Where did July go?, from Sister J

How did another week go by? Time is just flying by! This past week was SO good! We found TWO new investigators and had 2 investigators come to church! So many miracles this past week, I will share a couple!

First off we met a young teenage girl named Yasia about a week and a half ago when tracting. We were able to meet with her again this past week and had an awesome lesson with her! We were able to read from the scriptures together with her and focus on how God is our Heavenly Father! And how we can pray to Him. Yasia is a girl who has had to take on a lot of adult responsibilities at a young age. She is someone searching for love and a relationship with God! I hope she was able to understand how the gospel of Jesus Christ can bless her and help her fulfill her needs and desires! 

Second, we were able to meet with a lot of less actives this past week and branch out and meet new less actives from the ward that Sister Jensen or I haven't met before! It was so good! One of the families we have been working with has three kids. We have been working with the family on reading, praying, and going to church together. We were able to discuss the importance of church and why we partake of the Sacrament. The three kids even dressed up as missionaries! Future missionaries right there! (I can't get my camera to connect to the computer so I will try to send them next week)

This past month we have had a lot of families move out but we have also had some families move in! One of the families that moved in we had dinner with this past week. It has been great getting to know the new families!

Also! We are teaching this little boy named Allan (right now we just happen to be teaching a lot of children and youth). He is so great! There is this younger couple in the ward, the Goodwins who have kind of taken him in. He lives with his mom and their living conditions are not the best (it is no place for a little boy to grow up in) so the Goodwins do things with him and his mom occasionally! They go to the movies, swimming, out to eat, just fun things! The Goodwins are so great! Well anyways we started teaching Allan this past week! He has come to church a couple times with his mom, who is a member, and the Goodwins before but now his mom is letting us teach Allan! 

Lastly, I had a great experience with Karen and Woody this past week. They are an older couple that aren't investigating the church but we go over and visit with them and do service for them. They are so sweet! They both worked for Red Cross and that is how they met each other. Sister Jensen was introducing Karen to familysearch.org and helping her get involved with family history. I was talking with Woody who is 92 years old! He is an Okie talker for sure :) he loves to talk and oh boy does he have a ton of stories! He told me that since he was 92 now he figured he should give up golfing haha. He loves golfing! He told me about all the places he has lived (mostly outside the US) and how he joined the military during World War II.  He is full of great life stories and so eager to share them with other! 

I hope all yall are doing good! Thanks for all the prayers and support! I love you all! I am so grateful to be serving a mission! It is truly wonderful! What a blessing it is to be representing the Lord in sharing His gospel to the world! The church is true! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

Happy Pioneer Week, July 20th

This past week has been so great! Where do I even start?! So we found three new investigators this week! The first two, Eric and Tiffany, are a referral from the Elders. They met Eric at the library and he was interested in hearing more! They have five kids. I was wearing a white and black stripped shirt when we had a lesson with them and their oldest daughter (who is 10) was wearing a stripped shirt too. The younger daughter (probably around 8) noticed and pointed it out. She has hearing problems so she signs! It was so cute! She then ran off and came back in a stripped black and white shirt, smiling so big! So all three of us were matching! I wish I would of taken a picture. They were so cute! The oldest girl even colored us a picture! 

We met with Dillon again who is really progressing! He is keeping his commitments and reading and praying! It is so great! We also have started working with an investigator the sisters were working with before I got here. I didn't start working with her until recently. She was always gone when we tried. She is doing really well! We saw her three times this past week. On saturday night she was really stressed and it is when she is stressed that she drinks. She was watching four of her grandkids that are 4,4,2, and 1. So a lot little kids. We stopped in to see how she was doing and noticed she needed some help! So we gathered all the kids together and started singing some of the primary songs! It was so fun! The kids, along with Sherry, loved it!

With the end of summer approaching we have a lot of families in the ward that are moving out and being transferred somewhere else for the Army. So this past week we were able to help a family load up their truck. On Saturday the 1st ward had a baptism, she was 18 years old. The spirit was so strong! Sunday was such a great day! I go to two sacrament meetings every week and the talks in both of them are always so good! In the first ward they all spoke of pioneers. And I loved hearing about the stories of the pioneers! How blessed we are for the people that have come before us. 

