Chill'n at the Beach

well how can i start.  today in the morning they took us to the beach.  supposedly we were going to play soccer and volleyball but it was too hot so we just hung out and took pictures.  the beach is so cool.  looking out at the vast expanse is like looking into eternity.  i tried to catch sand crabs but i didnt find any.

   saturday was really cool.  i dont know if i told you but for the past like 2 weeks all the elders in our zone have been practicing a tongan dance to perform in a stake talent show we did as an activity to find more investigadores.  ha it was tight.  we all made grass skirts.  they say like 1000 people showed up.  that might be an exaggeration but it was at least 600.  when we started dancing they all screamed.  it was a cool dance too.  someone recorded it ill try to get a copy.  after the activity we came home in a bus with all the members in our branch.  they all said "Elder Jacobson you lied to us"  they were referring to the times when i had told them i cant dance. its pretty common question i get because dancing is a big part of the culture here. the people who cant dance are considered like kind of the outcast of society.  so they all think its weird when i say that i , a bright tallented, athletic, fairly good looking young man, cant dance.  they all think that i mean here in the mission but i always say that if they had gone to my high school prom they would know that i honestly cant dance.  ha i guess that was kind of a tangent, but long story short, i had fun and the activity was a success.  

   changes are this week.  i already told all the members that i dont have changes.  which could be bad news if i do.  the truth is that it could go either way.  but i have a feeling i will stay.  either way ill be happy and will work as hard as i can till the end.  speaking of the end.  hard to believe that i am on my last change.  its like every month just goes by like a dream.  how crazy.  my companion elder velasquez finishes his mission tomorrow.  its been a fun three months with him.  ive learned a ton, and i really love him.  its gonna be hard to see him go.  but i imagine we will be in contact.  i still write elder platero almost every week and he is giving me advice to finish the mission.  its been cool to get to know so many people.  the mission is such a great experience.  

    well sorry but im out of time.  its late, im covered in sand, and we gotta get back to our area.  i love you all.  enjoy the snake river.  see you soon.

         Elder Jacobson

Work'n

well. i dont have much to say. other than that is was the worst week of my life. hahah just kidding.
it acutally wasnt that bad of a week. but at the same time it wasnt that great either.
basically it went down like this.
sometime in the last week my comp and i were talking, and we realized that we werent working very effectively. the problem was (is) that we are constantly teaching and inviting people to be baptized, but that its always the same people, that have said no or that they want to wait like 50 times. what happens is that we are like in a comfort zone because its alot easier to just visit the same people that we already know then it is to try to find new people who will listen to us. so we basically went cold turkey and decided not to visit any of the regulars for a while. sometimes that helps alot, because the people recognize that they dont feel the spirit as much when we dont come, that way when we come back they are more willing to listen and keep commitments. so we pretty much just spent a week knocking on doors and asking for references from the members. but theres not that many memberrs and we have already asked them for references alot, so we didnt really find any one that way. knocking doors went about the same. alot of people just said no. its funny though because i dont feel really bad. i guess if people dont want to hear or accept that is there choice, we can only invite. i think that sometimes Heavenly Father feels the same way. like He is constantly inviting us to do things that will just make us happier. and sometimes we just ignore or reject the invitation. but if He can be patient with someone as stubborn and hard headed as me. who am i to lose my patients with others. "who am i to judge another when i walk imperfectly"
well on a little bit lighter note, i bought a nice hammock. ha it was pretty funny. i was out of milk and eggs (which is pretty sad because my two main meals are milk and cereal and beans and eggs) so i decided i would buy some while we were out working. i put 100 quetzales en my wallet. right as we got around the corner a salesmen came running up and asked me if i wanted to buy a hammock. before i could respod he already had pulled out a nice big hammock. it looked like nice quality so i asked how much it cost. he said usually it costs 350 to 375 (they always say stuff like that) but that he wanted to sell his whole supply by the end of the day so he was willing to drop to 225. i told him i didnt have that much. he asked how much i had. i reached in my wallet and pulled out the 100 bill. without saying a word he stuffed the hammock in a black garbage bag. tied it shut. grabbed my bill and walked away. we sat there for a few seconds wondering what had just happened. then my comp looked over at me and said. "well that was weird" so later we hung it up in our house. i like it. i was thinking about buying one any way so i guess it all worked out.
it still rains alot. in our district we have baptized 5 people and 2 families. i fell pretty good but i wish i could contribute a little more. but ill keep working as hard as i can. changes are next week. who knows what will happen.
well im out of time. i love you all. enjoy the cornacopia of events that are coming up. enjoy the river for me. have a good week. talk to you en 8 days
Elder Jacobson

