Sister Josie Jackson: “Oreos. We need more Oreos.” -Sister Roberts

Howdy y’all! It has warmed up maybe three degrees out this way! It’s still cold, it’s still windy and the work of the Lord still presses on ward, ever on ward! It’s been a crazy week full of lots of different experiences and lots of laughs! It’s a great time to be a servant of the Lord in the great state of New Jersey!

We had two trainings this week all about learning how to better work with the members we serve around and about learning how to better follow up with media referrals! The Church is making a big media push out here, so we’ve been gearing up for more referrals and more people to teach. Woohoo! It’s going to be great! Anyway, these trainings were so good, on day two of training we spent a total of six hours there, and four of those hours were spent role playing different things. It was a really great chance to brush up on skills! One thing I really loved is as we talked about the wording we used Sister Randall brought up the word “Just” and how “the Book of Mormon is not just.” I was thinking about how often I use that word, and how it can take away the power of the statement you are making. “Oh the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is just the true church.” Vs “The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true church on the earth today.” The power of words is real.

We also met with our investigator Terressa! I don’t know if you remember her story, but here is a quick recap. She was our waitress a few weeks ago at the Woodstown diner, Sister Taylor, Sister Berhan and I taught her once and she brought up wanting to be baptized! Well, after that her life got really crazy and we lost contact with her. This week we got back in contact with her! She recently lost a loved one and has been struggling with that, as we all do. She’s got two kids and is in the middle of moving, so her life has been pretty chaotic. We met with her a few days ago and she brought out her Book of Mormon, she opened it up to 3 Nephi 22 and she goes “Girls, this really freaked me out.” We read over the first few verses and it talked about how the Lord is on our side, so clearly we were confused. We asked why and she goes “This applies directly to my situation.” Oh I could have danced a jig! There is no sweeter feeling than knowing that your investigators are reading and applying the Book of Mormon to their lives! Just as President Monson testified so beautifully of last April, the Book of Mormon is true.

We also had a meeting with a lady we tracted into a while back. Sister Roberts and I had been just praying to talk to anyone, and we knocked on Venitas door and she left us right in! Well, turns out she is actually a member of the church! She was baptized in LA and then fell away not long after. As it so happens we came into her life just at the right time! She’s been dealing with a lot of family issues and temporal things lately and who better to help than the church of God! We’ve talked with her a few times over the past few weeks and it has been amazing to see her faith grow. Yesterday when we went to visit her she asked us to refresh her memory of the church so that when she attends she can remember what she believes. She also asked us to send her scriptures to read! It was awesome!

So, I am so thankful for modern technology and that I get to use Facebook as a missionary to spread the gospel. There is one downside to this though, it doesn’t say Sister before our names. So we were visiting with Venita and we’ve been using Facebook to stay in touch with her, so she’s talking and out of nowhere she goes “I mean, Josie and Savanna, this is.....” I forget the rest I was so caught off guard! It took me a second to realize she was still talking to and about us! I just want to be Sister Jackson forever, that’s all I ask!

We finally taught Maggie again this week! She’s so amazing! We went over the power of CPR (church, pray, read) and talked about how these things keep us going. With them we can easily endure to the end, without them it’s a lot harder! Maggie opened up so much, she shared experiences with prayer, with reading the scriptures and with church. She testified beautifully that she knows the church is true, even though she still has questions and still doesn’t know everything. After our lesson we talked with her parents for a little while and they continue to open up more and more each time we see them! Tom, her dad, is a HUGE fan of the idea of BYU-H and continues to try and convince us and Maggie that that is the school to be at. I don’t disagree, but I know I’d spend more time at the beach than I would in class!

We got to spend sometime in Penns Grove this week and that is always an adventure! We met with a referral we got a while back and talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, at the end of our conversation she only had two questions “Are you nuns?” “Are you Jehovah’s Witnesses?” Which was funny, because we only had her information because she went on Mormon.org and ordered a free bible! We also went to visit a girl we found a while back, as we were climbing the stairs I just got the feeling we should leave, but continues to climb anyway. The closer we got to the top, the more intense the smell of weed, finally at the top of the stairs I just got the most awful feeling, so we turned around. Fun fact about my hair, all it takes is .5 seconds in an environment where it smells like weed for the smell to attach its self to my hair. It’s great. I spent the rest of the evening with hair that smelled like a skunk.

Tying in the subject line for this week, we had dinner with a member the other night and they made us fish and chips. Sister Roberts does not like fish, but obviously we had to eat it. We ate it and she wasn’t feeling too hot afterwards and hasn’t felt great since. I’m 95% sure she’s allergic to fish. Anyways the next day on dinner break we needed to go buy some essentials (cuz we were out) and as we walk to the register Sister Roberts sees the isle of Oreos, and goes “Oh! Oreos, we need more Oreos.” So we ended up with a family size package of double stuff Oreos to close out our week of hard work and dedication to the work of the Lord!

Oh my friends and family! This gospel is so good! The plan of salvation has been on my mind a lot this week. I am always reminded of this plan God has for us! He set everything up to return to Him. He calls prophets to help us find our way home, He gave us the Book of Mormon to give more doctrine, we have personal revelation to find our own answers. Truly our God is an amazing God. I solemnly testify that God lives today! He wants us to return to Him and so He gave us what we need! I know that the Plan of Salvation is real, that Jospeh Smith saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is not “just another church” but the true church, that the Priesthood is on earth and it is a real power. I truly exclaim with Jacob of old “O how great the Plan of our God!” (2 Nephi 9)

Always,

Sister Jackson