#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