#74 August 28, 2017

Do you Honestly Expect Me to Still Have Creative Titles?   

So word on the street is that my home girl TSwift is back at it and all I gotta say about that is, I know that it is a direct blessing of enduring to the end of my mission 😉 *throws back fish* (its an nncm thing. Fish = worldly distractions that distract us) 

Anyways onto more spiritual things! 

I had my last normal interview with the Alexanders this week. Guess who held it together like a champ? If you guessed President Alexander, congrats. Because I didnt 😂😭 I cant tell yall enough what powerful leaders the Alexanders are. They know what to say and always have tissues prepared ❤ I also had my last district meeting. See the theme so far? Yeah its the worst. But I love this district SO much! I am so thankful for all the things I have learned by going to district meetings! Also our district leader promised to write me a eulogy, because I am "dying". My hopes were so high, and it was SO LAME! 😂😂 Its the thought that counts. 

I got to be in a trio for exchanges this week in Bethania! 💕 I love trios! We saw some great miracles and had lots of giggles! They have a large Marshallese population and so a big chunk of their teaching pool comes from them. Sister Enos, from the Marshall Islands, was in Tanglewood for the day so we brought another member to translate for us. I legit felt like I was in another mission. I was def not blessed with the gift of tongues, but it was a fun time! 

Speaking of foreign lands, I also taught a man from India this week, and a boy from China! We met the Indian man last week and he has read from the Book of Mormon before and has been to temple square and has lots of connections. He is great! We taught him again this weekend and it went well😊 I am excited to see his family progress! A family in our ward got a foreign exchange student from China named Eric! We got to teach him Saturday! It was kinda tricky because 1) language barrier 2) he had no clue who Christ was and that has not been a common theme of my mission. But he came to church! So that's good! 

Ready for a funny story? Okay here goes. So sunday we had an investigator,Daniel, come to church with us and this conversation took place after  

Sis k: *walks up real close to him* HI!  are you single?

Him: *sounds confused* yes

Her: me too! *high fives him* 

We were DYING laughing but also like what the heck Sister you cant just do that to people 😂😂

Spiritual Thought: 

"I testify that one cannot come to full faith in this latter-day work—and thereby find the fullest measure of peace and comfort in these, our times—until he or she embraces the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom it testifies. If anyone is foolish enough or misled enough to reject 531 pages of a heretofore unknown text teeming with literary and Semitic complexity without honestly attempting to account for the origin of those pages—especially without accounting for their powerful witness of Jesus Christ and the profound spiritual impact that witness has had on what is now tens of millions of readers—if that is the case, then such a person, elect or otherwise, has been deceived; and if he or she leaves this Church, it must be done by crawling over or under or around the Book of Mormon to make that exit." - Jeffery R Holland

Well folks that's pretty much all I got this week. Being a missionary is so great! I will never regret this choice I made❤ Also can we all pause together and be disgusted that August is like over and summer just slipped right by?!? On the bright side I survived another hot and humid carolina summer🙌

Hope you have an amazing week! I heard that you will be more blessed if you write a missionary, so feel free to use me for blessings! 😘😂 LOVE YOUUU! 

Sending Love, 
Sister Jacobsmeyer💕
  924 Hawk Ridge Circle

Winston Salem NC 27103

**** Pictures will be in a separate post.  

Wow where to even begin this week. Y'all it was crazy.

I guess I can start at the beginning. So Monday as a zone we hiked hanging rock and I wanted to die. Well at least uphill, downhill was fine. I paid for it most of the week though. It was fun to be together as a zone though! In my almost 9 months in this zone,  I have hiked it twice, so I am set for life. ✌

We had Pack Week this week! AKA Zone Week. It was SO great!! we all saw so many miracles and as a zone found 45 New Investigators, which is super great! Sister Fontano and I were blessed to find 10 of those! That is triple our weekly goal. We lead out two of the days, and one we did a training on technology. We made a little dos and donts video.... after we got a call from the assistants. We were kinda nervous at first haha but turns out they liked our video so much and wanted to put it on the MLC group chat!

Okay time for some good stories!

