Kamusta man mo diha sa inyong mga kinabuhi???

So I just realized that I am not very good at sharing this beautiful language that I am learning with you all. I apologize. Haha I'll try and throw some bits and pieces in here and there :) 

This week was CRAZY. Again. If you remember last week, that was a crazy one as well. 

Friday - We had Zone Conference down in Dumaguete (we call it Dumz sometimes if we feel like being cool) so we got to meet with and hear from our beloved President Schmutz, his wife, and assistants. I love them all.

                      It was such a fun day on Friday. All of the missionaries on Negros were there - so about 80 of us. 

Saturday - AAHHH BAPTISMS GALORE!!! We had 6 kids that got baptized on Saturday.

Wait, let me just say that again. Unom ka buok.



They are awesome and I love every single one of them. So Elder Samon and I had three: Lomer, Barbie, and Juliebert. Elder Samon baptized them! Then, the Sister Bishun and Sister Minguez had three as well: Emily (13), Elvira (10), and Jinky (9).

I had the amazing opportunity to baptize them. It was an unbelievable experience. All three of their families have been less active for a little while and they are all starting to really turn their lives around.

Two funny stories about Saturday:

First of all - and I take full responsibility for not checking wayyy beforehand - two of the kids size baptismal clothing were broken.
Haha the zippers wouldn't zip at all! I did text President last week to make sure that we had clothing and everything, but I made the mistake of not checking the clothing until the day of the baptism.

Sooo here we are 30 minutes before the baptism is supposed to start with two broken zippers! I think it was the quickest I've ever thought. I knew there was a clothing repair shop down the road (they are everywhere in the Philippines) and so I grabbed the clothes, grabbed Elder Samon and started running. Hahaha we got to repair shop and I explained the story as quickly as I could and basically asked for a miracle.

They were SO NICE. They took them right away, one lady ran to the store to buy new zippers, and - long story less long - the jumpsuits were fixed in 25 minutes. I. Love. These. People.

Okay, second story. Jinky is 9 years old and VERY VERY small. Haha she is so cute. When I was standing in the water with her, and I promise you, the water came up to her neck! It was the cutest thing ever. When I baptized her, I don't think I really even moved my arms more than a couple of inches to completely submerse her in the water. It was a one-of-a-kind experience. Especially because these children are so much closer to the veil than we are. The entire baptism was so spiritual. The Holy Ghost touched everyone's heart that attended.

Sunday - At church on Sunday, Lomer, Barbie, and Juliebert

were all confirmed and they all received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Emily, Elvira, and Jinky and their family were a little bit late and so we had to postpone their confirmation to this next Sunday. I'm excited for them!






After church, I actually had to rush home and pack some things because I was going to Cebu to go to the doctors. Sister Schmutz wanted to get this weird rash checked out over at the nice hospital. So I actually traveled down to Dumaguete with the AP's, President and Sister Schmutz, and a couple of their friends that were visiting.

A HUGE storm came in that afternoon and we didn't think we were gunna be able to make it to Cebu, but the barge still was in operation so we (the AP's and I) drove on and started across to the other island. There were waves crashing over the side of these huge walls. It was unreal. Super fun actually (after you got over the scared-of-drowning factor). So we continued on and got to Cebu later that night around 9pm.

Monday - So the doctor was closed on Monday so I went out and worked with some elders in Mabolo. It was so great to get out and work with them.

Tuesday - Okay here's the fun one. So, first things first. We got up early

and I went and played basketball with the AP's (AP = Assistants to the President) but the awesome part was that President came down and played with us. It was so fun. I love President Schmutz.

 I went to the doctor later and finished around noon. She said we just need to give the meds some time. So I got the okay to travel back to my area on Negros!

Usually always we have a companion with us, but President okay-ed it for me to travel the 6 hours back by myself. So I get to the bus and everything was going great until we got about 2 hours out and the bus breaks down. Hahah it was... greattt. We ended up waiting for 4 hours..... 4!!!!

