La Pascua

Monday we taught a few more lessons to people and called it a day at curfew

Tuesday we went down to Bridgewater to try quite a few potentials, and that was quite the adventure. One guy we tried talking to first tossed us all a beer, then he just chugged his in like 3 seconds haha. We just told him we couldn't and gave them back, then he said he was leaving. We went to the next house and this guy answered the door, and just started rambling on about crap, and he was acting drunk, so he invites us in. He goes on telling us he's sick and had a empty bottle of NyQuil and said "Tomé mucho, cómo  agua" hahaha. He was hammered and went on telling us crazy stories about Mexico, how the Feds shot his cousin off his horse and stuff, then he just passed out. So we left and went to another guys house who's a Pentecostal preacher. He kept cutting us off and we would answer all the questions. Finally said he doesn't know everything, but then after the lesson he tried telling Elder Slivers he's Hispanic. Slivers told him he's Native American. The guy wasn't having it, so he tried telling us the first people in America were the "Negritos". He then said he knows everything?? I don't know. 

That was our day for the most part

Wednesday we had to give our info for background checks at the apartments we live at. After that we went tracting and had no success there, so we talked to Dominga because her husband is in the Hospital with a blood clot in his leg. She's a wreck. She cried like the entire time we were there and she's never cried. I just talked to her and tried to comfort her. I think she's okay now. She was fine after we were going to leave. After that we had like 8 appointments fall through. 

Thursday I don't remember what happened for the most part. We had dinner with a member. I could just eat homemade tortillas plain, but then you throw some bomb Carne Asada on there and it's fantastic. Then we did a member split, and I went with Ivan to contact all the less actives in our area and found out 99% of them moved, and the other 1% is gay now. Que Pena. 

Friday we did some more finding and found more crazy people haha. This lady told us how the Catholic bible is the only true bible, we only need the bible. Just rambled. Then she said she can't even read, but she knows that the bible is the only thing we need to know and she knows the bible? Just doesn't add up ha. Then we ran into this crazy ex-baptist preacher and he was so funny. He was full of energy and just maybe a little drugs. Either way he kept giving us high fives saying we've "renewed his faith!" He wouldn't listen to our lessons but "we're all under something!! (Pointing to his coexist tat on his forearm) we need to all cooooooexist! We're all under something and it's coming! It's going to F bomb destroy us!" Haha then we kept saying yes! We need salvation and stuff like that and he was just yelling YES and giving us high fives. It was sweet. So we did that for like 20 minutes and ran into like 5 Jehovah's witnesses in a row. They're crazy too. They actually said they don't want to go to heaven?? I don't know seems kind of weird to me. So then we ended the day with what was supposed to be soccer, but 2 people showed up and they just wanted to play basketball. Felt good to not play soccer for once haha

Saturday we spent the first half of the day finishing up the list of less actives we are supposed to report on Sunday. Then we ended up BBQing with a member named Anthony. It was soooo good! They had these Honduranian sausage and Carne asada.  Then we spent the afternoon in the  "Parque Peligroso" haha the sketchy trailer park where we had 8 appointments set and all of them fell through. So we did finding, talked to this guy about the trinity and the godhead. He said God, Jesus, and the holy ghost are all one being. So we just talked and shared scriptures, and told him where he can find the Book of Mormon mentioned in the Old Testament. He was kind of changed and said he'd love to learn more. After that guy we talked to this man who was Catholic. He was just wayyy too high to even have a conversation. He had this giant Virgin Mary statue in his house and he kept cutting us off to tell us how beautiful it was, then there's a tiny Jesus statue next to it haha. But we couldn't go anywhere with this lesson, so we just told him- after he told us to give him our best- that his church is false and we gave him all the scriptures why, and he just laughed and said all churches are good, I've got to leave see ya, so he left us in his house alone haha. 

 Elder Jacobson & Elder Slivers 

Sunday was awesome. Not only because la Pascua, but there were a lot of cool things that happened where I got to exercise my priesthood. We had dinner with a member, the Shavers, they're actually from Orem haha. Domingas husbands leg got worse so I went to the hospital after dinner and gave him a blessing. After that we had a baptism and got to partake in the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was really special. 

