Pig Tongue

Hola! I hope everyone is doing great! I hear things that are just blowin my mind! Justine married, Chase engaged! everyone moving up in school or graduating!  This is crazy! But im happy that everything seems to be going great back home! Well, got new teachers this past week. One of them who is our night teacher is awesome and we call him papi and our morning teacher teaches us how to never teach! Im sure she is a great lady and i dont want her to sound evil but i straight up had a nightmare about her a few nights ago. She is so mean to us and treats us like 5 year olds. I think we have here to teach us patience so that we cant deal with much more a difficult person on the mission. she will be tough to beat. Its tough to feel the spirit with her so its good practice to learn how to keep the spirit with you when you have so many reasons not to. Anyway enough bout that. Not important. There are 3 Ecuadorians here and 2 of them are Black! I love it it and miss black people so much. And not even being bias, they are by far the coolest latinos here. Haha, so cool! Cant wait to go to ecuador! My companion Elder Quispe is such a nice guy! he couldnt harm a fly. He is a 1 year convert and hardly knows anything! Haha, so funny experience. We knows like no scriptures and asked me for a scripture on faith. I told him Alma 32. Anyway, were teaching a lesson later that night and its great. Im understanding and talking quite a bit. It was about the sacrement and the importance of it and i look at Elder Quispe to see if he wanted to share anything and he hands here the scriptures and i look and its Alma 32. In my head i was like no no no, what are you doing! Our investigador looked up at us like what in the world does this have to do with anything. Quispe looked at me and i realized he wanted me to explain and i just laughed and said faith is really important and continued on with attending chruch and what we were talking about. But after the lesson he was really excited that he used a scripture and i was happy. Hes trying and will be so great throughout the mission! It will be so great to see-talk to all these elders in a couple years and just see how much everyone has grown and this great gospel. I dont know if i mentioned this but i love Elder Holland so much! He is the most inspiration speaker ever. MTC devotionals in general are the greatest! Im determined to go the the mtc after the mish and steel all the recordings. They are some of the best talks i have ever heard in my life. Everytime i hear them i am on a huge spiritual high. I just want to mantain the spiritual high forever but its difficult. I try to remember to remember the spiritual highs when you have the daily lows. It has helped. Well i dont know much more to say. we didnt go proselyting this week because the new group came in... I guess ill finish with the finale of what i unintentionally ate last night. So they gave us the option of carne or this wierd looking meat and what i thought was ham in the middle. I decided to take a break from carne and go with the other thing. As im almost done eating it a latino elder across from me says "te gusta lengua". I like choked and was hoping i didnt hear him right. Becuase lengua is toungue. I asked around and found out that i had just had my first pig toungue. Hahaa! I wasnt horrible to be honest. Well I love you all so much! Thank you for all your love and support!

Elder Jacobsen

She Went!

Big week! So many things that i wish i had time to tell you! started off with an earth quake but nothing to big. Similar to CA ones! All the gringos were going nuts though. It was funny!  Well we went back to Rimac and we found out that Alejandrina went to church! I was so happy! And so was elder Flores! It gives you a boost and helps you realize that we really are here to help people! So i dont know if i told you but when we go in Rimac we have to go with a member. Our member is Edwuardo! He is the best! We went to his sisters house because she has been an inactive for three years and he said he felt the random urge to have us go talk to her. A couple people didnt answer the door so we had time to. Her name was Nadia and she is a single mother but has a boyfriend. Anyway, we went through an awesome lesson with her! I could tell she totally felt the spirit! I asked her if she would please go to church with here brother this past sunday. She said she definitly wants to go and wants to change her life. That she knows its time to trust in god. She bore her testimony and it just got better and better! I looked over at edwuardo and he had nothing but smiles on his face. I got so emotional and realized what was going on. I cant express how cool it is to see the gospel fill others with joy. I miss you all so much. But it is so worth it being a missionary and leaving my family for two years so others can be with their families for eternity. Anyway, edwardo asked if he could stop by his house. we said yes of course and he rushed in side and came out and gave us a tie and cookies. He said how thankful he was and that his sister said she would never go to church again but now she will. It was awesome! Oh so we were in a house teaching and this nice lady brought out a pitcher of water and mixed some juice mix into or somthing. Anyway before i realized i cant drink the water her she gave me a huge glass full and said drink. I couldnt say no. Haha. I was like oh no. My only choice was to pray like crazy that i wouldnt die from it. I might have over reacted because im alive and doing great! Ive just heared some stories! Anyway Elder flores and all the latinos left! It was the hardest part of the mission so far! I never thought i would get so attached in 3 weeks but i truley came to love all those guys! Me and elder flores were saying our last companionship prayer togeather the night before he left and when i finished he just started balling. It was crazy! We hugged for like 5 minutes! Im gonna miss him and all the other latinos! They will be great! Got my new companion last night! Elder Quispe. Dont know him to well but he seems like a nice guy. well today was awesome! Other than waking up. I jump of my bunk into 2 inches of water. One of the new elders messed up a washer and it had been leaking all night. The whole hallway and everything is flooded. But besides that we went on a tour today with president cardon! It was sweet! Saw the city of lima! And we went to a little market and there was a section for jerseys. Me elder magil, randall, and christiansen looked all over for a ecuador jersey but they dont like ecuador over here to much! Haha, there like rivals. we checked one last rack and found some! Stoked! Se we got a peru jersey and ecuador cuz as much as were loving Peru, we gotta represent Ecuador somtimes. haha. Anyway, Im loving it here! The spirit is strong, people are great, work is hard, tons to learn, the gospel is true! Im loving it and hope everyone is doing great back home! starting next week please send anything to my mission home in ecuador. Thanks everyone! Hope to hear from you all soon! I have the best family and friends in the world!