 Finally, around 8 o'clock, another bus came and picked us up so we could travel the rest of the way.I actually had a very neat experience which I want to comment on here...

I met a man named Oscar. He is from Canada and was the only other white person on the bus other than myself. Turns out he is a diver, works for an airline company, and travels the world to dive in the ocean.

I want to discuss something we talked about. Of course, I am a missionary, so every conversation I have with anyone will inevitably lead to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Oscar is an atheist. He doesn't believe in God. This experience was a HUGE testimony builder for me.

Just last week, I studied the story of Alma and Korihor in the Book of Mormon. It's found in Alma chapter 30. Korihor is an atheist. When I studied about this, I focused on the doctrine of faith. What exactly is faith? Brigham Young said, we must "believe the truth, obey the truth, and practice the truth, to obtain the power of God called faith." Faith is a gift. We cannot receive it until we show our willingness to believe the truth when we hear it.

Let's relate this to Korihor. Korihor had NO desire to believe Alma when he said that there was a God. Alma even used the beautiful wonders of the world to help Korihor understand (Alma 30:44) but he just would not believe anything. In verse 48 we see that Korihor just doesn't have the desire to believe.

I invited Oscar to learn more about the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His answer was, "nah I'm okay in my life right now." I talked a little bit about later in life and he said, "maybe one day I will be interested.. Probably on my deathbed."
I can only hope that Oscar will be led to this Gospel before it grows to late. We are here in this life for a reason. Even though diving and traveling the world are great hobbies, that is not the purpose of life, that is not what we are here on earth to do.
 I want to testify that I know my purpose. I know where I came from, why I'm here, and I know where I am going after this life. I love my Savior and his teachings. I know that this church is the only true and complete gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love you all. I love Oscar. I can only hope and pray that one day, a light will spark. One day, he will ponder something I shared and he will want to know more.

I love you all so very much. I hope you have the best week EVER. I am doing so so so so so so great here in Siaton and am so excited for this next transfer. Love you!!!! Kita kits sa sunod nga semana :)

Love,

Elder Jacobs

 

Smile. Now Get to Work.

HELLO!!!

Ohmygoodness what a week. 

On Friday, Elder Samon and I had the awesome opportunity to invite the Henrichsens (A Senior Missionary Couple) to come out and work with us. They are great. From Oregon and at least 104 years old! They have such a great spirit about them. They don't speak a word of Bisaya so they just sat and listened (I translated a little so they could follow the topic of the lesson) and then they bore very powerful testimonies at the end of our lesson. I LOVED the spirit that they brought with them. We visited Tatay Arnaiz who is a less-active member that came back to church two weeks ago! Elder and Sister Henrichsen were great. Side note.....MOM AND DAD. You need to get out here!!! When are you planning on serving a mission?? We need all of you! Senior couples are the BEST! (not saying you two are tigulang na...)

Later Friday night, we went to visit with Lomer - one of our baptismal candidates this Saturday! This was the highlight of my week. Hahaha okay so here we were teaching a little 10 year old about the Word of Wisdom.

For those that don't know, the Word of Wisdom is the health code that we follow as members of the true church of Jesus Christ. We follow this health code because our bodies are gifts and we need to take care of them. 

We were discussing the things that aren't good for us. There are 5 specific ones revealed to Joseph Smith through revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 89. Here is how our conversation went as we were reviewing: "Okay, what's first brother Lomer?" "Kape (coffee)" 

"Sacto!! Maayo man.. second?" "Cigarilyo (cigarettes)" "Awesome! 

Third?" .... All the way to the fifth one. The fifth one comes:

 "Sige, so what's last?" "Manumbag". Hahahhahhahhhahaha Manumbag means to punch someone. Keep in mind, he is 10 and we are talking about things that are bad for our body. OF COURSE that's bad for our body!! Hahaha we couldn't help but to just say he was right. I love these people. Especially the kids.

