Dear friends and family,

Goodness this as been a week! Sister Bush is such an amazing

missionary and we have seen some good times and some not so good times

this week! Its a part of missionary life though, and I love it! There

are things that happen on a mission that could only happen to you on a

mission!

It was a super good week, we had some referrals from some members far

far away, spent a lot of time tracting in the rain, a great meeting,

and lessons filled with the spirit and the love of Christ!

We started off our round of lessons with Stephanie and Richard! They

are doing so awesome! We talked about the sabbath and why it is so

important. As we were preparing for the lesson I started to realize,

once again, just how important the Sabbath day is. Sundays these days

are regarded as just another day off from work, its a time for our

heaviest shopping, biggest sporting events, and not enough time for

the Lord. In reality a time to spend showing the love of Christ to

others. In the institute manual they quote President Kimball, he says

"The Sabbath is a day on which to take inventory--to analyze our

weaknesses, to confess our sins to our associates and our Lord. It is

a day on which to fast in ‘sackcloth and ashes.’ It is a day on which

to read good books, a day to contemplate and ponder, a day to study

lessons for priesthood and auxiliary organizations, a day to study the

scriptures and to prepare sermons, a day to nap and rest and relax, a

day to visit the sick, a day to preach the gospel, a day to proselyte,

a day to visit quietly with the family and get acquainted with our

children, a day for proper courting, a day to do good, a day to drink

at the fountain of knowledge and of instruction, a day to seek

forgiveness of our sins, a day for the enrichment of our spirit and

our soul, a day to restore us to our spiritual stature, a day to

partake of the emblems of his sacrifice and atonement, a day to

contemplate the glories of the gospel and of the eternal realms, a day

to climb high on the upward path toward our Heavenly Father.”

The Sabbath day is so important and I hope we can all remember what

that day is all about, and why it is set aside to be sacred.

That night we had a lesson with Dave, but unfortunately he had to

cancel. The members we were with took us out to Rita's (cranberry

water ice ❤️) and then had us teach them the Restoration. The thing

is, we think that they taught us more than we taught them. The

Vassilaros family is amazing and are very into deep doctrine. Brother

V taught us about Moroni's promise (Moroni 10:3-5) especially the part

where it says "ask if these things are not true." Why does it say not?

Well its just like when you ask someone where they are from "You are

from Utah aren't you?" You already believe that this person is from

Utah, but they are the only one who can confirm it. So when you ask

"is it not true?" You already believe it is true, you just are asking

for the confirmation that it is, indeed, true.

The next day we had Zone Conference, which was as good as ever! We got

to use the new planning guidelines that they released for PMG and it

was amazing! The guidelines are truly inspired. We also heard a lot

from President Randall and he is a truly inspired man. I love hearing

him speak, he always has such good things to say!

We also met with the O's this week again! We taught them the Plan of

Salvation and it was so funny! Sister O talked a lot about how the

Plan of Salvation was the thing that she loved the most when she was

investigating the church! It was so fun to hear their testimonies of

the plan and what it means to them! I loving teaching the members

because they always have so much to add to the lesson.

We got to meet with Sister Silfies this week! We talked about the

Gospel of Jesus Christ and used the nails diagram. Her son, Elijah,

was so cute! He keep pointing at the nails as we taught and whispering

"they building something" he is just so sweet! He has a lot of energy

but he really does listen to the spirit when its talking to him!

Our last lesson this week was with the Skidmores. They are so awesome!

We talked about agency, and what it really means to have agency.

Really agency is our freedom to choose. In a BYU play titled "My Turn

on Earth" there is a song that talks about this it says "The only

thing greater than life itself is the power to direct that life."

Could you imagine if we lived in a world without our agency? When we

had to do everything one way and we could never choose for ourselves

what we wanted to do? That would be a sad world.

We got referral this week from a member in HI! It was super exciting!

Michael wanted a Book of Mormon so that is what we gave to him! He

didn't want to set anything up with us because he is super busy, but

he told us to text him on Saturday. We did and since we had seen him

he decided to google some of his questions, and because of such, was

subject to some anti material. He was still very friendly but told us

he would reach out to us when he was ready to learn. It was sad, but

Heavenly Father has a plan for each of his children and one day

Michael will find the gospel.

The gospel is so good! Lately I have been thinking a lot about

singleness of heart and mind to the gospel. As i have gone through

trials and had those moments where I slip up I have found my strength

in sticking to what I know, and that is the Book of Mormon. I recently

started to reread it, and it has been so good! I was reading in the

institute manual. Today I was reading when Nephi asks for strength to

break the bonds which bound him, and I started thinking about the

power of prayer. When we pray in faith we can do anything, as long as

we are willing to act on the information that is given to us. Elder

Gene R. Cook said “Note that they [Nephi, Alma, and Amulek] did not

have faith in their own strength; they trusted in the Lord and relied

on his strength. It is faith in Christ that will deliver us from our

own bonds; it is increasing our faith in Christ that will give us

added power in prayer."

