Sister Carlee Jacklin: Love From Minnesota!

Hi family!

Wow! Connor sounds like he's doing great! As tall as dad and 190? I'm so happy! And congrats to Zac! Tell him I'm happy that he has been working to make right choices! Tell Jen and Jordon I love them and give Oreo a big hug from me! I also love you and Dad!!! I think I'll answer your questions right now!

1. Yes I did get my coat and yes it is about 55 to 60 degrees right now so it has been fairly chilly. It has gotten to freezing at night too.

2. Yes! Thank you. BTW, you may want to watch my money because not only do I need boots but some tights (regular tights not fleece) and a hair cut. So I may be spending a bit today but I'll try hard not to go hog wild. :) hee hee

3. I'll answer that in the body :)

4. I don't think there is anything right now... I will probably be sending that tan jacket home because it doesn't fit me the same way. I'm hoping that means that I am losing weight!! It is too loose now and it doesn't look right... but other than that I think I am good!

This week has been good but LOOOOONG!!! We both feel like this week has felt like a month!! We would talk about people we had met this week and would be like, "wait... wasn't that last week? No! it was two days ago!" It was hard. But I have been working hard to do my best and not go insane...

I actually had kind of a wrestle with Satan yesterday... I had even dialed an 801 on our mission phone! I was so frustrated that I was about to call you or dad! But I said no to myself and called the weather!!! I felt completely alone and abandoned and probably 2 in tall. But I forced myself to open up to sister Tingey about it and she helped me. Let's just say I didn't feel like I was contributing to anything and that I wasn't fulfilling my purpose... But church was amazing and we saw a wonderful miracle! By the way, tell grandpa and grandma that they don't need to worry about me! I have them in other people here in my area! Brother Baldwin came up to us again and talked to us about all the missionaries that are out in our ward. Right now our ward has 10 missionaries so it is really cool! But as he talked to us, he got super emotional. He is a convert to the church. And let's just say, I decided that he reminded me a lot of Grandpa Jolley. I almost hugged him too. :) His wife was actually just called to be our new Relief Society President since our old one is moving to Massachusetts. And she is A LOT like Grandma Jolley!! So it's almost like I have them here with me!

So as I tried my best Sunday to get over the feelings that Satan was trying to get me to yield to, I was determined to do my best that day! And as one of our appointments fell through, we took the member we had with us to try to drop a Book of Mormon off to a girl we had taught the other day. Her name was Jamie and she told us that she still believed that there would be prophets today. So we taught her a resto and then decided to go back Sunday to reach her again! But we forgot to write down what street she lived on!!!! So we prayed that Heavenly Father would guide us and we FOUND IT!!! AND SHE WAS HOME!!! And though she didn't let us past the doorway, she took the Book of Mormon and we taught her about it. Our member was awesome! She testified about how she found out that the Book of Mormon was true and the spirit was there! So we gave her the book and committed her to read and pray and she said yes! And we set up a return appointment with her! So we have a new investigator!!! Yay!

We also had taught a man named Rick the week before and decided to stop by again Saturday to see what his thoughts were on the Book of Mormon and teach him more. Well, to our surprise, his fiance came to the door and said that he had mentioned that we would be back. She said that they didn't get around to reading the Book of Mormon but she said that we could come back tonight!!!! I about fell off the porch!!! I have never had anyone say they would like to meet with us again without hearing the actual message! They usually would say they weren't interested!!! It was AWESOME!!! We then went knocking some more down a street and sister Tingey felt super impressed that we knock on a certain door as we were going to a dinner appointment. So I said, "Okay! Let's go!" So we went to the door and a little man from India answered. We introduced ourselves and he repeatedly said, "I am a Hindu from India!!" and we left him with a Plan of Salvation Pamphlet and he would say, "I know your church! You have the man with the boat who no one would help him! That boat with animals!!!" (Noah's Ark) Then he would press the pamphlet we gave him against his forehead and say, "Bless you! Bless you!" When we left we laughed super hard! Sister Tingey laughed because she had felt super strongly that we needed to go to that door! It was really fun!

We also had planned on Wednesday to go look at stuff on mormon.org at the library and when we got there... the library was closed!!! We looked at our schedule and we had 3 HOURS OF TRACTING!!! AAAAH! But when we got to the street, we decided that we were going to see miracles! And the first door we knocked on was a woman who had been meeting with missionaries before! She had a Book of Mormon and she had also met the bishop!!!! Say what??? We were so excited!!! Then as we left the area, we saw some Jehovah's Witnesses get out of the van to drop of literature to the houses we just knocked. We laughed and said, "Sorry! Beat ya to 'em!" But it was probably funny to us because there are a lot of JW's here in Minnesota! The really funny thing too is the next area we went to the JW's were there too! It was really funny!

