Feeling Blessed

That is exactly how I feel right now. I feeling nothing but blessed! 

This past week we got some very exciting news at Christmas Conference!!! Our mission boundaries are EXPANDING to include 3 stakes in the Tulsa area!?!? and Sister Burley is heading to TULSA! I am so pumped for her!!! So all the wards that have previously had 4 missionaries are now only having 1 so we can cover the new areas! So all us missionaries have been pretty stressed this past week with moving out of apartments and getting ready for the new areas! Since so many missionaries are getting transferred, I'll be able to see ALL my old companions, plus Elder Udy (my cousin) before I go :)  

I have loved every second of the past 18 months and I just wanted to share 18 things I have learned from my mission! (shout out to Sister Caudill, one of my old companions, who gave me the idea)

• The gospel is about new beginnings
• We are all children of God
• Christ is the source of ALL peace in our life John 16:33
• Life is not about me
• If you are unhappy study the life of the Savior
• Heavenly Father expects our all
• Remember the blessed and happy state of those who keep the commandments of God
• Its the little things, that day by day transform us and chart our course
• Heavenly Father loves us all and is in the details of our lives
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ is simple
• Put God first and everything will work out 3 Nephi 13:32-33
• "For when we want to speak to God, we pray. And when we want him to speak to us, we search the scriptures" -Robert D. Hales
• "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1
• This is the Lord's work and we are just instruments in His hands
• We just need to go about doing good! Love and serve EVERYONE!
• You can still be cute as a Sister Missionary!
• Change  is good! and we need to remember to repot ourselves to allow us to continue to grow!
• Philippians 4:11 "For I have learned in whatsoever state I am,therewith, to be content

Before we found out about all the new changes happening, Sister Burley changed what was written on our calendar for the 29th. She changed it to, "New Adventure Begins." How fitting that is for the both of us! I have absolutely loved my mission! and I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had. It has changed me in so many ways but I know there are still great things that await me (D&C 45:62). I am still going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and share this wonderful gospel with others! For I know our Savior lives! It is his birth and life that we celebrate this weekend. "And now continue your journey" (D&C 62:3-4).

All my love,

Sister Jackson

P.S. Have a Merry Merry Christmas!!!! I love all of you!!!

Us with our cute gingerbread houses!

The Gospel is About New Beginnings

Hey Yall! This past week I went on exchanges with Sister Smith in Ada. She seriously is the best! and so wise! She always shares these little spiritual nuggets with me and this past week was: The Gospel is about new beginnings. This is SO true! Even though my life is going to be changing soon the gospel is all about new beginnings! 

This past week was amazing! I wanted to share 2 experiences:

• Peggy! Remember her? We met with her twice this past week. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and in the lesson she said, "that's scary, I should of been raised a Mormon." Everything her mom taught her growing up is what we believe! She told us that her mom just didn't know about the church! We even read part from the Book of Mormon and she said that it explained the truths so well! She even asked for a copy. We invited her to read and when we came back a couple days later she read 18 pages! And LOVED it! She said she started reading and couldn't stop. She loved Lehi's dream and wanted to know what everything meant. The chapter she stopped at was the chapter that explains it all! We told her to keep reading and she would find out!!! We love Peggy!!!
• The next experience happened yesterday at church. The little man in the picture with the glasses is Sam. Sam and his sister Hannah, the one being held, have down syndrome. They remind me so much of Alex! Well anyways Sam turned 12 last week and yesterday he passed the Sacrament for the first time. His Dad was right there to help him and it was one of the most tender experiences ever. The Elders described the experience by saying, that is what the priesthood is all about.

I love all yall! And I hope everyone has a blessed Christmas! What an amazing time of year it is. I'm truly so grateful for everything that we have been blessed with, especially our Savior Jesus Christ. Let us remember him in this wonderful time of the year. 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

Sister Burley graduated! And we were matching, so we had to take a picture!

It SNOWED! This is how we dress when we go out biking in the cold!

   

Sister Armour and I! Nevada buddies!

Us and Maranda!

Christmas party a couple weeks ago with Peggy and Momma P.

Dinner with the Binghams last night!

He is Jesus Christ

ts been a musical week! Our friends at the First Baptist Church from the Bridge invited us to a musical they did for Christmas this past week! It was great! We love Kay! We see her every morning at the bridge where we work out.

Then on Saturday we went to 'He is Jesus Christ." It was AMAZING! It was my first time seeing it! Its similar to 'Lamb of God' except it covers all of Christ's life from birth to death and resurrection. The music was inspiring! Listen to the songs from this if you haven't heard them before!

