Hello wonderful people! This week has been, well a party but not in

the way that we though it was going to be a party! We had a few

lessons this week, a lot of miracles, and a whole bunch of fun!

We started off this week by teaching little Oralee! She's our Ward

Mission Leaders daughter. We've started teaching members out here in

hopes to build trust and to get more referrals, so we taught Oralee

about the Ten Commandments and she was so cute to teach! We taught her

about the first five commandments and the hand signs that go with them

she was so cute! She was so excited to learn and tried so hard to get

her little figures to make the signs.

We also had a short lesson with Sister Milner this week! She had some

questions about what it means to keep the Sabbath Day Holy and how we

do that. So we FaceTimed her and talked with her about what she thinks

is okay to do on the Sabbath and what she thinks isn't okay to do on

the Sabbath. It was a really good talk and it reminded me that there

are no lists of do's and dont's on what to do on the Sabbath. The

guidelines we are given are not to shop, go to church, be with family.

Other than that we really have reign over what we do and do not do on

the Sabbath.

We saw Myesha this week! I don't know if you all remember Myesha but

she is a YSA aged lady living in the glorious city of Allentown. One

day we were walking around trying to find some less actives that live

there (YSA of course) and we walked passed Myesha and her friends!

Myesha stopped us and we started talking. We hadn't seen here for

about four weeks and then we got to see her this week! She's so

awesome! We just sat outside with her and talked to her and her

friends Jay and Erica. They all seem really interested in learning

more, before we left we shared Ether 12:27 with them and talked about

how when we pray we are able to overcome all things and to move

forward with power. We committed them to kneel and pray every time

they were having a hard time, we had a great conversation on kneeling

vs. laying prayers. It was a great talk! We were able to set up a time

to meet with them this week so hopefully it will work out!

We also were able to meet with a less active who hasn't been to church

in 22 years! He was baptized when he was 9 but never really understood

the gospel and so he's looking to know what we actually believe and

what the Book of Mormon is. He had some interesting questions about

the Plan of Salvation and the three degrees of glory, as well as where

the Book of Mormon came from. It was a great talk! We were able to use

the spirit to do a lot of the teaching, and to help us build our

testimonies of why it's so important to live righteously.

We also got to teach the Earnshaw family, Bishop Earnshaw is awesome!

We had a great talk about the Atonement of Christ and how we can use

it in our lives. What it means to keep it with us. How it works in its

different ways. It was a really powerful lesson to have! It was

amazing! The Spirit was so powerful! It was amazing!

We got to go see Brenda this week and she is doing great! She is so

funny and definitely has a good sense of humor that one! She's a

treasure!

We also had a member bring a friend to church! She was awesome! Her

name is Emily and she had a lot to offer in the classes! She wants to

meet with us because her friend told her that we know more about the

gospel than he does so she wants to see if we can answer her

questions. So we will be going on a hike with her sometime this week

so that we can answer her questions! She doesn't want to sit down and

talk because she feels like it's confrontational. However, she had a

great time with the YSA! They always have these little surprise linger

longers and that was yesterday! Sister Bush and I were talking about

how they always have something going on, and that's what inspired

today's headline.

We had an interesting experience tracting (I'll attract the

video/pictures) we went to this street in Kutztown because we were

like "this looks like a good place!" On our maps with no wifi. Well we

get there, and all the houses are row homeish and all the windows are

cracked just a bit through the curtains. There is no sign of human

life anywhere, at all. It was terrifying. So we left.

Well folks, it's been quite the week. Sister Bush and I had a meeting

on Friday and it was quite the drive so on the way down we listened to

a talk by John Bytheway. In it he talks about the war chapters in Alma

47 it talks about Amalickiah and his plans to become king of the

Lamanites. Brother Bytheway talks about how Lehonti doesn't want to go

to war with the Nephites so he and some of the men separate themselves

from Amalickiah's group. Lehonti's men go up a mountain and Amalickiah

tries to get Lehonti to come see him but Lehonti refuses. Eventually

Amalickiah does something very sneaky. He asks Lehonti to meet him

halfway, and Lehonti agrees. Well, the armies end up joining each

other, but Amalickiah still wants to be in charge, so eventually as we

read in verse 18, he kills Lehonti. But not in a normal way, a sneaky

way. He has a servant poison Lehonti by degrees, so over a period of

time Lehonti is poisoned, and by the time Lehonti realizes that he's

being poisoned it's far too late.

This is just like what Satan does, he convinces us to meet him halfway

down the mountain. Tells us he isn't going to hurt us and eventually

we agree with him and slowly our soul begins to be poisoned and by the

time we realize that we are being poisoned we've gone far down a path

we never wanted to be on. He's a sneaky guy, but the good news is is

that good is always stronger than evil, so when times come when we can

feel Satan telling us to just meet him halfway down the mountain we

can remember the covenants we have with God, and we can stand firm

with Him at the top of our mountain.

Being a missionary isn't easy. Serving the Lord is. I love you all!

Much love,

Sister Jackson

 

Looking for Ichabod Crane!