Elder Jacobson & Anthony

Ryan said this kid is hilarious. During the baptism interview they were talking about the word of wisdom, and keeping our bodies healthy. Anthony grabbed his belly and said 'yeah, I'm not very good at that part' They all cracked up :-)

After the baptism we talked to Julio again, the guy we found under the porch. He told us about angels he's seen. But man, it was literally trying to have a lesson and teaching by the spirit between us and the Devil. His friend this freaking crack head velociraptor looking dude was there and kept telling him don't believe this crap. He kept saying f bomb this Jesus stuff man, quit being manipulated. Finally that guy just left after he asked us for cash to help him help someone else out ha. I can't believe he actually thought in his head, 'this is a good excuse to ask for money.' Then Julio broke down saying he knows the other churches aren't true, and he knows he needs to change and going on about his life story. It honestly hurts my heart to listen to this 50 year old man break down and cry to us. 

So that was our week. I've run into too many freaking crazy people this week.

Just remember D&C 130:36

 "All victory and glory is brought to pass unto you through your diligence, faithfulness, and prayers of faith."

Con amor 

Elder Jacobson

Our giant new bible that makes us look educated. This is the 'lineage' chair. It has every missionaries name scratched in it since 2007

6 Months Already?

Monday after P-day we tried a lot of people but no one was answering,
so we just sat there. I was staring at my area book (my book full of our investigators and addresses and etc..) asking who does God want us to see right now? Diana and Marbella kept popping into my head, but we had already called Diana a few times and texted, so I didn't want to bother her. But it was so strong of a feeling we had to go there. It was another really awesome lesson, about making parents proud through example, how far she can come and show her mom and dad an example of following Christ. It was one of those lessons where no ones eyes were dry. It was solid.

Tuesday Elder Slivers had a meeting in Richmond, so me and Houston went tracting all day and talked to two people. We showed the Easter video to a guy named Ben, who was on lunch break painting a house, and turns out he lives in the Baltimore Mission. Then with another lady we were just clearing up differences between Baptists and Mormons. After that we taught this lady Yolanda. She said she had time, then we got in the door, and then said she doesn't have time? Then she was saying all churches are good, God knows we're out teaching and that she's listening. So we just started asking her really spiritually  guided questions about what she's going to do with the atonement, and what really is important to her, then she kind of just abruptly ended it and said ask me these questions on Sunday. Next we taught this lady Dee Dee. She said she wants to know everything, so we asked if she's willing to do everything, so she said yes, we put her on date, got her to commit to come to church, and we went home.

Wednesday we did a lot of finding and tracting. We got to talk to a lot of people and share a lot. It was sweet. Everything is being guided by the spirit and I can see the hand of God in every lesson. We taught Dee Dee again. She ended the lesson by telling me I look like
I'm 28, umm she also said I just like look like a bad person..so yeah idk how to take that. (the mama bear in me wants this woman's address ;-)

Thursday we weekly planned and went tracting this new trailer park where the sisters aren't supposed to go anymore because it's dangerous. I'm excited! More peeps to baptize, so I'm stoked for that because we were only able to go there for about a half an hour. Then went to an appointment that didn't happen, so we were there already and these kids were playing football and making fun of us, so we asked if we could play and they said "yeah if you want to get wrecked!" We didn't know they were playing tackle, so we just decided to not get tackled and we did the wrecking. It was sweet, but they got really butt-hurt and didn't want to listen to a message :(

Friday we helped the old man brother Wilson out again with cutting some wood. Then we went finding again and got talking to these Jehovah's Witnesses and uh they pulled out this paper that said 10 things to ask a Mormon, which were the dumbest questions I've ever
heard anyways, then they started bible bashing, so I pulled out my 'sword of Laban', and verbally smote them ha. Bible bashing gets so old and its so pointless. I hate it. Anyways we wrapped up that hour long discussion, and went finding some more. Nothing happened so the we ended with soccer.

Saturday it actually snowed all day out of nowhere! So we spent the first half of the day setting up for the baptisms. Then we went finding some more because we figured everyone would be inside, but it was a really slow day leading up to the baptism. Then we had the baptism. The baptism was really special. There were some really awesome talks, the spirit was so strong. It's so cool to see what missionaries did before and how sometimes we are here just to plant seeds, because with Cynthia and Nicole it was so easy to teach them
and they really had SO much desire. I know they both felt the spirit so strong as well, mainly because they were both crying ha. It was awesome! After that we just worked some more trying to see some of our people who should be coming to church.

