Monday, December 2, 2013

Week 49

Hello family! 

This morning was interesting we were doing our laundry in the basement and we went down to switch our clothes over and and there was water all over the floor. We were like what the? We looked around trying to figure out where it had come from. I noticed that the washer actually drains into a sink right next to it and that there were bubbles in it so it recently drained there. I looked a little closer I saw something stuck in the drain of the sink. Then I realized that it had a little tail and feet sticking out. There was a freaking dead mouse in the drain! I started making gagging sounds and one of the sisters screamed. The landlord came running down to see what was wrong and said that he had some rat poison down there that dries out the mice so it was probably looking for water when the washer started to drain. It was sooo gross. We have caught 3 more up in our apartment over the past couple weeks. Always an adventure. 

Last night as I was falling asleep I was thinking about the different ways I have changed on my mission. When I first came out I was afraid to change, I liked the person I was and I didn't want to change that. I realized last night that I still am the same person, just a better version of myself. I could go on and list all the ways I have become better but that would take quite a while. But what I realized is that I am unique and God needs ME in this place at this time and he has just been making me more like him but keeping me as me. I don't know if that makes any sense. 

We had a great thanksgiving at a member's house. We had turkey and rolls and potato salad. We had to explain to them what thanksgiving was because they never celebrate it. And then we went around the table saying what we were thankful for. Earlier that day we stopped by an other member's house and all their family was over there. I felt so much like I was at home, they are just as crazy as we are haha. Love you Solanchi ;) 

Well I hope you all had a great thanksgiving too! Any crazy stories? 

Con amor,

Hermana Jacobsen

Monday, November 25, 2013

Week 48

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been a while since I have sent a mass email. I am still alive I promise! Time has just been flying by so fast! Every time I blink it is monday again, starting a new week. Yesterday I completed 13 months! I cant believe I only have 5 months left! It's really surreal. I am now on my 14th companion haha, I am training her too. Sister Skabelund is really great and I don't feel like I have to train her at all. I have been in Providence RI for 6 weeks now. It is so beautiful here, I came right when the fall colors were the brightest. We are teaching this family who is so sweet. They started to loose interest for a while but then we helped them move and they saw what our church was really about. They said they could see a light in us that no one else has. It is such an exciting time to be a missionary. In the year I have been out, I have seen the work progress so much! I have seen the wave of new sisters come in, the prophet and apostles talk about hastening the work, and the wards getting more involved with missionary work. The idea of missionaries knocking on doors all day is finally changing with members and they are better understanding their role. We don't just have full time missionaries preaching the gospel, we have every member to preach the gospel. I can't imagine how many more people will be brought in if every member was sharing. I have seen the difference it has made and it is amazing. :D Well I hope all is well with everyone. Have a good thanksgiving! 

Love,

Hermana Jacobsen

She wasn't too excited about finding this in her soup... haha

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Week 39


Hello Everyone!

It's been another great week in the mission. I can't believe that tomorrow I hit my 11 month mark! Crazy huh? President does interviews with us every 3 months and I saw him last week and he told me that I can take some time to start applying for college! I wanted to cry. He said that my future is important and he would rather have me take some time here to apply instead of worrying about it and then sitting around for a semester. 

There were 3 baptisms yesterday, one english and 2 spanish, so we had a bilingual service. All of the speakers were english so guess who got to stand up at the pulpit with them and translate the whole service into spanish. That was great fun. One of them forgot that I was up there and went on for like 5 mins and then turned to me and said oh sorry and I had to try and remember everything she said. I could see my companion laughing at me as she went on and on. She also read a scripture from Isaiah, and as I read it I found out that Isaiah is hard to read in Spanish. The other speaker wouldn't let me finish the translation before he would move on, so he kept interrupting me. He also had a weird african accent so at times I didn't even understand what he said. Afterward, english members told me I did a good job and I said haha you don't speak any spanish do you? But later our spanish group leader asked me to translate a fireside so I guess I did ok. 

