Monday, July 25 2011

Hello family!! How goes it all!! Time sure is flying by!! I only have 12 more emails to send and ill be in the states, but lets not get trunky eh, so this week was a super difficult week, we have two people investigating the church, im not used to this, the less i teach, the more hard it is to focus and the less i feel the spirit, thats why i loved Formosa, even though the weather always stunk there, i taught alot therefore it was alot easier for me to focus and i had the spirit alot, but here walking around all day trying to teach people who dont want to hear is quite difficult, haha we are really fishing in the dark for these elect, but they are super hard to find.

We found a family two saturdays ago that they seemed to be interested, and man they have progressed alot! im pretty sure they will recieve an answer that its true, they have a couple stumbling blocks but im sure we can overcome them. The girls boyfriend worked at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, small world, the first person ive talked to that knows where South Jordan is haha.

So Carlos got baptised, this pic shows it all! It was an awesome saturday! 16 People got baptised, so i was quite pleased, he was crying the whole time, hes a special guy, wierd but determined to work hard, and endure to the end, when he got baptised he threw himself backward, making the biggest splash ive seen, haha its like he cannon balled himself into Baptism.

I dont know if ive told you guys about Maria, but she teaches weight loss classes in the district, someone gave her a teachings of joseph smith and she has ate that up! We can only meet with her saturdays and sundays yet she progresses by leaps and bounds! So shes going to get baptised the 13th of August, we are quite excited for her, shes going to be an awesome Relief Society Pres, since she loves to walk, shes going to help alot of people.

Wednesday rained from 4 in the morning to 11 at night, we got in one house during that day, we walked the whole day... No one even answered their door, man it was tuff. haha so i sent a pic of our check point to dry off, we had huge trench coats on thats why the water only gets to there, but my garments were soaked from top to bottom becaues they just suck the water like a sponge, it was so cold! HAha but today is really hot, so i dont understand this weather, usually winter means cold, they have it all wrong here haha.

Im quite stressed with the work, but im sure everything will work out fine, in the end, i was called to search out the elect, not force every single person to baptise, i must complete with the calling ive been asingned and thats all.

To answer your question mom, im pretty sure you can hit it right on the bullseye but off the top of my head i would believe what ive learned the most is Patience and Perserverance, to trust in the feelings i receive from Heavenly Father and continue. Im not sure that ive learned much but ive grown a little, for the first time the scriptures and the doctrine have sunk into my heart, even though i knew it all before, i now understand it. A little better haha.

So dad got an ipad also!! And stephs going to geta mac book? Thats cooL! I cant wait to get back to see how these are, cool stuff!
Anyways dont forget about me!! Continue praying alot!! I need people to teach!! I need to change! LOVES YA!

Monday, July 17. 2011

Hello family! Sounds like mom barely survived the ticks and the snakes, i cant imagine that our mountains there are near as bad as my bed room here, the mountains are quite clean, at least the snow and the cold repel almost all the bugs, but here in my apartment, no matter how much we clean, we always have a bunch of visiting cockaroaches, spiders, mosquitos and the occasional scorpion. This week was super hot, and so humid that our floors were condencing, like a glass full of water, so there was water everywhere, it was only like 90 degrees but with the humidity it was so difficult!! I thought it was winter here haha, and the work here is quite different in the heat, noone would answer their doors so basically i spent the whole day walking... Very difficult, but really the heat doesnt bug me near as much as it did before, thankfully Formosa helped me overcome that challenge hehe. 
  The work here is quite slow, alot slower than Formosa so im still getting used to that, almost all of the new investigators that we find dont progress at all, so thats been the most difficult thing for me to bear, its not that fun not having success, especially when you want to help the people so much, Corrientes is alot more frustrating because the people are so much more difficult to help, the religiones here have such corrupted doctrine, the most retarted explanations and even when sharing the scriptures most of the people will choose to believe in what their leader says than what the scriptures say we should do, but im coming to understand alot of things throught these difficulites, at least i have come to be super grateful for how simple the gospel is, and how easy to understand and how clear our doctrine is, there is not a church more perfect, and im super grateful for that. 
Other than that, we have an awesome baptism program planned for this saturday, every companionship in the zone, 10 companionships have at least one or more baptisms so we are all going to go to the same church and have a huge baptism! I think 16 people are going to get baptised, so we are quite excited! Carlos, our investigator is so excited that he invited all of his friends to go to the baptism also, hes visiting less actives and trying to help them go back to church so he is super cool. Maria, one of our investigators is always talking about how excited she is to get baptised, shes read half of the book of mormon in one week, but shes having a hard time waking up sunday mornings, haha so we are trying to help her, thats her only weakness, she loves sleeping in. Other than those we have lost everyone, but we must continue to find those that are waiting for us, we have a few future baptisms, i believe im going to have sucess in this area, even though it is so hard, But at least 21 months of experiance have given me the ability to be able to cope haha.
Today we played tennis, and i was suprised to find out that i also played quite well at that sport, i dont know whats up with that, but maybe ive been given awesome sports skills ever since ive come to the mission haha!
I made deep fried french toast this morning in honor of my three months left, it was super delicious, i love cooking when i feel like i have the time. 
Thanks for always supporting me and praying for me, i probably wouldnt have gotten this far without those prayers! LOVES YA

