bday’s and took a picture with Felix (: he told me that when he was like thirty he was in the marines and he got bit by a mosquito and it affected his cerebrum and so ever since then he has tremors and his hand shakes so he hasn’t been able to work): but he’s so cute and humble and whenever we visit him he always buys us Inka cola and a little package of crackers.

One day I wasn’t feeling really good and one of our menos activas that we are teaching could tell, so she proceeded to give me a whole back and head massage. ahhh it felt so good and I was so so thankful because afterwards I felt a million times better. But she didn’t have any menthol and so she poured her cologne all over my head. hahaha but it did the trick so I’m not upset(;

Our investigator Marcela is progressing! At first she was doing anything, reading her scriptures or praying. So one lesson we decided to end the lesson with everyone praying together and to have her ask her heavenly father right then and there if the church was true and she started crying mid prayer, it was a way spiritual experience! And the next visit with her she told us that she prayed to see if she should be baptized and she said that she had had a dream that night that she was on the right path! The people here receive revelation through dreams... dreams area HUGE here to them in South America/Peru.

For a service project on Wednesday we helped another one of our investigators. Her name is Jacqueline and she is really cool! We cleaned her house and made her lunch while she was at work! Her story is that she is a single mother and her only son just passed away in the beginning of January. It was during carnival here which is like a bunch of water games and stuff in Peru and he fell out of a second story window...really sad. But we are working with her and we will see if she progresses (: 

So this pday we are going to the zoo!!! Last pday we just played volleyball! I don’t know if I told you about our house yet. It is above a little bread store that is run by Advantistas and they are really nice! Our house has two rooms and we have a bunk bed to sleep in... idk if I already told you about my bed either but it’s  pretty scary, like it’s going to collapse if you even move your foot haha . but I’m in the top bunk sooooo(: The bathroom is pretty nice, but there’s just a curtain for the door and there is only cold water but it feels good so it’s not a problem.

Anyways I love you guys lots!!

Hermana Jackson

Also, the computers here are soooo slow that idk about sending photos, it’s having a hard time downloading any!!

Cambios! Now serving right in Iquitos!

Hahaha I knew Luzmilla would send you something!! (Face book post)

So that week I had been staying with the girls from Morales but the last night me and Snyder wanted to have a ¨sleepover¨ haha so she came and picked me up and took me back to their house. One minute after I walked in the door of Luzmilla’s house my phone rang and it was a number that I didn’t have saved, so I knew that I had changes. I picked up the phone and it was the new assistant, Elder Johnny, and he said "Hermana Jackson, You have cambios!"

So now I am in Iquitos and yes it is hotter here, not really Hotter hotter but it’s a lot more humid.(: But it’s not too huge of a difference though, so that’s good. I am in the zone Punchana. My area is called Calvero and it is sooooo tiny especially compared to my last area in Tarapoto. And this area is all in the city and there’s not any dirt roads so that’s another plus. What stinks though is there isn’t any fruit, everything they do have is shipped into Iquitos so it’s super expensive and in Tarapoto I ate fruit everyday! Also there isn’t any cheese here haha, the food is kind of terrible but oh well. I’m just really missing Chinese food and your homemade bread but its all fine (;

My new comp is Hermana Laura. She is from La Paz Bolivia. But she’s really cool and I’m excited for this change. We have one progressing investigator and her name is Marcela. She is really cute and a single mother with 2 kids. This area has a tonnn of converses (converts). In my other areas we had like zero so its super different working with them and I like teaching them. There is the cutest older guy who is a convert and his name is Felix and oooooh my goodness I just love him. He’s just the sweetest little guy ever! I’ll have to take a picture of him and send it to you next week! But these computers here are terrible so we will see how sending pics goes!

One thing that is cool here is that they have a family history center in the mission home. We took a convert there last night and she found three names to take to the temple.

Anyways it’s cool to be in a new place but I really do miss Tarapoto. I don’t think there’s ever gonna be a zone quite like the one I had there. I was super super blessed with all those people and with the Nelsons and to be in Tarapoto for as long as I was, seriously everyone here in Iquitos wants to leave and go to Tarapoto haha. And the sad thing is that there is no time to say goodbye to anyone when you get changes!! They call you the night before and then you have the morning to pack and then you hop on the plane for Iquitos at 2 p.m.  

Rosio, my old pensionista and her hubby, Luzmilla and a lady from my ward who I forgot her name, and my pensionista Erika from the Aeropuerto area along with her daughter Deniy came and said goodbye to me at the airport.. ):

 I miss them. But I have a new adventure here so its fine!!! And this area is actually a ward so that’s really cool too!

Well thanks for everything, love you!

Hermana Jackson