Monday, August 25, 2014

Hello everyone! This is missionary Jackson reporting from the good old France, specifically Le Mans. Its a nice old ville, with some very old streets, and with an obsession for racing and race cars. They have little golden plaques hidden all over the ville of the people who have won the 24, so that's fun.
Leaving Strombeek was hard, but we got to say goodbye to almost everybody we knew well before we left, which was nice, we ate with TONS of people before we left, i'm afraid i've gained weight. haha But it was worth every ounce.

On Monday we had dinner and a lesson/miracle with Marie when we went to say goodbye. We went and had dinner and ice cream wit her, it was really fun, she's such a sweetheart. At the end we wanted to share the Restoration movie with her, so we watched it. Whe it had ended she had tears in her eyes. We asked her what she though about it, and she said that it makes her heart warm. It was such a touching moment to see her feel the spirit and recognize it. We asked her if she thought that this could be true, that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet, and she said that she would like to believe its true and that he saw God and Jesus. She promised to keep reading The Book of Mormon, she's already to chapter 13. She really is such a miracle, a sassy, hilarious miracle. And when we had to go she gave us a present and big hugs and thanked us about 5 times. It was so heartbreaking to leave her so quickly, but i'm sure that the Elders will take good care of her. I'm just thankful that I got to teach her, even if it was just for a few weeks.

Wednesday in Paris was weird, saying goodbye to all the leaving sisters, I had 5 companions leave this transfer, its odd, it slightly feels like I should have gone with them. But i'm not done yet, and i'm grateful for the time that I have left.

Then getting here in Le Mans was fun. Soeur Lusty is hilarious, and finding out that we both knew Kim Bell and exchanging stories about that was lots of fun. So i'm happy that she will be my last companion. She's young with lots of energy, its a really good example for me, i've got lots to learn from her.

So there is a quick update from this French missionary. Love you all, have an awesome week!!!!

Soeur Sarah Jackson

Monday, August 18, 2014






Well I think this week came one of the biggest surprises of my mission. I will be moving back to France for the last 6 weeks of my mission. 20 sisters left this last transfer, and some of them were unexpected, so they are closing several sister villes. And they are closing all the villes in Belgium to sisters except for 2, so my area is closing and i am being shipped back off to France. Suffice it to say I cried. Just having 6 weeks here, and now just going and having 6 weeks in La Mans. It breaks your heart a little bit, because you cant really get to know people in 6 weeks. So that's it.
On the even crazier side, I am officially in the last transfer of my mission, 6 weeks is all that left of my time here, it still feels like it will never end, so i'm not that worried about it.
Other than the shocking transfer news we had a good week. We met with a lot of members, we are saying our goodbyes. I haven't started with our amis, i'm too scared, I think i'll cry. Its hard to leave because I feel like there is so much more than I could do here, and I feel like they still need sisters here, oh well, apparently the Lord has decided otherwise.

One miracle we had this week though was while searching for a less active. We had planned to see this less active weeks ago but couldn't get out to her ville on the night we had planned. And then we had another night where we'd planned it out, but we didn't feel right about it so we went out porting instead. Finally on Tuesday night we felt like we should head out there, so we changed our plans and got on a bus and knocked on her door without calling ahead. She answered and she looked SO shocked to see us standing at her door, but she let us in. And after we said the prayer she said 'its amazing you just knocked on my door today'. We asked why, and she said 'I few days ago I actually said a prayer and told the Lord that maybe I was ready to start coming back to church'. It really was such a huge miracle for us to see the Lords timing, and how he really is in the details. He kept us from going just for a few weeks until she had decided that she was ready, and then he sent us. She thought it was amazing to have such an answer to her prayer. And even though I wont be here to help her progress and get back to church i'm so grateful that I was able to be an answer to her prayer.

So that is the little miracle, from this little missionary, who had just a little time in Belgium. Have a great week everyone. Miss you all.

Soeur Sarah Jackson

Monday, August 11, 2014




You know sometimes you get sick of people canceling your rendez-vous, and you get sick of everybody hating the 'mormons', and then the icing on the top of the cake, one day last week we were on a tram, and this guy starts harrassing us, then as he's about to get off he starts yelling and swearing at us. I've heard stories of people like that cursing and yelling in public places but that was the first time on my mission.
So after all that I did what any normal, sane person would do. I bought a huge ice cream cone and fries, walked out onto our balcony and cut 9 inches off my hair.

The past few weeks there has been hardly anybody at church because of "vacances" the big vacation time in europe. So everyone is gone. So the missionaries give all the lessons and the talks in sacrament. This week I got to teach etenal marriage in Relief Society. Missionaries are taking over!
But our investigator Odette came to church yesterday! Which was awesome because we hadn't been able to see her last week and the fact that she came without us asking her this week was incredible! We were really happy to see her. The members were all so great to her. American members know how to fellowship an ami. haha 

And this Saturday we were walking down the street and I went and contacted this lady and as I started to say 'hi my name is Sister Jackson' she stopped me and was like 'i know, I already know your church'. And I was like 'oh great, bring up polygamy'. But she had met the missionaries years ago but then had lost contact with them. She had met with them, and really liked them. So she gave us her number and even her email address to get in contact with her. It was just nice to see the Lord give a tender mercy at the end of the week. I didn't even have to say my reason for being here, let alone my name. But because of the example of missionaries years ago she was so happy to meet with us. I hope one day i'll have created that miracle for a future missionary.

On a not spiritual note, today we went to NATO. Coolest thing ever. We have some members that work there, its pretty legit. I don't have any pictures because they took my camera, because its all secret and cool. haha And we ate in the NATO cafeteria for lunch with men in uniform all around us, basically I felt like a cool important govermental person. I have now decided that I want to be the Supreme commander of NATO, did you know that he is always American? So that's pretty much my future dreams now.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!! Love you all!!

Soeur Jackson

Monday, August 4, 2014

Hello everyone!!
So this week was a fun week. We had our microwave start on fire, it exploded from the inside. It was fun. We got to call our district leader and he answered the phone and made a joke, all laughing and we were like 'hey hypothetically if our microwave was on fire, what would we do?' And he went dead and serious and into buisness mode. Elders are good for something!! haha That was adventure one of the week.
Then we had a really great experience with this lady called Jeanette. She is a new ami, so it was our first time teaching her, and she's from Congo! I'm pretty happy about that. we're going to a fun African party chez elle, and are going to eat foufou! I'm so excited. But we taught her a quick lesson about prayer and reading the book of mormon. She took the lesson really well, and just had so much respect for us. I love how Africans love that we are servants for the Lord. Then at the end of the lesson we asked if we could finish with a prayer, and she said yes, and then she kneeled. It was the first time on my mission i've had someone kneel before the missionaries, and without us asking. It was such a beautiful moment. She is just a wonderful person, who honestly wants the help of God in her life. It was just such a precious moment for us to say a kneeling prayer with this woman who so willingly fell to her knees to ask God for help. She really has a beautiful spirit.
So it was a nice week. We had some sick days in the apartement, but when we weren't we were having beautiful experiences. Love you all! Have an awesome day!! 'ere you left your room this morning, did you think to pray?'
Soeur Jackson