Sister Carlee Jacklin: Love From Minnesota!!!

Hi Family!!!

So, you guys really need to take me to that cemetery when I am done. Make sure to put in on the list of things to do! :) I love hearing about all your adventures! :) I loved the comment Mason made! I especially loved his letter to me in the email that asked how many Book of Mormons I had sold. They crack me up! I am also so glad that the card made it to him! I felt so bad that I didn't get it before hand! I kept forgetting to put it in the mail! And yes! I got the picture of Olaf from Dad! I LOVED IT! I felt quite jealous that he was able to draw it identical to the movie! I have been working hard with the time that I have but it has been rough. Well, at least compared to Dad's stuff! :) I am enjoying the work and it has become so much more green out here! :) We actually had a really awesome thunder storm! It was so much fun and so scary to drive in! But it made it so much greener! :) I think Spring is finally here! :)

So, I can't believe that Carson is home! And both Sam and Kaden are going on their missions in like 3 months!!! CRAZY!!! That's awesome that Kaden did that! That sounds like him! They are going to love it! I am dead serious when I say that you guys need to film Zac opening his call and send it to me! I would love it! :) So, I am coming up on my hump day on April 20th and I would love to see some pictures of all the family! My request is that you do as funny of pictures as you can with a "Happy Hump Day" sign! Pretty please? I saw that Sister Terry's family did it for her and I loved it! :) Also, could you send me some pictures of Jen and Jordon's wedding? Sister Mower really wants to see some and I would love to have some to show to future companions! :) But that's all! :) Also, for my hump day, Sister Mower and I are going to go get pedicures!!! :) It was her idea! She decided that since I made it halfway, we should get pampered. We'll probably just go to the cheapest place we can and get a simple one with nail polish. :) I am having way to much fun with her! :)

Also! I just saw Sister Farnworth from the MTC at the Library! We are emailing in Roseville because we are going to Como Park again! :) They are too! I also saw Sister Turner and I gave her the biggest hug! She was so excited to see me and of course I was excited to see her! So we gave each other this huge hug and everyone in the library shooshed us! hahaha! It should be fun going together! :) Our Sister Training Leaders and possibly our Zone Leaders should be coming down to meet us there too! It's going to be a blast! :)

We saw a ton of miracles this week! We have been working so hard for a long time and haven't seen much success. Especially in our bishop's eyes which has been hard. We have been trying to show him that we are working hard and doing our best but he has been unconvinced. So we decided to take matters into our own hands and we worked extra hard. We ended up getting 5 new investigators this week!!! One was a part member family that needs to be completed so we got 4 there and then we got 1 named Leza from tracting. Which was good because I have been trying to find faith in tracting. She was a sweet woman. I was thankful for the tender mercy because I am not a fan of numbers and it has been quite stressful hearing about how numbers need to be higher. I have been very adamant about having quality lessons not a large quantity of lessons. Because of that, we have had some great miracles! :)

We are also doing a fun youth activity for the month of May where we are having the youth do a challenge where they do their own type of missionary work like inviting non member friends to activities or to watch a Mormon message or simple things like that. When they do something, they get a certain amount of points and if they get to the end goal, they will get a pizza party and we will watch Meet the Mormons with them and their nonmember friends. We have a family in the 2 wards that are doing it that has an out door theater so we will do it there hopefully and the youth will have a great experience! :) We are really focusing on doing missionary work in all possible ways. Even very non traditional ways. :) I am excited to see how it turns out. :)

We went to the W's who are a family that lives in Elk River and they have triplets! I sent that picture of them wrestling me.... my arms felt like they were going to fall off afterwards.... :) They were so much fun! They live out on a farm and they have chickens running around their yard! :) It was so cute! They said that they will get us there for dinner in May so that we can see the sheep! :) It was so cute and a great place for kids to grow up! :) They also had some friends there that were members of the Elk River ward. They were married in June and are pregnant with their first baby! The girl's name was B and she was so cute! She had served her mission in Denmark and she didn't get married for a while but then met her husband in D.C.! She said that if you are 24 and older, D.C. is a good place to go if you aren't married yet. It was funny! :) The W's are also hosting a German exchange student from North West Germany and she is so cute! Her name is L! She isn't a member so it is exciting to see that she is getting to know more about the Church! :) It was really fun to be out there! It reminded me of Idaho a lot so it was nice! :) I'll have to take you out some day and show you around.

We also visited this woman in the ward named R. D.! She is so cute! She has 6 kids, 29 grandkids, and 62 great grandkids! I about died!!! She was so cute and gave us chocolate and told us that we needed to come out and eat dinner at her place some time! She was so cute! We are really getting to know the ward which is so good! Nothing moves forward when you don't know the ward! So we are working on it! It's funny because doing this has taught me how visiting teaching should be done and that it is so important! Sister D. is very old but she still does her visiting teaching! She is an amazing example! I decided I am going to be one of the best visiting teachers that I can be! It is so so so important! :)

Anyways... I better be off! Oh! By the way! There is a woman in our ward named A.B. that used to live in Salmon Idaho for a while! I should have told you while you were in Idaho but I FORGOT!!! So I guess you'll have to call and see if grandpa and grandma or Barb and Boyd know of that name. I asked her and she said it sounded pretty familiar. She laughed and said that it should because Salmon is such a small town! :) So I thought I would run it by you and see. :) Anyways!

Well, I am excited for the spring and I'll be sure to send you updated pictures of the green landscape! It's sure beautiful! I think that the weirdest thing right now is the fact that I came out when it was green and warm and now it is back that way.... It is somewhat strange to me how time can go so fast! I never thought at the beginning of my mission that I would see it get warm again! We get into such a narrowed mindset on our missions. Actually, we do that in life too. We forget about the eternities sometimes... :) But that's why we have the gospel and repentance! They are awesome reminders! :)

Hey! I think my accent got stronger! We were talking to a man in our ward and he laughed and said that I already sound like a true Minnesotan even after only 9 months! :) haha! I guess we'll see when I talk to you! :) I was pretty proud of myself! ;) Anyways, keep me updated on all of your adventures! I am excited to hear more about you guys! :) LOVE YOU!

Love,

Sister Carlee Jacklin