I hope we are all taking the time to pray with faith, to read the Book

of Mormon and to stick to what we know to be true.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Much love,

Sister Jackson

 

JOSIE'S ONE YEAR

The District

Elder Olsen and Josie

Hello my dear friends and family! I hope that all is going well for

each of you in each of your lives! It's been a great week out here in

PA, as it always is! We had a great time going out and finding people

to teach!

To start off our round of really great lessons we had a lesson with

Angel! We had a great talk on faith, each of us there were able to

share stories of times when our faith has been pushed to the edge.

When we have been as faithful as we have ever been but we were still

pushed in away that we never thought was possible, yet we made it out

on top and our faith has never been stronger. I just love the idea of

faith, we all have faith, we have faith the sun will rise, we have

faith mom will make dinner (or buy it), we have faith in our alarm

clocks too off at the right time. If we think about it that way we

know that faith is more than just believing in God. In Ether 12:27 it

talks about the weakness that men are given and that it is given to us

to build faith, that as we show faith in Him that weakness will become

our strength. I love that, as a missionary you are shown your weakness

left and right, but over these last few months I've seen that weakness

become a strength to me.

We also had a lesson with the Hillmans! The family I mentioned last

week that we "accidentally" found at the service activity. They are

super awesome! When they first met missionaries they weren't sure

about baptism, but eventually they were all baptized, moved around and

landed back here in Kutztown! We talked with them about Ether 12:27 as

well and talked about how with faith we can overcome all things.

Especially temporal things, that as we act on our faith the power of

the Atonement of Jesus Christ is allowed to follow freely into our

lives.

We met with Stephanie and Dick and they are so amazing! Super funny

people, we talked about why scripture study is so important. We also

talked about tithing and why it's so important. They were so open and

had so much to say! It was incredible! After every lesson Dick throws

his arms out and waves with one hand and goes "Peace Guys!" It's so

great, they are just so cute!

We had the best lesson this week with some members. The Opperosano's

are from New York and are converts to the church. We met with them and

started to teach the lessons, we taught the Restoration and it was so

awesome! We had a great conversation about why the gospel is true, why

it's important and why we still live it each and everyday. Sometimes

we look at the things we do as members and we are faced everyday to

make decisions to either choose the gospel or to not. Everyday we show

our commitment to Heavenly Father based on our actions because

sometimes it can be pretty tempting to sleep in on that Sunday that

church is at 9am, but we make that decision to get up and go when the

world says to stay in.

We met with Dave again! He's doing amazing. We talked to him about

tithing and how it's so different from the way most churches and how

we use it. We also talked about the Law of Chastity. It was pretty

great! We had a great conversation about how the world has changed so

much since he was growing up and how it's pretty much unheard of for

people to be chaste until marriage. It was pretty great, when we

committed him to live the law of chastity he just smiled and was like

"Well, I'm already living it." It was so awesome!

Right after this lesson we got caught in a giant rainstorm running

from our car to the apartment (it was right next to curfew) and as we

were running our phone decided to come to life. It jumped right out of

Sister Bush's bag and right into a puddle. We went 3 days with out a

phone and couldn't get a hold of anyone because our miles were low so

we couldn't drive to them. Who knew that a phone would be so key in

missionary work! We now have a legitimate flip phone, it's so awesome!

This week Sister Bush and I had a meeting down in Broomall, and it was

awesome! For those who don't know the Missionary Department released a

new version of chapter 8 in Preach my Gospel called "How do I fulfill

my purpose?" And it is AMAZING!!! President Randall spent most of the

day training us on how to use it so that we could help the other

missionaries know how to use it. We also talked a lot about why

setting goals is so important and why we need to make plans to

actually get there. Goals need plans, otherwise it's just an

unachievable dream.

On Saturday we had so much fun! We parked at the church and then

walked over to Kutztown University. Where we spent the majority of our

time just contacting people on the street. We handed out 20 pass along

cards, but talked to way more than that. Out of those 20 people we had

one who gave us his number and told us to come back. We were so

excited! It was awesome.

Earlier this week we also met a lady named Lessie. We were just out

doing what we tend to do, knocking on doors, and when she first opened

she wasn't all that interested. Then Sister Bush brought up that we

help build faith and we'd love to come back to build faith with her.

