From Ashley's Mom: We had a fantastic Skype session with Sister Jacobs on Mother's Day. It was so great to have all our family gather together (via Skype) for one sacred hour. Ashley's brother Chad is in Phoenix and Tyler and Andrea were in Vernal, UT so it was wonderful to be able to see and talk with Ashley in Georgia. She looks great and is doing extremely well!
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Oooookay! Since last week we had all of 15 minutes to email... Y'all are
gettin' double this week!
I guess I haven't told y'all about our investigator B.! She's great! We
tracted into her beginning of April. We've been teaching her ever since
and she's getting baptized on Friday!! Her brother lives in Ohio and has
been a member for 20 years! That was news to us! He's actually coming
down to perform the baptism
She had a really cool experience with quitting smoking (fun fact.
Everyone here smokes. Like everyone) We challenged her to go for 3 days
and see how it went. We followed up daily, and she told us that one day
the cravings were really bad, so she lit a cigarette, and put it to her
mouth and it tasted gross! She said that she's never had a cigarette
that tasted like that and she's been clean ever since! Sounds like a
story from The District, right?! Haha Apparently Debbie was best
friends with Bert's daughter growing up. Seriously. Small towns are the
best. Everyone knows e.ve.ry.one.
More details on singing at the Lutheran church! It was awesome! Every
time we went over to the R. Family's to practice, we talked a little bit
more about the Book of Mormon which she is really loving. She is
fascinated with Christ visiting the Americas. That's my favorite part,
too Sister Reese said it was interesting to feel the spirit come and
go throughout the meeting. I sang 2 primary songs and the Spirit was
there for that! That's my favorite part about singing. I'm not here to
show off. I'm not here to be a good singer. I'm here to be an instrument
in the Lord's hands. To bring the Spirit into people's lives, help them
recognize it, invite them to experience more, and then rejoice in their
agency. Sometimes it's easy. Sometimes it's not. I'm grateful that
Heavenly Father has blessed me with the ability and love for singing.
I'm not good with words and the longer I'm in this area, the less
eloquent my words become, haha, but I'm learning that He really wants me
to use *all* of my talents in this area and he's giving me another
transfer to experiment with it. What a blessing
After the service, we went out to eat with the R. Family and their
friends, too. Sister R. told the pastor she'd been reading the Book of
Mormon and rather enjoying herself. I was proud of her for being strong
in her feelings toward the Book of Mormon. Sometimes pastors can be
intimidating, haha, but hey, they invited us back again so Sister Reese
can play along with me and perhaps we'll do a duet with Sister R.! She
sings, too
Last week we had an awesome lesson with our investigator D. and then had
lunch with her. We've officially deemed her Momma D. She's doing
great! She finally picked a day to be baptized! June 14th. It's kinda
far out, but that's when her son will be able to make it here to baptize
her. And we're all praying and hoping that her mom will be ready to get
baptized then, too! She sat in on a couple of lessons and made it to
church yesterday. It was great!! She's really opening up! And D. is a
rockstar! She recognizes the adversity in her life and she knows that
it's because she's making right choices and satan doesn't want her to.
The Gospel doesn't erase our problems, but it gives us strength to solve
them. She understands that well
The Branch started the 21 day challenge. I'd never heard of it before
coming here, so 'Imma explain it to y'all.' Basically Elder Ballard has
promised that if we make a list of less-active/nonmember friends and
pray for them individually every morning and night for 21 consecutive
days without missing a prayer, one of the people on that list, or
perhaps someone else will accept an invite to listen to the missionary
lessons. You might could google the actual quote. I'm not sure when he
gave it. Aaaanyway. It works! And the branch is loving it! We started it
the beginning of May, so I'll let you know what the results are in a few
weeks
On Thursday we got a very interesting phone call from President Rownd.
He told us that Elder Elder called Pres Wolfert (mission president) and
told him he'd be crazy to transfer us apart. So did President Rownd and
then the Stake President called him and asked him to keep this "Dynamic
Duo" together! Pres Wolfert said he'd have to seriously consider it...
and hey! All of our prayers worked and I'm staying til the end of June!
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!
Church yesterday was fantastic! We had a record of 84 people at church!
The little room was packed! Three of our investigators came to church,
and a bunch of other unexpected investigators came, too! They had to get
3 men to pass the sacrament, instead of the normal 2! Elberton is well
on it's way to becoming a ward! At least, that's what we're working for!
Well. It was so good to "see" the family yesterday! Thanks for being
great! I love y'all!
Be the change to see the change!
~Sister "Hartwell for life!" Jacobs
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