Off to Australia

Dear Family & Friends,

O.K. This is the weekly letter I started before I went on exchanges. Then I found out I was going to Australia. It's only half of the week! I'll write about the other half next week—

“Green, Green, I pink up the phone and say YELLO?”  Haha we actually have an investigator that picks up the phone and says that overtime we call,  No joke.  It’s so great.  His name is John! (Great name, isn’t it Dad?) I love John so much!  We have been teaching him for a while now and his baptism is coming up in the next month!  I can’t wait for him to get dunked.  He is a solid 250+ pounds.  We actually go on walks with him and talk about his Book of Mormon reading to help him with his exercise.  So on Friday he told us that if we get transferred he is going to call Pres. Monson and tell him we have to stay.  He jokes around saying he isn’t going to get baptized if we don’t stay,  Mom, John really wants to write you a letter. Who knows?  He might come show up at your door in California!  We’ve taught him pretty much everything!  I’m so excited for him:)  

So on Monday we only took a half P-Day so we could go to the temple on Thursday.  I LOVE the temple.  it was so beautiful and so peaceful!  It was even cooler going as a missionary.  It was so cool, the lady that sat next to me in the temple was blind.  She was so beautiful and she is amazing at crocheting.  She crocheted most of her temple clothes.  I don’t really know her but I love her.  I’m always so happy when I go to the temple and feel complete peace.  God’s love is so evident.  I can’t wait to go there and be sealed to by forever family.  I get emotional just thinking about it and thinking about how some of the people I’m teaching right now are on their way to finding that eternal happiness.  God is so good.  So Sister Hubbard went to the temple with Sister Russel, Sister Wood, and myself!  After the temple we went to Sister Hubbard’s beautiful home and she prepared a wonderful lunch for us!  I met Bella, the dog who pees instantaneously if you pet it and I saw Fat Amy, the car Jane drove in High School!  We ate Eggs Benedict and we had Vernors which is a Michigan drink.  Sister Hubbard stoked us with some Milano and Dove chocolates.  She’s such a saint.  We then drove home in Sister Russel’s mini van.  She named it Dirty Red.  Thanks to Aunt Shannon I’ve discovered the best snack int he world, frozen grapes.  They are heaven on the mission.  We shared them with Sister Russel and she loved them.  Sister Russel is a hilarious black lady who is deathly afraid of fireflies.  

So another really cool miracle we saw this week is with a couple of less actives we are working with.  We came over to teach them about relying on the Savior and the first thing Brother Merlo said when we walked in was, “Guess what?!  I read the entire Book of Mormon!!”  I could cry I was so happy.  When we talked about never being alone and how our Brother Jesus Christ is always there, Brother Merlo’s heart melted and he started crying.  This moment was so precious.  W wanted to replay it time and time again.  Emma is doing good too!  She want to pay her tithing when she gets baptized and her dog Maggie is only smoking like one cigarette a day not!  We began teaching this super rad guy named Danny.  He has an Irish accent.  He is a friend of a recent convert in our ward.  We asked him to pray about a day when he wanted to get baptized and he got an answer!  He chose August 15th.  I am so excited for him.  We just talked to him about the plan of salvation and it touched him because he lost 165 of his closest buddies when he served in the navy.

TO BE CONTINUED  (Jacquelyn did not know she was leaving for Australia until 2 days before.  She said it was REALLY hard saying good bye to her investigators.  She grew to really love and appreciate them.  She felt like her heart was breaking when she said good bye to them.  But, she is looking forward to Australia.  We will keep you posted!  Thank you for your love and support!)