Hola Familia!
I can't believe I leave on tuesday! I'm a little nervous but excited at the same time. I feel like I have learned everything I can here so I just need to get out there and learn lots more. I'm excited to be out there for Christmas but I'm a little jealous of the people staying here. There is a rumor that there will be 3 general authorities!
Yesterday was the last day with one of my teachers because she is going on vacation. It was kind of sad. After 8 weeks, you really grow to love the people here. She was our first investigator here too. I got to host some new sisters yesterday and help them get their bags up to their room. That was pretty fun, but really tiring. One of them had her classroom on the 5th floor and I had to carry all her books :/ I should have take more advantage of gym time here haha. I haven't gained too much weight, probably like 5 lbs. which I hope to lose in the field. I'm sitting pretty much all day here. Oh we got a baptism date out of one of our "investigators" it took like 15 mins to help him know that he has the power to change and that getting baptized can be like a fresh start for him. I felt like jumping up and down when he finally decided on a date in january. Even though it was just my teacher pretending to be one of the investigators he taught, it was still pretty exciting. well I think that's all i have to say. I love you all and I'll write you next week (depending on when my p-day is) from Boston!!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Thursday, December 13, 2012
Saturday, December 8, 2012
More Pictures! - Week 6
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| She would kill me if she found out I put this on here for all of you to see, but what kind of sister would I be if I still didn't embarrass her! :) This is what she said about this picture, "This is the worst picture taken ever! I did not know I could have that many chins!" haha. |
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| The companion, Hermana Judd. |
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| Most of her zone waiting to get in to the Thanksgiving devotional that Elder Holland spoke at. |
Week 6
Hello Everyone!
How are you all doing? Well I have officially been on my mission for 6 weeks so this is week 7! I can't believe how fast time goes. We are now the oldest district in our zone! We got a fresh batch of 10 Elders yesterday. I wonder if I looked that dazed and confused on my first day too haha. I was in their welcome meeting since I'm the coordinating sister for the zone, and I get to take them on a tour of the MTC tonight. My district leader just told me that he got my travel plans but he doesn't have them with him, so I haven't looked at it yet. Maybe I'll write you a quick letter tonight when I look at it.
Guess who I met the other day! Sister Emily Jacobsen! ya there are 2 of us! I got one of her DearElder letters and the first line said how was your first day, and I was like ummmm I've been here for 6 weeks. I found her in the book store and told here that there were 2 of us. She is just english speaking so we leave the same day! So if you can, make sure it's box #210 when you send my letters!
We had to move classrooms because before it was just on the bottom floor of the same building my residence hall is, but now they are turning all those classrooms into residences so all 4 floors of that building will be sisters' residence halls! There are a lot of changes happening here. I get to host next wednesday, so i get to take new missionaries around when they get in. I'm excited for that. I feel like a veteran now haha.
The spanish is still coming along. I can understand everything my teachers say, but when I go to TRC and talk with a native it's a bit harder to understand. I ran in to a sister who served with sheila, Sister Rincon from Colombia, she was a volunteer in TRC and I tought her. She speaks really fast though so I probably looked clueless the whole time.
Well I hope you are all doing well! I love hearing from you! Love you!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
How are you all doing? Well I have officially been on my mission for 6 weeks so this is week 7! I can't believe how fast time goes. We are now the oldest district in our zone! We got a fresh batch of 10 Elders yesterday. I wonder if I looked that dazed and confused on my first day too haha. I was in their welcome meeting since I'm the coordinating sister for the zone, and I get to take them on a tour of the MTC tonight. My district leader just told me that he got my travel plans but he doesn't have them with him, so I haven't looked at it yet. Maybe I'll write you a quick letter tonight when I look at it.
Guess who I met the other day! Sister Emily Jacobsen! ya there are 2 of us! I got one of her DearElder letters and the first line said how was your first day, and I was like ummmm I've been here for 6 weeks. I found her in the book store and told here that there were 2 of us. She is just english speaking so we leave the same day! So if you can, make sure it's box #210 when you send my letters!
We had to move classrooms because before it was just on the bottom floor of the same building my residence hall is, but now they are turning all those classrooms into residences so all 4 floors of that building will be sisters' residence halls! There are a lot of changes happening here. I get to host next wednesday, so i get to take new missionaries around when they get in. I'm excited for that. I feel like a veteran now haha.