#1 First Miracle
So for the past few months we have gotten ZERO media referrals. none. So this transfer we made it a goal to start praying for them everyday. On Saturday morning, our prayers were answered! Someone ordered a Book of Mormon!! And it gets better. When Sister Soren and I were on exchange a few weeks ago, we met this girl and we gave her our contact info. Turns out she read the whole pamphlet and then went on Mormon.org and requested a Book of Mormon! We met with her and her boyfriend last night! 😊

#2 Big Time Miracle
So part of Pack Week includes daily challenges. Saturday we were challenged to invite 3 people to be baptized. We had 2 lessons that day, we weren't't worried. Well one lesson got rescheduled and the other one, it didn't feel right to invite them. So we were in a pickle. We decided that the next door we knocked, baptism would be our door approach. So we knocked and told this person how we can be baptized by the same authority John the Baptist had and asked her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by that authority. Y'ALL SHE SAID YES! PLUS she said she had been looking into having her kids get baptized!!!! Seriously, you try to tell me God doesn't't answer prayers. We are SO excited!!😭😊❤

#3 The big uh oh
Okay so a few weeks ago this sweet old lady in our ward gave us a ton of food, she also made a breakfast casserole for us to bake. The casserole wasn't't sealed all the way and some of the raw eggs spilled into the cooler, under a rag that was in there. So 2 weeks ago, we emptied the food and didn't't think to look under the rag. We sat the cooler by the door to give back to her. So fast forward to Saturday night. Sister Fontano noticed that it smelled funny by the door. We opened the cooler and oh my gosh, I have officially smelled death. It wreaked to high heavens AND had maggots ALL over. What do two young adults do after this? They say oh we will deal with it tomorrow. So thats what we did. Sunday before church, we went and dumped everything out in our dumpster and then took it to the church to clean out. It still smelled so awful, but we were soaking it and trying our best. We tried to get the elders to help, but the smell was too much haha. Then Sister Foster walks in. I have literally never felt so bad in my life. She was not a happy camper and said she would just take care of it at home. btw at that point the maggots were gone , we were just washing it to get the smell out. Anyway fast forward to after sacrament. We talked to her and said sorry 1000 times and she is all good now. But we learned our lesson!😂😂

Spiritual Thought: "For one thing, we can, as King Benjamin taught, cease withholding our means because we see the poor as having brought their misery upon themselves. Perhaps some have created their own difficulties, but don't the rest of us do exactly the same thing? Isn't that why this compassionate ruler asks, "Are we not all beggars?" Don't we all cry out for help and hope and answers to prayers? Don't we all beg for forgiveness for mistakes we have made and troubles we have caused? Don't we all implore that grace will compensate for our weaknesses, that mercy will triumph over justice at least in our case? Little wonder that King Benjamin says we obtain a remission of our sins by pleading to God, who compassionately responds, but we retain a remission of our sins by compassionately responding to the poor who plead to us." Jeffery R Holland

FOLLLOWING UP: Okay I invited all of you to pull out the Book of Mormon this week so I of course have to follow up! Let me know how that went and what you read!😘

Okay that was a little long, hopefully the 6 people who still read this , made it this far.😉 I hope you all are surviving the heat of the summer! Count your blessings that it isnt hot AND humid.

LOVE YOUUUUU! 🖤

Sending Love,
Sister Jacobsmeyer💕
   

Hey Y'all!

This week started off the right way with MLC. Oh it's always a good time. ❤ We discussed for the majority of the time, the power of the Book of Mormon and how we can share it in unique ways! Also found this quote from Brigham Young , "No man can say that this book (laying his hand on the Bible) is true, is the word of the Lord, is the way, is the guide-board in the path, and a charter by which we may learn the will of God; and at the same time say, that the Book of Mormon is untrue; if he has had the privilege of reading it, or of hearing it read, and learning its doctrines. There is not that person on the face of the earth who has had the privilege of learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ from these two books, who can say that one is true, and the other is false" So I have challenge for all of you, every single one. Just like I invite those I am teaching I want to invite yall to pick up the Book of Mormon and read from it THIS WEEK! I can promise you that more peace will come into your life and you will feel closer to Jesus Christ! 😊

We had exchanges this week! Sister Soren came here with me! It was pretty great! We found a new investigator together 😊 Also no joke she looks like one of my  roommates from byui  and it really was throwing me off all day hahah

We taught SO many people this week. Sadly, not all of them wanted to set a return appointment BUT still miracles. Last night was a real great one. We were walking in this area and knocked on a door. This man comes out and we started a conversation with him. We asked " If the same church that Jesus Christ established while he was here, was here today, what would that mean to you?" And then he grabbed his wife, and eventually we got inside. We taught the full restoration and after sharing the first vision they told us that they felt the spirit (': So awe invited them to be baptized. And the man looked thrilled. The wife seemed scared to change. She turned it down. But we testified to them to pray and read the Book of Mormon, and to not forget the spirit they felt while meeting with us. Even though it didn't end the way we wished, we gave it our all and helped others come closer to Christ. We fulfilled our purpose.