Saturday was awesome!!! In the morning, Lomer, Barbie, and Juliebert all were interviewed by Elder Edvalson for their baptisms. ALL of them did great!! They are all being baptized this Saturday at 2pm :) I am so excited. Also, fun fact. The sisters' three investigators are being baptized on that day as well (6 total) and the kids asked me if I could baptize them. I only met them once, when we gave a blessing to their mother, but I love them so much! I'll let you know how that goes!

Saturday afternoon and night we actually went up to Basay (past Bayawan) for a baptism. It was our Zone Leaders' investigator. Elder Glines and Elder Antonio are amazing. I love them. What's even more......... She was baptized in the OCEAN!!!! In the dagat! How cool is that??   

Basay is way out here on the island and I think I heard someone say that there are a bunch of wild monkeys everywhere .....but I didn't see any :(

Speaking of monkeys......

This is the monkey that lives in the trees outside of our house! Every time I mention the monkey I have to reassure my mom that I HAVE NEVER TOUCHED THE MONKEY NOR WILL I EVER TOUCH THE MONKEY! 

Sunday was amazing. It was like Christmas. Thank you EVERYONE! Mom and Jordan for packages! The Dappers, Mosses, Blake, and Mom for letters! It was honestly one of the better days of my life. At church, we helped a sister in our branch start her mission papers. I was the only one who remembered how to do it! And then we trained our Branch President a little bit on how to do his side of the process. President Conde is so great. He is so willing to serve and learn. I love him. The members here are very inexperienced, but they are all willing to work. That's what counts!!

Monday was interesting. As some may already know, I have a weird rash on my arms and hands. Sister Schmutz said I needed to go down to the hospital to get this thing checked out. So Elder Glines and I spent the entire day down in Dumaguete at the doctor's office!

In short, during the check-up, the doctor asked me to take off my shirt to see if it spread anywhere else.. When she saw there was a little on my stomach, she said I needed to take off my pants... Uhh.... no? I will not.....Hahaha Elder Glines was sitting there with me and I just looked at him and he was cracking up. 

She saw me look at him and said, "He can leave and go out of the room if you'd like".... HA! YEA RIGHT! HE'S STAYING RIGHT HERE NEXT TO ME. 

So anyways.....I had to take my slacks off (that's it, don't worry) and she checked my legs and stuff. Haha anyways, great experience. She tried to charge us 4,000 Pesos so we called Sister Schmutz and she just said go get the stuff at a different pharmacy - so that's what we did! Then, we treated ourselves to a delicious, very American pizza in the mall in Dumaguete. 

So Wow. This week was unreal. I loved it. 

 I just want to end with something that may have been the biggest lesson I have learned in my life up until now. The credit goes to my dad and baseball. 

Attitude. 

Attitude is crucial in this life. As most of you know, when I got to this area all the way out in remote Siaton, we had NOTHING to work with. No teaching pool, no progressing investigators, nothing. Elder Samon and I were lost for about a day or two. We realized that we probably weren't going to have any baptisms this transfer; HOWEVER, we decided to work. 

Every day I prayed for strength to be happy and just go to work. 

After we made that decision, we started finding people. We were happy, energetic, optimistic, and talked to EVERYONE. Can we just look at this for a minute? Three baptisms. Three. This Saturday. I have such a strong testimony of the power of attitude - optimism specifically. When you are happy, you want to help. You want to work. 

One of my favorite all time scriptures is found in D&C 123.

 "Therefore. dearly beloved brethren [and sisters], let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed," (D&C 123:17).

Know that I love you all and am doing my best to serve the Lord with everything I have.I love you all and hope you have an amazing week just like I know I'm gunna have!

Love,

Elder Jacobs

P.S. AHHHH Sister Gonzalez and her son, Jusel, got baptised two weeks ago in Pardo!!!! Remember them?? The family that Elder Ferris and I started teaching. I love that family. 

We have a MONKEY!!

Kamusta Kanatong Tanan!

This last week has been another amazing week as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This is where I live now.