The spanish is still coming along. I can understand everything my teachers say, but when I go to TRC and talk with a native it's a bit harder to understand. I ran in to a sister who served with sheila, Sister Rincon from Colombia, she was a volunteer in TRC and I tought her. She speaks really fast though so I probably looked clueless the whole time.
Well I hope you are all doing well! I love hearing from you! Love you!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Week 5
Hola Familia!
How was your Thanksgiving? I was glad to hear that you were able to have a lot of people there! Thanksgiving here was pretty good. It was Elder Holland who came and spoke to us :D. He is such a rock star! He talked about how blessed we are for living in this dispensation, the first dispensation not ending in apostasy. The prophets of old preached even though they knew that eventually no one will accept it, but they were diligent so they could perhaps bring one soul unto God, and that would give them great joy. I hope to bring more than one soul unto God on my mission but even if it is just one, that would be great too. Elder also talked about how missionaries say "when I get back to real life" and he said in bold but loving voice he has "this is real life! What you are doing right now is the closest to what I do every day, which is waking up and working from morning to night on saving human souls" (or something like that). The spirit was just so strong from the moment he walked into the room. I am so happy I had the opportunity to see him. We had "dinner" at 12:00. It was pretty good, but not as good as the food at home. I couldn't stuff myself because I still had the rest of the day ahead of me. We had a service project where we made medical and school kits for kids in Africa. It was cool to see 1000 missionaries ( 1/2 of the MTC) in the same room making these kits while singing called to serve.
We have officially started playing Christmas music in my room. One of the ones my companion plays is the one that Sheila usually puts on to wake us all up. I told her it's fine to play it right now but it might make me depressed later.
I see a bunch of people that I know here. There are a couple friends from SC, I see Sister Ali Nielsen, my friend Sister Shayla Rowley, and today I saw someone I've known since elementary school Sister Malinda Bennett. Oh I've also seen Elder Bryson Moeller.
I'm excited to go out into the field but want my Spanish to be better first. My companion is counting down the days, 19 more haha.
Well I love all of you and hope you are doing well!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
p.s. Write me! :D
How was your Thanksgiving? I was glad to hear that you were able to have a lot of people there! Thanksgiving here was pretty good. It was Elder Holland who came and spoke to us :D. He is such a rock star! He talked about how blessed we are for living in this dispensation, the first dispensation not ending in apostasy. The prophets of old preached even though they knew that eventually no one will accept it, but they were diligent so they could perhaps bring one soul unto God, and that would give them great joy. I hope to bring more than one soul unto God on my mission but even if it is just one, that would be great too. Elder also talked about how missionaries say "when I get back to real life" and he said in bold but loving voice he has "this is real life! What you are doing right now is the closest to what I do every day, which is waking up and working from morning to night on saving human souls" (or something like that). The spirit was just so strong from the moment he walked into the room. I am so happy I had the opportunity to see him. We had "dinner" at 12:00. It was pretty good, but not as good as the food at home. I couldn't stuff myself because I still had the rest of the day ahead of me. We had a service project where we made medical and school kits for kids in Africa. It was cool to see 1000 missionaries ( 1/2 of the MTC) in the same room making these kits while singing called to serve.
We have officially started playing Christmas music in my room. One of the ones my companion plays is the one that Sheila usually puts on to wake us all up. I told her it's fine to play it right now but it might make me depressed later.
I see a bunch of people that I know here. There are a couple friends from SC, I see Sister Ali Nielsen, my friend Sister Shayla Rowley, and today I saw someone I've known since elementary school Sister Malinda Bennett. Oh I've also seen Elder Bryson Moeller.
I'm excited to go out into the field but want my Spanish to be better first. My companion is counting down the days, 19 more haha.
Well I love all of you and hope you are doing well!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
p.s. Write me! :D
Pictures!
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| I believe these are all the sisters in Emily's district! |
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| The two pictures above are Emily and her companion, Sister Judd! |
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| Sometimes Hermana Jacobsen has a hard time staying awake while studying and taking notes. Notice how at the top the handwriting is neat, but as you look down the paper, it gets sloppier. haha :) |
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| All the sisters in the district pointing to where they're going! |
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| Emily got a box of coke from Sherrie I believe! She was very happy! Thanks Sherrie! |
Week 4 - Happy Thanksgiving!
