Sister Carlee Jacklin: Love From Minnesota!!!!

Hi Family!!!

Wooo hooo! Go Zac and Connor!!! You guys are awesome! I keep hearing about Connor's competitions and I'm excited to see them! And by then he'll be a senior so he'll be a PRO! And I am so proud of Zac! He has done so good! I am so happy for him and I hope he has fun! I hope he got my letter too! I also sent Connor one so I hope he gets it! I also got an awesome email from Jordon and Jen!

So I told sister Tingey what you said about the 18 months... yeah.. she said she's going to beat me if I tell you I'll see you in 16 months. She says it apparently helps with time because when you're constantly saying 18 months, when you look back at how long it has been, you get the best shock of your life when you realize how long it has been! But it's okay! I am so glad that I have been able to be out here! It was funny really because we were talking about people going on missions for the wrong reason. And I thought about it and realized. I am not out here for me. I never really was going for me. I decided to go because God hit me over the head with it! :) But then I thought back to that FHE we had with the whole family, and I realized that you have been the driving reason behind my being out here. I have an AMAZING family that has been blessed with the Holy Ghost and we are forever! And I am now going out to help others to have that! So I WILL NOT GO HOME EARLY!!! I am going to stick it out to the end so that I, like Alma, can come home and feel that overwhelming joy at seeing you and saying, "I DID IT!" For Alma was able to feel that joy when he reunited with his brothers.

Well... I am so EXCITED to hear that sister Springer is here!!! Yay! And speaking of people I know. Zachry will be excited to hear this! I met a sister Beeson the first day here in Minnesota and she got to train one of my MTC friends! Well, that sister Beeson is the daughter of Mister Beeson at AF High! We were able to see each other twice now and she is now a Sister Training Leader!!! She is a fantastic missionary and I really felt at home when I saw her the first day! She gave me the biggest hug when we saw each other! I also was tracting with sister Tingey one night and we knocked on a woman's door that said she had family that had all converted to our church. We continued to ask her questions and found out that her family lives in AMERICAN FORK!! I asked her the name of her family and she said Corneiau (Cor-nee-yay). Well, I knew a Marie Corneiau in high school and it turns out that she is her niece who is also on a mission in California! So I know that even though that woman is not open to hearing the gospel right now, she has a whole family of missionaries to help bring her to Christ!! :)

It has been a crazy week though too. We are faced with having to drop an investigator. Her name is Lisa and we have been teaching her for over a month and she has not been keeping commitments and when she does, it is only to please us. She hasn't been doing it for herself. So we are planning on dropping her. Which brought our teaching pool down to zero... But we continued in our efforts and have found some people that may be interested in learning more about our church! Which is great! Something crazy happened yesterday and this morning though! We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting! By the way, When me and sister Tingey fast, we fast breakfast and lunch because we have 1:00 church. But the spirit was so strong! We realized though as we went through the day that our ward, though it has been so strong regardless of size, has really been getting discouraged. Right now we have 350 people on record in our ward and only 120-150 are attending. So the ward has been really worried about that. So as sister Tingey and I were doing companionship study, sister Tingey came across a suggestion in Preach My Gospel that said that missionaries have been really successful in their finding efforts as they have asked members to write down anyone that they know of who they think would benefit from hearing the gospel. Then you ask them to pray and within a 2 month period, pick a day to invite them to learn about the gospel in their homes. So we have decided that we are going to talk to brother Ostler, our ward mission leader, if this would be beneficial to do so. We decided that we need to be bold in getting the members involved! And it'll be AWESOME!!

We also have been continuing to teach Kiarra. She has been very against being baptized and we had a hard time trying to locate her pain. So we decided to re-teach the restoration to her and try to apply it to her. We only got to telling her about families being a gift from God when she burst. She spilled out all of her fears and anxieties. She talked about how everyone around her was dying and how no one wanted to listen to her. She talked about how her birth father wasn't supporting her and her mom and how she hated him for that. She continued on and on and we finally figured out why she was so closed off. So we are now going to focus on helping her see how baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and utilizing the atonement is going to help her. It is going to be a long process because she doesn't think that anything will change the circumstances that she's in but we will continue to work on her!

I am so glad that I am in the area that I am in. I will continue to have hard times but I know that the Lord will help me. I actually have not only been able to learn more but I was able to teach my companion. Lisa had cancelled unexpectedly and we had a member with us. Sister Tingey was angry and I was frustrated so the spirit was gone. I told sister Tingey to pull over and we would go for a walk. She did but kept complaining that what we were doing was unconsecrated. I asked her how and she said she wanted to be out working. So I patiently turned and said, "Yes, a consecrated missionary would be working. However, she would be working with the spirit. We do not have the spirit with us right now. And that is definitely not being consecrated. So let's slow down and assess the situation before we go out so that we can work more effectively." She immediately said, "Wow... look at you! My trainee teaching ME!" I laughed and we were able to work harder and I was able to feel less frustrated that night. I know that we have been though our fair share of challenges and it won't be over anytime soon! But I have been called for some reason and I am ready to work to my fullest to help aid in the work! And I have been out for 2 months already so I'm feelin' pretty good!! :) And General Conference is right around the corner which will be amazing!!! I'm so excited for that!

We also have an awesome service opportunity! Brother Matson has been truly suffering lately. He went in for a biopsy and they punctured his lung so he's going to be bed ridden now for a long while. We asked sister Matson if we could come help clean their house for them. Well, I guess she's okay with it but brother Matson won't have anything to do with it! So we got permission to go clean when they aren't home! Which is so nice because we will be able to take away some of that stress that is weighing sister Matson down! We love them so much and we are praying for them to be able to reach the temple in June! They are such an amazing couple! She actually got up too in church and lost it. She thanked the ward and us missionaries for helping her out. She said that if it weren't for this amazing church and gospel, she would not have made it through the struggles she has. She is truly converted to this gospel! She hasn't even been a convert for a year and she said that she will NEVER turn away from the witness that she has received! We love her so much!!!! :D

I am so happy that everything has gone well this week for you and that fast and testimony meeting was good! We also haven't had to pull out our darts yet! :) I love you so much and I cannot wait for the day that I am able to hug you guys again. Watch out mom! I don't plan on letting go for a good while when I hug you!!! I love you so much and I know now that I am out here because I have you for eternity! I remember that that was in my first letter from home! Thank you so much for all that you do! The fact that you are so strong in the gospel has helped me get through the hard times! I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Carlee Janell Jacklin

P.S. I still haven't gotten my coat yet... I also may want to put some money in now for boots because sister Tingey said it will be good to have EVERYTHING before it gets cold so we won't have to scramble to get it later. So I will be needing some money put in for boots. I love you!!!! Thank you again for all that you do!!!

Oh!!! By the way! On September 24th, we are going to a Twins baseball game for District P-day so you won't get an email from me that Monday! It will be that Wednesday the 24th! Just as a heads up! Love you!!!