The 2nd ward Sacrament was all on growing a testimony. How very important it is to continue doing the basics of reading the scriptures and praying every day! That evening we met with Dawn and it was such a cool experience! She knew exactly where she wanted to end up before we even explained it to her! She pointed to the Celestial kingdom and said thats where I want to be! YES! Dawn it is! I love seeing people change and accept the gospel! And hearing people pray! Missionary work is just the greatest! Pray for experiences! The Lord will help you! He doesn't expect us to do it alone, how comforting is that! In Doctrine and Covenants 100:5-6 it says,

5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;

 6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

The words will come to you! Pray for those experiences. The church is true! And I am so grateful to be sharing the gospel! I love you all! Hope you all have a great week!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

We LOVE Monday's, July 13th

Where does time go? No way have a been out a month. Last friday I hit my one month mark! That is so crazy! Well on that day I got to go to the temple! The Oklahoma City Temple was great! It is so small! Only one story! The baptismal font, one sealing room and one endowment room all on the same floor. A recent convert that Sister Jensen worked with in Mustang was going through the temple and invited her to go so I got to go to! It was a special night! I LOVE the temple so much! The recent convert was 83 years old and so sweet! It was sure special to be there that night.

Last week for p-day the Luthers (the senior couple here in Lawton, that covers Fort Sill) invited us over for dinner and to watch a Ephraim's Rescue. The Luthers are so great! He is so funny! We didn't have enough time to watch the whole movie but got to spend a good evening with them!

This past week was soo good! So many miracles! On Tuesday Sister Jensen and I had a lesson with Latoya and her family (I think I mentioned her last week). We also had a member join us, Sister Hancock! I love when members come with us! Well we taught the restoration to her whole family and it was just SO good! The spirit was so strong and Sister Hancock was able to connect with them and share stories about how the gospel has blessed her life. Latoya told her family if she found out the church was true then she is making her whole family come to church! haha she is so great! We met with her and Aaron (her boyfriend) again last night and had Sister Hopkins come with us. She was able to share personal experiences and help them understand better. It was just so good! The spirit was testifying of truths to them. I could see they were understanding! Their faith was increasing and Aaron committed to baptism! And they both committed to read and pray every day. Being a missionary is just so good!

In preach my gospel it talks about how the Lord will lead missionaries to people or the Lord will lead the people to the missionaries. That is so true! On Thursday we were tying up our bikes and this young man, Dillon, walked up to us and started talking to us. Well we shared a little about the gospel and left him with a Book of Mormon and told him that we will stop by later this week. On Saturday night we stopped by Dillon's house and taught him the restoration. We asked him why he started talking to us and he said he was looking for a church to go to! The Lord has definitely prepared him for the gospel! We asked him how his relationship with God was and he said a 10! He told us he prays every day. This guy is just great! We asked him towards the end how he had been feeling and he said excellent! He even asked what time church was! (could it get any better? It was such a cool experience) We invited him to baptized and he said yes! He is preparing to be baptized on Aug 22! At the end we asked if he would say the closing prayer and he agreed. (A little side note, I just love hearing investigators pray! Their prayers are so sincere.) Dillon even prayed about his baptism! 

Remember my first lesson in Oklahoma with Sister Poston? Well we visit her and her husband every week because their health isn't the best and they don't make it to church. Well when we saw them this week, I noticed that the game Risk was out. I asked Brother Poston if he plays and he said well of course. He asked if I played and I said yes! They invited us to come play games with them later this week and have pizza. Of course we had to go! We scheduled it in our planner as Service with the Postons haha! It was so much fun! We didn't have enough time for risk but played dominoes. They called it the original way. It was a new way for me and I loved it! I can't wait to teach you guys! They even keep score too!