Loving Peru

Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well back home! Hope to hear from all of you through mail!  I made it through the first week of the Peru CCM (mtc)! It has been awesome! Where to start! I will probly only be able to say like a tenth of what i want to but oh well. ill start with the food. It is not to bad at all! In fact im really enjoying itd! Definitly different thats for sure! And definitly some things i do not need to try again. and this is only in the mtc. haha. out in the field is going to be a whole new level. Lots of fruit and lots of rice! And then lots of other stuff that i have no idea whats it is called. but its honesty not bad! Some of the worst stuff to eat is the things that is "american" food. i think they try to do it for the americans and it is not what they were trying to make. but its all good! Oh and the coolest thing ever! 845 every night is FRUIT TIME! its awesome! Coolest thing ever. we all run around yelling tiempo de fruit and its great! I am definitly planning on making that a tradition in my life! well lets just say that every north american here has gotten sick! EVERY! more than half have got whats called the double dragon. its when you clean your body out through both ends at the same time if you know what i mean. wont say any more. haha. luckily for me i havnt had that. my stomach has been good to me. but i have had some crazy headaches and a runny and stuffed head all week. Oh and ive already 5 pounds. not good! Soccer is awesome! Got the first goal last thursday for our zone and all the latinos went nuts. Its way competative and way fun! It hit me when i was playing one day that i am in Peru playing soccer. I just looked around and took it in. It was awesome! Oh and humor is not the same here. At all! haha. for example. when you stop them from scoring and say no en mi casa or not in my house they just look at you like what the heck are you saying. but the latinos natives are awesome! I already love them! They are so patient with us and always try to help us! Pretty much every other sentence we say the just laugh at us. They laugh at us probly a thousand times a day for things we say or do. its hilarious. Well the language is the language. It is easy to get down but i just have to tell myself it will come. poco a poco. I pray every night that i will get it. Grammer is starting to make a little more sense. But it is still impossible to understand what there saying (they talk a hundred miles per hour). I get like one word, try to translate it, and by that time theyve said like 20 more. haha. its crazy! But i know god will help me, and some day it will come. Just like the provo mtc, the spirit is way strong here! I love it. In sacrament meeting (fast sunday last sunder here) we couldnt understand nada but when the latinos shared their testimonies you can feel the spirit so strong. You knew that they knew the gospel is true. It doesnt matter what language or if you cant understand the language. They gospel of Jesus Christ will still be true and have the spirit with it wherever you go! I love it! I love this place! Ecuador has high expectations now. haha. There is a lot of rules here. You thought provo was strict, this is even stricter. But all for good reasons. we cant take pictures except on Pdays for a couple hours so that stinks but today is pday and has been awesome. This morning we took a little bus (like 30 people crammed into like a 10 person bus!) haha. and went to the Lima Temple. It was great! Then we were allowed to go do some shoppin near the temple. It was awesome! It was the first bit of freedom! Haha. I wish we didnt have a time limit because i wanted to just go up to people and talk to them about the gospel. I can hardly speak but ive been working on my testimony and cant wait to go share it and share the gospel. And saturday we get to go out! Cant wait! This gospel is so true and so great! If i can feel the love of my father in heaven and the spirit this strong in a language and place i dont understand then this gospel of Christ cannot be denied. I love it! Wish i could talk for another 2 hours but cant. Love you all! God Bless!

