Rexburg

Dear family & friends,

So much to say, so little time.

I'll start off with a BIG congratulations to Amber and Harper!!!!  You both look beautiful, and I'm proud to be a three-time auntie!  And I'll follow up with a BIG congratulations to Danielle!!!  Happy BYU graduation!!!!  You smartiepants, you.

REXBURG!  We cover half of BYU-I campus (another set of Sisters cover the other half), and we cover the Rexburg South stake which includes six wards.  Lots of great work going on here!  Lots of investigators on campus and lots of less-active work in the stake.  All wonderful!  And we're celebrities on campus.  I've never been this popular in my life.

To be honest, the two and a half days of this new transfer were a pretty hard transition.  Sister Rye and I were both pretty stressed out about Sister Training Leader responsibilities, and it was kind of hard to adjust to each other as companions.  BUT!  Through the wonderful principle of compromise, we have since become united as a companionship, and we're having a great time together!  For a few days, I'll be honest, I was thinking how nice it would be to go home, and that was really humbling.  But I'm so grateful for humbling trials.  I have a deeper appreciation for the help the Lord has given me in getting through not only hard times on my mission, but hard times throughout my whole life!  I have a deeper love and respect for my Savior, and I've come to apply the Atonement more in my life to change and improve myself.

We are currently teaching four non-members: three on campus, one off.  Welecele, from Tanzania, Celene, So, from South Korea, and Kamryn, a cute 11 year-old in our family stake.  They're all wonderful, and they all have their challenges, but as the Spirit works on them and their families, all will be right in the end. 

So this week, read Alma 38:5  http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/38?lang=eng and insert your name in the scripture.  Then read Doctrine and Covenants 50:41-42. http://www.lds.org/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/50?lang=eng  SO good.  And I'm still waiting on copies of the Book of Mormon with your testimonies written in it!

I love you all so much.  You all have been such a support and blessing in my life! The Church is true!! I know it.

Love Sister Jacobson

 

Pics: 

1. Look at all this NOTHING!

2. Preaching to the potatoes

3. Beautiful view of.... nothing

4. On top of a potato cellar

5. Going all Samuel the Lamanite on top of said potato cellar.  

 

1st Transfer!

Hey, family!

So.  Transfers.  It sounds like you already heard a little bit about it, but I'll elaborate:

I'm going to Rexburg!  BYU-I!!  Wooo!!  And I've been chosen to be a Sister Training Leader, along with my new companion, Sister Rye, who was in my MTC district!!  I'm so excited to serve with her!!

Our main job as a Sister Training Leader is to look for the welfare of the Sisters (who knew?).  We conduct companion exchanges with each companionship we're assigned to (so it'll average about one exchange per week).  Actually, our job is kind of like that of Zone Leaders, but just with the Sisters.  There are six Sister Training Leaders assigned, and Sister Kuhns is one of them!  To be honest, I don't feel adequate.  I don't feel like I know enough, and I don't feel like I'm going to be a good enough leader as I am right now.  I've only been out 3 months, and I'm still just a teenager.  But if the Lord has willed it, I know I can do it.  He qualifies those He calls, and I know that as I strive to be my best and work my hardest, everything will be made right.  Just.... gosh....

Speaking of hard things, congratulations to BYU friends and family who made it out of finals alive!!   Or at least mostly alive.  There's a difference between being "alive" and being "mostly alive."  (Princess Bride, anyone?)

 

Other than that, been doing the same stuff as last week!  Working hard, studying hard, praying hard, and loving hard.  I just love this.  Lots of spiritual lessons, lots of going to bed exhausted, and lots of trying to make myself better for this upcoming transfer.

Picture explanations: Teva is the brown one.  Cody is the one in the wheelchair.  Ian, the one with the huge crush on me, is the tallest of the blonde boys.  (Seriously, gents, watch your back!)  And Corbin's family has this cool scooter thing that Sister Kuhns and I tried out!  In our skirts, with backpacks on.  No big deal.

 

I love you all so much!  This week, read Mosiah 24:13-14. http://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/mosiah/24?lang=eng   It's amazing!

