Monday, August 15, 2011

This ipad thing is so cool haha, my president has one and his wife let me take a look at it, pretty jealous haha. Anyways, HELLO FAMILIA!! This week has been super hard, yet passed by super fast, i didnt even recognize what day was which this week so much stuff had happened. Haha yet it feels like a long time ago that i wrote you guys, yet its only been a week. I had a few meetings this week, which i loved alot, i learned a whole lot of stuff. I also had my last zone conference before i come home, that was quite sad to see all of the elders that have become such good friends over the two years, it finally set in that i wont see many again and it was quite sad, yet it feels like i still have forever until i get home, so its been a weird week full of feelings haha. Investigator wise, we have no one progressing, noone has come to church... Its super frustrating because i have focused as hard as i could, as hard as i can, yet no one either wants to listen to us or wants to complete, so thats super difficult, its alot easier to focus on the mission when you have alot of people to visit and you have to think alot about how to help them, yet i feel like very few people are listening to us. I dont feel like i have the confidence of the members because i havent brought a single new person to church since ive gotten here. Im very frustrated, at this point im not sure if ill baptise anyone til the end of my mission but at least im determined to fight it until the end, i want two more baptisms to reach my goal that i put when i got to the mish, so i really want to reach that. I love teaching but there are not much to teach, and many more difficulties but hey, im used to that haha.
Its been rediculously hot this week, supposedly we are in the middle of winter, but ive suffered so much this week from the heat haha, but im used to that, im sure god just wants me to get my fair share of heat before i come back to the paradise of UTAH!! So i can put up with it.
Maria got baptised, it was a very awesome baptism, so many people from many branches came and supported her in her decision, it was definitely a baptism that got the whole branch excited for the help she will give us. And her family came to watch so there is my hint of hope in baptising others, i sure want the whole family to get baptised, but its a huge job haha, but ill get it done. My camera broke, wont turn on so im camera hopping between Elders, its going to be quite the job getting all of those pictures back into the same memory by the end haha, but ill see what i can do to fix my camera, it broke so close to the end! FREAK!
I feel like my attention has been the same since ive started the mission, ive given the same focus to the mission as i do now so ive always been trunky, and always will be trunky, but i will always work and try to do the best that i can, this has been the ¨thorn in my side¨ as Paul states in the new testament, the weakness that god wont take away from me haha.
Ive learned some new ways to work so im going to do the best i can to put that into practice in the little time i have left.
Dad and Collin, i finally got the leather cases and man they are the coolest things ive ever seen!! Now i just want to read all of the time because i love holding them, so i feel like thats the greatest sovenir that i can bring back for you guys, your gonna love it! All crocadile and rattlesnake and iguana, its like im coming back from the jungle haha. Anyways, i think thats all. Send some more pictures, i need to see pictures, or im gonna die.
LOVE YA ALL!!
p.s. i cant wait to play the piano and eat crazy italian food with gramps again!