Hola Familia!
I'm doing laundry right now. We had to do it tonight because of thanksgiving tomorrow. It was either do it tonight or at 5:30am tomorrow, so I'm happy that we decided at the last minute to do it now. :D Tomorrow morning we have a devotional with an apostle. We don't know who it is until it starts for security purposes but there is a rumor that it will be Elder Holland :D That would be awesome, I'm excited! We also eat our big meal at noon tomorrow and then make a sack dinner for later. And we are also doing a humanitarian project tomorrow. I think we are sending medical supplies to Africa.
So I got better this week at writing down what I wanted to tell you guys so I wouldn't forget when I got here, yay! I learned the other day that China might open up soon for missionaries! There are people with mission calls that say Taiwan until China is open. Crazy huh? No one can stop the work from progressing. I got called as the coordinating sister for my zone this week. I pretty much need to make sure all the the sisters in my zone are taken care of, and the only sisters in our zone is the 5 of us from my district. We all get along really well so I haven't had to sort any of that out yet. I do have to tell a sister that her skirt is too short tonight though :/ wish me luck!
I had a cool experience in TRC a couple weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about. TRC is where you practice teaching members as themselves in Spanish. The first week we had it we taught this 19 year old girl going to BYU. In the middle of us teaching we randomly started talking about why we decided to go on a mission. I thought we had just got off task and started chatting. The next week we were paired up with that same girl again and she told us that we gave her the answer she needed to decide to go on a mission and she has already started her papers! It was an awesome feeling to actually have an impact on a real person instead of someone pretending to be an investigator. I sometimes you don't know why the spirit leads you in a certain way, but trust that God does know why.
Oh I figured out like 3 weeks in that my district leader, Elder Grant, is the McKinnon's nephew that they told me to look for haha. Ok I didn't actually figure it out, one day at lunch he was talking to an Elder who went to Lone Peak (I didn't know him) and asked him if he knew James McKinnon. I was like how do YOU know James? And he was like he's my cousin. And then I remembered the McKinnons telling me that their nephew was going in the same day as me spanish speaking. Yup he's in my district and used to me the district leader until he got released on sunday.
hmmmmm I think that is all that I wanted to tell you. Love you all!
con amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Romans 5:12, 18
Helaman 14:15-18
I'm doing laundry right now. We had to do it tonight because of thanksgiving tomorrow. It was either do it tonight or at 5:30am tomorrow, so I'm happy that we decided at the last minute to do it now. :D Tomorrow morning we have a devotional with an apostle. We don't know who it is until it starts for security purposes but there is a rumor that it will be Elder Holland :D That would be awesome, I'm excited! We also eat our big meal at noon tomorrow and then make a sack dinner for later. And we are also doing a humanitarian project tomorrow. I think we are sending medical supplies to Africa.
So I got better this week at writing down what I wanted to tell you guys so I wouldn't forget when I got here, yay! I learned the other day that China might open up soon for missionaries! There are people with mission calls that say Taiwan until China is open. Crazy huh? No one can stop the work from progressing. I got called as the coordinating sister for my zone this week. I pretty much need to make sure all the the sisters in my zone are taken care of, and the only sisters in our zone is the 5 of us from my district. We all get along really well so I haven't had to sort any of that out yet. I do have to tell a sister that her skirt is too short tonight though :/ wish me luck!
I had a cool experience in TRC a couple weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about. TRC is where you practice teaching members as themselves in Spanish. The first week we had it we taught this 19 year old girl going to BYU. In the middle of us teaching we randomly started talking about why we decided to go on a mission. I thought we had just got off task and started chatting. The next week we were paired up with that same girl again and she told us that we gave her the answer she needed to decide to go on a mission and she has already started her papers! It was an awesome feeling to actually have an impact on a real person instead of someone pretending to be an investigator. I sometimes you don't know why the spirit leads you in a certain way, but trust that God does know why.
Oh I figured out like 3 weeks in that my district leader, Elder Grant, is the McKinnon's nephew that they told me to look for haha. Ok I didn't actually figure it out, one day at lunch he was talking to an Elder who went to Lone Peak (I didn't know him) and asked him if he knew James McKinnon. I was like how do YOU know James? And he was like he's my cousin. And then I remembered the McKinnons telling me that their nephew was going in the same day as me spanish speaking. Yup he's in my district and used to me the district leader until he got released on sunday.
hmmmmm I think that is all that I wanted to tell you. Love you all!
con amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Romans 5:12, 18
Helaman 14:15-18
Week 3
Hola!