 Cynthia, Nicole, Elder Slivers, Jacobson and Houston

Tool bags

Sunday was the confirmation of Cynthia and Nicole so that was beautiful. After church we just went back to that trailer park which is giant and went tracting for like 5 hrs and it was tight, we taught TONS of people! So yeah that was our Sunday and my week

A thought I had this week was I remember how stressed I was about being such a solid missionary, worrying that if someone didn't want to progress it would be my fault. I've realized its kind of the opposite. People can feel the spirit so strong during lessons and they know this is right for them, but they don't do anything about it. It's a strange feeling, to actually have sorrow from your heart for them. It's a lot stronger than I thought it would be. Just like in the scriptures, people can have miracles and prophesy fulfilled right in front of
them, but their hearts are still hardened.

Well, until next week.
-Elder Jacobson
3 Nephi 5:13 "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."

 The sweetest tie ever. A gift from a zone leader (I'm trying to not be offended haha!)

 The 'sword of Laban'

Weirdest taxidermy job I've ever seen

New comp(s) and stuff

Tuesday was transfer day, so me and Elder Houston (my other new comp, we just joined areas) just went around trying to see potentials for a bit while waiting for our new companion. We ended up getting Elder Slivers, he's from St George! He's a really 
cool guy. We ended up going and picking him up at the church and going
grocery shopping and moving him in.

new comps. Elder Jacobson, Slivers & Houston

Wednesday was soooo sick. It was a day full of miracles! We had this
lady come to church that none of us knew, but then we were talking to
the branch Presidents wife and she told us we need to go there, so we
visited her and turns out she's already been to church a bunch and was
taking lessons before. She had a baptism planned and everything but
her husband wouldn't let her, but he and a heart attack and now he's
allowing her to be baptized! So she's set for this Saturday! Also we
found a guy named Julio, it was kind of funny because he was just
chilling on his porch that's underneath some steps to another house. There were Jehovah's witnesses that like stepped over him to get to another door. So we talked to him and he like broke down and was saying how he needs to find a church and change. He said he's seen
angels every time he's tried to end his life. It was really powerful talking to him. Then later that night we had an awesome lesson with Diana too. We asked her to pray at the end of the lesson and she finally felt the spirit, but it hit her so strong because she just
opened up during that prayer and broke down as well. It was just a breakthrough lesson and the spirit was so amazingly strong in that lesson.

Thursday we got to do service for the one and only Brother Wilson. He's so funny to be around and he could talk your ear off. He has tons of funny stories because he was a teacher for 40 years. Anyways, we got to chop wood with him again and he bought us Dairy Queen in exchange. After that we got to teach Cynthia again. Then we went knocking in our
new area and found a few new people. That was our Thursday.

Friday we went tracting again and we ran into a Mennonite Pastor who
sat us down and explained the Mennonite church, where it comes from,
and when it started. No matter how many religions sit me down for more
than an hour and explain things, the more and more our church stands
out as being the true church. No one can tell me how their church is
organized, where anyone gets the authority to teach and BAPTIZE, no one
receives the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands (all of these
principles are explained in the bible) and people that believe in the
trinity, where God, the son, and the Holy Ghost are one being,
honestly doesn't make sense to me and is also deconstructed by the
bible itself. I don't know, that was what my Friday consisted of.

Saturday we did service for our branch president and just made contact
with a bunch of others and taught, and invited them to church and
stuff

Sunday we went to church. I had to give a talk on repentance because
one of the youth didn't show up, hahaha just on the spot. After church
we had brother Hungate feed us some pulled pork sandwiches, it was
sooo good. Then we spent the rest of the day doing the Branches errand
of gathering the flock or just visiting less actives and seeing why
they aren't coming to church.

