miracle baptism

so a few weeks ago there were a couple child of record baptisms...which don't count for missionaries...well apparently one of the kids that got baptized was never blessed as a baby and was actually living with his aunt...so it turned out to be a convert baptism, so im really happy about that :D not much else is going on...sorry i don't write any letters :/ i will try to write one this week and let people know a little more about what has been going on...i hope everbody is doing great and just wanna wish my sister a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY

MISS YOU ALL VERY MUCH

JACKIE B.

The Habanero Challenge!!!!!!!!!!

have any of you ever been in a time in your life when you think that nothing could possibly get any worse? that you have gone through so much pain and agony and suffering that the only thing left to do is hope that it miraculously goes away? that happened to me.....when i took the HABENORE CHALLENGE!!!! this was no small task....the habenero is a mexican pepper that is ridiculously hot (DO NOT EAT ONE!!!) they are gross and extremely painful...for about 4 hours i was sitting in my apartment in so much pain that the only thing in my mind was "i wanna kill myself" it hurt so bad, that i think i can honestly say that my appreciation of the atonement has grown dramatically. to give you an idea of how hot and painful it was here is a quote from a missionary after he took the challenge "i would rather have my arm cut off rather to have ever eaten that stupid pepper!" ~elder manuele

manuele just happens to be from st george so i give him mega props :D

not much else to crazy is going on right now...just the usual mission stuff :D i did go to coldstone for the first time and i just have to say that it was the greatest ice cream place i have ever eaten :D

hope to hear from you guys soon :D MISS YOU ALL!!

JACKIE B.

bummed yet pumped

so i am really sad to say that all 5 baptisms did not go through :( but at least 2 of them did so i am really happy about that :D transfer calls came last saturday and i found out that i was yet again staying in lakewood for another transfer, which blew me out of the water yet again....not to mention the new companions i got...first one is elder schull who actually lived with me and palmer in yelm....speaking of palmer he is also my companion AGAIN!!!! i served with palmer in yelm then i left for 2 transfers then we were comps in spanaway then i came to lakewood for 2 transfers now he got transferred to lakewood an i just happened to stay so this is our 3rd time together and will make a total of 6 months after this 6 week cycle.

My success as a missionary here in the great town of lakewood.

so this week end our companionship has 5 people on date for baptism...which will put me at a grand total of 34 (well i guess i should say "grand total" cause i still have 10 months left haha) but i realized that after these 5 baptisms i will have doubled my converts on my mission since i came back to lakewood 12 weeks ago. and i was wondering why it took me 7 transfers (42 weeks)to get my first 17 baptisms and only 2 more transfers (12 weeks) to double it to 34... and i really believe and know that it is because of my excitment towards being a missionary, not that i wasn't excited before, but i feel that i had other things on my mind that were slowing me down (things like home, family, what i want to get into for schooling and stuff). when i came back to lakewood it really hit me about how fast 2 years goes by. so i have been really focused on the people i have been teaching and progressing them rather that worrying about my own personal things that don't even need to be thought about at this time. hopefully i can keep this excitment up as i get transfered to new areas :D

i love you all and miss you guys so much

JACKIE B.

WeEk FiVe of the 9th TRANSFER

So if this week 5 is anything like all the other week 5's of my mission then it is going to fly by so fast....every transfer i ask myself..."what happened, why is time going so fast?" not that it is a bad thing, it's just that my mind cannot comprehend it. we had the baptism of the family that i mentioned in my last post. it was one of the best baptisms i've had on my mission, and the first family that i have baptized :D transfers are in 2 weeks (the 7th) and i have decided that i am not going to make any predictions on whether i am staying in lakewood or not...cause i seem to be bad at those kind of predictions haha. a part of me wants to stay, but i kinda want to go to a new area :D

miss you all

JACKIE B.

miracle baptism this weekend :D

so two weeks ago my companions and i had only found 1 new investigator, but we average 6-8 every week so we were really bummed out that sunday had come and we didn't have new people to teach.....until......elder lewis went in to the clerks office to grab a pair of scissors, he met the ward clerk in there who told lewis that there was a message on the phone that we would might want to hear. apparently that was i family that used to live up in the puyallup south stake in washington who was taught by the missionaries, but had moved to cali...they eventually moved back up to washington and moved here to lakewood...they were supposed to get baptized the thursday they were going to move up here, but the missionaries in cali told them to wait until they got to the ward they would be living in :D so we are having a baptism of a 3 piece family this weekend which was an absolute miracle :D

PLAY BALL!!!!!!

So today we (about 20 missionaries) went to a baseball game....it was the Tacoma Rainiers vs. the Las Vegas 51's. I of course was cheering for Vegas cause i love it there plus that is where one of my comps is from haha. the score ended up being 6 to 2 for vegas which was really exciting, though the game it self was a really slow-paced game. haha i should have worn a jacket to the game cause it was really cold, but i guess i can't complain.

as for missionary work things are going fairly good...we had a baptism last weekend and we had a miracle happen on sunday.... there was a guy who moved up from california who was visiting the missionaries down there and was going to be baptized last thursday, but the missionaries told him that he should wait to be baptized in the ward that he was going to be moving to...so i guess that means a free baptism for the Lakewood area :D

that's all
JACKIE B