Cambios

well i can hardly believe it, but 6 weeks have passed since i first landed here in San Sebastian. I have to say that it has been a tough 6 weeks, but i have learned and grown alot, i have seen miracles, and come to love this area alot. In the end im happy, what more could i ask.

so this week started the open house for the temple. on tuesday we were able to go as a zone. its incredible the spirit that you can feel there. i thought alot about the times that i went before the mission, and i really missed it. I think before i took it for granted how special of a place it really is. Alot of peoples lives were changed just by going to visit and hear about all of the things that we do there. i was super excited when we got there because it just so happened that La Grandeza, my first ward in the mission was there. i saw a lot of people i knew and felt a little bit home sick to go back and visit. the best was that i talked to the mother in law of Armando and she says that he is second councilor of the priest quorum, and that he is preparing to be sealed in february. I was so happy. It was a great experience

after that started the busiest week of my mission. All of the members here have really worked hard to bring people to the temple. now our part is to go contact all of these people and start teaching them. my comp and i both agree that we have worked harder this week than in any other time in our lives. Last night we got in the house at about 8 45 and i told myself i was just going to sit on my bed for a minute. ha next thing i knew i woke up and it was 9 30, i was beat. but we are seeing some results the majority of people come back from the temple with the curiosity of what they felt and why our church is so much different, and alot of people have accepted the invitation to hear our message. one cool experience was on friday. our zone did like a call center to call all of the references we got. so we all brought our phones and were making calls. i called a few and most said they would accept a visit. then i called a lady named natali. i told her i was a missionary and she said that her family is all members and that she had heard the missionary lessons a bunch of times. i asked her about the temple and it was crazy how she answered. she said that she always was looking for something to convince her that the church was true. and she said that when she went to the temple she felt something incredible like she wanted to cry or something, and she said that she was sure now that it was true. She isnt in my area so i got her adress and sent it to the area where she lives. but it was awesome for me to see the power of the temple and more than anything the power of the spirit.

in other news the man who wants to be baptized in december is named Macedonio, and everything is still looking good for his baptism. he might even do it sooner. he says he just wants to go to the temple and then we can plan his baptism for any day we want. his whole family is excited and we are super excited. Also yesterday an old investigator named jorge told my comp that he had gone to the temple and had told a member family that he wanted to be in the dedication. they explained to him that he had to get baptized first, so he accepted the invitation (from the member family) to be baptized. on thursday we will work everything out and plan a date.

its crazy, they always talk about how building a temple in an area blesses the church so much, but i guess i never really understood the extent of the blessings. alot of people are accepting baptism, less actives are reactivating and the members are all being strengthened. How amazing.

Its been fun living in a house of 4. its really a good chance to learn to understand people and try to compromise so that everyone is happy. we all get along really well. yesterday we had a wrestling tournament after breakfast ( its not someting that we usually do) but i think you can all guess who won... ha i put my companion in the double jack knife and they all said. when he was in the army he must have had training by the special forces. ha i love all three of them. and good news. no one has changes. it will be another 6 weeks with these locos. here we go again

well hate to say but its time to go. but i love you all so much. right now the radio is playing the song that says "It´ll take alot to take me away from you... theres nothing that 100 men or more could ever do, Ill chase the rain down in africa" ha i dont know if those are the words, but its makes me think of home and the family. weird how little things take us back. but i hope you all know how grateful i am for you and the life you have given me. Im happy.

