A Week of Miracles

Hi Everyone!

It has been a fun and busy week of miracles!

We were able to teach the first discussion to a referral we got from bishop this week! Her name is Sarah, and she just recently left the last church she was in because she felt like something was missing. She was also going to Salt Lake City for Spring break with her aunt! It was a perfect opportunity to share how our church was founded right before she was going to visit temple square! We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and to go to the different visitor centers on the square. She was so excited to hear that we have a prophet and apostles on the earth today!

On Thursday night, all of our appointments fell through for the evening and we had no idea what to do! Right after dinner, two men walked in asking about our church. One of them was baptized two years ago, but didn't remember any of the lessons. The other one wasn't a member, but as we were talking to him, we found that he has a lot of the same beliefs that we have! Heavenly Father was really looking out for us that night!

Our English class at the Institute

My favorite experience was on Friday morning! We were meeting with one of our new Chinese investigators, and the time before we asked her to read Alma 32 which is about faith and how you can know if your faith is blessing you.  When we asked her what she thought about it, she said, "It's not new, it's just truth." She barely learned who Jesus Christ was in our last lesson, but she has such a great desire to learn more because she can see happy people are when they follow Him. It's been such an amazing experience to be able to teach these Chinese students even though there is such a large language barrier. I know that they don't understand everything we are saying, but they know what the Spirit is telling them. There is no way that I would be able to help grow their faith without the Holy Ghost! I'm so grateful that we have a loving Father in Heaven who blesses us with confirmations from the Spirit!

Making Chinese Dumplings with Hannah

I know that Joseph Smith restored the fullness of the gospel back on the earth. I am so grateful for his faith and willingness to bring back that truth. I know that as we read the Book of Mormon and try to abide by its precepts, our lives will be blessed. If we aren't sure if the Book of Mormon is true, we can pray and ask our Father in Heaven and He will confirm the truthfullness of it through the power of the Holy Ghost. When I prayed to know, I got the answer that it was true and that I needed to serve a mission and share that knowledge with other people. I know that Jesus Christ suffered for not only our sins, but also our pains and afflictions. When we follow, Him and live His gospel, we can use that gift He gave us to repent and become better. There is no way that I could be serving and helping as many people as I am without His strength and help. I am also grateful for all of your support and help while I am out here serving!

Sister Jacobsen

Transfer Week!

Hello All,

I had to say goodbye to Sister Ritter on Thursday, but I got a new companion, Sister Caldwell! She just got out of the MTC and is so excited to work! We have seen amazing miracles this week together!

Goodbye Sister Ritter :(

Hello Sister Caldwell :)

On Thursday, a less active member brought her friend, Adam to her lesson because she was sick of answering all of his questions herself. We talked about things that we can do to feel the holy ghost in our lives and he agreed to meet with us again on Saturday. We taught him the Restoration on Saturday outside in front of the institute building (we still haven't gotten another key since I got it stuck in the door my first week here). It was a beautiful day! The spirit was so strong, and he agreed to be baptized if he comes to know that the things we share with him are true! He was so prepared to meet with us and learn about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

We also met two college students that were performing in an acapella competition Friday night. We started talking to them near the piano at the student center at MSU. They were interested in talking to us because one of them auditioned for "The Book of Mormon" musical! Hahaha! I don't know the details of that musical, but we made sure they knew that we were nothing like the missionaries in that performance.  They had a lot of questions and we referred them to the missionaries in their area. We hope and pray that they wil continue meeting with them so they can answer their questions!

Last night, we met with two professors from China that are going to school at MSU for now. We have been meeting with them for a few weeks now and they like to know the facts about Jesus Christ. While we were teaching the Plan of Salvation, they had a lot of technical questions that were difficult to answer, but at the end, they said, "That is the perfect plan! What are we learning next?" In our next lesson with them, we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end! It was such a spiritual lesson and they understood that as they followed those things, they can come closer to God! We invited them to be baptized and they said yes! I am so grateful that Heavenly Father prepared them for us to teach and that the Holy Ghost testified of the truthfulness of what we were sharing. My testimony of this church and this Gospel has never been so strong! I am so excited to have another year to share it with others as my full time "job!"

I love you all so much!
Sister Emily Jacobsen

Transfer Calls

Hello!

This week has been so amazing! We made it a goal to get 60 lessons combined with the elders and we got 53! Woohoo! A lot of those lessons weren't with the same people, so we were able to talk to and teach a lot of different people. We also have three new investigators! The guy who threw the dodgeball at Sister Ritter is now a new investigator! He is really nice and has a strong desire to learn more about Christ. 

