hello!!!!!!!!!!

It’s been a great week here in Lakeside Park. We had interviews with President Porter this past week and it was the day after I found out I was leaving and so we had a lot of talk about. He was just so encouraging and supportive and really boosted me up and I needed it. We talked about my goals for the next couple weeks and I said that I really want to attend Ward Council and get the Genslingers on date. Missionaries haven’t gone to ward council in this ward in a long time because of some past blabbermouth experiences with other missionaries who took up the whole time. But we need to be there, ward council is about THE PEOPLE. and who sees the people more than the missionaries. anyways, we’re working on it. and the genslingers. brother genslinger is just a pineapple and we are working on figuring them out. Sister Beeson and I decided that we were going to strive for standards of excellence for this week and then my last week, super strive for leadership standards. We almost reached standards of excellence this week and we were so grateful to be able to see the Lord’s hand carry us through. We haven’t been able to make a ton of progress with the Genslingers because they cancelled our appointment this last Saturday due to illness but we are going to try to have a good amount of member contact this week. We are making good progress with the part member less active family, the Gardners. I’ve written about them before, but just to refresh, the husband is a less active returned missionary and the wife is not a member and they have two adorable little boys. This is the family whose records are not even in Kentucky who we found randomly by the Spirit. We’ve gone by a few times to get to know them and they are really welcoming. We found out his birthday so now we can request that his records be transferred here. There is a member in our ward who works on the same floor as Brother Gardner and when we went over to this member’s home, we roleplayed with him, so that he could practice his conversation with Brother Gardner. He said it was painful but he did it and it was great! Lots of things in the works! Oh so I threw my neck out the other day (all I did was look up at the ceiling and BAM, a lightning bolt in my neck) and basically was just like Wesley in Princess Bride, sort of slumped over on the couch during studies but thank goodness that Brother Brunner, from my Northern Kentucky ward, is the mission chiropractor. We went over to his place twice this week to have him work on my neck and back and MAGIC, it’s basically all better. and while we were in the neighborhood, we had to accomplish one of my ‘im still in kentucky’ items on my bucket list. JOSH HUTCHERSON’S HOUSE.  we called the member who lives a street away from him and got his address. we stopped by and almost peed our pants and then as sister beeson was taking my picture someone pulled in the driveway!!! it wasn’t him. but we almost died. we are guessing it was his older brother or something. we met with sister America (our RS president) and she gave us a huge list of less active sisters to contact. we love less actives!!! really it is our pride and joy, getting to know them and helping them realize and rekindle their testimony. so I love the book of Mormon. it makes me happy. it makes life make sense. it helps Jesus Christ and I to be closer. oh funny quote from our gospel principles class, “hop on the jesus train!” anywho, I was really feeling like I needed to know jesus better (my lifelong quest, becoming best friends with Christ) and so I was reading in 3 nephi 17 and it was so beautiful. the people were begging Christ not to go. Christ was crying and praying with them and for them. im working on my pondering skills and so I just sat there for a little bit and tried to imagine this event in my mind, imagining what the people felt, imagining what Christ felt. I felt closer to him. I then I read chapter 18 about the sacrament and it just really made so much soulsense to me that we NEED the sacrament every single week to have Christ to be in us, a real part of our souls and we need to take the sacrament weekly to get rid of the weekly junk that we accumulate in our souls because of being human. anywho, I love the scriptures. Ive got to go but I love you. Te amo!

Love,

Sister Jackson

Hey Jackson Family! It’s Sister Beeson. I just wanted to say hello and say that I love this work!!! I’m so glad that Sister Jackson is my companion! She is such a blessing. She teaches me something new each day and I’m so grateful and blessed to work with her this past month. Hopefully we will be companions in Curitiba. Friends Forever!!