Love Elder Jacobson

SÏ PUES

If you come to Guatemala the first words you will learn are sí pues. the funny thing is that si pues doesnt really mean anything, its just an insignificant phrase that they use alot.
So another week has gone by. only one more week until its time for changes again. how crazy. im not really nervous for changes because when they put someone as district leader they stay for 2 changes like 99.9 percent of the time, so im fairly sure that i wont be leaving. but i guess its possible, they say that the chances of a 29 headed turtle being born are even smaller than that, but we see those all of the time.
another week has gone by really fast. i feel like im starting to lose myself more and more in the work. im trying to work hard on focusing my thoughts and prayers on our investigators being baptized. its like using the power of the secret (or faith). but its crazy how when i only think about the work the days come and go in the blink of an eye. this week we saw alot of success in the district. my old companion elder Lira and his companion elder cieza baptized a family of 4 on saturday, and we baptized and confirmed ana maria yesterday. on top of that we went to teach one of our old investigators that is the husband of a member. we taught about the book of mormon, and read the doctrine of Christ. (by the way, dad im impressed, i guess i owe you 5 pesos, ill see if i can go to mexico and get some). then we invited him to baptism. he finally came out with his doubt, which was that he thought that after his baptism that there would be no change in his life and how he wanted something more in his life. so we explained about the priesthood and temple ordinances that he can receive. we taught about callings in the church, and how baptism was only the beginning of the process that leads to eternal life. then we asked him again what would keep him from being baptized. he said nothing, then stood up and walked over to his calender. he looked at it for a second then said. on the 6th of december i will be baptized. ha it was a pretty incredible moment for me to see how the spirit worked in us to know what to say and how the spirit touched his heart. we are going to try to move his baptism to a closer day because sometimes its bad to wait a long time. so like i said we saw alot of success here this week. Heavenly Father is blessing us alot.
another pretty cool experience was on thursday when we had interviews. mine lasted about 3 minutes because president was super busy, but he basically just asked me if i had any sins, and i said no. then he asked me about my comp and how he was doing. we talked a little bit about him then he told me that was all and i could go. but as i was walking out he told me that I had really helped my comp in some hard times in his mission. I dont really know what i did. mainly i was just good friends with him. but it was good to hear that i had made a difference in someones life.
well we still have alot to do to be ready for the temple. i sometimes worry that the members are going to go without us knowing and that alot of people who go and feel that spirit wont be contacted. but im sure that no one has gone yet. we just need to make another round with all of the members to find out if they have put a specific date, so we can be there when the bus leaves. other good news they gave us permission to go to the temple open house. we will go to xela tomorrow. its going to be an awesome event, like a field trip from school. im super excited
well its time to go again. time on the computer goes really fast. but have a good week. get the pistol ready to go kill an innocent turkey because its almost time for thanksgiving. good work on all of your grades in school. dont slack, because the scriptures say cursed is the slacker for he shall get PWNED in the great and terrible day of testing. (i wrote that). I love you all. keep working hard. Adios
Elder jacob.
(Every one just calls me jacob because my name is too hard)
(and because they say i look like the werewolf on twilight. WHISPER)

14

well, im here again. ha it was a good week. tomorrow i complete 14 months in the mission. its weird to me. its not really weird to think about how long i have been out, the weird thing is thinking about how fast this last month has gone by, actually the last two months, it seems like it wasnt that long ago since i said that i was finishing the first year.
but like i said it was a good week. i think ive written it before, but the work is always moving ahead. sometimes it doesnt move in the pace, or even the direction i want it to go. but i can tell that as long as i work hard good things happen, peoples lives are changed, the kingdom of God grows, and on top of all that, i can tell that i am progressing and changing alot. another crazy thing that i am seeing as time goes on is that every time i learn more about a certain topic i just come to realize that i really know nothing about the topic. For example, ive been studying alot about faith. I remember in a general conference talk one of the Apostle said that Christ used faith to create the vast expanses of the universe and also to make the building blocks of matter. in the scriptures it always says that if we have faith in christ we can do all things. so then i have to ask myself, if i have Faith in Christ how come i cant do all of the incredible miracles it talks about in the scriptures. ha its pretty cool, ive come to like studying alot. the scriptures are full of knowledge that is the key to happiness and salvation. the trick is learning how to unlock the mysteries found in them.
well in other news, our area didnt have a baptism this week, but one of the areas in our district did. her name is leticia. i was super happy when she was baptized because i had gone to help teach her a bunch of times, and with the combined work of our two companionships she finally took the step. after her baptism she bore her testimony of how grateful she was to have made the decision. she was the mom of some other members, and now the whole family is members. how cool.
another cool thing is that we started teaching the mom and cousin of marvin. his mom mainly was only listening because she wants her neice to listen to our message, but now she seems more interested every time we come. it was actually pretty cool with his cousin (her name is ana mariah) as well. we talked to marvins mom (Alejandra) and she said we could come talk to ana mariah, but she said she didnt think it would help because she had been really rebellious her whole life, and would never go to church with the family. so we put an appt to come talk to them both the next day. then we showed up and found them in the house and taught them about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ (5 dollars to the person who can explain to me correctly what is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ) and challenged her to be baptized. well long story short she accepted. but the cooler part was yesterday. we went at nine to go remind her about church (which doesnt start until ten) and she was already and started walking out the door. we explained that we were there just to remind her and that we would come back a little later to bring her. then we went to invite other people. but when we got back like a half hour later they told us that her and marvin had already left. ha it was a cool testimony to me to see how after being rebellious and not going to church all those years she went without any one even telling her. Its the power of the Gospel.
well we are super busy getting ready for the temple open house. the mission rule is that we have to be present when the buses leave for the temple, and when they get back so we can get to know the people and make appts to go talk to them. each member family is going to pay for a bus and invite as many people they can, and we need to get to know them all. it really is a big sacrifice for every family, but its amazing to see how they are so willing to sacrifice just because of their faith, and their love for God. some are going to have to sell refrigerators or tv´s to be able to go, but they are all willing. its awesome.
well i hate to say, but im low on time. we have an appt at 5 today so that means we have to get stuff done early. but i love you all. i hope that everyone is really grateful this thanksgiving season. enjoy the cold weather for me and i will soak up some rays for you. have a good week. Hasta la vista
Elder Jacobson

