Week of Miracles

This past week was SO good! So many miracles! God is SO good! My last couple days in Lawton was wonderful! This is Leiah and I at the Oklahoma Street Sign!

Sister Malcom and I at the Island Night! I LOVE her! I am going to miss her so much! Tuesday there was a Relief Society activity. It was so fun!

Lastly, Sister Caudill and I! She is my new companion! She is wonderful! I love her already :) She is an amazing missionary and I am so blessed to be her companion!

Sister Sorensen and I left Lawton on Wednesday morning! We drove up to the City for transfers and we got so lost haha. But eventually we made it! I met Sister Caudill and then we drove the half hour to our area. We are in the Village ward and it covers part of Edmond. Its way different than Lawton but I love it already! The members are wonderful! And we are working with some wonderful people as well!

We have done a ton of finding these past couple days and have met so many people! We have seen so many miracles! We can see God's hand in our lives every day! We are working with some wonderful people! One lady that we are working with is 92 years old! Its a members mom and we just recently started teaching her the lessons. She is so cute! Another lady we are working with came to Stake Conference yesterday. She is wonderful too! During one of the talks she told us that they were speaking to her. She was crying the whole time and is just so prepared for the gospel!

Stake Conference this past week was AMAZING! So good. There were so many wonderful speakers. President Gray talked all about how we all have our own personal ministries and how Heavenly Father works through each one of us. He talked about how each day we need to ask Heavenly Father who is in need of our help. One of the Stake goals is that no one sits alone. They shared a wonderful story about 2 kids in a family that went and sat next to 2 people that were sitting alone. What a great example those kids can be to us. We would do good to look around us and see who is sitting alone. Who is in need of a kind deed. 

There also was a missionary broadcast this past week: teach repentance and baptize converts. It was wonderful as well. I really liked what Elder Neil L. Andersen spoke on. He talked about how we need to have Christ's name always on our lips. It is so important that we testify of Christ in every conversation. In essence, we covenant to take His name upon us when we are baptized. In Mosiah chapter 5 it talks a lot about this. King Benjamin had just finished his address and I love what the people say in verse 2: "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." The people believed all his words and were desirous to enter a covenant with God. A covenant to always remember him and take his name upon them. In verse 12 it reads, "12 I say unto you, I would that ye should remember to retain the name written always in your hearts, that ye are not found on the left hand of God, but that ye hear and know the voice by which ye shall be called, and also, the name by which he shall call you." Like it mentions in 2 Nephi 25:26 "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins." Christ is the center of it all. "For his way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come." I am so grateful for my Savior and I know that He lives! Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek"

Have a blessed week! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

To the Village I Go!

What another wonderful week! Its been a crazy one! We were so BUSY this week! Which is a wonderful thing! The Sandifords blessed their baby girl at church yesterday :) Isn't she adorable!

I also found out this week that I am leaving Lawton. I am sad to be leaving all the wonderful people I met but I am excited to be heading to a new area! I am going to the Village which is just north of Oklahoma City!

We had a wonderful lesson this past week with a referral from a member in the ward! Yay! Member missionary work :) One of the members works at a salon and she has been talking with all the other hairdressers about the gospel! We had a lesson with one of her friends and it went so well! At the end the member was bearing her testimony and then both of them started crying. The friend said she really needs this in her life right now... There are so many people that need the gospel! I am so grateful that I have the chance to be a missionary! Have a blessed week! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

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Funny story... this member in our ward has 2 rottweiler's who loves to chew on shoes... Her dog Bella just happened to find my shoe and chewed off the strap. But Elder Bledsoe sewed it back on for me!

The Beckettes!

7 months!

Well its hard to believe its been 7 months! I am loving every second of it and I am so grateful for the chance I have to be a missionary! Here is an overview of the week:

Monday we had family home evening with the Heverlings. They let me hold their pet, I can't remember what kind it is... It will hang on even upside down!

