Week #23: Such is Life

Hello all! This week has been an odd one for sure.

We met with a lot of new less-active members this week! They are all
such amazing people. I think I've talked about the Cruzes before- we
are officially teaching them now! And Gabe as well- you might remember
him from way back like three months ago, he was the kid with the
unicorn mask. We met with him and asked if we could come back and he
said that would be nice! He's a really good kid, just needs a little
push. It helps that they live right across the street from the church!

We did a lot of knocking and visiting less active members as well. We
set a record number of people talked to in one day for the two of us!
That was awesome. We followed up with a lot of people too. We've made
a lot of awesome goals to work with the members of our ward better and
to be better missionaries, and it's been showing some results already.
We're really excited to see what happens as we continue! And Brother
Winks, our ward mission leader has been working on a cool idea-
helping the ward create family mission plans! It's an awesome idea.
I'm looking forward to working together with the families to help them
make goals to reach out to others! That is the best way to do this
work!

Most of the rest of the week got overshadowed by Saturday. That was a
weird day....it started off pretty normal! Well, not really. That was
when we found out that President Taylor had a mild heart attack. The
zone leaders asked on Friday if I could play the piano for a musical
number on Thursday so we took some time in the morning to practice and
helped clean the church. We had an awesome correlation and afterwards
we decided to go by a less active lady's home. Well she answered the
door and she was pretty emotional but kind of odd. She started telling
us about her life problems (some pretty serious ones resulting in
baseball bat holes in the wall...) and showing us all these
documents...well, turns out she was pretty wasted. So we told her God
loved her and we left, basically. It was a very weird experience. Then
that evening we were driving to our dinner appointment and we got in a
fender bender! It was nothing serious and no one was injured at all-
just cosmetic damage to the cars, really. But I was freaking out
because I had no idea what was going on. See, we'd driven up to the
light and gotten into the left turn lane when the guy next to us
decided to turn left, side swiped us, moved back, and hit the bumper
of a third car. The third car was furious. The guy in the truck didn't
even realize he'd hit us! So it was a mess. But everything worked out
(we prayed really hard) and all the paperwork is done and it wasn't my
fault, so everything is okay! But it was a crazy evening. Needless to
say, we didn't make it to dinner.

Sunday, we took it pretty slow and we got everything organized for
today, and right now we're at the mission office. We did the paperwork
we needed to do and now we're temporary office secretaries while the
staff are in a meeting! President Taylor is having surgery but he's
confident and calm. He assured us everything would be okay in his
weekly email and actually said "it will take more than a heart attack
to stop the WVM!!!" He is a very strong man and a great leader!

My scripture of the week is Phillipians 4:7: "And the peace of God
which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus."  I have felt that peace this week! Especially
after our fender bender. I was really worried that things were going
to be crazy but I felt the Spirit assuring me that it would be okay,
and that He would help. Jesus Christ knows that things are crazy and
that I didn't know what to do! And He took care of that. He filled in
those gaps. And with my grandpa's passing and President Taylor's
health troubles, I have felt that peace again and again. He is always
there looking out for us, and there is a peace that passes all
understanding that we can have if we ask for it!

I love you all! Stay strong!
Sister Jacobs

Week 22: New Year! New Weather!

For the most exciting news, we got snow yesterday!! We had to go
outside and play in it of course, before church. It was awesome.
Except they cancelled third hour and our meetings after that so we
suddenly had three extra hours to figure out what to do. It was a
great day though- mostly visiting members so we didn't freeze, and
talking to people in between.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. On Monday we had our first
appointment with Adam and we met his wife Alicia! They'd actually
forgotten we were coming but Alicia had prayed for help that morning
and then there we were. So that was awesome! Mostly Adam wanted to ask
Brother Mallicoat questions about what it's like being a convert. But
we did teach a little bit and committed them to read and pray. They
didn't make it to church but hopefully next week!

On Tuesday we found a new person named Gordon Big Back. He was excited
when we told him the Book of Mormon was about his ancestors! We are
going back this week.