There is this "golden investigator" that the elders found that we have all been tag-teaming with. She really is great and is getting baptized next week. She came to church yesterday with her 3 daughters, a 13 year old, 6 yr old, and a 5 yr old. It's a good thing p-day is on a monday because sunday's are EXHAUSTING. This was my 2nd hour of church: I went to class with the 13 year old daughter and at the beginning there were a bunch of rowdy hispanic boys who came in looking for their class so I went and showed them to their class. As I was in the hallway I see the Elders freaking out and they said the elder who was supposed to do the 2 baptisms we had  yesterday couldn't come anymore so they asked the grandpa to do it but they got mad (because apearently they don't have a good relationship with their grandfather) and said that they would rather not get baptized. As I was helping them figure that out I saw the 5 and 6 year old of the golden investigator running through the halls. I tried to bring them back to primary but they wouldn't go but finally went into the 10 year old class, I don't know why. Then a few members asked me to do some random things for them and when I get back the 2 girls are running in the halls again. They said that they missed their mommy and wanted to give her a kiss. So I lead them to the gospel principles so they could see her for a sec. The older one was all set and went back to the 10 yr old class but the younger one kept running back out of the class saying she wanted her mom (it didn't help that the mom had crackers). To allow the mom to have a spiritual experience I put my hand on the door so she couldn't open it. She wasn't very happy and kept trying to hit it off. After a few failed attempts she finally just laid on the floor. There were some members laughing at me and I started to chat with them when popped up and opened the door before I could stop her. She said haha I got you! She came back with a handful of crackers and glared at me as she came right up to me and kicked me in the shins before she walked away. And that is how my 2nd hour ended. 

I need to go but I love you all and hope your 2nd hour of church yesterday was better than mine. haha

Con Amor,
Hna Jacobsen

Monday, September 16, 2013

Week 38


Hi everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since I've sent a group letter, I've been taking up time to send individual letters to people. things are going great here in boston. It is finally cooling off here, so I don't come home too sticky and stinky anymore haha. i love being in the city. We meet crazies every day, it's fun. 1/8 of our church attendance yesterday were non members, it was awesome. I have less than a min left on my computer but I love you and hope you are all doing good. WRITE ME! 


So the computer kicked me off last week before I could hit send. Something I've noticed around here is that people are just not happy. They get bothered by the smallest things. I feel bad for the bus drivers, they always get yelled at. I always think they just need the gospel. It makes me sad when I see how dark the world is and how confused the people are. Their lives can be so much happier if they just open up their hearts to receive the gospel. 

Today we are going to the free mason lodge to take a tour. It will be very interesting because they get all their stuff from the temple of soloman, the same place all of our temple stuff comes from, so there are a lot of similarities. And Joseph Smith was a free mason so I want to see what that was all about.

I don't know why but I have been so exhausted lately. It's probably because I'm getting over a little bit of a cold, and because I am so old in the mission. In a few weeks I will be the sister who's been out the longest. Crazy huh? I cant believe I've been out almost a year! It will be really weird.

Our little spanish group is increasing so much. We have 5 baptismal dates coming up! One girl we are teaching has a date in october. She is funny, she gets distracted really easily and will get up in the middle of the lesson and make us lunch or something. haha or start mopping the floor. She is 26 and she stays at home all day every day taking care of her 94 year old grandmother who has Alzheimer's. It was really funny one time when we were teaching, the grandma was sleeping on the couch and in the middle of my testimony she sat straight up and yelled HELP ME! poor thing had a bad dream but she went right back to sleep.  

A couple weeks ago we got to go to a red sox game! It was awesome even though we lost. 




Saturday, September 7, 2013

Week 33





Hey everyone! 

I have an interesting experience to share with you. So yesterday we were walking down the street in Dorchester and there was this lady set up on the sidewalk selling Obama t-shirts. She stopped us and asked what church we were from, when we told her she said oh that's the one Mitt Romney is from. I should have known right there that it was going to end badly. She asked us what we believed and then was asking really weird questions like if we believe in the devil and what role does he play and why do we baptize at 8 and if children are innocent until 8 then why do they need to get baptized. We were trying to explain it to her but she just wasn't getting it and would interrupt to ask another random question. So I pulled out my book of mormon to read from the chapter in moroni that talks about baptizing babies but she wouldn't let me. She went and grabbed her bible and said where in here does it mention the book of mormon? I told her of the verses that talk about there being another record but she wasn't convinced, she said but it doesn't say "the book of mormon" and I was like well no. Then she said so do you believe that the catholic church is all wrong? And we said no they have some of the truth but it is mixed in with man's own opinions. She was like so truth mixed with lies is lies right? I could only say yes. She then turned to my least favorite verse in the bible, only because so many people misinterpret it, the one in revelations that says if you add to this book you will be cursed with the plagues. I tried to tell her that it was only referring to the book of revelations and not the whole bible and that the book of mormon was written before all of that anyway, but she wouldn't have it. She then started yelling at us tell us how evil we were and that we were speading the devil's lies and our whole church is evil and we will answer to God for leading other people towards damnation and that she will see us burning in hell, to which I responded "well, you have a nice day." It made me very sad how confused the Satan can make people and the anger he can put in their hearts. Later I noticed that I didn't really feel the spirit there guiding my words like I normally do, but I realized that there was nothing  that we could have said, even with the spirit, that would have appealed to this lady. She just isn't ready, but I hope that one day she is. 

