Week #71: Have You Ever Been in a Room Full of Angels?

Snow in Vancouver

Cookie Monsters

As for the week, it was awesome! We had a great lesson with Julie at the Mowrers' home- despite the ice and snow, missionary work goes on!  We did get a good snow and ice storm this week- but nothing too bad.  We were all told not to drive the mission cars, so not much changed for us :)


We got to have FHE with the Boyds- it was kind of scattered as always but it was good to see them again. The kids have been coming to church
still and Haille is working on going to the temple! We are hoping to get them to the family history center sometime.

The Ells are doing good- Jeneva is working towards her baptism on the 23rd! And their car was out of gas on Sunday so Mitch and Katrina walked to church! That was amazing.







The mission party today was pretty incredible. It was so fun to see
everyone - the entire mission came! So I saw Sister Frisch and Sister
Dearden and all of the people that I've served around before. It was a
giant family reunion- kind of like what I imagine the celestial
kingdom would be like. We started out with a talent show which was
HILARIOUS and then lunch and of course a spiritual portion at the end.

On that note, there's a story behind the topic for my email! So at the end of our gathering, we closed by singing Silent Night (one of my favorite Christmas hymns). As we sang, I felt like the room was filled
not just with missionaries but also with angels- those from the other side who are watching out for us and helping us along. I felt like they were singing too. It was pretty incredible. I love Christmas and celebrating our Savior!

As part of the Christmas season, President McAteer asked us to study the four Gospels and 3 Nephi and the theme that has stood out to me the most is sacrifice. It started in Matthew, and then in Mark I felt like it was all about sacrifice and love- sacrificing especially for those we love. In Luke I felt like it talked about sacrifice and faith, how sacrificing the things of the world takes a lot of faith.




In John it talked so much about Christ's power to make things good,
and then in 3 Nephi it showed these principles applied in the lives of
the faithful Nephites. Then Sister Babcock (one of the sisters who
replaced me and Sister Frisch in Columbia) bore her testimony for our
Christmas gathering and as she talked she told the story of the rich
young ruler. I thought about how Christ said it is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into
heaven, and I know personally I don't believe that necessarily applies
to worldly wealth (at least in dollar quantities). We are all rich
with weaknesses, pride, and the praise of the world, and Christ asks
us to sacrifice all of that and become poor in Spirit- to become meek
and humble- and He will make us rich with His strength and with
salvation.

I love you all! Merry Christmas!
Sister Jacobs