Wednesday was exchanges so me and Sister Floyd spent the day together.
It was a lot of fun! We had our district meeting, which was awesome,
and then some great lessons with less active members.

We have a young woman in our ward who just recently got baptized and
is less active and we've been trying to reach out to her. Well, we
decided to go talk to the Young Women's president about it and see if
they can do anything- she really just needs a friend. We're hopeful
that they will be able to help!

We celebrated New Year's on New York time- they had us go inside after
dinner- so we had candy and Martinellis and dos some planning. Then
New Year's Day was weekly planning so we finished that!

Anyway, it's been a pretty drab week- everyone is very relaxed with
the holidays and then the snow just shuts things down. There's no
plows or salt or anything, so it just turns to slush or worse, ice.
It's not too bad today but they told us to drive as little as
possible. It's very pretty though and it feels just like home!

 Thought for the week: Doctrine and Covenants 122:9, "hold on thy
way...fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and
ever." If we are following the Lord's way, He will be with us. We can
feel the assurance that he is there and that He loves us and will take
care of what we cannot. I found out this morning that my grandpa
passed away this week and immediately I felt this conviction that he
is working hard on the other side. He has a job to do, helping those
who died without a knowledge of the gospel to come unto Christ. I felt
that confirmation - it was quiet and gentle, but it was firm. We must
hold on our way so we can say as Paul did, "I have fought a good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4:7).
Then we can see our loved ones, and most of all, we will see our
Father and we will see our Savior. What a day that will be!

I love you all. Fight the good fight, and keep the faith!
Sister Jacobs

Week 21: Whoops! I guess this did not send! Merry Christmas...A Week Late!

This week has been pretty crazy, but a lot of fun. On Tuesday, we got
to go to the temple! The Portland temple is absolutely gorgeous, and
it was a blessing to go and to feel that peace. After the temple trip,
we had five lessons (that's a LOT for one day, but we had none the
rest of the week- no one is available at Christmastime!). We had our
first lesson with Felicia! She's someone we met a while ago and this
was the first set lesson with her. We took Sister Child from our ward,
and it was amazing. She promised to read the Book of Mormon and to
talk with her husband about her pursuing this course. Hopefully they
read and pray together! They have a wonderful family. The rest of the
night was lessons with members- Bailey, and the Thompsons (Dylan
received the priesthood!! And he passed the Sacrament yesterday- it
was awesome). Wednesday night, we played minute to win it games at the
Baldwins which was a lot of fun! They are a good family. On Thursday,
we went caroling with the Winks to the houses of some less active
members- we brought cookies and candy canes. It was a lot of fun, and
they loved it! The Winks are a great family- their oldest daughter
comes home from her mission in March. They are so excited. Christmas
was awesome! It was really nice to de litter the room of packages-
it's a small room. It was awesome! We have so much candy. And we got
to Skype home! That was great, to get to see everyone after five
months. I got some good screenshots too...we had dinner at Cortina's!
She is the best. Her kids are super nice too. Then we went by a few
other members' houses.

And, the best part is what I saved for last......we got a car!!! On Christmas Eve Elder Funk called and said they'd be over in half an hour with a present. We thought maybe a package or something....Sister
Funk did wrap the keys though! We are pretty excited about it. We've got it for a month, then it might get taken away. But we are definitely grateful!

It's been a long week for sure- holidays are exhausting! I'm glad it's finally Monday- it feels good to rest a little. We've talked to a lot
of people and it hasn't gone anywhere yet. We keep going though! The work must go on.