And because it was in the city I saw a lot of people from the Village and Noble Ward

We also had our ward Christmas party! Our new investigator Peggy came to the party! She is the miracle for the week that I want to share!

We met Peggy in a round about way through meeting other people! I'll keep it short though. So we met Peggy probably about 2 weeks ago. We went to go see Opal in the hospital and Peggy was there. They are neighbors and Peggy helps take care of Opal. Sister Burley and I both felt impressed to see if she would like the Elders to come give her a blessing. Opal said yes and the Elders came. It was a miracle! That day she wasn't eating or even sitting up. The very next day she was standing and a couple days after that released from the hospital! Shortly after Opal went home we were driving past her house and Peggy was outside! She was so happy to see us and invited us over on Friday. Once we got there she told us it was her birthday(52)! She has been going through a lot and just didn't know her purpose. Her 2 children moved out and she is going through a divorce. She wanted a  blessing as well and it was beautiful! She knows this is the right step. She can see God's hand pushing her in this direction. She calls us angels! :) She came that night to the Christmas party and on Sunday to church! It has been such an amazing experience meeting with her and teaching her! We love Peggy! I love being a missionary! Especially at this time of year! I love all yall! Have a blessed week!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

This is how we are everyday when the mailman comes! We love mail!

It also has been freezing! We bundle up now!

It's December

Hey Yall! We went to some of the far out towns in our area and Oklahoma is just so pretty! Had to share some!

   

Also spent the day in Ada with Sister Herrin! We had so much fun! And the sky was beautiful!

Remember Shani and David? We hadn't seen them in so long and we finally saw them! :) except they are moving :( we are way sad about that! But happy for them! We had to take a picture with them before they left.

I wanted to share 2 miracles from this past week! 

• We got a bible referral for a man named Joe in our area. The first time Sister Burley met him on exchanges and they weren't sure how interested he was. The second time Sister Burley and I went back and he asked if our church was the one across from Wrangler. We said yes! He then said, "I know someone who goes to church there." He knows Brother Sherwood! And after that we went to tell Brother Sherwood but Joe beat us to it. He had already texted him and said he met us and asked him, "Is your church any good?" So we are going to get together with Joe and Brother Sherwood for a lesson this coming week!
• On Saturday it rained and rained and rained all day! Sister Burley and I were out walking around and we started talking with this lady named Hayley. Her Sister is really sick and has been in the hospital for months. She has had all these things going on in her life. She let us talk with her and yesterday we went back and taught her the restoration! At the end she was crying. She wants to start being more religious and getting into church. Everything just made sense to her! It was amazing!

Sister Burley and I had such a great week! Full of miracles and light! Keep lighting the world this Christmas Season! Have a blessed week :) 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

All the trees here finally changed colors! They are so pretty!!

We volunteered at the Chocolate Festival and Ladels of Love on December 1st to kick off Light the World! 

#LIGHTtheWORLD

This past week we had a mission tour from Elder and Sister Sitati! It was amazing to hear from them. Did you know even general authorities have authority cards? Who knew?! For almost an hour he let all us missionaries ask him questions and it was inspiring what we heard. He is SO funny! He is from Kenya. He spoke last weekend at Norman Stake Conference as well. They are converts of about 30 years and it was missionaries who met them first!

Sister Burley and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had about 5 Turkey dinners from Thursday to Sunday. Everyone in Seminole really likes their turkey and pie!! We were so full!! So grateful for all the kind families who had us over! What a blessing it was. My cute family even included me in their dinner! :)

Sister Burley and I also saw Cokeville Miracle for the first time! It was wonderful! I recommend watching it sometime if you haven't seen it! Speaking of miracles we had the biggest one this past week. A couple weeks ago we met a lady named Teresa. She was so kind to us and agreed to let us come back. A couple days after that she texted us asking if we lived by the Bible or the Book of Mormon. We expressed to her that we believe and live by both of them. She then told us that she just lived by the Bible and couldn't meet with us. We told her we want to meet and talk more about it and she agreed :) We finally met with her this past week! and we talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. She said it made sense and that she was going to start reading the Book of Mormon. And she said that she had never been able to find a church family and she was still searching for one! Teresa is SO prepared! I'm so glad she let us come over and help clear up some things she didn't understand. 

Don't forget to light the world this Christmas Season! We kicked off our service last night by making Christmas cards with a family in the ward to send to soldiers! Love you all! Have a blessed week!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

How we spent our Thanksgiving! The Wellness Center in Seminole has been putting up lights for the past couple months (it seems that way at least). They finally turned on and we went to look at them!