This has been an interesting week in the MTC. We have already started to feel the effects of the new age announcement, yesterday we got 700 new missionaries. The cafeteria is packed now! Two of the sisters in my district left for the Spain MTC on Tuesday and their companion doesn't have have her visa yet so now she is in my companionship. She is pretty cool too, her name is Hermana Nakken (her fist name is Emily too, but you didn't hear that from me). We have to remember that there is 3 of us now when we go places. I am getting into the groove of things here now and am happy that I can intimidate the new Elders with my Spanish now :D It's still not that great but it's coming along. I think learning some Greek has been a big help with knowing how to conjugate verbs and stuff. By the time I get to my P day I don't remember all the things I wanted to tell you guys :/ I'll get better at writing it down. I'm not completely sure if I will have computer time next week because of thanksgiving. I can't believe it's here already! Thank you for all of your lettters, I keep them in a binder so I don't loose any! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
This has been an interesting week in the MTC. We have already started to feel the effects of the new age announcement, yesterday we got 700 new missionaries. The cafeteria is packed now! Two of the sisters in my district left for the Spain MTC on Tuesday and their companion doesn't have have her visa yet so now she is in my companionship. She is pretty cool too, her name is Hermana Nakken (her fist name is Emily too, but you didn't hear that from me). We have to remember that there is 3 of us now when we go places. I am getting into the groove of things here now and am happy that I can intimidate the new Elders with my Spanish now :D It's still not that great but it's coming along. I think learning some Greek has been a big help with knowing how to conjugate verbs and stuff. By the time I get to my P day I don't remember all the things I wanted to tell you guys :/ I'll get better at writing it down. I'm not completely sure if I will have computer time next week because of thanksgiving. I can't believe it's here already! Thank you for all of your lettters, I keep them in a binder so I don't loose any! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Week 2
Hola Everyone!
I can't believe it has been 2 weeks already! Time is sort of weird here. It goes by so fast yet so slow at the same time. With the amount of things that I have learned it's feels like I have been here much longer. I am getting more used to the schedule, but am still exhausted by the end of the day. It's funny, I get my giggly 3 AM mood at 10:00 now. I love all the Sisters in my district! I feel like I have known them forever. I'm sad that we are all going to different missions. We have a lot of fun together. I have never worked so hard in my life though. My attention span is defiantly getting longer. I have 2 "investigators" that I teach now (they are really just my teachers). What is cool is that they pretend to be someone they taught on their mission and one of my teachers went on his mission to Boston, so I could potentially meet some of these people. The MTC is preparing for the tsunami of people they will be getting soon. The 4th floor of my building is under construction to make it another residence hall for sisters. In our devotional on Tuesday, Elder Zwick of the 70 spoke and he said that just between conference and now they have received more applications for sisters than there are sisters in the whole world right now. This means that I'm am going to start training these 19 year old sisters around my 3rd transfer! Gah scary! But I know that with hard work, and the Lord's help I will be ready.In my personal scripture study I asked the question "what is the difference between faith and hope? Or is there a difference?" I wanted to know what you all think. They are both an attribute of Christ so they aren't just something that you just tell yourself to have. They are spiritual gifts that God has to give you.I love you all and cant wait to hear from you!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
I can't believe it has been 2 weeks already! Time is sort of weird here. It goes by so fast yet so slow at the same time. With the amount of things that I have learned it's feels like I have been here much longer. I am getting more used to the schedule, but am still exhausted by the end of the day. It's funny, I get my giggly 3 AM mood at 10:00 now. I love all the Sisters in my district! I feel like I have known them forever. I'm sad that we are all going to different missions. We have a lot of fun together. I have never worked so hard in my life though. My attention span is defiantly getting longer. I have 2 "investigators" that I teach now (they are really just my teachers). What is cool is that they pretend to be someone they taught on their mission and one of my teachers went on his mission to Boston, so I could potentially meet some of these people. The MTC is preparing for the tsunami of people they will be getting soon. The 4th floor of my building is under construction to make it another residence hall for sisters. In our devotional on Tuesday, Elder Zwick of the 70 spoke and he said that just between conference and now they have received more applications for sisters than there are sisters in the whole world right now. This means that I'm am going to start training these 19 year old sisters around my 3rd transfer! Gah scary! But I know that with hard work, and the Lord's help I will be ready.In my personal scripture study I asked the question "what is the difference between faith and hope? Or is there a difference?" I wanted to know what you all think. They are both an attribute of Christ so they aren't just something that you just tell yourself to have. They are spiritual gifts that God has to give you.I love you all and cant wait to hear from you!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
First Week at the MTC
Hi everyone!
