Monday, August 26, 2013


 August 26th 2013
Okay well this week has been a bit all over the place, since we had to travel to go get interviews done. And this next week will be the same way, we go do exchanges in Paris with my favorite person in the whole world! My grandma!! I'm so excited.

Anywho, the story I wanted to share with you guys today is more for mom and Colleen. It is about a woman in our ward who is termed a non-practicing. She is very old, and sick, and in a wheelchair. Her name is Sr. Casy. She has not been able to attend church for many years because of her illness, although she is still a firm believer.
Sr. Casy found the missionaries when she was a teenager right after WWII, Mulhouse had just been given back to France. She met the missionaries and decided to be baptized. Soon after she was baptized, the Elder who baptized her (whom she had a bit of a crush on) and some other missionaries, mostly in Belgium decided that they should be doing Polygamy. (I don't know if you guys have heard about this). So all these Elders were excommunicated from the church. When this happened Sr. Casy got A LOT of pressure from her family to disjoin the church. Even with all that opposition she said strong in the church. Agreed that those men were wrong, but she kept going. After that happened there were only a handful of people who went to church in branch that she attend. Yet still she always went.
Now many many years later, two missionaries are talking to this older woman, the louder one (because Sr. Casy is kind of deaf), asked if there was anything that the missionaries can do to help her. She is completely alone in the world at this point, no children. And what does she say?
"Yes. I have a sister in the ward who I am her visiting teacher. I used to e-mail her a message every month, but then her computer broke, and now I write her a message every month. This woman is becoming inactive, and I am the only member she is in contact with".
She didn't ask us to do anything for her, just to go find this woman she visit teaches. I can't think of a better visiting teacher. I think if Sr. Casy can continue to do her visiting teaching after everything then the sisters in our ward can. I find Sr. Casy so incredible, she is an incredible pioneer and she will never have an epic movie done about her, but more people need to learn from her example.

Sorry that was long. Just one other random thing. So the ward had a picnic the other day with the ward. And they played this game where they describe a territory of France that a cheese in named after, and people guess the territory, and then there is a song for each one!! It was awesome. All the old people new all the little songs, and one old man got up and waltzed to one. It was sweet.

Anywho. Love you all lots and lots!!! Keep going strong!

Soeur Jackson.

Thursday, August 22, 2013



Well this has been a crazy week. Like really, both me and Sr. Hafen on Sunday night sat back and were like "We just got tons and tons of miracles". So great.
We found people, like lots of people, it was just really great. So there are a lot of stories that I could tell, i'm not sure which one to choose.
Okay, so the one that really hit me home was a member called us and he had a friend who wanted to me with us. Her name was Sr. Stehlie and she had met the missionaries 10 years ago and wasn't interested, but now she is. Which was a miracle that someone was looking for us and not the other way around. So we got a RDV with her at the church, and we gave her a tour and then had a lesson in the chapel with Fr. Foucher. And it was really great, she was just this cute old lady whose husband has died. And when she found out about relief society she wanted to know if they would let her in. It was adorable. And the icing on the cake, during the lesson I asked a question, and her reply (but in French of course) "I don't know, but I do know that I feel less sad". Huge smile from this little missionary, that's the spirit for you. It is really wonderful when you get to see someone feeling and recognizing the spirit for the first time. You could tell it was hitting her.
Another one. We were contacting in this neighborhood and were talking to a lady who wasn't interested but let us come and drink some water, she mentioned she worked for Huntsman, and I was like 'oh we have members that work there, do you know them?' And she said yes, and then she was like ' you have some members that live just down the street'. So when we left we went out on a voyage to find these members that I have not yet visited. So i'm creepy walking down the street reading everyone's mailbox names and I hear a ' who are you looking for?' Turn around and it was Fr. Storti. Hilarious. I looked like a creeper, and of course my companion didn't know who he was yet. Anywho so he invites us in and we walk in and his wife is like "we are making crepes and you can eat with us, but first you have to go to the man across the street and talk to him. We have invited him to church, and we have been hoping you guys would come' so we were like okay. Walked right out the door and went and talked to the man. And man, he was ready. He even asked the question 'how do you know which church is true'. Seriously. I didn't think anybody asked that question. And he said that his wife is really closed, but that they had dinner with the Storti's and after that his wife became interested. It was AWESOME!!!
AND the cherry on top of the cake, a woman who has been taking lessons from the Missionaries for 6 years and never come to church, came!! So sweet you guys.
Sorry this was quickly written, I didn't want to run out of time. But there are just a few of the miracles that went down in Mulhouse this past week!! Awesome week.
Love you all!! Keep going strong!! Obedience brings miracles!
Love, Soeur Jackson!
August 12th