On a good note, Steven was confirmed yesterday! Yay it was really good, I am so happy for them, his mom is now active and we might start teaching his older siblings. 

Well I love you all. Dont forget to write me!


Love,
Hna Jacobsen

Week 32


Hey everyone!

Yesterday was a crazy day. We had a baptism of an 11 year old investigator named Steven, he is so awesome. His mom was a less active but now she has come back and we are working on getting her a calling. It was the craziest baptism I have ever had, everything that could go wrong did. I hadn't had a baptism in this area yet so I wasn't completely sure of the logistics in this building, and no one told me that it takes like 3 hours for the font to fill with hot water, so we had to fill it with cold water. Poor guy, at least he only had to go under once. The printer wasn't working so we couldn't print the programs. The bishop told me that he would call the relief society president to ask people to bring food for after but the day before, he called me and said that they couldn't do it because of fast sunday (which didn't stop them in my last area). So we planned a little gathering at a member's house and she said that she would take care of it all, and then when we got to church she asked if I called everyone to see if they were bringing something. I know that I didn't misunderstand her because a native speaking elder also said that she told us she would take care of it. I had to give a talk at the baptism and in the middle of it a little girl got her fingers smashed in the door, so there were cries of bloody murder. There were other children who were restless throughout. But we did it, he got baptized, his mom was happy and gave the closing prayer. I will have to send pics next week. Well I have to get going but I love you. Thanks for your prayers, they give me strength every day!

Love,
Hna Jacobsen

Week 31 - I Belong to Jesus (Pictures!)






Monday, July 22, 2013

Week 30 - Happy Birthday Sister Jacobsen!!

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it's been a while since I've sent out a group email. Things have just been crazy over here. My companion left for Argentina mid-transfer so then we had to combine 2 companionships into 1. I had to move to summerville which is outside of our zone and take the train for about an hour every day into our area. Now that it's a new transfer we are back in roslindale, but we still only have 1 sister companionship in our spanish group so we have 2x as much work as we used to. It's been good though. 

Yesterday something really cool happened. One of our investigators hasn't been answering our phone calls for a while and we were worried if something happened and she wasn't interested anymore. Yesterday we got a text from her saying sorry it's been a while but her mom was in the hospital and almost died. She has still been reading and the other night she was praying and she felt something that she has never felt before and she started crying and felt like everything was going to be ok. It was so awesome to hear that from her, I'm so excited for her progress.

I can't believe that this wednesday will be my halfway mark! Crazy huh? It's gone by soooo fast. I hope I am becoming the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be.

The other day I was reading in my patriarchal blessing and it mentions how I will fill the hearts of the children with obedience, and I realized that every baptism that I've had so far has been someone 12 or younger. It's cool to see how different things tie into different people's blessings. 

So today we are going downtown to get some ice cream and then some shopping! I probably won't buy anything, I already have too much stuff. Then tonight some members are taking us to olive garden. I'm really excited about that. I haven't had olive garden since we went after I went through the temple. I am so excited! oh I already said that haha. I was very lucky that my birthday fell on a p-day. Well I love you all and hope all is well. Thanks for the letters and the stuff you sent me! I want to send pics but the computers are slow. Maybe I'll print them and mail them home. Have a good week!

Love, 
Hna Jacobsen

Week 26

Hello everyone! 

I am loving Boston! Even though it is 95 and HUMID and I'm walking, and I sweat like a pig, which is embarrassing because my companion doesn't sweat at all. So I just look like this freak of nature. My backpack adds to this issue also. Oh and there is no air conditioning either, just those little ones you stick in the window. The hispanics will just have their windows open and it's like springtime weather for them. This is not me complaining, don't get me wrong. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger haha. I am staying hydrated though and the buses have pretty good air conditioning. 

Living in the city is very interesting. There are so many different kinds of people here. There was a guy walking down the street with a gigantic snake around his body, like it was just a piece of jewelry. When you go up to someone, you don't really know what language they speak. It could be english, spanish, portuguese, haitian or some other random language. Which makes street contacting in between appointments kind of interesting. 

