Noche Blanca

Hello my wonderful family and friends! I hope you are all enjoing this holiday season! One of the best times of the year right! Well Christmas time is a little bit different in the misison but it is still a happy time. So a big week! A lot of things to share and so little time! But i was able to give another talk in the Sinai ward which went well. 

Well probably the best part of the week by far was going to the Ecuador Guayaquil Temple! I cant even express how amazing it was just to be there! Everthing about it was just great! I already miss it to death and cant wait till next year! Haha, that sounds so wierd having to wait to go to the temple! That will be one of the first things i do when i get back! Temple Temple Temple! I love it! All of you at home that have the oppertunity to go to the temple i encourage you to all go as often as you can! It doesnt get much better! And those that are preparing for a mission and have taken out or are going to get there endowments! Go as MUCH as you can before the mission! You learn so much everytime and just honestly feel closer to your father in heaven. Well after the temple we had a xmas conference with a couple other zones and president Amaya. It was a good time! We had a somewhat thanksgiving lunch which was way nice and then had a little conference and each zone did a performance at the end. It was fun! I really enjoyed it! Doesnt matter where you are you can always feel the Christmas spirit. 

Well thats not all! I had my first Noche blanca! Which is right up there with the temple because it doesnt happen much in the misison! Noche blanca is when usually a few districts come togeather with there investigadors that are going to get baptized and do one big service and its really neat because everyone is in white. Thats why its called noche blanca. But it was awesome because we had a noche blanca just with our sector me and elder Barragan. It was way neat being part of seeing two families and a jovencita enter into the gospel of Christ togeather all at the same time. An experience i will never forget! I think that was my Christmas present from God. haaha.  I am so thankful and hope its not the only noche blanca I am a part of in the misison. Through God, anything is possible. I want to bring as many people as I can to Christ! Theres nothing better! The whole imagine everyone in white mindset is starting to be more serious to me. Everyone I teach and get to know, no matter how awkward or hard or inpossible it seems, imagining them in white makes it a lot easier to teach. 

Well why not finish up with a little cow. I dont know whats up with the people and cows here during navidad but i had the opertunity to try cow stomach and other stuff i dont even understand what they explained it was. I wont say i liked it at all but i was able to eat it. Last week with the trompa de baca is still holds first place so far. Well, i love and miss you all! Les testifico con todo mi corazon que esta iglesia es verdadera y es de nuestro salvador Jesucristo! Les quiero mucho! Cuidense!

Elder Jacobsen 

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays! I hope everyone is doing great! Weve entered a great month of the Christmas season. A time to really think about Christ and the joy and blessing we recieve because of him. I am so thankful for the love of our Savior and the opertunity we have through his atonment to return to our father in heaven. 

Well the work is going great! Im way excited because the majority of our investigadors are attending church and really progressing. The missionaries during Navidad always try to have investagords with baptismal dates to do what they call a noche blanca. Each companionship tries to have at least one person that is going to get baptized or more is even better and the whole zone or a couple districts get togeater and have a noche blanca (white night because everyone are dressed up in White). Im excited because I think were going to have one but me and Elder Barragan in our sector one because we live far from the others and we have a good amount of friends preparing to be baptized. So ya, the work is really good. It all pays off when you work hard. Hopefully it all Works out. Well, we got great great news this week! Were going to the TEMPLE! I cant even express how happy i am. Becuase they told me when i arrived that we dont get to go to the temple for Christmas but now we do. Im so excited! Well, This week i had another eating experience. All I can say that for the first time being here somthing has made me gagg. Ive eaten many interesting things but nothing like the trompa de baca or in english it would be the face of a cow. I honestly wanted to throw up because he was pure gushy rubbery.  I dont even know what to call it. It just looked nasty and the wost part of everything is when you eat it you feel all the barb hairs brushing against your mouth. That was probably the worst! Anyway we were given a bunch of it and i new i would not be able to eat it all without throwing up but gracia a dios the hermana had to go to the restroom and when she left we imediatly found a bag laying around and put a good amount of the stuff in the bag and then hid it in our backpacks becuase we didnt want to offend her. So ya, that was fun. Well no time, but i know this góspel is true and i know that President Thomas s Monson is called of god. Just watching them last night in the xmas devocional the spirit was strong with just feelings of peace and confort. I love you all so much!