Well this was a busy week. I got a new companion. Her name is Sr. Hafen, she is only one transfer ahead of me. She is like a machine, which is cool, but its crazy. We have to go to Paris tonight, and she will then go off to Belgium, and I stay in Paris to try some missionary work there. Then on Wednesday its off to Colmar. So we will be gone half the week, I don't love that, but what can you do.
We had our genealogy activity, it was alright. The people there were really cute and interested. But it was really hard to plan on a missionary schedule. I don't believe I will do one again on the mission.
Coolest story from my week. We were contacting this lady, but she was from Bosnia, so we couldn't really communicate. Then this other lady came up and asked for the book of mormon, we gave it to her, but guess what. She also didn't speak french. Seriously, no on in France speaks French. Anywho, she spoke Albanian, and by chance I had ordered Albanian Book of Mormons a few weeks ago and we'd just gotten them. So we told her to stay, and ran and got one. Then her son came, we were hoping he could translate, but he spoke 5 words in English, and also no French. So she went and found another lady, who spoke Albanian and German and Ugoslavian, hoping this lady could translate, but still not French. So this second lady found another lady who spoke Serbian and French. So the Albanian lady asked the lady a question in Ugoslavian, then she asked the lady who spoke Serbian, who asked us the question in French. it was the longest, weirdest thing ever. So we did what all rational people do, we got a child to come and translate for us, which very sadly, worked the best. So it was hard. But we left them with a book of mormon in Albanian, so i'm counting it as a win. I never realized how well I knew French until I listened to all those other languages, and I have never been so grateful to hear French spoken either. But hey! I learned how to say thank-you in Albanian. Interesting night...
That's about it! I miss Sr. Mataalii a lot. It's really weird to adjust to a whole knew person, who is way different. But it's good. So that's it. I hope all is well with you guys!! LOVE YOU!!!

Sr. Jackson

Monday, August 5, 2013

Re:
Wassup?!
Mom, 
With my toe, on my big toenail the nail broke off right at the bottom. It's gross, and I try to avoid looking at it, and pretend like it's not their.
As for transfers, bum bum bum!!
I remain. But Soeur Mataalii has been called to be an STL, the youngest one on the mission. She is not extremely happy about it. There was a lot of crying going on last night, so on Wednesday she is off to Belgium. Which is really cool, and she's companions with a sister that I really like. So it's cool, i guess, it's kind of weird that we won't be together anymore.
I will be with a Soeur Hafen. Do you remember the Hafens? Haley probably will? Sarah, Benjamin and Spencer? Yeah, she is their cousin. So that's cool, I don't really know her. So it will be a fun new experience.
My geneology activity for the ward is this Saturday, i'm pretty worried about it, but hopefully it will all work out well.
I was really sorry to hear about Lisa dying, but her funeral sounds like it was really great. I hope that everyone is doing okay, the family, and Haley and Aodhan. Those Hayters, they are so awesome.
We are going to the foire tonight. We have to go with some members because last year they had some issues....so yeah, we are pretty excited. It is rumored they have barbe a papa, sweet.
Spiritual thought for the week: Prayer works, depend on it. We have had a hard time getting ami's to come to church, so I fasted and prayed for it, and one of our ami's came, and brought a friend. And in testimony meeting they literally testified about everything she had questions about. One person came, and it was the most amazing thing ever.
LOVE YOU GUYS!!! Peace out.