Love, 

Sister Jacobson

 

  We received this letter today from Katie's mission president.

 (A mission president oversees the 200 or so missionaries within the mission boundaries. Katie will be one of the first missionaries to participate in this new program being launched worldwide throughout our church. There are currently 405 missions worldwide.)
                         
                               
 Dear Sister Jacobson ,

We are pleased to extend to you the calling to serve as a Sister Training Leader in the Idaho Pocatello Mission.

You will have the opportunity to attend and participate in our monthly Missionary Leadership Council.  Your role as a Sister Training Leader will also include training, encouraging, and watching over the sister missionaries assigned to you.  Ever six weeks you will conduct a 24-hour exchange with each companionship of these sisters.

Heavenly Father will bless and guide you as you pray to Him in faith.  We know the Lord qualifies those whom He calls

Thank you for your example and service in our mission.  Your leadership will bless the lives of many sisters and help the work move forward as we invite others to come unto Christ.

Love,
Marvin T. Brinkerhoff 
Mission President

(Please read the following article below for more information on the Missionary Leadership Council that Katie was asked to be a part of.)

April 5, 2013

Sister LDS missionaries will have key role in new Mission Leadership Council

SALT LAKE CITY — With the recent surge in the number of young Latter-day Saints choosing to serve as full-time missionaries, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced to general and area church leaders during conference meetings Friday the creation of a new Mission Leadership Council within each of the church’s 405 missions that will include an enhanced role for the mission president’s wife and a new leadership position involving sister missionaries.

According to a release posted on the church’s Newsroom website late Friday afternoon, the old Zone Leader Council in each mission will be discontinued and replaced by the Mission Leadership Council, which will consist of the mission president and his wife, the assistants to the mission president, the zone leaders, and sister missionaries holding a newly created leadership position called sister training leaders.

“The role of sister training leader has been created as more female missionaries serve in missions around the world,” said the release. Last October, when LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson announced the reduction in the minimum age for missionary service for both young men and women, sister missionaries comprised 14 percent of the church’s total missionary force. Since Jan. 1, new mission calls have been extended at a rate of about 1,400 per week, with 36 percent of the calls going to sister missionaries.

Sisters will continue to participate in missionary districts and zones, which will still be led by district and zone leaders. The sister training leaders will be assigned to a certain number of sister missionaries and will be responsible for their training and welfare in addition to participating in the Mission Leadership Council. They will continue to proselyte in their respective areas, but they will also spend time each week training and evaluating the needs of the female missionaries assigned to them.

The sister training missionaries will report directly to the mission president on sister missionary needs, the release noted. They will work closely with the mission president’s wife, who is now being asked to play a bigger role — depending on individual and family circumstances — in training and caring for sister missionaries.

“We are very excited about the new Mission Leadership Council and this role for sister missionaries,” said Elder David F. Evans, executive director of the church’s Missionary Department. “It will be a blessing to both missions and missionaries throughout the world, and better employ the remarkable faith, talents and abilities of all missionaries.”

 

Incredible Week

Dear family,

I'll cut straight to the chase.  This week was incredible.

To start off, last Friday Sister Kuhns and I decided to have a fast.  We told Heavenly Father that we were going to try even harder to be exactly obedient.  We asked Him that if we were EXACTLY obedient EVERY day that coming week, that would He please put someone in sacrament meeting on Sunday we'd never met before and would want to be baptized.  

THEN, for a zone meeting, our zone leaders challenged us to take a 40-day fast from anything that is keeping us from being exactly obedient on our missions.  Sister Kuhns and I went through the White Handbook table of contents and found all the little things that we could work on and committed to completely turning our will over to the Lord's will.  And dang.  We've seen so many blessings.  

One, we've had potential investigators coming out of the woodwork!  We taught a lady named Jessica.  She's pretty much a flower child, and she is SO cool!  She has a great relationship with God, and when she said the closing prayer, thanked God for us sharing our "liiiight and loooove" with her.  Love it!  There are a lot of other people that we've talked to in the street and other random places that have agreed to have a lesson as well!  We've also had some doors slammed in our faces, but that's not important.  It just motivates us to work harder!