Elder Jacobsen 

Cold Shower

How is everyone doing! I am pretty sure this last week was thanksgiving! So happy thanksgiving! I took a moment a couple nights ago to think about thanksgiving and what I am thankful for and holy cow im lucky. We are lucky. On part of us who live in the States, we have it good. God has truly blessed us. I wont go on saying what we do and don’t have or what we have and Ecuador doesn’t but I will say that we have more than enough in so many ways and should be very gratefull. For part of thanksgiving I invite all of you to take one shower, but on COLD, and then think that the people here and in many parts of the world are considered high class to have just running water. Haha, let me know if you try it out. Well, it was a good week! Were having quite a bit of success! We found a family. Familia Zambrano who are just great! They are like a dream come true because they´re married. Please keep them in your prayers that they can progress going to church and feeling the truth of this great evangelio. Well, MICHAEL GOT BAPTIZED! Wahoo! Haha! I love the familia Jara and Michael was finally baptized and I think It gave the parents a boost to get everything worked out with getting married! Keep them in your prayers also please! Well, Not much time. I hope your all doing great and just living up life. Love and miss you! Oh, and i want to shout out HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my best friend Briar who is cumpliendo anos esta semana! Love ya! Have a great one! 

Elder Jacobsen 

Att. Here are a few pics of our little family here, us with hermano fuentes (patriarca) and the sweet hammocks he made us!, and the family Jara at the baptism! 

Instrument in the Lords hands

Como están a todos! How are you all doing! I hope your all doing great. Well what to say here in Monte Sinai… Things are going well… The work is good. Its tough, joyful, and all worth it! But wow the time is honestly going by fast. I dont know what it is but time is going a lot faster now. I fell like it was only a few days ago I was writing. So im way excited because weve been working with the familia Jara who I have been working with for months and we decided thats it is best that Michael the son gets baptized. The parents are still having troubles getting married but im just so happy that they´re trying and that Michael will take the first step. I hope and pray that some day i will get word that the family are all preparing to go to the temple. That would make the whole misión worth it! Haha. So theres a family that I would like you to put in your prayers if you wouldnt mind. A sister named Fanny and her kids arnt members but are interested. The dad was a member but left and is now a drunk and Fanny doesnt want to join the church if it didnt change her husband. We just need to explain to her that the members arnt perfect but the church of Jesus Christ IS. But I feel like we can get to her and it will change her life and her husbands. So yesterday i had a neat experience. I was asked to give a talk with like no notice and of course i said yes but i was a little nervous because the people here love hearing a gringo talk and love laughing when he messes up or just the wierd accent we have, but i really wanted the people to get somthing out of my talk. I knew my spanish isnt even close to where i want it to be but the coolest thing happened when i said a prayer before i went up to talk, i just felt peace. Then i went up there and at first i was thinking about every word before talking and really trying to say each word right but then the next thing i know i was just talking and saying what i wanted to say. I know that God was using me as a instrument in his hands because it wasnt me talking. I dont even remember all that i said but what i do remember is having a momento to just look into the congregation and see that there wasnt one person laughing or not paying attention. Everyone was really listening. And then when i sat back down with my companion he said in spanish when did you prepare that? Good job. And i thought to myself that i really didnt prepare any of it. I have been thinking about what happened and it has really strengthened my testimony that we can do God's will and if we permit the spirit of the Lord to guide us we can literally be instuments of the Lord to spread and share this great Gospel. I know that Joseph Smith with a 14 yr old education is probably close to my spanish or even better but through the Lord i am permitted to bear testimony in another language and he is able to translate a book that no man can write or translate. I know Christ lives and that he and our father and heaven our with is. I love this Gospel! I love and miss you  all! Cuidense! 
Elder Jacobsen

Oh and I attached a couple pics. If anyone was wondering how I am doing with drinking because the waters not safe here, well here is your answer. Ecuador knows whats up and has my favorite drink ever! Gatorade! Wahoo! 

