Jimmy's Home!!!!!!

Jimmy's home!!!
He will be speaking about his mission in church this Sunday, September 27th at 11:00am
He would sure LOVE to see you!!!

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
30522 Via Con Dios
RSM 92688

I'm coming home!

Hello All!!!

This email will be short and sweet because I will see you next week :) It's bitter sweet for sure. Two years went by in the blink of an eye. I'm speaking in church about my mission on Sunday, September 27th at 11:00am. I hope you will all come. 

We are in Dumaguete right now for Zone Conference!

This Thursday Ruwena and Mikel will be married at the Hall of Justice! 

Friday we have a service project out in Macasilao. 

Saturday is Ruwena's baptism! I hope you can imagine  how excited I am. I love this mission. I love life.

I love all of you and am so grateful for your support for the past two years of my life. I am forever in debt to all of you. I am not the same person I was. My understanding has been expanded tremendously. Thank you for your part in my conversion.

I'll see you all next week :)

Love,

Elder Jacobs

I will see you in two weeks.

How do I even start this email? Maybe the words, "Thank you"..? 
I love all of you. Thank you so much for the birthday wishes. It was an incredible birthday to say the least. I'll explain more in a minute. Well, I might as well right now.

Okay, you all remember the not-so-interested girlfriend of a man whose family we have been working with for the past 8 weeks or so. 

Over the past few weeks she has grown to love the gospel and wants to be baptized and join the fold of Christ's true church. 

 But in order to be baptized, we need to be following the commandments (D&C 20:38 see also Moroni 6:1) - that includes the Law of Chastity which prohibits "living in" with your partner before marriage. 

Well, they saw that there needed to be a change. The problem is that marriages are SO difficult here in the Philippines with paperwork, money, etc. 

Well, long story short: Mikel, her boyfriend, went to the city hall last Wednesday, and talked to the judge of justice last Thursday, and they both went to the judge yesterday. SO MANY prayers were answered. SO MANY miracles were witnessed. They completed all of the paperwork they needed in one day. ONE. Yesterday!! My birthday. 

The judge said that they can be married this September 17th, 2015. Imagine my excitement when I heard this news last night. They are being helped by their family in order to get the money needed. And then... the icing on the cake. After showing my excitement about how soon the marriage date was, Ruwena replied, "Elder Jacobs, we want to have the baptism on the 19th so that you can baptize me before you leave us." September 19th is my last day in the field as a Full-Time Missionary. I couldn't believe it. I am BEYOND excited. Miracles are real. People love this gospel. It changes lives. I love being a disciple of Christ. I just love it.

In other news, we have a change of plans next week. Apparently, President would like to have a Zone Conference next week before so many of us go home! 

So... That means we are travelling all the way down to Dumaguete next week on the 15th and 16th. I hope the roads are not too flooded!!

Also, we have a new part member family that we are working with. A couple again! 

Same situation: Brother Philip hasn't been to church in a while but wants to come back. His wife, Sheena, is not a member but is SUPER interested. AHHHHH I don't want to leave! This area is SO amazing. I love San Carlos. The Branch's Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching is 100% organized now as well. I love seeing progress. Heavenly Father loves us. He does. I know it.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ. What is it? Why is it? I encourage you to study about that. I have for the past week and have been completely enlightened on the whole subject. My eyes were opened. Or.. Maybe more accurately.. The eyes of my understanding were opened :) I have a testimony that the Gospel is what we teach: Receiving forgiveness by exercising faith in Christ, repenting, being baptized, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and continuing in making and keeping sacred covenants until the end. It is also much more than those 5 principles and ordinances. 

D&C 76:40-43

"40 And this is the gospel, the glad tidings, which the voice out of the heavens bore record unto us—

 41 That he came into the world, even Jesus, to be crucified for the world, and to bear the sins of the world, and to sanctify the world, and to cleanse it from all unrighteousness;

 42 That through him all might be saved whom the Father had put into his power and made by him;

 43 Who glorifies the Father, and saves all the works of his hands"

I love life. I really do. Don't worry about me, I had a great 21st birthday. Came home and even had a cake with my name on it waiting on the table. Gotta love housemates. I love you all! I will see you in two weeks. I can't believe how real this is. "I conclude this [email], declaring that I have written according to the best of my knowledge, by saying that the time passed away with us, and also our [missions] passed away like as it were unto us a dream." And I love this dream :)

Love,

Elder James Ryan Jacobs

My last MLC meeting...CRAZY!

Hi Family and Friends!

Well, we had another awesome week here in San Carlos! We were actually in Cebu for half the week so that was fun! For those that don't really remember, Cebu City is about a 4 hour trip from San Carlos. A two hour barge over the ocean and two hour drive on the other island. We had our Missionary Leadership Council again yesterday and... Wow...It's strange to think that was the last one for me :( It was amazing though.

Mom asked for every detail that I can remember from this last week. I can't promise I can't write EVERYTHING, but I'll try.

We had a full week of work here in San Carlos so it was amazing. I'll start on Friday. I went on exchanges with our District Leader, Elder Soriano. He is from Manila and is on one of the country's top 3 (I think) college basketball teams. I think it's USD? I'm not sure.

He is about 6' 4" and a super athletic Filipino :) I LOVED our splits. We had a great day of tracting in the wealthier side of San Carlos. What made everything worth it, was that we found a new investigator out of it.

We are going door to door "ayo-ayooo" and we happened to run into a friend of our kuyog! (Kuyog-member that works with us) and she straight up said, "If Ryan wasn't with you two, I probably wouldn't have let you in" hahaha. It was an amazing lesson and we are going back this Saturday.

Saturday morning we had a CSP (Service Project) at the Dapitan Family's house! It was AWESOME.

After that, I took E. Soriano back to Guihulngan ($20 to whoever can pronounce that right when I get home ;)...)

and then E. Witehira called and asked if we could pick them up in Cabagtasan because the Dunnes (Senior Couple) couldn't anymore. Well... Cabagtasan is about an hour and fifteen minutes away. And it. was. muddy. It is the most crazy road I've ever driven on. But beautiful.

After that, the sisters in our area had a baptism. Then we had a meeting with the Branch Presidency/Relief Society to organize Visiting Teaching. It was so awesome!! I am so excited for this branch. Everything really is getting organized.

On Sunday, our Branch President wasn't there so nobody knew

what to do for the combined third hour so they asked us to teach. We took the opportunity to give a workshop on Home Teaching and Visiting Teaching. It was AMAZING!! We focused on this central theme:

D&C 81:5 "Wherefore, be faithful; stand in the office which I have appointed unto you; succor the weak, lift up the hands which hang down, and strengthen the feeble knees."

They all committed to do their Home/Visiting Teaching once they get their assignments this Sunday. I love seeing progression. It makes every hardship, burden, or trial worth it.

I love doing hard things because it teaches us to savor the easy things :)

On Monday we traveled. Funnnnnnn :) Started POURING down rain while we were getting a car wash. But the sun was still so bright. Only in the Philippines :)

Haha we did, however, watch an incredible CES Devotional by Elder Holland that night. It was titled, "Israel, Israel God is Calling"... New favorite.

Today, we traveled back. Woke up at 5 and started the journey. I am loving life. Don't worry one bit about me. I know that what I am doing every single day is exactly what I need to be doing at this time in my life.

I am not going to wish I am home even a single day sooner than September 23rd. I have a lot to do here and am going to complete it to the fullest. I know that Christ is here. I know that He is in this work. There is nothing in the world like Missionary Work. Nothing. The Spirit. The Miracles. The Joy. The Family. 

I love you all!

Elder Jacobs