We have also met many others who have been prepared by God. We met a woman named Sherry who had read the Book of Mormon when she was 13 but couldn't remember it so she took a Book of Mormon from us and said that she would read it and take it more seriously than she did when she first read it. SO COOL!!! We also met a man named Jason that at first seemed very closed off. But as we taught him, he opened up and started to ask many questions. Then at the end of the lesson, when we asked if we could pray for anything for him, he said that he wanted us to pray for his loneliness to end.... I knew that he was truly willing after that because he just completely opened up to two random girls that just ended up at his doorstep! He took what we told him very seriously and even though we won't get to meet with him for 3 weeks, he set up a time for us to come back! We won't be able to meet with him for a while because he said he was going to be working in North Carolina for that time.

It truly has been a week filled with miracles and though it has been long, it was been full! I love this gospel and the things it does for us as individuals and as families! I know that even though this mission has been a challenge and will be for the whole 16 months I have left, I know that it is where I am supposed to be.

Oh! By the way, when I told you that my companion would beat me if I didn't say 18 months, she actually said that she would PAY me if I SAID 18 months. She said it under her breath so I didn't understand it. But she wasn't serious. So I'll see you in 16 months!!! :) haha

Anyways! I love you guys so much! And even though I am truly going to miss you at times, I know that if I keep the faith and do what I am asked, the Lord will keep you safe! (By the way, I know that dad sometimes forgets to put his seat belt on... please put your seat belt on dad! We had a sister in another mission die in a car accident because she wasn't wearing a seat belt) I want you to know that I pray for your safety as much as possible!!! I love you so much and I told Heavenly Father that I would be done if any of you were to die! And I said it before I got a blessing from an elder in my MTC district and he said specifically, "you will serve the full 18 months" so I am taking that as my promise that you will be safe! But you need to do your part too!

Oh! And I wanted to tell you about some people in our ward! We have a woman in our ward that everyone calls Grandma Dorothy! She is probably about 101 years old, has no teeth and a very similar laugh to that of Great Grandma Jolley! We went over to visit her and see if she needed any help and we talked to her about the church. She was baptized at 80! She also got onto the topic of people being offended in church and how stupid that is. She then gave an example of how a man in the ward was offended when she called him a sh**head... she said, "I could have said a lot worse than that! All I said was that!" When she said that she could have said a lot worse... she gave examples!!! I have never laughed so hard in my life!!! She is fantastic!!!

I also had a call to repentance a few weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about!!! We have been working with a recent convert. She has been working with the elders on getting her fiance the discussions and getting him baptized. But when we first met her, she said that she had Dyslexia and she couldn't read well but she had been reading the Book of Mormon. When we asked her where in the book she was, we were expecting her to say something like 1 Nephi 20 but she was in ALMA!!! NOT JUST ALMA BUT ALMA 36!!!! When we read with her, it was horrific! She couldn't read more than two versus... well... I am pleased to say that as of last week, she is now reading almost a whole chapter and APPLYING DOCTRINE! She's super funny too! She is African American and she is super sassy and fun! When we read last week with her we read about the Lamanites trying to destroy the Nephites. When she read a verse about that, she said, "Shoot! Those Lamanites don't give nobody a chance!" It has been so much fun! When we got to the part about Captain Moroni, she out of the blue said, "It's funny because the tactics that Moroni used are like what we use today!" :D It was amazing!!!! She applied the doctrine of having the armor of God to her life!!! It was soooo cool!!!! Anyways, the cry of repentance for that is that there is NO EXCUSE FOR US NOT TO READ!!! Because when she would read outside of our visits, if she didn't understand the passages, she wouldn't just put the book down and say forget it, she would START OVER!!! She has done amazing! It really was a cry of repentance for me. I have no excuse not to read the Book of Mormon!

Anyways! I love this gospel and though I am weak! I know that I will be given strength through the Savior! I love this gospel and I know that I would be NOTHING without the Savior and His atonement!! I love this gospel and I hope that I can continue to help others to come unto Christ even after the mission! How great is our calling as children of God to bring each other closer to Christ! I am going to add to the analogy of a faith filled man. People say that a faith filled man can be seen by the quality of his pants. A lazy man has holes in the bum. A faith filled man has holes in the knees. Well, I say, a truly faith filled man will have holes in the knees of his pants and WORN OUT SHOES! A faith filled man won't just ask! They will ACT!!! I hope that we can all act in faith even if we are not called as full time missionaries! I love you and I will continue to pray for you every day!!!

Keep strong in the faith!!! I love you!!!

Love,

Sister Carlee Janell Jacklin

P.S. I also got a letter from a sister Davis from the NY Uttica mission and I will be replying to it today!!! Thanks for being such a great example to those elders and sisters grandma and grandpa! Keep up the good work!!!

Wow!!! That's a LOOOONG EMAIL!!! hahahaha! Love you!!

Oh my goodness!!! I forgot to tell you! I saw the CUTEST LITTLE TIRE SWING EVER!!! IT WAS LITERALLY 3 INCHES IN DIAMETER!!!! SOOOOO CUUUUUTE!!!! :D

LOVE YOU!!!