English Fun

How is everyone doing! So theyre having power problems here so i hope i can write up a little message before it goes out. It is going in and out! Ha. Well i hope everyone is doing great! This week was a pretty good week. Nothing crazy happened but we had a great baptism for Daniel! He is doing great and were going to try to have him go on some visitas with us to get him excited about the church and everything. His dad went to the baptism which was great! He didnt say anything but I feel like some day he will have a change of heart! Well, I wont say much today but I guess I will give you a little update on the spanish. Its improving. Regarding the Gospel, im starting to understand the magority and im getting a little more outside. Im getting to the point were I can pretty much say what I want to which is fun. Its definitly not pretty and all smooth but it gets through. I love joking with the kids or even adults here. When they ask me where I am from I say Choni, which is a pueblo up north that I guess has white people. Some of them believe me and just say I talk funny. Then I ask them if they can teach me English and they try teaching me what they know but half the time its not correct and so I say are you sure its not this or that and they say no! You have to study English and I just laugh because they think im crazy! Then I just bolt out a sentence in English and they are shocked and are like what was that. And I say another language so they dont feel bad that they don't understand English. Its way fun messing with the two langauges and just playing with them and they get a kick out of it. There are some real fun peope here. Well, no time but I am learning a lot from these people and love them more and more. I have so so so much to learn that I know i will never be able to learn. It is a never ending game of aprendiendo y mejorando en esta vida! Got to love it! I love you all so much! Cuídense!

Elder Jacobsen 

Dont Want to Go

Bueno! Como están mi queridos amigos y familia! How are you all! 

So everyone is asking me about New York and the east coast and I am like i have know idea you guys watch the news i dont. But they have told me whats going on and i pray and hope that everyone is ok! This is gonna sound horrible but thank goodness its the east and not the west! But everyone wherever you are please take care and be safe. Oh and hows Mitt doing. I know the elections are sometime this week i think. Let me know what happens! All the members here want Mitt! Its pretty funny! Speaking of presidents, I dont know much about the president here but from what I hear he is doing a good job. He is actually trying to help this country. And he has started with schools. He is building tons! And its all free for the students! And he is trying to build pavement roads! Hes really helping progression. It will be really cool to see the changes over the next couple years. 

Well this week has been great! Yo y mi compañero estamos llevándonos muy bien! It means were doing good together. Hes really progressed a ton and is starting to get into it! Its great! He is working hard and accepting the changes and the rules a lot lot more than in the beginning! I am so happy! Today finished the change but looks like we good another change together!(6weeks). They call Sunday nights to tell you if your gonna change and they didnt call! I couldnt sleep well because i was way scared they were gonna call. I really really dont want to leave.  Things are going well between me and elder Barragan but honestly more than anything i love this place. I love the people here! I honesty will miss them all so much and i only have probably 6 weeks left with them. Ill be leaving them right before xmas which is gonna kill me! Im so tempted to ask president to stay! Haha. 

Well things are going well here! We are really working with this family that the wife is a member but the husband is not and the husband is as hard as a rock! He scares the heck out of me. I dont know why but he always says the same thing that nothing has touched him and he wont change until he is touched. They have a son Daniel who is just awesome! Were asked the dad if Daniel believes and wants to follow the example of Jesucristo if he would give permission. He said yes but only if Daniel wants to.Well, Daniel is crazy excited for his baptism and is already asking us about the misión and when he can go! Haha. Were gonna take him to appointments after his baptism. But please pray for him that everything goes well this week. 

Well we put together this activity with our mission leaders of the wards and at first i was a little worried that no one would show up but it was awesome. Tons of people showed up and the Bishop said it was the most successful activity the wards had in a long time! It was great and had a principle behind it that the people love. No time to explain it but it went well and ill try to attach a picture. 

Well, i love this gospel and i love the happiness it brings everyone! I love the people here and their faith that they have! They truly are examples to me. I hope everyone is great! I love and miss you so much! Les Quiero mucho!!! 

Elder Jacobsen

P.s. The other two photos are of one of my favorite person that I've gotten to know. Patriaca. He and his wife live below us and are like are grandparents. They always try to give us snacks and just take care of us. He made personally a Ecuador colored hammock for me and also typed me up on this little type write a nice long note that i still have to translate. haha, i dont understand much of him but i feel his love! He says since ive been here longer than other elder he feels like im a son to him! I was like wo but im honored. So nice! Anyway the pics are in his little hideout were he always writes and studies.! 

