A week in pictures.

Elder Crapo

and

District photos before transfers

 Homemade breakfast.

(I noticed Joel's famous syrup on the table, yummm. Also, I guessed that Elder Olmstead's pancake was a Narwhal. I was wrong, it's an elephant. I see it now!)

My little budgie friend.

 We finally went fishing again. 

Pop took us to go eat. 

It's okay to drool, just not to covet ;)

Our view on the drive to Gaffney.

These pictures are from the Union County Farm Show

 Making grits at the Farm Show

 

Love y'all

Have a good week!

#willingtoservethelord

Hi Momma bear!!

This week has been good, though it has tested us a lot. There has been a nasty sickness going around Union which has caused a good majority of the inhabitants to get sick. We had a lot of appointments fall through, and lost our most prime investigator. It was hard, but we got through it, and we will just work harder this next week. 
Union is such a great place, and I absolutely love being here and hope I don't get a call this Saturday.
We were down in Whitmire the other day, and we went into the gas station (not A gas station, THE gas station. The one. Haha) and I started talking to this guy, who was obviously on a road trip with his family. I asked where he was from and he said "West Virginia, and let me guess, Utah?" Haha It is crazy how we really are well known. A lot of missionaries don't realize that people know who we are, but we stick out like a sore thumb with our white shirt and tie, and people will always be watching us. BEHAVE! 
We were visiting some people with our Branch Mission Leader last night, and as we were leaving, we went through this little dip, then we here metal scraping on the ground really loud. I looked at our Mission Leader and said "You dropped your exhaust." Haha we got out and looked, and sure enough, it was there, lying on the ground. We backed back into the house, then proceeded to crawl underneath the car, and tie it up with a tiedown strap. We sounded like one of Alec's Hondas :P We fit in with the rest of the people in Union haha It made me feel like I was back home, just another day in the Jackson family, redneck fixing a vehicle. :)
We went to the Union county farm and 4H show, which was awesome! I took a bunch of pictures, but I won't be able to send them until later, due to dumb computers. :P We made some awesome contacts while we were there, and we actually got to talk, for a while, with a member that I have only been able to get in contact with once since I have been here. She lives out on a farm in the middle of no where in our area. We are going to go visit her and I'll get to play on the farm for a little while hopefully this weekend sometime. :) 
Transfer calls come in this weekend, and we have zero clue what is going to happen. Pray that it is good though! I would love another 6 weeks at least here with Elder Olmstead! :) 
Love y'all!

Hey momma! I got my flu shot!!!

One of the members gave me fresh eggs,

I had a breakfast just like home!

Sunshiny and Happy!

Liberty Bridge at Falls Park on the Reedy.

That bridge was huge! When you are on it, you could feel it moving! :P

Haha, it was so cool Momma!!

Okay, this has been a good, busy, frustrating, rewarding, and AWESOME week :) 

We had the coolest baptism! A was so ready, and there was such a big turnout to support her! 

We have a meeting Tuesday night with our branch president at his house, and her and her whole family will be coming. We are praying, so hard, that we can pick them up as investigators and help them come to the knowledge of the truth. :) Pray for the whole family! :) 

 Elder Olmstead baptized her, and I got to confirm her. The spirit was so strong during the entire meeting :) She is a blessing too, because she has family that are members but haven't been in a while, and they are starting to come back because of her! So happy for her family, God is the coolest. :) 
We woke up this morning to about 57 degree weather, which was awesome. It feels like Utah right now! I am hoping that I get to stay in the Upstate for winter so I can feel the cold and see the "Snow" Haha but transfers are on the 30th, and I have been here for 4 already. Pray that I stay!!!

I love the similitude of Dr C. and me with Doc & Marty McFly from "Back to the future"! It totally makes sense!!  I sent Dr. C. an email a couple weeks ago, and never heard back! Tell Sawyer to bug him about it for me, in the most "Me" way he can. Haha 

My meeting with President went awesome! I'll tell you about it in another email!

Elder Olmstead and I are doing great! We are both slightly sick, so we were grumpy yesterday. Half of Union seems to have this cold. Everyone says it is coming from the weather changing all of the sudden and getting cold, but I kinda figured I would be used to cold weather! :P We are having a lot of fun though. We had Zone Conference on Friday, and we did a musical number. It was minimal practice and thrown together at the last moment, so it didn't sound too great, but it was still way fun to do! 