On Saturday morning we were able to meet Elder D Todd Christofferson, an apostle of the Lord! We originally were going to go to the temple, but none of the recent converts were able to go :( So we were able to go to Tulsa, OK instead and meet an appostle! We were able to shake his hand one by one, and throughout the conference, he answered all of my questions! It was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. I am so grateful that I was able to go and hear counsel from an apostle of the Lord. I am grateful that we have a prophet and apostles to be able to help us navigate through life and get back to our Heavenly Father. He and Elder Lynn G Robins talked a lot about miracles during the conference. I love to hear people's conversion stories because they always involve a miracle! We have miracles happening around us all of the time, we just need to open our eyes and ears to be able to notice them. 

We got transfer calls last night! Sister Ritter's time is up and she's going home :( But I get to stay and train a new sister that's coming in on Thursday! I am still a sister training leader, but I'm not sure who is going to be STL with me this next transfer. I'm grateful to be able to stay here in Springfield another transfer! 

I hope and pray that you will all have an amazing week! 

Sister Jacobsen

Exchanges!

Hey Everyone!

Our week was really good! Although Sister Ritter is accident prone and got a concussion during dodgeball... We've been staying home since then, but she's feeling a little better today. At least well enough to go to the zoo today! We are going to hold lemurs and baby kangaroos!! One of our members works there and his brother shows the animals.

I was also able to go on an exchange to Centerton this week.  Exchanges are a little different now! The sisters are organized a little more like the elders now. We have sister training leaders and then one set of super sister training leaders that are the leaders over all of the STLs. They are kind of like the assistants to the president. So we went on exchanges to Centerton, my first area! I got to see Hannah who was baptized a few days after I left and she's doing great! I also got to see the rest of her family and they are also doing really well :) It was such a good exchange! I'm so grateful for the opportunity I had to see them!

Have a great week!

Sister Jacobsen

A Great Week!

Hi Everyone!

This week was great! We had so many miracles and found a few more potentials. We hit above the standard of excellence this week! We got 22 lessons and 15 of them were member present. The members that we brought to the lessons were definitely inspired! They really helped our investigators and new members strengthen their faith.

On Monday, we went to Bass Pro shop with the elders in our zone! It was so much fun! We got matching hats and shirts with the elders in our ward.

Hannah is so ready for baptism! She told us she wouldn't be able to come on Sunday because Chinese new year was the night before, but she felt prompted to come. She was filled with the spirit and was so happy she decided to come! The work is really starting to come along here!

Sorry my email is so short! I love you all so much!

Sister Jacobsen

Pictures from Bass Pro! And Sister Ritter is great at darts :)

Caving

Hey everyone!

It's been another great week! Serving in YSA is so much fun! We got here with two investigators, and now we have 5 with a lot more potentials! We would have 6 if the elders didn't steal one of them :( They started out with 0 investigators and now have 4 or 5. It's amazing what can happen when you put your faith in finding people who are prepared! Bishop is very encouraging and helps us a lot when it comes to finding people to teach and getting members involved. He was gone this week, so life wasn't too exciting until he came back on Saturday.

I had my first solo instruction at Zone Training! It went really well! I talked about baptizing converts and how we can help them be converted. I took most of my notes from Elder Bednar's talk "Converted Unto The Lord" (https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/converted-unto-the-lord?lang=eng). It's one of my favorites! Everyone was really involved and had a lot of good things to say. Heavenly Father really helped me out with that instruction :)

Hannah is so ready for baptism, but she doesn't realize it! She knows that this is true and the right thing for her, but she doesn't know that she knows. Hopefully we are able to get her to set a baptism date this week. She is so amazing!

We were able to go to the Chinese Spring Festival event last Saturday because a few of our investigators were performing in it! It was so much fun! I loved learning more about their culture. 

Sister Ritter and I taught our first English class at the institute building! There are so many students from China that live really close to the institute building that are trying to learn english! In class, we have three main goals. 1) Learn english conversation skills. 2) Make american friends. 3) Learn about Jesus (my personal favorite)! They are all so sweet and so willing to learn from us. 

We had a few amazing lessons with some less actives this past week. We've been using Brad Wilcox's talk, "His Grace is Sufficient" for our lessons. That is another one of my favorite talks! I encourage all of you to read it sometime this week. It's a BYU devotional, not a conference talk. Our discussions were about finding strength in Christ and using His grace to be able to improve ourselves and our relationships with Diety.  The spirit was so strong in all of those lessons! I absolutely love talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ because it is a topic that you will never completely understand, but it is sure good to try. I am so grateful for the love Christ had for us to be able to sacrifice himself for us. I would not be able to serve a mission if it wasn't for His strength and direction He gives me every day! 

