Wednesday, October 31, 2012

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




Monday, October 22, 2012

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 

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

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!

Monday, October 8, 2012

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