However, I have to tell you the best moment of my entire life.  We walked out of a church meeting yesterday, and we saw a man in a wheelchair in the foyer talking with a member.  We started talking with him and he told us his name is Cody and he has cerebral palsy.  We asked him what brought him to church, and he said that his grandma died a few weeks ago, and he decided it was time to go to church.  We told him that we were the missionaries, that we teach people about the Gospel, and he agreed to a lesson that night!  And he went to all three hours of church!  AND apparently the man was telling this member that he wanted to meet with the missionaries and be baptized right as we walked in!

We had an incredible lesson with him last night.  He is one of the purest, kindest, most amazing people I have ever met, and he was so excited when we taught him how to pray and told him he could find peace through the Book of Mormon.  We asked if he would be baptized.  He said yes.  We asked if he would be baptized on May 11th.  He said yes.  (That happens to be Katie's birthday!!)

Fasting and prayer are real.  Heavenly Father will always answer our prayers, and if we put forth hard work, He will grant us our desires.  Miracles happen through God.  We just have to trust that He will make it happen.  I know that "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Challenge for the week: we've been challenging all members we've met with to take a Book of Mormon, write their testimony in it, and prayerfully hand it out to someone.  So, could you all write your testimonies in a soft-cover Book of Mormon and send it to us, please?  1. We're running low on copies.  2. We can flood our area not only with copies of the Book of Mormon and the power it brings, but also with personal witnesses of its truthfulness.  Imagine the far-reaching effects!  It's amazing!  The Book of Mormon has power in and of itself, but an additional witness will invite the Holy Ghost into the heart of the reader even more effectively.  I know the Book of Mormon is true.  It started as just a desire to know and grew, gradually, to the knowledge I have today.  It has changed my life forever.  

I love you all so much!  Thank you for your prayers and support!  I love you, I love you, I love you!! 

Love,  

Sister Jacobson                                                

                              * Our dear friends from the Hill Cumorah Pageant who live in Texas, the Chattertons, got to stop by the Idaho Falls Visitors Center and spend some  time with our sweet Katie! She got to give them a tour and share some experiences with them. We love Katie sightings!

 

They didn't revoke the age change!!

General.  Conference.  

They didn't revoke the age change and tell us all to go home.  I'm safe!

And shoutout to all my Women's and Men's Choir buds!  Incredible job!  Aaaand shoutout to my folk dancers!!  Elaine S. Dalton... what a gal!

Absolutely amazing!!  I feel like it was particularly amazing this round, but also, with being on a mission, so many more things stuck out to me than what would have if I wasn't here.  Every talk felt like a personal conversation with me on what I need to do better (which is a whole heck of a lot), but also things that I'm doing well.  I especially loved when Elder Holland counseled us all to lead with our faith, to keep the ground we've already won.  Yes, there's a lot I need to improve on, but looking back, I've come a long way.  I know that my weaknesses won't become strengths immediately, but through God's strength and lots of patience with myself, I can overcome my shortcomings.  And just like Elder Holland said: "If you find your faith tested at this present time, lean on mine."  I know that this Gospel is true.  My desire to believe grew to belief, and my belief has grown to knowledge.  I know it's true.  

Elaine S. Dalton, Elder Bednar, L. Whitney Clayton, Russel M. Nelson, President Uchtdorf, Rosemary M. Wixom.... I could keep going on.  They were just ALL so solid!  I'm going to re-read all the talks as soon as I can.  I noticed a big theme over all of Conference was marriage and family. One of my questions going into this weekend for the apostles and prophet to answer was, "How can I prepare to be a better mother and wife?"  Funny how the Spirit works.  And even though it's going to be at least a year and a half before I pursue that course, I learned so much about marriage and family life that I want to apply.  I also noticed how much you've already applied, Mom and Dad.  Thank you for being such amazing examples to me of what a healthy, happy marriage can be like.  Thank you for being such amazing examples of setting clear rules, enforcing them, but being flexible and understanding.  Thank you for being patient with me in all my ridiculousness (f'real). And above all, thank you for being amazing examples of faithful disciples of Christ.  Your faith and your raising us up in the light of the Gospel has made all the difference in my life that I could ever hope for.  People have asked how I'm so happy all the time.  It's because of my relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, and you brought me up that way.

