Super short email this week!

Hello All!!!

I am so sorry that I am SO out of time! These computers for some reason were not working the best today! I'll skip to the details and just give you a summary!

BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!!

Krys Jefferson and his mom, Joecelyn Villanocha were baptized this last Saturday and it was so awesome.

Honestly, the biggest miracle has occurred in their lives. Krys's older brother came up to me after the baptism and thanked me for turning their lives around. It was NOT me, but I am grateful that the Lord was able to work by His means to reach this family. They are SO STRONG! We just need to sit down with Alan (the older brother) and try to help him understand the importance of what his family just did.

I know everything will all work out. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!

We had Transfer Calls on Monday! E. Uata is sitting on his flight home right now so I don't really have a companion! I am just hanging out with the other missionaries in the zone - our house mates :) My new companion is going to be Elder Montaño - he gets here on Thursday (tomorrow). He is also in my batch going home in September so it should be a really fun transfer!! :) I'm excited.

My best friends work in the Distribution Center

here so they let me try on their headset and make a few calls the other day ;)


Also, I have a new all-time favorite billboard.

The last two days I have been working with the Ward Missionaries here in Kamputhaw so it's been fun! Yesterday I went out with Bryan, Shawn, and Kyle. They are so awesome.

And a big CONGRATS to my brother back home who just graduated from Law School!!!

I am so sorry, but I'm out of time jud! I love all of you so much. Just know that I am doing well over here. I know that I have so much to do here and I am doing my best to work as hard as I can. I know that it's what Heavenly Father wants from me right now.

I love you and have an AMAZING week. Smile and make someone else happy :)

Love,

Elder Jacobs

FIRST THINGS FIRST..... I'M AN UNCLE....again!!!!

Ahhhh!!!! I am so beyond excited right now!!! Congratulations to my brother,

Danny and Shelly! 

Welcome to the best family in the world, Lexi Lin!! 

Heavenly Father must love you because you couldn't have come to better parents! 

I can't believe I'm another uncle.... That is how you'd say that right? For some reason it looks weird when I type it... Man, who made English such a hard language?! :) 

I'm losing my English....

I had the best week ever. 

Really, it was the best Sunday ever. 

I'd rather just copy and paste what I wrote in my journal into this email, but I don't have it so.... sorry /: It was a day of miracles to say the least. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! Our Mothers Day was so awesome here in Kamputhaw! I'll just start in the morning....

We got to church and were greeting everyone a "Happy Mothers Day" when in walks someone I haven't seen in YEARS! 

Ryan Ogden! Blake and Kyle may remember him!

We met him at EFY in Santa Barbara and then later on in a few other places of life.

He walks into the church building and we both just stopped what we were doing and were in complete shock. It was awesome.

He is so great! He said he is here for his work doing some humanitarian projects, etc. and he was flying out to Thailand this week to do the next project. It was nice to have a familiar face from home in the congregation during sacrament meeting.

Next, Krys and Jocelyn were at church as well! Their baptism is all set for this Saturday! 6pm. Be there :)

 They were interviewed on Sunday and all is well! They are such an inspiration and miracle in my life. I have learned so much as I have worked with them. I love them so much.

Aizka (she is getting baptized next week) was also at church with ALL of her 4 sisters and 2 brothers. They are so awesome. Love them. If you remember back a few weeks, it was her younger brother that asked if Sis. Nelson was 100 years old yet. Haha their family is hilarious. And they all speak Tagalog so it's helped me so much in my efforts to learn Tagalog as well as Cebuano as I teach and visit with them!

Okay... You ready for the miracle of Sunday?? BROTHER VALMORES came to church! This is the second time he has come in the last 3 months or so!!. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are here working miracles in their lives as well as in ours.

And of course... I got to see my mommy on Sunday!!! Happy Mothers Day, Mama! Pinaka-the-best ka :) Love you! I hope Charlie took good care of you!! :) He always has been a loyal and loving dog.

Well, as you may have noticed... I am doing more than "okay".

 I love life. No doubt - like literally zero doubt - I have gone through the hardest things in my life here on the mission, but wow.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly is a gospel of "becoming". I know that I am here to, not just do what I know is right, but to become what Heavenly Father wants of me.

If I could summarize the Gospel of Jesus Christ into an idea or two (completely impossible... I don't recommend trying :)...) it would have to be that. Through the Perfect Atonement, we are given an opportunity to be happy, to be made new, and to become more like our Divine Father in Heaven.

Christ cannot change WHO we are if we don't give him everything we have.

In order for us to become, we need to have our DESIRES in line with our ACTIONS. It may be good to read your scriptures every day, but if you're doing it just because it's your duty and it's still a "burden" , something needs to change.

Our agency is the only thing that doesn't belong to the Lord. He asks for us and we are the only ones who are able to GIVE OURSELVES to Him, desires and all.

I know that we can all experience this joy. I know that this is the reason we have been given the lives that we have! Let us not waste the time we've been given. Give yourself to Him and allow Him - the Perfect Sculptor - to make a new creation of you.

"Come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him"

I know that we can do it. It's not out of our reach. I love you all and I am right here with you. Trying as hard as i can to be a little better each day. Let's press forward and become who it is our Heavenly Father needs us to be. Look for miracles. As we live the gospel, they are everywhere. I love you so much and don't forget to smile this week :)

Love,

Elder Jacobs

SMILE!!

Wow! What a week.

HELLO!

Wow! What a week. This was an awesome week and a really awesome day as well. We just got back from a Zone Activity up at the mission home. I am so happy to report on a successful Cinco de Mayo... On Seis de Mayo.. :)

It was awesome.


Complete with rootbeer floats, hamburgers, hot dogs, s'mores, and a piñata!

So this is how we break a piñata here...a lot like playing softball with a big paper mache ball filled with candy!!

What makes this email session a little bit more intriguing is that I am actually using an iPhone 6 right now to do my emails. I miss typing on this keyboard!



We are running out of time today and we only have one available computer so E. Uata is using it. So.. I get to use the iPhone=Great day :)

We had MLC yesterday here at the temple complex which was a great success! It was fun to see everyone, but it was a little bit weird to notice that a lot of the leaders in the mission are for the most part younger than me in the mission now. Crazy!

We talked a lot about the divinity of the Book of Mormon and our commission as missionaries. I shared a little on that subject a few weeks ago I think, when I copied in the "Missionary Commission" by Elder Bruce R. McConkie.. I love it. More about that next week, because I am so running out of time!!

Earlier today we taught a brand new investigator named Jer and she is so awesome!! She is a perfect example of someone looking for the truth in a life of so much confusion. She is a referral from a return missionary.

Oh! I think I shared about how we met them last Wednesday! Remember when we got the call when we were emailing and then came here to the temple grounds to talk with them? Yea, we gave them a temple tour the next day and they LOVED it.

I am so grateful and happy to be a missionary. I love it. I love being able to see these miracles in other people's lives.

In other news, we had Stake Conference this last weekend and it was literally scheduled at the same exact time as the Pacquiao vs. Mayweather fight... 10am. I was SO HAPPY to see how many people came to church. I think the attendance at conference was like 974 or something like that!! So awesome! (By the way... Did anyone happen to record that fight at home? I know Pacquiao lost, but hey it would be nice...)

Okay well, I need to start wrapping things up right about now..

I'm sorry this was a little bit shorter than usual.

I am so grateful for all of you! Thank you for all you do for me. Just know that I am absolutely loving life right now. Missions are hard. Really hard. But we can do hard things. I have a testimony that hard things really do refine us. They make us better. They make us into more what Heavenly Father sees us to be. I love you and have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Jacobs