Mountains

Hola a todos! Como estan! Well I hope everyone is doing great! From what i hear everyone is just great! Well i dont have much time to write but things are going good here! First off, Andres (the oldest son of Mariuxi (the first person I baptized)) was baptized Saturday! It was awesome! Now the whole family are members and are all assisting. I was really worried about Mariuxi at first because she has had some struggles that i wont talk about but now i am so happy because she has been faithful and is bringing here children church every week and pushing through all of the obstacles of the adversary. Pray for her please. She needs help! Well, i hope the pictures we went through but one of them should be a pic of a couple kids up on this mountain.

So our sector is somewhat of a valley and there are some houses that are way high up with no paths or anything but one day me and elder Barragan had some time to contact are were thinking about where and it was so cool because at the same time we looked at this mountain and pointed at a couple houses that were up there so we hiked up which was enough exercise for a week haha and nobody was in the first couple houses and we were way bummed until the last house in this little clump we found a little family that were way nice! And the kids have never seen a white person ever or a camera! haha! It was nuts! But they are so nice and guess what! The parents are married!!!! Wahoooo! haha! So lesson learned, whenever there is a mountain or some place that doesn't look worth it or looks to hard or whatever! DO IT! Thats my advice to all missionaries out there! You never know! Now we just got to figure out how to get them to the church! Well i have no time. Sorry.But things are going well and i really want to express  my love and appreciation for all of you! Thank you for the mail and words of encouragement and just all your love! I really have realized that its not just me out here. Its me and all of you! Were all in this obra misional (missionary work) together! And more than anything we have the Lord on our side! He is with is too! Gotta love it! I love and miss you all!
Love,
Elder Jacobsen

Buenas Buenas Buenas!

Buenas Buenas Buenas! Como Estan? I hope everyone is doing great! Well everything is great here! I really dont have much time so this is going to be a nice short one! Well nothing really big happened this week. Our district leaders had a random change so now we have a new district leader other than that were just working hard. Elder Barragan is doing a lot better. Weve been workin on him and he is finally starting to really get into the mission. I wont lie i was a little nervous at first and exspecially if he would make it but he is really trying hard and were working hard! This week was a little tough on seeing results. Hardly any of our investigators showed up to church we just waited and waited because they all told us see and none! We even went to pass by a bunch before church started and they all had excuses. That is probably one of the toughest parts of the mission when they dont keep their committments but ya. Anyway, i guess I will give you a couple updates. The sector is good. Nice and hot and humid with a touch of dirt. Had my first couple days without electricity with Elder Barragan. He didnt like that too much. haha. When i showed him the bucket and bowl to bath he flipped out. haha. But it was a funny. And im sure you want a little update on the language. Its comming. Thats all i can really say. I dont like thinking about it too much to be honest becuase when i do it seems like im getting no where but its comming. I am understanding and talking alot more. And its all thanks to God. Elder Barragan doesnt like to talk much and hardly has much to say so its really been forcing me to speak and teach a lot more. Its been tough but i have to say its a blessing in disguise. Its really helping my Spanish. Well i absolutly love the people here. One of the members invited us for a Noche de Hogar (family home evening and it was great) it was also a little birthday deal for their son Jim who is like the latino version of NATE. I love him! haha! WEll im loving this work. Love and miss you all so much! Love,

Elder Jacobsen 

Milagro

My dear family and friends , i hope all is just great and i hope your Sunday yesterday was as amazing as mine. Nothing to crazy this week but it was a solid week. Yesterday was the best! So we had a baptism for a young man named Jordan. But it wasn't just a normal baptism, it was a milagro (miracle). So we baptized his younger brother Bryan a few weeks ago and it was great but Jordan just straight up was like no no no, I will never get baptized and he was just hard as a rock. Anyway we still felt there was something there, so we kept teaching and leaving commitments to Jordan and the family. Anyway, the mom (who was baptized a long time ago but has been inactive forever) came up to us and pretty much said your not going to believe this but Jordan is reading, he has stopped stealing, and he ha stopped drinking coffee. I was just like YES! Long story short, Jordan had a huge change of heart and was baptized yesterday. But the best part was after in the middle of the service when Hermana Chavez (mom) stood up and asked if she could just talk. She ended up just bearing her testimony about the church and even about the missionaries. She said she never thought anything could change her son or the problems her family had but that she knows this gospel is true because it has and she has never been happier. Her and Jordan were crying and others began to cry as well and the moment just hit me strong. Just pure joy. (The joy took a pause when she tried to kiss me but then we continued as all one happy family. Haha) But the Pure Joy and light of Christ was amazing! Its moments like these that make it all worth it and let me know that in the Lords hands he is helping and allowing me to share this wonderful Gospel! This gospel and these moments are what take all the tough and down times and just make them nothing. I love what I have the privilege to do, and I testify that this is the work of the Lord. And that there is no limit to the power of our father in heaven and the infinite love of his son, our savior, Jesus Christ. Ive learned that there will be people that will be hard as a rock but each and every one have that little spot of light. I invite all of you to never give up on friends or family. I promise it is possible and all worth it! I love and miss you all so much!