As for a spiritual thought this week, I love Alma and the sons of Mosiah, and reading their accounts. I've probably written about them before, but they just don't get old! I love to be inspired by those
great examples, and to see that there is always hope. I realized something for the first time today- the portion of the scriptures describing their transgressions is just a few verses out of one
chapter, where the account of their righteousness and their works makes up much of the book of Alma. These men, who were so wicked, who persecuted the church and feared that their souls would be cast off, they were saved and redeemed. The angel appeared unto them because the Lord knew that seeing that sign would change them and put them on the course to make such a huge difference. These men became some of the most powerful missionaries this world has seen. They preached the
gospel "zealously" or with much energy and enthusiasm because "they could not bear that any human soul should perish." Then they went among the Lamanites- the age old enemies of their people because they recognized something that their people did not. Ammon said:

"Now do ye remember, my brethren, that we said unto our brethren in
the land of Zarahemla, we go up to the land of Nephi, to preach unto
our brethren, the Lamanites, and they laughed us to scorn? For they
said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the
knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the
Lamanites of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers, as
stiffnecked a people as they are; whose hearts delight in the shedding
of blood; whose days have been spent in the grossest iniquity; whose
ways have been the ways of a transgressor from the beginning? Now my
brethren, ye remember that this was their language. And moreover they
did say: Let us take up arms against them, that we destroy them and
their iniquity out of the land, lest they overrun us and destroy us.
But behold, my beloved brethren, we came into the wilderness not with
the intent to destroy our brethren, but with the intent that perhaps
we might save some few of their souls."

Ammon and his brethren recognized these Lamanites as children of God
and as their own brothers and sisters. Then comes my favorite verse,
one that I have relied on:

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back,
behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the
Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give
unto you success."

The Lord gave them amazing success. The hearts of the Lamanites were
softened. Ammon found success quickly and miraculously among Lamoni's
people. But Ammon's brethren had a harder time. They were rejected and
imprisoned, and if it weren't for Ammon and Lamoni coming to free
them, they might have remained there. But after their period of trial,
of not seeing any visible success, Aaron was able to teach the king of
all the Lamanites. And that king accepted his words and decreed that
the gospel would be preached everywhere. Because of this, nearly an
entire people was converted and they remained strong for the rest of
their lives. My favorite verse that I mentioned is one that I imagine
they found to be true over a long time- they spent fourteen years
among the Lamanites! And they endured much. But by following the Lord,
they saw great success. As a missionary, I am only here for eighteen
months. And I don't have to worry about being imprisoned (as long as I
obey all the rules). But it is still hard, and I must trust in the
promise that the Lord will give me success. He will multiply my
efforts and fill in my gaps if I do my best. It may take a while, but
it will happen, even if that success is only that I am changed, or
that I train Sister Heath and she goes on to teach many people the
gospel. Success is not always measured by numbers- something I have to
remember, but is easy to forget. Success is measured by my being able
to honestly say to the Lord "I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith."

Sorry for the length! Hopefully someone needed to read this. I love
all of you and I know that the Lord loves you even more than I do. He
is always there by your side, waiting for you to reach out. He is with
you even when you don't feel like anyone is there. He fills in our
gaps and makes up for our failings. He gives us peace and helps us to
know how we can improve. He is goodness and peace and joy, and all
progression and improvement comes from Him. Though of discouragement,
of unworthiness, those are not of Him and we shouldn't pay them any
heed. As long as we are striving to follow His way and we have done
all we can, we will feel at peace. We will know we have done all we
can today and we will continue to work hard tomorrow!

Happy New Year!
Sister Jacobs

Your Wonderful Missionary: Christmas Eve E-mail from Brother Winks

Your sweet missionary had fondue dinner with us and helped frost angel sugar cookies for goodie plates. Now we are ready to go caroling.

Glad to be working with her in our ward.

Scott Winks (ward mission leader)
Rebecca,
Linnise (blonde)
Clarissa
Charlotte (glasses)

Week #20: Then Cometh the Blessings

Hello! And Merry Christmas!

This week has been pretty spectacular! We've seen all the blessings
just come in a flood (along with some literal flooding- luckily
nowhere near us) and we've been able to just have a lot of fun! We
have also had a lot of meetings- a trainer/trainee meeting on Tuesday
(President Anderson gave me a yellow motorcycle) and zone conference
in Gresham on Wednesday which was amazing! It's been a pretty crazy
week.