Monday, July 11 2011

HOLA FAMILIA!!! COMO ESTAN!! Wow those are some crazy pics haha, thanks mom for making me even trunkier hahah. I didnt even recognize Jake, Danny and Jessica are the ones that have changed the most!! And man on the Jacobsen side the Christmans have all grown up! What a fun fourth of July! Congrats Derick on your new baby!! Thats so awesome, and also Lindsay for being pregnant, im going to get home not recognizing anyone except for my grandparents!! (Because they never change). So this week was hard, but im used to that, but yet again another week with more setbacks, so thats been harder, each week i loose a couple more investigators and dont find new ones, i did divisiones this week and the zone leader and my comp destroyed one of our investigators and her son got so mad at her mom for not accepting the gospel that he destroyed all of her saints and wrecked the house, it was quite aweful and it took alot to repair the gaps ripped open in the family, its still not back to normal but at least she cant worship her saints anymore, i think in the long run shes going to learn.=).Carlos, the man who has been having problems getting baptised is now able to, so hes super excited for that, so am i. The 23rd hes going to get baptised. Also we have two more investigators that im sure will get baptised, ones named Maria and man she is awesome, she couldnt go to chruch yesterday because she was hosting a fund raiser but the whole day she felt guilty for not going to church, she went home and read the book of mormon and as she was reading the spirit started to drop the cane, or in other words chastise her for not going to church, she felt like she needed to get baptised so that she could be a home teacher and to help her family, she recieved a strong answer that the church is true, and she couldnt wait for us to come over to tell us, so even though we had an aweful week, hearing her story was an awesome way to finish the work week off.Some interesting stuff that happened this week, i got pushed down by a angry catholic man, that was fun, i did divisones with one of my great friends in the mish, and we got to go to an awesome cemetary here, they are so different than from the states so im going to send a few pics, it was so cool and im sure it would be even awesomer in the dark! Everything is so creepy and man its old, they have these family buildings that they just put the coffins in so you can see the coffins and stuff inside these beautiful buildings, my pics will explain but man it was soo cool! And because of the black magic people here, many of the tombs are broken into, and you can see skulls and bones and stuff, pretty creepy, nothing like our house. But something really cool.
I always have alot to say but right when i get to the computer i forget what i was going to say. Thanks for writing me and making me feel good, haha its tuffer now i feel than before, but maybe because its all coming down to the end.This should be when im the best missionary ever so i hope to give it my all. It looks like i need to start working out a bit more, if im going to be able to take on jake danny collin and shane, but after the crime controlled streets of corrientes im not worried =) I got experiance! Oh i got to talk with my New Pres, hes so cool, hes dead set on helping me with what i need, i had a good talk with him. His wife had an ipad! Woah the technology that the states has blows me away, i totally forgot! Haha she let me play with it for a while, so cool! Its like a big ipod. Im sure thats how andy and judd must feel right now after hearing from kims email, its going to be wierd being home but at least i have a few more months to learn some more! LOVES YA ALL!!

Monday, July 4 2011

Well, HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!! This day was spent singing the star spangled banner and doing all things american, i played basketball with some argentines, then as you can see in the picture, for the first time in 21 months i ate mcdonalds, and went to a wal mart, so that was awesome, its been a super trunky day, but its all right, i expected it to be.

So this week has been pretty hard, even though its been the week with the most success, its been super tough, but when has the mission been easy, its always been so hard for me to get out and want to work, i want to help families and stuff but its been really hard wanting to go out and do it. Luckily my comp is pretty awesome and is helping me do it anyways, ive fasted and prayed alot so that at least ill want to go out and work, its been quite difficult, i dont know why. Ive felt no desire this week to go out and preach the gospel, i have an interview with our new president tomorrow so hopefully he can help me out alot. I dont want to burn out after coming this far haha, im quite different from Andy and Judd but ill give it my best shot.So we had two baptisms this week, that was cool, we spent like all saturday filling up the font because the pipe beneath the ground is broken and lets in sewer water, which is quite gross, so we had to clean that up and bucket the water in, quite cold the water haha. So we completed the family i hope they can continue to come to church, most of our investigators have hit the wall of faith and are not wanting to overcome it, weve had some spiritual lessons this week but they arent understanding or are too scared, frustrating but my testimony has grown through it. We lost a few good men we were teaching, but we will have to continue forward, on a brighter note, Carlos, one of our investigators, is looking for ways to do charity, so he cooked 7 pots of soup and went around with a bunch of pamphlets we gave him, he would give the homeless a bowl of soup, a pamphlet and tell them he is mormon, quite funny when we saw him doing that, hes mad he cant get baptised yet but he needs to overcome some personal problems, friday he has an interview and he will be able to be baptised. maybeIf it wasnt for my comp this would have been a very hard week to keep going, he only has a transfer in the mish so the greeny fire is keeping me going, thankfully. I dont know where to find the drive, ive read every single general conference talk from april 2004 to now and in the book of mormon like crazy, praying and everything, hopefully its just a phase.How many times has dad lost that ring? i can remember quite a few times, so i know it will show up again, i hope you guys had an awesome time at the 4th of july, especially with andy and judd home, that sounds like a cool activity that you guys did with them. oh and mom, i didnt know that im an uncle, when did that happen?

Anyways, please continue to pray for me, this would be the time i need it most, ive always had problems being diligent in all things so it would be quite a useful attribute for the rest of my life, i felt like i gave up in swimming and im not wanting to do the same with this. I love you all. I hope all goes well.Oh ya, and a pic of some of the steak ive been cooking, my comps been pretty spoiled, every morning pancakes, steaks for lunch and peanut butter milkshakes after planning. Next week, Burritos!