   

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I hope yall have a blessed Thanksgiving! What a beautiful time of the year we have to express our Thanksgiving for all those around us! I'm truly grateful for so many things but especially grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Sister Burley and I had a wonderful week! Here are a couple highlights:

• We found 4 new investigators this week! Unfortunately we stopped teaching some of our other investigators that we had been teaching for awhile. A lot of them we had not been able to meet with lately and were not keeping their commitments. We were really sad about it but Heavenly Father in his goodness blessed us with more people to teach!! It was an amazing experience! We are so grateful!
• Last week Sister Burley and I met a lady named Shauna and her family at the park. She told us that her husband's best friend was LDS! We had an amazing conversation with her and were so excited! Except she was about to move and didn't know where so she didn't give us an exact address. But yesterday we went out searching for Douglas street which is where Shauna's mom lived. We forgot our map and couldn't find Douglas so the first door we knocked on to ask for directions pointed us in the right direction. Then the first person we talked to on Douglas just happened to know Shauna!! She said she lived just a couple houses down. We go to the house and there are some kids outside and we ask if Shauna lives there and they said she moved and then gave us her house number and street. MIRACLES! We were suppose to find Shauna! So we then made almost a full circle back to where we parked our bikes and go and meet her husband! Heavenly Father is in the details of everything!
• Also this weekend we had Stake Conference! We were spiritually blessed! Elder and Sister Sitati came to it! Us missionaries get to hear from them again tomorrow. 
• #LIGHTtheWORLD  The new Christmas initiative this year is all about service! They want us to be a light and serve! Anyone we want and anyway we want! Starting with a worldwide day of service on DECEMBER 1st! Check out the website for more about it and be apart of this great day!!  https://www.mormon.org/christmas/teaser 

This holiday season be a LIGHT! It helps us all remember that Jesus Christ is the light of the world! “When people think of Christmas, they often think of lights,” said Bruce Muir, director of emergency response for the Church. “Christmas lights, lighted store windows, tree lights. Christ taught ‘Ye are the light of the world,” and we hope that through small and simple acts of service, we can spread the light of Christ—helping others to feel the love of the Savior through genuine kindness.”

I hope yall have a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends!! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

Staying in Seminole

I found out this morning that I will be staying in Seminole with Sister Burley for my last 6 weeks! Sister Burley and I are SO SO EXCITED! :D We know so many great things are going to happen this next little bit!! 

I can't remember everything that happened this past week! It went by so fast but it was a great week. We took a trip out to Okemah which might be the farthest away town in our area (33 miles). We went out to meet a member in the ward that we hadn't met yet. He was happy to have us come but he wasn't interested in coming back to church. It was really sad. It was an interesting conversation we had with him. He seems to have a lot of crazy ideas. Even though it didn't turn out how we were hoping to, we are still glad we reached out to him. Heavenly Father loves all of his children and we hope that the spirit touched his heart while we were there.

Sister Burley and I have continued our service streak! We met an older gentlemen, Harley, a couple weeks ago and we went by his house to see if he needed some help. We decided to help but after 5 minutes or so we realized we got ourselves into something a little bit harder than the last yard, Harvey, we helped with. Luckily our neighbors, the Palmers, helped us. She is a sweetheart! She let us borrow her tools and such. She said if we ever get ourselves into a sticky situation that her and her kids could help us! We also made brownies for some members in the ward and put a bunch of sticky notes all over their door! We have had so much fun lately :)

Last night we also did a fun Thanksgiving activity with a family in the ward!

That is all I can think of for now!! I love you all!!! Have a blessed week!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

    

This past monday Sister Parsons, a member, took us to North Pole City in Oklahoma City!!! It was a HUGE Christmas store!!!! It has SO many lights and trees. It was so much fun! 

Fall back into Service

Sister Burley and I had a lot of exciting things happen this past week!! We have really been focusing on strengthening our relationships with the members and doing little kind deeds for someone in the ward or in the community every day! And we have seen so many blessings from it!! We also have received SO much back. God is good all the time, all the time God is good!