Lastly I went into the city on wednesday for Veterans meeting. 2 weeks into the mission field they have all the new missionaries and trainers attend a meeting. It was so good! and fun to see all the missionaries that I was with in the MTC. We got to share funny stories that we have experienced while in the mission field. Speaking of funny stories, one day we were meeting with someone and we walked back to our bikes and there was bird poop on Sister Jensen's handle bar haha. It was so funny! Well the meeting was super good! They talked a lot about studies and following the schedule. We watched a video I think called 'daily bread.' Look it up! So good. It talked a lot about the daily things we should be doing- the things day by day that transform us. "The important hours of your day is between 6:30am and 10:00am. Show me how you spend those 3 hours and I will tell you how your day will go, how your mission will go, and how your life will go"- Elder Holland. I am learning just how important daily scripture study and prayer are! Make them a focus, a priority! So many answers are in the scriptures if we just ask Heavenly Father and take the time to feast on the words!

I love you all so much! Thanks for all the prayers, support and letters! God Bless!

All my love, 

Sister Jackson

Megan got a lot of rain in Oklahoma this week and she sent us some CUTE pictures. She said she was drenched head to toe even though you can't really tell in the pictures! We love our missionary she's giving it her all! Also, they attempted to get free Slurpee on 7/11, but she said they went to early in the morning so they couldn't get a Slurpee... but she sent a cute pic!

Happy 4th! from Sister J

This week was really good! I hope you all had a really good Fourth of July! 

Last Monday was a zone p day and there is 16 missionaries in my zone! We all went to Wichita Mountains and did the Elk Mountain Hike. That night the Zone Leaders did a meeting on the importance of teaching the why of baptism using the scriptures! It was such a good meeting!

On tuesday, Sister Jensen and I spent the majority of the day tracting. We met two new potential investigators! Tuesday was a really hot day and I ran out of water and a nice little girl refilled my water bottle with water and ice! It was so sweet of her!

On wednesday we had our first lesson with a lady named Dawn. We asked her what she is wanting to get out of meeting with us and she said to get spiritually fed! Isn't that an awesome answer! We are going to meet with her again this week!  

Thursday was such a great day! In the afternoon we stopped by one of our investigators houses and afterwards we were biking up the street and two little boys run up to us with water! People in Oklahoma are so friendly! We asked the little boy what his name was and he said Nephi! How crazy is that! We asked if he was a member of the church and he said he kinda was. His mom and dad are less active. The two boys were staying with their aunt for the day. The Aunt was raised in the church but is no longer going. The aunt saw us biking and told the boys to go give us water! How cool is that?!

Friday we had an appointment with someone we met on tuesday tracting. Her name is Nicole. She is so sweet! She told us when we walked in that she was a member of a different church but thinks what we are doing is great. She didn't want us to get discouraged when we knocked on her door on tuesday so she let us come back today. We chatted with her  a bunch and said a prayer with her before we left. She was super sweet! Sister Jensen met a super sweet lady named Karen a couple months ago. We meet with her every week. She provided a drink and a treat when we were there visiting with her! She even sent us home with some more goodies. She is too sweet to us! That evening we had an awesome visit with a less active in the ward. Her name is Latoya. Her boyfriend or kids aren't a member and she told us that night that they all want to start taking the lessons! She said they have been wanting to change their lives and are wanting to start coming back to church! Miracles are always happening! It was raining when the lesson got over and they offered to give us a ride home so we wouldn't have to bike in the rain.

The Fourth of July was so great! I think it was the first Fourth of July that I experienced a mixture of hard rain and sunshine. So all the missionaries in Lawton volunteered at the Freedom Fest at Elmer Thomas Park in Lawton. We helped set up the stage for the 77th army band that was playing that night. We also helped pass out waters and park cars. In the evening it starts raining. At first it wasn't too bad, but then it just starts pouring and the rain is coming down. We run to a volunteer van and wait about a 30 minutes for it to pass. It was crazy! Well anyways the rain destroyed the stage so we spent the next couple hours cleaning up the stage and trying to get it ready again for the show that night. All ended up well and with all the hands that were helping the show continued! The army band played and then there was a firework show! The FIREWORKS were AMAZING! They said there was so many people there and that it made Lawton history. It was such a good night. President even let us stay out a little later that night to watch the show.

Sunday was great! Church was really good. Sister Stringham taught a lesson in Relief Society on service. "We can alter the face of the earth one family and one home at a time through charity, our small and simple acts of pure love." 

I hope you all have a great week! I am a little rushed on time today so sorry it is short! Thanks for all your support and prayers! I love you all! God Bless

All my love,

Sister Jackson