Con Amor,

Elder Jacobsen


OH and SHOUT OUT TO THE BEST BROTHER IN THE WORLD! Have a GREAT BIRTHDAY BUD! I love you so much!

Maria

How are my amazing family and friends? Espero que todos estan buenisimos! So how did you all like the conference? I thought it was great! Didn’t understand all of it because we had to watch it in Spanish but it was still great and the spirit was way strong! And holy cow! Some huge news huh! Everyone went nuts! Especially the missionaries! No one knew what to think with the news of the new age to serve a mission! It’s awesome! I’m just so curious to see how fast this great work just boosts up! Well this week has been good. A lot better! Elder Barragan is adjusting slowly but surley! And I’m finally beginning to understand him a little better.  Well actually I think it’s the opposite and he’s just beginning to understand that he can’t talk so fast and has to talk cleaner Spanish and not every other word slang! Haha. Well, I guess I’ll share a crazy experience that was a little interesting. So were walking down the street to go back to the casa and up ahead we hear a bunch of arguing and shouting and what not. As we get closer we finally see what’s going on. So here tons of the houses of cana (bamboo wood stuff) are raised a good 8 to 12 feet off the ground for when it rains and floods here. And some of them have made themselves a little balcony. So there’s a group that’s arguing like crazy and we just stop for a second and next thing we know a guy goes braking through the bamboo fence off the balcony and then everyone goes nuts and throwing each other around and within like 10 sec they all stop and someone points at us and they all go silent and then they shouted something and some of the guys started yelling and going down the ladder and we realized they were coming for us. Well, I don’t know what they wanted because I sure didn’t stay around to find out. We booked it out of there as fast as we could and now we don’t use that calle. Haha. So ya, that was one of the adventures of this week. The spiritual side was sweet this week and we had an awesome baptismal experience! So were contacting and then a member comes out of her house and tells us to come! We go and she introduces us to her family’s best friend Maria who is like 80 plus yrs. Anyway she lives way up north but wanted to take some discussions before she left on Friday. Anyway, of course we say yes and begin teaching and next thing we know she bears her testimony that she knows the church is true and wants to be baptized. Our jaws just dropped and we’re like sweet! Here’s a gift from God! Hahaha. Anyway she told us she was sad because she had to leave but wanted her friend the brother in our ward to baptize her. We talked to our leaders of Zona and they said to use our judgment. We taught her all the lessons in 2 days and had the interview on Thursday morning and baptism Thursday night! Hahahaha! It was great! That’s what I call God preparing the people. Because he truly does prepare these people. We just have to find them! I love this gospel and know its true! I love and miss all of you! Vayan con Dios!

Elder Jacobsen

Here are some pics! One of the baptism with Maria

Other of our zone because we completed our meta(goal) last month!

And the last is a shout out to the Rancho Ward Young Women! THANK YOU SO MUCH! IT REALLY MEANT SO MUCH! THANKS!

I’ll try to send some more pics next week! LOVE YOU ALL!