She seemed to light up and she gave us her number and as she was

closing the door she said "Please call me, and we'll sit down

sometime." It was so awesome! I remember when I was brand new new to

the mission, I hated knocking on doors, and don't get me wrong it's

still not my favorite pastime. Yet, when we knock on 20 doors and only

one of them is opened all the way it makes the other 19 so so so worth

it. Worth the people trying to Bible bash, worth the people who think

we are something that we're not, worth every single rejection.

This week I've had an interesting experience this week with prayers.

My whole mission I've heard the idea of being accountable to the Lord,

but I never knew what that really meant. So I asked President Randall

at our meeting and he gave me some ideas. I've since started to apply

them and let me talk you something. Heavenly Father recognizes when we

are trying to change, and He wants to help us change. It is quite the

feeling, I've felt it before, but it's always nice to feel it again. I

always knew that He was listening but now it's like I can feel him

right next to me, it's like I'm having a real conversation with a real

person, because I am.

Oh my dears, life is so good, God is so good, I love being a

missionary. It's been a great year, and I can't wait to see what

happens next.

I love you all!

Much love,

Sister Jackson

Caught in a rainstorm

Josie, Hermana Gomez, Sister Bush

Luchador Mask

Hello lovelies! This week has been quite the week! We've had a great

time and when we had transfer calls we found out that we will both be

staying another six weeks! We are so excited! Great things are

happening out here and I'm excited to keep watching all of this

unfold!

Life is so good as a missionary, I wish I could put into words. I have

learned so much out here in Kutztown, but number one, the Lord has a

plan that He unfolds on His timeline. Being fully reliant on the Lord

is the only way to live in this life.

This week weve had quite a few lessons! We taught Dave again, I was

here with Sister Crane when we taught him and it was awesome! We had a

whole lesson planned out but when we got there we learned that the

Spirit had a different idea. Dave had a question about the Book of

Mormon and why the Nephites or the Lamanites aren't in history books.

So we used the introduction to the Book of Mormon and a scripture in

Mormon 8 about how the Nephites were destroyed. It was such a good

lesson! At the end of the lesson Dave told us that he would be setting

up a chart so that he could read the Book of Mormon. It was so

awesome!

We also met with Stephanie and her husband, Dick, this week. It was

great! We met with them at the church and talked about a lot of

things! Stephanie loved the missionaries and the church in Montana and

she's so excited to keep learning! Dick had a few questions about

coffee and tithing and all sorts of stuff! It was just a really really

good lesson with two people who are excited and willing to learn about

the gospel!

We also met with Angel again and talked about why Faith in Jesus

Christ is so important. I'm not sure why but faith has been on my

mind. I read Ether 12 this morning and thought about how weaknesses

can become strengths for us when we turn to Christ. It's an

interesting way to look at weaknesses, because really they are so easy

to be rid of when we just turn to Christ and put our weaknesses on

Him.

We met with Kerrie this week and it was amazing! We talked about the

first three points of the restoration and it was such a good

conversation! At the end we asked Kerrie to pray and it was literally

the sweetest thing ever. She thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to

her when she needed that doorbell to ring, she prayed that we will

find those who want to know about Christ, and she prayed that we will

be protected as we go looking for those who want to meet us. It

brought tears to my eyes as I thought about the simple door knocks, or

scriptures read to random people and how it was what they needed. How

it was a possible answer to their prayers. How even if they weren't

interested now, it can open that door for another missionary later. I

think as members we forget how big our impact can be when we are

living worthy of our covenants.

We got to go see Brenda this week and it was so awesome! While we were

there a huge rainstorm came and seriously started to flood her

basement and created two rivers down the side of her house. It was

crazy! However, when we left we said a prayer that her plumber would

get back to her because her pump wasn't working to clean out her

basement, and she texted us about an hour later that he had gotten

back to her. Prayers are real friends, when it doubt, pray it out!

This week we also got to go and help this super sweet older couple

move! They had a lot of stuff, but there was a miracle tucked into

this move. A few weeks ago some people moved back into our ward and

we've been asked to get a hold of them, but we never could. So we get

to this service activity and there is a man there and he goes "What?!

They put sisters back in Kutztown!" We were so lost, and then he

introduced himself as Brother Hillman, the family we had been looking

for! It was so awesome, if we had never gone to this activity we would

have maybe never met Brother Hillman and gotten their right address.

Heavenly Fathers hand was in this the whole time, it all started a few

months ago when Sister Molano met the older woman and told her we'd be

happy to help! Heavenly Father knows what Hes doing, don't ever doubt

that!