time is short

well, you guys will probly kill me, but i only have like 166 seconds to write you. baisically i wrote a long letter to my president. and on top of that i took some time to organize the fotos en my memory so that they are more organized (go figure right) but long story short im low on time. but ill try to fill you in on the good the bad and the ugly.
weve been having some success with a new thing we started in our area. we wanted to have more help teaching lessons with the members. usually its better to go out with priesthood holders, but theres only like 3 in our branch and they can only help us like once a week, so we enlisted the help of the releif society. we did a little game where each time they came out with us they got a point. when they reach a certain amount of points we give them a prize. little things like pictures of jesus or church videos. almost everyday this week we had visits with members. and i think it is helping everyone to get excited about misionery work.
i told you about the family that we are teaching. on saturday we taught them and they said they would go to church again and they seemed realy close to baptism. yesterday we went to visit them again, and the husband said that he had found work on the other side of the country adn that he would be out of town for a month. man what a heart breaker. i felt so bad after, but i read some scriptures. ( the last part of jacob 5) and i felt better. i think we just gotta work a little harder, or a little better to see some real success.
so thats some of the good and the bad. i think i already showed you some of the ugly in the pictures i sent last week. the other ugly is that somehow i aquired a skin disease in my hand. basically what happens is that out of no where a bunch of tiny blister filled with fluid apear on my hand. usualy i pop them all because they look so gross, then once they are all popped my skin in that area dies and starts falling off. i think its leoprasy. but im trying to controll it with some creams from the witchdoctor down the street. but its all good.
life is good and im still working hard. sorry im out of time and my companions want to go. i love you all. keep it real . do wrok, and work
Elder Jacobson

Happy 17 years jay dayg

this week was a week of crazy creatures

pic 1 this little guy was crawlen in case your wonderun jay dayg i didnt only learn the español here. i also learned to speak the language of Coach Z. in his language your name is jay dayg.

well just wantud to tell yuh happy birthday. seems like only yesterday i was pawnun yuh little 5 year old butt. now ill be pawnun yuh 17 year old butt. but i hope your enjoying your big day.
by the way in case yuh wonderun i rote you a little poem by me. i know you will admire it forever. it is this

j dawg j dawg you do work
you pawn butt and
you do work

j dawg day jog you pawn butt
you doowon work and
you pawn butt

thats the whole thing. it actually sucks pretty bad. thats because i just barely wrote it in won second.

but any ways happy birthday jalen . i love you alot. youve always been a good little brother and example to everyone. i hope you have a good day.
Adios

(this is me:  Jalen actually turned 18 and Justin knew it.  He is just weird that way)

 

