Sad days

well, the days arent really that sad, things are going fairly well in the area,
and in my life. the only sad day has been today, ill tell you why. my zone
this month has done really well, we baptized a ton of familias and things are
looking good. so as a reward they let us play soccer today. i was so pumped.
when the moment finally arrived i tied up my sneaks and ran onto the field.
for a moment i was back in my prime, king of the field, ready for anything. i
took my place on the left wing, the opening kick off, and the game started.
exactly 3 and a half minutes later i was laying on my back gasping for air,
wondering what happened to the good old days. now (4 hours later) my head
hurts, my feet ache and my legs are sore. 3 months without playing soccer and
im like an old man. ha i dont know what has happened to me, but yes indeed, it
has been a sad day.
but other than that things are moving along in the work. we continue
to find, little by little new investigators, and get to know more and more
people. every day i learn new lessons about effective ways to work, and things
that wont bring any results. i sometimes feel that im waisting alot of time.
but i think that the only way we lose time is when we make the mistake of
failing to learn from our incorrect descisiones. (ya i just made that up, but
you can quote me if you want). so that is the goal, to never make the same
mistake twice and to continue to get better from every mistake.
ive recognized in myself one of my strong strengths and one of my big
weaknesses. my strength is that im an idea person. my mind is constantly
going, like a ferris wheel in outer space, not always but fairly often i will
receive inspiration and get an idea that i know will work. its cool for me to
see how i can look at any problem and then think and ponder and pray about it,
and almost always the solution comes. the weakness is that im not a go and
doer. usually i get worried that my ideas will fail, or that people wont like
them, or sometimes i just get lazy, and my ideas wind up ship wrecked on the
rocks of good intent and laziness. i think thats one of the cool things about
training right now. because i have almost always been put with elders that are
go getters. but lately i have had to step up and start doing things. awesome
huh, the mission is a great chance to recognize your weaknesses and be made
stronger.
as far as investigators go we arent doing great, but tampoco horrible.
most of the families we find are hard to get a hold of the next time. either
they hide from us, or we just cant find them. but yesterday a recent convert
took us to his moms house. they fed us dinner (it made me think of the story of
alma and amulek) then we talked to them. they seemed interested and the member
helped us out a ton in teaching them. im fairly sure that they will start
coming to church. Other than that we are working with a couple named Melgin,
and Paola. we can only teach them once a week so the progression has been slow.
we have been battling with them to get them to read the book of mormon, and it
sounds like they are starting. on saturday melgin told us he didnt want to go to
any church because every church he goes to just criticizes and talks bad about
him. i asked if he would go to a church if it wasnt like that and he said yes,
and we committed him to come to church and try it out. he said he would come and
if he liked it he would be baptized.
on sunday right before sacrament meeting the 2nd counceler asked if we
could speak on missionary work. ha the funny thing was that when he announced
it he said elder Jack was gonna speak first. ha so with like 2 minutes of
preparation elder Jack had to give a talk in a language he is still learning.
but he did it like a champ. it was cool to see how the spirit helped him and
me to say things we wouldnt have been able to say otherwise. in the end i was
grateful for an opportunidad to teach and gain the confidence of the members a
little more.. thats what its all about.
well im a little low on time. but how cool that all the family
continues to DOWORK back in utah. i guess you all finally decided to follow my
example. IDOWORK. hey here is a suggestion for you, read "the family a
proclimation to the world" as a family, and hang it up somewhere in the house.
its awesome and talks pretty well against all the crap the goes on in the
world. go do it.
i love you all. keep working hard. finish the school year strong.
continue to pray for me, i always need it. ill keep praying for all you. talk
to you later.
Elder Jacobson