On a different note, we did a service project earlier this week cleaning up a canal, and we found a car muffler, a bird wing, a rusty knife, some bones, and 12 bottles of peppermint Schnapp's!  We called it the "treasure hunt" instead of the "canal cleanup."

For this week, just think of something you want to improve in yourself.  Then read as many Conference talks as you can.  Your questions WILL be answered.  As a representative of Jesus Christ, I promise you the Holy Ghost and the words of the apostles will work in conjunction to offer you revelation, if your heart is receptive to it  .http://www.lds.org/general-conference?lang=eng

I love you.  The Lord loves you.  The Book of Mormon is true.  Read it daily!  It will bring you closer to Christ, and, according to Richard G. Scott (my home boy), a Christ-centered home is a happy home.  Truth.

--Sister Jacobson

P.s. Did you know that "vermouth" is alcohol??  I thought it meant "smooth!"  I think I'll take that out of my vocabulary...

 

P.p.s.  Explanation on the last two pictures: one of the members here has chickens and gives us huuuge eggs!  And I think this was the first time I've ever held a chicken!  Pretty life-changing.

This week has been crazy!!

Dear family & friends,

Thank you so much for the Easter package!!  We're going to have sooo much fun with those Nerf guns.  I shot Sister Kuhns right after I opened mine and it gave her a welt...  but she still loves me, so it's ok.

And oh my gracious, we've had glorious weather here this week!  Upper 50's to low 60's and bright sunshine!  I think I'm getting a better tan here than I would have back home at this time!  Idaho...  Who knew?

Quick note: the members here spoil us!  We've had so many people bring things by, buy things for us, give us lots of love!

This week has been crazy!!  We've had tons of meetings and events and such, so we didn't have a lot of time in our area, but the meetings will help us be more effective missionaries, and we still got some work done.

 We have a new investigator!!!  His name is Corbin, and he's 9 years old.  His parents are coming back to church more and more frequently, and he really wants to be baptized!  He is such a sweetheart.  We did a cool object lesson on the Restoration, and he seemed to really like it, and then he came to church yesterday!  He's just so great.

Liz is awesome.  Still working with her on that smoking habit, and she's working hard too!  That's where miracles happen--after hard work!  On both ends.

Teva is awesome, too.  He comes to us with questions and concerns not only about the Church, but about life in general.  He's just such a great guy!

We went to a funeral on friday following the tragic death of a woman in one of our wards. The service was absolutely beautiful.  The speakers all talked about the Atonement, how all hurts can be healed through Christ, how all things will be made right.  It made me really ponder all the miracles the Savior's Atonement has wrought in my life.  All the times when I've felt the most pain, the most darkness, the most alone, He has lifted me up higher.  Each heartache, each sin, each burden has been lifted off of my shoulders when I repent and when I cry out for comfort.  The Atonement is real.  I have felt it work in my life, and it's a feeling I can never deny.

And how sweet (at least as sweet as a funeral can be) that it was so close to Easter--the day we set aside to celebrate Christ's Atonement!  By the way, you did watch those videos, didn't you?  You'd best keep your commitments!  Anyway, Easter day, we went to two ward sacrament meetings which both held lovely talks on the life, suffering, death, and Resurrection of the Savior, which also caused me to think more on the Atonement's workings in my life.  I truly would not be the same person without Christ's loving sacrifice.  I need Him every hour of every day, and I know that through Him, we can overcome all our trials and weaknesses.

On that note, read Philipians 4:13.  And then read Alma 7:11-12. 

I love you all so much.  But, more importantly the Lord loves you.  And I love the Lord.
                                                      Love, Sister Jacobson
              
                                          Team Ups with a Young Woman from Idaho Falls