Happy Halloween

first of all i would like to say Happy Halloween. Second of all i want to say that you cant laugh at me for spelling things rong, all of the computers here only speak el espanish, and they mark with a red squiggily underline every word i right. on top of that the spelling rules are way different in spanish. i never realy realized how weird the english language is, until yesterday when i told my comp how to say cough, and he asked me to spell it. can any one explain to me how the letters in cough are pronounced with an f sound. ha, so next time you decide to laugh at me, try taking a nice gander around the park in my shoes.
well it was a good week. an area in my district had an investigator that was close to baptism, and we wanted her to be baptized this saturday, so we spent alot of time in the other area working with her. and finally after all of the work she agreed to be baptized next saturday, but we are super happy. its not the day thats important, as long as it gets done.
on top of that we spent time preparing Hno Marvin for his baptism on saturday. ha Marvin is the young man that we met last week in the church that agreed to be baptized. the word joven in spanish means young man, or young women. but the baptism went beautifully. all of his family came and gave alot of support. the service went through without problems. (even though we started about a half hour late as usual). after the ordinance we gave marvin a chance to share his testimony. he could barely find words. his eyes filled up with tears and he talked about how he was going to be a different person from now on. it was super powerful for the whole family.
after the baptism we started running around like crazies trying to get ready for the ward activity we had planned. we had to kick everyone out of the church real quick. the activity was that we gave everyone a bunch of paper money, and they could buy treats or play games. but they also had the opportunity to pay their tithing. in the end we let everyone who had paid tithing enter into the sacrament meeting room to rest while everyone else was left outside. i was in charge of the game you play with water balloons and towels. everyone really liked it and would usually pay like ten times in a row. the activity was a success. alot of people came and really enjoyed themselves.
well today we are going to be changing houses. its my third time changing houses. its usually kind of a hassle, but fun at the same time. we are going to move right after this.
in other news the rainy season ended. now we just have the blistering hot season. ha the sun comes down so powerfully. but im loving every minute of it. im really working on trying to devote my whole self to the mission and not hold any thing back. ive found alot of happiness when i spend more time thinking about others than myself.
so in the end it has been a fun week. we are now looking forward to the temple dedication and alot of success that will follow. i love you all. save me some candy. read the scriptures. have a good week. prepare for thanksgiving and for the great and dreadful day of judgement . good bye for now.
Elder Jacobson