I live in this house with four other missionaries. The house is a palace compared to the homes around us. I feel so grateful to live here. The owner of the house lives right behind us. Those are his bikes in the driveway.

We take turns cooking. Here is a dinner I made this week:

I like to cook so I do a lot of the cooking!

The area here is a little bit poorer than the others, so the quality of food and things isn't the highest. It's still delicious though and I'm totally fine with what we have!

So get this.......

We have a monkey in the trees outside our house!

His name is Sr. Chub-Chubs the third. SO AWESOME. Monkey in Bisaya is "unggoy". Every time we pass his tree, he follows us, rubs his stomach and points to his mouth. Haha if we have any candy, we toss it up. Usually, we just grab a mango from the ground and give him a snack. He's great.  (I know mom......I WON"T touch the monkey.....)

I love being a servant of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are certain blessings and privileges given to those who give their life in devotion to the Savior. Some blessings and privileges are small - we call them tender mercies - but others are bigger. We have felt those blessings, big and small, this week. It's not hard to feel the Lord and His angels round about us as we do His work. No matter how big or small the blessings may seem in this life, we cannot even comprehend the true blessings waiting for the faithful in the life to come.

 I was reading in the Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi, the other day. Chapter 5, verse 13. It says there, "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 

This is what I was called to do, just like Mormon of old. Just like Noah, Moses, and Abraham. Just like Alma, Amulek, the sons of Mosiah, and Moroni. Like Nephi, Jacob, and King Benjamin. I have literally received a calling from a living prophet and 12 living apostles to declare the Savior's word among His people. 

There is no other religion - no other church on the face of the Earth - that has this structure.

My question is, why not?

 We see and read in the scriptures exactly how Christ organized His church. Prophets, Apostles, Missionaries, Temples, and Priesthood authority. 

Today, where do we find the church that was organized by Jesus Christ, in the EXACT way He organized it? 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Because The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the Jesus Christ's church restored and once again established on the Earth. The best part about this is that you don't have to take my word for it. In fact, I don't want you to. The more powerful assurance and testimony of this comes through the power of the Holy Ghost. Read the Book of Mormon. Ask questions. Pray about it. I hope sometime soon you will recognize the desire growing inside of you to find out for yourself.

I am so grateful for this time in my life that I can give everything I have to my Savior. I know that this isn't very realistic for all of us to do right now because of things like work, school, family and life. BUT we can each do our part. Pattern your life after the Savior's life. Be an example. Do something kind for someone else. I know that as you do that, you will be blessed beyond measure. There are promises given to us that we don't even understand fully! I love it.

I love Elder Samon, my companion. He doesn't like to speak English so that makes it fun. My language skills keep getting better and better.

Know that I love you all. Thank you for everything you have done for me. I am so grateful for this life I have been given. I hope you are too. Don't waste it. Do what's important. Do what matters. And love it while you do it!

If you have any questions about ANYTHING, please send them to me! Especially gospel questions! To my friends that are not yet members: What are some of your questions?? To my friends that are members: What are your doctrinal questions?? I am always open to new personal study topics!!

Love you all so much!

Elder Jacobs

jjacobs@myldsmail.net

 P.S. This sign says

"Only Dogs are Allowed to Pee Here"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Just want to share this...

My area in Siaton on the Island of Negros is doing great! 

I want to share something about one of the families in our branch.They are a less-active family and they have a son named Lomer and he is a stud of a 10 year old. I love the guts out of him. He is in 3rd year elementary, but still can't read or write. His father mentioned this to me and said that he would love for his son to be able to read and write before he was baptized.

Let's go to the next house.....way over there.....

What would you do in that situation as a missionary? I didn't know for about 10 seconds, then it came to me. Why can't I help? That's what Christ would do, right? 

What's more, I have the best mother in the whole wide world who taught me everything I know and she teaches kids to read and write for a living. I spent enough years around her preschool to pick up on a little something. 

Allie Alligator A-A-A. 