First story- A few weeks ago, Sister Slattery and I met this really
nice lady, Felicia. She was busy right then but had said we could drop
by again in the afternoon sometime. Well we went back this week and
she meant It!! She invited us in and we had an awesome conversation
with her and she promised to read the Book of Mormon and invited us
back tomorrow, even though it's nearly Christmas! It was pretty
amazing. Hopefully her family will be on board as well.

Second story- we were out and had about an hour left before we headed
home, and we weren't sure where to go. So we prayed and we walked down
a street and we turned around to walk back and go a different
direction, and I saw this door. It was just a little thought, just
that it looked welcoming, so we went and knocked on it. An older woman
opened the door and she just was so excited because she'd prayed less
than 48 hours ago for sisters to come and here we were! Her name is
Leva. She thought we were Jehovah's Witnesses at first, but she was no
less excited when we explained who we really were. Her son has been
going through a hard time and he's married with two sons of his own,
and so she wants to be grounded and for him to be grounded too. Her
son Adam actually got home while we were there, just after that, and
we had an awesome conversation with him. He asked us a lot of
questions and we answered them and we told him about the First Vision
and the Book of Mormon and we left them a copy! They know the Bible
pretty well, and said the First Vision made sense. Adam promised to
read it before we come back (after Christmas). It was really amazing.

Oh and that was the night we almost crashed a wedding too! Sister Reed
is now Sister Judd and we had gone by to see if maybe they needed help
cleaning up (Brother Judd's daughter was in charge of everything and
seemed kind of frazzled on Sunday) and we walked up and towards the
gym. There was a camera flashing so we quieted down and I peeked
around the door. Then I turned to Sister Heath with wide eyes and
mouthed, "She's walking down the aisle right now!" So we skedaddled.
Kimberly called us right after we left Adam's house and she did need
help, so we went and helped really quick before we had to go home.

Third story- Last night we were walking around and just tired out and
wet and freezing and we knocked into an older lady who let us in. So
we sat down and showed her the Christmas video, and asked if she went
to a church and she said "yeah, yours!" Turns out she was baptized in
Canada a long time ago and hasn't been in a long time, and now it
would probably be too hard physically. She was very nice and said we
could come back!




The funny part about all of these door knocking miracles is that zone
conference was entirely focused around working more with the members.
President Taylor actually read us off the statistics about how
efficient knocking is compared to members inviting their friends and
it is a huge difference- with knocking, it's about 1 in 30 interested
people who get baptized. With members, it's 1 in 7. That's pretty

crazy! So, the way I look at it, if the two of us can see miracles while knocking a lot of doors (around ten before each story, on average) think about the miracles we could see from others just reaching out to their friends! This ward has seen it- two of the convert baptisms this year (about half) came from one family inviting some very close friends to activities and then inviting them to learn more. We as missionaries have a harder time talking to people because
we wear the name tag. And I know I would find it hard to trust or talk to anyone at my door with a name tag, sent by someone. But I trust my friends. That's something I've been learning more about. We also talked a lot about goals at our zone conference- setting them and keeping them visible. It's when we set goals and strive to achieve them that the Lord can trust us enough to lead us to those people He has prepared! And I am so grateful for the opportunity to teach. I
love the people here so much- this ward has been amazing. I'm excited to introduce others to the people here and help bring them in. It's been amazing.



Anyway, this week has been good. Very wet for sure! I think my bills
might be growing in. It's a lot of fun, being a trainer and getting to
work with someone new, who still has so much fire! It's helped get me
more excited. I'm looking forward to much awesomeness to come!

Love you all,
Sister Jacobs

Never Forget Him. He Has Never Forgotten You

Hello!!

Merry early Christmas! This week has been a very wet one- we keep
joking that Noah is on his way over. It's also been pretty eventful!

