You're right. It would be hard to pull the cosmos out of a bag!

Hello friends and family! It’s been a pretty good week out here in the glorious state of New Jersey! I just want to take all of you on a tour of our area, it’s so cute and so fun! I just love it here! 

This week, like all the other weeks, has just flown by! It has been a crazy week full of so many miracles! I am so thankful to have this time as a missionary, it’s so much fun to serve the Lord. It’s true when people say it’s one of the best times of your life! I highly recommend serving a mission to everyone! 

On Tuesday after district meeting we had exchanges with our wonderful STL’s! I got to spend some time with the ever delightful Sister Trommlitz! I adore her! We had so much fun out here in Woodstown! We jumped right into the work after District Meeting! We had a lesson in Salem with one of the referrals I mentioned last week! We got to Rosalind’s house and she was so excited for her bible and Book of Mormon! As we talked she mentioned a lot about her life, and that right now she really is searching for peace, it was so awesome to testify that peace is found in the Book of Mormon. 

After that we made a quick Wawa run and then headed to go teach Jan! After a long time of not being able to see her due to health problems, she was so excited to see us! We were able to teach her the plan of salvation because she’s been feeling like God doesn’t have a plan for her, and she really enjoyed it! She gave the sweetest prayer at the end of the lesson, she is so amazing. 

That night we had bible study, and only one member showed up. Now, this member has a different way of thinking than most people. We read about the Good Samaritan and soon enough it turned into this really deep conversation about the Savior and helping others and changing our mind set. It was kind of hard to follow her train of thought, but thankfully the Spirit knew what she was saying! 

Wednesday morning we had the chance to sit down with a less active family. It was so fun! We decided to talk with them about Family History and how it can strengthen us, and it was amazing. As it turned out they work on family history all the time! The Spirit was so strong as they talked about their ancestors. They told us all about how they’ve had names to do and how badly they want to do them but they know they can’t because they don’t come to to church often enough. In fact, that’s what the sister told us. She knows and recognizes what they need to do to get to the temple, but they just don’t come. 

We also had an amazing lesson with the other referral we received last week! His name is James and he ordered a Book of Mormon. We sat down to teach him and he told us all about how the youth theses days don’t know Jesus, and how all these churches around here don’t “jive” with him. He has been looking for a place to go because he has been looking for a long time for a church that “jives” with him. We taught the Restoration to him, and he LOVED it! He seemed very impressed by Joseph’s story. He also really liked the Book of Mormon, he told us that his friend had told him to get it because it would help him understand the Bible. It was just a miracle lesson! 

We also saw Maggie, and she’s still as amazing as ever! She just loves the gospel, and told us she’s going to restart the Book of Mormon because she just feels like she isn’t getting everything out of it that she should be getting. She’s just awesome! 

We had dinner with some members this week. As we were helping the Sister put her lesson for relief society together her husband was asking a bunch of questions. She was trying to get things in to help describe the creation that she could put in a bag. Her husband goes “You could get a picture of the cosmos!” She rolled her eyes and said “I can’t fit that in a bag.” His response made us all laugh for a solid 5 minutes “You’re right, it would be hard to pull the cosmos out of a bag.” 

A few quick miracles:

-A less active we work with wants us to start teaching her non-member daughter the lessons and get her daughter involved with activity days

-We met a man who was outside smoking who told us he and his wife had been looking for a church. He asked where ours is and we told him it’s literally just down the road from him and he said he’d have to check it out sometime.

-We met with a former who has been canceling all of her appointments for a while and she told us that she now has Sundays off, so she can start coming to church! 

-we were walking down the street and a guy rolled down his window and yelled “Excuse me?” We said “Yes?” And he goes “Jesus loves you!” So of course we said “He loves you too!” The man then smiled really big and drove away. It’s the simple things that are the big miracle, making some one smile is just as big of a miracle as baptizing nations in my book. 

With all of these amazing experiences with the Book of Mormon this week, I have been thinking a lot about it. Earlier this week I was reading President Nelson’s talk titled “The Book of Mormon: What would your life be without it?” I really love how he talks about the purpose of the Book of Mormon, he says: 

“The Book of Mormon both illuminates the teachings of the Master and exposes the tactics of the adversary. The Book of Mormon teaches true doctrine to dispel false religious traditions--such as the erroneous practice of performing infant baptisms. The Book of Mormon gives purpose to life by urging us to ponder the potential of eternal life and “never-ending happiness.” The Book of Mormon shatters the false beliefs that happiness can be found in wickedness and that individual goodness is all that is required to return to the presence of God. It abolishes forever the false concepts that revelation ended with the Bible and that the heavens are sealed today.” 

I also love Elder Tad R. Callister’s talk titled “The Book of Mormon: God’s Compelling Witness” he says:

“The Book of Mormon is one of God’s priceless gifts to us. It is both sword and shield--it sends the word of God into battle to fight for the hearts of the just and serves as an arch defender of the truth. As Saints, we have not only the privilege to defend the Book of Mormon but also the opportunity to take the offense--to preach with power its divine doctrine and bear testimony of its crowning witness of Jesus Christ.”

Without the Book of Mormon I would be searching for answers that could never be found. I would be lost and I wouldn’t understand my relationship to the Savior. How thankful I am for the Prophet Joseph for doing all he could to translate this book! How thankful I am for the fact I can read and ponder on it’s eternal truths each and everyday! The Book of Mormon is the word of God, I testify that it is. If you aren’t sure, read it, pray about it and you too can know, just as I do. 

Love you all! 

Always,

Sister Jackson

 

Sister Trommlitz one year celebration

splits with Sister Anderson and Sister Trommlitz