Well I want to end saying this church is the true church, I know God
lives, he loves and knows every single one of us because we are his
children. He has loved us enough to give us this earth to live on. I
know Jesus is the Christ, he lives and has overcome death, so that we
may be able to be forgiven of our sins. I know Joseph Smith was a
prophet of God, that he restored this wonderful true church, and
translated the Book of Mormon, thus the prophecy in Ezekiel chapter 37
was fulfilled. I know this for a fact. I know that no matter how many
frankly pathetic answers someone can tell me that they have found
through only researching Joseph Smith through the web, no one can
change the fact I know that this is the true church. We have much in
store for us prepared by our father, And to quote D&C 72:4 "For he who
is faithful and wise in time is accounted worthy to inherit the
mansions prepared for him of my Father" I love this gospel and I love
sharing it with others. This is my testimony in the name of our
savior, our redeemer, Jesus Christ, amen

 last Elder's P-day

 last dinner at Dominga's with everyone

Another weekly email from Elder Jacobson...

Alright well here I am again sending another weekly email, so hear we go!
Tuesday we had kind of a mini exchange for the day, because one of the
zone leaders went to the temple and we got to hangout with Elder
Lockhart for the day. That was actually really fun and full of
service. We got to build a dresser for someone. That actually was kind
of fun, after that we went on a wild goose chase trying to find less
active members clear out in the boonies. We did that for pretty much
the rest of the day until dinner. After dinner we went to Diana and
Marbella to teach them. Elder Lockhart wasn't feeling good, and he's
just kind of goon, so he was telling me to ask Marbella for like a
secret Mexican recipe for colds and sore throats. Hahaha she just said
NyQuil and DayQuil haha that was pretty funny.

Wednesday we didn't do jack. I can't remember why actually.

Thursday we had weekly planning so that was boring. After that we had
some really solid lessons. We taught Edgar, he's so easy to teach! We
went in mind of teaching the word of wisdom which we know he would
struggle with maybe, because he likes to party. But anyways we taught
him it in like 10 minutes and he just said 'yeah of course I'll live
it, it's a commandment.' Done! He's so solid. Then we taught this lady
names Onix, turns out she's been taught quite a bit before, but she
stopped going to church for work and the missionaries couldn't come
back over.

Friday we had to finish a training segment I never did online for my
iPad (oops) but it took like 3 hours to figure out and do! I was
really kind of ticked about that. After that we went out to Broadway
to try and see Geovanni but he wasn't there, so there's another hour
down the drain. Then we went for the baptismal interview for
Steven. After that we got to teach him a little and read a chapter
from the Book of Mormon with him. After dinner we had a chance to
finally catch this girl Karina at home! We went and she wasn't there
so we were driving down the highway and she passes us as soon as we
turn off her road, so I flipped a U-ie right on the highway and we got
to catch her and teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson.

Saturday we had a day chuck full of set appointments, I was really
excited! All of them fell through. It was so awesome. We didn't have
anything to do after that and so we tried contacting all day and
literally everyone, even Dominga couldn't have us over! It was pretty
bad, mainly because we were already tense because we're waiting
transfer calls as well. So we finally get the call and found out I'm
staying in Harrisonburg, and I'll be joining Elder Houston that's
already here, and we will be in a trio with whoever else comes up here
on Tuesday! We're the only two in the whole district staying and
there's only 2 more people in the zone staying! It's freaking nuts.
I'm so excited though!

our district

Sunday I had the opportunity to baptize Steven! It feels so great to
see someone else, no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, enter into a
covenant with God. I know it's short summary of the baptism, but I
know God is rejoicing because of the choice Steven has made, I know
this gospel is what we need to live in order to return and inherit the
kingdoms of God and receive our crowns of righteousness. I know Christ
is my redeemer, I know this is the only true church, nothing can
change that for me.

 Steven's baptism

With that I want to leave you with 3 scriptures that perfectly explain
my relationship with the Savior and the Father.

Romans (which has come to be one of my favorite books to read) (JUST
READ CHP. 8) 1:16, 8:38-39

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of
God unto salvation to every one that believeth;"

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Con amor

Elder Ryan Jacobson
Virginia Richmond Mission

 Band pics of the Hburg spanish Elders

 Waynesboro west zone, minus the Zone leaders. Lunch at

Cuban burger, the best place to eat anywhere near the east coast!

 Harrisonburg

 the Friday night soccer group

 me and Elder Turner

still got it hahaha