Things are looking up, it's a great little world we live in!

July 22, 2013

Family!

Okay, so I haven't even told you about the month of consecration... because I didn't feel like it was working.... til this week! :) The month of July has been the month of consecration for our mission. Every companionship is working super hard to be exactly obedient. What a great way to start my mission, right? Anway, Sister Loader and I were getting super discouraged and that's why I didn't share. I felt like even though we were being obedient and working our best, we weren't seeing miracles that everyone else was. But guess what? We had our miracle this week!!! Lots of miracles, actually :)

Our first miracle was Monday afternoon. We got mail!!!!!! Between Sis Loader and I, we got 6 letters and a package! AH! Best day ever. Really though. Now that we know that mail works... please continue to write! For those of you who sent mail and got it back, it's now safe! :)

I love the mission office.

Our next miracle was Sister Bray. Here's the story.

Monday night was soooo hard. We found a lady who knew her bible better than the back of her hand and we didn't bash, of course, but we tried to share our testimonies. When we finally got away I said, "Sister Loader, I'm going to bear my testimony to you because I know you'll listen." So I did. Twice. And when we got home we both shed some tears and expressed our desire to talk to someone, anyone who would listen to the Gospel which would bless their lives immensely. It was the next day that we found Sister Bray.

She took the discussions like 2 years ago, but had some severe health problems and couldn't get baptized. She can't attend church but they broadcast it to her so she can see it (bishop approved, of course. There are like 3 people in our ward that use it). Her main hold up has been that she wanted to be able to walk into the font. On Tuesday Sis Loader and I decided to see her. During training the elders texted us and said they'd visit with her and see if they could set up a time for us to see her (I love our elders. Seriously). So we told them to go ahead and we found some other people to visit instead. About 10 minutes later, we got a call from Sister Bray herself! She basically said that she wanted us to come over that day, she wanted to pick a baptismal date, and talk about what needed to be done so she could be baptized. So Sis Loader and I were thinking, "Wow! Those elders are seriously on top of things!" Come to find out later that she hung up the phone and then the elders knocked on her door! So... we planned on visiting her, the elders planned on visiting her, and she called us so we could visit her all on the same day! Isn't the Spirit amazing?! So we called up a member and she said, "You know. This morning I just decided to put on a skirt. I never decide to just put on a skirt!" And she was the perfect person to introduce to Sister Bray. They've both had similar experiences that two 20-year-old sister missionaries could never relate to. Toward the end, I was getting ready to invite her to baptism (my first) and she pulls out her phone and says, "So I want to be baptized on August 9 or 16, preferably the 9th. Can we do that?" Man. She's awesome.

I learned so much from that. We had been working hard the whole month, but it wasn't until we were absolutely certain that we couldn't do it by ourselves that the Lord stepped in. We had been praying all month long for Him to bring us to His children that were ready, but I never meant it more than last Monday night.

That was the big miracle this week sprinkled with lots of little ones in between.

Our next miracle is that we reached all of our goals that we set for this week! That's a big deal. Maybe not to most missionaries. But for Sister Loader and I, that's huge.

We have a couple of other potentials and we're super excited about them!

I love your letters and your emails! And I love the pictures that you send me! I can't express to you how wonderful it is to hear from family and friends.

I am so blessed. We are so blessed. The gospel is so wonderful. But it's more than wonderful, it's true! Sister Loader asked me the other day how I knew the church was true. And I had to think real hard, just because I never had a light switch moment. It has all been a sunrise. And I said, "Because it makes me happy. Nothing would make me this happy unless it was divine and true and eternal." And that's all there is to it. The gospel makes me happy. 

Life isn't easy, but the Gospel is simple. The Gospel doesn't make life easy, but it gives us peace. All of us. Listen next time you're in sacrament meeting. Not to the speaker, but to the Spirit. He tells me cool things at church. And there are cool things that you can be told, too!

I love being a missionary! I love you all!

Til next week, Sister Jacobs

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