Elder Jacobsen

Week #4 It Has Begun!

Hola mi familia y amigos! first off i want to apoligize for all the typing mistakes im about to make because these keyboards are really wierd. well i made it! Woke up at 2am yesterday and finally got here at 2am this morning. By far the longest day yet! haha. Goodbyes were not to bad in provo and i was excited to leave rather than sad. Elder Jarvis was a little down about it but i know he{ll be fine! It was nice to get out into the real world again! People would come up to us and tell us good luck and then you would have kids say mom dad look, theres the missionaries! It was becoming more and more reall! when we finally reached the miami airport we went to check on our gate to lima and thats when it started.. We got in the plane and there was not one bit of english, not even the flight attendants! I was like oh boy! There was like us 4 elders and maybe a couple other gringos compared to hundreds of natives and then some random asain couple next to us! It was sweet though! Oh and i definitly had a brian reagon moment! Being in the very back of the plane we were to be last to get dinner. they anounced that they had carne, pollo, and pasta. I was craving one last bit of meat but i saw exactly what was going on as they slowly came down the huge plane! By the time they got to us they said we have a nice cold fish head. haha kidding, but only pasta was left. that was my last american meal! We landed in lima and had to wait for a couple more missionaries for a couple hours. when we finally left we were loaded into this wierd van thing and the adventure and crazyness began! If you ever think you{ve seen crazy traffic you have not. It was the most exciting scary drive i have ever experienced in my life. theres a horn honk like every half a second and i thought we were going to get slammed like 100 times! I was holding on to my seat belt and ready to crash for dear life. at the same time it was awesome seeing the city of lima! I dont care how hard this is going to be, its gonna be fun! They love neon in the city. i hear we get a tour of it next week so im way excited. we made it the the ccm (mtc) and when we unloaded all our bags a man came up to us and just started talking and pointing. we had no idea what he was saying. i just said si si si and followed were he pointed. we were shown our dorm and there were already threee natives sleeping so we felt way bad and tried to wake them up. one of them looked at us and i heared him mumble nuevo gringos. haha. they wernt to happy about us arriving. i was assined a top bunk but it happens to be directly underneat the only air vent! I was like praise the lord almighty. Because i was sweatin bullets. it is so hot and humid. And apparently this is nothing. All the natives had jackets and sweaters on. i couldnt believe it°! Its gonna take a long time to get use to the weather. but i do like the smell. somhow it feels like the beach which i love. and the mtc here from what ive seen so far is really nice quality. We were givin permission to sleep until 9 this morning but the native elders didnt know and kept waking us up telling us to get up but we didnt know how to tell them our instructions said to sleep to 9. we just ignored them. i felt bad. but oh well. Well thats whats happened! Not to much spiritual stuff in the last couple days. But i can say that the Lord watches out for all of us. Because i dont know how we wernt killed driving. ha! I love this gospel and pray to god i can learn this language so i can share our message! This is my new pday by the way! Hope all is well back home! I love you all!

