Taking Advantage of Every Moment

Bueno, this week has been another fast week! Times flyin here and I feel like there's just no time to do everything I want to or need to. It's crazy. Almost always there's more than 5 things that are all important but I can only choose one. haha. So ya, I'm really learning how to take advantage of every moment and mangage my time better! I'm grateful this work truly teaches thousands of life lessons and gives us the oppertunity to develop habits that well help us progress through out all of life! 

Well, this week we had two baptisms. That was great!!! I don't have pics because I forgot my camera.  I'll have to copy them from another camara. But it was great! They are both members of inactive members. But we found them and not only got to teach them and help them find and follow the path but we were able to bring back many less actives as well. It's been great! But right now we have hardly anyone. We have one couple that needs to get married and we're trying to do a fundraiser so they can buy some documents and eventually get married. 

Anyway,  I have like no time at all! I'm sorry, but I gotta go! I love you alll so much! Miss ya tons but the time is honestly Volando! Your the best! Thank you for all your support, love, and faith! Adelante!

Elder Jacobsen 

P.s. The pictures are of the 3 Elderes I live with (Peru, Espana, Mexico) 
The other is a picture of celebrating my comps b-day which was yesterday! 
Love this work! And love you! 

Serving a Mission

Buenos Dias! Buenos Dias! Buenos Dias! Well things are great here en La mitad del Mundo! Ecuador! I was pondering a little this morning and man i am just so happy to be here! I love this work! I love it so much! It is truley the best thing i have ever done! Though i can only do this everyday all day for these two years i will be sharing the studying, loveing, living, and sharing this gospel for the rest of my life that my father gives me here to grow as much as i can and help others do the same! This is true happiness! This is changing my life completley! If anyone is reading this and is doubting about going on a mission you already know what im going to say! Get on it, and go serve the lord! It will be the best thing youve ever done! I dont care who you are! If you have the perfect education, job, sport, special someone, or whatever it is that might be makin ya doubt! Put your trust in the Lord and do the best thing that you can possibly do at this time in your life! You will change your life and the life of SO MANY MORE! (Investigadors, Converts, Family, Friends, Future family, and everything for teh rest of your life with be improved for this short amount of time that we are privledge to have) Will it help you with school? YES, your level of studies will shoot throug the roof! Will is help you with jobs? YES, In so many ways!!! Will it help you sports? YES, It sure can! youll learn how to work great in teams and how to achieve goals youve never thought possible. Willl it help you with your special someone? YES! This is one of the biggest blessings there is! To serve the lord and his children and finding yourself in the marvalous work! Please go! and if you cant or youve already served you can still be a missionary! Is it hard? Of course it is! But thats what makes it so great! Thats when we grow so much more! Thats when we grow closer to our heavenly father! Thats when we study and strive harder! Thats when we raise our bar and persfective of ourselves and this life physically, Mentally, and Spiritually! I read somthing a while back that was a picture of the savior and it had the words [I never said it would be easy, But i did say it would be worth it]... Some of the greatest moments of progress, joy, happiness, relief, love, and so much more come from real effort and even a fight through the obsticales of life! But in the end it is SO SO WORTH IT! and though im saying we will have tough times and it wont always be easy i will say as always that you can still be happy! Because ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING! Adelante my wonderful friends and family! Everythings great here in Quevedo Sur! My new companion is a great worker! He only has 4 months left. The other two in are house are fresh and ready to learn. One from Espana y the other from Peru! All great guys! The zone is huge and ive been doing intercambios all week with different elders trying to get used to this. haha. But life is great! And it should be for all of us! I love you all so much! Take care! 

Elder Jacobsen 

Changed to Quvedo Sur

Well hello hello! I have noooooo time to write at all! I've been changed! Nooooooooooooooooooo! haha. I love Duran Sur. It was an awesome zone and sector. I did not expect the change at all but the Lord knows what he wants and needs. Wow, this was very hard saying goodbye. I didn't have much time to say goodbye to many people but I stopped by La familia Chavez and they started crying and wow that was hard. They wrote me a huge letter and gave me something that I will keep forever. It's a hand made frame decoration that has the fruits of the Holy Ghost. The feelings that someone should always have in their house and in their life! They made it in Quito when they lived there and have had it in their house ever since.  They all wrote me on the back of it and said they want me to have it and to always remember the spirit here and remember it always where ever  I go! I love that family! I love so many people here! Man I dislike changes! So hard! Well, I have no more time! I love this mission! I love this work! I'm learning every day! And its just the best to see the changes in the lives of these great peoples!  I'm now with Elder Munoz from Mexico and we're in Quevedo Sur! Yes, back in Quevedo! But the other side-zone. We have 18 missionaries in this zone so it will be a big adjustment so I'm greatful for my little practice in Duran because I realize that this is going to be a little bit different! But I'm way excited and ready to give it all I have! I love serving the missionaries and trying my best to lead and love them and just be their friend. It's helping me a ton to learn how to develop Christ like attributes. Which i have a lotttttttt to learn! But poco a poco! This is the work of our Savior! Without a doubt! Love you all soo much! Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Working hard,
Elder Jacobsen 

