Another great week.....and my birthday!

Hi Everyone!

It has been another great week! Sister Kitchen and I were able to go to the square in Bentonville and see the Walmart museum! It wasn't very exciting. But we were eating ice cream while going through, so I guess it wasn't too bad. We also went around the block to different stores and shops and took pictures in front of the murals on the buildings. It was fun! Today we went to a member's house in the country part of our area with a few other sisters around here. We did a few things on their ropes course and took pictures around that area. It was really fun!

I went on my first exchange on Wednesday! I got to go to Anderson Missouri with Sister 'Alofaki. I got a taste of what the rest of the mission is like. Yikes! I am definitely spoiled here in Bentonville and Centerton! We visited Naoma a few times and talked about General Conference and prophets with her. She wanted to hear what the Prophet had to say, but didn't want to watch it because subtitles are too fast for her to read. We are going to print a few of our favorite talks and give them to her to read this week. We helped her set up for a garage sale on Saturday. She only wanted to sell a few barbies and plates. She collects a bunch of interesting things! She has so many vintage barbie dolls in the corner of her apartment! She gave one to me, and I put it on my desk at home :) We are also planning John's baptism that is this weekend! We are so excited! We were able to also see Kayla and Alisha this weekend. We finished the plan of salvation and they are so excited for when they can go to the temple! We haven't set a date for them to be baptized, but we will this week.  We have also started teaching Hannah, the daughter of Dave and Julie, and Jazlyn, the daughter of a less active. They are both so sweet!

We don't have any investigators or potential investigators for one of our wards, so we did a lot of finding this week. We spent hours tracting and asking for referrals but didn't get anything :( We set a goal to work really hard and get one new investigator this week.  It's going to happen! 

My birthday was on Saturday! I didn't think birthdays were that exciting in the mission field, but I was so wrong! My companion put baloons, a banner, and reasons why she loved me all around my desk. I was constantly getting calls and texts of people telling me happy birthday! Sister Kitchen told our dinner appointment what my favorite dessert was and they all sang to me. After dinner, we had an hour and a half of free time. I thought we would just be tracting, but Sister Kitchen took me to the office missionaries home for a surprise party! We ate cake and played games until we had to leave for our last appointment for the night. People were constantly giving me cake and candy this whole weekend! Our mission is known as the 30 pound mission, and I think I know why now:/

Conference was so amazing! We were able to go to different members' homes and watch it. I loved the way President Uchtdorf started the conference. He was so right! This gospel works! I also loved Elder Holland's talk on motherhood. All of the women in the room were crying through that whole thing. If you missed any of conference--watch it! It was all so good! The new apostles seem like such amazing people. I know that they have been called of God to be our new apostles. I am so grateful to hear from them more often now!

Thank you for all of your prayers and support! I love all of you so much!

Sister Jacobsen