Zone picture

Can you find Elder Barker? ;)

Because of Zone conference, the Assistants to President were going to be in our zone the day before, so they called us and asked if they could go on exchanges with us Thursday night. That was fun. Although a little nerve wracking because it was short notice and there isn't a whole lot going on in our area, but it ended up really great! Elder Droge went with me, and Elder Daynes went with Elder O, and we had a lot of success! 

This transfer is flying by, and I am hoping that I get to stay AT LEAST one more, and stay with Elder Olmstead, so pray that happens too! Haha 
Love y'all! Stay Sunshiny and Happy! :P

Supper with Pop‏!

The food was too Good! I forgot to take a picture though! I'll remember next week! ;) You can still see the homemade banana pudding!

Last week we enjoyed our P-day in Greenville with Elder Crapo and Elder Evans.

Downtown Greenville was so not what I expected, because it felt exactly like Seattle, but it got better as I found streams and park and trees :) 

This is Main St on a Saturday Night in Union ;) Love this place!

Another goofy video from the Elders ;)

Possum 1 Elders 0

Elder Olmstead, Elder Crapo, Elder Evans, and Elder Barker

Momma bear!
I am so happy to hear about how great everyone is doing back home! I have worn out my knees praying for y'all, so I am thrilled to hear that the Lord is taking such good care of my family. 

This week has been hard for a missionary. We are constantly working to help others, and we are being pushed back by the adversary in so many different ways. We are still trying though!

Tuesday, we woke up at 6:30 ready to go for a run, but I was sick, so we didn't end up doing that. Whenever we get sick or hurt or anything medical, we are supposed to call one of the sister nurses in the mission and let them know. I called Sister Ramano, and she told us to stay in and take it easy. I remember when getting to stay home was so much fun back home, and there were so many fun things that you can do when you didn't have to go to school or work or anything, but out here, it is terrible. You are so used to working and being productive, that it seems like you are wasting so much time. There are also exactly 0 things to do for fun in a missionary apartment, so you have to make up fun things. We were thinking about trying to play “Duck Duck Goose”, but with only two of us, it probably wouldn't be that fun. Haha

This week has been really good, but really hard as well. We have a baptism this week; she has been so prepared and is already so strong in the Gospel. We have also had a lot of trials that have been testing our faith, namely with one particular investigator. We keep getting so close to baptism with him, and as soon as we get there, Satan beats him as hard as he can, and discourages him to the point of talking himself out of it. He is finally back on date! This time he is solid though. We have been working with him for quite a long time and it has kind of been like a roller coaster...So when Elder Holland gave him a call just to see how he was doing and see if there was any way that he could answer any of his questions, things got so much better. :) One of the best things about being a missionary is that we get to develop sincere love for the people that we are working with, and we really get to feel close to them. The bad part of that is when they have trials and struggles, you do too. My heart has broken for this man so many times, and it has been wearing on me. I have prayed so hard for him, and I want to see him have success so bad, but when he doesn't, I feel the pain too. It has really been a testimony builder though. I have really learned what it is to work, and I have been able to see that Satan will work hardest on the strongest. I have been knocked down so much, that I have gotten a lot stronger when getting back up. 

 God is so cool. I love the crazy blessings that come while serving The Lord. We are looking forward to 2 baptisms on the 12th of September, and we are praying that everything goes well and without problems.

We had our Zone training meeting on Friday up in Boiling Springs, which is about an hour’s drive for us. We pass by the Spartanburg Elders on our way, so we gave them a ride to the meeting. I love the drive up there, everything is so green, and the sky goes on forever. It is full of rolling hills. The meeting was really good, but there were some new rules we get to follow that will be an adjustment, but I know that by just giving up my own wants and being exactly obedient, blessings will come.  

We finally got the Area book Planner app for our iPads, finally, so it will be a very busy month. We aren't really using our planners anymore, so we have to start getting used to planning on the iPad, and then we have to take and upload all the information in our area book, by hand into our iPads, and we have to be finished by the end of September. It'll take us a while, but having a keyboard will be so nice for that! Thanks again, it is helping a lot! 

Love y'all!

For Elder O's hump day (Year mark), we went and got Sushi :)

After dinner we went home & it was time to go in,
we pull up to our house and......  

Possum!

I bolt out of the car and chase after it, it climbs a tree. I climb a tree. Long story short, possums are WAY better at climbing trees than we are, and I couldn't catch up to it, or get it out. Haha we had fun climbing the tree though! That gray Hollister shirt that I inherited from Alec, I ruined it..it is finally dead with a huge hole in the back. Haha 

Love y'all!

....after we spent about an hour climbing a really, really tall tree chasing a possum....haha

Love this girl!