Yesterday something interesting happened. We got a referral from a member but they didn't want the person to know that they sent us. So we went over there and our door approach was pretty much we were sent here by the Lord to bless your home and family. That is really big with hispanics. The teenage boy that answered the door paused for what seemed like an eternity and then said........ ya ok and let us in. We found out that they were not the people we were looking for because they just moved in. We blessed their house and family and they told us that they were looking for a church to go to and that we could come back on friday! I don't know where the people we were planning to see moved to but I know that we were supposed to meet this family. 

Well I've got to go but I love you all and hope all is well. 

Con amor,
Hna Jacobsen

p.s. You should watch the broadcast from sunday! It was amazing! There are great things happening in gathering Israel :D

Week 24

Hello Everyone!

I am now in my 2nd area, in Boston! It's awesome but there is a loooooooot of walking. I already have blisters on my feet. The good thing is that I think I lost a little weight too haha. Maybe by the end of the transfer I will get back down to normal. I feel like a greeny again at times because I don't know anyone but it will get better. I'm now in an apartment with another companionship of English sisters, which is fun. I didn't like how secluded we were in Lynn. I am now in the Boston 1st spanish group. It isn't even a branch, it's a twig. There were about a total of 50 people in sacrament meeting yesterday. We are hoping to become a branch this year! That will be exciting to see. I am now the 2nd oldest spanish sister in mission age now, so there is only one other spanish sister that has been out longer than me. Crazy! There are so many new sisters coming in, I have lost track of them all. This last transfer we had 20 sisters and 1 elder come in. I think back to my transfer where I was the only sister and it just blows my mind. Great things are happening!

Love you all!
Hna Jacobsen

Monday, July 15, 2013

Week 23


Hola! 

¿Cómo esta todo? It is my last day in my first area, Lynn MA. I am getting transferred to Boston tomorrow. I'm sad to leave Lynn but excited to be in a new area. The only thing is that I will be in a walking area for the summer. That will be an adventure. Wasn't sheila in a biking area in the summer of her mission? I hope the public transportation has air conditioning. There was a heat wave this week, in the 90's and humid and I cant imagine walking in that, but I won't have to imagine for very long I suppose. 

This week has been interesting. There have been people we have gone to visit that have had either the police or the fire department there when we got there (luckily it was nothing serious), I found out I'm getting transferred, I locked the keys in our car, and I lost my wallet. Always an adventure in Lynn MA. I don't know my new address yet but if you just send everything to the mission office, it will get sent out to me. 

I love you all, sorry this letter is really short!

Con amor,
Hna Jacobsen

Week 22


Hi everyone!

It's been a while since I've written all of you, sorry about that. Things have been going great over here!

A couple weeks ago we went to the temple with Jeffrey and some other youth so they could do some baptisms for the dead. We didn't know that you had to have the priesthood before you could get a temple recommend, and the branch president forgot. So Jeffrey got the priesthood that same day in the waiting room of the temple. It was so awesome to see him, he had the biggest smile on his face. Yesterday he passed the sacrament!  He was so excited and nervous. 
Transfers are coming up next week and I'm thinking I might be transferred, so if any of you were planning on sending me something (not that any of you were) you might want to wait in case I get a new address. Or you could always send it to the mission home and that will always get to me anywhere I'm at. I'd be sad to leave this area but I've been here for over 5 months now so I feel like I might get moved. Especially since we have 18 sisters coming in this next transfer! I will find out on saturday and will let you know next P-day, which will be on wednesday. 

We had a mini missionary with us this weekend! Our mission does this thing where the youth can get sent out to a different stake and spend a few days with the missionaries there and do what they do. We got a 16 year old from Brockton. She was so cute and had a great testimony.   

Oh that less active I said we were going to visit when I talked to you on mother's day, that day she told us that she didn't feel like she needed to go to church. So on saturday we were teaching her about the sacrament and she still seemed pretty set on not going but then at the end of the lesson she was like I've decided to go to church tomorrow. I think my jaw dropped haha. She was at church yesterday for the first time in about 15 years, it was a real miracle. She only stayed for sacrament but she said one step at a time and that she's coming back next week too.

Well I love you all and hope you are doing well! 

Love, 
Hna Jacobsen 

Jeffrey's Baptism

Week 20

"I love this cute old lady in the branch.... poor thing doesn't know what her shirt says."

"Just a little something to remember me by..."



The beautiful Boston temple. 


Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Week 18 (6 month mark!)


Hello Everyone!