I told Brother Dela Torre we would teach his son, Lomer, how to read and write. From that time on, we have been meeting 3 times a week. Every lesson, before we start the message on the Gospel, we spend 30 minutes studying the alphabet and practicing phonics and writing. 

Lomer is a stud. He is already reading and we are working on the writing. 

I love this Gospel. I love how it changes lives for the better. I love how it makes us capable of helping others. I know that, if it weren't for the Savior and His Power and Authority, given to us as missionaries, we would NOT be successful in teaching Lomer. As Missionaries, we have a promise. If we seek FIRST for the Kingdom of God, everything else will fall in line. You have that promise too.  I know this to be true. Wala'y duhaduha sa akong kasingkasing nga tinuod ang gahum ni Jesukristo. No doubt. I love it.

Are you ready for things to fall into place in your life?

Super nice restaurant on our island!!! Don't mind the awkward pose on the left ;)

I love you all!!

Elder James Ryan Jacobs

The craziest thing happened this week.... Ummm well….. I'm kinda embarrassed to admit it.

Maayong Adlaw sa Tanan Diha!   
Hello All!
The craziest thing happened this week.... Ummm well….. I'm kinda embarrassed to admit it. Elder Samon and I were on our way to a LA's house (Less-Active) and they live all the way out in the middle of nowhere. Like alllllllllll the way out. 
We got lost in the middle of a sugar cane field. You'd think that wouldn't be a problem cause you can just see the end and walk towards it. Nope... These fields are HUGEEE. There is no end!! And the cane grows very tall!! We were lost for about 45 minutes. I felt so bad like we were wasting time, but at the same time it was kind of an adventure hahaha. We needed a little break in the day. Even though it was a very tiring, sweaty break. 

This week has been great! We had a full week of work without meetings or anything. Elder Samon and I WENT TO WORK.

Inside our beautiful church building!

27 Lessons. All of them were amazing. The mission standard is 25 (which is very high) and the standard of excellence is 27. We felt super accomplished because these lessons weren't just lessons to be lessons, they were solid. We have a few more investigators with baptismal dates now as well, so I'll keep you updated on those next week!

AHHHHHHH HUGE NEWS. I don't know too much about it yet, but OUR MISSION BOUNDARIES ARE CHANGING. We are absorbing two new zones that have never been a part of the Cebu Mission starting on March 27th. Every area will be white washed. Uhhh....... Wow. I'll keep you updated on that as well :)

Also, we have three baptisms set for March 22nd! It's going to be great!

I just want to share a quick experience. Elder Samon and I were walking down by the beach and we started talking to a man.

Typical yard with chicken.

He was about 45 years old. After a few minutes of getting to know him and sharing who we were, I proceeded to bear my testimony. Saying things like "I KNOW that this is Christ's church. I KNOW that it was restored through a Prophet in these last days. Etc." 

He stopped me. He said, "You can't KNOW any of these things. How could you? Jesus isn't here to tell you." 

I was taken aback for a minute. This man just told me I didn't know. 

I want you all to understand that nobody on this earth can tell me what I know. Tell me what YOU know, but you cannot tell me what I know. I have felt the Holy Ghost bear witness that what I am doing right now in my life is what I need to be doing. I have felt Him bear witness to me that this IS Christ's church and Christ's Kingdom on the Earth. I started by having faith that these things were true and then gained a SURE KNOWLEDGE of the truth. I shared this with this man. I promised that he could know too. 

His attitude didn't change, but mine sure did. Don't tell me I don't know. Maybe you don't believe me, but you will if ask honest questions and seek for true answers. Then you will feel what I have felt, and will know what I know. 

I KNOW that this church is the restored church that Jesus Christ organized when He was on the earth during His earthly ministry.

I love you all so much and hope you have an amazing week. Know that I know this is the truth. Know that I know that this is the church and gospel for everyone on the Earth. Know that I know that I love my Savior Jesus Christ. And know that I love each of you.

Love,

Elder James Ryan Jacobs