What a week. We have been so busy! It has been a wonderful
miracle. It has also been dreadfully humid. My hair is doing all kinds of
strange things. Today is nice though.
On Monday we found a new family. They are from China.
They've never even heard about God before. It breaks my heart to talk to them.
The 5 year old and 7 year old girls are absolutely darling. They really feel
the Spirit when we talk to them. We taught them how to sing “I Am a Child of
God” and they loved it! It's hard to teach them. Since they've never heard
about God or Jesus Christ, it's really challenging to explain any doctrine to
them. We've been praying and studying and having small amounts of success.
They're leaving this week to go to China for a month, so we're hoping we'll be
able to meet with them more when they get back. Well, the sisters here will
meet with them. I will be home.....
I cannot imagine living a life without a knowledge of God.
We had some more lessons with Caleb. He is doing really
well! He was supposed to have his baptismal interview this week, but then he
went out of town with his mom. It's so frustrating! His parents have given him
permission, but they just don't understand how important it is for him to keep
commitments. I really wish we could do more to help them have spiritual
experiences. It's not that they're uninterested, it's just now a priority for
them. His dad stays home all day playing video games. It breaks my heart. Caleb
wants to be baptized so badly!
We had some good lessons with Emily too! We went through the
baptismal interview questions with her and talked about preparing for
covenants. She is making so much progress! She told us that she has a testimony
of Joseph Smith and that she does want to be baptized, she just wants to learn
more. She really desires to be fully converted, which is wonderful. We brought
her to another one of our dinner appointments with us and the members basically
taught the whole lesson. Sometimes that's a bad thing, but this time it was
just perfect for her. The husband bore his testimony of why we go to church and
helped her to resolve some of her concerns. She'll make it to church one of
these Sundays, I just know it!
Cynthia made us dinner. She cooked some real Southern food -
Cornish hen, macaroni, cabbage, and potato salad. It was soooo good and I was
stuffed! I'd never had Cornish hen and it was pretty good. Strange to eat an
entire hen though...After dinner we watched the Joseph Smith movie with her.
She loved it and it helped her understand more of Joseph Smith's role in the
restoration of the gospel. In Sunday School on Sunday she told everyone that
she's made up her mind to come back to the Church. She knows it will be hard,
but she knows it's the right thing to do. The only downside is that she's
leaving on Wednesday to go to New Jersey until August 8. We are praying that
she won't lose faith while she's away.
On Friday night we went to the pageant that they have in our
stake. A lady in the stake wrote the script about her own family history. It
starts with the Revolutionary War and goes through their conversion story until
they arrive in Salt Lake City with the Mormon Pioneers. We brought our
investigator Paris with us. She loved it. I really felt the Spirit. It was fun
to see all our ward members in the pageant. Our bishop even had a solo! (well,
he lip-synced it :)) We got home really late though...around midnight. I was so
tired Saturday morning. It was very difficult to drag myself out of bed. But we
wanted to be obedient so we made it happen and we weren't too sleepy that day.
Saturday afternoon we went on a walk to take a break from
weekly planning. We ended up teaching two lessons to some of our neighbors who
were outside! We had just prayed that we would have more opportunities to find
people to teach, and then two opportunities just landed in our laps. One of the
families was moving in. We offered to help, and they declined, but they told us
that the husband had grown up across the street from members of the Church. He
told us some sad stories about their disobedience and their inappropriate
relationships with the missionaries. I was disappointed at the poor example
these members had set for their friends, but we are grateful for the
opportunity that we have to set a better example for them. The wife has a chronic
disability that developed recently, and she said she would love for us to stop
by anytime. This reminds me of the incredible miracles I saw with my neighbor
in Virginia Beach. The Lord works in mysterious ways.
I cannot believe my mission is ending so soon! I know I talk
about it every week, but I think about it pretty often. Only two more emails!
How is this real life? I am so grateful for the incredible opportunity this has
been for me. And I'll save my other last words for a different email.
With love,
Sister Jasperson
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