Monday, January 31 2010

Hey family, whats up? Life is hot here as usual haha, super hot but im used to it, so its not bad at all, in fact, i sweat less than the people that live here haha, so i feel like im even more used to the weather than the people here haha, its a huge blessing. But as always this life is full of difficulty and distress, its still hard to enjoy my life and im rarely content but i know that its supposed to be hard, and im just trying to keep pushing forward, yet again this week has been a test of diligence, the power has gone out three times this week so i havent slept that much at all this week, i opened the only window i have in the apartment and tried to sleep in the chair but the mosquitos are numberless, and the stupid buzzing in my ear kept me up so much, our air conditioning broke and we spent one morning in the doctors office for some kind of growth on my comps hand, so i have felt super useless this week, and its been a challenge to get lost in the work this week, but we have had alot of progress this week, so aldo and yanina are going to get baptised this saturday, i didnt think they would because friday aldo freaked out and they had a huge fight and she disappeared and we couldnt find her, and we were sure they werent going to come to church, but they came and they are planning on getting baptised. So thats great, we worked alot with them this week, there is so many things working against them. Also we found a family last week who told us a story last friday, 3 days before we found them the mom, maria, had a dream were she saw me and my comp come to her house and give her a book of mormon and baptise her, haha we wondered why it was so easy to get her family to come to church, god pretty much did it all for us. Also another family of 5, the Jaquimin family, they called us off the street to come talk to them and they have 3 little girls, 13 12 and 11, they came to church with an old man who lives with them, who his dad is member, well the family and the old guy who lives with them are going to get baptised in two weeks, my landlords are going to get married when he gets his hearing aids so please pray for them, then the wife is going to get baptised. We have a 8 yearold kid named carlos who wants to get baptised next week, his ¨dad¨or the guy who takes care of him got excommunicated and is starting the process of coming back so we are having a whole bunch of sucess. Then we have a 23 year old girl named elisa who wants to get baptised but there are alot of things she hears that is destroying her faith, alot of ex members are trying to stop her from getting baptised and its literally impossible to fight against so many when she has her head clogged with so much stuff. But we will trust that the holy ghost can clear it all up. Well i have felt like i havent pleased god this week but he sure has blessed me with so much mercy that i get the chance to serve and teach so many awesome people who are really looking for the truth. This has been a super hard week with super cool results, but i know i can do better, because i feel so unsatisfied. Im depressed because i feel like i cant give it my all and after all of the problems ive seen from my investigators i have absolutly no desire to get married. haha oh so many problems and stress. I want nothing to do with it. Well im glad to see eveything is well at home, i got alot of letters this past week, and id like to thank them, thanks nebekers for the ice cream money! Ill put it to good use, they actually didnt except the money to change because they have never seen what the new 10 looks like, oh man argentina... thanks platts for the card and grandma for the card also!! Well love ya all!! oh and mom maybe you can try and send me a few recipies, like how to make tortillas, refried beans, and chips! i think it would be cool to make some mexican food! Well love ya!

Monday, January 24 2011

hey family!! Hows life? Man jordan westra came home? That went by fast. My health is good i think, i am always super tired because the heat is just eating me up, and my calling is also a little more burdensome haha, but not that much. Ive been wanting to excercise alot but i can do a few pushups and situps before im exhausted, i have really wanted to run but its too hot outside to run. Yeah its superhot here, but its not unbearable, there was only one day that i felt like dying, wednesday was a killer, i dont even know how hot it was but the power cut out and it was such an aweful night trying to sleep, above 100 degrees all night and its like sleeping in a pool of sweat haha, but after that the week has been hot but enjoyable, im used to the hot feeling and sweating so its nothing new, and the spirit has been there to help me alot so im loving it here, we are having a bunch of success, we have found alot of people this week that are wanting to get baptised, so on top of aldo and yanina and my landlords who are progressing super fast we found 6 more people to get baptised in the coming month, i know that if im even more obedient that ill be able to baptise all of these people. The lord has blessed me with an awesome way to teach and with awesome investigators to receive the teaching. Life here is hard as always but im loving it, im learning how to become more like a servant of god and im starting to see in a little way the completion of my patriarchal blessing. As i continue to press forward i know that ill become who i want to become, but its super hard believing in myself haha, i seem to fall so easy, it takes so long to reach a goal and then in five minutes it gets destroyed haha. But ive learned to continue on. Ya i do regret somethings from swimming, i was afraid to push myself beyond my comfort zone, i now know that going beyond the comfort zone is the only way to grow. So thats why i love my mission, not because its something fun or something i would prefer to do, but i love the person heavenly father is making me become, living out of my comfort zone is how i know that i can grow. i am coming to see the gospel as my life and less like a hobby like it always was in my life. Now i want to keep the commandments not because id disappoint my family, but because i know the blessings i could recieve and because i want to make my heavenly father happy. Have fun this week, thats cool your in california, enjoy the good weather haha. Love ya all!!
(and i have 14 baptisms i think, not alot but there they are)