it was the best of times, it was the worst of times

in case any one is wondering, the title is actually a line from a book written by moby dickens. he writes really good, and well too. but i guess that line describes a little about how my week has been. monday through friday were pretty challenging. not for any reason specific. i think the main problem was is that the elder that was here before me was about to leave for his house, so they werent really working to find investigators that much. so now that im here we have (had) no investigators. every day we would go out and talk to as many people as we could, and mostly we visited members to see if they knew any one we could teach, but we couldnt find any one. almost the whole week we went without teaching one lesson to an investigator. on top of that i left the area of few times to go to the areas of other missionaries in my district (there is 3 companionship's in my district). its kind of tough because i have to keep track of all the investigators in my area (which are none) and in the other areas as well. so it was a little difficult to get my bearings. and we are coming up to the end of the month. but i learned a great lesson about faith and patients. i was looking in the book of mormon when i came upon mosia 24. it talked about the people of alma when they get put into bondage by the lamanites, when they were doing nothing wrong. but i really liked a verse towards the end of the chapter that says that they supported all their afflictions until they got to a point when their faith and patients was so great that the voice of the lord came to them saying that they would be freed from bondage the next day. after i read that i decided that i wasnt going to stress alot about not having investigators or any of the challenges. i decided to trust heavenly Father and have patients, knowing that if i did my part, He would do his.
so we kept working hard, and things definitely worked out. 2 cool things happened. the first was when we went to our ward mission leaders house. we told him that we wanted to do a mission correlation meeting. he seemed excited, and he told us about how before the ward used to always do all of the meetings, such as ward council and executive committee. but he told us that lately all of the leaders of the ward have been kind of lazy, and havent been doing really anything. and as a result, the wards success has been dropping lately. we talked about the problem and decided that if we wanted to get any work done here we would have to get the members to get to work. i think i always took for granted how much work really goes in to keeping a ward running. so any way, between the three of us we made a plan to get the members, especially the leadership working in our ward. I think we are really going to make a big difference here.
the other cool thing was on sunday. the bishop pulled us out of sunday school and said he needed to talk to us. he took us into a room and sat us down with a young man that had about 15 years. he then explained that the joven has been coming to church for about a month and he isnt a member, then left us alone. so we taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ and invited him to be baptized and he accepted. ive realized that one of my specialties here in the mission is that when im not having any success whatsoever Heavenly Father sends us someone that is prepared for the gospel. today we are going to talk to his family and make all of the arrangements for the baptism. how awesome.
well im getting along great with my new old companion. ha hes super funny and we pass most of the day laughing. i like being with him because he has developed the ability of listening to ideas of others, while still putting in his input. so basically i never feel like he is trying to control me, but at the same time i dont feel like i have to do everything.
so like i said, im happy. things are good here. the future looks bright and we are working with alot of animo. but i gotta go. have a great week. work with all the strength you have. here is a quote i wrote to get you through the week. ¨If the whole world doubts, criticizes, mocks and hates you, trust yourself and work with confidence. Then you will almost be on the same level as Leonel Messi¨ ha i love you all.
Elder Jacobson

Tuesday

well like i said its tuesday. sorry i couldnt write yesterday, the recovery isnt going as planned and they wouldnt let me out of the hospital yesterday, so they had to find a laptop to bring to me here. haha just kidding. no the truth is that yesterday the power went out in the whole town where i am (in my new area) so we had to wait until today. but dont worry all is well and i am happy. well last week were changes. the day of changes was quite an experience, not really for me, but for the mission as a whole. i guess a huge storm hit and all of the roads were flooded. luckily we left early to come into reu, so we avoided alot of problems, but alot of other zones werent so lucky. alot got stuck or separated and couldnt get to the meeting. we were blessed and protected. no one was hurt, and now everyone is safe and happy. the change meeting had two big surprises for me. the first was my new companion, who actually is my old companion. haha you may remember hearing me talk about elder platero. well sure enough the dynamic duo is back together. I think its the first time that that has happened in the history of the church, or maybe just the history of the world. i couldnt believe it, and no body else can either. but im happy. the last time we were together it was only for three weeks, but we got along very well. he has been a few months without baptisms, so we are both ready and willing to work hard. it should be a good change or two together. the other surprise was that they called me to serve as district leader. Its not a huge deal, mainly im just supposed to help other missionaries, and make sure they are working effectively. it should be a good opportunity to learn and grow, and get to know alot more people so im excited. when i left san pablo my main regret was that i didnt do alot to help strengthen our branch there. my last 2 weeks there we started doing more to help the members, but i felt like i could have started earlier. so i was kind of hoping that i would get sent to an area where i could do alot to strengthen the ward or branch there. and sure enough Heavenly Father gave me according to my desires. my new area is san sebastian, here in reu. my comp told me that lately the ward has been kind of going down. he said the attendance has dropped by like 20 people and that none of the members have any "animo" (remember that word) so im excited for a challenge, we have made some plans to get people excited about the temple open house and see who we can find of investigators. but i love my area. the members love the missionaries and take care of us. the weather is normal, hot and rainy and i love it. the food is good. the church is true, what more can i ask for. well im low on time today, but i just wanted to share an experience to finish. there is a man here named hno Job, like from la biblia. we always eat breakfast at his house. he is an older man, and is crazy, in an awesome way. ha when we get to his house usually he greets us by saying, in english "hey boy whatsamatta you", i love him. but today as we were leaving from breakfast i shook his hand and he looked me in the eye and said, "le aprecio mucho" ha you will have to look up what that means because i dont remember the translation of aprecio, but it basicly expresses gratitude and love. but it caught me off guard a little how sincere he was. i realized that something we dont do enough is give sincere complements. so i challenge all of you to go and look for chances to complement someone. your life will be better if you do. well have a good week. enjoy your new truck. enjoy the snow when it comes. have fun in school and work and in everything you do. share the gospel with everyone you can. keep the commandments. I love you all Elder Jacobson