It feels like it's been a long time since I have actually written something to you all. This has been a great week! Yesterday we had a baptism of the best 12 year old boy ever! His name is Jeffrey and he just came in to church one day and said that he wanted to be baptized. He would amaze us in every lesson we taught with him. He has already made friends with all of the youth in the branch. His mom is a member but was really less active. She has been coming to church with him now and I love them both. She bore her testimony yesterday which brought tears to Jeffrey's eyes. The spirit was so strong there. My camera was dead yesterday (I think it keeps getting turned on inside my bag) so I had to use an elder's camera, so I don't have the picture yet. 

The weather has been really nice here and we drive around with our windows down. We just have to be careful with some of the crazies walking around. haha just kidding. Sheila! We have our very own "Dizzy!" He is well known for dancing at a certain street corner. I will have to get a video of him. I am still here in Lynn for another 6 weeks! I am not going to know what to do if I get transferred to a different area. I will feel like a greenie all over again!

I got a nice compliment yesterday. This lady asked me how long I have been learning spanish and I said 6 months and she said wow you speak really well, I thought it was 3 years! That made me very happy. I understand most of what I hear, and I can say what I want for the most part. How is the Greek coming with you guys? Do you think anyone in Greece speaks Spanish? haha. Well I love you all and hope you are doing well! 

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Week 17

Hey everybody! 
I don't have a lot of time but I just wanted to send you some pictures! We did something called the freedom trail a couple weeks ago where you walk around boston and it shows you a bunch of historic sites. 


The Declaration of Independence was read from this balcony and it's also where the Boston Massacre happened.



I am now a mother of 2 green missionaries... She actually went to Lone Peak and graduated the same year as me but we didn't know each other. (Referring to the sister in the middle)

Monday, April 15, 2013

Week 16 - Boston Marathon


Hello Everyone!

Today was an interesting day. This morning we went to the temple and it was great! I was so happy for the opportunity to go, I haven't been able to go since the day I got here in December. The Boston temple is so pretty! There was a revolutionary war reenactment this morning in Lexington but we didn't go because we would have had to leave at 4 am and that would have destroyed me for the rest of the week. My district leader wants me to tell you all that I was too lazy to get up at 3 am to go to it haha. Anyway, after the temple we decided to hang around and go into boston with a group of other missionaries. We came upon the end of the boston marathon, just a couple blocks from the finish line. We would have kept going closer to the finish line but 2 of the Elders in our group got lost finding bathrooms and we were looking for them for like 30 mins. By the time we finally found them we decided it was about time to start heading back to the T station (the subway) to get back to the stake center in Cambridge. Just when we decided this and started pushing through the crowds and runners who had just finished, we heard 2 explosions and felt the shock wave of it, kind of like how you can feel in your chest a big firework exploding. We looked up and saw smoke just a few blocks away. Everyone stopped and stared for a few seconds and then continued on. No one was completely sure of what exactly happened, I was thinking since there was no one freaking out that maybe they had a few cannons at the finish line or something. So we continued walking, and then we saw a few people sobbing. One of them was running away, and everyone was looking at her like she was crazy. And then the sirens started and that's when I knew for sure that something was wrong. We asked someone who was sobbing what happened and she said that bombs went off at the finish line and they are now clearing everyone out. So we left and followed the throng of solemn people back to the boston commons where the T station is but there were police guarding it say all trains were shut down. I saw police going down into the station with dogs. We decided it was best to just get out of there and start walking to cambridge. We walked a good ways and found that the trains that were above ground and a little bit out of the city were still open so we took that the rest of the way. I have never heard or seen so many cop cars and ambulances before. It seemed like all of them in the whole city came, and surrounding cities. I took this picture of a big line of cop cars speeding past while we were walking. We called the other missionaries and they were all ok. Another group would have been there too but like us, they had 2 elders that had to go to the bathroom and they left. The Lord kept us all safe by working through the bladders of 19 year old boys haha. The mission President told us to stay in for the rest of the night so we are heading home now. I'm alive and thank you all for worrying about me. It was defiantly a memorable experience! I love you all, take care!

Love,
Hermana Jacobsen



Thursday, April 11, 2013

Pictures! - Week 14

"There are a lot of barber shops around, I think this one is my favorite haha."

"Sister Guzman's food is the best! haha"

"Sister Figueredo extended her mission by just a couple weeks so she has just been bopping from comp to comp to help them out and we went to the prudential building last week for p-day and there is a restaurant on the very top." 

".... and that is the pumpkin cheesecake I got!" 