On Monday, we made Christmas cookies with the Willits (members of the
ward- so fun!) and I played pretend with their four year old. So now
we're buddies. Anyway, it was pretty awesome! Tuesday was a normal
day. Then Wednesday was transfer meeting! So I have a little more to
add to my epic story from last week. Sister Slattery and I both
thought transfer meeting started at ten. So we left, thinking we'd get
there at 9:30 and be early. Well, it turns out transfer meeting does
not start at 10, it starts at 9! So it's a good thing we aimed to be
early! My new companion is Sister Heath and she is awesome. We have
had a lot of fun the past few days.



The first day she was here, it was very wet. Luckily, members keep
passing us and then stopping and offering rides! We walked around a
lot and talked to a lot of people. We met someone who could be a
potential investigator- his name is Alfonzo. He answered the door and
we asked if we could share a message, and he said he just had a few
minutes, but sure! So we showed him the Savior Is Born video and
talked about how important Christ is. Long story short (because I
don't recall all the little details) we ended up giving him a Book of
Mormon. He said he's been looking for a church to attend! And for
dinner that night, the Thompsons picked up Olive Garden for us, since
it's out of our boundaries (it's across the street in the other stake
so we can't go...). It was awesome! A good first dinner for Sister
Heath! And Sister Slattery was so mad- she was the one who really
wanted it. Olive Garden has always been just out of her boundaries for
all ten months of her mission. Heavenly Father has a sense of humor!

On Thursday it was actually just sprinkling, and then someone invited
us inside so we missed the worst of the rain! We just knocked on her
door and we got to come in and it was awesome. Her name is Margaret.
She had a few misconceptions about the church- she thought maybe we'd
already baptized her! So we had to explain how baptisms for the dead
work. We also talked about the Restoration because, even though she's
from Idaho, she'd never heard the Joseph Smith story before! It was
really cool. And we missed the rain. Apparently that day (or maybe
Friday) there was a huge storm and a tornado up in Battleground and we
didn't get any of it! It was a great day.

Friday was fun too- weekly planning! We went to visit some people
afterwards and they were just leaving (sad) and their street was
totally flooded! So we took some fun pictures (thanks for the rain
boots, Mom!) and then talked to some more people. I'm still getting
used to this whole training thing. Luckily, I know this area really
well, so that's nice. On Friday night, we dropped by Steve and Leah,
who we've had some trouble getting in to see, and they were there! We
had a good conversation with them (Steve offered us a knife since
we're out walking...) and invited them to the ward Christmas activity!
They didn't make it, but it was short notice.

Saturday was definitely a different day! We had some names to visit
but nobody was home. Then we helped out with the ward Christmas party!
We got there to set up, and they were already almost done. So we
helped finish up (the Fifes were in charge and their little boy James
was telling us about when he's going to be a missionary. I'll attach
the video! He also said we were his missionaries- so cute!) and then
Sister Takis took us to Baja Fresh, which was really nice of her! We
were the greeters for the actual activity- we had sleigh bells and we
told everyone where to go. It was a great activity! The service
auction was awesome, and the photo booth was adorable.

On Sunday we had two missionary homecomings, Jordan Morgan and Emily
Rogers, so Sacrament meeting was really full! They gave awesome talks.
It was hard to tell who was there and who wasn't because there were so
many new faces. It was awesome though! Then we walked around until
dinner, even though it was pouring rain....probably a bad idea. We did
better that night though- we came inside and called some people that
we are hopeful to meet with! A few of them answered and some sound
promising. It was great! We had dinner at the Arbuckles. Sister
Arbuckle is a recent convert- she'll be able to go to the temple
soon!- and her daughter is basically a member but she's not allowed to
get baptized until she's 18. The others are not members. We had a good
dinner with them! They're a really nice family!

Anyway, it's been an awesome week. Getting to train is a lot of fun,
and Sister Heath is awesome!  It's fun to go through all this training
stuff and think about how much I've changed, just remembering who I
was when I was first here and looking at what I've learned now. It's
interesting to see. I can't wait to look back at the end of my
mission! And even further down the road. It's amazing how much more I
feel like a missionary. I used to think the District videos were
really cheesy. But now, I'm watching them, and I understand it. I
really do love these people,that much, and I'm excited to see them
grow and go to the temple someday!