Sunday! The best day of the week! At Fort Sill it was my turn to teach the Plan of Salvation. I taught the Restoration last week. There were about 14 soldiers in my class and it was half members half investigators. It was such a good day! Ahh! I LOVE teaching there. It is missionary work at its finest! Well anyways the investigators in my class are so prepared for the gospel. I was talking with one of them afterwards and he talked about how he had all these random questions before the lesson and then through the lesson and peoples comments and reading the Book of Mormon all the questions were answered! Its wonderful how we can find answers to questions we have.

After church we had a lessons with the Beckettes and the Bishop and his son came with us. Olivia and the boys kept calling them "the bishops" haha. Bishop 1 and Bishop 2. It was so cute! Right before their lesson we met a lady name Teshia. She has 3 little kids. She normally goes to church on sundays but yesterday she was confused about what church she should be going to and then we just happened to knock on her door. She said we were an answer to her prayers! She said she wants her kids to be like us someday. She wants them to do what we do! She is searching for something and I know we can help her find it! She is a wonderful lady and was amazed with everything we were talking about. I am excited to go back and teach her more! She is someone that God has prepared!

I want to share something from my studies this past week. I was reading in Alma 33. This is after Alma and his brethren went to the Zoramites to share the gospel. Alma talks about how if we have questions we should search the scriptures. In Alma 33:14 it says, "Now behold, my brethren, I would ask if ye have read the scriptures? If ye have, how can ye disbelieve on the Son of God?" It continues, verse 17 "And now, my brethren, ye see that a second prophet of old has testified of the Son of God." And verse 22 "Then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works." The scriptures are so powerful. It is through the scriptures that people can come to know Christ. In Alma 37:9 "Yea, I say unto you, were it not for these things that these records do contain, which are on these plates, Ammon and his brethren could not have convinced so many thousands of the Lamanites of the incorrect traditions of their fathers; yea, these records and their words brought them unto repentance; that is, they brought them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and to rejoice in Jesus Christ their Redeemer." The scriptures bring people to the knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. I am so grateful that we have the scriptures and that we can read them every day. I know that by reading the Book of Mormon we can come closer to Christ.

Have a blessed week! 

All my love,

Sister Jackson

Hello 2016!

I love the New Year! It is such a great time to reflect on the past year and what we want to do differently. A great time to set goals! and make new years resolutions! January is just such a great month! The wonderful thing about the gospel is we can make every day a new day through Christ and His atonement!  Through Christ we can do all things.

11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.

 12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea,behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Well with the holidays a lot of people have been out of town so we had kind of a slow week. We did see the Beckettes on tuesday and cute Olivia in her prayer said, "I like when the sisters come over, sometimes Liam doesn't (haha). I love each one of my family. And I just love people. And Nephi is my favorite brother." It was adorable! She is open and honest in all of her prayers. What a great example to us. She really talks with God when she prayers.

Another spiritual experience happened on friday. We saw one of our investigators who we haven't seen in awhile. We watched the 17 min Restoration video with her and at the end of the movie we were talking about the Book of Mormon and she says, "it's evidence to everything yall have been talking about." Tashiyla was so right. The Book of Mormon is evidence of the Restoration of the Gospel and that Joseph Smith is a prophet. Thats why we invite ALL to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. It was such a spiritual lesson. 

In my personal studies I have been reading in Alma 26, which is such a great chapter! I shared some verses in the beginning of the chapter but I also want to share some from the end

 35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say untoyou, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

 36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who area branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.

 37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving;yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

We have so much to rejoice in. My heart is so full of gratitude. I am grateful every day for the chance I have to be a missionary! It has been such a wonderful experience, there aren't even words to describe it. I know that "God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in... Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever." 

I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers and support! Have a blessed week and year to come!

All my love,

Sister Jackson

We spent New Years Eve with the Hutsons! Playing games! Their little girl is adorable! It was so much fun! We were able to stay out a little later than normal. We didn't make it to the New Year though. We were too exhausted.

Picture from the ice storm