Four Titles

Que Tal Familia! (y amigos) O man, les extrano y les quiero bastante! Pero se que el Senor les esta cuidando y bendiciendo! In English it means I love you all soooooo much! And I just hope you are all  having an amazing summer and living up life and overall, living up this great gospel that we are so blessed to have! Well this week has been a pretty solid week! We've been workin hard to find some new investigators, and we sure did. We found a young adult named Jovani. He's great! He came to church this week. He is way way smart! He understands a ton of english and history.  It's almost scary teaching him because he knows so much! But he's way interested and excited to read the Book of Mormon. As we explained the Restoration and everything to him, he said it appears great and if it was true everything would all make sense. Please keep him in your prayers so that he can gain a testimony! We can't teach him hardly at all because he's always working. And we also have Jose Luis who is a young man thats assisted church with us a few times but still is unsure. He knows deep down, but we're still trying to find his fear. Your prayers with Miguel have been helping becasue he's been improving but he wasn't able to get baptized. It was really tough. He was all ready and wasn't giving into his tempation. And the night before his baptism his so called friends practically forced him and  tempted him and he fell. But we're not going to give up on him! Well I think I will say this for the rest of my life, but I am really developing a love for studying the gospel! It is changing my life! And it is a 100x better when you apply it and just see the differences in your life. This week I was studying over one of my new favorite talks called ¨Four Titles¨ from Pres. Uchtdorf. Wow, it is a great talk! I was able to really study it in depth and it has helped change, increased and strengthen my perspective of who I am and who I want to be greatly! It is just inspiring to be a better young man, missionary, friend, son, brother, future husband and father and a lot more. I have realized that we can all truly become great! We as disciples of Christ do not have to be average. We do not have to live the ways of the natural man! We can grow and literrally become something great! I loved what Pres Uchtdorf said. He said, ¨All though none of us are perfect, we do not use that fact as an excuse to lower our expectations, to live beneath our privleges, to delay the day of repentance, or to refuse to grow into Better, More Perfect, More refined followers of our master and king.¨ God wants us to become like him! Great! Glorious! We can accept that we will never be perfect but that doesn't mean we can't strive to become close and be the best we can! The closer we become to our potential the happier we will be. We can become BETTER and REFINDED. Each day as we ponder and pray on how to become a better son or Daughter of God. I testify that God will help us! He wants us to shine! He wants us to come to him! HE LOVES US! ¨Think of the purest, most all-consuming love you can imagine. Now multiply that love by an infinite amount. That is the measure of Gods love for you!¨ Those words come from an apostle of the Lord. I testify of those words! I have felt the pure love of Christ in my life and I feel the love of my God every day! If we pray, read the scriptures, repent, set goals, and show faith in this gospel EVERY DAY! I promise with all my heart, you will feel the love of God EVERY DAY! You will be able to have that faith and hope in your heart that we are literally on the path home to our LOVING FATHER IN HEAVEN! And if we do our best, he will welcome us with open arms and joy that we can not imagine! I Testify of these things! And I will for the rest of my life! It is real happiness! And I Know that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU can feel the same Love of God! Search your heart, apply the gospel, and watch your heart change and your perspective of this plan of happiness. Cuidanse mucho! 
Elder Jacobsen 

Attitude Enthusiasm Determination

Well hello hello! Happy future 4th of July! Its funny because lots of people here no that its a big day in the US. So hows everyone doing! Enjoying a great summer im sure! Im doing absolutly great! Just love love love this mission! And yes, I am officially still part of the Ecuador Guayaquil NORTH mission! Which i am way excited about! I get to stay with my Papi Amaya (President) and just ya. Im excited. I wont be seeing the beach though. I only saw it one time for a conference in Manta. It was beautiful but i think its a good thing i wont be seeing it becasue that way i dont get tempted to go jump in! haha, just kiddin, i would never do that. But yes, i am definitly a beach lover. But i got the rest of my life for that! 

So Our Zone is doing great here. We honestly have a great group of misisonaries here. All working hard! We stayed in our sector a bit more this week. It was nessicary because we need more people to teach. But we have a great brother that is fighting to be ready to be baptized this week. Miguel. He will be baptized this week if he can hold strong against a few things. Please keep him in your prayers. His goal is to enter the temple to do baptisms with is wife the 24th. Were really working with him! 

So ive really really been trying to just improve my attitude. I know I talk about Attitude all the time but it really is somthing that i have found to be very important in my life and important for anyone. I have learned that when we truley learn to have a good attitude in all situations we will be a hundred times happier. And Attitude includes many things.For example, an attitude of positivity, trust, love, optomistic, fun, funny, and just happy.Also an attitude of Faith and Hope through the atonement of Christ. I love what Elder Neal A Maxwell has said. He said that we should develop ¨Hope through the Atonment of Christ¨. ¨Hope is a realistic anticipation which takes the form of Determination, not only to survive adversity, moreover, to endure it well.¨I think that is essencial to a great attitude and somting i really want to develop! Everyone can say each morning that theyre going to have a good attitude. Thats great! But usually that last an hour, half an hour, or whenever the first bad thing happens. But we can overcome that in literally be happy throughout the day and everyday. We need that DETERMINATION to endure it well and do it with ENTHUSIASM. Theres a great quote that says ¨Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. Wehn you do a thing, do it with you might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your OWN personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your objective. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.¨ We can achieve GREAT things every day. I testify of that! And this past year i have truley been able to see that. Those days that i just decide to be happy and do my best no matter what struggle or let down comes along, have been some of the greatest days in my mission and in my life. And i want to develop that more and more. I know we can all do this. We wont be perfect, but we can give it our best, and i promise we will feel the hope and joy that comes from the heavens and the power of the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. May we all just smile and think of the good things over the tougher things and just have a great day! I love you all so much! Take care!

Elder Jacobsen