• Thursday we had some time in the afternoon and we felt impressed to go rack our neighbors leaves. His name is Harvey! He is an older guy that has such a kind heart! He only has 1 dog but he takes care of a ton of stray cats. When I first met Harvey it was a couple months back when I was companions with Sister Long. He was outside feeding all the stray cats. At that time there was 11! And his whole driveway was full of bowls! Well anyways we felt impressed to go help him. We racked his front yard and cleared his driveway for him. He told us towards the end that he had been meaning to come to his yard the past couple days but didn't have the time too. He was SO grateful for us. The next day we were walking down the road and Harvey and his wife pull over to talk to us. He tells us again how grateful he is for our service and tells us he loves us! He is adorable!! That same time he was in Walmart and saw the Elders. He had never met them before but recognized the black name tag that we wear and started talking to them. He told them what we did for him! He is just too kind!
• Another kind deed we did was about 2 weeks, right before our ward trunk or treat. We were going around inviting people to the activity and we met Sonya. She told us that it was on her birthday and so she couldn't make it. We made a note that it was her birthday and went back and put a bunch of notes all over her door for her! Just yesterday a member told us that she ran into Sonya at the school her son goes too. (Sonya is a teacher). Sonya told the member how much our kind deed meant to her. She was very touched!!  
• On Wednesday we had a crazy day! It was a bit scary, but ended up being a day full of miracles and laughs! Sister Burley and I just laugh about it now! This picture describes it all!

• We got a little discouraged on Wednesday. We were in a small town outside of Seminole, called Prague. We had kind of a scary interaction with someone and was a bit shaken up. We wanted to turn back, we felt a lot like Alma when he went to the city of Ammonihah. We decided to keep going (after we got sonic) and were greeted by an Amulek- a very sweet older lady!! She was heaven sent! She was just what we needed to help give us the inspiration to keep going. She gave us water and hugs and told us she loved us, even though she just barley met us. She made it possible for us to later meet Katie! Katie is someone who just moved to Prague and has 2 kids and one on the way. Her husband and her were just talking about church and then we showed up! #miracles! Later that evening we even had a member, who saw us walking, offer to give us a ride home and took us to Braums too. Heavenly Father definitely watches over ALL of his children.

So much joy is found in service. I have seen that over and over throughout my life, especially as I have been a missionary. Elder Oaks said, "We are happier and more fulfilled when we act and serve for what we give, not for what we get. Our Savior teaches us to follow Him by making the sacrifices necessary to lose ourselves in unselfish service to others. If we do, He promises us eternal life, “the greatest of all the gifts of God” (D&C 14:7), the glory and joy of living in the presence of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ." If you see someone in need this week do a kind deed! Reach out to someone, serve someone, be someone's friend! It only takes a little bit but the outcome is much much more! I hope yall have a blessed week! Remember God is good all the time!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

  

Happy Halloween

This past week was a whirlwind! I can't even remember everything that happened! We took a lot of pictures though!

   

This past week we helped out at the Grisso again for the Ghost Tours. Sister Burley and I just pass out cookies at the end of the tour. When we first got there every one was still in the tour so Sister Burley and I decided to practice teaching each other while we were waiting. Once everyone started coming we stopped and started talking with people. We met this cute lady named Lynn and her family. She was so impressed with us and told us, "I could talk to yall all night." Unfortunately she said she had to go and started to walk away. Inside I was thinking "no, she can't leave." So we blurted out right before she left, "Can we come over sometime to talk with you more?" And she said "absolutely! And gave us her number! It was a miracle!!!!! I know we had this little tender mercy because we role played and followed President's counsel about teaching more!

Both Sister Burley and I got cards from our grandmas for Halloween with some money to get a little treat! We LOVE Braums! Thanks to my Mom, Family, and Sister for sending Halloween goodies as well :)

The Fall Social! We were in charge of planning the activity and such. Luckily we had Sister Beiber help us! She did such a fantastic job! It was so much fun! The Elders and Brother Beiber even did a spook alley and it was fantastic! The kids all LOVED it!

   

Some members in the ward!!

  

Our back seat friends! We were trying to be them 

Another miracle we had this past week! We were out inviting people to the fall social and we saw this guy sitting on his couch on the porch. We walk over and invite him to the party and then he says, "Can I have that pamphlet?" (We had a Restoration pamphlet in our hand with the flyers to the party). We then started talking with him about the gospel and set up an appointment to come back! We went back the next day and his brother said he was in the shower. We thought it was just an excuse but we remembered we had a missed call from an unknown number. We called the number back and it was Chad! The guy we were suppose to meet with. He asked if we were still coming by today! (He remembered) So we told him what his brother said and that we could be back over in just a couple minutes. We then taught him the Restoration and are going back again later this week! 

Another amazing week being in the service of God! I love being a missionary! And I love this gospel! How blessed we are to be able to share it with those around us!! Have a blessed week! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

The Grisso Mansion! The past 2 weeks we have been helping out with the Ghost tours! Sister Burley and I just pass out cookies.