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Week 14 & 15

Hello everyone!

I don't have a lot of time because we are doing a zone activity today and we have to take off. Conference was awesome! Being a missionary gets you used to sitting and paying attention to someone for long periods of time. We had a meeting with the mission president last week that was 5 hours long, with a brief break for lunch. So watching conference was nothing for us. Thankfully I got to watch it in English, if I had to watch the whole thing in Spanish it would have felt really long. Who heard the shout out to the Boston Mission sunday morning? woot woot! We are awesome, I know :D. We are doing a lot of things to reach out to more people, it's amazing. I realized that conference will mark my mission. This conference was in my 6th month and the next conference will be about my year mark and then the one after that will be right before I go home. Crazy huh? We have so many sisters coming in it's ridiculous. In may we have 19 missionaries coming in and 18 of them are sisters! The Lord's work really is going on boldly, nobly, and independent. What a great work to be involved in! All of you can be involved in it too! Missionary work is to help other to come unto Christ and EVERYONE needs that in one way or another. Strengthen each other, support each other in the gospel, and wear the name of Christ on your heart. I love you all! Have a great week! 

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen




Monday, March 25, 2013

Week 13


Buenos Dias!

Hey everyone! How are you all? I've been doing well, getting used to training a sister fresh from the MTC. We get by except for that one time that I couldn't understand anything this one lady was saying. In my defense she was old and Dominican! It's really hard to understand them. But other than that we are doing well. I don't really have much new stuff to share. It was the first time at church for one of our investigators yesterday! He has been progressing so much! The first time I saw him, he wouldn't even pray with us. But now he is reading the book of mormon and prays with us (he still wont say it though) and yesterday he took the sacrament. It was very cool to see. He is in a part member family who is less active so it also got all of them there too. We are still working on getting theresa baptized, but she is doing great and still not smoking! I love hearing her pray, it really is a conversation with her Heavenly Father. There is so much work to do here with less actives and we have been trying to get the branch more involved in reactivating them. In Preach My Gospel it actually says that less actives are the responsibility of the branch, but right now the members don't understand that. They just tell us hey I have a less active for you to go visit. That is not how it works! They need a friend that can help them progress in the church. There is a reason why we have home teaching and visiting teaching, to take care of everyone, not just temporally but spiritually also. In Utah it may not see as important but everyone has spiritual needs, everyone still needs to progress and come closer to Christ. So the moral of the story is do your visiting teaching. :D Well I'd better get going but I love you all! 
Les quiero mucho! 

Con Amor y un embraso fuerte,
Hermana Jacobsen

oh and by the way yesterday was my 5 month mark! I can't believe how fast time has gone!

Monday, March 18, 2013

Week 12


Hello Everyone!

Well today is my first day of transfer 3 here in Lynn. My companion/trainer went home on friday and that is like the most depressing thing ever, I miss her a lot. But my new companion Sister Brown is really nice and I'm sure we will get along just fine. She is a little quiet like me though. I can't believe I am already training a greeny fresh from the MTC. Her Spanish is a lot better than mine when I first got out here though and that helps a lot. I'm surprised how much I can actually understand without Sister Lopez there helping me out. Theresa's baptism date got pushed back again to the 7th of April because even though her husband is at home, he can't leave the house for a couple weeks. But she is still doing really well and not smoking (knock on wood). We have another baptism date for the most awesome 12 year old boy ever! His name is Jeffrey and he is the son of a less active and one day he just told his mom that they were going to go to church and that he wanted to get baptized! He is such a good kid and an great example to everyone around him. His date is set for April 28. Elder Ballard came and spoke to us on saturday. I shook an apostle's hand! His words were very encouraging. He was with Elder Eyring (from the 70) and Elder Christensen (also from the 70). There were some missionaries from the New Hampshire mission there too. It was really weird because one of them was someone I went to elementary school with. haha I didn't even know he was out there. Well I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen 

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Week 11


Hola familia mia! ¿Como están? Esta es la última simana de mi segunda transferencia! Mi compañera va a salir mañana y estoy muy triste. Theresa is doing well, the best I have ever seen her, and she has been really good about not smoking. As far as we know she has only had 1 since she got home. She still wont be baptized for another couple weeks though because her husband is just coming home from the hospital and won't be able to leave the house for a couple weeks. So he wouldn't even be able to be there, let alone baptize her. Did I tell you guys that I am going to be training a new missionary? Tomorrow I get my greeny, that will be very interesting if she isn't fluent in Spanish already. I don't know yet who she will be. Sister Payano from the branch gave us a big lunch today with a bunch of Elders to say goodbye to Sister Lopez and a couple elders who are leaving. We went out and saw the sunset at the beach in salem this morning, it was very pretty, I will have to send pictures. I really like salem, it has a lot of interesting stuff and would be a pretty nice place to live. 