Changes

Well this week there is good news and bad news. the good news is that im alive and recovering. the bad news is that the mission isnt going to cover the cost for the operation, or for the medicine that they say i need to take. but i think i should still have enough in my personal account. if not the mission doctor will probly be sending you an email. ill let you know what happens.
any way, this wednesday is changes. ha usually at this time i am pretty nervous wondering if i am going to leave or stay. but today i got lucky and already found out. what happened is that yesterday the zone leaders called my comp to tell him that he had to go to the mission office today because he is going to be training this change. they also said that everyone that trains new elders is going to do it in their own area, which by default means that i am going to have to leave. the truth is that i am pretty sad to leave. i have grown to love the people here alot. especially the members. i dont know what we did to deserve it, but they really love us and do all they can to take care of us. ive enjoyed my time here alot and im nervous because today and tomorrow im going to have to go say good bye to everyone. but i guess thats how the mission is. i know ill get to know and love more people in the new area where i go.
in other news the electric company cut the light to our whole city of San Pablo again. ha its hard for me to understand how the problem go so out of control here, but thats how it is. i dont know if i explained it well last time, but what happens here is that the people decided that the electricity is too expensive, so they stopped paying their light bill. now the light company cuts the light every 3 or 4 months until people pay, then they put the electricity back, then the people stop paying again. ha i talked to one family that said they owned the light company more than 15000 quetzales. ha and they say about 75 percent arent paying. its crazy. now when we ask when the electricity will come back the people say the light company said that they arent going to put the electricity back on... ever. ha after wednesday it wont effect me, but my comp elder matute is going to be without electricity untill christmas. ha oh man, i cant understand it. the worst part is that we, by rule, have to be in the house by 7 when there is no light because its dangerous, so we lose alot of time to work. bad news, but we´ll keep going.
in other news yesterday we had a miracle baptism. ha i think i am seeing more and more how little i really do in this work. every single baptism i have i feel like i didnt do anything. in our branch we have a family of 8 that all got baptized about 7 months ago. one of the sons is named lismark and he is 20 years old and planning on going on a mission when he has a year of being a member. last sunday we called him to see if he wanted to play soccer with us for p day. when we called he told us that his brother had come home from being in mexico , and that he wanted to get baptized this weekend. so on tuesday went to their house and talked to him. sure enough he had gotten a terrible fungal infection in his feet and had to come home. when we showed up, he was excited to hear about the message of the restoration and accepted a baptismal date. we planned the baptism for the end of this weekend, but the branch president wanted to do it earlier, so we did it yesterday before church. then we was confirmed in sacrament meeting and ordained a priest in the priesthood session. so once again Heavenly Father is blessing us with opportunities to bless people and see some fruits of our labors.
well, i think thats it for now. i gotta go pack and cut my hair still. but i love you all. just think. at the end of this month it will be halloween, then thanksgiving, then christmas, then new years, then my birthday, then valentines day, then lonicas birthday. i dont really know what comes next, but the fact is that time, as always is going by fast. so live up every day. we only get one chance to live this life, so live it well. look for every chance you can to love someone and think about them more than yourselves. have a good week. talk to you next week from my new area. and by the way just ignore the first paragraph, it was a joke. Good bye
Elder Jacobson