Monday, August 8 2011

Hey Hey family! Hows it going back in the States! Here its been quite a hot week, i have no idea why its so hot! Man its buggin me haha, its supposed to be winter so we are supposed to have a break from the heat but oh well, im pretty sure god just wants me to have my fair share of heat before i go back to the perfect weather! But anyways, that seems sweet that collin enjoyed EFY. Haha steph you hung out with Thaddeus? How did that come to pass? That brings back some awesome flag football, oh i cant wait to play that in a few months haha. Man gene got released? Hes been bishop for as long as i can remember! Im sure they released him so he can be the next stake president! And my Morgan got married!! aw man she promised she would wait so i could be at the wedding haha, but at least tell her she needs to send some pictures!!! Did you know that Candace moved! Crazy how fast the world changes...
So the mission has been quite the challenge this week, i have drastically tried to perfect my plans, feeling like i need to make the most with the little time that i have, since it usually takes one to two months to baptise someone, i know that the people im training are going to be the ones that are most likely to be my last baptisms. Ive felt good with my plans but there hasnt been much sucess on the completion of the plans, if we based my sucess on my investigators completing with their commitments then im not getting anywhere, noone came to church, most dont read and some sometimes pray, but i must continue. I have a baptism this week which im very excited about, Maria is like the coolest investigator ive taught, because she is one of the few that are truly super excited for her baptism, shes invited all her friends, and has already prepared to be a sunday school teacher once the calling comes haha. Shes so cool. But other than that, we dont have anyone thats progressing, except a 18 year old girl Imeali and her 20 year old brother Isiais, but niether have come to church... So im quite frustrated that no one is progressing, which makes me feel like i dont have the trust of the members, since i havent brought anyone new to church since the beginning of my time here, and thats the frustrating part, i have no idea what else i can do to help the people want to commit to living this gospel.
But im quite enjoying my time with my newbie, Elder Sharapata is an excellent elder, its nice that i have a comp that truly wants to work, i never felt like i had that desire and so thanks to him its not as hard to be able to get out the door in the mornings, and it doesnt matter how hard the day gets we stay quite happy, even though i would like to leave this area with some success. But i still have some time to be able to do it. Zone conference is this week so i will be able to learn exactly what god wants for me, since ive always recieved the help i need there!
Im doing quite fine, except that ive really been streching my patience, i dont want to leave the mission trunky, nor leave without making a difference in this place, so thats really helped me to stay focused, yet sometimes it gets super hard, i think i sometimes get scared when i remember how hard the first part of my mission was and how i do not want to ever feel that again, so i get anxious and hope for the end but when i sleep on it i always wake up and find a way to focus, so its not that bad. I have nightmares about starting the mission over haha. But ive sure learned alot.
Well im glad that al is well at home, im sure excited to one day get back there, but im doing a great work, and cannot come down, not just yet!
Loves ya all!!

Monday, August 1 2011

Hey Family!
Well quite the change has happened this week, it was transfers this week and we came to find out that im training again! So im going to die in the mission with a noobie! But man im so excited, hes an amazing kid, he learned alot of spanish in the MTC so really its alot easier to teach with him than with Elder Guest, His name is Elder Sharapata, from California, Concord or something like that, near the Sequoya forest. He has a strong drive to work so im quite excited to work along with him. Hes already taught me so much, i feel pretty intimidated by how awesome are all the new missionaries! Man i was nothing like that! Man they are going to be so much greater than i could ever be, ha ha but i am what i am. It was quite the story to go get him, i went to the Bus station at 8 am to drop off Elder Guest then i hung out there for a couple hours, i asked the Zone Leaders what time i needed to go, he told me 4 pm, so i chilled there, then i started reading some of the informs that he had and i read that all the trainers had to be at the Mission Office at 10 30 am, and it was already 11, so they sent me in a taxi to the bridge between Corrientes and Resistencia, then i had to wait for another taxi that could cross the bridge to come and pick me up, well i got in the first one that there was with an old lady that only said two words,¨gloria a jesus¨ and two more impatient ladies, well we got to the bridge and all of the traffic stopped, it was like 90 degrees outside and i was stuck between two old ladies for like an hour without moving, we finally started moving, a brick truck had lost its bricks and because its only a two lane bridge noone could pass.... Then the taxi would only let me off at a certain stop, ive only been in Resistencia like 3 times and i dont know it that well, but i had to walk around alone until i found another taxi that took me to the church, man it felt so wierd to be by myself, anyways i got there way late, but its alright, i ate lunch with my comp from the Mtc, Elder Clark and a few of my other friends who are training, i found out about alot of the families in Formosa, the Britez family is still going to church and Pablo got divorced, Jose is planning for the mission and all of the investigators that i left behind got baptised, so i was quite happy with all of the info that i heard. I feel bad for my newbie to have to have had such a week, it was so hard and not much was able to happen, we have two or three investigators that we can only visit once a week, so we have had alot, alot of time looking for people, but man noone has accepted us, im used to it but it must stink to have such excitement to preach and to get rejected all the time, i remember the despair i use to feel to have to do this for two years, but i hope all starts to turn around. We need to have success here. This has been a very hard three weeks. I dont have time to be trunky because im so mad at the lack of success, im going crazy haha.

Wow that sounds like a very few awesome stories! What a miracle about both dad and steph, its good to know that God watches very closey over our family. Im grateful nothing bad else happened. Ive been praying and meditating alot and ive been feeling the need to talk about the Atonement for my homecoming talk. So we will see how that goes. What a lucky duck steph, new laptop eh! And it sounds like some awesome activities are going on these next few weeks!
Well i think thats about all for this week, i cant think of much else to say! LOVE YA ALL!!

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!