As always I don't remember anything I was going to tell you. I feel like a missionary's mind is always on hyper drive and I cant remember anything if I don't write it down. I now know why the first thing Sheila did when she got home was take a nap haha. I get so tired during our 4 hours of studies we have every day. Especially if we have something to do in the morning and we end up having to do them after lunch. But I'm good once we get out and going. Now that I understand most of what people say I'm not wanting to fall asleep in lessons anymore haha. Did anyone read that talk I sent? What are your thoughts/impressions? I love you all and hope you are doing great! Les quiero mucho! 

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen

Week 10 (email sent 3/4)


Hey everyone!

I don't have a lot of time because I had to take this forever long questionnaire about preach my gospel because brother Watson is coming to tour our mission. Everything has been good! Next week is actually the last week of the transfer, so my next p-day will be on wednesday. My companion is "dying" meaning this is her last transfer, so she has been very depressed. We have been going down to boston almost every p-day so I don't usually have time to write hand-written letters. Right now we are in the Copley Library in boston and it is huge! 

The lady I was telling you about last week, Theresa has a baptism date for this sunday. We just have to keep her from smoking until then. She is the greatest lady and really fun to talk to. She has an awesome boston accent. Apparently Ben Affleck used to play ball with her son so she tells us all these stories about him haha. It would be awesome if he was in town this week and she invited him to his baptism! She said he is pretty atheist though. 

I'm pretty sure I will be staying in the same area, and I think I am going to train a greeny. I will find out for sure on saturday though. Well I love you all lots and will talk to you next wednesday! 

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen 

Week 9 Pictures

The prayer pillow they made for Stacy. 




Week 9 (email sent 2/25)


Hi Everyone!

Yesterday was awesome! We had 2 baptisms! José Antonio and Stacy. It was amazing and they were both so happy. Stacy's baptism almost didn't happen because it was supposed to snow yesterday and her mom was worried that if she made a bunch of food, it wouldn't get eaten. We had to go over to their house Sunday morning to convince her that the baptism is more important than the food. I'm very glad she came around. We made stacy a prayer pillow the other day to help her to remember to say her prayers at night, and she loved it. It was a great experience seeing them both get baptized. José was the one who I extended the invitation to be baptized one of my first days here. 

So my mp3 player I have is stupid and only decides to work every once and a while, and recently it deleted all the songs except for the christmas ones haha. Soooo if any of you happen to be putting together a package for me, it wouldn't mind there being some CDs in there ;) 

Last week I met 2 sisters that were 19 years old! It was crazy, they were so little and doe-eyed, but there were excited to be here. It's a big difference to see them compared to my companion who is 25 and also goes home in a couple weeks. She has been sad and afraid to return the civilian life, so I've been trying to keep her spirits up. 

I found this talk by Elder Bendar in and Ensign and I loved it. I didn't have a change to finish it but I wanted to share it with you. I love the way he puts things that makes it very clear. It talks about the enabling power of the atonement, it mentions how when nephi was bound with rope by his brothers he didn't pray to change his circumstance, he prayed for the strength to change his circumstance. This is a very important thing for us to remember. The atonement doesn't make our trails disappear, it gives us the strength to overcome them.


Anyway I love you all and hope you are doing great! Remember to do missionary work! All it takes is to invite someone to come closer to Christ, even if it is just something small they can do.

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen

Week 8 (email sent 2/20)


Hola! 

Como estan? So I wrote down things all week to write to you guys in a little notebook so I could remember and it's in my backpack, which is in the car... So I will try and remember. Monday was another holiday so the library was closed again. It's so hard to find another time during the week to do emails. Monday's really are so important, if you don't get something done then you wont have to do it another time. We had zone conference yesterday where there were 3 zones all together and spent most of the day in more trainings from the mission presidency. It was really good, I always love hearing from President Packard, and we also got to hear from President Christensen who wrote that book about member missionary work.