Last miracle....... TAMMY AND HER GIRLS CAME!! Oh we were overjoyed!! 😭❤ Except the whole time we were so nervous about every word that came out of anyones mouth 😂 and in sunday school some member brought up some deep doctrine and we were a little panicked haha but it all ended well. The daughters liked young womans! We will hopefully get to see them on Saturday to start teaching them😊

Spiritual Thought:
"To those who have been offended or lost interest [in the Church], or who have turned away for any reason, we invite all of you to join in full fellowship again with us. The faithful members, with all their faults and failings, are humbly striving to do God's holy work across the world. We need your help in the great struggle against the powers of darkness so prevalent in the world today."

Well North Carolina is super rad and I know I was called here for many reasons. ❤ I hope that whoever still reads these emails knows how much I love them and am thankful for them😊 Have an amazing week!

PS we are going hiking for zone activity soooo if you dont hear back from me today sorry in advance, I will catch you next week😘

Sending Love,
Sister Jacobsmeyer💕
   

#71 Too Blessed To Be Stressed! August 7, 2017

Holy inspired transfer! This week has been FANTASTIC! Isn't just so amazing how Heavenly Father knows exactly who needs to be your companion?! Yay for fresh starts and new beginnings! ✌

So Tuesday we got to pick up my new companion! Sister Fonatano!! She is from..... VEGAS! Woot Woot! She went to Rancho and obviously we have some connections. (like Tahnee trained one of her best friends, one of her young womans leaders works at Make A Wish, and a few others)

Wednesday we met with the Zone Leaders to set some goals for this transfer. So every zone here has a nickname of sorts...except ours. I suggested some the last few transfers but no one wanted to have a nickname. But alls well that ends well. We are now officially, "The Winston Wolf Pack" We have had lots of fun with it already! 🌜🐺

Saturday we were asked to sing in a group at the Stake Womans Conference! We also stayed and went to the classes with Diana, a recent convert in the ward. And bonusssss.... all my favorite ladies from Stuart were there!! Tender mercies are real my friends. You would think that was the biggest miracle of that day, but nope it gets better!

Miracle #1 : So we went and contacted an investigator and then decided to find around her area. There was a street I had never been on before so we decided to go down there. We also decided to walk to the bottom and work our way up. While doing so, a lady and her two daughters were outside. So we started talking with them. Turns out they had met with missionaries before and even had been to church! They said they were interested in meeting with us again! 😊

Miracle #2 : Saturday night we had just met this man who became a new investigator and we were already on cloud 9, then we walked back to the car. We had  set a goal that day to talk to EVERYONE about church so that we could hit our sacrament attendance goal this week. We invited a lot of people but nothing was too solid...THEN,  when we were out finding, we were about to go to the car when we felt prompted to talk to a mom and daughter down the road. Long story short, they were super nice, we shared Chapel Tours videos with them, and they committed to come to church the next day (with another daughter too) and we were really excited about it!! The Lord will always place people in our path when we work to achieve our goals!!! Sadly , they texted us and said they forgot it was their sunday school teachers last day. But they loved meeting us and will for sure come next week! 😭❤

One last story. So we were in Relief Society yesterday and Sister Rogers was giving a fantastic lesson....when all of a sudden we hear someone gasping for breath. Another sister in our ward had a heart attack!!!! Like what?! 911 was called, doctors from the lewisville ward came in, it was all sorts of crazy. But we heard she is okay, so that's good!

Spiritual Thought: 
"Those who listen to and follow the counsel of living prophets and apostles will not go astray. The teachings of living prophets provide an anchor of eternal truth in a world of shifting values and help us avoid misery and sorrow. The confusion and strife of the world will not overwhelm us, and we can enjoy the assurance of being in harmony with God's will."

Also for all of those who have endured to the end of this email, and for those who were wondering, My Homecoming will be Sunday September 17th @ 11AM at the Overton building. This will be the only time I mention it, so save the date if you wanna see me. 😘 And if you need any more details you can ask me or momma j

Life is SO good! Especially when you are a missionary! Love you all SO much! Thanks for all you do for me! ❤

Sending Love, 
Sister Jacobsmeyer💕

924 Hawk Ridge Circle 

Winston-Salem NC 27103

The Pictures:

1) meeting with our ward mission leader 😊

2) we went to a cupcake decorating class! 😍

3) My good old southern ladies 😘

Sending Love, 
Sister Jacobsmeyer💕