On Saturday, Bishop came back, and we went caving! At first, I tried not to get too dirty, but I threw that out the window when I had to crawl through a two foot hole in the cave with a munch of mud at the bottom and had to go thigh deep in muddy water. It was crazy! There were frogs that lived in the water and they were super creepy. It was so muddy and slippery that at some spots we would just belly slide! There were also a lot of deep puddles of water and small spaces you have to squeeze through. I'm sure some of the YSA tagged me and Sister Ritter on Facebook. 

I hope you all had an amazing week also! I can't thank you all enough for all of your prayers and support you offer me. I feel the strength of your prayers each and every day that I am here.

Love, Sister Jacobsen

Warning: This blog post is very long!

Hey everyone!

I don't even know where to begin because SO much has happened this past week! First off, Sister Ritter and I are soul companions. She is so much fun! She doesn't have nerves in her feet from a surgery before her mission, and she had her toe amputated a few months ago! It's really funny to see her slip all the time during the ice storm we had this past week! Fun fact: it was 6 degrees last Sunday when we went chalking on MSU campus! We didn't know that until Tuesday... I don't think I've ever experienced anything that cold before. 

We have met with a lot of less active members and have been trying to find more investigators. On Monday, we visited Regan (LA) and she came to volleyball that night! She has been warming up to the idea of church and has come to a few activities since we have met! She is one of the coolest people I have met. She ran a marathon last Sunday like it was no big deal. She also has a dog that reminds me of my puppy at home :) 

On Tuesday, there was an ice storm and cars were sliding and crashing everywhere! It was hard to even walk anywhere! So we cancelled all of our appointments and Bishop decided to pick us and the elders up to help his son move. On the way there, he started driving on a one-way street and no one noticed until I said, "Uh.... Why does that sign say 'Do Not Enter'?" And then a bunch of cars started coming at us and he quickly turned into the parking lot! I have never laughed so hard in my life! We are going to try and find a 'Do not Enter' sign for his office door :) It probably wasn't the best idea to drive that night, especially a moving truck on huge hills! Thankfully, we were in Bishops huge pickup truck and not in the moving truck. He then drove us to the airport for a missionary homecoming, and we were still in our service clothes! One of the leaders from this mission was there and it was super awkward. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father was watching out for us that night on the roads! 

On Wednesday, Bishop made us go to crossfit because the instructor was a less active member. Sister Ritter and I died after that. We think Bishop is trying to make our lives miserable! I could hardly move the next day and the day after that! I am finally getting back to normal. We teach an English class on Wednesday nights for anyone who wants to improve their english conversation skills. It was really fun! A lot of Chinese students were there, including two of our investigators and a recent convert! After the class, two of the students came up and asked if we could teach them more about Jesus! YES! So we met with them later that week and it went really well! We also gave a Chinese Book of Mormon to another student that was there who seemed interested in learning more. We hope to start meeting with him regularly! 

On Thursday, Bishop came by at 9:45 during our companion study and texted us to come out of our apartment. Right when I opened the door he threw a snowball! Thankfully, I closed the door to block it from hitting me :) Then I opened it again and he got me right in the face. Then he drove away. We don't understand why he does the things that he does hahaha! After he drove away, we talked with one of our neighbors, Andrew! He was really nice and wants to go caving this next weekend with us! 

On Friday we were in Arkansas all day for a leadership meeting and I got to see a lot of amazing missionaries! On Saturday, our temple trip was cancelled, so we had nothing scheduled the whole day! We were able to meet a lot of cool people and have lessons with a few of our Chinese investigators. Hannah's lesson was so great! That was the most spiritual lesson I have ever had! We had a really good discussion about faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. She had a lot of great questions and was finally able to recognize the holy ghost! I could almost see Heavenly Fathers finger touch her heart during that lesson. Hopefully we can set a date for her to be baptized soon! We also got a lot of people together to play dodgeball on Saturday. Everyone knows how uncoordinated I am now. It was worse than dodge ball at the mission conference! People like to bring up how great of a dodge ball player I am ;) 

Sunday was great and a lot of less actives were at church! We also went to dinner with Bishop and his family. He invited a lot of the YSA members and we got to hold his puppies!
Bishop is gone next week, so the email shouldn't be as long next time! I have never had such a fun week before! I am so grateful to be serving here! I hope and pray that you all will have a great week! 

Love, Sister Jacobsen