Love, }

elder Jacobsen

Week #3 Off to Peru

Hey Everyone! I hope everyone is doing well! I cant believe its already been three weeks! Somtimes i feel like i'll never make it through a day and then randomly im here emailing and i cant believe how time is actually flying. Life has been good here in the provo MTC. Uncle Brent told me how much he loved this place and i was a little hesitant to believe him because ive heared so many negative things but i'm actually going to have to take his side. I love it here! Its a little bit of a love hate as well (because its flippin hard, stressfull, stomach affecting, lacking of sleep, i could go on... haha.. but i wont :) But honestly, the spirit here is so strong. Singing with thousands of other missionaries, studying with thousands of other missionaries, and preparing to serve with thousands of my brothers is a pretty sweet experience! Speaking of singing. I've had to get out of my comfort zone a little to make things work with my two great companions! First off, is elder Jarvis who is very easy to get a long with because we have a lot in common. But he loves baseball and talks about it like 24/7 and ask me so many questions and quotes about it. And everytime as say Elder Jarvis, i love sports but baseball is the one that i know nothing about and have know desire to know about. He always gets mad and says its the best sport and we just laugh as he continues talking about it. Haha, At this rate i'll know more about basebal than thomas! hahanot (Speaking of T, a whole group of like 10 in my zone that were gonna go to Argentina got reassinged. So hes not alone!) I miss that guy! But anyway, i had to stretch my comfort zone even more with elder baker! Wowzers hes an interesting guy. But one way that i've realized makes him happy and forget about everything else is when i sing Phantom of the Operah, Frank Sinatra, and Josh Groban with him! Not me! And never will be! haha, but he loves it. And as awkward as it is, it is kinda fun just bolting out these random wierd songs! Dont judge me! So i weighed myself! And Havnt gained nada! I was bummed a little but i guess its a good thing. I really want to gain some weight so i dont come back a stick. But oh well! And I finally have felt like a veteran here in the MTC! ITs a fun feeling. haha. I might feel dumb every single day with spanish but when it comes to showering after gym. We got it down. SInce theres always like a mile line to shower while everyones changing we go in and turn a shower on and close the curtain. That way everyone thinks someones in it. Then we walk pass the line 5 min later and go right in. People have caught on but the first few times were hilarious seing their reactions. I felt genious for once in my life! So Spanish is Spanish. I'm not gonna keep being a baby about it! But it is so hard! Enough said! Tuesday was really tough for me but then i forgot we had another devo! Guess who came! Elder L. Tom Perry! Man am i so lucky! Two apostles in a row! And i heared from Perry of at BYU I and loved it so i was stoked!  Being tuesday he talked about how it was a very special day! 183 years ago the priesthood was restored on the earth! And because of it we have it today. He talked about the importance of it and how we may use it on our missions and for the rest of our lives! IT was so powerful and strong! He said a quote that i loved "It governs, it directs, it sustains all things. It is the Power of the Heavens and God!" That was awesome. I was overwhelmed with the fact that i have the potential and authority to act in the name of God! Through gods will i cant wait to help and serve as many people as i can through the priesthood that i contain! I love this gospel so much and exspecailly after hearing the words i did. I am still pumped today! Well, Its crazy! As i write this i only have 4 days left in the United States for 2 years! Its hard to even imagine! My last somewhat real food, bed, technology, home, and ENGLISH! I will be in PERU and ECUADOR, and i will make them my home for the next two years! I am not gonna lie, i'm pretty nervous! Not to travel or for the adventure! I cant wait for that part and all the crazy experiences. BUt mainly just commuticating. It hits me at times that i will not be able to communicate for a while. And its not the best feeling. BUt what is the best feeling is that GOD is with me! I can feel his love everyday and i know i can pray to him whenever i want! I will always have someone to communicate to! I cant wait to serve! I heared somthing that i loved, "Pray as if it all depends on the lord, and then work as if it all depends on you!" I love that! I know God will help me with what i lack! He lives, and as i work my hardest every single day. I will guide and strengthen me! This church is true! It really is. THe joy and happiness it brings is out of this world!  I love you all so much! Cant wait to here from you all!

Love Always,

Elder Jacobsen

Week #2 Loving the MTC

Hey Everyone! Wow I can’t believe its already going on the second week here! I hate to say it but they're right! Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days! I wish it would slow down becuase I recieved my travel plans to go to Peru and I found out that there is no english spoken there. I don’t know a lick up spanish yet. I'm starting to understand a little more when americans speak slow spanish (just a little) but when my native teacher hermana Ruiz talks it sounds like one word. But all I can do is keep trying my hardest right. Hopefully it will come! Becuase right now it feels like its going to take the whole two years just to barley talk. If anyone is reading this thats in high school spanish! Learn as much as you can and don’t slack off like I did! Well a lot happened this week! First off on monday a guy came into our class and heard my companion elder Remington speak and said you need to be in advanced! I knew he wasn’t normal! He was practically fluent and I was like either I'm suppose to be in beginner or your suppose to be in advanced. So we were reasigned companions. He's now in another zone and I'm missing him a ton! He was an awesome first companion! It was hard to get him up and going in the mornings but once he was all there it was great to work with him. He helped me everyday with spanish and we connected really well. (He's from northern CA, took 4 years of spanish in HS and in college, and went to BYU). But now I have a trio companionship with elder Jarvis and elder Baker, who do not get along at all! Elder Baker is from ohio. I'll be honest and say that we have absolutely nothing in common! Haha... But he is really good at spanish and is having to be patient with the rest of us. Elder Jarvis is here from utah and we have tons in common which makes things a lot easier. Plus we both are on the same level of spanish so it makes me feel better. I have learned to love them both! Oh, I was called to be district leader on monday. Its been cool and is teaching me how to really listen and care about others. Oh back to spanish real quick... something funny happened that you might enjoy. So we were teaching a lesson in class and I was trying so hard to speak and I thought it was actually coming and when I tried to say Jesus came to save all the children in this world I said "Jesus came to save all the children in the store". I had no idea, and everyone started laughing. It was a good laugh and has happened many times since! But thats how you got to learn right!? Well the spirit is so strong here! I love it! I don’t know how you can hate it here! Tuesday night devotional, Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and spoke and it was amazing! I loved every word he said and wish I could share it all with you! One thing he said that really hit me was "when you walk in that door, you contain the kingdom of God in your hands..." Sometimes it easy to forget our purpose here but when I think about why I’m really here, to invite others to come unto Christ... It makes it a lot easier to keep going. I love what I am really here to do. To change the lives of my brothers and sisters around the world and bring them the joy and happiness of the Gospel! I am so excited! I can’t wait! I have the knowledge of the Gospel that I know to be true! I have in my hands the Book of Mormon. And it is my job to share it, and share the joy that I have been blessed with. Well what else to say... What do you want to know! There’s a bunch going on but my mind can’t think this fast with the amount of time we have to write. Well, I love and miss all of you so much! I hope all is well. You are in my prayers every day! But as much as I miss you, I know this is where the Lord wants me to be. I know I will grow from this myself but more importantly it is for the people I am to see in Ecuador and wherever I am directed to go. I've come up with a little motto for myself that really helps me. I say to myself "Brad, you got two years to do it! And the rest of eternity to look back on it!" I am going to give it all I got! I know it will be hard, its already been one of the hardest weeks of my life, but I know this is the Lords work! Wish me luck! I love you all!