I have my first "hijo"

Well how is everyone doing? I hear it’s like in the 100 degrees in Cali right now. Crazy! Maybe you get to feel a little bit of the heat I feel. haha. But really, I hope everyone is just doing great! Well, as you already know I have had my first switch in companions. Elder Wittee se fue a Porto Viejo. It’s suppose to be one of the nicest areas in the misison so I’m excited for him. And I picked up my new elder or what we call here in the mission your ¨kid¨or ¨hijo¨. haha. It’s pretty funny some of the misisonary slang they have. Well my companion is definitely new! Se llama Elder Barragan from Colombia! I was pretty excited when I found out he was from Columbia because I know a lot of people have served there! But holy cow he talks different. It’s crazy how different the slang and phrases and just the way people talk is so different in the same language but in different countries or even different parts of the same country. So I didn’t realize how tough training is. I feel bad for Elder Wittee. I hope I wasn’t too hard for him. haha. My elder, poor guy doesn’t know anything. And I want to chew out his cousins because apparently they told him to ignore his letter of what to bring and they told him he only needed 4 white shirts doesn’t need bedding or practically anything. So he’s borrowing my stuff right now which is all 100x too big for him but we don’t have another option because he has no money. The only money he has is a ton of pesos from Colombia which I have no idea what to do with. Anyway, trainings training. I promised myself that I will never be a companion were the younger one has to tell the older to get to work or to wake up or anything like that. So thats what I’m doing. It’s extremely hard to communicate with him right now and he doesn’t talk too much to begin with because he’s a little timid with everything new and I kept wondering what to do. What do I do? How am I supose to train this guy? And the only thing that came to my mind is “example”. The Lord has planned that in some way I am to train this new elder. And right now the only thing I can think of is example. So I’m just going to work as hard as I possibly can! So, this last week has been a little crazy with changes and stuff so not much to say about the sector. Oh but Elder Magil got called to train also Elder Christiansen got called to start training as the new mission secretary. haha. They’re calling my group like crazy but it was way nice to see them and wow I found out that my health has not been too bad after all. haha. Both of them have recently been in the hospital. One with shingles and some other thing we don’t know what its called and the other had samonila. So ya, I’m just gonna cross my fingers. Anyway, things are good. I’m just ready to give it all I got, try to bring as many as I can to the gospel, and make it through these next couple months with my kid. haha. I love and miss you all so much. I’ll try to send pictures next week because this computer is having problems. Love ya!

Elder Jacobsen

Changes

Well today completes my 2nd change in the field or better said my first 12 weeks of training what they call 12 semanas. I finished my training and your not going to believe it and I still don’t believe it but we got a call late last night that Elder Wittee se va (goes) and I’m going to train! Say what! Well I will say that it was actually tough to say goodbye to Elder Witte this morning. I have had a great training with him, learned at ton, and really developed a strong friendship with him. I’m gonna miss him and know he will do great things! We found out that his parents are going to send him and his brother after the mission to study english in the states and after go to BYU so I’ll get to see him! That made me so happy! But right now I’m still out of my mind that they are calling me to train. I still barley know the language haha. This is crazy! But who the lord calls he qualifies right? When you train someone here in the mission they are nicknamed your hijo. Your son. So grandma and grandpa this Wednesday your going to have your first grandchild. haha. just kiddin. But ya they arrive this Wednesday and we pick them up so I don’t know who my next companion is yet. Right now they have me and Elder Maddock (the only other gringo in the zone and has the same time as me) together in Monte Sinai for a couple days. I honestly don’t know what they’re thinking having two gringos. Its gonna be an adventure. hahaha. But I’m excited to train and nervous. I really want to as they would say raise a good son! haha. But I have promised myself that I will never be a trainer that the new missionary comes and has to correct and tell him not to be lazy or to wake up and what not! Well we had a fun baptism last night with Brian and today I think familia Jara is going to get married which means they can get babtized! I’m so so excited and just praying that it all works out because they’ve gone 2 times now and each time had a problem. Well, I love this work and know its true! People have asked to send some pics of some of my living conditions. So I tried to attach a few pictures. They don’t give justice. And the humbling part is my living conditions are a 100x better than the majority in my sector. This is a humbling experience. Oh and one last thing! Jake, Miles, and Nate! I know you guys are all about to leave in the next weeks-months or so! I love and am so proud of you guys! I hope we can some how keep updated but if not! DO WORK and remember ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING! Something that I am finally beginning to understand is attitude truly is everything. Well I’ll see you guys in a couple! And everyone else back home! I love you all so so so much! Just live every second of life up! 

Elder Jacobsen