pics

this week was a week of crazy creatures

pic 1 this little guy was crawlen around our house.
pic 2 so i killed it

later we found another creature in my bed

pic 3 so we killed that one too

doowon work

well here we are in pueblo nuebo. workin like some fools with our pants on the groung with some gold in our mouth and hat to the side. ha just kiddin. but we really are working pretty hard. weave made some new plans and goals and they are working out for us. baisically what happens is alot of times weave got plans to visit family x and when we get there the family isnt home. sometimes we have a good back up plan, but sometimes we have nothing to do and we just end up waisting time. so the gaol we made is that when an appt falls we have to knock doors like crazy until someone lets us in to teach. sometimes its not that effective because people just let us in because we dont take no for an answere, and they have no desire to hear us. but we have found 2 really posotive families and its always good to be teaching the whole day instead of just walkin like fools.
one of the families we found came to church yesterday. when we went to pick them up they were all changed and ready to go. after church we talked to them and they said they really liked it and want to come next week. we challenged them to baptism and they said that they wanted a little more time, but that they would pray. its funny how sometimes i get desperate because of lack of success and start trying to force people to feel the spirit and keep commitments and accept baptism. but when we find someone that has been prepared they do things because they want to and not because we make them.
the weather is nice as always here. its alot like utah spring weather. is just hotter, and sometimes rains a little more. when i say a little more i mean that in 10 minutes it rains more here than it has in the last 10 years in the behive state. but you get used to wet feet and constantly beeing sick with a nose bleeding cold slash sinus infection. hahahahahaha i wish i was joking.
today was the birthday of one of the sisters in our branch. she is always way nice to us and takes care of us in whatever she can. so we decided to do something nice for her. the tradicion here is that when someone is having a birthday you have to go light off fireworks at like 6 in the morning. we talked to her daughter and she said that her mom gets up at like 5 30, so we went at like 5. turns out she was already awake. ha but we litted off the fireworks any way and she was happy that we remembered her. then she made us breakfast. ha ironic right.
by the way i forgot to tell you that the package came. i liked the pickle theme. i made the pudding and gave some to my comp. he spit it in my face and started saying swear words. i think thats the guatemalan way of saying he liked it. but i was happy with everything. i took the ring to the guy who wanted to give it to his "future wife". ha turnes out they ended things a few days ago. so basically the ring was like salt in his wound. ha, but he bought it any way and gave it to his mom. alls well that ends well i guess.
Well other than that not much to say. life is good. we are working hard and doing well. i love you all
adios
Elder Jacobson

Bright Future

Well in case any one is wondering i got punched in the face on the bus this morning. but i guess thats what i should expect when i go around slappin some fools in the face every time they talk fast. the good news is a black eye never killed anyone. the bad news is that the medicine that they make people take when they have black eyes contains peacock urine, which has been proven fatal for humans. so whats the moral of the whole story. NEVER drink peacock urine.
well things are lookin good here in pueblito nuevo. Our family came to church again. they are super close to accepting baptism, they just have a few doubts they cant get over. i think mainly its because they have already been baptized once. i can understand that it would be super hard to overcome a doubt like that, especially because they say that their baptism was something super special for them. sometimes i imagine what i would say if someone told me i had to be baptized again. i imagine i would just start throwing together a long string of profanity. ha but they have felt the spirit and know that what we say is true. we just gotta keep working with them and praying.
i learned a good lesson this week. lately i have felt a little bit stressed out. sometimes its hard to go so long without much success, especially since we havent really had success in the whole district and suposedly its partly my responsability to help everyone baptize. but last night i was thinking about what has been going on in these areas and i realized that things are actually looking really good. in that instant my mind was illuminated and i was taken to a high mountain. ha well not really like that. but i just decided to see things more with an eye of faith rather than with doubt. after that i noticed that i had been living really pesimisticly these past few days, or weeks maybe. i havent been joking around with my comp or with the members. ive been basically only focusing on the few bad things and not noticing all the good. so since then ive been trying to see the good in everything, and it feels great. its like i lifted a weight off my shoulders that i was carrying just because i wanted to. so maybe that will help in life. if we feel really stressed out, just try to see things from an eternal perspective and know that all will be well in the end.
on thursday we had a way good conference with Presidente Maravilla. he talked about faith, then he talked about the atonement. it was such a powerful teaching. its crazy how we always talk about how important the atonement is, but i think we dont even really understand what it is. but it was a good conference, i came out with more animo to keep working and to do better in my area. my comp is getting a little bit ready to be in his house. its kind of hard, but also kind of good because it makes it so i cant get lazy. we are both working hard and enjoying our work. im learning alot. life is good what more can i say.
i love you all. hope you enjoy the final days of summer. just think a long cold winter is right around the corner. bwahahaha. have a good week and do work. good buy. or as they say here in "guate" Adios to you mi amigo
Elder Jacobson

bye the way, i spelled buy rong on purpose to make you all laugf. im not as stupid as i make you all think