I miss you guys so much but I am
sooooo excited to LEAVE!!!! Look out Minnesota, HERE I COME!!! I had an
amazing experience this week with the Tuesday devotional. The speaker
asked us at the beginning, "Are you doing this work in YOUR name? Or the
LORD'S name?" this hit me so hard because I was stressed about being
able to teach the right things and how I was going to be able to help
other come to Christ. I then realized that I don't need to worry. This
isn't my work. This is the Lord's work and He will NEVER let me fall.
My companions are nice but I have received a lot of
challenges from them. We have gotten better at being on time but I have
received a lot of heat from one of them. I had some really tough days
when I got to the MTC especially when I lost Sister Bowden. I had cried
in front of my district and my companions comforted me. However, I was
frustrated because the elders were not very good at including us sisters
as their friends. One of my companions turned on me and said, "Well who
would want to help a hysterical female who breaks out crying all the
time?" I felt so betrayed and hurt. She had taken something that really
was a moment of weakness for me and threw it in my face. However, I
realized that Christ went through the same thing. He was betrayed and
denied by so many. So when I went through that, I know that Christ was
right there by my side knowing exactly what I was feeling.
I think my favorite thing about being in the MTC has
been the TRC investigators. That is where people volunteer to be the
investigator and we as missionaries teach them. The cool and somewhat
scary thing is is that some of the volunteers are real investigators! We
ended up teaching a student from BYU named Sarah Grotenhuis from New
Hampshire. She was amazing! We loved her so much! She had so many
questions about the church and genuinely wanted to know more. By the
end, we invited her to go to church. Well, actually she told us halfway
through the lesson that she wanted to go to church with her roommates.
She was amazing and we will miss her. We actually all gave her our
emails so she could email us if she had any questions or just wanted to
"chat". haha. But I really loved that part of the MTC.
So I have a hilarious story for you! We
decided as a district that we would memorize the First Vision. Our DL
decided that when we needed to have it memorized, that we would each go
around the room and recite it. When it came around to him, he started by
saying, "I saw two personages... which descended gradually upon me..."
just as he said that Elder Severe started shouting, "Ow ow ow WHOA!
WHOA! WHOA!" We all started laughing as we thought of two people coming
down on him and squashing him. Elder Risenhoover (our DL) was laughing
so hard and he was so embarrassed! So I helped him out by telling him
about dad announcing a baby baptism. He thought that was really funny!
It was so much fun being in that district! I'll definitely miss them!
I'm going to make sure I stay in touch with my companions though!
I have not seen Sister Hall's family member. I'm
sorry! I actually have seen someone amazing though. I was at the TRC
building with my companions because she wanted us to come see her one
last time before we headed to Minnesota. I found out that one of the TRC
investigators was a man that used to come into my work at the Provo
Chevron. He came up to us to say hi and I told him who I was. He lit up
and said, "Oh my goodness!!! I was wondering where you'd disappeared!
Well I'm glad your doing well!" He was super nice and VERY chatty! But
it was great!
I have really come to realize the importance of
listening here at the MTC. I found that through listening, I have been
able to better understand the investigators. And the spirit is present
more often when I am teaching. Listening is probably the most important
thing I learned here at the MTC.
I have gotten a little sick these past few
days. It started after Sunday devotional, which was awesome! We got to
hear from the director of 17 Miracles and he was amazing! I got really
bad aches and I got super dizzy and nauseated. It was funny because we
usually stand when we sing and they were all looking at me like, "why
aren't you standing?" My companions explained and they were okay with
it. I literally could not stand for very long. However I took medicine
and am feeling a lot better now! I'm sure it's just a cold from stress.
We met another wonderful woman today at the temple!
Some of our new sisters really wanted to take some pictures with us so
we asked a woman that had come out of a session with us to take a
picture. She was very willing and happy to take pictures and then she
opened up to us about her conversion story. She is from Florida and
wants to move here to Utah because she loves how the temples are so
close. She told us that she was a minister for another Christian church
but realized halfway through that they only had partial truths so she
called her friend who is LDS. Her friend asked if she wanted to meet
with the missionaries and she said no, they intimidated her. She let us
know that she used to think that the LDS church was a cult so she
actually had a ton of opportunities before she called her friend.
Anyways, after she hung up the phone, about 30 seconds later, she heard a
knock at the door. She asked who they were and they responded, "we're
the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."
She said that she broke down in tears and when she answered the door,
she looked at the elders and said, "all I want is the truth." She said
she was then baptized 2 months later and was endowed within a year.
She also said that when she went home to see her
parents, they had noticed a change in her and they wanted to know why.
She told them about joining the church and they didn't really say much
about it after. 2 months later, her father called and said he and her
mother were going to be baptized as well and they were sealed together
as a family soon after. I was so blown away by that story and how
supportive she was. She explained that even if people slam the doors on
you and hate you, it was going to be okay because she used to be one of
those people. She explained that God was still preparing her to receive
the truth. I was so happy when I heard that.
Thank you so much mom for the pink present!!! It was
lovely! I am also super excited to use the awesome pink straightener!!!
It is so CUTE!!! And thank you Grandma J! I will definitely save that
for something AWESOME!!! I also love that Jordon tried to make cake for
Jen! That's so cute! And FUNNY!!! I can totally see Jordon calling on
the phone saying, "um mom... I think I ruined the cake..." I love you
guys so much! Thank you for the support and birthday wishes. Leah made
me a beautiful birthday card! It made me so happy! And I got a super
duper cute card and Disney pin from Meg! It was AWESOME! I actually had
an awesome birthday present from my district! They sang happy birthday
to me! And... get this... my branch president was also born on July
20th! So I made sure to wish him a happy birthday!!!
I didn't manage to get a picture with
President Nally and Sister Nally but I did talk to them so they knew I
was here! I won't be able to send you pictures yet because they have
huge restrictions on the computers so I probably won't send them until
I'm in Minnesota. I can't seem to find an option to get photos on but
don't worry! I have a lot of photos! I miss you guys so much and I love
you! I'll see you in 18 months!!!
Love,
Sister Jacklin
No comments:
Post a Comment