So we've had this investigator who is married to a member and wants to get baptized but she needs to quit smoking first. That has been a real struggle for her. She has the desire but she has been smoking for like 40 years and her son smokes so every time she quits it doesn't last very long because her son is sitting there smoking in front of her. We have talked to him about helping her and he doesn't seem very optimistic about her quitting. She has just been through the ringer the past couple months. First of all she can't see very well (which doesn't help with keeping her reading the scriptures) so she has been trying to get a surgery done to fix her sight, and she wants to do that before she gets baptized because she wants to be able to see everything. But every time she has an appointment for her surgery, she ends up sick in the hospital. She has had all sorts of sickness the past few months. And she has been depressed and not wanting to see anyone, which makes her smoke. We would be the only people she would see during the week except for her family. Her husband has been loving, but it's also not very good because he does everything for her so she doesn't have to and that doesn't help her depression. Well right now her husband is in the hospital in Boston, he had a swollen knee and it became septic, so he will be there for a few weeks. She is in the hospital in Salem because she has gall stones. The funny thing is that she got her gall bladder out 34 years ago, so there was one that developed in one of the ducts, which is very rare. Even though they are both in the hospital there are 2 blessings that come from it. 1) her husband can't pamper her 2) she isn't smoking. She is going to have to reschedule her surgery for her eyes because of course it was supposed to be this week. And hopefully we can help keep her from smoking when she gets home. Satan is working very hard to keep her from getting baptized. Not just her too there is supposed to be another storm this weekend, not as bad but still might cause us to reschedule stacy's and jose antonio's baptisms again. Pray for us!
Well I need to get going we have to get to an appointment but I love you all. Thanks for all your prayers, I get strength from them every day! 

Love,
Hermana Jacobsen



This lady wouldn't let Emily and her companion help her. 

Week 7 (email sent 2/11)

Hey Everyone,

I'm alive!! The storm "Nemo" hit and we were stuck inside our apartment for 2 days. This is a picture of our car after we were finally okayed to go outside on saturday, but the city still had a restriction on driving. It was a $500 fine and if you caused an accident it was a year in jail. We just went around the complex and helped people dig out their cars. A lot of people wouldn't accept our help though. Some thought we were expecting money. That is just really sad to me. Can't someone do a good deed anymore without expecting money? My poor Puerto Rican companion just about froze though. She had never seen more than a few inches of snow. We were finally okayed to drive yesterday morning but church had been cancelled. So we went around trying to visit everyone we knew but only got in to 2 houses, it was a little frustrating. Also, because of the storm Jose Antonio's baptism had been moved to next week. And stacy's baptism is being moved to 2 weeks. So I don't have any pictures to show you yet but I do have a picture of the guy who was baptized last week. He still isn't confirmed yet since church was cancelled yesterday. There is always something that I think of during the week that I want to tell you guys but by the time I get here I don't remember it so I'm going to go now. Love you!

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen





Boston Week 6 (email sent 2/6)

Hello everyone!

This week has been awesome! The sister's training was amazing. It started at 9 AM and we didn't get home until 11 PM. We were exhausted. We just had a bunch of different trainings on stuff like studies, planning, health, just different aspects of the mission and then we went and had dinner at president's house and he announced to us all the new areas for sisters this next transfer. We have a lot of history making stuff going on. He opened Nantucket and is sending sisters there. It only has 5 members on the whole island, and it takes 2 hours to get there by boat. Since they don't have enough for a branch yet they are called a group. Who knew that you could be too small to be a branch? They are also opening the first ever area for Portuguese sisters We have only ever had Portuguese elders here, but now they are starting to call sisters too. I don't know if I ever told you but we have english, spanish, portuguese, and haitian creole missions here. We used  to have cambodian too but that kind of died out. It is a very diverse place here. We had a baptism this week! Technically the Elders were teaching him but he is the husband of a member we see every week for dinner. He just got out of prison and had read the entire bible in the 6 months he was there. He came to us and said he wanted to be baptized. It was awesome. He is getting confirmed this sunday. Also this sunday is the baptism of Jose Antonio who I've told you about before and next wednesday we have one for a girl named stacy who is a 9 year old of a less active member. So this week is going to be great! I hope you are all doing well! I'll talk to you soon! 

Con Amor,
Hermana Jacobsen 

Boston Week 5 Pictures

"This book is awesome, Clayton Christanson is in our mission presidency and he wrote this book about member missionary work and gave it to all of us. You should get one and read it :D"

"I love all the different colors of the houses here"
They found this in Chinatown 

"this is that crazy intersection I was telling you about. None of those roads are overpasses, they all intersect."


Visiting the Aquarium


The hat she almost bought from the aquarium

The jellyfish were Emily's favorite!