Elder Jacobsen

Week #1 "Attitude is Everything"

Hey Everyone! I hope everything is going great back home? It's only been a few days since ive seen and talked to a lot of you so this letter wil probably be somewhat short and sweet. Plus, you only 30 minutes to email here in the MTC which is not much! So if i scatter around a ton or randomly say gotta go then please forgive me! haha. Speaking of the MTC, it is crazy that i am here! Its almost surreal! When we walked in they gave you your name tag and when i looked down and saw Elder Jacobsen i was filled with joy and it was then official! Then i kept reading and saw "La Iglesia De Jesucristo De Los Santos de los ultimos Dios" and thought uh oh! Haha, i almost forgot i was to learn spanish but bring it on right! In our first mini devotional with all the new elders we sang "to brign the world its truth" but they changed the song so that instead of saying "we will be, the lords missionaries" we sang "We are NOW the Lords missionaries..." and i immediatly got emotional! It was awesome! I am now the Lords servant and will be serving him and doing only his will for the next two years! it is awesome! Well Attitude definitly is everything here in the MTC! I've been told countless times that the first week is horrible or even the MTC is horrible! But i dont know what it is but i have loved the last few days and thought it has been great! Flying here was definitly a good idea. I think having my mindset in the right place has helped a ton! it was tough watching all the missionaries being dropped of by there parents and family because everyone was balling! And i'm sure it has been tough for those elders to get into it! Not that i dont miss all of you or have feelings for all of you but god has helped me accept and know that this is where i need to be! I have been blessed with a great first companion and district! Elder Remington is my companion along with Elder Jarvis and Elder Baker in our room. Our room is our district except for one other sister missionary hermana Harbison! I have gotten so lucky, because all of them have been great in many different ways! Elder Remington is a genius exsepcially when it comes to spanish! Elder Baker is up there in the genius too! They both know all these random facts and whatnot! Oh Elder Remington is going to the same mission as me which is awesome! So far we know of three others in our mission! I have to admit, as great as its been it has been hard and stressfull! Spanish is the killer! The first class our teacher Hermana Ruiz came in and just started talking! For like 10 minutes just imagine my jaw dropped! I didnt understand one word! Every time she looked at me i just nodded my head and said si haha... Eventually she asked if i understand and i said "I think im in the wrong class" haha... That was a reality check! I dont know anything! But she talked to me a little and said I know enough to be in intermediate and i would learn hardly anything in beginner so i guess its all good. Oh yesterday we had our first lesson with our investigator Paco and its was brutal! haha, elder Remington talked like 60% of the time becuase he's practically fluent sister harbison who also taught with us talked most of the rest and i said "el libro de mormon is verdadero" hahajk... i said a little more. But i am definitly the underdog in the district when it comes to spanish along with Elder Jarvis. But we help with the other aspects of exercising and staying positive! Everyone here is great! It is HARD Work but i'm ok with that because what doesnt kill ya makes you strong right!? The Gospel is true, i know it! The is the Lords church and i cant wait to preach and teach to the people of Ecuador. Just pray for me that i can eventually understand and learn a little bit of this language. Well i have 37 seconds! haha. I'll try to know what to say more next time! May God be with you all! I love you all so much and can't wait to hear from you!
Love,
Elder Jacobsen