The church is so true everyone! How could it not be? With the church

life makes sense, it's not easy but it makes sense. Without the church

life doesn't make sense and isn't easy. I've worked with so many

people whose lives are harder than they need to be because they don't

have the church, or choose not to have the church. I am so thankful to

grow up in the covenant and to have faithful parents. The gospel is

always easier than the world. Always.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Much love,

Sister Jackson

 

Splits with Sister Crane and Sister Cripe

9 months for Sister Bush

Josie and her Froggie Friend

Hello! I hope it's been a good week for you all wherever you might be

through the world! It's been an interesting week. I don't quite have

all the words to describe what has happened, but it's been a good week

and that's all that matters!

We spent part of Wednesday morning at the temple! It was awesome as

always! The temple is such a great place to be. Full of the spirit and

you just know that you're doing something right because you get to be

there! After we got to go have Panda Express for lunch 😋 it was so

good! I hope that you all have the temple in your sights, because it's

the best place to be!

Monday we taught an amazing Family Home Evening with our wonderful

YSA! We taught the donut analogy for the Atonement. It was so powerful

and the Spirit was so thick. At the end we had everyone do a one

sentence testimony of the Savior, which is something President Randall

has us do, and it was so powerful! Nothing brings the Spirit faster

and more powerfully than simple one sentence testimonies of the

Savior.

The next day we had a lesson with a lady named Myesha. We taught the

Restoration and it was so good! She had a lot of questions and the

spirit was there the whole time! Sadly we had to pass her off to the

elders, she's amazing though. She's really looking for the truth,

she's thirsting for it. She's ready. We had dinner with the Molano's

that night and I love them! It was so awesome!

We had another lesson with Rhonda this week! It was good! She is an

amazing woman. She has a desire to learn, she just needs to understand

a few more things about what we really believe and she will be there!

That night we had exchanges with Reading so Sister Phelon came up here

to spend the day with me!

The next day was great! Sister Phelon and I got to go teach Sister

Silfies about the Restoration. It was super awesome! She's so amazing!

Sister Silfies has great faith in the Lord and has such a desire to

share that with her family! It's so awesome! Following that we had a

lesson with the Robertsons, a super cute family from Nibley! It was so

much fun! After we exchanged back and then got to go on exchanges

again with the Lehighton sisters, I got to go to Lehighton with Sister

Carter!

Lehighton was so much fun! It is the cutest little town! We met the

sweetest people there! Sister Carter loves to do missionary work, she

and her companion just left the Priesthood Site to come to proselyte

in Lehighton! We had dinner with some members up there and they were

the cutest! Sister Carter was just out talking to everyone during the

day, we met lots of amazing people! It was so awesome! I love these

sisters so much!

Sunday was so crazy. We had meetings on meetings on meetings. Starting

at 7:30 until about 5:15. It was crazy! Following that we had a lesson

with the Skidmores and it was amazing! We read 1 Nephi 17 and we

really just dove into it. We talked about how the scriptures in that

chapter can apply to us in the day to day life! It was so awesome!

On Sunday we had the most amazing miracle! A few weeks ago Sister Bush

and I received a referral for a lady named Stephanie, we stopped by a

few times but she was never home. Then we decided to ask her neighbor

and her neighbor told us that she'd been out of state for months. So

on Sunday we got a phone call from some sisters in Montana, they told

us that they had a few referrals for us and one of their names was

Stephanie, and she lived at the address of our mysterious referral.

Turns out Stephanie was in Montana the last few months and was able to

find missionaries there and be taught! It was such a blessing.

This week has been hard, but good. Monday evening we got a phone call

from a lady in our ward to tell us that one of our really good friends

had passed away in a tragic car accident. It was so sad for us to hear

that she had passed. Sister Bush and I attended her viewing on

Thursday and it was so sad to see someone we loved so dearly, she

didn't even look like the Cindy Amorino that we knew and that we love.

Friday Sister Phelon and I attended the funeral. It was beautiful

ceremony, friends and family the Plan of Salvation is so real. Today

Sister Bush and I were able to go to her grave site. It's still not

real to me that a dear sweet friend is waiting of the other side of

the veil.

Missionary work is amazing my friends. I had a dear, sweet YSA ask me

what my mission meant to me and it just brought me to tears to even

think about how much my mission has changed my life. Serving others,

serving Christ is a life changing experience. If any of you are

thinking about a mission, just say yes. You will not regret serving, I

promise you that. Serving others is the only way to find yourself, and

to find true happiness. Sometimes your blessings come in unexpected

ways, and sometimes it might even be in the form of raindrops.

Life is good. God is great. I love you all

Much love,

Sister Jackson

Lehighton Sisters

Reading Sisters

Josie and Sister Phelan