I survived my first week at the MTC and it's finally my first Prep Day. Yay. I think I'm going to take a nap after this haha. I don't have a problem with getting up. I just have a problem with staying awake during class and personal study in the morning. I try my very hardest though. One time during personal study I stood up because my head started bobbing, but I had to sit back down because I was still falling asleep standing up and I was about to drop my scriptures haha. Another time I fell asleep while writing in my study journal. I will have to send a pic of it to you because it's funny that you can see my handwriting go from good (well good for me) to bad, and then to squiggles. But I am now getting used to the schedule and it isn't as bad anymore.
The spirit here is so awesome and everyone is so happy all the time. I have a great district (my class) of 3 Elders and 7 Hermanas! Our branch president said it's the first time he has seen more Hermanas than Elders in a district. Everyone is pretty great and such good examples to me. The 3 Elders are going to McAllen TX, 2 Hermanas are going to Houston TX, and 3 Hermanas going to Spain. My companion Hermana Judd is going to McAllen TX with the Elders. She is a cute little Korean girl from Washington and we get along great. She is a little quiet like I am so it has forced me to speak up more. Me and another sister in my class are the only ones who have never taken any spanish before, so at first I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do. We have a sister from Switzerland and another from Norway, and they are picking up the spanish real quick because they already know like 3 languages. It's is amazing how much Spanish I have learned in just one week though. I have already taught 5 lessons with an "investigator" in Spanish. I have learned a lot about the gift of tongues. It doesn't mean that I will learn the language faster or easier, it is still hours of hard work. But I do the best I can and the Spirit makes up for the rest. I know about as much Spanish as I do Greek now, so imagine trying to teach someone about God and The Book of Mormon with just that much vocabulary. Somehow it still works. I can understand what she is saying to me through what I feel, and she can feel it to. We asked her yesterday if she would get baptized and she said yes but she would like to read more of the Book of Mormon before she did. She's actually just a employee of the MTC though.
I have really enjoyed all your hand written letters and the ones through DearElder.com. Please keep sending those because I only get 1/2 hr on the computer every thursday. Love you lots!
Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Well I got the first letter from Emily and she let me know she survived her first day at the MTC! (personally I was a bit worried since she loves to lounge and sleep hehehe) She has already taught her first discussion in spanish and she has only been in there since Wednesday afternoon! She went in the 24th of Oct. so they really get them going! I miss her so much but she loves what she is doing and was excited to go on a mission for past year.
Anyway she is doing great and anxious to get more letters! I am so proud of my daughter and know she will touch many hearts out there. I just hope the time goes fast!
Anyway she is doing great and anxious to get more letters! I am so proud of my daughter and know she will touch many hearts out there. I just hope the time goes fast!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
WELCOME!
Welcome, friends of Sister Jacobsen!
Emily has created this blog to keep you all updated on the exciting journey she will be taking for the next 18 months! My mother (Tauna) and I (Noel) will be posting experiences and letters that Sister Jacobsen sends to us throughout her mission, and we are excited for you guys to read about all the great things that will be happening!
Sister Jacobsen reported to the MTC Wednesday October 24, 2012 and we couldn't be more proud of her! She is going to make an incredible missionary and we know for a fact that the people of Boston will love her! She has been such a blessing to our family throughout the years and we can't wait for her to bless the lives of so many in the east. We are so very grateful for all of the love and support we have been receiving from all of you and we know that Emily is too! Thank You!
- The Jacobsen Family
P.S. If you would like to write Emily within the next 8 weeks, here is her MTC address:
Sister Emily Jacobsen
MTC Mailbox #210
MA-BOS 1218
2005 North 900 E
Provo, Utah 84604
You can also write her from DearElder.com which is a quick and easy way to send a missionary your letter. Let us know if you have any questions! Thanks!
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