I hope you all have a great week! Remember the real reason for
Christmas- the Savior who came and lived so we could know how to live,
and died so someday we can live again! Never forget Him- He has never
forgotten you! I love you!

Sister Jacobs

A Mother and A Baby

Hello everyone! Hopefully you have all had a wonderful week!

Transfer news is in! Before the suspense kills anyone, I'm staying in
Mountain View....and I'm training!! So I get yet another new
companion, this time straight from the MTC. There's a funny story that
goes with how we found out, so I'll tell that first!  So this past
Thursday was our sister study, and last transfer, they just delivered
our transfer letters there. Well, this time, they said they weren't
ready yet! Okay fine, we'll get them in the mail Friday. We check the
mail Friday, and there's the letters! One for me, one for Sister
Slattery. We're freaking out, we run inside (because it's raining) and
open them. Well, they weren't transfer letters. They were "Yay! Bailey
got baptized!" letters. We were understandably disgruntled.

So Saturday morning, we can't even focus. We're stalking the mailbox out
our window waiting for the mailman. He comes and we rush outside and-
nothing for us at all. We're starting to wonder if maybe we're
staying, but I still have this very definite feeling that something is

changing. And we texted our district leader and our sister training
leaders, and no one else has gotten their letters either. Then, at
10:20pm Saturday night, we're at home spending time with the sister we
live with. It's almost bedtime (I was actually passed out on the
couch) and suddenly we get a text message. It's the zone leaders! The
text went something like this: "Sister Jacobs, you're staying and
training! Sister Slattery, you're leaving but we don't know where
you're going or who you're with." So I'm freaking out a bit because I
am training! And we still don't know where Sister Slattery is going.
The letters are due to come today, so we're stalking the mailbox
again. But it's raining outside and the street is a tiny bit flooded,
so we're worried it may not get through. Hopefully soon! Anyway, it's
been a crazy few days. And I get to be a mom!! I'll find out who she
is at transfer meeting on Wednesday.

This week was pretty fun- we met a new less active couple that were
hoping to meet with! The Garners in our ward actually live across the
street and recommended we go visit. So we went by, and they are the
nicest people! They basically said they'd help us out with anything,
and we were welcome back whenever. So we're hoping to go over again
this week! They might not be ready to come back just yet but we can
establish contact for sure. They're pretty cool!

We also had our stake night of music! One of the part member families
in our ward came. Sister Colin is a member and we've started teaching
her- Bishop Nicholson asked her to, since she's preparing to go to the
temple! Her husband is super nice and he came to the night of music as
well. It was probably less spiritual than it could have been since
they have a two year old (who is so adorable) and she was putting
stickers everywhere and then taking them off and putting them
somewhere else, etc. It was still great though! The music was awesome.

We had mostly appointments with less active members this week. We're
still adjusting to tracting and contacting in this weather, but this
next week, we are going to work hard and do great! And I'm going to
have to really take the lead on things with a new missionary coming.
I've been trying not to worry too much. I figure, the secret is just
to love them. But there's a lot of other things that come with
training too, so I've been really praying for help with this. I'm
almost glad I didn't get any longer to freak out!

Our recent convert/ returning member temple trip was on Saturday
morning! We didn't get to go but it's still a highlight of my week.
Bailey got to go, and Cortina and the Thompsons- all recent converts.
And Sister Colin went as well! And each of them had an amazing
experience. Each one of them had a special spiritual moment of some
kind, where they felt the people they were being baptized for saying
thank you, or a hug, or just joy and the Spirit, or revelation. Each
one of them had a powerful experience. The power of the temple is real
and it truly is a place where saving ordinances are performed. The
temple truly is where we are closest to God. I'm so grateful to have
been able to hear those experiences and to be able to do my best to
help these people continue to feel that Spirit and to grow closer to
God.

Anyway, those are all the big points! I'm sad Sister Slattery is
leaving, and I'm excited to meet my new companion! And Christmas is
coming soon!! I love you all!

Sister Jacobs