Monday, January 17 2011

Hey family! Hows everything going? Oh man you dont know how much i want to switch cold for heat! This week has been ridiculous, i really havent felt such heat before, but miraculously it doesnt really effect me that much, a little, but not near as much as before. The sun here is super strong and with humidity it just becomes a magnifying glass, the mornings are unbearable haha, the people complain, but i always have a smile on my face, unless im hungry haha. This week has been good, Aldo and Yanina want to get baptised and hes doing everything he can to stop drinking, we go by and drink fanta with him so he wont drink beer. Diego has disappeared, but a few more people have appeared in his place, we are going to baptise our landlords the 12th of Feburary, which is super awesome, ive never heard of something like that happening, so we will be working hard with them, its funny just having to open our door and sit down and teach, and if we forgot something to run like two seconds to get it, its awesome haha. We got about 8 baptisms planned for the next 3-4 weeks, president is really trying to get us to baptise every week so we had a special capacitaion that helped us to achieve it, we took all thursday learning the precepts and when we put it into practice it really showed its fruits, so we will be studying and focusing to putting it all into practice, did i mention its hot? haha we had kind of a downer in church, we had planned for alot more to come and only 3 showed, so i hope to work a bit harder this week, i remember i used to be able to bring 12 or so, so im trying to find families to bring, my comp and i work hard and we try and always teach to the needs of our friends, and we are finding alot that want to learn more, but to go to church is always the most difficult part, mostly because the people here are super lazy. Thanks for the quotes and for the information, im truly trying to become better yet its super hard and feels like such a super hard uphill climb. Well collin, just dig in and dont let anything get by you, if its one thing i regret is not putting my all into the little time i had into swimming, so its your turn to become better than me. Abbey, being popular is not the cool thing to do, just make sure you have alot of cool friends who wont stab you in the back, steph, keep busy being busy, it helps alot to forget about problems, hannah, you keep watching sponge bob for me. I love you all! I hope all goes well this week.

Monday, January 10 2011

Hey family, hows it going? Life here is tuff, hehe, but first,my old comp got transfered because another elder broke his leg and they sent him home so my comp went to repalce him, (so this week i have been trying to break my leg also jeje just kidding.) my new comp is from Buenos Aires, Elder Antonietti, hes super cool, we get along super great. We cant stop laughing so thats a good help and escape. He has 6 months in the mish and is super awesome. He looks alot like jack quincy, but short. This week has been super hot, the sun is super strong, i have burns from the rays of the sun on my arms, but not like sun burns, but burns that feel like getting burned with fire. It stings, ive never seen anything like it. Crazy. Anyways its alot better than humidity i guess, but still its been a tuff week, practically noone let us in this week, we spent a whole time walking, i lost more of my progressing investigators like that family and everyone that had a book of mormon, almost everyone that was listening has moved to paraguay or buenos aires. Really frustrating, the work is super slow practally no progress and that has been pretty depressing and frustrating. Although we do have a young couple who has come to church and attended a baptism, and they want to see a change in their lives so im pretty sure that they will get baptised in two weeks, aldo and yanina are their names. And one guy named diego is wanting to get baptised so thats great. But other than that we spend like 90 percent of the day walking around melting and then in the night getting eaten alive by the mosquitos haha. I dont feel that homesick but im just so stressed and exhausted and burnt out from not finding the success i want or being the missionary i need to be. But this has happened alot in the mission, but its just something that its hard for me to learn, these weaknesses that i have just dont seem to go away, i just cant achieve the change i want. But there is not much i can do but press on, maybe when the summer lights up ill start being able to acheive haha. Frustrating. Anyways sounds like life is pretty good at home, everything is normal, im sure collin will be able to letter, hes fast and stubborn so the sickness shouldnt take too much out of him. Steph can overcome it all also, you can do it! Well i miss you all, still feels like awhile until the end, so i got time to improve. Love ya all! Happy Birthday grandpa jacobsen! Next year we will celebrate eating that artichoke heart pasta! Oh i so miss delicious food! CHOW!

Monday, January 3 2011

Hey Family!! New years eve this year was super fun! All of the missionaires got together and we had a huge bbq at a members house. We shared crazy experiences from the mish and had a good time, laughed our heads off. Then a missionary brought me a letter from my old comp in Reconquista, all of the people i was teaching got baptised!! So even though i wasnt there to take a picture with them i was super excited to see all of my old friends there get baptised! I was super happy and probably one of the first times that i was super grateful to serve a mission. It was a great night, then saturday morning we played a whole lot of soccer and hung out until we had to go back to work at 3. What a fun weekend. Sunday we had planned for 8 people to come to church, we woke up early to go find them all and not one woke
up or came out... So we got to the church to see if we had anyone, nope, so we jumped in a taxi and followed the spirit, we found a super awesome investigator that was waiting for us but was getting her kids ready so she didnt hear us, so we went back to church with her and her husband and it was great because they loved it, so thanks to our persistance we are going to get to baptise her in three weeks. Other
than that all of our investigators are not progressing, the Family i found freaked out and ignore us, then they left on vacation for 2 months. So we dropped them, and every one else. So im pretty frustrated with the work, but we will see if we can find some families that will progress this week. Oh and last night we got a call from the mish and my comp got emergency transfered again, so now im left without a comp for the day, oh and im district leader now so alot has changed this week. Im feeling overwhelmed and on top of that the work isnt moving along, so its been kind of tuff, but ive learned to trust in Heavenly Father and he will help me pass this, im glad that even though its super hot it doesnt really affect me, so im glad to have
that trial behind me, and i havent felt homesick this week so on one side im starting to recieve challenges within the mission. Lifes stressful but it wont last, slowly ill overcome these trials. Sounds like lifes good at home, i took a pic of some of those lantern kites that dad wanted to try and do, some kids were doing them but i left the pics on my comps camera, so we will see them after the mish haha. Well i hope all goes well this coming week, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!
love ya all!